[transcriber's note: references to page numbers in table of contents and index removed, as well as the numbers themselves.] [illustration: alexander graham bell the inventor of the telephone.] cyclopedia of telephony and telegraphy _a general reference work on_ telephony, substations, party-line systems, protection, manual switchboards, automatic systems, power plants, special service features, construction, engineering, operation, maintenance, telegraphy, wireless telegraphy and telephony, etc. _prepared by a corps of_ telephone and telegraph experts, and electrical engineers of the highest professional standing _illustrated with over two thousand engravings_ four volumes chicago american school of correspondence authors and collaborators * * * * * kempster b. miller. m.e. consulting engineer and telephone expert of the firm of mcmeen and miller, electrical engineers and patent experts, chicago american institute of electrical engineers western society of engineers * * * * * george w. patterson, s.b., ph.d. head, department of electrical engineering, university of michigan * * * * * charles thom chief of quadruplex department, western union main office, new york city * * * * * robert andrews millikan, ph.d. associate professor of physics, university of chicago member, executive council, american physical society * * * * * samuel g. mcmeen consulting engineer and telephone expert of the firm of mcmeen and miller, electrical engineers and patent experts, chicago american institute of electrical engineers western society of engineers * * * * * lawrence k. sager, s.b., m.p.l. patent attorney and electrical expert formerly assistant examiner, u.s. patent office * * * * * glenn m. hobbs, ph.d. secretary, american school of correspondence formerly instructor in physics, university of chicago american physical society * * * * * charles g. ashley electrical engineer and expert in wireless telegraphy and telephony * * * * * a. frederick collins editor, _collins wireless bulletin_ author of "wireless telegraphy, its history, theory, and practice" * * * * * francis b. crocker, e.m., ph.d. head, department of electrical engineering, columbia university past-president, american institute of electrical engineers * * * * * morton arendt, e.e. instructor in electrical engineering, columbia university, new york * * * * * edward b. waite head, instruction department, american school of correspondence american society of mechanical engineers western society of engineers * * * * * david p. moreton, b.s., e.e. associate professor of electrical engineering, armour institute of technology american institute of electrical engineers, * * * * * leigh s. keith, b.s. managing engineer with mcmeen and miller, electrical engineers and patent experts chicago associate member, american institute of electrical engineers * * * * * jessie m. shepherd, a.b. associate editor, textbook department, american school of correspondence * * * * * ernest l. wallace, b.s. assistant examiner, united states patent office, washington, d. c. * * * * * george r. metcalfe, m.e. editor, _american institute of electrical engineers_ formerly head of publication department, westinghouse elec. & mfg. co. * * * * * j.p. schroeter graduate, munich technical school instructor in electrical engineering, american school of correspondence * * * * * james dixon, e.e. american institute of electrical engineers * * * * * harris c. trow, s.b., _managing editor_ editor-in-chief, textbook department, american school of correspondence authorities consulted the editors have freely consulted the standard technical literature of america and europe in the preparation of these volumes. they desire to express their indebtedness particularly to the following eminent authorities, whose well-known works should be in the library of every telephone and telegraph engineer. grateful acknowledgment is here made also for the invaluable co-operation of the foremost engineering firms and manufacturers in making these volumes thoroughly representative of the very best and latest practice in the transmission of intelligence, also for the valuable drawings, data, suggestions, criticisms, and other courtesies. * * * * * arthur e. kennely, d.sc. professor of electrical engineering, harvard university. joint author of "the electric telephone." "the electric telegraph," "alternating currents," "arc lighting," "electric heating," "electric motors," "electric railways," "incandescent lighting," etc. * * * * * henry smith carhart, a.m., ll.d. professor of physics and director of the physical laboratory, university of michigan. author of "primary batteries," "elements of physics," "university physics," "electrical measurements," "high school physics," etc. * * * * * francis b. crocker, m.e., ph.d. head of department of electrical engineering, columbia university, new york; past-president, american institute of electrical engineers. author of "electric lighting;" joint author of "management of electrical machinery." * * * * * horatio a. foster consulting engineer; member of american institute of electrical engineers; member of american society of mechanical engineers. author of "electrical engineer's pocket-book." * * * * * william s. franklin, m.s., d.sc. professor of physics, lehigh university. joint author of "the elements of electrical engineering," "the elements of alternating currents." * * * * * lamar lyndon, b.e., m.e. consulting electrical engineer; associate member of american institute of electrical engineers; member, american electro-chemical society. author of "storage battery engineering." * * * * * robert andrews millikan, ph.d. professor of physics, university of chicago. joint author of "a first course in physics," "electricity, sound and light," etc. * * * * * kempster b. miller, m.e. consulting engineer and telephone expert; of the firm of mcmeen and miller, electrical engineers and patent experts, chicago. author of "american telephone practice." * * * * * william h. preece chief of the british postal telegraph. joint author of "telegraphy," "a manual of telephony," etc.-- * * * * * louis bell, ph.d. consulting electrical engineer; lecturer on power transmission, massachusetts institute of technology. author of "electric power transmission," "power distribution for electric railways," "the art of illumination," "wireless telephony," etc. * * * * * oliver heaviside, f.r.s. author of "electro-magnetic theory," "electrical papers," etc. * * * * * silvanus p. thompson, d.sc, b.a., f.r.s., f.r.a.s. principal and professor of physics in the city and guilds of london technical college. author of "electricity and magnetism," "dynamo-electric machinery," "polyphase electric currents and alternate-current motors," "the electromagnet," etc. * * * * * andrew gray, m.a., f.r.s.e. author of "absolute measurements in electricity and magnetism." * * * * * albert cushing crehore, a.b., ph.d. electrical engineer; assistant professor of physics, dartmouth college; formerly instructor in physics, cornell university. author of "synchronous and other multiple telegraphs;" joint author of "alternating currents." * * * * * j. j. thomson, d.sc, ll.d., ph.d., f.r.s. fellow of trinity college, cambridge university; cavendish professor of experimental physics, cambridge university. author of "the conduction of electricity through gases," "electricity and matter." * * * * * frederick bedell, ph. d. professor of applied electricity, cornell university. author of "the principles of the transformer;" joint author of "alternating currents." * * * * * dugald c. jackson, c.e. head of department of electrical engineering, massachusetts institute of technology; member, american institute of electrical engineers, etc. author of "a textbook on electromagnetism and the construction of dynamos;" joint author of "alternating currents and alternating-current machinery." * * * * * michael idvorsky pupin, a.b., sc.d., ph.d. professor of electro-mechanics, columbia university, new york. author of "propagation of long electric waves," and "wave-transmission over non-uniform cables and long-distance air lines." * * * * * frank baldwin jewett, a.b., ph.d. transmission and protection engineer, with american telephone & telegraph co. author of "modern telephone cable," "effect of pressure on insulation resistance." * * * * * arthur crotch formerly lecturer on telegraphy and telephony at the municipal technical schools, norwich, eng. author of "telegraphy and telephony." * * * * * james erskine-murray, d.sc. fellow of the royal society of edinburgh; member of the institution of electrical engineers. author of "a handbook of wireless telegraphy." * * * * * a.h. mcmillan, a.b., ll.b. author of "telephone law, a manual on the organization and operation of telephone companies." * * * * * william esty, s.b., m.a. head of department of electrical engineering, lehigh university. joint author of "the elements of electrical engineering." * * * * * george w. wilder, ph.d. formerly professor of telephone engineering, armour institute of technology. author of "telephone principles and practice," "simultaneous telegraphy and telephony," etc. * * * * * william l. hooper, ph.d. head of department of electrical engineering, tufts college. joint author of "electrical problems for engineering students." * * * * * david s. hulfish technical editor, _the nickelodeon_; telephone and motion-picture expert; solicitor of patents. author of "how to read telephone circuit diagrams." * * * * * j.a. fleming, m.a., d.sc. (lond.), f.r.s. professor of electrical engineering in university college, london; late fellow and scholar of st. john's college, cambridge; fellow of university college, london. author of "the alternate-current transformer," "radiotelegraphy and radiotelephony," "principles of electric wave telegraphy," "cantor lectures on electrical oscillations and electric waves," "hertzian wave wireless telegraphy," etc. * * * * * f.a.c. perrine, a.m., d.sc. consulting engineer: formerly president, stanley electric manufacturing company; formerly professor of electrical engineering, leland stanford, jr. university. author of "conductors for electrical distribution." * * * * * a. frederick collins editor, _collins wireless bulletin_. author of "wireless telegraphy, its history, theory and practice," "manual of wireless telegraphy," "design and construction of induction coils," etc. * * * * * schuyler s. wheeler, d.sc. president, crocker-wheeler co.; past-president, american institute of electrical engineers. joint author of "management of electrical machinery." * * * * * charles proteus steinmetz consulting engineer, with the general electric co.; professor of electrical engineering, union college. author of "the theory and calculation of alternating-current phenomena," "theoretical elements of electrical engineering", etc. * * * * * george w. patterson, s.b., ph.d. head of department of electrical engineering, university of michigan. joint author of "electrical measurements." * * * * * william maver, jr. ex-electrician baltimore and ohio telegraph company; member of the american institute of electrical engineers. author of "american telegraphy and encyclopedia of the telegraph," "wireless telegraphy." * * * * * john price jackson, m.e. professor of electrical engineering, pennsylvania state college. joint author of "alternating currents and alternating-current machinery." * * * * * augustus treadwell, jr., e.e. associate member, american institute of electrical engineers. author of "the storage battery, a practical treatise on secondary batteries." * * * * * edwin j. houston, ph.d. professor of physics, franklin institute, pennsylvania; joint inventor of thomson-houston system of arc lighting; electrical expert and consulting engineer. joint author of "the electric telephone," "the electric telegraph," "alternating currents," "arc lighting," "electric heating," "electric motors," "electric railways," "incandescent lighting," etc. * * * * * william j. hopkins professor of physics in the drexel institute of art, science, and industry, philadelphia. author of "telephone lines and their properties." [illustration: a typical small magneto switchboard installation] [illustration: a typical central office for rural exchange line protectors on wall at left.] foreword the present day development of the "talking wire" has annihilated both time and space, and has enabled men thousands of miles apart to get into almost instant communication. the user of the telephone and the telegraph forgets the tremendousness of the feat in the simplicity of its accomplishment; but the man who has made the feat possible knows that its very simplicity is due to the complexity of the principles and appliances involved; and he realizes his need of a practical, working understanding of each principle and its application. the cyclopedia of telephony and telegraphy presents a comprehensive and authoritative treatment of the whole art of the electrical transmission of intelligence. the communication engineer--if so he may be called--requires a knowledge both of the mechanism of his instruments and of the vagaries of the current that makes them talk. he requires as well a knowledge of plants and buildings, of office equipment, of poles and wires and conduits, of office system and time-saving methods, for the transmission of intelligence is a business as well as an art. and to each of these subjects, and to all others pertinent, the cyclopedia gives proper space and treatment. the sections on telephony cover the installation, maintenance, and operation of all standard types of telephone systems; they present without prejudice the respective merits of manual and automatic exchanges; and they give special attention to the prevention and handling of operating "troubles." the sections on telegraphy cover both commercial service and train dispatching. practical methods of wireless communication--both by telephone and by telegraph--are thoroughly treated. the drawings, diagrams, and photographs incorporated into the cyclopedia have been prepared especially for this work; and their instructive value is as great as that of the text itself. they have been used to illustrate and illuminate the text, and not as a medium around which to build the text. both drawings and diagrams have been simplified so far as is compatible with their correctness, with the result that they tell their own story and always in the same language. the cyclopedia is a compilation of many of the most valuable instruction papers of the american school of correspondence, and the method adopted in its preparation is that which this school has developed and employed so successfully for many years. this method is not an experiment, but has stood the severest of all tests--that of practical use--which has demonstrated it to be the best yet devised for the education of the busy, practical man. in conclusion, grateful acknowledgment is due to the staff of authors and collaborators, without whose hearty co-operation this work would have been impossible. table of contents volume i fundamental principles _by k. b. miller and s. g. mcmeen_[a] acoustics--characteristics of sound--loudness--pitch--vibration of diaphragms--timbre--human voice--human ear--speech--magneto telephones--loose-contact principle--induction coils--simple telephone circuit--capacity--telephone currents--audible and visible signals--telephone lines--conductors--inductance--insulation substation equipment _by k. b. miller and s. g. mcmeen_ transmitters--variable resistance--materials--single and multiple electrodes--solid-back transmitter--types of transmitters--electrodes--packing--acousticon transmitter--switchboard transmitter--receivers--types of receivers--operator's receiver--primary cells--series and multiple connections--types of primary cells--magneto signaling apparatus--battery bell--magneto bell--magneto generator--armature--automatic shunt--polarized ringer--hook switch--electromagnets--impedance, induction, and repeating coils--non-inductive resistance devices--differentially-wound unit--condensers--materials--current supply to transmitters--local battery--common battery--diagrams of common-battery systems--telephone sets: magneto, series and bridging, common-battery party-line systems _by k. b. miller and s. g. mcmeen_ non-selective party-line systems--series and bridging--signal code--selective party-line systems: polarity, harmonic, step-by-step, and broken-line--lock-out party-line systems: poole, step-by-step, and broken-line protection _by k. b. miller and s. g. mcmeen_ electrical hazards--high potentials--air-gap arrester--discharge across gaps--types of arrester--vacuum arrester--strong currents--fuses--sneak currents--line protection--central-office and subscribers' station protectors--city exchange requirements--electrolysis manual switchboards _by k. b. miller and s. g. mcmeen_ the telephone exchange--subscribers', trunk, and toll lines--districts--switchboards--simple magneto switchboard--operation--commercial types of drops and jacks--manual vs. automatic restoration--switchboard plugs and cords--ringing and listening keys--operator's telephone equipment--circuits of complete switchboard--night-alarm circuits--grounded and metallic circuit line--cord circuit--switchboard assembly review questions index [footnote a: for professional standing of authors, see list of authors and collaborators at front of volume.] [illustration: old branch-terminal multiple board, paris, france] telephony introduction the telephone was invented in by alexander graham bell, a resident of the united states, a native of scotland, and by profession a teacher of deaf mutes in the art of vocal speech. in that year, professor bell was engaged in the experimental development of a system of multiplex telegraphy, based on the use of rapidly varying currents. during those experiments, he observed an iron reed to vibrate before an electromagnet as a result of another iron reed vibrating before a distant electromagnet connected to the nearer one by wires. the telephone resulted from this observation with great promptness. in the instrument first made, sound vibrated a membrane diaphragm supporting a bit of iron near an electromagnet; a line joined this simple device of three elements to another like it; a battery in the line magnetized both electromagnet cores; the vibration of the iron in the sending device caused the current in the line to undulate and to vary the magnetism of the receiving device. the diaphragm of the latter was vibrated in consequence of the varying pull upon its bit of iron, and these vibrations reproduced the sound that vibrated the sending diaphragm. the first public use of the electric telephone was at the centennial exposition in philadelphia in . it was there tested by many interested observers, among them sir william thomson, later lord kelvin, the eminent scotch authority on matters of electrical communication. it was he who contributed so largely to the success of the early telegraph cable system between england and america. two of his comments which are characteristic are as follows: to-day i have seen that which yesterday i should have deemed impossible. soon lovers will whisper their secrets over an electric wire. * * * * * who can but admire the hardihood of invention which devised such slight means to realize the mathematical conception that if electricity is to convey all the delicacies of sound which distinguish articulate speech, the strength of its current must vary continuously as nearly as may be in simple proportion to the velocity of a particle of the air engaged in constituting the sound. contrary to usual methods of improving a new art, the earliest improvement of the telephone simplified it. the diaphragms became thin iron disks, instead of membranes carrying iron; the electromagnet cores were made of permanently magnetized steel instead of temporarily magnetized soft iron, and the battery was omitted from the line. the undulatory current in a system of two such telephones joined by a line is _produced_ in the sending telephone by the vibration of the iron diaphragm. the vibration of the diaphragm in the receiving telephone is _produced_ by the undulatory current. sound is _produced_ by the vibration of the diaphragm of the receiving telephone. such a telephone is at once the simplest known form of electric generator or motor for alternating currents. it is capable of translating motion into current or current into motion through a wide range of frequencies. it is not known that there is any frequency of alternating current which it is not capable of producing and translating. it can produce and translate currents of greater complexity than any other existing electrical machine. though possessing these admirable qualities as an electrical machine, the simple electromagnetic telephone had not the ability to transmit speech loudly enough for all practical uses. transmitters producing stronger telephonic currents were developed soon after the fundamental invention. some forms of these were invented by professor bell himself. other inventors contributed devices embodying the use of carbon as a resistance to be varied by the motions of the diaphragm. this general form of transmitting telephone has prevailed and at present is the standard type. it is interesting to note that the earliest incandescent lamps, as invented by mr. edison, had a resistance material composed of carbon, and that such a lamp retained its position as the most efficient small electric illuminant until the recent introduction of metal filament lamps. it is possible that some form of metal may be introduced as the resistance medium for telephone transmitters, and that such a change as has taken place in incandescent lamps may increase the efficiency of telephone transmitting devices. at the time of the invention of the telephone, there were in existence two distinct types of telegraph, working in regular commercial service. in the more general type, many telegraph stations were connected to a line and whatever was telegraphed between two stations could be read by all the stations of that line. in the other and less general type, many lines, each having a single telegraph station, were centered in an office or "exchange," and at the desire of a user his line could be connected to another and later disconnected from it. both of these types of telegraph service were imitated at once in telephone practice. lines carrying many telephones each, were established with great rapidity. telephones actually displaced telegraphic apparatus in the exchange method of working in america. the fundamental principle on which telegraph or telephone exchanges operate, being that of placing any line in communication with any other in the system, gave to each line an ultimate scope so great as to make this form of communication more popular than any arrangement of telephones on a single line. beginning in , telephone exchanges were developed with great rapidity in all of the larger communities of the united states. telegraph switching devices were utilized at the outset or were modified in such minor particulars as were necessary to fit them to the new task. in its simplest form, a telephone system is, of course, a single line permanently joining two telephones. in its next simplest form, it is a line permanently joining more than two telephones. in its most useful form, it is a line joining a telephone to some means of connecting it at will to another. a telephone exchange central office contains means for connecting lines at will in that useful way. the least complicated machine for that purpose is a switchboard to be operated by hand, having some way of letting the operator know that a connection is wished and a way of making it. the customary way of connecting the lines always has been by means of flexible conductors fitted with plugs to be inserted in sockets. if the switchboard be small enough so that all the lines are within arm's reach of the operator, the whole process is individual, and may be said to be at its best and simplest. there are but few communities, however, in which the number of lines to be served and calls to be answered is small enough so that the entire traffic of the exchange can be handled by a single person. an obvious way, therefore, is to provide as many operators in a central office as may be required by the number of calls to be answered, and to terminate before each of the operators enough of the lines to bring enough work to keep that operator economically occupied. this presents the additional problem, how to connect a line terminating before one operator to a line normally terminating before another operator. the obvious answer is to provide lines from each operator's place of work to each other operator's place, connecting a calling line to some one of these lines which are local within the central office, and, in turn, connecting that chosen local line to the line which is called. such lines between operators have come to be known as _trunk lines_, because of the obvious analogy to trunk lines of railways between common centers, and such a system of telephone lines may be called a _trunking system_. very good service has been given and can be given by such an arrangement of local trunks, but the growth in lines and in traffic has developed in most instances certain weaknesses which make it advisable to find speedier, more accurate, and more reliable means. for the serving of a large traffic from a large number of lines, as is required in practically every city of the world, a very great contribution to the practical art was made by the development of the multiple switchboard. such a switchboard is merely such a device as has been described for the simpler cases, with the further refinement that within reach of each operator in the central office appears _every line which enters that office_, and this without regard to what point in the switchboard the lines may terminate for the _answering_ of calls. in other words, while each operator answers a certain subordinate group of the total number of lines, each operator may reach, for calling purposes, every line which enters that office. it is probable that the invention and development of the multiple switchboard was the first great impetus toward the wide-spread use of telephone service. coincident with the development of the multiple switchboard for manually operated, central-office mechanisms was the beginning of the development of automatic apparatus under the control of the calling subscriber for finding and connecting with a called line. it is interesting to note the general trend of the early development of automatic apparatus in comparison with the development, to that time, of manual telephone apparatus. while the manual apparatus on the one hand attempted to meet its problem by providing local trunks between the various operators of a central office, and failing of success in that, finally developed a means which placed all the lines of a central office within connecting reach of each operator, automatic telephony, beginning at that point, failed of success in attempting to bring each line in the central office within connecting reach of each connecting mechanism. in other terms, the first automatic switching equipment consisted of a machine for each line, which machine was so organized as to be able to find and connect its calling line with any called line of the entire central-office group. it may be said that an attempt to develop this plan was the fundamental reason for the repeated failure of automatic apparatus to solve the problem it attacked. all that the earlier automatic system did was to prove more or less successfully that automatic apparatus had a right to exist, and that to demand of the subscriber that he manipulate from his station a distant machine to make the connection without human aid was not fallacious. when it had been recognized that the entire multiple switchboard idea could not be carried into automatic telephony with success, the first dawn of hope in that art may be said to have come. success in automatic telephony did come by the re-adoption of the trunking method. as adopted for automatic telephony, the method contemplates that the calling line shall be extended, link by link, until it finds itself lengthened and directed so as to be able to seize the called line in a very much smaller multiple than the total group of one office of the exchange. a similar curious reversion has taken place in the development of telephone lines. the earliest telephone lines were merely telegraph lines equipped with telephone instruments, and the earliest telegraph lines were planned by professor morse to be insulated wires laid in the earth. a lack of skill in preparing the wires for putting in the earth caused these early underground lines to be failures. at the urging of one of his associates, professor morse consented to place his earliest telegraph lines on poles in the air. each such line originally consisted of two wires, one for the going and one for the returning current, as was then considered the action. upon its being discovered that a single wire, using the earth as a return, would serve as a satisfactory telegraph line, such practice became universal. upon the arrival of the telephone, all lines obviously were built in the same way, and until force of newer circumstances compelled it, the present metallic circuit without an earth connection did not come into general use. the extraordinary growth of the number of telephone lines in a community and the development of other methods of electrical utilization, as well as the growth in the knowledge of telephony itself, ultimately forced the wires underground again. at the same time and for the same causes, a telephone line became one of two wires, so that it becomes again the counterpart of the earliest telegraph line of professor morse. another curious and interesting example of this reversion to type exists in the simple telephone receiver. an early improvement in telephone receivers after professor bell's original invention was to provide the necessary magnetism of the receiver core by making it of steel and permanently magnetizing it, whereas professor bell's instrument provided its magnetism by means of direct current flowing in the line. in later days the telephone receiver has returned almost to the original form in which professor bell produced it and this change has simplified other elements of telephone-exchange apparatus in a very interesting and gratifying way. by reason of improvements in methods of line construction and apparatus arrangement, the radius of communication steadily has increased. commercial speech now is possible between points several thousand miles apart, and there is no theoretical reason why communication might not be established between any two points on the earth's surface. the practical reasons of demand and cost may prevent so great an accomplishment as talking half around the earth. so far as science is concerned there would seem to be no reason why this might not be done today, by the careful application of what already is known. in the united states, telephone service from its beginning has been supplied to users by private enterprise. in other countries, it is supplied by means of governmentally-owned equipment. in general, it may be said that the adequacy and the amount, as well as the quality of telephone service, is best in countries where the service is provided by private enterprise. telephone systems in the united states were under the control of the bell telephone company from the invention of the device in until . the fundamental telephone patent expired in . this opened the telephone art to the general public, because it no longer was necessary to secure telephones solely from the patent-holding company nor to pay royalty for the right to use them, if secured at all. manufacturers of electrical apparatus generally then began to make and sell telephones and telephone apparatus, and operating companies, also independent of the bell organization, began to install and use telephones. at the end of seventeen years of patent monopoly in the united states, there were in operation a little over , telephones. in the seventeen years since the expiration of the fundamental patent, independent telephone companies throughout the united states have installed and now have in daily successful use over , , telephones. in other words, since its first beginnings, independent telephony has brought into continuous daily use nearly sixteen times as many telephones as were brought into use in the equal time of the complete monopoly of the bell organization. at the beginning of , there were in service by the bell organization about , , telephones. these with the , , independent telephones, make a total of , , , or about one-twelfth as many telephones as there are inhabitants of the united states. the influence of this development upon the lives of the people has been profound. whether the influence has been wholly for good may not be so conclusively apparent. lord bacon has declared that, excepting only the alphabet and the art of printing, those inventions abridging distance are of the greatest service to mankind. if this be true, it may be said that the invention of telephony deserves high place among the civilizing influences. there is no industrial art in which the advancement of the times has been followed more closely by practical application than in telephony. commercial speech by telephone is possible by means of currents which so far are practically unmeasurable. in other words, it is possible to speak clearly and satisfactorily over a line by means of currents which cannot be read, with certainty as to their amount, by any electrical measuring device so far known. in this regard, telephony is less well fortified than are any of the arts utilizing electrical power in larger quantities. the real wonder is that with so little knowledge of what takes place, particularly as to amount, those working in the art have been able to do as well as they have. when an exact knowledge of quantity is easily obtainable, very striking advances may be looked for. the student of these phases of physical science and industrial art will do well to combine three processes: study of the words of others; personal experimentation; and digestive thought. the last mentioned is the process of profoundest value. on it finally depends mastery. it is not of so much importance how soon the concept shall finally be gained as _that it is gained_. a statement by another may seem lifeless and inert and the meaning of an observation may be obscure. digestive thought is the only assimilative process. the whole art of telephony hangs on taking thought of things. judge r.f. taylor of indiana said of professor bell, "it has been said that no man by taking thought may add a cubit to his stature, yet here is a man who, by taking thought, has added not cubits but miles to the lengths of men's tongues and ears." in observations of many students, it is found that the notion of each must pass through a certain period of incubation before his private and personal knowledge of ohm's law is hatched. once hatched, however, it is his. by just such a process must come each principal addition to his stock of concepts. the periods may vary and practice in the uses of the mind may train it in alertness in its work. if time is required, time should be given, the object always being to keep thinking or re-reading or re-trying until the thought is wholly encompassed and possessed. chapter i acoustics telephony is the art of reproducing at a distant point, usually by the agency of electricity, sounds produced at a sending point. in this art the elements of two general divisions of physical science are concerned, sound and electricity. sound is the effect of vibrations of matter upon the ear. the vibrations may be those of air or other matter. various forms of matter transmit sound vibrations in varying degrees, at different specific speeds, and with different effects upon the vibrations. any form of matter may serve as a transmitting medium for sound vibrations. sound itself is an effect of sound vibrations upon the ear. propagation of sound. since human beings communicate with each other by means of speech and hearing through the air, it is with air that the acoustics of telephony principally is concerned. in air, sound vibrations consist of successive condensations and rarefactions tending to proceed outwardly from the source in all directions. the source is the center of a sphere of sound vibrations. whatever may be the nature of the sounds or of the medium transmitting them, they consist of waves emitted by the source and observed by the ear. a sound wave is one complete condensation and rarefaction of the transmitting medium. it is produced by one complete vibration of the sound-producing thing. sound waves in air travel at a rate of about , feet per second. the rate of propagation of sound waves in other materials varies with the density of the material. for example, the speed of transmission is much greater in water than in air, and is much less in highly rarefied air than in air at ordinary density. the propagation of sound waves in a vacuum may be said not to take place at all. characteristics of sound. three qualities distinguish sound: loudness, pitch, and timbre. _loudness._ loudness depends upon the violence of the effect upon the ear; sounds may be alike in their other qualities and differ in loudness, the louder sounds being produced by the stronger vibrations of the air or other medium at the ear. other things being equal, the louder sound is produced by the source radiating the greater energy and so producing the greater _degree_ of condensation and rarefaction of the medium. _pitch._ pitch depends upon the frequency at which the sound waves strike the ear. pitches are referred to as _high_ or _low_ as the frequency of waves reaching the ear are greater or fewer. familiar low pitches are the left-hand strings of a piano; the larger ones of stringed instruments generally; bass voices; and large bells. familiar high pitches are right-hand piano strings; smaller ones of other stringed instruments; soprano voices; small bells; and the voices of most birds and insects. doppler's principle:--as pitch depends upon the frequency at which sound waves strike the ear, an object may emit sound waves at a constant frequency, yet may produce different pitches in ears differently situated. such a case is not usual, but an example of it will serve a useful purpose in fixing certain facts as to pitch. conceive two railroad trains to pass each other, running in opposite directions, the engine bells of both trains ringing. passengers on each train will hear the bell of the other, first as a _rising_ pitch, then as a _falling_ one. passengers on each train will hear the bell of their own train at a _constant_ pitch. the difference in the observations in such a case is due to relative positions between the ear and the source of the sound. as to the bell of their own train, the passengers are a fixed distance from it, whether the train moves or stands; as to the bell of the other train, the passengers first rapidly approach it, then pass it, then recede from it. the distances at which it is heard vary as the secants of a circle, the radius in this case being a length which is the closest approach of the ear to the bell. if the bell have a constant intrinsic fundamental pitch of waves per second (a wave-length of about . feet), it first will be heard at a pitch of about waves per second. but this pitch rises rapidly, as if the bell were changing its own pitch, which bells do not do. the rising pitch is heard because the ear is rushing down the wave-train, every instant nearer to the source. at a speed of miles an hour, the pitch rises rapidly, about vibrations per second. if the _rate of approach_ between the ear and the bell were constant, the pitch of the bell would be heard at waves per second. but suddenly the ear passes the bell, hears the pitch stop rising and begin to fall; and the tone drops waves per second as it had risen. such a circumflex is an excellent example of the bearing of wavelengths and frequencies upon pitch. vibration of diaphragms:--sound waves in air have the power to move other diaphragms than that of the ear. sound waves constantly vibrate such diaphragms as panes of windows and the walls of houses. the recording diaphragm of a phonograph is a window pane bearing a stylus adapted to engrave a groove in a record blank. in the cylinder form of record, the groove varies in depth with the vibrations of the diaphragm. in the disk type of phonograph, the groove varies sidewise from its normal true spiral. if the disk record be dusted with talcum powder, wiped, and examined with a magnifying glass, the waving spiral line may be seen. its variations are the result of the blows struck upon the diaphragm by a train of sound waves. in reproducing a phonograph record, increasing the speed of the record rotation causes the pitch to rise, because the blows upon the air are increased in frequency and the wave-lengths shortened. a transitory decrease in speed in recording will cause a transitory rise in pitch when that record is reproduced at uniform speed. _timbre._ character of sound denotes that difference of effect produced upon the ear by sounds otherwise alike in pitch and loudness. this characteristic is called timbre. it is extraordinarily useful in human affairs, human voices being distinguished from each other by it, and a great part of the joy of music lying in it. a bell, a stretched string, a reed, or other sound-producing body, emits a certain lowest possible tone when vibrated. this is called its _fundamental tone_. the pitch, loudness, and timbre of this tone depend upon various controlling causes. usually this fundamental tone is accompanied by a number of others of higher pitch, blending with it to form the general tone of that object. these higher tones are called _harmonics_. the germans call them _overtones_. they are always of a frequency which is some multiple of the fundamental frequency. that is, the rate of vibration of a harmonic is , , , , or some other integral number, times as great as the fundamental itself. a tone having no harmonics is rare in nature and is not an attractive one. the tones of the human voice are rich in harmonics. in any tone having a fundamental and harmonics (multiples), the wave-train consists of a complex series of condensations and rarefactions of the air or other transmitting medium. in the case of mere noises the train of vibrations is irregular and follows no definite order. this is the difference between vowel sounds and other musical tones on the one hand and all unmusical sounds (or noises) on the other. human voice. human beings communicate with each other in various ways. the chief method is by speech. voice is sound vibration produced by the vocal cords, these being two ligaments in the larynx. the vocal cords in man are actuated by the air from the lungs. the size and tension of the vocal cords and the volume and the velocity of the air from the lungs control the tones of the voice. the more tightly the vocal cords be drawn, other things being equal, the higher will be the pitch of the sound; that is, the higher the frequency of vibration produced by the voice. the pitches of the human voice lie, in general, between the frequencies of and per second. these are the extremes of pitch, and it is not to be understood that any such range of pitch is utilized in ordinary speech. an average man speaks mostly between the fundamental frequencies of and per second. many female speaking voices use fundamental frequencies between and vibrations per second. it is obvious from what has been said that in all cases these speaking fundamentals are accompanied by their multiples, giving complexity to the resulting wave-trains and character to the speaking voice. speech-sounds result from shocks given to the air by the organs of speech; these organs are principally the mouth cavity, the tongue, and the teeth. the vocal cords are _voice-organs_; that is, man only truly speaks, yet the lower animals have voice. speech may be whispered, using no voice. note the distinction between speech and voice, and the organs of both. the speech of adults has a mean pitch lower than that of children; of adult males, lower than that of females. there is no close analogue for the voice-organ in artificial mechanism, but the use of the lips in playing a bugle, trumpet, cornet, or trombone is a fairly close one. here the lips, in contact with each other, are stretched across one end of a tube (the mouthpiece) while the air is blown between the lips by the lungs. a musical tone results; if the instrument be a bugle or a trumpet of fixed tube length, the pitch will be some one of several certain tones, depending on the tension on the lips. the loudness depends on the force of the blast of air; the character depends largely on the bugle. human ear. the human ear, the organ of hearing in man, is a complex mechanism of three general parts, relative to sound waves: a wave-collecting part; a wave-observing part, and a wave-interpreting part. the outer ear collects and reflects the waves inwardly to beat upon the tympanum, or ear drum, a membrane diaphragm. the uses of the rolls or convolutions of the outer ear are not conclusively known, but it is observed that when they are filled up evenly with a wax or its equivalent, the sense of direction of sound is impaired, and usually of loudness also. the diaphragm of the ear vibrates when struck by sound waves, as does any other diaphragm. by means of bone and nerve mechanism, the vibration of the diaphragm finally is made known to the brain and is interpretable therein. the human ear can appreciate and interpret sound waves at frequencies from to about , vibrations per second. below the lesser-number, the tendency is to appreciate the separate vibrations as separate sounds. above the higher number, the vibrations are inaudible to the human ear. the most acute perception of sound differences lies at about , vibrations per second. it may be that the range of hearing of organisms other than man lies far above the range with which human beings are familiar. some trained musicians are able to discriminate between two sounds as differing one from the other when the difference in frequency is less than one-thousandth of either number. other ears are unable to detect a difference in two sounds when they differ by as much as one full step of the chromatic scale. whatever faculty an individual may possess as to tone discrimination, it can be improved by training and practice. chapter ii electrical reproduction of speech the art of telephony in its present form has for its problem so to relate two diaphragms and an electrical system that one diaphragm will respond to all the fundamental and harmonic vibrations beating upon it and cause the other to vibrate in exact consonance, producing just such vibrations, which beat upon an ear. the art does not do all this today; it falls short of it in every phase. many of the harmonics are lost in one or another stage of the process; new harmonics are inserted by the operations of the system itself and much of the volume originally available fails to reappear. the art, however, has been able to change commercial and social affairs in a profound degree. conversion from sound waves to vibration of diaphragm. however produced, by the voice or otherwise, sounds to be transmitted by telephone consist of vibrations of the air. these vibrations, upon reaching a diaphragm, cause it to move. the greatest amplitude of motion of a diaphragm is, or is wished to be, at its center, and its edge ordinarily is fixed. the diaphragm thus serves as a translating device, changing the energy carried by the molecules of the air into localized oscillations of the matter of the diaphragm. the waves of sound in the air advance; the vibrations of the molecules are localized. the agency of the air as a medium for sound transmission should be understood to be one in which its general volume has no need to move from place to place. what occurs is that the vibrations of the sound-producer cause alternate condensations and rarefactions of the air. each molecule of the air concerned merely oscillates through a small amplitude, producing, by joint action, shells of waves, each traveling outward from the sound-producing center like rapidly growing coverings of a ball. conversion from vibration to voice currents. fig. illustrates a simple machine adapted to translate motion of a diaphragm into an alternating electrical current. the device is merely one form of magneto telephone chosen to illustrate the point of immediate conversion. _ _ is a diaphragm adapted to vibrate in response to the sounds reaching it. _ _ is a permanent magnet and _ _ is its armature. the armature is in contact with one pole of the permanent magnet and nearly in contact with the other. the effort of the armature to touch the pole it nearly touches places the diaphragm under tension. the free arm of the magnet is surrounded by a coil _ _, whose ends extend to form the line. [illustration: fig. . type of magneto telephone] when sound vibrates the diaphragm, it vibrates the armature also, increasing and decreasing the distance from the free pole of the magnet. the lines of force threading the coil _ _ are varied as the gap between the magnet and the armature is varied. the result of varying the lines of force through the turns of the coil is to produce an electromotive force in them, and if a closed path is provided by the line, a current will flow. this current is an alternating one having a frequency the same as the sound causing it. as in speech the frequencies vary constantly, many pitches constituting even a single spoken word, so the alternating voice currents are of great varying complexity, and every fundamental frequency has its harmonics superposed. conversion from voice currents to vibration. the best knowledge of the action of such a telephone as is shown in fig. leads to the conclusion that a half-cycle of alternating current is produced by an inward stroke of the diaphragm and a second half-cycle of alternating current by the succeeding outward stroke, these half-cycles flowing in opposite directions. assume one complete cycle of current to pass through the line and also through another such device as in fig. and that the first half-cycle is of such direction as to increase the permanent magnetism of the core. the effort of this increase is to narrow the gap between the armature and pole piece. the diaphragm will throb inward during the half-cycle of current. the succeeding half-cycle being of opposite direction will tend to oppose the magnetism of the core. in practice, the flow of opposing current never would be great enough wholly to nullify and reverse the magnetism of the core, so that the opposition results in a mere decrease, causing the armature's gap to increase and the diaphragm to respond by an outward blow. complete cycle of conversion. the cycle of actions thus is complete; one complete sound-wave in air has produced a cycle of motion in a diaphragm, a cycle of current in a line, a cycle of magnetic change in a core, a cycle of motion in another diaphragm, and a resulting wave of sound. it is to be observed that the chain of operation involves the expenditure of energy only by the speaker, the only function of any of the parts being that of _translating_ this energy from one form to another. in every stage of these translations, there are losses; the devising of means of limiting these losses as greatly as possible is a problem of telephone engineering. [illustration: fig. . magneto telephones and line] magneto telephones. the device in fig. is a practical magneto receiver and transmitter. it is chosen as best picturing the idea to be proposed. fig. illustrates a pair of magneto telephones of the early bell type; _ - _ are diaphragms; _ - _ are permanent magnets with a free end of each brought as near as possible, without touching, to the diaphragm. each magnet bears on its end nearest the diaphragm a winding of fine wire, the two ends of each of these windings being joined by means of a two-wire line. all that has been said concerning fig. is true also of the electrical and magnetic actions of the devices of fig. . in the latter, the flux which threads the fine wire winding is disturbed by motions of the transmitting diaphragm. this disturbance of the flux creates electromotive forces in those windings. similarly, a variation of the electromotive forces in the windings varies the pull of the permanent magnet of the receiving instrument upon its diaphragm. [illustration: no. series multiple switchboard _monarch telephone mfg. co._] [illustration: fig. . magneto telephones without permanent magnets] fig. illustrates a similar arrangement, but it is to be understood that the cores about which the windings are carried in this case are of soft iron and not of hard magnetized steel. the necessary magnetism which constantly enables the cores to exert a pull upon the diaphragm is provided by the battery which is inserted serially in the line. such an arrangement in action differs in no particular from that of fig. , for the reason that it matters not at all whether the magnetism of the core be produced by electromagnetic or by permanently magnetic conditions. the arrangement of fig. is a fundamental counterpart of the original telephone of professor bell, and it is of particular interest in the present stage of the art for the reason that a tendency lately is shown to revert to the early type, abandoning the use of the permanent magnet. the modifications which have been made in the original magneto telephone, practically as shown in fig. , have been many. thirty-five years' experimentation upon and daily use of the instrument has resulted in its refinement to a point where it is a most successful receiver and a most unsuccessful transmitter. its use for the latter purpose may be said to be nothing. as a receiver, it is not only wholly satisfactory for commercial use in its regular function, but it is, in addition, one of the most sensitive electrical detecting devices known to the art. loose contact principle. early experimenters upon bell's device, all using in their first work the arrangement utilizing current from a battery in series with the line, noticed that sound was given out by disturbing loose contacts in the line circuit. this observation led to the arrangement of circuits in such a way that some imperfect contacts could be shaken by means of the diaphragm, and the resistance of the line circuit varied in this manner. an early and interesting form of such imperfect contact transmitter device consisted merely of metal conductors laid loosely in contact. a simple example is that of three wire nails, the third lying across the other two, the two loose contacts thus formed being arranged in series with a battery, the line, and the receiving instrument. such a device when slightly jarred, by the voice or other means, causes abrupt variation in the resistance of the line, and will transmit speech. early conceptions. the conception of the possibility and desirability of transmitting speech by electricity may have occurred to many, long prior to its accomplishment. it is certain that one person, at least, had a clear idea of the general problem. in , charles bourseul, a frenchman, wrote: "i have asked myself, for example, if the spoken word itself could not be transmitted by electricity; in a word, if what was spoken in vienna might not be heard in paris? the thing is practicable in this way: [illustration: fig. . reis transmitter] "suppose that a man speaks near a movable disk sufficiently flexible to lose none of the vibrations of the voice; that this disk _alternately makes and breaks_ the connection from a battery; you may have at a distance another disk which will simultaneously execute the same vibrations." the idea so expressed is weak in only one particular. this particular is shown by the words italicized by ourselves. it is impossible to transmit a complex series of waves by any simple series of makes and breaks. philipp reis, a german, devised the arrangement shown in fig. for the transmission of sound, letting the make and break of the contact between the diaphragm _ _ and the point _ _ interrupt the line circuit. his receiver took several forms, all electromagnetic. his success was limited to the transmission of musical sounds, and it is not believed that articulate speech ever was transmitted by such an arrangement. it must be remembered that the art of telegraphy, particularly in america, was well established long before the invention of the telephone, and that an arrangement of keys, relays, and a battery, as shown in fig. , was well known to a great many persons. attaching the armatures of the relays of such a line to diaphragms, as in fig. , at any time after , would have produced the telephone. "the hardihood of invention" to conceive such a change was the quality required. [illustration: fig. . typical telegraph line] limitations of magneto transmitter. for reasons not finally established, the ability of the magneto telephone to produce large currents from large sounds is not equal to its ability to produce large sounds from large currents. as a receiving device, it is unexcelled, and but slight improvement has been made since its first invention. it is inadequate as a transmitter, and as early as , professor bell exhibited other means than electromagnetic action for producing the varying currents as a consequence of diaphragm motion. much other inventive effort was addressed to this problem, the aim of all being to send out more robust voice currents. [illustration: fig. . telegraph equipment converted into telephone equipment] other methods of producing voice currents. some of these means are the variation of resistance in the path of direct current, variation in the pressure of the source of that current, and variation in the electrostatic capacity of some part of the circuit. _electrostatic telephone._ the latter method is principally that of dolbear and edison. dolbear's thought is illustrated in fig. . two conducting plates are brought close together. one is free to vibrate as a diaphragm, while the other is fixed. the element _ _ in fig. is merely a stud to hold rigid the plate it bears against. each of two instruments connected by a line contains such a pair of plates, and a battery in the line keeps them charged to its potential. the two diaphragms of each instrument are kept drawn towards each other because their unlike charges attract each other. the vibration of one of the diaphragms changes the potential of the other pair; the degree of attraction thus is varied, so that vibration of the diaphragm and sound waves result. examples of this method of telephone transmission are more familiar to later practice in the form of condenser receivers. a condenser, in usual present practice, being a pair of closely adjacent conductors of considerable surface insulated from each other, a rapidly varying current actually may move one or both of the conductors. ordinarily these are of thin sheet metal (foil) interleaved with an insulating material, such as paper or mica. voice currents can vibrate the metal sheets in a degree to cause the condenser to speak. these condenser methods of telephony have not become commercial. [illustration: fig. . electrostatic telephone] _variation of electrical pressure._ variation of the pressure of the source is a conceivable way of transmitting speech. to utilize it, would require that the vibrations of the diaphragm cause the electromotive force of a battery or machine to vary in harmony with the sound waves. so far as we are informed this method never has come into practical use. _variation of resistance._ variation of resistance proportional to the vibrations of the diaphragm is the method which has produced the present prevailing form of transmission. professor bell's centennial exhibit contained a water-resistance transmitter. dr. elisha gray also devised one. in both, the diaphragm acted to increase and diminish the distance between two conductors immersed in water, lowering and raising the resistance of the line. it later was discovered by edison that carbon possesses a peculiarly great property of varying its resistance under pressure. professor david e. hughes discovered that two conducting bodies, preferably of rather poor conductivity, when laid together so as to form a _loose contact_ between them, possessed, in remarkable degree, the ability to vary the resistance of the path through them when subject to such vibrations as would alter the _intimacy of contact_. he thus discovered and formulated the principles of _loose contact_ upon which the operation of all modern transmitters rests. hughes' device was named by him a "microphone," indicating a magnification of sound or an ability to respond to and make audible minute sounds. it is shown in fig. . firmly attached to a board are two carbon blocks, shown in section in the figure. a rod of carbon with cone-shaped ends is supported loosely between the two blocks, conical depressions in the blocks receiving the ends of the rod. a battery and magneto receiver are connected in series with the device. under certain conditions of contact, the arrangement is extraordinarily sensitive to small sounds and approaches an ability indicated by its name. its practical usefulness has been not as a serviceable speech transmitter, but as a stimulus to the devising of transmitters using carbon in other ways. variation of the resistance of metal conductors and of contact between metals has served to transmit voice currents, but no material approaches carbon in this property. [illustration: fig. . hughes' microphone] carbon. _adaptability._ the application of carbon to use in transmitters has taken many forms. they may be classified as those having a single contact and those having a plurality of contacts; in all cases, the _intimacy of contact_ is varied by the diaphragm excursions. an example of the single-contact type is the blake transmitter, long familiar in america. an example of the multiple-contact type is the loose-carbon type universal now. other types popular at other times and in particular places use solid rods or blocks of carbon having many points of contact, though not in a powdered or granular form. fig. shows an example of each of the general forms of transmitters. the use of granular carbon as a transmitter material has extended greatly the radius of speech, and has been a principal contributing cause for the great spread of the telephone industry. [illustration: fig. . general types of transmitters] _superiority._ the superiority of carbon over other resistance-varying materials for transmitters is well recognized, but the reason for it is not well known. various theories have been proposed to explain why, for example, the resistance of a mass of carbon granules varies with the vibrations or compressions to which they are subjected. four principal theories respectively allege: first, that change in pressure actually changes the specific resistance of carbon. second, that upon the surface of carbon bodies exists some gas in some form of attachment or combination, variations of pressure causing variations of resistance merely by reducing the thickness of this intervening gas. third, that the change of resistance is caused by variations in the length of electrical arcs between the particles. fourth, that change of pressure changes the area of contact, as is true of solids generally. one may take his choice. a solid carbon block or rod is not found to decrease its resistance by being subjected to pressure. the gas theory lacks experimental proof also. the existence of arcs between the granules never has been seen or otherwise observed under normal working conditions of a transmitter; when arcs surely are experimentally established between the granules the usefulness of the transmitter ceases. the final theory, that change of pressure changes area of surface contact, does not explain why other conductors than carbon are not good materials for transmitters. this, it may be noticed, is just what the theories set out to make clear. there are many who feel that more experimental data is required before a conclusive and satisfactory theory can be set up. there is need of one, for a proper theory often points the way for effective advance in practice. carbon and magneto transmitters differ wholly in their methods of action. the magneto transmitter _produces_ current; the carbon transmitter _controls_ current. the former is an alternating-current generator; the latter is a rheostat. the magneto transmitter produces alternating current without input of any electricity at all; the carbon transmitter merely controls a direct current, supplied by an external source, and varies its amount without changing its direction. the carbon transmitter, however, may be associated with other devices in a circuit in such a way as to _transform_ direct currents into alternating ones, or it may be used merely to change constant direct currents into _undulating_ ones, which _never_ reverse direction, as alternating currents _always_ do. these distinctions are important. [illustration: fig. . battery in line circuit] _limitations._ a carbon transmitter being merely a resistance-varying device, its usefulness depends on how much its resistance can vary in response to motions of air molecules. a granular-carbon transmitter may vary between resistances of to ohms while transmitting a particular tone, having the lower resistance when its diaphragm is driven inward. conceive this transmitter to be in a line as shown in fig. , the line, distant receiver, and battery together having a resistance of , ohms. the minimum resistance then is , ohms and the maximum , ohms. the variation is limited to about . per cent. the greater the resistance of the line and other elements than the transmitter, the less relative change the transmitter can produce, and the less loudly the distant receiver can speak. [illustration: fig . battery in local circuit] induction coil. mr. edison realized this limitation to the use of the carbon transmitter direct in the line, and contributed the means of removing it. his method is to introduce an induction coil between the line and the transmitter, its function being to translate the variation of the direct current controlled by the transmitter into true alternating currents. an induction coil is merely a transformer, and for the use under discussion consists of two insulated wires wound around an iron core. change in the current carried by one of the windings _produces_ a current in the other. if direct current be flowing in one of the windings, and remains constant, no current whatever is produced in the other. it is important to note that it is change, and change only, which produces that alternating current. fig. shows an induction coil related to a carbon transmitter, a battery, and a receiver. fig. shows exactly the same arrangement, using conventional signs. the winding of the induction coil which is in series with the transmitter and the battery is called the primary winding; the other is called the secondary winding. in the arrangement of figs. and the battery has no metallic connection with the line, so that it is called a _local battery_. the circuit containing the battery, transmitter, and primary winding of the induction coil is called the _local circuit_. let us observe what is the advantage of this arrangement over the case of fig. . using the same values of resistance in the transmitter and line, assume the local circuit apart from the transmitter to have a fixed resistance of ohms. the limits of variations in the local circuit, therefore, are and ohms, thus making the maximum . times the minimum, or an increase of per cent as against . per cent in the case of fig. . the changes, therefore, are times as great. [illustration: fig. . conventional diagram of talking circuit] the relation between the windings of the induction coil in this practice are such that the secondary winding contains many more turns than the primary winding. changes in the circuit of the primary winding produce potentials in the secondary winding correspondingly higher than the potentials producing them. these secondary potentials depend upon the _ratio_ of turns in the two windings and therefore, within close limits, may be chosen as wished. high potentials in the secondary winding are admirably adapted to transmit currents in a high-resistance line, for exactly the same reason that long-distance power transmission meets with but one-quarter of one kind of loss when the sending potential is doubled, one-hundredth of that loss when it is raised tenfold, and similarly. the induction coil, therefore, serves the double purpose of a step-up transformer to limit line losses and a device for vastly increasing the range of change in the transmitter circuit. fig. is offered to remind the student of the action of an induction coil or transformer in whose primary circuit a direct current is increased and decreased. an increase of current in the local winding produces an impulse of _opposite_ direction in the turns of the secondary winding; a decrease of current in the local winding produces an impulse of _the same_ direction in the turns of the secondary winding. the key of fig. being closed, current flows upward in the primary winding as drawn in the figure, inducing a downward impulse of current in the secondary winding and its circuit as noted at the right of the figure. on the key being opened, current ceases in the primary circuit, inducing an upward impulse of current in the secondary winding and circuit as shown. during other than instants of opening and closing (changing) the local circuit, no current whatever flows in the secondary circuit. [illustration: fig. . induction-coil action] it is by these means that telephone transmitters draw direct current from primary batteries and send high-potential alternating currents over lines; the same process produces what in therapeutics are called "faradic currents," and enables also a simple vibrating contact-maker to produce alternating currents for operating polarized ringers of telephone sets. detrimental effects of capacity. electrostatic capacity plays an important part in the transmission of speech. its presence between the wires of a line and between them and the earth causes one of the losses from which long-distance telephony suffers. its presence in condensers assists in the solution of many circuit and apparatus problems. a condenser is a device composed of two or more conductors insulated from each other by a medium called the _dielectric_. a pair of metal plates separated by glass, a pair of wires separated by air, or a pair of sheets of foil separated by paper or mica may constitute a condenser. the use of condensers as pieces of apparatus and the problems presented by electrostatic capacity in lines are discussed in other chapters. measurements of telephone currents. it has been recognized in all branches of engineering that a definite advance is possible only when quantitative data exists. the lack of reliable means of measuring telephone currents has been a principal cause of the difficulty in solving many of its problems. it is only in very recent times that accurate and reliable means have been worked out for measuring the small currents which flow in telephone lines. these ways are of two general kinds: by thermal and by electromagnetic means. _thermal method_. the thermal methods simply measure, in some way, the amount of heat which is produced by a received telephone current. when this current is allowed to pass through a conductor the effect of the heat generated in that conductor, is observed in one of three ways: by the expansion of the conductor, by its change in resistance, or by the production of an electromotive force in a thermo-electric couple heated by the conductor. any one of these three ways can be used to get some idea of the amount of current which is received. none of them gives an accurate knowledge of the forms of the waves which cause the reproduction of speech in the telephone receiver. [illustration: fig. . oscillogram of telephone currents] _electromagnetic method_. an electromagnetic device adapted to tell something of the magnitude of the telephone current and also something of its form, _i.e._, something of its various increases and decreases and also of its changes in direction is the oscillograph. an oscillograph is composed of a magnetic field formed by direct currents or by a permanent magnet, a turn of wire under mechanical tension in that field, and a mirror borne by the turn of wire, adapted to reflect a beam of light to a photographic film or to a rotating mirror. when a current is to be measured by the oscillograph, it is passed through the turn of wire in the magnetic field. while no current is passing, the wire does not move in the magnetic field and its mirror reflects a stationary beam of light. a photographic film moved in a direction normal to the axis of the turn of wire will have drawn upon it a straight line by the beam of light. if the beam of light, however, is moved by a current, from side to side at right angles to this axis, it will draw a wavy line on the photographic film and this wavy line will picture the alternations of that current and the oscillations of the molecules of air which carried the originating sound. fig. is a photograph of nine different vowel sounds which have caused the oscillograph to take their pictures. they are copies of records made by mr. bela gati, assisted by mr. tolnai. the measuring instrument consisted of an oscillograph of the type described, the transmitter being of the carbon type actuated by a -volt battery. the primary current was transformed by an induction coil of the ordinary type and the transformed current was sent through a non-inductive resistance of , ohms. no condensers were placed in the circuit. it will be seen that the integral values of the curves, starting from zero, are variable. the positive and the negative portions of the curves are not equal, so that the solution of the individual harmonic motion is difficult and laborious. these photographs point out several facts very clearly. one is that the alternations of currents in the telephone line, like the motions of the molecules of air of the original sound, are highly complex and are not, as musical tones are, regular recurrences of equal vibrations. they show also that any vowel sound may be considered to be a regular recurrence of certain groups of vibrations of different amplitudes and of different frequencies. chapter iii electrical signals electric calls or signals are of two kinds: audible and visible. [illustration: fig. . telegraph sounder and key] [illustration: fig. . vibrating bell] audible signals. _telegraph sounder._ the earliest electric signal was an audible one, being the telegraph sounder, or the morse register considered apart from its registering function. each telegraph sounder serves as an audible electric signal and is capable of signifying more than that the call is being made. such a signal is operated by the making and breaking of current from a battery. an arrangement of this kind is shown in fig. , in which pressure upon the key causes the current from the battery to energize the sounder and give one sharp audible rap of the lever upon the striking post. _vibrating bell_. the vibrating bell, so widely used as a door bell, is a device consequent to the telegraph. its action is to give a series of blows on its gong when its key or push button closes the battery circuit. at the risk of describing a trite though not trivial thing, it may be said that when the contact _ _ of fig. is closed, current from the battery energizes the armature _ _, causing the latter to strike a blow on the gong and to break the line circuit as well, by opening the contact back of the armature. so de-energized, the armature falls back and the cycle is repeated until the button contact is released. a comparison of this action with that of the polarized ringer (to be described later) will be found of interest. [illustration: fig. . elemental magneto-generator] _magneto-bell._ the magneto-bell came into wide use with the spread of telephone service. its two fundamental parts are an alternating-current generator and a polarized bell-ringing device. each had its counterpart long before the invention of the telephone, though made familiar by the latter. the alternating-current generator of the magneto-bell consists of a rotatable armature composed of a coil of insulated wire and usually a core of soft iron, its rotation taking place in a magnetic field. this field is usually provided by a permanent magnet, hence the name "magneto-generator." the purist in terms may well say, however, that every form whatever of the dynamo-electric generator is a magneto-generator, as magnetism is one link in every such conversion of mechanical power into electricity. the terms magneto-electric, magneto-generator, etc., involving the term "magneto," have come to imply the presence of _permanently_ magnetized steel as an element of the construction. in its early form, the magneto-generator consisted of the arrangement shown in fig. , wherein a permanent magnet can rotate on an axis before an electromagnet having soft iron cores and a winding. reversals of magnetism produce current in alternately reversing half-cycles, one complete rotation of the magnet producing one such cycle. obviously the result would be the same if the magnet were stationary and the coils should rotate, which is the construction of more modern devices. the turning of the crank of a magneto-bell rotates the armature in the magnetic field by some form of gearing at a rate usually of the order of twenty turns per second, producing an alternating current of that frequency. this current is caused by an effective electromotive force which may be as great as volts, produced immediately by the energy of the user. in an equipment using a magneto-telephone as both receiver and transmitter and a magneto-bell as its signal-sending machine, as was usual in , it is interesting to note that the entire motive power for signals and speech transmission was supplied by the muscular tissues of the user--a case of working one's passage. [illustration: fig. . extension of a permanent magnet] the alternating current from the generator is received and converted into sound by means of the _polarized ringer_, a device which is interesting as depending upon several of the electrical, mechanical, and magnetic actions which are the foundations of telephone engineering. [illustration: fig. . extension of a permanent magnet] "why the ringer rings" may be gathered from a study of figs. to . a permanent magnet will impart temporary magnetism to pieces of iron near it. in fig. two pieces of iron are so energized. the ends of these pieces which are nearest to the permanent magnet _ _ are of the opposite polarity to the end they approach, the free ends being of opposite polarity. in the figure, these free ends are marked _n_, meaning they are of a polarity to point north if free to point at all. english-speaking persons call this _north polarity_. similarly, as in fig. , any arrangement of iron near a permanent magnet always will have free poles of the same polarity as the end of the permanent magnet nearest them. a permanent magnet so related to iron forms part of a polarized ringer. so does an electromagnet composed of windings and iron cores. fig. reminds us of the law of electromagnets. if current flows from the plus towards the minus side, with the windings as drawn, polarities will be induced as marked. [illustration: fig. . electromagnet] [illustration: fig. . polarized ringer] if, now, such an electromagnet, a permanent magnet, and a pivoted armature be related to a pair of gongs as shown in fig. , a polarized ringer results. it should be noted that a permanent magnet has both its poles presented (though one of the poles is not actually attached) to two parts of the iron of the _electro_-magnet. the result is that the ends of the armature are of south polarity and those of the core are of north polarity. all the markings of fig. relate to the polarity produced by the permanent magnet. if, now, a current flow in the ringer winding from plus to minus, obviously the right-hand pole will be additively magnetized, the current tending to produce north magnetism there; also the left-hand pole will be subtractively magnetized, the current tending to produce south magnetism there. if the current be of a certain strength, relative to the certain ringer under study, magnetism in the left pole will be neutralized and that in the right pole doubled. hence the armature will be attracted more by the right pole than by the left and will strike the right-hand gong. a reversal of current produces an opposite action, the left-hand gong being struck. the current ceasing, the armature remains where last thrown. [illustration: operator's equipment clement automanual system.] it is important to note that the strength of action depends upon the strength of the current up to a certain point only. that depends upon the strength of the permanent magnet. whenever the current is great enough just to neutralize the normal magnetism of one pole and to double that of the other, no increase in current will cause the device to ring any louder. this makes obvious the importance of a proper permanent magnetism and displays the fallacy of some effort to increase the output of various devices depending upon these principles. this discussion of magneto-electric signaling is introduced here because of a belief in its being fundamental. chapter viii treats of such a signaling in further detail. _telephone receiver._ the telephone receiver itself serves a useful purpose as an audible signal. an interrupted or alternating current of proper frequency and amount will produce in it a musical tone which can be heard throughout a large room. this fact enables a telephone central office to signal a subscriber who has left his receiver off the switch hook, so that normal conditions may be restored. visible signals. _electromagnetic signal._ practical visual signals are of two general kinds: electromagnetic devices for moving a target or pointer, and incandescent lamps. the earliest and most widely used visible signal in telephone practice was the annunciator, having a shutter adapted to fall when the magnet is energized. fig. is such a signal. shutter _ _ is held by the catch _ _ from dropping to the right by its own gravity. the name "gravity-drop" is thus obvious. current energizing the core attracts the armature _ _, lifts the catch _ _, and the shutter falls. a simple modification of the gravity-drop produces the visible signal shown in fig. . energizing the core lifts a target so as to render it visible through an opening in the plate _ _. a contrast of color between the plate and the target heightens the effect. [illustration: fig. . gravity-drop] the gravity-drop is principally adapted to the magneto-bell system of signaling, where an alternating current is sent over the line to a central office by the operation of a bell crank at the subscriber's station, this current, lasting only as long as the crank is turned, energizes the drop, which may be restored by hand or otherwise and will remain latched. the visible signal is better adapted to lines in which the signaling is done by means of direct current, as, for example, in systems where the removal of the receiver from the hook at the subscriber's station closes the line circuit, causing current to flow through the winding of the visible signal and so displaying it until the receiver has been hung upon the hook or the circuit opened by some operation at the central office. visible signals of the magnetic type of fig. have been widely used in connection with common-battery systems, both for line signals and for supervisory purposes, indicating the state and the progress of the connection and conversation. [illustration: fig. . electromagnetic visible signal] [illustration: fig. . lamp signal and lens] _electric-lamp signal._ incandescent electric lamps appeared in telephony as a considerable element about . they are better than either form of mechanical visible signals because of three principal qualities: simplicity and ease of restoring them to normal as compared with drops; their compactness; and their greater prominence when displayed. of the latter quality, one may say that they are more _insistent_, as they give out light instead of reflecting it, as do all other visible signals. in its best form, the lamp signal is mounted behind a hemispherical lens, either slightly clouded or cut in facets. this lens serves to distribute the rays of light from the lamp, with the result that the signal may be seen from a wide angle with the axis of the lens, as shown in fig. . this is of particular advantage in connection with manual-switchboard connecting cords, as it enables the signals to be mounted close to and even among the cords, their great visible prominence when shining saving them from being hidden. the influence of the lamp signal was one of the potent ones in the development of the type of multiple switchboard which is now universal as the mechanism of large manual exchanges. the first large trial of such an equipment was in in worcester, mass. no large and successful multiple switchboard with any other type of signal has been built since that time. any electric signal has upper and lower limits of current between which it is to be actuated. it must receive current enough to operate but not enough to become damaged by overheating. the magnetic types of visible signals have a wider range between these limits than have lamp signals. if current in a lamp is too little, its filament either will not glow at all or merely at a dull red, insufficient for a proper signal. if the current is too great, the filament is heated beyond its strength and parts at the weakest place. this range between current limits in magnetic visible signals is great enough to enable them to be used direct in telephone lines, the operating current through the line and signal in series with a fixed voltage at the central office being not harmfully great when the entire line resistance is shunted out at or near the central office. the increase of current may be as great as ten times without damage to the winding of such a signal. in lamps, the safe margin is much less. the current which just gives a sufficient lighting of the signal may be about doubled with safety to the filament of the lamp. consequently it is not feasible to place the lamp directly in series with long exposed lines. a short circuit of such a line near the central office will burn it out. [illustration: fig. . lamp signal controlled by relay] the qualities of electromagnets and lamps in these respects are used to advantage by the lamp signal arrangement shown in fig. . a relay is in series with the line and provides a large range of sensibility. it is able to carry any current the central-office current source can pass through it. the local circuit of the relay includes the lamp. energizing the relay lights the lamp, and the reverse; the lamp is thus isolated from danger and receives the current best adapted to its needs. all lines are not long and when enclosed in cable or in well-insulated interior wire, may be only remotely in danger of being short-circuited. such conditions exist in private-branch exchanges, which are groups of telephones, usually local to limited premises, connected to a switchboard on those premises. such a situation permits the omission of the line relay, the lamp being directly in the line. fig. shows the extreme simplicity of the arrangement, containing no moving parts or costly elements. lamps for such service have improved greatly since the demand began to grow. the small bulk permitted by the need of compactness, the high filament resistance required for simplicity of the general power scheme of the system, and the need of considerable sturdiness in the completed thing have made the task a hard one. the practical result, however, is a signal lamp which is highly satisfactory. [illustration: fig. . lamp signal directly in line] [illustration: fig. . lamp signal and ballast] the nature of carbon and certain earths being that their conductivity _rises_ with the temperature and that of metals being that their conductivity _falls_ with the temperature, has enabled the nernst lamp to be successful. the same relation of properties has enabled incandescent-lamp signals to be connected direct to lines without relays, but compensated against too great a current by causing the resistance in series with the lamp to be increased inversely as the resistance of the filament. employment of a "ballast" resistance in this way is referred to in chapter xi. in fig. is shown its relation to a signal lamp directly in the line. _ _ is the carbon-filament lamp; _ _ is the ballast. the latter's conductor is fine iron wire in a vacuum. the resistance of the lamp falls as that of the ballast rises. within certain limits, these changes balance each other, widening the range of allowable change in the total resistance of the line. chapter iv telephone lines _the line is a path over which the telephone current passes from telephone to telephone._ the term "telephone line circuit" is equivalent. "line" and "line circuit" mean slightly different things to some persons, "line" meaning the out-of-doors portion of the line and "line circuit" meaning the indoor portion, composed of apparatus and associated wiring. such shades of meaning are inevitable and serve useful purposes. the opening definition hereof is accurate. a telephone line consists of two conductors. one of these conductors may be the earth; the other always is some conducting material other than the earth--almost universally it is of metal and in the form of a wire. a line using one wire and the earth as its pair of conductors has several defects, to be discussed later herein. both conductors of a line may be wires, the earth serving as no part of the circuit, and this is the best practice. a line composed of one wire and the earth is called a _grounded line_; a line composed of two wires not needing the earth as a conductor is called a _metallic circuit_. in the earliest telephone practice, all lines were grounded ones. the wires were of iron, supported by poles and insulated from them by glass, earthenware, or rubber insulators. for certain uses, such lines still represent good practice. for telegraph service, they represent the present standard practice. copper is a better conductor than iron, does not rust, and when drawn into wire in such a way as to have a sufficient tensile strength to support itself is the best available conductor for telephone lines. only one metal surpasses it in any quality for the purpose: silver is a better conductor by or per cent. copper is better than silver in strength and price. in the open country, telephone lines consist of bare wires of copper, of iron, of steel, or of copper-covered steel supported on insulators borne by poles. if the wires on the poles be many, cross-arms carry four to ten wires each and the insulators are mounted on pins in the cross-arms. if the wires on the poles be few, the insulators are mounted on brackets nailed to the poles. wires so carried are called _open wires_. in towns and cities where many wires are to be carried along the same route, the wires are reduced in size, insulated by a covering over each, and assembled into a group. such a bundle of insulated wires is called a _cable_. it may be drawn into a duct in the earth and be called an _underground cable_; it may be laid on the bottom of the sea or other water and be called a _submarine cable_; or it may be suspended on poles and be called an _aërial cable_. in the most general practice each wire is insulated from all others by a wrapping of paper ribbon, which covering is only adequate when very dry. cables formed of paper-insulated wires, therefore, are covered by a seamless, continuous lead sheath, no part of the paper insulation of the wires being exposed to the atmosphere during the cable's entire life in service. telephone cables for certain uses are formed of wires insulated with such materials as soft rubber, gutta-percha, and cotton or jute saturated with mineral compounds. when insulated with rubber or gutta-percha, no continuous lead sheath is essential for insulation, as those materials, if continuous upon the wire, insulate even when the cable is immersed in water. sheaths and other armors can assist in protecting these insulating materials from mechanical injury, and often are used for that purpose. the uses to which such cables are suitable in telephony are not many, as will be shown. a wire supported on poles requires that it be large enough to support its own weight. the smaller the wire, the weaker it is, and with poles a given distance apart, the strength of the wire must be above a certain minimum. in regions where freezing occurs, wires in the open air can collect ice in winter and everywhere open wires are subject to wind pressure; for these reasons additional strength is required. speaking generally, the practical and economical spacing of poles requires that wires, to be strong enough to meet the above conditions, shall have a diameter not less than . inch, if of hard-drawn copper, and . inch, if of iron or steel. the honor of developing ways of drawing copper wire with sufficient tensile strength for open-air uses belongs to mr. thomas b. doolittle of massachusetts. lines whose lengths are limited to a few miles do not require a conductivity as great as that of copper wire of . -inch diameter. a wire of that size weighs approximately pounds per mile. less than pounds of copper per mile of wire will not give strength enough for use on poles; but as little as pounds per mile of wire gives the necessary conductivity for the lines of the thousands of telephone stations in towns and cities. open wires, being exposed to the elements, suffer damage from storms; their insulation is injured by contact with trees; they may make contact with electric power circuits, perhaps injuring apparatus, themselves, and persons; they endanger life and property by the possibility of falling; they and their cross-arm supports are less sightly than a more compact arrangement. grouping small wires of telephone lines into cables has, therefore, the advantage of allowing less copper to be used, of reducing the space required, of improving appearance, and of increasing safety. on the other hand, this same grouping introduces negative advantages as well as the foregoing positive ones. it is not possible to talk as far or as well over a line in an ordinary cable as over a line of two open wires. long-distance telephone circuits, therefore, have not yet been placed in cables for lengths greater than or miles, and special treatment of cable circuits is required to talk through them for even miles. one may talk , miles over open wires. the reasons for the superiority of the open wires have to do with position rather than material. obviously it is possible to insulate and bury any wire which can be carried in the air. the differences in the properties of lines whose wires are differently situated with reference to each other and surrounding things are interesting and important. a telephone line composed of two conductors always possesses four principal properties in some amount: ( ) conductivity of the conductors; ( ) electrostatic capacity between the conductors; ( ) inductance of the circuit; ( ) insulation of each conductor from other things. conductivity of conductors. the conductivity of a wire depends upon its material, its cross-section, its length, and its temperature. conductivity of a copper wire, for example, increases in direct ratio to its weight, in inverse ratio to its length, and its conductivity falls as the temperature rises. resistance is the reciprocal of conductivity and the properties, conductivity and resistance, are more often expressed in terms of resistance. the unit of the latter is the _ohm_; of the former the _mho_. a conductor having a resistance of ohms has a conductivity of . mho. the exact correlative terms are _resistance_ and _conductance_, _resistivity_ and _conductivity_. the use of the terms as in the foregoing is in accordance with colloquial practice. current in a circuit having resistance only, varies inversely as the resistance. electromotive force being a cause, and resistance a state, current is the result. the formula of this relation, ohm's law, is c = e/r _c_ being the current which results from _e_, the electromotive force, acting upon _r_, the resistance. the units are: of current, the ampere; of electromotive force, the volt; of resistance, the ohm. as the conductivity or resistance of a line is the property of controlling importance in telegraphy, a similar relation was expected in early telephony. as the current in the telephone line varies rapidly, certain other properties of the line assume an importance they do not have in telegraphy in any such degree. the importance that these properties assume is, that if they did not act and the resistance of the conductors alone limited speech, transmission would be possible direct from europe to america over a pair of wires weighing pounds per mile of wire, which is less than half the weight of the wire of the best long-distance land lines now in service. the distance from europe to america is about twice as great as the present commercial radius by land lines of -pound wire. in other words, good speech is possible through a mere resistance twenty times greater than the resistance of the longest actual open-wire line it is possible to talk through. the talking ratio between a mere resistance and the resistance of a regular telephone cable is still greater. electrostatic capacity. it is the possession of electrostatic capacity which enables the condenser, of which the leyden jar is a good example, to be useful in a telephone line. the simplest form of a condenser is illustrated in fig. , in which two conducting surfaces are separated by an insulating material. the larger the surfaces, the closer they are together; and the higher the specific inductive capacity of the insulator, the greater the capacity of the device. an insulator used in this relation to two conducting surfaces is called the _dielectric_. [illustration: fig. . simple condenser] [illustration: fig. . condenser symbols] two conventional signs are used to illustrate condensers, the upper one of fig. growing out of the original condenser of two metal plates, the lower one suggesting the thought of interleaved conductors of tin foil, as for many years was the practice in condenser construction. with relation to this property, a telephone line is just as truly a condenser as is any other arrangement of conductors and insulators. assume such a line to be open at the distant end and its wires to be well insulated from each other and the earth. telegraphy through such a line by ordinary means would be impossible. all that the battery or other source could do would be to cause current to flow into the line for an infinitesimal time, raising the wires to its potential, after which no current would flow. but, by virtue of electrostatic capacity, the condition is much as shown in fig. . the condensers which that figure shows bridged across the line from wire to wire are intended merely to fix in the mind that there is a path for the transfer of electrical energy from wire to wire. [illustration: fig. . line with shunt capacity] a simple test will enable two of the results of a short-circuiting capacity to be appreciated. conceive a very short line of two wires to connect two local battery telephones. such a line possesses negligible resistance, inductance, and shunt capacity. its insulation is practically infinite. let condensers be bridged across the line, one by one, while conversation goes on. the listening observer will notice that the sounds reaching his ear steadily grow less loud as the capacity across the line increases. the speaking observer will notice that the sounds he hears through the receiver in series with the line steadily grow louder as the capacity across the line increases. fig. illustrates the test. the speaker's observation in this test shows that increasing the capacity across the line increased the amount of current entering it. the hearer's observation in this test shows that increasing the capacity across the line decreased the amount of energy turned into sound at his receiver. [illustration: fig. . test of line with varying shunt capacity] the unit of electrostatic capacity is the _farad_. as this unit is inconveniently large, for practical applications the unit _microfarad_--millionth of a farad--is employed. if quantities are known in microfarads and are to be used in calculations in which the values of the capacity require to be farads, care should be taken to introduce the proper corrective factor. the electrostatic capacity between the conductors of a telephone line depends upon their surface area, their length, their position, and the nature of the materials separating them from each other and from other things. for instance, in an open wire line of two wires, the electrostatic capacity depends upon the diameter of the wires, upon the length of the line, upon their distance apart, upon their distance above the earth, and upon the specific inductive capacity of the air. air being so common an insulating medium, it is taken as a convenient material whose specific inductive capacity may be used as a basis of reference. therefore, the specific inductive capacity of air is taken as unity. all solid matter has higher specific inductive capacity than air. the electrostatic capacity of two open wires . inch diameter, ft. apart, and ft. above the earth, is of the order of . microfarads per mile. this quantity would be higher if the wires were closer together; or nearer the earth; or if they were surrounded by a gas other than the air or hydrogen; or if the wires were insulated not by a gas but by any solid covering. as another example, a line composed of two wires of a diameter of . inch, if wrapped with paper and twisted into a pair as a part of a telephone-cable, has a mutual electrostatic capacity of approximately . microfarads per mile, this quantity being greater if the cable be more tightly compressed. the use of paper as an insulator for wires in telephone cables is due to its low specific inductive capacity. this is because the insulation of the wires is so largely dry air. rubber and similar insulating materials give capacities as great as twice that of dry paper. the condenser or other capacity acts as an effective barrier to the steady flow of direct currents. applying a fixed potential causes a mere rush of current to charge its surface to a definite degree, dependent upon the particular conditions. the condenser does not act as such a barrier to alternating currents, for it is possible to talk through a condenser by means of the alternating voice currents of telephony, or to pass through it alternating currents of much lower frequency. a condenser is used in series with a polarized ringer for the purpose of letting through alternating current for ringing the bell, and of preventing the flow of direct current. the degree to which the condenser allows alternating currents to pass while stopping direct currents, depends on the capacity of the condenser and on the frequencies of alternating current. the larger the condenser capacity or the higher the frequency of the alternations, the greater will be the current passing through the circuit. the degree to which the current is opposed by the capacity is the reactance of that capacity for that frequency. the formula is capacity reactance = /_c_[omega] wherein _c_ is the capacity in farads and [omega] is [pi]_n_, or twice . times the frequency. all the foregoing leads to the generalization that the higher the frequency, the less the opposition of a capacity to an alternating current. if the frequency be zero, the reactance is infinite, _i.e._, the circuit is open to direct current. if the frequency be infinite, the reactance is zero, _i.e._, the circuit is as if the condenser were replaced by a solid conductor of no resistance. compare this statement with the correlative generalization which follows the next thought upon inductance. inductance of the circuit. inductance is the property of a circuit by which change of current in it tends to produce in itself and other conductors an electromotive force other than that which causes the current. its unit is the _henry_. the inductance of a circuit is one henry when a change of one ampere per second produces an electromotive force of one volt. induction _between_ circuits occurs because the circuits possess inductance; it is called _mutual induction_. induction _within_ a circuit occurs because the circuit possesses inductance; it is called _self-induction_. lenz' law says: _in all cases of electromagnetic induction, the induced currents have such a direction that their reaction tends to stop the motion which produced them_. [illustration: fig. . spiral of wire] [illustration: fig. . spiral of wire around iron core] all conductors possess inductance, but straight wires used in lines have negligible inductance in most actual cases. all wires which are wound into coils, such as electromagnets, possess inductance in a greatly increased degree. a wire wound into a spiral, as indicated in fig. , possesses much greater inductance than when drawn out straight. if iron be inserted into the spiral, as shown in fig. , the inductance is still further increased. it is for the purpose of eliminating inductance that resistance coils are wound with double wires, so that current passing through such coils turns in one direction half the way and in the other direction the other half. a simple test will enable the results of a series inductance in a line to be appreciated. conceive a very short line of two wires to connect two local battery telephones. such a line possesses negligible resistance, inductance, and shunt capacity. its insulation is practically infinite. let inductive coils such as electromagnets be inserted serially in the wires of the line one by one, while conversation goes on. the listening observer will notice that the sounds reaching his ear steadily grow faint as the inductance in the line increases and the speaking observer will notice the same thing through the receiver in series with the line. both observations in this test show that the amount of current entering and emerging from the line decreased as the inductance increased. compare this with the test with bridged capacity and the loading of lines described later herein, observing the curious beneficial result when both hurtful properties are present in a line. the test is illustrated in fig. . the degree in which any current is opposed by inductance is termed the reactance of that inductance. its formula is inductive reactance = _l_[omega] wherein _l_ is the inductance in henrys and [omega] is _ _[pi]_n_, or twice . times the frequency. to distinguish the two kinds of reactance, that due to the capacity is called _capacity reactance_ and that due to inductance is called _inductive reactance_. all the foregoing leads to the generalization that the higher the frequency, the greater the opposition of an inductance to an alternating current. if the frequency be zero, the reactance is zero, _i.e._, the circuit conducts direct current as mere resistance. if the frequency be infinite, the reactance is infinite, _i.e._, the circuit is "open" to the alternating current and that current cannot pass through it. compare this with the correlative generalization following the preceding thought upon capacity. [illustration: fig. . test of line with varying serial inductance] capacity and inductance depend only on states of matter. their reactances depend on states of matter and actions of energy. in circuits having both resistance and capacity or resistance and inductance, both properties affect the passage of current. the joint reaction is expressed in ohms and is called _impedance_. its value is the square root of the sum of the squares of the resistance and reactance, or, z being impedance, ------------------------- / z = / r^{ } + ---------------- \/ c^{ }[omega]^{ } and -------------------------- z = / r^{ } + l^{ }[omega]^{ } \/ the symbols meaning as before. in words, these formulas mean that, knowing the frequency of the current and the capacity of a condenser, or the frequency of the current and the inductance of a circuit (a line or piece of apparatus), and in either case the resistance of the circuit, one may learn the impedance by calculation. insulation of conductors. the fourth property of telephone lines, insulation of the conductors, usually is expressed in ohms as an insulation resistance. in practice, this property needs to be intrinsically high, and usually is measured by millions of ohms resistance from the wire of a line to its mate or to the earth. it is a convenience to employ a large unit. a million ohms, therefore, is called a _megohm_. in telephone cables, an insulation resistance of megohms per mile at ° fahrenheit is the usual specification. so high an insulation resistance in a paper-insulated conductor is only attained by applying the lead sheath to the cable when its core is made practically anhydrous and kept so during the splicing and terminating of the cable. insulation resistance varies inversely as the length of the conductor. if a piece of cable feet long has an insulation resistance of , megohms, a mile (ten times as much) of such cable, will have an insulation resistance of megohms, or one-tenth as great. inductance vs. capacity. the mutual capacity of a telephone line is greater as its wires are closer together. the self-induction of a telephone line is smaller as its wires are closer together. the electromotive force induced by the capacity of a line leads the impressed electromotive force by degrees. the inductive electromotive force lags degrees behind the impressed electromotive force. and so, in general, the natures of these two properties are opposite. in a cable, the wires are so close together that their induction is negligible, while their capacity is so great as to limit commercial transmission through a cable having . microfarads per mile capacity and ohms loop resistance per mile, to a distance of about miles. in the case of open wires spaced inches apart, the limit of commercial transmission is greater, not only because the wires are larger, but because the capacity is lower and the inductance higher. table i shows-the practical limiting conversation distance over uniform lines with present standard telephone apparatus. table i limiting transmission distances +-----------------------------+----------------------+ | size and gauge of wire | limiting distance | +-----------------------------+----------------------+ | no. b. w. g. copper | miles | | b. w. g. copper | miles | | b. & s. copper | miles | | n. b. s. copper | miles | | b. & s. copper | miles | | n. b. s. copper | miles | | b. w. g. iron | miles | | b. w. g. iron | miles | | b. w. g. iron | miles | | b. & s. cable, copper | miles | | b. & s. cable, copper | miles | | b. & s. cable, copper | miles | +-----------------------------+----------------------+ in , oliver heaviside proposed that the inductance of telephone lines be increased above the amount natural for the inter-axial spacing, with a view to counteracting the hurtful effects of the capacity. his meaning was that the increased inductance--a harmful quality in a circuit not having also a harmfully great capacity--would act oppositely to the capacity, and if properly chosen and applied, should decrease or eliminate distortion by making the line's effect on fundamentals and harmonics more nearly uniform, and as well should reduce the attenuation by neutralizing the action of the capacity in dissipating energy. there are two ways in which inductance might be introduced into a telephone line. as the capacity whose effects are to be neutralized is distributed uniformly throughout the line, the counteracting inductance must also be distributed throughout the line. mere increase of distance between two wires of the line very happily acts both to increase the inductance and to lower the capacity; unhappily for practical results, the increase of separation to bring the qualities into useful neutralizing relation is beyond practical limits. the wires would need to be so far above the earth and so far apart as to make the arrangement commercially impossible. practical results have been secured in increasing the distributed inductance by wrapping fine iron wire over each conductor of the line. such a treatment increases the inductance and improves transmission. the most marked success has come as a result of the studies of professor michael idvorsky pupin. he inserts inductances in series with the wires of the line, so adapting them to the constants of the circuit that attenuation and distortion are diminished in a gratifying degree. this method of counteracting the effects of a distributed capacity by the insertion of localized inductance requires not only that the requisite total amount of inductance be known, but that the proper subdivision and spacing of the local portions of that inductance be known. professor pupin's method is described in a paper entitled "wave transmission over non-uniform cables and long-distance air lines," read by him at a meeting of the american institute of electrical engineers in philadelphia, may , . note. united states letters patent were issued to professor pupin on june , , upon his practical method of reducing attenuation of electrical waves. a paper upon "propagation of long electric waves" was read by professor pupin before the american institute of electrical engineers on march , , and appears in vol. of the transactions of that society. the student will find these documents useful in his studies on the subject. he is referred also to "electrical papers" and "electromagnetic theory" of oliver heaviside. professor pupin likens the transmission of electric waves over long-distance circuits to the transmission of mechanical waves over a string. conceive an ordinary light string to be fixed at one end and shaken by the hand at the other; waves will pass over the string from the shaken to the fixed end. certain reflections will occur from the fixed end. the amount of energy which can be sent in this case from the shaken to the fixed point is small, but if the string be loaded by attaching bullets to it, uniformly throughout its length, it now may transmit much more energy to the fixed end. [illustration: main entrance and public office, san francisco home telephone company contract department on left. accounting department on right.] the addition of inductance to a telephone line is analogous to the addition of bullets to the string, so that a telephone line is said to be _loaded_ when inductances are inserted in it, and the inductances themselves are known as _loading coils_. fig. shows the general relation of pupin loading coils to the capacity of the line. the condensers of the figure are merely conventionals to represent the condenser which the line itself forms. the inductances of the figure are the actual loading coils. [illustration: fig. . loaded line] the loading of open wires is not as successful in practice as is that of cables. the fundamental reason lies in the fact that two of the properties of open wires--insulation and capacity--vary with atmospheric change. the inserted inductance remaining constant, its benefits may become detriments when the other two "constants" change. the loading of cable circuits is not subject to these defects. such loading improves transmission; saves copper; permits the use of longer underground cables than are usable when not loaded; lowers maintenance costs by placing interurban cables underground; and permits submarine telephone cables to join places not otherwise able to speak with each other. underground long-distance lines now join or are joining boston and new york, philadelphia and new york, milwaukee and chicago. england and france are connected by a loaded submarine cable. there is no theoretical reason why europe and america should not speak to each other. the student wishing to determine for himself what are the effects of the properties of lines upon open or cable circuits will find most of the subject in the following equation. it tells the value of _a_ in terms of the four properties, _a_ being the attenuation constant of the line. that is, the larger _a_ is, the more the voice current is reduced in passing over the line. the equation is ----------------------------------------------------------------------- / ----------------------------------------------- a= /½ /(r^{ }+l^{ }[omega]^{ })(s^{ }+c^{ }[omega]^{ } + ½(rs-lc[omega]^{ } \/ \/ the quantities are r = resistance in ohms l = inductance in henrys c = mutual (shunt) capacity in farads [omega] = [pi]_n_ = . times the frequency s = shunt leakage in mhos the quantity _s_ is a measure of the combined direct-current conductance (reciprocal of insulation resistance) and the apparent conductance due to dielectric hysteresis. note. an excellent paper, assisting such study, and of immediate practical value as helping the understanding of cables and their reasons, is that of mr. frank b. jewett, presented at the thousand islands convention of the american institute of electrical engineers, july , . chapter treats cables in further detail. they form a most important part of telephone wire-plant practice, and their uses are becoming wider and more valuable. possible ways of improving transmission. practical ways of improving telephone transmission are of two kinds: to improve the lines and to improve the apparatus. the foregoing shows what are the qualities of lines and the ways they require to be treated. apparatus treatment, in the present state of the art, is addressed largely to the reduction of losses. theoretical considerations seem to show, however, that great advance in apparatus effectiveness still is possible. more powerful transmitters--and more _faithful_ ones--more sensitive and accurate receivers, and more efficient translating devices surely are possible. discovery may need to intervene, to enable invention to restimulate. in both telegraphy and telephony, the longer the line the weaker the current which is received at the distant end. in both telegraphy and telephony, there is a length of line with a given kind and size of wire and method of construction over which it is just possible to send intelligible speech or intelligible signals. a repeater, in telegraphy, is a device in the form of a relay which is adapted to receive these highly attenuated signal impulses and to re-transmit them with fresh power over a new length of line. an arrangement of two such relays makes it possible to telegraph both ways over a pair of lines united by such a repeater. it is practically possible to join up several such links of lines to repeating devices and, if need be, even submarine cables can be joined to land lines within practical limits. if it were necessary, it probably would be possible to telegraph around the world in this way. if it were possible to imitate the telegraph repeater in telephony, attenuated voice currents might be caused to actuate it so as to send on those voice currents with renewed power over a length of line, section by section. such a device has been sought for many years, and it once was quoted in the public press that a reward of one million dollars had been offered by charles j. glidden for a successful device of that kind. the records of the patent offices of the world show what effort has been made in that direction and many more devices have been invented than have been patented in all the countries together. like some other problems in telephony, this one seems simpler at first sight than it proves to be after more exhaustive study. it is possible for any amateur to produce at once a repeating device which will relay telephone circuits in one direction. it is required, however, that in practice the voice currents be relayed in both directions, and further, that the relay actually augment the energy which passes through it; that is, that it will send on a more powerful current than it receives. most of the devices so far invented fail in one or the other of these particulars. several ways have been shown of assembling repeating devices which will talk both ways, but not many assembling repeating devices have been shown that will talk both ways and augment in both directions. [illustration: fig. . shreeve repeater and circuit] practical repeaters have been produced, however, and at least one type is in daily successful use. it is not conclusively shown even of it that it augments in the same degree all of the voice waves which reach it, or even that it augments some of them at all. its action, however, is distinctly an improvement in commercial practice. it is the invention of mr. herbert e. shreeve and is shown in fig. . primarily it consists of a telephone receiver, of a particular type devised by gundlach, associated with a granular carbon transmitter button. it is further associated with an arrangement of induction coils or repeating coils, the object of these being to accomplish the two-way action, that is, of speaking in both directions and of preventing reactive interference between the receiving and transmitting elements. the battery _ _ energizes the field of the receiving element; the received line current varies that field; the resulting motion varies the resistance of the carbon button and transforms current from battery _ _ into a new alternating line current. by reactive interference is meant action whereby the transmitter element, in emitting a wave, affects its own controlling receiver element, thus setting up an action similar to that which occurs when the receiver of a telephone is held close to its transmitter and humming or singing ensues. no repeater is successful unless it is free from this reactive interference. [illustration: fig. . mercury-arc telephone relay] enough has been accomplished by practical tests of the shreeve device and others like it to show that the search for a method of relaying telephone voice currents is not looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. the most remarkable truth established by the success of repeaters of the shreeve type is that a device embodying so large inertia of moving parts can succeed at all. if this mean anything, it is that a device in which inertia is absolutely eliminated might do very much better. many of the methods already proposed by inventors attack the problem in this way and one of the most recent and most promising ways is that of mr. j.b. taylor, the circuit of whose telephone-relay patent is shown in fig. . in it, _ _ is an electromagnet energized by voice currents; its varying field varies an arc between the electrodes _ - _ and _ _ in a vacuum tube. these fluctuations are transformed into line currents by the coil _ _. chapter v transmitters variable resistance. as already pointed out in chapter ii, the variable-resistance method of producing current waves, corresponding to sound waves for telephonic transmission, is the one that lends itself most readily to practical purposes. practically all telephone transmitters of today employ this variable-resistance principle. the reason for the adoption of this method instead of the other possible ones is that the devices acting on this principle are capable, with great simplicity of construction, of producing much more powerful results than the others. their simplicity is such as to make them capable of being manufactured at low cost and of being used successfully by unskilled persons. materials. of all the materials available for the variable-resistance element in telephone transmitters, carbon is by far the most suitable, and its use is well nigh universal. sometimes one of the rarer metals, such as platinum or gold, is to be found in commercial transmitters as part of the resistance-varying device, but, even when this is so, it is always used in combination with carbon in some form or other. most of the transmitters in use, however, depend solely upon carbon as the conductive material of the variable-resistance element. arrangement of electrodes. following the principles pointed out by hughes, the transmitters of today always employ as their variable-resistance elements one or more loose contacts between one or more pairs of electrodes, which electrodes, as just stated, are usually of carbon. always the arrangement is such that the sound waves will vary the intimacy of contact between the electrodes and, therefore, the resistance of the path through the electrodes. a multitude of arrangements have been proposed and tried. sometimes a single pair of electrodes has been employed having a single point of loose contact between them. these may be termed single-contact transmitters. sometimes the variable-resistance element has included a greater number of electrodes arranged in multiple, or in series, or in series-multiple, and these have been termed multiple-electrode transmitters, signifying a plurality of electrodes. a later development, an outgrowth of the multiple-electrode transmitter, makes use of a pair of principal electrodes, between which is included a mass of finely divided carbon in the form of granules or small spheres or pellets. these, regardless of the exact form of the carbon particles, are called granular-carbon transmitters. [illustration: fig. . blake transmitter] single electrode. _blake_. the most notable example of the single-contact transmitter is the once familiar blake instrument. at one time this formed a part of the standard equipment of almost every telephone in the united states, and it was also largely used abroad. probably no transmitter has ever exceeded it in clearness of articulation, but it was decidedly deficient in power in comparison with the modern transmitters. in this instrument, which is shown in fig. , the variable-resistance contact was that between a carbon and a platinum electrode. the diaphragm _ _ was of sheet iron mounted, as usual in later transmitters, in a soft rubber gasket _ _. the whole diaphragm was mounted in a cast-iron ring _ _, supported on the inside of the box containing the entire instrument. the front electrode _ _ was mounted on a light spring _ _, the upper end of which was supported by a movable bar or lever _ _, flexibly supported on a spring _ _ secured to the casting which supported the diaphragm. the tension of this spring _ _ was such as to cause the platinum point to press lightly away from the center of the diaphragm. the rear electrode was of carbon in the form of a small block _ _, secured in a heavy brass button _ _. the entire rear electrode structure was supported on a heavier spring _ _ carried on the same lever as the spring _ _. the tension of this latter spring was such as to press against the front electrode and, by its greater strength, press this against the center of the diaphragm. the adjustment of the instrument was secured by means of the screw _ _, carried in a lug extending rearwardly from the diaphragm supporting casting, this screw, by its position, determining the strength with which the rear electrode pressed against the front electrode and that against the diaphragm. this instrument was ordinarily mounted in a wooden box together with the induction coil, which is shown in the upper portion of the figure. the blake transmitter has passed almost entirely out of use in this country, being superseded by the various forms of granular instruments, which, while much more powerful, are not perhaps capable of producing quite such clear and distinct articulation. the great trouble with the single-contact transmitters, such as the blake, was that it was impossible to pass enough current through the single point of contact to secure the desired power of transmission without overheating the contact. if too much current is sent through such transmitters, an undue amount of heat is generated at the point of contact and a vibration is set up which causes a peculiar humming or squealing sound which interferes with the transmission of other sounds. multiple electrode. to remedy this difficulty the so-called multiple-electrode transmitter was brought out. this took a very great number of forms, of which the one shown in fig. is typical. the diaphragm shown at _ _, in this particular form, was made of thin pine wood. on the rear side of this, suspended from a rod _ _ carried in a bracket _ _, were a number of carbon rods or pendants _ _, loosely resting against a rod _ _, carried on a bracket _ _ also mounted on the rear of the diaphragm. the pivotal rod _ _ and the rod _ _, against which the pendants rested, were sometimes, like the pendant rods, made of carbon and sometimes of metal, such as brass. when the diaphragm vibrated, the intimacy of contact between the pendant rod _ _ and the rod _ _ was altered, and thus the resistance of the path through all of the pendant rods in multiple was changed. [illustration: fig. . multiple-electrode transmitter] a multitude of forms of such transmitters came into use in the early eighties, and while they in some measure remedied the difficulty encountered with the blake transmitter, _i.e._, of not being able to carry a sufficiently large current, they were all subject to the effects of extreme sensitiveness, and would rattle or break when called upon to transmit sounds of more than ordinary loudness. furthermore, the presence of such large masses of material, which it was necessary to throw into vibration by the sound waves, was distinctly against this form of transmitter. the inertia of the moving parts was so great that clearness of articulation was interfered with. granular carbon. the idea of employing a mass of granular carbon, supported between two electrodes, one of which vibrated with the sound waves and the other was stationary, was proposed by henry hunnings in the early eighties. while this idea forms the basis of all modern telephone transmitters, yet it did not prevent the almost universal adoption of the single-contact form of instrument during the next decade. western electric solid-back transmitter. in the early nineties, however, the granular-carbon transmitter came into its own with the advent and wide adoption of the transmitter designed by anthony c. white, known as the _white_, or _solid-back_, transmitter. this has for many years been the standard instrument of the bell companies operating throughout the united states, and has found large use abroad. a horizontal cross-section of this instrument is shown in fig. , and a rear view of the working parts in fig. . the working parts are all mounted on the front casting _ _. this is supported in a cup _ _, in turn supported on the lug _ _, which is pivoted on the transmitter arm or other support. the front and rear electrodes of this instrument are formed of thin carbon disks shown in solid black. the rear electrode, the larger one of these disks, is securely attached by solder to the face of a brass disk having a rearwardly projecting screw-threaded shank, which serves to hold it and the rear electrode in place in the bottom of a heavy brass cup _ _. the front electrode is mounted on the rear face of a stud. clamped against the head of this stud, by a screw-threaded clamping ring _ _, is a mica washer, or disk _ _. the center portion of this mica washer is therefore rigid with respect to the front electrode and partakes of its movements. the outer edge of this mica washer is similarly clamped against the front edge of the cup _ _, a screw-threaded ring _ _ serving to hold the edge of the mica rigidly against the front of the cup. the outer edge of this washer is, therefore, rigid with respect to the rear electrode, which is fixed. whatever relative movement there is between the two electrodes must, therefore, be permitted by the flexing of the mica washer. this mica washer not only serves to maintain the electrodes in their normal relative positions, but also serves to close the chamber which contains the electrodes, and, therefore, to prevent the granular carbon, with which the space between the electrodes is filled, from falling out. [illustration: fig. . white solid-back transmitter] the cup _ _, containing the electrode chamber, is rigidly fastened with respect to the body of the transmitter by a rearwardly projecting shank held in a bridge piece _ _ which is secured at its ends to the front block. the needed rigidity of the rear electrode is thus obtained and this is probably the reason for calling the instrument the _solid-back_. the front electrode, on the other hand, is fastened to the center of the diaphragm by means of a shank on the stud, which passes through a hole in the diaphragm and is clamped thereto by two small nuts. against the rear face of the diaphragm of this transmitter there rest two damping springs. these are not shown in fig. but are in fig. . they are secured at one end to the rear flange of the front casting _ _, and bear with their other or free ends against the rear face of the diaphragm. the damping springs are prevented from coming into actual contact with the diaphragm by small insulating pads. the purpose of the damping springs is to reduce the sensitiveness of the diaphragm to extraneous sounds. as a result, the white transmitter does not pick up all of the sounds in its vicinity as readily as do the more sensitive transmitters, and thus the transmission is not interfered with by extraneous noises. on the other hand, the provision of these heavy damping springs makes it necessary that this transmitter shall be spoken into directly by the user. [illustration: fig. . white solid-back transmitter] the action of this transmitter is as follows: sound waves are concentrated against the center of the diaphragm by the mouth-piece, which is of the familiar form. these waves impinge against the diaphragm, causing it to vibrate, and this, in turn, produces similar vibrations in the front electrode. the vibrations of the front electrode are permitted by the elasticity of the mica washer _ _. the rear electrode is, however, held stationary within the heavy chambered block _ _ and which in turn is held immovable by its rigid mounting. as a result, the front electrode approaches and recedes from the rear electrode, thus compressing and decompressing the mass of granular carbon between them. as a result, the intimacy of contact between the electrode plates and the granules and also between the granules themselves is altered, and the resistance of the path from one electrode to the other through the mass of granules is varied. new western electric transmitter. the white transmitter was the prototype of a large number of others embodying the same features of having the rear electrode mounted in a stationary cup or chamber and the front electrode movable with the diaphragm, a washer of mica or other flexible insulating material serving to close the front of the electrode chamber and at the same time to permit the necessary vibration of the front electrode with the diaphragm. [illustration: fig. . new western electric transmitter] one of these transmitters, embodying these same features but with modified details, is shown in fig. , this being the new transmitter manufactured by the western electric company. in this the bridge of the original white transmitter is dispensed with, the electrode chamber being supported by a pressed metal cup _ _, which supports the chamber as a whole. the electrode cup, instead of being made of a solid block as in the white instrument, is composed of two portions, a cylindrical or tubular portion _ _ and a back _ _. the cylindrical portion is externally screw-threaded so as to engage an internal screw thread in a flanged opening in the center of the cup _ _. by this means the electrode chamber is held in place in the cup _ _, and by the same means the mica washer _ _ is clamped between the flange in this opening and the tubular portion _ _ of the electrode chamber. the front electrode is carried, as in the white transmitter, on the mica washer and is rigidly attached to the center of the diaphragm so as to partake of the movement thereof. it will be seen, therefore, that this is essentially a white transmitter, but with a modified mounting for the electrode chamber. a feature in this transmitter that is not found in the white transmitter is that both the front and the rear electrodes, in fact, the entire working portions of the transmitter, are insulated from the exposed metal parts of the instrument. this is accomplished by insulating the diaphragm and the supporting cup _ _ from the transmitter front. the terminal _ _ on the cup _ _ forms the electrical connection for the rear electrode, while the terminal _ _, which is mounted _on_ but insulated _from_ the cup _ _ and is connected with the front electrode by a thin flexible connecting strip, forms the electrical connection for the front electrode. kellogg transmitter. the transmitter of the kellogg switchboard and supply company, originally developed by mr. w.w. dean and modified by his successors in the kellogg company, is shown in fig. . in this, the electrode chamber, instead of being mounted in a stationary and rigid position, as in the case of the white instrument, is mounted on, and, in fact, forms a part of the diaphragm. the electrode which is associated with the mica washer instead of moving with the diaphragm, as in the white instrument, is rigidly connected to a bridge so as to be as free as possible from all vibrations. referring to fig. , which is a horizontal cross-section of the instrument, _ _ indicates the diaphragm. this is of aluminum and it has in its center a forwardly deflected portion forming a chamber for the electrodes. the front electrode _ _ of carbon is backed by a disk of brass and rigidly secured in the front of this chamber, as clearly indicated. the rear electrode _ _, also of carbon, is backed by a disk of brass, and is clamped against the central portion of a mica disk by means of the enlarged head of stud _ _. a nut _ _, engaging the end of a screw-threaded shank from the back of the rear electrode, serves to bind these two parts together securely, clamping the mica washer between them. the outer edge of the mica washer is clamped to the main diaphragm _ _ by an aluminum ring and rivets, as clearly indicated. it is seen, therefore, that the diaphragm itself contains the electrode chamber as an integral part thereof. the entire structure of the diaphragm, the front and back electrodes, and the granular carbon within are permanently assembled in the factory and cannot be dissociated without destroying some of the parts. the rear electrode is held rigidly in place by the bridge _ _ and the stud _ _, this stud passing through a block _ _ mounted on the bridge but insulated from it. the stud _ _ is clamped in the block _ _ by means of the set screw _ _, so as to hold the rear electrode in proper position after this position has been determined. [illustration: fig. . kellogg transmitter] in this transmitter, as in the transmitter shown in fig. , all of the working parts are insulated from the exposed metal casing. the diaphragm is insulated from the front of the instrument by means of a washer _ _ of impregnated cloth, as indicated. the rear electrode is insulated from the other portions of the instrument by means of the mica washer and by means of the insulation between the block _ _ and the bridge _ _. the terminal for the rear electrode is mounted on the block _ _, while the terminal for the front electrode, shown at _ _, is mounted on, but insulated from, the bridge. this terminal _ _ is connected with the diaphragm and therefore with the front electrode by means of a thin, flexible metallic connection. this transmitter is provided with damping springs similar to those of the white instrument. it is claimed by advocates of this type of instrument that, in addition to the ordinary action due to the compression and decompression of the granular carbon between the electrodes, there exists another action due to the agitation of the granules as the chamber is caused to vibrate by the sound waves. in other words, in addition to the ordinary action, which may be termed _the piston action between the electrodes_, it is claimed that the general shaking-up effect of the granules when the chamber vibrates produces an added effect. certain it is, however, that transmitters of this general type are very efficient and have proven their capability of giving satisfactory service through long periods of time. another interesting feature of this instrument as it is now manufactured is the use of a transmitter front that is struck up from sheet metal rather than the employment of a casting as has ordinarily been the practice. the formation of the supporting lug for the transmitter from the sheet metal which forms the rear casing or shell of the instrument is also an interesting feature. automatic electric company transmitter. the transmitter of the automatic electric company, of chicago, shown in fig. , is of the same general type as the one just discussed, in that the electrode chamber is mounted on and vibrates with the diaphragm instead of being rigidly supported on the bridge as in the case of the white or solid-back type of instrument. in this instrument the transmitter front _ _ is struck up from sheet metal and contains a rearwardly projecting flange, carrying an internal screw thread. a heavy inner cup _ _, together with the diaphragm _ _, form an enclosure containing the electrode chamber. the diaphragm is, in this case, permanently secured at its edge to the periphery of the inner cup _ _ by a band of metal _ _ so formed as to embrace the edges of both the cup and the diaphragm and permanently lock them together. this inner chamber is held in place in the transmitter front _ _ by means of a lock ring _ _ externally screw-threaded to engage the internal screw-thread on the flange on the front. the electrode chamber proper is made in the form of a cup, rigidly secured to the diaphragm so as to move therewith, as clearly indicated. the rear electrode is mounted on a screw-threaded stud carried in a block which is fitted to a close central opening in the cup _ _. this transmitter does not make use of a mica washer or diaphragm, but employs a felt washer which surrounds the shank of the rear electrode and serves to close and seal the carbon containing cup. by this means the granular carbon is retained in the chamber and the necessary flexibility or freedom of motion is permitted between the front and the rear electrodes. as in the kellogg and the later bell instruments, the entire working parts of this transmitter are insulated from the metal containing case, the inner chamber, formed by the cup _ _ and the diaphragm _ _, being insulated from the transmitter front and its locking ring by means of insulating washers, as shown. fig. . automatic electric company transmitter monarch transmitter. the transmitter of the monarch telephone manufacturing company, shown in fig. , differs from both the stationary-cup and the vibrating-cup types, although it has the characteristics of both. it might be said that it differs from each of these two types of transmitters in that it has the characteristics of both. this transmitter, it will be seen, has two flexible mica washers between the electrodes and the walls of the electrode cup. the front and the back electrodes are attached to the diaphragm and the bridge, respectively, by a method similar to that employed in the solid-back transmitters, while the carbon chamber itself is free to vibrate with the diaphragm as is characteristic of the kellogg transmitter. [illustration: fig. . monarch transmitter] an aluminum diaphragm is employed, the circumferential edge of which is forwardly deflected to form a seat. the edge of the diaphragm rests _against_ and is separated _from_ the brass front by means of a one-piece gasket of specially treated linen. this forms an insulator which is not affected by heat or moisture. as in the transmitters previously described, the electrodes are firmly soldered to brass disks which have solid studs extending from their centers. in the case of both the front and the rear electrodes, a mica disk is placed over the supporting stud and held in place by a brass hub which has a base of the same size as the electrode. the carbon-chamber wall consists of a brass ring to which are fastened the mica disks of the front and the back electrodes by means of brass collars clamped over the edge of the mica and around the rim of the brass ring forming the chamber. [illustration: main office building, berkeley, california containing automatic equipment, forming part of larger system operating in san francisco and vicinity. bay cities home telephone company.] electrodes. the electrode plates of nearly all modern transmitters are of specially treated carbon. these are first copper-plated and soldered to their brass supporting disks. after this they are turned and ground so as to be truly circular in form and to present absolutely flat faces toward each other. these faces are then highly polished and the utmost effort is made to keep them absolutely clean. great pains are taken to remove from the pores of the carbon, as well as from the surface, all of the acids or other chemicals that may have entered them during the process of electroplating them or of soldering them to the brass supporting disk. that the two electrodes, when mounted in a transmitter, should be parallel with each other, is an item of great importance as will be pointed out later. in a few cases, as previously stated, gold or platinum has been substituted for the carbon electrodes in transmitters. these are capable of giving good results when used in connection with the proper form of granular carbon, but, on the whole, the tendency has been to abandon all forms of electrode material except carbon, and its use is now well nigh universal. _preparation of carbon_. the granular carbon is prepared from carefully selected anthracite coal, which is specially treated by roasting or "re-carbonizing" and is then crushed to approximately the proper fineness. the crushed carbon is then screened with extreme care to eliminate all dust and to retain only granules of uniform size. packing. in the earlier forms of granular-carbon transmitters a great deal of trouble was experienced due to the so-called packing of the instrument. this, as the term indicates, was a trouble due to the tendency of the carbon granules to settle into a compact mass and thus not respond to the variable pressure. this was sometimes due to the presence of moisture in the electrode chamber; sometimes to the employment of granules of varying sizes, so that they would finally arrange themselves under the vibration of the diaphragm into a fairly compact mass; or sometimes, and more frequently, to the granules in some way wedging the two electrodes apart and holding them at a greater distance from each other than their normal distance. the trouble due to moisture has been entirely eliminated by so sealing the granule chambers as to prevent the entrance of moisture. the trouble due to the lack of uniformity in size of the granules has been entirely eliminated by making them all of one size and by making them of sufficient hardness so that they would not break up into granules of smaller size. the trouble due to the settling of the granules and wedging the electrodes apart has been practically eliminated in well-designed instruments, by great mechanical nicety in manufacture. almost any transmitter may be packed by drawing the diaphragm forward so as to widely separate the electrodes. this allows the granules to settle to a lower level than they normally occupy and when the diaphragm is released and attempts to resume its normal position it is prevented from doing so by the mass of granules between. transmitters of the early types could be packed by placing the lips against the mouthpiece and drawing in the breath. the slots now provided at the base of standard mouthpieces effectually prevent this. in general it may be said that the packing difficulty has been almost entirely eliminated, not by the employment of remedial devices, such as those often proposed for stirring up the carbon, but by preventing the trouble by the design and manufacture of the instruments in such forms that they will not be subject to the evil. carrying capacity. obviously, the power of a transmitter is dependent on the amount of current that it may carry, as well as on the amount of variation that it may make in the resistance of the path through it. granular carbon transmitters are capable of carrying much heavier current than the old blake or other single or multiple electrode types. if forced to carry too much current, however, the same frying or sizzling sound is noticeable as in the earlier types. this is due to the heating of the electrodes and to small arcs that occur between the electrodes and the granules. one way to increase the current-carrying capacity of a transmitter is to increase the area of its electrodes, but a limit is soon reached in this direction owing to the increased inertia of the moving electrode, which necessarily comes with its larger size. the carrying capacity of transmitters may also be increased by providing special means for carrying away the heat generated in the variable-resistance medium. several schemes have been proposed for this. one is to employ unusually heavy metal for the electrode chamber, and this practice is best exemplified in the white solid-back instrument. it has also been proposed by others to water-jacket the electrode chamber, and also to keep it cool by placing it in close proximity to the relatively cool joints of a thermopile. neither of these two latter schemes seems to be warranted in ordinary commercial practice. sensitiveness. in all the transmitters so far discussed damping springs of one form or another have been employed to reduce the sensitiveness of the instrument. for ordinary commercial use too great a degree of sensitiveness is a fault, as has already been pointed out. there are, however, certain adaptations of the telephone transmitter which make a maximum degree of sensitiveness desirable. one of these adaptations is found in the telephone equipments for assisting partially deaf people to hear. in these the transmitter is carried on some portion of the body of the deaf person, the receiver is strapped or otherwise held at his ear, and a battery for furnishing the current is carried in his pocket. it is not feasible, for this sort of use, that the sound which this transmitter is to reproduce shall always occur immediately in front of the transmitter. it more often occurs at a distance of several feet. for this reason the transmitter is made as sensitive as possible, and yet is so constructed that it will not be caused to produce too loud or unduly harsh sounds in response to a loud sound taking place immediately in front of it. another adaptation of such highly sensitive transmitters is found in the special intercommunicating telephone systems for use between the various departments or desks in business offices. in these it is desirable that the transmitter shall be able to respond adequately to sounds occurring anywhere in a small-sized room, for instance. acousticon transmitter. in fig. is shown a transmitter adapted for such use. this has been termed by its makers the _acousticon transmitter_. like all the transmitters previously discussed, this is of the variable-resistance type, but it differs from them all in that it has no damping springs; in that carbon balls are substituted for carbon granules; and in that the diaphragm itself serves as the front electrode. this transmitter consists of a cup _ _, into which is set a cylindrical block _ _, in one face of which are a number of hemispherical recesses. the diaphragm _ _ is made of thin carbon and is so placed in the transmitter as to cover the openings of the recesses in the carbon block, and lie close enough to the carbon block, without engaging it, to prevent the carbon particles from falling out. the diaphragm thus serves as the front electrode and the carbon block as the rear electrode. the recesses in the carbon block are about two-thirds filled with small carbon balls, which are about the size of fine sand. the front piece _ _ of the transmitter is of sheet metal and serves to hold the diaphragm in place. to admit the sound waves it is provided with a circular opening opposite to and about the size of the rear electrode block. on this front piece are mounted the two terminals of the transmitter, connected respectively to the two electrodes, terminal _ _ being insulated from the front piece and connected by a thin metal strip with the diaphragm, while terminal _ _ is mounted directly on the front piece and connected through the cup _ _ with the carbon block _ _, or back electrode of the transmitter. [illustration: fig . acousticon transmitter] when this transmitter is used in connection with outfits for the deaf, it is placed in a hard rubber containing case, consisting of a hollow cylindrical piece _ _, which has fastened to it a cover _ _. this cover has a circular row of openings or holes near its outer edge, as shown at _ _, through which the sound waves may pass to the chamber within, and thence find their way through the round hole in the center of the front plate _ _ to the diaphragm _ _. it is probable also that the front face of the cover _ _ of the outer case vibrates, and in this way also causes sound waves to impinge against the diaphragm. this arrangement provides a large receiving surface for the sound waves, but, owing to the fact that the openings in the containing case are not opposite the opening in the transmitter proper, the sound waves do not impinge directly against the diaphragm. this peculiar arrangement is probably the result of an endeavor to prevent the transmitter from being too strongly actuated by violent sounds close to it. instruments of this kind are very sensitive and under proper conditions are readily responsive to words spoken in an ordinary tone ten feet away. [illustration: fig. . switchboard transmitter] switchboard transmitter. another special adaptation of the telephone transmitter is that for use of telephone operators at central-office switchboards. the requirements in this case are such that the operator must always be able to speak into the transmitter while seated before the switchboard, and yet allow both of her hands to be free for use. this was formerly accomplished by suspending an ordinary granular-carbon transmitter in front of the operator, but a later development has resulted in the adoption of the so-called breast transmitter, shown in fig. . this is merely an ordinary granular-carbon transmitter mounted on a plate which is strapped on the breast of the operator, the transmitter being provided with a long curved mouthpiece which projects in such a manner as to lie just in front of the operator's lips. this device has the advantage of automatically following the operator in her movements. the breast transmitter shown in fig. , is that of the dean electric company. [illustration: fig. . transmitter symbols] conventional diagram. there are several common ways of illustrating transmitters in diagrams of circuits in which they are employed. the three most common ways are shown in fig. . the one at the left is supposed to be a side view of an ordinary instrument, the one in the center a front view, and the one at the right to be merely a suggestive arrangement of the diaphragm and the rear electrode. the one at the right is best and perhaps most common; the center one is the poorest and least used. chapter vi receivers the telephone receiver is the device which translates the energy of the voice currents into the energy of corresponding sound waves. all telephone receivers today are of the electromagnetic type, the voice currents causing a varying magnetic pull on an armature or diaphragm, which in turn produces the sound waves corresponding to the undulations of the voice currents. early receivers. the early forms of telephone receivers were of the _single-pole_ type; that is, the type wherein but one pole of the electromagnet was presented to the diaphragm. the single-pole receiver that formed the companion piece to the old blake transmitter and that was the standard of the bell companies for many years, is shown in fig. . while this has almost completely passed out of use, it may be profitably studied in order that a comparison may be made between certain features of its construction and those of the later forms of receivers. the coil of this receiver was wound on a round iron core _ _, flattened at one end to afford means for attaching the permanent magnet. the permanent magnet was of laminated construction, consisting of four hard steel bars _ _, extending nearly the entire length of the receiver shell. these steel bars were all magnetized separately and placed with like poles together so as to form a single bar magnet. they were laid together in pairs so as to include between the pairs the flattened end of the pole piece _ _ at one end and the flattened portion of the tail piece _ _ at the other end. this whole magnet structure, including the core, the tail piece, and the permanently magnetized steel bars, was clamped together by screws as shown. the containing shell was of hard rubber consisting of three pieces, the barrel _ _, the ear-piece _ _, and the tail cap _ _. the barrel and the ear piece engaged each other by means of a screw thread and served to clamp the diaphragm between them. the compound bar magnet was held in place within the shell by means of a screw _ _ passing through the hard rubber tail cap _ _ and into the tail block _ _ of the magnet. external binding posts mounted on the tail cap, as shown, were connected by heavy leading-in wires to the terminals of the electromagnet. a casual consideration of the magnetic circuit of this instrument will show that it was inefficient, since the return path for the lines of force set up by the bar magnet was necessarily through a very long air path. notwithstanding this, these receivers were capable of giving excellent articulation and were of marvelous delicacy of action. a very grave fault was that the magnet was supported in the shell at the end farthest removed from the diaphragm. as a result it was difficult to maintain a permanent adjustment between the pole piece and the diaphragm. one reason for this was that hard rubber and steel contract and expand under changes of temperature at very different rates, and therefore the distance between the pole piece and the diaphragm changed with changes of temperature. another grave defect, brought about by this tying together of the permanent magnet and the shell which supported the diaphragm at the end farthest from the diaphragm, was that any mechanical shocks were thus given a good chance to alter the adjustment. [illustration: fig. . single-pole receiver] modern receivers. receivers of today differ from this old single-pole receiver in two radical respects. in the first place, the modern receiver is of the bi-polar type, consisting essentially of a horseshoe magnet presenting both of its poles to the diaphragm. in the second place, the modern practice is to either support all of the working parts of the receiver, _i.e._, the magnet, the coils, and the diaphragm, by an inner metallic frame entirely independent of the shell; or, if the shell is used as a part of the structure, to rigidly fasten the several parts close to the diaphragm rather than at the end farthest removed from the diaphragm. western electric receiver. the standard bi-polar receiver of the western electric company, in use by practically all of the bell operating companies throughout this country and in large use abroad, is shown in fig. . in this the shell is of three pieces, consisting of the barrel _ _, the ear cap _ _, and the tail cap _ _. the tail cap and the barrel are permanently fastened together to form substantially a single piece. two permanently magnetized bar magnets _ - _ are employed, these being clamped together at their upper ends, as shown, so as to include the soft iron block _ _ between them. the north pole of one of these magnets is clamped to the south pole of the other, so that in reality a horseshoe magnet is formed. at their lower ends, these two permanent magnets are clamped against the soft iron pole pieces _ - _, a threaded block _ _ also being clamped rigidly between these pole pieces at this point. on the ends of the pole pieces the bobbins are wound. the whole magnet structure is secured within the shell _ _ by means of a screw thread on the block _ _ which engages a corresponding internal screw thread in the shell _ _. as a result of this construction the whole magnet structure is bound rigidly to the shell structure at a point close to the diaphragm, comparatively speaking, and as a result of this close coupling, the relation between the diaphragm and the pole piece is very much more rigid and substantial than in the case where the magnet structure and the shell were secured together at the end farthest removed from the diaphragm. [illustration: fig. . western electric receiver] although this receiver shown in fig. is the standard in use by the bell companies throughout this country, its numbers running well into the millions, it cannot be said to be a strictly modern receiver, because of at least one rather antiquated feature. the binding posts, by which the circuit conductors are led to the coils of this instrument, are mounted on the outside of the receiver shell, as indicated, and are thus subject to danger of mechanical injury and they are also exposed to the touch of the user, so that he may, in case of the wires being charged to an abnormal potential, receive a shock. probably a more serious feature than either one of these is that the terminals of the flexible cords which attach to these binding posts are attached outside of the receiver shell, and are therefore exposed to the wear and tear of use, rather than being protected as they should be within the shell. notwithstanding this undesirable feature, this receiver is a very efficient one and is excellently constructed. [illustration: fig. . kellogg receiver] kellogg receiver. in fig. is shown a bi-polar receiver with internal or concealed binding posts. this particular receiver is typical of a large number of similar kinds and is manufactured by the kellogg switchboard and supply company. two straight permanently magnetized bar magnets _ - _ are clamped together at their opposite ends so as to form a horseshoe magnet. at the end opposite the diaphragm these bars clamp between them a cylindrical piece of iron _ _, so as to complete the magnetic circuit at the end. at the end nearest the diaphragm they clamp between them the ends of the soft iron pole pieces _ - _, and also a block of composite metal _ _ having a large circular flange _ '_ which serves as a means for supporting the magnet structure within the shell. the screws by means of which the disk _ '_ is clamped to the shouldered seat in the shell do not enter the shell directly, but rather enter screw-threaded brass blocks which are moulded into the structure of the shell. it is seen from this construction that the diaphragm and the pole pieces and the magnet structure itself are all rigidly secured together through the medium of the shell at a point as close as possible to the diaphragm. between the magnets _ - _ there is clamped an insulating block _ _, to which are fastened the terminal plates _ _, one on each side of the receiver. these terminal plates are thoroughly insulated from the magnets themselves and from all other metallic parts by means of sheets of fiber, as indicated by the heavy black lines. on these plates _ _ are carried the binding posts for the receiver cord terminals. a long tongue extends from each of the plates _ _ through a hole in the disk _ '_, into the coil chamber of the receiver, at which point the terminal of the magnet winding is secured to it. this tongue is insulated from the disk _ '_, where it passes through it, by means of insulating bushing, as shown. the other terminal of the magnet coils is brought out to the other plate _ _ by means of a similar tongue on the other side. in order that the receiver terminals proper may not be subjected to any strain in case the receiver is dropped and its weight caught on the receiver cord, a strain loop is formed as a continuation of the braided covering of the receiver cord, and this is tied to the permanent magnet structure, as shown. by making this strain loop short, it is obvious that whatever pull the cord receives will not be taken by the cord conductors leading to the binding posts or by the binding posts or the cord terminals themselves. a number of other manufacturers have gone even a step further than this in securing permanency of adjustment between the receiver diaphragm and pole pieces. they have done this by not depending at all on the hard rubber shell as a part of the structure, but by enclosing the magnet coil in a cup of metal upon which the diaphragm is mounted, so that the permanency of relation between the diaphragm and the pole pieces is dependent only upon the metallic structure and not at all upon the less durable shell. direct-current receiver. until about the middle of the year , it was the universal practice to employ permanent magnets for giving the initial polarization to the magnet cores of telephone receivers. this is still done, and necessarily so, in receivers employed in connection with magneto telephones. in common-battery systems, however, where the direct transmitter current is fed from the central office to the local stations, it has been found that this current which must flow at any rate through the line may be made to serve the additional purpose of energizing the receiver magnets so as to give them the necessary initial polarity. a type of receiver has come into wide use as a result, which is commonly called the _direct-current receiver_, deriving its name from the fact that it employs the direct current that is flowing in the common-battery line to magnetize the receiver cores. the automatic electric company, of chicago, was probably the first company to adopt this form of receiver as its standard type. their receiver is shown in cross-section in fig. , and a photograph of the same instrument partially disassembled is given in fig. . the most noticeable thing about the construction of this receiver is the absence of permanent magnets. the entire working parts are contained within the brass cup _ _, which serves not only as a container for the magnet, but also as a seat for the diaphragm. this receiver is therefore illustrative of the type mentioned above, wherein the relation between the diaphragm and the pole pieces is not dependent upon any connection through the shell. [illustration: fig. . automatic electric company direct-current receiver] [illustration: fig. . automatic electric company direct-current receiver] the coil of this instrument consists of a single cylindrical spool _ _, mounted on a cylindrical core. this bobbin lies within a soft iron-punching _ _, the form of which is most clearly shown in fig. , and this punching affords a return path to the diaphragm for the lines of force set up in the magnet core. obviously a magnetizing current passing through the winding of the coil will cause the end of the core toward the diaphragm to be polarized, say positively, while the end of the enclosing shell will be polarized in the other polarity, negatively. both poles of the magnet are therefore presented to the diaphragm and the only air gap in the magnetic circuit is that between the diaphragm and these poles. the magnetic circuit is therefore one of great efficiency, since it consists almost entirely of iron, the only air gap being that across which the attraction of the diaphragm is to take place. the action of this receiver will be understood when it is stated that in common-battery practice, as will be shown in later chapters, a steady current flows over the line for energizing the transmitter. on this current is superposed the incoming voice currents from a distant station. the steady current flowing in the line will, in the case of this receiver, pass through the magnet winding and establish a normal magnetic field in the same way as if a permanent magnet were employed. the superposed incoming voice currents will then be able to vary this magnetic field in exactly the same way as in the ordinary receiver. an astonishing feature of this recent development of the so-called direct-current receiver is that it did not come into use until after about twenty years of common-battery practice. there is nothing new in the principles involved, as all of them were already understood and some of them were employed by bell in his original telephone; in fact, the idea had been advanced time and again, and thrown aside as not being worth consideration. this is an illustration of a frequent occurrence in the development of almost any rapidly growing art. ideas that are discarded as worthless in the early stages of the art are finally picked up and made use of. the reason for this is that in some cases the ideas come in advance of the art, or they are proposed before the art is ready to use them. in other cases the idea as originally proposed lacked some small but essential detail, or, as is more often the case, the experimenter in the early days did not have sufficient skill or knowledge to make it fit the requirements as he saw them. monarch receiver. the receiver of the automatic electric company just discussed employs but a single electromagnet by which the initial magnetization of the cores and also the variable magnetization necessary for speech reproduction is secured. the problem of the direct-current receiver has been attacked in another way by ernest e. yaxley, of the monarch telephone manufacturing company, with the result shown in fig. . the construction in this case is not unlike that of an ordinary permanent-magnet receiver, except that in the place of the permanent magnets two soft iron cores _ - _ are employed. on these are wound two long bobbins of insulated wire so that the direct current flowing over the telephone line will pass through these and magnetize the cores to the same degree and for the same purpose as in the case of permanent magnets. these soft iron magnet cores _ - _ continue to a point near the coil chamber, where they join the two soft iron pole pieces _ - _, upon which the ordinary voice-current coils are wound. the two long coils _ - _, which may be termed the direct-current coils, are of somewhat lower resistance than the two voice-current coils _ - _. they are, however, by virtue of their greater number of turns and the greater amount of iron that is included in their cores, of much higher impedance than the voice-current coils _ - _. these two sets of coils _ - _ and _ - _ are connected in multiple. as a result of their lower ohmic resistance the coils _ - _ will take a greater amount of the steady current which comes over the line, and therefore the greater proportion of the steady current will be employed in magnetizing the bar magnets. on account of their higher impedance to alternating currents, however, nearly all of the voice currents which are superposed on the steady currents, flowing in the line will pass through the voice-current coils _ - _, and, being near the diaphragm, these currents will so vary the steady magnetism in the cores _ - _ as to produce the necessary vibration of the diaphragm. [illustration: fig. . monarch direct-current receiver] this receiver, like the one of the automatic electric company, does not rely on the shell in any respect to maintain the permanency of relation between the pole pieces and the diaphragm. the cup _ _, which is of pressed brass, contains the voice-current coils and also acts as a seat for the diaphragm. the entire working parts of this receiver may be removed by merely unscrewing the ear piece from the hard rubber shell, thus permitting the whole works to be withdrawn in an obvious manner. dean receiver. of such decided novelty as to be almost revolutionary in character is the receiver recently put on the market by the dean electric company and shown in fig. . this receiver is of the direct-current type and employs but a single cylindrical bobbin of wire. the core of this bobbin and the return path for the magnetic lines of force set up in it are composed of soft iron punchings of substantially =e= shape. these punchings are laid together so as to form a laminated soft-iron field, the limbs of which are about square in cross-section. the coil is wound on the center portion of this _e_ as a core, the core being, as stated, approximately square in cross-section. the general form of magnetic circuit in this instrument is therefore similar to that of the automatic electric company's receiver, shown in figs. and , but the core is laminated instead of being solid as in that instrument. [illustration: fig. . dean steel shell receiver] the most unusual feature of this dean receiver is that the use of hard rubber or composition does not enter into the formation of the shell, but instead a shell composed entirely of steel stampings has been substituted therefor. the main portion of this shell is the barrel _ _. great skill has evidently been exercised in the forming of this by the cold-drawn process, it presenting neither seams nor welds. the ear piece _ _ is also formed of steel of about the same gauge as the barrel _ _. instead of screw-threading the steel parts, so that they would directly engage each other, the ingenious device has been employed of swaging a brass ring _ _ in the barrel portion and a similar brass ring _ _ in the ear cap portion, these two being slotted and keyed, as shown at _ _, so as to prevent their turning in their respective seats. the ring _ _ is provided with an external screw thread and the ring _ _ with an internal screw thread, so that the receiver cap is screwed on to the barrel in the same way as in the ordinary rubber shell. by the employment of these brass screw-threaded rings, the rusting together of the parts so that they could not be separated when required--a difficulty heretofore encountered in steel construction of similar parts--has been remedied. [illustration: fig. . working parts of dean receiver] the entire working parts of this receiver are contained within the cup _ _, the edge of which is flanged outwardly to afford a seat for the diaphragm. the diaphragm is locked in place on the shell by a screw-threaded ring _ _, as is clearly indicated. a ring _ _ of insulating material is seated within the enlarged portion of the barrel _ _, and against this the flange of the cup _ _ rests and is held in place by the cap _ _ when it is screwed home. the working parts of this receiver partially disassembled are shown in fig. , which gives a clear idea of some of the features not clearly illustrated in fig. . it cannot be denied that one of the principal items of maintenance of subscribers' station equipment has been due to the breakage of receiver shells. the users frequently allow their receiver to fall and strike heavily against the wall or floor, thus not only subjecting the cords to great strain, but sometimes cracking or entirely breaking the receiver shell. the innovation thus proposed by the dean company of making the entire receiver shell of steel is of great interest. the shell, as will be seen, is entirely insulated from the circuit of the receiver so that no contact exists by which a user could receive a shock. the shell is enameled inside and out with a heavy black insulating enamel baked on, and said to be of great durability. how this enamel will wear remains to be seen. the insulation of the interior portions of the receiver is further guarded by providing a lining of fiber within the shell at all points where it seems possible that a cross could occur between some of the working parts and the metal of the shell. this type of receiver has not been on the market long enough to draw definite conclusions, based on experience in use, as to what its permanent performance will be. thus far in this chapter only those receivers which are commonly called _hand receivers_ have been discussed. these are the receivers that are ordinarily employed by the general public. [illustration: fig. . operator's receiver] operator's receiver. at the central office in telephone exchanges the operators are provided with receivers in order that they may communicate with the subscribers or with other operators. in order that they may have both of their hands free to set up and take down the connections and to perform all of the switching operations required, a special form of receiver is employed for this purpose, which is worn as a part of a head-gear and is commonly termed a _head receiver_. these are necessarily of very light construction, in order not to be burdensome to the operators, and obviously they must be efficient. they are ordinarily held in place at the ear by a metallic head band fitting over the head of the operator. [illustration: grant avenue office of home telephone company, san francisco, cal. a type of central-office buildings in down-town districts of large cities.] such a receiver is shown in cross-section in fig. , and completely assembled with its head band in fig. . referring to fig. the shell _ _ of the receiver is of aluminum and the magnets are formed of steel rings _ _, cross-magnetized so as to present a north pole on one side of the ring and a south pole on the other. the two l-shaped pole pieces _ _ are secured by screws to the poles of these ring magnets, and these pole pieces carry the magnet coils, as is clearly indicated. these poles are presented to a soft iron diaphragm in exactly the same way as in the larger hand receivers, the diaphragm being clamped in place by a hard rubber ear piece, as shown. the head bands are frequently of steel covered with leather. they have assumed numerous forms, but the general form shown in fig. is the one commonly adopted. [illustration: fig. . operator's receiver and cord] [illustration: fig. . receiver symbols] conventional symbols. the usual diagrammatic symbols for hand and head receivers are shown in fig. . they are self-explanatory. the symbol at the left in this figure, showing the general outline of the receiver, is the one most commonly used where any sort of a receiver is to be indicated in a circuit diagram, but where it becomes desirable to indicate in the diagram the actual connections with the coil or coils of the receiver, the symbol shown at the right is to be preferred, and obviously it may be modified as to number of windings and form of core as desired. chapter vii primary cells galvani, an italian physician, discovered, in , that a current of electricity could be produced by chemical action. in , volta, a physicist, also an italian, threw further light on galvani's discovery and produced what we know as the _voltaic_, or _galvanic_, cell. in honor of these two discoverers we have the words volt, galvanic, and the various words and terms derived therefrom. simple voltaic cell. a very simple voltaic cell may be made by placing two plates, one of copper and one of zinc, in a glass vessel partly filled with dilute sulphuric acid, as shown in fig. . when the two plates are not connected by a wire or other conductor, experiment shows that the copper plate bears a positive charge with respect to the zinc plate, and the zinc plate bears a negative charge with respect to the copper. when the two plates are connected by a wire, a current flows from the copper to the zinc plate through the metallic path of the wire, just as is to be expected when any conductor of relatively high electrical potential is joined to one of relatively low electrical potential. ordinarily, when one charged body is connected to another of different potential, the resulting current is of but momentary duration, due to the redistribution of the charges and consequent equalization of potential. in the case of the simple cell, however, the current is continuous, showing that some action is maintaining the charges on the two plates and therefore maintaining the difference of potential between them. the energy of this current is derived from the chemical action of the acid on the zinc. the cell is in reality a sort of a zinc-burning furnace. in the action of the cell, when the two plates are joined by a wire, it may be noticed that the zinc plate is consumed and that bubbles of hydrogen gas are formed on the surface of the copper plate. _theory_. just why or how chemical action in a voltaic cell results in the production of a negative charge on the consumed plate is not known. modern theory has it that when an acid is diluted in water the molecules of the acid are split up or _dissociated_ into two oppositely charged atoms, or groups of atoms, one bearing a positive charge and the other a negative charge of electricity. such charged atoms or groups of atoms are called _ions_. this separation of the molecules of a chemical compound into positively and negatively charged ions is called _dissociation_. thus, in the simple cell under consideration the sulphuric acid, by dissociation, splits up into hydrogen ions bearing positive charges, and so_{ } ions bearing negative charges. the solution as a whole is neutral in potential, having an equal number of equal and opposite charges. [illustration: fig. . simple voltaic cell] it is known that when a metal is being dissolved by an acid, each atom of the metal which is torn off by the solution leaves the metal as a positively charged ion. the carrying away of positive charges from a hitherto neutral body leaves that body with a negative charge. hence the zinc, or _consumed_ plate, becomes negatively charged. in the chemical attack of the sulphuric acid on the zinc, the positive hydrogen ions are liberated, due to the affinity of the negative so_{ } ions for the positive zinc ions, this resulting in the formation of zinc sulphate in the solution. now the solution itself becomes positively charged, due to the positive charges leaving the zinc plate with the zinc ions, and the free positively charged hydrogen ions liberated in the solution as just described are repelled to the copper plate, carrying their positive charges thereto. hence the copper plate, or the _unconsumed_ plate, becomes positively charged and also coated with hydrogen bubbles. the plates or electrodes of a voltaic cell need not consist of zinc and copper, nor need the fluid, called the _electrolyte_, be of sulphuric acid; any two dissimilar elements immersed in an electrolyte that attacks one of them more readily than the other will form a voltaic cell. in every such cell it will be found that one of the plates is consumed, and that on the other plate some element is deposited, this element being sometimes a gas and sometimes a solid. the plate which is consumed is always the negative plate, and the one on which the element is deposited is always the positive, the current through the connecting wire always being, therefore, from the unconsumed to the consumed plate. thus, in the simple copper-zinc cell just considered, the zinc is consumed, the element hydrogen is deposited on the copper, and the current flow through the external circuit is from the copper to the zinc. the positive charges, leaving the zinc, or consumed, plate, and passing through the electrolyte to the copper, or unconsumed, plate, constitute in effect a current of electricity flowing within the electrolyte. the current within the cell passes, therefore, from the zinc plate to the copper plate. the zinc is, therefore, said to be positive with respect to the copper. _difference of potential._ the amount of electromotive force, that is generated between two dissimilar elements immersed in an electrolyte is different for different pairs of elements and for different electrolytes. for a given electrolyte each element bears a certain relation to another; _i.e._, they are either electro-positive or electro-negative relative to each other. in the following list a group of elements are arranged with respect to the potentials which they assume with respect to each other with dilute sulphuric acid as the electrolyte. the most electro-positive elements are at the top and the most electro-negative at the bottom. +sodium lead copper magnesium iron silver zinc nickel gold cadmium bismuth platinum tin antimony -graphite (carbon) any two elements selected from this list and immersed in dilute sulphuric acid will form a voltaic cell, the amount of difference of potential, or electromotive force, depending on the distance apart in this series of the two elements chosen. the current within the cell will always flow from the one nearest the top of the list to the one nearest the bottom, _i.e._, from the most electro-positive to the most electro-negative; and, therefore, the current in the wire joining the two plates will flow from the one lowest down in the list to the one highest up. from this series it is easy to see why zinc and copper, and also zinc and carbon, are often chosen as elements of voltaic cells. they are widely separated in the series and comparatively cheap. this series may not be taken as correct for all electrolytes, for different electrolytes alter somewhat the order of the elements in the series. thus, if two plates, one of iron and the other of copper, are immersed in dilute sulphuric acid, a current is set up which proceeds through the liquid from the iron to the copper; but, if the plates after being carefully washed are placed in a solution of potassium sulphide, a current is produced in the opposite direction. the copper is now the positive element. table ii shows the electrical deportment of the principal metals in three different liquids. it is arranged like the preceding one, each metal being electro-positive to any one lower in the list. table ii behavior of metals in different electrolytes +------------------+-------------------+--------------------+ | caustic potash | hydrochloric acid | potassium sulphide | +------------------+-------------------+--------------------+ | + zinc | + zinc | + zinc | | tin | cadmium | copper | | cadmium | tin | cadmium | | antimony | lead | tin | | lead | iron | silver | | bismuth | copper | antimony | | iron | bismuth | lead | | copper | nickel | bismuth | | nickel | silver | nickel | | - silver | - antimony | - iron | +------------------+-------------------+--------------------+ it is important to remember that in all cells, no matter what elements or what electrolyte are used, the electrode _which is consumed_ is the one that becomes _negatively charged_ and its terminal, therefore, becomes the _negative terminal_ or _pole_, while the electrode _which is not consumed_ is the one that becomes _positively charged_, and its terminal is, therefore, the _positive terminal_ or _pole of the cell_. however, because the current in the electrolyte flows from the _consumed_ plate to the _unconsumed_ plate, the consumed plate is called the _positive_ plate and the unconsumed, the _negative_. this is likely to become confusing, but if one remembers that the _active_ plate is the _positive_ plate, because it sends forth _positive_ ions in the electrolyte, and, therefore, itself becomes _negatively_ charged, one will have the proper basis always to determine the direction of the current flow, which is the important thing. _polarization._ if the simple cell already described have its terminals connected by a wire for some time, it will be found that the current rapidly weakens until it ceases to be manifest. this weakening results from two causes: first, the hydrogen gas which is liberated in the action of the cell is deposited in a layer on the copper plate, thereby covering the plate and reducing the area of contact with the liquid. this increases the internal resistance of the cell, since hydrogen is a non-conductor. second, the plate so covered becomes in effect a hydrogen electrode, and hydrogen stands high as an electro-positive element. there is, therefore, actual reduction in the electromotive force of the cell, as well as an increase in internal resistance. this phenomenon is known as polarization, and in commercial cells means must be taken to prevent such action as far as possible. the means by which polarization of cells is prevented or reduced in practice may be divided into three general classes: first--_mechanical means_. if the hydrogen bubbles be simply brushed away from the surface of the electrode the resistance and the counter polarity which they cause will be diminished. the same result may be secured if air be blown into the solution through a tube, or if the liquid be kept agitated. if the surface of the electrode be roughened or covered with points, the bubbles collect more freely at the points and are more quickly carried away to the surface of the liquid. these means are, however, hardly practical except in cells for laboratory use. second--_chemical means_. if a highly oxidizing substance be added to the electrolyte, it will destroy the hydrogen bubbles by combining with them while they are in a nascent state, and this will prevent the increase in internal resistance and the opposing electromotive force. such substances are bichromate of potash, nitric acid, and chlorine, and are largely used. third--_electro-chemical means_. double cells, arranged to separate the elements and liquids by means of porous partitions or by gravity, may be so arranged that solid copper is liberated instead of hydrogen at a point where the current leaves the liquid, thereby entirely obviating polarization. this method also is largely used. _local action._ when a simple cell stands idle, _i.e._, with its circuit open, small hydrogen bubbles may be noticed rising from the zinc electrode instead of from copper, as is the case where the circuit is closed. this is due to impurities in the zinc plate, such as particles of iron, tin, arsenic, carbon, etc. each of these particles acts with the surrounding zinc just as might be expected of any pair of dissimilar elements opposed to each other in an electrolyte; in other words, they constitute small voltaic cells. local currents, therefore, are generated, circulating between the two adjacent metals, and, as a result, the zinc plate and the electrolyte are needlessly wasted and the general condition of the cell is impaired. this is called _local action_. _amalgamated zincs._ local action might be prevented by the use of chemically pure zinc, but this, on account of its expense, cannot be employed commercially. local action, however, may be overcome to a great extent by amalgamating the zinc, _i.e._, coating it with mercury. the iron particles or other impurities do not dissolve in the mercury, as does the zinc, but they float to the surface, whence the hydrogen bubbles which may form speedily carry them off, and, in other cases, the impurities fall to the bottom of the cell. as the zinc in the pasty amalgam dissolves in the acid, the film of mercury unites with fresh zinc, and so always presents a clear, bright, homogeneous surface to the action of the electrolyte. the process of amalgamating the zinc may be performed by dipping it in a solution composed of nitric acid lb. muriatic acid lbs. mercury oz. the acids should be first mixed and then the mercury slowly added until dissolved. clean the zinc with lye and then dip it in the solution for a second or two. rinse in clean water and rub with a brush. another method of amalgamating zincs is to clean them by dipping them in dilute sulphuric acid and then in mercury, allowing the surplus to drain off. commercial zincs, for use in voltaic cells as now manufactured, usually have about per cent of mercury added to the molten zinc before casting into the form of plates or rods. series and multiple connections. when a number of voltaic cells are joined in series, the positive pole of one being connected to the negative pole of the next one, and so on throughout the series, the _electromotive forces_ of all the cells are added, and the electromotive force of the group, therefore, becomes the sum of the electromotive forces of the component cells. the currents through all the cells in this case will be equal to that of one cell. if the cells be joined in multiple, the positive poles all being connected by one wire and the negative poles by another, then the _currents_ of all the cells will be added while the electromotive force of the combination remains the same as that of a single cell, assuming all the cells to be alike in electromotive force. obviously combinations of these two arrangements may be made, as by forming strings of cells connected in series, and connecting the strings in multiple or parallel. the term battery is frequently applied to a single voltaic cell, but this term is more properly used to designate a plurality of cells joined together in series, or in multiple, or in series multiple so as to combine their actions in causing current to flow through an external circuit. we may therefore refer to a battery of so many cells. it has, however, become common, though technically improper, to refer to a single cell as a battery, so that the term battery, as indicating necessarily more than one cell, has largely lost its significance. cells may be of two types, primary and secondary. primary cells are those consisting of electrodes of dissimilar elements which, when placed in an electrolyte, become immediately ready for action. secondary cells, commonly called _storage cells_ and _accumulators_, consist always of two inert plates of metal, or metallic oxide, immersed in an electrolyte which is incapable of acting on either of them until a current has first been passed through the electrolyte from one plate to the other. on the passage of a current in this way, the decomposition of the electrolyte is effected and the composition of the plates is so changed that one of them becomes electro-positive and the other electro-negative. the cell is then, when the _charging_ current ceases, capable of acting as a voltaic cell. this chapter is devoted to the primary cell or battery alone. types of primary cells. primary cells may be divided into two general classes: first, those adapted to furnish constant current; and second, those adapted to furnish only intermittent currents. the difference between cells in this respect rests largely in the means employed for preventing or lessening polarization. obviously in a cell in which polarization is entirely prevented the current may be allowed to flow constantly until the cell is completely exhausted; that is, until the zinc is all eaten up or until the hydrogen is exhausted from the electrolyte or both. on the other hand some cells are so constituted that polarization takes place faster than the means intended to prevent it can act. in other words, the polarization gradually gains on the preventive means and so gradually reduces the current by increasing the resistance of the cell and lowering its electromotive force. in cells of this kind, however, the arrangement is such that if the cell is allowed to rest, that is, if the external circuit is opened, the depolarizing agency will gradually act to remove the hydrogen from the unattacked electrode and thus place the cell in good condition for use again. of these two types of primary cells the intermittent-current cell is of far greater use in telephony than the constant-current cell. this is because the use of primary batteries in telephony is, in the great majority of cases, intermittent, and for that reason a cell which will give a strong current for a few minutes and which after such use will regain practically all of its initial strength and be ready for use again, is more desirable than one which will give a weaker current continuously throughout a long period of time. since the cells which are adapted to give constant current are commonly used in connection with circuits that are continuously closed, they are called _closed-circuit cells_. the other cells, which are better adapted for intermittent current, are commonly used on circuits which stand open most of the time and are closed only occasionally when their current is desired. for this reason these are termed _open-circuit cells_. _open-circuit cells_. leclanché cell:--by far the most important primary cell for telephone work is the so-called leclanché cell. this assumes a large variety of forms, but always employs zinc as the negatively charged element, carbon as the positively charged element, and a solution of sal ammoniac as the electrolyte. this cell employs a chemical method of taking care of polarization, the depolarizing agent being peroxide of manganese, which is closely associated with the carbon element. the original form of the leclanché cell, a form in which it was very largely used up to within a short time ago, is shown in fig. . in this the carbon element is placed within a cylindrical jar of porous clay, the walls of this jar being of such consistency as to allow moisture slowly to permeate through it. within this porous cup, as it is called, a plate or disk of carbon is placed, and around this the depolarizing agent, consisting of black oxide of manganese. this is usually mixed with, broken carbon, so as to increase the effective area of the carbon element in contact with the depolarizing agent, and also to reduce the total internal resistance of the cell. the zinc electrode usually consisted merely in a rod of zinc, as shown, with a suitable terminal at its upper end. [illustration: fig. . leclanché cell] the chemical action taking place within the leclanché cell is, briefly, as follows: sal ammoniac is chemically known as chloride of ammonium and is a combination of chlorine and ammonia. in the action which is assumed to accompany the passage of current in this cell, the sal ammoniac is decomposed, the chlorine leaving the ammonia to unite with an atom of the zinc plate, forming chloride of zinc and setting free ammonia and hydrogen. the ammonia is immediately dissolved in the water of the cell, and the hydrogen enters the porous cup and would speedily polarize the cell by adhering to the carbon plate but for the fact that it encounters the peroxide of manganese. this material is exceedingly rich in oxygen and it therefore readily gives up a part of its oxygen, which forms water by combination with the already liberated hydrogen and leaves what is termed a _sesquioxide_ of manganese. this absorption or combination of the hydrogen prevents immediate polarization, but hydrogen is evolved during the operation of the cell more rapidly than it can combine with[typo was 'wth'] the oxygen of the manganese, thereby leading to polarization more rapidly than the depolarizer can prevent it when the cell is heavily worked. when, however, the cell is left with its external circuit open for a time, depolarization ensues by the gradual combination of the hydrogen with the oxygen of the peroxide of manganese, and as a result the cell recuperates and in a short time attains its normal electromotive force. the electromotive force of this cell when new is about . volts. the internal resistance of the cell of the type shown in fig. is approximately ohm, ordinarily less rather than more. a more recent form of leclanché cell is shown in cross-section in fig. . this uses practically the same materials and has the same chemical action as the old disk leclanché cell shown in fig. . it dispenses, however, with the porous cup and instead employs a carbon electrode, which in itself forms a cup for the depolarizing agent. [illustration: fig. . carbon cylinder leclanché cell] the carbon electrode is in the form of a corrugated hollow cylinder which engages by means of an internal screw thread a corresponding screw thread on the outer side of the carbon cover. within this cylinder is contained a mixture of broken carbon and peroxide of manganese. the zinc electrode is in the form of a hollow cylinder almost surrounding the carbon electrode and separated therefrom by means of heavy rubber bands stretched around the carbon. the rod, forming the terminal of the zinc, passes through a porcelain bushing on the cover plate to obviate short circuits. this type of cell has an electromotive force of about . volts and recuperates very quickly after severe use. it also has considerably lower internal resistance than the type of leclanché cell employing a porous cup, and, therefore, is capable of generating a considerably larger current. cells of this general type have assumed a variety of forms. in some the carbon electrode, together with the broken carbon and peroxide of manganese, were packed into a canvas bag which was suspended in the electrolyte and usually surrounded by the zinc electrode. in other forms the carbon electrode has moulded with it the manganese depolarizer. in order to prevent the salts within the cell from creeping over the edge of the containing glass jar and also over the upper portion of the carbon electrode, it is common practice to immerse the upper end of the carbon element and also the upper edge of the glass jar in hot paraffin. in setting up the leclanché cell, place not more than four ounces of white sal ammoniac in the jar, fill the jar one-third full of water, and stir until the sal ammoniac is all dissolved. then put the carbon and zinc elements in place. a little water poured in the vent hole of the porous jar or carbon cylinder will tend to hasten the action. an excess of sal ammoniac should not be used, as a saturated solution tends to deposit crystals on the zinc; on the other hand, the solution should not be allowed to become too weak, as in that case the chloride of zinc will form on the zinc. both of these causes materially increase the resistance of the cell. a great advantage of the leclanché cell is that when not in use there is but little material waste. it contains no highly corrosive chemicals. such cells require little attention, and the addition of water now and then to replace the loss due to evaporation is about all that is required until the elements become exhausted. they give a relatively high electromotive force and have a moderately low internal resistance, so that they are capable of giving rather large currents for short intervals of time. if properly made, they recuperate quickly after polarization due to heavy use. _dry cell_. all the forms of cells so far considered may be quite properly termed _wet cells_ because of the fact that a free liquid electrolyte is used. this term is employed in contradistinction to the later developed cell, commonly termed the _dry cell_. this term "dry cell" is in some respects a misnomer, since it is not dry and if it were dry it would not work. it is essential to the operation of these cells that they shall be moist within, and when such moisture is dissipated the cell is no longer usable, as there is no further useful chemical action. the dry cells are all of the leclanché type, the liquid electrolyte of that type being replaced by a semi-solid substance that is capable of retaining moisture for a considerable period. as in the ordinary wet leclanché cell, the electrodes are of carbon and zinc, the zinc element being in the form of a cylindrical cup and forming the retaining vessel of the cell, while the carbon element is in the form of a rod or plate and occupies a central position with regard to the zinc, being held out of contact with the zinc, however, at all points. a cross-section of an excellent form of dry cell is shown in fig. . the outer casing is of zinc, formed in the shape of a cylindrical cup, and serves not only as the retaining vessel, but as the negatively charged electrode. the outer surface of the zinc is completely covered on its sides and bottom with heavy pasteboard so as to insulate it from bodies with which it may come in contact, and particularly from the zinc cups of other cells used in the same battery. the positively charged electrode is a carbon rod corrugated longitudinally, as shown, in order to obtain greater surface. this rod is held in the center of the zinc cup out of contact therewith, and the intervening space is filled with a mixture of peroxide of manganese, powdered carbon, and sal ammoniac. several thicknesses of blotting paper constitute a lining for the inner portion of the zinc electrode and serve to prevent the manganese mixture from coming directly into contact therewith. the cell is sealed with pitch, which is placed on a layer of sand and sawdust mixed in about equal parts. [illustration: fig. . dry cell] the electrolyte in such cells varies largely as to quantities and proportions of the materials employed in various types of cells, and also varies in the method in which the elements are introduced into the container. the following list and approximate proportions of material will serve as a fair example of the filling mixture in well-known types of cells. manganese dioxide per cent carbon or graphite, or both per cent sal ammoniac per cent zinc chloride per cent water is added to the above and a sufficient amount of mixture is taken for each cell to fill the zinc cup about seven-eighths full when the carbon is in place. the most suitable quantity of water depends upon the original dryness and fineness of material and upon the quality of the paper lining. in some forms of dry batteries, starch or other paste is added to improve the contact of the electrolyte with the zinc and promote a more even distribution of action throughout the electrolyte. mercury, too, is often added to effect amalgamation of the zinc. as in the ordinary wet type of leclanché cell, the purpose of the manganese is to act as a depolarizer; the carbon or graphite being added to give conductivity to the manganese and to form a large electrode surface. it is important that the sal ammoniac, which is the active agent of the cell, should be free from lumps in order to mix properly with the manganese and carbon. a small local action takes place in the dry cell, caused by the dissimilar metals necessarily employed in soldering up the zinc cup and in soldering the terminal rod of zinc to the zinc cup proper. this action, however, is slight in the better grades of cells. as a result of this, and also of the gradual drying out of the moisture within the cell, these cells gradually deteriorate even when not in use--this is commonly called _shelf-wear_. shelf-wear is much more serious in the very small sizes of dry cells than in the larger ones. dry cells are made in a large number of shapes and sizes. the most useful form, however, is the ordinary cylindrical type. these are made in sizes varying from one and one-half inches high and three-quarters inch in diameter to eight inches high and three and three-quarters inches in diameter. the most used and standard size of dry cell is of cylindrical form six inches high and two and three-quarters inches in diameter. the dry cell when new and in good condition has an open-circuit voltage of from . to . volts. perhaps . represents the usual average. a cell of the two and three-quarters by six-inch size will give throughout its useful life probably thirty ampere hours as a maximum, but this varies greatly with the condition of use and the make of cell. its effective voltage during its useful life averages about one volt, and if during this life it gives a total discharge of thirty ampere hours, the fair energy rating of the cell will be thirty watt-hours. this may not be taken as an accurate figure, however, as the watt-hour capacity of a cell depends very largely, not only on the make of the cell, but on the rate of its discharge. an examination of fig. shows that the dry cell has all of the essential elements of the leclanché cell. the materials of which the electrodes are made are the same and the porous cup of the disk leclanché cell is represented in the dry cell by the blotting-paper cylinder, which separates the zinc from the carbon electrode. the positively charged electrode must not be considered as merely the carbon plate or rod alone, but rather the carbon rod with its surrounding mixture of peroxide of manganese and broken carbon. such being the case, it is obvious that the separation between the electrodes is very small, while the surface presented by both electrodes is very large. as a result, the internal resistance of the cell is small and the current which it will give on a short circuit is correspondingly large. a good cell of the two and three-quarters by six-inch size will give eighteen or twenty amperes on short-circuit, when new. as the action of the cell proceeds, zinc chloride and ammonia are formed, and there being insufficient water to dissolve the ammonia, there results the formation of double chlorides of zinc and ammonium. these double chlorides are less soluble than the chlorides and finally occupy the pores of the paper lining between the electrolyte and the zinc and greatly increase the internal resistance of the cell. this increase of resistance is further contributed to by the gradual drying out of the cell as its age increases. within the last few years dry batteries have been so perfected mechanically, chemically, and electrically that they have far greater outputs and better recuperative power than any of the other types of leclanché batteries, while in point of convenience and economy, resulting from their small size and non-breakable, non-spillable features and low cost, they leave no room for comparison. _closed-circuit cells_. gravity-cell:--coming now to the consideration of closed-circuit or constant-current cells, the most important is the well-known gravity, or blue-stone, cell, devised by daniell. it is largely used in telegraphy, and often in telephony in such cases as require a constantly flowing current of small quantity. such a cell is shown in fig. . the elements of the gravity cell are electrodes of copper and zinc. the solution in which the copper plate is immersed is primarily a solution of copper sulphate, commonly known as blue-stone, in water. the zinc plate after the cell is in action is immersed in a solution of sulphate of zinc which is formed around it. the glass jar is usually cylindrical, the standard sizes being inches diameter and inches deep; and also inches diameter and inches deep. the copper electrode is of sheet copper of the form shown, and it is partly covered with crystals of blue-stone or copper sulphate. frequently, in later forms of cells, the copper electrode consists merely of a straight, thick, rectangular bar of copper laid horizontally, directly on top of the blue-stone crystals. in all cases a rubber-insulated wire is attached by riveting to the copper electrode, and passes up through the electrolyte to form the positive terminal. [illustration: fig. . gravity cell] the zinc is, as a rule, of crowfoot form, as shown, whence this cell derives the commonly applied name of _crowfoot cell_. this is essentially a two-fluid cell, for in its action zinc sulphate is formed, and this being lighter than copper sulphate rises to the top of the jar and surrounds the zinc. gravity, therefore, serves to keep the two fluids separate. [illustration: interior of warehouse for telephone construction material] in the action of the cell, when the external circuit is closed, sulphuric acid is formed which attacks the zinc to form sulphate of zinc and to liberate hydrogen, which follows its tendency to attach itself to the copper plate. but in so doing the hydrogen necessarily passes through the solution of sulphate of copper surrounding the copper plate. the hydrogen immediately combines with the so_{ } radical, forming therewith sulphuric acid, and liberating metallic copper. this sulphuric acid, being lighter than the copper sulphate, rises to the surface of the zinc and attacks the zinc, thus forming more sulphate of zinc. the metallic copper so formed is deposited on the copper plate, thereby keeping the surface bright and clean. since hydrogen is thus diverted from the copper plate, polarization does not ensue. the zinc sulphate being colorless, while the copper sulphate is of a dark blue color, the separating line of the two liquids is easily distinguishable. this line is called the _blue line_ and care should be taken that it does not reach the zinc and cause a deposit of copper to be placed thereon. as has been stated, these two liquids do not mix readily, but they will eventually mingle unless the action of the cell is sufficient to use up the copper sulphate as speedily as it is dissolved. thus it will be seen that while the cell is free from polarization and local action, there is, nevertheless, a deteriorating effect if the cell is allowed to remain long on open circuit. therefore, it should be used when a constant current is required. prevention of creeping:--much trouble has been experienced in gravity cells due to the creeping of the salts over the edge of the jar. frequently the upper edges of the jars are coated by dipping in hot paraffin wax in the hope of preventing this. sometimes oil is poured on top of the fluid in the jar to prevent the creeping of the salts and the evaporation of the electrolyte. the following account of experiments performed by mr. william reid, of chicago, throws light on the relative advantages of these and other methods of preventing creeping. the experiment was made with gravity cells having -inch by -inch glass jars. four cells were made up and operated in a rather dry, warm place, although perhaps under no more severe local conditions than would be found in most telephone exchanges. cell no. was a plain cell as ordinarily used. cell no. had the top of the rim of the jar treated with paraffin wax by dipping the rim to about one inch in depth in melted paraffin wax. cell no. had melted paraffin wax poured over the surface of the liquid forming a seal about / inch in thickness. after cooling, a few small holes were bored through the seal to let gases escape. cell no. had a layer of heavy paraffin oil nearly / inch in thickness (about oz. being used) on top of the solutions. these cells were all run on a load of . to . amperes for - / hours per day for thirty days, after which the following results were noted: (_a_) the plain cell, or cell no. , had to have ounces of water added to it to replace that which had evaporated. the creeping of zinc sulphate salts was very bad. (_b_) the waxed rim cell, or cell no. , evaporated ounces of water and the creeping of zinc sulphate salts was not prevented by the waxed rim. the wax proved of no value. (_c_) the wax sealed cell, or cell no. , showed practically no evaporation and only very slight creeping of zinc sulphate salts. the creeping of salts that took place was only around spots where the edges of the seal were loose from the jar. (_d_) the paraffin oil sealed cell, or cell no. , showed no evaporation and no creeping of salts. it was concluded by mr. reid from the above experiments that the wax applied to the rim of the jar is totally ineffective and has no merits. the wax seal loosens around the edges and does not totally prevent creeping of the zinc sulphate salts, although nearly so. the wax-sealed jar must have holes drilled in it to allow the gases to escape. the method is hardly commercial, as it is difficult to make a neat appearing cell, besides making it almost impossible to manipulate its contents. a coat of paraffin oil approximately / inch in thickness (about ounces) gives perfect protection against evaporation and creeping of the zinc sulphate salts. the cell, having the paraffin-oil seal, had a very neat, clean appearance as compared with cells no. and no. . it was found that the zinc could be drawn out through the oil, cleaned, and replaced with no appreciable effect on voltage or current. setting up:--in setting up the battery the copper electrode is first unfolded to form a cross and placed in the bottom of the jar. enough copper sulphate, or blue-stone crystals, is then dropped into the jar to almost cover the copper. the zinc crowfoot is then hung in place, occupying a position about inches above the top of the copper. clear water is then poured in sufficient to fill the jar within about an inch of the top. if it is not required to use the cell at once, it may be placed on short circuit for a time and allowed to form its own zinc sulphate. the cell may, however, be made immediately available for use by drawing about one-half pint of a solution of zinc sulphate from a cell already in use and pouring it into the jar, or, when this is not convenient, by putting into the liquid four or five ounces of pulverized sulphate of zinc, or by adding about ten drops of sulphuric acid. when the cell is in proper working condition, one-half inch in thickness of heavy paraffin oil of good quality may be added. if the blue line gets too low, and if there is in the bottom of the cell a sufficient quantity of sulphate of copper, it may be raised by drawing off a portion of the zinc sulphate with a battery syringe and replacing this with water. if the blue line gets too high, it may be lowered by short-circuiting the cell for a time, or by the addition of more sulphate of zinc solution from another battery. if the copper sulphate becomes exhausted, it should be replenished by dropping in more crystals. care should be taken in cold weather to maintain the temperature of the battery above ° or ° fahrenheit. if below this temperature, the internal resistance of a cell increases very rapidly, so much so that even at ° fahrenheit the action becomes very much impaired. this follows from the facts that the resistance of a liquid decreases as its temperature rises, and that chemical action is much slower at lower temperatures. the gravity cell has a practically constant voltage of . volts. its internal resistance is comparatively high, seldom falling below ohm and often rising to ohms. at best, therefore, it is only capable of producing about ampere. the gravity cell is perhaps the most common type of cell wherein depolarization is affected by electro-chemical means. fuller cell:--a form of cell that is adapted to very heavy open-circuit work and also closed-circuit work where heavier currents are required than can be supplied by the gravity battery is the fuller. in this the electrodes are of zinc and carbon, respectively, the zinc usually being in the form of a heavy cone and placed within a porous cup. the electrolyte of the fuller cell is known as _electropoion fluid_, and consists of a mixture of sodium or potassium bichromate, sulphuric acid, and water. the various parts of the standard fuller cell, as once largely employed by the various bell operating companies, are shown in fig. . in this the jar was made of flint glass, cylindrical in form, six inches in diameter and eight inches deep. it is important that a good grade of glass be used for the jar in this cell, because, on account of the nature of the electrolyte, breakage is disastrous in the effects it may produce on adjacent property. the carbon plate is rectangular in form, about four inches wide, eight and three-quarters inches long, and one-quarter inch thick. the metal terminal at the top of the carbon block is of bronze, both it and the lock nuts and bolts being nickel-plated to minimize corrosion. the upper end of the carbon block is soaked in paraffin so hot as to drive all of the moisture out of the paraffin and out of the pores of the block itself. the zinc, as is noted from the cut, is in the form of a truncated cone. it is about two and one-eighth inches in diameter at the base and two and one-half inches high. cast into the zinc is a soft copper wire about no. b. & s. gauge. this wire extends above the top of the jar so as to form a convenient terminal for the cell. the porous cup is cylindrical in form, about three inches in diameter and seven inches deep. the wooden cover is of kiln-dried white wood thoroughly coated with two coats of asphalt paint. it is provided with a slot for the carbon and a hole for the copper wire extending to the zinc. the electrolyte for this cell is made as follows: sodium bichromate oz. sulphuric acid oz. soft water oz. this solution is mixed by dissolving the bichromate of sodium in the water and then adding slowly the sulphuric acid. potassium bichromate may be substituted for the sodium bichromate. in setting up this cell, the amalgamated zinc is placed within the porous cup, in the bottom of which are about two teaspoonfuls of mercury, the latter serving to keep the zinc well amalgamated. the porous cup is then placed in the glass jar and a sufficient quantity of the electrolyte is placed in the outer jar to come within about one and one-half inches of the top of the porous cup. about two teaspoonfuls of salt are then placed in the porous cup and sufficient soft water added to bring the level of the liquid within the porous cup even with the level of the electrolyte in the jar surrounding the cup. the carbon is then placed through the slot in the cover, and the wire from the zinc is passed through the hole in the cover provided for it, and the cover is allowed to fall in place. the cell is now ready for immediate use. the action of this cell is as follows: the sulphuric acid attacks the zinc and forms zinc sulphate, liberating hydrogen. the hydrogen attempts to pass to the carbon plate as usual, but in so doing it meets with the oxygen of the chromic acid and forms water therewith. the remainder of the chromic acid combines with the sulphuric acid to form chromium sulphate. [illustration: fig . fuller cell] the mercury placed in the bottom of the porous cup with the zinc keeps the zinc in a state of perpetual amalgamation. this it does by capillary action, as the mercury spreads over the entire surface of the zinc. the initial amalgamation, while not absolutely essential, helps in a measure this capillary action. in another well-known type of the fuller battery the carbon is a hollow cylinder, surrounding the porous cup. in this type the zinc usually took the form of a long bar having a cross-shaped section, the length of this bar being sufficient to extend the entire depth of the porous cup. this type of cell has the advantage of a somewhat lower internal resistance than the standard form just described. should the electrolyte become supersaturated by virtue of the battery being neglected or too heavily overworked, a set of secondary reactions will occur in the cell, resulting in the formation of the yellow crystals upon the carbon. this seriously affects the e.m.f. of the cell and also its internal resistance. should this occur, some of the solution should be withdrawn and dilute sulphuric acid inserted in its place and the crystals which have formed on the carbon should be carefully washed off. should the solution lose its orange tint and turn blue, it indicates that more bichromate of potash or bichromate of sodium is needed. this cell gives an electromotive force of . volts and a very large current when it is in good condition, since its internal resistance is low. the fuller cell was once largely used for supplying current to telephone transmitters at subscribers' stations, where very heavy service was demanded, but the advent of the so-called common-battery systems, in some cases, and of the high-resistance transmitter, in other cases, has caused a great lessening in its use. this is fortunate as the cell is a "dirty" one to handle and is expensive to maintain. the fuller cell still warrants attention, however, as an available source of current, which may be found useful in certain cases of emergency work, and in supplying special but temporary needs for heavier current than the leclanché or gravity cell can furnish. lalande cell:--a type of cell, specially adapted to constant-current work, and sometimes used as a central source of current in very small common-battery exchanges is the so-called _copper oxide_, or _lalande cell_, of which the edison and the gordon are types. in all of these the negatively charged element is of zinc, the positively charged element a mass of copper oxide, and the electrolyte a solution of caustic potash in water. in the edison cell the copper oxide is in the form of a compressed slab which with its connecting copper support forms the electrode. in the gordon and other cells of this type the copper oxide is contained loosely in a perforated cylinder of sheet copper. the copper oxide serves not only as an electrode, but also as a depolarizing agent, the liberated hydrogen in the electrolyte uniting with the oxygen of the copper oxide to form water, and leaving free metallic copper. on open circuit the elements are not attacked, therefore there is no waste of material while the cell is not in use. this important feature, and the fact that the internal resistance is low, make this cell well adapted for all forms of heavy open-circuit work. the fact that there is no polarizing action within the cell makes it further adaptable to heavy closed-circuit service. these cells are intended to be so proportioned that all of their parts become exhausted at once so that when the cell fails, complete renewals are necessary. therefore, there is never a question as to which of the elements should be renewed. after the elements and solution are in place about one-fourth of an inch of heavy paraffin oil is poured upon the surface of the solution in order to prevent evaporation. this cell requires little attention and will maintain a constant e.m.f. of about two-thirds of a volt until completely exhausted. it is non-freezable at all ordinary temperatures. its low voltage is its principal disadvantage. _standard cell_. chloride of silver cell:--the chloride of silver cell is largely used as a standard for testing purposes. its compactness and portability and its freedom from local action make it particularly adaptable to use in portable testing outfits where constant electromotive force and very small currents are required. [illustration: fig. . chloride of silver cell] a cross-section of one form of the cell is shown in fig. . its elements are a rod of chemically-pure zinc and a rod of chloride of silver immersed in a water solution of sal ammoniac. as ordinarily constructed, the glass jar or tube is usually about - / inches long by inch in diameter. after the solution is poured in and the elements are in place the glass tube is hermetically sealed with a plug of paraffin wax. the e.m.f. of a cell of this type is . volts and the external resistance varies with the age of the cell, being about ohms at first. care should be taken not to short-circuit these cells, or use them in any but high-resistance circuits, as they have but little energy and become quickly exhausted if compelled to work in low-resistance circuits. conventional symbol. the conventional symbol for a cell, either of the primary or the secondary type, consists of a long thin line and a short heavy line side by side and parallel. a battery is represented by a number of pairs of such lines, as in fig. . the two lines of each pair are supposed to represent the two electrodes of a cell. where any significance is to be placed on the polarity of the cell or battery the long thin line is supposed to represent the positively charged plate and the short thick line the negatively charged plate. the number of pairs may indicate the number of cells in the battery. frequently, however, a few pairs of such lines are employed merely for the purpose of indicating a battery without regard to its polarity or its number of cells. [illustration: fig. . battery symbols] in fig. the representation at _a_ is that of a battery of a number of cells connected in parallel; that at _b_ of a battery with the cells connected in series; and that at _c_ of a battery with one of its poles grounded. chapter viii magneto signaling apparatus method of signaling. the ordinary apparatus, by which speech is received telephonically, is not capable of making sufficiently loud sounds to attract the attention of people at a distance from the instrument. for this reason it is necessary to employ auxiliary apparatus for the purpose of signaling between stations. in central offices where an attendant is always on hand, the sense of sight is usually appealed to by the use of signals which give a visual indication, but in the case of telephone instruments for use by the public, the sense of hearing is appealed to by employing an audible rather than a visual signal. battery bell. the ordinary vibrating or battery bell, such as is employed for door bells, is sometimes, though not often, employed in telephony. it derives its current from primary batteries or from any direct-current source. the reason why they are not employed to a greater extent in telephony is that telephone signals usually have to be sent over lines of considerable length and the voltage that would be required to furnish current to operate such bells over such lengths of line is higher than would ordinarily be found in the batteries commonly employed in telephone work. besides this the make-and-break contacts on which the, ordinary battery bell depends for its operation are an objectionable feature from the standpoint of maintenance. magneto bell. fortunately, however, there has been developed a simpler type of electric bell, which operates on smaller currents, and which requires no make-and-break contacts whatever. this simpler form of bell is commonly known as the _polarized_, or _magneto_, bell or _ringer_. it requires for its operation, in its ordinary form, an alternating current, though in its modified forms it may be used with pulsating currents, that is, with periodically recurring impulses of current always in the same direction. magneto generator. in the early days of telephony there was nearly always associated with each polarized bell a magneto generator for furnishing the proper kind of current to ring such bells. each telephone was therefore equipped, in addition to the transmitter and receiver, with a signal-receiving device in the form of a polarized bell, and with a current generator by which the user was enabled to develop his own currents of suitable kind and voltage for ringing the bells of other stations. considering the signaling apparatus of the telephones alone, therefore, each telephone was equipped with a power plant for generating currents used by that station in signaling other stations, the prime mover being the muscles of the user applied to the turning of a crank on the side of the instrument; and also with a current-consuming device in the form of a polarized electromagnetic bell adapted to receive the currents generated at other stations and to convert a portion of their energy into audible signals. the magneto generator is about the simplest type of dynamo-electric machine, and it depends upon the same principles of operation as the much larger generators, employed in electric-lighting and street-railway power plants, for instance. instead of developing the necessary magnetic field by means of electromagnets, as in the case of the ordinary dynamo, the field of the magneto generator is developed by permanent magnets, usually of the horseshoe form. hence the name _magneto_. [illustration: fig. . principles of magneto generator] in order to concentrate the magnetic field within the space in which the armature revolves, pole pieces of iron are so arranged in connection with the poles of the permanent magnet as to afford a substantially cylindrical space in which the armature conductors may revolve and through which practically all the magnetic lines of force set up by the permanent magnets will pass. in fig. there is shown, diagrammatically, a horseshoe magnet with such a pair of pole pieces, between which a loop of wire is adapted to rotate. the magnet _ _ is of hardened steel and permanently magnetized. the pole pieces are shown at _ _ and _ _, each being of soft iron adapted to make good magnetic contact on its flat side with the inner flat surface of the bar magnet, and being bored out so as to form a cylindrical recess between them as indicated. the direction of the magnetic lines of force set up by the bar magnet through the interpolar space is indicated by the long horizontal arrows, this flow being from the north pole (n) to the south pole (s) of the magnet. at _ _ there is shown a loop of wire supposed to revolve in the magnetic field of force on the axis _ - _. theory. in order to understand how currents will be generated in this loop of wire _ _, it is only necessary to remember that if a conductor is so moved as to cut across magnetic lines of force, an electromotive force will be set up in the conductor which will tend to make the current flow through it. the magnitude of the electromotive force will depend on the rate at which the conductor cuts through the lines of force, or, in other words, on the number of lines of force that are cut through by the conductor in a given unit of time. again, the direction of the electromotive force depends on the direction of the cutting, so that if the conductor be moved in one direction across the lines of force, the electromotive force and the current will be in one direction; while if it moves in the opposite direction across the lines of force, the electromotive force and the current will be in the reverse direction. it is, evident that as the loop of wire _ _ revolves in the field of force about the axis _ - _, the portions of the conductor parallel to the axis will cut through the lines of force, first in one direction and then in the other, thus producing electromotive forces therein, first in one direction and then in the other. referring now to fig. , and supposing that the loop _ _ is revolving in the direction of the curved arrow shown between the upper edges of the pole pieces, it will be evident that just as the loop stands in the vertical position, its horizontal members will be moving in a horizontal direction, parallel with the lines of force and, therefore, not cutting them at all. the electromotive force and the current will, therefore, be zero at this time. as the loop advances toward the position shown in dotted lines, the upper portion of the loop that is parallel with the axis will begin to cut downwardly through the lines of force, and likewise the lower portion of the loop that is parallel with the axis will begin to cut upwardly through the lines of force. this will cause electromotive forces in opposite directions to be generated in these portions of the loop, and these will tend to aid each other in causing a current to circulate in the loop in the direction shown by the arrows associated with the dotted representation of the loop. it is evident that as the motion of the loop progresses, the rate of cutting the lines of force will increase and will be a maximum when the loop reaches a horizontal position, or at that time the two portions of the loop that are parallel with the axis will be traveling at right angles to the lines of force. at this point, therefore, the electromotive force and the current will be a maximum. from this point until the loop again assumes a vertical position, the cutting of the lines of force will still be in the same direction, but at a constantly decreasing rate, until, finally, when the loop is vertical the movement of the parts of the loop that are parallel with the axis will be in the direction of the lines of force and, therefore, no cutting will take place. at this point, therefore, the electromotive force and the current in the loop again will be zero. we have seen, therefore, that in this half revolution of the loop from the time when it was in a vertical position to a time when it was again in a vertical position but upside down, the electromotive force varied from zero to a maximum and back to zero, and the current did the same. it is easy to see that, as the loop moves through the next half revolution, an exactly similar rise and fall of electromotive force and current will take place; but this will be in the opposite direction, since that portion of the loop which was going down through the lines of force is now going up, and the portion which was previously going up is now going down. the law concerning the generation of electromotive force and current in a conductor that is cutting through lines of magnetic force, may be stated in another way, when the conductor is bent into the form of a loop, as in the case under consideration: thus, _if the number of lines of force which pass through a conducting loop be varied, electromotive forces will be generated in the loop_. this will be true whether the number of lines passing through the loop be varied by moving the loop within the field of force or by varying the field of force itself. in any case, _if the number of lines of force be increased, the current will flow in one way, and if it be diminished the current will flow in the other way_. the amount of the current will depend, other things being equal, on the rate at which the lines of force through the loop are being varied, regardless of the method by which the variation is made to take place. one revolution of the loop, therefore, results in a complete cycle of alternating current consisting of one positive followed by one negative impulse. the diagram of fig. is merely intended to illustrate the principle involved. in the practical construction of magneto generators more than one bar magnet is used, and, in addition, the conductors in the armature are so arranged as to include a great many loops of wire. furthermore, the conductors in the armature are wound around an iron core so that the path through the armature loops or turns, may present such low reluctance to the passage of lines of force as to greatly increase the number of such lines and also to cause practically all of them to go through the loops in the armature conductor. armature. the iron upon which the armature conductors are wound is called the _core_. the core of an ordinary armature is shown in fig. . this is usually made of soft gray cast iron, turned so as to form bearing surfaces at _ _ and _ _, upon which the entire armature may rotate, and also turned so that the surfaces _ _ will be truly cylindrical with respect to the axis through the center of the shaft. the armature conductors are put on by winding the space between the two parallel faces _ _ as full of insulated wire as space will admit. one end of the armature winding is soldered to the pin _ _ and, therefore, makes contact with the frame of the generator, while the other end of the winding is soldered to the pin _ _, which engages the stud _ _, carried in an insulating bushing in a longitudinal hole in the end of the armature shaft. it is thus seen that the frame of the machine will form one terminal of the armature winding, while the insulated stud _ _ will form the other terminal. [illustration: fig. . generator armature] another form of armature largely employed in recent magneto generators is illustrated in fig. . in this the shaft on which the armature revolves does not form an integral part of the armature core but consists of two cylindrical studs _ _ and _ _ projecting from the centers of disks _ _ and _ _, which are screwed to the ends of the core _ _. this =h= type of armature core, as it is called, while containing somewhat more parts than the simpler type shown in fig. , possesses distinct advantages in the matter of winding. by virtue of its simpler form of winding space, it is easier to insulate and easier to wind, and furthermore, since the shaft does not run through the winding space, it is capable of holding a considerably greater number of turns of wire. the ends of the armature winding are connected, one directly to the frame and the other to an insulated pin, as is shown in the illustration. [illustration: fig. . generator armature] [illustration: fig. . generator field and armature] the method commonly employed of associating the pole pieces with each other and with the permanent magnets is shown in fig. . it is very important that the space in which the armature revolves shall be truly cylindrical, and that the bearings for the armature shall be so aligned as to make the axis of rotation of the armature coincide with the axis of the cylindrical surface of the pole pieces. a rigid structure is, therefore, required and this is frequently secured, as shown in fig. , by joining the two pole pieces _ _ and _ _ together by means of heavy brass rods _ _ and _ _, the rods being shouldered and their reduced ends passed through holes in flanges extending from the pole pieces, and riveted. the bearing plates in which the armature is journaled are then secured to the ends of these pole pieces, as will be shown in subsequent illustrations. this assures proper rigidity between the pole pieces and also between the pole pieces and the armature bearings. the reason why this degree of rigidity is required is that it is necessary to work with very small air gaps between the armature core and its pole pieces and unless these generators are mechanically well made they are likely to alter their adjustment and thus allow the armature faces to scrape or rub against the pole pieces. in fig. one of the permanent horseshoe magnets is shown, its ends resting in grooves on the outer faces of the pole pieces and usually clamped thereto by means of heavy iron machine screws. with this structure in mind, the theory of the magneto generator developed in connection with fig. may be carried a little further. when the armature lies in the position shown at the left of fig. , so that the center position of the core is horizontal, a good path is afforded for the lines of force passing from one pole to the other. practically all of these lines will pass through the iron of the core rather than through the air, and, therefore, practically all of them will pass through the convolutions of the armature winding. when the armature has advanced, say degrees, in its rotation in the direction of the curved arrow, the lower right-hand portion of the armature flange will still lie opposite the lower face of the right-hand pole piece and the upper left-hand portion of the armature flange will still lie opposite the upper face of the left-hand pole piece. as a result there will still be a good path for the lines of force through the iron of the core and comparatively little change in the number of lines passing through the armature winding. as the corners of the armature flange pass away from the corners of the pole pieces, however, there is a sudden change in condition which may be best understood by reference to the right-hand portion of fig. . the lines of force now no longer find path through the center portion of the armature core--that lying at right angles to their direction of flow. two other paths are at this time provided through the now horizontal armature flanges which serve almost to connect the two pole pieces. the lines of force are thus shunted out of the path through the armature coils and there is a sudden decrease from a large number of lines through the turns of the winding to almost none. as the armature continues in its rotation the two paths through the flanges are broken, and the path through the center of the armature core and, therefore, through the coils themselves, is reëstablished. as a result of this consideration it will be seen that in actual practice the change in the number of lines passing through the armature winding is not of the gradual nature that would be indicated by a consideration of fig. alone, but rather, is abrupt, as the corners of the armature flanges leave the corners of the pole pieces. this abrupt change produces a sudden rise in electromotive force just at these points in the rotation, and, therefore, the electromotive force and the current curves of these magneto generators is not usually of the smooth sine-wave type but rather of a form resembling the sine wave with distinct humps added to each half cycle. [illustration: fig. . generator with magnets removed] as is to be expected from any two-pole alternating generator, there is one cycle of current for each revolution of the armature. under ordinary conditions a person is able to turn the generator handle at the rate of about two hundred revolutions a minute, and as the ratio of gearing is about five to one, this results in about one thousand revolutions per minute of the generator, and, therefore, in a current of about one thousand cycles per minute, this varying widely according to the person who is doing the turning. [illustration: howard office of home telephone company, san francisco an all-concrete building serving the district south of market street.] the end plates which support the bearings for the armature are usually extended upwardly, as shown in fig. , so as to afford bearings for the crank shaft. the crank shaft carries a large spur gear which meshes with a pinion in the end of the armature shaft, so that the user may cause the armature to revolve rapidly. the construction shown in fig. is typical of that of a modern magneto generator, it being understood that the permanent magnets are removed for clearness of illustration. fig. is a view of a completely assembled generator such as is used for service requiring a comparatively heavy output. other types of generators having two, three, or four permanent magnets instead of five, as shown in this figure, are also standard. [illustration: fig. . five-bar generator] referring again to fig. , it will be remembered that one end of the armature winding shown diagrammatically in that figure, is terminated in the pin _ _, while the other terminates in the pin _ _. when the armature is assembled in the frame of the generator it is evident that the frame itself is in metallic connection with one end of the armature winding, since the pin _ _ is in metallic contact with the armature casting and this is in contact with the frame of the generator through the bearings. the frame of the machine is, therefore, one terminal of the generator. when the generator is assembled a spring of one form or another always rests against the terminal pin _ _ of the armature so as to form a terminal for the armature winding of such a nature as to permit the armature to rotate freely. such spring, therefore, forms the other terminal of the generator. automatic shunt. under nearly all conditions of practice it is desirable to have the generator automatically perform some switching function when it is operated. as an example, when the generator is connected so that its armature is in series in a telephone line, it is quite obvious that the presence of the resistance and the impedance of the armature winding would be objectionable if left in the circuit through which the voice currents had to pass. for this reason, what is termed an _automatic shunt_ is employed on generators designed for series work; this shunt is so arranged that it will automatically shunt or short-circuit the armature winding when it is at rest and also break this shunt when the generator is operated, so as to allow the current to pass to line. [illustration: fig . generator shunt switch] a simple and much-used arrangement for this purpose is shown in fig. , where _ _ is the armature; _ _ is a wire leading from the frame of the generator and forming one terminal of the generator circuit; and _ _ is a wire forming the other terminal of the generator circuit, this wire being attached to the spring _ _, which rests against the center pin of the armature so as to make contact with the opposite end of the armature winding to that which is connected with the frame. the circuit through the armature may be traced from the terminal wire _ _ through the frame; thence through the bearings to the armature _ _ and through the pin to the right-hand side of the armature winding. continuing the circuit through the winding itself, it passes to the center pin projecting from the left-hand end of the armature shaft; thence to the spring _ _ which rests against this pin; and thence to the terminal wire _ _. normally, this path is shunted by what is practically a short circuit, which may be traced from the terminal _ _ through the frame of the generator to the crank shaft _ _; thence to the upper end of the spring _ _ and out by the terminal wire _ _. this is the condition which ordinarily exists and which results in the removal of the resistance and the impedance on the armature winding from any circuit in which the generator is placed, as long as the generator is not operated. an arrangement is provided, however, whereby the crank shaft _ _ will be withdrawn automatically from engaging with the upper end of the spring _ _, thus breaking the shunt around the armature circuit, whenever the generator crank is turned. in order to accomplish this the crank shaft _ _ is capable of partial rotation and of slight longitudinal movement within the hub of the large gear wheel. a spring usually presses the crank shaft toward the left and into engagement with the spring _ _. a pin _ _ carried by the crank shaft, rests in a v-shaped notch in the end of the hub _ _ and as a result, when the crank is turned the pin rides on the surface of this notch before the large gear wheel starts to turn, and thus moves the crank shaft _ _ to the right and breaks the contact between it and the spring _ _. thus, as long as the generator is being operated, its armature is connected in the circuit of the line, but as soon as it becomes idle the armature is automatically short-circuited. such devices as this are termed _automatic shunts_. in still other cases it is desirable to have the generator circuit normally open so that it will not affect in any way the electrical characteristics of the line while the line is being used for talking. in this case the arrangement is made so that the generator will automatically be placed in proper circuit relation with the line when it is operated. [illustration: fig. . generator cut-in switch] a common arrangement for doing this is shown in fig. , wherein the spring _ _ normally rests against the contact pin of the armature and forms one terminal of the armature circuit. the spring _ _ is adapted to form the other terminal of the armature circuit but it is normally insulated from everything. the circuit of the generator is, therefore, open between the spring _ _ and the shaft _ _, but as soon as the generator is operated the crank shaft is bodily moved to the left by means of the =v=-shaped notch in the driving collar _ _ and is thus made to engage the spring _ _. the circuit of the generator is then completed from the spring _ _ through the armature pin to the armature winding; thence to the frame of the machine and through shaft _ _ to the spring _ _. such devices as this are largely used in connection with so-called "bridging" telephones in which the generators and bells are adapted to be connected in multiple across the line. a better arrangement for accomplishing the automatic switching on the part of the generator is to make no use of the crank shaft as a part of the conducting path as is the case in both figs. and , but to make the crank shaft, by its longitudinal movement, impart the necessary motion to a switch spring which, in turn, is made to engage or disengage a corresponding contact spring. an arrangement of this kind that is in common use is shown in fig. . this needs no further explanation than to say that the crank shaft is provided on its end with an insulating stud _ _, against which a switching spring _ _ bears. this spring normally rests against another switch spring _ _, but when the generator crank shaft moves to the right upon the turning of the crank, the spring _ _ disengages spring _ _ and engages spring _ _, thus completing the circuit of the generator armature. it is seen that this operation accomplishes the breaking of one circuit and the making of another, a function that will be referred to later on in this work. [illustration: fig. . generator cut-in switch] pulsating current. sometimes it is desirable to have a generator capable of developing a pulsating current instead of an alternating current; that is, a current which will consist of impulses all in one direction rather than of impulses alternating in direction. it is obvious that this may be accomplished if the circuit of the generator be broken during each half revolution so that its circuit is completed only when current is being generated in one direction. such an arrangement is indicated diagrammatically in fig. . instead of having one terminal of the armature winding brought out through the frame of the generator as is ordinarily done, both terminals are brought out to a commuting device carried on the end of the armature shaft. thus, one end of the loop representing the armature winding is shown connected directly to the armature pin _ _, against which bears a spring _ _, in the usual manner. the other end of the armature winding is carried directly to a disk _ _, mounted _on_ but insulated _from_ the shaft and revolving therewith. one-half of the circumferential surface of this disk is of insulating material _ _ and a spring _ _ rests against this disk and bears alternately upon the conducting portion _ _ or the insulating portion _ _, according to the position of the armature in its revolution. it is obvious that when the generator armature is in the position shown the circuit through it is from the spring _ _ to the pin _ _; thence to one terminal of the armature loop; thence through the loop and back to the disk _ _ and out by the spring _ _. if, however, the armature were turned slightly, the spring _ _ would rest on the insulating portion _ _ and the circuit would be broken. [illustration: fig. . pulsating-current commutator] [illustration: fig. . generator symbols] it is obvious that if the brush _ _ is so disposed as to make contact with the disk _ _ only during that portion of the revolution while positive current is being generated, the generator will produce positive pulsations of current, all the negative ones being cut out. if, on the other hand, the spring _ _ may be made to bear on the opposite side of the disk, then it is evident that the positive impulses would all be cut out and the generator would develop only negative impulses. such a generator is termed a "direct-current" generator or a "pulsating-current" generator. the symbols for magneto or hand generators usually embody a simplified side view, showing the crank and the gears on one side and the shunting or other switching device on the other. thus in fig. are shown three such symbols, differing from each other only in the details of the switching device. the one at the left shows the simple shunt, adapted to short-circuit the generator at all times save when it is in operation. the one in the center shows the cut-in, of which another form is described in connection with fig. ; while the symbol at the right of fig. is of the make-and-break device, discussed in connection with fig. . in such diagrammatic representations of generators it is usual to somewhat exaggerate the size of the switching springs, in order to make clear their action in respect to the circuit connections in which the generator is used. polarized ringer. the polarized bell or ringer is, as has been stated, the device which is adapted to respond to the currents sent out by the magneto generator. in order that the alternately opposite currents may cause the armature to move alternately in opposite directions, these bells are polarized, _i.e._, given a definite magnetic set, so to speak; so the effect of the currents in the coils is not to create magnetism in normally neutral iron, but rather to alter the magnetism in iron already magnetized. _western electric ringer._ a typical form of polarized bell is shown in fig. , this being the standard bell or ringer of the western electric company. the two electromagnets are mounted side by side, as shown, by attaching their cores to a yoke piece _ _ of soft iron. this yoke piece also carries the standards _ _ upon which the gongs are mounted. the method of mounting is such that the standards may be adjusted slightly so as to bring the gongs closer _to_ or farther _from_, the tapper. the soft iron yoke piece _ _ also carries two brass posts _ _ which, in turn, carry another yoke _ _ of brass. in this yoke _ _ is pivoted, by means of trunnion screws, the armature _ _, this extending on each side of the pivot so that its ends lie opposite the free poles of the electromagnets. from the center of the armature projects the tapper rod carrying the ball or striker which plays between the two gongs. in order that the armature and cores may be normally polarized, a permanent magnet _ _ is secured to the center of the yoke piece _ _. this bends around back of the electromagnets and comes into close proximity to the armature _ _. by this means one end of each of the electromagnet cores is given one polarity--say north--while the armature is given the other polarity--say south. the two coils of the electromagnet are connected together in series in such a way that current in a given direction will act to produce a north pole in one of the free poles and a south pole in the other. if it be assumed that the permanent magnet maintains the armature normally of south polarity and that the current through the coils is of such direction as to make the left-hand core north and the right-hand core south, then it is evident that the left-hand end of the armature will be attracted and the right-hand end repelled. this will throw the tapper rod to the right and sound the right-hand bell. a reversal in current will obviously produce the opposite effect and cause the tapper to strike the left-hand bell. an important feature in polarized bells is the adjustment between the armature and the pole pieces. this is secured in the western electric bell by means of the nuts _ _, by which the yoke _ _ is secured to the standards _ _. by moving these nuts up or down on the standards the armature may be brought closer _to_ or farther _from_ the poles, and the device affords ready means for clamping the parts into any position to which they may have been adjusted. [illustration: fig. . polarized bell] _kellogg ringer._ another typical ringer is that of the kellogg switchboard and supply company, shown in fig. . this differs from that of the western electric company mainly in the details by which the armature adjustment is obtained. the armature supporting yoke _ _ is attached directly to the cores of the magnets, no supporting side rods being employed. instead of providing means whereby the armature may be adjusted toward or from the poles, the reverse practice is employed, that is, of making the poles themselves extensible. this is done by means of the iron screws _ _ which form extensions of the cores and which may be made to approach or recede from the armature by turning them in such direction as to screw them in or out of the core ends. [illustration: fig. . polarized bell] [illustration: fig. . biased bell] _biased bell._ the pulsating-current generator has already been discussed and its principle of operation pointed out in connection with fig. . the companion piece to this generator is the so-called biased ringer. this is really nothing but a common alternating-current polarized ringer with a light spring so arranged as to hold the armature normally in one of its extreme positions so that the tapper will rest against one of the gongs. such a ringer is shown in fig. and needs no further explanation. it is obvious that if a current flows in the coils of such a ringer in a direction tending to move the tapper toward the left, then no sound will result because the tapper is already moved as far as it can be in that direction. if, however, currents in the opposite direction are caused to flow through the windings, then the electromagnetic attraction on the armature will overcome the pull of the spring and the tapper will move over and strike the right-hand gong. a cessation of the current will allow the spring to exert itself and throw the tapper back into engagement with the left-hand gong. a series of such pulsations in the proper direction will, therefore, cause the tapper to play between the two gongs and ring the bell as usual. a series of currents in a wrong direction will, however, produce no effect. conventional symbols. in fig. are shown six conventional symbols of polarized bells. the three at the top, consisting merely of two circles representing the magnets in plan view, are perhaps to be preferred as they are well standardized, easy to draw, and rather suggestive. the three at the bottom, showing the ringer as a whole in side elevation, are somewhat more specific, but are objectionable in that they take more space and are not so easily drawn. [illustration: fig. . ringer symbols] symbols _a_ or _b_ may be used for designating any ordinary polarized ringer. symbols _c_ and _d_ are interchangeably used to indicate a biased ringer. if the bell is designed to operate only on positive impulses, then the plus sign is placed opposite the symbol, while a minus sign so placed indicates that the bell is to be operated only by negative impulses. some specific types of ringers are designed to operate only on a given frequency of current. that is, they are so designed as to be responsive to currents having a frequency of sixty cycles per second, for instance, and to be unresponsive to currents of any other frequency. either symbols _e_ or _f_ may be used to designate such ringers, and if it is desired to indicate the particular frequency of the ringer this is done by adding the proper numeral followed by a short reversed curve sign indicating frequency. thus ~ would indicate a frequency of fifty cycles per second. chapter ix the hook switch purpose. in complete telephone instruments, comprising both talking and signaling apparatus, it is obviously desirable that the two sets of apparatus, for talking and signaling respectively, shall not be connected with the line at the same time. a certain switching device is, therefore, necessary in order that the signaling apparatus alone may be left operatively connected with the line while the instrument is not being used in the transmission of speech, and in order that the signaling apparatus may be cut out when the talking apparatus is brought into play. in instruments employing batteries for the supply of transmitter current, another switching function is the closing of the battery circuit through the transmitter and the induction coil when the instrument is in use for talking, since to leave the battery circuit closed all the time would be an obvious waste of battery energy. in the early forms of telephones these switching operations were performed by a manually operated switch, the position of which the user was obliged to change before and after each use of the telephone. the objection to this was not so much in the manual labor imposed on the user as in the tax on his memory. it was found to be practically a necessity to make this switching function automatic, principally because of the liability of the user to forget to move the switch to the proper position after using the telephone, resulting not only in the rapid waste of the battery elements but also in the inoperative condition of the signal-receiving bell. the solution of this problem, a vexing one at first, was found in the so-called automatic hook switch or switch hook, by which the circuits of the instrument were made automatically to assume their proper conditions by the mere act, on the part of the user, of removing the receiver from, or placing it upon, a conveniently arranged hook or fork projecting from the side of the telephone casing. automatic operation. it may be taken as a fundamental principle in the design of any piece of telephone apparatus that is to be generally used by the public, that the necessary acts which a person must perform in order to use the device must, as far as possible, follow as a natural result from some other act which it is perfectly obvious to the user that he must perform. so in the case of the switch hook, the user of a telephone knows that he must take the receiver from its normal support and hold it to his ear; and likewise, when he is through with it, that he must dispose of it by hanging it upon a support obviously provided for that purpose. in its usual form a forked hook is provided for supporting the receiver in a convenient place. this hook is at the free end of a pivoted lever, which is normally pressed upward by a spring when the receiver is not supported on it. when, however, the receiver is supported on it, the lever is depressed by its weight. the motion of the lever is mechanically imparted to the members of the switch proper, the contacts of which are usually enclosed so as to be out of reach of the user. this switch is so arranged that when the hook is depressed the circuits are held in such condition that the talking apparatus will be cut out, the battery circuit opened, and the signaling apparatus connected with the line. on the other hand, when the hook is in its raised position, the signaling apparatus is cut out, the talking apparatus switched into proper working relation with the line, and the battery circuit closed through the transmitter. in the so-called common-battery telephones, where no magneto generator or local battery is included in the equipment at the subscriber's station, the mere raising of the hook serves another important function. it acts, not only to complete the circuit through the substation talking apparatus, but, by virtue of the closure of the line circuit, permits a current to flow over the line from the central-office battery which energizes a signal associated with the line at the central office. this use of the hook switch in the case of the common-battery telephone is a good illustration of the principle just laid down as to making all the functions which the subscriber has to perform depend, as far as possible, on acts which his common sense alone tells him he must do. thus, in the common-battery telephone the subscriber has only to place the receiver at his ear and ask for what he wants. this operation automatically displays a signal at the central office and he does nothing further until the operator inquires for the number that he wants. he has then nothing to do but wait until the called-for party responds, and after the conversation his own personal convenience demands that he shall dispose of the receiver in some way, so he hangs it up on the most convenient object, the hook switch, and thereby not only places the apparatus at his telephone in proper condition to receive another call, but also conveys to the central office the signal for disconnection. likewise in the case of telephones operating in connection with automatic exchanges, the hook switch performs a number of functions automatically, of which the subscriber has no conception; and while, in automatic telephones, there are more acts required of the user than in the manual, yet a study of these acts will show that they all follow in a way naturally suggested to the user, so that he need have but the barest fundamental knowledge in order to properly make use of the instrument. in all cases, in properly designed apparatus, the arrangement is such that the failure of the subscriber to do a certain required act will do no damage to the apparatus or to the system, and, therefore, will inconvenience only himself. design. the hook switch is in reality a two-position switch, and while at present it is a simple affair, yet its development to its high state of perfection has been slow, and its imperfections in the past have been the cause of much annoyance. several important points must be borne in mind in the design of the hook switch. the spring provided to lift the hook must be sufficiently strong to accomplish this purpose and yet must not be strong enough to prevent the weight of the receiver from moving the switch to its other position. the movement of this spring must be somewhat limited in order that it will not break when used a great many times, and also it must be of such material and shape that it will not lose its elasticity with use. the shape and material of the restoring spring are, of course, determined to a considerable extent by the length of the lever arm which acts on the spring, and on the space which is available for the spring. the various contacts by which the circuit changes are brought about upon the movement of the hook-switch lever usually take the form of springs of german silver or phosphor-bronze, hard rolled so as to have the necessary resiliency, and these are usually tipped with platinum at the points of contact so as to assure the necessary character of surface at the points where the electric circuits are made or broken. a slight sliding movement between each pair of contacts as they are brought together is considered desirable, in that it tends to rub off any dirt that may have accumulated, yet this sliding movement should not be great, as the surfaces will then cut each other and, therefore, reduce the life of the switch. contact material. on account of the high cost of platinum, much experimental work has been done to find a substitute metal suitable for the contact points in hook switches and similar uses in the manufacture of telephone apparatus. platinum is unquestionably the best known material, on account of its non-corrosive and heat-resisting qualities. hard silver is the next best and is found in some first-class apparatus. the various cheap alloys intended as substitutes for platinum or silver in contact points may be dismissed as worthless, so far as the writers' somewhat extensive investigations have shown. in the more recent forms of hook switches, the switch lever itself does not form a part of the electrical circuit, but serves merely as the means by which the springs that are concerned in the switching functions are moved into their alternate cooperative relations. one advantage in thus insulating the switch lever from the current-carrying portions of the apparatus and circuits is that, since it necessarily projects from the box or cabinet, it is thus liable to come in contact with the person of the user. by insulating it, all liability of the user receiving shocks by contact with it is eliminated. wall telephone hooks. _kellogg._ a typical form of hook switch, as employed in the ordinary wall telephone sets, is shown in fig. , this being the standard hook of the kellogg switchboard and supply company. in this the lever _ _ is pivoted at the point _ _ in a bracket _ _ that forms the base of all the working parts and the means of securing the entire hook switch to the box or framework of the telephone. this switch lever is normally pressed upward by a spring _ _, mounted on the bracket _ _, and engaging the under side of the hook lever at the point _ _. attached to the lever arm _ _ is an insulated pin _ _. the contact springs by which the various electrical circuits are made and broken are shown at _ _, _ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _, these being mounted in one group with insulated bushings between them; the entire group is secured by machine screws to a lug projecting horizontally from the bracket _ _. the center spring _ _ is provided with a forked extension which embraces the pin _ _ on the hook lever. it is obvious that an up-and-down motion of the hook lever will move the long spring _ _ in such manner as to cause electrical contact either between it and the two upper springs _ _ and _ _, or between it and the two lower springs _ _ and _ _. the hook is shown in its raised position, which is the position required for talking. when lowered the two springs _ _ and _ _ are disengaged from the long spring _ _ and from each other, and the three springs _ _, _ _, and _ _ are brought into electrical engagement, thus establishing the necessary signaling conditions. [illustration: fig. . long lever hook switch] the right-hand ends of the contact springs are shown projecting beyond the insulating supports. this is for the purpose of facilitating making electrical joints between these springs and the various wires which lead from them. these projecting ends are commonly referred to as ears, and are usually provided with holes or notches into which the connecting wire is fastened by soldering. _western electric._ fig. shows the type of hook switch quite extensively employed by the western electric company in wall telephone sets where the space is somewhat limited and a compact arrangement is desired. it will readily be seen that the principle on which this hook switch operates is similar to that employed in fig. , although the mechanical arrangement of the parts differs radically. the hook lever _ _ is pivoted at _ _ on a bracket _ _, which serves to support all the other parts of the switch. the contact springs are shown at _ _, _ _, and _ _, and this latter spring _ _ is so designed as to make it serve as an actuating spring for the hook. this is accomplished by having the curved end of this spring press against the lug _ _ of the hook and thus tend to raise the hook when it is relieved of the weight of the receiver. the two shorter springs _ _ and _ _ have no electrical function but merely serve as supports against which the springs _ _ and _ _ may rest, when the receiver is on the hook, these springs _ _ and _ _ being given a light normal tension toward the stop springs _ _ and _ _. it is obvious that in the particular arrangement of the springs in this switch no contacts are closed when the receiver is on the hook. [illustration: fig. . short lever hook switch] concerning this latter feature, it will be noted that the particular form of kellogg hook switch, shown in fig. , makes two contacts and breaks two when it is raised. similarly the western electric company's makes two contacts but does not break any when raised. from such considerations it is customary to speak of a hook such as that shown in fig. as having two make and two break contacts, and such a hook as that shown in fig. as having two make contacts. it will be seen from either of these switches that the modification of the spring arrangement, so as to make them include a varying number of make-and-break contacts, is a simple matter, and switches of almost any type are readily modified in this respect. [illustration: fig. . removable lever hook switch] _dean_. in fig. is shown a decidedly unique hook switch for wall telephone sets which forms the standard equipment of the dean electric company. the hook lever _ _ is pivoted at _ _, an auxiliary lever _ _ also being pivoted at the same point. the auxiliary lever _ _ carries at its rear end a slotted lug _ _, which engages the long contact spring _ _, and serves to move it up and down so as to engage and disengage the spring _ _, these two springs being mounted on a base lug extending from the base plate _ _, upon which the entire hook-switch mechanism is mounted. the curved spring _ _, also mounted on this same base, engages the auxiliary lever _ _ at the point _ _ and normally serves to press this up so as to maintain the contact springs _ _ in engagement with contact spring _ _. the switch springs are moved entirely by the auxiliary lever _ _, but in order that this lever _ _ may be moved as required by the hook lever _ _, this lever is provided with a notched lug _ _ on its lower side, which notch is engaged by a forwardly projecting lug _ _ that is integral with the auxiliary lever _ _. the switch lever may be bodily removed from the remaining parts of the hook switch by depressing the lug _ _ with the finger, so that it disengages the notch in lug _ _, and then drawing the hook lever out of engagement with the pivot stud _ _, as shown in the lower portion of the figure. it will be noted that the pivotal end of the hook lever is made with a slot instead of a hole as is the customary practice. the advantage of being able to remove the hook switch bodily from the other portions arises mainly in connection with the shipment or transportation of instruments. the projecting hooks cause the instruments to take up more room and thus make larger packing boxes necessary than would otherwise be used. moreover, in handling the telephones in store houses or transporting them to the places where they are to be used, the projecting hook switch is particularly liable to become damaged. it is for convenience under such conditions that the dean hook switch is made so that the switch lever may be removed bodily and placed, for instance, inside the telephone box for transportation. desk-stand hooks. the problem of hook-switch design for portable desk telephones, while presenting the same general characteristics, differs in the details of construction on account of the necessarily restricted space available for the switch contacts in the desk telephone. [illustration: west office of home telephone company, san francisco serving the general western business and residence districts.] _western electric._ in fig. is shown an excellent example of hook-switch design as applied to the requirements of the ordinary portable desk set. this figure is a cross-sectional view of the base and standard of a familiar type of desk telephone. the base itself is of stamped metal construction, as indicated, and the standard which supports the transmitter and the switch hook for the receiver is composed of a black enameled or nickel-plated brass tube _ _, attached to the base by a screw-threaded joint, as shown. the switch lever _ _ is pivoted at _ _ in a brass plug _ _, closing the upper end of the tube forming the standard. this brass plug supports also the transmitter, which is not shown in this figure. attached to the plug _ _ by the screw _ _ is a heavy strip _ _, which reaches down through the tube to the base plate of the standard and is held therein by a screw _ _. the plug _ _, carrying with it the switch-hook lever _ _ and the brass strip _ _, may be lifted bodily out of the standard _ _ by taking out the screw _ _ which holds the strip _ _ in place, as is clearly indicated. on the strip _ _ there is mounted the group of switch springs by which the circuit changes of the instrument are brought about when the hook is raised or lowered. the spring _ _ is longer than the others, and projects upwardly far enough to engage the lug on the switch-hook lever _ _. this spring, which is so bent as to close the contacts at the right when not prevented by the switch lever, also serves as an actuating spring to raise the lever _ _ when the receiver is removed from it. this spring, when the receiver is removed from the hook, engages the two springs at the right, as shown, or when the receiver is placed on the hook, breaks contact with the two right-hand springs and makes contact respectively with the left-hand spring and also with the contact _ _ which forms the transmitter terminal. [illustration: fig. . desk-stand hook switch] it is seen from an inspection of this switch hook that it has two make and two break contacts. the various contact springs are connected with the several binding posts shown, these forming the connectors for the flexible cord conductors leading into the base and up through the standard of the desk stand. by means of the conductors in this cord the circuits are led to the other parts of the instrument, such as the induction coil, call bell, and generator, if there is one, which, in the case of the western electric company's desk set, are all mounted separately from the portable desk stand proper. this hook switch is accessible in an easy manner and yet not subject to the tampering of idle or mischievous persons. by taking out the screw _ _ the entire hook switch may be lifted out of the tube forming the standard, the cords leading to the various binding posts being slid along through the tube. by this means the connections to the hook switch, as well as the contact of the switch itself, are readily inspected or repaired by those whose duty it is to perform such operations. _kellogg._ in fig. is shown a sectional view of the desk-stand hook switch of the kellogg switchboard and supply company. in this it will be seen that instead of placing the switch-hook springs within the standard or tube, as in the case of the western electric company, they are mounted in the base where they are readily accessible by merely taking off the base plate from the bottom of the stand. the hook lever operates on the long spring of the group of switch springs by means of a toggle joint in an obvious manner. this switch spring itself serves by its own strength to raise the hook lever when released from the weight of the receiver. [illustration: fig. . desk-stand hook switch] in this switch, the hook lever, and in fact the entire exposed metal portions of the instrument, are insulated from all of the contact springs and, therefore, there is little liability of shocks on the part of the person using the instrument. conventional symbols. the hook switch plays a very important part in the operation of telephone circuits; for this reason readily understood conventional symbols, by which they may be conveniently represented in drawings of circuits, are desirable. in fig. are shown several symbols such as would apply to almost any circuit, regardless of the actual mechanical details of the particular hook switch which happened to be employed. thus diagram _a_ in fig. shows a hook switch having a single make contact and this diagram might be used to refer to the hook switch of the dean electric company shown in fig. , in which only a single contact is made when the receiver is removed, and none is made when it is on the hook. similarly, diagram _b_ might be used to represent the hook switch of the kellogg company, shown in fig. , the arrangement being for two make and two break contacts. likewise diagram _c_ might be used to represent the hook switch of the western electric company, shown in fig. , which, as before stated, has two make contacts only. diagram _d_ shows another modification in which contacts made by the hook switch, when the receiver is removed, control two separate circuits. assuming that the solid black portion represents insulation, it is obvious that the contacts are divided into two groups, one insulated from the other. [illustration: fig. . hook switch symbols] [illustration: compressed air wagon for pneumatic drilling and chipping in manholes] chapter x electromagnets and inductive coils electromagnet. the physical thing which we call an electromagnet, consisting of a coil or helix of wire, the turns of which are insulated from each other, and within which is usually included an iron core, is by far the most useful of all the so-called translating devices employed in telephony. in performing the ordinary functions of an electromagnet it translates the energy of an electrical current into the energy of mechanical motion. an almost equally important function is the converse of this, that is, the translation of the energy of mechanical motion into that of an electrical current. in addition to these primary functions which underlie the art of telephony, the electromagnetic coil or helix serves a wide field of usefulness in cases where no mechanical motion is involved. as impedance coils, they serve to exert important influences on the flow of currents in circuits, and as induction coils, they serve to translate the energy of a current flowing in one circuit into the energy of a current flowing in another circuit, the translation usually, but not always, being accompanied by a change in voltage. when a current flows through the convolutions of an ordinary helix, the helix will exhibit the properties of a magnet even though the substance forming the core of the helix is of non-magnetic material, such as air, or wood, or brass. if, however, a mass of iron, such as a rod or a bundle of soft iron wires, for instance, is substituted as a core, the magnetic properties will be enormously increased. the reason for this is, that a given magnetizing force will set up in iron a vastly greater number of lines of magnetic force than in air or in any other non-magnetic material. magnetizing force. the magnetizing force of a given helix is that force which tends to drive magnetic lines of force through the magnetic circuit interlinked with the helix. it is called _magnetomotive force_ and is analogous to electromotive force, that is, the force which tends to drive an electric current through a circuit. the magnetizing force of a given helix depends on the product of the current strength and the number of turns of wire in the helix. thus, when the current strength is measured in amperes, this magnetizing force is expressed as ampere-turns, being the product of the number of amperes flowing by the number of turns. the magnetizing force exerted by a given current, therefore, is independent of anything except the number of turns, and the material within the core or the shape of the core has no effect upon it. magnetic flux. the total magnetization resulting from a magnetizing force is called the magnetic flux, and is analogous to current. the intensity of a magnetic flux is expressed by the number of magnetic lines of force in a square centimeter or square inch. while the magnetomotive force or magnetizing force of a given helix is independent of the material of the core, the flux which it sets up is largely dependent on the material and shape of the core--not only upon this but on the material that lies in the return path for the flux outside of the core. we may say, therefore, that the amount of flux set up by a given current in a given coil or helix is dependent on the material in the magnetic path or magnetic circuit, and on the shape and length of that circuit. if the magnetic circuit be of air or brass or wood or any other non-magnetic material, the amount of flux set up by a given magnetizing force will be relatively small, while it will be very much greater if the magnetic circuit be composed in part or wholly of iron or steel, which are highly magnetic substances. permeability. the quality of material, which permits of a given magnetizing force setting up a greater or less number of lines of force within it, is called its permeability. more accurately, the permeability is the ratio existing between the amount of magnetization and the magnetizing force which produces such magnetization. the permeability of a substance is usually represented by the greek letter µ (pronounced _mu_). the intensity of the magnetizing force is commonly symbolized by h, and since the permeability of air is always taken as unity, we may express the intensity of magnetizing force by the number of lines of force per square centimeter which it sets up in air. now, if the space on which the given magnetizing force h were acting were filled with iron instead of air, then, owing to the greater permeability of iron, there would be set up a very much greater number of lines of force per square centimeter, and this number of lines of force per square centimeter in the iron is the measure of the magnetization produced and is commonly expressed by the letter =b=. from this we have µ = b/h thus, when we say that the permeability of a given specimen of wrought iron under given conditions is , , we mean that , times as many lines of force would be induced in a unit cross-section of this sample as would be induced by the same magnetizing force in a corresponding unit cross-section of air. evidently for air b = h, hence µ becomes unity. the permeability of air is always a constant. this means that whether the magnetic density of the lines of force through the air be great or small the number of lines will always be proportional to the magnetizing force. unfortunately for easy calculations in electromagnetic work, however, this is not true of the permeability of iron. for small magnetic densities the permeability is very great, but for large densities, that is, under conditions where the number of lines of force existing in the iron is great, the permeability becomes smaller, and an increase in the magnetizing force does not produce a corresponding increase in the total flux through the iron. magnetization curves. this quality of iron is best shown by the curves of fig. , which illustrate the degree of magnetization set up in various kinds of iron by different magnetizing forces. in these curves the ordinates represent the total magnetization =b=, while the abscissas represent the magnetizing force =h=. it is seen from an inspection of these curves that as the magnetizing force =h= increases, the intensity of flux also increases, but at a gradually lessening rate, indicating a reduction in permeability at the higher densities. these curves are also instructive as showing the great differences that exist between the permeability of the different kinds of iron; and also as showing how, when the magnetizing force becomes very great, the iron approaches what is called _saturation_, that is, a point at which the further increase in magnetizing force will result in no further magnetization of the core. from the data of the curves of fig. , which are commonly called _magnetization curves_, it is easy to determine other data from which so-called permeability curves may be plotted. in permeability curves the total magnetization of the given pieces of iron are plotted as abscissas, while the corresponding permeabilities are plotted as ordinates. [illustration: fig. . magnetization curve] direction of lines of force. the lines of force set up within the core of a helix always have a certain direction. this direction always depends upon the direction of the flow of current around the core. an easy way to remember the direction is to consider the helix as grasped in the right hand with the fingers partially encircling it and the thumb pointing along its axis. then, if the current through the convolutions of the helix be in the direction in which the fingers of the hand are pointed around the helix, the magnetic lines of force will proceed through the core of the helix along the direction in which the thumb is pointed. in the case of a simple bar electromagnet, such as is shown in fig. , the lines of force emerging from one end of the bar must pass back through the air to the other end of the bar, as indicated by dotted lines and arrows. the path followed by the magnetic lines of force is called the _magnetic circuit_, and, therefore, the magnetic circuit of the magnet shown in fig. is composed partly of iron and partly of air. from what has been said concerning the relative permeability of air and of iron, it will be obvious that the presence of such a long air path in the magnetic circuit will greatly reduce the number of lines of force that a given magnetizing force can set up. the presence of an air gap in a magnetic circuit has much the same effect on the total flow of lines of force as the presence of a piece of bad conductor in a circuit composed otherwise of good conductor, in the case of the flow of electric current. reluctance. as the property which opposes the flow of electric current in an electrical circuit is called _resistance_, so the property which opposes the flow of magnetic lines of force in a magnetic circuit is called _reluctance_. in the case of the electric circuit, the resistance is the reciprocal of the conductivity; in the case of the magnetic circuit, the reluctance is the reciprocal of the permeability. as in the case of an electrical circuit, the amount of flow of current is equal to the electromotive force divided by the resistance; so in a magnetic circuit, the magnetic flux is equal to the magnetizing force or magnetomotive force divided by the reluctance. [illustration: fig. . bar electromagnet] types of low-reluctance circuits. as the pull of an electromagnet upon its armature depends on the total number of lines of force passing from the core to the armature--that is, on the total flux--and as the total flux depends for a given magnetizing force on the reluctance of the magnetic circuit, it is obvious that the design of the electromagnetic circuit is of great importance in influencing the action of the magnet. obviously, anything that will reduce the amount of air or other non-magnetic material that is in the magnetic circuit will tend to reduce the reluctance, and, therefore, to increase the total magnetization resulting from a given magnetizing force. _horseshoe form._ one of the easiest and most common ways of reducing reluctance in a circuit is to bend the ordinary bar electromagnet into horseshoe form. in order to make clear the direction of current flow, attention is called to fig. . this is intended to represent a simple bar of iron with a winding of one direction throughout its length. the gap in the middle of the bar, which divides the winding into two parts, is intended merely to mark the fact that the winding need not cover the whole length of the bar and still will be able to magnetize the bar when the current passes through it. in fig. a similar bar is shown with similar winding upon it, but bent into =u=-form, exactly as if it had been grasped in the hand and bent without further change. the magnetic polarity of the two ends of the bar remain the same as before for the same direction of current, and it is obvious that the portion of the magnetic circuit which extends through air has been very greatly shortened by the bending. as a result, the magnetic reluctance of the circuit has been greatly decreased and the strength of the magnet correspondingly increased. [illustration: fig. . bar electromagnet] [illustration: fig. . horseshoe electromagnet] [illustration: fig. . horseshoe electromagnet] if the armature of the electromagnet shown in fig. is long enough to extend entirely across the air gap from the south to the north pole, then the air gap in the magnetic circuit is still further shortened, and is now represented only by the small gap between the ends of the armature and the ends of the core. such a magnet, with an armature closely approaching the poles, is called a _closed-circuit magnet_, since the only gap in the iron of the magnetic circuit is that across which the magnet pulls in attracting its armature. in fig. is shown the electrical and magnetic counterpart of fig. . the fact that the magnetic circuit is not a single iron bar but is made up of two cores and one backpiece rigidly secured together, has no bearing upon the principle, but only shows that a modification of construction is possible. in the construction of fig. the armature _ _ is shown as being pulled directly against the two cores _ _ and _ _, these two cores being joined by a yoke _ _, which, like the armature and the core, is of magnetic material. the path of the lines of force is indicated by dotted lines. this is a very important form of electromagnet and is largely used in telephony. _iron-clad form_. another way of forming a closed-circuit magnet that is widely used in telephony is to enclose the helix or winding in a shell of magnetic material which joins the core at one end. this construction results in what is known as the _tubular_ or _iron-clad_ electromagnet, which is shown in section and in end view in fig. . in this the core _ _ is a straight bar of iron and it lies centrally within a cylindrical shell _ _, also of iron. the bar is usually held in place within the shell by a screw, as shown. the lines of force set up in the core by the current flowing through the coil, pass to the center of the bottom of the iron shell and thence return through the metal of the shell, through the air gap between the edges of the shell and the armature, and then concentrate at the center of the armature and pass back to the end of the core. this is a highly efficient form of closed-circuit magnet, since the magnetic circuit is of low reluctance. [illustration: fig. . iron-clad electromagnet] such forms of magnets are frequently used where it is necessary to mount a large number of them closely together and where it is desired that the current flowing in one magnet shall produce no inductive effect in the coils of the adjacent magnets. the reason why mutual induction between adjacent magnets is obviated in the case of the iron-clad or tubular magnet is that practically all stray field is eliminated, since the return path for the magnetic lines is so completely provided for by the presence of the iron shell. _special horseshoe form._ in fig. is shown a type of relay commonly employed in telephone circuits. the purpose of illustrating it in this chapter is not to discuss relays, but rather to show an adaptation of an electromagnet wherein low reluctance of the magnetic circuit is secured by providing a return leg for the magnetic lines developed in the core, thus forming in effect a horseshoe magnet with a winding on one of its limbs only. to the end of the core _ _ there is secured an =l=-shaped piece of soft iron _ _. this extends upwardly and then forwardly throughout the entire length of the magnet core. an =l=-shaped armature _ _ rests on the front edge of the piece _ _ so that a slight rocking motion will be permitted on the "knife-edge" bearing thus afforded. it is seen from the dotted lines that the magnetic circuit is almost a closed one. the only gap is that between the lower end of the armature _ _ and the front end of the core. when the coil is energized, this gap is closed by the attraction of the armature. as a result, the rearwardly projecting end of the armature _ _ is raised and this raises the spring _ _ and causes it to break the normally existing contact with the spring _ _ and to establish another contact with the spring _ _. thus the energy developed within the coil of the magnet is made to move certain parts which in turn operate the switching devices to produce changes in electrical circuits. these relays and other adaptations of the electromagnet will be discussed more fully later on. [illustration: fig. . electromagnet of relay] there are almost numberless forms of electromagnets, but we have illustrated here examples of the principal types employed in telephony, and the modifications of these types will be readily understood in view of the general principles laid down. direction of armature motion. it may be said in general that the armature of an electromagnet always moves or tends to move, when the coil is energized, in such a way as to reduce the reluctance of the magnetic circuit through the coil. thus, in all of the forms of electromagnets discussed, the armature, when attracted, moves in such a direction as to shorten the air gap and to introduce the iron of the armature as much as possible into the path of the magnetic lines, thus reducing the reluctance. in the case of a solenoid type of electromagnet, or the coil and plunger type, which is a better name than solenoid, the coil, when energized, acts in effect to suck the iron core or plunger within itself so as to include more and more of the iron within the most densely occupied portion of the magnetic circuit. [illustration: fig. . parallel differential electromagnet] differential electromagnet. frequently in telephony, the electromagnets are provided with more than one winding. one purpose of the double-wound electromagnet is to produce the so-called differential action between the two windings, _i.e._, making one of the windings develop magnetization in the opposite direction from that of the other, so that the two will neutralize each other, or at least exert different and opposite influences. the principle of the differential electromagnet may be illustrated in connection with fig. . here two wires _ _ and _ _ are shown wrapped in the same direction about an iron core, the ends of the wire being joined together at _ _. obviously, if one of these windings only is employed and a current sent through it, as by connecting the terminals of a battery with the points _ _ and _ _, for instance, the core will be magnetized as in an ordinary magnet. likewise, the core will be energized if a current be sent from _ _ to _ _. assuming that the two windings are of equal resistance and number of turns, the effects so produced, when either the coil _ _ or the coil _ _ is energized, will be equal. if the battery be connected between the terminals _ _ and _ _ with the positive pole, say, at _ _, then the current will proceed through the winding _ _ and tend to generate magnetism in the core in the direction of the arrow. after traversing the winding _ _, however, it will then begin to traverse the other winding _ _ and will pass around the core in the opposite direction throughout the length of that winding. this will tend to set up magnetism in the core in the opposite direction to that indicated by the arrow. since the two currents are equal and also the number of turns in each winding, it is obvious that the two magnetizing influences will be exactly equal and opposite and no magnetic effect will be produced. such a winding, as is shown in fig. , where the two wires are laid on side by side, is called a _parallel differential winding_. another way of winding magnets differentially is to put one winding on one end of the core and the other winding on the other end of the core and connect these so as to cause the currents through them to flow around the core in opposite directions. such a construction is shown in fig. and is called a _tandem differential winding_. the tandem arrangement, while often good enough for practical purposes, cannot result in the complete neutralization of magnetic effect. this is true because of the leakage of some of the lines of force from intermediate points in the length of the core through the air, resulting in some of the lines passing through more of the turns of one coil than of the other. complete neutralization can only be attained by first twisting the two wires together with a uniform lay and then winding them simultaneously on the core. [illustration: fig. . tandem differential electromagnet] mechanical details. we will now consider the actual mechanical construction of the electromagnet. this is a very important feature of telephone work, because, not only must the proper electrical and magnetic effects be produced, but also the whole structure of the magnet must be such that it will not easily get out of order and not be affected by moisture, heat, careless handling, or other adverse conditions. the most usual form of magnet construction employed in telephony is shown in fig. . on the core, which is of soft norway iron, usually cylindrical in form, are forced two washers of either fiber or hard rubber. fiber is ordinarily to be preferred because it is tougher and less liable to breakage. around the core, between the two heads, are then wrapped several layers of paper or specially prepared cloth in order that the wire forming the winding may be thoroughly insulated from the core. one end of the wire is then passed through a hole in one of the spool heads or washers, near the core, and the wire is then wound on in layers. sometimes a thickness of paper is placed around each layer of wire in order to further guard against the breaking down of the insulation between layers. when the last layer is wound on, the end of the wire is passed out through a hole in the head, thus leaving both ends projecting. [illustration: fig. construction of electromagnet] magnet wire. the wire used in winding magnets is, of course, an important part of the electromagnet. it is always necessary that the adjacent turns of the wire be insulated from each other so that the current shall be forced to pass around the core through all the length of wire in each turn rather than allowing it to take the shorter and easier path from one turn to the next, as would be the case if the turns were not insulated. for this purpose the wire is usually covered with a coating of some insulating material. there are, however, methods of winding magnet coils with bare wire and taking care of the insulation between the turns in another way, as will be pointed out. insulated wire for the purpose of winding magnet coils is termed _magnet wire_. copper is the material almost universally employed for the conductor. its high conductivity, great ductility, and low cost are the factors which make it superior to all other metals. however, in special cases, where exceedingly high conductivity is required with a limited winding space, silver wire is sometimes employed, and on the other hand, where very high resistance is desired within a limited winding space, either iron or german silver or some other high-resistance alloy is used. _wire gauges_. wire for electrical purposes is drawn to a number of different standard gauges. each of the so-called wire gauges consists of a series of graded sizes of wire, ranging from approximately one-half an inch in diameter down to about the fineness of a lady's hair. in certain branches of telephone work, such as line construction, the existence of the several wire gauges or standards is very likely to lead to confusion. fortunately, however, so far as magnet wire is concerned, the so-called brown and sharpe, or american, wire gauge is almost universally employed in this country. the abbreviations for this gauge are b.&s. or a.w.g. table iii copper wire table giving weights, lengths, and resistances of wire @ ° f., of matthiessen's standard conductivity. +-------+----------+----------+-----------------------+--------------------+-----------------------+ | | | | resistance | length | weight | | a.w.g.| diameter | area +-----------------------+--------------------+-----------------------+ | b.&s. | mils | circular | ohms per | ohms per | feet per | feet per| pounds per |pounds per| | | | mils | pound | foot | pound | ohm | foot | ohm | +-------+----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------+------------+----------+ | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | , . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | , . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | , . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | , . | +-------+----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------+------------+----------+ | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | , . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | , . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | +-------+----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------+------------+----------+ | | . | , . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | , . | . | . | . | . | . | . | +-------+----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------+------------+----------+ | | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | . | +-------+----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------+------------+----------+ | | . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | , . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | , . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | , . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | , . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | , . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | , . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | , . | . | , . | . | . | . | | | . | . | , . | . | , . | . | . | . | +-------+----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------+------------+----------+ [illustration: south office of home telephone company, san francisco] in the brown and sharpe gauge the sizes, beginning with the largest, are numbered , , , , , , and so on up to . sizes larger than about no. b.&s. gauge are seldom used as magnet wire in telephony, but for the purpose of making the list complete, table iii is given, including all of the sizes of the b.&s. gauge. in table iii there is given for each gauge number the diameter of the wire in mils (thousandths of an inch); the cross-sectional area in circular mils (a unit area equal to that of a circle having a diameter of one one-thousandth of an inch); the resistance of the wire in various units of length and weight; the length of the wire in terms of resistance and of weight; and the weight of the wire in terms of its length and resistance. it is to be understood that in table iii the wire referred to is bare wire and is of pure copper. it is not commercially practicable to use absolutely pure copper, and the ordinary magnet wire has a conductivity equal to about per cent of that of pure copper. the figures given in this table are sufficiently accurate for all ordinary practical purposes. _silk and cotton insulation_. the insulating material usually employed for covering magnet wire is of silk or cotton. of these, silk is by far the better material for all ordinary purposes, since it has a much higher insulating property than cotton, and is very much thinner. cotton, however, is largely employed, particularly in the larger sizes of magnet wire. both of these materials possess the disadvantage of being hygroscopic, that is, of readily absorbing moisture. this disadvantage is overcome in many cases by saturating the coil after it is wound in some melted insulating compound, such as wax or varnish or asphaltum, which will solidify on cooling. where the coils are to be so saturated the best practice is to place them in a vacuum chamber and exhaust the air, after which the hot insulating compound is admitted and is thus drawn into the innermost recesses of the winding space. silk-insulated wire, as regularly produced, has either one or two layers of silk. this is referred to commercially as single silk wire or as double silk wire. the single silk has a single layer of silk fibers wrapped about it, while the double silk has a double layer, the two layers being put on in reverse direction. the same holds true of cotton insulated wire. frequently, also, there is a combination of the two, consisting of a single or a double wrapping of silk next to the wire with an outer wrapping of cotton. where this is done the cotton serves principally as a mechanical protection for the silk, the principal insulating properties residing in the silk. _enamel_. a later development in the insulation of magnet wire has resulted in the so-called enamel wire. in this, instead of coating the wire with some fibrous material such as silk or cotton, the wire is heated and run through a bath of fluid insulating material or liquid enamel, which adheres to the wire in a very thin coating. the wire is then run through baking ovens, so that the enamel is baked on. this process is repeated several times so that a number of these thin layers of the enamel are laid on and baked in succession. the characteristics sought in good enamel insulation for magnet wire may be thus briefly set forth: it is desirable for the insulation to possess the highest insulating qualities; to have a glossy, flawless surface; to be hard without being brittle; to adhere tenaciously and stand all reasonable handling without cracking or flaking; to have a coefficient of elasticity greater than the wire itself; to withstand high temperatures; to be moisture-proof and inert to corrosive agencies; and not to "dry out" or become brittle over a long period of time. _space utilization_. the utilization of the winding space in an electromagnet is an important factor in design, since obviously the copper or other conductor is the only part of the winding that is effective in setting up magnetizing force. the space occupied by the insulation is, in this sense, waste space. an ideally perfect winding may be conceived as one in which the space is all occupied by wire; and this would necessarily involve the conception of wire of square cross-section and insulation of infinite thinness. in such a winding there would be no waste of space and a maximum amount of metal employed as a conductor. of course, such a condition is not possible to attain and in practice some insulating material must be introduced between the layers of wire and between the adjacent convolutions of wire. the ratio of the space occupied by the conductor to the total space occupied by the winding, that is, by the conductor and the insulation, is called the _coefficient of space utilization of the coil_. for the ideal coil just conceived the coefficient of space utilization would be . ordinarily the coefficient of space utilization is greater for coarse wire than for fine wire, since obviously the ratio of the diameter of the wire to the thickness of the insulation increases as the size of the wire grows larger. the chief advantage of enamel insulation for magnet wire is its thinness, and the high coefficient of space utilization which may be secured by its use. in good enamel wire the insulation will average about one-quarter the thickness of the standard single silk insulation, and the dielectric strength is equal or greater. where economy of winding space is desirable the advantages of this may readily be seen. for instance, in a given coil wound with no. single silk wire about one-half of the winding space is taken up with the insulation, whereas when the same coil is wound with no. enameled wire only about one-fifth of the winding space is taken up by the insulation. thus the coefficient of space utilization is increased from . to . . the practical result of this is that, in the case of any given winding space where no. wire is used, about per cent more turns can be put on with enameled wire than with single silk insulation, and of course this ratio greatly increases when the comparison is made with double silk insulation or with cotton insulation. again, where it is desired to reduce the winding space and keep the same number of turns, an equal number of turns may be had with a corresponding reduction of winding space where enameled wire is used in place of silk or cotton. in the matter of heat-resisting properties the enameled wire possesses a great advantage over silk and cotton. cotton or silk insulation will char at about ° fahrenheit, while good enameled wire will stand ° to ° fahrenheit without deterioration of the insulation. it is in the matter of liability to injury in rough or careless handling, or in winding coils having irregular shapes, that enamel wire is decidedly inferior to silk or cotton-covered wire. it is likely to be damaged if it is allowed to strike against the sharp corners of the magnet spool during winding, or run over the edge of a hard surface while it is being fed on to the spool. coils having other than round cores, or having sharp corners on their spool heads, should not ordinarily be wound with enamel wire. the dielectric strength of enamel insulation is much greater than that of either silk or cotton insulation of equal thickness. this is a distinct advantage and frequently a combination of the two kinds of insulation results in a superior wire. if wire insulated with enamel is given a single wrapping of silk or of cotton, the insulating and dielectric properties of the enamel is secured, while the presence of the silk and cotton affords not only an additional safeguard against bare spots in the enamel but also a certain degree of mechanical protection to the enamel. winding methods. in winding a coil, the spool, after being properly prepared, is placed upon a spindle which may be made to revolve rapidly. ordinarily the wire is guided on by hand; sometimes, however, machinery is used, the wire being run over a tool which moves to and fro along the length of the spool, just fast enough to lay the wire on at the proper rate. the movement of this tool is much the same as that of the tool in a screw cutting lathe. unless high voltages are to be encountered, it is ordinarily not necessary to separate the layers of wire with paper, in the case of silk-or cotton-insulated magnet wire; although where especially high insulation resistance is needed this is often done. it is necessary to separate the successive layers of a magnet that is wound with enamel wire, by sheets of paper or thin oiled cloth. [illustration: fig. . electromagnet with bare wire] in fig. is shown a method, that has been used with some success, of winding magnets with bare wire. in this the various adjacent turns are separated from each other by a fine thread of silk or cotton wound on beside the wire. each layer of wire and thread as it is placed on the core is completely insulated from the subsequent layer by a layer of paper. this is essentially a machine-wound coil, and machines for winding it have been so perfected that several coils are wound simultaneously, the paper being fed in automatically at the end of each layer. another method of winding the bare wire omits the silk thread and depends on the permanent positioning of the wire as it is placed on the coil, due to the slight sinking into the layer of paper on which it is wound. in this case the feed of the wire at each turn of the spool is slightly greater than the diameter of the wire, so that a small distance will be left between each pair of adjacent turns. upon the completion of the winding of a coil, regardless of what method is used, it is customary to place a layer of bookbinders' cloth over the coil so as to afford a certain mechanical protection for the insulated wire. _winding terminals_. the matter of bringing out the terminal ends of the winding is one that has received a great deal of attention in the construction of electromagnets and coils for various purposes. where the winding is of fine wire, it is always well to reinforce its ends by a short piece of larger wire. where this is done the larger wire is given several turns around the body of the coil, so that the finer wire with which it connects may be relieved of all strain which may be exerted upon it from the protruding ends of the wire. great care is necessary in the bringing out of the inner terminal--_i.e._, the terminal which connects with the inner layer--that the terminal wire shall not come in contact with any of the subsequent layers that are wound on. [illustration fig. . electromagnet with terminals] where economy of space is necessary, a convenient method of terminating the winding of the coil consists in fastening rigid terminals to the spool head. this, in the case of a fiber spool head, may be done by driving heavy metal terminals into the fiber. the connections of the two wires leading from the winding are then made with these heavy rigid terminals by means of solder. a coil having such terminals is shown in its finished condition in fig. . _winding data_. the two things principally affecting the manufacture of electromagnets for telephone purposes are _the number of turns in a winding_ and _the resistance of the wound wire_. the latter governs the amount of current which may flow through the coil with a given difference of potential at its end, while the former control the amount of magnetism produced in the core by the current flowing. while a coil is being wound, it is a simple matter to count the turns by any simple form of revolution counter. when the coil has been completed it is a simple matter to measure its resistance. but it is not so simple to determine in advance how many turns of a given size wire may be placed on a given spool, and still less simple to know what the resistance of the wire on that spool will be when the desired turns shall have been wound. table iv winding data for insulated wires--silk and cotton covering a.w.g. b & s | --------------------------------------------------------------------- diameter | mils | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- area | circular mils | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- diameter over | insulation | single | cotton | . . . . . . | double | cotton | . . . . . . | single silk | . . . , . . | double silk | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- turns per | linear inch | single | cotton | . . . . . . | double | . . . . . . cotton | | single silk | . . . . . . | double silk | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- turns per | square inch | single | cotton | . . . . . . | double | cotton | . . . . . . | single silk | . . . . . . | double silk | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- ohms per | cubic inch | single | cotton | . . . . . . | double | cotton | . . . . . . | single silk | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- a.w.g. b & s | --------------------------------------------------------------------- diameter | mils | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- area | circular mils | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- diameter over | insulation | single | cotton | . . . . . . | double | cotton | . . . . . . | single silk | . . . . . . | double silk | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- turns per | linear inch | single | cotton | . . . . . . | double | cotton | . . . . . . | single silk | . . . . . . | double silk | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- turns per | square inch | single | cotton | . . . . . . | double | cotton | . . . . . . | single silk | . . . . . . | double silk | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- ohms per | cubic inch | single | cotton | . . . . . . | double | cotton | . . . . . . | single silk | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- a.w.g. b & s | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- diameter | mils | . . . . . . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- area | circular mils | . . . . . . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- diameter over | insulation | single | cotton | . . . . . . | double | cotton | . . . . . . | single silk | . . . . . . | double silk | . . . . . . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- turns per | linear inch | single | cotton | . . . . . . | double | cotton | . . . . . . | single silk | . . . . . . | double silk | . . . . . . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- turns per | square inch | single | . . . . . . cotton | | double | cotton | . . . . . . | single silk | . . . . . . | double silk | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- ohms per | cubic inch | single | cotton | . . . . . . | double | cotton | . . . . . . | single silk | . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- a.w.g. b & s | -------------------------------------------- diameter | mils | . . . -------------------------------------------- area | circular mils | . . . -------------------------------------------- diameter over | insulation | single | cotton | . . . | double | cotton | . . . | single silk | . . . | double silk | . . . -------------------------------------------- turns per | linear inch | single | cotton | . . . | double | cotton | . . . | single silk | . . . | double silk | . . . -------------------------------------------- turns per | square inch | single | cotton | . . . | double | . . . cotton | | single silk | . . . | double silk | . . . -------------------------------------------- ohms per | cubic inch | single | cotton | . . . | double | . . . cotton | | single silk | . . . ------------------------------------------- if the length and the depth of the winding space of the coil as well as the diameter of the core are known, it is not difficult to determine how much bare copper wire of a given size may be wound on it, but it is more difficult to know these facts concerning copper wire which has been covered with cotton or silk. yet something may be done, and tables have been prepared for standard wire sizes with definite thicknesses of silk and cotton insulation. as a result of facts collected from a large number of actually wound coils, the number of turns per linear inch and per square inch of b.&s. gauge wires from no. to no. have been tabulated, and these, supplemented by a tabulation of the number of ohms per cubic inch of winding space for wires of three different kinds of insulation, are given in table iv. bearing in mind that the calculations of table iv are all based upon the "diameter over insulation," which it states at the outset for each of four different kinds of covering, it is evident what is meant by "turns per linear inch." the columns referring to "turns per square inch" mean the number of turns, the ends of which would be exposed in one square inch if the wound coil were cut in a plane passing through the axis of the core. knowing the distance between the head, and the depth to which the coil is to be wound, it is easy to select a size of wire which will give the required number of turns in the provided space. it is to be noted that the depth of winding space is one-half of the difference between the core diameter and the complete diameter of the wound coil. the resistance of the entire volume of wound wire may be determined in advance by knowing the total cubic contents of the winding space and multiplying this by the ohms per cubic inch of the selected wire; that is, one must multiply in inches the distance between the heads of the spool by the difference between the squares of the diameters of the core and the winding space, and this in turn by . . this result, times the ohms per cubic inch, as given in the table, gives the resistance of the winding. there is a considerable variation in the method of applying silk insulation to the finer wires, and it is in the finer sizes that the errors, if any, pile up most rapidly. yet the table throughout is based on data taken from many samples of actual coil winding by the present process of winding small coils. it should be said further that the table does not take into account the placing of any layers of paper between the successive layers of the wires. this table has been compared with many examples and has been used in calculating windings in advance, and is found to be as close an approximation as is afforded by any of the formulas on the subject, and with the further advantage that it is not so cumbersome to apply. _winding calculations._ in experimental work, involving the winding of coils, it is frequently necessary to try one winding to determine its effect in a given circuit arrangement, and from the knowledge so gained to substitute another just fitted to the conditions. it is in such a substitution that the table is of most value. assume a case in which are required a spool and core of a given size with a winding of, say no. single silk-covered wire, of a resistance of ohms. assume also that the circuit regulations required that this spool should be rewound so as to have a resistance of, say , ohms. what size single silk-covered wire shall be used? manifestly, the winding space remains the same, or nearly so. the resistance is to be increased from to , ohms, or twenty times its first value. therefore, the wire to be used must show in the table twenty times as many ohms per cubic inch as are shown in no. , the known first size. this amount would be twenty times . , which is . , but there is no size giving this exact resistance. no. , however, is very nearly of that resistance and if wound to exactly the same depth would give about ohms. a few turns more would provide the additional thirty ohms. similarly, in a coil known to possess a certain number of turns, the table will give the size to be selected for rewinding to a greater or smaller number of turns. in this case, as in the case of substituting a winding of different resistance, it is unnecessary to measure and calculate upon the dimensions of the spool and core. assume a spool wound with no. double silk-covered wire, which requires to be wound with a size to double the number of turns. the exact size to do this would have . turns per square inch and would be between no. and no. . a choice of these two wires may be made, using an increased winding depth with the smaller wire and a shallower winding depth for the larger wire. impedance coils. in telephony electromagnets frequently serve, as already stated, to perform other functions than the producing of motion by attracting or releasing their armatures. they are required to act as impedance coils to present a barrier to the passage of alternating or other rapidly fluctuating currents, and at the same time to allow the comparatively free passage of steady currents. where it is desired that an electromagnet coil shall possess high impedance, it is usual to employ a laminated instead of a solid core. this is done by building up a core of suitable size by laying together thin sheets of soft iron, or by forming a bundle of soft iron wires. the use of laminated cores is for the purpose of preventing eddy currents, which, if allowed to flow, would not only be wasteful of energy but would also tend to defeat the desired high impedance. sometimes in iron-clad impedance coils, the iron shell is slotted longitudinally to break up the flow of eddy currents in the shell. frequently electromagnetic coils have only the function of offering impedance, where no requirements exist for converting any part of the electric energy into mechanical work. where this is the case, such coils are termed _impedance_, or _retardation_, or _choke coils_, since they are employed to impede or to retard or to choke back the flow of rapidly varying current. the distinction, therefore, between an impedance coil and the coil of an ordinary electromagnet is one of function, since structurally they may be the same, and the same principles of design and construction apply largely to each. _number of turns_. it should be remembered that an impedance coil obstructs the passage of fluctuating current, not so much by ohmic resistance as by offering an opposing or counter-electromotive force. other things being equal, the counter-electromotive force of self-induction increases directly as the number of turns on a coil and directly as the number of lines of force threading the coil, and this latter factor depends also on the reluctance of the magnetic circuit. therefore, to secure high impedance we need many turns or low reluctance, or both. often, owing to requirements for direct-current carrying capacity and limitations of space, a very large number of turns is not permissible, in which case sufficiently high impedance to such rapid fluctuations as those of voice currents may be had by employing a magnetic circuit of very low reluctance, usually a completely closed circuit. _kind of iron. _an important factor in the design of impedance coils is the grade of iron used in the magnetic circuit. obviously, it should be of the highest permeability and, furthermore, there should be ample cross-section of core to prevent even an approach to saturation. the iron should, if possible, be worked at that density of magnetization at which it has the highest permeability in order to obtain the maximum impedance effects. _types._ open-circuit:--where very feeble currents are being dealt with, and particularly where there is no flow of direct current, an open magnetic circuit is much used. an impedance coil having an open magnetic circuit is shown in section in fig. , fig. showing its external appearance and illustrating particularly the method of bringing out the terminals of the winding. [illustration: fig. . section of open-circuit impedance coil] [illustration: fig. . open-circuit impedance coil] [illustration: fig. . closed-circuit impedance coil] closed-circuit:--a type of retardation coil which is largely used in systems of simultaneous telegraphy and telephony, known as _composite systems_, is shown in fig. . in the construction of this coil the core is made of a bundle of fine iron wires first bent into u-shape, and then after the coils are in place, the free ends of the core are brought together to form a closed magnetic circuit. the coils have a large number of turns of rather coarse wire. the conditions surrounding the use of this coil are those which require very high impedance and rather large current-carrying capacity, and fortunately the added requirement, that it shall be placed in a very small space, does not exist. toroidal:--another type of retardation coil, called the toroidal type due to the fact that its core is a torus formed by winding a continuous length of fine iron wire, is shown in diagram in fig. . the two windings of this coil may be connected in series to form in effect a single winding, or it may be used as a "split-winding" coil, the two windings being in series but having some other element, such as a battery, connected between them in the circuit. evidently such a coil, however connected, is well adapted for high impedance, on account of the low reluctance of its core. [illustration: fig. . symbol of toroidal impedance coil] this coil is usually mounted on a base-board, the coil being enclosed in a protecting iron case, as shown in fig. . the terminal wires of both windings of each coil are brought out to terminal punchings on one end of the base-board to facilitate the making of the necessary circuit connections. [illustration: fig. . toroidal impedance coil] the usual diagrammatic symbol for an impedance coil is shown in fig. . this is the same as for an ordinary bar magnet, except that the parallel lines through the core may be taken as indicating that the core is laminated, thus conveying the idea of high impedance. the symbol of fig. is a good one for the toroidal type of impedance coil. [illustration: fig. . symbol of impedance coil] induction coil. an induction coil consists of two or more windings of wire interlinked by a common magnetic circuit. in an induction coil having two windings, any change in the strength of the current flowing in one of the windings, called the _primary_, will cause corresponding changes in the magnetic flux threading the magnetic circuit, and, therefore, changes in flux through the other winding, called the _secondary_. this, by the laws of electromagnetic induction, will produce corresponding electromotive forces in the secondary winding and, therefore, corresponding currents in that winding if its circuit be closed. _current and voltage ratios._ in a well-designed induction coil the energy in the secondary, _i.e._, the induced current, is for all practical purposes equal to that of the primary current, yet the values of the voltage and the amperage of the induced current may vary widely from the values of the voltage and the amperage of the primary current. with simple periodic currents, such as the commercial alternating lighting currents, the ratio between the voltage in the primary and that in the secondary will be equal to the ratio of the number of turns in the primary to the number of turns in the secondary. since the energy in the two circuits will be practically the same, it follows _that the ratio between the current in the primary and that in the secondary will be equal to the ratio of the number of turns in the secondary to the number of turns in the primary_. in telephony, where the currents are not simple periodic currents, and where the variations in current strength take place at different rates, such a law as that just stated does not hold for all cases; but it may be stated in general that _the induced currents will be of higher voltage and smaller current strength than those of the primary in all coils where the secondary winding has a greater number of turns than the primary_, and _vice versâ_. _functions._ the function of the induction coil in telephony is, therefore, mainly one of transformation, that is, either of stepping up the voltage of a current, or in other cases stepping it down. the induction coil, however, does serve another purpose in cases where no change in voltage and current strength is desired, that is, it serves as a means for electrically separating two circuits so far as any conductive relation exists, and yet of allowing the free transmission by induction from one of these circuits to the other. this is a function that in telephony is scarcely of less importance than the purely transforming function. _design._ induction coils, as employed in telephony, may be divided into two general types: first, those having an open magnetic circuit; and, second, those having a closed magnetic circuit. in the design of either type it is important that the core should be thoroughly laminated, and this is done usually by forming it of a bundle of soft swedish or norway iron wire about . of an inch in diameter. the diameter and the length of the coil, and the relation between the number of turns in the primary and in the secondary, and the mechanical construction of the coil, are all matters which are subject to very wide variation in practice. while the proper relationship of these factors is of great importance, yet they may not be readily determined except by actual experiment with various coils, owing to the extreme complexity of the action which takes place in them and to the difficulty of obtaining fundamental data as to the existing facts. it may be stated, therefore, that the design of induction coils is nearly always carried out by "cut-and-try" methods, bringing to bear, of course, such scientific and practical knowledge as the experimenter may possess. [illustration: fig. . induction coil] [illustration: fig. . section of induction coil] _use and advantage._ the use and advantages of the induction coil in so-called local-battery telephone sets have already been explained in previous chapters. such induction coils are nearly always of the open magnetic circuit type, consisting of a long, straight core comprised of a bundle of small annealed iron wires, on which is wound a primary of comparatively coarse wire and having a small number of turns, and over which is wound a secondary of comparatively fine wire and having a very much larger number of turns. a view of such a coil mounted on a base is shown in fig. , and a sectional view of a similar coil is shown in fig. . the method of bringing out the winding terminals is clearly indicated in this figure, the terminal wires _ _ and _ _ being those of the primary winding and _ _ and _ _ those of the secondary winding. it is customary to bring out these wires and attach them by solder to suitable terminal clips. in the case of the coil shown in fig. these clips are mounted on the wooden heads of the coil, while in the design shown in fig. they are mounted on the base, as is clearly indicated. repeating coil. the so-called repeating coil used in telephony is really nothing but an induction coil. it is used in a variety of ways and usually has for its purpose the inductive association of two circuits that are conductively separated. usually the repeating coil has a one to one ratio of turns, that is, there are the same number of turns in the primary as in the secondary. however, this is not always the case, since sometimes they are made to have an unequal number of turns, in which case they are called _step-up _or _step-down_ repeating coils, according to whether the primary has a smaller or a greater number of turns than the secondary. repeating coils are almost universally of the closed magnetic circuit type. _ringing and talking considerations._ since repeating coils often serve to connect two telephones, it follows that it is sometimes necessary to ring through them as well as talk through them. by this is meant that it is necessary that the coil shall be so designed as to be capable of transforming the heavy ringing currents as well as the very much smaller telephone or voice currents. ringing currents ordinarily have a frequency ranging from about to cycles per second, while voice currents have frequencies ranging from a few hundred up to perhaps ten thousand per second. ordinarily, therefore, the best form of repeating coil for transforming voice currents is not the best for transforming the heavy ringing currents and _vice versâ_. if the comparatively heavy ringing currents alone were to be considered, the repeating coil might well be of heavy construction with a large amount of iron in its magnetic circuit. on the other hand, for carrying voice currents alone it is usually made with a small amount of iron and with small windings, in order to prevent waste of energy in the core, and to give a high degree of responsiveness with the least amount of distortion of wave form, so that the voice currents will retain as far as possible their original characteristics. when, therefore, a coil is required to carry both ringing and talking currents, a compromise must be effected. _types._ the form of repeating coil largely used for both ringing and talking through is shown in fig. . this coil comprises a soft iron core made up of a bundle of wires about . inch in diameter, the ends of which are left of sufficient length to be bent back around the windings after they are in place and thus form a completely closed magnetic path for the core. the windings of this particular coil are four in number, and contain about , turns each, and have a resistance of about ohms. in this coil, when connected for local battery work, the windings are connected in pairs in series, thus forming effectively two windings having about ohms resistance each. the whole coil is enclosed in a protecting case of iron. the terminals are brought out to suitable clips on the wooden base, as shown. an external perspective view of this coil is shown in fig. . by bringing out each terminal of each winding, eight in all, as shown in this figure, great latitude of connection is provided for, since the windings may be connected in circuit in any desirable way, either by connecting them together in pairs to form virtually a primary and a secondary, or, as is frequently the case, to split the primary and the secondary, connecting a battery between each pair of windings. [illustration: fig. . repeating coil] [illustration: fig. . repeating coil] fig. illustrates in section a commercial type of coil designed for talking through only. this coil is provided with four windings of , turns each, and when used for local battery work the coils are connected in pairs in series, thus giving a resistance of about ohms in each half of the repeating coil. the core of this coil consists of a bundle of soft iron wires, and the shell which forms the return path for the magnetic lines is of very soft sheet iron. this shell is drawn into cup shape and its open end is closed, after the coil is inserted, by the insertion of a soft iron head, as indicated. as in the case of the coil shown in figs. and , eight terminals are brought out on this coil, thus providing the necessary flexibility of connection. [illustration: fig. . repeating coil] [illustration: fig. . diagram of toroidal repeating coil] [illustration: fig. . toroidal repeating coil] still another type of repeating coil is illustrated in diagram in fig. , and in view in fig. . this coil, like the impedance coil shown in fig. , comprises a core made up of a bundle of soft iron wires wound into the form of a ring. it is usually provided with two primary windings placed opposite each other upon the core, and with two secondary windings, one over each primary. in practice these two primary windings are connected in one circuit and the two secondaries in another. this is the standard repeating coil now used by the bell companies in their common-battery cord circuits. [illustration: the operating room of the exchange at webb city, missouri] [illustration: fig. . symbol of induction coil] conventional symbols. the ordinary symbol for the induction coil used in local battery work is shown in fig. . this consists merely of a pair of parallel zig-zag lines. the primary winding is usually indicated by a heavy line having a fewer number of zig-zags, and the secondary by a finer line having a greater number of zig-zags. in this way the fact that the primary is of large wire and of comparatively few turns is indicated. this diagrammatic symbol may be modified to suit almost any conditions, and where a tertiary as well as a secondary winding is provided it may be shown by merely adding another zig-zag line. [illustration: fig. . repeating-coil symbols] the repeating coil is indicated symbolically in the two diagrams of fig. . where there is no necessity for indicating the internal connections of the coil, the symbol shown in the left of this figure is usually employed. where, however, the coil consists of four windings rather than two and the method of connecting them is to be indicated, the symbol at the right hand is employed. in fig. another way of indicating a four-winding repeating coil or induction coil is shown. sometimes such windings may be combined by connection to form merely a primary and a secondary winding, and in other cases the four windings all act separately, in which case one may be considered the primary and the others, respectively, the secondary, tertiary, and quaternary. [illustration: fig. . symbol of four-winding repeating coil] where the toroidal type of repeating coil is employed, the diagram of fig. , already referred to, is a good symbolic representation. chapter xi non-inductive resistance devices it is often desired to introduce simple ohmic resistance into telephone circuits, in order to limit the current flow, or to create specific differences of potential at given points in the circuit. temperature coefficient. the design or selection of resistance devices for various purposes frequently involves the consideration of the effect of temperature on the resistance of the conductor employed. the resistance of conductors is subject to change by changes in temperature. while nearly all metals show an increase, carbon shows a decrease in its resistance when heated. the temperature coefficient of a conductor is a factor by which the resistance of the conductor at a given temperature must be multiplied in order to determine the change in resistance of that conductor brought about by a rise in temperature of one degree. table v temperature coefficients +---------------------------+-----------------------------+ | pure metals | temperature coefficients | +---------------------------+--------------+--------------+ | | centigrade | fahrenheit | +---------------------------+--------------+--------------+ | silver (annealed) | . | . | | copper (annealed) | . | . | | gold ( . %) | . | . | | aluminum ( %) | . | . | | zinc | . | . | | platinum (annealed) | . | . | | iron | . | . | | nickel | . | . | | tin | . | . | | lead | . | . | | antimony | . | . | | mercury | . | . | | bismuth | . | . | +---------------------------+--------------+--------------+ _positive and negative coefficients._ those conductors, in which a rise in temperature produces an increase in resistance, are said to have positive temperature coefficients, while those in which a rise in temperature produces a lowering of resistance are said to have negative temperature coefficients. the temperature coefficients of pure metals are always positive and for some of the more familiar metals, have values, according to foster, as in table v. iron, it will be noticed, has the highest temperature coefficient of all. carbon, on the other hand, has a large negative coefficient, as proved by the fact that the filament of an ordinary incandescent lamp has nearly twice the resistance when cold as when heated to full candle-power. certain alloys have been produced which have very low temperature coefficients, and these are of value in producing resistance units which have practically the same resistance for all ordinary temperatures. some of these alloys also have very high resistance as compared with copper and are of value in enabling one to obtain a high resistance in small space. one of the most valuable resistance wires is of an alloy known as _german silver_. the so-called eighteen per cent alloy has approximately . times the resistance of copper and a temperature coefficient of . per degree fahrenheit. the thirty per cent alloy has approximately times the resistance of copper and a temperature coefficient of . per degree fahrenheit. for facilitating the design of resistance coils of german silver wire, tables vi and vii are given, containing information as to length, resistance, and weight of the eighteen per cent and the thirty per cent alloys, respectively, for all sizes of wire smaller than no. b. & s. gauge. special resistance alloys may be obtained having temperature coefficients as low as . per degree fahrenheit. other alloys of nickel and steel are adapted for use where the wire must carry heavy currents and be raised to comparatively high temperatures thereby; for such use non-corrosive properties are specially to be desired. such wire may be obtained having a resistance of about fifty times that of copper. table vi per cent german silver wire +---------+----------+-----------------+----------------+---------------+ | no. | | | | | | b. & s. | diameter | weight | length | resistance | | gauge | inches | pounds per foot | feet per pound | ohms per foot | +---------+----------+-----------------+----------------+---------------+ | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | +---------+----------+-----------------+----------------+---------------+ inductive neutrality. where the resistance unit is required to be strictly non-inductive, and is to be in the form of a coil, special designs must be employed to give the desired inductive neutrality. provisions against heating. in cases where a considerable amount of heat is to be generated in the resistance, due to the necessity of carrying large currents, special precautions must be taken as to the heat-resisting properties of the structure, and also as to the provision of sufficient radiating surface or its equivalent to provide for the dissipation of the heat generated. types. _mica card unit._ one of the most common resistance coils used in practice is shown in fig. . this comprises a coil of fine, bare german silver wire wound on a card of mica, the windings being so spaced that the loops are not in contact with each other. the winding is protected by two cards of mica and the whole is bound in place by metal strips, to which the ends of the winding are attached. binding posts are provided on the extended portions of the terminals to assist in mounting the resistance on a supporting frame, and the posts terminate in soldering terminals by which the resistance is connected into the circuit. table vii per cent german silver wire +---------+----------+-----------------+----------------+---------------+ | no. | | | | | | b. & s. | diameter | weight | length | resistance | | gauge | inches | pounds per foot | feet per pound | ohms per foot | +---------+----------+-----------------+----------------+---------------+ | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | | | . | . | . | . | +---------+----------+-----------------+----------------+---------------+ _differentially-wound unit._ another type of resistance coil is that in which the winding is placed upon an insulating core of heat-resisting material and wound so as to overcome inductive effects. in order to accomplish this, the wire to be bound on the core is doubled back on itself at its middle portion to form two strands, and these are wound simultaneously on the core, thus forming two spirals of equal number of turns. the current in traversing the entire coil must flow through one spiral in one direction with relation to the core, and in the opposite direction in the other spiral, thereby nullifying the inductive effects of one spiral by those of the other. this is called a _non-inductive winding_ and is in reality an example of differential winding. _lamp filament._ an excellent type of non-inductive resistance is the ordinary carbon-filament incandescent lamp. this is used largely in the circuits of batteries, generators, and other sources of supply to prevent overload in case of short circuits on the line. these are cheap, durable, have large current-carrying capacities, and are not likely to set things afire when overheated. an additional advantage incident to their use for this purpose is that an overload on a circuit in which they are placed is visibly indicated by the glowing of the lamp. [illustration: fig. . mica card resistance] [illustration: fig. . iron-wire ballast] obviously, the carbon-filament incandescent lamp, when used as a resistance, has, on account of the negative temperature coefficient of carbon, the property of presenting the highest resistance to the circuit when carrying no current, and of presenting a lower and lower resistance as the current and consequent heating increases. for some conditions of practice this is not to be desired, and the opposite characteristic of presenting low resistance to small currents and comparatively high resistance to large currents would best meet the conditions of practice. _iron-wire ballast._ claude d. enochs took advantage of the very high positive temperature coefficient of iron to produce a resistance device having these characteristics. his arrangement possesses the compactness of the carbon-filament lamp and is shown in fig. . the resistance element proper is an iron wire, wound on a central stem of glass, and this is included in an exhausted bulb so as to avoid oxidation. such a resistance is comparatively low when cold, but when traversed by currents sufficient to heat it considerably will offer a very large increase of resistance to oppose the further increase of current. in a sense, it is a self-adjusting resistance, tending towards the equalization of the flow of current in the circuit in which it is placed. chapter xii condensers charge. a conducting body insulated from all other bodies will receive and hold a certain amount of electricity (a charge), if subjected to an electrical potential. thus, referring to fig. , if a metal plate, insulated from other bodies, be connected with, say, the positive pole of a battery, the negative pole of which is grounded, a current will flow into the plate until the plate is raised to the same potential as that of the battery pole to which it is connected. the amount of electricity that will flow into the plate will depend, other things being equal, on the potential of the source from which it is charged; in fact, it is proportional to the potential of the source from which it is charged. this amount of electricity is a measure of the capacity of the plate, just as the amount of water that a bath-tub will hold is a measure of the capacity of the bath-tub. capacity. instead of measuring the amount of electricity by the quart or pound, as in the case of material things, the unit of electrical quantity is the _coulomb_. the unit of capacity of an insulated conductor is the _farad_, and a given insulated conductor is said to have unit capacity, that is, the capacity of one farad, when it will receive a charge of one coulomb of electricity at a potential of one volt. referring to fig. , the potential of the negative terminal of the battery may be said to be zero, since it is connected to the earth. if the battery shown be supposed to have exactly one volt potential, then the plate would be said to have the capacity of one farad if one coulomb of electricity flowed from the battery to the plate before the plate was raised to the same potential as that of the positive pole, that is, to a potential of one volt above the potential of the earth; it being assumed that the plate was also at zero potential before the connection was made. another conception of this quantity may be had by remembering that a coulomb is such a quantity of current as will result from one ampere flowing one second. the capacity of a conductor depends, among other things, on its area. if the plate of fig. should be made twice as large in area, other things remaining the same, it would have twice the capacity. but there are other factors governing the capacity of a conductor. consider the diagram of fig. , which is supposed to represent two such plates as are shown in fig. , placed opposite each other and connected respectively with the positive and the negative poles of the battery. when the connection between the plates and the battery is made, the two plates become charged to a difference of potential equal to the electromotive force of the battery. in order to obtain these charges, assume that the plates were each at zero potential before the connection was made; then current flows from the battery into the plates until they each assume the potential of the corresponding battery terminal. if the two plates be brought closer together, it will be found that more current will now flow into each of them, although the difference of potential between the two plates must obviously remain the same, since each of them is still connected to the battery. [illustration: fig. . condenser plate] theory. due to the proximity of the plates, the positive electricity on plate _a_ is drawn by the negative charge on plate _b_ towards plate _b_, and likewise the negative electricity on plate _b_ is drawn to the side towards plate _a_ by the positive charge on that plate. these two charges so drawn towards each other will, so to speak, bind each other, and they are referred to as _bound charges_. the charge on the right-hand side of plate _a_ and on the left-hand side of plate _b_ will, however, be free charges, since there is nothing to attract them, and these are, therefore, neutralized by a further flow of electricity from the battery to the plate. [illustration: fig. . theory of condenser] obviously, the closer together the plates are the stronger will be the attractive influence of the two charges on each other. from this it follows that in the case of plate _a_, when the two plates are being moved closer together, more positive electricity will flow into plate _a_ to neutralize the increasing free negative charges on the right-hand side of the plate. as the plates are moved closer together still, a new distribution of charges will take place, resulting in more positive electricity flowing into plate _a_ and more negative electricity flowing into plate _b_. the closer proximity of the plates, therefore, increases the capacity of the plates for holding charges, due to the increased inductive action across the dielectric separating the plates. condenser defined. a condenser is a device consisting of two adjacent plates of conducting material, separated by an insulating material, called a _dielectric_. the purpose is to increase by the proximity of the plates, each to the other, the amount of electricity which each plate will receive and hold when subjected to a given potential. dielectric. we have already seen that the capacity of a condenser depends upon the area of its plates, and also upon their distance apart. there is still another factor on which the capacity of a condenser depends, _i.e._, on the character of the insulating medium separating its plates. the inductive action which takes place between a charged conductor and other conductors nearby it, as between plate _a_ and plate _b_ of fig. , is called _electrostatic induction_, and it plays an important part in telephony. it is found that the ability of a given charged conductor to induce charges on other neighboring conductors varies largely with the insulating medium or dielectric that separates them. this quality of a dielectric, by which it enables inductive action to take place between two separated conductors, is called _inductive capacity_. usually this quality of dielectrics is measured in terms of the same quality in dry air, this being taken as unity. when so expressed, it is termed _specific inductive capacity_. to be more accurate the specific inductive capacity of a dielectric is the ratio between the capacity of a condenser having that substance as a dielectric, to the capacity of the same condenser using dry air at zero degrees centigrade and at a pressure of . pounds per square inch as the dielectric. to illustrate, if two condensers having plates of equal size and equal distance apart are constructed, one using air as the dielectric and the other using hard crown glass as the dielectric, the one using glass will have a capacity of . times that of the one using air. from this we say that crown glass has a specific inductive capacity of . . various authorities differ rather widely as to the specific inductive capacity of many common substances. the values given in table viii have been chosen from the smithsonian physical tables. table viii specific inductive capacities +-----------------------+------------------------+ |dielectric | referred to air as | +-----------------------+------------------------+ |vacuum | . | |hydrogen | . | |carbonic acid | . | |dry paper | . to . | |paraffin | . to . | |ebonite | . to . | |sulphur | . to . | |shellac | . to . | |gutta-percha | . to . | |plate glass | . to . | |porcelain | . | |mica | . to . | |glass--light flint | . | |glass--hard crown | . | |selenium | . | +-----------------------+------------------------+ this data is interesting as showing the wide divergence in specific inductive capacities of various materials, and also showing the wide divergence in different observations of the same material. undoubtedly, this latter is due mainly to the fact that various materials differ largely in themselves, as in the case of paraffin, for instance, which exhibits widely different specific inductive capacities according to the difference in rapidity with which it is cooled in changing from a liquid to a solid state. we see then that the capacity of a condenser varies as the area of its plates, as the specific inductive capacity of the dielectric employed, and also inversely as the distance between the plates. obviously, therefore, in making a condenser of large capacity, it is important to have as large an area of the plate as possible; to have them as close together as possible; to have the dielectric a good insulating medium so that there will be practically no leakage between the plates; and to have the dielectric of as high a specific inductive capacity as economy and suitability of material in other respects will permit. dielectric materials. _mica_. of all dielectrics mica is the most suitable for condensers, since it has very high insulation resistance and also high specific inductive capacity, and furthermore may be obtained in very thin sheets. high-grade condensers, such as are used for measurements and standardization purposes, usually have mica for the dielectric. [illustration: fig. . rolled condenser] _dry paper. _the demands of telephonic practice are, however, such as to require condensers of very cheap construction with large capacity in a small space. for this purpose thin bond paper, saturated with paraffin, has been found to be the best dielectric. the conductors in condensers are almost always of tinfoil, this being an ideal material on account of its cheapness and its thinness. before telephony made such urgent demands for a cheap compact condenser, the customary way of making them was to lay up alternate sheets of dielectric material, either of oiled paper or mica and tinfoil, the sheets of tinfoil being cut somewhat smaller than the sheets of dielectric material in order that the proper insulation might be secured at the edges. after a sufficient number of such plates were built up the alternate sheets of tinfoil were connected together to form one composite plate of the condenser, while the other sheets were similarly connected together to form the other plate. obviously, in this way a very large area of plates could be secured with a minimum degree of separation. [illustration: fig. . rolled condenser] there has been developed for use in telephony, however, and its use has since extended into other arts requiring condensers, what is called the _rolled condenser_. this is formed by rolling together in a flat roll four sheets of thin bond paper, _ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _, and two somewhat narrower strips of tinfoil, _ _ and _ _, fig. . the strips of tinfoil and paper are fed on to the roll in continuous lengths and in such manner that two sheets of paper will lie between the two strips of tinfoil in all cases. thin sheet metal terminals _ _ and _ _ are rolled into the condenser as it is being wound, and as these project beyond the edges of the paper they form convenient terminals for the condenser after it is finished. after it is rolled, the roll is boiled in hot paraffin so as to thoroughly impregnate it and expel all moisture. it is then squeezed in a press and allowed to cool while under pressure. in this way the surplus paraffin is expelled and the plates are brought very close together. it then appears as in fig. . the condenser is now sealed in a metallic case, usually rectangular in form, and presents the appearance shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . rolled condenser] a later method of condenser making which has not yet been thoroughly proven in practice, but which bids fair to produce good results, varies from the method just described in that a paper is used which in itself is coated with a very thin conducting material. this conducting material is of metallic nature and in reality forms a part of the paper. to form a condenser of this the sheets are merely rolled together and then boiled in paraffin and compressed as before. sizes. the condensers ordinarily used in telephone practice range in capacity from about / microfarad to microfarads. when larger capacities than microfarads are desired, they may be obtained by connecting several of the smaller size condensers in multiple. table ix gives the capacity, shape, and dimensions of a variety of condensers selected from those regularly on the market. table ix condenser data +------------+---------------+---------------------------------+ | | | dimensions in inches | | capacity | shape |----------+----------+-----------+ | | | height | width | thickness | +------------+---------------+----------+----------+-----------+ | m. f. | rectangular | - / | - / | / | | m. f. | " | - / | - / | / | | m. f. | " | - / | - / | / | | / m. f. | " | - / | - / | / | | m. f. | " | - / | - / | / | | / m. f. | " | - / | - / | / | | / m. f. | " | - / | - / | / | | m. f. | " | - / | | l | +------------+---------------+----------+----------+-----------+ conventional symbols. the conventional symbols usually employed to represent condensers in telephone diagrams are shown in fig. . these all convey the idea of the adjacent conducting plates separated by insulating material. [illustration: fig. . condenser symbols] functions. obviously, when placed in a circuit a condenser offers a complete barrier to the flow of direct current, since no conducting path exists between its terminals, the dielectric offering a very high insulation resistance. if, however, the condenser is connected across the terminals of a source of alternating current, this current flows first in one direction and then in the other, the electromotive force in the circuit increasing from zero to a maximum in one direction, and then decreasing back to zero and to a maximum in the other direction, and so on. with a condenser connected so as to be subjected to such alternating electromotive forces, as the electromotive force begins to rise the electromotive force at the condenser terminals will also rise and a current will, therefore, flow into the condenser. when the electromotive force reaches its maximum, the condenser will have received its full charge for that potential, and the current flow into it will cease. when the electromotive force begins to fall, the condenser can no longer retain its charge and a current will, therefore, flow out of it. apparently, therefore, there is a flow of current through the condenser the same as if it were a conductor. means for assorting currents. in conclusion, it is obvious that the telephone engineer has within his reach in the various coils--whether non-inductive or inductive, or whether having one or several windings--and in the condenser, a variety of tools by which he may achieve a great many useful ends in his circuit work. obviously, the condenser affords a means for transmitting voice currents or fluctuating currents, and for excluding steady currents. likewise the impedance coil affords a means for readily transmitting steady currents but practically excluding voice currents or fluctuating currents. by the use of these very simple devices it is possible to sift out the voice currents from a circuit containing both steady and fluctuating currents, or it is possible in the same manner to sift out the steady currents and to leave the voice currents alone to traverse the circuit. great use is made in the design of telephone circuits of the fact that the electromagnets, which accomplish the useful mechanical results in causing the movement of parts, possess the quality of impedance. thus, the magnets which operate various signaling relays at the central office are often used also as impedance coils in portions of the circuit through which it is desired to have only steady currents pass. if, on the other hand, it is necessary to place a relay magnet, having considerable impedance, directly in a talking circuit, the bad effects of this on the voice currents may be eliminated by shunting this coil with a condenser, or with a comparatively high non-inductive resistance. the voice currents will flow around the high impedance of the relay coil through the condenser or resistance, while the steady currents, which are the ones which must be depended upon to operate the relay, are still forced in whole or in part to pass through the relay coil where they belong. in a similar way the induction coil affords a means for keeping two circuits completely isolated so far as the direct flow of current between them is concerned, and yet of readily transmitting, by electromagnetic induction, currents from one of these circuits to the other. here is a means of isolation so far as direct current is concerned, with complete communication for alternating current. chapter xiii current supply to transmitters the methods by which current is supplied to the transmitter of a telephone for energizing it, may be classified under two divisions: first, those where the battery or other source of current is located at the station with the transmitter which it supplies; and second, those where the battery or other source of current is located at a distant point from the transmitter, the battery in such cases serving as a common source of current for the supply of transmitters at a number of stations. the advantages of putting the transmitter and the battery which supplies it with current in a local circuit with the primary of an induction coil, and placing the secondary of the induction coil in the line, have already been pointed out but may be briefly summarized as follows: when the transmitter is placed directly in the _line circuit_ and the line is of considerable length, the current which passes through the transmitter is necessarily rather small unless a battery of high potential is used; and, furthermore, the total change in resistance which the transmitter is capable of producing is but a small proportion of the total resistance of the line, and, therefore, the current changes produced by the transmitter are relatively small. on the other hand, when the transmitter is placed in a _local circuit_ with the battery, this circuit may be of small resistance and the current relatively large, even though supplied by a low-voltage battery; so that the transmitter is capable of producing relatively large changes in a relatively large current. to draw a comparison between these two general classes of transmitter current supply, a number of cases will be considered in connection with the following figures, in each of which two stations connected by a telephone line are shown. brief reference to the local battery method of supplying current will be made in order to make this chapter contain, as far as possible, all of the commonly used methods of current supply to transmitters. [illustration: a typical medium-sized multiple switchboard equipment] local battery. in fig. two stations are shown connected by a grounded line wire. the transmitter of each station is included in a low-resistance primary circuit including a battery and the primary winding of an induction coil, the relation between the primary circuits and the line circuits being established by the inductive action between the primary and the secondary windings of induction coils, the secondary in each case being in the line circuits with the receivers. [illustration: fig. . local-battery stations with grounded circuit] fig. shows exactly the same arrangement but with a metallic circuit rather than a grounded circuit. the student should become accustomed to the replacing of one of the line wires of a metallic circuit by the earth, and to the method, employed in figs. and , of indicating a grounded circuit as distinguished from a metallic circuit. [illustration: fig. . local-battery stations with metallic circuit] in fig. is shown a slight modification of the circuit shown in fig. , which consists of connecting one end of the primary winding to one end of the secondary winding of the induction coil, thus linking together the primary circuit and the line circuit, a portion of each of these circuits being common to a short piece of the local wiring. there is no difference whatever in the action of the circuits shown in figs. and , the latter being shown merely for the purpose of bringing out this fact. it is very common, particularly in local-battery circuits, to connect one end of the primary and the secondary windings, as by doing so it is often possible to save a contact point in the hook switch and also to simplify the wiring. [illustration: fig. . local-battery stations with metallic circuit] the advantages to be gained by employing a local battery at each subscriber's station associated with the transmitter in the primary circuit of an induction coil are attended by certain disadvantages from a commercial standpoint. the primary battery is not an economical way to generate electric energy. in all its commercial forms it involves the consumption of zinc and zinc is an expensive fuel. the actual amount of current in watts required by a telephone is small, however, and this disadvantage due to the inexpensive method of generating current would not in itself be of great importance. a more serious objection to the use of local batteries at subscribers' stations appears when the subject is considered from the standpoint of maintenance. batteries, whether of the so-called "dry" or "wet" type, gradually deteriorate, even when not used, and in cases where the telephone is used many times a day the deterioration is comparatively rapid. this makes necessary the occasional renewals of the batteries with the attendant expense for new batteries or new material, and of labor and transportation in visiting the station. the labor item becomes more serious when the stations are scattered in a sparsely settled community, in which case the visiting of the stations, even for the performance of a task that would require but a few minutes' time, may consume some hours on the part of the employes in getting there and back. common battery. _advantages._ it would be more economical if all of the current for the subscribers' transmitters could be supplied from a single comparatively efficient generating source instead of from a multitude of inefficient small sources scattered throughout the community served by the exchange. the advantage of such centralization lies not only in more economic generating means, but also in having the common source of current located at one place, where it may be cared for with a minimum amount of expense. such considerations have resulted in the so-called "common-battery system," wherein the current for all the subscribers' transmitters is furnished from a source located at the central office. where such a method of supplying current is practiced, the result has also been, in nearly all cases, the doing away with the subscriber's magneto generators, relying on the central-office source of current to furnish the energy for enabling the subscriber to signal the operator. such systems, therefore, concentrate all of the sources of energy at the central office and for that reason they are frequently referred to as central-energy systems. note. in this chapter the central-energy or common-battery system will be considered only in so far as the supply of current for energizing the subscribers' transmitters is concerned, the discussion of the action of signaling being reserved for subsequent chapters. _series battery._ if but a single pair of lines had to be considered, the arrangement shown in fig. might be employed. in this the battery is located at the central office and placed in series with the two grounded lines leading from the central office to the two subscribers' stations. the voltage of this battery is made sufficient to furnish the required current over the resistance of the entire line circuit with its included instruments. obviously, changes in resistance in the transmitter at station a will affect the flow of current in the entire line and the fluctuations resulting from the vibration of the transmitter diaphragm will, therefore, reproduce these sounds in the receiver at station b, as well as in that at station a. [illustration: fig. . battery in series with two lines] an exactly similar arrangement applied to a metallic circuit is shown in fig. . in thus placing the battery in series in the circuit between the two stations, as shown in figs. and , it is obvious that the transmitter at each station is compelled to vary the resistance of the entire circuit comprising the two lines in series, in order to affect the receiver at distant stations. this is in effect making the transmitter circuit twice as long as is necessary, as will be shown in the subsequent systems considered. furthermore, the placing of the battery in series in the circuit of the two combined lines does not lend itself readily to the supply of current from a common source to more than a single pair of lines. [illustration: fig. . battery in series with two lines] _series substation circuit._ the arrangement at the substations--consisting in placing the transmitter and the receiver in series in the line circuit, as shown in figs. and --is the simplest possible one, and has been used to a considerable extent, but it has been subject to the serious objection, where receivers having permanent magnets were used, of making it necessary to so connect the receiver in the line circuit that the steady current from the battery would not set up a magnetization in the cores of the receiver in such a direction as to neutralize or oppose the magnetization of the permanent magnets. as long as the current flowed through the receiver coils in such a direction as to supplement the magnetization of the permanent magnets, no harm was usually done, but when the current flowed through the receiver coils in such a way as to neutralize or oppose the magnetizing force of the permanent magnets, the action of the receiver was greatly interfered with. as a result, it was necessary to always connect the receivers in the line circuit in a certain way, and this operation was called _poling_. in order to obviate the necessity for poling and also to bring about other desirable features, it has been, until recently, almost universal practice to so arrange the receiver that it would be in the circuit of the voice currents passing over the line, but would not be traversed by direct currents, this condition being brought about by various arrangements of condensers, impedance coils, or induction coils, as will be shown later. during the year , however, the adoption by several concerns of the so-called "direct-current" receiver has made it necessary for the direct current to flow through the receiver coils in order to give the proper magnetization to the receiver cores, and this has brought about a return to the very simple form of substation circuit, which includes the receiver and the transmitter directly in the circuit of the line. this illustrates well an occurrence that is frequently observed by those who have opportunity to watch closely the development of an art. at one time the conditions will be such as to call for complicated arrangements, and for years the aim of inventors will be to perfect these arrangements; then, after they are perfected, adopted, and standardized, a new idea, or a slight alteration in the practice in some other respect, will demand a return to the first principles and wipe out the necessity for the things that have been so arduously striven for. [illustration: fig. . bridging battery with repeating coil] _bridging battery with repeating coil._ as pointed out, the placing of the battery in series in the line circuit in the central office is not desirable, and, so far as we are aware, has never been extensively used. the universal practice, therefore, is to place it in a bridge path across the line circuit, and a number of arrangements employing this basic idea are in wide use. in fig. is shown the standard arrangement of the western electric company, employed by practically all the bell operating companies. in this the battery at the central office is connected in the middle of the two sides of a repeating coil so that the current from the battery is fed out to the two connected lines in multiple. referring to the middle portion of this figure showing the central-office apparatus, _ _ and _ _ may be considered as the two halves of one side of a repeating coil divided so that the battery may be cut into their circuit. likewise, _ _ and _ _ may be considered as the two halves of the other side of the repeating coil similarly divided for the same purpose. the windings of this repeating coil are ordinarily alike; that is, _ _ and _ _ combined have the same resistance, number of turns, and impedance as _ _ and _ _ combined. the two sides of this coil are alternately used as primary and secondary, _ _ and _ _ forming the primary when station a is talking, and _ _ and _ _, the secondary; and _vice versâ_ when station b is talking. as will be seen, the current flowing from the positive pole of the battery will divide and flow through the windings _ _ and _ _; thence over the upper limb of each line, through the transmitter at each station, and back over the lower limbs of the line, through the windings _ _ and _ _, where the two paths reunite and pass to the negative pole of the battery. it is evident that when neither transmitter is being used the current flowing through both lines will be a steady current and that, therefore, neither line will have an inductive effect on the other. when, however, the transmitter at station a is used the variations in the resistance caused by it will cause undulations in the current. these undulations, passing through the windings _ _ and _ _ of the repeating coil, will cause, by electromagnetic induction, alternating currents to flow in the windings _ _ and _ _, and these alternating currents will be superimposed on the steady currents flowing in that line and will affect the receiver at station b, as will be pointed out. the reverse conditions exist when station b is talking. _bell substation arrangement._ the substation circuits at the stations in fig. are illustrative of one of the commonly employed methods of preventing the steady current from the battery from flowing through the receiver coil. this particular arrangement is that employed by the common-battery instruments of the various bell companies. considering the action at station b, it is evident that the steady current will pass through the transmitter and through the secondary winding of the induction coil, and that as long as this current is steady no current will flow through the telephone receiver. the receiver, transmitter, and primary winding of the induction coil are, however, included in a local circuit with the condenser. the presence of the condenser precludes the possibility of direct current flowing in this path. considering station a as a receiving station, it is evident that the voice currents coming to the station over the line will pass through the secondary winding and will induce alternating currents in the primary winding which will circulate through the local circuit containing the receiver and the condenser, and thus actuate the receiver. the considerations are not so simple when the station is being treated as a transmitting station. under this condition the steady current passes through the transmitter in an obvious manner. it is clear that if the local circuit containing the receiver did not exist, the circuit would be operative as a transmitting circuit because the transmitter would produce fluctuations in the steady current flowing in the line and thus be able to affect the distant station. the transmitter, therefore, has a direct action on the currents flowing in the line by the variation in resistance which it produces in the line circuit. there is, however, a subsidiary action in this circuit. obviously, there is a drop of potential across the transmitter terminals due to the flow of steady current. this means that the upper terminal of the condenser will be charged to the same potential as the upper terminal of the transmitter, while the lower terminal of the condenser will be of the same potential as the lower terminal of the transmitter. when, now, the transmitter varies its resistance, a variation in the potential across its terminals will occur; and as a result, a variation in potential across the terminals of the condenser will occur, and this means that alternating currents will flow through the primary winding of the induction coil. the transmitter, therefore, by its action, causes alternating currents to flow through the primary of this induction coil and it causes, by direct action on the circuit of the line, fluctuations in the steady current flowing in the line. the alternating currents flowing in the primary of the coil induce currents in the secondary of the coil which supplement and augment the fluctuations produced by the direct action of the transmitter. this circuit may be looked at, therefore, in the light of combining the direct action which the transmitter produces in the current in the line with the action which the transmitter produces in the local circuit containing the primary of the induction coil, this action being repeated in the line circuit through the secondary of the induction coil. the receiver in this circuit is placed in the local circuit, and is thus not traversed by the steady currents flowing in the line. there is thus no necessity for poling it. this circuit is very efficient, but is subject to the objection of producing a heavy side tone in the receiver of the transmitting station. by "side tone" is meant the noises which are produced in the receiver at a station by virtue of the action of the transmitter at that station. side tone is objectionable for several reasons: first, it is sometimes annoying to the subscriber; second, and of more importance, the subscriber who is talking, hearing a very loud noise in his own receiver, unconsciously assumes that he is talking too loud and, therefore, lowers his voice, sometimes to such an extent that it will not properly reach the distant station. [illustration: fig. . bridging battery with impedance coils] _bridging battery with impedance coils._ the method of feeding current to the line from the common battery, shown in fig. , is called the "split repeating-coil" method. as distinguished from this is the impedance-coil method which is shown in fig. . in this the battery is bridged across the circuit of the combined lines in series with two impedance coils, _ _ and _ _, one on each side of the battery. the steady currents from the battery find ready path through these impedance coils which are of comparatively low ohmic resistance, and the current divides and passes in multiple over the circuits of the two lines. voice currents, however, originating at either one of the stations, will not pass through the shunt across the line at the central office on account of the high impedance offered by these coils, and as a result they are compelled to pass on to the distant station and affect the receiver there, as desired. this impedance-coil method seems to present the advantage of greater simplicity over the repeating-coil method shown in fig. , and so far as talking efficiency is concerned, there is little to choose between the two. the repeating-coil method, however, has the advantage over this impedance-coil method, because by it the two lines are practically divided except by the inductive connection between the two windings, and as a result an unbalanced condition of one of the connected lines is not as likely to produce an unbalanced condition in the other as where the two lines are connected straight through, as with the impedance-coil method. the substation arrangement of fig. is the same as that of fig. . [illustration: fig. . double-battery kellogg system] _double battery with impedance coils._ a modification of the impedance-coil method is used in all of the central-office work of the kellogg switchboard and supply company. this employs a combination of impedance coils and condensers, and in effect isolates the lines conductively from each other as completely as the repeating-coil method. it is characteristic of all the kellogg common-battery systems that they employ two batteries instead of one, one of these being connected in all cases with the calling line of a pair of connected lines and the other in all cases with the called line. as shown in fig. , the left-hand battery is connected with the line leading to station a through the impedance coils _ _ and _ _. likewise, the right-hand battery is connected to the line of station b through the impedance coils _ _ and _ _. these four impedance coils are wound on separate cores and do not have any inductive relation whatsoever with each other. condensers _ _ and _ _ are employed to completely isolate the lines conductively. current from the left-hand battery, therefore, passes only to station a, and current from the right-hand battery to station b. whenever the transmitter at station a is actuated the undulations of current which it produces in the line cause a varying difference of potential across the outside terminals of the two impedance coils _ _ and _ _. this means that the two left-hand terminals of condensers _ _ and _ _ are subjected to a varying difference of potential and these, of course, by electrostatic induction, cause the right-hand terminals of these condensers to be subject to a correspondingly varying difference of potential. from this it follows that alternating currents will be impressed upon the right-hand line and these will affect the receiver at station b. a rough way of expressing the action of this circuit is to consider it in the same light as that of the impedance-coil circuit shown in fig. , and to consider that the voice currents originating in one line are prevented from passing through the bridge paths at the central office on account of the impedance, and are, therefore, forced to continue on the line, being allowed to pass readily by the condensers in series between the two lines. _kellogg substation arrangement._ an interesting form of substation circuit which is employed by the kellogg company in all of its common-battery telephones is shown in fig. . in passing, it may be well to state that almost any of the substation circuits shown in this chapter are capable of working with any of the central-office circuits. the different ones are shown for the purpose of giving a knowledge of the various substation circuits that are employed, and, as far as possible, to associate them with the particular central-office arrangements with which they are commonly used. in this kellogg substation arrangement the line circuit passes first through the transmitter and then divides, one branch passing through an impedance coil _ _ and the other through the receiver and the condenser _ _, in series. the steady current from the central-office battery finds ready path through the transmitter and the impedance coil, but is prevented from passing through the receiver by the barrier set up by the condenser _ _. voice currents, however, coming over the line to the station, find ready path through the receiver and the condenser but are barred from passing through the impedance coil by virtue of its high impedance. in considering the action of the station as a transmitting station, the variations set up by the transmitter pass through the condenser and the receiver at the same station, while the steady current which supplies the transmitter passes through the impedance coil. impedance coils used for this purpose are made of low ohmic resistance but of a comparatively great number of turns, and, therefore, present a good path for steady currents and a difficult path for voice currents. this divided circuit arrangement employed by the kellogg company is one of the very simple ways of eliminating direct currents from the receiver path, at the same time allowing the free passage of voice currents. [illustration: fig. . dean system] _dean substation arrangement._ in marked contrast to the scheme for keeping steady current out of the receiver circuit employed by the kellogg company, is that shown in fig. , which has been largely used by the dean electric company, of elyria, ohio. the central-office arrangement in this case is that using the split repeating coil, which needs no further description. the substation arrangement, however, is unique and is a beautiful example of what can be done in the way of preventing a flow of current through a path without in any way insulating that path or placing any barrier in the way of the current. it is an example of the prevention of the direct flow of current through the receiver by so arranging the circuits that there will always be an equal potential on each side of it, and, therefore, no tendency for current to flow through it. in this substation arrangement four coils of wire--_ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _--are so arranged as to be connected in the circuit of the line, two in series and two in multiple. the current flowing from the battery at the central office, after passing through the transmitter, divides between the two paths containing, respectively, the coils _ _ and _ _ and the coils _ _ and _ _. the receiver is connected between the junction of the coils _ _ and _ _ and that of _ _ and _ _. the resistances of the coils are so chosen that the drop of potential through the coil _ _ will be equal to that through the coil _ _, and likewise that through the coil _ _ will be equal to that through the coil _ _. as a result, the receiver will be connected between two points of equal potential, and no direct current will flow through it. how, then, do voice currents find their way through the receiver, as they evidently must, if the circuit is to fulfill any useful function? the coils _ _ and _ _ are made to have high impedance, while _ _ and _ _ are so wound as to be non-inductive and, therefore, offer no impedance save that of their ohmic resistance. what is true, therefore, of direct currents does not hold for voice currents, and as a result, the voice currents, instead of taking the divided path which the direct currents pursued, are debarred from the coils _ _ and _ _ by their high impedance and thus pass through the non-inductive coil _ _, the receiver, and the non-inductive coil _ _. this circuit employs a wheatstone-bridge arrangement, adjusted to a state of balance with respect to direct currents, such currents being excluded from the receiver, not because the receiver circuit is in any sense opaque to such direct currents, but because there is no difference of potential between the terminals of the receiver circuit, and, therefore, no tendency for current to flow through the receiver. in order that fluctuating currents may not, for the same reason, be caused to pass by, rather than through, the receiver circuit, the diametrically-opposed arms of the wheatstone bridge are made to possess, in large degree, self-induction, thereby giving these two arms a high impedance to fluctuating currents. the conditions which exist for direct currents do not, therefore, exist for fluctuating currents, and it is this distinction which allows alternating currents to pass through the receiver and at the same time excludes direct currents therefrom. in practice, the coils _ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _ of the dean substation circuit are wound on the same core, but coils _ _ and _ _--the non-inductive ones--are wound by doubling the wire back on itself so as to neutralize their self-induction. _stromberg-carlson._ another modification of the central-office arrangement and also of the subscribers' station circuits, is shown in fig. , this being a simplified representation of the circuits commonly employed by the stromberg-carlson telephone manufacturing company. the battery feed at the central office differs only from that shown in fig. , in that a single battery rather than two batteries is used, the current being supplied to one of the lines through the impedance coils _ _ and _ _, and to the other line through the impedance coils _ _ and _ _; condensers _ _ and _ _ serve conductively to isolate the two lines. at the subscriber's station the line circuit passes through the secondary of an induction coil and the transmitter. the receiver is kept entirely in a local circuit so that there is no tendency for direct current to flow through it, but it is receptive to voice currents through the electromagnetic induction between the primary and the secondary of the induction coil. [illustration: fig. . stromberg-carlson system] [illustration: fig. . north electric company system] _north._ another arrangement of central-office battery feed is employed by the north electric company, and is shown in fig. . in this two batteries are used which supply current respectively to the two connected lines, condensers being employed to conductively isolate the lines. this differs from the kellogg arrangement shown in fig. in that the two coils _ _ and _ _ are wound on the same core, while the coils _ _ and _ _ are wound together upon another core. in this case, in order that the inductive action of one of the coils may not neutralize that of the other coil on the same core, the two coils are wound in such relative direction that their magnetizing influence will always be cumulative rather than differential. the central-office arrangements discussed in figs. to , inclusive, are those which are in principal use in commercial practice in common-battery exchanges. _current supply over limbs of line in parallel._ as indicating further interesting possibilities in the method of supplying current from a common source to a number of substations, several other systems will be briefly referred to as being of interest, although these have not gone into wide commercial use. the system shown in fig. is one proposed by dean in the early days of common-battery working, and this arrangement was put into actual service and gave satisfactory results, but was afterwards supplanted by the bell equipment operating under the system shown in fig. , which became standardized by that company. in this the current from the common battery at the central office is not fed over the two line wires in series, but in multiple, using a ground return from the subscriber's station to the central office. across the metallic circuit formed by two connected lines there is bridged, at the central office, an impedance coil _ _, and between the center point of this impedance coil and the ground is connected the common battery. at the subscriber's station is placed an impedance coil _ _, also bridged across the two limbs of the line, and between the center point of this impedance coil and the ground is connected the transmitter, which is shunted by the primary winding of an induction coil. connected between the two limbs of the line at the substation there is also the receiver and the secondary of an induction coil in series. [illustration: fig. . current supply over parallel limbs of line] the action of this circuit at first seems a little complex, but if taken step by step may readily be understood. the transmitter supply circuit may be traced from the central-office battery through the two halves of the impedance coil _ _ in multiple; thence over the two limbs of the line in multiple to station a, for instance; thence in multiple through the two halves of impedance coil _ _, to the center point of that coil; thence through the two paths offered respectively by the primary of the induction coil and by the transmitter; then to ground and back to the other pole of the central-office battery. by this circuit the transmitter at the substation is supplied with current. variations in the resistance of the transmitter when in action, cause complementary variations in the supply current flowing through the primary of the induction coil. these variations induce similar alternating currents in the secondary of this coil, which is in series in the line circuit. the currents, so induced in this secondary, flow in series through one side of the line to the distant station; thence through the secondary and the receiver at that station to the other side of the line and back through that side of the line to the receiver. these currents are not permitted to pass through the bridged paths across the metallic circuit that are offered by the impedance coils _ _ and _ _, because they are voice currents and are, therefore, debarred from these paths by virtue of the impedance. [illustration: fig. . current supply over parallel limbs of line] an objection to this form of current supply and to other similar forms, wherein the transmitter current is fed over the two sides of the line in multiple with a ground return, is that the ground-return circuit formed by the two sides of the line in multiple is subject to inductive disturbances from other lines in the same way as an ordinary grounded line is subject to inductive disturbance. the current-supply circuit is thus subject to external disturbances and such disturbances find their way into the metallic circuit and, therefore, through the instruments by means of the electromagnetic induction between the primary and the secondary coils at the substations. another interesting method of current supply from a central-office battery is shown in fig. . this, like the circuit just considered, feeds the energy to the subscriber's station over the two sides of the line in multiple with a ground return. in this case, however, a local circuit is provided at the substation, in which is placed a storage battery _ _ and the primary _ _ of an induction coil, together with the transmitter. the idea in this is that the current supply from the central office will pass through the storage battery and charge it. upon the use of the transmitter, this storage battery acts to supply current to the local circuit containing the transmitter and the primary coil _ _ in exactly the same manner as in a local battery system. the fluctuating current so produced by the action of the transmitter in this local circuit acts on the secondary winding _ _ of the induction coil, and produces therein alternating currents which pass to the central office and are in turn repeated to the distant station. _supply many lines from common source._ we come now to the consideration of the arrangement by which a single battery may be made to supply current at the central office to a large number of pairs of connected lines simultaneously. up to this point in this discussion it has been shown only how each battery served a single pair of connected lines and no others. repeating coil:--in fig. is shown how a single battery supplies current simultaneously to four different pairs of lines, the lines of each pair being connected for conversation. it is seen that the pairs of lines shown in this figure are arranged in each case in accordance with the system shown in fig. . let us inquire why it is that, although all of these four pairs of lines are connected with a common source of energy and are, therefore, all conductively joined, the stations will be able to communicate in pairs without interference between the pairs. in other words, why is it that voice currents originating at station a will pass only to the receiver at station b and not to the receivers at station c or station h, for instance? the reason is that separate supply conductors lead from the points such as _ _ and _ _ at the junctions of the repeating-coil windings on each pair of circuits to the battery terminals, and the resistance and impedance of the battery itself and of the common leads to it are so small that although the feeble voice currents originating in the pair of lines connecting station a and station b pass through the battery, they are not able to alter the potential of the battery in any appreciable degree. as a result, therefore, the supply wires leading from the common-battery terminals to the points _ _ and _ _, for instance, cannot be subjected to any variations in potential by virtue of currents flowing through the battery from the points _ _ and _ _ of the lines joining station a and station b. [illustration: main office, keystone telephone company, philadelphia, pa.] [illustration: fig. . common source for many lines] [illustration: fig. . common source for many lines] retardation coil--single battery:--in fig. is shown in similar manner the current supply from a single battery to four different pairs of lines, the battery being associated with the lines by the combined impedance coil and condenser method, which was specifically dealt with in connection with fig. . the reasons why there will be no interference between the conversations carried on in the various pairs of connected lines in this case are the same as those just considered in connection with the system shown in fig. . the impedance coils in this case serve to keep the telephone currents confined to their respective pairs of lines in which they originate, and this same consideration applies to the system of fig. , for each of the separate repeating-coil windings of fig. is in itself an impedance coil with respect to such currents as might leak away from one pair of lines on to another. retardation coil--double battery:--the arrangement of feeding a number of pairs of lines according to the kellogg two-battery system is indicated in fig. , which needs no further explanation in view of the description of the preceding figures. it is interesting to note in this case that the left-hand battery serves only the left-hand lines and the right-hand battery only the right-hand lines. as this is worked out in practice, the left-hand battery is always connected to those lines which originate a call and the right-hand battery always to those lines that are called for. the energy supplied to a calling line is always, therefore, from a different source than that which supplies a called line. [illustration: fig. . two sources for many lines] [illustration: fig. . current supply from distant point] _current supply from distant point._ sometimes it is convenient to supply current to a group of lines centering at a certain point from a source of current located at a distant point. this is often the case in the so-called private branch exchange, where a given business house or other institution is provided with its own switchboard for interconnecting the lines leading to the various telephones of that concern or institution among themselves, and also for connecting them with lines leading to the city exchange. it is not always easy or convenient to maintain at such private switchboards a separate battery for supplying the current needed by the local exchange. in such cases the arrangement shown in fig. is sometimes employed. this shows two pairs of lines connected by the impedance-coil system with common terminals _ _ and _ _, between which ordinarily the common battery would be connected. instead of putting a battery between these terminals, however, at the local exchange, a condenser of large capacity is connected between them and from these terminals circuit wires _ _ and _ _ are led to a battery of suitable voltage at a distant central office. the condenser in this case is used to afford a short-circuit path for the voice currents that leak from one side of one pair of lines to the other, through the impedance coils bridged across the line. in this way the effect of the necessarily high resistance in the common leads _ _ and _ _, leading to the storage battery, is overcome and the tendency to cross-talk between the various pairs of connected lines is eliminated. frequently, instead of employing this arrangement, a storage battery of small capacity will be connected between the terminals _ _ and _ _, instead of the condenser, and these will be charged over the wires _ _ and _ _ from a source of current at a distant point. a consideration of the various methods of supplying current from a common source to a number of lines will show that it is essential that the resistance of the battery itself be very low. it is also necessary that the resistance and the impedance of the common leads from the battery to the point of distribution to the various pairs of lines be very low, in order that the voice currents which flow through them, by virtue of the conversations going on in the different pairs of lines, shall not produce any appreciable alteration in the difference of potential between the battery terminals. chapter xiv the telephone set we have considered what may be called the elemental parts of a complete telephone; that is, the receiver, transmitter, hook switch, battery, generator, call bell, condenser, and the various kinds of coils which go to make up the apparatus by which one is enabled to transmit and receive speech and signals. we will now consider the grouping of these various elements into a complete working organization known as a telephone. before considering the various types it is well to state that the term telephone is often rather loosely used. we sometimes hear the receiver proper called a telephone or a hand telephone. since this was the original speaking telephone, there is some reason for so calling the receiver. the modern custom more often applies the term telephone to the complete organization of talking and signaling apparatus, together with the associated wiring and cabinet or standard on which it is mounted. the name telephone set is perhaps to be preferred to the word telephone, since it tends to avoid misunderstanding as to exactly what is meant. frequently, also, the telephone or telephone set is referred to as a subscriber's station equipment, indicating the equipment that is to be found at a subscriber's station. this, as applying to a telephone alone, is not proper, since the subscriber's station equipment includes more than a telephone. it includes the local wiring within the premises of the subscriber and also the lightning arrester and other protective devices, if such exist. to avoid confusion, therefore, the collection of talking and signaling apparatus with its wiring and containing cabinet or standard will be referred to in this work as a telephone or telephone set. the receiver will, as a rule, be designated as such, rather than as a telephone. the term subscriber's station equipment will refer to the complete equipment at a subscriber's station, and will include the telephone set, the interior wiring, and the protective devices, together with any other apparatus that may be associated with the telephone line and be located within the subscriber's premises. classification of sets. telephones may be classified under two general headings, magneto telephones and common-battery telephones, according to the character of the systems in which they are adapted to work. _magneto telephone._ the term magneto telephone, as it was originally employed in telephony, referred to the type of instrument now known as a receiver, particularly when this was used also as a transmitter. as the use of this instrument as a transmitter has practically ceased, the term magneto telephone has lost its significance as applying to the receiver, and, since many telephones are equipped with magneto generators for calling purposes, the term magneto telephone has, by common consent, come to be used to designate any telephone including, as a part of its equipment, a magneto generator. magneto telephones usually, also, include local batteries for furnishing the transmitter with current, and this has led to these telephones being frequently called local battery telephones. however, a local battery telephone is not necessarily a magneto telephone and _vice versâ_, since sometimes magneto telephones have no local batteries and sometimes local battery telephones have no magnetos. nearly all of the telephones which are equipped with magneto generators are, however, also equipped with local batteries for talking purposes, and, therefore, the terms magneto telephone and local battery telephone usually refer to the same thing. _common-battery telephone._ common-battery telephones, on the other hand, are those which have no local battery and no magneto generator, all the current for both talking and signaling being furnished from a common source of current at the central office. _wall and desk telephones._ again we may classify telephones or telephone sets in accordance with the manner in which their various parts are associated with each other for use, regardless of what parts are contained in the set. we may refer to all sets adapted to be mounted on a wall or partition as _wall telephones_, and to all in which the receiver, transmitter, and hook are provided with a standard of their own to enable them to rest on any flat surface, such as a desk or table, as _desk telephones_. these latter are also referred to as portable telephones and as portable desk telephones. in general, magneto or local battery telephones differ from common-battery telephones in their component parts, the difference residing principally in the fact that the magneto telephone always has a magneto generator and usually a local battery, while the common-battery telephone has no local source of current whatever. on the other hand, the differences between wall telephones and desk telephones are principally structural, and obviously either of these types of telephones may be for common-battery or magneto work. the same component parts go to make up a desk telephone as a wall telephone, provided the two instruments are adapted for the same class of service, but the difference between the two lies in the structural features by which these same parts are associated with each other and protected from exposure. [illustration: fig. . magneto wall set] [illustration: fig. . magneto wall set] magneto-telephone sets. _wall._ in fig. is shown a familiar type of wall set. the containing box includes within it all of the working parts of the apparatus except that which is necessarily left outside in order to be within the reach of the user. fig. shows the same set with the door open. this gives a good idea of the ordinary arrangement of the apparatus within. it is seen that the polarized bell or ringer has its working parts mounted on the inside of the door or cover of the box, the tapper projecting through so as to play between the gongs on the outside. likewise the transmitter arm, which supports the transmitter and allows its adjustment up and down to accommodate itself to the height of the user, is mounted on the front of the door, and the conductors leading to it may be seen fastened to the rear of the door in fig. . in some wall sets the wires leading to the bell and transmitter are connected to the wiring of the rest of the set through the hinges of the door, thus allowing the door to be opened and closed repeatedly without breaking off the wires. in order to always insure positive electrical contact between the stationary and movable parts of the hinge a small wire is wound around the hinge pin, one end being soldered to the stationary part and the other end to the movable part of the hinge. in other forms of wall set the wires to the bell and the transmitter lead directly from the stationary portion of the cabinet to the back of the door, the wires being left long enough to have sufficient flexibility to allow the door to be opened and closed without injuring the wires. at the upper portion of the box there is mounted the hook switch, this being, in this case, of the short lever type. the lever of the hook projects through the side of the box so as to make the hook available as a support for the receiver. immediately at the right of the hook switch is mounted the induction coil, and immediately below this the generator, its crank handle projecting through the right-hand side of the box so as to be available for use there. the generator is usually mounted on a transverse shelf across the middle of the cabinet, this shelf serving to form a compartment below it in which the dry battery of two or three cells is placed. the wall telephone-set cabinets have assumed a multitude of forms. when wet cells rather than dry cells were ordinarily employed, as was the case up to about the year , the magneto generator, polarized bell, and hook switch were usually mounted in a rectangular box placed at the top of a long backboard. immediately below this on the backboard was mounted the transmitter arm, and sometimes the base of this included the induction coil. below this was the battery box, this being a large affair usually adapted to accommodate two and sometimes three ordinary leclanché cells side by side. the dry cell has almost completely replaced the wet cell in this country, and as a result, the general type of wall set as shown in figs. and , has gradually replaced the old wet-cell type, which was more cumbrous and unsightly. it is usual on wall sets to provide some sort of a shelf, as indicated in fig. , for the convenience of the user in making notes and memoranda. _desk._ in the magneto desk-telephone sets, the so-called desk stand, containing the transmitter, the receiver, and the hook switch, with the standard upon which they are mounted, is shown in fig. . this desk stand evidently does not comprise the complete equipment for a magneto desk-telephone set, since the generator, polarized bell, and battery are lacking. the generator and bell are usually mounted together in a box, either on the under side of the desk of the user or on the wall within easy reach of his chair. connections are made between the apparatus in the desk stand proper and the battery, generator, and bell by means of flexible conducting cords, these carrying a plurality of conductors, as required by the particular circuit of the telephone in question. such a complete magneto desk-telephone set is shown in fig. , this being one of the types manufactured by the stromberg-carlson manufacturing company. [illustration: fig. . desk stand] a great variety of arrangements of the various parts of magneto desk-telephone apparatus is employed in practice. sometimes, as shown in fig. , the magneto bell box is equipped with binding posts for terminating all of the conductors in the cord, the line wires also running to some of these binding posts. in the magneto-telephone set illustrated the box is made large enough to accommodate only the generator and call bell, and the batteries are mounted elsewhere, as in a drawer of the desk, while in other cases there is no other equipment but that shown in the cut, the batteries being mounted within the magneto bell box itself. in still other cases, the polarized bell is contained in one box, the generator in another, the batteries in the drawer of the desk, the induction coil being mounted either in the base of the desk stand, in the bell box, or in the generator box. in such cases all of the circuits of the various scattered parts are wired to a terminal strip, located at some convenient point, this strip containing terminals for all the wires leading from the various parts and for the line wires themselves. by combining the various wires on the terminals of this terminal strip, the complete circuits of the telephone are built up. in still other cases the induction coil is mounted on the terminal strip and separate wires or sets of wires are run to the polarized bell and generator, to the desk stand itself, and to the batteries. these various arrangements are subject largely to the desire or personal ideas of the manufacturer or user. all of them work on the same principle so far as the operation of the talking and signaling circuits is concerned. [illustration: fig. . magneto desk set] circuits of magneto-telephone sets. magneto telephones, whether of the wall or desk type, may be divided into two general classes, series and bridging, according to whether the magnet of the bell is included in series or bridge relation with the telephone line when the hook is down. _series._ in the so-called series telephone line, where several telephones are placed in series in a single line circuit, the employment of the series type of telephone results in all of the telephone bells being in series in the line circuit. this means that the voice currents originating in the telephones that are in use at a given time must pass in series through the magnets of the bells of the stations that are not in use. in order that these magnets, through which the voice currents must pass, may interfere to as small a degree as possible with the voice currents, it is common to employ low-resistance magnets in series telephones, these magnets being wound with comparatively few turns and on rather short cores so that the impedance will be as small as possible. likewise, since the generators are required to ring all of the bells in series, they need not have a large current output, but must have sufficient voltage to ring through all of the bells in series and through the resistance of the line. for this reason the generators are usually of the three-bar type and sometimes have only two bars. in fig. are shown, in simplified form, the circuits of an ordinary series telephone. the receiver in this is shown as being removed from the hook and thus the talking apparatus is brought into play. the line wires _ _ and _ _ connect respectively to the binding posts _ _ and _ _ which form the terminals of the instrument. when the hook is up, the circuit between the binding posts _ _ and _ _ includes the receiver and the secondary winding of the induction coil, together with one of the upper contacts _ _ of the switch hook and the hook lever itself. this completes the circuit for receiving speech. the hook switch is provided with another upper contact _ _, between which and the contact _ _ is connected the local circuit containing the transmitter, the battery, and the primary of the induction coil in series. the primary and the secondary windings are connected together at one end and connected with the switch contact _ _, as shown. it is thus seen that when the hook is up the circuit through the receiver is automatically closed and also the local circuit containing the primary, the battery, and the transmitter. thus, all the conditions for transmitting and receiving speech are fulfilled. [fig. . circuit of series magneto set] when the hook is down, however, the receiving and transmitting circuits are broken, but another circuit is completed by the engagement of the hook-switch lever with the lower hook contact _ _. between this contact and one side of the line is connected the polarized ringer and the generator. with the hook down, therefore, the circuit may be traced from the line wire _ _ to binding post _ _, thence through the generator shunt to the call bell, and thence through the lower switching contact _ _ to the binding post _ _ and line wire _ _. the generator shunt, as already described in chapter viii, normally keeps the generator shunted out of circuit. when, however, the generator is operated the shunt is broken, which allows the armature of the generator to come into the circuit in series with the winding of the polarized bell. the normal shunting of the generator armature from the circuit of the line is advantageous in several ways. in the first place, the impedance of the generator winding is normally cut out of the circuit so that in the case of a line with several stations the talking or voice currents do not have to flow through the generator armatures at the stations which are not in use. again, the normal shunting of the generator tends to save the generator armature from injury by lightning. [illustration: fig. . circuit of series magneto set.] the more complete circuits of a series magneto telephone are shown in fig. . in this the line binding posts are shown as _ _ and _ _. at the bottom of the telephone cabinet are four other binding posts marked _ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _. of these _ _ and _ _ serve for the receiver terminals and _ _ and _ _ for the transmitter and battery terminals. the circuits of this diagram will be found to be essentially the same as those of fig. , except that they are shown in greater detail. this particular type of circuit is one commonly employed where the generator, ringer, hook switch, and induction coil are all mounted in a so-called magneto bell box at the top of the instrument, and where the transmitter is mounted on an arm just below this box, and the battery in a separate compartment below the transmitter. the only wiring that has to be done between the bell box and the other parts of the instrument in assembling the complete telephone is to connect the receiver to the binding posts _ _ and _ _ and to connect the battery and transmitter circuit to the binding posts _ _ and _ _. _bridging._ in other cases, where several telephones are placed on a single-line circuit, the bells are arranged in multiple across the line. for this reason their magnets are wound with a very great number of turns and consequently to a high resistance. in order to further increase the impedance, the cores are made long and heavy. since the generators on these lines must be capable of giving out a sufficient volume of current to divide up between all of the bells in multiple, it follows that these generators must have a large current output, and at the same time a sufficient voltage to ring the bells at the farthest end of the line. such instruments are commonly called bridging instruments, on account of the method of connecting their bells across the circuit of the line. [illustration: fig. . circuit of bridging magneto set] the fundamental characteristic of the bridging telephone is that it contains three possible bridge paths across the line wires. the first of these bridge paths is through the talking apparatus, the second through the generator, and the third through the ringer. this is shown in simplified form in fig. . the talking apparatus is associated with the two upper contacts of the hook switch in the usual manner and needs no further description. the generator is the second separate bridge path, normally open, but adapted to be closed when the generator is operated, this automatic closure being performed by the movement of the crank shaft. the third bridge contains the polarized bell, and this, as a rule, is permanently closed. sometimes, however, the arrangement is such that the bell path is normally closed through the switch which is operated by the generator crank shaft, and this path is automatically broken when the generator is operated, at which time, also, the generator path is automatically closed. this arrangement brings about the result that the generator never can ring its own bell, because its switch always operates to cut out the bell at its own station just before the generator itself is cut into the circuit. in fig. is shown the complete circuit of a bridging telephone. the circuit given in this figure is for a local-battery wall set similar in type to that shown in figs. and . a simplified diagrammatic arrangement is shown in the lower left-hand corner of this figure, and from a consideration of this it will be seen that the bell circuit across the line is normally completed through the two right-hand normally closed contacts of the switch on the generator. when, however, the generator is operated these two contacts are made to disengage each other while the long spring of the generator switch engages the left-hand spring and thus brings the generator itself into the circuit. [illustration: fig. . circuit of bridging magneto set] of the three binding posts, _ _, _ _, and _ _, at the top of fig. , _ _ and _ _ are for connecting with the line wires, while _ _ is for a ground connection, acting in conjunction with the lightning arrester mounted at the top of the telephone and indicated at _ _ in fig. . this has no function in talking or ringing, and will be referred to more fully in chapter xix. suffice it to say at this point that these arresters usually consist of two conducting bodies, one connected permanently to each of the line binding posts, and a third conducting body connected to the ground binding post. these three conducting bodies are in close proximity but carefully insulated from each other; the idea being that when the line wires are struck by lightning or subjected otherwise to a dangerous potential, the charge on the line will jump across the space between the conducting bodies and pass harmlessly to ground. note. the student should practice making simplified diagrams from actual wiring diagrams. the difference between the two is that one is laid out for ease in understanding it, while the other is laid out to show the actual course of the wires as installed. if the large detailed circuit of fig. be compared with the small theoretical circuit in the same figure, the various conducting paths will be found to be the same. such a simplified circuit does more to enable one to grasp the fundamental scheme of a complex circuit than much description, since it shows at a glance the general arrangement. the more detailed circuits are, however, necessary to show the actual paths followed by the wiring. the circuits of desk stands do not differ from those of wall sets in any material degree, except as may be necessitated by the fact that the various parts of the telephone set are not all mounted in the same cabinet or on the same standard. to provide for the necessary relative movement between the desk stand and the other portions of the set, flexible conductors are run from the desk stand itself to the stationary portions of the equipment, such as the battery and the parts contained in the generator and bell box. [illustration: fig. . circuit of bridging magneto desk set] in fig. is shown the circuit of the stromberg-carlson magneto desk-telephone set, illustrated in fig. . this diagram needs no explanation in view of what has already been said. the conductors, leading from the desk-stand group of apparatus to the bell-box group of apparatus, are grouped together in a flexible cord, as shown in fig. , and are connected respectively to the various binding posts or contact points within the desk stand at one end and at the base of the bell box at the other end. these flexible conductors are insulated individually and covered by a common braided covering. they usually are individualized by having a colored thread woven into their insulating braid, so that it is an easy matter to identify the two ends of the same conductor at either end of the flexible cord or cable. [illustration: fig. . common-battery wall set] [illustration: fig. . common-battery wall set] common-battery telephone sets. owing to the fact that common-battery telephones contain no sources of current, they are usually somewhat simpler than the magneto type. the component parts of a common-battery telephone, whether of the wall or desk type, are the transmitter, receiver, hook switch, polarized bell, condenser, and sometimes an induction coil. the purpose of the condenser is to prevent direct or steady currents from passing through the windings of the ringer while the ringer is connected across the circuit of the line during the time when the telephone is not in use. the requirements of common-battery signaling demand that the ringer shall be connected with the line so as to be receptive of a call at any time while the telephone is not in use. the requirements also demand that no conducting path shall normally exist between the two sides of the line. these two apparently contradictory requirements are met by placing a condenser in series with the ringer so that the ringer will be in a path that will readily transmit the alternating ringing currents sent out from the central-office generator, while at the same time the condenser will afford a complete bar to the passage of steady currents. sometimes the condenser is also used as a portion of the talking apparatus, as will be pointed out. [illustration: main office, kansas city home telephone co., kansas city, mo.] _wall._ in figs. and are given two views of a characteristic form of common-battery wall-telephone set, made by the stromberg-carlson manufacturing company. the common-battery wall set has usually taken this general form. in it the transmitter is mounted on an adjustable arm at the top of the backboard, while the box containing the bell and all working parts of the instrument is placed below the transmitter, the top of the box affording a shelf for writing purposes. in fig. are shown the hook switch and the receiver; just below these may be seen the magnets of the polarized bell, back of which is shown a rectangular box containing the condenser. immediately in front of the ringer magnets is the induction coil. [illustration: fig. . stromberg-carlson common-battery wall set] in fig. are shown the details of the circuit of this instrument. this figure also includes a simplified circuit arrangement from which the principles involved may be more readily understood. it is seen that the primary of the induction coil and the transmitter are included in series across the line. the secondary of the induction coil, in series with the receiver, is connected also across the line in series with a condenser and the transmitter. _hotel._ sometimes, in order to economize space, the shelf of common-battery wall sets is omitted and the entire apparatus mounted in a small rectangular box, the front of which carries the transmitter mounted on the short arm or on no arm at all. such instruments are commonly termed hotel sets, because of the fact that their use was first confined largely to the rooms in hotels. later, however, these instruments have become very popular in general use, particularly in residences. sometimes the boxes or cabinets of these sets are made of wood, but of recent years the tendency has been growing to make them of pressed steel. the steel box is usually finished in black enamel, baked on, the color being sometimes varied to match the color of the surrounding woodwork. in figs. and are shown two views of a common-battery hotel set manufactured by the dean electric company. such sets are extremely neat in appearance and have the advantage of taking up little room on the wall and the commercial advantage of being light and compact for shipping purposes. a possible disadvantage of this type of instrument is the somewhat crowded condition which necessarily follows from the placing of all the parts in so confined a space. this interferes somewhat with the accessibility of the various parts, but great ingenuity has been manifested in making the parts readily get-at-able in case of necessity for repairs or alterations. [illustration: fig. . steel box hotel] [illustration: fig. . steel box hotel set] _desk_. the common-battery desk telephone presents a somewhat simpler problem than the magneto desk telephone for the reason that the generator and local battery, the two most bulky parts of a magneto telephone, do not have to be provided for. some companies, in manufacturing desk stands for common-battery purposes, mount the condenser and the induction coil or impedance coil, or whatever device is used in connection with the talking circuit, in the base of the desk stand itself, and mount the polarized ringer and the condenser used for ringing purposes in a separate bell box adapted to be mounted on the wall or some portion of the desk. other companies mount only the transmitter, receiver, and hook switch on the desk stand proper and put the condenser or induction coil, or other device associated with the talking circuit, in the bell box. there is little to choose between the two general practices. the number of conducting strands in the flexible cord is somewhat dependent on the arrangement of the circuit employed. [illustration: fig. . common-battery desk set] [illustration: fig. . bell for common-battery desk set.] the kellogg switchboard and supply company is one which places all the parts, except the polarized ringer and the associated condenser, in the desk stand itself. in fig. is shown a bottom view of the desk stand with the bottom plate removed. in the upper portion of the circle of the base is shown a small condenser which is placed in the talking circuit in series with the receiver. in the right-hand portion of the circle of the base is shown a small impedance coil, which is placed in series with the transmitter but in shunt relation with the condenser and the receiver. [illustration: fig. . bell for common-battery desk set] in figs. and are shown two views of the type of bell box employed by the kellogg company in connection with the common-battery desk sets, this box being of pressed-steel construction and having a removable lid, as shown in fig. , by which the working parts of the ringer are made readily accessible, as are also the terminals for the cord leading from the desk stand and for the wires of the line circuit. the condenser that is placed in series with the ringer is also mounted in this same box. by employing two condensers, one in the bell box large enough to transmit ringing currents and the other in the base of the desk stand large enough only to transmit voice currents, a duplication of condensers is involved, but it has the corresponding advantages of requiring only two strands to the flexible cord leading from the bell box to the desk stand proper. [illustration: fig. . microtelephone set] a form of desk-telephone set that is used largely abroad, but that has found very little use in this country, is shown in fig. . in this the transmitter and the receiver are permanently attached together, the receiver being of the watch-case variety and so positioned relatively to the transmitter that when the receiver is held at the ear, the mouthpiece of the transmitter will be just in front of the lips of the user. in order to maintain the transmitter in a vertical position during use, this necessitates the use of a curved mouthpiece as shown. this transmitter and receiver so combined is commonly called, in this country, the _microtelephone set_, although there seems to be no logical reason for this name. the combined transmitter and receiver, instead of being supported on an ordinary form of hook switch, are supported on a forked bracket as shown, this bracket serving to operate the switch springs which are held in one position when the bracket is subjected to the weight of the microtelephone, and in the alternate position when relieved therefrom. this particular microtelephone set is the product of the l.m. ericsson telephone manufacturing company, of buffalo, new york. the circuits of such sets do not differ materially from those of the ordinary desk telephone set. [illustration: fig. . kellogg common-battery desk set] [illustration: fig. . dean common-battery set] circuits of common-battery telephone sets. the complete circuits of the kellogg desk-stand arrangement are shown in fig. , the desk-stand parts being shown at the left and the bell-box parts at the right. as is seen, but two conductors extend from the former to the latter. a simplified theoretical sketch is also shown in the upper right-hand corner of this figure. the details of the common-battery telephone circuits of the dean electric company are shown in fig. . this involves the use of the balanced wheatstone bridge. the only other thing about this circuit that needs description, in view of what has previously been said about it, is that the polarized bell is placed in series with a condenser so that the two sides of the circuit may be insulated from each other while the telephone is not in use, and yet permit the passage of ringing current through the bell. [illustration: fig. . monarch common-battery wall set] the use of the so-called direct-current receiver has brought about a great simplification in the common-battery telephone circuits of several of the manufacturing companies. by this use the transmitter and the receiver are placed in series across the line, this path being normally opened by the hook-switch contacts. the polarized bell and condenser are placed in another bridge path across the line, this path not being affected by the hook-switch contacts. all that there is to such a complete common-battery telephone set, therefore, is a receiver, transmitter, hook switch, bell, condenser, and cabinet, or other support. the extreme simplicity of the circuits of such a set is illustrated in fig. , which shows how the monarch telephone manufacturing company connect up the various parts of their telephone set, using the direct-current receiver already described in connection with fig. . [illustration: ventilating plant for large telephone office building] chapter xv non-selective party-line systems a party line is a line that is for the joint use of several stations. it is, therefore, a line that connects a central office with two or more subscribers' stations, or where no central office is involved, a line that connects three or more isolated stations with each other. the distinguishing feature of a party line, therefore, is that it serves more than two stations, counting the central office, if there is one, as a station. strictly speaking, the term _party_ line should be used in contradistinction to the term _private_ line. companies operating telephone exchanges, however, frequently lease their wires to individuals for private use, with no central-office switchboard connections, and such lines are, by common usage, referred to as "private lines." such lines may be used to connect two or more isolated stations. a _private_ line, in the parlance of telephone exchange working, may, therefore, be a _party_ line, as inconsistent as this may seem. a telephone line that is connected with an exchange is an exchange line, and it is a party line if it has more than one station on it. it is an individual line or a single party line if it has but a single station on it. a line which has no central-office connection is called an "isolated line," and it is a party line if it has more than two stations on it. the problem of mere speech transmission on party lines is comparatively easy, being scarcely more complex than that involved in private or single party lines. this is not true, however, of the problem of signaling the various stations. this is because the line is for the common use of all its patrons or subscribers, as they are termed, and the necessity therefore exists that the person sending a signal, whether operator or subscriber, shall be able in some way to inform a person at the desired station that the call is intended for that station. there are two general ways of accomplishing this purpose. (_ _) the first and simplest of these ways is to make no provision for ringing any one bell on the line to the exclusion of the others, and thus allow all bells to ring at once whenever any station on the line is wanted. where this is done, in order to prevent all stations from answering, it is necessary, in some way, to convey to the desired station the information that the call is intended for that station, and to all of the other stations the information that the call is not intended for them. this is done on such lines by what is called "code ringing," the code consisting of various combinations of long and short rings. (_ _) the other and more complex way is to arrange for selective ringing, so that the person sending the call may ring the bell at the station desired, allowing the bells at all the other stations to remain quiet. [illustration: fig. . grounded-circuit series line] these two general classes of party-line systems may, therefore, be termed "non-selective" and "selective" systems. non-selective party lines are largely used both on lines having connection with a central office, and through the central office the privilege of connection with other lines, and on isolated lines having no central-office connection. the greatest field of usefulness of non-selective lines is in rural districts and in connection with exchanges in serving rather sparsely settled districts where the cost of individual lines or even lines serving but a few subscribers, is prohibitive. non-selective telephone party lines most often employ magneto telephones. the early forms of party lines employed the ordinary series magneto telephone, the bells being of low resistance and comparatively low impedance, while the generators were provided with automatic shunting devices, so that their resistance would normally be removed from the circuit of the line. series systems. the general arrangement of a series party line employing a ground return is shown in fig. . in this three ordinary series instruments are connected together in series, the end stations being grounded, in order to afford a return path for the ringing and voice currents. [illustration: fig. . metallic-circuit series line] in fig. there is shown a metallic-circuit series line on which five ordinary series telephones are placed in series. in this no ground is employed, the return being through a line wire, thus making the circuit entirely metallic. [illustration: fig. . series party line] the limitations of the ordinary series party line may be best understood by reference to fig. , in which the circuits of three series telephones are shown connected with a single line. the receiver of station a is represented as being on its hook, while the receivers of stations b and c are removed from their hooks, as when the subscribers at those two stations are carrying on a conversation. the hook switches of stations b and c being in raised positions, the generators and ringers of those stations are cut out of the circuit, and only the telephone apparatus proper is included, but the hook switch of station a being depressed by the weight of its receiver, includes the ringer of that station in circuit, and through this ringer, therefore, the voice currents of stations b and c must pass. the generator of station a is not in the circuit of voice currents, however, because of the automatic shunt with which the generator is provided, as described in chapter viii. a slight consideration of the series system as shown in this figure, indicates that the voice currents of any two stations that are in use, must pass (as indicated by the heavy lines) through the ringers of all the stations that are not in use; and when a great number of stations are placed upon a single line, as has been frequently the case, the impedance offered by these ringers becomes a serious barrier to the passage of the voice currents. this defect in the series party line is fundamental, as it is obvious that the ringers must be left in the circuit of the stations which are not in use, in order that those stations may always be in such condition as to be able to receive a call. this defect may in some measure be reduced by making the ringers of low impedance. this is the general practice with series telephones, the ringers ordinarily having short cores and a comparatively small number of turns, the resistance being as a rule about ohms. bridging systems. very much better than the series plan of party-line connections, is the arrangement by which the instruments are placed in bridges across the line, such lines being commonly known as bridged or bridging lines. this was first strongly advocated and put into wide practical use by j.j. carty, now the chief engineer of the american telephone and telegraph company. a simple illustration of a bridging telephone line is shown in fig. , where the three telephones shown are each connected in a bridge path from the line wire to ground, a type known as a "grounded bridging line." its use is very common in rural districts. a better arrangement is shown in fig. , which represents a metallic-circuit bridging line, three telephone instruments being shown in parallel or bridge paths across the two line wires. the actual circuit arrangements of a bridging party line are better shown in fig. . there are three stations and it will be seen that at each station there are three possible bridges, or bridge paths, across the two limbs of the line. the first of these bridges is controlled by the hook switch and is normally open. when the hook is raised, however, this path is closed through the receiver and secondary of the induction coil, the primary circuit being also closed so as to include the battery and transmitter. this constitutes an ordinary local-battery talking set. [illustration: fig. . grounded bridging line] [illustration: fig. . metallic bridging line] [illustration: fig. . metallic bridging line] a second bridge at each station is led through the ringer or call-bell, and this, in most bridging telephones, is permanently closed, the continuity of this path between the two limbs of the line not being affected either by the hook switch or by the automatic switch in connection with the generator. a third bridge path at each station is led through the generator. this, as indicated, is normally open, but the automatic cut-in switch of the generator serves, when the generator is operated, to close its path across the line, so that it may send its currents to the line and ring the bells of all the stations. when any generator is operated, its current divides and passes over the line wires and through all of the ringers in multiple. it is seen, therefore, that the requirements for a bridging generator are that it shall be capable of generating a large current, sufficient when divided up amongst all the bells to ring each of them; and that it shall be capable of producing a sufficient voltage to send the required current not only to the near-by stations, but to the stations at the distant end of the line. it might seem at first that the bridging system avoided one difficulty only to encounter another. it clearly avoids the difficulty of the series system in that the voice currents, in order to reach distant stations, do not have to pass through all of the bells of the idle stations in series. there is, however, presented at each station a leakage path through the bell bridged across the line, through which it would appear the voice currents might leak uselessly from one side of the line to the other and not pass on in sufficient volume to the distant station. this difficulty is, however, more apparent than real. it is found that, by making the ringers of high impedance, the leakage of voice currents through them from one side of the line to the other is practically negligible. it is obvious that in a heavily loaded bridged line, the bell at the home station, that is at the station from which the call is being sent, will take slightly more than its share of the current, and it is also obvious that the ringing of the home bell performs no useful function. the plan is frequently adopted, therefore, of having the operation of the generator serve to cut its own bell out of the circuit. the arrangement by which this is done is clearly shown in fig. . the circuit of the bell is normally complete across the line, while the circuit of the generator is normally open. when, however, the generator crank is turned these conditions are reversed, the bell circuit being broken and the generator circuit closed, so as to allow its current all to pass the line. this feature of having the local bell remain silent upon the operation of its own generator is also of advantage because other parties at the same station are not disturbed by the ringing of the bell when a call is being made by that station. a difficulty encountered on non-selective bridging party lines, which at first seems amusing rather than serious, but which nevertheless is often a vexatious trouble, is that due to the propensity of some people to "listen in" on the line on hearing calls intended for other than their own stations. people whose ethical standards would not permit them to listen at, or peep through, a keyhole, often engage in this telephonic eavesdropping. frequently, not only one but many subscribers will respond to a call intended for others and will listen to the ensuing conversation. this is disadvantageous in several respects: it destroys the privacy of conversation between any two parties; it subjects the local batteries to an unnecessary and useless drain; and it greatly impairs the ringing efficiency of the line. the reason for this interference with ringing is that the presence of the low-resistance receivers across the line allows the current sent out by any of the generators to pass in large measure through the receivers, thus depriving the ringers, which are of comparatively high resistance and impedance, of the energy necessary to operate them. as a result of this it is frequently impossible for one party to repeat the call for another because, during the interval between the first and second call, a number of parties remove their receivers from their hooks in order to listen. ring-off or clearing-out signals are likewise interfered with. [illustration: fig. . circuits of bridging station] a partial remedy for this interference with ringing, due to eavesdropping, is to introduce a low-capacity condenser into the receiver circuit at each station, as shown in fig. . this does not seriously interfere with the speech transmission since the condensers will readily transmit the high-frequency voice currents. such condensers, however, have not sufficient capacity to enable them readily to transmit the low-frequency ringing currents and hence these are forced, in large measure, to pass through the bells for which they are intended rather than leaking through the low-resistance receiver paths. the best condenser for this use is of about / -microfarad capacity, which is ample for voice-transmitting purposes, while it serves to effectively bar the major portion of the generator currents. a higher capacity condenser would carry the generator currents much more readily and thus defeat the purpose for which it was intended. in order that the requisite impedance may be given to the ringers employed for bridging party lines, it is customary to make the cores rather long and of somewhat larger diameter than in series ringers and at the same time to wind the coils with rather fine wire so as to secure the requisite number of turns. bridging bells are ordinarily wound to a resistance of , or , ohms, these two figures having become standard practice. it is not, however, the high resistance so much as the high impedance that is striven for in bridging bells; it is the number of turns that is of principal importance. as has already been stated, the generators used for bridging lines are made capable of giving a greater current output than is necessary in series instruments, and for this purpose they are usually provided with at least four, and usually five, bar magnets. the armature is made correspondingly long and is wound, as a rule, with about no. wire. sometimes where a bridged party line terminates in a central-office switchboard it is desired to so operate the line that the subscribers shall not be able to call up each other, but shall, instead, be able to signal only the central-office operator, who, in turn, will be enabled to call the party desired, designating his station by a suitable code ring. one common way to do this is to use biased bells instead of the ordinary polarized bells. in order that the bells may not be rung by the subscribers' generators, these generators are made of the direct-current type and these are so associated with the line that the currents which they send out will be in the wrong direction to actuate the bells. on the other hand, the central-office generator is of direct-current type and is associated with the line in the right direction to energize the bells. thus any subscriber on the line may call the central office by merely turning his generator crank, which action will not ring the bells of the subscribers on the line. the operator will then be able to receive the call and in turn send out currents of the proper direction to ring all the bells and, by code, call the desired party to the telephone. [illustration: one wing of operating room, berlin, germany ultimate capacity , subscribers' lines and , trunk lines. siemens-halske equipment. note horizontal disposal of multiple] signal code. the code by which stations are designated on non-selective party lines usually consists in combinations of long and short rings similar to the dots and dashes in the morse code. thus, one short ring may indicate station no. ; two short rings station no. ; and so on up to, say, five short rings, indicating station no. . it is not good practice to employ more than five successive short rings because of the confusion which often arises in people's minds as to the number of rings that they hear. when, therefore, the number of stations to be rung by code exceeds five, it is better to employ combinations of long and short rings, and a good way is to adopt a partial decimal system, omitting the numbers higher than five in each ten, and employing long rings to indicate the tens digits and short rings to indicate the units digit, table x. table x signal code +--------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+ |station number|ring |station number|ring | | | short | | long, short| | | short | | long, short| | | short | | long, short| | | short | | long, short| | | short | | long, short| | | long, short| | long, short| +--------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+ other arrangements are often employed and by almost any of them a great variety of readily distinguishable signals may be secured. the patrons of such lines learn to distinguish, with comparatively few errors, between the calls intended for them and those intended for others, but frequently they do not observe the distinction, as has already been pointed out. limitations. with good telephones the limit as to the number of stations that it is possible to operate upon a single line is usually due more to limitations in ringing than in talking. as the number of stations is increased indefinitely a condition will be reached at which the generators will not be able to generate sufficient current to ring all of the bells, and this condition is likely to occur before the talking efficiency is seriously impaired by the number of bridges across the line. neither of these considerations, however, should determine the maximum number of stations to be placed on a line. the proper limit as to the number of stations is not the number that can be rung by a single generator, or the number with which it is possible to transmit speech properly, but rather the number of stations that may be employed without causing undue interference between the various parties who may desire to use the line. overloaded party lines cause much annoyance, not only for the reason that the subscribers are often not able to use the line when they want it, but also, in non-selective lines, because of the incessant ringing of the bells, and the liability of confusion in the interpretation of the signaling code, which of course becomes more complex as the number of stations increases. the amount of business that is done over a telephone line is usually referred to as the "traffic." it will be understood, however, in considering party-line working that the number of calls per day or per hour, or per shorter unit, is not the true measure of the traffic and, therefore, not the true measure of the amount of possible interference between the various subscribers on the line. an almost equally great factor is the average length of the conversation. in city lines, that is, in lines in city exchanges, the conversation is usually short and averages perhaps two minutes in duration. in country lines, however, serving people in rural districts, who have poor facilities for seeing each other, particularly during the winter time, the conversations will average very much longer. in rural communities the people often do much of their visiting by telephone, and conversations of half an hour in length are not unusual. it is obvious that under such conditions a party line having a great many stations will be subject to very grave interference between the parties, people desiring to use the line for business purposes often being compelled to wait an undue time before they may secure the use of the line. it is obvious, therefore, that the amount of traffic on the line, whether due to many short conversations or to a comparatively few long ones, is the main factor that should determine the number of stations that, economically, may be placed on a line. the facilities also for building lines enter as a factor in this respect, since it is obvious that in comparatively poor communities the money may not be forthcoming to build as many lines as are needed to properly take care of the traffic. a compromise is, therefore, often necessary, and the only rule that may be safely laid down is to place as few parties on a given line as conditions will admit. no definite limit may be set to apply to all conditions but it may be safely stated that under ordinary circumstances no more than ten stations should be placed on a non-selective line. twenty stations are, however, common, and sometimes forty and even fifty have been connected to a single line. in such cases the confusion which results, even if the talking and the ringing efficiency are tolerable, makes the service over such overloaded lines unsatisfactory to all concerned. chapter xvi selective party-line systems the problem which confronts one in the production of a system of selective ringing on party lines is that of causing the bell of any chosen one of the several parties on a circuit to respond to a signal sent out from the central office without sounding any of the other bells. this, of course, must be accomplished without interfering with the regular functions of the telephone line and apparatus. by this is meant that the subscribers must be able to call the central office and to signal for disconnection when desired, and also that the association of the selective-signaling devices with the line shall not interfere with the transmission of speech over the line. a great many ways of accomplishing selective ringing on party lines have been proposed, and a large number of them have been used. all of these ways may be classified under four different classes according to the underlying principle involved. classification. (_ _) _polarity_ systems are so called because they depend for their operation on the use of bells or other responsive devices so polarized that they will respond to one direction of current only. these bells or other devices are so arranged in connection with the line that the one to be rung will be traversed by current in the proper direction to actuate it, while all of the others will either not be traversed by any current at all, or by current in the wrong direction to cause their operation. (_ _) the _harmonic_ systems have for their underlying principle the fact that a pendulum or elastic reed, so supported as to be capable of vibrating freely, will have one particular rate of vibration which it may easily be made to assume. this pendulum or reed is placed under the influence of an electromagnet associated with the line, and owing to the fact that it will vibrate easily at one particular rate of vibration and with extreme difficulty at any other rate, it is clear that for current impulses of a frequency corresponding to its natural rate the reed will take up the vibration, while for other frequencies it will fail to respond. selection on party lines by means of this system is provided for by tuning all of the reeds on the line at different rates of vibration and is accomplished by sending out on the line ringing currents of proper frequency to ring the desired bell. the current-generating devices for ringing these bells are capable of sending out different frequencies corresponding respectively to the rates of vibration of each of the vibrating reed tongues. to select any one station, therefore, the current frequency corresponding to the rate of vibration of the reed tongue at that station is sent and this, being out of tune with the reed tongues at all of the other stations, operates the tongue of the desired station, but fails to operate those at all of the other stations. (_ _) in the _step-by-step_ system the bells on the line are normally not in operative relation with the line and the bell of the desired party on the line is made responsive by sending over the line a certain number of impulses preliminary to ringing it. these impulses move step-by-step mechanisms at each of the stations in unison, the arrangement being such that the bells at the several stations are each made operative after the sending of a certain number of preliminary impulses, this number being different for all the stations. (_ _) the _broken-line_ systems are new in telephony and for certain fields of work look promising. in these the line circuit is normally broken up into sections, the first section terminating at the first station out from the central office, the second section at the second station, and so on. when the line is in its normal or inactive condition only the bell at the first station is so connected with the line circuit as to enable it to be rung, the line being open beyond. sending a single preliminary impulse will, however, operate a switching device so as to disconnect the bell at the first station and to connect the line through to the second station. this may be carried out, by sending the proper number of preliminary impulses, so as to build up the line circuit to the desired station, after which the sending of the ringing current will cause the bell to ring at that station only. polarity method. the polarity method of selective signaling on party lines is probably the most extensively used. the standard selective system of the american telephone and telegraph company operates on this principle. _two-party line._ it is obvious that selection may be had between two parties on a single metallic-circuit line without the use of biased bells or current of different polarities. thus, one limb of a metallic circuit may be used as one grounded line to ring the bell at one of the stations, and the other limb of the metallic circuit may be used as another grounded line to ring the bell of the other station; and the two limbs may be used together as a metallic circuit for talking purposes as usual. this is shown in fig. , where the ringing keys at the central office are diagrammatically shown in the left-hand portion of the figure as _k_^{ } and _k_^{ }. the operation of these keys will be more fully pointed out in a subsequent chapter, but a correct understanding will be had if it be remembered that the circuits are normally maintained by these keys in the position shown. when, however, either one of the keys is operated, the two long springs may be considered as pressed apart so as to disengage the normal contacts between the springs and to engage the two outer contacts, with which they are shown in the cut to be disengaged. the two outer contacts are connected respectively to an ordinary alternating-current ringing generator and to ground, but the connection is reversed on the two keys. [illustration: fig. . simple two-party line selection] at station a the ordinary talking set is shown in simplified form, consisting merely of a receiver, transmitter, and hook switch in a single bridge circuit across the line. an ordinary polarized bell is shown connected in series with a condenser between the lower limb of the line and ground. at station b the same talking circuit is shown, but the polarized bell and condenser are bridged between the upper limb of the line and ground. if the operator desires to call station a, she will press key _k_^{ } which will ground the upper side of the line and connect the lower side of the line with the generator _g_^{ }, and this, obviously, will cause the bell at station a to ring. the bell at station b will not ring because it is not in the circuit. if, on the other hand, the operator desires to ring the bell at station b, she will depress key _k_^{ }, which will allow the current from generator _g_^{ } to pass over the upper side of the line through the bell and condenser at station b and return by the path through the ground. the object of grounding the opposite sides of the keys at the central office is to prevent cross-ringing, that is, ringing the wrong bell. were the keys not grounded this might occur when a ringing current was being sent out while the receiver at one of the stations was off its hook; the ringing current from, say, generator _g_^{ } then passing not only through the bell at station a as intended, but also through the bell at station b by way of the bridge path through the receiver that happened to be connected across the line. with the ringing keys grounded as shown, it is obvious that this will not occur, since the path for the ringing current through the wrong bell will always be shunted by a direct path to ground on the same side of the line. in such a two-party-line selective system the two generators _g_^{ } and _g_^{ } may be the same generator and may be of the ordinary alternating-current type. the bells likewise may be of the ordinary alternating-current type. the two-party selective line just described virtually employs two separate circuits for ringing. now each of these circuits alone may be employed to accomplish selective ringing between two stations by using two biased bells oppositely polarized, and employing pulsating ringing currents of one direction or the other according to which bell it is desired to ring. one side of a circuit so equipped is shown in fig. . in this the two biased bells are at station a and station b, these being bridged to ground in each case and adapted to respond only to positive and negative impulses respectively. at the central office the two keys _k_^{ } and _k_^{ } are shown. a single alternating-current generator _g_ is shown, having its brush _ _ grounded and brush _ _ connected to a commutator disk _ _ mounted on the generator shaft so as to revolve therewith. one-half of the periphery of this disk is of insulating material so that the brushes _ _ and _ _, which bear against the disk, will be alternately connected with the disk and, therefore, with the brush _ _ of the generator. now the brush _ _, being one terminal of an alternating-current machine, is alternately positive and negative, and the arrangement of the commutator is such that the disk, which is always at the potential of the brush _ _, will be connected to the brush _ _ only while it is positively charged and with the brush _ _ only while it is negatively charged. as a result, brush _ _ has a succession of positive impulses and brush _ _ a succession of negative ones. obviously, therefore, when key _k_^{ } is depressed only the bell at station a will be rung, and likewise the depression of key _k_^{ } will result only in the ringing of the bell at station b. [illustration: fig. . principle of selection by polarity] _four-party line._ from the two foregoing two-party line systems it is evident that a four-party line system may be readily obtained, that is, by employing two oppositely polarized biased bells on each side of the metallic circuit. the selection of any of the four bells may be obtained, choosing between the pairs connected, respectively, with the two limbs of the line, by choosing the limb on which the current is to be sent, and choosing between the two bells of the pair on that side of the line by choosing which polarity of current to send. such a four-party line system is shown in fig. . in this the generators are not shown, but the wires leading from the four keys are shown marked plus or minus, according to the terminal of the generator to which they are supposed to be connected. likewise the two bells connected with the lower side of the line are marked positive and negative, as are the two bells connected with the upper side of the line. from the foregoing description of figs. and , it is clear that if key _k_^{ } is pressed the bell at station a will be rung, and that bell only, since the bells at station c and station _d_ are not in the circuit and the positive current sent over the lower side of the line is not of the proper polarity to ring the bell at station b. the system shown in fig. is subject to one rather grave defect. in subsequent chapters it will be pointed out that in common-battery systems the display of the line signal at the central office is affected by any one of the subscribers merely taking his receiver off its hook and thus establishing a connection between the two limbs of the metallic circuit. such common-battery systems should have the two limbs of the line, normally, entirely insulated from each other. it is seen that this is not the case in the system just described, since there is a conducting path from one limb of the line through the two bells on that side to ground, and thence through the other pair of bells to the other limb of the line. this means that unless the resistance of the bell windings is made very high, the path of the signaling circuit will be of sufficiently low resistance to actuate the line signal at the central office. [illustration: fig. . four-party polarity selection] it is not feasible to overcome this objection by the use of condensers in series with the bells, as was done in the system shown in fig. , since the bells are necessarily biased and such bells, as may readily be seen, will not work properly through condensers, since the placing of a condenser in their circuit means that the current which passes through the bell is alternating rather than pulsating, although the original source may have been of pulsating nature only. [illustration: fig . standard polarity system] the remedy for this difficulty, therefore, has been to place in series with each bell a very high non-inductive resistance of about , or , ohms, and also to make the windings of the bells of comparatively high resistance, usually about , ohms. even with this precaution there is a considerable leakage of the central-office battery current from one side of the line to the other through the two paths to ground in series. this method of selective signaling has, therefore, been more frequently used with magneto systems. an endeavor to apply this principle to common-battery systems without the objections noted above has led to the adoption of a modification, wherein a relay at each station normally holds the ground connection open. this is shown in fig. and is the standard four-party line ringing circuit employed by the american telephone and telegraph company and their licensees. in this system the biased bells are normally disconnected from the line, and, therefore, the leakage path through them from one side of the line to the other does not exist. at each station there is a relay winding adapted to be operated by the ringing current bridged across the line in series with a condenser. as a result, when ringing current is sent out on the line all of the relays, _i.e._, one at each station, are energized and attract their armatures. this establishes the connection of all the bells to line and really brings about temporarily a condition equivalent to that of fig. . as a result, the sending of a positive current on the lower line with a ground return will cause the operation of the bell at station a. it will not ring the bell at station b because of the wrong polarity. it will not ring the bells of station c and station d because they are in the circuit between the other side of the line and ground. as soon as the ringing current ceases all of the relays release their armatures and disconnect all the bells from the line. by this very simple device the trouble, due to marginal working of the line signal, is done away with, since normally there is no leakage from one side of the line to the other on account of the presence of the condensers in the bridge at each station. [illustration: fig. . ringing-key arrangement] in fig. , the more complete connections of the central-office ringing keys are shown, by means of which the proper positive or negative ringing currents are sent to line in the proper way to cause the ringing of any one of the four bells on a party line of either of the types shown in figs. and . in this the generator _g_ and its commutator disk _ _, with the various brushes, _ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _, are arranged in the same manner as is shown in fig. . it is evident from what has been said that wire _ _ leading from generator brush _ _ and commutator disk _ _ will carry alternating potential; that wire _ _ will carry positive pulsations of potential; and that wire _ _ will carry negative pulsations of potential. there are five keys in the set illustrated in fig. , of which four, viz, _k_^{ }, _k_^{ }, _k_^{ }, and _k_^{ }, are connected in the same manner as diagrammatically indicated in figs. and , and will, obviously, serve to send the proper current over the proper limb of the line to ring one of the bells. key _k_^{ }, the fifth one in the set, is added so as to enable the operator to ring an ordinary unbiased bell on a single party line when connection is made with such line. as the two outside contacts of this key are connected respectively to the two brushes of the alternating-current dynamo _g_, it is clear that it will impress an alternating current on the line when its contacts are closed. _circuits of two-party line telephones._ in fig. is shown in detail the wiring of the telephone set usually employed in connection with the party-line selective-ringing system illustrated in fig. . in the wiring of this set and the two following, it must be borne in mind that the portion of the circuit used during conversation might be wired in a number of ways without affecting the principle of selective ringing employed; however, the circuits shown are those most commonly employed with the respective selective ringing systems which they are intended to illustrate. in connecting the circuits of this telephone instrument to the line, the two line conductors are connected to binding posts _ _ and _ _ and a ground connection is made to binding post _ _. in practice, in order to avoid the necessity of changing the permanent wiring of the telephone set in connecting it as an a or b station (fig. ), the line conductors are connected to the binding posts in reverse order at the two stations; that is, for station a the upper conductor, fig. , is connected to binding post _ _ and the lower conductor to binding post _ _, while at station b the upper conductor is connected to binding post _ _ and the lower conductor to binding post _ _. the permanent wiring of this telephone set is the same as that frequently used for a set connected to a line having only one station, the proper ringing circuit being made by the method of connecting up the binding posts. for example, if this telephone set were to be used on a single station line, the binding posts _ _ and _ _ would be connected to the two conductors of the line as before, while binding post _ _ would be connected to post _ _ instead of being grounded. [illustration: fig. . circuit of two-party station] _circuits of four-party-line telephones._ the wiring of the telephone set used with the system illustrated in fig. is shown in detail in fig. . the wiring of this set is arranged for local battery or magneto working, as this method of selective ringing is more frequently employed with magneto systems, on account of the objectionable features which arise when applied to common-battery systems. in this figure the line conductors are connected to binding posts _ _ and _ _, and a ground connection is made to binding post _ _. in order that all sets may be wired alike and yet permit the instrument to be connected for any one of the various stations, the bell is not permanently wired to any portion of the circuit but has flexible connections which will allow of the set being properly connected for any desired station. the terminals of the bell are connected to binding posts _ _ and _ _, to which are connected flexible conductors terminating in terminals _ _ and _ _. these terminals may be connected to the binding posts _ _, _ _, and _ _ in the proper manner to connect the set as an a, b, c, or d station, as required. for example, in connecting the set for station a, fig. , terminal _ _ is connected to binding post _ _ and _ _ to _ _. for connecting the set for station b terminal _ _ is connected to binding post _ _ and _ _ to _ _. for connecting the set for station c terminal _ _ is connected to binding post _ _ and _ _ to _ _. for connecting the set for station d terminal _ _ is connected to binding post _ _ and _ _ to _ _. [illustration: fig. . circuit of four-party station without relay] [illustration: fig. . circuit of four-party station with relay] the detailed wiring of the telephone set employed in connection with the system illustrated in fig. is shown in fig. . the wiring of this set is arranged for a common-battery system, inasmuch as this arrangement of signaling circuit is more especially adapted for common-battery working. however, this arrangement is frequently adapted to magneto systems as even with magneto systems a permanent ground connection at a subscriber's station is objectionable inasmuch as it increases the difficulty of determining the existence or location of an accidental ground on one of the line conductors. the wiring of this set is also arranged so that one standard type of wiring may be employed and yet allow any telephone set to be connected as an a, b, c, or d station. harmonic method. _principles._ to best understand the principle of operation of the harmonic party-line signaling systems, it is to be remembered that a flexible reed, mounted rigidly at one end and having its other end free to vibrate, will, like a violin string, have a certain natural period of vibration; that is, if it be started in vibration, as by snapping it with the fingers, it will take up a certain rate of vibration which will continue at a uniform rate until the vibration ceases altogether. such a reed will be most easily thrown into vibration by a series of impulses having a frequency corresponding exactly to the natural rate of vibration of the reed itself; it may be thrown into vibration by very slight impulses if they occur at exactly the proper times. it is familiar to all that a person pushing another in a swing may cause a considerable amplitude of vibration with the exertion of but a small amount of force, if he will so time his pushes as to conform exactly to the natural rate of vibration of the swing. it is of course possible, however, to make the swing take up other rates of vibrations by the application of sufficient force. as another example, consider a clock pendulum beating seconds. by gentle blows furnished by the escapement at exactly the proper times, the heavy pendulum is kept in motion. however, if a person grasps the pendulum weight and shakes it, it may be made to vibrate at almost any desired rate, dependent on the strength and agility of the individual. the conclusion is, therefore, that a reed or pendulum may be made to start and vibrate easily by the application of impulses at proper intervals, and only with great difficulty by the application of impulses at other than the proper intervals; and these facts form the basis on which harmonic-ringing systems rest. the father of harmonic ringing in telephony was jacob b. currier, an undertaker of lowell, mass. his harmonic bells were placed in series in the telephone line, and were considerably used in new england in commercial practice in the early eighties. somewhat later james a. lighthipe of san francisco independently invented a harmonic-ringing system, which was put in successful commercial use at sacramento and a few other smaller california towns. lighthipe polarized his bells and bridged them across the line in series with condensers, as in modern practice, and save for some crudities in design, his apparatus closely resembled, both in principle and construction, some of that in successful use today. lighthipe's system went out of use and was almost forgotten, when about , wm. w. dean again independently redeveloped the harmonic system, and produced a bell astonishingly like that of lighthipe, but of more refined design, thus starting the development which has resulted in the present wide use of this system. the signal-receiving device in harmonic-ringing systems takes the form of a ringer, having its armature and striker mounted on a rather stiff spring rather than on trunnions. by this means the moving parts of the bell constitute in effect a reed tongue, which has a natural rate of vibration at which it may easily be made to vibrate with sufficient amplitude to strike the gongs. the harmonic ringer differs from the ordinary polarized bell or ringer, therefore, in that its armature will vibrate most easily at one particular rate, while the armature of the ordinary ringer is almost indifferent, between rather wide limits, as to the rate at which it vibrates. as a rule harmonic party-line systems are limited to four stations on a line. the frequencies employed are usually - / , - / , , and - / cycles per second, this corresponding to , , , , , , and , cycles per minute. the reason why this particular set of frequencies was chosen is that they represent approximately the range of desirable frequencies, and that the first ringing-current machines in such systems were made by mounting the armatures of four different generators on a single shaft, these having, respectively, two poles, four poles, six poles, and eight poles each. the two-pole generator gave one cycle per revolution, the four-pole two, the six-pole three, and the eight-pole four, so that by running the shaft of the machine at exactly , revolutions per minute the frequencies before mentioned were attained. this range of frequencies having proved about right for general practice and the early ringers all having been attuned so as to operate on this basis, the practice of adhering to these numbers of vibrations has been kept up with one exception by all the manufacturers who make this type of ringer. _tuning._ the process of adjusting the armature of a ringer to a certain rate of vibration is called tuning, and it is customary to refer to a ringer as being tuned to a certain rate of vibration, just as it is customary to refer to a violin string as being tuned to a certain pitch or rate of vibration. the physical difference between the ringers of the various frequencies consists mainly in the size of the weights at the end of the vibrating reed, that is, of the weights which form the tapper for the bell. the low-frequency ringers have the largest weights and the high-frequency the smallest, of course. the ringers are roughly tuned to the desired frequencies by merely placing on the tapper rod the desired weight and then a more refined tuning is given them by slightly altering the positions of the weights on the tapper rod. to make the reed have a slightly lower natural rate of vibration, the weight is moved further from the stationary end of the reed, while to give it a slightly higher natural rate of vibration the weight is moved toward the stationary. in this way very nice adjustments may be made, and the aim of the various factories manufacturing these bells is to make the adjustment permanent so that it will never have to be altered by the operating companies. several years of experience with these bells has shown that when once properly assembled they maintain the same rate of vibration with great constancy. there are two general methods of operating harmonic bells. one of these may be called the in-tune system and the other the under-tune system. the under-tune system was the first employed. [illustration: operating room at tokyo, japan] _under-tune system._ the early workers in the field of harmonic-selective signaling discovered that when the tapper of the reed struck against gongs the natural rate of vibration of the reed was changed, or more properly, the reed was made to have a different rate of vibration from its natural rate. this was caused by the fact that the elasticity of the gongs proved another factor in the set of conditions causing the reeds to take up a certain rate of vibration, and the effect of this added factor was always to accelerate the rate of vibration which the reed had when it was not striking the gongs. the rebound of the hammer from the gongs tended, in other words, to accelerate the rate of vibration, which, as might be expected, caused a serious difficulty in the practical operation of the bells. to illustrate: if a reed were to have a natural rate of vibration, when not striking the gongs, of per second and a current of cycles per second were impressed on the line, the reed would take up this rate of vibration easily, but when a sufficient amplitude of vibration was attained to cause the tapper to strike the gongs, the reed would be thrown out of tune, on account of the tendency of the gongs to make the reed vibrate at a higher rate. this caused irregular ringing and was frequently sufficient to make the bells cease ringing altogether or to ring in an entirely unsatisfactory manner. in order to provide for this difficulty the early bells of currier and lighthipe were made on what has since been called the "under-tuned" principle. the first bells of the kellogg switchboard and supply company, developed by dean, were based on this idea as their cardinal principle. the reeds were all given a natural rate of vibration, when not striking the gongs, somewhat below that of the current frequencies to be employed; and yet not sufficiently below the corresponding current frequency to make the bell so far out of tune that the current frequency would not be able to start it. this was done so that when the tapper began to strike the gongs the tapper would be accelerated and brought practically into tune with the current frequency, and the ringing would continue regularly as long as the current flowed. it will be seen that the under-tuned system was, therefore, one involving some difficulty in starting in order to provide for proper regularity while actually ringing. ringers of this kind were always made with but a single gong, it being found difficult to secure uniformity of ringing and uniformity of adjustment when two gongs were employed. although no ringers of this type are being made at present, yet a large number of them are in use and they will consequently be described. their action is interesting in throwing better light on the more improved types, if for no other reason. figs. and show, respectively, side and front views of the original kellogg bell. the entire mechanism is self-contained, all parts being mounted on the base plate _ _. the electromagnet is of the two-coil type, and is supported on the brackets _ _ and _ _. the bracket _ _ is of iron so as to afford a magnetic yoke for the field of the electromagnet, while the bracket _ _ is of brass so as not to short-circuit the magnetic lines across the air-gap. the reed tongue--consisting of the steel spring _ _, the soft-iron armature pieces _ _, the auxiliary spring _ _, and the tapper ball _ _, all of which are riveted together, as shown in fig. --constitutes the only moving part of the bell. the steel spring _ _ is rigidly mounted in the clamping piece _ _ at the upper part of the bracket _ _, and the reed tongue is permitted to vibrate only by the flexibility of this spring. the auxiliary spring _ _ is much lighter than the spring _ _ and has for its purpose the provision of a certain small amount of flexibility between the tapper ball and the more rigid portion of the armature formed by the iron strips _ - _. the front ends of the magnet pole pieces extend through the bracket _ _ and are there provided with square soft-iron pole pieces _ _ set at right angles to the magnet cores so as to form a rather narrow air-gap in which the armature may vibrate. [illustration: fig. . under-tuned ringer] the cores of the magnet and also the reed tongue are polarized by means of the =l=-shaped bar magnet _ _, mounted on the iron yoke _ _ at one end in such manner that its other end will lie quite close to the end of the spring _ _, which, being of steel, will afford a path for the lines of force to the armature proper. we see, therefore, that the two magnet cores are, by this permanent magnet, given one polarity, while the reed tongue itself is given the other polarity, this being exactly the condition that has already been described in connection with the regular polarized bell or ringer. the electromagnetic action by which this reed tongue is made to vibrate is, therefore, exactly the same as that of an ordinary polarized ringer, but the difference between the two is that, in this harmonic ringer, the reed tongue will respond only to one particular rate of vibrations, while the regular polarized ringer will respond to almost any. as shown in fig. , the tapper ball strikes on the inside surface of the single gong. the function of the auxiliary spring _ _ between the ball and the main portion of the armature is to allow some resilience between the ball and the balance of the armature so as to counteract in some measure the accelerating influence of the gong on the armature. in these bells, as already stated, the natural rate of vibration of the reed tongue was made somewhat lower than the rate at which the bell was to be operated, so that the reed tongue had to be started by a current slightly out of tune with it, and then, as the tapper struck the gong, the acceleration due to the gong would bring the vibration of the reed tongue, as modified by the gong, into tune with the current that was operating it. in ether words, in this system the ringing currents that were applied to the line had frequencies corresponding to what may be called the _operative rates of vibration_ of the reed tongues, which operative rates of vibration were in each case the resultant of the natural pitch of the reed as modified by the action of the bell gong when struck. [illustration: fig. . under-tuned ringer] _in-tune system._ the more modern method of tuning is to make the natural rate of vibration of the reed tongue, that is, the rate at which it naturally vibrates when not striking the gongs, such as to accurately correspond to the rate of vibration at which the bells are to be operated--that is, the natural rate of vibration of the reed tongues is made the same as the operative rate. thus the bells are attuned for easy starting, a great advantage over the under-tuned system. in the under-tuned system, the reeds being out of tune in starting require heavier starting current, and this is obviously conducive to cross-ringing, that is, to the response of bells to other than the intended frequency. again, easy starting is desirable because when the armature is at rest, or in very slight vibration, it is at a maximum distance from the poles of the electromagnet, and, therefore, subject to the weakest influence of the poles. a current, therefore, which is strong enough to start the vibration, will be strong enough to keep the bell ringing properly. [illustration: fig. . dean in-tune ringer] when with this "in-tune" mode of operation, the armature is thrown into sufficiently wide vibration to cause the tapper to strike the gong, the gong may tend to accelerate the vibration of the reed tongue, but the current impulses through the electromagnet coils continue at precisely the same rates as before. under this condition of vibration, when the reed tongue has an amplitude of vibration wide enough to cause the tapper to strike the gongs, the ends of the armature come closest to the pole pieces, so that the pole pieces have their maximum magnetic effect on the armature, with the result that even if the accelerating tendency of the gongs were considerable, the comparatively large magnetic attractive impulses occurring at the same rate as the natural rate of vibration of the reed tongue, serve wholly to prevent any actual acceleration of the reed tongue. the magnetic attractions upon the ends of the armature, continuing at the initial rate, serve, therefore, as a check to offset any accelerating tendency which the striking of the gong may have upon the vibrating reed tongue. it is obvious, therefore, that in the "in-tune" system the electromagnetic effect on the armature should, when the armature is closest to the pole pieces, be of such an overpowering nature as to prevent whatever accelerating tendency the gongs may have from throwing the armature out of its "stride" in step with the current. for this reason it is usual in this type to so adjust the armature that its ends will actually strike against the pole pieces of the electromagnet when thrown into vibration. sufficient flexibility is given to the tapper rod to allow it to continue slightly beyond the point at which it would be brought to rest by the striking of the armature ends against the pole pieces and thus exert a whipping action so as to allow the ball to continue in its movement far enough to strike against the gongs. the rebound of the gong is then taken up by the elasticity of the tapper rod, which returns to an unflexed position, and at about this time the pole piece releases the armature so that it may swing over in the other direction to cause the tapper to strike the other gong. [illustration: fig. . tappers for dean ringers] the construction of the "in-tune" harmonic ringer employed by the dean electric company, of elyria, ohio, is illustrated in figs. , , and . it will be seen from fig. that the general arrangement of the magnet and armature is the same as that of the ordinary polarized ringer; the essential difference is that the armature is spring-mounted instead of pivoted. the armature and the tapper rod normally stand in the normal central position with reference to the pole pieces of the magnet and the gongs. fig. shows the complete vibrating parts of four ringers, adapted, respectively, to the four different frequencies of the system. the assembled armature, tapper rod, and tapper are all riveted together and are non-adjustable. all of the adjustment that is done upon them is done in the factory and is accomplished, first, by choosing the proper size of weight, and second, by forcing this weight into the proper position on the tapper rod to give exactly the rate of vibration that is desired. [illustration: fig. . dean in-tune ringer] an interesting feature of this dean harmonic ringer is the gong adjustment. as will be seen, the gongs are mounted on posts which are carried on levers pivoted to the ringer frame. these levers have at their outer end a curved rack provided with gear teeth adapted to engage a worm or screw thread mounted on the ringer frame. obviously, by turning this worm screw in one direction or the other, the gongs are moved slightly toward or from the armature or tapper. this affords a very delicate means of adjusting the gongs, and at the same time one which has no tendency to work loose or to get out of adjustment. [illustration: fig. . kellogg in-tune ringer] in fig. is shown a drawing of the "in-tune" harmonic ringer manufactured by the kellogg switchboard and supply company. this differs in no essential respect from that of the dean company, except in the gong adjustment, this latter being affected by a screw passing through a nut in the gong post, as clearly indicated. in both the kellogg and the dean in-tune ringers, on account of the comparative stiffness of the armature springs and on account of the normal position of the armature with maximum air gaps and consequent minimum magnetic pull, the armature will practically not be affected unless the energizing current is accurately attuned to its own natural rate. when the proper current is thrown on to the line, the ball will be thrown into violent vibration, and the ends of the armature brought into actual contact with the pole pieces, which are of bare iron and shielded in no way. the armature in this position is very strongly attracted and comes to a sudden stop on the pole pieces. the gongs are so adjusted that the tapper ball will have to spring about one thirty-second of an inch in order to hit them. the armature is held against the pole piece while the tapper ball is engaged in striking the gong and in partially returning therefrom, and so strong is the pull of the pole piece on the armature in this position that the accelerating influence of the gong has no effect in accelerating the rate of vibration of the reed. [illustration: fig. . circuits of dean harmonic system] _circuits_. in fig. are shown in simplified form the circuits of a four-station harmonic party line. it is seen that at the central office there are four ringing keys, adapted, respectively, to impress on the line ringing currents of four different frequencies. at the four stations on the line, lettered a, b, c, and d, there are four harmonic bells tuned accordingly. at station a there is shown the talking apparatus employing the wheatstone bridge arrangement. the talking apparatus at all of the other stations is exactly the same, but is omitted for the sake of simplicity. a condenser is placed in series with each of the bells in order that there may be no direct-current path from one side of the line to the other when all of the receivers are on their hooks at the several stations. in fig. is shown exactly the same arrangement, with the exception that the talking apparatus illustrated in detail at station a is that of the kellogg switchboard and supply company. otherwise the circuits of the dean and the kellogg company, and in fact of all the other companies manufacturing harmonic ringing systems, are the same. _advantages_. a great advantage of the harmonic party-line system is the simplicity of the apparatus at the subscriber's station. the harmonic bell is scarcely more complex than the ordinary polarized ringer, and the only difference between the harmonic-ringing telephone and the ordinary telephone is in the ringer itself. the absence of all relays and other mechanism and also the absence of the necessity for ground connections at the telephone are all points in favor of the harmonic system. [illustration: fig. . circuits of kellogg harmonic system] _limitations_. as already stated, the harmonic systems of the various companies, with one exception, are limited to four frequencies. the exception is in the case of the north electric company, which sometimes employs four and sometimes five frequencies and thus gets a selection between five stations. in the four-party north system, the frequencies, unlike those in the dean and kellogg systems, wherein the higher frequencies are multiples of the lower, are arranged so as to be proportional to the whole numbers , , , and , which, of course, have no common denominator. the frequencies thus employed in the north system are, in cycles per second, . , . , . , and . . in the five-party system, the frequency of . is arbitrarily added. while all of the commercial harmonic systems on the market are limited to four or five frequencies, it does not follow that a greater number than four or five stations may not be selectively rung. double these numbers may be placed on a party line and selectively actuated, if the first set of four or five is bridged across the line and the second set of four or five is connected between one limb of the line and ground. the first set of these is selectively rung, as already described, by sending the ringing currents over the metallic circuit, while the second set may be likewise selectively rung by sending the ringing currents over one limb of the line with a ground return. this method is frequently employed with success on country lines, where it is desired to place a greater number of instruments on a line than four or five. step-by-step method. a very large number of step-by-step systems have been proposed and reduced to practice, but as yet they have not met with great success in commercial telephone work, and are nowhere near as commonly used as are the polarity and harmonic systems. _principles_. an idea of the general features of the step-by-step systems may be had by conceiving at each station on the line a ratchet wheel, having a pawl adapted to drive it one step at a time, this pawl being associated with the armature of an electromagnet which receives current impulses from the line circuit. there is thus one of these driving magnets at each station, each bridged across the line so that when a single impulse of current is sent out from the central office all of the ratchet wheels will be moved one step. another impulse will move all of the ratchet wheels another step, and so on throughout any desired number of impulses. the ratchet wheels, therefore, are all stepped in unison. let us further conceive that all of these ratchet wheels are provided with a notch or a hole or a projection, alike in all respects at all stations save in the position which this notch or hole or projection occupies on the wheel. the thing to get clear in this part of the conception is that all of these notches, holes, or projections are alike on all of the wheels, but they occupy a different position on the wheel for each one of the stations. consider further that the bell circuit at each of the stations is normally open, but that in each case it is adapted to be closed when the notch, hole, or projection is brought to a certain point by the revolution of the wheel. let us conceive further that this distinguishing notch, hole, or projection is so arranged on the wheel of the first station as to close the bell circuit when one impulse has been sent, that that on the second station will close the bell circuit after the second impulse has been sent, and so on throughout the entire number of stations. it will, therefore, be apparent that the bell circuits at the various stations will, as the wheels are rotated in unison, be closed one after the other. in order to call a given station, therefore, it is only necessary to rotate all of the wheels in unison, by sending out the proper stepping impulses until they all occupy such a position that the one at the desired station is in such position as to close the bell circuit at that station. since all of the notches, holes, or projections are arranged to close the bell circuits at their respective stations at different times, it follows that when the bell circuit at the desired station is closed those at all of the other stations will be open. if, therefore, after the proper number of stepping impulses has been sent to the line to close the bell circuit of the desired station, ringing current be applied to the line, it is obvious that the bell of that one station will be rung to the exclusion of all others. it is, of course, necessary that provision be made whereby the magnets which furnish the energy for stepping the wheels will not be energized by the ringing current. this is accomplished in one of several ways, the most common of which is to have the stepping magnets polarized or biased in one direction and the bells at the various stations oppositely biased, so that the ringing current will not affect the stepping magnet and the stepping current will not affect the ringer magnets. after a conversation is finished, the line may be restored to its normal position in one of several ways. usually so-called release magnets are employed, for operating on the releasing device at each station. these, when energized, will withdraw the holding pawls from the ratchets and allow them all to return to their normal positions. sometimes these release magnets are operated by a long impulse of current, being made too sluggish in their action to respond to the quick-stepping impulses; sometimes the release magnets are tapped from one limb of the line to ground, so as not to be affected by the stepping or ringing currents sent over the metallic circuit; and sometimes other expedients are used for obtaining the release of the ratchets at the proper time, a large amount of ingenuity having been spent to this end. as practically all step-by-step party-line systems in commercial use have also certain other features intended to assure privacy of conversation to the users, and, therefore, come under the general heading of lock-out party-line systems, the discussion of commercial examples of these systems will be left for the next chapter, which is devoted to such lock-out systems. broken-line method. the broken-line system, like the step-by-step system, is also essentially a lock-out system and for that reason only its general features, by which the selective ringing is accomplished, will be dealt with here. _principles_. in this system there are no tuned bells, no positively and negatively polarized bells bridged to ground on each side of the line, and no step-by-step devices in the ordinary sense, by which selective signaling has ordinarily been accomplished on party lines. instead of this, each instrument on the line is exclusively brought into operative relation with the line, and then removed from such operative relation until the subscriber wanted is connected, at which time all of the other instruments are locked out and the line is not encumbered by any bridge circuits at any of the instruments that are not engaged in the conversation. furthermore, in the selecting of a subscriber or the ringing of his bell there is no splitting up of current among the magnets at the various stations as in ordinary practice, but the operating current goes straight to the station desired and to that station alone where its entire strength is available for performing its proper work. in order to make the system clear it may be stated at the outset that one side of the metallic circuit line is continued as in ordinary practice, passing through all of the stations as a continuous conductor. the other side of the line, however, is divided into sections, its continuity being broken at each of the subscriber's stations. fig. is intended to show in the simplest possible way how the circuit of the line may be extended from station to station in such manner that only the ringer of one station is in circuit at a time. the two sides of the line are shown in this figure, and it will be seen that limb _l_ extends from the central office on the left to the last station on the right without a break. the limb _r_, however, extends to the first station, at which point it is cut off from the extension _r_{x}_ by the open contacts of a switch. for the purpose of simplicity this switch is shown as an ordinary hand switch, but as a matter of fact it is a part of a relay, the operating coil of which is shown at _ _, just above it, in series with the ringer. [illustration: fig. . principle of broken-line system] obviously, if a proper ringing current is sent over the metallic circuit from the central office, only the bell at station a will operate, since the bells at the other stations are not in the circuit. if by any means the switch lever _ _ at station a were moved out of engagement with contact _ _ and into engagement with contact _ _, it is obvious that the bell of station a would no longer be in circuit, but the limb _r_ of the line would be continued to the extension _r_{x}_ and the bell of station b would be in circuit. any current then sent over the circuit of the line from the central office would ring the bell of this station. in fig. the switches of both station a and station b have been thus operated, and station c is thus placed in circuit. inspection of this figure will show that the bells of station a, station b, and station d are all cut out of circuit, and that, therefore, no current from the central office can affect them. this general scheme of selection is a new-comer in the field, and for certain classes of work it is of undoubted promise. [illustration: fig. . principle of broken-line system] chapter xvii lock-out party-line systems the party-line problem in rural districts is somewhat different from that within urban limits. in the latter cases, owing to the closer grouping of the subscribers, it is not now generally considered desirable, even from the standpoint of economy, to place more than four subscribers on a single line. for such a line selective ringing is simple, both from the standpoint of apparatus and operation; and moreover owing to the small number of stations on a line, and the small amount of traffic to and from such subscribers as usually take party-line service, the interference between parties on the same line is not a very serious matter. for rural districts, particularly those tributary to small towns, these conditions do not exist. owing to the remoteness of the stations from each other it is not feasible from the standpoint of line cost to limit the number of stations to four. a much greater number of stations is employed and the confusion resulting is distressing not only to the subscribers themselves but also to the management of the company. there exists then the need of a party-line system which will give the limited user in rural districts a service, at least approaching that which he would get if served by an individual line. the principal investment necessary to provide facilities for telephone service is that required to produce the telephone line. in many cases the cost of instruments and apparatus is small in comparison with the cost of the line. by far the greater number of subscribers in rural districts are those who use their instruments a comparatively small number of times a day, and to maintain an expensive telephone line for the exclusive use of one such subscriber who will use it but a few minutes each day is on its face an economic waste. as a result, where individual line service is practiced exclusively one of two things must be true: either the average subscriber pays more for his service than he should, or else the operating company sells the service for less than it costs, or at best for an insufficient profit. both of these conditions are unnatural and cannot be permanent. the party-line method of giving service, by which a single line is made to serve a number of subscribers, offers a solution to this difficulty, but the ordinary non-selective or even selective party line has many undesirable features if the attempt is made to place on it such a large number of stations as is considered economically necessary in rural work. these undesirable features work to the detriment of both the user of the telephone and the operating company. many attempts have been made to overcome these disadvantages of the party line in sparsely settled communities, by producing what are commonly called lock-out systems. these, as their name implies, employ such an arrangement of parts that when the line is in use by any two parties, all other parties are locked out from the circuit and cannot gain access to it until the parties who are using it are through. system after system for accomplishing this purpose has been announced but for the most part these have involved such a degree of complexity and have introduced so many undesirable features as to seriously affect the smooth operation of the system and the reliability of the service. we believe, however, in spite of numerous failures, that the lock-out selective-signaling party line has a real field of usefulness and that operating companies as well as manufacturing companies are beginning to appreciate this need, and as a result that the relief of the rural subscriber from the almost intolerable service he has often had to endure is at hand. a few of the most promising lock-out party-line systems now before the public will, therefore, be described in some detail. poole system. the poole system is a lock-out system pure and simple, its devices being in the nature of a lock-out attachment for selective-signaling lines, either of the polarity or of the harmonic type wherein common-battery transmission is employed. it will be here described as employed in connection with an ordinary harmonic-ringing system. in fig. there is shown a four-station party line equipped with poole lock-out devices, it being assumed that the ringers at each station are harmonic and that the keys at the central office are the ordinary keys adapted to impress the proper frequency on the line for ringing any one of the stations. in addition to the ordinary talking and ringing apparatus at each subscriber's station, there is a relay of special form and also a push-button key. [illustration: fig. . poole lock-out system] each of the relays has two windings, one of high resistance and the other of low resistance. remembering that the system to which this device is applied is always a common-battery system, and that, therefore, the normal condition of the line will be one in which there is a difference of potential between the two limbs, it will be evident that whenever any subscriber on a line that is not in use raises his receiver from its hook, a circuit will be established from the upper contact of the hook through the lever of the hook to the high-resistance winding _ _ of the relay and thence to the other side of the line by way of wire _ _. this will result in current passing through the high-resistance winding of the relay and the relay will pull up its armature. as soon as it does so it establishes two other circuits by the closure of the relay armature against the contacts _ _ and _ _. the closing of the contact _ _ establishes a circuit from the upper side of the line through the upper contact of the switch hook, thence through the contacts of the push button _ _, thence through the low-resistance winding _ _ of the relay to the terminal _ _, thence through the relay armature and the transmitter to the lower side of the line. this low-resistance path across the line serves to hold the relay armature attracted and also to furnish current to the transmitter for talking. the establishment of this low-resistance path across the line does another important thing, however; it practically short-circuits the line with respect to all the high-resistance relay windings, and thus prevents any of the other high-resistance relay windings from receiving enough current to actuate them, should the subscriber at any other station remove his receiver from the hook in an attempt to listen in or to make a call while the line is in use. as a subscriber can only establish the proper conditions for talking and listening by the attraction of this relay armature at his station, it is obvious that unless he can cause the pulling up of his relay armature he can not place himself in communication with the line. the second thing that is accomplished by the pulling up of the relay armature is the closure of the contacts _ _, and that completes the talking circuit through the condenser and receiver across the line in an obvious fashion. the result of this arrangement is that it is the first party who raises his receiver from its hook who is enabled to successfully establish a connection with the line, all subsequent efforts, by other subscribers, failing to do so because of the fact that the line is short-circuited by the path through the low-resistance winding and the transmitter of the station that is already connected with the line. a little target is moved by the action of the relay so that a visual indication is given to the subscriber in making a call to show whether or not he is successful in getting the use of the line. if the relay operates and he secures control of the line, the target indicates the fact by its movement, while if someone else is using the line and the relay does not operate, the target, by its failure to move, indicates that fact. when one party desires to converse with another on the same line, he depresses the button _ _ at his station until after the called party has been rung and has responded. this holds the circuit of his low-resistance winding open, and thus prevents the lock-out from becoming effective until the called party is connected with the line. the relay armature of the calling party does not fall back with the establishment of the low-resistance path at the called station, because, even though shunted, it still receives sufficient current to hold its armature in its attracted position. after the called party has responded, the button at the calling station is released and both low-resistance holding coils act in multiple. [illustration: one wing of operating room, berlin, germany ultimate capacity , subscribers' lines and , trunk lines. siemens-halske equipment. note horizontal disposal of multiple jack field.] no induction coil is used in this system and the impedance of the holding coil is such that incoming voice currents flow through the condenser and the receiver, which, by reference to the figure, will be seen to be in shunt with the holding coil. the holding coil is in series with the local transmitter, thus making a circuit similar to that of the kellogg common-battery talking circuit already discussed. a possible defect in the use of this system is one that has been common to a great many other lock-out systems, depending for their operation on the same general plan of action. this appears when the instruments are used on a comparatively long line. since the locking-out of all the instruments that are not in use by the one that is in use depends on the low-resistance shunt that is placed across the line by the instrument that is in use, it is obvious that, in the case of a long line, the resistance of the line wire will enter into the problem in such a way as to tend to defeat the locking-out function in some cases. thus, where the first instrument to use the line is at the remote end of the line, the shunting effect that this instrument can exert with respect to another instrument near the central office is that due to the resistance of the line plus the resistance of the holding coil at the end instrument. the resistance of the line wire may be so high as to still allow a sufficient current to flow through the high-resistance coil at the nearer station to allow its operation, even though the more remote instrument is already in use. coming now to a consideration of the complete selective-signaling lock-out systems, wherein the selection of the party and the locking out of the others are both inherent features, a single example of the step-by-step, and of the broken-line selective lock-out systems will be discussed. step-by-step system. the so-called k.b. system, manufactured by the dayton telephone lock-out manufacturing company of dayton, ohio, operates on the step-by-step principle. the essential feature of the subscriber's telephone equipment in this system is the step-by-step actuating mechanism which performs also the functions of a relay. this device consists of an electromagnet having two cores, with a permanent polarizing magnet therebetween, the arrangement in this respect being the same as in an ordinary polarized bell. the armature of this magnet works a rocker arm, which, besides stepping the selector segment around, also, under certain conditions, closes the bell circuit and the talking circuit, as will be described. [illustration: fig. . k.b. lock-out system] referring first to fig. , which shows in simplified form a four-station k.b. lock-out line, the electromagnet is shown at _ _ and the rocker arm at _ _. the ratchet _ _ in this case is not a complete wheel but rather a segment thereof, and it is provided with a series of notches of different depths. it is obvious that the depth of the notches will determine the degree of movement which the upper end of the rocker arm may have toward the left, this being dependent on the extent to which the pawl _ _ is permitted to enter into the segment. the first or normal notch, _i.e._, the top notch, is always of such a depth that it will allow the rocker-arm lever _ _ to engage the contact lever _ _, but will not permit the rocker arm to swing far enough to the left to cause that contact to engage the bell contact _ _. as will be shown later, the condition for the talking circuit to be closed is that the rocker arm _ _ shall rest against the contact _ _; and from this we see that the normal notch of each of the segments _ _ is of such a depth as to allow the talking circuit at each station to be closed. the next notch, _i.e._, the second one in each disk, is always shallow, as are all of the other notches except one. a deep notch is placed on each disk anywhere from the third to the next to the last on the segment. this deep notch is called the _selective notch_, and it is the one that allows of contact being made with the ringer circuit of that station when the pawl _ _ drops into it. the position of this notch differs on all of the segments on a line, and obviously, therefore, the ringer circuit at any station may be closed to the exclusion of all the others by stepping all of the segments in unison until the deep notch on the segment of the desired station lies opposite to the pawl _ _, which will permit the rocker arm _ _ to swing so far to the left as to close not only the circuit between _ _ and _ _, but also between _ _, _ _, and _ _. in this position the talking and the ringing circuits are both closed. the position of the deepest notch, _i.e._, the selective notch, on the circumference of the segment at any station depends upon the number of that station; thus, the segment of station will have a deep notch in the sixth position; the segment for station will have a deep notch in the eleventh position; the segment for any station will have a deep notch in the position corresponding to the number of that station plus two. from what has been said, therefore, it is evident that the first, or normal, notch on each segment is of such a depth as to allow the moving pawl _ _ to fall to such a depth in the segment as to permit the rocker arm _ _ to close the talking circuit only. all of the other notches, except one, are comparatively shallow, and while they permit the moving pawl _ _ under the influence of the rocker arm _ _ to move the segment _ _, yet they do not permit the rocker arm _ _ to move so far to the left as to close even the talking circuit. the exception is the deep notch, or selective notch, which is of such depth as to permit the pawl _ _ to fall so far into the segment as to allow the rocker arm _ _ to close both the talking and the ringing circuits. besides the moving pawl _ _ there is a detent pawl _ _. this always holds the segment _ _ in the position to which it has been last moved by the moving pawl _ _. the actuating magnet _ _, as has been stated, is polarized and when energized by currents in one direction, the rocker arm moves the pawl _ _ so as to step the segment one notch. when this relay is energized by current in the opposite direction, the operation is such that both the moving pawl _ _ and the detent pawl _ _ will be pulled away from the segment, thus allowing the segment to return to its normal position by gravity. this is accomplished by the following mechanism: an armature stop is pivoted upon the face of the rocker arm so as to swing in a plane parallel to the pole faces of the relay, and is adapted, when the relay is actuated by selective impulses of one polarity, to be pulled towards one of the pole faces where it acts, through impact with a plate attached to the pole face of the relay, as a limiting means for the motion of the rocker arm when the rocker arm is actuated by the magnet. when, however, the relay is energized by current in the opposite direction, as on a releasing impulse, the armature stop swings upon its pivot towards the opposite pole face, in which position the lug on the end of the armature stop registers with a hole in the plate on the relay, thus allowing the full motion of the rocker arm when it is attracted by the magnet. this motion of the rocker arm withdraws the detent pawl from engagement with the segment as well as the moving pawl, and thereby permits the segment to return to its normal position. as will be seen from fig. , each of the relay magnets _ _ is permanently bridged across the two limbs of the line. each station is provided with a push button, not shown, by means of which the subscriber who makes a call may prevent the rocker arm of his instrument from being actuated while selective impulses are being sent over the line. the purpose of this is to enable one party to make a call for another on the same line, depressing his push button while the operator is selecting and ringing the called party. the segment at his own station, therefore, remains in its normal position, in which position, as we have already seen, his talking circuit is closed; all of the other segments are, however, stepped up until the ringing and talking circuits of the desired station are in proper position, at which time ringing current is sent over the line. the segments in fig. , except at station c, are shown as having been stepped up to the sixth position, which corresponds to the ringing position of the fourth station, or station d. the condition shown in this figure corresponds to that in which the subscriber at station c originated the call and pressed his button, thus retaining his own segment in its normal position so that the talking circuits would be established with station d. when the line is in normal position any subscriber may call central by his magneto generator, not shown in fig. , which will operate the drop at central, but will not operate any of the subscribers' bells, because all bell circuits are normally open. when a subscriber desires connection with another line, the operator sends an impulse back on the line which steps up and locks out all instruments except that of the calling subscriber. [illustration: fig. . k.b. lock-out station] a complete k.b. lock-out telephone is shown in fig. . this is the type of instrument that is usually furnished when new equipment is ordered. if, however, it is desired to use the k.b. system in connection with telephones of the ordinary bridging type that are already in service, the lock-out and selective mechanism, which is shown on the upper inner face of the door in fig. , is furnished separately in a box that may be mounted close to the regular telephone and connected thereto by suitable wires, as shown in fig. . it is seen that this instrument employs a local battery for talking and also a magneto generator for calling the central office. the central-office equipment consists of a dial connected with an impulse wheel, together with suitable keys by which the various circuits may be manipulated. this dial and its associated mechanism may be mounted in the regular switchboard cabinet, or it may be furnished in a separate box and mounted alongside of the cabinet in either of the positions shown at _ _ or _ _ of fig. . in order to send the proper number of impulses to the line to call a given party, the operator places her finger in the hole in the dial that bears the number corresponding to the station wanted and rotates the dial until the finger is brought into engagement with the fixed stop shown at the bottom of the dial in fig. . the dial is then allowed to return by the action of a spring to its normal position, and in doing so it operates a switch within the box to make and break the battery circuit the proper number of times. _operation._ a complete description of the operation may now be had in connection with fig. , which is similar to fig. , but contains the details of the calling arrangement at the central office and also of the talking circuits at the various subscribers' stations. [illustration: fig. . k.b. lock-out station] referring to the central-office apparatus the usual ringing key is shown, the inside contacts of which lead to the listening key and to the operator's telephone set as in ordinary switchboard practice. between the outside contact of this ringing key and the ringing generator there is interposed a pair of contact springs _ - _ and another pair _ - _. the contact springs _ _ are adapted to be moved backward and forward by the impulse wheel which is directly controlled by the dial under the manipulation of the operator. when these springs _ _ are in their normal position, the ringing circuit is continued through the release-key springs _ _ to the ringing generator. these springs _ _ occupy their normal position only when the dial is in its normal position, this being due to the notch _ _ in the contact wheel. at all other times, _i.e._, while the impulse wheel is out of its normal position, the springs _ - _ are either depressed so as to engage the lower battery contacts, or else held in an intermediate position so as to engage neither the battery contacts nor the generator contacts. [illustration: fig. . calling apparatus k.b. system] when it is desired to call a given station, the operator pulls the subscriber's number on the dial and holds the ringing key closed, allowing the dial to return to normal. this connects the impulse battery to the subscriber's line as many times as is required to move the subscriber's sectors to the proper position, and in such direction as to cause the stepping movement of the various relays. as the impulse wheel comes to its normal position, the springs _ _, associated with it, again engage their upper contacts, by virtue of the notch _ _ in the impulse wheel, and this establishes the connection between the ringing generator and the subscriber's line, the ringing key being still held closed. the pulling of the transmitter dial and holding the ringing key closed, therefore, not only sends the stepping impulses to line, but also follows it by the ringing current. the sending of five impulses to line moves all of the sectors to the sixth notch, and this corresponds to the position necessary to make the fourth station operative. such a condition is shown in fig. , it being assumed that the subscriber at station c originated the call and pressed his own button so as to prevent his sector from being moved out of its normal position. as a result of this, the talking circuit at station c is left closed, and the talking and the ringing circuit of station d, the called station, are closed, while both the talking and the ringing circuits of all the other stations are left open. station d may, therefore, be rung and may communicate with station c, while all of the other stations on the line are locked out, because of the fact that both their talking and ringing circuits are left open. [illustration: fig. . circuit k.b. system] when conversation is ended, the operator is notified by the usual clearing-out signal, and she then depresses the release button, which brings the springs _ _ out of engagement with the generator contact but into engagement with the battery contact in such relation as to send a battery current on the line in the reverse direction from that sent out by the impulse wheel. this sends current through all of the relays in such direction as to withdraw both the moving and the holding pawls from the segments and thus allow all of the segments to return to their normal positions. of course, in thus establishing the release current, it is necessary for the operator to depress the ringing key as well as the release key. a one-half microfarad condenser is placed in the receiver circuit at each station so that the line will not be tied up should some subscriber inadvertently leave his receiver off its hook. this permits the passage of voice currents, but not of the direct currents used in stepping the relays or in releasing them. the circuit of fig. is somewhat simplified from that in actual practice, and it should be remembered that the hook switch, which is not shown in this figure, controls in the usual way the continuity of the receiver and the transmitter circuits as well as of the generator circuits, the generator being attached to the line as in an ordinary telephone. broken-line system. the broken-line method of accomplishing selective signaling and locking-out on telephone party lines is due to homer roberts and his associates. [illustration: fig. . roberts latching relay] to understand just how the principles illustrated in figs. and are put into effect, it will be necessary to understand the latching relay shown diagrammatically in its two possible positions in fig. , and in perspective in fig. . referring to fig. , the left-hand cut of which shows the line relay in its normal position, it is seen that the framework of the device resembles that of an ordinary polarized ringer. under the influence of current in one direction flowing through the left-hand coil, the armature of this device depresses the hard rubber stud _ _, and the springs _ _, _ _, and _ _ are forced downwardly until the spring _ _ has passed under the latch carried on the spring _ _. when the operating current through the coil _ _ ceases, the pressure of the armature on the spring _ _ is relieved, allowing this spring to resume its normal position and spring _ _ to engage with spring _ _. the spring _ _ cannot rise, since it is held by the latch _ _, and the condition shown in the right-hand cut of fig. exists. it will be seen that the spring _ _ has in this operation carried out just the same function as the switch lever performed as described in connection with figs. and . an analysis of this action will show that the normal contact between the springs _ _ and _ _, which contact controls the circuit through the relay coil and the bell, is not broken until the coil _ _ is de-energized, which means that the magnet is effective until it has accomplished its work. it is impossible, therefore, for this relay to cut itself out of circuit before it has caused the spring _ _ to engage under the latch _ _. if current of the proper direction were sent through the coil _ _ of the relay, the opposite end of the armature would be pulled down and the hard rubber stud at the left-hand end of the armature would bear against the bent portion of the spring _ _ in such manner as to cause the latch of this spring to release the spring _ _ and thus allow the relay to assume its normal, or unlatched, position. a good idea of the mechanical construction of this relay may be obtained from fig. . the entire selecting function of the roberts system is performed by this simple piece of apparatus at each station. [illustration: fig. . roberts latching relay] the diagram of fig. shows, in simplified form, a four-station line, the circuits being given more in detail than in the diagrams of chapter xvi. it will be noticed that the ringer and the relay coil _ _ at the first station are bridged across the sides of the line leading to the central office. in like manner the bell and the relay magnets are bridged across the two limbs of the line leading into each succeeding station, but this bridge at each of the stations beyond station a is ineffective because the line extension _r__{x} is open at the next station nearest the central office. [illustration: fig. . simplified circuits of roberts system] in order to ring station a it is only necessary to send out ringing current from the central office. this current is in such direction as not to cause the operation of the relay, although it passes through the coil _ _. if, on the other hand, it is desired to ring station b, a preliminary impulse would be sent over the metallic circuit from the central office, which impulse would be of such direction as to operate the relay at station a, but not to operate the bell at that station. the operation of the relay at station a causes the spring _ _ of this relay to engage the spring _ _, thus extending the line on to the second station. after the spring _ _ at station a has been forced into contact with the spring _ _, it is caught by the latch of the spring _ _ and held mechanically. when the impulse from the central office ceases, the spring _ _ resumes its normal position, thus breaking the bridge circuit through the bell at that station. it is apparent now that the action of coil _ _ at station a has made the relay powerless to perform any further action, and at the same time the line has been extended on to the second station. a second similar impulse from the central office will cause the relay at station b to extend the line on to station c, and at the same time break the circuit through the operating coil and the bell at station b. in this way any station may be picked out by sending the proper number of impulses to operate the line relays of all the stations between the station desired and the central office, and having picked out a station it is only necessary to send out ringing current, which current is in such direction as to ring the bell but not to operate the relay magnet at that station. in fig. , a four-station line, such as is shown in fig. , is illustrated, but the condition shown in this is that existing when two preliminary impulses have been sent over the line, which caused the line relays at station a and station b to be operated. the bell at station c is, therefore, the only one susceptible to ringing current from the central office. [illustration: fig. . simplified circuits of roberts system] since only one bell and one relay are in circuit at any one time, it is obvious that all of the current that passes over the line is effective in operating a single bell or relay only. there is no splitting up of the current among a large number of bells as in the bridging system of operating step-by-step devices, which method sometimes so greatly reduces the effective current for each bell that it is with great difficulty made to respond. all the energy available is applied directly to the piece of apparatus at the time it is being operated. this has a tendency toward greater surety of action, and the adjustment of the various pieces of apparatus may be made with less delicacy than is required where many pieces of apparatus, each having considerable work to do, must necessarily be operated in multiple. the method of unlatching the relays has been briefly referred to. after a connection has been established with a station in the manner already described, the operator may clear the line when it is proper to do so by sending impulses of such a nature as to cause the line relays of the stations beyond the one chosen to operate, thus continuing the circuit to the end of the line. the operation of the line relay at the last station brings into circuit the coil _ _, figs. and , of a grounding device. this is similar to the line relay, but it holds its operating spring in a normally latched position so as to maintain the two limbs of the line disconnected from the ground. the next impulse following over the metallic circuit passes through the coil _ _ and causes the operation of this grounding device which, by becoming unlatched, grounds the limb _l_ of the line through the coil _ _. this temporary ground at the end of the line makes it possible to send an unlocking or restoring current from the central office over the limb _l_, which current passes through all of the unlocking coils _ _, shown in figs. , , and , thus causing the simultaneous unlocking of all of the line relays and the restoration of the line to its normal condition, as shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . details of latching relay connections] as has been stated, the windings _ _ on the line relays are the unlatching windings. in figs. and , for the purpose of simplicity, these windings are not shown connected, but as a matter of fact each of them is included in series in the continuous limb _l_ of the line. this would introduce a highly objectionable feature from the standpoint of talking over the line were it not for the balancing coils _ _^{ }, each wound on the same core as the corresponding winding _ _, and each included in series in the limb _r_ of the line, and in such direction as to be differential thereto with respect to currents passing in series over the two limbs of the line. the windings _ _ are the true unlocking windings, while the windings _ _^{ } have no other function than to neutralize the inductive effects of these unlocking windings necessarily placed in series in the talking circuit. all of these windings are of low ohmic resistance, a construction which, as has previously been noted, brings about the desired effect without introducing any self-induction in the line, and without producing any appreciable effect upon the transmission. a study of fig. will make clear the connections of these unlocking and balancing windings at each station. the statement of operation so far given discloses the general method of building up the line in sections in order to choose any party and of again breaking it up into sections when the conversation is finished. it has been stated that the same operation which selects the party wanted also serves to give that party the use of the line and to lock the others off. that this is true will be understood when it is stated that the ringer is of such construction that when operated to ring the subscriber wanted, it also operates to unlatch a set of springs similar to those shown in fig. , this unlatching causing the proper connection of the subscriber's talking circuit across the limbs of the line, and also closing the local circuit through his transmitter. the very first motion of the bell armature performs this unlatching operation after which the bell behaves exactly as an ordinary polarized biased ringer. [illustration: fig. . broken-back ringer] the construction of this ringer is interesting and is shown in its two possible positions in fig. . the group of springs carried on its frame is entirely independent of the movement of the armature during the ringing operation. with reversed currents, however, the armature is moved in the opposite direction from that necessary to ring the bells, and this causes the latching of the springs into their normal position. in order that this device may perform the double function of ringer and relay the tapper rod of the bell is hinged on the armature so as to partake of the movements of the armature in one direction only. this has been called by the inventor and engineers of the roberts system a _broken-back ringer_, a name suggestive of the movable relation between the armature and the tapper rod. the construction of the ringer is of the same nature as that of the standard polarized ringer universally employed, but a hinge action between the armature and the tapper rod, of such nature as to make the tapper partake positively of the movements of the armature in one direction, but to remain perfectly quiescent when the armature moves in the other direction, is provided. [illustration: fig. . details of ringer connection] how this broken-back ringer controls the talking and the locking-out conditions may best be understood in connection with fig. . the ringer springs are normally latched at all stations. under these conditions the receiver is short-circuited by the engagement of springs _ _ and _ _, the receiver circuit is open between springs _ _ and _ _, and the local-battery circuit is open between springs _ _ and _ _. the subscribers whose ringers are latched are, therefore, locked out in more ways than one. when the bell is rung, the first stroke it makes unlatches the springs, which assume the position shown in the right-hand cut of fig. , and this, it will be seen from fig. , establishes proper conditions for enabling the subscriber to transmit and to receive speech. the hook switch breaks both transmitter and receiver circuits when down and in raising it establishes a momentary circuit between the ground and the limb _l_ of the line, both upper and lower hook contacts engaging the hook lever simultaneously during the rising of the hook. the mechanism at the central office by which selection of the proper station is made in a rapid manner is shown in fig. . it has already been stated that the selection of the proper subscriber is brought about by the sending of a predetermined number of impulses from the central office, these impulses passing in one direction only and over the metallic circuit. after the proper party has been reached, the ringing current is put on in the reverse direction. [illustration: fig. . central-office impulse transmitter] the operator establishes the number of impulses to be sent by placing the pointer opposite the number on the dial corresponding to the station wanted. the ratchet wheel is stepped around automatically by each impulse of current from an ordinary pole changer such as is employed in ringing biased bells. when the required number of impulses has been sent, a projection, carried on a group of springs, drops into a notch on the drum of the selector shaft, which operation instantly stops the selecting current impulses and at the same time throws on the ringing current which consists of impulses in the reverse direction. so rapidly does this device operate that it will readily follow the impulses of an ordinary pole changer, even when this is adjusted to its maximum rate of vibration. [illustration: view of a large foreign multiple switchboard] _operation._ space will not permit a full discussion of the details of the central-office selective apparatus, but a general resumé of the operation of the system may now be given, with the aid of fig. , which shows a four-station line with the circuits of three of the stations somewhat simplified. in this figure station a, station b, and station d are shown in their locked-out positions, a and b having been passed by the selection and ringing of station c, while station d is inoperative because it was not reached in the selection and the line is still broken at station c. station c, therefore, has possession of the line. when the subscriber at station c raised his receiver in order to call central, a "flash" contact was made as the hook moved up, which momentarily grounded the limb _l_ of the line. (see fig. .) this "flash" contact is produced by the arrangement of the hook which assures that the lower contact shall, by virtue of its flexibility, follow up the hook lever until the hook lever engages the upper contact, after which the lower contact breaks. this results in the momentary connection of both the upper and the lower contacts of the hook with the lever, and, therefore, the momentary grounding of the limb _l_ of the line. this limb always being continuous serves, when this "flash" contact is made, to actuate the line signal at the central office. [illustration: fig. . circuits of roberts line] since, however, all parties on the line are normally locked out of talking circuits, some means must be provided whereby the operator may place the signaling party in talking connection and leave all the other instruments on the line in their normally locked-out position. in fact, the operator must be able automatically to pick out the station that signaled in, and operate the ringer to unlatch the springs controlling the talking circuit of that station. accordingly the operator sends impulses on the line, from a grounded battery, which are in the direction to operate the line relays and to continue the line circuit to the station calling. when, after a sufficient number of impulses, this current reaches that station it finds a path to ground from the limb _l_. this path is made possible by the fact that the subscriber's receiver is off its hook at that station. in order to understand just how this ground connection is made, it must be remembered that each of the ringer magnets is energized with each selecting impulse, but in such a direction as not to ring the bells, it being understood that all of the ringer mechanisms are normally latched. when the selecting impulse for station c arrives, it passes through the ringer and the selecting relay coils at that station and starts to operate the remainder of the ringers sufficiently to cause the spring _ _ to engage the spring _ _. this establishes the ground connection from the limb _l_ of the line, the circuit being traced through limb _l_ through the upper contact of the switch, thence through springs _ _ and _ _ to ground, and this, before the line relay has time to latch, operates the quick-acting relay at the central office, which acts to cut off further impulses, and thus automatically stops at the calling station. ringing current in the opposite direction is then sent to line; this unlatches the ringer springs and places the calling subscriber in talking circuit. when the operator has communicated with the calling subscriber, and found, for example, that another party on another similar line is desired, she turns the dial pointer on the selector to the number corresponding to the called-for party's number on that line, and presses the signal key. pressing this key causes impulses to "run down the line," selecting the proper party and ringing his bell in the manner already described. the connection between the two parties is then established, and no one else can in any possible way, except by permission of the operator, obtain access to the line. it is obvious that some means must be provided for restoring the selecting relays to normal after a conversation is finished. by referring to fig. it will be seen that the upper end of the latch spring _ _ is bent over in such a manner that when the armature is attracted by current flowing through the coil _ _, the knob on the left-hand end of the armature on rising engages with the bent cam surface and forces back the latch, permitting spring _ _ to return to its normal position. to restore the line the operator sends out sufficient additional selective impulses to extend the circuit to the end of the line, and thus brings the grounder into circuit. the winding of the grounder is connected in such a manner that the next passing impulse throws off its latch, permitting the long spring to contact with the ground spring. the operator now sends a grounded impulse over the continuous limb _l_ of the line which passes through the restoring coils _ _ at all the stations and through the right-hand coil of the grounding device to ground. the selecting relays are, therefore, simultaneously restored to normal. the grounder is also energized and restored to its normal position by the same current. if a party in calling finds that his own line is busy and he cannot get central, he may leave his receiver off its hook. when the party who is using the line hangs up his receiver the fact that another party desires a connection is automatically indicated to the operator, who then locks out the instrument of the party who has just finished conversation and passes his station by. when the operator again throws the key, the waiting subscriber is automatically selected in the same manner as was the first party. if there are no subscribers waiting for service, the stop relay at central will not operate until the grounder end of the line is unlatched, the selecting relays being then restored automatically to normal. the circuits are so organized that at all times whether the line is busy or not, the movement up and down of the switch hook, at any sub-station, operates a signal before the operator. such a movement, when made slowly and repeatedly, indicates to the operator that the subscriber has an emergency call and she may use her judgment as to taking the line away from the parties who are using it, and finding out what the emergency call is for. if the operator finds that the subscriber has misused this privilege of making the emergency call, she may restore the connection to the parties previously engaged in conversation. one of the salient points of this roberts system is that the operator always has control of the line. a subscriber is not able even to use his own battery till permitted to do so. a subscriber who leaves his receiver off its hook in order that he may be signaled by the operator when the line is free, causes no deterioration of the local battery because the battery circuit is held open by the switch contacts carried on the ringer. it cannot be denied, however, that this system is complicated, and that it has other faults. for instance, as described herein, both sides of the line must be looped into each subscriber's station, thus requiring four drop, or service, wires instead of two. it is possible to overcome this objection by placing the line relays on the pole in a suitably protected casing, in which case it is sufficient to run but two drop wires from the nearer line to station. there are undoubtedly other objections to this system, and yet with all its faults it is of great interest, and although radical in many respects, it teaches lessons of undoubted value. chapter xviii electrical hazards all telephone systems are exposed to certain electrical hazards. when these hazards become actively operative as causes, harmful results ensue. the harmful results are of two kinds: those causing damage to property and those causing damage to persons. the damage to persons may be so serious as to result in death. damage to property may destroy the usefulness of a piece of apparatus or of some portion of the wire plant. or the property damage may initiate itself as a harm to apparatus or wiring and may result in greater and extending damage by starting a fire. electrical currents which endanger life and property may be furnished by natural or artificial causes. natural electricity which does such damage usually displays itself as lightning. in rare cases, currents tending to flow over grounded lines because of extraordinary differences of potential between sections of the earth's surface have damaged apparatus in such lines, or only have been prevented from causing such damage by the operation of protective devices. telegraph and telephone systems have been threatened by natural electrical hazards since the beginning of the arts and by artificial electrical hazards since the development of electric light and power systems. at the present time, contrary to the general supposition, it is in the artificial, and not in the natural electrical hazards that the greater variety and degree of danger lies. of the ways in which artificial electricity may injure a telephone system, the entrance of current from an external electrical power system is a greater menace than an abnormal flow of current from a source belonging to the telephone system itself. yet modern practice provides opportunities for a telephone system to inflict damage upon itself in that way. telephone engineering designs need to provide means for protecting _all_ parts of a system against damage, from external ("foreign") as well as internal ("domestic") hazards, and to cause this protection to be inclusive enough to protect persons against injury and property from damage by any form of overheating or electrolytic action. a part of a telephone system for which there is even a remote possibility of contact with an external source of electrical power, whether natural or artificial, is said to be _exposed_ to electrical hazard. the degree or character of possible contact or other interference often is referred to in relative terms of _exposure_. the same terms are used concerning inductive relations between circuits. the whole tendency of design, particularly of wire plants, is to arrange the circuits in such a way as to limit the exposure as greatly as possible, the intent being to produce a condition in which all parts of the system will be _unexposed_ to hazards. methods of design are not yet sufficiently advanced for any plant to be formed of circuits wholly unexposed, so that protective means are required to safeguard apparatus and circuits in case the hazard, however remote, becomes operative. lightning discharges between the clouds and earth frequently charge open wires to potentials sufficiently high to damage apparatus; and less frequently, to destroy the wires of the lines themselves. lightning discharges between clouds frequently induce charges in lines sufficient to damage apparatus connected with the lines. heavy rushes of current in lines, from lightning causes, occasionally induce damaging currents in adjacent lines not sufficiently exposed to the original cause to have been injured without this induction. the lightning hazard is least where the most lines are exposed. in a small city with all of the lines formed of exposed wires and all of them used as grounded circuits, a single lightning discharge may damage many switchboard signals and telephone ringers if there be but or lines, while the damage might have been nothing had there been to , lines in the same area. means of protecting lines and apparatus against damage by lightning are little more elaborate than in the earliest days of telegraph working. they are adequate for the almost entire protection of life and of apparatus. power circuits are classified by the rules of various governing bodies as high-potential and low-potential circuits. the classification of the national board of fire underwriters in the united states defines low-potential circuits as having pressures below volts; high-potential circuits as having pressures from to , volts, and extra high-potential circuits as having pressures above , volts. pressures of , volts are becoming more common. where power is valuable and the distance over which it is to be transmitted is great, such high voltages are justified by the economics of the power problem. they are a great hazard to telephone systems, however. an unprotected telephone system meeting such a hazard by contact will endanger life and property with great certainty. a very common form of distribution for lighting and power purposes is the three-wire system having a grounded neutral wire, the maximum potential above the earth being about volts. telephone lines and apparatus are subject to damage by any power circuit whether of high or low potential. the cause of property damage in all cases is the flow of current. personal damage, if it be death from shock, ordinarily is the result of a high potential between two parts of the body. the best knowledge indicates that death uniformly results from shock to the heart. it is believed that death has occurred from shock due to pressure as low as volts. the critical minimum voltage which can not cause death is not known. a good rule is never willingly to subject another person to personal contact with any electrical pressure whatever. electricity can produce actions of four principal kinds: physiological, thermal, chemical, and magnetic. viewing electricity as establishing hazards, the physiological action may injure or kill living things; the thermal action may produce heat enough to melt metals, to char things which can be burned, or to cause them actually to burn, perhaps with a fire which can spread; the chemical action may destroy property values by changing the state of metals, as by dissolving them from a solid state where they are needed into a state of solution where they are not needed; the magnetic action introduces no direct hazard. the greatest hazard to which property values are exposed is the electro-thermal action; that is, the same useful properties by which electric lighting and electric heating thrive may produce heat where it is not wanted and in an amount greater than can safely be borne. the tendency of design is to make all apparatus capable of carrying without overheating any current to which voltage within the telephone system may subject it, and to provide the system so designed with specific devices adapted to isolate it from currents originating without. apparatus which is designed in this way, adapted not only to carry its own normal working currents but to carry the current which would result if a given piece of apparatus were connected directly across the maximum pressure within the telephone system itself, is said to be self-protecting. apparatus amply able to carry its maximum working current but likely to be overheated, to be injured, or perhaps to destroy itself and set fire to other things if subjected to the maximum pressure within the system, is not self-protecting apparatus. to make all electrical devices self-protecting by surrounding them with special arrangements for warding off abnormal currents from external sources, is not as simple as might appear. a lamp, for example, which can bear the entire pressure of a central-office battery, is not suitable for direct use in a line several miles long because it would not give a practical signal in series with that line and with the telephone set, as it is required to do. a lamp suitable for use in series with such a line and a telephone set would burn out by current from its own normal source if the line should become short-circuited in or near the central office. the ballast referred to in the chapter on "signals" was designed for the very purpose of providing rapidly-rising resistance to offset the tendency toward rapidly-rising current which could burn out the lamp. as another example, a very small direct-current electric motor can be turned on at a snap switch and will gain speed quickly enough so that its armature winding will not be overheated. a larger motor of that kind can not be started safely without introducing resistance into the armature circuit on starting, and cutting it out gradually as the armature gains speed. such a motor could be made self-protecting by having the armature winding of much larger wire than really is required for mere running, choosing its size great enough to carry the large starting current without overheating itself and its insulation. it is better, and for long has been standard practice, to use starting boxes, frankly admitting that such motors are not self-protecting until started, though they are self-protecting while running at normal speeds. such a motor, once started, may be overloaded so as to be slowed down. so much more current now can pass through the armature that its winding is again in danger. overload circuit-breakers are provided for the very purpose of taking motors out of circuit in cases where, once up to speed, they are mechanically brought down again and into danger. such a circuit-breaker is a device for protecting against an _internal_ hazard; that is, internal to the power system of which the motor is a part. another example: in certain situations, apparatus intended to operate under impulses of large current may be capable of carrying its normal impulses successfully but incapable of carrying currents from the same pressure continuously. protective means may be provided for detaching such apparatus from the circuit whenever the period in which the current acts is not short enough to insure safety. this is cited as a case wherein a current, normal in amount but abnormal in duration, becomes a hazard. the last mentioned example of damage from internal hazards brings us to the law of the electrical generation of heat. _the greater the current or the greater the resistance of the conductor heated or the longer the time, the greater will he the heat generated in that conductor._ but this generated heat varies directly as the resistance and as the time and as the square of the current, that is, the law is heat generated = _c^{ }rt_ in which _c_ = the current; _r_=the resistance of the conductor; and _t_ = the time. it is obvious that a protective device, such as an overload circuit-breaker for a motor, or a protector for telephone apparatus, needs to operate more quickly for a large current than for a small one, and this is just what all well-designed protective devices are intended to do. the general problem which these heating hazards present with relation to telephone apparatus and circuits is: _to cause all parts of the telephone system to be made so as to carry successfully all currents which may flow in them because of any internal or external pressure, or to supplement them by devices which will stop or divert currents which could overheat them._ electrolytic hazards depend not on the heating effects of currents but on their chemical effects. the same natural law which enables primary and secondary batteries to be useful provides a hazard which menaces telephone-cable sheaths and other conductors. when a current leaves a metal in contact with an electrolyte, the metal tends to dissolve into the electrolyte. in the processes of electroplating and electrotyping, current enters the bath at the anode, passes from the anode through the solution to the cathode, removing metal from the former and depositing it upon the latter. in a primary battery using zinc as the positive element and the negative terminal, current is caused to pass, within the cell, from the zinc to the negative element and zinc is dissolved. following the same law, any pipe buried in the earth may serve to carry current from one region to another. as single-trolley traction systems with positive trolley wires constantly are sending large currents through the earth toward their power stations, such a pipe may be of positive potential with relation to moist earth at some point in its length. current leaving it at such a point may cause its metal to dissolve enough to destroy the usefulness of the pipe for its intended purpose. lead-sheathed telephone cables in the earth are particularly exposed to such damage by electrolysis. the reasons are that such cables often are long, have a good conductor as the sheath-metal, and that metal dissolves readily in the presence of most aqueous solutions when electrolytic differences of potential exist. the length of the cables enables them to connect between points of considerable difference of potential. it is lack of this length which prevents electrolytic damage to masses of structural metal in the earth. electrical power is supplied to single-trolley railroads principally in the form of direct current. usually all the trolley wires of a city are so connected to the generating units as to be positive to the rails. this causes current to flow from the cars toward the power stations, the return path being made up jointly of the rails, the earth itself, actual return wires which may supplement the rails, and also all other conducting things in the earth, these being principally lead-covered cables and other pipes. these conditions establish definite areas in which the currents tend to leave the cables and pipes, _i.e._, in which the latter are positive to other things. these positive areas usually are much smaller than the negative areas, that is, the regions in which currents tend _to enter_ the cables form a larger total than the regions in which the currents tend _to leave_ the cables. these facts simplify the ways in which the cables may be protected against damage by direct currents leaving them and also they reduce the amount, complication, and cost of applying the corrective and preventive measures. all electric roads do not use direct current. certain simplifications in the use of single-phase alternating currents in traction motors have increased the number of roads using a system of alternating-current power supply. where alternating current is used, the electrolytic conditions are different and a new problem is set, for, as the current flows in recurrently different directions, an area which at one instant is positive to others, is changed the next instant into a negative area. the protective means, therefore, must be adapted to the changed requirements. chapter xix protective means any of the heating hazards described in the foregoing chapter may cause currents which will damage apparatus. all devices for the protection of apparatus from such damage, operate either to stop the flow of the dangerous current, or to send that flow over some other path. protection against high potentials. lightning is the most nearly universal hazard. all open wires are exposed to it in some degree. damaging currents from lightning are caused by extraordinarily high potentials. furthermore, a lightning discharge is oscillatory; that is, alternating, and of very high frequency. drops, ringers, receivers, and other devices subject to lightning damage suffer by having their windings burned by the discharge. the impedance these windings offer to the high frequency of lightning oscillations is great. the impedance of a few turns of heavy wire may be negligible to alternating currents of ordinary frequencies because the resistance of the wire is low, its inductance small, and the frequency finite. on the other hand, the impedance of such a coil to a lightning discharge is much higher, due to the very high frequency of the discharge. were it not for the extremely high pressure of lightning discharges, their high frequency of oscillation would enable ordinary coils to be self-protecting against them. but a discharge of electricity can take place through the air or other insulating medium if its pressure be high enough. a pressure of , volts can strike across a gap in air of one inch, and lower pressures can strike across smaller distances. when lightning encounters an impedance, the discharge seldom takes place through the entire winding, as an ordinary current would flow, usually striking across whatever short paths may exist. very often these paths are across the insulation between the outer turns of a coil. it is not unusual for a lightning discharge to plow its way across the outer layer of a wound spool, melting the copper of the turns as it goes. often the discharge will take place from inner turns directly to the core of the magnet. this is more likely when the core is grounded. _air-gap arrester_. the tendency of a winding to oppose lightning discharges and the ease with which such discharge may strike across insulating gaps, points the way to protection against them. such devices consist of two conductors separated by an air space or other insulator and are variously known as lightning arresters, spark gaps, open-space cutouts, or air-gap arresters. the conductors between which the gap exists may be both of metal, may be one of metal and one of carbon, or both of carbon. one combination consists of carbon and mercury, a liquid metal. the space between the conductors may be filled with either air or solid matter, or it may be a vacuum. speaking generally, the conductors are separated by some insulator. two conductors separated by an insulator form a condenser. the insulator of an open-space arrester often is called the dielectric. [illustration fig. . saw tooth arrester] discharge across gaps:--electrical discharges across a given distance occur at lower potentials if the discharge be between points than if between smooth surfaces. arresters, therefore, are provided with points. fig. shows a device known as a "saw-tooth" arrester because of its metal plates being provided with teeth. such an arrester brings a ground connection close to plates connected with the line and is adapted to protect apparatus either connected across a metallic circuit or in series with a single wire circuit. fig. shows another form of metal plate air-gap arrester having the further possibility of a discharge taking place from one line wire to the other. inserting a plug in the hole between the two line plates connects the line wires directly together at the arrester. this practice was designed for use with series lines, the plug short-circuiting the telephone set when in place. a defect of most ordinary types of metal air-gap lightning arresters is that heavy discharges tend to melt the teeth or edges of the plates and often to weld them together, requiring special attention to re-establish the necessary gap. advantages of carbon:--solid carbon is found to be a much better material than metal for the reasons that a discharge will not melt it and that its surface is composed of multitudes of points from which discharges take place more readily than from metals. [illustration fig. . saw-tooth arrester] [illustration fig. . carbon block arrester] carbon arresters now are widely used in the general form shown in fig. . a carbon block connected with a wire of the line is separated from a carbon block connected to ground by some form of insulating separator. mica is widely used as such a separator, and holes of some form in a mica slip enable the discharge to strike freely from block to block, while preventing the blocks from touching each other. celluloid with many holes is used as a separator between carbon blocks. silk and various special compositions also have their uses. [illustration fig. . arrester separators] dust between carbons:--discharges between the carbon blocks tend to throw off particles of carbon from them. the separation between the blocks being small--from . to . inch--the carbon particles may lodge in the air-gap, on the edges of the separator, or otherwise, so as to leave a conducting path between the two blocks. slight moisture on the separator may help to collect this dust, thus placing a ground on that wire of the line. this ground may be of very high resistance, but is probably one of many such--one at each arrester connected to the line. in special forms of carbon arresters an attempt has been made to limit this danger of grounding by the deposit of carbon dust. the object of the u-shaped separator of fig. is to enable the arrester to be mounted so that this opening in the separator is downward, in the hope that loosened carbon particles may fall out of the space between the blocks. the deposit of carbon on the inside edges of the u-shaped separator often is so fine and clings so tightly as not to fall out. the separator projects beyond the blocks so as to avoid the collection of carbon on the outer edges. commercial types:--fig. is a commercial form of the arrangement shown in fig. and is one of the many forms made by the american electric fuse company. line wires are attached to outside binding posts shown in the figure and the ground wire to the metal binding post at the front. the carbon blocks with their separator slide between clips and a ground plate. the air-gap is determined by the thickness of the separator between the carbon blocks. [illustration: fig. . carbon block arrester] [illustration: fig. roberts "self-cleaning" arrester] the roberts carbon arrester is designed with particular reference to the disposal of carbon dust and is termed self-cleaning for that reason. the arrangement of carbons and dielectric in this device is shown in fig. ; mica is cemented to the line carbon and is large enough to provide a projecting margin all around. the spark gap is not uniform over the entire surface of the block but is made wedge-shaped by grinding away the line carbon as shown. it is claimed that a continuous arcing fills the wedge-shaped chamber with heated air or gas, converting the whole of the space into a field of low resistance to ground, and that this gas in expanding drives out every particle of carbon that may be thrown off. it seems obvious that the wedge-shaped space offers greater freedom for carbon dust to fall out than in the case of the parallel arrangement of the block faces. an outdoor arrester for metallic circuits, designed by f.b. cook, is shown in fig. . the device is adapted to mount on a pole or elsewhere and to be covered by a protecting cap. the carbons are large and are separated by a special compound intended to assist the self-cleaning feature. the three carbons being grouped together as a unit, the device has the ability to care for discharges from one terminal to either of the others direct, without having to pass through two gaps. in this particular, the arrangement is the same as that of fig. . [illustration: fig. . cook air-gap arrester] a form of western electric arrester particularly adapted for outside use on railway lines is shown with its cover in fig. . [illustration: fig. . western electric air-gap arrester] the kellogg company regularly equips its magneto telephones with air-gap arresters of the type shown in fig. . the two line plates are semicircular and of metal. the ground plate is of carbon, circular in form, covering both line plates with a mica separator. this is mounted on the back board of the telephone and permanently wired to the line and ground binding posts. [illustration: old switchboard of bell exchange serving chinatown, san francisco, california] [illustration: fig. . kellogg air-gap arrester] vacuum arresters:--all of the carbon arresters so far mentioned depend on the discharge taking place through air. a given pressure will discharge further in a fairly good vacuum than in air. the national electric specialty company mounts three conductors in a vacuum of the incandescent lamp type, fig. . a greater separation and less likelihood of short-circuiting can be provided in this way. either carbon or metal plates are adapted for use in such vacuum devices. the plates may be further apart for a given discharge pressure if the surfaces are of carbon. [illustration: fig. . vacuum arrester] introduction of impedance:--it has been noted that the existence of impedance tends to choke back the passage of lightning discharge through a coil. fig. suggests the relation between such an impedance and air-gap arrester. if the coil shown therein be considered an arrangement of conductors having inductance, it will be seen that a favorable place for an air-gap arrester is between that impedance and the line. this fact is made known in practice by frequent damage to aërial cables by electricity brought into them over long open wires, the discharge taking place at the first turn or bend in the aërial cable; this discharge often damages both core and sheath. it is well to have such bends as near the end of the cable as possible, and turns or goosenecks at entrances to terminals have that advantage. [illustration: fig. . impedance and air-gap] this same principle is utilized in some forms of arresters, such as the one shown in fig. , which provides an impedance of its own directly in the arrester element. in this device an insulating base carries a grounded carbon rod and two impedance coils. the impedance coils are wound on insulating rods, which hold them near, but not touching, the ground carbon. the coils are arranged so that they may be turned when discharges roughen the surfaces of the wires. [illustration: fig. . holtzer-cabot arrester] metallic electrodes:--copper or other metal blocks with roughened surfaces separated by an insulating slip may be substituted for the carbon blocks of most of the arresters previously described. metal blocks lack the advantage of carbon in that the latter allows discharges at lower potentials for a given separation, but they have the advantage that a conducting dust is not thrown off from them. [illustration: fig. . carbon air-gap arrester] provision against continuous arc:--for the purpose of short-circuiting an arc, a globule of low-melting alloy may be placed in one carbon block of an arrester. this feature is not essential in an arrester intended solely to divert lightning discharges. its purpose is to provide an immediate path to ground if an arc arising from artificial electricity has been maintained between the blocks long enough to melt the globule. fig. is a plan and section of the western electric company's arrester used as the high potential element in conjunction with others for abnormal currents and sneak currents; the latter are currents too small to operate air-gap arresters or substantial fuses. protection against strong currents. _fuses._ a fuse is a metal conductor of lower carrying capacity than the circuit with which it is in series at the time it is required to operate. fuses in use in electrical circuits generally are composed of some alloy of lead, which melts at a reasonably low temperature. alloys of lead have lower conductivity than copper. a small copper wire, however, may fuse at the same volume of current as a larger lead alloy wire. proper functions:--a fuse is not a good lightning arrester. as lightning damage is caused by current and as it is current which destroys a fuse, a lightning discharge _can_ open a circuit over which it passes by melting the fuse metal. but lightning may destroy a fuse and at the same discharge destroy apparatus in series with the fuse. there are two reasons for this: one is that lightning discharges act very quickly and may have destroyed apparatus before heating the fuse enough to melt it; the other reason is that when a fuse is operated with enough current even to vaporize it, the vapor serves as a conducting path for an instant after being formed. this conducting path may be of high resistance and still allow currents to flow through it, because of the extremely high pressure of the lightning discharge. a comprehensive protective system may include fuses, but it is not to be expected that they always will arrest lightning or even assist other things in arresting lightning. they should be considered as of no value for that purpose. furthermore, fuses are best adapted to be a part of a general protective system when they do all that they must do in stopping abnormal currents and yet withstand lightning discharges which may pass through them. other things being equal, that system of protection is best in which all lightning discharges are arrested by gap arresters and in which no fuses ever are operated by lightning discharges. mica fuse:--a convenient and widely used form of fuse is that shown in fig. . a mica slip has metal terminals at its ends and a fuse wire joins these terminals. the fuse is inserted in the circuit by clamping the terminals under screws or sliding them between clips as in figs. and . advantages of this method of fuse mounting for protecting circuits needing small currents are that the fuse wire can be seen, the fuses are readily replaced when blown, and their mountings may be made compact. as elements of a comprehensive protective system, however, the ordinary types of mica-slip fuses are objectionable because too short, and because they have no means of their own for extinguishing an arc which may follow the blowing of the fuses. as protectors for use in distributing low potential currents from central-office power plants they are admirable. by simple means, they may be made to announce audibly or visibly that they have operated. [illustration: fig. . mica slip fuse] [illustration: fig. . postal type mica fuse] [illustration: fig. . western union type mica fuse] enclosed fuses:--if a fuse wire within an insulating tube be made to connect metal caps on that tube and the space around the tube be filled with a non-conducting powder, the gases of the vaporized fuse metal will be absorbed more quickly than when formed without such imbedding in a powder. the filling of such a tubular fuse also muffles the explosion which occurs when the fuse is vaporized. [illustration: fig. . pair of enclosed fuses] fuses of the enclosed type, with or without filling, are widely used in power circuits generally and are recommended by fire insurance bodies. fig. illustrates an arrester having a fuse of the enclosed type, this example being that of the h. w. johns-manville company. [illustration fig. . bank of enclosed fuses] in telephony it is frequently necessary to mount a large number of fuses or other protective devices together in a restricted space. in fig. a group of western electric tubular fuses, so mounted, is shown. these fuses have ordinarily a carrying capacity of or amperes. it is not expected that this arrester will blow because or amperes of abnormal currents are flowing through it and the apparatus to be protected. what is intended is that the fuse shall withstand lightning discharges and when a foreign current passes through it, other apparatus will increase that current enough to blow the fuse. it will be noticed that the fuses of fig. are open at the upper end, which is the end connected to the exposed wire of the line the fuses are closed at the lower end, which is the end connected to the apparatus. when the fuse blows, its discharge is somewhat muffled by the lining of the tube, but enough explosion remains so that the heated gases, in driving outward, tend to break the arc which is established through the vaporized metal. a pair of cook tubular fuses in an individual mounting is shown in fig. . fuses of this type are not open at one end like a gun, but opportunity for the heated gases to escape exists at the caps. the tubes are made of wood, of lava, or of porcelain. fig. is another tubular fuse, the section showing the arrangement of asbestos lining which serves the two purposes of muffling the sound of the discharge and absorbing and cooling the resulting gases. [illustration: fig. . pair of wooden tube fuses] _air-gap vs. fuse arresters._ it is hoped that the student grasps clearly the distinction between the purposes of air-gap and fuse arresters. the air-gap arrester acts in response to high voltages, either of lightning or of high-tension power circuits. the fuse acts in response to a certain current value flowing through it and this minimum current in well-designed protectors for telephone lines is not very small. usually it is several times larger than the maximum current apparatus in the line can safely carry. fuses _can_ be made so delicate as to operate on the very smallest current which could injure apparatus and the earlier protective systems depended on such an arrangement. the difficulty with such delicate fuses is that they are not robust enough to be reliable, and, worse still, they change their carrying capacity with age and are not uniform in operation in different surroundings and at different temperatures. they are also sensitive to lightning discharges, which they have no power to stop or to divert. protection against sneak currents. for these reasons, a system containing fuses and air-gap arresters only, does not protect against abnormal currents which are continuous and small, though large enough to injure apparatus _because_ continuous. these currents have come to be known as sneak currents, a term more descriptive than elegant. sneak currents though small, may, when allowed to flow for a long time through the winding of an electromagnet for instance, develop enough heat to char or injure the insulation. they are the more dangerous because insidious. [illustration: fig. . tubular fuse with asbestos filling] _sneak-current arresters._ as typical of sneak-current arresters, fig. shows the principle, though not the exact form, of an arrester once widely used in telephone and signal lines. the normal path from the line to the apparatus is through a small coil of fine wire imbedded in sealing wax. a spring forms a branch path from the line and has a tension which would cause it to bear against the ground contact if it were allowed to do so. it is prevented from touching that contact normally by a string between itself and a rigid support. the string is cut at its middle and the knotted ends as thus cut are imbedded in the sealing wax which contains the coil. [illustration: fig. . principle of sneak-current arrester] a small current through the little coil will warm the wax enough to allow the string to part. the spring then will ground the line. even so simple an apparatus as this operates with considerable accuracy. all currents below a certain critical amount may flow through the heating coil indefinitely, the heat being radiated rapidly enough to keep the wax from softening and the string from parting. all currents above this critical amount will operate the arrester; the larger the current, the shorter the time of operating. it will be remembered that the law of these heating effects is that the heat generated = _c^{ }rt_, so that if a certain current operates the arrester in, say seconds, twice as great a current should operate the arrester in seconds. in other words, the time of operation varies inversely as the square of the current and inversely as the resistance. to make the arrester more sensitive for a given current--_i.e._, to operate in a shorter time--one would increase the resistance of the coil in the wax either by using more turns or finer wire, or by making the wire of a metal having higher specific resistance. the present standard sneak-current arrester embodies the two elements of the devices of fig. : a _resistance_ material to transform the dangerous sneak current into localized heat; and a _fusible_ material softened by this heat to release some switching mechanism. the resistance material is either a resistance wire or a bit of carbon, the latter being the better material, although both are good. the fusible material is some alloy melting at a low temperature. lead, tin, bismuth, and cadmium can be combined in such proportions as will enable the alloy to melt at temperatures from ° to ° f. such an alloy is a solder which, at ordinary temperatures, is firm enough to resist the force of powerful springs; yet it will melt so as to be entirely fluid at a temperature much less than that of boiling water. [illustration: fig. . heat coil] _heat coil._ fig. shows a practical way of bringing the heating and to-be-heated elements together. a copper spool is wound with resistance wire. a metal pin is soldered in the bore of the spool by an easily melting alloy. when current heats the spool enough, the pin may slide or turn in the spool. it may slide or turn in many ways and this happily enables many types of arresters to result. for example, the pin may pull out, or push in, or push through, or rotate like a shaft in a bearing, or the spool may turn on it like a hub on an axle. messrs. hayes, rolfe, cook, mcberty, kaisling, and many other inventors have utilized these combinations and motions in the production of sneak-current arresters. all of them depend on one action: the softening of a low-melting alloy by heat generated in a resistance. when a heat coil is associated with the proper switching springs, it becomes a sneak-current arrester. the switching springs always are arranged to ground the line wire. in some arresters, the line wire is cut off from the wire leading toward the apparatus by the same movement which grounds it. in others, the line is not broken at all, but merely grounded. each method has its advantages. complete line protection. fig. shows the entire scheme of protectors in an exposed line and their relation to apparatus in the central-office equipment and at the subscriber's telephone. the central-office equipment contains heat coils, springs, and carbon arresters. at some point between the central office and the subscriber's premises, each wire contains a fuse. at the subscriber's premises each wire contains other fuses and these are associated with carbon arresters. the figure shows a central battery equipment, in which the ringer of the telephone is in series with a condenser. a sneak-current arrester is not required at the subscriber's station with such equipment. assume the line to meet an electrical hazard at the point _x_. if this be lightning, it will discharge to ground at the central office or at the subscriber's instrument or at both through the carbon arresters connected to that side of the line. if it be a high potential from a power circuit and of more than volts, it will strike an arc at the carbon arrester connected to that wire of the line in the central office or at the subscriber's telephone or at both, if the separation of the carbons in those arresters is . inch or less. if the carbon arresters are separated by celluloid, it will burn away and allow the carbons to come together, extinguishing the arc. if they are separated by mica and one of the carbons is equipped with a globule of low-melting alloy, the heat of the arc will melt this, short-circuiting the gap and extinguishing the arc. the passage of current to ground at the arrester, however, will be over a path containing nothing but wire and the arrester. the resulting current, therefore, may be very large. the voltage at the arrester having been volts or more, in order to establish the arc, short-circuiting the gap will make the current amperes or more, unless the applied voltage miraculously falls to volts or less. the current through the fuse being more than amperes, it will blow promptly, opening the line and isolating the apparatus. it will be noted that this explanation applies to equipment at either end of the line, as the fuse lies between the point of contact and the carbon arrester. [illustration: fig. . complete line protection] assume, on the other hand, that the contact is made at the point _y_. the central-office carbon arrester will operate, grounding the line and increasing the amount of current flowing. there being no fuse to blow, a worse thing will befall, in the overheating of the line wire and the probable starting of a fire in the central office. it is obvious, therefore, that a fuse must be located between the carbon arrester and any part of the line which is subject to contact with a potential which can give an abnormal current when the carbon arrester acts. assume, as a third case, that the contact at the point _x_ either is with a low foreign potential or is so poor a contact that the difference of potential across the gap of the carbon arrester is lower than its arcing point. current will tend to flow by the carbon arrester without operating it, but such a current must pass through the winding of the heat coil if it is to enter the apparatus. the sneak current may be large enough to overheat the apparatus if allowed to flow long enough, but before it has flowed long enough it will have warmed the heat-coil winding enough to soften its fusible alloy and to release springs which ground the line, just as did the carbon arrester in the case last assumed. again the current will become large and will blow the fuse which lies between the sneak-current arrester and the point of contact with the source of foreign current. in this case, also, contact at the point _y_ would have operated mechanism to ground the line at the central office, and, no fuse interposing, the wiring would have been overheated. _exposed and unexposed wiring._ underground cables, cables formed of rubber insulated wires, and interior wiring which is properly done, all may be considered to be wiring which is unexposed, that is, not exposed to foreign high potentials, discharges, sneak, or abnormal currents. _all other wiring_, such as bare wires, aërial cables, etc., should be considered as _exposed_ to such hazards and a fuse should exist in each wire between its exposed portion and the central office or subscriber's instrument. the rule of action, therefore, becomes: _the proper position of the fuse is between exposed and unexposed wiring._ it may appear to the student that wires in an aërial cable with a lead sheath--that sheath being either grounded or ungrounded--are not exposed to electrical hazards; in the case of the grounded sheath, this would presume that a contact between the cable and a high potential wire would result merely in the foreign currents going to ground through the cable sheath, the arc burning off the high-potential wire and allowing the contact to clear itself by the falling of the wire. if the assumption be that the sheath is not grounded, then the student may say that no current at all would flow from the high-potential wire. both assumptions are wrong. in the case of the grounded sheath, the current flows to it at the contact with the high-potential wire; the lead sheath is melted, arcs strike to the wires within, and currents are led directly to the central office and to subscribers' premises. in the case of the ungrounded sheath, the latter charges at once through all its length to the voltage of the high-potential wire; at some point, a wire within the cable is close enough to the sheath for an arc to strike across, and the trouble begins. all the wires in the cable are endangered if the cross be with a wire of the primary circuit of a high-tension transmission line. any series arc-light circuit is a high-potential menace. even a -volt trolley wire or feeder can burn a lead-covered cable entirely in two in a few seconds. the authors have seen this done by the wayward trolley pole of a street car, one side of the pole touching the trolley wire and the extreme end just touching the telephone cable. the answer lies in the foregoing rule. place the fuse between the wires which _can_ and the wires which _can not_ get into contact with high potentials. in application, the rule has some flexibility. in the case of a cable which is aërial as soon as it leaves the central office, place the fuses in the central office; in a cable wholly underground, from central office to subscriber--as, for example, the feed for an office building--use no fuses at all; in a cable which leaves the central office underground and becomes aërial, fuse the wires just where they change from underground to aërial. the several branches of an underground cable into aërial ones should be fused as they branch. wires properly installed in subscribers' premises are considered unexposed. the position of the fuse thus is at or near the point of entrance of the wires into that building if the wires of the subscriber's line outside the premises are exposed, as determined by the definitions given. if the line is unexposed, by those definitions, no protector is required. if one is indicated, it should be used, as compliance with the best-known practice is a clear duty. less than what is known to be best is not honest practice in a matter which involves life, limb, and indefinite degrees of property values. protectors in central-battery subscribers' equipments need no sneak-current arresters, as the condenser reduces that hazard to a negligible amount. magneto subscribers' equipments usually lack condensers in ringer circuits, though they may have them in talking circuits on party lines. the ringer circuit is the only path through the telephone set for about per cent of the time. sneak-current arresters, therefore, should be a part of subscribers' station protectors in magneto equipment, except in such rural districts as may have no lighting or power wires. when sneak-current arresters are so used the arrangement of the parts then is the same as in the central-office portion of fig. . types of central-office protectors. a form of combined heat coil and air-gap arrester, widely used by bell companies for central-office protection, is shown in fig. . the two inner springs form the terminals for the two limbs of the metallic-circuit line, while the two outside springs are terminals for the continuation of the line leading to the switchboard. the heat coils, one on each side, are supported between the inner and outer springs. high-tension currents jump to ground through the air-gap arrester, while sneak currents permit the pin of the heat coil to slide within the sleeve, thus grounding the outside line and the line to the switchboard. [illustration: fig. . sneak-current and air-gap arrester] _self-soldering heat coils._ another form designed by kaisling and manufactured by the american electric fuse company is shown in fig. . in this the pin in the heat coil projects unequally from the ends of the coil, and under the action of a sneak current the melting of the solder which holds it allows the outer spring to push the pin through the coil until it presses the line spring against the ground plate and at the same time opens the path to the switchboard. when the heat-coil pin assumes this new position it cools off, due to the cessation of the current, and _resolders_ itself, and need only be turned end for end by the attendant to be reset. many are the variations that have been made on this self-soldering idea, and there has been much controversy as to its desirability. it is certainly a feature of convenience. [illustration: fig. . self-soldering heat-coil arrester] instead of using a wire-wound resistance element in heat-coil construction some manufacturers employ a mass of high-resistance material, interposed in the path of the current. the kellogg company has long employed for its sneak-current arrester a short graphite rod, which forms the resistance element. the ends of this rod are electroplated with copper to which the brass terminal heads are soldered. these heads afford means for making the connection with the proper retaining springs. [illustration: fig. . cook arrester] another central-office protector, which uses a mass of special metal composition for its heat producing element is that designed by frank b. cook and shown in fig. . in this the carbon blocks are cylindrical in form and specially treated to make them "self-cleaning." instead of employing a self-soldering feature in the sneak-current arrester of this device, cook provides for electrically resoldering them after operation, a clip being designed for holding the elements in proper position and passing a battery current through them to remelt the solder. in small magneto exchanges it is not uncommon to employ combined fuse and air-gap arresters for central-office line protection, the fuses being of the mica-mounted type already referred to. a group of such arresters, as manufactured by the dean electric company, is shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . mica fuse and air-gap arresters] types of subscribers' station protectors. figs. and show types of subscribers' station protectors adapted to the requirements of central-battery and magneto systems. these, as has been said, should be mounted at or near the point of entrance of the subscriber's line into the premises, if the line is exposed outside of the premises. it is possible to arrange the fuses so that they will be safe and suitable for their purposes if they are mounted out-of-doors near the point of entrance to the premises. the sneak-current arrester, if one exists, and the carbon arrester also, must be mounted inside of the premises or in a protecting case, if outside, on account of the necessity of shielding both of these devices from the weather. speaking generally, the wider practice is to put all the elements of the subscriber's station protector inside of the house. it is nearer to the ideal arrangement of conditions if the protector be placed immediately at the point of entrance of the outside wires into the building. [illustration: fig. . western electric station arrester] [illustration: fig. . cook arrester for magneto stations] _ribbon fuses_. a point of interest with relation to tubular fuses is that in some of the best types of such fuses, the resistance material is not in the form of a round wire but in the form of a flat ribbon. this arrangement disposes the necessary amount of fusible metal in a form to give the greatest amount of surface, while a round wire offers the least surface for a given weight of metal--a circle encloses its area with less periphery than any other figure. the reason for giving the fuse the largest possible surface area is to decrease the likelihood of the fuse being ruptured by lightning. the fact that such fuses do withstand lightning discharges much more thoroughly than round fuses of the same rating is an interesting proof of the oscillating nature of lightning discharges, for the density of the current of those discharges is greater on and near the surface of the conductor than within the metal and, therefore, flattening the fuse increases its carrying capacity for high-frequency currents, without appreciably changing its carrying capacity for direct currents. the reason its capacity for direct currents is increased at all by flattening it, is that the surface for the radiation of heat is increased. however, when enclosed in a tube, radiation of heat is limited, so that for direct currents the carrying capacity of fuses varies closely with the area of cross-section. city-exchange requirements. the foregoing has set down the requirements of good practice in an average city-exchange system. nothing short of the general arrangement shown in fig. meets the usual assortment of hazards of such an exchange. it is good modern practice to distribute lines by means of cables, supplemented in part by short insulated drop wires twisted in pairs. absence of bare wires reduces electrical hazards enormously. nevertheless, hazards remain. though no less than the spirit of this plan of protection should be followed, additional hazards may exist, which may require additional elements of protection. at the end of a cable, either aërial or underground, long open wires may extend into the open country as rural or long-distance circuits. if these be longer than a mile or two, in most regions they will be subjected to lightning discharges. these may be subjected to high-potential contacts as well. if a specific case of such exposure indicates that the cables may be in danger, the long open lines then are equipped with additional air-gap arresters at the point of junction of those open lines with the cable. practice varies as to the type. maintenance charges are increased if carbon arresters separated . inch are used, because of the cost of sending to the end of the long cable to clear the blocks from carbon dust after each slight discharge. roughened metal blocks do not become grounded as readily as do carbon blocks. the occasions of visit to the arresters, therefore, usually follow actual heavy discharges through them. the recommendations and the practice of the american telephone and telegraph company differ on this point, while the practice of other companies varies with the temperaments of the engineers. the american company specifies copper-block arresters where long country lines enter cables, if those lines are exposed to lightning discharges only. the exposed line is called _long_ if more than one-half mile in length. if it is exposed to high-potential hazards, carbon blocks are specified instead of copper. other specifications of that company have called for the use of copper-block arresters on lines exposed to hazards above , volts. [illustration: one of the four wings of the old kellogg divided multiple board of the cuyahoga telephone company, cleveland, ohio ultimate capacity, , lines. one of the two examples in the united states of a multiple switchboard having an ultimate capacity over , lines. replaced recently by a kellogg straight multiple board having an ultimate capacity of , lines and a present capacity of , lines.] the freedom of metal-block arresters from dust troubles gives them a large economical advantage over carbon. for similar separations, the ratio of striking voltages between carbon blocks and metal blocks respectively is as to . in certain regions of the pacific coast where the lightning hazard is negligible and the high tension hazard is great, metal-block arresters at the outer ends of cables give acceptable protection. high winds which drive snow or dust against bare wires of a long line, create upon or place upon those wires a charge of static electricity which makes its way from the line in such ways as it can. usually it discharges across arresters and when this discharge takes place, the line is disturbed in its balance and loud noises are heard in the telephones upon it. [fig. . drainage coils] a telephone line which for a long distance is near a high-tension transmission line may have electrostatic or electromagnetic potentials, or both, induced upon it. if the line be balanced in its properties, including balance by transposition of its wires, the electrostatic induction may neutralize itself. the electromagnetic induction still may disturb it. _drainage coils_. the device shown in fig. , which amounts merely to an inductive leak to earth, is intended to cure both the snowstorm and electromagnetic induction difficulties. it is required that its impedance be high enough to keep voice-current losses low, while being low enough to drain the line effectively of the disturbing charges. such devices are termed "drainage coils." electrolysis. the means of protection against the danger due to chemical action, set forth in the preceding chapter, form such a distinct phase of the subject of guarding property against electrical hazards as to warrant treatment in a separate chapter devoted to the subject of electrolysis. [illustration: main exchange, cleveland, ohio. largest four-party selective ringing switchboard in the world. kellogg switchboard and supply co.] chapter xx general features of the telephone exchange up to this point only those classes of telephone service which could be given between two or more stations on a single line have been considered. very soon after the practical conception of the telephone, came the conception of the telephone exchange; that is, the conception of centering a number of lines at a common point and there terminating them in apparatus to facilitate their interconnection, so that any subscriber on any line could talk with any subscriber on any other line. the complete equipment of lines, telephone instruments, and switching facilities by which the telephone stations of the community are given telephone service is called a telephone exchange. the building where a group of telephone lines center for interconnection is called a central office, and its telephonic equipment the central-office equipment. the terms telephone office and telephone exchange are frequently confused. although a telephone office building may be properly referred to as a telephone exchange building, it is hardly proper to refer to the telephone office as a telephone exchange, as is frequently done. in modern parlance the telephone exchange refers not only to the central office and its equipment but to the lines and instruments connected therewith as well; furthermore, a telephone exchange may embrace a number of telephone offices that are interconnected by means of so-called trunk lines for permitting the communication of subscribers whose lines terminate in one office with those subscribers whose lines terminate in any other office. since a given telephone exchange may contain one or more central offices, it is proper to distinguish between them by referring to an exchange which contains but a single central office as a single office exchange, and to an exchange which contains a plurality of central offices as a multi-office exchange. in telephone exchange working, three classes of lines are dealt with--subscribers' lines, trunk lines, and toll lines. subscribers' lines. the term subscriber is commonly applied to the patron of the telephone service. his station is, therefore, referred to as a subscriber's station, and the telephone equipment at any subscriber's station is referred to as a subscriber's station equipment. likewise, a line leading from a central office to one or more subscribers' stations is called a subscriber's line. a subscriber's line may, as has been shown in a previous chapter, be an individual line if it serves but one station, or a party line if it serves to connect more than one station with the central office. trunk lines. a trunk line is a line which is not devoted to the service of any particular subscriber, but which may form a connecting link between any one of a group of subscribers' lines which terminate in one place and any one of a group of subscribers' lines which terminate in another place. if the two groups of subscribers' lines terminate in the same building or in the same switchboard, so that the trunk line forming the connecting link between them is entirely within the central-office building, it is called a local trunk line, or a local trunk. if, on the other hand, the trunk line is for connecting groups of subscribers' lines which terminate in different central offices, it is called an inter-office trunk. toll lines. a toll line is a telephone line for the use of which a special fee or toll is charged; that is, a fee that is not included in the charges made to the subscriber for his regular local exchange service. toll lines extend from one exchange district to another, more or less remote, and they are commonly termed _local_ toll and _long-distance_ toll lines according to the degree of remoteness. a toll line, whether local or long-distance, may be looked upon in the nature of an inter-exchange trunk. districts. the district in a given community which is served by a single central office is called an office district. likewise, the district which is served by a complete exchange is called an exchange district. an exchange district may, therefore, consist of a number of central-office districts, just as an exchange may comprise a number of central offices. to illustrate, the entire area served by the exchange of the chicago telephone company in chicago, embracing the entire city and some of its suburbs, is the chicago exchange district. the area served by one of the central offices, such as the hyde park office, the oakland office, the harrison office, or any of the others, is an office district. switchboards. the apparatus at the central office by which the telephone lines are connected for conversation and afterwards disconnected, and by which the various other functions necessary to the giving of complete telephone service are performed, is called a switchboard. this may be simple in the case of small exchanges, or of vast complexity in the case of the larger exchanges. sometimes the switchboards are of such nature as to require the presence of operators, usually girls, to connect and disconnect the line and perform the other necessary functions, and such switchboards, whether large or small, are termed _manual_. sometimes the switchboards are of such a nature as not to require the presence of operators, the various functions of connection, disconnection, and signaling being performed by the aid of special forms of apparatus which are under the control of the subscriber who makes the call. such switchboards are termed _automatic_. of recent years there has appeared another class of switchboards, employing in some measure the features of the automatic and in some measure those of the manual switchboard. these boards are commonly referred to as _semi-automatic_ switchboards, presumably because they are supposed to be half automatic and half manual. _manual_. manual switchboards may be subdivided into two classes according to the method of distributing energy for talking purposes. thus we may have _magneto_ switchboards, which are those capable of serving lines equipped with magneto telephones, local batteries being used for talking purposes. on the other hand, we may have _common-battery_ switchboards, adapted to connect lines employing common-battery telephones in which all the current for both talking and signaling is furnished from the central office. in still another way we may classify manual switchboards if the method of distributing the energy for talking and signaling purposes is ignored. thus, entirely irrespective of whether the switchboards are adapted to serve common-battery or local-battery lines, we may have non-multiple switchboards and multiple switchboards. the term _multiple_ switchboard is applied to that class of switchboards in which the connection terminals or jacks for all the lines are repeated at intervals along the face of the switchboard, so that each operator may have within her reach a terminal for each line and may thus be able to complete by herself any connection between two lines terminating in the switchboard. the term _non-multiple_ switchboard is applied to that class of boards where the provision for repeating the line terminals at intervals along the face of the board is not employed, but where, as a consequence, each line has but a single terminal on the face of the board. non-multiple switchboards have their main use in small exchanges where not more than a few hundred lines terminate. where such is the case, it is an easy matter to handle all the traffic by one, two, or three operators, and as all of these operators may reach all over the face of the switchboard, there is no need for giving any line any more than one connection terminal. such boards may be called _simple_ switchboards. there is another type of non-multiple switchboard adaptable for use in larger exchanges than the simple switchboard. a correct idea of the fundamental principle involved in these may be had by imagining a row of simple switchboards each containing terminals or jacks for its own group of lines. in order to provide for the connection of a line in one of these simple switchboards with a line in another one, out of reach of the operator at the first, short connecting lines extending between the two switchboards are provided, these being called _transfer_ or _trunk_ lines. in order that connections may be made between any two of the simple boards, a group of transfer lines is run from each board to every other one. in such switchboards an operator at one of the boards or positions may complete the connection herself between any two lines terminating at her own board. if, however, the line called for terminates at another one of the boards, the operator makes use of the transfer or trunk line extending to that board, and the operator at this latter board completes the connection, so that the two subscribers' lines are connected through the trunk or transfer line. a distinguishing feature, therefore, in the operation of so-called transfer switchboards, is that an operator can not always complete a connection herself, the connection frequently requiring the attention of two operators. transfer systems are not now largely used, the multiple switchboard having almost entirely supplanted them in manual exchanges of such size as to be beyond the limitation of the simple switchboard. at multi-office manual exchanges, however, where there are a number of multiple switchboards employed at various central offices, the same sort of a requirement exists as that which was met by the provision of trunk lines between the various simple switchboards in a transfer system. obviously, the lines in one central office must be connected to those of another in order to give universal service in the community in which the exchange operates. for this purpose inter-office trunk lines are used, the arrangement being such that when an operator at one office receives a call for a subscriber in another office, she will proceed to connect the calling subscriber's line, not directly with the line of the called subscriber because that particular line is not within her reach, but rather with a trunk line leading to the office in which the called-for subscriber's line terminates; having done this she will then inform an operator at that second office of the connection desired, usually by means of a so-called order-wire circuit. the connection between the trunk line so used and the line of the called-for subscriber will then be completed by the connecting link or trunk line extending between the two offices. in such cases the multiple switchboard at each office is divided into two portions, termed respectively the _a_ board and the _b_ board. each of these boards, with the exception that will be pointed out in a subsequent chapter, is provided with a full complement of multiple jacks for all of the lines entering that office. at the _a_ board are located operators, called _a_ operators, who answer all the calls from the subscribers whose lines terminate in that office. in the case of calls for lines in that same office, they complete the connection themselves without the assistance of the other operators. on the other hand, the calls for lines in another office are handled through trunk lines leading to that other office, as before described, and these trunk lines always terminate in the _b_ board at that office. the _b_ operators are, therefore, those operators who receive the calls over trunk lines and complete the connection with the line of the subscriber desired. to define these terms more specifically, an _a_ board is a multiple switchboard in which the subscriber's lines of a given office district terminate. for this reason the _a_ board is frequently referred to as a subscribers' board, and the operators who work at these boards and who answer the calls of the subscribers are called _a_ operators or subscribers' operators. _b_ boards are switchboards in which terminate the incoming ends of the trunk lines leading from other offices in the same exchange. these boards are frequently called incoming trunk boards, or merely trunk boards, and the operators who work at them and who receive the directions from the _a_ operators at the other boards are called _b_ operators, or incoming trunk operators. the circuits which are confined wholly to the use of operators and over which the instructions from one operator to another are sent, as in the case of the _a_ operator giving an order for a connection to a _b_ operator at another switchboard, are designated _call circuits_ or _order wire circuits_. sometimes trunk lines are so arranged that connections may be originated at either of their ends. in other cases they are so arranged that one group of trunk lines connecting two offices is for the traffic in one direction only, while another group leading between the same two offices is for handling only the traffic in the other direction. trunk lines are called _one-way_ or _two-way_ trunks, according to whether they handle the traffic in one direction or in two. a trunking system, where the same trunks handle traffic both ways, is called a _single-track system_; and, on the other hand, a system in which there are two groups of trunks, one handling traffic in one direction and the other in the other, is called a _double-track system_. this nomenclature is obviously borrowed from railroad practice. there is still another class of manual switchboards called the _toll board_ of which it will be necessary to treat. telephone calls made by one person for another within the limits of the same exchange district are usually charged for either by a flat rate per month, or by a certain charge for each call. this is usually regardless of the duration of the conversation following the call. on the other hand, where a call is made by one party for another outside of the limits of the exchange district and, therefore, in some other exchange district, a charge is usually made, based on the time that the connecting long-distance line is employed. such calls and their ensuing conversations are charged for at a very much higher rate than the purely local calls, this rate depending on the distance between the stations involved. the making up of connections between a long-distance and a local line is usually done by means of operators other than those employed in handling the local calls, who work either by means of special equipment located on the local board, or by means of a separate board. such equipments for handling long-distance or toll traffic are commonly termed toll switchboards. they differ from local boards (a) in that they are arranged for a very much smaller number of lines; (b) in that they have facilities by which the toll operator may make up the connections with a minimum amount of labor on the part of the assisting local operators; and (c) in that they have facilities for recording the identification of the parties and timing the conversations taking place over the toll lines, so that the proper charge may be made to the proper subscriber. chapter xxi the simple magneto switchboard definitions. as already stated those switchboards which are adapted to work in conjunction with magneto telephones are called magneto switchboards. the signals on such switchboards are electromagnetic devices capable of responding to the currents of the magneto generators at the subscribers' stations. since, as a rule, magneto telephones are equipped with local batteries, it follows that the magneto switchboard does not need to be arranged for supplying the subscribers' stations with talking current. this fact is accountable for magneto switchboards often being referred to as local-battery switchboards, in contradistinction to common-battery switchboards which are equipped so as to supply the connected subscribers' stations with talking current. the term _simple_ as applied in the headings of this and the next chapter, is employed to designate switchboards adapted for so small a number of lines that they may be served by a single or a very small group of operators; each line is provided with but a single connection terminal and all of them, without special provision, are placed directly within the reach of the operator, or operators if there are more than one. this distinction will be more apparent under the discussion of transfer and multiple switchboards. mode of operation. the cycle of operation of any simple manual switchboard may be briefly outlined as follows: the subscriber desiring a connection transmits a signal to the central office, the operator seeing the signal makes connection with the calling line and places herself in telephonic communication with the calling subscriber to receive his orders; the operator then completes the connection with the line of the called subscriber and sends ringing current out on that line so as to ring the bell of that subscriber; the two subscribers then converse over the connected lines and when the conversation is finished either one or both of them may send a signal to the central office for disconnection, this signal being called a clearing-out signal; upon receipt of the clearing-out signal, the operator disconnects the two lines and restores all of the central-office apparatus involved in the connection to its normal position. component parts. before considering further the operation of manual switchboards it will be well to refer briefly to the component pieces of apparatus which go to make up a switchboard. _line signal._ the line signal in magneto switchboards is practically always in the form of an electromagnetic annunciator or drop. it consists in an electromagnet adapted to be included in the line circuit, its armature controlling a latch, which serves to hold the drop or shutter or target in its raised position when the magnet is not energized, and to release the drop or shutter or target so as to permit the display of the signal when the magnet is energized. the symbolic representation of such an electromagnetic drop is shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . drop symbol] _jacks and plugs._ each line is also provided with a connection terminal in the form of a switch socket. this assumes many forms, but always consists in a cylindrical opening behind which are arranged one or more spring contacts. the opening forms a receptacle for plugs which have one or more metallic terminals for the conductors in the flexible cord in which the plug terminates. the arrangement is such that when a plug is inserted into a jack the contacts on the plug will register with certain of the contacts in the jack and thus continue the line conductors, which terminate in the jack contacts, to the cord conductors, which terminate in the plug contacts. usually also when a plug is inserted certain of the spring contacts in the jack are made to engage with or disengage other contacts in the jack so as to make or break auxiliary circuits. [illustration: fig. . spring jack] a simple form of spring jack is shown in section in fig. . in fig. is shown a sectional view of a plug adapted to co-operate with the jack of fig. . in fig. the plug is shown inserted into the jack. the cylindrical portion of the jack is commonly called the _sleeve_ or _thimble_ and it usually forms one of the main terminals of the jack; the spring, forming the other principal terminal, is called the _tip spring_, since it engages the tip of the plug. the tip spring usually rests on another contact which may be termed the _anvil_. when the plug is inserted into the jack as shown in fig. , the tip spring is raised from contact with this anvil and thus breaks the circuit leading through it. it will be understood that spring jacks are not limited to three contacts such as shown in these figures nor are plugs limited to two contacts. sometimes the plugs have three, and even more, contacts, and frequently the jacks corresponding to such plugs have not only a contact spring adapted to register with each of the contacts of the plug, but several other auxiliary contacts also, which will be made or broken according to whether the plug is inserted or withdrawn from the jack. symbolic representations of plugs and jacks are shown in fig. . these are employed in diagrammatic representations of circuits and are supposed to represent the essential elements of the plugs and jacks in such a way as to be suggestive of their operation. it will be understood that such symbols may be greatly modified to express the various peculiarities of the plugs and jacks which they represent. [illustration: fig. . plug] [illustration: fig. . plug and jack] [illustration: fig. . jack and plug symbols] _keys_. other important elements of manual switchboards are ringing and listening keys. these are the devices by means of which the operator may switch the central-office generator or her telephone set into or out of the circuit of the connected lines. the details of a simple ringing and listening key are shown in fig. . this consists of two groups of springs, one of four and one of six, the springs in each group being insulated from each other at their points of mounting. two of these springs _ _ and _ _ in one group--the ringing group--are longer than the others, and act as movable levers engaging the inner pair of springs _ _ and _ _ when in their normal positions, and the outer pair _ _ and _ _ when forced into their alternate positions. movement is imparted to these springs by the action of a cam which is mounted on a lever, manipulated by the operator. when this lever is moved in one direction the cam presses the two springs _ _ and _ _ apart, thus causing them to disengage the springs _ _ and _ _ and to engage the springs _ _ and _ _. [illustration: fig. . ringing and listening key] the springs of the other group constitute the switching element of the listening key and are very similar in their action to those of the ringing key, differing in the fact that they have no inner pair of springs such as _ _ and _ _. the two long springs _ _ and _ _, therefore, normally do not rest against anything, but when the key lever is pressed, so as to force the cam between them, they are made to engage the two outer springs _ _ and _ _. [illustration: fig. . ringing-and listening-key symbols] the design and construction of ringing and listening keys assume many different forms. in general, however, they are adapted to do exactly the same sort of switching operations as that of which the device of fig. is capable. easily understood symbols of ringing and listening keys are shown in fig. ; the cam member which operates on the two long springs is usually omitted for ease of illustration. it will be understood in considering these symbols, therefore, that the two long curved springs usually rest against a pair of inner contacts in case of the ringing key or against nothing at all in case of the listening key, and that when the key is operated the two springs are assumed to be spread apart so as to engage the outer pair of contacts with which they are respectively normally disconnected. _line and cord equipments._ the parts of the switchboard that are individual to the subscriber's line are termed the _line equipment;_ this, in the case of a magneto switchboard, consists of the line drop and the jack together with the associated wiring necessary to connect them properly in the line circuit. the parts of the switchboard that are associated with a connecting link--consisting of a pair of plugs and associated cords with their ringing and listening keys and clearing-out drop--are referred to as a _cord equipment_. the circuit of a complete pair of cords and plugs with their associated apparatus is called a _cord circuit_. in order that there may be a number of simultaneous connections between different pairs of lines terminating in a switchboard, a number of cord circuits are provided, this number depending on the amount of traffic at the busiest time of the day. _operator's equipment._ a part of the equipment that is not individual to the lines or to the cord circuits, but which may, as occasion requires, be associated with any of them is called the _operator's equipment_. this consists of the operator's transmitter and receiver, induction coil, and battery connections together with the wiring and other associated parts necessary to co-ordinate them with the rest of the apparatus. still another part of the equipment that is not individual to the lines nor to the cord circuits is the calling-current generator. this may be common to the entire office or a separate one may be provided for each operator's position. operation in detail. with these general statements in mind we may take up in some detail the various operations of a telephone system wherein the lines center in a magneto switchboard. this may best be done by considering the circuits involved, without special regard to the details of the apparatus. the series of figures showing the cycle of operations of the magneto switchboard about to be discussed are typical of this type of switchboard almost regardless of make. the apparatus is in each case represented symbolically, the representations indicating type rather than any particular kind of apparatus within the general class to which it belongs. _normal condition of line._ in fig. is shown the circuit of an ordinary magneto line. the subscriber's sub-station apparatus, shown at the left, consists of the ordinary bridging telephone but might with equal propriety be indicated as a series telephone. the subscriber's station is shown connected with the central office by the two limbs of a metallic-circuit line. one limb of the line terminates in the spring _ _ of the jack, and the other limb in the sleeve or thimble _ _ of the jack. the spring _ _ normally rests on the third contact or anvil _ _ in the jack, its construction being such that when a plug is inserted this spring will be raised by the plug so as to break contact with the anvil _ _. it is understood, of course, that the plug associated with this jack has two contacts, referred to respectively as the tip and the sleeve; the tip makes contact with the tip spring _ _ and the sleeve with the sleeve or thimble _ _. [illustration: fig. . normal condition of line] the drop or line signal is permanently connected between the jack sleeve and the anvil _ _. as a result, the drop is normally bridged across the circuit of the line so as to be in a receptive condition to signaling current sent out by the subscriber. it is evident, however, that when the plug is inserted into the jack this connection between the line and the drop will be broken. in this normal condition of the line, therefore, the drop stands ready at the central office to receive the signal from the subscriber and the generator at the sub-station stands ready to be bridged across the circuit of the line as soon as the subscriber turns its handle. similarly the ringer--the call-receiving device at the sub-station--is permanently bridged across the line so as to be responsive to any signal that may be sent out from the central office in order to call the subscriber. the subscriber's talking apparatus is, in this normal condition of the line, cut out of the circuit by the switch hook. _subscriber calling._ fig. shows the condition of the line when the subscriber at the sub-station is making a call. in turning his generator the two springs which control the connection of the generator with the line are brought into engagement with each other so that the generator currents may pass out over the line. the condition at the central office is the same as that of fig. except that the drop is shown with its shutter fallen so as to indicate a call. [illustration: fig. . subscriber calling] [illustration: a specially formed cable for key shelf of monarch switchboard] _operator answering._ the next step is for the operator to answer the call and this is shown in fig. . the subscriber has released the handle of his generator and the generator has, therefore, been automatically cut out of the circuit. he also has removed his receiver from its hook, thus bringing his talking apparatus into the line circuit. the operator on the other hand has inserted one of the plugs _p__{a} into the jack. this action has resulted in the breaking of the circuit through the drop by the raising of the spring _ _ from the anvil _ _, and also in the continuance of the line circuit through the conductors of the cord circuits. thus, the upper limb of the line is continued by means of the engagement of the tip spring _ _ with the tip _ _ of the plug to the conducting strand _ _ of the cord circuit; likewise the lower limb of the line is continued by the engagement of the thimble _ _ of the jack with the sleeve contact _ _ of the plug _p__{a} to the strand _ _ of the cord circuit. the operator has also closed her listening key _l.k._ in doing so she has brought the springs _ _ and _ _ into engagement with the anvils _ _ and _ _ and has thus bridged her head telephone receiver with the secondary of her induction coil across the two strands _ _ and _ _ of the cord. associated with the secondary winding of her receiver is a primary circuit containing a transmitter, battery, and the primary of the induction coil. it will be seen that the conditions are now such as to permit the subscriber at the calling station to converse with the operator and this conversation consists in the familiar "number please" on the part of the operator and the response of the subscriber giving the number of the line that is desired. neither the plug _p__{c}, nor the ringing key _r.k._, shown in fig. , is used in this operation. the clearing-out drop _c.o._ is bridged permanently across the strands _ - _ of the cord, but is without function at this time; the fact that it is wound to a high resistance and impedance prevents its having a harmful effect on the transmission. [illustration: fig. . operator answering] it may be stated at this point that the two plugs of an associated pair are commonly referred to as the answering and calling plugs. the answering plug is the one which the operator always uses in answering a call as just described in connection with fig. . the calling plug is the one which she next uses in connecting with the line of the called subscriber. it lies idle during the answering of a call and is only brought into play after the order of the calling subscriber has been given, in which case it is used in establishing connection with the called subscriber. [illustration: fig. . operator calling] _operator calling._ we may now consider how the operator calls the called subscriber. the condition existing for this operation is shown in fig. . the operator after receiving the order from the calling subscriber inserts the calling plug _p__{c} into the jack of the line of the called station. this act at once connects the limbs of the line with the strands _ _ and _ _ of the cord circuit, and also cuts out the line drop of the called station, as already explained. the operator is shown in this figure as having opened her listening key _l.k._ and closed her ringing key _r.k._ as a result, ringing current from the central-office generator will flow out over the two ringing key springs _ _ and _ _ to the tip and sleeve contacts of the calling plug _p__{c}, then to the tip spring _ _ and the sleeve or thimble _ _ of the jack, and then to the two sides of the metallic-circuit line to the sub-station and through the bell there. this causes the ringing of the called subscriber's bell, after which the operator releases the ringing key and thereby allows the two springs _ _ and _ _ of that key to again engage their normal contacts _ _ and _ _, thus making the two strands _ _ and _ _ of the cord circuit continuous from the contacts of the answering plug _p__{a} to the contacts of the calling plug _p__{c}. this establishes the condition at the central office for conversation between the two subscribers. [illustration: fig. . subscribers connected for conversation.] _subscribers conversing._ the only other thing necessary to establish a complete set of talking conditions between the two subscribers is for the called subscriber to remove his receiver from its hook, which he does as soon as he responds to the call. the conditions for conversation between the two subscribers are shown in fig. . it is seen that the two limbs of the calling line are connected respectively to the two limbs of the called line by the two strands of the cord circuit, both the operator's receiver and the central-office generator being cut out by the listening and ringing keys, respectively. likewise the two line drops are cut out of circuit and the only thing left associated with the circuit at the central office is the clearing-out drop _c. o._, which remains bridged across the cord circuit. this, like the two ringers at the respective connected stations, which also remain bridged across the circuit when bridging instruments are used, is of such high resistance and impedance that it offers practically no path to the rapidly fluctuating voice currents to leak from one side of the line circuit to the other. fluctuating currents generated by the transmitter at the calling station, for instance, are converted by means of the induction coil into alternating currents flowing in the secondary of the induction coil at that station. considering a momentary current as passing up through the secondary winding of the induction coil at the calling station, it passes through the receiver of that station through the upper limb of the line to the spring _ _ of the line jack belonging to that line at the central office; thence through the tip _ _ of the answering plug to the conductor _ _ of the cord; thence through the pair of contacts _ _ and _ _ forming one side of the ringing key to the tip _ _ of the calling plug; thence to the tip spring _ _ of the jack of the called subscriber's line; thence over the upper limb of his line through his receiver and through the secondary of the induction to one of the upper switch-hook contacts; thence through the hook lever to the lower side of the line, back to the central office and through the sleeve contact _ _ of the jack and the sleeve contact _ _ of the plug; thence through the other ringing key contacts _ _ and _ _; thence through the strand _ _ of the cord to the sleeve contact _ _ and the sleeve contact _ _ of the answering plug and jack, respectively; thence through the lower limb of the calling subscriber's line to the hook lever at his station; thence through one of the upper contacts of this hook to the secondary of the induction coil, from which point the current started. [illustration: fig. . clearing-out signal] obviously, when the called subscriber is talking to the calling subscriber the same path is followed. it will be seen that at any time the operator may press her listening key _l.k._, bridge her telephone set across the circuit of the two connected lines, and listen to the conversation or converse with either of the subscribers in case of necessity. _clearing out_. at the close of the conversation, either one or both of the subscribers may send a clearing-out signal by turning their generators after hanging up their receivers. this condition is shown in fig. . the apparatus at the central office remains in exactly the same position during conversation as that of fig. , except that the clearing-out drop shutter is shown as having fallen. the two subscribers are shown as having hung up their receivers, thus cutting out their talking apparatus, and as operating their generators for the purpose of sending the clearing-out signals. in response to this act the operator pulls down both the calling and the answering plug, thus restoring them to their normal seats, and bringing both lines to the normal condition as shown in fig. . the line drops are again brought into operative relation with their respective lines so as to be receptive to subsequent calls and the calling generators at the sub-stations are removed from the bridge circuits across the line by the opening of the automatic switch contacts associated with those generators. _essentials of operation_. the foregoing sequence of operations while described particularly with respect to magneto switchboards is, with certain modifications, typical of the operation of nearly all manual switchboards. in the more advanced types of manual switchboards, certain of the functions described are sometimes done automatically, and certain other functions, not necessary in connection with the simple switchboard, are added. the essential mode of operation, however, remains the same in practically all manual switchboards, and for this reason the student should thoroughly familiarize himself with the operation and circuits of the simple switchboard as a foundation for the more complex and consequently more-difficult-to-understand switchboards that will be described later on. commercial types of drops and jacks. _early drops_. coming now to the commercial types of switchboard apparatus, the first subject that presents itself is that of magneto line signals or drops. the very early forms of switchboard drops had, in most cases, two-coil magnets, the cores of which were connected at their forward ends by an iron yoke and the armature of which was pivoted opposite the rear end of the two cores. to the armature was attached a latch rod which projected forwardly to the front of the device and was there adapted to engage the upper edge of the hinged shutter, so as to hold it in its raised or undisplayed position when the armature was unattracted. such a drop, of western electric manufacture, is shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. old-style drop] liability to cross-talk:--this type of drop is suitable for use only on small switchboards where space is not an important consideration, and even then only when the drop is entirely cut out of the circuit during conversation. the reason for this latter requirement will be obvious when it is considered that there is no magnetic shield around the winding of the magnet and no means for preventing the stray field set up by the talking currents in one of the magnets from affecting by induction the windings of adjacent magnets contained in other talking circuits. unless the drops are entirely cut out of the talking circuit, therefore, they are very likely to produce cross-talk between adjacent circuits. furthermore, such form of drop is obviously not economical of space, two coils placed side by side consuming practically twice as much room as in the case of later drops wherein single magnet coils have been made to answer the purpose. _tubular drops._ in the case of line drops, which usually can readily be cut out of the circuit during conversation, this cross-talk feature is not serious, but sometimes the line drops, and always the clearing-out drops must be left in connection with the talking circuit. on account of economy in space and also on account of this cross-talk feature, there has come into existence the so-called tubular or iron-clad drop, one of which is shown in section in fig. . this was developed a good many years ago by mr. e.p. warner of the western electric company, and has since, with modifications, become standard with practically all the manufacturing companies. in this there is but a single bobbin, and this is enclosed in a shell of soft norway iron, which is closed at its front end and joined to the end of the core as indicated, so as to form a complete return magnetic path for the lines of force generated in the coil. the rear end of the shell and core are both cut off in the same plane and the armature is made in such form as to practically close this end of the shell. the armature carries a latch rod extending the entire length of the shell to the front portion of the structure, where it engages the upper edge of the pivoted shutter; this, when released by the latch upon the attraction of the armature, falls so as to display a target behind it. [illustration: fig. . tubular drop] [illustration: fig. . strip of tubular drops] these drops may be mounted individually on the face of the switchboard, but it is more usual to mount them in strips of five or ten. a strip of five drops, as manufactured by the kellogg switchboard and supply company, is shown in fig. . the front strip on which these drops are mounted is usually of brass or steel, copper plated, and is sufficiently heavy to provide a rigid support for the entire group of drops that are mounted on it. this construction greatly facilitates the assembling of the switchboard and also serves to economize space--obviously, the thing to economize on the face of a switchboard is space as defined by vertical and horizontal dimensions. these tubular drops, having but one coil, are readily mounted on -inch centers, both vertically and horizontally. sometimes even smaller dimensions than this are secured. the greatest advantage of this form of construction, however, is in the absolute freedom from cross-talk between two adjacent drops. so completely is the magnetic field of force kept within the material of the shell, that there is practically no stray field and two such drops may be included in two different talking circuits and the drops mounted immediately adjacent to each other without producing any cross-talk whatever. _night alarm._ switchboard drops in falling make but little noise, and during the day time, while the operator is supposed to be needed continually at the board, the visual signal which they display is sufficient to attract her attention. in small exchanges, however, it is frequently not practicable to keep an operator at the switchboard at night or during other comparatively idle periods, and yet calls that do arrive during such periods must be attended to. for this reason some other than a visual signal is necessary, and this need is met by the so-called night-alarm attachment. this is merely an arrangement by which the shutter in falling closes a pair of contacts and thus completes the circuit of an ordinary vibrating bell or buzzer which will sound until the shutter is restored to its normal position. such contacts are shown in fig. at _ _ and _ _. night-alarm contacts have assumed a variety of forms, some of which will be referred to in the discussion of other types of drops and jacks. [illustration: fig. . drop with night-alarm contacts] _jack mounting._ jacks, like drops, though frequently individually mounted are more often mounted in strips. an individually mounted jack is shown in fig. , and a strip of ten jacks in fig. . in such a strip of jacks, the strips supporting the metallic parts of the various jacks are usually of hard rubber reinforced by brass so as to give sufficient strength. various forms of supports for these strips are used by different manufacturers, the means for fastening them in the switchboard frame usually consisting of brass lugs on the end of the jack strip adapted to be engaged by screws entering the stationary portion of the iron framework; or sometimes pins are fixed in the framework, and the jack is held in place by nuts engaging screw-threaded ends on such pins. [illustration: fig. . individual jack] [illustration: fig. . strip of jacks] _methods of associating jacks and drops._ there are two general methods of arranging the drops and jacks in a switchboard. one of these is to place all of the jacks in a group together at the lower portion of the panel in front of the operator and all of the drops together in another group above the group of jacks. the other way is to locate each jack in immediate proximity to the drop belonging to the same line so that the operator's attention will always be called immediately to the jack into which she must insert her plug in response to the display of a drop. this latter practice has several advantages over the former. where the drops are all mounted in one group and the jacks in another, an operator seeing a drop fall must make mental note of it and pick out the corresponding jack in the group of jacks. on the other hand, where the jacks and drops are mounted immediately adjacent to each other, the falling of a drop attracts the attention of the operator to the corresponding jack without further mental effort on her part. the immediate association of the drops and jacks has another advantage--it makes possible such a mechanical relation between the drop and its associated jack that the act of inserting the plug into the jack in making the connection will automatically and mechanically restore the drop to its raised position. such drops are termed _self-restoring drops_, and, since a drop and jack are often made structurally a unitary piece of apparatus, they are frequently called _combined_ drops and jacks. _manual vs. automatic restoration._. there has been much difference of opinion on the question of manual versus automatic restoration of drops. some have contended that there is no advantage in having the drops restored automatically, claiming that the operator has plenty of time to restore the drops by hand while receiving the order from the calling subscriber or performing some of her other work. those who think this way have claimed that the only place where an automatically restored drop is really desirable is where, on account of the lack of space on the front of the switchboard, the drops are placed on such a portion of the board as to be not readily reached by the operator. this resulted in the electrically restored drop, mention of which will be made later. others have contended that even though the drop is mounted within easy reach of the operator, it is advantageous that the operator should be relieved of the burden of restoring it, claiming that even though there are times in the regular performance of the operator's duties when she may without interfering with other work restore the drops manually, such requirement results in a double use of her attention and in a useless strain on her which might better be devoted to the actual making of connections. until recently the various bell operating companies have adhered, in their small exchange work, to the manual restoring method, while most of the so-called independent operating companies have adhered to the automatic self-restoring drops. methods of automatic restoration. two general methods present themselves for bringing about the automatic restoration of the drop. first, the mechanical method, which is accomplished by having some moving part of the jack or of the plug as it enters the jack force the drop mechanically into its restored position. this usually means the mounting of the drop and the corresponding jack in juxtaposition, and this, in turn, has usually resulted in the unitary structure containing both the drop and the jack. second, the electrical method wherein the plug in entering the jack controls a restoring circuit, which includes a battery or other source of energy and a restoring coil on the drop, the result being that the insertion of the plug into the jack closes this auxiliary circuit and thus energizes the restoring magnet, the armature of which pulls the shutter back into its restored position. this practice has been followed by bell operating companies whenever conditions require the drop to be mounted out of easy reach of the operator; not otherwise. _mechanical--direct contact with plug._ one widely used method of mechanical restoration of drops, once employed by the western telephone construction company with considerable success, was to hang the shutter in such position that it would fall immediately in front of the jack so that the operator in order to reach the jack with the plug would have to push the plug directly against the shutter and thus restore it to its normal or raised position. in this construction the coil of the drop magnet was mounted directly behind the jack, the latch rod controlled by the armature reaching forward, parallel with the jack, to the shutter, which, as stated, was hung in front of the jack. this resulted in a most compact arrangement so far as the space utilization on the front of the board was concerned and such combined drops and jacks were mounted on about -inch centers, so that a bank of one hundred combined drops and jacks occupied a space only a little over inches square. a modification of this scheme, as used by the american electric telephone company, was to mount the drop immediately over the jack so that its shutter, when down, occupied a position almost in front of, but above, the jack opening. the plug was provided with a collar, which, as it entered the jack, engaged a cam on the base of the shutter and forced the latter mechanically into its raised position. neither of these methods of restoring--_i.e._, by direct contact between the shutter or part of it and the plug or part of it--is now as widely used as formerly. it has been found that there is no real need in magneto switchboards for the very great compactness which the hanging of the shutter directly in front of the drop resulted in, and the tendency in later years has been to make the combined drops and jacks more substantial in construction at the expense of some space on the face of the switchboard. [illustration: fig. . kellogg drop and jack] kellogg type:--a very widely used scheme of mechanical restoration is that employed in the miller drop and jack manufactured by the kellogg switchboard and supply company, the principles of which may be understood in connection with fig. . in this figure views of one of these combined drops and jacks in three different positions are shown. the jack is composed of the framework _b_ and the hollow screw _a_, the latter forming the sleeve or thimble of the jack and being externally screw-threaded so as to engage and bind in place the front end of the framework _b_. the jack is mounted on the lower part of the brass mounting strip _c_ but insulated therefrom. the tip spring of the jack is bent down as usual to engage the tip of the plug, as better shown in the lower cut of fig. , and then continues in an extension _d_, which passes through a hole in the mounting plate _c_. this tip spring in its normal position rests against another spring as shown, which latter spring forms one terminal of the drop winding. the drop or annunciator is of tubular form, and the shutter is so arranged on the front of the mounting strip _c_ as to fall directly above the extension _d_ of the tip spring. as a result, when the plug is inserted into the jack, the upward motion of the tip spring forces the drop into its restored position, as indicated in the lower cut of the figure. these drops and jacks are usually mounted in banks of five, as shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . strip of kellogg drops and jacks] western electric type:--the combined drop and jack of the western electric company recently put on the market to meet the demands of the independent trade, differs from others principally in that it employs a spherical drop or target instead of the ordinary flat shutter. this piece of apparatus is shown in its three possible positions in fig. . the shutter or target normally displays a black surface through a hole in the mounting plate. the sphere forming the target is out of balance, and when the latch is withdrawn from it by the action of the electromagnet it falls into the position shown in the middle cut of fig. , thus displaying a red instead of a black surface to the view of the operator. when the operator plugs in, the plug engages the lower part of an =s=-shaped lever which acts on the pivoted sphere to restore it to its normal position. a perspective view of one of these combined line signals and jacks is shown in fig. . a feature that is made much of in recently designed drops and jacks for magneto service is that which provides for the ready removal of the drop coil, from the rest of the structure, for repair. the drop and jack of the western electric company, just described, embodies this feature, a single screw being so arranged that its removal will permit the withdrawal of the coil without disturbing any of the other parts or connections. the coil windings terminate in two projections on the front head of the spool, and these register with spring clips on the inside of the shell so that the proper connections for the coil are automatically made by the mere insertion of the coil into the shell. [illustration: fig. . western electric drop and jack] [illustration: fig. . western electric drop and jack] dean type:--the combined drop and jack of the dean electric company is illustrated in figs. and . the two perspective views show the general features of the drop and jack and the method by which the magnet coil may be withdrawn from the shell. as will be seen the magnet is wound on a hollow core which slides over the iron core, the latter remaining permanently fixed in the shell, even though the coil be withdrawn. fig. shows the structural details of the jack employed in this combination and it will be seen that the restoring spring for the drop is not the tip spring itself, but another spring located above and insulated from it and mechanically connected therewith. [illustration: fig. . dean drop and jack] [illustration: fig. . dean drop and jack] [illustration: fig. . details of dean jack] monarch type:--still another combined drop and jack is that of the monarch telephone manufacturing company of chicago, shown in sectional view in fig. . this differs from the usual type in that the armature is mounted on the front end of the electromagnet, its latch arm retaining the shutter in its normal position when raised, and releasing it when depressed by the attraction of the armature. as is shown, there is within the core of the magnet an adjustable spiral spring which presses forward against the armature and which spring is compressed by the attraction of the armature of the magnet. the night-alarm contact is clearly shown immediately below the strip which supports the drop, this consisting of a spring adapted to be engaged by a lug on the shutter and pressed upwardly against a stationary contact when the shutter falls. the method of restoration of the shutter in this case is by means of an auxiliary spring bent up so as to engage the shutter and restore it when the spring is raised by the insertion of a plug into the jack. [illustration: fig. . monarch drop and jack] _code signaling._ on bridging party lines, where the subscribers sometimes call other subscribers on the same line and sometimes call the switchboard so as to obtain a connection with another line, it is not always easy for the operator at the switchboard to distinguish whether the call is for her or for some other party on the line. on such lines, of course, code ringing is used and in most cases the operator's only way of distinguishing between calls for her and those for some sub-station parties on the line is by listening to the rattling noise which the drop armature makes. in the case of the monarch drop the adjustable spring tension on the armature is intended to provide for such an adjustment as will permit the armature to give a satisfactory buzz in response to the alternating ringing currents, whether the line be long or short. [illustration: fig. . code signal attachment] the monarch company provides in another way for code signaling at the switchboard. in some cases there is a special attachment, shown in fig. , by means of which the code signals are repeated on the night-alarm bell. this is in the nature of a special attachment placed on the drop, which consists of a light, flat spring attached to the armature and forming one side of a local circuit. the other side of the circuit terminates in a fixture which is mounted on the drop frame and is provided with a screw, having a platinum point forming the other contact point; this allows of considerable adjustment. at the point where the screw comes in contact with the spring there is a platinum rivet. when an operator is not always in attendance, this code-signaling attachment has some advantages over the drop as a signal interpreter, in that it permits the code signals to be heard from a distance. of course, the addition of spring contacts to the drop armature tends to complicate the structure and perhaps to cut down the sensitiveness of the drop, which are offsetting disadvantages. [illustration: fig. . combined drop and ringer] for really long lines, this code signaling by means of the drop is best provided for by employing a combined drop and ringer, although in this case whatever advantages are secured by the mechanical restoration of the shutter upon plugging in are lost. such a device as manufactured by the dean electric company is shown in fig. . in this the ordinary polarized ringer is used, but in addition the tapper rod carries a latch which, when vibrated by the ringing of the bell, releases a shutter and causes it to fall, thus giving a visual as well as an audible signal. _electrical_. coming now to the electrical restoration of drop shutters, reference is made to fig. , which shows in side section the electrical restoring drop employed by the bell companies and manufactured by the western electric company. in this the coil _ _ is a line coil, and it operates on the armature _ _ to raise the latch lever _ _ in just the same manner as in the ordinary tubular drop. the latch lever _ _ acts, however, to release another armature _ _ instead of a shutter. this armature _ _ is pivoted at its lower end at the opposite end of the device from the armature _ _ and, by falling outwardly when released, it serves to raise the light shutter _ _. the restoring coil of this device is shown at _ _, and when energized it attracts the armature _ _ so as to pull it back under the catch of the latch lever _ _ and also so as to allow the shutter _ _ to fall into its normal position. the method of closing the restoring circuit is by placing coil _ _ in circuit with a local battery and with a pair of contacts in the jack, which latter contacts are normally open but are bridged across by the plug when it enters the jack, thus energizing the restoring coil and restoring the shutter. [illustration: fig. . electrically restored drop] a perspective view of this western electric electrical restoring drop is shown in fig. , a more complete mention being made of this feature under the discussion of magneto multiple switchboards, wherein it found its chief use. it is mentioned here to round out the methods that have been employed for accomplishing the automatic restoration of shutters by the insertion of the plug. [illustration: fig. . electrically restored drop] switchboard plugs. a switchboard plug such as is commonly used in simple magneto switchboards is shown in fig. and also in fig. . the tip contact is usually of brass and is connected to a slender steel rod which runs through the center of the plug and terminates near the rear end of the plug in a connector for the tip conductor of the cord. this central core of steel is carefully insulated from the outer shell of the plug by means of hard rubber bushings, the parts being forced tightly together. the outer shell, of course, forms the other conductor of the plug, called the sleeve contact. a handle of tough fiber tubing is fitted over the rear end of the plug and this also serves to close the opening formed by cutting away a portion of the plug shell, thus exposing the connector for the tip conductor. [illustration: fig. . switchboard plug] _cord attachment._ the rear end of the plug shell is usually bored out just about the size of the outer covering of the switchboard cord, and it is provided with a coarse internal screw thread, as shown. the cord is attached by screwing it tightly into this screw-threaded chamber, the screw threads in the brass being sufficiently coarse and of sufficiently small internal diameter to afford a very secure mechanical connection between the outer braiding of the cord and the plug. the connection between the tip conductor of the cord and the tip of the plug is made by a small machine screw connection as shown, while the connection between the sleeve conductor of the plug and the sleeve conductor of the cord is made by bending back the latter over the outer braiding of the cord before it is screwed into the shank of the plug. this results in the close electrical contact between the sleeve conductor of the cord and the inner metal surface of the shank of the plug. switchboard cords. a great deal of ingenuity has been exerted toward the end of producing a reliable and durable switchboard cord. while great improvement has resulted, the fact remains that the cords of manual switchboards are today probably the most troublesome element, and they need constant attention and repairs. while no two manufacturers build their cords exactly alike, descriptions of a few commonly used and successful cords may be here given. _concentric conductors._ in one the core is made from a double strand of strong lock stitch twine, over which is placed a linen braid. then the tip conductor, which is of stranded copper tinsel, is braided on. this is then covered with two layers of tussah silk, laid in reverse wrappings, then there is a heavy cotton braid, and over the latter a linen braid. the sleeve conductor, which is also of copper tinsel, is then braided over the structure so formed, after which two reverse wrappings of tussah silk are served on, and this is covered by a cotton braid and this in turn by a heavy linen or polished cotton braid. the plug end of the cord is reinforced for a length of from to inches by another braiding of linen or polished cotton, and the whole cord is treated with melted beeswax to make it moisture-proof and durable. [illustration: fig. . switchboard cord] _steel spiral conductors._ in another cord that has found much favor the two conductors are formed mainly by two concentric spiral wrappings of steel wire, the conductivity being reinforced by adjacent braidings of tinsel. the structure of such a cord is well shown in fig. . beginning at the right, the different elements shown are, in the order named, a strand of lock stitch twine, a linen braiding, into the strands of which are intermingled tinsel strands, the inner spiral steel wrapping, a braiding of tussah silk, a linen braiding, a loose tinsel braiding, the outer conductor of round spiral steel, a cotton braid, and an outside linen or polished cotton braid. the inner tinsel braiding and the inner spiral together form the tip conductor while the outer braiding and spiral together form the sleeve conductor. the cord is reinforced at the plug end for a length of about inches by another braiding of linen. the tinsel used is, in each case, for the purpose of cutting down the resistance of the main steel conductor. these wrappings of steel wire forming the tip and sleeve conductors respectively, have the advantage of affording great flexibility, and also of making it certain that whatever strain the cord is subjected to will fall on the insulated braiding rather than on the spiral steel which has in itself no power to resist tensile strains. _parallel tinsel conductors._ another standard two-conductor switchboard cord is manufactured as follows: one conductor is of very heavy copper tinsel insulated with one wrapping of sea island cotton, which prevents broken ends of the tinsel or knots from piercing through and short-circuiting with the other conductor. over this is placed one braid of tussah silk and an outer braid of cotton. this combines high insulation with considerable strength. the other conductor is of copper tinsel, not insulated, and this is laid parallel to the thrice insulated conductor already described. around these two conductors is placed an armor of spring brass wire in spiral form, and over this a close, stout braid of glazed cotton. this like the others is reinforced by an extra braid at the plug end. ringing and listening keys. the general principles of the ringing key have already been referred to. ringing keys are of two general types, one having horizontal springs and the other vertical. [illustration: fig. . horizontal-spring listening and ringing key] _horizontal spring type._ various bell operating companies have generally adhered to the horizontal spring type except in individual and four-party-line keys. the construction of a western electric company horizontal spring key is shown in fig. . in this particular key, as illustrated, there are two cam levers operating upon three sets of springs. the cam lever at the left operates the ordinary ringing and listening set of springs according to whether it is pushed one way or the other. in ringing on single-party lines the cam lever at the left is the one to be used; while on two-party lines the lever at the left serves to ring the first party and the ringing key at the right the second party. in order that the operator may have an indication as to which station on a two-party line she has called, a small target _ _ carried on a lever _ _ is provided. this target may display a black or a white field, according to which of its positions it occupies. the lever _ _ is connected by the links _ _ and _ _ with the two key levers and the target is thus moved into one position or the other, according to which lever was last thrown into ringing position. it will be noticed that the springs are mounted horizontally and on edge. this on-edge feature has the advantage of permitting ready inspection of the contacts and of avoiding the liability of dust gathering between the contacts. as will be seen, at the lower end of each switch lever there is a roller of insulating material which serves as a wedge, when forced between the two long springs of any set, to force them apart and into engagement with their respective outer springs. [illustration: fig. . vertical-spring listening and ringing key] _vertical spring type._ the other type of ringing and listening key employing vertical springs is almost universally used by the various independent manufacturing companies. a good example of this is shown in fig. , which shows partly in elevation and partly in section a double key of the monarch company. the operation of this is obvious from its mode of construction. the right-hand set of springs of the right-hand key in this cut are the springs of the listening key, while the left-hand set of the right-hand key are those of the calling-plug ringing key. the left-hand set of the left-hand key may be those of a ring-back key on the answering plug, while the right-hand set of the left-hand key may be for any special purpose. it is obvious that these groups of springs may be grouped in different combinations or omitted in part, as required. this same general form of key is also manufactured by the kellogg company and the dean company, that of the kellogg company being illustrated in perspective, fig. . the keys of this general type have the same advantages as those of the horizontal on-edge arrangement with respect to the gathering of dust, and while perhaps the contacts are not so readily get-at-able for inspection, yet they have the advantage of being somewhat more simple, and of taking up less horizontal space on the key shelf. [illustration: fig. . vertical listening and ringing key] [illustration: fig. . four-party listening and ringing key] _party-line ringing keys._ for party-line ringing the key matter becomes somewhat more complicated. usually the arrangement is such that in connection with each calling plug there are a number of keys, each arranged with respect to the circuits of the plug so as to send out the proper combination and direction of current, if the polarity system is used; or the proper frequency of current if the harmonic system is used; or the proper number of impulses if the step-by-step or broken-line system is used. the number of different kinds of arrangements and combinations is legion, and we will here illustrate only an example of a four-party line ringing key adapted for harmonic ringing. a kellogg party-line listening and ringing key is shown in fig. . in this, besides the regular listening key, are shown four push-button keys, each adapted, when depressed, to break the connection back of the key, and at the same time connect the proper calling generator with the calling plug. _self-indicating keys._ a complication that has given a good deal of trouble in the matter of party-line ringing is due to the fact that it is sometimes necessary to ring a second or a third time on a party-line connection, because the party called may not respond the first time. the operator is not always able to remember which one of the four keys associated with the plug connected with the desired party she has pressed on the first occasion and, therefore, when it becomes necessary to ring again, she may ring the wrong party. this is provided for in a very ingenious way in the key shown in fig. , by making the arrangement such that after a given key has been depressed to its full extent in ringing, and then released, it does not come quite back to its normal position but remains slightly depressed. this always serves as an indication to the operator, therefore, as to which key she depressed last, and in the case of a re-ring, she merely presses the key that is already down a little way. on the next call if she is required to press another one of the four keys, the one which remained down a slight distance on the last call will be released and the one that is fully depressed will be the one that remains down as an indication. such keys, where the key that was last used leaves an indication to that effect, are called _indicating_ ringing keys. in other forms the indication is given by causing the key lever to move a little target which remains exposed until some other key in the same set is moved. the key shown in fig. is an example of this type. note. the matter of automatic ringing and other special forms of ringing will be referred to and discussed at their proper places in this work, but at this point they are not pertinent as they are not employed in simple switchboards. operator's telephone equipment. little need be said concerning the matter of the operator's talking apparatus, _i.e._, the operator's transmitter and receiver, since as transmitters and receivers they are practically the same as those in ordinary use for other purposes. the watch-case receiver is nearly always employed for operators' purposes on account of its lightness and compactness. it is used in connection with a head band so as to be held continually at the operator's ear, allowing both of her hands to be free. the transmitter used by operators does not in itself differ from the transmitters employed by subscribers, but the methods by which it is supported differ, two general practices being followed. one of these is to suspend the transmitter by flexible conducting cords so as to be adjustable in a vertical direction. a good illustration of this is given in fig. . the other method, and one that is coming into more and more favor, is to mount the transmitter on a light bracket suspended by a flexible band from the neck of the operator, a breast plate being furnished so that the transmitter will rest on her breast and be at all times within proper position to receive her speech. to facilitate this, a long curved mouthpiece is commonly employed, as shown clearly in fig. . [illustration: fig. . operator's transmitter suspension] _cut-in jack._ it is common to terminate that portion of the apparatus which is worn on the operator's person--that is, the receiver only if the suspended type of transmitter is employed, and the receiver and transmitter if the breast plate type of transmitter is employed--in a plug, and a flexible cord connecting the plug terminates with the apparatus. the portions of the operator's talking circuit that are located permanently in the switchboard cabinet are in such cases terminated in a jack, called an operator's _cut-in jack_. this is usually mounted on the front rail of the switchboard cabinet just below the key shelf. such a cut-in jack is shown in fig. and it is merely a specialized form of spring jack adapted to receive the short, stout plug in which the operator's transmitter, or transmitter and receiver, terminate. by this arrangement the operator is enabled readily to connect or disconnect her talking apparatus, which is worn on her person, whenever she comes to the board for work or leaves it at the end of her work. a complete operator's telephone set, or that portion that is carried on the person of the operator, together with the cut-in plug, is shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . operator's cut-in jack] [illustration: fig. . operator's talking set] circuits of complete switchboard. we may now discuss the circuits of a complete simple magneto switchboard. the one shown in fig. is typical. before going into the details of this, it is well to inform the student that this general form of circuit representation is one that is commonly employed in showing the complete circuits of any switchboard. ordinarily two subscribers' lines are shown, these connecting their respective subscribers' stations with two different line equipments at the central office. the jacks and signals of these line equipments are turned around so as to face each other, in order to clearly represent how the connection between them may be made by means of the cord circuit. the elements of the cord circuit are also spread out, so that the various parts occupy relative positions which they do not assume at all in practice. in other words it must be remembered that, in circuit diagrams, the relative positions of the parts are sacrificed in order to make clear the circuit connections. however, this does not mean that it is often not possible to so locate the pieces of apparatus that they will in a certain way indicate relative positions, as may be seen in the case of the drop and jack in fig. , the drop being shown immediately above the jack, which is the position in which these parts are located in practice. [illustration: fig. . circuit of simple magneto switchboard] little need be said concerning this circuit in view of what has already been said in connection with figs. to . it will be seen in the particular sub-station circuit here represented, that the talking apparatus is arranged in the usual manner and that the ringer and generator are so arranged that when the generator is operated the ringer will be cut out of circuit, while the generator will be placed across the circuit; while, when the generator is idle, the ringer is bridged across the circuit and the generator is cut out. the line terminates in each case in the tip and sleeve contacts of the jack, and in the normal condition of the jack the line drop is bridged across the line. the arrangement by which the drop is restored and at the same time cut out of circuit when the operator plugs in the jack, is obvious from the diagrammatic illustration. the cord circuit is the same as that already discussed, with the exception that two ringing keys are provided, one in connection with the calling plug, as is universal practice, and the other in connection with the answering plug as is sometimes practiced in order that the operator may, when occasion requires, ring back the calling subscriber without the necessity of changing the plug in the jack. the outer contacts of these two ringing keys are connected to the terminals of the ringing generator and, when either key is operated, the connection between the plug, on which the ringing is to be done, and the rest of the cord circuit will be broken, while the generator will be connected with the terminals of the plug. the listening key and talking apparatus need no further explanation, it being obvious that when the key is operated the subscriber's telephone set will be bridged across the cord circuit and, therefore, connected with either or both of the talking subscribers. [illustration: fig. . night-alarm circuit] night-alarm circuits. the circuit of fig. , while referred to as a complete circuit, is not quite that. the night-alarm circuit is not shown. in order to clearly indicate how a single battery and bell, or buzzer, may serve in connecting a number of line drops, reference is made to fig. which shows the connection between three different line drops and the night-alarm circuit. the night-alarm apparatus consists in the battery _ _ and the buzzer, or bell, _ _. a switch _ _ adapted to be manually operated is connected in the circuit with the battery and the buzzer so as to open this circuit when the night alarm is not needed, thus making it inoperative. during the portions of the day when the operator is needed constantly at the board it is customary to leave this switch _ _ open, but during the night period when she is not required constantly at the board this switch is closed so that an audible signal will be given whenever a drop falls. the night-alarm contact _ _ on each of the drops will be closed whenever a shutter falls, and as the two members of this contact, in the case of each drop, are connected respectively with the two sides of the night-alarm circuit, any one shutter falling will complete the necessary conditions for causing the buzzer to sound, assuming of course that the switch _ _ is closed. _night alarm with relay._ a good deal of trouble has been caused in the past by uncertainty in the closure of the night-alarm circuit at the drop contact. some of the companies have employed the form of circuit shown in fig. to overcome this. instead of the night-alarm buzzer being placed directly in the circuit that is closed by the drop, a relay _ _ and a high-voltage battery _ _ are placed in this circuit. the buzzer and the battery for operating it are placed in a local circuit controlled by this relay. it will be seen by reference to fig. that when the shutter falls, it will, by closing the contact _ _, complete the circuit from the battery _ _ through the relay _ _--assuming switch _ _ to be closed--and thus cause the operation of the relay. the relay, in turn, by pulling up its armature, will close the circuit of the buzzer _ _ through the battery _ _ and cause the buzzer to sound. [illustration: fig. . night-alarm circuit with relay] the advantage of this method over the direct method of operating the buzzer is that any imperfection in the night-alarm contact at the drop is much less likely to prevent the flow of current of the high-voltage battery _ _ than of the low-voltage battery _ _, shown in connection with fig. . this is because the higher voltage is much more likely to break down any very thin bit of insulation, such as might be caused by a minute particle of dust or oxide between contacts that are supposed to be closed by the falling of the shutter. it has been common to employ for battery _ _ a dry-cell battery giving about or volts, and for the operation of the buzzer itself, a similar battery of about two cells giving approximately volts. _night-alarm contacts._ the night-alarm contact _ _ of the drop shown diagrammatically in figs. and would, if taken literally, indicate that the shutter itself actually forms one terminal of the circuit and the contact against which it falls, the other. this has not been found to be a reliable way of closing the night-alarm contacts and this method is indicated in these figures and in other figures in this work merely as a convenient way of representing the matter diagrammatically. as a matter of fact the night-alarm contacts are ordinarily closed by having the shutter fall against one spring, which is thereby pressed into engagement with another spring or contact, as shown in fig. . this method employs the shutter only as a means for mechanically causing the one spring to press against the other, the shutter itself forming no part of the circuit. the reason why it is not a good plan to have the shutter itself act as one terminal of the circuit is that this necessitates the circuit connections being led to the shutter through the trunnions on which the shutter is pivoted. this is bad because, obviously, the shutter must be loosely supported on its trunnions in order to give it sufficiently free movement, and, as is well known, loose connections are not conducive to good electrical contacts. grounded-and metallic-circuit lines. when grounded circuits were the rule rather than the exception, many of the switchboards were particularly adapted for their use and could not be used with metallic-circuit lines. these grounded-circuit switchboards provided but a single contact in the jack and a single contact on the plug, the cords having but a single strand reaching from one plug to the other. the ringing keys and listening keys were likewise single-contact keys rather than double. the clearing-out drop and the operator's talking circuit and the ringing generator were connected between the single strand of the cord and the ground as was required. the grounded-circuit switchboard has practically passed out of existence, and while a few of them may be in use, they are not manufactured at present. the reason for this is that while many grounded circuits are still in use, there are very few places where there are not some metallic-circuit lines, and while the grounded-circuit switchboard will not serve for metallic-circuit lines, the metallic-circuit switchboard will serve equally well for either metallic-circuit or grounded lines, and will interconnect them with equal facility. this fact will be made clear by a consideration of figs. , , and . [illustration: fig. . connection between metallic lines] [illustration: fig. . connection between grounded lines] _connection between two similar lines._ in fig. a common magneto cord circuit is shown connecting two metallic-circuit lines; in fig. the same cord circuit is shown connecting two grounded lines. in this case the line wire _ _ of the left-hand line is, when the plugs are inserted, continued to the tip of the answering plug, thence through the tip strand of the cord circuit to the tip of the calling plug, then to the tip spring of the right-hand jack and out to the single conductor of that line. the entire sleeve portion of the cord circuit becomes grounded as soon as the plugs are inserted in the jacks of such a line. hence, we see that the sleeve contacts of the plug and the sleeve conductor of the cord are connected to ground through the permanent ground connection of the sleeve conductors of the jack as soon as the plug is inserted into the jack. thus, when the cord circuit of a metallic-circuit switchboard is used to connect two grounded circuits together, the tip strand of the cord is the connecting link between the two conductors, while the sleeve strand of the cord merely serves to ground one side of the clearing-out drop and one side each of the operator's telephone set and the ringing generator when their respective keys are operated. _connection between dissimilar lines._ fig. shows how the same cord circuit and the same arrangement of line equipment may be used for connecting a grounded line to a metallic-circuit line. the metallic circuit line is shown on the left and the grounded line on the right. when the two plugs are inserted into the respective jacks of this figure, the right-hand conductor of the metallic circuit shown on the left will be continued through the tip strand of the cord circuit to the line conductor of the grounded line shown on the right. the left-hand conductor of the metallic-circuit line will be connected to ground because it will be continued through the sleeve strand of the cord circuit to the sleeve contact of the calling plug and thence to the sleeve contact of the jack of the grounded line, which sleeve contact is shown to be grounded. the talking circuit between the two connected lines in this case may be traced as follows: from the subscriber's station at the left through the right-hand limb of the metallic-circuit line, through the tip contact and tip conductor of the cord circuit, to the single limb of the grounded-circuit line, thence to the sub-station of that line and through the talking apparatus there to ground. the return path from the right-hand station is by way of ground to the ground connection at the central office, thence to the sleeve contact of the grounded line jack, through the sleeve conductor of the cord circuit, to the sleeve contact of the metallic-circuit line jack, and thence by the left-hand limb of the metallic-circuit line to the subscriber's station. [illustration: fig. . connection between dissimilar lines] a better way of connecting a metallic-circuit line to a grounded line is by the use of a special cord circuit involving a repeating coil, such a connection being shown in fig. . the cord circuit in this case differs in no respect from those already shown except that a repeating coil is associated with it in such a way as to conductively divide the answering side from the calling side. obviously, whatever currents come over the line connected with the answering plug will pass through the windings _ _ and _ _ of this coil and will induce corresponding currents in the windings _ _ and _ _, which latter currents will pass out over the circuit of the line connected with the calling plug. when a grounded circuit is connected to a metallic circuit in this manner, no ground is thrown onto the metallic circuit. the balance of the metallic circuit is, therefore, maintained. to ground one side of a metallic circuit frequently so unbalances it as to cause it to become noisy, that is, to have currents flowing in it, by induction or from other causes, other than the currents which are supposed to be there for the purpose of conveying speech. [illustration: fig. . connection of dissimilar lines through repeating coil] _convertible cord circuits._ the consideration of fig. brings us to the subject of so-called convertible cord circuits. some switchboards, serving a mixture of metallic and grounded lines, are provided with cord circuits which may be converted at will by the operator from the ordinary type shown in fig. to the type shown in fig. . the advantage of this will be obvious from the following consideration. when a call originates on any line, either grounded or metallic, the operator does not know which kind of a line is to be called for. she, therefore, plugs into this line with any one of her answering plugs and completes the connection in the usual way. if the call is for the same kind of a circuit as that over which the call originated, she places the converting key in such a position as will connect the conductors of the cord circuit straight through; while if the connection is for a different kind of a line than that on which the call originated she throws the converting key into such a position as to include the repeating coil. a study of fig. will show that when the converting key, which is commonly referred to as the repeating-coil key, is in one position, the cord conductors will be cut straight through, the repeating coil being left open in both its windings; and when it is thrown to its other position, the connection between the answering and calling sides of the cord circuit will be severed and the repeating coil inserted so as to bring about the same effects and circuit arrangements as are shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . convertible cord circuit] cord-circuit considerations. _simple bridging drop type._ the matter of cord circuits in magneto switchboards is deserving of much attention. so far as talking requirements are concerned, the ordinary form of cord circuit with a clearing-out drop bridged across the two strands is adequate for nearly all conditions except those where a grounded-and a metallic-circuit line are connected together, in which case the inclusion of a repeating coil has some advantages. [illustration: fig. . bridging drop-cord circuit] from the standpoint of signaling, however, this type of cord circuit has some disadvantages under certain conditions. in order to simplify the discussion of this and other cord-circuit matters, reference will be made to some diagrams from which the ringing and listening keys and talking apparatus have been entirely omitted. in fig. the regular bridging type of clearing-out drop-cord circuit is shown, this being the type already discussed as standard. for ordinary practice it is all right. certain difficulties are experienced with it, however, where lines of various lengths and various types of sub-station apparatus are connected. for instance, if a long bridging line be connected with one end of this cord circuit and a short line having a low-resistance series ringer be connected with the other end, then a station on the long line may have some difficulty in throwing the clearing-out drop, because of the low-resistance shunt that is placed around it through the short line and the low-resistance ringer. in other words, the clearing-out drop is shunted by a comparatively low-resistance line and ringer and the feeble currents arriving from a distant station over the long line are not sufficient to operate the drop thus handicapped. the advent of the various forms of party-line selective signaling and the use of such systems in connection with magneto switchboards has brought in another difficulty that sometimes manifests itself with this type of cord circuit. if two ordinary magneto telephones are connected to the two ends of this cord circuit, it is obvious that when one of the subscribers has hung up his receiver and the other subscriber rings off, the bell of the other subscriber will very likely be rung even though the clearing-out drop operates properly; it would be better in any event not to have this other subscriber's bell rung, for he may understand it to be a recall to his telephone. when, however, a party line is connected through such a cord circuit to an ordinary line having bridging instruments, for instance, the difficulty due to ringing off becomes even greater. when the subscriber on the magneto line operates his generator to give the clearing-out signal, he is very likely to ring some of the bells on the other line and this, of course, is an undesirable thing. this may happen even in the case of harmonic bells on the party line, since it is possible that the subscriber on the magneto line in turning his generator will, at some phase of the operation, strike just the proper frequency to ring some one of the bells on the harmonic party line. it is obvious, therefore, that there is a real need for a cord circuit that will prevent _through ringing._ one way of eliminating the through-ringing difficulty in the type of cord circuit shown in fig. would be to use such a very low-wound clearing-out drop that it would practically short-circuit the line with respect to ringing currents and prevent them from passing on to the other line. this, however, is not a good thing to do, since a winding sufficiently low to shunt the effective ringing current would also be too low for good telephone transmission. [illustration: fig. . series drop-cord circuit] _series drop type._ another type of cord circuit that was largely used by the stromberg-carlson telephone manufacturing company at one time is shown in fig. . in this the clearing-out drop was not bridged but was placed in series in the tip side of the line and was shunted by a condenser. the resistance of the clearing-out drop was , ohms and the capacity of the condenser was microfarads. it is obvious that this way of connecting the clearing-out drop was subject to the _ringing-through_ difficulty, since the circuit through which the clearing-out current necessarily passed included the telephone instrument of the line that was not sending the clearing-out signal. this form was also objectionable because it was necessary for the subscriber to ring through the combined resistance of two lines, and in case the other line happened to be open, no clearing-out signal would be received. while this circuit, therefore, was perhaps not quite so likely as the other to tie up the subscriber, that is, to leave him connected without the ability to send a clearing-out signal, yet it was sure to ring through, for the clearing-out drop could not be thrown without the current passing through the other subscriber's station. [illustration: fig. . dean non-ring-through cord circuit] _non-ring-through type._ an early attempt at a non-ring-through cord is shown in fig. , this having once been standard with the dean electric company. it made use of two condensers of microfarad each, one in each side of the cord circuit. the clearing-out drop was of ohms resistance and was connected from the answering side of the tip conductor to the calling side of the sleeve conductor. in this way whatever clearing-out current reached the central office passed through at least one of the condensers and the clearing-out drop. in order for the clearing-out current to pass on beyond the central office it was necessary for it to pass through the two condensers in series. this arrangement had the advantage of giving a positive ring-off, regardless of the condition of the connected line. obviously, even if the line was short-circuited, the ringing currents from the other line would still be forced through the clearing-out drop on account of the high effective resistance of the -microfarad condenser connected in series with the short-circuited line. also the clearing-out signal would be properly received if the connected line were open, since the clearing-out drop would still be directly across the cord circuit. this arrangement also largely prevented through ringing, since the currents would pass through the -microfarad condenser and the -ohm drop more readily than through the two condensers connected in series. [illustration: fig. . monarch non-ring-through cord circuit] in fig. is shown the non-ring-through arrangement of cord circuit adopted by the monarch company. in this system the clearing-out drop has two windings, either of which will operate the armature. the two windings are bridged across the cord circuit, with a / -microfarad condenser in series in the tip strand between the two winding connections. while the low-capacity condenser will allow the high-frequency talking current to pass readily without affecting it to any appreciable extent, it offers a high resistance to a low-frequency ringing current, thus preventing it from passing out on a connected line and forcing it through one of the windings of the coil. there is a tendency to transformer action in this arrangement, one of the windings serving as a primary and the other as a secondary, but this has not prevented the device from being highly successful. a modification of this arrangement is shown in fig. , wherein a double-wound clearing-out drop is used, and a / -microfarad condenser is placed in series in each side of the cord circuit between the winding connections of the clearing-out drop. this circuit should give a positive ring-off under all conditions and should prevent through ringing except as it may be provided by the transformer action between the two windings on the same core. [illustration: fig. . non-ring-through cord circuit] another rather ingenious method of securing a positive ring-off and yet of preventing in a certain degree the undesirable ringing-through feature is shown in the cord circuit, fig. . in this two non-inductive coils _ _ and _ _ are shown connected in series in the tip and sleeve strands of the coils, respectively. between the neutral point of these two non-inductive windings is connected the clearing-out drop circuit. voice currents find ready path through these non-inductive windings because of the fact that, being non-inductive, they present only their straight ohmic resistance. the impedance of the clearing-out drop prevents the windings being shunted across the two sides of the cord circuit. with this circuit a positive ring-off is assured even though the line connected with the one sending the clearing-out signal is short-circuited or open. if it is short-circuited, the shunt around the clearing-out drop will still have the resistance of two of the non-inductive windings included in it, and thus the drop will never be short-circuited by a very low-resistance path. obviously, an open circuit in the line will not prevent the clearing-out signal being received. while this is an ingenious scheme, it is not one to be highly recommended since the non-inductive windings, in order to be effective so far as signaling is concerned, must be of considerable resistance and this resistance is in series in the talking circuit. even non-inductive resistance is to be avoided in the talking circuit when it is of considerable magnitude and where there are other ways of solving the problem. [illustration: fig. . cord circuit with differential windings] _double clearing-out type. _some people prefer two clearing-out drops in each cord circuit, so arranged that the one will be responsive to currents sent from the line with which the answering plug is connected and the other responsive only to currents sent from the line with which the calling plug is connected. such a scheme, shown in fig. , is sometimes employed by the dean, the monarch, and the kellogg companies. two -ohm clearing-out drops of ordinary construction are bridged across the cord circuit and in each side of the cord circuit there is included between the drop connections a -microfarad condenser. ringing currents originating on the line with which the answering plug is connected will pass through the clearing-out drop, which is across that side of the cord circuit, without having to pass through any condensers. in order to reach the other clearing-out drop the ringing current must pass through the two -microfarad condensers in series, this making in effect only / -microfarad. as is well known, a / -microfarad condenser not only transmits voice currents with ease but also offers a very high apparent resistance to ringing currents. with the double clearing-out drop system the operator is enabled to tell which subscriber is ringing off. if both shutters fall she knows that both subscribers have sent clearing-out signals and she, therefore, pulls down the connection without the usual precaution of listening to see whether one of the subscribers may be waiting for another connection. this double clearing-out system is analogous to the complete double-lamp supervision that will be referred to more fully in connection with common-battery circuits. there is not the need for double supervision in magneto work, however, that there is in common-battery work because of the fact that in magneto work the subscribers frequently fail to remember to ring off, this act being entirely voluntary on their part, while in common-battery work, the clearing-out signal is given automatically by the subscriber when he hangs up his receiver, thus accomplishing the desired end without the necessity of thoughtfulness on his part. [illustration: fig. . double clearing-out drops] another form of double clearing-out cord circuit is shown in fig. . in this the calling and the answering plugs are separated by repeating coils, a condenser of -microfarad capacity being inserted between each pair of windings on the two ends of the circuit. the clearing-out drops are placed across the calling and answering cords in the usual manner. the condenser in this case prevents the drop being short-circuited with respect to ringing currents and yet permits the voice currents to flow readily through it. the high impedance of the drop forces the voice currents to take the path through the repeating coil rather than through the drop. this circuit has the advantage of a repeating-coil cord circuit in permitting the connection of metallic and grounded lines without causing the unbalancing of the metallic circuits by the connection to them of the grounded circuits. [illustration: fig. . double clearing-out drops] recently there has been a growing tendency on the part of some manufacturers to control their clearing-out signals by means of relays associated with cord circuits, these signals sometimes being ordinary clearing-out drops and sometimes incandescent lamps. [illustration: fig. . relay-controlled clearing-out drop] in fig. is shown the cord circuit sometimes used by the l.m. ericsson telephone manufacturing company. a high-wound relay is normally placed across the cord and this, besides having a high-resistance and impedance winding has a low-resistance locking winding so arranged that when the relay pulls up its armature it will close a local circuit including this locking winding and local battery. when once pulled up the relay will, therefore, stay up due to the energizing of this locking coil. another contact operated by the relay closes the circuit of a low-wound clearing-out drop placed across the line, thus bridging it across the line. the condition of high impedance is maintained across the cord circuit normally while the subscribers are talking; but when either of them rings off, the high-wound relay pulls up and locks, thus completing the circuit of the clearing-out drop across the cords. the subsequent impulses sent from the subscribers' generators operate this drop. the relay is restored or unlocked and the clearing-out drop disconnected from the cord circuit by means of a key which opens the locking circuit of the relay. this key is really a part of the listening key and serves to open this locking circuit whenever the listening key is operated. the clearing-out drop is also automatically restored by the action of the listening key, this connection being mechanical rather than electrical. recall lamp:--the monarch company sometimes furnishes what it terms a recall lamp in connection with the clearing-out drops on its magneto switchboards. the circuit arrangement is shown in fig. , wherein the drop is the regular double-wound clearing-out drop like that of fig. . the armature carries a contact spring adapted to close the local circuit of a lamp whenever it is attracted. the object of this is to give the subscriber, whose line still remains connected by a cord circuit, opportunity to recall the central office if the operator has not restored the clearing-out drop. [illustration: fig. . cord circuit with recall lamp] _lamp-signal type._ there has been a tendency on the part of some manufacturing companies to advocate, instead of drop signals, incandescent lamp signals for the cord circuits, and sometimes for the line circuits on magneto boards. in most cases this may be looked upon as a "frill." where line lamps instead of drops have been used on magneto switchboards, it has been the practice to employ, instead of a drop, a locking relay associated with each lamp, which was so arranged that when the relay was energized by the magneto current from the subscriber's station, it would pull up and lock, thus closing the lamp circuit. the local circuit, or locking circuit, which included the lamp was carried through a pair of contacts in the corresponding jacks so arranged that when the plug was inserted in answer to the call, this locking lamp circuit would be open, thereby extinguishing the lamp and also unlocking the relay. there seems to be absolutely no good reason why lamp signals should be substituted for mechanical drops in magneto switchboards. there is no need for the economy in space which the lamp signal affords, and the complications brought in by the locking relays, and the requirements for maintaining a local battery suitable for energizing the lamps are not warranted for ordinary cases. [illustration: fig. . cord circuit with double lamp signals] in fig. is shown a cord circuit, adaptable to magneto switchboards, provided with double lamp signals instead of clearing-out drops. two high-wound locking relays are bridged across the line, the cord strands being divided by -microfarad condensers. when the high-wound coil of either relay is energized by the magneto current from the subscriber's station, the relay pulls up and closes a locking circuit including a battery and a coil _ _, the contact _ _ of the locking relay, and also the contact _ _ of a restoring key. this circuit may be traced from the ground through battery, coil _ _, contact _ _ controlled by the relay, and contact _ _ controlled by the restoring key, and back to ground. in multiple with the locking coil _ _ is the lamp, which is illuminated, therefore, whenever the locking circuit is closed. pressure on the restoring key breaks the locking circuit of either of the lamps, thereby putting out the lamp and at the same time restoring the locking relay to its normal position. _lamps vs. drops in cord circuits._ so much has been said and written about the advantages of incandescent lamps as signals in switchboards and about the merits of the common-battery method of supplying current to the subscribers, that there has been a tendency for people in charge of the operation of small exchanges to substitute the lamp for the drop in a magneto switchboard in order to give the general appearance of common-battery operations. there has also been a tendency to employ the common-battery system of operation in many places where magneto service should have been used, a mistake which has now been realized and corrected. in places where the simple magneto switchboard is the thing to use, the simpler it is the better, and the employment of locking relays and lamp signals and the complications which they carry with them, is not warranted. switchboard assembly. the assembly of all the parts of a simple magneto switchboard into a complete whole deserves final consideration. the structure in which the various parts are mounted, referred to as the cabinet, is usually of wood. _functions of cabinet._ the purpose of the cabinet is not only to form a support for the various pieces of apparatus but also to protect them from dust and mechanical injury, and to hold those parts that must be manipulated by the operator in such relation that they may be most convenient for use, and thus best adapted for carrying out their various functions. other points to be provided for in the design of the cabinet and the arrangement of the various parts within are: that all the apparatus that is in any way liable to get out of order may be readily accessible for inspection and repairs; and that provision shall be made whereby the wiring of these various pieces of apparatus may be done in a systematic and simple way so as to minimize the danger of crossed, grounded, or open circuits, and so as to provide for ready repair in case any of these injuries do occur. _wall-type switchboards._ the simplest form of switchboard is that for serving small communities in rural districts. ordinarily the telephone industry in such a community begins by a group of farmers along a certain road building a line connecting the houses of several of them and installing their own instruments. this line is liable to be extended to some store at the village or settlement, thus affording communication between these farmers and the center of their community. later on those residing on other roads do the same thing and connect their lines to the same store or central point. then it is that some form of switchboard is established, and perhaps the storekeeper's daughter or wife is paid a small fee for attendance. [illustration: fig. . wall switchboard with telephone] a switchboard well-adapted for this class of service where the number of lines is small, is shown in fig. . in this the operator's talking apparatus and her calling apparatus are embodied in an ordinary magneto wall telephone. the switchboard proper is mounted alongside of this, and the two line binding posts of the telephone are connected by a pair of wires to terminals of the operator's plug, which plug is shown hanging from the left-hand portion of the switchboard. the various lines centering at this point terminate in the combined drops and jacks on the switchboard, of which there are shown in this illustration. beside the operator's plug there are a number of pairs of plugs shown hanging from the switchboard cabinet. these are connected straight through in pairs, there being no clearing-out drops or keys associated with them in the arrangement. each line shown is provided with an extra jack, the purpose of which will be presently understood. the method of operation is as follows: when a subscriber on a certain line desires to get connection through the switchboard he turns his generator and throws the drop. the operator in order to communicate with him inserts the plug in which her telephone terminates into the jack, and removes her receiver from its hook. having learned that it is for a certain subscriber on another line, she withdraws her plug from the jack of the calling line and inserts it into the jack of the called line, then, hanging up her receiver, she turns the generator crank in accordance with the proper code to call that subscriber. when that subscriber responds she connects the two lines by inserting the two plugs of a pair into their respective jacks, and the subscribers are thus placed in communication. the extra jack associated with each line is merely an open jack having its terminals connected respectively with the two sides of the line. whenever an operator desires to listen in on two connected lines she does so by inserting the operator's plug into one of these extra jacks of the connected lines, and she may thus find out whether the subscribers are through talking or whether either one of them desires another connection. the drops in such switchboards are commonly high wound and left permanently bridged across the line so as to serve as clearing-out drops. the usual night-alarm attachment is provided, the buzzer being shown at the upper right-hand portion of the cabinet. [illustration: fig. . combined telephone and switchboard] another type of switchboard commonly employed for this kind of service is shown in fig. , in which the telephone and the switchboard cabinet are combined. the operation of this board is practically the same as that of fig. , although it has manually-restored drops instead of self-restoring drops; the difference between these two types, however, is not material for this class of service. for such work the operator has ample time to attend to the restoring of the drop and the only possible advantage in the combined drop-and-jack for this class of work is that it prevents the operator from forgetting to restore the drops. however, she is not likely to do this with the night-alarm circuit in operation, since the buzzer or bell would continue to ring as long as the drop was down. [illustration: fig. . upright magneto switchboard] [illustration: fig. . upright magneto switchboard--rear view] _upright type switchboard._ by far the most common type of magneto switchboard is the so-called upright type, wherein the drops and jacks are mounted on the face of upright panels rising from a horizontal shelf, which shelf contains the plugs, the keys, and any other apparatus which the operator must manipulate. front and rear views of such a switchboard, as manufactured by the kellogg company, are shown in figs. and . this particular board is provided with fifty combined drops and jacks and, therefore, equipped for fifty subscribers' lines. the drops and jacks are mounted in strips of five, and arranged in two panels. the clearing-out drops, of which there are ten, are arranged at the bottom of the two panels in a single row and may be seen immediately above the switchboard plugs. there are ten pairs of cords and plugs with their associated ringing and listening keys, the plugs being mounted on the rear portion of the shelf, while the ringing and listening keys are mounted on the hinged portion of the shelf in front of the plugs. [illustration: fig. . details of drop, jack, plug, and key arrangement] [illustration: fig. . cross-section of upright switchboard] a better idea of the arrangement of drops, jacks, plugs, and keys may be had from an illustration of a dean magneto switchboard shown in fig. . the clearing-out drops and the arrangement of the plugs and keys are clearly shown. the portion of the switchboard on which the plugs are mounted is always immovable, the plugs being provided with seats through which holes are bored of sufficient size to permit the switchboard cord to pass beneath the shelf. when one of these plugs is raised, the cord is pulled up through this hole thus allowing the plug to be placed in any of the jacks. the key arrangement shown in this particular cut is instructive. it will be noticed that the right-hand five pairs of plugs are provided with ordinary ringing and listening keys, while the left-hand five are provided with party-line ringing keys and listening keys. the listening key in each case is the one in the rear and is alike for all of the cord pairs. the right-hand five ringing keys are so arranged that pressing the lever to the rear will ring on the answering cord, while pressing it toward the front will cause ringing current to flow on the calling plug. in the left-hand five pairs of cords shown in this cut, the pressure of any one of the keys causes a ringing current of a certain frequency to flow on the calling cord, this frequency depending upon which one of the keys is pressed. [illustration: fig. . cord weight] an excellent idea of the grouping of the various pieces of apparatus in a complete simple magneto switchboard may be had from fig. . while the arrangement here shown is applicable particularly to the apparatus of the dean electric company, the structure indicated is none-the-less generally instructive, since it represents good practice in this respect. in this drawing the stationary plug shelf with the plug seat is clearly shown and also the hinged key shelf. the hinge of the key shelf is an important feature and is universally found in all switchboards of this general type. the key shelf may be raised and thus expose all of the wiring leading to the keys, as well as the various contacts of the keys themselves, to inspection. [illustration: fig. . magneto switchboard, target signals] as will be seen, the switchboard cords leading from the plugs extend down to a point near the bottom of the cabinet where they pass through pulley weights and then up to a stationary cord rack. on this cord rack are provided terminals for the various conductors in the cord, and it is at this point that the cord conductors join the other wires leading to the other portions of the apparatus as required. a good form of cord weight is shown in fig. ; and obviously the function of these weights is to keep the cords taut at all times and to prevent their tangling. [illustration: fig. . rear view of target signal, magneto switchboard] the drawing, fig. , also gives a good idea of the method of mounting the hand generator that is ordinarily employed with such magneto switchboards. the shaft of the generator is merely continued out to the front of the key shelf where the usual crank is provided, by means of which the operator is able to generate the necessary ringing current. beside the hand generator at each operator's position, it is quite common in magneto boards, of other than the smallest sizes, to employ some form of ringing generator, either a power-driven generator or a pole changer driven by battery current for furnishing ringing current without effort on the part of the operator. [illustration: fig. . dean two-position switchboard] switchboards as shown in figs. and , are called single-position switchboards because they afford room for a single operator. ordinarily for this class of work a single operator may handle from one to two hundred lines, although of course this depends on the amount of traffic on the line, and this, in turn, depends on the character of the subscribers served, and also on the average number of stations on a line. another single-position switchboard is shown in figs. and , being a front and rear view of the simple magneto switchboard of the western electric company, which is provided with the target signals of that company rather than the usual form of drop. where a switchboard must accommodate more lines than can be handled by a single operator, the cabinet is made wider so as to afford room for more than one operator to be seated before it. sometimes this is accomplished by building the cabinet wider, or by putting two such switchboard sections as are shown in figs. or side by side. a two-position switchboard section is shown in front and rear views in figs. and . [illustration: fig. . rear view of dean two-position switchboard] _sectional switchboards._ the problem of providing for growth in a switchboard is very much the same as that which confronts one in buying a bookcase for his library. the western electric company has met this problem, for very small rural exchanges, in much the same way that the sectional bookcase manufacturers have provided for the possible increase in bookcase capacity. like the sectional bookcase, this sectional switchboard may start with the smallest of equipment--a single sectional unit--and may be added to vertically as the requirements increase, the original equipment being usable in its more extended surroundings. [illustration: fig. . sectional switchboard--wall type] this line of switchboards is illustrated in figs. to . the beginning may be made with either a wall type or an upright type of switchboard, the former being mounted on brackets secured to the wall, and the latter on a table. a good idea of the wall type is shown in fig. . three different kinds of sectional units are involved in this: first, the unit which includes the cords, plugs, clearing-out drops, listening jacks, operator's telephone set and generator; second, the unit containing the line equipment, including a strip of ten magneto line signals and their corresponding jacks; third, the finishing top, which includes no equipment except the support for the operator's talking apparatus. [illustration: fig. . sectional switchboard--wall type] the first of the units in fig. forms the foundation on which the others are built. two of the line-equipment units are shown; these provide for a total of twenty lines. the top rests on the upper line-equipment unit, and when it becomes necessary to add one or more line-equipment units as the switchboard grows, this top is merely taken off, the other line-equipment units put in place on top of those already existing, and the top replaced. the wall type of sectional switchboard is so arranged that the entire structure may be swung out from the wall, as indicated in fig. , exposing all of the apparatus and wiring for inspection. each of the sectional units is provided with a separate door, as indicated, so that the rear door equipment is added to automatically as the sections are added. in the embodiment of the sectional switchboard idea shown in these two figures just referred to, no ringing and listening keys are provided, but the operator's telephone and generator terminate in a special plug--the left-hand one shown in fig. --and when the operator desires to converse with the connected subscribers, she does so by inserting the operator's plug into one of the jacks immediately below the clearing-out drop corresponding to the pair of plugs used in making the connection. the arrangement in this case is exactly the same in principle as that described in fig. . the operator's generator is so arranged in connection with this left-hand operator's plug that the turning of the generator crank automatically switches the operator's telephone set off and switches the generator on, just the same as a switch hook may do in a subscriber's series telephone. [illustration: fig. . sectional switchboard--table type] [illustration: fig. . sectional switchboard--table type] the upright type of sectional switchboard is shown in figs. and , which need no explanation in view of the foregoing, except to say that, in the particular instrument illustrated, ringing and listening keys are provided instead of the jack-and-plug arrangement of the wall type. in this case also, the top section carries an arm for supporting a swinging transmitter instead of the hook support for the combined transmitter and receiver. review questions [blank page] review questions on the subject of telephony pages -- * * * * * . when was the telephone invented and by whom? . state the velocity of sound in air. is it higher in air than in a denser medium? . state and define the characteristics of sound. . make sketch of bell's original magneto telephone without permanent magnets. . describe and sketch hughes' microphone. . which is, at present, the best material for varying the resistance in transmitters? . give the fundamental differences between the magneto transmitter and the carbon transmitter. . what is the function of the induction coil in the telephone circuit? . describe and sketch the different kinds of visible signals. . what should be the diameter of hard drawn copper wire in order to allow economical spacing of poles? . state the four principal properties of a telephone line. . if in testing a line the capacity is changed what are the results found on the receiver and transmitter end? . why is paper used as an insulator of telephone cables? . how does a conductor behave in connection with direct current and how with alternating current? . what influence has inductance on the telephone? . define impedance and give the formula for it. . what is the usual specification for insulation of resistance in telephone cables? . if feet of cable have an insulation resistance of , megohms, how great is the insulation resistance for miles and , feet of cable? . what is the practical limiting conversation distance for no. b. and s. wire? . describe professor pupin's method of inserting inductance into the telephone line. . what does _mho_ denote? . why are pupin's coils not so successful on open wires? . what is a repeater? . define _reactive interference_. . state the frequencies of the pitches of the human voice. . what is the office of a diaphragm in a telephone apparatus? . what transmitter material has greatly increased the ranges of speech? . describe the different methods of measurements of telephone circuits. . what are the two kinds of _electric calls_? . how many conductors has a telephone line? . give formula for capacity reactance and the meaning of the symbols. . which american cities are joined by underground lines at present? . state the two practical ways of improving telephone transmission. review questions on the subject of telephony pages -- * * * * * . on what general principle are most of the telephone transmitters of today constructed? . make sketch of the new western electric transmitter and describe its working. . make sketch and describe the kellogg transmitter. . what troubles were encountered in the earlier forms of granular carbon transmitters and how were they overcome? . what limits the current-carrying capacity of the transmitter? how may this capacity be increased? . state in what kind of transmitters a maximum degree of sensitiveness is desirable. . show the conventional symbols for transmitters. . describe a telephone receiver. . sketch a western electric receiver and point out its deficiencies. . make a diagram of the kellogg receiver. . describe the direct-current receiver of the automatic electric company. . describe and sketch the dean receiver. . show the conventional symbols of a receiver. . describe exactly how, in a cell composed of a tin and a silver plate with dilute sulphuric acid as electrolyte, the current inside and outside of the cell will flow. . describe the phenomenon of polarization. . what is _local action_ of a cell? how may it be prevented? . into how many classes may cells be divided? which class is most used in telephony? . describe the leclanché cell. . sketch and describe an excellent form of dry cell. . show the conventional symbols for batteries. . sketch and describe the generator shunt switch and the generator cut-in switch. . how may a pulsating current be derived from a magneto generator? . show conventional symbols for magneto generators. . sketch and describe the western electric polarized bell. . give conventional ringer symbols. . what is the purpose of the hook switch? . make sketch and give description of kellogg's long lever hook switch. . describe and sketch the western electric short lever hook switch. . point out the principal difference between the desk stand hook switches of the western electric company and of the kellogg switchboard and supply company. . give conventional symbols of hook switches. review questions on the subject of telephony pages -- * * * * * . describe an electromagnet and its function in telephony. . sketch an iron-clad electromagnet. . what is a differential electromagnet? sketch and describe one type. . state the desirable characteristics of good enamel insulation for magnet wire. . if you have a coil of no. double cotton b. and s. wire of ohms resistance and you have to rewind it for , ohms resistance with double cotton wire, what number of wire would you take? show calculation. note. no. d. c wire has res. . ohms per cubic inch; for the core, ohms. there are required in the coil , ohms, that is, . times as much. . x . = . ohms, which must be the resistance per cu. in. this resistance gives, according to table iv, no. wire. . what is an impedance coil? state how it differs from an electromagnet coil. . describe the different kinds of impedance coils. . give symbol of impedance coil. . what are the principal parts of an induction coil? . what is the function of an induction coil in telephony? . what is a repeating coil and how does it differ from an induction coil? . give conventional symbols of induction coils and repeating coils. . enumerate the different types of non-inductive resistance devices and give a short description of each. . define condenser. . what is the meaning of the word _dielectrics_? . state what you understand by the specific inductive capacity of a dielectric. . upon what factors does the capacity of a condenser depend? . what is the usual capacity of condensers in telephone practice? . give conventional condenser symbols. . by what two methods may the current be supplied to a telephone transmitter? . make sketch of local-battery stations with metallic circuit. . sketch common-battery circuit in series with two lines. . state the objections against the preceding arrangement. . make sketch of the standard arrangement of the western electric company in bridging the common battery with repeating coils. . sketch the arrangement of bridging the battery with impedance coils and state the purpose of the coils. . make diagram of a common-source current supply for many lines with repeating coils and point out the travel of the voice currents. . name the different parts which comprise a telephone set. . what is a magneto telephone? . make diagram of the circuit of a series magneto set with receiver on the hook and explain how the different currents are flowing. . show diagram of the stromberg-carlson magneto desk telephone circuit and describe its working. . give sketch of the stromberg-carlson common-battery wall set circuit. . describe briefly the microtelephone set. . make sketch of the monarch common-battery wall set. review questions on the subject of telephony pages -- * * * * * . what is a party line? . what is usually understood by private lines? . what problem is there to overcome in connection with party lines? . state the two general classes of party-line systems. . point out the defects of the series system. . make sketch of a metallic bridging line and show the circuit for the voice currents. . what is a signal code? . give classification of selective party-line systems with short definitions. . describe the principle of selection by polarity and make sketch illustrating this principle. . make diagram of the circuit of a four-party station with relay. . describe the process of tuning in the harmonic system. . what is the difference between the under-tune and in-tune systems? . sketch circuit of kellogg's harmonic system. . illustrate the principle of a broken-line system by a sketch. . in what particulars does the party-line system in rural districts differ from that within urban limits? . describe and sketch pool's lock-out system. . make diagram of the k.b. lock-out system. . what is the object of the ratchet in this system? . make diagram of simplified circuits of roberts system. . sketch and describe roberts latching key and connections. . sketch circuits of bridging station for non-selective party line. . how would you arrange the signal code for six stations on a non-selective party line? . what is the limit of number of stations on a non-selective party line under ordinary circumstances? . state the objections against the party polarity system as shown in fig. . . what are the advantages of the harmonic party-line system? . to how many frequencies is the harmonic system usually limited? . what can you say about the commercial success of the step-by-step method? . state the principles of a lock-out party line. . for what purpose is a condenser placed in the receiver circuit of each station in the k.b. lock-out system? . how are the selecting relays in roberts line restored to their normal position after a conversation is finished? . what are the objections against the roberts system? review questions on the subject of telephony pages -- * * * * * . what are electrical hazards? . when is the lightning hazard least? . what actions can electricity produce? which involves the greater hazard to the value of property? . when is a piece of apparatus called "self-protecting"? . why must a protector for telephone apparatus work more quickly for a large current than for a small one? . state the general problem which heating hazards present with relation to telephone apparatus. . what is the most nearly universal electrical hazard? . sketch and describe the saw-tooth lightning arrester. . make diagram of the carbon-block arrester and state its advantages. . describe a vacuum arrester. . explain the reason for placing an impedance in connection with the lightning arrester. . what is the purpose of the globule of low-melting alloy in the western electric company's arrester? . why are not fuses good lightning arresters? . what is the proper function of a fuse? . make sketch of a mica slip fuse. . define _sneak currents_. . make a diagram of a sneak-current arrester and describe its principles and working. . describe a heat coil. . sketch a complete line protection. . where is the proper position of the fuse? . which wires are considered exposed and which unexposed? . why is it not necessary to install sneak-current arresters in central-battery subscribers' stations? . sketch and describe the action of a combined sneak-current and air-gap arrester, as widely used by bell companies. . describe the self-soldering heat-coil arrester. . what is the purpose of ribbon fuses? . what is a drainage coil? review questions on the subject of telephony pages -- * * * * * . what is a central office? . what are (_a_) subscriber's lines? (_b_) trunk lines? (_c_) toll lines? . for what purpose is the switchboard? . give short descriptions of the different classes of switchboards. . how are manual switchboards subdivided? describe briefly the different types. . define a and b boards. . what is a call circuit? . what kind of calls are handled on a toll switchboard? . give drop symbol and describe its principles. . what is a jack? . make a sketch of a plug inserted into a jack. . give jack and plug symbols. . what are ringing and listening keys? . show symbols for ringing and listening keys. . state the parts of which a cord equipment consists. . show step by step the various operations of a telephone system wherein the lines center in a magneto switchboard. make all the necessary diagrams and give brief descriptions to show that you understand each operation. . on what principle does a drop with night-alarm contact operate? . what is the advantage of associating jacks and drops? . describe the mechanical restoration as employed in the miller drop and jack. . describe the electrical restoration of drop shutters as manufactured by the western electric company. . what complications arise in ringing of party lines and how are they overcome? . give diagram of the complete circuit of a simple magneto switchboard. . sketch night-alarm circuit with relay. . what is a convertible cord circuit? . state what disadvantages may be encountered under certain conditions with a bridging drop-cord circuit. . are lamps in cord circuits to be advocated on magneto switchboards? . what is the function of the cabinet? . give cross-section of upright switchboard as used in the magneto system. . what is the purpose of a sectional switchboard? . give a short description of the essential parts of a sectional switchboard. index index _the page numbers of this volume will be found at the bottom of the pages; the numbers at the top refer only to the section._ a acousticon transmitter acoustics characteristics of sound loudness pitch timbre human ear human voice propagation of sound air-gap vs. fuse arresters amalgamated zincs arrester separators audible signals magneto bell telegraph sounder telephone receiver vibrating bell automatic electric company direct-current receiver transmitter automatic shunt b bar electromagnet battery bell battery symbols blake single electrode brazed bell broken-back ringer broken-line method of selective signaling c capacity reactance carbon adaptability limitations preparation of superiority carbon air-gap arrester carbon-block arrester carrying capacity of transmitter central-office protectors characteristics of sound loudness pitch timbre chloride of silver cell closed-circuit cells closed-circuit impedance coil common-battery telephone sets condensers capacity charge conventional symbols definition of dielectric dielectric materials functions means for assorting current sizes theory conductivity of conductors conductors, conductivity of conventional symbols cook air-gap arrester arrester arrester for magneto stations crowfoot cell current supply to transmitters common battery advantages bell substation arrangement bridging battery with impedance coils bridging battery with repeating coil current supply from distant point current supply over limbs of line in parallel dean substation arrangement double battery with impedance coil kellogg substation arrangement north electric company system series battery series substation arrangement stromberg-carlson system supply many lines from common source repeating coil retardation coil local battery d dean drop and jack receiver wall telephone hook desk stand hooks kellogg western electric dielectric dielectric materials dry paper mica differential electromagnet direct-current receiver drainage coils e electric lamp signal electrical hazards electrical reproduction of speech carbon conversion from sound waves to vibration of diaphragm conversion from vibration to voice currents conversion from voice currents to vibration cycle of conversion detrimental effects of capacity early conceptions electrostatic telephone induction coil limitations of magneto transmitter loose contact principle magneto telephone measurements of telephone currents variation of electrical pressure variation of resistance electrical signals audible magneto-bell telegraph sounder telephone receiver vibrating bell visible electric lamp signal electromagnetic signal electrodes arrangement of carbon preparation multiple single electrolysis electromagnetic method of measuring telephone currents electromagnetic signal electromagnets and inductive coils conventional symbols differential electromagnet direction of armature motion direction of lines of force electromagnets low-resistance circuits horseshoe form iron-clad form special horseshoe form impedance coils kind of iron number of turns types closed-circuit open-circuit toroidal induction coil current and voltage ratios design functions use and advantage magnet wire enamel silk and cotton insulation space utilization wire gauges magnetic flux magnetization curves magnetizing force mechanical details permeability reluctance repeating coil winding methods winding calculations winding data winding terminals electrostatic capacity unit of electrostatic telephone enamel f five-bar generator fuller cell g galvani generator armature generator cut-in switch generator shunt switch generator symbols granular carbon gravity cell h hand receivers harmonic method of selective signaling advantages circuits in-tune system limitations principles tuning under-tune system head receivers heat coil holtzer-cabot arrester hook switch automatic operation contact material design desk stand hooks kellogg western electric purpose symbols wall telephone hooks dean kellogg western electric horseshoe electromagnet human ear human voice i impedance coils kind of iron number of turns symbols of types closed-circuit open-circuit toroidal inductance vs. capacity induction coil current and voltage ratios design functions use and advantage inductive neutrality inductive reactance insulation of conductors introduction to telephony iron-clad electromagnet iron wire ballast k kellogg air-gap arrester desk stand hook drop and jack receiver ringer transmitter wall telephone hook l lalande cell lamp filament le clanché cell lenz law line signals lines of force, direction of loading coils lock-out party-line systems broken-line method operation poole system step-by-step system loudness of sound low-reluctance circuits horseshoe form iron-clad form m magnetic flux magnetization curves magnetizing force magneto bell magneto operator magneto signaling apparatus armature automatic shunt battery bell generator symbols magneto bell magneto generator method of signaling polarized ringer pulsating current ringer symbols theory magneto switchboard automatic restoration mechanical dean type kellogg type monarch type western electric type circuits of complete switchboard code signaling commercial types of drops and jacks early drops jack mounting manual vs. automatic restoration methods of associating night alarm tubular drops component parts jacks and plugs keys line and cord equipments line signal operators' equipment cord-circuit considerations double clearing-out type lamp-signal type non-ring through type series drop type simple bridging drop type definitions electrical restoration grounded and metallic-circuit lines mode of operation night-alarm circuits operation in detail clearing out essentials of operation normal condition of line operator answering operator calling subscriber calling subscribers conversing operator's telephone equipment cut-in jack ringing and listening keys horizontal spring type party-line ringing keys self-indicating keys vertical spring type switchboard assembly functions of cabinet sectional switchboards upright type of switchboard wall type switchboard switchboard cords concentric conductors parallel tinsel conductors steel spiral conductors switchboard plugs magneto telephone magneto telephone sets mica card resistance mica slip fuse microtelephone set monarch drop and jack monarch receiver monarch transmitter multiple electrode mutual induction n non-inductive resistance devices inductive neutrality provisions against heating temperature coefficient types differentially-wound unit iron wire ballast lamp filament mica card unit non-selective party-line systems bridging limitations series signal code o open-circuit cells open-circuit impedance coil operator's receiver p packing of transmitters permeability pitch doppler's principle vibration of diaphragms polarity method of selective signaling polarization of cells polarized ringer brazed bell kellogg western electric poole lock-out system primary cells conventional symbol series and multiple connections simple voltaic types of closed-circuit fuller gravity lalande prevention of creeping setting up open-circuit le clanché standard chloride of silver propagation of sound protective means against high potentials air-gap arrester advantages of carbon commercial types continuous arcs discharge across gaps dust between carbons introduction of impedance metallic electrodes vacuum arresters against sneak currents heat coil sneak-current arresters against strong currents fuses enclosed mica proper functions central-office protectors self-soldering heat coils sneak-current and air-gap arrester city exchange requirements complete line protection electrolysis subscribers' station protectors ribbon fuses pulsating-current commutator r receivers dean direct-current early kellogg modern monarch operator's single-pole symbols western electric reluctance repeating coil ribbon fuses ringer symbols ringing and listening key robert's latching relay robert's self-cleansing arrester rolled condenser s saw-tooth arrester selective party-line systems broken-line method classification broken-line systems harmonic systems polarity systems step-by-step systems harmonic method polarity method step-by-step method self-induction signal code signaling, method of silk and cotton insulation single electrode single-pole receiver sneak-current arresters solid-back transmitter sound characteristics of loudness pitch timbre standard cell step-by-step lock-out system step-by-step method of selective signaling subscribers' station protectors switchboard cords switchboard plugs switchboard transmitter symbols battery condenser generator hook switch impedance coil induction coil receiver repeating coil ringer ringing and listening key transmitter t table condenser data copper wire german silver wire-- per cent german silver wire-- per cent metals, behavior of, in different electrolysis signal code specific inductive capacities temperature coefficients transmission distances, limiting winding data for insulating wires tandem differential electromagnet telegraph sounder telephone currents, measurements of electromagnetic method thermal method telephone exchange, features of districts subscribers' lines switchboards toll lines trunk lines telephone lines conductivity of conductors electrostatic capacity inductance of circuit inductance vs. capacity insulation of conductors transmission telephone sets classification of common-battery telephone magneto telephone wall and desk telephones common-battery desk hotel wall magneto circuits of bridging series desk wall temperature coefficients thermal method of measuring telephone currents timbre toroidal impedance coil toroidal repeating coil transmission, ways of improving transmitters acousticon automatic electric company carrying capacity conventional diagram electrode arrangement of multiple single granular carbon kellogg materials monarch packing sensitiveness switchboard symbols variable resistance western electric solid-back u under-tuned ringer v vacuum arrester variable resistance vibrating bell visible signals electric lamp electromagnetic volta voltaic cell amalgamated zincs difference of potential local action polarization theory w wall telephone hooks dean kellogg western electric western electric air-gap arrester desk stand hook drop and jack receiver ringer solid-back transmitter station arrester wall telephone hook white transmitter wire gauges [illustration: dawson sent the chair spinning across the room. _frontispiece_.] the motor boat club and the wireless or the dot, dash and dare cruise by h. irving hancock author of the motor boat club of the kennebec the motor boat club at nantucket the motor boat club off long island, etc. illustrated philadelphia henry altemus company copyright , by howard e. altemus contents chapter page i. a spark puts three boys and a boat on the jump ii. some of the mystery unraveled iii. invisible hands at the wireless iv. taking a great chance v. tom matches one trick with another vi. carrying dangerous live "freight" vii. powell seaton's bad case of "forget" viii. the red message ix. mr. seaton unburdens himself x. the traitor at the aerials xi. the drab boat shows her nose xii. the searchlight finds a "double" xiii. tom halstead--ready! xiv. grit goes up the signal mast xv. playing salt water blind man's buff xvi. a gleam of hope through the shroud of fog xvii. when the motor boat club boys "went daffy" xviii. the first kink of the problem solved xix. helpless in the northeaster! xx. "c.q.d! c.q.d.!--help!" xxi. the spark finds a friend through the gale xxii. tom halstead springs the climax xxiii. hank becomes really terrible xxiv. conclusion the motor boat club and the wireless chapter i a spark puts three boys and a boat on the jump "ho, ho, ho--hum!" grumbled hank butts, vainly trying to stifle a prodigious yawn. "this may be what mr. seaton calls a vacation on full pay, but i'd rather work." "it _is_ fearfully dull, loafing around, in this fashion, on a lonely island, yet in plain sight of the sea that we long to rove over," nodded captain tom halstead of the motor yacht "restless." "yet hank just put us in mind of the fact that we're getting paid for our time," laughed joe dawson, the least restless of the trio of young motor boat club boys. "oh it's all right on the pay end," agreed hank, readily. "but just think of a young fellow, full of life and hope, with a dozen ambitions and a hustling nature, taking up with a job of this kind!" "what kind of job?" inquired captain tom. "the job of being bored," answered butts, solemnly. "i could have had that kind of job back on long island." "without the pay," amended joe dawson, with another quiet smile. "but ten days of being bored _does_ grow rather wearisome, even with the pay for a solace," agreed tom halstead. ting-ling-ling! the soft jangling of a bell from one of the rooms of the seashore bungalow, on the porch of which the boys sat, broke in on them. "hurrah, joe! hustle and get that message," begged hank, almost sitting up straight in the porch chair, with a comical pretense of excitement. "it's sure to be from mr. seaton this time." "likely," grinned joe, as he rose and crossed the porch in leisurely fashion. the jangling of the bell continued. the bell was a rather clumsy, yet sufficing device that young dawson had attached to the wireless telegraph apparatus. for, though this bungalow on a little island southwest of beaufort, north carolina, had an appearance of being wholly out of the world, yet the absent owner, mr. powell seaton, had contrived to put his place very much "in the world" by installing wireless telegraphy at the bungalow. on the premises was operated a complete electrical plant that furnished energy enough to send messages for hundreds of miles along the coast. for joe, the mechanical genius of the motor boat club, had always had a passion for telegraphy. of late he had gone in in earnest for the wireless kind, and had rapidly mastered its most essential details. the bell told when electrical waves were rushing through the air at marvelous speed, though it did not distinguish between any general wave and the special call for this bungalow station, which was by the letters "cba." when joe dawson went into the room under the tall aerials that hung from the mast, he expected to listen only to some message not in the least intended for this station. seating himself by the relay, with its morse register close at hand, joe dawson picked up and adjusted the head-band with its pair of watch-case receivers. he then hastily picked up a pencil, shoved a pad of paper close under his hand and listened. all this he did with a dull, listless air. he had not the slightest forewarning of the great jolt that was soon to come to himself and his comrades out of the atmosphere. the call, whatever it was, had ended. yet, after a pause of a few seconds, it began to sound again. joe's listless air vanished as the new set of dots and dashes came in, clamoring in clicking haste against his ear drums. "to every wireless station--urgent!" ran the first few words. joe's nimble fingers pushed his pencil, recording letter after letter until these words were down. then, dropping his pencil for the sending key, young dawson transmitted a crashing electric impulse into the air, flashing through space over hundreds of miles the station signal, "cba." "have you a fast, seaworthy boat within immediate call?" came back out of the invisible distance over the ocean. "a twenty-six-mile sea-going motor boat right at the pier here," joe flashed back, again adding his signature, "cba." "good!" came back the answer. "then listen hard--act quick--life at stake!" joe dawson not only listened. his thoughts flew with the dots and dashes of the wireless message; his right hand rushed the pencil in recording all of that wonderful message as it came to him. it was tragedy that dawson wrote down at the dictation of this impatient operator far out on the atlantic highways. almost in the midst of it came a feverish break-in from land, and another hand was playing in the great game of life and death, fame and dishonor, riches and intrigue. all was being unfolded by means of the unseen, far-reaching wireless telegraph. as joe listened, wrote, and occasionally broke in to send a few words, the dew of cold perspiration stood out on his brow. his fingers trembled. with a great effort of the will this motor boat boy steadied his nerves and muscles in order to see through to the end this mysterious thing coming out of space. while this was going on, joe dawson did not call out to either of his comrades. with an instinct that worked as fast as the wireless messages themselves, young dawson chose to put off calling the other motor boat boys until he had the whole startling tale to tell them--until he had in complete form the coming orders that would send all three of them and the "restless" on a tireless sea-chase. while this flood of dots and dashes is coming in from seaward, and from landward, it is well that the reader be put in possession of some information that will make clearer to him the nature of the dramatic events that followed this sudden in-pouring of wireless messages to the little "cba" bungalow station on this island off the north carolina coast. readers of the preceding volume of this series, "the motor boat club off long island," will at once recall that story, throbbing with the interest of human life--will remember how faithfully and wisely tom halstead, joe dawson and hank butts, all members of the motor boat club, served that leader in wall street finance, francis delavan, and the latter's nervous, wavering friend, eben moddridge. to such former readers the tale is familiar of how the motor boat club boys aided materially in frustrating a great conspiracy in finance, aimed against their employer. saved from ruin by the grit, keenness and loyalty of these three members of the motor boat club, messrs. delavan and moddridge had handsomely rewarded the boys for their signal services. as hank butts preferred, for family reasons, to spend his summers, and much of his other time, on long island, he had been presented with a thirty-foot launch, a shore lot at east hampton, and a "shack" and pier. tom halstead and joe dawson, fast friends and both from the same little kennebec river village, preferring always the broad ocean, had been made the owners of the "soudan," a fine, sea-going, fifty-five foot motor cruising yacht built for deep sea work. though the "soudan" had a very comfortable beam of fifteen feet, she was nevertheless equipped with twin gasoline motors that could send her over the waters at some twenty-five or twenty-six miles an hour. with the gift of the boat to tom and joe came also a present of money enough to make the two new young owners able to put her in commission and keep her going for awhile. it was not intended by messrs. delavan and moddridge that tom halstead and joe dawson should be able to keep their new prize and property running for their own pleasure. on the contrary the givers of this splendid present believed that the two boys would ply under charter for wealthy pleasure seekers, thus making a splendid living. in summer there were the northern waters; in winter the southern waters. thus it was believed that captain tom halstead and engineer joe dawson would be in a position to earn a handsome income from their boat the year around. at any time, should they so choose, they could sell the boat. sell her? it would almost have broken honest, impulsive, loyal tom halstead's heart to sell this precious boat! joe dawson, quiet though he was, would have flown into a rage at any suggestion of his parting with his interest in the handsome, capable little craft! the owners had re-christened the boat the "restless." within ten days after the boys had left the employ of mr. delavan, captain tom had encountered mr. powell seaton in new york. a few hours after that meeting the boys had had their boat chartered for at least the month of september. then, after receiving their orders, they proceeded south to their present location on lonely island, five miles off the mainland. they were accompanied by hank butts, who had left his small boat in other hands and accepted temporary employment on the "restless." the island possessed an area of about half a square mile. the bungalow itself, a shed that was used as an electric power station, and a third building that contained a telescope and some other astronomical apparatus were the sole interesting features of this island. after the chartering, and the payment of half the hire-money in advance for the month, not one of these motor boat club boys had laid eyes on mr. powell seaton. after cruising down from new york, and taking possession of the bungalow, as ordered, they had remained there ten whole days, idle and wondering. idle, that is, except for running the electric power plant as much as was needed, making their own beds and doing their own cooking. for what purpose had powell seaton wanted them and the "restless"? now, as dawson's active fingers pushed the pencil through the mazes of recorded messages, that active-minded young man began to get a glimpse. "sounds like something big, joe," smiled captain tom, his eyes twinkling under the visor of his uniform cap as he thrust his head in through the doorway. "it is," muttered joe, in a low but tense voice. "just wait. i've got one to send." his fingers moved busily at the key for a little while. then, snatching up the sheets of paper on which he had written, joe dawson leaped to his feet in such haste that he sent the chair spinning across the room. such impulsiveness in dawson was so utterly unusual that captain tom halstead gasped. "come on!" called joe, darting to the door. "down to the boat!" "where----?" began tom halstead, but he got only as far as that word, for joe shot back: "to sea!" "how----" again essayed halstead. "at full speed--the fastest we can travel!" called back joe, who was leaping down the porch steps. "any time to lock up?" demanded tom, half-laughingly. "yes--but hustle! i'll get the motor started and be waiting." hank butts was leaning indolently against one of the porch posts. "look at old joe sailing before a fair wind," he laughed, admiringly. "turn to, hank! help lock the windows and the doors--full speed ahead!" directed captain tom, with vigor. "joe dawson never goes off at racing speed like that unless he has his orders and knows what he's doing." "i thought you were the captain," grinned hank, as he sprang to obey. "so i am," halstead shot at the other boy. "but, just as it happens, joe has the sailing orders--and he can be trusted with 'em. now--everything is tight and the keys in my pocket. for the dock, on the run!" chug-chug! joe had surely been moving, for, by the time the other boys reached the dock, dawson had the hatchway of the motor room open and the twin motors had begun to move. the young engineer, an oil-can in hand, was watching the revolutions of the two handsome machines. "stand by the stern-line to throw off, hank," called captain tom, as he raced out onto the dock and made a plunge for the bow hawser. with this in hand he sprang aboard. "how soon, joe?" called the young skipper, throwing the canvas cover from the wheel down onto the bridge deck. "as soon as you like," was joe's answer, as he threw more speed into the twin motors. hank had the stern hawser in his hands by this time. halstead threw the wheel over slightly, warping the boat's graceful bow away from the dock under just a touch of speed ahead. "come aboard, hank!" called the young skipper. as soon as butts had obeyed with a flying leap, tom rang for half speed ahead, moving smoothly out of the little sand-bound harbor. "coil the hawsers, hank," directed the young skipper. "put the wheel cover away. then relieve joe. i want to hear from him." these three separate orders hank had executed within less than two minutes, and jumped down into the motor room. joe came on deck, holding the sheets of paper in his hand. "now, let's understand what the business is, anyway," suggested tom halstead. "who signaled us? mr. seaton?" "yes, but he wasn't the first one," dawson answered. "the first hail came from out of the sea, from the black b liner, 'constant,' addressed to any wireless station and tagged 'urgent.' here it is." one hand on the wheel, the young skipper received the sheet held out to him. it read: can you send fast boat instantly to take off badly injured passenger for medical treatment? passenger a. b. clodis, believed to be wealthy man from new york, discovered unconscious, perhaps dying, from fall. fractured skull. believe passenger or family to be able to pay handsomely for services. (signed) hampton, _captain_. "here's another sheet giving the ship's position at that moment," joe continued; "also her course and speed." "and you answered?" demanded halstead. "just as i started to, the wireless at beaufort broke in. it seems that mr. seaton is at beaufort, and that he heard, at once, of the trouble. here is mr. seaton's order." joe dawson held out another sheet, on which he had transcribed this wireless message: halstead, lonely island: clodis is my man on important matter. get him off ship, and with all speed. take him to lonely island, where i will arrive with surgeons and nurses. get all his baggage and papers off with him, and take greatest care of same. whole thing plotted by enemies. if they succeed it spells ruin for me and more than one tragedy. i depend on you boys; don't fail me! act at full speed. (signed) powell seaton. p. xxx s. "that comes from mr. seaton, all right," nodded captain tom. "that's his private signal, below his name, that he told us to look for on all orders of his. now, let me have a look again at the position and course of the 'constant.'" after studying the dispatch intently, captain halstead nodded to his chum to take the wheel. facing about, tom swung open the small chart-case secured to the top of the deck-house. with a small, accurate pocket rule he made some measurements. "at twenty-five miles an hour, joe, if you can keep it up, a straight sou'east by east course should bring us right in the path of the 'constant' on the course and speed she reports." "oh, we can keep the speed up," predicted joe, confidently. "but i can't fool with the engine, unless you insist. i ought to be back in the cabin, at the wireless instrument." "hank can keep at the motors, then," nodded captain tom. "go along, old fellow." joe paused but an instant to give hank the needed orders, then raced aft. at the after end of the cabin were two snug little staterooms; at the other end, forward, a table had been fitted up with wireless apparatus, for the twin motors of the boat generated, by means of a dynamo, electricity enough for a very respectable wireless spark. hardly had joe vanished when hank, satisfied with the performance of the motors, appeared on deck. the signal mast stood just behind the bridge deck. it was of light, hollow steel, with two inner tubes that, when extended, made an unusually high mast for such a boat. "we can run the extension mast up to full height in this light breeze, can't we, tom?" asked the long island boy. halstead nodded. so simple was the arrangement that, within a few moments, hank had the aerials well aloft. nor was he too soon, for this query came promptly through space from powell seaton, up at beaufort: "are you starting at once?" with a quiet grin, all alone there by the wireless apparatus, young dawson sparked back through the air: "three miles east, and running to intercept the 'constant.'" "good!" came clicking into joe dawson's watch-case receivers against his ears, a moment later. "then i won't bother you further. i trust you. but, oh, if you should fail! you don't know what failure means--to me!" all this, of course, was clicked out in the dot and dash code of the morse alphabet, but to joe dawson it was as plain as words spoken by the human voice. "you're right, mr. seaton." joe's busy right hand fingers clicked out the message on the sending key, while the electric waves sped from the aerials aloft outside. "we don't know what 'failure' means. we won't fail you. good-bye." then joe turned his attention to the "constant." the big black b liner answered promptly. she was on the same course, and glad to know that the "restless" was speeding over the sea to seek her. having finished in raising the extended signal mast, and glancing into the motor room to see that the motors were running smoothly, hank leaned against the raised deck top. the long island boy was hardly to be expected as a member of the crew of the "restless" on this cruise, but he had wound up the summer season at east hampton, and now, with idle september coming upon him, he had found the longing for the broad sea too powerful for him. family conditions at home being satisfactory, he had promised himself this one month away from home, and was aboard as steward and general helper. "i wonder if our work for mr. seaton has started in earnest?" ventured hank. "it has, for a few hours to-day, anyway," smiled captain tom. "we're cruising at full speed, and under orders from the man who chartered the 'restless' for this month." "but who can this clodis be?" "i don't know," tom halstead admitted. "i wonder why mr. seaton is so mightily interested in him? what does seaton mean by hinting at ruin and tragedies?" "do you know what i think, hank?" queried the young skipper, quietly. "what?" "i think it would be downright impudence on our part to get too inquisitive about the affairs of the man who employs us. we looked mr. seaton up, and found he had the reputation of being an honest man. that's as much of his business as we have any right to want to know." hank colored, though he went on, in an argumentative way: "i s'pose that's all true enough, tom. still, it's human nature, when you smell a big mystery, to want to know the meaning of at least some of it. and i'm mighty curious, because i scent something unusually big in the air." "so do i," admitted the young skipper, giving the wheel another turn in order to hold the fast-moving boat to her course. "then what----" "hold on, hank! don't be downright nosey. and, as for guessing----" "why, seaton as good as hints that there's been a downright attempt to kill this man clodis," broke in hank, who could not be repressed easily. "and seaton is surely mightily worked up about it. and sending us out to take a passenger off a steamer bound for south america! tom, do you s'pose that criminals are----" "hank," broke in the young skipper, half-severely, "there's something squeaking on one of the motors. for goodness' sake don't let us break down on what we've been told is a life-and-death trip! get below and see what's wrong. stand by to watch the performance of the motors." hank vanished, inwardly grumbling, for his curiosity was doing two hours' work every minute. captain tom, after measuring on the chart, had figured on meeting the "constant" in two hours and twenty minutes. now, at every turn of the twin shafts the young skipper's blood bounded with the desire to do his full duty in arriving on time. yet there was not wanting pleasure, mixed with the anxiety. how good the fresh, salty air tasted, out here on the broad sea, with the low coast-line already nearly out of sight! tom halstead sniffed in breath after breath. his eyes danced as they beheld the spraying of white water cut and turned up by the boat's fast prow. oh, it was great to be out here on the deep, one hand guiding the course of one of the nimblest yachts afloat! joe, as he came forward, felt this same wild exhilaration. quiet, dutiful and law-abiding as both these motor boat club boys were, there must have been much of the old norseman viking blood in their veins, for this swift dash over the rolling swell of the ocean was like a tonic to them both. "say, isn't it all grand?" demanded joe, his cheeks glowing, as he paused on the bridge deck, taking in great whiffs of the purest air supplied to man. "great!" admitted skipper tom, in a tone that was almost a cheer. then he asked, gravely: "any news?" "mr. seaton knows we have started, and expresses his pleasure. i've signaled the 'constant,' and she's still keeping to the same course, and will so continue." "and the patient, clodis?" "still alive, tom; but the ship's surgeon offers no hope, and will be glad to have us take him onto the 'restless.'" "it must be something terrible to make mr. seaton so anxious about the man," observed tom, thoughtfully. "yes," nodded joe. then: "say, tom, i've just struck an easy scheme for connecting one of the armatures of the morse register, aft, to a buzzer in the engine room. then if i happen to be in the engine room when wireless messages are traveling through the air i shall know it." in the next hour all three of the boys, though they did not talk much about it, were wondering about this tragedy of the deep sea that had called them into action. though they could not as yet guess it, this present affair of theirs was but the start of a series of adventures more amazing than any they had ever dreamed of. now, at the most, they were curious. soon they were to know what it meant to be astounded; they were soon to know what it felt like to feel haunted, to find themselves assailed by dread after dread. undoubtedly it was merciful for them that they could not, at this moment, peer behind the curtain of the immediate future. so, ignorant of what fate and destiny held in store for them, they were mainly intent, now, upon intercepting at the right point the big liner cruising swiftly southward. in another hour they made out smoke on the horizon where skipper tom judged the "constant" to be. later the spars of the steamship were visible through the marine glasses. then the hull appeared. a few minutes later captain tom ran the "restless" dashingly in alongside the great black hull of the liner, along whose starboard rail a hundred or more passengers had gathered. turning the wheel over to hank, captain tom halstead snatched up the megaphone as the larger vessel slowed down. "'constant,' ahoy!" bellowed the young skipper. "this is the yacht 'restless,' sent to receive your injured passenger, clodis." "'restless' ahoy!" came the response from the liner's bridge. "we'll lower our starboard side gangway, if you can come alongside safely." the motor boat club boys were at the threshold of their strangest, wildest succession of adventures! chapter ii some of the mystery unraveled "if we can come alongside safely," echoed hank, disgustedly. "i'll show 'em--and in a smooth swell of sea like this, too!" as the big steamship lay to, hank steered in until captain tom, boathook in hand, made fast temporarily. then hank hurried up with a line with which he took a fast hitch. "hey, there, you'll pull away our side gangway," roared down a mate, whose head and uniform cap showed over the rail above. "you don't know us," grinned joe dawson, quietly. by this time tom halstead was running lightly up the steps of the gangway. he reached the small platform above, then passed to the deck. he was met by captain hampton, who inquired: "where's your sailing master, young man?" "right before you, captain." "you?" "yes, sir." "who are your owners?" demanded captain hampton, much astonished by tom's quiet assurance. "i'm captain and half-owner of the 'restless,' sir," halstead continued, still smiling at the other captain's very evident astonishment. "the other owner is the engineer, joe dawson, my chum." captain hampton swallowed something very hard. several of the passengers were smiling. a man who has followed the sea for years knows the capacity and efficiency that boys often display on shipboard, but it is unusual to find a boy acting as master of a yacht. however, there was the "restless," and there was tom halstead in the captain's uniform. these were facts that could not be disputed. "you have a passenger, a mr. clodis, that you want to have me take off?" resumed tom. "yes; you have come for him, then?" "not only that, but mr. seaton, the gentleman who has our boat in charter, has very urgently ordered us to bring mr. clodis ashore; also his baggage complete, and any and all papers that he may have brought aboard." "you have a comfortable berth on your boat?" "several of them," tom answered. "then i'll have some of my men make the transfer at once. our ship's surgeon, dr. burke, will also go over the side and see that mr. clodis is made as comfortable as possible for his trip ashore." "steward butts will show your men to the port stateroom, aft, sir." a mate hurried away to give the order to dr. burke. a boatswain was directed to attend to having all of mr. clodis's baggage go over the side. "come to my stateroom, sir, if you please," requested captain hampton, and tom followed. "when you take a man with a fractured skull ashore, the authorities may want some explanation," declared the 'constant's' sailing master, opening his desk. "here is a statement, therefore, that i have prepared and signed. take it with you, captain----" "halstead," supplied tom. the motor boat boy glanced hurriedly through the document. "i see you state it was an accident, captain hampton," went on halstead, lowering his voice. "our charter-man, mr. seaton, intimated that he believed it might have been a deliberate assault. have you anything that you wish to say on this point, sir?" "i don't believe it was an assault," replied the ship's master, musingly. halstead's quick eye noted that hampton appeared to be a sturdy, honest sea-dog. "still, captain halstead, if you would like to question the steward who found mr. clodis at the foot of the main saloon companionway----" "have you made the investigation thoroughly, sir?" "i think so--yes." "then nothing is likely to be gained, captain, by my asking any questions of a steward you have already questioned." the mate came back to report that mr. clodis had been carried over the side, and that his baggage had been taken aboard the "restless." "i know you don't want a liner held up," tom went on, slipping captain hampton's report of the accident into his pocket. "i'll go over the side, sir, as soon as you can ascertain whether mr. clodis had any papers that ought to be sent ashore with him." "there are none in the injured man's pockets," replied the steamship's sailing master, "and none were deposited with the purser. so, if there are any papers, they must be in mr. clodis's trunk or bag." "thank you, sir. then i'll bid you good-bye and hurry over the side," said halstead, energetically. as they stepped out of the stateroom a passenger who had been lingering near stepped up. "oh, one moment," said captain hampton, suddenly. "captain halstead, this gentleman is mr. arthur hilton. since leaving new york he has received some wireless news that makes him anxious to return. he wants to go ashore with you." arthur hilton had stepped forward, holding out his hand, which tom took in his own. mr. hilton was a man of about thirty, smooth-faced, with firm set jaws. though evidently not a spaniard, he had the complexion usual to that race. his dark eyes were keen and sharp, though they had a rather pleasant look in them. he was slender, perhaps five feet eight inches tall, and, although his waist and legs were thin, he had broad, rather powerful looking shoulders. "you can set me ashore, can't you, young man, for a ten-dollar bill?" inquired hilton. "certainly, if captain hampton knows no reason why you shouldn't leave the vessel," tom answered. "mr. hilton has surrendered his passage ticket, and there is nothing to detain him aboard," replied the steamship's master. "your baggage ready, sir?" asked tom. "nothing but this bag," laughed hilton, stepping back and picking up his hand luggage. "come along, then, sir." as tom halstead pressed his way through the throng of passengers gathered on deck, he heard several wondering, and some admiring, remarks relative to the youthfulness of the skipper of so handsome and trim a yacht. hilton followed the young skipper down over the side. tom turned to help him to the deck of the "restless," but hilton lightly leaped across, holding his bag before him. tom halstead, as he turned, got a good look at that bag. it was one that he was likely to remember for many a day. the article was of dark red leather, and on one side the surface for a space as large as a man's hand had been torn away, probably in some accident. "here's the passage money, captain," said hilton, passing over a ten-dollar bill. murmuring his thanks, the young skipper crumpled up the bill, shoving it into a trousers pocket, then hurried aft. clodis was a short, almost undersized man of perhaps forty-five, stout and well dressed. his head was so bandaged, as he lay in the lower berth of the port stateroom, that not much of his face was visible. "he's unconscious, and probably will be for hours," stated dr. burke, as captain tom appeared in the doorway. "if he comes to, i've left some medicine with your steward, to be given the patient. of course you'll get him ashore and under medical care as promptly as possible, captain." "surgeons are on the way from beaufort to meet us," the young skipper nodded. "then i'll return to my ship," declared dr. burke, rising. "but i'm glad to know that mr. clodis is going to be met by a friend." as the doctor hurried over the side, hilton turned to walk aft. "stay forward, if you please, sir," interposed captain tom. "no one is to go into the cabin until the patient has been removed under a doctor's orders." there was a frown on hilton's face, which, however, almost instantly vanished. joe brought a deck arm chair and placed it for mr. hilton on the bridge deck. "good luck for you and your patient, sir," called down captain hampton over the rail, as he prepared to get under headway. "thank you, sir," tom acknowledged. "we'll take the best care of mr. clodis that we know how." with hank on duty in the cabin, tom halstead had to cast off and make his own start as best he could. he managed the double task neatly, however, and, as he fell away the "constant's" engine-room bell could be heard for half-speed-ahead. the little auto-whistle of the "restless" sounded shrilly, to be answered with a long, deep-throated blast from the liner's steam whistle. with this brief interchange of sea courtesies the two craft fell apart, going on their respective ways. "full speed on the return?" called joe, from the doorway of the motor room. "yes," nodded captain tom. "but look out for vibration. our sick man has had his skull cracked." by the time the yacht had gone scooting for more than a mile over the waves, captain halstead, left hand on the wheel, turned to hilton. "did you hear how our sick man came to be hurt, sir?" "i didn't hear of it until a couple of hours after it happened," replied hilton. "i understand that mr. clodis fell down the stairs leading to the main saloon, and was picked up unconscious. that was about all the word that was given out on board." captain tom nodded, then gave his whole attention to making lonely island as speedily as possible. there was no land in sight, and the trip back was a long one. yet the young skipper had his bearings perfectly. they were still some eight miles off lonely island when hilton roused himself at sight of a low-hulled, black schooner scudding north under a big spread of canvas. "you're going to pass close to that boat, aren't you, captain?" asked the bridge deck passenger. "yes, sir; pretty close." "as i understand it, you're going to land at an island some miles off the coast, whereas i wish to reach the mainland at the earliest possible moment, and catch a railway train. so, captain, if you'll signal that schooner and put me aboard, i shall feel under sufficient obligation to hand you another ten-dollar bill." that looked so much like earning money rapidly that halstead called joe up from the motor room to set the signal. the schooner lay to until overtaken. hilton discovered that the schooner was bound for beaufort, and the bargain was quickly completed. a small boat put off from the sailing vessel and the bridge deck passenger, his noticeable bag included, was transferred. the "restless" was nearer lonely island, and the schooner was hull down, when captain tom suddenly started as joe dawson stepped upon deck. "blazes, joe!" exclaimed the young skipper. "i'm afraid we've done it!" "i'm afraid so, too," came quietly from the young engineer. "that fellow hilton, so anxious to get ashore, may be the very chap who struck down mr. clodis!" "the thought had just come to me," admitted joe. "yes! you know, mr. seaton hinted that the 'accident' might have been an attempt to kill." captain and engineer of the "restless" stared disconcertedly at each other. "now, why did i have to go and make such a fearful stumble as that?" groaned tom. "you didn't, any more than i did," joe tried to console him. "we should, at least, have kept hilton aboard until mr. seaton had had a chance to look him over." "i could send a wireless to the beaufort police to grab hilton on landing," suggested joe, doubtfully, but tom halstead shook his head energetically. "no; the beaufort police wouldn't do that on our say-so, joe. and, even if they did, we might get ourselves into a lot of trouble." the "restless" kept smoothly, swiftly on her way, bounding over the low, gentle swell of the calm ocean. tom shivered whenever he thought of the possibility of the motors becoming cranky. with such important human freight aboard any mishap to the machinery would be extremely serious. "joe," called tom, at last, as the yacht came in sight of lonely island, "there's a tug at our dock." dawson came on deck, taking the marine glass from his chum's hand. "i guess mr. seaton has been hustling, then. he couldn't have come from beaufort on the tug, after all the trouble of rounding up doctors. he must have come down the shore in an automobile, and then engaged the tug near the island." as the "restless" went closer, the tug, with two short toots of its whistle, moved out from the dock. powell seaton, in broad-brimmed hat and blue serge, waved his hand vigorously at the boys. with him stood three men, presumably surgeons. captain tom halstead sounded three short blasts of the auto-whistle to signal the success of his errand, while joe swung his uniform cap over his head. "get down to your engines, joe," called captain tom. "i'm going to make a swift landing that will be in keeping with mr. seaton's impatience." up to within nearly two hundred yards of the dock the "restless" dashed in at full speed. then signaling for half speed, next for the stop, and finally for the reverse, captain tom swung the yacht in almost a semi-circle, running up with bare headway so that the boat lay in gently against the string-piece. in that instant tom, leaving the wheel, bounded up onto the dock, bow hawser in hand, and made the loop fast over the snubbing post. in the same instant joe dawson, cat-footed, raced aft, next leaping ashore with the stern hawser. "jove, but that was a beautiful bit of boat-handling--a superb piece of seamanship!" muttered one of the surgeons, admiringly. powell seaton, however, stopped to hear none of this. he gripped tom by the arm, demanding hoarsely: "you brought clodis ashore? how is he? where?" "still unconscious, sir, and the ship's doctor offered no hope. you will find your friend in the port stateroom, sir." signing to the surgeons to accompany him, mr. seaton vanished aft, the medical men with him. ten minutes passed before hank came up, alone. "what do the doctors say, hank?" demanded tom, instantly. "one chance in about a million," replied hank, in a very subdued voice--for him. five minutes later mr. seaton, hat in hand, also came up on deck. "mr. seaton," murmured tom, eagerly, "i've been waiting for you. i--we've something to tell you." then the young skipper detailed the affair of taking arthur hilton from the "constant" and transferring him to the beaufort-bound schooner. "describe the fellow!" commanded powell seaton, suddenly, hoarsely. captain tom did so. "arthur hilton he called himself, did he?" cried mr. seaton, in a rage. "anson dalton is the scoundrel's real name!" "who is he, sir?" tom asked, anxiously. "who is anson dalton?" cried mr. seaton, his voice sounding as though he were choking. "who, but the scoundrel who has engineered this whole desperate plot against me! the dastard who struck down allan clodis! the knave who has striven for the badge of cain!" chapter iii invisible hands at the wireless in a rear bedroom, the furthest apartment from the wireless room of the bungalow, allan clodis, barely alive, was placed when they bore him up from the boat. then the three surgeons, retaining only hank butts, drove the others from the room. "back to the wireless!" breathed seaton, tensely. "dawson, get beaufort on the jump." "i have the beaufort operator," reported joe, after a few moments. "then rush this message, and ask the operator to get it in the hands of the chief of police without an instant's loss of time," directed mr. seaton, speaking in jerky haste. the message described anson dalton, also the black schooner on which he had last been seen. the police chief was asked to arrest dalton on sight, on the authority of powell seaton, and hold him for the united states authorities, for an attempt at homicide on an american ship on the high seas. within ten minutes back came the reply from beaufort to this effect: "i have men out watching for the schooner. man dalton will be arrested as you request. will notify you." "good!" cried mr. seaton, rubbing his hands vengefully. "oh, dalton, you scoundrel, you can't escape us now, for long! you knew that, if you continued down the coast, there was danger that a united states revenue cutter would intercept the ship and take you off. at best, you knew you would be arrested at rio janeiro, if i suspected you, as i was bound to do. so you tried to steal ashore here, to be swallowed up in the mazes of this broad country at least an hour or two ahead of pursuit. and, but for the wireless spark that leaps through space, you could have done so. but we shall have you now." "unless----" began tom halstead, hintingly, then paused. "unless--what?" insisted mr. seaton. "suppose dalton is shrewd enough to pay the captain of the schooner to land him at some other point, where there is neither a policeman nor a telegraph station?" seaton made a noise that sounded as though he were grinding his teeth. then he picked up a pencil, writing furiously. "send this to the police chief at beaufort," he ordered. joe dawson's fingers made the sending-key sing. the message was one warning the police chief that dalton might attempt to land at some point outside of beaufort, and asking him to cover all near points along the coast. mr. seaton offered to make good any expense that this would entail. once more, in a few minutes, the answer was at hand. "chief of police at beaufort says," joe translated the dots and dashes, "that his authority does not extend beyond the city limits." again mr. seaton began to show signs of fury. then, as though to force self-control, he trod softly out of the room, going toward the door of the sick-room, where hank butts stood guard. "no news, sir; no change," hank reported, in an undertone. "i'm afraid mr. seaton is pretty angry with us," said tom halstead, gravely, "for allowing hilton--dalton, i mean--to get away from us." "then he may as well get over it," commented joe dawson, quietly. "we're hired to furnish a boat, to sail it, and, incidentally, to run a wireless telegraph apparatus. we didn't engage ourselves as policemen." "true," nodded young captain halstead. "still, i might have done some quicker thinking. my! what would dalton have felt like if i had run straight for this dock, refusing to put him aboard any other craft?" "if you had tried to do that," retorted joe, with another quiet smile, "do you know, tom, what i think your friends would have been doing and saying of you?" "no; of course not." "your friends would have been sending flowers, and bringing tears. they would be looking at you, to-morrow, and saying, in undertones: 'goodness, how natural he looks!'" halstead was puzzled for a moment or two. then, comprehending, he grinned, though he demanded: "you think dalton would have dared anything like that?" "well, you notice what kind of a rascal mr. seaton thinks dalton is. and you know we don't go armed aboard the 'restless.' now, i'm pretty certain that dalton could have displayed and used weapons if we had given him any cause to do so." ten minutes later, when powell seaton entered the room, he beheld captain tom halstead seated at the operator's table, sealing an envelope that he had just directed. "what are you doing, captain?" asked the charter-man. "you know that miserable twenty dollars that i took from anson dalton for passage money?" inquired halstead, looking up. "yes." "i've just enclosed the money in this envelope, with a note." "going to return the money to dalton when you find his address?" smiled mr. seaton, wearily. "no, sir," retorted tom, in a voice sharp with disgust. "dalton seems to have more money, already, than is good for him. i've addressed this envelope to a county institution down in the state that i come from." "a public institution?" "yes, sir; the home for feeble-minded youth." "don't take it so hard as that, halstead," urged mr. seaton. "had you had a suspicion you would have done whatever lay in your power. i might have warned you against dalton, but the truth is, _i_ did not imagine he would be right on the scene." saying which, powell seaton walked away by himself. he was gravely, even sadly preoccupied. though captain halstead could not even guess what the underlying mystery was, he knew that it seriously affected mr. seaton's plans and fortune. their charter-man was worried almost past endurance, though bravely trying to hide the fact. after the consultation of the surgeons, two of them departed aboard the tug, the third remaining to care for the patient. hank, despite all his bluntness of manner, was proving himself valuable in the sick-room, while joe spent most of his time in the wireless room of the bungalow, waiting to receive or send any word. so, as evening came, tom halstead bestirred himself with the preparation of the evening meal. by dark there was a considerable wind blowing. halstead left his cooking long enough to run down and make sure that all was snug and tight aboard the "restless." the young skipper had fairly to fight his way against the wind on his return to the bungalow. "there's going to be a tough old gale to-night," tom muttered to himself, as he halted, a moment, on the porch, to study the weather conditions. as yet, it was blowing only fairly hard. as the little group at the bungalow seated themselves at supper, however, the storm broke, with a deluge of rain and a sharp roar of thunder. "this will bother wireless conditions to-night, won't it?" queried mr. seaton, as they ate. "some, perhaps, if the gale and the storm keep up," replied joe dawson. "but i imagine the worst of the gale is passing now." and so it proved. an hour later the rain was falling steadily, though only in a drizzle. the wind had moderated a good deal. as all hands, save hank, sat in the sitting room of the bungalow, after the meal, the warning bell from the apparatus room suddenly tinkled. "you see, sir," said joe, rising quickly, "the wireless is still able to work." he passed into the next room, seating himself by the instruments and slipping on the head-band that held the receivers. "from beaufort, sir," joe said, presently, looking up. "the police report that no such schooner has landed at that city." "acknowledge the message of the police," directed mr. seaton, "and ask them not to give up the lookout through the night. tell the chief of police that i'll gladly meet any expense that may be incurred." joe's right hand reached out for the sending-key. then a blank look flashed across his face. "something wrong with the sending-key connections," he explained, in a low voice, leaping up. he examined the connections closely, yet, the more he looked, the more puzzled he became. "the storage batteries can't have given out," he muttered, snatching up a lighted lantern. "but i'll go and look at them." out into the little dynamo shed he darted, followed by powell seaton and by tom. the doctor was dozing in an arm-chair. joe gave two or three swift looks at the dynamo, the storage battery connections and other parts of the apparatus. then his face went white with rage. "look here, mr. seaton," he panted, hoarsely. "there's been some infernal work here--someone else has been on the island, for none of our crowd would do such a trick! not even in fun! look, sir, at where the parts have been tampered with. look where pliers have been used to cut the wire connections. see where these two bolts have been neatly removed with the help of wrenches. look at----" joe paused, then glanced wildly around. "great scott!" he groaned. "just the parts removed that can't be replaced. the whole generating plant crippled! mr. seaton, until we get in touch with the mainland, and get some needed supplies there, we can't use this wireless plant again. we can receive messages--yes, up to any limit, but not a word can we send away from here." "but who can have done this trick?" gasped powell seaton, looking as though amazement had numbed him, as, indeed, it almost had. "someone has landed here, since dark," broke in tom halstead, all a-quiver with dismay. "while we were at supper some sneak or sneaks have landed on this island. they have pried their way in here, and they've crippled our connection with the outside world." "they could do it all easily enough, without making any noise," confirmed joe. "yes--they've done a splendid job, from a scoundrel's point of view!" "then you can't make this apparatus work for the sending of even a single message?" demanded mr. seaton. "not until we've landed some necessary repair and replacement materials from the mainland," replied joe, with a disgusted shake of his head. "but you can still send messages from the 'restless,'" hinted powell seaton. tom halstead bounded for the door of the dynamo shed with a sudden exclamation of dread. "we can use the boat's wireless," nodded joe, following, and speaking over his shoulder, "unless the same crowd of rascals have broken into the boat's motor room or cabin and played us the same trick there." in the big sitting room, beside the large open fire-place, was a pile of long sticks of firewood. tom halstead stopped to snatch up one of these, and joe quickly followed suit. "i'll go down to the boat with you, boys," said mr. seaton, who had followed them. "if there's anyone around to put up a fight you'll want some help." but captain tom, acting, for the moment, as though he were aboard the yacht, suddenly took command. "mr. seaton," he said, "you'd better remain here to guard your unconscious friend. doctor, wake up! better go in and send hank butts out on the trot. we'll take him with us." dr. cosgrove, awaking and realizing that something important was happening, swiftly moved off to the sick-room. hank was speedily out with his comrades. "if there are rascals on this island, who have designs against you, mr. seaton, then mount guard over your friend," tom added. "better be in the sick-room at any moment when dr. cosgrove leaves there. hank, get a club from that pile. now, come along, fellows, and we'll see what infernal mischief may have been done to the 'restless.'" with that, the young skipper bounded out onto the porch, thence running down the board walk toward the dock. tom halstead had some vague but highly uneasy notions as to the safety of his beloved boat. yet, alarmed as he was, he was hardly prepared for the shock that met him when he arrived at the edge of the little wharf. "say, can you beat that?" panted young halstead, halting, thunderstruck, and gazing back at his stupefied comrades. "the rascals--whoever they are--have stolen the 'restless.' joe, our splendid boat is gone!" chapter iv taking a great chance joe, with a voiceless gulp, sprang forward once more, pausing at the string-piece only, and peering hard out into the black, wet night. hank butts brought his club down over a snubbing post with such force as to shatter the weapon. for a few moments tom halstead stood looking about him in an uncertain way, as though trying to arouse himself from a hideous nightmare. "they've stolen our boat!" he gasped. whoever had done this deed might almost as well have taken the young captain's life. the "restless" was a big part of that life. "oh, well," muttered hank, thickly, "whoever took the yacht must leave it somewhere. you can't hide a craft of that size. we'll hear from the 'restless' all right, in a day or two--or in a week, anyway." "whoever took the yacht away from here may know next to nothing about handling a boat," choked tom, hoarsely. "we may find the dear old craft again--yes--but perhaps wedged on the rocks somewhere,--a hopeless wreck. o-o-oh! it makes me feel ugly and heartsick, all in one!" "the 'restless' can't have broken loose during the storm, can it?" asked hank butts. "no," retorted tom and joe in the same breath, and with the utmost positiveness. "well, what are we going to do?" asked hank. the answer to the question was hard to find. lonely island lay five miles off the shore. wireless communication was out of the question. they were out of the track of passing vessels, nor was any stray, friendly craft at all likely to show up on this dark, forbidding night. "come on back, fellows," said tom, chokingly. "there's nothing we can do here, and mr. seaton must know the whole situation." the owner of the bungalow listened to them with a blank face when the motor boat club boys again stood before him. "i can't even guess what to make out of this," he confessed. "it would help dalton greatly if mr. clodis died to-night, wouldn't it, sir?" inquired the young skipper. "it would help dalton much, and be of still greater value to the wretches behind dalton," replied mr. seaton, grinding his teeth. "then, sir, as the tug went back to mainland with two of the doctors, isn't it possible that some spy may have concluded that _all_ the doctors had returned until summoned again?" "that seems very likely," nodded the owner of the bungalow. "then perhaps dalton--and those behind him--hope that mr. clodis will become much worse, and die before you can again summon help from the mainland." "that looks more likely than any other explanation of these strange happenings," agreed mr. seaton, studying the floor, while the frown on his face deepened. "and the scoundrels," quavered tom, "may even come back during the night and try to make _sure_ that mr. clodis dies without ever becoming conscious." "i don't quite see why they need care so much," replied mr. seaton, slowly. "dalton got all of clodis's papers--the ones that i wanted preserved from the wretches back of dalton." "are you sure they have _all_?" propounded captain halstead. "why, clodis carried the papers in a money-belt, and, in undressing him, we found that belt gone." "have you looked through the baggage that we brought ashore with mr. clodis?" "i haven't thought of it. haven't had time," replied mr. seaton. "but i will now. mr. clodis's steamer trunk is in the room with him. we'll bring it out, and search." tom and hank brought the trunk out. "the lock hasn't been tampered with, you see, sir," suggested halstead. "here are clodis's keys," replied powell seaton, producing a ring. one of the keys he fitted to the trunk lock, next throwing up the lid. after rummaging for a few moments, mr. seaton brought up a sealed envelope from the bottom of the trunk. "dalton _would_ have been glad to get this," he cried, with a near approach to delight. "lock it up tight in your innermost pockets then, sir," counseled tom halstead. "the contents of that envelope must be what dalton has come back here for, or sent someone else for. and, until he gets it, he must plan to keep lonely island out of touch with the whole world. we'll hear from him again to-night, i'm thinking." "will we?" flared mr. seaton, stepping briskly across the room. unlocking a cupboard door, he brought out a repeating shot-gun. from an ammunition box he helped himself to several shells, fitting six of them into the magazine of the gun. "buckshot talks, sometimes," said the owner of the bungalow, more quietly. "i shall be awake to-night, and have this gun always with me." "have you any other weapons, sir?" asked tom. "yes; a revolver--here it is." powell seaton held out the weapon, but halstead shook his head. "dr. cosgrove is the one who'll want that, since he must stay by mr. clodis to-night. and, see here, mr. seaton, impress upon the doctor that he mustn't take a nap, even for a moment. as for you, you'll want to be watching the house in general." "why, where will you young men be?" inquired mr. seaton. "we couldn't stay indoors, with our boat gone, sir," tom answered. "the first thing we must do is to explore all around the island. even if we don't get a sign of the 'restless,' we may find out something else. we may be able to catch someone trying to land on this island later to-night." "yes; it will be best to have guards outside roaming about the island," admitted powell seaton, readily. then, lowering his voice as he signed to the motor boat club boys to draw closer to him, mr. seaton added: "something, of some nature, _will_ be attempted to-night. there is no other sound explanation of the crippling of the wireless and the stealing of the boat. so be vigilant, boys--as i shall also be while you're gone." hank helped himself to a fresh club--a stouter one than that which he had broken over the snubbing post at the dock. then out into the black night fared the three motor boat club boys. "shall we keep together, or spread?" asked joe dawson. "together," nodded tom halstead. "if there are prowlers about, we can't tell how soon three of us may be even too few. remember, we have only firewood to fight with, and we don't know what kind of men we may run up against." so tom led his friends down to a point but little south of the dock. from here, following the shore, they started to prowl slowly around lonely island, all the while keeping a sharp watch to seaward. "if the boat is in any waters near at hand we ought to get some sign of her whereabouts by keeping a sharp enough watch," tom advised his comrades. "they can't sail or handle the boat without the occasional use of a light in the motor room. the gleam of a lantern across the water may be enough to give us an idea where she is." peering off into the blackness of the night, this seemed like rather a forlorn hope. "if whoever has stolen the boat intends to land later to-night," hinted joe, "it's much more likely that the thieves are, at this moment, a good, biggish distance away, so as not to give us any clew to their intentions." in the course of twenty minutes the motor boat club boys had made their way around to the southern end of the island. somewhat more than a mile to the southward lay a small, unnamed island. it was uninhabited, and too sandy to be of value to planters. yet it had one good cove of rather deep water. tom halted, staring long and hard in the direction where he knew this little spot on the ocean to stand. it was too black a night for any glimpse of the island to be had against the sky. "that would be a good enough place for our pirates to have taken the 'restless,'" he muttered, to his comrades. "if we only had a boat, we could know, bye-and-bye," muttered hank, discontentedly. "we have been known to swim further than that," said joe, quietly. "but never in such a sea as is running to-night," sighed tom halstead. "even as the water is, i'd like to chance it, but i'm afraid it would be useless. and it would leave mr. seaton and the doctor alone against any surprise." "i'd swim that far, or drown, even in this sea," muttered dawson, vengefully, "if i had any idea that our boat lay over that way." for two or three minutes the boys stood there, talking. not once did tom halstead turn his eyes away from the direction of the island to the southward. "look there!" the young skipper finally uttered, clutching at joe's elbow. "did you see that?" "yes," voiced joe, in instant excitement. "that" was a tiny glow of light, made small by the distance. "it's a lantern, being carried by someone," continued captain tom, after a breathless pause. "there--it vanishes! oh, i say--gracious!" joe, too, gave a gasp. as for hank butts, that youth commenced to breathe so hard that there was almost a rattle to his respiration. immediately following the disappearance of the distant light, four smaller, dimmer lights appeared, in a row. "that's the same light, showing through the four starboard ports of the motor room," trembled joe dawson. "starboard, because the lantern was carried forward, before it disappeared briefly in the hatchway of the motor room." "that's our boat--there isn't a single doubt of it," cried tom halstead, enthusiastically. "and now--oh, fellows! we've simply got to swim over there, rough sea or smooth sea. we've got to get our own boat back unless the heavens fall on us on the way over!" "humph! what are we going to do," demanded hank butts, "if we find a gang aboard that we can't whip or bluff?" "that," spoke captain tom, softly, "will have to be decided after we get there. but swim over there we must, since there isn't anything on this island that even looks like a boat. see here, joe, you and hank trot up to the bungalow and tell mr. seaton what we've seen. the 'restless' is at anchor in the cove yonder. there are plenty of logs up at the bungalow. come back with one big enough to buoy us up in the water, yet not so big but what we can steer it while swimming. and bring with it a few lengths of that quarter-inch cord from the dynamo room. don't be too long, will you, fellows?" after joe and hank had departed, tom halstead watched the light shining behind the four distant ports until it disappeared. then he looked at the waves long and wonderingly. "it's a big chance to take. i don't know whether we can ever get out there in a sea like this," he muttered. "yet, what wouldn't i do to get control of our own boat again? our own boat--the good old 'restless'! joe isn't saying much of anything; he never does, but i know how he feels over the stealing of the boat and the chance that bunglers may leave her on the rocks somewhere along this coast!" a few minutes passed. then the young skipper heard hurrying footsteps. joe and hank hove into sight out of the deep gloom, bearing an eight-foot log on their shoulders. "good enough," nodded halstead, eyeing the log approvingly. "now, wade into the water with it, and let's see whether it will buoy us all up at need." all three waded out with the log, until they were in nearly up to their shoulders. "now, hang to it, and see if it will hold us up," commanded captain tom halstead. the log bore them up, but the crest of a big wave, rolling in, hurled them back upon the beach. tom dragged the log up onto dry ground. "now, first of all, let's lash our clubs to the log," suggested the young skipper. this was soon accomplished. then each of the motor boat club boys made a medium length of the cord fast around his chest, under the arm-pits. "the next trick," proposed halstead, "is to make the other end fast to the log, allowing just length enough so that you can swim well clear of the log itself, and yet be able to haul yourselves back to the log in case you find your strength giving out." this took some calculation, but at last the three motor boat boys decided that eight feet of line was the proper length. this decided, and accomplished, they carried the log down into the water, and pushed resolutely off into the blackness. even tom halstead, who allowed himself few doubts, little believed that they could accomplish this long, dangerous swimming cruise over a rough sea. chapter v tom matches one trick with another at the outset joe swam at the rear, frequently giving a light push to send the log riding ahead. tom and hank swam on either side, half-towing the timber that was to be their buoy when needed. all three, reared at the edge of salt water, as they had been, were strong, splendid swimmers. this night, however, with the rough waves, the feat was especially dangerous. "swim the way a fellow does when he knows he's really _got_ to," was the young skipper's terse advice as they started. it became a contest of endurance. tom and joe, the two maine boys, were doggedly determined to reach their boat or perish in the attempt. hank butts, the long island boy, though perhaps possessing less fine courage than either of his comrades, had a rough way of treating danger as a joke. this may have been a pretense, yet in times of peril it passed well enough for grit. any one of the three could have swum a mile readily on a lightly rolling sea, but to-night the feat was a vastly sterner one. hank was the first to give out, after going a little more than an eighth of the distance. he swam to the log, throwing his right arm over it and holding on while the two maine boys pushed and towed it. finally, when young butts had broken away to swim, joe closed in, holding to the log for a while. at last it came even doughty tom halstead's turn to seek this aid to buoyancy. nor had they covered half the distance, in all, when all three found themselves obliged to hold to the log, as it rolled and plunged, riding the waves. worst of all, despite their exertions, all three now found their teeth chattering. "say, it begins to look like a crazy undertaking," declared hank, with blunt candor. "can we possibly make it?" "we've got to," retorted tom halstead, his will power unshaken. "i don't see the light over there any more," observed hank, speaking the words in jerks of one syllable, so intense was the shaking of his jaws. "maybe the boat isn't over yonder any longer," admitted captain tom, "but we've got to chance it. and say, we'd better shove off and try to swim again, to warm ourselves up. we're in danger of shaking ourselves plum to pieces." there was another great peril, on which none of them had calculated well enough before starting. when they were clear of the log, swimming, it pitched so on the tops of the waves that it was likely, at any instant, to drive against the head of one of the swimmers and crack his skull. "if we had known all this before we started----" began hank, the next time the three swimmers were driven to cling, briefly, to their movable buoy. "we'd have started just the same," retorted tom, as stiffly as his chattering teeth would let him speak. "humph!" muttered hank, unbelievingly. "it's a fool's dream, this kind of a swim." "it's less work to go ahead than to turn back, now," broke in joe, his teeth accompanying his words with the clatter of castanets. "no; the wind and tide would be with us going back," objected butts. "we could almost drift back." "and die of chills on the way," contended tom, doggedly. "no, sir! we've got to go ahead. i'm swimming to the tune of thoughts of the galley fire aboard the 'restless'!" "br-r-r!" shook hank, as the three cast loose from the log once more and struck out, panting, yet too cold to stay idle any longer. it was tantalizing enough. the longer they swam, the more the boys began to believe that the island they sought was retreating from before them. hank was almost certain they were moving in a circle, but halstead, with a keen sense of location, insisted that they were going straight, even if very slowly, to the nameless island. "i see it," breathed the young skipper, exultantly, at last. "what--the island?" bellowed hank butts. "no; but i'd swear i saw the 'restless' the last time we rode a high wave," halstead shouted back. ten minutes afterwards all three of the motor boat club boys caught occasional glimpses of something dark and vague that they believed to be the hull of their yacht. the belief gave them renewed courage. even hank no longer had any desire to turn back. his whole thought centered on the lively times that were likely to begin when they tried to regain control of their boat from whomever had stolen it. then, bit by bit the trio worked their log buoy into the cove. once they were inside, the water was very much smoother. resting a few moments for breath, they then made a last dash forward, to get alongside. in this smoother, more shallow water, the "restless" rode securely at anchor. as they swam closer, the boys found that they could discover no human presence on the decks. had the boat-stealers gone ashore on the nameless island? if so, it would be a comparatively easy matter to get aboard and cut out of the cove with their own craft. close up alongside they went. tom halstead was the first to be able to reach up at the hull and draw himself up over the side. then, with his pocket-knife, as he lay at the rail of the "restless," the young skipper slashed the cord that still held him bound to the log. reaching over, he passed the knife to hank. in utter silence the long island boy cut the clubs free, and passed them up. next hank drew himself aboard, after passing the jackknife to joe dawson. just a little later all three of the motor boat club boys found themselves standing on the deck, each grasping his own firewood weapon. they made no noise, for they knew not who, or how many others might be on board below. if they had a desperate gang of thieves to contend with, then their troubles had not yet even begun! joe and hank stood where they were, shaking as though in the last ditch of ague, while halstead went forward, with the soft tread of a cat, to peer down into the motor room, the hatchway of which stood open. "wonder if there's anyone down there, asleep, or playing possum?" thought the young skipper as he peered into the blackness and listened. no sound of any kind came up to him. at last, a short step at a time, halstead descended into the motor room, groping cautiously about. finally, he became confident enough to feel in the galley match-box, extract a match and light it. the tiny flame showed him that the motor room was empty of human presence other than his own. "no one down forward," he reported, in a shaking whisper, when he rejoined his chilled companions on deck. "i believe there are plenty of folks in the cabin, though," reported joe. "they've drawn the port-hole and transom curtains, but they've got a hidden light down there, and i can hear voices." "wait a moment, then," said captain tom, apprehensively. "i've an idea." he crept back into the motor room, again striking a match. by the aid of this feeble light he found his way to the passageway that connected the motor room and the cabin under the bridge deck. after a brief inspection he hurried back to his comrades. "the passage door is padlocked on the motor room side," he whispered. "our pirates had no key to unlock that with. now, can you walk the deck as though your shoes were soled with loose cotton?" "yes," grumbled hank, disjointedly, "but the snare-drum solo my teeth are doing may make noise enough to give me away." "cram your handkerchief between your teeth," retorted captain tom, practically. "come along, fellows. but hold your clubs ready in case your feet betray you." stealing along, each holding to the edge of the deck house with one hand, the motor boat boys approached the after hatchway. this, evidently for purposes of ventilation, had been left partly open. nudging his comrades to pause, joe, bending so low as to be almost flat on the deck, prowled further aft. there, in the darkness, he used his eyes to find out what might be down in the cabin. then he came back. "eight tough-looking men in the cabin," he whispered, in tom halstead's ear. "is anson dalton one of them?" "yep." "hurrah! then we've bagged him, at last!" "have we, though?" muttered joe dawson, dubiously. "well, we're going to," declared tom, radiantly. "my boy, we're going to cut out of this cove with, the whole crew held in down there." "hope so," assented joe, not very enthusiastically. "why, we've got to," argued halstead. "if we don't, then that crew would have the upper hand, instead, and make penny jumping-jacks of us until they saw fit to let us go. but wait a moment. i must get back and have a look at them." this time it was the young skipper who crawled aft. joe and hank followed part of the way, holding their sticks in readiness in case dalton and his men discovered their presence. "i reckon, cap, you'll find you've got the right crowd for to-night's work," a rough voice was declaring, as halstead came within ear range. "now, don't you men misunderstand me," replied anson dalton in a smooth yet firm voice. "i'm not paying you for any piratical acts. i have to give a little heed to the laws of the land, even if you fellows don't. what i want is this: at about two in the morning, when, most likely, everyone will be asleep except the one who is nursing the fellow clodis, it is my plan to run in at lonely island's dock. we'll get quietly up to the house, suddenly force the door, and rush in. but, mind you all, there's to be no riot. your numbers, and your rough appearance, will be enough to scare the folks of the bungalow. the two of you that i've already picked out will rush in with a stateroom door and one of the stateroom mattresses. with this for a stretcher, you two will get clodis carefully and gently down to this boat. then we'll sail away, and i'll tell you what to do next. but remember, no violent assault on anyone--no lawlessness, no hurting anyone badly. trust to your numbers and suddenness. there's some baggage, too, in the bungalow, that i mean to bring away with me. i'll make off with it in the confusion." "oh, will you?" wondered captain tom halstead, his jaw settling squarely. then, tiptoeing softly over to where hank waited, the young skipper whispered something in that youth's ear. hank fled quietly forward, but returned with a snap-padlock, the ring of which was open. with this in his hands tom stole back aft, this time going close, indeed, to the hatchway. "hey! someone on deck," roared an excited voice below. there was an instant babel of voices, a rushing of feet and a general rumpus below. two men in the van raced for the hatchway. slam! snap! click! tom halstead swung the hatchway door shut, forced the stout hasp over the staple and fastened the padlock in place! chapter vi carrying dangerous live "freight" "cooped!" chuckled joe dawson, jubilantly. yet his voice could not much more than be heard above the racket that sounded below. anson dalton and his seven rough men were raising a hubbub, indeed. "smash the door down!" roared dalton. "maybe we kin do it, boss, but the hatch is a stout one, and we ain't jest 'zactly fixed for tools," replied another voice. after a few moments the fruitless hammering with mere fists subsided. in that time hank butts had raced forward, and now was back again with a prize that he had caught up from a locker near the motors. this was nothing more nor less than the hitching weight that hank had once made very nearly famous, as described in the preceding volume, "the motor boat club off long island." "let 'em get out if they can," advised hank, grimly. "this for the feet, or the head, of the first roustabout that shows himself!" joe now raced forward to set the motors in motion. though the young trio had temporary command of the deck, there was no telling how soon they would be overwhelmed. every moment must be made to count. captain tom, grasping his stick, stood by to help hank in case the furious ones below succeeded in breaking out. hardly any time passed before the rhythmic chugging of the motors came to the young skipper's delighted ears. then joe waved his arms as a signal from the raised deck forward. halstead swiftly joined his chum. together they got the anchor up, stowing it well enough for the present. "now, you'd better get back to hank, hadn't you?" quivered joe. "i can handle speed and the wheel, too." "bless you, old joe!" murmured captain tom, fervently, and raced aft. dawson leaped to the wheel, at the same time setting one of the bridge controls so that the "restless" began to move forward under slow speed. this move came just in time, for, even in the cove, the water had motion enough to threaten the yacht with grounding. but now alert joe dawson swung the boat's head around, pointing her nose out of the cove. "get that hatch down in a hurry!" sounded anson dalton's hoarse voice, imperiously. "if you don't, we'll all be tight in a worse trap than this." blows with fists and feet resounded once more. then, after an instant's pause, came the slower, harder thump-thump which told that one of the strongest of those caught below was using his shoulder, instead. soon two cracks seamed the surface of the hatch door. "good! go at it hard!" encouraged the voice of dalton. "batter it down. it will be worth money--and freedom--to you and to us all!" "yes, just clear a passage, and see what happens!" roared back tom halstead, as soon as he could make his own voice heard distinctly. "don't mind the talk of those boys!" warned dalton, angrily, as there came a pause in the shoulder assaults against the hatch. with a grin hank raised his iron hitching weight above his head, hurling it down to the deck with crashing force. then, still grinning, he stooped to pick it up again. that noisy thump on the deck timbers caused a brief ensuing silence down in the cabin. it was plain that dalton and his fellows were wondering just how dangerous their reception would be in case they succeeded in breaking out. the cabin was lighted, in day time, by side ports and a barred transom overhead. the ports were too small to permit of a man forcing his way through. even though they broke the glass overhead, the prisoners in the cabin would still have iron bars to overcome. tom halstead, with his club, could hinder any work at that point. in the meantime, the "restless," once out of the cove, was bounding over the waves like a thing of life. though the water had been hard to swim through, it did not present a rough sea for a fifty-five foot power boat. in less than three minutes engineer joe dawson was sounding his auto whistle like mad as he neared the dock at lonely island. just as the boat glided in, under decreased headway, to the dock the bungalow door was seen to open. powell seaton, shot-gun in hand, appeared on the porch. he watched, not knowing whether friend or foe commanded the "restless." mr. seaton, himself, was made to stand out brightly in the middle of the searchlight ray that joe turned upon him, yet he could not see who was behind that light. running the boat in, bow-on, joe leaped ashore with the hawser. making fast only at the bow, he next raced up the board walk, shouting the news to mr. seaton. the latter, with a hail of delight, darted toward the dock, arriving barely behind dawson. down in the cabin the din of the men trying to escape had redoubled. powell seaton tramped hurriedly aft, while tom and joe fell in behind him with heavy tread, to give the rascals below an idea that numerous reinforcements had arrived. bang! pausing before the hatch mr. seaton raised the shot-gun to his shoulder, discharging a single shell. hastily slipping one into the magazine of the weapon to replace the fired one, seaton shouted sternly: "stop your nonsense down there! if you get out it will be only to run into the muzzles of fire-arms. you fellows are fairly caught!" there was a startled silence, followed by indistinct mutterings. not even anson dalton, it appeared, cared to brave what looked like too certain death. tom held a whispered consultation with his employer, then stepped over to young butts. "hank, we're going to leave you on shore. mr. seaton will come along with the gun. keep your eyes open--until you see us again! don't be caught napping. remember, you and dr. cosgrove have the whole protection of that helpless man, clodis, _in_ your hands." hank butts made a wry face for a moment. he would have much preferred to see the present adventure through. yet, a second later, the long island boy bounded to the dock, then stood to cast off the bow-line. after the line had come aboard, joe dawson again took his place at the wheel, turning on the speed gradually as the boat rounded out past the island, then turned in toward the mainland. it was about five miles, in a direct westerly course, to the shore, but by an oblique, northwesterly course a fishing village some nine miles away could be reached. "steer for the fishing village," nodded powell seaton. captain tom hurried forward to give the order, adding: "make it at full speed, joe. if you have to go to the engine, call me forward to take the wheel." soon afterwards tom slipped into the motor room, rubbed down and got on dry clothing. joe, in turn, did likewise, afterward returning to the wheel. down in the cabin all had been quiet for some minutes after the discharge of the gun on deck. yet captain tom, by peeping through the transom, discovered the heads of dalton and some of his rough men close together in consultation. "i'll annoy them a bit," chuckled the young skipper, moving swiftly forward. dropping down into the motor room he switched off all the cabin lights. an instant roar of anger came from below. "funny we didn't think of that before," grinned dawson, as halstead came up out of the motor room. "it'll bother the rascals a bit," chuckled captain tom back over his shoulder. with such a boat as the "restless" ordinary distances are swiftly covered. it was barely twenty-five minutes after leaving the dock that joe reached the entrance to the little harbor around which the houses of the fishing village clustered, nor had much speed been used. now the whistle sounded steadily, in short, sharp blasts. moreover, dawson managed to send the distress signal with the searchlight. by the time he slowed down speed, then reversed, to make the little wharf, a dozen men had hurried down to the shore. "what's wrong?" hailed one of them. "get the sheriff, or a sheriff's officer!" shouted back powell seaton. "be quick about it, one of you, please, and the rest of you stay here to help us." joe sent the bow hawser flying ashore, tom doing the same with the stern line. willing hands caught both ropes, making them fast around snubbing posts. as two men started away on the run, the rest of the bystanders came crowding aboard, filled with curiosity. "what happens to be wrong on board?" demanded one bronzed fisherman. "we've a cabin full of pirates, or rascals about as bad," returned mr. seaton, grimly. "men of this coast?" asked another speaker. "yes, evidently," nodded mr. seaton, whom the new-comers had recognized as the owner of lonely island. "then they must be the crew of the 'black betty,'" commented the first speaker. "is that a black, fifty-foot schooner, low in the water, narrow and carrying tall masts with a heavy spread of canvas?" interposed tom halstead. "yes," nodded the fisherman. "that's the 'black betty.' she claims to be a fishing boat, but we're ready to bet she's a smuggler. she carries nine men, including captain dave lemly." "i reckon we've got most of the 'black betty' outfit below, then," declared captain halstead. "or else--gracious!" for, at that moment, the cracked hatch gave in with a smash. powell seaton had neglected to remain on guard closely. there was a surge of the prisoners below. "halstead, you'll hear from me again--and so will your crew!" shouted anson dalton out of the press of struggling men that formed on the after deck. "i won't let you forget me, halstead!" there was a splash past the rail. dalton had gone overboard, followed by two of his companions. chapter vii powell seaton's bad case of "forget" "don't let any more get away!" called powell seaton, excitedly. tom halstead promptly leaped at one of the rough fugitives just as the latter was trying to reach the wharf. another one joe dawson grabbed. several of the fishermen sprang to help. for a minute or two there was a good deal of confusion. when matters quieted down, it was found that halstead and dawson, with the fishermen helping, had secured five of the rough lot. powell seaton, by threatening with his shot-gun, had induced a sixth to swim ashore. but anson dalton and another man, believed to be captain dave lemly of the "black betty," had escaped, swimming under water in the darkness. they must have come to the surface at some point not far away, yet, in the black darkness of the night, they managed to escape safely for the time being, at any rate. the six men thus arrested were forced inside a ring of the fishermen, whose numbers had been greatly increased by new arrivals. powell seaton, his shot-gun on his shoulder, now patrolled close to the human ring. three or four men hurried with tom and joe on a quest for anson dalton and the latter's companion in flight. in less than a quarter of an hour one of the messengers who had first hurried away returned with a deputy sheriff, who brought several pairs of handcuffs. a justice of the peace was aroused at his home, and held the prisoners over for trial, after powell seaton had preferred against them a charge of stealing the yacht that was under his charter. the search for dalton and his companion was given up, for it became plain that both had succeeded in their effort to get away. "it's altogether too bad," sighed mr. seaton, on coming out of the justice's house. "however, we can be thankful for what success we have had. we have the boat back and have balked dalton's rascals in what they were planning for to-night." "are you going back to lonely island now, sir?" asked captain tom. "we must, very soon," replied mr. seaton. "yet, halstead, i've been thinking that i cannot afford to take any further chances, with anson dalton still at large. these fishermen are a rough but honest lot of splendid fellows in their way. i'm going to see if i can't hire a special guard of eight men for lonely island for the present. i'll engage the deputy sheriff to vouch for the men i engage. so go down to the boat and be ready for me as soon as i arrive." joe was aboard, waiting, when the young skipper returned. several of the men of the village were still about the dock. "we're to be ready to cast off as soon as mr. seaton gets here, joe," captain tom halstead announced. "better look to your motors. if you want any help, call on me." it did not take mr. seaton very long to recruit the guard of eight men that he wanted. carrying rifles or shot-guns, borrowed in some instances, the men tramped along after their new employer. they came aboard, two or three of them going below, the others preferring to remain on deck. "cast off, captain, as soon as you can," directed powell seaton. two or three of the new guards sprang forward to help in this work. halstead rang for half speed, then threw the wheel over, making a quick start. once under way, he called for full speed, and the "restless" went bounding over the waves, which were running much lower than a couple of hours earlier. during the first half of the run captain halstead remained at the wheel. then joe came up from below, relieving him. tom strolled back to take a seat on the deck-house beside mr. seaton. "i'm on tenterhooks to get back," confessed the charter-man. "anxious about your friend, clodis, of course," nodded tom, understandingly. "partly that, yes. but there's another matter that's bothering me fearfully, too. you remember the packet of papers i took from clodis's trunk?" asked mr. seaton, lowering his voice. "yes," murmured tom. "but you have those in an inner pocket." "i wish i had!" uttered powell seaton. "halstead, the truth is, after you young men went out, this evening, to patrol about the island, i became a little uneasy about that packet, and took it out and hid it--under some boxes of ammunition in the cupboard where i keep my gun. then i locked the closet door. when dawson called me from the porch, in such haste, and i was needed on board with my gun, i clean forgot the packet for the instant." "oh, it will be safe, anyway," tom assured his employer. "even if dalton had been able to get a boat at once, in this neighborhood, there's no other craft in these waters capable of reaching lonely island earlier than we shall do it." "i _do_ hope that packet is safe," muttered mr. seaton, in a voice tense with anxiety. "halstead, you've no notion of the fearful blow it would be to friends and to myself to have it disappear." hearing a slight noise on the opposite side of the deck-house top, seaton and tom halstead turned together. they were just in time to see one of the new guards leaning toward them, one hand out as though to steady himself. "it's rough footing on deck to-night," said the guard, with a pleasant laugh, then passed on aft. tom took the helm again as the "restless," after picking up the landing place with the searchlight, moved into the harbor and went to her berth. powell seaton led all of his guards but one up to the bungalow. the eighth man, armed with a rifle, was left aboard the "restless," with the searchlight turned on, ready for use at any moment. tom and joe went up to the bungalow with their employer. "wait out on the porch for just a little while," called mr. seaton, in a low voice. "and be careful to make no noise that will disturb the sick man." five minutes later mr. seaton returned to the porch. "i've been looking for that packet," he whispered to the young skipper. "it's safe, so i've left it in the same place." then, after a moment, the owner of the bungalow added: "captain, you can have your friend, butts, now, as we can do without him in the house. i think you three had better turn in on the boat and get some sleep. then, soon after daylight, i can have the guard at the wharf rouse you, for i want you to go over to beaufort and get supplies for repairing the wireless outfit at the earliest hour. things are likely to happen soon that will make it dangerous for me to be without wireless communication with land and sea." twenty minutes later the three motor boat club boys were stretched out in their berths in the motor room. it was considerably later, though, ere sleep came to them. when slumber did reach their eyes they slept soundly until called by the guard. hank prepared a breakfast in record time. after eating this, and after hank had been sent up to the house to learn whether there were any further orders, the motor boat club boys were ready to cast off. once they were under way, hank, not being needed, went aft to stretch himself on one of the cabin cushions. joe, having his motors running smoothly, followed hank into the cabin. dawson, however, did not seek further sleep. he wanted to make a more thorough test than he had done a few hours before, in order to make sure that the vandals locked in there the night before had not thought to destroy his beloved wireless instruments or connections. "the whole wireless plant is in shape for instant use," he reported, coming back at last to the bridge deck. "that's mighty good news," declared tom halstead. "with the man we are working for now we're likely to need the wireless at any minute in the twenty-four hours." "say," ejaculated joe, after a few moments of silent thought, "there's something hugely mysterious and uncanny back of all these doings of less than twenty-four hours. i wonder what that big mystery really is?" chapter viii the red message when the boys reached beaufort and had tied up at a wharf, it was still too early to expect to find any shops open. they left hank on watch, however, and went up into the town, joe to look, presently, for a dealer in electrical supplies, while captain tom sought a ship's joiner to fit and hang a new hatch to replace that smashed in the affair of the night before. both boys were presently successful, though it was noon before the joiner had his task finished. while the last of the work on the new hatch was being done, tom and joe went once more uptown to get a message from mr. seaton's attorney regarding the date when the formal hearing of the men arrested the night before would take place in court. hank butts was left to watch over the boat and keep an eye over the joiner. "any strangers around here?" queried the young skipper, after the joiner, his work completed, had gone aboard. "only a young black boy," hank replied. "he seemed curious to look over the boat, but he didn't offer to go below, or touch anything, so i didn't chase him off." "cast off, hank. give us some power, joe, and we'll get back to lonely island," declared the young captain, going to the wheel. hardly more than a minute later the "restless" was gliding out of the harbor. "guess hank's young negro visitor left a note," called up joe, showing in the doorway of the motor room and holding forth a note. hank took it, passing it to halstead. "mind the wheel a minute, hank, please," requested tom, looking closely at the envelope. it was addressed only to "halstead," the writing being in red, and thick, as though laid on with the point of a stick. the message on the sheet inside was crisp and to the point. it ran: if you think your doings have been forgotten, you'll soon know differently! "humph!" muttered joe, following up, and taking the sheet as his chum held it out. "that must be from anson dalton." "or captain dave lemly, of the 'black betty,'" returned tom, without a trace of concern in his tone. "it's a threat, all right," muttered hank butts, his hair bristling when the sheet came into his hands. "confound 'em, i hope whoever sent this tries to make good--when we're looking!" just then captain tom changed the course abruptly, the bows of the "restless" sending up a shower of spray that sprinkled hank from head to foot. as he turned to get out of the way the wind caught the sheet written in red from his hand, blowing it out across the water. "let it go," laughed tom. "we know all the red message had to say." "the negro that i allowed on deck came on purpose to drop the note where it would be found," muttered hank. "no matter," smiled tom. "we're always glad to know that we're remembered by nice people." "i'd like to have that black boy here for a minute or two," grunted hank, clenching his fists. "what for?" tom halstead queried. "he probably didn't have any guilty knowledge about the sender." "that reminds me," broke in joe. "stand close by the motors a few minutes, will you, hank?" with that dawson vanished aft. when he came back he announced: "i've just flashed the wireless word back to mr. seaton's lawyer about the message we got, advising the lawyer that it probably shows dalton, or lemly, or both, to be in beaufort. and the lawyer was able to send me news, received just after we left." "what?" "the schooner, 'black betty,' has just been seized, thirty miles down the coast, by united states officers. she'll be held until the customs men have had a chance to look into the charges that the schooner has been used in the smuggling trade." "was lemly caught with her?" asked tom, eagerly. "no such luck," retorted joe. "i'd feel better over hearing that dave lemly was the prisoner of the united states government," remarked young halstead. "if he keeps at liberty _he_ is the one who is going to be able to make anson dalton dangerous to us." "then you're beginning to be afraid of that pair, are you?" asked joe dawson, looking up. "no, i'm not," rejoined tom halstead, his jaws firmly set. "a man--or a boy, either for that matter--who can be made afraid of other people isn't fit to be trusted with the command of a boat on the high seas. but i'll say this much about my belief concerning dalton: for some reason we've been in his way, and are likely to be much more in his way before we're through with him. if dalton got a chance, he wouldn't hesitate to wreck the 'restless,' or to blow her up. for any work of that sort dave lemly is undoubtedly his man." "what can make them so desperate against mr. seaton?" queried joe. "we can't even guess, for we don't yet know the story that's behind all this mystery and the list of desperate deeds." "i wonder if mr. seaton will ever tell us?" pondered joe. "not unless he thinks we really need to know." "but he has already hinted that it's all in a big fight for a fortune," urged hank. "yes, and we can guess that the fight centers in south america, since that is where clodis was bound for when this business started," replied skipper tom. "i wonder if there's any chance that our cruise will reach to south america?" broke in hank butts, eagerly. "hardly likely," replied tom, with a shake of the head. "if there had been even a chance of that, mr. seaton would have arranged for an option extending beyond the end of this month." "just my luck," grumbled hank, seating himself on the edge of the deck-house. "nothing big ever happens to me." "say, you're hard to please," laughed joe, turning and going down into the motor room. they were not long in making lonely island, where the "restless" was tied up and the hatchways locked securely. the boys were not required to remain at the boat, one of the guards being stationed, night or day, at the wharf. powell seaton was much interested in the account tom gave him of the red message, though he did not say much. there was no change or improvement in the condition of mr. clodis, who still lay in a darkened room, like one dead. that afternoon joe, with some help from his comrades, repaired the bungalow's wireless plant and got in touch with the shore once more. through the night four men were kept on guard, one on the porch, another at the wharf, and two others patrolling the island. no attempt of any sort on the part of dalton or the latter's confederates was discovered. the next morning brought still no change in the condition of clodis. he was alive, breathing feebly, and dr. cosgrove was attempting to ward off an attack of brain fever. through the forenoon joe was kept rather busy sending messages ashore to the authorities, for powell seaton, though not leaving the island, was waging a determined campaign to get hold of dalton. "i don't need dalton, particularly," confessed mr. seaton, as he sat with the three motor boat boys at the noon meal. "but it would be worth a very great deal of money to get back the papers that dalton must have stolen after assaulting my sick friend, yonder, on board the 'constant.'" "do you--do you know--what was in the stolen papers?" asked captain tom halstead, hesitatingly. "very well, indeed," rejoined their employer, with emphasis. "but the real trouble is that i don't want to have that knowledge pass to the gang that are behind anson dalton." "yet dalton must have had time to join his principals, or confederates, by this time, and turn the papers over to them," hazarded halstead. "that's hardly likely," murmured powell seaton, "since the gang of rascals behind anson dalton must be, at this moment, somewhere in the interior of brazil." "oh!" said tom, reflectively. "you're curious, i see, to know what all this great mystery means," smiled mr. seaton. "i--i don't want to let myself be curious about what is none of my business," declared tom halstead, bluntly. "i'm going to tell you the story now, just the same," replied powell seaton, in a still lower voice. chapter ix mr. seaton unburdens himself "really, i see no reason why i shouldn't tell you," went on the charter-man of the "restless." "when i first engaged you youngsters and your boat for this month i had little more in mind than using your boat for pleasure cruising about here. yet the fact that you had a wireless equipment aboard the 'restless' _did_ influence me not a little, for i had at least a suspicion that big affairs might come to pass, and that telegraphing from ship to ship might be wonderfully convenient. "at the same time, i was careful to look up the references that you gave me, captain halstead. those references were so wholly satisfactory that i know i can trust you to serve me as bravely and loyally as you have, in the past, been called upon to serve others. and now, just for the reason that you may be called upon to take some big fighting chances for me, i'm going to tell you what lies back of the curtain of mystery that you've been staring at." as his voice died out powell seaton arose, locked the door and glanced out through the windows. then he returned to the table, motioning to the boys to incline their heads close to his. "probably," began their host, "you've regarded me as a wealthy man, and, until the last two or three days, as one of leisure. i am reasonably well-to-do in this world's goods, but most of my life, since i was twenty, has been passed in storm and stress. "it is not necessary to tell you all about the life that i have led. it will be enough to tell you that, three years ago, not satisfied that my fortune was large enough, i went to brazil in order to learn what chance there might be of picking up money fast in that country. "in brazil there are many ways of making a fortune, though perhaps not as many as right here at home. however, there are fewer fortune-seekers there. in coffee, rubber and in many other staples fortunes may be made in brazil, but the biggest, wildest, most desperate and scrambling gamble of all is found in the diamond-digging fields. "most of the diamond fields have, perhaps, been discovered, and their working has become systematized to a regular, dividend-paying basis. there are still, however, some fields not yet located. it was a small field, but one which i believe may be worth millions, that i located somewhat more than a year ago. see here!" from an inner pocket powell seaton drew forth an ordinary wallet. opening it, he dropped out on the table six diamonds. though none was of great size, all of the stones were of such purity and such flashing brilliancy that the motor boat boys gazed at them in fascination. "they must be worth a fortune," declared hank butts, in an awed, subdued tone. "not exactly," smiled mr. seaton. "these stones have been appraised, i believe, at about twelve thousand dollars." after passing the gems from hand to hand, the owner of the bungalow replaced them in the wallet, returning the latter to the same pocket before he resumed: "this new diamond field, a patent to which has not yet been filed with the brazilian government, is in the state of vahia. there is no harm in telling anyone that, as vahia is a state of great area. it is in a section little likely to be suspected as a diamond field, and the chance that someone else will accidentally discover and locate it is not large." "yet you know the exact location--can go right to it?" breathed tom halstead, his eyes turned squarely on mr. seaton's. "yes, but i don't dare go to it," came the smiling answer. "oh! may i ask why not, sir?" "the government of brazil is, in the main, an honest one," replied powell seaton. "the president of that country is an exactly just and honorable man. yet not quite as much can be said for the governments of _some_ of the states of that country. the governor of vahia, terrero, by name, is probably one of the worst little despots in south america. "now, as it happened, before i came to know anything about this new diamond field i had the bad fortune to make an enemy of governor terrero. some american friends were being shamefully treated by this rascally governor, and i felt called upon to become mixed up in the affair. i even went so far that i incurred the deadly hatred of terrero. it was right after this that i came upon my diamond field. but terrero's enmity was pressing upon me, and i had to flee from brazil." "why?" asked tom, wonderingly. "do you know how things are done in south america?" demanded powell seaton, impressively. "if a man like terrero hates you, he has only to inspire someone to prefer a serious charge against you. the charge may be wholly false, of course, but officers and soldiers are sent, in the dead of the night, to arrest you. these wretches, when they serve wicked enough officials, shoot you down in cold blood. then they lay beside your body a revolver in which are two or three discharged cartridges. they report, officially, that you resisted arrest and did your best to kill the members of the arresting party. this infamous lie all becomes a matter of official record. then what can the united states government do about it? and the governor, or other rascally official, has triumphed over you, and the matter is closed. though an honest man, halstead, you are officially a desperate character who _had_ to be killed by the law's servants. it was such a fate that terrero was preparing for me, but i escaped his wicked designs." "that must be a nice country!" murmured hank butts. "yet you say the president of brazil is an honorable man?" asked halstead. "can't he remove such a governor?" "the president would, in a moment, if he could be supplied with proofs," rejoined powell seaton, with emphasis. "governor terrero is a wily, smooth scoundrel who is well served by men of his own choice stamp. terrero is wealthy, and backed by many other wealthy men who have been growing rich in the diamond fields. in fact, though they are wonderfully smooth about it, the terrero gang are terrors to all honest diamond men in that one part of brazil." "so, then," hinted captain tom, "you know where to find one of the rich diamond mines of the world, but you don't dare go to it?" "i'd dare," retorted mr. seaton, his eyes flashing. "but what would be the use of daring? i am almost certain to be killed if i ever show my face in vahia while terrero is alive. so, then, this is what i have done: since my return to this country i have been arranging, ever so quietly, with moneyed men who have faith in me and in my honesty. after much dickering we have arranged a syndicate that is backed by millions of dollars, if need be. and we may need to spend a good deal of money before we get through. we may even have to try to turn terrero's most trusted lieutenants against him. we won't, if we can help it, but we may have to. the stake is a big one! "through turning this business over to the syndicate i am bound to lose the greater portion of the fortune that might have been mine from this great enterprise. yet, even as it is, i stand to reap rich returns if ever the syndicate can locate and secure the patent to the diamond fields that i discovered. "at this moment three members of our syndicate are in rio janeiro. they are big, solid american men of moneyed affairs. as far as they permit to be known, they are in brazil only as a matter of vacation and pleasure. in truth, they are awaiting the arrival of albert clodis on the 'constant.' when he had arrived, with the papers from me showing where and how to locate the diamond field, they were to have moved quickly, spending plenty of money, and filing a patent to the fields. under the law the brazilian government would be entitled to a large share of the find in precious stones, but even at that our share would have been enormous. once the patent to the diamond field was filed, the president and the whole national government of that country could be depended upon to protect the owner's rights, even against the greed and treachery of terrero. so all that appeared to be left to do was to get to my friends of the syndicate the two sets of papers that would enable them to locate the unknown diamond field. neither set of papers is worth anything by itself, but with the two sets the field can be promptly located. "my first thought was to send the two sets of papers by two different men. yet, strange as it may appear to you boys, i could not decide upon two men whom i felt i could fully trust under all circumstances. you have no idea how i have been watched, the last year, by agents of terrero. dalton, though an american, is one of the worst of these secret agents of the governor of vahia. _i_ knew how thoroughly i was being watched, and i, in turn, have had others watching anson dalton as effectively as it could be done in a free country like the united states. "well, to make this long story short, when i had all else in readiness i decided upon bert clodis as the one man i could fully trust to deliver the two sets of papers to the members of the syndicate at rio janeiro. i believed, too, at the time, though i could not be sure, that my relations with bert clodis were unknown to anson dalton. "yet, not for a moment did i trust too thoroughly to that belief. i had dalton watched. if he engaged passage aboard the 'constant,' my suspicions would be at once aroused. we now know that he secured passage, by mail, under the name of arthur hilton. beyond the slightest doubt dalton, that infernal spy, had succeeded in discovering that i was sending clodis with the papers. yet dalton, or hilton, as he chose to call himself, did not go aboard the 'constant' openly at new york. i can only guess that he boarded from the tug that took off the pilot when the liner had reached open sea. "i had impressed upon bert clodis the importance of keeping the two sets of papers apart, and had advised him that it might not be safe to deposit either in the purser's safe, from which they might be taken through the means of a deep-sea burglary. "so the probability is that bert clodis had one set of papers concealed on his person. the other set of papers--the one i now have safe--he seems to have put away in his trunk, believing that no one seeking to rob him would think him simple enough to leave valuable papers in a trunk that could be rather easily entered in the hold of a liner. "as i have already told you, i had the ship watched at new york, and received a message, after her sailing, which told me that no one answering dalton's description had boarded the 'constant' at her pier. "as the liner entered this latitude bert clodis was to send off a wireless message which, though apparently rather blind, would be enough to advise me that no one answering to dalton's description had appeared among the passengers or crew of the 'constant.' this news i awaited at the wireless station at beaufort, and you can imagine my anxiety." "that was why, then," broke in joe, suddenly, "when i received that message about the injury to mr. clodis, you were able to break in so quickly?" "yes," nodded mr. seaton. "i was waiting, and was on tenterhooks. i would have joined you, and would have gone out in haste to receive bert clodis myself, but i realized that, if i delayed you, the big liner would get past us, and bert clodis must most likely die on the way to brazil." "why weren't you out here, sir, at this bungalow, where you could have received the message as well, and then have gone out with us on the 'restless'?" inquired tom halstead, with deepest interest in this strange narration. "i was at beaufort," responded mr. seaton, "because i felt it very necessary to be where i could use a private wire to new york that i had reserved. i was, at that time, waiting for word from new york of any possible discovery that could be made concerning the movements of the infamous dalton, whom i did not then know, or believe, to be on board the 'constant.'" there was silence for a few moments, but powell seaton at last went on, thoughtfully: "we now know that bert clodis did _not_ deposit any papers with the purser of the ship. one set of the papers, therefore, must have been tucked away in his clothing. dalton, after assaulting bert clodis, or having it done, must have rifled his pockets and found one set. he even had time to look through them and discover that that set was incomplete. then, on seeing clodis's trunk go aboard the 'restless' with the injured man, dalton guessed that the remaining papers might be in the trunk. that was why dalton decided to leave the 'constant.' but your flat refusal to let him go down into the cabin, where the baggage had been taken, foiled the fellow at that point. then, fearing that he would run into me, and that i might even resort to violence, dalton hailed that schooner, the 'black betty,' and made his momentary escape." "no doubt," interposed halstead, "dalton has had plenty of chance to put _his_ set of the stolen papers in safe hiding. but isn't it barely likely that he had already engaged captain dave lemly to be hanging about in these waters with that little black schooner?" "wholly likely," nodded mr. seaton, thoughtfully. "however, boys, i have trusted you with as much as my very life is worth in telling you all this. i would rather lose my life than see my friends, as well as myself, beaten in this great diamond game. as the matter now stands, dalton has won the first step, but he hasn't enough knowledge to enable his employer, terrero, to locate my precious find. i can duplicate the missing papers, and the other set, which i have here secure, i must also send to rio janeiro by some other most trusted messenger, should clodis, poor fellow, die, or prove unfit to make another attempt." "and do you think, sir, that there's only one honest man on earth?" asked tom halstead, in considerable surprise. "there are several men that i _believe_ to be honest," returned the owner of the bungalow, "yet only one that i know to be _honest_, and who possesses at the same time the judgment to undertake a mission like the one i have been telling you about." "then it won't really do dalton any good to start for brazil unless he can get hold of the contents of the other set of papers?" halstead asked, after a pause of a few moments. "not until the fellow can get his clutches on the papers that i have secretly locked in that closet over there," confirmed mr. seaton. "and i have told none but you trustworthy youngsters that the other set _is_ hidden in such an easy place to get at." then, as though struck by a thought, powell seaton crossed the room, drawing his key-ring from a pocket. he fitted the right key to the door, and swung the latter open. an instant more, and there came from mr. seaton's lips a cry much like the frightened howl of a wild beast. "the second set of papers is gone--stolen from here!" there was an almost simultaneous gasp of consternation from the three motor boat club boys as they rushed forward. but they had no need to search. seaton had done that thoroughly, and now he turned to eye them. as he stared--or glared--a new thought came into seaton's mind, reflecting itself in his eyes. the boys could see him fighting against his own new suspicion. "halstead," cried powell seaton, clutching at the side of the doorway, "i told you all about this hiding place. i trusted you!" it was tom halstead's turn to go deathly white and stagger. "do you mean, sir, that you suspect me?" demanded the young skipper, in a voice choked with horror. chapter x the traitor at the aerials "wait! don't take anything too seriously. i've--got to--think!" powell seaton had stood, for two or three moments, staring from halstead to the other motor boat boys. "humph! well, this is good, but i don't like it," grimaced hank butts, taking two steps backward. powell seaton began to pace the room, his hands at his head. he looked like one who suddenly found it impossible to think. hank opened his mouth to say something angry, but captain tom checked him with a look and a gesture. "may we search in that closet for you, sir?" called halstead, when a thud told that the owner of the bungalow had dropped heavily back into his chair. "you may look there, if you want to. anyone may look there--now!" uttered the amazed one. without saying more tom, in deep agitation, began the task he had invited upon himself. joe dawson came and stood looking quietly over his chum's shoulder, ready to help if necessary. as for hank, he stood, a picture of injured pride, staring at the distracted man. "no; there's nothing here," admitted halstead, at last. "at least, the only thing we're interested in isn't here." "of course it isn't," moaned seaton. "yet you boys were the only ones i told. and, the only time i left the house, it was safe upon my return. i also told you boys that." "if he keeps on talking in that strain," muttered hank, half-aloud, "i'll make his head ache!" "no, you won't," uttered captain tom, gripping his comrade's arm almost fiercely. "there's trouble enough on the premises as it is. hold your tongue, hank, until we're all in a good mood to say pleasant things." thereupon, with a snort, hank dragged a chair into a far corner, and seated himself in it. halstead walked slowly to the table, on which mr. seaton was resting his elbows, his face buried in his hands. "there must be some explanation for this, mr. seaton," began the young motor boat skipper, more calmly. "i don't mind your first suspicion of me, because----" "not you, more than the others," broke in the bungalow's owner, excitedly. "all of you young men knew about the hiding-place. you were the only ones besides myself who did know." again hank gripped his fists tightly, but a stern look from joe dawson prevented butts from giving any further expression of his feelings. "don't sit there like that, mr. seaton," broke in tom halstead, once more. "whatever has happened, something must be done--and it must be the right thing, and at once." "you can search us, if you want----" began hank's growling voice, but joe dawson stood before him, towering in grim purpose. "don't you open your mouth again, hank, until you've collected some sense," warned joe. "let tom do the talking. he's the captain, anyway." "you're right," responded powell seaton, looking up in a good deal of a daze. "i must do something--quickly--yet what?" "if anyone has stolen the final set of papers," advanced the young skipper, "it must have been either dalton or someone working for him. in either case, dalton must now have the papers, or he soon will have." "but what does this lead to?" inquired mr. seaton, regarding his young captain dubiously. "why, sir, it must be plain that the best course is to drop all other steps and concentrate every bit of your energy and ingenuity on getting hold of anson dalton." "yet what can i do to him, if i do?" "in the first place, you might charge him with being the man who struck albert clodis over the head. that would be enough to have your man arrested on, even if you couldn't prove the charge. a charge that you _can_ fight on is that of having helped to steal the 'restless' the other night. if you can only get the fellow locked up, then you'll have more time to find out whether there's any way of getting the missing papers away from him, or from any hiding place in which he has put them." "lock the fellow up?" jeered powell seaton. "bah, boy, you don't seem to realize the money that's behind him. ten thousand dollars, or a hundred thousand, it would all be the same, and dalton, out on bail, could flee in whatever direction he wanted to." "then what _are_ you going to do?" demanded captain tom, incisively. in this instant of utter uncertainty a tinkling of a bell broke in upon them. it was the call bell that dawson had attached to the wireless apparatus. "remember, _you_ keep quiet," almost whispered joe to hank, then quitted the room hastily. butts suddenly began to grin sheepishly. rising, he sauntered over to a window. joe had hurried to the wireless room on the mere chance that it might be a message for lonely island. it was much more likely to be the regular business of ships passing on the sea. but as he entered the room dawson heard the clicking call from a receiving instrument: "cba! cba!" that was lonely island's call surely enough. breaking in at the key, joe sent the sparks chasing each other up the aerials. having answered, he slipped on the head-band, fitting the watch-case receivers over his ears. picking up a pencil, he wrote. it was a rush telegram from mr. seaton's lawyer, up at beaufort, and it read: man much resembles description of dalton has just been reported embarking on seventy-foot cruising motor boat ten miles above this city. man in command of boat positively said to be captain dave lemly. "remain at wire for further talk," joe's trembling fingers signaled back. then, leaping up, he bounded into the next room. "read it to me," powell seaton begged. tom halstead took the sheet, reading rapidly yet clearly. the young skipper was excited, though he forced himself to remain cool. "there's your call to action, mr. seaton," he wound up with. "yes, but what action?" demanded the owner of the bungalow. ever since the discovery of the loss of the papers this man had seemed all but unable to speak. "we've got to overhaul that other motor boat, though her length will have to be description enough if we can't get a better one," declared the young skipper. "hank, go down and open up the motor room. start the motors going, though be gentle. don't break anything, or put the motors out of business. joe, go back to the wireless, and see whether you can get a more exact description of that boat--especially the course she is believed to have sailed on. hustle! mr. seaton, hadn't you better inform dr. cosgrove that you'll be absent for a while?" the owner of the bungalow moved as though glad of directions that saved him the trouble of thinking. joe promptly sent a wireless back to beaufort asking for a better description of the seventy-footer and the last course upon which she had been seen. the only further word the lawyer's informant could furnish, as joe ascertained ten minutes later, was that the boat was painted a drab tint and had a "smoke-stack" ventilator. when last seen the boat was heading out nearly due east from her starting-point. "going out to meet a liner, for some port," clicked tom, as he heard the news. "well, it's our business to find that drab motor boat." as joe caught up his cap, mr. seaton looked rather uncertainly from one boy to the other. "you say we're to go out on this jaunt over the water," remarked the owner of the bungalow. "but i don't know. perhaps you want me to go too badly. there may be something behind----" "stop right where you are, if you please, sir," broke in tom halstead, a decided trace of bitterness in his tone. "you're still more than half-inclined to suspect us boys of causing the loss of the papers you had hidden in the closet. i am not blaming you altogether, mr. seaton, though you are doing us a great injustice. but you _must_ believe in us just at the present time, for going with us offers you your only chance of catching up with dalton and saving your own friends of the syndicate. come along, sir! try to trust us, whether it seems wise or not, since it's your only chance." the young skipper seized his charter-man by one arm, almost dragging him along. yet powell seaton, who was in a state of horrible uncertainty, permitted this forcing. outside, on the porch, captain tom hesitated for a moment, then, after glancing at the guards, went on briskly: "mr. seaton, i know you don't want to carry an armed force for purposes of attack on anyone, and you wouldn't have a right to do it, anyway. but, as we may be attacked, if we run afoul of dalton and his friends, won't it be much better if you take at least a couple of your armed guards from this place?" nodding curtly, mr. seaton called to hepton and jasper, two of the guards, explaining that they were needed for a cruise on the "restless." the pair followed along after the others. "you can keep your rifles, just as well, in the motor room," suggested captain tom, and the fire-arms were placed below. hank had everything in readiness for casting off. within forty-five seconds after boarding, the "restless" was under way, poking her nose in a north-easterly direction. "we'd better loaf later on, rather than now, joe," proposed the young skipper. "see how much speed you can crowd out of the motors." powell seaton chose to go aft, all alone, dropping into one of the deck arm-chairs. for a long time he remained there, moody and silent. "what liner do you figure on dalton trying to overtake and board?" queried joe, coming up at last out of the motor room. "why, i don't just know," confessed tom, pondering. "but i'll tell you what you can do, joe. leave hank to watch the motors. you go to the wireless apparatus and send out the longest spark you can get. direct your call to any vessel bound for rio janerio, or brazil in general. if you get an answer from such a craft, ask her latitude and longitude, course and speed, so we can make for her directly." as joe nodded, then dropped down into the motor room, intending to go by the passageway under the bridge deck, tom noted a lurking figure a few feet behind him. "hullo! what are you doing there, jasper?" queried the young captain. "jest mindin' my own business," replied the man, with a half-surly grin. "i'm minding mine, in asking you," retorted halstead, quietly. "i don't like passengers so close to me when i'm handling the boat." "i s'pose mebbe you don't," rejoined jasper, yet making no move. "won't you take a hint?" asked tom, rather bluntly. "where d'ye want me to stand?" asked the fellow, sulkily. "you could go further aft, for instance," replied tom. one hand on the wheel, he stood half-turned, eying this stubborn guard. "oh, all right," came gruffly from jasper, as he started slowly aft. "maybe i'm wrong for thinking much about it," muttered tom, under his breath, "yet it was this same man who was so close to us the other night when mr. seaton and i were talking about the papers hidden in the closet at the bungalow." two or three minutes later a slight sound caused the young skipper to turn with a start. he saw jasper in the very act of fitting a wire-nipper to one of the parallel wires of the aerial of the wireless. in an instant captain tom halstead jammed his wheel and locked it. then he dashed at the fellow. chapter xi the drab boat shows her nose "you keep off!" snarled jasper, drawing back on the defensive, holding the wire-nippers so as to use them in defending himself. but, if the young captain of the "restless" knew any fear, at such moments, he didn't permit others to see it. he neither stopped nor swerved. ducking in under jasper's extended right arm, tom closed with the fellow, grappling. "confound ye! i'll have to throw ye over into the water!" growled jasper, fighting for a hold around the boy's waist and behind his back. but halstead fought to break the grip, at the same time yelling: "hank! here, mighty quick!" jasper fought, trying to force the young commander to the rail. he had half succeeded when hank butts raced on deck. hepton, the other guard, who had been lounging in the engine room, was right behind butts. both of them raced to reach the struggling pair. hank caught jasper at the waist-line, while hepton took a hold at jasper's neck, forcing the fellow back. then tom sailed into the melee with renewed energy. jasper was a powerfully-built fellow, but the three were too many for him. they tripped jasper, throwing him to the deck, and hepton sat upon his comrade's chest. "halstead! you others! what does this violence mean?" powell seaton shouted the question sternly. he had been disturbed by the racket and now stood amidships. "get him over, face down," panted tom. "we'll make sure of the fellow before we begin to explain. hank, run for a pair of handcuffs!" butts was up and off like a shot, wholly liking the nature of his errand. "halstead!" raged mr. seaton. "i insist upon an answer." "it's a case of sea-bullying--that's what it is," growled jasper. "it's an outrage." "hepton," warned the charter-man, "get up off of jasper's chest. let him go." "don't you do it," countermanded tom halstead. "it won't be safe. this fellow is a snake in the grass. i caught him at his tricks." hepton had acted undecidedly for a moment. now, he concluded to stand by the young captain. in a trice hank was back. now the three assailed jasper, rolling him over on his face. tom halstead, himself, fitted the handcuffs. "take the wheel, hank, until i'm through with this," panted tom, leaping up from the treacherous guard. the locked wheel was now steering the "restless" over an erratic course, but hank swiftly had the boat on her true course once more. "i insist on knowing what this shameful business means," cried mr. seaton, glaring at his young skipper. [illustration: tom halstead fitted the handcuffs.] "i should think you might. it's an outrage!" shouted jasper. "this fellow," charged young captain halstead, "was in the very act of cutting the aerial wires with a wire-nipper when i caught him. why, i can show you the nippers he had." tom wheeled, to make a quick search along the deck. jasper grinned covertly for he had thrown the nippers overboard in the struggle. "you see!" flared the prisoner. "he talks about nippers--but where are they?" "halstead," demanded mr. seaton, "do you intend to obey me by setting this man free until i've had an opportunity to investigate all sides of this remarkable charge?" "no, sir, i do not," rejoined halstead, quietly though firmly. "do you forget that i command here?" raged the charter-man. "pardon me, but you don't command," retorted skipper tom, respectfully. "it is true that you have this boat under charter, but i am the captain and one of the owners, and i must handle trouble aboard in the manner that seems best. i caught this man in a treacherous attempt to make our errand this afternoon quite useless. jasper stays in irons until we reach port. i'm sorry to be so stubborn with you, mr. seaton, but, just now, you've a queer idea that i'm working against you. i must save you, sir, even from your own blindness. hepton, will you help me take this fellow aft?" "surely," nodded the guard, who, while he had not seen the start of the trouble, much preferred believing halstead to jasper. seeing that resistance might bring him nothing but a beating, jasper sulkily allowed himself to be led along the deck. down into the cabin he was taken, there to be thrust into the starboard stateroom. joe, from his wireless table at the forward end of the cabin, looked up with much curiosity. "he was trying to snip the wires in your aerial," halstead explained, after turning the key in the stateroom door. "glad you got him, then," nodded dawson. mr. seaton had followed as far as the doorway. there he halted, well convinced that he could not, at present, persuade the young skipper to change his mind. "now, if you'll be good enough to come up to the bridge deck, mr. seaton, i want to explain matters to you, sir," proposed the captain of the "restless." rather stiffly the charter-man followed. hepton, as though to show further good faith, took pains to remain aft. "do you remember the other night, when we were coming back with the guard for lonely island," began tom, in a low voice, "that we found one of the new guards leaning well over the deck-house behind our backs?" "i do," nodded powell seaton, coldly. "that man, sir, was jasper. to-day, when we are out trying to trace anson dalton over the open sea, i find that same fellow, jasper, trying to cut the parallel wires of the aerial. why should he do that unless he means to try to prevent our catching up with dalton? now, sir, putting two and two together, doesn't it seem mighty reasonable to suspect that jasper overheard what we were saying the other night, and then watched his chance to steal the papers that you and i thought were so safely hidden in the cupboard at the bungalow? i know, mr. seaton, you feel that you have some reason for suspecting us boys. in view of what happened the other night, and again this afternoon, isn't it a whole lot more sensible to trace your misfortunes to jasper?" powell seaton, whose daze had continued ever since starting on this cruise, now pondered deeply, with knitted brows. at last, however, he looked up quickly, holding out his right hand, as he exclaimed: "halstead, i begin to believe that i have been too hasty and suspicious. i have hated myself for distrusting any of you boys, and yet----" "and yet," smiled tom, "you are beginning to feel that there is not as much reason for suspecting us as there is for believing that the guilt of a mean theft lies at someone else's door." "i beg you to forgive me, halstead, you and your mates. but i hardly know what i am thinking or saying. my mind is in too deep a turmoil." "we'll forget it, mr. seaton," continued halstead, as he pressed the other's hand. "_i_ can, easily, and i hope you'll do your best to believe that you can trust us as fully as others have done." "you may just as well come forward, hepton," hailed captain tom, a few moments later. "and i want to thank you for the way you stood by me when i needed help so badly." "ever since we've been at the island i've felt that i didn't believe any too much in that man jasper," muttered hepton. "he has been acting queer some of the time." "how?" asked mr. seaton. "well, for one thing, he always wanted the night guard duty. and he growled at taking the porch or the dock. what he wanted to do was to roam off about the island by himself. whenever he came back he wanted to sit in your sitting-room, at the bungalow, and the fellow scowled if some of the rest of us showed any liking for staying in that sitting-room." "what do you make of that, sir?" asked captain halstead, looking significantly at powell seaton. "it sets me to thinking hard," replied that gentleman, gravely. hepton glanced with natural curiosity from one to the other. then, finding that he was not to be enlightened as to what had happened ashore, he soon stepped aft again. "here's what you want to know, i reckon," announced joe, in a low voice, as his head bobbed up out of the motor room. in one hand he held a slip of paper on which he had just taken down a message. "twenty miles north of us is the langley line freighter, 'fulton.' she's headed this way, and coming at fourteen knots." skipper tom received the paper, studying the position and course as joe had jotted them down. "the langley boats run to rio janeiro, don't they?" asked halstead. "yes, and every boat of that line carries a wireless installation now, too," joe continued. "she's the only boat that answered my hail." "take the new course, hank," called the young skipper to the boy at the wheel, and rattled it off. the "restless" swung around to a nearly northerly course. "at her speed, and ours, it needn't be many minutes before we sight the 'fulton,'" judged halstead. "hank, you keep the wheel. i want a chance to handle my glasses." with the marine binoculars in his hand skipper tom soon began to sweep the horizon. "there's what the wireless did for us," he chuckled to mr. seaton. "without our electrical wave we wouldn't have known, for sure, that there was a rio boat in these waters this afternoon. and, but for getting the 'fulton's' position and course by wireless, we'd have swept by to the eastward, away out of sight of the freighter." within a few minutes more the young skipper, by the aid of his glasses, got a glimpse of a steamship's masts. a few minutes later the upper works of her high hull were visible. "that's the 'fulton.' i know the langley type of freighter build," halstead explained, eagerly. "we'll soon be close enough to see her name-plate through the glass. and--oh!--by jove!" tom waved the glasses with a flourish, pointing, then handed them to powell seaton. "look right over there to the north-westward, sir, and you'll make out that drab-hulled seventy-footer. she's just coming into sight." "i see her," nodded mr. seaton. captain halstead took the glasses again, studying both the seventy-footer and the freighter intently, judging their relative speeds and positions. "dalton, or his friend, lemly, has nicely calculated the drab boat's run," declared the young skipper of the "restless," "dalton's craft is in fine position to stop the freighter. but we'll reach the 'fulton' first, and by some minutes, too, sir. the drab boat looks like a good one, but i believe we're a shade faster in the stretch." "what are we going to do when we overhaul both craft?" wondered powell seaton, aloud. "why, sir, it will be easy enough to make the 'fulton's' captain refuse to take any such passenger as dalton." "how?" demanded mr. seaton. "just inform the 'fulton's' captain that anson dalton is a fugitive from justice. if you do that, the freighter's captain isn't going to take any chances on getting into subsequent trouble with uncle sam. the captain will simply decline to receive him as a passenger on the high seas." powell seaton looked very cheerful for a moment. then a look of dark doubt crossed his face. "that will be all right, halstead, unless it happens that the captain of the 'fulton' is a man on the inside of some official affairs down in brazil. if that be so, then your freighter's captain may recognize dalton as a man of consequence--one to be served at all hazards. for, if a steamship captain of the langley line must be careful to stand well with the united states authorities, he must also be no less careful to keep in the good graces of some of the cliques of brazilian officers. so what if dalton goes aboard the freighter, and her captain sends us a derisive toot of his whistle?" tom halstead's face showed his instant uneasiness. "if that turns out to be the case, sir," he whispered, "you've lost your last chance to stop anson dalton. he goes to brazil with all the papers for locating the diamond mine, and you and your syndicate friends lose the whole big game!" chapter xii the searchlight finds a "double" yet, though his confidence in success had received a severe jolt, captain tom reached out for the megaphone. "run in straight and close, hank," he ordered. "i want every possible second of conversation before that drab boat gets within talking distance of the 'fulton.'" the "restless" and the freighter were now within a mile of each other, and almost head-on. the drab boat, about two miles away, had altered its course so as to pick up the freighter at a more southerly point. "run to your table, joe," commanded the young skipper, "and notify the 'fulton' that we are going to hail her for a brief pow-wow." the speed with which young dawson worked was shown by the fact that, when still half a mile away, the big freighter, hailed by wireless, began to slow down speed. it was plain that she was going to lie to in order to hear the whole of the hail from the "restless." "great scott, though! look at that!" suddenly ejaculated tom halstead. the drab seventy-footer had suddenly gone about, making fast westerly time for the shore. "go about after the seventy-footer, hank," almost exploded halstead, in the intensity of his excitement over this new move. "dalton doesn't seem to want to try the freighter now. follow dalton back to shore." "but the 'fulton's' slowing down. you're going to show him the politeness of telling the freighter's captain what it was all about, ain't you?" "let joe do it," replied tom, tersely. "what's the wireless for?" just at this moment joe dawson appeared from below. "our apologies to the freighter, joe," called skipper tom. "tell him we're after the drab boat. tell him that our game is to stop a fugitive from getting out of the united states." joe again appeared just as the freighter began to make full headway once more. "captain carson sends you his compliments from the 'fulton,' tom, for chasing the fugitive off." "and now, we're going to chase that fugitive in," uttered halstead, grimly. "by george! look at the way that drab boat is beginning to travel. joe, we can't let her lose us in this fashion." as the "fulton" passed out hull down, and then finally vanished on the southern horizon, the chase after the drab seventy-footer became lively and exciting. "can you make out dalton aboard of her?" asked powell seaton, as tom stood forward, leaning against the edge of the forward deck-house, the marine glass as fast to his eyes as though glued there. "no, sir. if dalton is aboard, he's keeping out of sight in the cabin." "did you see, when the drab boat was more head-on, whether lemly was at the wheel?" "the man at the wheel wasn't lemly, sir, though i believe that fellow is on board as the actual captain," halstead answered. "humph! is the drab going to get away from us?" questioned hank, wonderingly. "my, look at her bow cut water!" "she's a faster boat than i thought," tom responded. "but we don't mean to let her get away. joe, how are we going on speed?" "i couldn't get another revolution out of the twin shafts without overheating everything," dawson replied, seriously. "honestly, tom, if this speed doesn't suit, i'm afraid we'll have to make the best of it." "then don't lose a single inch by bad steering, hank," halstead directed, looking around at his helmsman. "whenever you want relief, let me know." for five miles the drab seventy-footer kept her lead, though she did not seem able to increase it. that craft was still heading shoreward, and now the low, long, hazy line of the coast was in sight, becoming every minute more plain. "they're going to head straight for the shore, unless they've some slicker trick hidden up their sleeves," declared tom halstead. "i wonder that they're running so hard from us," mused powell seaton. "most likely, sir," responded the young skipper, "because dalton and lemly believe we have officers aboard. of course they know--or suspect--that warrants are out charging them with stealing the 'restless' the other night." "suppose dalton and lemly are not aboard that boat?" challenged mr. seaton, suddenly. tom halstead's lower jaw sagged for just an instant. "of course, there's that chance. we may have been fooled, and we may be chasing a straw man in a paper boat right at this minute, sir. yet, if dalton were out on the water, with his stolen papers, he'd want to get nowhere else but to brazil. if he isn't on the water, then he's not trying this route to your brazilian enemies, and we might as well be out here as on lonely island." as the boat in the lead neared the coast halstead again kept the marine glass to his eyes. "there's a little river over yonder," he observed. "yes; i know the stream. hardly more than a creek," replied mr. seaton. "any deep water there, sir?" "for only a very little way in. then the stream moves over a pebbly bottom like a running brook." "then it looks, sir, as though lemly--if he's aboard--plans to run in there and hustle ashore." "or else stay and fight," hinted powell seaton. "the place is lonely enough for a fight, if the rascals dare try it." "hepton!" summoned halstead, a few moments later. "don't you think you'd better get up your rifle? you don't need to show it, but someone may send us a shot or two from the drab boat." hepton sprang below, bringing up both rifles. crouching behind the forward deck-house, he examined the magazines of both weapons. "we're carrying load enough for a squad o' infantry," laughed hepton, showing his strong, white teeth. "let those fellers on the drab try it, if they want to see what we've got." the seventy-footer was shutting off speed now, going slowly into the mouth of the little river. almost immediately afterwards her reverse was applied, after which she swung at anchor. tom, too, without a word to hank, who stood by the wheel, reached over, slowing the "restless" down to a gait of something like eight miles an hour. "what's the order, sir?" he asked, turning to mr. seaton. "are we to go in and anchor alongside?" "i--i don't want to run you young men into any too dangerous places," began powell seaton, hesitatingly. "i--i----" "danger's one of the things we're paid for," clicked tom halstead, softly. "it'll all in the charter. do you want to go in alongside?" "i--i----" bang! the shot came so unexpectedly that the motor boat boys jumped despite themselves. hepton cocked one of the rifles, and was about to rise with it, when the young skipper of the "restless" prodded the man gently with one foot. "don't show your guns, hepton," murmured tom. "wait until we find out what that shot was meant for." no one now appeared on board the drab seventy-footer. there had been no smoke, no whistle of a bullet by the heads of those on the bridge deck of the "restless." "that was intended only to make us nervous," grinned captain tom. "or else to show us that they have fire-arms," suggested seaton. "well, sir, i'm headed to go in alongside, unless you give me other orders," hinted the young skipper. "cover about half the rest of the distance, then reverse and lie to," decided powell seaton. he now had the extra pair of marine glasses, and was attentively studying both the boat and the shore nearby. tom took the wheel himself, stopping where he had been directed. so neatly was headway corrected that the "restless" barely drifted on the smooth water inshore. there was now remaining less than an hour of daylight. "i think i understand their plan, if dalton is on board," whispered mr. seaton to his young captain. "dalton is waiting until it is dark enough to slip ashore." "hm! there's one way you _could_ stop that, if you want to take all the risk," ventured halstead, grinning thoughtfully. "how?" "well, if it's the plan of anyone aboard the drab boat to slip on shore under cover of darkness, then i could put our tender overboard and row hepton to one bank of the river with his rifle. returning, i could row you to the other shore, you to carry the other rifle." "that would be a bold and open move," agreed mr. seaton, gasping at first, then looking thoughtful. "but look at that shore, halstead. see the thick trees on either bank of the river. hepton and i couldn't watch a lot of stretch on both banks." "with our help from the boat you could, sir." "again, how?" "why, it's shallow enough to drop anchor right here, mr. seaton. then, as soon as it grows the least bit dark, we boys could keep our searchlight turned on the drab boat so that you and hepton could see every movement on her decks. from a quarter of a mile off you could see anyone swimming ashore and run to stop him. there's no difficulty about it, sir, except the risk." "hepton, i must talk that over with you," cried powell seaton. "i don't feel that i have any right to run you into too certain danger." but hepton smiled again in a way to show his white teeth. "don't worry 'bout me, mr. seaton. i feel big 'nough to take care of myself, and i enlisted for the whole game, anyway." "you could keep watch right from this deck," halstead added. "but then, if anyone slipped ashore from the drab, you couldn't get on shore fast enough to follow through the woods. you'd lose the trail right after the start." "even if i were on shore, and dalton walked right by me, what could i do?" pondered powell seaton. "of course, i know the sheriff of the county would take him, for going aboard this boat and breaking it loose from the dock the other night. a united states marshal might arrest dalton, on my request, for piracy in sailing away with the boat. but would i have a right to seize dalton and hold him--even if able?" "you can follow him until you _do_ run dalton into one of the law's officers," proposed halstead. "i believe i'm going ashore, anyway, to see what happens," announced mr. seaton, after giving the matter a little more thought. "but let me go ashore, first, on the other bank," begged hepton. "then you can take second chance, sir." "very good, then," agreed the charter-man. with the aid of his mates, captain tom had the anchor overboard, and the small tender alongside in a jiffy. hepton stepped down into the smaller craft, carrying his rifle so that it could be seen. tom himself took the oars to row. "i'd better put you in on the bank to the left," whispered halstead, and hepton nodded. they passed within forty yards of the stern of the drab boat, yet not a single human being appeared on that mysterious craft. having put hepton on shore, halstead rowed back for mr. seaton. embarking this second passenger, tom, this time, rowed a little closer to the seventy-footer lying at anchor in the river's mouth. now, the head of a man unknown to either of them showed aft. "where you-all goin' with so many guns?" this man asked, in a half-jeering tone. "night hunting," retorted tom, dryly, not feeling guilty of a lie since he was certain the other would not believe him. landing mr. seaton on the other river bank, the young captain of the "restless" returned to his craft. by now it was nearly dark. "we may as well see how the searchlight is working," joe dawson suggested. "turn it on them, and sweep it around," responded halstead. the strong glare of light was found to be working satisfactorily. dark came on quickly, still without any more signs of life aboard the drab than had already been observed. "supper time, surely," announced hank, in a glum voice. "don't bother about that to-night," objected the young skipper. "slip down into the galley and make sandwiches enough for all hands. we can eat and watch--_must_, in fact, if we eat at all." after the sandwiches had been made and disposed of the motor boat club boys began to find the swinging of the light on the drab boat, on the water and on either river bank, to be growing rather monotonous. "i wish something would happen," grumbled hank. "now, don't start a fuss about that," yawned joe. "something is likely enough to start up at any second." "it has started," whispered tom halstead, swinging the searchlight, just then, across the drab's hull. "look there!" two much-muffled figures, looking nearly identical, and each of the pair carrying a bag, appeared on deck amidships, one standing on each side of the deck-house. then, as quickly, by their sides stood two other men who sprang to lower the two small boats that hung at davits. one muffled man and one helper embarked in each boat, the helper in each case rowing swiftly to either bank of the river. "that's a queer game, but a clever one," muttered captain tom, swinging the glaring searchlight and watching. "it'll mix up mr. seaton and hepton all right," grimaced joe dawson. "each will wonder whether _he_ has dalton on his side of the river, to follow." now, as quickly, the two boat-tenders rowed back to the drab, and the boats were triced up in a twinkling. "say, they've got their anchor up!" cried hank butts, in a breathless undertone. "they're going to scoot out on us." "then i'm ready to bet," muttered tom halstead, "that neither of the muffled men that went ashore was anson dalton. they must be trying to throw our crowd off the trail, and now that seventy-footer is trying to get off with dalton still aboard!" whatever the plan was, the drab was now backing out of the river mouth and swinging around. so far none of her sailing lights were in evidence. she looked more like a pirate craft slinking out into the night on an errand of dire mischief. once out of the mouth of the river, the drab swung around, then began to move ahead. by this time her prow was head-on for the "restless," as though aimed to strike the latter craft amidships. then, as the drab's speed increased, tom halstead vented excitedly: "jupiter! they're out to cut us in two while we ride here at anchor!" chapter xiii tom halstead--ready! there was no time to raise the anchor. even had this been possible, it would have been out of the question to get the motors started and running in time to get out of the drab's way. captain tom halstead was taken wholly by surprise, yet he was not caught with his wits asleep. "make a dive for those sticks, fellows!" he shouted, bounding for the motor room hatchway. "if we get a chance we'll give 'em at least a pat for a blow!" the sticks of firewood that they had used on the night of their long swim were in the motor room. tom caught up his, wheeling to bound outside again. joe dawson was barely a step behind him. but hank--he went as though by instinct for the hitching weight that had already made him famous in the annals of the motor boat club. swift as they were, the trio were back on deck just in time to witness the final manoeuvre of the seventy-footer. that craft, not moving very fast, suddenly veered in its course. instead of cutting through the "restless," the larger motor boat swung suddenly so as to come up alongside, rail to rail. and now the whole intention was manifest at a glance, for the figures of six men, with their caps pulled well down over their eyes, appeared at the drab's rail. "all hands to repel boarders!" sang out captain tom halstead, his voice ringing defiantly. "show 'em the best you can!" joe swung, with a single-stick trick he had learned and practiced. it was a feint, aimed at the first of the drab's crew to try to leap aboard. the intended victim threw up his hands to ward off the blow from the top of his head, but he received, instead, a stinging, crushing slap across the face. tom thrust one end of his stick for the face of another of the boarding strangers. the fellow strove to protect his face, and would have guarded easily enough, but, instead, the other end of tom's bludgeon struck him in the pit of his stomach, depriving him of all his wind. "woof!" grunted hank, at the first sign of onslaught. in both hands he clutched that business-like, though not formidable looking, hitching weight. one man set his foot on deck. hank, almost with deliberation, dropped the weight on the toes of that foot. there was a yell of pain. snatching up the weight instantly, hank let it fly forward and fall across the toes of another of the boarders. two of the strangers were limping now. another was nursing an injured face, from joe's heavy blow. captain tom's victim had fallen back aboard his home craft, gasping for breath. the other two of the invaders got aboard the "restless"--then wished they hadn't, for hank pursued one of them with his terrifying hitching weight, while tom and joe divided the sole remaining enemy between them. hardly had the affair begun when it ended; it was all over in an instant. the two who had escaped injury leaped back aboard the drab. those who needed assistance were helped back. the drab drifted away, her vagrant course unheeded at first, for it looked as though all aboard had taken part in that disastrous boarding enterprise. tom and hank sprang for their own anchor, while joe, as soon as he saw the big motor boats drift apart, dropped into the small boat of the "restless" and rowed swiftly for shore. hardly had he touched the beach when powell seaton, rifle in hand, bounded forth from cover. "put across, and see if we can get hepton, too," directed the charter-man, in a low voice. "i stepped right up out of the bushes, almost into the face of the fellow who landed on my side of the river. it was neither dalton nor lemly. as soon as the fellow saw me he laughed, put a chew of tobacco in his mouth, and went on." hardly had seaton finished speaking when joe dawson shot the bow of the little boat against the further bank. during this time mr. seaton had kept his eyes on the drab boat, holding his rifle in readiness in case another effort should be made to ram or board the "restless." "oh, you-u-u-u!" called joe, hailing. there was a sound in the woods, and then hepton came into sight. "did you see the man who landed on your side?" whispered powell seaton, as hepton reached the beach. "yes; he was just an ordinary roustabout chap," grunted hepton, disgustedly. "i had no orders to follow _him_, so i didn't take the trouble." "that's right. jump in and we'll get aboard the 'restless.'" hank had the motors working long before joe returned with his two passengers, and was standing by. captain tom was at the wheel, but keeping the searchlight inquisitively on the drab. now, the seventy-footer began to move off slowly down the coast, going at a speed of perhaps six miles an hour. halstead, without waiting for orders, went in chase, keeping his place two hundred yards behind the other craft. all the while he kept the searchlight swinging over the drab, from her port to starboard sides. "that must annoy those fellows," observed powell seaton, with a chuckle, as he stood by the young skipper. "i reckon it does," returned tom, dryly. "but it also prevents their letting anyone off the boat without our seeing it. you see, sir, they're only about a quarter of a mile off the coast here. their small boat could make a quick dash for the shore. even a good swimmer could go overboard. i don't intend to let anyone get off that seventy-footer without our knowing all about it." halstead had not been silent long when he saw a bright flash from the drab, aft. it was followed, almost immediately, by the sound of a gun. then a bullet went by about two feet over their heads. "that was meant for our searchlight," laughed tom halstead, coolly. "those fellows want to put it out of business." with an ugly cry hepton leaned over the edge of the forward deck-house, sighting. "don't do that," called captain tom, sharply. then he added: "i beg your pardon, mr. seaton, but i don't believe you want any shooting to come from us unless it's necessary." "no, i don't," replied the charter-man, thoughtfully. "dalton and lemly seem willing to take desperate chances, acting like pirates, in fact. but we don't want to kill anyone, and, above all, we want to be very sure we have the law on our side." "they fired our way," urged hepton, rather stubbornly. "we have a right to defend ourselves." "but they sent only one shot," replied seaton. "they might afterwards claim that it was an accidental discharge. unless they make it very plain that they're playing the part of pirates, we'd better take the best of care not to put ourselves wrong before the law." "that's all right, sir," admitted hepton. "but, while i'm willing to take any chances that go with my job, it doesn't seem just fair to ask me to be exposed to bullets from that other boat without the right to answer their fire." "you can get down before the forward deck-house, hepton," nodded halstead, pleasantly. "you can't be hit through the deck-house." "but you can be hit, fine," objected hepton. "like mr. seaton," answered the young skipper, "i'd rather take the chance than do anything to put us in the wrong." grumbling a bit, though under his breath, hepton seated himself where the forward deck-house would protect him. joe remained leaning nonchalantly over the edge of the house. "i wonder if they _will_ dare to keep up a fusillade?" he presently said, watching the deck of the drab boat in the glare of light that halstead now held steadily on it. "if they fire another shot at us," replied powell seaton, "then hepton and i will crouch over the forward deck-house, rifles ready, and fire at the flash of the third shot. we'll keep within the law, but we won't stand for any determined piracy that we have the power to resist." "take the wheel, hank," called tom, presently. then the young skipper signed to his employer that he wanted to speak with him aft. "mr. seaton," began tom, "i want to ask you a few questions, with a view to making a suggestion that may be worth while." "go ahead, halstead." "you trust me now, fully? have you gotten wholly over your suspicions of early this afternoon?" "halstead," replied the charter-man, in a tone uneasy with emotion, "i'm wholly ashamed of anything that i may have said or thought. you've shown me, since, how perfectly brave you are. i don't believe a young man with your cool, resolute grit, and your clear head, _could_ be anything but absolutely honest." "thank you," acknowledged the young motor boat captain. "now, mr. seaton, though the two sets of papers describing and locating your diamond field are out of your hands, don't you remember the contents of the papers well enough to sit down at a desk and duplicate them?" "yes; surely," nodded mr. seaton, slowly. "you feel certain that you can seat yourself and write out a set of papers that would tell a man down in brazil just how to locate the diamond field?" "i can, halstead. it would be a matter of some hours of writing, that's all. but why are you asking this? what plan have you in your mind?" "well, i've got a hunch, sir," replied tom halstead, quietly, "that you're never going to see the lost papers again. if anson dalton found you getting close to him, and knew you could seize the papers, he'd destroy them. it seems to me that our sole game must be to prevent his ever getting those papers to brazil ahead of a second set that you can just as well write to-night." "if we trail him all the time," replied powell seaton, thoughtfully, "we can know whether the fellow succeeds in getting away on a ship to brazil. he can't go on that drab boat ahead, can he?" "the seventy-footer would be quite good enough a boat to make the voyage to brazil," halstead answered. "so would the 'restless,' for that matter. the only trouble would be that neither boat could carry anywhere near enough gasoline for such a voyage." "then anson dalton, if he gets away to brazil, will have to board some regular liner or freighter? well, as long as we keep him in sight, we'll know whether he's doing that." "but dalton will get desperate," tom warned his employer. "while holding onto the papers he has succeeded in obtaining, he can make a copy, and he may very likely determine to send the copies to your old enemy, terrero, by mail. now, mr. seaton, it seems to me that your best hope is to duplicate the missing papers at once, and, if you can't find in haste a messenger you'll trust, then you had better send the papers by registered mail to your friends in rio janeiro." powell seaton stared at the young skipper, going deathly pale. "captain halstead, don't you understand that the possession of such a set of papers, at rio janeiro, would mean that the possessor could locate and file a patent to the diamond field, of which no one, save myself, at present knows the exact location? why, even if the postal authorities do their very best to put the papers in the proper hands, anyone like a dishonest clerk might get the papers in his hands. the temptation would be powerful for anyone who had the papers to locate the mine at once for himself." "i understand, fully," agreed captain tom. "but the whole thing has become a desperate case, now, and some desperate chances must be taken if you're to have a good chance to win out against terrero and his crooked friends." "then you--you--honestly believe i'd better make out another set of papers and mail them to my friends of the syndicate, at rio janeiro?" faltered mr. seaton. "yes; unless you prefer to be almost certain of losing your fight for the great fortune. for dalton, of course, knows that you can send a set of the papers by mail. he'll feel like taking the same desperate chance in order to have a better chance of getting in ahead of you." "by mail--even registered mail?" groaned mr. seaton. "it seems an awful--desperate chance to take. yet----" "prepare a duplicate set of the papers," proposed tom halstead, "and, if you'll trust me, i'll board the first rio-bound steamer that we meet, and go through for you. i'll give you every guarantee that's possible to find your people in rio and turn the papers over to them." "will you?" demanded seaton, peering eagerly into his young skipper's eyes. "then you'll trust me to go as your messenger to rio?" "yes, in a minute, halstead! yet i'm thinking of the great danger you'd be running. at this moment terrero's spies must be plentiful in rio janeiro. why, even every steamer that leaves new york for brazil may carry his men aboard, alert, watchful and deadly. you don't know what a man like terrero is like. the constant danger to you----" "constant danger," laughed tom halstead, softly, "is something that most men learn readily to face. otherwise, wars would be impossible." "but that is very different," retorted powell seaton, quickly. "in war men have the constant elbow-touch, the presence and support of comrades. but you would be alone--one against hundreds, perhaps, at the very instant when you set foot ashore in brazil." "i'll take the chance, if you let me," declared captain tom. "but, now, sir, you're losing time. why don't you go below, get writing materials, and start in earnest to get out the duplicate papers?" "i will," nodded the charter-man. "should i change my mind, it will be easy enough to burn the sheets after i have written them." as powell seaton turned to go down into the cabin joe dawson called sharply: "tom, something's up ahead! come here, quickly!" chapter xiv grit goes up the signal mast even before captain tom turned he heard the sudden throb of the twin screws of the propellers, and felt the speed being reversed. that told him, instantly, that joe had found some reason for stopping the "restless" in a hurry. as the young commander bounded forward the steady ray of his own searchlight showed him that the seventy-footer had also stopped her headway. hank was still at the wheel, but young dawson was beside him on the bridge deck. "there they go--dropping their anchor overboard," cried joe, pointing. "the water's shallow along this coast, of course." "we'll move right in, between that boat and the shore, and drop anchor, too," decided captain halstead, taking the wheel and reaching for the engine control. he sent the "restless" slowly forward into place, then shut off headway, ordering: "joe, you and hank get our anchor over. dalton can't get anything or anybody ashore, now, without our knowing it." "but what can his plan be, anchoring on an open coast?" demanded young dawson, as he came back from heaving the anchor. "our job is just to wait and see," laughed captain halstead. mr. seaton came on deck again, to learn what this sudden stopping of the boat meant. "it's some trick, and all we can do is to watch it, sir," reported the young skipper of the "restless," pointing to the anchored drab. "yet i think the whole situation, sir, points to the necessity for your taking my recent advice and acting on it without the loss of an hour." "either the registered mail, or yourself as a special messenger," whispered seaton, hoarsely, in the boy's ear. "yes, yes! i'll fly at the work." "don't hurry back below, though," advised halstead. "stroll along, as though you were going below for a nap. a night glass on the seventy-footer is undoubtedly watching all our movements." as the two boats swung idly at anchor, on that smooth sea, their bows lay some three hundred yards apart. the night air was so still, and voices carried so far, that those on the deck of the "restless" were obliged to speak very quietly. over on the seventy-footer but one human being showed himself to the watchers on the smaller boat. this solitary individual paced the drab boat's bridge deck, puffing at a short-stemmed pipe. "i'd give a lot to be smart enough to guess what their game is," whispered joe, curiously. "it's a puzzle," sighed captain tom halstead. "it looks, now, as though dalton and lemly are trying to hold us here while someone else does something on shore." "then you think the two who landed on either bank of the river----" "we know that neither of them was dalton or lemly, but i'm beginning to suspect that one, or both, of those fellows carried messages, somewhere and of some nature. in that case, we're letting our curiosity hold us up here while the enemy are accomplishing something at some other point." "confound 'em!" growled joe, prodding the bulwarks with his toe. "they're clever rascals!" "meanwhile," whispered tom, "i've just been thinking of something else that we ought to be doing." "what?" "there may be another steamship for rio janeiro passing somewhere in these waters at any time. we ought to send out a call on the wireless at least once an hour. there's something else in the wind, old fellow, and we _do_ want to know when the first steam vessel for rio passes through these waters." "then i'll go below and get at work at the sending key," proposed dawson. "send out the wireless call once an hour, you say?" "yes; yet we don't want to forget that we're being watched all the time from that old drab pirate yonder. don't let the enemy see you going to the cabin." "i'll drop down into the motor room and use the passageway through." dawson was gone ten minutes. when he returned he shook his head, then stood looking out over the sea. excepting the "restless" and the drab seventy-footer there was no craft in sight. not so much as a lighthouse shed its beams over the ocean at this point of the coast. "say, it's weird, isn't it?" muttered joe dawson. "we can't see a thing but ourselves, yet down in the cabin i've just been chatting with the savannah boat, the new orleans boat, two boston fruit steamers, the southbound havana liner and a british warship. look out there. where are they? yet all are within reach of my electric wave!" "there are no longer any pathless roads of the sea--not since the wireless came in," declared tom halstead. "if there were enough vessels to relay us we could talk direct with london now. the next thing will be a telephone in every stateroom, with a wireless central on the saloon deck or the spar deck. but gracious! we've been forgetting all about our poor prisoner in the starboard stateroom. he must have a royal case of hunger by now. tell hank to take him in some food and to feed the poor fellow, since he can't use his own hands." later time began to drag by. there were few signs of life aboard the seventy-footer. sending joe and hepton down to the motor room berths as watch below, tom kept hank on deck with him. bye-and-bye joe and hepton took their trick on deck, while halstead and hank butts went below for some sleep. through most of the night powell seaton remained hard at work over his writing, often pausing to read and make some corrections. morning found the two boats still at anchor. with sunrise came a stiffer wind that rocked the "restless" a good deal. "now, look out for one of the sudden september gales," warned captain tom halstead, as, after the second short sleep of the night, he came up on deck, yawning and stretching. he stepped over to read the barometer, then turned quickly to joe. "looks like something's going to happen, doesn't it?" queried dawson. "yes; there's a disturbance heading this way," admitted tom, looking around at the sky. "yet it may be hours, or a day, off yet. if we were going under canvas, though, i'd shorten it." "the captain of the drab evidently believes in being prepared," hinted joe, nodding in the direction of the other craft. two men were now visible on the deck of the seventy-footer. they were taking up anchor, though not doing it with either speed or stealth. "i reckon we have to take our sailing orders from them," nodded the young skipper. "you'd better get the motors on the mote, joe. i'll have hank and hepton help me up with our anchor." soon afterwards the drab was heading north at a ten-mile gait; half a minute later the "restless" started in leisurely pursuit. after half an hour or so the drab headed into another open roadstead, anchoring a quarter of a mile from shore. tom dropped anchor some three hundred yards to the southward. "keep your eye seaward, hank," directed the young skipper. "joe, if you'll see whether mr. seaton wants anything, hepton and i will keep a keen eye on the shore." "mr. seaton is asleep in the port stateroom," dawson reported back a moment later. "i've made eight calls through the night, but i'll get at the sending key again, and see whether there's anything in our line within hail." hardly had joe dawson vanished below when skipper tom uttered a sudden exclamation. a sharp, bright glint of light from under the trees on shore caught his watchful eye. "look there!" the young captain called, pointing to the flash. "there's another," muttered hank butts, pointing further up the coast. "by jimminy, there's a third," cried hepton, pointing. "signals for the dalton-lemly crew," uttered tom, disgustedly. "_they_ are getting news, now, and of a kind we can't read. hank! call mr. seaton. _he_ ought to be on deck, watching this." the charter-man was speedily up into the open. in the meantime joe, at the powerful sending apparatus below, sent the spark leaping across the spark-gap, and, dashing up the aerials, there shot into space the electric waves intended to be gathered in by any other wireless operator within fifty or sixty miles. crash-sh! ass-ss-ssh! hissed the spark, bounding, leaping to its work like a thing of almost animal life. bang! this last note that came on the air was sharp, clear, though not loud. whew-ew! a bullet uttered a swift sigh as it sped past the signaling mast twenty feet over the heads of the watchers of the "restless." "confound it! rascals on shore are shooting at us," exclaimed powell seaton, turning swiftly to peer at the forest-clad shore line. "no; they're shooting at our aerials!" retorted captain tom halstead. bang! whe-ew-ew! clash! then there was a metallic clash, for the second rifle shot from the land had scored a fair bull's-eye among the clustered aerial wires. there was a rattle, and some of the severed wire ends hung down. with an ugly grunt, hepton bounded down into the motor room, passing up the two rifles. "we must be careful, though," warned mr. seaton. "this time they're not shooting at us." "load and be ready, though!" uttered captain tom, dryly. "they soon will be shooting at us." several more shots clattered out, and two more of the bullets did further damage among the aerial wires. then joe came dancing up on deck, his eyes full of ire. "the infernal scoundrels have put our spark out of business," he cried, disgustedly. "we haven't wire enough left to send five miles. where do the shots come from?" "from the shore," halstead replied, "but see for yourself if you can locate the marksmen. we can't. they're using smokeless powder, and are hidden so far in under the trees that we can't even make out the flashes." "it's out of my line to locate them," announced joe dawson, with vigor. "it's mine to see that the aerials are put on a working basis again." he vanished, briefly, into the motor room, soon reappearing with a coil of wire and miscellaneous tools. "good!" commended halstead, joyously. "mr. seaton, we have wire enough to repair a dozen smashes, if need be. on up with you, joe. i'm at your heels." joe started to climb the mast, using the slightly projecting footholds placed there for that purpose. tom let him get a clear lead, then started up after his chum. from the shore broke out a rapid, intermittent volley. steel-clad bullets sang a song full of menace about that signal mast. "come down, boys! you'll be killed!" roared mr. seaton, looking up apprehensively. while joe kept on climbing, in silence, skipper tom looked down with a cool grin. "killed?" he repeated. "well, if we're not, we'll fix the aerials. we can't allow strangers to put us out of business!" joe found his place to go to work. tom halted, with his head on a level with his chum's knees. from the shore there came another burst of rifle-fire, and the air about them was sternly melodious with the pest-laden hum of bullets. two of the missiles glancingly struck wires just above dawson's head. in the lull that followed joe's voice was heard: "hold the wire, tom. pass me the pliers." chapter xv playing salt water blind man's buff "i've got to do something!" growled hepton, his teeth tightly shut. raising his rifle to his shoulder, making his guess by sound, the man let two shots drive at the shore, not far back from the beach's edge. then, after a pause and a long look, he let three more shots drive, slightly changing his sighting each time. "come on, mr. seaton," he urged. "they're firing on your skipper and engineer this time. it's up to us to answer 'em--clear case of self-preservation. the first _law_ that was ever invented!" bang! bang! rang seaton's rifle, twice. he, too, fired for the forest, near the beach. it was like the man to hope he had hit no one, but he was determined to stop if possible this direct attack on tom halstead and joe dawson. evidently the first sign of resistance was not to stop the bothering tactics of those on shore, for one wire that joe was handling was zipped out of his hands. "they mean business, the enemy," called down skipper tom, softly, to the tune of a low laugh. "but we'll get rigged, in spite of them. all we ask for is that they let us get the wire fixed often enough for a few minutes of sending and receiving once an hour." hepton and his employer continued to fire, using a good deal of ammunition. the guard was much more vengeful in his firing and in his attempts to locate the hidden marksmen than was seaton. "that's what those two men went ashore for last night," called down halstead, quietly. "first of all, to fool us and get us guessing, and, next, to hunt up some of their own rascals for this work. the seventy-footer led us into this trap on purpose. finely done, wasn't it?" "it shows," retorted mr. seaton, wrathily, "that along this sparsely settled shore there is a numerous gang organized for some law-breaking purpose." "smuggling, most likely," guessed tom. "and it must pay unusually well, too, for them to have such a big and so well-armed a crew." three more shots sounded from the shore. all of the trio of bullets went uncomfortably close to the young skipper and engineer, though doing no actual damage. hepton, with his ear trained to catch the direction of the discharge sounds, changed his guess, firing in a new direction. "there, it's done, until it's put out of business again," muttered joe, finally. "slide, tom." almost immediately after dawson disappeared the crash of the spark across the spark-gap and up the wires was heard. the young wireless operator of the "restless" was making the most of any time that might be left to him. "how about that storm that threatened last night, captain?" inquired mr. seaton. "has it come any nearer?" [illustration: "there, it's done," muttered joe. "slide, tom."] "no, sir," replied the motor boat captain, shaking his head. "it acted the way many september storms do on this coast. it passed by us, out to sea, and ought to be down by havana by now. the barometer has been rising, and is at nearly the usual pressure. but i don't like the looks of the sky over there"--pointing. "why not?" queried the charter-man, following the gesture with his eyes. "we'll be playing in great luck, sir," answered the young captain, "if a fog doesn't roll in where the storm threatened to come." "fog?" mr. seaton's tone had an aghast ring to it. "yes, sir." "are you sure, captain?" "no, sir. it's only a possibility, but a good one." hepton was making his rifle bark again, deep, snappy and angry in its throat, in answer to a challenge from shore, but powell seaton stood surveying the weather with a look of deepest concern. then he turned to regard the drab seventy-footer at anchor near by. "it would be the enemy's real chance, wouldn't it?" he inquired. "just what i dread, sir," captain tom admitted. "let us be wrapped in a thick bank of fog, and the drab would be out of our vision and hearing in a very short time." "shades of hard luck!" groaned the charter-man, growing pallid. off on the seaward horizon an indefinite haze was soon observable. to the untrained eye it didn't look like much. though mr. seaton spoke of it, he didn't appear much concerned. "it'll be a pity to bother him until the time comes when he throbs with worry," thought captain tom halstead, sympathetically. "but if that low-hanging haze doesn't spell t-r-o-u-b-l-e, then i've been raised among a different breed of sea fogs!" the crashing of sparks over the spark-gap had ceased for the present, and joe, reporting that there was no wireless craft within reach of his limited aerials, was on deck once more, waiting until the time should come around for another trial. hank had gone below to start the motors, connecting them with the dynamo, to renew the supply of electrical "juice" in the storage batteries, which was running low, as proved by the last message sent. the chug-chug of the twin motors was heard over on the seventy-footer, and soon an unknown man, his cap pulled well down over his eyes, appeared at the stern of the drab. he took a long, keen look at the "restless." "he's wondering if we're going to hoist the mud-hook," smiled tom. "and hoping that we are," grinned joe. "oh, but we must be an eyesore to those wistful scoundrels!" powell seaton now spent most of his time gazing at the line of haze, which, by degrees, was growing bigger and coming nearer. "captain halstead," he faltered, "i'm beginning to feel certain that you're a prophet." "or a jonah?" laughed tom, though it was not a very cheerful sort of laugh. "no, no, no!" cried the charter-man, earnestly. "never that! the little luck that i've had in these trying days has all come through you youngsters. without you i'd have been flat on my back in the fearful game that i'm playing with such desperate hopefulness against hope. but i see our fog is coming in as a sure thing. if it envelops us, what can you do with regard to that drab-tinted sea-monster over yonder?" "it depends upon the depth and duration of the fog, sir," halstead answered. "we have our motors going. at the first strong sign of our getting hemmed in by it we'll lift our mud-hook [the anchor] and move in closer. if the fog isn't too thick we may be able to take up a position where we can at least observe her dimly. if she starts to pull out into a fog-bank, we'll follow at her heels, keeping as close as necessary to keep the drab's stern flag-pole in sight. we won't lose her if there's any way of stopping it." the advance guard of the fog was in upon them by the time that joe went once more to his sending table in the forward end of the cabin. the light mist extended to the shore, though it did not altogether screen it. but the lookout on the drab's deck appeared wholly watchful at the weather side of the craft. "not in touch with any other wireless boat yet," reported dawson, coming on deck, presently. "look at that heavier white curtain rolling in," uttered powell seaton, in a tone near to anguish. whoever was in the drab boat's pilot house took occasion to toot derisively twice on the auto whistle. "that's as much as warning us that their turn is coming," declared mr. seaton, wrathfully. their faces were wet, now, with the fog as it rolled in. slowly the nearby shore faded, wrapped in the mist. "we'd better get up anchor," decided skipper tom. "come along, hank, and you, hepton." as the anchor came up and was stowed, captain halstead moved the deck speed control ever so little. the "restless" began to barely move through the water. they overhauled the seventy-footer, passing within a hundred feet of her starboard rail. yet only the same deck watch appeared in sight. he favored those on the bridge deck of the "restless" with a tantalizing grin. halstead slowly circled the drab seventy-footer, mr. seaton keeping ever a watchful eye on the stranger. "there! they're hoisting anchor!" muttered the charter-man, at last. "i saw 'em start," nodded the young skipper. "and the fog is growing thicker every minute." "how are you going to beat them, if they try hard to get away?" "i don't know," confessed halstead, honestly. "we may keep 'em in trail, but the chances are all in favor of the drab boat." presently the seventy-footer slipped slowly away from her anchorage. halstead promptly closed in, keeping not more than a hundred feet behind her drab stern. if the fog grew no heavier, and the enemy's speed no greater, he could maintain his position. but the sea-born fog continued to come, looking as though it arrived in ever-increasing billows. once the seventy-footer's stern vanished for a moment or two. tom, cautiously increasing the speed, soon came in sight of that drab stern once more. "i don't want to croak, sir," warned the young motor boat skipper, "but, luck aside, it looks as though we're about done for in this salt water blindman's buff." "i realize it," nodded powell seaton. just then the seventy-footer crawled ahead again into the fog, and was lost to the pursuer. throwing the wheel somewhat to port, captain halstead tried to come up on the drab's quarter. a full minute's anxious suspense followed, but the enemy's stern did not show through the white shroud of the atmosphere. then halstead threw off the power without applying the reverse. the "restless" drifted under what was left of her headway. "they've done it," uttered tom halstead, grimly. "they've given us the slip--gotten away in this white mass of mystery!" shaking, powell seaton leaned against the deck-house, his face pallid with sheer misery. chapter xvi a gleam of hope through the shroud of fog resting one hand lightly on the top spokes of the wheel, young halstead turned to his employer with a look of keenest sympathy. "is there any order you wish to give now, mr. seaton?" "what order can i give," demanded the charter-man, with a piteous smile, "unless it be to say, 'find the drab boat'?" tom made a grimace. "of course i know how senseless that order would be," pursued seaton, with a nervous twitching of his lips. in fact, at this moment it filled one with pity, just to witness the too-plain signs of his inward torment and misery. there was a pause, broken, after a few moments, by the charter-man saying, as he made a palpable effort to pull himself together: "halstead, you've shown so much sense all along that i leave it to you to do whatever you deem best." skipper tom's brow cleared at once. a look of purpose flashed into his eyes. "then we'll keep eastward out to sea, sir, or a little bit to the northeast, until we get out in the usual path of the southbound steamers." "and after that?" demanded powell seaton, eagerly. "all we can do, sir, then, will be to wait until we get a wireless communication with other vessels." "go ahead, lad." tom moved the speed control slowly, until the "restless" went loafing along at a speed of six miles an hour. heading weatherward, he gave more heed to the wheel, for there were signs that the water was going to roughen somewhat. "hank!" called the young skipper, and butts came to the bridge deck. "sound the fog-whistle every minute," directed halstead. "too-whoo-oo-oo!" sounded the melancholy, penetrating note through the mist. "are you going to keep that up, captain halstead?" inquired mr. seaton, in instant apprehension. "got to, sir. it's the law of the ocean in a deep fog." "but it signals our location to the enemy on the drab boat." "if it keeps the seventy-footer within sound of our horn all the time," laughed halstead, "so much the better. then the drab will be within range of our marine glasses when the fog lifts." "it shows those rascals the direction of our course, too," cried seaton, in a still troubled voice. "we've got to observe the law, sir, even if _they_ do break it," tom gently urged. "that other boat's people have been acting like pirates all along, but that would be no excuse for us. what if we cut into a lumber-laden schooner, and sank her at once?" mr. seaton was obliged to nod his assent. "it's a fearfully tough piece of luck for us, this fog," tom continued, feelingly, "but we've got to make the most of it." "and, if anson dalton gets aboard any brazil-bound steamer while we're in this fog, the whole great game for myself and my friends is lost," faltered seaton. "if that steamer has a wireless installation," retorted the young motor boat skipper, "then we've every chance in the world to reach her before the drab possibly can. joe will hear her wireless two hours or more before the other fellows can hear or locate a fog-horn." "it's--it's a dreadful uncertainty that this fog puts upon us," groaned the unhappy charter-man. "dalton may take advantage of this white shroud to run straight for the nearest post office and mail the papers that he stole." captain tom's mildly warning look checked mr. seaton ere he had time to say more in the hearing of hepton. "if you'll come aft, sir, we'll talk this over," suggested halstead, in a low voice. "gladly," murmured the charter-man. "now, then, sir," almost whispered the motor boat skipper, as he and his employer stood on the deck aft, "you've written out a duplicate of the papers that were stolen." "i have the duplicate set in an inside pocket," responded seaton, tapping his coat. "are you ready to chance the mailing of them?" "it's--it's a fearful risk, a terrible one, even to think of sending such priceless papers by registered mail." "at least, sir," urged tom, "you would be sure the documents were properly started on their way." "yet with no surety that they wouldn't fall into wrong hands at the other end," shuddered seaton. "then, since your life would undoubtedly be the forfeit if you attempted to take the papers yourself, will you trust me, or joe, to board the first steamer we pick up by wireless?" "wh--what do you advise, halstead?" queried seaton, with the air and tone of a man tortured by uncertainty and hesitation. "i advise, sir, your making a very definite move of one kind or another, without the loss of another hour," rejoined young halstead, almost sharply. "simply drifting in a fog won't settle anything." "oh, i know that only too well," replied powell seaton, desperately. "let us," proposed skipper tom, "take a northerly course. we'll try to pick up a rio-bound steamship. failing in that, let us put in for land, you to send the papers off by registered mail--or i'll take train for new york and go by the first boat." "i--i'll do it," agreed powell seaton, falteringly. "halstead, my boy, i've pondered and worried over this until my brain almost refuses to act. i'm glad to have your clearer brain to steady me--to guide me." "are your papers sealed?" asked captain tom, after a little further thought. "no; but i can soon attend to that." "i'd go below and do it, then, sir." "thank you; i will." powell seaton, as he started down the after companionway, trembled so that compassionate halstead aided him. then, returning, the motor boat club boy stepped steadily forward to the bridge deck. studying the time, tom determined to keep to the present course for fifteen minutes more, and at the same speed, then to head about due north. this, he figured, would keep him about in the path of southmoving coast steamships. hank, who was still at the wheel, took the orders. joe, after a glance at the bridge deck chronometer, dropped below on his way to his sending table. the crash of his call soon sounded at the spark-gap and quivered on its lightning way up the aerials. "nothing happening in my line," announced dawson, soberly, when, some minutes later, he returned to deck. captain tom stood by, almost idly attending to the fog-horn, though butts would have been able to do that as well as steer. "did you get anything at all?" halstead inquired. "nothing; not a click by way of answer," joe dawson responded. "i had half a hope that i might be able to pick up a ship that could relay back to another, and so on to new york. if that had happened, i was going to ask the companies direct, in new york, when their next boats would leave port. i'll do that, if i get a chance. i'm bound to know when to look for the next rio boat." "if this fog seems likely to last," resumed halstead, "i've been thinking about increasing to ten miles and keeping right on toward new york." "bully!" enthused dawson. "fine!" "yes; so i thought at first, but i have changed my mind. if we get wholly out of these waters we might put a messenger aboard a steamship bound for rio janeiro, and then dalton, by hanging about in these waters, might find a chance to board. if he suspected our messenger--and it may be you or i--it might be the same old clodis incident all over again." joe's face lengthened. "it's growing wearing, to hang about here all the time," he complained. "i'm near to having operator's cramp, as it is." "don't you dare!" skipper tom warned him. "well, then, i won't," agreed dawson. for four hours more the "restless" continued nearly due north, at the same original speed of six miles an hour. halstead began to think of putting back, slowly retracing his course. joe went down for his regular hourly "sit" at the sending table. "hurrah!" yelled dawson, emerging from the motor room several minutes later. he was waving a paper and appeared highly excited. "picked up anything?" called tom halstead, eagerly. "yes, sirree!" uttered joe, delightedly, thrusting a paper into his chum's hand. "the jepson freight liner, 'glide,' is making an extra trip out of schedule. here's her position, course and gait. we ought to be up to her within two and a half hours." tom himself took the news to powell seaton. that gentleman, on hearing the word, leaped from the lower berth in the port stateroom. "glorious!" he cried, his eyes gleaming feverishly as he hustled into an overcoat. then he whispered, in a lower voice: "tom halstead, you're--you're--it!" "eh?" demanded the young motor boat skipper. "you'll take the papers on to rio!" a gleam lit up halstead's eyes. yet, in another instant he felt a sense of downright regret. he was not afraid of any dangers that the trip might involve, but he hated the thought of being weeks away from this staunch, trim little craft of which he was captain and half-owner. "all right, sir," he replied, though without enthusiasm. "i'll undertake it--i'll go to rio for you." chapter xvii when the motor boat club boys "went daffy" all this had been spoken in whispers. both mr. seaton and tom halstead were keenly aware of the presence of the prisoner in the starboard stateroom. "you don't seem as overjoyed as i thought you might be," observed powell seaton, in a tone of disappointment. "i'm going through for you, sir, and i'll deliver the papers into the proper hands, if i live," replied tom halstead. "and you're not afraid of the big chances of danger that you may be running?" persisted his employer. "why, i believe every human being has times when he's afraid," skipper tom replied, honestly. "but i shan't be any more afraid than you've seen me once or twice since this cruise began." "then i'll bet on your success," rejoined mr. seaton, holding out his hand, which the young motor boat captain grasped. "suppose we go on deck where we can talk a little more safely, sir," whispered tom. they made their way above and forward. "any further word, dawson?" inquired the charter-man. "i haven't signaled since i brought up that last message," joe replied. "oh, of course not," retorted powell seaton. "it was an idiotic question for me to ask, but i'm so excited, boys, that i don't pretend to know altogether what i'm talking about." captain halstead bent forward to look at the compass. he found hank butts steering as straight as the needle itself pointed. "what on earth can i do to pass the time of waiting?" wondered mr. seaton, feverishly. "eat," laughed tom. "you haven't had a meal since i don't know when. give me the wheel, hank, and see what you can fix up for mr. seaton in the way of food." yet, poking along at that slow rate of speed, cutting through the fog but not able to see a boat's length ahead, proved an ordeal that tested the patience of all. after awhile joe returned to the sending table, in order to get in touch with the "glide" and make sure that the two vessels were still approaching each other head-on. "it's wonderful--wonderful, this wireless telegraph that keeps all the great ships and many of the small ones in constant communication," declared powell seaton, coming up on deck after having finished his meal. "yet it seems odd, doesn't it, to think of even freight boats carrying a wireless installation?" "not when you stop to consider the value of the freight steamships, and the value of their cargoes," rejoined tom halstead. "if a ship at sea gets into any trouble, where in older times she would have been lost, now all she has to do is to signal to other vessels within two or three hundred miles, and relief is sent on its way to the ship that needs it. in the case of a freight steamer the wireless aboard means greater safety for the crew and often saves the owners the cost of ship and cargo. the standard oil people were among the first to think of the wireless for cargo-carrying boats. they installed the wireless on their tank steamers, and it wasn't long before the owners of other freight vessels realized the value of such an installation. now, every freight boat that amounts to much has the wireless aboard." "you speak of the wireless being used at a distance of two or three hundred miles," pursued the charter-man. "dawson can't send the electric wave that far, can he?" "no, sir; because our signal mast is shorter than that on a big steamship. the length of our aerials is less. still, we can handle a message for a pretty good distance." "what distance, halstead?" "why, our ideal distance is about sixty miles; we can make it seventy easily, and, under the best conditions, we can drive a message, so that it can be understood, for about ninety miles. but that doesn't really hold us down to even ninety miles. if there's a wireless ship within our radius we can ask her to relay for us. with a few ships spread out at proper intervals we could easily wire direct from the 'restless' to the coast of england." "joe," called tom to his chum as the latter came on deck between wireless performances, "do you notice that the fog is lightening off to weatherward?" "yes; the fog is heaviest off to westward, and we've been working out of that." "by the time we reach the 'glide' i believe we're going to have some open weather around us." "it will be fine if we do," nodded young dawson. "it's nasty work going up alongside of a big ship when you can't see fifty feet away." as they watched and waited, while the "restless" stole slowly along, the fog about them became steadily lighter, though off to the westward it remained a thick, dense bank. "say, it'd be great to have four or five miles of clear sea around us, so that we could see whether the seventy-foot boat has kept to anything like our course," declared hank. at last the "restless" came to within twenty minutes' hailing distance of the "glide," as the young motor boat skipper figured it. then, a few minutes later, a deep-toned fog-horn came to them faintly. as the minutes passed, now, this blast became heavier and nearer. "i've only a few minutes left with you, joe, old chum," declared captain tom, with a half-sigh. "you'll take great, good care of the dear old craft, i know, while i'm gone." "as soon as mr. seaton is done with the boat i'll tie her up until you get back--that's what i'll do," grunted dawson. "no sailing without a skipper for me." "you needn't look so bad about it, cap," grinned hepton. "i wish it was me, cut out for a long trip to rio and back. maybe i wouldn't jump at such a chance. some folks are born lucky!" too-woo-oo! the oncoming steamship's deep fog-horn sounded loud and sullen, now. tom halstead, still at the wheel, was peering constantly forward for the first glimpse of the freighter, for the fog had lightened much by this time. "there she is!" hailed keen-eyed joe, on the lookout for this sight. "you can just make out her bow poking up through the fog. she must be a thousand feet off yet." with two boats approaching each other, this distance was, of course, quickly covered. finding that he could see the other craft at such a distance, skipper tom threw on a little more speed, making a wide turn and so coming up alongside on a parallel course. "take the wheel, hank," directed the young skipper, seizing the megaphone and stepping to the port rail. "'glide,' ahoy!" bawled halstead through the megaphone. "'restless,' ahoy!" came back from the freighter's bridge. "lie to and let us come alongside, won't you? we want to put a passenger aboard." "passenger? where for?" "rio, of course. that's where you're bound, isn't it?" "you'll have to be mighty quick about it," came the emphatic answer. "we can't afford stops on our way." "we may want to delay you a few minutes," began tom. "few minutes, nothing!" came the gruff retort. "we can't be held up in that fashion." "we can pay for all the trouble we put you to," retorted halstead. powell seaton produced and waved a bulky wad of banknotes. "oh, if you want to pay extra, above the fare, it'll be a little different," came, in mollified tones, from the bridge. the captain of the "glide" was now much more accommodating. the fare received from a passenger put aboard in mid-sea would go to the owners of the freighter. but any extra money, paid for "trouble," would be so much in the pocket of the "glide's" sailing-master. several new faces appeared at the rail of the freighter, as that big craft slowed down and one of her mates superintended the work of lowering the side gangway. "hullo, lobster-smack!" roared one derisive voice above the freighter's rail. "say," called another voice, jeeringly, "it may be all right to go lobster-fishing, but it's no sort of good business to leave one of your catch of lobsters in command of even a smack like that!" tom halstead reddened angrily. one of his fists clenched unconsciously as he shot a wrathful look upward at the rail. "say, you mentally-dented pilot of a fourth-rate peanut roaster of a boat, do you go by craft you know without ever giving a hail?" demanded a mocking voice, that of the first derisive speaker. standing at the rail of the "restless," tom halstead almost dropped the megaphone overboard from the sheer stagger of joy that caught him. "hey, you ab! you worthless ab perkins!" roared the young motor boat skipper, in huge delight. "and you, dick davis!" the two who stood at the "glide's" rail overhead, and who had called down so mockingly, stood in uniform caps and coats identical with those worn by halstead and his mates aboard the motor boat. they wore them with right, too, for perkins and davis were two of the most famous of the many youngsters who now composed the motor boat club of the kennebec. "hey! what's this?" roared the usually quiet joe dawson, his face wreathed in smiles. he almost danced a jig. hank butts had never before seen either davis or perkins, but he knew about them, all right. he knew that uniform, too, the same that he wore. "now, then--altogether!" yelled hank. "give it with a roar, boys!" powell seaton stared in bewildered amazement. so did officers, crew and others at the "glide's" rail and on her bridge. for five lusty young americans, all wearing the same uniform, all bronzed deeply with the tan that comes of the gale and the sun, all keen-eyed, quick and sure as tars ever are, roared in mighty chorus: "m-b-c-k! m-b-c-k! motor boat club! wow!" chapter xviii the first kink of the problem solved again the roaring chorus rang out. "what's this? college boys' joke on me, or a floating mad-house?" huskily roared down the freighter's captain from the bridge. "it's all right, captain," sang back tom halstead. "we'll make it plain to you as soon as we get a chance. we're neither as bad nor as dangerous as we seem." the "glide's" headway had all but ceased by this time, and the side gangway was at last in place. the "restless" was run in close, while hank stood up on the top of the forward deck-house with a coil of line, waiting until it came time to leap across onto the platform of the freighter's gangway and make the line fast. as quickly as the line was secured captain tom halstead followed butts, and dashed on past him up the steps of the gangway. ab and dick came down to meet him, each grabbing one of the young skipper's hands and wringing it. then they turned to give the same greeting to joe dawson, who gasped: "gracious, but it _does_ seem good to meet fellows of the club and from the old home town at that!" mr. seaton, though following in more leisurely fashion, now passed them, going on up to the deck. there he met captain rawley. "don't mind what my young men do, captain," begged the charter-man, "and don't mind if they delay you for a few minutes. i'll make good the damage." "help yourself to a little of my time, then, sir," grimaced the freighter's captain. "anything that i can spare from the proper time of the run, you understand." "how on earth do you fellows happen to be on this ship, of all places in the world?" demanded tom halstead. "easy enough to explain," laughed dick davis. "port authorities at rio were good enough to order six motor boats for harbor purposes. my dad got the chance of building the boats at his yard at bath. the rio motor boats are on board, down in the hold, and ab and i are sent along to deliver the motor boats, put them in running order at rio, and, if necessary, teach the natives how to run such craft." "did you fellows know we were signaling you by wireless?" joe was asking ab perkins. "did you know that you were going to see us?" "didn't know a blessed thing about it," admitted ab perkins, almost sheepishly. "dick and i were asleep in our stateroom. we were getting ready to come out on deck when we felt the old tub slackening speed. then we came out to see what was happening. we looked over the rail, and--_wow_!" ab again seized joe dawson's hand, giving it another mighty shake. then the irrepressible ab reached out for tom's hand, but dick davis was drawing halstead up on deck. readers of the first volume of this series will remember both ab and dick well. they, too, were boys born near the kennebec river, and took part in the stirring adventures narrated in the motor boat club of the kennebec, just before tom and joe left for the next scenes of their activities, as related in the motor boat club at nantucket and the motor boat club off long island. ab perkins and dick davis were two of the most valued of the early members of the club. all in a twinkling, tom halstead was seized by an idea. he looked about for powell seaton, saw that gentleman talking with captain rawley, and caught the charter-man's eye. "see here, mr. seaton," whispered halstead, as soon as he had gotten his employer aside, "there's no great need for me to go to rio." "no?" "of course not. give the papers to dick davis, with exact instructions as to who is to receive them at rio janeiro, and those papers will get into exactly the hands for which you intend them." "you feel certain of that, halstead?" demanded powell seaton, his voice tremulous with anxiety. "absolutely sure, sir. dick davis can be trusted as long the world holds together. there isn't the faintest yellow streak in him, either. square, straight, keen, brave--that's dick davis. and ab perkins would go through the jaws of anything with davis! why, mr. seaton, they're motor boat club boys! you can trust them to the same degree as you're willing to trust me. moreover, they're going down to rio on a mission to the government. they've got a better chance to get ashore, unmolested and unwatched, than any other stranger would have." "get your friends together, then, somewhere where we can have a private corner," begged powell seaton. "we'll talk this matter over--we've got to talk like lightning, at that." while mr. seaton sought captain rawley, tom shot back along the deck to where joe, hank and the two rio-bound members of the motor boat club stood talking. "hank," said tom, in a low voice, "hepton is all alone down on the 'restless,' except for our prisoner aft. hepton may be all right, and i think he is--but one of our own crowd ought to be on board our boat." "i'll be the one, then," half-sighed hank butts, turning to descend the side gangway. captain rawley promptly agreed to turn his own cabin over to the friends who wanted a private chat. "but only for five minutes, mind you," he insisted. "then i must be on my way." behind the closed door of the captain's room powell seaton and tom halstead swiftly explained what was wanted. "will we do it?" said dick davis, repeating the question that had been asked him. "why, of course we will. there's only one answer possible. tom halstead is fleet captain of the motor boat club, and a request from captain tom is the same thing as an order." "you will go straight to the american consulate at rio janeiro, then," directed mr. seaton. "from the consulate you will send a messenger to bring to you shipley d. jarvis, whose address is the american club. the american consul will be able to assure you that it is shipley d. jarvis who comes to you. you will turn over these papers to mr. jarvis in the presence of the american consul. a letter from me is in the envelope with the papers. that is all, except----" after a brief pause mr. seaton went on to caution dick davis and ab perkins as to the dangers against which they must guard on the way. this tom halstead supplemented with an exact description of anson dalton and of captain dave lemly, of the now seized "black betty." "either, or both, of the rascals may board this ship a little further along," cautioned mr. seaton. "night and day you must be on your guard against them." then tom halstead quickly outlined to davis a system of apparently common-place wireless messages by means of which davis might be able to keep mr. seaton informed of the state of affairs, for some days to come, on board the "glide." some further last instructions were added. powell seaton wound up by forcing a few banknotes into the hands of both these unexpected messengers. "wait until we've succeeded," proposed dick davis. "this is for expense money, for sending wireless messages, and other things," replied mr. seaton. "your real reward will come later on." "when we've succeeded," nodded davis. so much time had been taken up by this talk that now all had to step out on deck. "we're ready to go aboard our boat, sir," skipper tom reported. "you and dawson go, halstead," nodded mr. seaton. "i want not more than sixty seconds with captain rawley in his own room." when the charter-man of the "restless" came out once more the thick pile of banknotes in his pocket had grown a good deal thinner, but captain rawley had been enlisted as a friend to the cause. "good-bye, old chums," cried dick davis, gripping a hand of tom and joe with each of his own. "good-bye! good luck now, and all the way through life!" murmured tom, earnestly, and with a hidden meaning that davis caught. as speedily as tom and joe had assisted powell seaton aboard the motor boat, hank cast off, while the crew of the "glide" began to raise the side gangway. there were more rousing farewells between the two groups of motor boat club boys. then the hoarse whistle of the "glide" sounded, and the freighter began to go ahead at half-speed. the "restless" fell away and astern, yet she followed the freighter. that she should do so had been understood with captain rawley, and with dick and ab. powell seaton intended to keep the "glide" within sight for at least thirty-six hours, if possible, in order to make sure that the seventy-foot drab boat did not attempt to put anson dalton or any other messenger on board. "if we stick to the sea for a hundred years, joe," laughed skipper tom, as he followed the bigger craft at a distance of eight hundred feet, "nothing as lucky as this is likely to happen again. i was afraid i was booked for rio, for sure, and it made me heartsick to think of leaving the 'restless' so long and living aboard a big tub of an ordinary, steam-propelled ship!" "i've taken the step, now, and can't very well change it," declared mr. seaton, who looked both pale and thoughtful. "halstead, all i can hope and pray for is that your comrades on the ship ahead are as clever and watchful, as brave and honest as you think." "if wondering about dick and ab is all that ever worries me," laughed tom halstead, easily, "i don't believe i shall ever have any wrinkles. i know those boys, mr. seaton. we were born and raised in the same little maine seacoast town, and i'd trust that pair with the errand if it were my own diamond field at stake." the fog had lifted sufficiently, by this time, so that clear vision was to be had for at least a quarter of a mile. skipper tom whistled as he handled the wheel. joe dawson was so relieved in mind that, after a careful look at the motors, he threw himself upon one of the berths opposite and dozed. hank put in his time looking after preparations for supper. "what ails you, halstead?" demanded seaton, pausing abruptly beside the young skipper. for the boy had turned, suddenly, to a sickly pallor. "it has just struck me, sir," confessed the young motor boat skipper, "that, if dalton has the slightest suspicion of what we've done to outwit him, he's just the man who will be desperate enough to put his whole set of papers in at the nearest cable office for direct sending to rio janeiro!" chapter xix helpless in the northeaster! "i've already thought of that," nodded powell seaton. "and it doesn't worry you, sir--doesn't make you anxious?" questioned captain tom halstead. "no. of course, dalton might cable the full contents of the papers. if the paper could fall only into governor terrero's hands it would be well worth the cable tolls. but if such a cablegram were sent, openly, to terrero, or one of his representatives, it would have to go, first of all, through the hands of the government officials who have charge of the cable." "but couldn't terrero fix that?" asked halstead. "no; rio is out of his state, and beyond the sphere of his strongest influence. now, if i were to land in rio janeiro, i would be arrested on a warrant issued by terrero's judges, up in the state of vahia, and i would have to go to vahia for trial. undoubtedly terrero's rascally officers would shoot me on the way, and report that i had tried to escape." "then what harm could it do to terrero's chances for dalton to send him the cablegram direct?" "why, either the cable officials in rio are very great rascals, or else they are honest officials. if they are rascals, they might hold the cablegram long enough to act for themselves on the information it contained. on the other hand, if they are honest officials, then they would undoubtedly notify the government of such a stupendous piece of news. the government would then very likely take charge of my diamond field itself, which would be wholly legal, for the government already owns many, if not the greater number, of the producing diamond fields of that country. so, if the government, acting on information from its cable officials, took possession of the news and of the diamond field, what good would the cablegram do governor terrero? no; you may be very sure that dalton won't send the contents of the papers by cablegram. he undoubtedly has the strongest orders from terrero against doing that." "i feel better, then," tom admitted. "for the moment it came over me, like a thunderbolt, that dalton might nip all our work in the bud by sending a cablegram. still, couldn't he send it by code?" "no; for only the ordinary codes can go through the brazilian cable offices, and the government officers have the keys to all the codes that are allowed. rest easy, halstead; dalton won't attempt to use the cable." "then, if he doesn't get aboard the 'glide,' we'll beat him out to brazil--that's the surest thing in the world!" cried tom, with as much enthusiasm as though the great fortune at stake were his own. they were still following in the wake of the "glide." once in a while dick davis or ab perkins had the operator on the freighter flash back a wireless message of a friendly, personal nature. joe answered all these. for thirty-six hours this pleasant stern-chase lasted. by night the helmsman of the "restless" kept the searchlight enough in use to make sure that the drab boat did not appear. "dalton and lemly lost the 'glide,' if they were looking for her, in the fog," chuckled halstead, in huge satisfaction. "any rio-bound boat they can catch now is hopelessly to the rear of the 'glide,' i reckon." joe, by wiring back, and asking other wireless vessels to relay, from time to time, had ascertained that there was no other steam vessel, bound for rio, in close pursuit. mr. seaton took his trick at the wheel occasionally. so did hepton. joe gave most of his time to the wireless installation, though he maintained charge of the motors, hank doing most of the work there. all had sleep enough during the cruise south. joe used some of his spare time in carrying out his former plan of connecting the wireless table with the helmsman by means of a speaking tube. they were well down the coast of florida when even anxious powell seaton declared that there was no need of cruising longer in the wake of the "glide." he felt certain that the freighter had entirely eluded the vigilance of those on board the drab boat. by this time the supply of gasoline was nearly out. tom had cautioned the charter-man that so long a run would use up about the last of their oil. there was, however, a small sail fitted to the signal mast. now, when the crew of the "restless" turned back, the sail was hoisted and power shut off. "we've oil enough to run perhaps three-quarters of an hour, sir," the young skipper explained. "we'll have to use that up in making port when we get in sight." sailing aboard the "restless" proved lazy work at the outset. with this small sail there was not wind enough to carry the boat at much more than two miles per hour on her northwest course for the nearest florida town where gasoline was likely to be had. "we'll have a jolly long sail of it," laughed skipper tom, "unless the wind should freshen." "well, we don't care," smiled mr. seaton. "at least, you won't be overworked. and our minds are easier--mine especially." "all of us have easier minds," halstead retorted. "don't you understand, sir, that the rest of us have taken this whole business to heart? we couldn't be more concerned than we are to see the affairs of our charter parties come through all right." "oh, i believe that," nodded powell seaton. "you boys have been the strongest sort of personal friends to me in my troubles. you couldn't possibly have made my affairs, and my dangers, more thoroughly your own troubles." two hours later a wireless message came back from the "glide." it was from dick davis, and couched in vague terms, but meant to inform those aboard the "restless" that the drab seventy-footer was still out of sight. an hour after that a second message reached the motor boat. soon after the "restless" found herself unable to answer, though still able to receive. "hank, are you feeling particularly strong to-day?" inquired mr. seaton. "i'm always strong, sir," replied the young steward. "then why not rack your pantry stores in order to supply the biggest thing in a meal for all hands this evening? i feel more like eating than i have any day in a month." "you'd have to go to a sure-enough number-one hotel to find a better meal than i'll put up for this evening," retorted hank, grinning gleefully, as he started for the galley. in such lazy weather tom halstead felt that he could go below for a nap, especially as joe was around. hepton was left at the wheel. tom speedily closed his eyes in one of the soundest naps he had enjoyed in many a day. he was awakened by hank, who came into the stateroom and shook him by the shoulder. "weather's all right, up to now," butts informed the young captain. "still, we don't like the looks of the sky, and the barometer is beginning to show signs of being eccentric. won't you come up on deck for a minute, anyway?" tom was out of his berth in a twinkling. there was enough of the sea-captain in him for that. the instant he reached the deck his gaze swept around anxiously, inquiringly, at the sky. "the clouds up on the northeast horizon don't look exactly friendly, do they?" he inquired of joe. "don't know," replied dawson. "haven't seen enough of them yet." "i'm thinking you will, soon," replied halstead. "how's the wind been?" "from the east, sir," replied hepton, who was at the wheel. "it's working around to northeast, now," muttered halstead. "and it was almost from the south when i turned in." tom stood by the barometer, watching it. "trouble coming," he said, briefly. within half an hour his prediction began to be verified. the darkish, "muddy" clouds first seen on the northeast horizon were looming up rapidly, the wind now driving steadily from that quarter. even with all the smallness of her single sail the "restless" was heeling over considerably to port. "lay along here, hank, and help me to put a double reef in the sail," tom ordered. "i don't want this little bit of canvas blown away from us." as tom called, he eased off the sheet, and hepton lounged away from the wheel. "too bad," muttered hank butts. "we've been making a good four knots since the wind freshened." "i'm out of a guess if there isn't a wind coming that'd take a sail out of its fastenings in ten seconds," rejoined halstead, working industriously with the reeves. a light squall struck them before the boys had finished their task. "a september northeaster along this coast is no laughing matter, from all i've heard of it," tom explained as the two boys took the last hitches. "now, come on, hank. we'll hoist her." with long rhythmic pulls at the halyards tom and butts got the shortened sail up, making all secure. "you'd better take the wheel, joe," sang out the young skipper. "hepton, stand by to give a hand if the helm moves hard." "you seem rather excited over a pleasant breeze like this," observed powell seaton. "wait," said tom, quietly. "i only hope i am taking too much precaution. i've never handled a boat along the florida coast before, you know, sir, so it's best to err on the side of caution." hank was sent off on the jump, now, to make everything secure, while skipper tom took his place on the bridge deck at starboard to watch the weather. "i guess there'll be time, now, hank, to rig life lines on the bridge deck," hinted halstead, coolly. "never mind about any aft. whoever goes below can go through the motor room." catching a look full of meaning in the young commander's eye, butts hustled about his new task. "you seem to be making very serious preparations," suggested powell seaton, seriously. "nothing like being a fool on the wise side," answered skipper tom, calmly. within ten minutes more the wind had freshened a good deal, and the "restless" was bending over considerably to port, running well, indeed, considering her very small spread of canvas. now, the sky became darker. the weather was like that on shore in autumn when the birds are seen scurrying to cover just before the storm breaks. "i reckon there's going to be something close to trouble, after all," observed powell seaton, when it became necessary for him to hold his hat on. tom nodded in a taciturn way, merely saying: "if you're going to stay on deck, mr. seaton, you'd better put on a cap, or a sou'wester." mr. seaton started below, through the motor room. while he was still there the gale struck, almost without further warning. "watch the wind and ease off a bit, joe," bawled skipper halstead in his chum's ear. joe dawson nodded slightly. the gale was now upon them with such fury that making one's self heard was something like work. despite the prompt easing by the helm, the "restless" bowled over a good deal as the crest of the first in-rolling wave hit her. powell seaton, a cap on his head, appeared at the motor room hatchway. tom motioned him to remain where he was. clutching at the rail, tom halstead kept his face turned weatherward most of the time. he knew, now, that a fifty-five-foot boat like the "restless," weather-staunch though she was, was going to have about all she could do in the sea that would be running in a few minutes more. nor did he make any mistake about that. a darkness that was almost inky settled down over them. bending through the hatchway, the young sailing master yelled to powell seaton to switch on the running lights. "for we'll need 'em mighty soon, if we don't now," captain tom added. hank reappeared with rain-coats, and with his own on. hardly had those on deck so covered themselves when, accompanied by a vivid flash of lightning and a crashing peal of thunder, the rain came down upon them. at first there were a few big drops. then, the gale increasing, the rain came in drenching sheets. the decks began to run water, almost choking the scuppers. the heeling of the "restless" was no longer especially noticeable. she was rolling and pitching in every direction, accompanied by a straining and creaking of timbers. powell seaton, standing below, clutching for support, and not much of a sailor at best, began to feel decidedly scared. "are we going to be able to weather this, captain halstead?" he yelled up, as the young skipper paused close by the hatchway. though the noise of the now furious gale prevented tom from making out the words very clearly, he knew, by instinct, almost, what had been asked of him. "weather the gale, sir?" tom bawled down, hoarsely. "of course! we've got to!" there was a new sound that made the young sailing master jump, then quiver. with a great tearing and rending the single canvas gave way before the roaring gale. in a trice the sail was blown to fluttering ribbons! chapter xx "c.q.d! c.q.d.!--help!" "lay along with me, hank!" bawled the young skipper, hoarsely, in the steward's ear. "we've got to cut away what's left of the sail." neither helmsman could wisely be spared. though the boat now had no power of her own she was being driven sharply before the gale, and some fine handling of the wheel was needed in order to keep the boat so headed that she might wallow as little as possible in the trough of the sea. nor was the work of the young captain and hank butts anything like play. making their way out along the top of the cabin deck-house was in itself hazardous. they were forced to clutch at any rigging that came to hand to avoid being washed overboard, for the waves were dashing furiously over the helpless boat. it was not much of a task to haul in the sheet, making fast. then, using their sailor's knives, they slashed away. it was needful for one of them to go aloft. "i can do it," proposed hank, summoning all his courage. "i know you can," tom bawled in his ear. "but i'm not going to send anyone where i wouldn't go myself. it's mine to go aloft." thrusting his knife securely into the sheath at the end of its lanyard, tom halstead began to climb. hank watched him closely. the pair at the wheel had no time to observe. all their attention was needed on their own work. as he climbed, tom halstead had a sensation of being in danger of being pitched overboard. next, as the "restless" lay over harder than she had yet done, it seemed as though the mast were bent on touching the water. halstead had to halt in his climbing, satisfied to hold on for dear life. "oh, if we only had enough gasoline aboard!" groaned the young skipper, regretfully. "it would be a tough storm, even then, though nothing like as bad as this!" as the boat partially righted herself, he went on with his climbing. at length he found himself where he could bring his knife into play, slashing away the fragments of the wind-torn canvas. when the work was done halstead let himself to the deck again, half-expecting that the force of the pitching and fury of the gale would catch him and sweep him over into the dark, raging waters. yet he reached the deck in safety, finding himself beside hank butts, who, by this time, looked more like some water-logged thing than a natty steward. "come on below to the sail-locker," roared captain tom in the other boy's ear. "be careful to hold to the life lines and go slow when the boat heels over. we'll get the new sail out and rig it--if we can." hepton, seeing them coming, made a sign to joe, who stood doggedly braced at the wheel. joe did all he could--it was little enough--to swing the boat's head a trifle so that she would ride more easily, if possible, in that terrible sea. slowly tom and hank made their way to the motor room door and slipped down below. there powell seaton, his face white, confronted them. "captain, this is awful. i don't see how the 'restless' rides such a sea at all." "she'd not only ride but steer well, sir, if we had gasoline enough to run her by her propellers," halstead shouted back. "i'd go all the way to havana in a gale like this if i could use the twin propellers. the 'restless' is a sea boat, and she can't sink unless the watertight compartments are smashed." "but she can turn over and ride keel upward, can't she?" demanded mr. seaton, with a ghastly grin. "she can, sir, if she heels enough," tom admitted. "but that's why joe's at the wheel--because we need a fellow who can make the most out of such headway as the force of wind and waves gives us. and now, sir, hank and i must try to rig a new sail." out of the sail-locker they dragged the new canvas. it was all in readiness for rigging. in calm weather they could have done this readily--but now? only time could tell. "lend 'em a hand, hepton!" roared joe, as he saw the young captain and helper appear with the bulky canvas. it was all the three of them could do, in the rolling, high seas in which the "restless" pitched like a chip of wood, to get that sail on top of the cabin deck-house. bit by bit they rigged it in place, working fast, straining muscle and sinew to hold the sail against the gale that strove to carry the canvas overboard. at last, they had it in place, ready for hoisting. "stand by to hoist," sang out captain tom. "the two of you. go slow! i'll watch for trouble as you shake it out." all the reefs had been taken in the sail before hoisting. tom halstead had made up his mind to be satisfied with just a showing of canvas to catch the high wind--enough to keep the boat steady. as the sail went up, flapping wildly in the breeze, halstead began to have his doubts whether it would last long. it was their last chance, however, for the control of the "restless." "lay along here!" roared tom, through his hands as a trumpet, when he saw that they had made the halyards fast. now he signed to them to help him haul in on the sheet. joe, watching, just making out the white of the canvas through the darkness, threw the wheel over to make the craft catch the wind. in a few moments more the gale was tugging against the small spread of canvas, and the "restless" was once more under control--while the sail lasted! all but exhausted, the trio found their way forward. for a brief space they tumbled below into the motor room, though halstead stood where he could see joe dawson and spring to his aid when needed. "hank," called halstead, five minutes later, "your trick and mine on deck. we'll give joe and hepton a chance to get their wind below." small as was the spread of canvas, tom found, when he took the wheel, that the good little "restless" was plunging stiffly along on her course. she was a wonderfully staunch little boat. the young sailing master bewailed his luck in having hardly any gasoline on board. it should never happen again, he promised himself. again? was there to be any "again"? the motor boat captain was by no means blind to the fact that the "restless" hadn't quite an even chance of weathering this stiff gale. at any moment the sail might go by the board in ribbons, as the first had done. hank was not even watching the sail. if it gave way it must. joe presently came on deck for his next trick at the wheel. hepton was with him. "i've been thinking about the prisoner in the starboard stateroom," announced joe. "it's inhuman to leave him there, locked in and handcuffed, in such a gale. he must be enduring fearful torment." "yes," nodded tom. "i've just been thinking that i must go down and set him free as soon as i'm relieved." "go along, then," proposed young dawson. "i have the wheel, and hepton by me." taking hank butts with him, tom halstead made his way below. "dawson was just speaking to me about our prisoner," began powell seaton. "dawson thinks he ought to be turned loose--at least while this gale lasts." "yes," nodded captain halstead. "i'm on my way to do it now." "will it be safe?" "we can't help whether it is, or not," skipper tom rejoined. "it's a humane thing to do, and we'll have to do it." powell seaton did not interpose any further objections. it would have been of little moment if he had, for, on the high seas, the ship's commander is the sole judge of what is to be done. even below decks, going through the electric-lighted passage and cabin, tom and hank made their way with not a little difficulty. they paused, at last, before the starboard stateroom door, and tom fitted the key in the lock. jasper, the man locked within, faced them with affrighted gaze. "we're going to the bottom?" he demanded, hoarsely, tremulously. his very evident terror gave the young skipper a new idea. "are you prepared to go to the bottom, jasper?" demanded halstead. "am i fit to die, do you mean?" asked the man, with a strange, sickly grin. "no, sir; i'm not. at least, not until i've cleared myself by telling a few truths." "come out into the cabin, man," ordered halstead, leading him. "now, sit down, and i'll get your handcuffs off." the young captain of the "restless" unlocked the irons about the fellow's wrists. jasper stretched his hands, flexing his wrists. "now, i can swim, anyway, though i don't believe it will do much good," he declared. "no; it won't do much good," halstead assented. "we're something more than forty miles off the coast. but what do you want to say? what's on your mind? be quick, man, for we must be on deck again in a jiffy. i don't want to lose my boat while i'm below with a rascal like you." "i haven't always been a rascal," retorted jasper, hanging his head. "at least, i have been fairly straight, until the other day." "what have you been doing for dalton and lemly?" demanded tom halstead, fixing his gaze sternly on the frightened fellow. "never anything for dalton," whined jasper. "well, for lemly, then?" "oh, i've been snooping about a bit, for two years or so, getting tips for dave lemly." "what has lemly been smuggling in the 'black betty' all this time?" "diamonds," admitted jasper, sullenly. tom halstead felt like giving a great start, but controlled himself. "smuggling diamonds under anson dalton's orders, eh?" insisted the young skipper. "yes; i reckon so." "how did you come into our matter--as a guard and a traitor?" "i was on hand when mr. seaton was getting his guards together," replied jasper. "so was dave lemly's mate. the mate told me to jump in and get my chance with the guard." "what other orders did you have?" "i was to watch my chance to do anything nasty that i could," confessed the fellow, hanging his head. "that was why you tried to ruin our aerials?" "yes." "you also listened to mr. seaton and myself, the night we were going over to lonely island?" jasper squirmed, his face growing more ashen. "you heard what was said about papers hidden in a cupboard at the bungalow. did you? answer me, confound you!" with an appearance of utter rage tom bounded at the fellow, as though about to attack him. hank closed in, to be ready in case the attack turned out to be a genuine one. "yes, i stole an envelope full of papers," admitted jasper. "what did you do with them?" "i turned them over to dave lemly." "where? on lonely island?" "yes; lemly visited the island twice, at night, while i was on duty there," confessed the fellow, whining and letting his head fall lower. "what else have you done against us?" "nothing, except trying to disable your wireless." "are you telling the whole, full truth?" demanded captain tom halstead, surveying the fellow suspiciously. "as much of the truth as you want to lay bare before going to the bottom in this wild storm?" "yes! oh, yes, yes!" insisted jasper, easily. "now, i've cleared my conscience of its load!" "humph!" muttered tom halstead, dryly. at that moment a snapping sound overhead reached their ears. the "restless" veered about, then heeled dangerously. "our second and last sail has gone!" cried the young skipper, starting forward. "jasper, i hope you have told me the whole truth, for there is no knowing, now, how soon you'll start for the bottom--how soon we'll all go down. helpless in this sea, the 'restless' may 'turn turtle.'" nor was tom speaking in jest, nor in any effort to scare the recent prisoner into a fuller confession. indeed, the motor boat captain was paying no further heed to the wretch, but making his way forward. jasper started to follow, hank bringing up the rear. as they reached the motor room the pitching and rolling of the boat were awesome enough. it seemed incredible that a boat the size of the "restless" could live even a minute in her now helpless condition. joe still stood at the wheel, white-faced but calm. "i don't see what we can do now, tom," he shouted. "nothing but get down to the wireless, and do anything you can in the way of picking up some steamship," halstead answered. "we might get a tow, or, at least, another spread of canvas for a third try to ride out the gale. the chances aren't big for us, but--well, joe, we're sailors, and can take our medicine." joe smiled grittily as he edged away from the wheel after his chum had taken it. "at least, if we go down, we go down in command of our own ship!" he yelled bravely in tom's ear through the wild racket of the gale. then joe went below. the storage batteries held electricity enough to operate the few lights and keep the wireless going at intervals for some hours yet. once, in the minutes that dragged by, hank butts thought of the fine spread he had been instructed to serve all hands that night. but no one else was thinking of food now. coffee would have been more to the purpose, but to start a galley fire was to take the risk of adding fire at sea to the already more than sufficient perils of those aboard the "restless." every few minutes captain tom halstead called down through the speaking tube that connected him with joe dawson at the sending table. always joe's calm answer came, the same: "our wireless spark hasn't picked up any other ship yet." then, just as frequently, joe would rest his hand on the sending key again, and send crashing off into space the signal: "c.q.d.!" the three letters that carry always the same message of despair across the waves. "c.q.d.!"--the wireless signal of distress. "help wanted, or we perish!" chapter xxi the spark finds a friend through the gale the time had dragged on far into the night. joe was still at the wireless sending table, sleepless, patient, brave--a sailor born and bred. jasper, like many another rascal a superstitious coward in the face of impending death, was seeking to appease the sting of his conscience by doing everything in his power to make amends in these grave moments. he stood by, pallid-faced yet collected enough to obey any order instantly. captain tom remained on deck all the time now, though hank often relieved him briefly at the wheel. both hepton and jasper stood by to help as deck-hands. powell seaton came up on deck occasionally, though he remained more in the motor room. again and again joe signaled--always that desperately appealing "c.q.d.!" it was all the signal he needed to send out. wherever heard, on land or water, the first operator to catch it would break in at once with a demand for further particulars. yet joe's soul grew sick within him as time passed, and no such break came through the storm-laden air. for dawson, as well as had he stood on deck, knew that this endless, malignant fury of the gale must sooner or later start the seams of the staunch little craft. or else, struck by a wave bigger than any others, she would lie so far over on her beam ends that she must finish the manoeuvre by "turning turtle"--lying with her keel uppermost, and the crew penned underneath to drown in haste. "nothing to report yet, joe, old fellow?" came down captain tom's brave though anxious voice for perhaps the fortieth time. "no reply to our signals, tom," went back the answer. "do you think our spark is still strong enough to carry far?" "plenty of electric 'juice' left," joe responded. "the spark is as strong as ever. oh, if we only had as much gasoline!" "oh, if we only had!" but ten minutes after that last call joe again sent forth: "c.q.d.! c.q.d.!" then down the receivers traveled a click--not loud, yet unmistakable. "where are you? answer!" came the response, out of the air from some quarter. in frantic haste joe dawson fell upon his key once more. motor yacht "restless!" under no power whatever. gasoline almost gone--saving the last for any emergency chance that comes to us. all canvas blown overboard. do you get this? it seemed to frenzied joe dawson as though many minutes passed, yet the response came promptly: give us your present position, "restless," as best you know it! joe obeyed with fingers that seemed themselves to be worked by electricity. the receiver of the message repeated joe's response, to make sure that it was correct. "who are you?" joe now broke in to answer. havana liner, bound north, and, we believe, within thirty miles of you. have you been signaling long? "seems as though i had been signaling for years," sent back joe, laughing nervously to himself. the answer came: we'd heard you before, then, but there was a little mishap to our installation. you keep at your table to send and receive. i'll do the same at my end. keep up your courage until we reach you. be ready to burn coston lights when we ask you to. then how fast joe dawson managed to talk up through the speaking tube! tom halstead, after first announcing the great news to the deck with a wild cheer, put hank at the wheel and hurried below. shortly, however, the young skipper was back on deck, bearing the wonderful news. in smooth weather the havana liner, ordinarily a fifteen-knot boat, would have reached them in two hours. under the weather conditions of this wild night it was much later when the two craft were within hailing distance by signal lights. hank was now in command of the deck, skipper tom and powell seaton being with joe. "shall we try to send you a line for a tow?" came the demand from the liner. "yes," replied halstead. then, with a grimace he added: "but the salvage charge for such a tow will call for more than we can raise, joe, old fellow. i reckon the 'restless' will have to be put up for sale to pay her own bills." "do you think i'd let you boys stand the towing charges?" demanded powell seaton, indignantly. "whatever charges there are are mine to pay, and i'm at least good for the entire purchase price of a few boats like even this good little old salt water wizard!" tom soon afterwards made his way to the deck, but mr. seaton, weak and almost ill after the hours of anxiety, threw himself upon a cushioned seat near the wireless sending table. as tom stood on the bridge deck he studied the liner's lights as that larger craft manoeuvred in to the leeward of the motor craft. once she had gained this position at a sufficient distance to make any collision on this wild sea unlikely, the liner steamed ahead. "stand ready to receive our line!" came to joe in clicks through the watch-case receivers over either ear. he swiftly transmitted the order through the speaking tube to halstead on the bridge. then the liner burned another light. tom answered with one held in his own hand. it was the signal to look for the line, and the answer. through the darkness came a sudden, red flash from the after deck of the liner. the wind was so heavy that those on the bridge deck of the "restless" could not be sure that they heard the report of the gun. but a missile whizzed over their heads, and to this blessed projectile trailed a thin line that fell across the top of the cabin deck. tom and hank made a simultaneous bolt to get hold of that line. it was young butts who secured it. he passed it on to the young captain, and, together, they leaped to the bridge-deck with it. from there they crawled forward over the raised deck, slipping the line, at last, between the two raised ends of the towing bitt. "now, haul in with a will," glowed the young skipper, as they crept back to the bridge-deck. a great wave swept over them on their way back. tom saw it coming, and braced himself. hank was caught by the rush of waters; he would have been swept overboard, but halstead grabbed at one of his ankles, holding on grimly. at that moment the late prisoner, jasper, saw what was happening. projecting himself forward over the raised deck, he, too, caught hold of hank butts, while powell seaton held to jasper. it was a sort of human chain by which hank was pulled to safety. tom, throughout the excitement, held the "thin line" in one hand. "haul in this thin line, quickly," shouted the young commander, who could barely make himself heard above the tumult of the gale. as the line was some four hundred feet long, it used up precious moments to haul it and coil up the slack. as the last of the "thin line" came into their hands there came with it the first of a stouter hawser, the two lines being knotted securely together. "hold on to me, now! form a chain again," ordered skipper tom. "i'll make the hawser fast forward." all this while the havana liner, some four hundred feet away, was going through a complicated bit of manoeuvering under the hands of her officers. alternately she moved at half-speed-ahead, at stop, or on the reverse, in order that, despite the high-rolling waves, she might not go too far ahead and snap the thin line. but now young halstead soon had a stout hitch about the towing bitt at the bow. a few more turns, then he signaled to those behind holding him to help him back to the bridge deck. a dozen great waves had rolled over him on that smooth raised deck, but the members of the human chain hauled him back to safety. "signal to our friends that they can apply full speed ahead, joe, if they want to," directed the young motor boat captain, briefly, as he reached the comparative safety of the bridge deck once more. over the noise of the gale the answering blast from the liner's whistle came to them as a far-away sound. but now the big boat ahead started on at a ten-knot speed. "gracious, but this seems good, once more!" glowed tom halstead, taking over the wheel as the towing hawser tautened and the "restless" began to move forward under a headway that could be controlled and directed. "we couldn't have stood this racket much longer, without a tow," chattered joe. "i've had moments at the wheel, to-night, when, on account of our helplessness, i've felt sure we were going to 'turn turtle.'" "what ails your jaws, old fellow?" demanded tom, looking curiously at his chum. "say, you're shaking to pieces, and i don't wonder. get below and get dry and warm. get below all of you, except one to stand by me. who can best remain on deck for a few minutes more?" "i can," proposed jasper, starting forward with an odd mixture of sullenness and eagerness in his tone. "i'll trust you--now," nodded captain halstead, after eyeing the man keenly. "the rest of you get below. we want a few dry folks aboard." on board there was clothing in abundance, enough to enable everyone to make at least a few changes. now that the "restless" could be held to a course, hank butts cautiously made a small fire in the galley stove, and then stood by to watch the fire. after a while he had coffee going--this with a "cold bite" of food. hepton came up, bye-and-bye, to take the wheel. as he was wholly capable, tom surrendered the helm to him, then dropped down below for some of that coffee. "we've found out to-night what a wireless is good for," declared joe. "but for it, we wouldn't have kept the 'restless' afloat and right side up through the night." "until we got this tow i didn't expect ever to see port again," tom halstead admitted, quietly. "do you know, the worst thing folks will have against row-boats in the future will be the fact that row-boats are too small to carry a wireless installation!" "you feel wholly safe, now, do you, captain?" demanded powell seaton. "it rather seems to me that the gale has been getting heavier." "it has," halstead admitted. "if we were adrift, now, we probably couldn't keep right-side up for ten minutes. but give the 'restless' real headway, and she'll weather any gale that a liner or a warship will." "if the towing hawser should part!" shuddered mr. seaton. "we'd hope to get another line across, and made fast, before we 'turned turtle,'" replied skipper tom. no one could venture from below on the bridge deck without being quickly drenched. for that reason the wheel-reliefs were short. hank, by staying right by his galley fire, was able to keep heat at which anyone coming down from the bridge deck could dry himself. by daylight the gale and sea were lighter. for one thing, the havana liner had carried her tow so far north that they were out of the worst of it. half an hour after daylight the wireless operator aboard the larger craft telegraphed joe: "we've taken you in four miles off the town of mocalee. you can get gasoline there. do you want to cast off our line now?" "yes," flashed back joe, after consulting captain halstead. "and our greatest, heartiest thanks for your fine work for us." there was further interchange of courtesies, then the line was cast off as soon as joe and hank had started the twin motors going on the little that was left of the gasoline. there was no way, or need, to settle the liner's towing charges now. these could be collected later, for the "restless" was a boat registered by the united states authorities. she could be found and libeled anywhere if her young owners failed to settle. "hooray! but doesn't it feel great to be moving under one's own power again!" chortled captain tom, as he felt the vibration of the propellers and swung the steering wheel. though the coast had been visible from daylight, the town of mocalee was not in sight until the boat neared the mouth of a river. up this stream, half a mile, nestled a quaint little florida town, where, as one of the natives afterwards expressed it to joe, "we live on fish in summer and sick yankees in winter." "we'd better get on shore, all hands, and stretch our legs," proposed powell seaton, after skipper tom had made the "restless" fast at the one sizable dock of the town. "i see a hotel over yonder. i invite you all to be my guests at breakfast--on a floor that won't rock!" "i'll stay aboard, then, to look after the boat," volunteered hepton. "and you can rely on me to keep a mighty sharp eye on that man, jasper," he added, in halstead's ear. it was after seven o'clock in the morning when the shore party from the "restless," after strolling about a little, turned toward the hotel. as they passed through a corridor on the way to the office tom halstead glanced at a red leather bag that was being brought downstairs by a negro bell-boy. "do you see the bag that servant has?" asked tom, in a whisper, as he clutched powell seaton's arm. "scar on the side, and all, i'd know that bag anywhere. it's the one anson dalton brought over the side when he boarded the 'restless' from the 'constant'!" chapter xxii tom halstead springs the climax "can that fellow be here?" demanded powell seaton, his lips twitching. "he must be--or else he has sent someone else with his baggage," tom halstead answered, in an undertone. none of the party had paused, but had passed on into the office. "we've got to know," whispered powell seaton, tremulously. "then you go ahead, sir, and register us for breakfast, and i'll attend to finding out about this new puzzle." while mr. seaton went toward the desk, tom signed to hank butts to follow him aside. "about all you can do, hank, is to get outside, not far from the door, and see whether dalton goes out," halstead declared, after having briefly explained the situation. "if dalton leaves the hotel, give us word at once." "here, you take charge of this bag of mine, then," begged hank, turning so that the clerk at the desk could not see. butts had come ashore in a long rain-coat drawn on over his other clothing. now, he quickly opened a small satchel that he had also brought with him. "that old hitching weight of yours!" cried tom, in a gasping undertone, as he saw hank slip that heavy iron object from the bag to a hiding place under his coat. "how on earth do you happen to have that thing with you?" "it must have been a private tip from the skies," grinned hank, "but i saw the thing lying in the motor room and i picked it up and slipped it into this satchel. take the bag from me and i'll get out on the porch." all this took place so quietly that the clerk at the desk noticed nothing. halstead now carried the empty bag as he sauntered back to the party. but he found chance to whisper to joe: "anson dalton must be in this hotel. hank is slipping out to watch the front of the house. hadn't you better get around to the rear? if it happens that the fellow is about to leave here, it might be worth our while to know where he goes." nodding, joe quietly slipped away. the negro with the red bag had now entered the office. the bag, however, he took over to the coat-room and left it there. "breakfast will be ready at any time after eight o'clock, gentlemen," announced the clerk. powell seaton lighted a cigar, remaining standing by the desk. tom stood close by. the door of the office opened. anson dalton, puffing at a cigarette, his gaze resting on the floor, entered. he was some ten feet into the room before he looked up, to encounter the steady gaze of captain halstead and the charter-man. starting ever so little, paling just a bit, dalton returned that steady regard for a few seconds, then looked away with affected carelessness. "going to leave us to-day, mr. dalton?" inquired the clerk. "i don't know," replied the scoundrel, almost sulkily. then, lighting a fresh cigarette, he strolled over by one of the windows. presently, without looking backward at the captain and charter-man of the "restless," the fellow opened a door and stepped out onto the porch. there he promptly recognized hank butts, who stared back at him with interest. "i wonder if lemly is with this fellow?" whispered halstead to his employer. "i'm going beyond that, and wondering what the whole fact of dalton's presence here can possibly mean," replied powell seaton. the office door from the corridor opened again. through the doorway and across the office floor stepped, with half-mincing gait, a young, fair-haired man who, very plainly, had devoted much attention to his attire. "where is mr. dalton?" demanded this immaculate youth, in a soft, rather effeminate voice that made halstead regard him with a look of disfavor. "you'll find him out on the porch, i think, mr. dawley," answered the clerk. "oh, thank you, i'm sure," replied the soft-voiced one. as though he were walking on eggs young mr. dawley turned, going toward the porch door. "oh, good morning, dalton, dear fellow," cried the fair-haired dandy, in the same soft voice, as he came upon seaton's enemy, who was walking up and down the porch utterly ignoring hank butts. "good morning, dawley," replied dalton, looking more than a little bored by the interruption. "now, who and what, in the game, is dalton's elizabeth-boy friend?" wondered hank, eying the latest arrival. "have a cigarette, dawley?" asked dalton, in a voice almost of irritation, as he held out his case. "charming of you, indeed," declared dawley, helping himself to a cigarette and lighting it. "look out the tobacco doesn't make you sick, babe," muttered hank butts under his breath. "now, my dear dalton, about the business we were discussing here last evening----" began the soft-voiced one, but the other broke in on him with: "if you don't mind, dawley, i want to think a bit now." "oh, that will be quite all right, i am sure," agreed the soft-voiced one. "then i'll just stroll down the street a bit and be back in time to breakfast with you." dalton nodded and the fair-haired fashion plate stepped down into the path and strolled away. "all of which tells us," reflected hank, "that our friend dalton has been here at least since yesterday, and that he and the elizabeth-boy dude are not very well acquainted." butts looked up, almost with a start, to find dalton close at hand, scowling into the boy's face. "i suppose you're out here to watch me," growled dalton, glaring. "if i am, you wouldn't expect me to grow confidential about it, would you?" asked hank, grinning into the other's face. "oh, i don't want any of your impudence," snapped the rascal. "i wouldn't give you any, or anything else belonging to me," clicked hank butts, decisively. "if you're standing out here to watch me," continued dalton, "i am willing to tell you that i am not leaving the hotel for the present." "that, or any other information you are willing to offer me, will be treated in the utmost confidence, i assure you," promised hank. "don't be too frolicsome with me!" warned dalton, wrathily. "i?" echoed hank, looking astonished. "why, i didn't say anything until you spoke to me." with a snort anson dalton strolled away to a chair, seating himself and blowing out great clouds of smoke. "he isn't exactly glad to see us here--i can guess that much," thought hank. "but i wish i could guess how anson dalton comes to be here. i didn't see anything of his drab boat in the river." in the meantime tom halstead and powell seaton, after dropping into chairs in the office, were talking most earnestly in undertones. from where they sat they could see dalton's red bag resting on a shelf in the coat-room. "i'd give the world to know whether the rascal has the stolen papers still in that bag!" cried seaton, anxiously. "would he be likely to leave the bag around the hotel carelessly, if it contained anything so important?" asked tom. "he might have been willing to do so before he knew we were about here," replied the charter-man. "but even when he knows we're here the fellow doesn't seem anxious about the matter." "because the clerk is behind the desk, where he can see everything," hinted mr. seaton. "yet, for all dalton knows, the clerk might leave the room for a minute and give us our chance." "i've an idea," muttered mr. seaton, rising so quickly that tom stood up with him. "you keep the best eye possible over the rascal. don't go in to breakfast unless he goes. never mind whether i come to breakfast or not." "all right, sir," nodded halstead. as powell seaton crossed the porch without even looking in dalton's direction, the young motor boat captain also stepped outside, going over to hank. "watch that fellow, hank," whispered tom. "don't let him get away from you." "not if i have to steal his cigarettes," promised butts, with vim. then skipper tom vanished, though not for long. he merely went to find joe dawson, at the opposite side of the building. the two chums returned together. "now," said tom, in a chuckling whisper, "if anse dalton wants to get away from us, he'll have to run in four different directions at the same time." "but did you see the nice plush boy that's with dalton?" asked hank, dryly. butts, more than any of the others of the party, had taken a great dislike to the soft-voiced one. dalton turned, once in a while, to scowl in the direction of the three motor boat boys. that, however, was all the attention he gave them. a little later dawley returned and seated himself beside his friend. "breakfast is ready, gentlemen," called the clerk, opening the door. not one of the motor boat club boys stirred until after dalton rose and stepped inside. then they followed, close in the rear. dalton and his companion stepped into the dining room, installing themselves at a table not far from the door. tom led the way for his party at the second table beyond. two waiters appeared, one attending to each of the tables. dawley was evidently in bubbling spirits. he insisted on talking much, in his soft voice, to anson dalton, who was plainly annoyed. tom halstead glanced over at his enemy with an amused smile. yet no word passed between the tables. food and coffee were brought, after some minutes, and at both tables the meal was disposed of slowly, excellent appetites being the rule. powell seaton, in the meantime, had hastened to the telegraph office. from there he wired, "rush," to the chief of police at beaufort, advising the latter that anson dalton was in mocalee, and asking whether dalton was wanted by the united states or state authorities on any charges growing out of the seizure of the schooner "black betty." this dispatch sent off, mr. seaton, though remaining at the telegraph office, sent a messenger in haste for james hunter, who represented mocalee as chief of police and the entire police force. "jim hunter," as he was locally called, a raw-boned, taciturn man, came speedily to the telegraph office. he was in his shirt-sleeves, chewing a straw, but he wore his police badge on his coat, while a short "billy" appeared in a hip pocket. jim hunter listened quietly while the operator, at seaton's request, displayed the original of the telegram that had been sent to beaufort. telegraph companies give quick service on telegrams relating to police business. so it was not long ere the operator's receiving instrument began to click with the local call. the first dispatch that the operator passed out through the grated window was addressed to powell seaton, and signed by the chief at beaufort. it read: thank you for information. have wired chief of police, mocalee. the second telegram, following almost instantly, was addressed to the chief of police of mocalee. it ran: arrest anson dalton, wanted by u. s. authorities on charge of smuggling. powell seaton will point him out to you. notify me when arrested. be careful to get all dalton baggage. hold for orders. "that's all i wanter know," said hunter, laconically, biting off the end of his straw and spitting it out. "lead me to your friend dalton, mr. seaton." "i ought to warn you that he's a desperate fellow," murmured mr. seaton, as the pair left the telegraph office together. "i've seen that kind before," nodded mr. hunter, curtly. "pardon me, but i notice you carry a club. dalton will undoubtedly have a revolver, and he's likely to be ugly enough to attempt to use it," explained mr. seaton, apprehensively. "may i ask if you have a pistol, too?" "i always carry all the tools i need," answered jim hunter. "i don't gen'rally 'low any man to pull a gun on me, though. sometimes i'm quicker'n i gen'rally look." there was an air of quiet, forceful reserve about this florida policeman that made powell seaton feel more confident that the business in hand would not be defeated for lack of preparation. they made their way quickly to the hotel. anson dalton and his soft-voiced companion were still at table, though evidently near the end of their meal. hank butts, at a signal from his captain, had left the table. hank had donned his rain-coat again, and was now waiting in the corridor leading to the stairs, in case dalton should pass that way. a moment later joe left the table, stepping through the office and out onto the porch. [illustration: the table struck hunter amidships.] dalton and dawley were just rising when halstead, seated where he could see out into the office, saw seaton and a stranger enter. "now, the music will begin," thought tom halstead, throbbing. "there he is, officer--the dark one!" cried powell seaton, leading the way into the dining room. jim hunter lost no time. he made a spring in the direction of anson dalton, whose eyes flashed fire. trained in a hard, desperate school, dalton was fuller of tricks than the police chief had expected. as hunter rushed at him, dalton forcefully pushed one of the small tables toward him. it struck hunter amidships, most unexpectedly, and had the result of sending mocalee's police force sprawling to the floor. "you can't stop me--you shall not!" roared anson dalton. he made a dash for the doorway leading to the office. swift as he was, tom halstead darted through ahead of him. "he'll try to get that red bag--and he'll put up a fight with a pistol!" flashed through the young motor boat skipper's brain. "i'll fool him so far as the bag is concerned." diving into the coat-room, the door of which stood open, halstead was in season to snatch up the bag. he turned, to find dalton rushing at him, hands reached out. ducking under, tom eluded dalton, and darted across the office. "let some of the others catch him," gritted halstead, inwardly. "what we want most to know may be in this bag!" it was all done so quickly that skipper tom was across the office, pulling open the door into the corridor, before anson dalton bounded after him. joe dawson rushed in from the porch, but too late to be of immediate help. officer hunter had sprawled badly, and mr. seaton had halted to aid him to his feet. "drop that bag, or you'll wish you had--no time for this nonsense," blazed dalton, angrily, thrusting his right hand at his hip pocket. chapter xxiii hank becomes really terrible bump! whack! tom halstead tried to slam the door shut in his pursuer's face, but one of dalton's feet barred the closing, then thrust the door open. as halstead raced into the corridor anson dalton was close behind him, his hand yanking a revolver from his pocket. there would have been a shot in another instant. halstead might have been badly hit. but hank butts, on duty in the corridor, had heard the cries. as the door was thrust open hank leaped forward. out from under his rain coat he brought that same old hitching weight. there was an instant, only, for action, but young butts was an expert with the weapon he had made his own. his hands flew aloft, then descended, just as anson dalton's left foot was thrust forward in his running. "halt, you----" roared dalton. bim! down came the hitching weight, and landed squarely across the left foot of the pursuer. dalton let out a fearful yell, while his revolver fell to the floor. there was a flash and a crashing explosion in that confined space; the weapon had been harmlessly discharged. as for dalton, he swayed dizzily for a few seconds, trying to lift the injured foot. then, with a groan and a burst of ugly language, he sank to the floor. hank darted in, securing his hitching weight and backing off with it once more. though he had heard the discharge of the pistol, jim hunter did not stop to reach for his own revolver. he leaped through into the corridor, his pocket police club in hand. "there he is, but you won't have to club him any," announced hank, dryly, pointing to the groaning dalton. "he'll eat out of your hand, now--will anson dalton." pausing only to drop his club to the floor, jim hunter whipped out a pair of handcuffs from a cavernous pocket, bent over dalton, and---- snap-click! the troublesome enemy of the motor boat boys was not only badly hurt, but a secure prisoner as well. now, seaton and the boys gathered about the law's captive. "i reckon you'll have to git up," announced jim hunter, putting a helping hand under one of dalton's arms. "i can't--oh, stop! let up! my foot's crushed. i can't stand on it!" yelled dalton. hunter came quickly to realize the fact that dalton could not stand with much comfort. joe came up with a chair, onto which the prisoner was allowed to sink. "oh, you boys think you've finished things for me, don't you?" leered dalton, glaring around him in a rage. "but you haven't. you'll soon find that you've just begun to stir up trouble for yourselves." "go easy, man--do!" begged hunter, soothingly. "of course yer pet corn feels bad just now. but, say! that's the niftiest way of stopping a bad man, i reckon, thet was ever invented." "is it?" groaned dalton. then, catching the trace of a smirk in hank's eyes, the rascal shook his fist at the steward of the "restless," snarling: "i'll find my own way to settle with you!" "take your time--when you're feeling better," hank begged, cheerfully. fair-haired, soft-voiced young dawley had followed the crowd out into the corridor. the hotel clerk, the proprietor and three or four of the servants all had increased the crowd there. dawley rapidly learned what had happened. "it's a beastly outrage," he announced, his soft voice sounding almost harsh in the indignation that he felt. "oh, take a fan, dolly, and go out on the porch to cool off," growled joe dawson. one of the servants, in the excess of excitement, actually took the fair-haired youth by the shoulders, and, though the latter protested, thrust him out through the open door onto the porch, slamming the door after him. "that's too bad," grinned hank. "i'll go out and see if the poor fellow has fainted." as butts stepped out on the porch, closing the door shut after him, dawley, his cheeks very red, leaped out from the chair into which he had sunk. "it was you who played that mean trick on my friend," cried dawley, in a voice which he fondly believed trembled with rage. "yes," admitted hank, meekly. "i'll punish you for that!" quivered the soft-voiced one, stepping forward. "don't strike me on the wrist," pleaded hank. "i have rheumatism there." but dawley, too angry, or else too dull to understand that he was being made a mark for ridicule, continued to advance upon butts, who retreated, a look of mock alarm in his face. "keep away from me--please do, while you're angry," begged hank, still retreating. "i won't!" snapped dawley. as hank now retreated rapidly backward, dawley went after him with corresponding speed. "if you must have it, then, why--take it!" cried hank, in a tone of desperation. one of his hands had been held under his rain-coat all along. now hank thrust the other hand inside, as well, to reach for some object concealed there. "oh. o-o-oh! don't you drop that weight on my foot!" yelled dawley, blanching and falling up against the wooden wall. but hank, ruthlessly, as one whose blood is up, brought both his hands swiftly into view as he sprang at dawley. there was a yell from the fair-haired one as hank bent forward, then dropped squarely on the toes of dawley's right foot--his _pocket-handkerchief_! "there, now!" mimicked hank butts, turning on his heel. a roar of laughter came from mr. seaton, tom, joe and two or three of the bystanders who had followed outside. chapter xxiv conclusion "i'm sorry, young man," said powell seaton, resting a hand on dawley's collar, "but the chief of police wants to see you." "i'm not arrested, am i?" demanded the soft-voiced one, in a tone of great alarm. "i think not. but come along. the chief wants to see you in the office." there they found hunter and his manacled prisoner, who had been carried into the office just as he sat on the chair. "where's that red bag that started all the trouble?" demanded chief hunter. joe dawson produced it. "you can't open that," leered dalton, though he spoke uneasily. "if we can't unlock it, we'll cut it open with a sharp breadknife," mocked hunter. "yet i reckon thet we'll find the key in yer pocket." this guess turned out to be correct. the key was inserted in the lock and the bag opened. powell seaton pushed forward to help the police official in the inspection of the contents. "there are my papers," cried powell seaton, grabbing at two envelopes. "look 'em over, ef you want, but i reckon i'll haveter have 'em to go with the prisoner," assented chief hunter. "they're the same papers that this fellow stole--one set from clodis, and the other from my bungalow through a helper," cried mr. seaton. anson dalton watched seaton with a strange, sinister look. "gracious! look at these, here!" gasped chief hunter, opening a small leather case. nearly a score of flashing white stones greeted his eyes. "di'munds, i reckon," guessed the police chief. "yes; brazilian diamonds," confirmed powell seaton. "probably this prisoner's share or proceeds from smuggling in diamonds. that business, then, was what the 'black betty' was used for." "those are the diamonds i came down here to negotiate for," broke in dawley, wonderingly. "you?" demanded hunter, surveying the soft-voiced one. "yes; my father is dawley, the big jeweler at jacksonville," explained the youth. "here's his card. i'm the buyer for the house, and your prisoner wrote that he had some fine stones to sell." "they're fine, all right, or i'm no judge of brazilian diamonds," nodded powell seaton. "but i guess the united states government owns them, now, as a confiscated prize." a carriage was brought around to the door, and anson dalton was driven to the county jail, eight miles away, to be locked up there pending the arrival of united states officers. dawley easily proved his innocence, and the truth of his own story. despite his effeminate manners and soft voice, it afterwards developed that the youth was a skilled buyer of precious stones, and a young man of no little importance in the business community of his home town. following the swift succession of events at the little florida town, there came a lull in the long strain of excitement and danger. every now and then dick davis and ab perkins, aboard the rio-bound "glide," found a chance to have a wireless message relayed back to the united states. these messages came in veiled language, according to instructions, but they conveyed to powell seaton the joyous news that these two far-away members of the motor boat club were proceeding safely on their long journey, and that no harm was happening to them, nor to the precious papers in their care. one fine day a cablegram came all the way from rio janeiro which told that dick and ab had reached that brazilian city, and had turned over the papers in their care to the waiting american for whom they were intended. a week after that came another cablegram, announcing that the american syndicate had succeeding in locating the lost diamond field, and that papers for a proper patent were being filed with the brazilian government. right on top of that came the news, in the daily press, that governor terrero, of vahia, had been shot and killed by an escaped prisoner--a former enemy whom the governor had greatly and wickedly harassed. captain dave lemly was captured about this time. he and dalton, it developed, had been the principal american agents in a big scheme for smuggling brazilian diamonds into the united states. the gems, it was shown, were secretly shipped in quantities from rio, aboard a sailing ship. this ship, carrying a general cargo, was always met near beaufort by lemly, in the "black betty," and the diamonds were taken on the little black schooner. as the "black betty" sailed as a fishing boat, dave lemly had always been able to evade the american customs authorities, and a hugely profitable business in diamond smuggling had been built up. governor terrero, of the state of vahia, brazil, it is supposed, was behind the southern end of the smuggling scheme, though this has not been proved. dalton, acting as the governor's go-between and spy, had played his part well and desperately. yet now, in the end, dalton was convicted on the evidence furnished by some of the members of the late crew of the "black betty." so was lemly, and both are now serving long sentences in prison, along with the members of the crew of the smuggling schooner. clodis recovered, after a few weeks. he was handsomely rewarded by the new diamond syndicate for the dangers through which he had run. he last remembered descending the stairs to the "constant's" stairs, and had no recollection of having been struck down. all the members of the guard over at lonely island were more than handsomely paid. even jasper was forgiven, and well rewarded. after he had been in prison some length of time anson dalton one day confessed to mr. seaton's attorney that, while at sea on the drab boat (which was afterwards found and confiscated by the revenue people), he, dalton, had copied the stolen papers, intending to send one set southward and retain the originals. after losing both the "restless" and the "glide" in the fog, dalton had had lemly put in to shore. there they had been met by a trusted brazilian spy for governor terrero. the brazilian, with the copies of the papers, had hurried to new york by train. this brazilian did not succeed in starting for rio until some days after the "glide" had sailed, and, moreover, he went on a slower boat. so, by the time the brazilian spy arrived at rio, the american syndicate had located the lost diamond field, had filed patents with the government, and terrero had died. so all of anson dalton's plotting had come to naught. one of powell seaton's first acts was to adjust fully the claim of the havana line for the towing of the "restless" through that fearful northeast gale. while waiting for the final news of the success of his plans, the charter-man cruised much up and down the coast with the boys of the "restless." then afterwards, through the month of november, seaton enjoyed another cruise with them. the charter money was not all that captain tom, engineer joe and steward hank received for their splendid work. as soon as the final plans of the great new american diamond syndicate at rio janeiro had been established on a safe and firm basis, the charter-man of the "restless" was prepared to talk of a splendid reward. his plans were so big, in fact, that all three of the boys felt bound to call a halt. yet the reward that they _did_ finally accept made very important additions to the bank accounts of all three of these daring young motor boat navigators. dick davis and ab perkins, on their return from rio, were "remembered" by mr. seaton with bank drafts the size of which almost took away their breath. then came a new cruise, a new set of adventures in new surroundings. it was a cruise which the many friends of our motor boat club boys will agree was the most wonderful, the most exciting, and certainly the most mysterious lot of adventures through which any member of the club ever passed. the details of what happened, however, must be reserved for the next volume in this series, which will be published under the title: "the motor boat club in florida; or, laying the ghost of alligator swamp." [the end] henry altemus company's catalogue of the best and least expensive books for real boys and girls these fascinating volumes will interest boys and girls of every age under sixty sold by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price henry altemus company - cherry street philadelphia the motor boat club series by h. irving hancock the keynote of these books is manliness. the stories are wonderfully entertaining, and they are at the same time sound and wholesome. the plots are ingenious, the action swift, and the moral tone wholly healthful. no boy will willingly lay down an unfinished book in this series, at the same time he will form a taste for good literature and the glory of right living. the motor boat club of the kennebec; or, the secret of smugglers' island. the motor boat club at nantucket; or, the mystery of the dunstan heir. the motor boat club off long island; or, a daring marine game at racing speed. the motor boat club and the wireless; or, the dot, dash and dare cruise. the motor boat club in florida; or, laying the ghost of alligator swamp. the motor boat club at the golden gate; or, a thrilling capture in the great fog. cloth, mo, illustrated. price, per volume, cts. sold by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price henry altemus company - cherry street philadelphia submarine boys series by victor g. durham these splendid books for boys and girls deal with life aboard submarine torpedo boats, and with the adventures of the young crew, who, by degrees, become most expert in this most wonderful and awe-inspiring field of modern naval practice. the books are written by an expert and possess, in addition to the author's surpassing knack of story-telling, a great educational value for all young readers. the submarine boys on duty; or, life on a diving torpedo boat. the submarine boys' trial trip; or, "making good" as young experts. the submarine boys and the middies; or, the prize detail at annapolis. the submarine boys and the spies; or, dodging the sharks of the deep. the submarine boys' lightning cruise; or, the young kings of the deep. the submarine boys for the flag; or, deeding their lives to uncle sam. cloth, mo, illustrated. price, per volume, cts. sold by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price henry altemus company - cherry street philadelphia pony rider boys series by frank gee patchin these tales may be aptly described as those of a new cooper. as the earlier novelist depicted the first days of the advancing frontier, so does mr. patchin deal charmingly and realistically with what is left of the strenuous outdoor west of the twentieth century. in every sense they belong to the best class of books for boys. the pony rider boys in the rockies; or, the secret of the lost claim. the pony rider boys in texas; or, the veiled riddle of the plains. the pony rider boys in montana; or, the mystery of the old custer trail. the pony rider boys in the ozarks; or, the secret of ruby mountain. the pony rider boys on the alkali; or, finding a key to the desert maze. the pony rider boys in new mexico; or, the end of the silver trail. cloth, mo, illustrated. price, per volume, cts. sold by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price henry altemus company - cherry street philadelphia high school boys series by h. irving hancock in this series of bright, crisp books a new note has been struck. boys of every age under sixty will be interested in these fascinating volumes. the high school freshmen; or, dick & co's first year pranks and sports. the high school pitcher; or, dick & co. on the gridley diamond. the high school left end; or, dick & co. grilling on the football gridiron. the high school captain of the team; or, dick & co. leading the athletic vanguard. cloth, mo, illustrated price, per volume, c. grammar school boys series by h. irving hancock this series of stories, based on the actual doings of grammar school boys comes near to the heart of the average american boy. the grammar school boys of gridley; or, dick & co. start things moving. the grammar school boys snowbound; or, dick & co. at winter sports. the grammar school boys in the woods; or, dick & co. trail fun and knowledge. the grammar school boys in summer athletics; or, dick & co. make their fame secure. cloth, illustrated price, per volume, c. west point series by h. irving hancock the principal characters in these narratives are two sound, wholesome, manly young americans who go strenuously through their four years of cadetship. their doings will prove an inspiration to all american boys. dick prescott's first year at west point; or, two chums in the cadet gray. dick prescott's second year at west point; or, finding the glory of the soldier's life. dick prescott's third year at west point; or, standing firm for flag and honor. dick prescott's fourth year at west point; or, ready to drop the gray for shoulder straps. cloth, illustrated price, per volume, c. annapolis series by h. irving hancock the spirit of the new navy is delightfully and truthfully depicted in these volumes. dave darrin's first year at annapolis; 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(other volumes to follow rapidly.) cloth, mo, illustrated--price, per volume, c. battleship boys series by frank gee patchin these stories throb with the life of young americans on today's huge drab dreadnaughts. the battleship boys at sea; or, two apprentices in uncle sam's navy. the battleship boys' first step upward; or, winning their grades as petty officers. the battleship boys in foreign service; or, earning new ratings in european seas. (other volumes to follow rapidly.) cloth, mo, illustrated--price, per volume, c. the circus boys series by edgar b. p. darlington mr. darlington is known to all real circus people along every route that big and little shows travel. his books breathe forth every phase of an intensely interesting and exciting life. the circus boys on the flying rings; or, making the start in the sawdust life. the circus boys across the continent; or, winning new laurels on the tanbark. the circus boys in dixie land; or, winning the plaudits of the sunny south. (other volumes to follow rapidly.) cloth, mo, illustrated--price, per volume, c. the high school girls series by jessie graham flower, a.m. these breezy stories of the american high school girl take the reader fairly by storm. grace harlowe's plebe year at high school; or the merry doings of the oakdale freshmen girls. grace harlowe's sophomore year at high school; or, the record of the girl chums in work and athletics. grace harlowe's junior year at high school; or, fast friends in the sororities. grace harlowe's senior year at high school; or, the parting of the ways. cloth, mo, illustrated--price, per volume, c. the automobile girls series by laura dent crane no girl's library--no family book-case can be considered at all complete unless it contains these sparkling twentieth-century books, written for present-day girls. the automobile girls at newport; or, watching the summer parade. the automobile girls in the berkshires; or, the ghost of lost man's trail. the automobile girls along the hudson; or, fighting fire in sleepy hollow. (other volumes to follow rapidly.) cloth, mo, illustrated--price, per volume, c. the range and grange hustlers by frank gee patchin have you any idea of the excitements, the glories of life on great ranches in the west? any bright boy will "devour" the books of this series, once he has made a start with the first volume. the range and grange hustlers on the ranch; or, the boy shepherds of the great divide. the range and grange hustlers' greatest round-up; or, pitting their wits against a packer's combine. cloth, illustrated--price, per volume, c. the young engineers series by h. irving hancock tom reade and harry hazelton, the heroes of the stories in this series, are already well known to readers of the grammar school boys series and high school boys series. in this new series tom and harry prove themselves worthy of all the traditions of dick & co. the young engineers in colorado; or, at railroad building in earnest. the young engineers in arizona; or, laying tracks on the "man-killer" quicksands. cloth, illustrated--price, per volume, c. the square dollar boys series by h. irving hancock in this series mr. hancock gives the american boy a complete knowledge of existing political conditions. these books are full of intense interest, with stirring plots. they will teach our boys to think, to vote properly, and make them better citizens. the square dollar boys wake up; or, fighting the trolley franchise steal. the square dollar boys smash the ring; or, in the lists against the crooked land deal. cloth, illustrated--price, per volume, c. the boys of steel series by james r. mears in this splendid series the great american steel industry is exploited by a master pen. the information given is exact and truthful, and full of fascination for the american youth. the iron boys in the mines; or, starting at the bottom of the shaft. the iron boys as foremen; or, heading the diamond drill shift. cloth, illustrated--price, per volume, c. [note of etext editor: this etext is based on the post- version published by m. a. donohue & co. it differs from etext , which is the a.l. burt publication of , in that it contains seven less chapters between chapter xxxi and the concluding chapter.] mark mason's victory by horatio alger, jr. author of "erie train boy," "slow and sure," "risen from the ranks," "julius, the street boy," etc., etc. m. a. donohue & company chicago new york printed bound by m. a. donohue & company chicago made in u. s. a. contents chapter i. two strangers from syracuse. chapter ii. where mark lived. chapter iii. an unexpected call. chapter iv. a night at daly's. chapter v. mark as a hero. chapter vi. "the evening globe." chapter vii. the great mr. bunsby. chapter viii. a scene in mrs. mack's room. chapter ix. an adventure in a fifth avenue stage. chapter x. an important commission. chapter xi. mr. hamilton schuyler is astonished. chapter xii. mr. schuyler has a bad time. chapter xiii. mark starts on a journey. chapter xiv. the telltale memorandum. chapter xv. a railroad incident. chapter xvi. mark as a detective. chapter xvii. mark makes a call on euclid avenue. chapter xviii. a midnight visit. chapter xix. at niagara falls. chapter xx. a newspaper paragraph. chapter xxi. mark returns home. chapter xxii. a crafty schemer. chapter xxiii. mark's good luck. chapter xxiv. the two sisters meet. chapter xxv. maud gilbert's party. chapter xxvi. an important commission. chapter xxvii. last instructions. chapter xxviii. mark at omaha. chapter xxix. nahum sprague and his orphan ward. chapter xxx. philip finds a friend. chapter xxxi. the mining stock is sold. chapter xxxii. conclusion. mark mason's victory. chapter i. two strangers from syracuse. "that is the city hall over there, edgar." the speaker was a man of middle age, with a thin face and a nose like a hawk. he was well dressed, and across his vest was visible a showy gold chain with a cameo charm attached to it. the boy, probably about fifteen, was the image of his father. they were crossing city hall park in new york and mr. talbot was pointing out to his son the public buildings which make this one of the noted localities in the metropolis. "shine?" asked a bootblack walking up to the pair. "i'd like to take a shine, father," said edgar. "what do you charge?" "five cents, but i don't object to a dime," replied the bootblack. "can i have a shine, father?" "why didn't you get one at the hotel?" "because they charged ten cents. i thought i could get it for less outside." "good boy!" said the father in a tone of approval. "get things as low as you can. that's my motto, and that's the way i got rich. here, boy, you can get to work." instantly the bootblack was on his knees, and signed for edgar to put his foot on the box. "what's your name, boy?" asked edgar with a condescending tone. "no, it ain't boy. it's tom." "well, tom, do you make much money?" "well, i don't often make more'n five dollars a day." "five dollars? you are trying to humbug me." "it's true though. i never made more'n five dollars in a day in my life, 'cept when i shined shoes for swells like you who were liberal with their cash." edgar felt rather flattered to be called a swell, but a little alarmed at the suggestion that tom might expect more than the usual sum. "that's all right, but i shall only pay you five cents." "i knew you wouldn't as soon as i saw you." "why?" "'cause you don't look like george w. childs." "who's he?" "the _ledger_ man from philadelphia. i once blacked his shoes and he gave me a quarter. general washington once paid me a dollar." "what!" ejaculated edgar. "do you mean to say that you ever blacked general washington's shoes?" "no; he wore boots." "why, my good boy, general washington died almost a hundred years ago." "did he? well, it might have been some other general." "i guess it was. you don't seem to know much about history." "no, i don't. i spent all my time studyin' astronomy when i went to school." "what's your whole name?" "tom trotter. i guess you've heard of my father. he's judge trotter of the supreme court?" "i am afraid you don't tell the truth very often." "no, i don't. it ain't healthy. do you?" "of course i do." this conversation was not heard by mr. talbot, who had taken a seat on one of the park benches, and was busily engaged in reading the morning _world_. by this time tom began to think it was his time to ask questions. "where did you come from?" he inquired. "how do you know but i live in the city?" "'cause you ain't got new york style." "oh!" said edgar rather mortified. then he added in a tone which he intended to be highly sarcastic: "i suppose you have." "well, i guess. you'd ought to see me walk down fifth avener sunday mornin' with my best girl." "do you wear the same clothes you've got on now?" "no, i guess not. i've got a little lord fauntleroy suit of black velvet, with kid gloves and all the fixin's. but you ain't told me where you live yet." "i live in syracuse. my father's one of the most prominent citizens of that city." "is it the man you was walkin' with?" "yes; there he is sitting on that bench." "he ain't much to look at. you look just like him." "really, i think you are the most impudent boy i ever met!" said edgar with asperity. "why, what have i said? i only told you you looked like him." "yes, but you said he wasn't much to look at!" "i guess he's rich, and that's better than good looks." "yes, my father is quite wealthy," returned edgar complacently. "i wish i was rich instead of good lookin'." "you good looking!" "that's what everybody says. i ain't no judge myself." tom looked roguishly at edgar, and his aristocratic patron was obliged to confess that he had a pleasant face, though it was marred by a black spot on each cheek, probably caused by the contact of his hands. "you're a queer boy," said edgar. "i don't know what to make of you." "make a rich man of me, and well go to europe together. my doctor says i ought to travel for my health." "edgar, haven't you got your shoes blacked yet?" asked his father from the bench. tom struck the box sharply with his brush to show that the job was completed. "just got done, governor," he said familiarly. "here is your money," said edgar, producing some pennies from his pockets. "there's only four," observed tom with a critical glance. "only four! haven't you dropped one?" "no. that's all you gave me." "father, have you got a cent?" mr. talbot's hand dived into his pocket, and he brought out a penny, but it was a canadian coin. "i don't know as i can pass this," said tom. "they're very particular at the windsor hotel, where i am boarding." "you can save it till you go traveling in canada," suggested edgar, with unusual brightness for him. "that's so," answered tom, who appreciated a joke. "i'll stop in syracuse on the way and pay you a visit." "how does he know about our living in syracuse?" asked mr. talbot. "i told him i lived there." "he said you was a big bug up there." "i hope you didn't use that expression, edgar," said his father. "oh well, that's what he meant. won't you have a shine yourself, governor?" "no; i don't think i shall need it." "where'd you get that shine you've got on?" "in syracuse." "tell 'em they don't understand shinin' boots up there." "hadn't you better go up there and give them some lessons?" suggested edgar. "well, i don't mind, if i can get free board at your house." "do you think we would have a bootblack living in our house?" "don't waste any time on him, edgar. he is a street boy, and his manners are fitted to his station." "thank you, governor. that's the biggest compliment i've had for a long time." mr. talbot laughed. "really, boy, you are very grotesque." "that's another compliment," said tom, taking off his hat and bowing with mock politeness. "hallo, tom!" tom turned to meet the smile of a district telegraph messenger, who was crossing the park to broadway. "how's yourself, mark?" he said. "i'd offer to shake hands, but i've been doin' a little business for these gentlemen, and my gloves ain't handy." no. , following the direction of tom's nod, glanced at mr. talbot and edgar, and instantly a look of surprise came over his face. "why, uncle solon, is that you?" he exclaimed. solon talbot looked embarrassed, and seemed in doubt whether to acknowledge his relationship to the humble telegraph boy. "are you mark mason?" he asked. "yes; don't you know me?" "i haven't seen you for two years, you know." "and this is edgar!" continued the telegraph boy. "you've grown so i would hardly know you." "i hope you are well," said edgar coldly. "thank you. uncle solon, where are you staying?" "ahem! i am stopping up town." "shall you be in the city long?" "i don't think so." "mother would like very much to see you. she would like to ask about grandfather's estate." "ah--um--yes! where do you live?" "no. st. mark's place, near first avenue." "we'll call if we can. edgar, we'll have to hurry away." as they walked toward the other side of the park at a brisk pace, tom asked: "you don't mean to say that's your uncle, mark?" "yes; that is, he married my mother's sister." "and that young swell is your cousin?" "yes." "he is rich, isn't he?" "i suppose so." "why don't he do something for you and your mother?" "he was always a very selfish man. but we don't ask any favors--mother and i don't. all we ask is justice." "what do you mean by that?" "my grandfather, that is mother's father and mrs. talbot's, died two years ago, and uncle solon was the administrator. we supposed he had left a good deal of money, but all we have received from his estate is seventy-five dollars." "do you think the old feller's been playin' any game on you?" "i don't know what to think." "i tell you what, mark, he deserves a good lickin' if he's cheated you, and i'd like to give it to him." "well, tom, i must be going. i can't stop talking here, or i'll get into trouble at the office." chapter ii. where mark lived. there is a large tenement house on st. mark's place, between third avenue and avenue a. the suites of rooms consist, as is the general new york custom in tenement houses, of one square apartment used as kitchen, sitting room and parlor combined, and two small bedrooms opening out of it. it was in an apartment of this kind on the third floor back, that mark mason's mother and little sister edith lived. it was a humble home, and plainly furnished, but a few books and pictures saved from the wreck of their former prosperity, gave the rooms an air of refinement not to be found in those of their neighbors. mrs. mason was setting the table for supper and edith was studying a lesson in geography when the door opened and mark entered. his mother greeted him with a pleasant smile. "you are through early, mark," she said. "yes, mother. i was let off earlier than usual, as there was an errand up this way that fortunately took very little time." "i'm glad you've come home, mark," said edith, "i want you to help me in my map questions." "all right, edie, but you will have to wait till after supper. i've got something to tell mother." "what is it, mark?" "i saw two old acquaintances of ours from syracuse, this forenoon." "who were they?" asked mrs. mason eagerly. "uncle solon and edgar." "is it possible? where did you see them?" "in city hall park. edgar had just been having his boots blacked by tom trotter." "did you speak to them?" "yes." "how did they appear?" "well, they didn't fall on my neck and embrace me," answered mark with a smile. "in fact they seemed very cool." "and yet solon talbot is my brother-in-law, the husband of my only sister." "and edgar is my own cousin. he's an awful snob, mother, and he looks as like his father as one pea looks like another." "then he is not very handsome. i wish i could see them. did you invite them to call?" "yes." "and what did solon--mr. talbot--say?" "he said he _might_ call; but he was in a great hurry." "did you remember to give him our address?" "yes, mother; i said you would like to see him about grandfather's estate." "i certainly would. it seems strange, very strange--that father should have left so little money." "we only got seventy-five dollars out of it." "when i expected at least five thousand." "i suspect there's been some dishonesty on the part of uncle solon. you know he is awfully fond of money." "yes, he always was." "and tom trotter says that edgar told him his father was very rich." "it seems strange the change that has taken place. when i first knew solon talbot i was a young lady in society with a high position, and he was a clerk in my father's store. he was of humble parentage, though that, of course, is not to his discredit. his father used to go about sawing wood for those who chose to employ him." "you don't mean it! you never told me that before." "no, for i knew that solon would be ashamed to have it known, and as i said before it is nothing to his discredit." "but it might prevent edgar from putting on such airs. he looked at me as if i was an inferior being, and he didn't care to have anything to say to me." "i hope you don't feel sensitive on that account." "sensitive? no. i can get along without edgar talbot's notice. i mean some time to stand as high or higher than uncle solon, and to be quite as rich." "i hope you will, mark, but as we are at present situated it will be hard to rise." "plenty of poor boys have risen, and why not i?" "it is natural for the young to be hopeful, but i have had a good deal to depress me. did you remember that the rent comes due the day after to-morrow?" "how much have you towards it, mother?" "only five dollars, and it's eight. i don't see where the other three dollars are coming from, unless,"--and here her glance rested on the plain gold ring on her finger. "pledge your wedding-ring, mother!" exclaimed mark. "surely you don't mean that?" "i would rather do it than lose our shelter, poor as it is." "there must be some other way--there must be." "you will not receive any wages till saturday." "no, but perhaps we can borrow something till then. there's mrs. mack up-stairs. she has plenty of money, though she lives in a poor way." "there isn't much hope there, mark. she feels poorer than i do, though i am told she has five thousand dollars out at interest." "never mind. i am going to try her." "eat your supper first." "so i will. i shall need all the strength i can get from a good meal to confront her." half an hour later mark went up-stairs and tapped at the door of the rooms above his mother's. "come in!" said a feeble quavering voice. mark opened the door and entered. in a rocking chair sat, or rather crouched, a little old woman, her face seamed and wrinkled. she had taken a comforter from the bed and wrapped it around her to keep her warm, for it was a chilly day, and there was no fire in her little stove. "good evening, mrs. mack," said mark. "how do you feel?" "it's a cold day," groaned the old lady. "i--i feel very uncomfortable." "why don't you have a fire then?" "it's gone out, and it's so late it isn't worth while to light it again." "but it is worth while to be comfortable," insisted mark. "i--i can keep warm with this comforter around me, and--fuel is high, very high." "but you can afford to buy more when this is burned." "no, mark. i have to be economical--very economical. i don't want to spend all my money, and go to the poor-house." "i don't think there's much danger of that. you've got money in the savings bank, haven't you?" "yes--a little, but i can't earn anything. i'm too old to work, for i am seventy-seven, and i might live years longer, you know." "don't you get interest on your money?" "yes, a little, but it costs a good deal to live." "well, if the interest isn't enough, you can use some of the principal. i can put you in the way of earning twenty-five cents." "can you?" asked the old woman eagerly. "how?" "if you'll lend me three dollars till saturday--i get my wages then--i'll pay you twenty-five cents for the accommodation." "but you might not pay me," said the old woman cautiously, "and it would kill me to lose three dollars." mark wanted to laugh, but felt that it would not do. "there isn't any danger," he said. "i get two weeks' pay on saturday. it will be as much as nine dollars, so you see you are sure of getting back your money." "i--i don't know. i am afraid." "what are you afraid of?" "you might get run over by the horse cars, or a truck, and then you couldn't get your money." "i will be careful for your sake, mrs. mack," said mark good-humoredly. "you'll get your money back, and twenty-five cents more." the old woman's face was a study--between avarice on the one hand and timidity on the other. "i--i'm afraid," she said. she rocked to and fro in her chair in her mental perturbation, and mark saw that his errand was a failure. "if you change your mind, let me know," he said. as he reached the foot of the stairs he was treated to a surprise. there just in front of his mother's door stood solon talbot and edgar. chapter iii. an unexpected call. "in what room does your mother live?" asked solon talbot. "this is our home," said mark, proceeding to open the door. edgar talbot sniffed contemptuously. "i don't see how you can live in such a mean place," he remarked. "it is not a matter of choice," returned mark gravely. "we have to live in a cheap tenement." by this time the door was opened. "mother," said mark, preceding the two visitors, "here are uncle solon and edgar come to call on you." mrs. mason's pale cheek flushed, partly with mortification at her humble surroundings, for when she first knew solon talbot he was only a clerk, as she had said, and she was a society belle. there was another feeling also. she had a strong suspicion that her brother-in-law had defrauded her of her share in her father's estate. "i am glad to see you, mr. talbot," she said, extending her hand. "and this is edgar! how you have grown, edgar." "yes, ma'am," responded edgar stiffly. both mrs. mason and mark noticed that he did not call her "aunt." her nephew's coldness chilled her. "i am sorry to see you in such a poor place," she said, smiling faintly. "i suppose rents are high in new york," said solon talbot awkwardly. "yes, and our means are small. how is my sister mary?" "quite well, thank you." "did she send me any message?" "she did not know i was going to call." "how long it seems since i saw her!" sighed mrs. mason. "i suppose you heard that i was in town." "yes; mark told me." "i was not sure whether i could call, as i am here on a hurried business errand." "i am glad you have called. i wished to ask you about father's estate." "just so! it is very surprising--i assure you that it amazed me very much--to find that he left so little." "i can't understand it at all, solon. only a year before he died he told me that he considered himself worth fifteen thousand dollars." "people are often deluded as to the amount of their possessions. i have known many such cases." "but i have only received seventy-five dollars, and there were two heirs--mary and myself. according to that father must have left only one hundred and fifty dollars." "of course he left more, but there were debts--and funeral expenses and doctor's bills." "i understand that, but it seems so little." "it _was_ very little, and i felt sorry, not only on your account, but on mary's. of course, as my wife, she will be provided for, but it would have been comfortable for her to inherit a fair sum." "you can imagine what it is to me who am not amply provided for. i thought there might be five thousand dollars coming to me." solon talbot shook his head. "that anticipation was very extravagant!" he said. "it was founded on what father told me." "true: but i think your father's mind was weakened towards the end of his life. he was not really responsible for what he said." "i disagree with you there, solon. father seemed to me in full possession of his faculties to the last." "you viewed him through the eyes of filial affection, but i was less likely to be influenced in my judgments." "five thousand dollars would have made me so happy. we are miserably poor, and mark has to work so hard to support us in this poor way." "i thought telegraph boys earned quite a snug income," said solon talbot, who looked uncomfortable. he was dreading every moment that his sister-in-law would ask him for pecuniary assistance. he did not understand her independent nature. her brother-in-law was about the last man to whom she would have stooped to beg a favor. "mark sometimes makes as high as five dollars a week," said mrs. mason in a tone of mild sarcasm. "i am sure that is very good pay for a boy of his age." "it is a small sum for a family of three persons to live upon, solon." "um, ah! i thought perhaps you might earn something else." "sometimes i earn as high as a dollar and a half a week making shirts." mr. talbot thought it best to drop the subject. "i am deeply sorry for you," he said. "it is a pity your husband didn't insure his life. he might have left you in comfort." "he did make application for insurance, but his lungs were already diseased, and the application was refused." "i may be able to help you--in a small way, of course," proceeded solon talbot. mark looked up in surprise. was it possible that his close-fisted uncle was offering to assist them. mrs. mason did not answer, but waited for developments. "i have already paid you seventy-five dollars from your father's estate," resumed mr. talbot. "strictly speaking, it is all you are entitled to. but i feel for your position, and--and your natural disappointment, and i feel prompted to make it a hundred dollars by paying you twenty-five dollars more. i have drafted a simple receipt here, which i will get you to sign, and then i will hand you the money." he drew from his wallet a narrow slip of paper, on which was written this form: "received from solon talbot the sum of one hundred dollars, being the full amount due me from the estate of my late father, elisha doane, of which he is the administrator." * * * * * mr. talbot placed the paper on the table, and pointing to a black line below the writing, said, "sign here." "let me see the paper, mother," said mark. he read it carefully. "i advise you not to sign it," he added, looking up. "what do you mean?" exclaimed solon talbot angrily. "i mean," returned mark firmly, "that mother has no means of knowing that a hundred dollars is all that she is entitled to from grandfather's estate." "didn't i tell you it was?" demanded talbot frowning. "uncle solon," said mark calmly, "i am only a boy, but i know that one can't be too careful in business matters." "do you dare to doubt my father's word?" blustered edgar. "our business is with your father, not with you," said mark. "what is it you want?" asked solon talbot irritably. "i want, or rather mother does, to see a detailed statement of grandfather's property, and the items of his debts and expenses." solon talbot was quite taken aback, by mark's demand. he had supposed the boy knew nothing of business. "really," he said, "this impertinence from my own nephew is something i was by no means prepared for. it is a poor return for my liberal offer." "your liberal offer?" "yes, the twenty-five dollars i offered your mother is out of my own pocket--offered solely out of consideration for her poverty. do i understand," he asked, addressing his sister-in-law, "that you decline my offer?" mrs. mason looked doubtfully at mark. twenty-five dollars in their present circumstances would be a boon, and, in addition to mark's earnings, would tide them over at least three months. was it right, or wise, to decline it? mark's face showed no signs of wavering. he was calm and resolute. "what do you think, mark?" asked his mother. "you know what i think, mother. we have no knowledge that the estate has been fairly administered, and you would be bartering away our rights." "i think i won't sign the receipt, solon," said mrs. mason. solon talbot looked very angry. "then," he replied, "i cannot give you the twenty-five dollars. edgar, we will go." "give my love to mary," faltered mrs. mason. solon talbot deigned no answer, but strode from the room with angry look. "mother, i am convinced that uncle solon was trying to swindle us," said mark. "i hope we have done right, mark," rejoined his mother doubtfully. "what is this, mother?" asked mark, as he picked up from the floor a letter partially torn. "it must have been dropped by solon talbot." chapter iv. a night at daly's. "i will read this letter to see if it is of any importance," said mark. "in that case i will forward it to syracuse." he read as follows: "wall street exchange. "dear sir: in reference to the mining stock about which you inquire, our information is that the mine is a valuable one, and very productive. the stock is held in few hands, and it is difficult to obtain it. you tell me that it belongs to an estate of which you are the administrator. i advise you to hold it awhile longer before you seek to dispose of it. we are about to send an agent to nevada to look after some mining interests of our own, and will authorize him also to look up the golden hope mine. "yours truly, "crane & lawton, "stock and mining brokers." mother and son looked at each other significantly. finally mark said, "this mining stock must have belonged to grandfather." "yes; i remember now his alluding to having purchased a hundred shares of some mine." "the brokers say they are valuable. yet uncle solon has never said anything about them. mother, he means to defraud us of our share in this property, supposing that we will hear nothing about it." "how shameful!" exclaimed mrs. mason indignantly. "i will sit right down and write him a letter taxing him with his treachery." "no, mother; i don't want you to do anything of the kind." "you don't want us to submit to imposition? that don't sound like you, mark." "i mean that he shall give us whatever is our due, but i don't want him to suspect that we know anything of his underhand schemes. he hasn't sold the mining stock yet." "what do you want me to do?" "leave the matter in my hands, mother. i will keep the letter, and it will always be evidence against him. he is shrewd, and will get full value for the stock. then we can make him hand you your share." "if you think that is best, mark," said mrs. mason doubtfully. "i haven't much of a head for business." "i think i have, mother. there is nothing i like better." "did you see mrs. mack about a loan? i didn't think to ask you, as your uncle came in with you when you returned from up-stairs." "yes, i saw her, but it was of no use." "then she won't lend us the money?" "no, she is afraid to, though i offered her twenty-five cents interest. i told her that i should have nine dollars coming in on saturday, but she thought something might prevent my getting it." "then i had better pawn my ring. the landlord won't wait even a day for his money." "don't be in a hurry, mother. the rent is not due till day after to-morrow, and something may happen between now and then to put me in funds." "perhaps you are right, mark." five minutes later there was a knock at the door. opening it, mark saw another telegraph boy in the entrance. he had a paper in his hand. "you're to go there," he said, handing mark a card. "put on your best clothes. it's a lady to take to the theater." "all right, jimmy. i'll be ready in a jiffy. do you know what theater?" "no, i don't. the lady will tell you." "mother, i'll be home late," said mark. "i must put on some clean clothes. is my collar dirty?" "yes, you had better put on a clean one. i don't like your being out so late. i thought you were through for the day." "i'll get extra pay, mother, and every little helps." "i say, mark," said jimmy, "you'd better wear your dress suit and diamond scarf-pin." "i would, jimmy, only i lent 'em both to a bootblack of my acquaintance who's going to attend a ball on fifth avenue to-night." jimmy laughed. "you've always got an answer ready, mark," he said. "well, so long! hope you'll have a good time." "where does the lady live, mark?" asked mrs. mason. "at no. west forty-fifth street. i haven't much time to spare. i must go as soon as i can get ready." it was half-past seven o'clock before mark rang the bell at a fine brown stone house on west forty-fifth street. the door was opened by a colored servant, who, without speaking to mark, turned his head, and called out: "the messenger's come, miss maud." "i'm _so_ glad," said a silvery voice, as a young lady of twenty, already dressed for the street, came out of a room on the left of the hall. mark took off his hat politely. "so you are the messenger boy?" she said. "you are to take me to daly's theater." "yes, miss. so i heard." "let us go at once. we will take the horse cars at sixth avenue, and get out at thirtieth street." before she had finished they were already in the street. "i must explain," she said, "that my uncle bought two tickets this morning and expected to accompany me, but an important engagement has prevented. i was resolved to go, and so i sent for a messenger. perhaps you had better take the tickets." "all right, miss----." "gilbert. as you are to be my escort i will ask your name." "mark mason." "shall i call you mark, or mr. mason?" she asked with a roguish smile. "i would rather you would call me mark." "perhaps, as you are taking the place of my uncle, it would be proper to call you uncle mark," she laughed. "all right, if you prefer it," said mark. "on the whole i won't. i am afraid you don't look the character. are you quite sure you can protect me?" "i'll try to, miss gilbert." "then i won't borrow any trouble." maud gilbert had carefully observed mark, and as he was an attractive-looking boy she felt satisfied with the selection made for her. "i am glad you didn't wear your uniform," she said. "i forgot to speak about that." "when i heard what i was wanted for i thought it would be better to leave off the uniform," said mark. "that was right. now i can pass you off as a young friend. if i meet any young lady friend, don't call me miss gilbert, but call me maud. perhaps you had better call me that at any rate." "i will--maud." "that's right, and i will call you--let me see, cousin mark. i don't want my friends to think i had to send for an escort to a telegraph office." when they entered daly's miss gilbert met an old school friend--louisa morton. "why, maud, are you here?" said her friend. "how delightful! and who is this young gentleman?" "my cousin, mark mason." "indeed! well, i congratulate you on having such a nice escort. if he were a few years older i might try to make you jealous." maud laughed gaily. "oh, you can't get him away. he is devoted to me. aren't you, cousin mark?" mark was about to say "you bet," but it occurred to him that this would not be _comme il faut_, so he only said, "you are right, maud." "where are your seats? i hope they are near ours." they proved to be in the same row, but on the other side of the center aisle. as mark and the young lady took seats two pairs of astonished eyes noted their entrance. these belonged to edgar and his father, who sat two rows behind. edgar was the first to catch sight of them. "look, father!" he said, clutching his father's arm. "there is mark mason and a beautiful girl just taking their seats. what does it mean?" "i don't know," returned mr. talbot. "she seems to be a fashionable young lady." "how in the world did he get acquainted with such people? she treats him as familiarly as if he were a brother or cousin." "it is very strange." "please take the opera-glass, mark," edgar heard miss gilbert say. "you know i must make you useful." for the rest of the evening the attention of edgar and his father was divided between the play and miss gilbert and mark. for the benefit chiefly of her friend, maud treated her young escort with the utmost familiarity, and quite misled solon talbot and edgar. when the play was over mark carefully adjusted miss gilbert's wraps. as he passed through the aisle he saw for the first time edgar and his father looking at him with astonished eyes. "good evening," he said with a smile. "i hope you enjoyed the play." "come, mark, it is growing late," said maud. mark bowed and passed on. "well, if that doesn't beat all!" ejaculated edgar. "they seemed very intimate." when mark bade miss gilbert good night after ringing the bell at her home, she pressed a bank note into his hand. "thank you so much," she said. "keep the change, and when i want another escort i will send for you." by the light of the street lamp mark inspected the bill and found it was a five. "that will give me over three dollars for myself," he said joyfully. "so the rent is secure." the next day about two o'clock he was in the office of a prominent banker to whom he had carried a message, when a wild-looking man with light brown hair and wearing glasses, rushed in, and exclaimed dramatically to the astonished banker, "i want a hundred thousand dollars! give it to me at once, or i will blow your office to atoms." he pointed significantly to a small carpet bag which he carried in his left hand. the broker turned pale, and half rose from his chair. he was too frightened to speak, while two clerks writing in another part of the office seemed ready to faint. chapter v. mark as a hero. the situation was critical. that the wild-eyed visitor was demented, there was hardly a doubt, but his madness was of a most dangerous character. the eyes of all were fixed with terror upon the innocent-looking valise which he held in his left hand, and in the mind of all was the terrible thought, dynamite! "well, will you give me the money?" demanded the crank fiercely. "i--i don't think i have as much money in the office," stammered the pallid banker. "that won't work," exclaimed the visitor angrily. "if you can't find it i will send you where you won't need money," and he moved his arm as if to throw the valise on the floor. "i--i'll give you a check," faltered luther rockwell, the banker. "and stop payment on it," said the crank with a cunning look. "no, that won't do." "give me half an hour to get the money," pleaded rockwell desperately. "perhaps twenty minutes will do." "you would send for a policeman," said the intruder. "that won't do, i must have the money now. or, if you haven't got it, bonds will answer." luther rockwell looked helplessly toward the two clerks, but they were even more terrified than he. there was one to whom he did not look for help, and that was the telegraph boy, who stood but three feet from the crank, watching him sharply. for a plan of relief had come into the mind of mark mason, who, though he appreciated the danger, was cooler and more self-possessed than any one else in the office. standing just behind the crank, so that he did not attract his attention, he swiftly signaled to the clerks, who saw the signal but did not know what it meant. mark had observed that the dangerous satchel was held loosely in the hands of the visitor whose blazing eyes were fixed upon the banker. the telegraph boy had made up his mind to take a desperate step, which depended for its success on rapid execution and unfaltering nerves. luther rockwell was hesitating what reply to make to his visitor's demand when mark, with one step forward, snatched the valise from the unsuspecting visitor and rapidly retreated in the direction of the two clerks. "now do your part!" he exclaimed in keen excitement. the crank uttered a howl of rage, and turning his fierce, bloodshot eyes upon mark dashed towards him. the two clerks were now nerved up to action. they were not cowards, but the nature of the peril had dazed them. one was a member of an athletic club, and unusually strong. they dashed forward and together seized the madman. mr. rockwell, too, sprang from his seat, and, though an old man, joined the attacking party. "quick!" he shouted to mark. "take that valise out of the office, and carry it where it will do no harm. then come back!" mark needed no second bidding. he ran out of the office and down-stairs, never stopping till he reached the nearest police station. quickly he told his story, and two policemen were despatched on a run to mr. rockwell's office. they arrived none too soon. the crank appeared to have the strength of three men, and it seemed doubtful how the contest between him and the three who assailed him would terminate. the two policemen turned the scale. they dexterously slipped handcuffs over his wrists, and at last he sank to the floor conquered. he was panting and frothing at the mouth. luther rockwell fell back into his seat exhausted. "you've had a trying time, sir!" said one of the policemen respectfully. "yes," ejaculated the banker with dry lips. "i wouldn't pass-through it again for fifty thousand dollars. i've been as near a terrible death as any man can be--and live! but for the heroism of that boy--where is he?" the question was answered by the appearance of mark mason himself, just returned from the police station. "but for you," said the banker gratefully, "we should all be in eternity." "i too!" answered mark. "let me get at him!" shrieked the crank, eying mark with a demoniac hatred. "but for him i should have succeeded." "was there really dynamite in the bag?" asked one of the policemen. "yes," answered mark. "the sergeant opened it in my presence. he said there was enough dynamite to blow up the biggest building in the city." "what is going to be done with it?" asked the banker anxiously. "the policemen were starting with it for the north river." "that's the only safe place for it." "if you have no further use for this man we'll carry him to the station-house," said one of the officers. "yes, yes, take him away!" ejaculated the banker with a shudder. struggling fiercely, the crank was hurried down the stairs by the two official guardians, and then mr. rockwell who was an old man, quietly fainted away. when he came to, he said feebly, "i am very much upset. i think i will go home. call a cab, my boy." mark soon had one at the door. "now, i want you to go with me and see me home. i don't dare to go by myself." mark helped the old gentleman into his cab, and up the stairs of his dwelling. mr. rockwell paid the cab driver adding. "take this boy back to my office. what is your name, my boy?" "mark mason, no. ." luther rockwell scribbled a few lines on a leaf torn from his memorandum book, and gave it to mark. "present that at the office," he said. "come round next week and see me." "yes, sir," answered mark respectfully, and sprang into the cab. as he was riding through madison avenue he noticed from the window his uncle solon and edgar walking slowly along on the left hand side. at the same moment they espied him. "look, father!" cried edgar in excitement "mark mason is riding in that cab." "so he is!" echoed mr. talbot in surprise. catching their glance, mark smiled and bowed. he could understand their amazement, and he enjoyed it. mechanically mr. talbot returned the salutation, but edgar closed his lips very firmly and refused to take any notice of his cousin. "i don't understand it," he said to his father, when the cab had passed. "doesn't it cost a good deal to ride in a cab in new york?" "yes. i never rode in one but once, and then i had to pay two dollars." "and yet mark mason, who is little more than a beggar, can afford to ride! and last evening he was at the theater in company with a fashionable young lady. telegraph boys must get higher pay than he said." "perhaps, edgar," suggested his father with an attempt at humor, "you would like to become a telegraph boy yourself." "i'd scorn to go into such a low business." "well, i won't urge you to do so." meanwhile mark continued on his way in the cab. as he passed city hall park tom trotter, who had just finished shining a gentleman's boots, chanced to look towards broadway. as he saw his friend mark leaning back in the cab, his eyes opened wide. "well, i'll be jiggered!" he exclaimed. "how's that for puttin' on style? fust thing you know mark mason will have his name down wid de four hundred!" it did not occur to mark to look at the paper given him by mr. rockwell till he got out of the cab. this was what he read: mr. nichols: give this boy ten dollars. luther rockwell. his eyes flashed with delight. "this is a lucky day!" he exclaimed. "it's worth while running the risk of being blown up when you're so well paid for it." nichols, the chief clerk, at once complied with his employer's directions. "you're a brave boy, ," he said. "if it hadn't been for you, we'd all have been blown higher than a kite. how did you leave mr. rockwell?" "he seems pretty well upset," answered mark. "no wonder; he's an old man. i don't mind saying i was upset myself, and i am less than half his age. you were the only one of us that kept his wits about him." "somehow i didn't think of danger," said mark. "i was considering how i could get the better of the crank." "you took a great risk. if the valise had fallen, we'd have all gone up," and he pointed significantly overhead. "i am glad mr. rockwell has given you something. if he had given you a hundred dollars, or a thousand, it wouldn't have been too much." "he told me to call at the office next week." "don't forget to do it. it will be to your interest." chapter vi. "the evening globe." while mark was passing through these exciting scenes mrs. mason went about her daily duties at home, anxiously considering how the rent was to be paid on the following day. mark had not told her of his gift from maud gilbert, intending it as a surprise. as she was washing the breakfast dishes, there was a little tap at the door. to her surprise, the visitor turned out to be mrs. mack, of the floor above, to whom mark had applied for a loan without success. as mrs. mack seldom left her room mrs. mason regarded her with surprise. "come in and sit down, mrs. mack," she said kindly. she had no regard for the old woman, but felt that she deserved some consideration on account of her great age. mrs. mack hobbled in and seated herself in a rocking-chair. "i hope you are well," said mrs. mason. "tollable, tollable," answered the old woman, glancing curiously about the room, as if making an inventory of what it contained. "can't i give you a cup of tea? at your age it will be strengthening." "i'm not so very old," said the old woman querulously. "i'm only seventy-seven, and my mother lived to be eighty-seven." "i hope you will live as long as you wish to. but, mrs. mack, you must make yourself comfortable. old people live longer if they live in comfort. will you have the tea?" "i don't mind," answered mrs. mack, brightening up at the prospect of this unwonted luxury. she did not allow herself tea every day, on account of its cost. there are many foolish people in the world, but among the most foolish are those who deny themselves ordinary comforts in order to save money for their heirs. the tea was prepared, and the old woman drank it with evident enjoyment. "your boy came up yesterday to borrow three dollars," she began then, coming to business. "yes, he told me so." "he said he'd pay me saturday night." "yes, he gets two weeks' pay then." "i--i was afraid he might not pay me back and i can't afford to lose so much money, i'm a poor old woman." "mark would have paid you back. he always pays his debts." "yes; i think he is a good boy. if i thought he would pay me back. i--i think i would lend him the money. he offered to pay me interest." "yes; he would pay you for the favor." "if--if he will pay me four dollars on saturday night i will lend him what he wants." "what!" ejaculated mrs. mason, "do you propose to ask him a dollar for the use of three dollars for two or three days?" "it's--it's a great risk!" mumbled mrs. mack. "there is no risk at all. to ask such interest as that would be sheer robbery. we are poor and we can't afford to pay it." "i am a poor old woman." "you are not poor at all. you are worth thousands of dollars." "who said so?" demanded mrs. mack in alarm. "everybody knows it." "it's--it's a-mistake, a great mistake. i--i can't earn anything, i'm too old to work. i don't want to die in a poor-house." "you would live a great deal better in a poor-house than you live by yourself. i decline your offer, mrs. mack. i would rather pawn my wedding ring, as i proposed to mark. that would only cost me nine cents in place of the dollar that you demand." the old woman looked disappointed. she had thought of the matter all night with an avaricious longing for the interest that she expected to get out of mark, and she had no thought that her offer would be declined. "never mind about business, mrs. mack!" said mrs. mason more kindly, as she reflected that the old woman could not change her nature. "won't you have another cup of tea, and i can give you some toast, too, if you think you would like it." an expression of pleasure appeared on the old woman's face. "if--it's handy," she said. "i don't always make tea, for it is too much trouble." it is safe to say that mrs. mack thoroughly enjoyed her call, though she did not effect the loan she desired to make. when she rose to go, mrs. mason invited her to call again. "i always have tea, or i can make it in five minutes," she said. "thank you kindly, ma'am; i will come," she said, "if it isn't putting you to too much trouble." "mother," said edith, after the visitor had hobbled up-stairs, "i wouldn't give tea to that stingy old woman." "my dear child, she is old, and though she is not poor, she thinks she is, which is almost as bad. if i can brighten her cheerless life in any way, i am glad to do so." about one o'clock a knock was heard at the door. mrs. mason answered it in person, and to her surprise found in the caller a brisk-looking young man, with an intelligent face. he had a note-book in his hand. "is this mrs. mason?" he inquired. "yes, sir." "your son is a telegraph boy?" "yes." "no. ?" "yes, sir. has anything happened to him?" she asked in quick alarm. "i bring no bad news," answered the young man with a smile. "have you a photograph or even a tintype of your son, recently taken?" "i have a tintype taken last summer at coney island." "that will do. will you lend it to me till to-morrow?" "but what can you possibly want with mark's picture?" asked the mother, feeling quite bewildered. "i represent the _daily globe_, mrs. mason. his picture is to appear in the evening edition." "but why should you publish mark's picture?" "because he has distinguished himself by a heroic action. i can't stop to give you particulars, for i ought to be at the office now, but i will refer you to the paper." with the tintype in his hand the reporter hurried to the office of the journal he represented, leaving mrs. mason in a state of wondering perplexity. within an incredibly short time hundreds of newsboys were running through the streets crying "extry! extra! a dynamite crank at the office of luther rockwell, the great banker!" mark mason was returning from a trip to brooklyn, when a newsboy thrust the paper in his face. "here, johnny, give me that paper!" he said. the boy peered curiously at him. "ain't you mark mason?" he asked. "yes; how did you know me?" "your picture is in the paper." mark opened the paper in natural excitement, and being a modest boy, blushed as he saw his picture staring at him from the front page, labeled underneath "the heroic telegraph boy." he read the account, which was quite correctly written with a mixture of emotions, among which gratification predominated. "but where did they get my picture?" he asked himself. there was also a picture of the dynamite crank, which was also tolerably accurate. "i must take this home to mother," said mark, folding up the paper, "won't she be surprised!" about the same time solon talbot and edgar were in the grand central depot on forty-second street. their visit was over, and mr. talbot had purchased the return tickets. "you may buy a couple of evening papers, edgar," said his father. one of them selected was the _evening globe_. edgar uttered an exclamation as he opened it. "what's the matter, edgar?" asked his father. "just look at this! here's mark mason's picture in the paper!" "what nonsense you talk!" said solon talbot. "no, i don't. here is the picture, and here is his name!" said edgar triumphantly. solon talbot read the account in silence. "i see," said another syracuse man coming up, "you are reading the account of the daring attempt to blow up banker rockwell's office!" "yes," answered solon. "that was a brave telegraph boy who seized the bag of dynamite." "very true!" said solon, unable to resist the temptation to shine by the help of the nephew whom he had hitherto despised. "that boy is my own nephew!" "you don't say so!" "yes; his mother is the sister of my wife." "but how does he happen to be a telegraph boy?" "a whim of his. he is a very independent boy, and he insisted on entering the messenger service." "be that as it may, you have reason to be proud of him." edgar said nothing, but he wished that just for this once he could change places with his poor cousin. "i'd have done the same if i'd had the chance," he said to himself. chapter vii. the great mr. bunsby. "so you have become quite a hero, mark," said his mother smiling, as mark entered the house at half-past six. "have you heard of it then, mother?" asked the messenger boy. "yes, a little bird came and told me." "i suppose you saw the _evening globe_." "yes, i sent edith out to buy a copy." "but how did you know it contained anything about me?" "because a reporter came to me for your picture." "that explains it. i couldn't understand how they got that." "it makes me shudder, mark, when i think of the risk you ran. how did you dare to go near that terrible man?" "i knew something must be done or we should all lose our lives. no one seemed to think what to do except myself." "you ought to have been handsomely paid. the least mr. rockwell could do was to give you five dollars." "he gave me ten, and told me to call at the office next week." "then," said his mother relieved, "we shall be able to pay the rent." "that was provided for already. the young lady i escorted to the theater last evening gave me three dollars over the regular charges for my services." "why didn't you tell me before, mark?" "i ought to have done so, but i wanted it to be an agreeable surprise. so you see i have thirteen dollars on hand." "it is a blessed relief. oh, i mustn't forget to tell you that mrs. mack came in this morning to offer to lend me three dollars." "what! has the old woman become kind-hearted all at once?" "as to that, i think there is very little kindness in offering three dollars at thirty-three per cent. interest for three days. she was willing to lend three dollars, but demanded four dollars in return." "it is lucky we shall not have to pay such enormous interest. now, mother, what have you got for supper?" "some tea and toast, mark." "we must have something better. i will go out and buy a sirloin steak, and some potatoes. we will have a good supper for once." at the entrance to the street mark found tom trotter. tom's honest face lighted up with pleasure. "i see you've got into de papers, mark," he said. "yes, tom." "i wouldn't believe it when jim sheehan told me, but i went and bought de _evening globe_, and there you was!" "i hope you'll get into the papers some time, tom." "there ain't no chance for me, 'cept i rob a bank. where you goin', mark?" "to buy some steak for supper. have you eaten supper yet?" "no." "then come along with me, and i'll invite you to join us." "i don't look fit, mark." "never mind about your clothes, tom. we don't generally put on dress suits. a little soap and water will make you all right." "what'll your mudder say?" "that any friend of mine is welcome." so tom allowed himself to be persuaded, and had no reason to complain of his reception. the steak emitted appetizing odors as it was being broiled, and when at length supper was ready no one enjoyed it more than tom. "how do you think my mother can cook, tom?" asked mark. "she beats beefsteak john all hollow. i just wish she'd open a eaten' house." "i'll think about it, tom," said mrs. mason smiling. "would you be one of my regular customers?" "i would if i had money enough." it is hard to say which enjoyed the supper most. the day before mrs. mason had been anxious and apprehensive, but to-day, with a surplus fund of thirteen dollars, she felt in high spirits. this may seem a small sum to many of our readers, but to the frugal little household it meant nearly two weeks' comfort. the table was cleared, and mark and tom sat down to a game of checkers. they had just finished the first game when steps were heard on the stairs and directly there was a knock at the door. "go to the door, mark," said his mother. mark opened the door and found himself in the presence of a stout man, rather showily dressed, and wearing a white hat. "is this mark mason?" asked the visitor. "yes, sir." the visitor took out a copy of the _evening globe_, and compared mark with the picture. "yes, i see you are," he proceeded. "you are the telegraph boy that disarmed the dynamite crank in mr. rockwell's office." "yes, sir." "allow me to say, young man, i wouldn't have been in your shoes at that moment for ten thousand dollars." "i wouldn't want to go through it again myself," smiled mark. all the while he was wondering why the stout man should have taken the trouble to come and see him. "perhaps you'll know me when i tell you that i'm bunsby," said the stout visitor drawing himself up and inflating his chest with an air of importance. "of bunsby's dime museum?" asked mark. "exactly! you've hit it the first time. most people have heard of me," he added complacently. "oh yes, sir, i've heard of you often. so have you, tom?" "yes," answered tom, fixing his eyes on mr. bunsby with awe-struck deference, "i've been to de museum often." "mr. bunsby," said mark gravely, "this is my particular friend, tom trotter." "glad to make your acquaintance, mr. trotter," said mr. bunsby, offering his hand. tom took it shyly, and felt that it was indeed a proud moment for him. to be called mr. trotter by the great bunsby, and to have his hand shaken into the bargain, put him on a pinnacle of greatness which he had never hoped to reach. "won't you walk in, mr. bunsby? this is my mother, mrs. mason, and this is my sister edith." "glad to meet you, ladies both! i congratulate you, mrs. mason, on having so distinguished a son." "he is a good boy, mr. bunsby, whether he is distinguished or not." "i have no doubt of it. in fact i am sure of it. you already know that i keep a dime museum, where, if i do say it myself, may be found an unrivaled collection of curiosities gathered from the four quarters of the globe, and where may be witnessed the most refined and recherché entertainments, which delight daily the élite of new york and the surrounding cities." "yes, sir," assented mrs. mason, rather puzzled to guess what all this had to do with her. "i have come here to offer your son an engagement of four weeks at twenty-five dollars a week, and the privilege of selling his photographs, with all the profits it may bring." "but what am i to do?" asked mark. "merely to sit on the platform with the other curiosities." "but i am not a curiosity." "i beg your pardon, my dear boy, but everybody will want to see the heroic boy who foiled a dynamite fiend and saved the life of a banker." somehow this proposal was very repugnant to mark. "thank you, mr. bunsby," he said, "but i should not like to earn money in that way." "i might say thirty dollars a week," continued mr. bunsby. "come, let us strike up a bargain." "it isn't the money. twenty-five dollars a week is more than i could earn in any other way, but i shouldn't like to have people staring at me." "my dear boy, you are not practical." "i quite agree with mark," said mrs. mason. "i would not wish him to become a public spectacle." chapter viii. a scene in mrs. mack's room. fifteen minutes before a stout, ill-dressed man of perhaps forty years of age knocked at the door of mrs. mack's room. "come in!" called the old lady in quavering accents. the visitor opened the door and entered. "who are you?" asked the old lady in alarm. "don't you know me, aunt jane?" replied the intruder. "i'm jack minton, your nephew." "i don't want to see you--go away!" cried mrs. mack. "that's a pretty way to receive your own sister's son, whom you haven't seen for five years." "i haven't seen you because you've been in jail," retorted his aunt in a shrill voice. "yes, i was took for another man," said jack. "he stole and laid it off on to me." "i don't care how it was, but i don't want to see you. go away." "look here, aunt jane, you're treating me awful mean. i'm your own orphan nephew, and you ought to make much of me." "an orphan--yes. you hurried your poor mother to the grave by your bad conduct," said mrs. mack with some emotion. "you won't find me so soft as she was." "soft? no, you're as hard as flint, but all the same you're my aunt, and you're rich, while i haven't a dollar to bless myself with." "rich! me rich!" repeated the old lady shrilly. "you see how i live. does it look as if i was rich?" "oh, you can't humbug me that way. you could live better if you wanted to." "i'm poor--miserably poor!" returned the old woman. "i'd like to be as poor as you are!" said jack minton grimly. "you're a miser, that's all there is about it. you half starve yourself and live without fire, when you might be comfortable, and all to save money. you're a fool! do you know where all your money will go when you're dead?" "there won't be any left." "won't there? i'll take the risk of that, for i shall be your heir. it'll all go to me!" said jack, chuckling. "go away! go away!" cried the terrified old woman wildly. "i want to have a little talk with you first, aunt," said jack, drawing the only other chair in the room in front of mrs. mack and sitting down on it. "you're my only relation, and we ought to have an understanding. why, you can't live more than a year or two--at your age." "what do you mean?" said mrs. mack angrily. "i'm good for ten years. i'm only seventy-seven." "you're living on borrowed time, aunt jane, you know that yourself. you've lived seven years beyond the regular term, and you can't live much longer." "go away! go away!" said the terrified old woman, really alarmed at her nephew's prediction. "i don't want to have anything to do with you." "don't forget that i'm your heir." "i can leave my money as i please--not that i've got much to leave." "you mean you'll make a will? well, go ahead and do it. there was a man i know made a will and he died the next day." this shot struck home, for the old woman really had a superstitious dread of making a will. "you're a terrible man!" she moaned. "you scare me." "come, aunt, be reasonable. you can leave part of your money away from me if you like, but i want you to help me now. i'm hard up. do you see this nickel?" and he drew one from his vest pocket. "yes." "well, it's all the money i've got. why, i haven't eaten anything to-day, and i have no money to pay for a bed." "i--i haven't any supper for you." "i don't want any _here_. i wouldn't care to board with you, aunt jane. why, i should soon become a bag of bones like yourself. i don't believe you've got five cents' worth of provisions in the room." "there's half a loaf of bread in the closet." "let me take a look at it." he strode to the closet and opened the door. on a shelf he saw half a loaf of bread, dry and stale. he took it in his hand, laughing. "why, that bread is three days' old," he said. "where's your butter?" "i--i don't eat butter. its too high!" "and you don't care to live high!" said jack, laughing at his own joke. "i don't care to rob you of this bread. aunt jane. it's too rich for my blood. don't you ever eat anything else?" "sometimes," she answered, hesitating. "i'd rather take my supper at the cheapest restaurant on the bowery. what i want is money." mrs. mack uttered a little cry of alarm. "oh, don't go into a fit, aunt! i only want a little, just to get along till i can find work. give me twenty-five dollars, and i won't come near you again for a month. i swear it." "twenty-five dollars!" ejaculated mrs. mack in dismay. "do you think i am made of money?" "i don't take you for an astor or a vanderbilt, aunt jane, but you've got a tidy lot of money somewhere--that i am sure of. i shouldn't wonder if you had five thousand dollars. now where do you keep it?" "have you taken leave of your senses?" asked the old woman sharply. "no, i haven't, but it looks to me as if you had. but i can't waste my time here all night. i'm your only relative, and it's your duty to help me. will you let me have twenty-five dollars or not?" "no, i won't," answered mrs. mack angrily. "then i'll take the liberty of helping myself if i can find where you keep your hoards." jack minton jumped up from his chair and went at once to a cheap bureau, which, however, was probably the most valuable article in the room, and pulling out the top drawer, began to rummage about among the contents. then it was that mrs. mack uttered the piercing shriek referred to at the end of the last chapter, and her nephew, tramping across the floor, seized her roughly by the shoulder. "what do you mean by this noise, you old fool?" he demanded roughly. "help! murder! thieves!" screamed the old woman. then the door opened, and mark mason burst into the room, followed by tom trotter. "what's the matter, mrs. mack?" asked mark. "this man is going to rob me," answered the old woman. "oh, save me!" "it's a lie!" said jack minton. "just ask this woman who i am. she knows." "who is he, mrs. mack?" "it is my nephew, jack minton. he----" "do you hear that? i'm her nephew, come in to make her a call after a long time." "what are you doing to her?" demanded mark suspiciously. "trying to stop her infernal racket. you'd think i was murdering her by the way she goes on." "what made you scream, mrs. mack?" "because he--he was going to rob me." "how is that?" demanded mark sternly. "none of your business, kid! you ain't no call to interfere between me and my aunt." "i have if she asks me to." "he was at my bureau drawers. he told me i must give him twenty-five dollars." "supposing i did? it's the least you can do for your own nephew that hasn't a cent to bless himself with." "oh, take him away, mark! hell rob me first and murder me afterwards, and i'm his mother's only sister." "you see she admits it. she's rolling in money----" "oh!" exclaimed mrs. mack, throwing up her hands. "you know i'm poor, mark mason." "no, i don't, mrs. mack. i think you've got all the money you need, but you have a right to keep it if you want to. mr. minton, you had better leave the room. your aunt is evidently afraid of you, and, old as she is, your staying here may make her sick." "it ain't much use living, the way she is. aunt jane, i ask you again will you lend me twenty-five dollars?" "no, no!" "will you lend me five dollars?" "no." "are you going to turn your own nephew out into the street without a cent to buy food or pay for a bed?" he glowered at his aunt so fiercely as he said this that mark was afraid he might strangle her. "mrs. mack," he said, "you had better give him something if he is in so much need. since he is really your nephew, you might give him a dollar on condition that he won't trouble you again." after long persuasion the old woman was induced to do this, though she declared that it would leave her destitute, and send her to the poor-house. "now, mr. minton," said mark, "i advise you not to come here again, or i may have to call in a policeman." "i've a great mind to throw you down-stairs," growled jack. "you'd have to throw me too!" put in tom trotter. "i'd do it with pleasure." jack left the room and steered his way to the nearest saloon, while mark and tom returned to the room beneath. chapter ix. an adventure in a fifth avenue stage. mark did not fail to call at mr. rockwell's office during the following week. nichols, the clerk, who had already shown a friendly interest in him, received him kindly. "mr. rockwell is still confined at his house," he said. "the affair of last week was a great shock to him, and, not being a strong man, he is quite prostrated." "i am sorry to hear it," said mark in a tone of sympathy, "but i am not surprised. that is what i read in the papers. still, as i was asked to call at the office, i have done so." "i am glad to see you. i hope you are getting along well." "oh yes, fairly well." "how do you like being a telegraph messenger?" "it will do very well for a boy, but it leads to nothing. i wish i could get into some position where i would be promoted." "that will come after a while, if you show yourself faithful and reliable." the next day mark had a surprise. walking past the metropolitan hotel, not far from houston street, he saw a boy just leaving the hotel whose face and figure were familiar. "edgar talbot!" he exclaimed in surprise. "oh, it's you, is it?" said edgar, turning at the call. "yes; how do you happen to visit new york again so soon?" "we are going to move to new york," answered edgar. "father feels that syracuse is too small a place for a man of his business ability," he added in a consequential tone. "are you going to live at the hotel?" "no. we shall live in a nice flat up town, near the park." this was news indeed. mark felt no interest in any of the family except in mrs. talbot, his mother's sister, who alone of all displayed a friendly regard for her poor relatives. "mother will be glad to hear of it," he said. "why?" "because your mother is her only sister, and she will like to call on her." "look here!" said edgar. "i hope you don't expect to be on visiting terms at our house." "why not? you are my own cousin, aren't you?" "yes, i suppose so," answered edgar, making the admission grudgingly, "but of course there is a great difference in our social positions." "you mean that you are rich and we are poor?" "yes, that's about the size of it." "i don't care a particle about seeing you, but my mother will be glad to see her sister." "oh, well! mother can call at your--tenement house, now and then, but it would be better that none of you should call on us." "why?" "because we wouldn't like to let the servants know that we have such poor relations." "do you say this on your own account, or did your father tell you this?" said mark indignantly. "i know that is the way he feels." "i don't believe aunt mary feels so." just then a boy approached whom edgar seemed to know. "good morning," he said hurriedly. "i have an engagement." mark felt that he was dismissed, and kept on his way. he hardly knew whether to be glad or sorry that his uncle's family was coming to new york. he did not care for edgar's companionship, nor did he expect to get any of it, but he knew that his mother would like to meet her sister occasionally. about the middle of the afternoon he found himself riding in a fifth avenue stage. the stage was tolerably full. directly opposite mark sat an old lady richly dressed, whose means were evidently large. next to her sat a flashily dressed young man, on whose bosom glittered what might be a valuable diamond stud, conspicuous for its size. he had a diamond ring on his finger, and might easily be mistaken for a banker's son. all at once mark noticed some suspicious movements which led him to think that the young man might be quite different from what he appeared. a moment later he saw the young man's hand dive into the old lady's side pocket. directly afterwards he rose and pulled the strap for the stage to stop. mark realized that a robbery had taken place. he rose and placed himself between the young man and the door. "madam," he said to the old lady, "i think you have been robbed. feel in your pockets and see." the old lady, startled, followed mark's advice. "my pocketbook is gone!" she said nervously. "out of the way, boy!" cried the young man. "i have to get out here." "not yet," answered mark firmly. "give back the lady's pocketbook." "why, you insolent young rascal! what do you mean?" "i mean just what i say." "you have insulted me, and i will horsewhip you!" exclaimed the rogue in assumed virtuous indignation. he seized mark by the shoulder and was about to thrust him forcibly aside, when a stout, thick-set man rose and ranged himself by mark's side. "young man," he said, "give back the pocketbook as the boy tells you." "i have no pocketbook." as he spoke he dexterously dropped it to the floor of the stage. "here's your pocketbook, ma'am," said a nurse girl, picking it up. "thank you!" responded the old lady, relieved. "what did i tell you?" exclaimed the dude triumphantly. "boy, you're too fresh! i am a young man of high family. it is most ridiculous to charge me with stealing." "i saw you with your hand in the lady's pocket," said mark calmly. "it's a lie! but i ought not to be surprised. i know you now. you were sent to the island last summer for stealing. i remember seeing you on trial at jefferson market police court." suspicious glances were directed at mark, for most people are inclined to believe evil of their neighbors--but the stout man only laughed. "that is too thin, my friend!" he said. "of course your motive in bringing a charge against this boy is plain." "let me out, sir!" stormed the crook. "madam, do you wish to bring a charge against this man?" "no, let him go. i've got my pocketbook back, and that's all i want." the stout man turned aside, and the adventurer sprang out of the stage and dashed down thirty-ninth street in the direction of third avenue. "i'm very much obliged to you, boy," said the old lady. "did you really see that young man take my pocketbook?" "i saw him with his hand in your pocket." "i'm so sorry. he seemed so nicely dressed, too. i thought he belonged to a rich family." the stout man laughed. "my dear madam," he said, "the young men connected with our best families don't dress as flashily as your late companion. he is probably a professional pickpocket. did you have much money with you?" "over a hundred dollars. i was going down town to pay a bill." "then you ought to be much obliged to this boy for detecting the thief." "i am," said the old lady earnestly. "here, take this," she continued, and she drew a five-dollar bill from her pocketbook. mark hung back. "no, thank you!" he said. "i don't want any pay for that." "give me your name and address, then." mark had a business card in his pocket, and wrote his name and address upon it. "give me your name and address too," said the gentleman who had proved so valuable an ally. "i may need your services some time." "i don't think i have another card, sir." "then take one of mine." mark glanced at the card offered him. henry swan. watches, diamonds, jewelry. no. - / broadway. "were that young man's diamonds bought at your store," asked mark smiling. "they were only paste. they might deceive a novice, but i saw through them at once. but i must bid you good morning. i have to make a call at the fifth avenue hotel." a few blocks farther on the old lady got out. mark assisted her to the street. "you're a very polite boy," she said. "you've done me a great favor. you had better take the five dollars i offered you." "no, thank you, madam. i will wait till i have a chance to do you another service." he did not resume his seat in the stage, having an errand on eighteenth street. as he was passing lord & taylor's store, he heard his name called. turning in some surprise he saw maud gilbert, the young lady he had escorted to daly's theater, leaving the store. "how do you do, mark?" she said, extending her hand with a smile. "very well, thank you, miss gilbert." "didn't i see your picture in the _evening globe_ a short time since?" "yes, i believe so," answered mark, blushing. "in connection with mr. rockwell, the banker?" "yes." "you have become quite a hero. i concluded it was you and i felt quite proud to think i knew you. did i tell you that i had a brother about your age?" "no, miss gilbert." "i have, and he is home on a vacation from exeter academy. if you have no engagement on thursday evening call and i will introduce you." "i shall be delighted to do so miss----" "maud," suggested the young lady smiling. "miss maud. thank you for the invitation. i will come." chapter x. an important commission. "no. !" called the superintendent. mark mason came forward to receive his commission. he had been sitting on a bench with several other telegraph boys, awaiting a call. "do you know henry swan, jeweler?" asked the superintendent, referring to a paper in his hand. "yes, sir; that is, i met him lately in a fifth avenue stage." "he has sent for a telegraph boy, no. preferred." mark smiled with pleasure. "i am glad he remembers me," he said. "you may go there at once." mark put on his cap and went to the jeweler's store. as he entered, mr. swan, who was crossing from one side of the store to the other, recognized him. "you see i haven't forgotten you," he said. "i am glad of that, sir." "the boy in my employ has sent word that he is sick. it is necessary for me to supply his place. in my business fidelity and sharpness are requisite. i knew that you possess these traits, and as i don't want to experiment with a new boy of whom i know nothing, i sent for you." "i will try to meet your wishes, sir." "to begin with, have you another suit? i don't want you to wear the uniform of a telegraph boy while you are in my employ." "yes, sir. shall i go home and get it?" "on the whole, no. i will give you an order on a clothier in fulton street for a new suit." "you are very kind, mr. swan," said mark in astonishment. "i have done nothing to deserve such kindness." "not yet," answered the jeweler pleasantly; "but perhaps you may soon. take this note to knight brothers, and you will have no trouble." this was the note. "knight brothers, fulton street: "fit out this boy with a nice suit and send the bill to me. "henry swan." mark lost no time in visiting the clothiers. "what can i do for you, young man?" asked the salesman. "this note will explain," said mark. the salesman opened and read it. "it will be all right," he said. "mr. swan gets his clothes here, but he has them made to order. do you want one made to order or ready made?" "ready made. i want to put it on to-day." "come up-stairs then." in twenty minutes mark left the store attired in a nice eighteen dollar suit. he would have selected a cheaper one, but the salesman overruled him. "mr. swan never buys a cheap suit or inferior article," he said. "in the letter he wishes you to have a nice suit, and we must follow directions." "i don't want to abuse his generosity." "you won't. he is a very liberal man. he is teacher of a class of five poor boys in a mission sunday-school. last christmas he sent them all in here for new suits." "if that is the case," said mark, "i shall feel easier." when he reappeared at the jeweler's mr. swan regarded him with critical approval. "you have made a good selection," he said. "i hope i didn't go too high for the suit, mr. swan. i wanted to order a cheaper one, but the salesman wouldn't let me." "the salesman was right," said the jeweler smiling. "i am satisfied. and now to your work. i have a request from a lady up town to send her a couple of diamonds rings to select from. she professed to be on her way from brooklyn and to be in haste. she is, she says, staying at the house of a friend at no. west forty-seventh between seventh and eighth avenues. she is to go away to-morrow and would like to make choice of a ring to-day." mark was rather surprised to hear this full account from the jeweler. as he was only to take the part of an errand boy he didn't see the necessity for it. he was soon enlightened. "now," proceeded the jeweler, "i am of the opinion that this lady is a clever swindler. i believe she wants to get hold of the rings, and carry them off without paying for them." "then you won't send them to her, i suppose." "i would not if i were absolutely sure that she is a fraud, but this i don't know. she may be a _bona fide_ customer, and if so i should like to sell her a ring." "how can you find out, sir?" "i hope to do so with your help." chapter xi. mr. hamilton schuyler is astonished. the jeweler took from his case two diamond rings. they were large, brilliant, and showy. "how do you like the appearance of these rings?" he asked. "they are beautiful!" exclaimed mark admiringly. "don't you think the lady would admire them?" "i should think so, sir." "what should you think they are worth?" "a hundred dollars apiece," guessed mark. "if the diamonds were genuine, one would be worth three hundred and fifty dollars and the other four hundred." "are they not genuine?" asked mark in surprise. "paste, my boy, paste. the gold, however, is real. instead of being worth the sum mentioned, one is worth perhaps three dollars and a half, the other four dollars." "but i shouldn't think it would be worth your while to keep false diamond rings." "nor would it if all persons were honest. i never sell them. i only sell genuine jewelry. i will let you understand the use i mean to make of them. these two rings i mean to have you carry to mrs. montgomery on forty-seventh street." "but suppose she takes them for genuine?" "then i will make them so. in other words, i will take out the paste diamonds and replace them with real stones. if on the other hand any fraud is intended it won't benefit her much." "very well, sir. i think i understand." "you must to a certain extent exercise your own discretion. i judged from the observations i made the other afternoon that you are a boy who possesses that important quality." "thank you for the compliment." "i will tell you what made me suspect the woman of whom i have spoken. first, the name. she calls herself mrs. philip montgomery. it sounds like a fictitious name. again, she is a stout, rather common-looking woman, with a florid complexion and larger features. now montgomery is an aristocratic name. again, she says she is from buffalo. swindlers generally hail from some distant city. then again, it is rather suspicious that she should be in such haste. "the purchase is an important one, and the amount to be paid--she herself fixed the approximate value--is considerable. you would think she would wish to inspect my stock carefully before making a selection. instead of this she only asked to have two rings sent up to her of the value of three or four hundred dollars, and she would make choice of one of them." "it does look rather suspicious, sir." mr. swan gave mark some further directions, and the latter started up town on the eighth avenue horse cars, which he took on the lower side of the astor house. "this is new business to me," thought mark. "i feel an interest to see this mrs. montgomery. if she is planning to entrap me, she won't make as much as she anticipates." mark had the rings, each in a little morocco case, carefully laid away in the inside pocket of his coat. when they reached canal street, to mark's surprise, his cousin edgar entered the car. he did not recognize mark at first, the latter no longer wearing the messenger's uniform. "how do you do, cousin edgar?" said mark. edgar turned sharply around. "oh, it's you, is it?" he said. "please don't call me cousin." "i am just as much ashamed of the relationship as you are," responded mark with a comical smile. "that is impertinent. besides it isn't true. have you been discharged from the telegraph service?" "no; what makes you think so?" "because you are not wearing the uniform." "i am working for a party that doesn't want me to wear it while in his service." "who is it?" "i don't feel at liberty to tell." "oh, just as you like. isn't that a new suit?" "yes." "where did you get it?" "i bought it." "business seems to be pretty good with you. how much did it cost?" "eighteen dollars." "is it paid for?" "of course it is." "i didn't know but you might have bought it in installments." "i don't have to do that." "yet you pretended a little while since that you and your mother had hard work to get along." "business is looking up." edgar got out at twenty-third street. mark kept on till he reached forty-seventh street. he walked toward seventh avenue, and finally stood in front of the house in which the customer for the diamond rings was staying. it was a plain three-story residence with nothing peculiar about it. mark rang the bell, little suspecting what was in store for him. a boy of about seventeen, shabbily dressed, answered the bell. "is mrs. montgomery at home?" asked mark, referring to a card. "i guess so," answered the boy. "i should like to see her." "all right! i'll go up and ask." the boy left mark standing in the doorway, and went up-stairs. he returned in a very short time. "you're to come up," he said. mark followed him up the staircase and into a back room. it was scantily furnished. there was a lounge on one side of the room, and a cabinet bed on the other. these, with three chairs and a bureau, constituted the furniture. "just step in here," said the boy, "and i'll call mrs. montgomery." mark took a seat on the sofa and awaited the arrival of the lady. he did not have long to wait. the door opened, but the lady he expected did not appear. instead, a young man entered whom mark instantly recognized as the person who had left the fifth avenue stage under suspicious circumstances on the day when the old lady was robbed of her pocketbook. mark started and wondered if the recognition was mutual. it did not appear to be. "you're the jeweler's boy, i believe?" said the newcomer languidly. "i came from henry swan." "exactly, and you have brought two diamond rings with you?" "yes." "all right! you can show them to me." mark's suspicions were aroused and he felt that he had need of all his shrewdness. he was very glad now that the diamonds were paste and the rings of little value. "excuse me," he said, "but i was told to deliver the rings to mrs. philip montgomery." "yes, that's all right. mrs. montgomery is my aunt." "i should like to see her," persisted mark. "come, boy, you're too fresh. it'll be all the same if you hand the rings to me." "i don't think so. isn't mrs. montgomery at home?" "yes, but she has a severe headache and cannot see you at present." "then perhaps i had better call again." "no you don't. i am a gentleman and won't permit you to insult me." "what do you want to do?" "to take the rings up to my aunt. if she likes them, or either of them, she will send you down a check." mark reflected a moment. remembering that the rings were not valuable, he decided to show them. "here are the rings!" he said, producing them from his pocket. the young man opened the small caskets, and his eyes lighted up with satisfaction when he saw the glittering rings. "what is the price?" he asked, looking up. "that ring is three hundred and fifty dollars, the other is four hundred." "seven hundred and fifty together." "yes." "i will show them to my aunt. perhaps she may decide to keep both." "you won't be long?" asked mark, as the young man left the room. "no. i'll be back as soon as my aunt decides." left alone mark began to think over the situation. his recognition of his unprincipled acquaintance of the fifth avenue stage convinced him that some fraudulent scheme was being carried out. mrs. montgomery was probably a confederate of the young man who had just left the room. "is he going up-stairs or down?" thought mark. he listened, and thought he heard the front door open and shut. it occurred to him to open the door of the chamber and look down-stairs. he started to do this, but to his surprise found that the door was fastened in some way. he had not heard a key turned in the lock. possibly there was an outside bolt. "what object can they have in keeping me a prisoner?" he asked. should he ring the bell and summon a servant? if he did so, he would have to leave the house in a state of uncertainty. no! he decided to wait and let further events throw a light on the mystery. meanwhile the young man who had possessed himself of the rings left the house, for it was he who had descended the stairs and gone out into the street. he bent his steps to the nearest pawnshop on eighth avenue, and taking out one of the boxes, said in a nonchalant voice: "what will you loan me on this magnificent diamond ring?" the pawnbroker took the box, and drawing out the ring held it up in the best light. he examined it through a magnifying glass, and a gleam of intelligence flashed in his face. he returned to the counter, and scrutinizing the young man who had presented it asked in a matter-of-fact tone, "what do you want to borrow on the ring, my friend?" "two hundred dollars," answered the customer promptly. "humph!" said the pawnbroker with an amused smile, "two hundred dollars is a large sum of money." "yes, but the ring cost three hundred and fifty dollars. i am asking a little more than half price." "so! the ring cost three hundred and fifty dollars! did you pay that price for it?" "no, the ring does not belong to me." "then to whom does it belong?" "to my aunt, mrs. philip montgomery." "i do not know the lady. does she live in the city?" "no, she lives in buffalo." "and she sent the ring to you?" "yes, she sent it to me. she is in want of a little money, and did not like to ask her husband for it, for he might not be pleased. so she wants to borrow money on this ring which was given her by her brother at the time of her marriage." "so, so! and your aunt would like me to lend her two hundred dollars on the ring?" "yes, sir." "i think you will have to carry it to some other pawnbroker, my friend!" "i don't mind taking a little less," said the young man, who was anxious for more than one reason to realize on the ring at once. "how much now do you call a little less?" "well, say a hundred and seventy-five dollars. probably my aunt will be able to redeem it in a few weeks." "if i give you a hundred and seventy-five dollars," laughed the pawnbroker, "i think your aunt will let me keep it for good." "as to that," said the young man impatiently, "i can make no promises. how much will you give on it?" "i might give you a dollar and a half," answered the pawnbroker composedly. "a dollar and a half!" exclaimed the young man, clutching at the counter for support. "a dollar and a half on this magnificent diamond ring, for which my aunt paid three hundred and fifty dollars! what do you mean?" "i mean not to be cheated, my friend. how much do you think this _magnificent_ ring is worth?" "i have told you what it cost." "my friend, you are very much mistaken. the ring cost only three dollars or three and a half." "what do you mean?" gasped the visitor, turning pale. "i mean that it is not diamond, but paste." "but--it came from a jeweler of great reputation. surely you have heard of mr. henry swan." "yes, i have heard of mr. swan. if you will bring him here, and he will say that the diamond is real, i will see if i can't give you more." "wait!" said the customer hurriedly, drawing out the other casket. "look at this ring, and tell me what it is worth." the pawnbroker took it to the window and examined it attentively. "that may be worth four dollars," he answered, after a brief pause. "and is this stone false also?" "yes, my friend." "then i won't pawn either. here, give me back both rings." "here they are." "i am afraid you are not a good judge of diamonds. i am sure they are real." "go somewhere else, my friend, and satisfy yourself. if you can find any one in my line who will give you five dollars for either, you had better take it and call yourself a fortunate man. will you leave your name?" "my name is hamilton schuyler, and i live on second avenue." "it is a very good name, my friend. i think you must belong to the four hundred." "i do," answered schuyler haughtily. "it is a pity you should have to pawn your aunt's diamonds, and such diamonds!" chuckled the pawnbroker. but mr. schuyler had already left the shop, and was hurrying along the avenue to another of the same class at which he had occasionally had dealings. chapter xii. mr. schuyler has a bad time. "i shall have to stay here till i am let out," thought mark. he didn't worry particularly, as he knew that even if the rings were kept they would not involve his employer in any serious loss. in about half an hour he heard steps ascending the stairs, then he heard a bolt shoved back, and he was not surprised when the young man, whose name he did not know, entered the room. he noted, not without amusement, that his face betrayed dissatisfaction. "what does your aunt think of the rings?" asked mark ingenuously. "look here, young fellow!" said schuyler, sitting down and glaring at the messenger, "you've played a pretty trick on me!" "what kind of a trick?" asked mark, arching his eyebrows. "these rings are not diamond rings." "what are they, then?" asked mark in assumed surprise. "paste--bogus!" answered schuyler scornfully. "are you sure of that, mr.----?" "schuyler." "mr. schuyler." "yes. i took them round to a--jeweler, and had him test them." "it must be a mistake," murmured mark. "it is a very strange mistake, then, for a first-class house to make," rejoined schuyler in a tone of sarcasm. "so it is. they must have given me the wrong rings," said mark innocently. "my aunt is very much disappointed. she wanted to start this evening for buffalo." "i thought she lived in syracuse." "she is going to visit her son in buffalo," explained schuyler with ready wit. "i am really sorry. if she would go down to the jeweler's with me, or if you would, the matter could be set right at once." mr. hamilton schuyler thought over this suggestion, and on the whole regarded it favorably. "i will go down in about an hour," he said. "you can explain matters to mr. swan. just think if my aunt had taken the rings and paid full price for them, and not found out till she got to buffalo that they were not genuine!" "in that case mr. swan would have paid her the money or exchanged the rings." "i hope so." "perhaps you had better hand me back the caskets, and i will carry them back to the store." mr. schuyler returned the boxes to mark, who opened them to see if the rings were inside. "you will go down in an hour then?" he said. "yes, or--upon second thought you had better come right back with the genuine rings. i have an appointment at the windsor hotel, but will be back to receive them." mark understood why schuyler did not care to go to the jeweler's. he could not get possession of the genuine rings without paying for them, whereas, if mark should bring them, he could carry out his original plan and retain them by stratagem. schuyler accompanied mark to the front door. "now hurry down and back," he said. "my aunt is anxious to catch the evening train." "very well, mr. schuyler." at this moment schuyler noted for the first time a familiar look in mark's face. "haven't i seen you before?" he asked abruptly. "very likely," said mark with self-possession. "perhaps you have been in the store." "no; my aunt called there, but i did not. you look very much like some boy i saw recently," and schuyler wrinkled up his forehead in the vain endeavor to place mark. "i hope i remind you of a good-looking boy," he said, laughing. "i see it now. you look like a telegraph boy i recently met in a fifth avenue stage." "i should like to see him, but i shouldn't think you'd remember a common telegraph boy." "he was impertinent to me, that is why i remember him," frowned schuyler. "i hope to meet him alone some time. i will give him a lesson he won't be likely to forget." "then i'm glad i'm not the boy you mean. good day!" "good day. hurry back as fast as you can." when mark re-entered the jewelry store mr. swan advanced to meet him. "well," he said, "how did you make out?" "i've got the rings with me." "did you see mrs. montgomery?" "no, but i saw a young man who claimed to be her nephew." "what did he say about the rings?" "he left me alone in a back room on the second floor. when i went to the door i found that it was locked. but i didn't trouble myself. i concluded that he had gone out to pawn or sell the rings. he returned in half an hour quite angry, and told me he had ascertained that the diamonds were not genuine." "why did you think he went out to pawn or sell them?" "because i recognized him." "you recognized him?" "yes, as the young man in the fifth avenue stage who robbed an old lady of her wallet." "the day that we first met?" "yes, sir." the jeweler looked surprised. "didn't he recognize you?" "he asked if we hadn't met before. he said there was something familiar in my face. finally, he said i reminded him of an impudent telegraph boy he had fallen in with. he wants to meet that telegraph boy alone," added mark with a smile. "he has had his wish." "yes, but luckily for me he didn't recognize me." "how did you explain about the rings being false?" "i said you had probably made a mistake." "i see you are quick-witted. well, was that satisfactory?" "he expects me to bring back the genuine rings this afternoon, as his aunt wants to leave the city this evening." "i think he will have to wait. perhaps it may be as well to notify him that she needn't put off her journey on that account. i don't want to spare you to go there again, however." "there's a boy i know out on the street," suggested mark. "he would be glad to go." "who is it?" "tom trotter, a friend of mine. he's a good boy, though he's only a bootblack." "is he reliable?" "yes, sir; i will answer for him." "very well. call him in." mark went to the door and called "tom! tom trotter!" tom looked around and recognized mark. "you ain't left de telegraph, have you, mark?" he said. "no, but i'm working here for a day or two. would you like to go up town on an errand?" "yes," answered tom with alacrity. "will i be paid?" "of course. can't you leave your blacking box somewhere and get your face and hands washed?" "yes, mark; there's a small s'loon near by, where i hang out sometimes. just wait for me and i'll be back in a jiffy." tom reappeared in a very short time with his appearance greatly improved by the application of cold water and soap. "mr. swan," said mark, smiling, "this is mr. thomas trotter, the young gentleman i spoke to you about." "oh, stow that, mark!" expostulated tom; "i ain't mr. trotter. i'm tom." "mr. trotter," said the jeweler, smiling, for he had a sense of humor, "i have a letter here which i wish you to take to the address named." "and to walk, sir." "no; i will give you ten cents for car fare, and when you return and make your report you shall be paid for doing the errand." "all right, governor." tom started up town, and in due time reached the house on forty-seventh street. he rang the bell, and the door was opened by the hall boy already referred to. "is mr. schuyler at home?" asked tom. "i've got a letter for him." mr. schuyler, who was anxiously awaiting mark's return, came out of a room to the left of the hall. when he saw tom he looked disappointed. "i was expecting a boy from mr. swan's jewelry store." "that's where i come from." "did you bring the rings?" asked schuyler eagerly. "i don't know nothin' about no rings," answered tom. "i've brought you a letter." "give it to me quick." he opened the letter, and this is what he read with contracted brow. "mr. hamilton schuyler: "when i called here this morning i recognized you as the young man who stole an old lady's pocketbook in a fifth avenue stage not long since. of course i knew that this was another scheme of yours to get hold of money that did not belong to you. if you had been all right i would myself have brought back the real diamond rings which your aunt wished to buy. tell her not to put off her journey to buffalo, as mr. swan has made up his mind not to send them. "yours as ever, "a. d. t. ." "then it was the telegraph boy, after all!" ejaculated schuyler in a rage. "i only wish i had known it. are you a friend of--the telegraph boy?" "am i a friend of mark mason? i should smile." "step in a minute, then!" said schuyler, with an assumed friendliness. as the unsuspecting tom stepped inside the hall, the young man began to shower blows on his shoulders with a cane that he snatched from the hat rack. tom was for a minute dazed. then his wits returned to him. he lowered his head and butted schuyler in the stomach with such force that the latter fell over backwards with an ejaculation of pain. then tom darted through the open door, but paused on the steps to say, "with the compliments of tom trotter." schuyler picked himself up, uttering execrations, and looked for the boy, but he was gone! chapter xiii. mark starts on a journey. "shall you want me to-morrow, mr. swan?" asked mark, as the clock struck six, and the jeweler prepared to close up. "yes; i shall probably want you for a week." "very well, sir; i will so report at the office." the next morning about eight o'clock mark reported for duty and waited for orders. the jeweler looked up from a letter he had been reading. "how would you like to make a journey?" he asked. "very much, sir." "i shall probably send you to cleveland." "is cleveland in ohio?" asked mark, his eyes sparkling. "yes. do you think you can find your way there?" "i'll try." "you generally succeed in what you undertake to do. well, i will explain. i have a customer living in euclid avenue in cleveland, who used to be a new york society lady. she bought a good deal of jewelry, and always purchased of me. this is what she writes." the material part of the letter was this: "i want a diamond pin worth about one thousand dollars. my husband has agreed to give it to me for a birthday present, and left the selection to me. i can't find anything here that i want, and have been led to think of my old jeweler in new york. you know my taste. select what you think i will like and send me by private messenger. i might of course employ an express, but there have been some express robberies recently, and i am ready to pay the extra expense required by a special messenger. send at once. "arabella loring." "you see," said the jeweler, "that this is an important matter. the messenger will bear great responsibility on account of the value of what he has in charge." "do you think i am old enough for the commission, mr. swan?" said mark modestly. "it is not so much a matter of age as of shrewdness and reliability. i have been led to think that you possess these qualifications. of course there would be danger of your being robbed if it were known that you carried such a valuable parcel." "i am not afraid, sir." "of course, again, you must take care not to let it be known what you have in charge. make what statements you like as to your business. i can safely leave that to your own shrewdness." "when do you want me to start, mr. swan?" "there is a train this afternoon for buffalo on the new york central road. can you get ready to take that?" "yes, sir. may i go home and let my mother know? i am not quite sure whether i have a supply of clean clothes." "you can buy anything that you need on the way. have you a gripsack?" "yes, sir. my mother has one." "will it do?" "i think so." "so far so good then. now about money. i can't tell just how much you will need, but i will give you a certain amount, and if there is any over when you return you can account for it to me." mrs. mason was greatly surprised when mark came home and inquired for her traveling bag. "what do you want of it, mark?" she asked. "i am going to start for cleveland this afternoon." "you're only funning, mark," said edith. "no, i am not. i have agreed to go to cleveland on business." "what kind of business, mark?" asked his mother. "the gentleman who sends me, mr. swan, the jeweler, has asked me to keep my business secret." "how long will you be gone?" "i can't tell, but i will write you. mr. swan has told me i may stop over at niagara falls, but i shall not be very apt to do so till i am on my return." "this seems very sudden. i don't know how i shall ever get along without you." "you have money enough to last you, mother?" "yes." "then i think there won't be any trouble. if i stay away longer than i anticipate i will send you some more." "it seems strange that mr. swan should send a boy on an important errand." "the fact of the matter is, mother, that he has confidence in me." "i am sure he is justified in this, but boys are not usually selected for important missions." "that is the reason why i feel ambitious to succeed." "by the way, mark, mrs. mack's nephew called yesterday and tried to get some more money out of his aunt." "did you give him any?" "no. she was very much frightened, but i threatened to call a policeman, and the fellow went off grumbling." "she won't be safe till he gets into prison again." on his way back to the jeweler's mark met his friend tom trotter. "where are you goin'?" "out west." tom's eyes expanded like saucers. "you ain't jokin'?" "no." "when you're goin'?" "this afternoon." "goin' to be gone long?" "i expect to be back in a week." "i wish you'd take me with you." "i'd like to, tom, but i can't. traveling costs money." tom showed considerable curiosity as to the nature of mark's business, but on this point the telegraph boy was not communicative. he liked tom as a friend, but did not dare to trust him with so important a secret. mr. swan had already been to a ticket agent and procured a through ticket for mark. "your train starts at four-thirty," said the jeweler. "you can engage a sleeping berth at the grand central depot. you will travel all night." "i am sorry for that," said mark. "i shall miss some of the scenery." "you can arrange to travel over this part by day on your return." it was four o'clock when mark entered the depot. he thought it best to be on time. when the doors were opened he entered the station proper and sought the car containing his berth. there was an upper and a lower berth, his being the lower. the two were numbered and . he had scarcely taken his seat when a gentleman came in and sat down beside him. neither he nor mark had noticed each other particularly till the train had left the depot. then the gentleman exclaimed in surprise, "mark mason?" "uncle solon?" exclaimed the messenger in equal surprise. "what brings you here?" "a ticket," answered mark briefly. "you are in the wrong car. didn't you know that this is the limited western express?" "yes. i know it." "where are you going then?" "i shall stop at buffalo," answered mark, not caring to mention his further destination. solon talbot looked amazed. "what on earth carries you out there?" he asked. "this train," answered mark demurely. solon talbot frowned. "you know what i mean. why are you going to buffalo?" "a little matter of business." "what business can a boy like you possibly have, i'd like to know?" "it isn't my own business, uncle solon, and so i don't feel at liberty to tell." "it is very strange. have you a sleeping berth?" "yes." "what number?" "no. ." "that is the lower berth--just the one i wanted," exclaimed talbot in vexation. "mine is the upper. let me see your sleeping check." mark showed it. solon talbot regarded it enviously. "i will give you twenty-five cents to exchange," he said. "i will exchange without the twenty-five cents if you prefer the lower berth." "i do, but--i would rather pay." "i can't accept it. here is the check. give me yours in return." solon did so muttering his thanks rather ungraciously. he hated to be under any obligation to his nephew. "where is edgar?" asked mark. "i left him in new york. i am going back to syracuse to attend to a little business, and shall then return to new york." mr. talbot took out an evening paper and began to read. mark prepared to look around him. presently mr. talbot arose. "i am going into the smoking-car to smoke a cigar," he said. "have an eye on my grip while i am gone." "all right, uncle." hours passed. the two travelers retired to their respective berths. about two o'clock mark was startled by a severe shock that nearly threw him out of his berth. there was a confused shouting, and mark heard some one crying. "what's happened?" leaning out of the berth he saw solon talbot standing in the aisle, his face pale as a sheet. there was a swaying movement of the car, and a sudden lurch. the car had gone over an embankment. chapter xiv. the telltale memorandum. when mark came to himself he realized that he was lying on his back on the ground. it was a bright moonlight night, and he could see for some distance. first of all he moved his arms and legs to ascertain whether any of his limbs were broken. reassured on this point he felt next for the diamond pin. to his great relief it was safe. all about him was confusion. he was just thinking of getting up when a man came along with a lantern, and stooping over, began to feel in the pockets of a prostrate figure lying near by. instantly mark was on the alert, for he felt sure that this man must be a thief intent on robbing the victims of the disaster. he peered into the face of the robber who fancied himself unobserved, and with a thrill of excitement he recognized the man whom he had met twice before in new york, and who had called himself hamilton schuyler. at the same time, glancing at the upturned face of the recumbent figure he saw that it was his uncle, solon talbot, still insensible. schuyler had just drawn mr. talbot's watch from his pocket, when mark, putting a whistle to his mouth, blew a sharp note on it. schuyler started, let the watch drop, and rose in a state of nervous alarm. "what was that?" he cried. "mr. hamilton schuyler," said mark calmly, "that gentleman will have occasion for his watch. you had better let it alone." "i was only going to take care of it for him," muttered schuyler. "you'd take care of it well," retorted mark. "who are you?" demanded schuyler, and he stepped over to where mark lay and peered into his face. "by jingo, if it isn't the telegraph boy!" he exclaimed. "how came you here?" "by the train." "have you any more bogus diamonds about you?" inquired schuyler sarcastically. "i might have had if i had expected to meet you." "i'll see what i can find at any rate." as he spoke he leaned over and was about to feel in mark's pockets when the telegraph messenger blew another blast on his whistle so loud that a relief party came running up in haste. "what's the matter?" asked the leader. "the matter is that here is a thief, rifling the pockets of the passengers. he was just feeling in mine." schuyler started to run, but was quickly captured. "what are you about, you scoundrel?" asked his captor. "trying to relieve the victims of the disaster," answered schuyler. "on my honor that is all i was doing." "is this true?" asked his captor, turning to mark. "yes; he was trying to relieve us of our valuables. he had that gentleman's watch out of his pocket when i first whistled. as you came up, he was trying to rob me." "that's enough! take him along." two strong men tied schuyler's hands together and marched him away. "i'll get even with you for this, you young rascal!" he exclaimed in a rage, shaking his fist at mark. just then solon talbot recovered consciousness. "where am i?" he groaned. "there has been an accident, uncle solon," said mark, now on his feet. "we went over an embankment and were spilled out. are you all right? are any of your limbs broken?" "i--i don't think so, but i have had a shock, and my head is bruised." "you'll do!" said a surgeon, who was one of the relief party. "you'll be as good as new in a day or two." "is there a hotel near by? i want to be moved." "as soon as we can attend to the matter. we are looking for the bad cases." "i'll look after you, uncle solon," said mark. "see if you can't get up." with much ado mr. talbot arose, and leaning on mark's arm left the scene of the disaster. mark procured a carriage and directed the driver to take them to the nearest hotel. when they reached it the messenger ordered a room and helped his uncle up to it. "just look and see if you've lost anything," he suggested. "i saw a thief trying to relieve you of your watch, but i interrupted him and gave him in charge." with a look of alarm solon talbot examined his pockets, but ascertained to his relief that nothing was missing. "can't you stay with me, mark?" he asked almost imploringly, for the nervous alarm inspired by the accident had made him quite a different man for the time being. "there is another bed in the room, and you can lie there." "i will stay with you till morning, uncle solon, but i shall have to leave you then, as i have business to attend to." "what kind of business?" "i don't care to mention it just now. i am traveling for another party." "i had no idea there would be an accident," said mr. talbot. "good heavens, we might have been in eternity by this time," he added with a shudder. "i feel very much alive," said mark, laughing. "i suppose the accident will be in the new york morning papers." "so it will. i must telegraph that i am all right, or my mother will be frightened." "telegraph for me too," said solon talbot. "all right. tell me to whom to telegraph, uncle solon, and where." "to edgar, i think." few more words were spoken, as mark and his uncle were both dead tired. it was eight o'clock when mark opened his eyes. he dressed himself as quickly as possible and prepared to go down-stairs. as he was moving toward the door, mark espied a scrap of paper. it contained what appeared to be a memorandum in his uncle's handwriting. it was brief, and a single glance revealed its purpose to mark. it ran thus: "crane and lawton told me to-day that their agent writes them from nevada that the golden hope mine is developing great richness. i shouldn't wonder if it would run up to one hundred dollars per share. at this rate the shares i hold will make a small fortune. c. & l. advise holding on for at least six months." it may be imagined that mark read this memorandum with interest. he knew very well that the mining stock referred to belonged to his grandfather's estate, but hitherto had been ignorant of the number of shares held by the same. if there were four hundred, and the price ran up to one hundred dollars per share, this would make his mother's share twenty thousand dollars! this would be a fortune indeed, and it made his blood boil to think that his uncle proposed to cheat her out of it. the munificent sum of twenty-five dollars was all that he had offered for a receipt in full that would give him a title to the whole value of the golden hope shares. mark turned to the bed. his uncle was fast asleep. he was not a strong man, and the shock and fatigue of the night previous had quite exhausted him. "what shall i do with the memorandum?" thought mark. he felt that it was not quite the thing to keep a private paper belonging to his uncle, yet under the circumstances, considering that his uncle was deliberately seeking to defraud his mother and himself, he decided that he was justified in doing so. accordingly he put the memorandum carefully in his pocketbook, and opening the chamber door prepared to go down-stairs. just then solon talbot opened his eyes. "where am i?" he asked, in temporary bewilderment. "in the merchants' hotel," replied mark. "don't you remember the accident of last night?" "oh, yes," answered solon shuddering. "where are you going?" "out to telegraph to my mother." "you have my telegram?" "yes." mark went out and despatched two telegrams, one to his mother, and the second to mr. swan. the latter ran thus: "there has been a railroad accident, but i am all right. nothing lost." the last two words were intended to assure the jeweler of the safety of the diamond pin. mark ascertained that the next train westward would start at eleven o'clock, and so reported to his uncle. "i shall go by the next train," he said. as they went up to the office to pay their bills, the clerk asked mr. talbot, "do you pay for this young man as well as yourself?" solon talbot hesitated and looked confused. "no," answered mark promptly, "i pay for myself." he drew out a ten-dollar bill and tendered it to the clerk. "you seem to be well provided with money," said his uncle curiously. "yes, uncle solon, i can pay my way," replied mark. "it is very strange," thought mr. talbot, "how a common telegraph boy should have so much money." he did not seem to miss the memorandum. had he known that it was snugly reposing in mark's pocketbook he would have felt disturbed. chapter xv. a railroad incident. mark pushed on intent upon reaching cleveland. he decided not to stop off at niagara till he was on his return. he never for a moment forgot that a great responsibility rested upon him for the safe delivery of the valuable diamond pin intrusted to him by mr. swan. when it was safely out of his hands and in those of mrs. loring he would feel relieved. he was within a hundred miles of cleveland in a car well filled with passengers when his attention was called to a young lady sitting in the seat directly opposite him. she seemed lively and was particularly attractive. mark was too young to be deeply impressed by female beauty, but he experienced, like most persons, a greater pleasure in looking at a beautiful than at an ugly object. the young lady had been sitting alone, when a tall man of about forty came up the aisle and paused by her seat. "is this seat occupied?" he asked softly. "no, sir." "then i will presume to occupy it." "he must be a minister," thought mark. his clothes were of clerical cut, he wore a white necktie, and on his head was a brown straw hat with wide brim. he folded his hands meekly on his knees, and turned towards his young companion. "i am sorry to intrude upon you, young lady," mark heard him say. "it is no intrusion, sir," answered the girl pleasantly. "i have only paid for one seat, and cannot expect to monopolize two." "nevertheless i am sorry if in any way i have intruded upon you. i am, as you may perhaps have inferred from my appearance, a minister." "i thought you looked like one, sir." "i am going to make an exchange with a clerical brother." "yes, sir," returned the young lady, wondering what interest she could be expected to take in this circumstance. "i always like to get acquainted with young people. i may perhaps have an opportunity of influencing them for good." "just so, sir; but i think such advice is better suited for sunday, don't you?" "i am accustomed to drop words of counsel in season, and out of season." "i would rather listen to them when they are in season." "true! i stand reproved." the minister took from his pocket a small volume which he opened and began to read. "this volume," he said, "contains the sermons of the excellent dr. hooker. if i had another copy i should be glad to offer it to you." "thank you, i don't care to read just at present." half an hour passed. the minister put back his book into his pocket, and bowing politely, bade the young lady good morning. "i am pleased to have made your acquaintance," he said. "thank you, sir." five minutes later the young lady put her hand into her pocket. she uttered a cry of alarm. "what is the matter, miss?" asked mark. "my purse is gone!" exclaimed the young lady in a state of nervous excitement. "when did you last see it?" asked the messenger boy. "about an hour ago. i bought a copy of munsey's magazine of the train boy, and took out my purse to pay for it." "an hour ago? you were sitting alone at the time?" "yes." "did any one sit beside you except the old gentleman who has just left?" "no." "you are sure it hasn't fallen on the floor?" "i will look." the young lady rose and looked about under the seat, but the lost purse was not found. "i--i don't see how i could have lost it. i have been sitting here all the time." an idea flashed upon mark. "it must have been taken by the man who just left you," he said. "but that can't be! he was a minister." "i know he was dressed as a minister, but i don't believe he was one." "he looked just like one. besides he was reading a volume of sermons. i can't believe that he would rob me." "there was one thing that didn't look very ministerial." "what was that?" "his nose. do you not notice how red it was?" "yes, but i thought it might be some humor." "it was colored by whisky, i think. i know topers in new york who have noses exactly like his. you may depend upon it that he has your purse. i hope there wasn't much in it." "only about five dollars. generally the loss would not inconvenience me, but as it is--" and she looked anxious. "if--if i can be of any service," stammered mark, "i hope you won't mind saying so. i can lend you five dollars." the young lady looked grateful, but seemed in doubt as to whether she ought to accept the offer. "i don't know whether i ought to accept such an offer from a young gentleman--" she said hesitating. "i am a _very_ young gentleman," said mark smiling. "i am only sixteen!" "that is true, and it does make a difference. are you sure you can spare the money for a day or two." "quite so, miss--" "loring," prompted the young lady. "are you related to mrs. arabella loring of cleveland?" the young lady looked very much surprised. "she is my mother," she replied. "but how in the world do you know of her?" "i will tell you later," answered mark. he felt that it wouldn't be wise to mention the commission, or let any one know that he had a diamond ring in charge. "are you going directly to cleveland, miss loring?" "yes, but about thirty miles this side i have a young niece at a boarding school. she will join me on the train, and will expect me to pay her railroad fare. but for that, the loss of the money would have entailed no inconvenience." mark drew from his pocket book a five-dollar bill and passed it to miss loring. "but how can i return this to you?" she asked. "i will call at your house. i am going to cleveland also." "do so. here is my card." she took out a small card and tendered it to mark. on it was inscribed: miss florence loring. no. - / euclid avenue. "inquire for me when you call!" she said. "thank you." "it seems so strange that you should know my mother," she continued evidently feeling curious. mark smiled. "you will know in time," he said. "if we were alone i would tell you now." here there was a stop at some station, and a shabby and dirty-looking man entered the car. there was but one seat vacant, the one next to florence loring. mark hastily rose and sat down in it. "i thought," he said apologetically, "you might prefer me to the man who has just entered the car." "by all means," she answered with a bright smile. "i prefer you also to the clerical gentleman who rode with me earlier." "thank you. when your niece joins you i will vacate the seat in her favor." florence loring was perhaps nineteen, three years older than mark. she looked upon him quite as a boy, and therefore felt under no constraint. "do you come from new york?" she asked. "yes." "you seem young to travel alone." "i don't think you can be much older than i," said mark. "mercy! i feel ever so much older. i feel old enough to be your aunt." "i shouldn't mind having you for an aunt," returned mark. "on the whole, though, it might prove to be too much of a responsibility. you may be very hard to manage." "do you mind my calling you aunt?" "well, perhaps it might make me appear too venerable." "did you notice, miss loring, whether your clerical friend left the cars when he left the seat?" "no; i didn't feel any particular interest in him, and did not give him a second thought." "perhaps he may still be on the train. i have a great mind to go and see." "i don't think it would do any good. we could not prove that he took my purse." "if you will excuse me for five minutes i will make a search." mark went through the next car and entered the second one, which was a smoking car. he looked about him, and in a seat about the middle of the car he saw the man of whom he was in search. he recognized him by his white tie and his red nose. he was smoking a cigar and gazing out of the car window. the seat beside him being vacant mark went forward and sat down in it. the gentleman with the white tie glanced at him carelessly, but did not appear to think mark was worthy of attention. he changed his mind when mark said in a low voice: "please give me the purse which you took from a young lady in the second car back." chapter xvi. mark as a detective. the adventurer turned swiftly when he heard mark's startling question. he seemed astounded at the boy's audacity. "what did you say?" he demanded with hauteur. "i asked you to return the purse which you took from a young lady in the second car back," repeated mark calmly. "boy," said the false minister, "you must be insane or drunk." "i don't think i am either," returned mark. "what do you mean by such nonsense, then? are you aware that i am a minister of the gospel?" "where do you preach?" "it is of no consequence," said the other loftily. "i am not in habit of being insulted by whipper-snappers like you." "are you in the habit of taking young ladies' purses, mr.----" "rev. mr. buffington is my name, young man." "then, mr. buffington, will you answer my question?" "i shall be tempted to forget my sacred profession and throw you out of the car," said the pseudo minister, looking very unclerical as he spoke. "i have no doubt you would like to do so." "you ought to be thrashed for your impertinence." "suppose you call the conductor and complain of me. you may tell your story and i will tell mine." this suggestion seemed fair enough, but it did not appear to strike the rev. mr. buffington favorably. "i do not care to notice the foolish insolence of a half grown boy," and the pseudo clergyman, taking a paper from his lap, half turned away from mark, and began to read, or appeared to do so. mark, however, did not propose to be bluffed off in this manner. "mr. buffington," he said resolutely, "i am a boy, but i know what i am about. you took the young lady's purse. before you sat down beside her she had it in her pocket. when you left the car it was gone." "if i ever get you alone," said buffington in a low tone of concentrated rage. "if you do, i hope you won't forget your sacred profession." "i am a minister, but i am also a gentleman, and i shall resent an insult." "look here," said mark, getting out of patience, "either you give me back that purse for the young lady or i will call the conductor and lay the matter before him." "rev." mr. buffington tried to turn mark from his purpose by threats, but he was evidently alarmed. he was conscious of guilt, and he knew how such an appeal would end for him. mark saw him waver, and followed up his advantage. "there was only about five dollars in the purse," he said, "and it won't pay you to keep it. if you give it up without further trouble i won't expose you. what do you say?" mr. buffington looked in mark's resolute face and he saw that he was in serious earnest. he felt that he was in the boy's power, and much as it galled him, he decided that he must yield. "it is possible, of course, that the young lady in handling the purse, may have dropped it into my pocket," he said. "i will search for it, and if that is the case it shall be returned." he thrust his hand into his pocket and drew out the purse. "i wouldn't have believed it," he murmured. "it is a most extraordinary incident. is this the young lady's purse?" mark took it, and opening it, saw that it contained three dollars in bills, and a dollar and seventy-five cents in silver. "yes, sir," he said; "this answers the description." "give it back to the young lady with my compliments," said buffington with unabashed assurance. "express my regrets at the unfortunate mistake. i now remember how it occurred. i saw the purse on the floor where she had doubtless dropped it, and supposing it to be my own put it into my pocket. i was so busily engaged, reading the volume of sermons which i carry with me that it made little impression on my mind." "i will tell her what you say, mr. buffington," said mark gravely. of course he might have expressed doubt of the accuracy of his companion's statement, but he had accomplished his purpose, and did not care to humiliate buffington farther. "good morning, young man," said buffington with christian forgetfulness of mark's errand. "good morning, sir." when mark had left the car buffington's face underwent a change. he looked absolutely ferocious. "to think i should have been trapped and worsted by a kid!" he said to himself. "the boy is about as cool and resolute as any i ever saw. i hope i shall some day have a chance to get even with him." mark returned to his own car and paused at miss loring's seat. "is this your purse?" he asked, holding it up. "yes. oh, where did you get it?" "from the party who took it." "is he on the smoking car still?" "yes he is on the smoking car." "but--didn't he object to surrendering it?" "he made a decided objection, but i succeeded in convincing him that it was for his interest to do so." "you are a remarkable boy," said florence loring admiringly. "thank you, miss loring. you will make me vain if you flatter me." "but i am quite in earnest. i am now able to return the money you so kindly lent me." "are you sure you will not need it?" "quite sure." the hours sped fast. soon they reached the station where miss loring expected to see her niece. she went to the door of the car, and from the platform signaled to a child of eight, who returned the greeting joyfully. "i was so afraid i should miss you, auntie," said the child. "i have been on the lookout for you, gertie. come in at once." of course mark vacated his seat, and aunt and niece were able to sit together. the messenger boy secured a seat a little nearer the door. he found the journey less interesting now that he was deprived of his fair companion's company. as they were leaving the train at the cleveland station, florence said, "gertie, this is mr. mason, who has been of great service to me during the journey." gertie surveyed mark attentively. she was an irrepressible young lady, given to plain speaking. "he ain't your beau, is he, aunt florence?" she asked. florence smiled and blushed. "no," she answered. "don't you see he is younger than i am. he is better suited to be your beau." "i've got a beau already," said the child unexpectedly. "indeed! that is news. what's his name?" "dan sillis. he is a nice boy." "how old is he?" "about fifteen." "isn't that too old for you?" "oh no. husbands always are older than their wives." both mark and florence laughed. "don't you think you could make room for another beau?" asked mark. "no; but if i get tired of dan i won't mind taking you," responded gertie with the most perfect gravity. "i will remember that. if we should get married your aunt florence would be my aunt too." "can i do anything for you, miss loring?" mark asked as they reached the exterior of the depot. "if you would be kind enough to call a cab." mark did so, and the two young ladies entered. "i suppose you will call if you have business with mother," said florence. "yes; i shall call to-morrow." mark was in doubt where to go, knowing nothing of the hotels in cleveland, but seeing a stage bearing the name "erie hotel," decided to go there. for obvious reasons i have not given the right name of the hotel. this name will answer so far as our story goes. he sprang in with his valise and in a few minutes was set down before a comfortable looking hotel of good size. he entered, and registering his name was assigned to room . "will you go up-stairs at once, mr. mason?" asked the clerk. "yes, sir." mark followed the hall boy to a room on the third floor. "will dinner be ready soon?" he asked. "it is on the table now, sir." mark washed his hands and face, combed his hair, and went down-stairs. he had but one flight to descend, the dining-room being on the second floor. even if the dinner had been an indifferent one mark would have appreciated it, for he was very hungry. when he had satisfied his appetite he had a chance to look around. what was his surprise when a little farther down the table, on the same side, he recognized his acquaintance of the smoking car, mr. buffington! chapter xvii. mark makes a call on euclid avenue. mark was not altogether pleased to find that he had not got rid of the railroad adventurer. he recognized him as a dangerous and unprincipled man. as long as mark had the diamond pin in his possession, the vicinity of such a fellow meant peril. he decided that he had better lose no time in delivering the pin to mrs. loring. he had told florence that he would call the next day, but really there was no reason why he should not deliver it at once. about three o'clock he called a cab and directed the driver to drive to no. - / euclid avenue. the distance was somewhat more than a mile, and in fifteen minutes he found himself at his destination. "shall i wait for you?" asked the hackman. "no; i may be in the house some time." he paid for the cab and rang the doorbell. "is mrs. loring at home?" asked mark of the servant who answered the bell. "yes, sir, but i don't know if she will see you?" "tell her that i come from mr. swan of new york." "she will see you," said the servant returning after a short absence. mark was ushered into the reception room, and in a few minutes a pleasant-looking woman of middle age entered. she seemed surprised when her glance rested upon mark. "surely you are not mr. swan's messenger?" she said. "yes, madam." "and you--have brought the pin?" "here it is," said mark, producing it from his pocket. mrs. loring eagerly opened the casket and uttered an exclamation of delight. "it is beautiful--just what i wanted," she said. "mr. swan said he thought he knew your taste." "did he mention the price?" "a thousand dollars. here is the bill." "i shall not dispute the price, for i have perfect confidence in mr. swan. but--isn't it strange that he should have selected so young a messenger?" she continued, regarding mark with curiosity. "i agree with you," said mark, smiling, "but i feel confidence in mr. swan's judgment and did not object to come." "you might have been robbed, if any evil-minded person had known what you carried." "that is true, but they would not be likely to think a boy would be intrusted with an article of great value." "that is certainly an important consideration. how long have you been in mr. swan's employ?" "about a week." "and he trusted you like this?" said the lady in astonishment. "i am really a telegraph boy. mr. swan had known me in that character." "he certainly paid you a great compliment, and his confidence does not seem to have been misplaced. shall i pay you for the pin?" "you can give me a check payable to mr. swan, and i will forward it to him by mail." "i will do so. can you wait?" "oh, yes, mrs. loring. i had no business in cleveland except to deliver this ring." at that moment florence loring entered the room, and to her mother's surprise went up to mark and offered her hand. "i am glad to see you, mr. mason," she said. "thank you, miss florence." "is this call made on me?" "partly," answered mark smiling, "but i had some business with your mother." "how in the world did you two get acquainted?" asked mrs. loring. "don't you remember, mama, what i told you about being robbed by a man who sat next to me, and having my purse returned by a boy--a young gentleman." "i don't mind being called a boy," said mark. "i shall be one for some time yet." "well?" "mr. mason is the one who recovered my purse. before that he kindly offered to loan me some money. but what possible business can he have with you?" "see what he has brought me from new york. he comes from mr. swan." "oh mama, how lovely! is it a present for me? you know my birthday comes in eight months." "my dear child, even if it came to-morrow i should hardly pay a thousand dollars for a birthday gift for you." "a thousand dollars? it seems even more lovely now that i know the price." "remain here, florence, and entertain mr. mason while i go to the library and write a check for the purchase money." "all right, mama! mr. mason, why didn't you tell me what business you had with mama?" "i shouldn't have minded telling you, but if some one else had heard, your clerical friend for instance, i might have been robbed." "that is true. i hope i shall never see him again." "perhaps you may. i have seen him." "you have seen him?" ejaculated florence in surprise. "where?" "at the dinner table at my hotel." "do you think he is staying there?" "i only know that i saw him at the table." "at what hotel are you staying?" "at the erie hotel." "i hope you will be cautious. he may do you an injury," said florence with flattering earnestness. "it was because i saw him that i was anxious to deliver the pin as soon as possible." "but he wouldn't know you had it." "he would suppose i had some money for traveling expenses." "true. and now you will have the large check my mother is to give you." "i shall not keep it in my possession. i shall go back to the hotel at once and inclose it in a letter to mr. swan." "you seem to be a remarkable boy--i mean you are remarkably sharp for your age." "telegraph boys have to be sharp." "so you are a telegraph boy. are there any telegraph girls?" "not that i know of." "i am afraid we poor girls would be too easily imposed upon." "well, have you entertained mr. mason?" asked mrs. loring re-entering the room. "i have done my best, mama. what do you think he tells me? that horrid man that stole my purse is staying at his hotel." "then i hope you won't send him an invitation to call here." "he would call fast enough," suggested mark, "if he knew what a valuable diamond pin you have in the house." "then i hope he won't find out. how did it happen, florence, you didn't watch him when he was sitting beside you?" "how could you expect me to watch a man who was engaged in reading a volume of sermons. they were the sermons of rev. dr. hooker." "perhaps that is where he learned _hooking_," laughed mark. "that's a good joke!" said florence. "by the way, mama, have you tickets for the theater this evening?" "yes, but one won't be used. louisa frost can't go." "then suppose you give it to mr. mason. i am sure he would enjoy the play." "well thought of, florence. won't you get one of the tickets? you will find them on my bureau, that is if our young friend has no other engagement." "i have none whatever," said mark promptly. "you are very kind, mrs. loring." "you must thank florence. if you were a few years older i should be afraid she had designs upon you. it is leap year, you know." "now, mama, what will mr. mason think of me? i am propriety personified." mark concluded his call and left the house, well pleased at having successfully carried out his instructions. he went back directly to the hotel, and sitting down in the reading room wrote the following letter to his employer: "henry swan, esq., "dear sir: i have delivered the diamond ring, and inclose mrs. loring's check for a thousand dollars in payment. she is very much pleased with it, and says it exactly suits her. i have had a pleasant journey, and expect to start on my return to-morrow. "yours respectfully, "mark mason." as he was writing the address some one passed behind his chair and looked over his shoulder at the superscription. it was the "rev." mr. buffington, as he called himself. his eye lighted up as he saw to whom the letter was addressed. "so this boy is traveling for a new york jeweler," he said to himself. "i am glad to know this. he probably carries a stock of jewelry with him, and if so, i shall cultivate his acquaintance." he passed out of the reading room without mark observing him. mr. buffington took care to keep out of the way, and mark supposed he had left the hotel. chapter xviii. a midnight visit. mark was confirmed in his belief that mr. buffington had left the hotel, because on looking over the book he found no such name. it did not occur to him that lawrence perkins was his railroad friend under another _alias_. mr. buffington was rich in names, and had masqueraded under at least a dozen. he, however, had seen mark's name in the register, and noted carefully the number of his room. the information seemed to him important, especially after he had looked over mark's shoulder and found that he represented a prominent jeweler in new york. mark did not fail to keep his appointment at the theater. he arrived first, but five minutes later mrs. loring, florence and a young man, cousin to the latter, made their appearance. florence smiled pleasantly, and arranged the party so that mark should sit beside her. "now, george," she said to her cousin, "make yourself agreeable to mama, and i will try to entertain mr. mason." "no flirting, florence," cautioned her cousin. "did you ever know me to flirt?" asked florence in mock indignation. "well, occasionally." "very well, if i have the reputation i may as well deserve it," and she proceeded to chat with mark. in the gallery, among the cheap seats, sat mr. buffington, who wanted to while away the evening in a pleasant but economical manner. he did not immediately discover mark below, but after a time recognized him. "it is just as well i came here," he reflected, "as the kid won't get to bed till late. wonder who his friends are. that young lady looks stylish." buffington took good care when the play was over to keep out of the way of the throng issuing from the main entrance. he made his way to the hotel by a devious course, and on arriving went up to his room. mark came in not long after him, and went up to bed at once. he felt quite tired, but was well pleased with his experiences thus far. he had got rid of his responsibility, having delivered the diamond ring, received pay therefor and forwarded the check to his principal in new york. "now i can have a comfortable night's rest," he reflected. he had nearly fifty dollars with him, but this seemed a trifle compared with the diamond pin. still he considered in what way he could secure this from chance of theft. there seemed, however, to be very little danger. he had locked the door inside, leaving the key in the lock. there was no door communicating with any other room. after some consideration he decided to hide the wallet containing his money, not under his pillow, but under the sheet at the lower part of the bed where he could feel it with his feet. "i guess i'll find it safe in the morning," he said to himself. now that he was relieved from all anxiety he composed himself to sleep, and in less than ten minutes he was unconscious of all around him. about an hour later mr. buffington in bare feet stood in front of mark's door. through the open transom he could hear the boy's peaceful breathing. "he is fast asleep," he said to himself with satisfaction. "i know how boys sleep, especially when they are tired. i don't think there will be much risk in carrying out my scheme." he had a skeleton key which would readily have opened the door had the key not been in the lock on the inside. this fact he soon ascertained. "it will make it harder for me," he reflected, "but there is the transom. i shall have to make use of that." mr. buffington, to use the name by which we first knew him, had some experience as a gymnast. he drew himself up to a level with the transom, and then with considerable difficulty managed to get through. the room was partially illuminated with moonlight. first of all, on descending on the other side, he turned the key in the lock so as to afford himself a way of easy escape in case of need. though he made some noise in landing mark was too sound asleep to be aware of it. "now where does the boy keep his valuables?" buffington asked himself. he searched all mark's pockets, even to the vest, but without finding anything. next he turned his attention to the gripsack, but that proved to contain only wearing apparel. but mr. buffington was sharp enough to understand the ways of wary travelers. he went to the bed, and gently slid his hand under the pillow. that is the most common hiding-place for watches and other valuables. but he made no discovery. buffington paused to reflect on the situation. "the kid has certainly got a pocketbook," he soliloquized. "he can't travel without money. now where is it? that is the question." he had searched everywhere else. he decided that it must be concealed somewhere about the bed. finally he made a correct guess. he approached the bed at the lower end, and raising the covering began to feel about in the neighborhood of mark's feet. now, as probably all my young readers know from personal experience, the feet are very sensitive, and there are few who are not "ticklish." mark who had been unconscious of the intruder's presence till now speedily became aware that some one was fumbling about his feet. on the impulse of the moment he drew one foot back and extended it suddenly in the act of kicking. mr. buffington withdrew his hand swiftly, and looked anxiously at the sleeper. mark's eyes did not open, and the burglar resolved after a suitable pause to continue his investigations. but mark's slumbers, since the interruption, were not as sound as before. when the visitor continued his manipulations he woke suddenly, and opening his eyes took in the situation. he recognized mr. buffington's features and at once was wide awake. but for the fact that the burglar was dangerously near the money he would have allowed him to keep on. as it was he thought it time to interfere. he gave a vigorous kick, and called out, "who's there?" buffington understood that his scheme was defeated. to rob mark when he was awake was to run too much risk. he sprang for the door which he had unlocked, as already noted, and opening it dashed out into the corridor. mark did not propose to facilitate his flight. he sprang from the bed and called out in a loud tone, "help! thieves!" now it so happened that the watchman attached to the hotel was just making his rounds and was not far off. he ran to the spot, caught sight of the flying figure of the departing burglar, and caught him by the shoulder. buffington was a strong man, and could have got away from a man of ordinary muscles. but the watchman was a man of more than average strength, having served as porter before he had been transferred to the post of watchman and detective. he gripped buffington in a vise-like grasp. "no, my man," he said, "you don't get away so easy. stand still, and give an account of yourself." "i am a guest of the hotel," said buffington sullenly. "then why are you not in bed?" "because i had a severe headache and thought i would take a little walk in the corridor." "what made you come into my room?" demanded mark, who now appeared on the scene. "i didn't know whose room it was. i thought it was my own." "how did you get in? the door was locked." "no, it wasn't," answered buffington boldly. "you thought you locked it, but you didn't. trying the knob it opened at once, and i supposed it was my own which i had left unlocked." "is that true?" asked the watchman, looking doubtfully at mark. "no, it isn't. i took special pains to lock the door, for i knew that there was a possibility of my room being entered." "then he must have got through the transom. we have had such cases before." "if you have finished asking foolish questions i will go back to bed," said buffington with remarkable assurance. "wait a minute. did you see this man in your room?" the question was addressed to mark. "yes. i woke up while he was there." "what was he doing?" "searching for my purse. he was fumbling about the bedclothes at the foot of the bed." "was your money there?" "yes." buffington's face contracted with disappointment. he had been on the brink of success, when mark, unfortunately for him, awoke. "and you spoke to him?" "yes." "what then?" "he sprang for the door, and would have escaped if you had not caught him." "did you ever see the man before?" "i saw him on the train coming here for the first time." "did anything happen on the train?" "yes. he stole a young lady's pocketbook. i made him give it up." buffington looked at mark menacingly. he would have liked to wreak his vengeance upon him. "do you know his name?" "he calls himself _rev._ mr. buffington." the watchman laughed grimly. "sorry to disturb you, reverend sir," he said, "but i shall be obliged to lock you in your room till morning." buffington shrugged his shoulders. "all right!" he said. "i shall at any rate secure a good night's sleep." the watchman did as he suggested. he shut the burglar in his room, and locked the door from the outside. "now," he said to mark, "you can sleep undisturbed for the balance of the night." chapter xix. at niagara falls. although mark was inclined to pity any man deprived of his liberty, he felt pleased to think that buffington's career was cut short for a time. there was little doubt that he would be imprisoned for a time more or less extended. "how much better it would be for him," thought mark, "if he had earned his living in some honest way!" stealing may seem an easy way of obtaining money, but the one who depends on it is likely to be brought up with a round term at last. when mark went down in the morning the clerk said to him, "so you had a little excitement in your room last night, the watchman tells me." "yes; i had a visitor, but fortunately he was caught without securing anything. he was about to take my pocketbook when i woke up. i was lucky, for i might have found myself unable to pay my bill here." "we would have given you time. we can tell by your face that you are honest." "thank you. has buffington been taken from his room yet?" "buffington? i don't know any such name." "that is what he gave me as his name." "he is down on our books as lawrence perkins." "he seems to have more than one name." "he may have a dozen. such gentry usually do. i will send you a couple of policemen and have him taken round to the station-house." two policemen were summoned and soon made their appearance. they went up-stairs, preceded by the clerk. he opened the door of the adventurer's room and entered. "he isn't here!" he exclaimed in surprise, turning to the two officers. "not here?" there was no need to ask how perkins, or buffington, whichever name he claimed, had escaped. he had made use of the fire-escape and had disappeared. "he seems to have slept here," remarked one of the policeman, pointing to the bed. "yes." "he must have escaped early this morning." "i wonder i did not think of the fire-escape." "he didn't call at the office and pay his bill, i suppose." "no. he was probably in too great a hurry." "if you will give us a description of him we can warn the public against him." "i didn't notice him particularly. i have to deal with so many that i don't scrutinize any one closely, unless there seems to be especial reason for doing so. this boy," pointing to mark, "saw him on the car, and can describe him to you." mark gave what information he could and then went to breakfast. "i hope i shan't meet him again," he reflected. "i am not anxious to keep up the acquaintance." about noon he took a train for niagara falls, and didn't leave it till he reached suspension bridge. he arrived too late to see the cataract, and proceeded at once to a modest hotel in the village where the price charged was two dollars per day. he might have gone to the international hotel, and would have been justified in doing so, but he thought it right to be careful of his employer's money. he looked over the book, half expecting to meet the name of buffington or perkins, but found neither. "i hope i have seen my last of him," he said to himself. he did not feel obliged to take any extra precautions, but slept peacefully and long. after breakfast he started out to see the falls. he was resolved to see them thoroughly no matter how much time might be required in the process. "i wish mother were here," he thought. "some time if i can afford it i will bring her here." this resolve gave him satisfaction, though there seemed little prospect of his soon being in a condition to carry out his wish. mark had no idea of meeting any one whom he knew. he was but a boy, and his acquaintance was limited. already, however, it included three persons whom he would have been glad to be assured he would never meet again. one of these was buffington, the other two were hamilton schuyler and jack minton, the nephew of old mrs. mack, who lived in the same tenement house in new york with his mother. he supposed jack to be in new york and therefore his surprise may be imagined when he heard a hoarse voice behind him saying, "well, i'll be blowed, if it isn't the kid! how are you, kid?" mark did not suppose that he was referred to, but with natural curiosity he turned to observe the speaker. he saw jack minton, rough and uncouth as when he last met him, advancing to meet him. "you're about the last bloke as i expected to see here, kid," observed jack, his face still betraying surprise. "what brought you here?" "business," answered mark briefly. "they don't send telegraph boys as far as this, do they?" "well, not often, but i was sent here, and i came." "what were you sent for?" "that is my employer's business, and i don't feel at liberty to tell." "oh well, i ain't at all partic'lar to know. but it seems good to meet a friend so far away." "how long have i been his friend?" thought mark. "i say, kid, we'll celebrate on that. come in and have a drink." they were passing a saloon, and minton turned his steps towards it. "no, thank you, mr. minton. i am not thirsty." "oh, hang it! who cares whether you are thirsty or not? you ain't goin' to turn against a friend, are you?" it was clear that jack minton had already satisfied his thirst two or three times, for his face was flushed and his step unsteady. mark saw that his refusal would make minton angry, and he accepted his invitation. "what will you have, kid?" asked jack, staggering to the counter. "a glass of sarsaparilla." "oh, don't have sarsaparilla? it's only fit for old women and young children. take whisky." "no; it must be sarsaparilla or nothing." "just as you say. barkeeper, give me some whisky straight, and give the kid sarsaparilla if he wants it." the orders were filled. jack tossed down a glass of fiery whisky, which made his face even redder than before, and then drawing from his pocket a roll of bills, settled for both drinks. mark was surprised at the abundance of money his companion seemed to have. when they met in new york jack was very hard up, and had only succeeded in obtaining twenty five-cents from his parsimonious aunt. after drinking the whisky jack sank into a chair, finding a sitting position more comfortable under the circumstances. "have you seen your aunt lately, mr. minton?" mark asked. "who's my aunt?" hiccoughed jack, "i ain't got no aunt." "i mean mrs. mack, the old lady who lives in st. mark's place." "i don't know anything about--'bout mrs. mack," answered minton with a cunning look. "what sh'd i know of miss--mrs. mack?" "she's your aunt, isn't she?" "she used to be, but she's a bad old woman. i don't want to see her again." "she would be very glad to hear that," thought mark. "when did you come to niagara?" "i d'n'ow, do you? don't ask me any more of your fool questions," answered jack with uncontrollable irritation. "did i pay you for the drinks?" he asked, turning to the barkeeper. "yes, you paid me." "thought i did--didn't know." as he spoke, jack minton's head fell forward on the table, and he closed his eyes. the last potation was too much for him. "you'd better take your friend away," said the barkeeper, eying jack without much favor. "i don't want him to go to sleep here!" "he's no friend of mine," answered mark. "didn't you come in with him? didn't he treat you?" "yes, but i only accepted because he looked quarrelsome, and i was afraid he might take offense if i refused." "if i let him stay here i shall charge him extra." "do as you like! i never saw him but once before, and i don't care to have anything to do with him. i wish you would let me pay for that sarsaparilla i had. i don't want to feel that he treated me." "he has paid, and i can't take pay twice." "then take the money and return it to him." mark without waiting to see if his proposal was accepted put a dime on the counter, and left the saloon. he met a newsboy with copies of a morning buffalo paper. he bought one, and turning to new york news, his eyes fell upon a paragraph which surprised and excited him. chapter xx. a newspaper paragraph. this was the paragraph that attracted mark's attention: "this morning mrs. rachel mack, an old woman over seventy years of age, living in an upper room at no. st. mark's place, was found insensible in her room, as the result of an attack made by some person unknown. when found she seemed very much frightened and was unable to give a coherent account of what had happened. "from marks upon her throat it was clear that her assailant had nearly strangled her. his intention was obvious. though living in a poor room amid squalid surroundings, neighbors testified that mrs. mack is comparatively rich, being in fact a female miser, and this was doubtless known to her assailant. the old woman testified that she kept one hundred dollars in bills in the bureau drawer. this sum was missing, having evidently been taken by the person who attacked her. "she was not in a condition to throw much light upon the affair, being dazed and confused. when she recovers from her temporary stupefaction she may be able to give the police a clew that will lead to the arrest of the man who robbed her." when mark read this paragraph he decided at once that jack minton, mrs. mack's nephew, was the old woman's assailant. jack had evidently left the city by the first outgoing train, considering that at niagara he would be safe. so indeed he might have been but for the chance that threw mark and himself together. so it happened that the telegraph boy held in his hand the clew to the mysterious attack. in his hand probably lay the liberty of minton. what should he do? while mark was not especially fond of the old woman, he felt indignant with her burly nephew for attacking her, and was clearly of the opinion that he ought to be punished. after a little consideration he decided to call at the office of the local police and put the matter in their hands. he inquired the way to the police office. a pleasant-looking man in the uniform of a sergeant was on duty. "well, young man, what can i do for you?" he asked. "please read this paragraph, sir, and then i will tell you." the sergeant read the newspaper notice attentively. "well?" he said inquiringly. "the man who i think committed the assault is in a saloon only a quarter of a mile distant." "who is it?" "a nephew of the old lady." "but what makes you think he is the guilty party?" "he has once before visited mrs. mack, and tried to extort money from her." "how do you know this?" "because i live in the same house with mrs. mack. she occupies the room directly over where my mother and myself live." "then you live in new york?" "yes, sir." "how do you happen to be here?" "i came on business for a new york jeweler." "what is the name of the party you suspect?" "jack minton." "do you know anything of his character or antecedents?" "he is a criminal. he has been confined at sing sing prison for a term of years." "that alone is a ground of suspicion. now how do you know he is here?" "i met him less than an hour since." "did you speak to him?" "yes." "state the particulars of your interview." "he recognized me and invited me into a saloon to take a drink." "and you accepted?" "yes, sir." "i hardly approve of a boy of your age accepting such an invitation." "i only drank a glass of sarsaparilla." "i am glad to hear it. i have a son about your age, and i should be sorry to have him drink whisky." "there is no danger of my doing that," said mark quietly. "i have a good mother. for her sake, if not for my own, i would not drink liquor." "that does you credit. now as to your information it may prove important. have you anything to corroborate your suspicion?" "yes, sir. jack minton seemed to have plenty of money. when he paid the barkeeper for our drinks i saw him pull out a roll of bills. when he was in new york he had no money at all, and succeeded in obtaining only twenty-five cents from his aunt." "this is an important bit of information. i could order the arrest of minton, however, on your information without orders from new york. i will telegraph to inspector byrnes, and will act in accordance with any orders i may receive from him." "shall you need to see me again?" "give me your name and address and i will communicate with you if necessary." "my name is mark mason, and i am staying at the international hotel." "if convenient, come here in about two hours." "all right, sir." two hours later mark returned to the police station. "oh, here you are!" said the sergeant with a friendly nod. "well, i have heard from new york." "have you, sir?" asked mark eagerly. "from inspector byrnes?" "yes." "what does he say?" "here is his telegram." mark took it in his hand and read these words: "hold the suspected party. ask the boy to remain. will send officer by next train. "byrnes." "you see that you are requested to remain. can you do so?" "yes, sir." "i am glad of it, as your testimony will be important. now i will send a couple of officers with you to the saloon that you may identify minton. we don't want to make any mistake." "all right, sir." of course there was a chance that minton might have left the saloon, or been turned out by the proprietor. but fortunately he was so stupefied that the latter had put him in an inner room, and kept him there till he was in a better condition to move. by direction of the officers mark entered the saloon alone. he did not wish to excite suspicion, and therefore going up to the bar ordered a glass of lemon soda. while he was drinking it he asked: "is the man i came in with a little while ago still here?" "yes, and i wish you would get him out." "where is he?" "inside. he has been snoring till my regular customers asked me who i had in there." "very well. if you will show me where he is i will get him out for you." the barkeeper opened a door leading to an inner room. on a settee lay jack minton breathing heavily. his eyes were closed and he was quite unconscious of his position. "i don't believe you can stir him," said the barkeeper. "i will call a friend then." mark went to the door and beckoned to the two officers. when they came in the barkeeper looked dismayed. "am i in trouble?" he asked. "no, but we want the man." "what has he done?" "committed a murderous assault on a party in new york." "well, he looks as if he were capable of it. you can take him. i shall offer no resistance." one of the officers went forward and shook jack minton vigorously. "wha's the matter?" muttered jack, not opening his eyes. "wake up and see." "i'm sleepy. le' me alone!" hiccoughed jack. "give a hand here," said the officer, signaling to to his companion. with no gentle hand they pulled jack from the settee, and stood him up on his feet. then for the first time he opened his eyes, and stupefied as he was, he realized that he was in the hands of policemen. "wha's all this?" he muttered. "what have i done?" "you're wanted in new york." "new york? never was there in my life." "do you know an old lady named mack?" "i--i didn't do it. i tell you i didn't do it. it was somebody else." mark and the officers looked at each other significantly. the drunken man had unintentionally given himself away. just then his glance fell on mark. "it's the kid," he said. "what's all this mean, kid?" "i'll tell you, mr. minton. your aunt, mrs. mack, has been attacked and robbed." "is she--dead?" asked jack eagerly. "no." "she is my aunt. if she dies i'll get all her money. take me to a good hotel. i'm sleepy." it was clear that jack did not fully realize the situation. next morning, however, when the two new york officers arrived, he realized it fully and charged mark with betraying him. they went to new york in the same train, jack wearing handcuffs. chapter xxi. mark returns home. "welcome home, mark!" exclaimed mrs. mason with radiant face as the telegraph boy opened the door of their humble apartment. "then you have missed me?" said mark smiling. "it has seemed a long time since you went away. did you have a successful trip?" "yes, indeed. mr. swan was so well satisfied that he gave me fifteen dollars besides paying the telegraph company for my services. i shall be paid my regular wages by them also." "poor mrs. mack has been attacked and robbed of a hundred dollars since you went away." "i read a paragraph about it copied from the new york papers. how is she now?" "she is confined to her bed. the villain, whoever he was, nearly choked her, and the shock was so great that it quite prostrated her." "were you at home when the attack took place?" "no; i had gone out on an errand. meanwhile the rascal escaped. i suppose it was her nephew." "i have brought him back to stand trial." "_you!_" exclaimed his mother in amazement. "yes; i met him at niagara, and on reading the paragraph i concluded that he was the thief, especially as he seemed to be well provided with money. on my information a telegram was sent to inspector byrnes, and he was brought back on the same train with me." "go up and tell mrs. mack. it will do her good." mark went up-stairs with his mother. the old lady, looking unusually feeble, was lying on the bed. "how do you feel, mrs. mack?" asked mark. "i'm almost dead," groaned the old woman. "i've been robbed and almost murdered since you went away, mark." "who did it?" "who but that rascal jack minton, and he my own nephew!" "are you sure it was he?" "yes, i saw him and talked with him." "tell me about it." "he come in while i was sitting in the rocking chair and asked me for some money. he begged and implored but i would give him nothing. then he began to threaten, and i said i would call you. 'if you do i'll kill the kid,' he said. then he put his hand around my throat and almost choked me. "i fainted away, and when i came to he was gone and a hundred dollars was taken from the bureau, all i had to keep me from the poor-house," added the old woman whimpering. "but i'll get even with him. he thinks he'll have the little i have to leave because he is my nephew. he'll find himself mistaken. i'll make a will--i'll----" "mrs. mack, i have something to tell you that will please you." "has my money been found?" asked the old woman eagerly. "your nephew has been arrested and he is now in the hands of the police." "heaven be praised! i don't mind the money now. and where was he found?" "i found him at niagara falls and had him arrested." "you're a good boy, mark, and you won't be sorry for helping a poor old woman; no, you won't be sorry. tell me all about it." mark told the story, and it so cheered up the old woman that she got up from her bed and the next day was as well as ever. she no longer complained of her loss of money. her satisfaction in the retribution which had overtaken her nephew was so great that it overcame every other feeling. when the trial came on she even succeeded in getting to the court room where she positively identified jack minton as her assailant, and her evidence procured his conviction. he was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment at sing sing. "he'll not trouble me again," said mrs. mack triumphantly as she walked out of court leaning on mark's arm. the prisoner glared at the pair and his hands were clenched. "if i could only get at 'em i'd kill 'em both!" he muttered, but in his position his threats were futile. two days afterwards mrs. mason was surprised by another call from solon talbot. he looked about him as he entered the room and his eyes lighted up with satisfaction as he noted the evidences of poverty. though mark was now better off no new furniture had been bought. he was waiting till he would feel justified in securing better apartments for his mother. mrs. mason looked surprised when her brother-in-law entered. "have you moved into the city yet, mr. talbot?" she asked. "yes; i arrived yesterday." "how is mary? is she with you?" "yes." "i should like to see her. where are you located?" "why, the fact is, we are not located yet." "i should be glad to see mary. it is so long since we have met." "i can't ask you to call as we are so unsettled. in a short time she will come and call upon you." "i hope so. it is tantalizing to think she is in the same city, and yet not to meet." "we all have our duties, and her duty is to her husband and son. i was surprised a few days since to meet mark on the central road." "yes; he went to cleveland on business." "indeed! has he returned yet?" "he returned two days since." "for whom was he traveling?" "i don't know that it is any secret. he had a business commission from mr. swan, a broadway jeweler." "he must be a strange business man to select a boy to travel for him." "he made no mistake in selecting mark. he professed himself well pleased with him." "humph! it may have turned out right in a single instance. when i select an agent i prefer to employ a man." "how is edgar?" "he is well. i am looking for a position for him. i have hopes of getting him into the office of a prominent broker on wall street." "i shall be glad to hear that he is doing well. he is about the age of mark." "true, but their paths will lie apart. my, ahem! position will secure for edgar an entrance into fashionable society, while your son, though doubtless a deserving boy, must necessarily associate with his equals." "mark has some excellent friends," said mrs. mason, nettled. "no doubt, no doubt. i have not a word to say derogatory of him except that he is inclined to be conceited." "i suppose edgar is quite free from that fault." "well no, perhaps not, but he has a social position to maintain. however, this is not what i came to talk about. you remember that when i was last here i asked your signature to a statement that you had received your rightful portion of your father's estate." "i remember it." "i offered you a small sum in consideration of this release. as the administrator i find it desirable to have it in order that i may render a final account." "i remember the circumstances." "i think you made some objection--a foolish one, to which you were instigated probably by your son mark." "i remember that too." "no doubt the boy was honest in his advice, but i need hardly suggest to you how incompetent a boy of his age is as an adviser in a serious business matter. well, i have come this morning on the same business, but i wish to be liberal. i think it only fair to take your circumstances into consideration. i am ready to give you a hundred dollars if you will sign the paper i have here." "let me see the paper, solon." mr. talbot took from his pocket a folded document which he placed before his sister-in-law. it ran thus: "i hereby acknowledge that i have received from solon talbot, administrator of the estate of my late father, elisha doane, my full share in that estate, and i hereby release him from all further claim on my part to said estate." "sign here, if you please," said solon suavely, "and i will give you the sum promised." as he spoke he drew from his wallet a roll of ten ten-dollar bills, which he judged would look tempting to a woman of mrs. mason's limited means. "if you will leave this paper here, solon," said the widow, "i will show it to mark when he gets home, and ask his advice." mr. talbot frowned and looked vexed. "ask advice of a boy of sixteen!" he sneered. "surely you are better able to judge what is best than he." "i am not sure about that. at any rate he is interested, and i prefer to wait till i see him." "then the offer of a hundred dollars is withdrawn." "just as you think best, solon. i shall not sign without consulting mark." "well, i will leave the paper, then," said talbot, finding it hard to conceal his chagrin. "i hope for your sake that mark will advise you sensibly." "i think he will. he is young, but he has always shown good judgment." "confound the woman!" muttered talbot, as he left the house. "it is most provoking to have her act in this way. should she hear of the golden hope mine it would be most disastrous. once let me obtain her release and i can sell it out for my own advantage." chapter xxii. a crafty schemer. "your uncle has been here, mark," said mrs. mason, when mark reached home. "i can tell you what business he came about, mother." "he wanted my signature to a paper acknowledging that i had received my full share of father's estate." "you didn't give it?" inquired mark anxiously. "no; i would not take such an important step without your knowledge." "i feel much relieved. i have not told you what i found on my journey to niagara." "what is it?" "that uncle solon is trying to cheat you out of a large sum of money." "is that possible? but father did not leave a fortune." "so we all supposed. what if i should tell you that he left you enough to make you comfortable for life on your share." mrs. mason looked incredulous. "here, read this memorandum, mother," and mark explained briefly how he came into possession of it. "tell me what it all means, mark. i have a poor head for business." "it means that grandfather owned four hundred shares of the golden hope mine in colorado. probably he bought it for a small sum. but it has proved unexpectedly rich, and it will probably soon be worth one hundred dollars a share. that means twenty thousand dollars for you, mother." "and solon talbot wants me to relinquish my claim for a hundred dollars!" exclaimed mrs. mason indignantly. "exactly so, mother." "then i will give him a piece of my mind when he comes here this afternoon." "don't do it, mother. it is our policy to make him think we are ignorant of the existence of this important item in grandfather's estate. only you must steadily refuse to sign a release." "i will. i hope you will be here when he calls." "i will get off for the afternoon. i wish to be here myself. i have a little headache, which will give me an excuse." when solon talbot called on his sister-in-law about three o'clock in the afternoon he was rather disgusted to find mark at home. he knew that mark was much more clear-sighted than his mother, and he feared that he would influence her to refuse her signature. "good afternoon, ellen," he said suavely. "take a seat, mr. talbot," said mrs. mason coldly. "how do you happen to be at home, mark?" asked solon, regarding mark with a slight frown. "i got excused for the afternoon. i have a headache." "perhaps you won't mind going out for a few minutes. i wish to speak to your mother on business." "do you wish me to go out, mother?" asked mark. "no. whatever affects you affects me. besides, i may want your advice." "i don't ask edgar for advice," returned solon talbot dryly. "i suppose not. you are a business man, and can judge better than he. i am not a business man." "you are older than mark." "i have always found mark a safe and good adviser." "you will spoil him by such flattery." "i am not afraid of it." "very well. i will humor your prejudices. mark may have more judgment than i give him credit for." this he said because he saw that it was necessary under the circumstances to propitiate mark. the telegraph boy understood his uncle's object very well and was amused, but remained outwardly grave. "thank you, uncle," he said briefly. "i will address myself, then, to both of you. you will remember that i offered you a hundred dollars in cash--i have the money with me," he added, tapping his pocket--"if you will sign acknowledgment that you have received your full share of your father's estate. it is a mere form, but i want to wind the whole business up and have it off my hands." "i can't sign such a paper at present, solon." "why not?" "because i am not sure that i have received my full share." "don't you believe my assurance to that effect?" said solon talbot impatiently. "it is an important matter, and i have no evidence but your word." "do you doubt my word?" "in this matter your interests and mine might clash." "then let me tell you that you are getting more than your share--that is, when i have paid you the hundred dollars. the fact is, your father left a very small estate. after paying his funeral expenses and debts there was scarcely anything over, and off that little you have already had your share. still i understand your position and sympathize with you in your poverty, and therefore i am willing to strain a point and give you a hundred dollars." if mr. talbot expected his sister-in-law to look grateful he was doomed to disappointment. "a hundred dollars," he continued, "is a good deal of money, especially in your circumstances. i am sure mark will agree with me in this." "it is more than all the money we have," replied mark. "precisely. it will make things easy for you for a year to come. by that time mark will probably be earning higher pay than at present, and so your mind will be quite at ease." "you are very considerate, solon, but i think i would rather not sign." "why, this is midsummer madness. i am sure mark will not advise you to refuse." "i quite agree with my mother," said mark. "well," returned talbot angrily, "i have heard of foolish people, but i must own that you two beat the record." "why are you so anxious that my mother should sign a release, uncle solon," asked mark quietly. "because i wish to have the whole matter settled and off my hands, as i have told you. i have business interests exclusively my own that demand my attention, and i don't want to be bothered by this small matter." "i have no doubt you have good reasons for wishing mother to sign," said mark. "what do you mean?" demanded solon suspiciously. "only that you are a good business man, and understand your own interests." "i wish i could say the same for you," retorted solon talbot sharply. "perhaps we do." "i ought not to be surprised at meeting opposition from a woman and a boy, both ignorant of business. as a rule those who know nothing think they know the most and are most suspicious. however, i can afford to overlook your unexpected obstinacy. i will do what i had no idea of doing when i entered the room. i will increase my offer to a hundred and twenty-five dollars. that is certainly handsome, and i shall not let mrs. talbot and edgar know how foolishly i have acted." as he spoke he laid the paper before mrs. mason. "here is a fountain pen," he said. "you can sign at once." "i don't care to sign, solon." "have you been talking to your mother, mark?" demanded talbot sharply. "have you put her up to this?" "we had a little talk together, but i think she is just as determined on the subject as i am." "then," said solon talbot, "i can only regard your refusal as an act of hostility. evidently you want to break with me and mine. it was my intention to invite you both to take dinner at my house to-morrow; but, as matters stand, we cannot receive you, and i shall forbid mrs. talbot to call upon you." "i shall be sorry to be separated from my sister," said mrs. mason in a pained tone, "but i cannot sign away my own and my children's rightful inheritance." "i don't know what you mean by this nonsense. i have offered you more than your share of your rightful inheritance, as you see fit to call it. if you choose to return my kindness with ingratitude, i can only leave you to the consequences of your own folly." he looked first at mark and then at his mother to see how this speech affected them, but both looked firm, and there seemed to be nothing to do but to leave them. he took his hat and strode to the door, his hands trembling with nervous anger. but at the door he paused. "if you come to your senses," he said, "and desire to accept my offer, mark can call on me. i hate to see you so blind to your own interests." after he had left the room mark and his mother looked at each other. "uncle solon seemed very much in earnest," said mark. "yes; i am now ready to believe that he is conspiring to cheat us. it is shameful! he is a rich man already, and we are so poor." "but we shan't be long, mother." "you must take good care of that memorandum, mark." "i shall carry it to a young lawyer whom i know well, and ask his advice about it. when the right time comes i shall bring it forward. i will ask him to keep it in his safe." "very well, mark. i think that will be wise." the next day mark received a letter at the office where he was employed. on the left-hand upper corner was the imprint: luther rockwell, broker and banker. "he is going to take you into partnership, ," said a. d. t. . "if he does i'll make you my office-boy," said mark in a jocular tone. "i hope the old gentleman has quite recovered from his dynamite scare." chapter xxiii. mark's good luck. mark presented himself at mr. rockwell's office at eleven o'clock. the letter which he had received was a simple invitation to call, signed by the banker himself. "is mr. rockwell in?" he asked. "yes," said the clerk smiling pleasantly, for mark was a favorite in the office. mark went over to the open door, and stood on the threshold with his hat in his hand. the banker looked up. "oh, it is my young friend the messenger boy!" he said cordially, holding out his hand. "i hope you are quite recovered, sir," said mark respectfully. "yes, i believe so. the visit of our dynamite friend was quite a shock to me, and at my age it takes longer to recover from the effects of such an incident than at yours. you must not think that i have forgotten what a service you rendered me." "i am very glad to have done you a service, sir, but i am afraid i must confess that i was thinking partly of myself." "i don't think any the less of you for your frankness. still i am sensible that your promptness and presence of mind saved me from a terrible death--i feel that i ought to do something to show my gratitude." "you have already repaid me, sir, by your kind words." "kind words are well enough, but they are not practical. i should like to take you into my employ but i have no vacancy, and i do not like to discharge any of my old and trusted employees." "i should not be willing to displace any of them, sir." "but there may be another way. are your parents living?" "my mother is living, and i have a little sister." "and i suppose they are dependent upon you partly for support." "yes, sir." "probably you are poor?" "yes, sir; our means are very limited." "so i suppose. what is your name?" "mark mason." mr. rockwell turned to his desk, and opening his check book, deliberately filled up a check. he tore it off and handed it to mark. mark read it in amazement. it was a check for one thousand dollars, payable to the order of mark mason. "a thousand dollars!" he ejaculated. "yes, does it seem to you a large amount? i assure you that i value my life a great deal higher than this sum, so i shall remain your debtor." "it seems a fortune to me, mr. rockwell. how can i thank you for your generous gift?" "my boy, generosity is a variable quality--i am blessed by fortune, and for me it is a small sum to bestow in return for the heroic act. would you like to have mr. nichols go with you to identify you at the bank?" "i don't think i should like to draw it all, sir. i should be afraid to have so much money in my possession." "then you can leave it with me as a deposit subject to your call. how much of it would you like to draw now?" "about fifty dollars, sir. i would like to buy a dress for my mother and sister and a new suit for myself." "well thought of. will you call mr. nichols?" the clerk made his appearance. "my young friend wishes to make a deposit with our house. let him indorse the check. then credit him with the entire amount, and he will draw what sum he wishes." "you are in luck, mark," said the clerk when mark accompanied him into the main office. "you are in luck, and i am heartily glad of it." "thank you, mr. nichols. i feel rich." "it is a good beginning at any rate. i am ten years older than you probably, but i haven't as much money as you. but i don't envy you, and i won't even ask for a loan." when mark left the office and reappeared on broadway his face was flushed with pleasure, and he walked with the elastic step of one whose spirits are light. just as he stepped into the street, he met his cousin edgar. "hello!" said edgar in a condescending tone. "so it's you, is it?" "to the best of my knowledge it is, my good cousin." "don't call me cousin," said edgar, hastily. "i wont," answered mark promptly. "i am just as much ashamed of the relationship as you are." "i suppose that is a joke!" responded edgar haughtily. "if it is, it is a poor one." "no joke at all!" "where have you been?" "to the office of mr. rockwell, my banker." "_your_ banker!" sneered edgar. "how long has he been your banker, i should like to know." "only since this morning. i have just deposited some money with him." "indeed! how much?" "a thousand dollars." "you are too funny altogether. if you are ever worth a thousand cents you will be lucky." "do you think so?" returned mark, smiling. "i shouldn't be satisfied with so small a fortune as that." "my father tells me you and your mother have made him a very poor return for a kind offer he made you yesterday." "that's a matter of business, edgar. we didn't look upon it in the same way. but i am afraid i must tear myself away from your company. i shall be expected at the office." "go by all means. it wouldn't do for you to be bounced. you might starve if you lost your place." "i am not very much afraid of that." "at any rate i ought not to be talking with you. father does not care to have me associate with you." "i hope he won't disinherit you. that would be serious for you. if he does, come round to our house, and we will take care of you." "you are too awfully funny. i think it would be better for you if you were not quite so fresh." mark laughed and went on his way. "wouldn't edgar be surprised," he thought, "if he knew how large a sum i had on deposit with mr. rockwell? he thought i was joking when i was only telling the truth." when mark went home to his supper he said: "mother, i want you to buy a new dress for yourself and one for edith." "there are a good many things we would like, mark, but you must remember that we are not rich." "perhaps not, but i think you can afford new dresses. how much would they cost?" "the material will cost from ten to twenty dollars. i could make them up myself." "all right, mother. here are twenty dollars." "but, mark, can you spare that amount? our rent comes due next week." "it is the last rent we shall pay here. we will move to better quarters." "really, mark, i am afraid you are forgetting your prudence." "that is because you don't know how rich i am mother. i have a thousand dollars on deposit with my banker, or rather nine hundred and fifty, for i drew fifty dollars this morning." mrs. mason surveyed her son with alarm. a terrible suspicion entered her mind. was he becoming mentally unbalanced? mark understood her thoughts and was amused. "don't think i am crazy, mother," he said. "the fact is, mr. rockwell made me a present of a thousand dollars this morning." "is this really true? you are not joking?" "i was never more serious in my life. he told me that i had saved his life, and he didn't think he was overpaying me in giving me a thousand dollars." "he was right, but i was afraid few men would have been so generous. so i really have a rich son." "and i shall have a rich mother when she gets her share of her father's estate." "oh, by the way, there is a letter for you. edith, get mark's letter." "i guess it's from a girl, mark," said his sister, as she handed the messenger boy a dainty epistle in a square envelope. mark opened it and read it aloud. miss maud gilbert asks the favor of mr. mark mason's company at her residence on the evening of thursday, sept. d. "an invitation to a party," said mark flushing with pleasure. "where, mark?" "at the house of miss maud gilbert." "shall you go?" "yes, i can go now, for i shall have a nice suit." "you are getting to be fashionable, mark. who knows but you will be counted among the four hundred some time?" chapter xxiv. the two sisters meet. solon talbot had two strong desires. one was to acquire wealth. the other was to get into good society. he had moved to the city of new york with the idea of helping himself in both these particulars. he took a house on an up-town street at a considerable rental. it was really beyond his means, but he felt that he must make a good appearance. he sent edgar to a fashionable school where he instructed him to be especially attentive to his wealthier schoolfellows. though edgar made himself disagreeable to his poor relations, he flattered and fawned upon the boys who he thought could help him socially, for he, like his father, was ambitious to "get into society." thus he contrived to get invited to the party given by maud gilbert. when he had compassed this he was greatly elated. "father," he said on his return home, "i am invited to miss gilbert's party next thursday evening." "do you mean the gilberts of west forty-fifth street?" "yes." "i am very much pleased, edgar. mr. gilbert is a wealthy merchant, and stands very high in society. how did you manage it?" "through stanley rayburn, who knows her brother." "have you made the acquaintance of miss gilbert?" "yes, i met her walking with stanley on fifth avenue. he introduced me." "i should hardly think she would have invited you on such short acquaintance." "i got stanley to make a personal request of her. she objected at first, but finally came round. stanley says she is very good-natured and obliging." "luckily for you. well, i am glad you have the invitation. it will be an entering wedge. you must try to get acquainted with as many of her guests as possible." "trust me for that, father. i know on which side my bread is buttered." "i know you are sensible. you quite accord with me in your views on this subject. as for your mother she has no proper pride. she would be contented to associate with persons in the same social position as mrs. mason and mark. this very morning she applied to me for permission to call upon her sister." "of course you refused." "of course. not but i would consent if your aunt, instigated by mark, had not acted in such an extraordinary way about signing a release to me as administrator to your grandfather's estate." "what is her reason?" "i suppose she thinks she ought to have more than she has received from it." "grandfather was very poor, wasn't he?" "i didn't think so when he lived, but he left next to nothing after his debts were paid." "some people are very unreasonable." "of course. i suppose mrs. mason and mark think i ought to make up for their disappointment." "but you won't, father?" "certainly not. i did offer them a hundred dollars out of pity for their poverty, but they are standing out for more." "it is quite disgusting." "it is human nature, i suppose," said mr. talbot leniently. "i don't know that i am surprised." mrs. talbot was very unlike her husband and son. she was sincerely attached to her sister, and her affection had not been diminished by mrs. mason's poverty. it was her desire to call on her as soon as she arrived in the city, but she stood somewhat in awe of her husband who had positively refused his consent. so she unwillingly gave up the plan for the present, hoping that the time would soon come when she and her sister could meet. it came two days before the party. with the money with which mark supplied her, mrs. mason went up town to the well-known store of arnold & constable, intending to get dress patterns there. she had made her purchases and received her bundle. "will you have it sent home?" asked the salesman courteously. "no, thank you." mrs. mason shrank from having the parcel brought to her humble abode in st. mark's place. she was turning to go when she heard her name called in glad and familiar accents. "why, ellen, do i meet you at last?" "lucy!" exclaimed mrs. mason, as she clasped hands warmly with her sister. "this is a delightful surprise." "to me also; i thought i should never see you again." "it is not my fault, lucy." "no, no. i know it," answered mrs. talbot. "mr. talbot is peculiar, as you know. he thinks everything of social rank. now tell me, how are you getting on?" "very poorly till lately, but now better." "you are not in want? solon doesn't allow me much money, but----" "no, lucy. i want for nothing. mark is a good boy, and he has been fortunate. you see i have just bought two dress patterns, one for edith, the other for myself." "i am glad indeed to hear it. mark is a telegraph messenger, is he not?" "yes." "i shouldn't think that would pay very well." "it does not, so far as wages go, but some who have employed him have been liberal." "come out with me for a walk. my purchases can wait. we will go to sixth avenue, as we are less likely to be seen together than on broadway." for an hour the two sisters talked, and it seemed delightful to both to be again together. "i must go home now," said mrs. mason, "as i left edith alone. besides it is time for me to prepare supper for mark. i wish you could go with me." "i would, ellen, but mr. talbot would be angry." "do you think he is justified in keeping you away from your only sister?" "no, but, ellen, i am ready to make a sacrifice for a quiet life." "can't we meet again?" "yes; i will go to arnold & constable's next week on the same day and at the same hour. i wish i could invite you to my house, but you know how matters stand." "yes i know. mr. talbot appears to have increased his property." "yes, i judge so, though i receive no larger allowance. but he tells me very little of his affairs. he is more confidential with edgar than myself." "i have seen edgar. he came to my rooms with his father some time since. he is about the age of mark." "yes; there is not over a month's difference between them." "if mr. talbot was different they would be company for each other. i believe mark meets edgar occasionally in the street. i hope edgar is a comfort to you." "he is my son, and of course i love him; but, ellen; i fear his father is not exercising a good influence upon him. he is making him proud and arrogant. i would not mention this except to you." at this moment mark, going up-town on an errand in a sixth avenue car, saw his mother and his aunt together on the sidewalk. he instantly left the car and joined them. "how do you do, aunt lucy?" he said, his face lighting up. "and this is mark!" said mrs. talbot equally pleased. "how you have grown and how well you look!" "thank you, aunt. i am tall enough to look over my mother's head." "as edgar is taller than i. your mother tells me you meet edgar sometimes." "yes, aunt lucy," returned mark smiling, "but he doesn't care to be very intimate with his poor relations." mrs. talbot looked grave. "you won't suspect me of the same feeling, mark?" she said. "no; you are too much like mother." "i am glad to hear that you are doing well." "yes; i have been fortunate." "i wish you were in a better position. perhaps mr. talbot might interest himself to get you a better place." "no, aunt, don't ask him. i have other friends who will help me when i wish to make a change. for the present i am content to remain as i am." mark excused himself and boarded the next car, as he did not wish to lose any time. the sisters separated and mrs. mason went home feeling cheered by her unexpected interview with mrs. talbot. when she returned to her humble home edith said, "mrs. mack wants to see you. i think she is very sick. a gentleman came to see her, but i don't know whether it was a doctor." mrs. mason went up stairs immediately. the old lady was lying on the bed, looking fatigued. "how do you do, mrs. mack?" said mrs. mason kindly. "i feel tired, but i am strong--oh, yes, i am very strong. i think i shall live ten years," and the old woman peered anxiously into mrs. mason's face hoping for a confirmation of her opinion. "i hope you will if you desire it. edith tells me you have had a visit from the doctor." "no, it was not the doctor; it was a lawyer. i have made my will." mrs. mason looked surprised. "not that i have much to leave, but i don't want my nephew to get anything. if anything happens to me--some years hence--i would like you to call on my lawyer and tell him. he has an office at nassau street. mr. page. you will remember?" "yes." "he has my will. i didn't want to leave it here. it might be stolen, or mislaid, and then jack minton would inherit. you'll put down the address?" "i will do it at once." "that is all. i think i will sleep now." "i wonder who will inherit the old lady's money," thought mrs. mason. "very probably she has left it to some charitable society. i know of no other relation except jack minton." chapter xxv. maud gilbert's party. edgar talbot looked forward with eager anticipation to the evening of maud gilbert's party. it was to be his introduction into new york society. he flattered himself that his appearance would win him favor. though far from handsome, he thought himself so--a delusion not uncommon among boys and men. he dressed himself very carefully, and at the proper time set out for the house where the party was to be held. he and stanley rayburn had agreed to go together. on reaching the house they were directed to the room set apart for gentlemen to arrange their toilet and leave their coats. the mansion was brilliantly decorated, and as edgar went up-stairs he felt a thrill of exultation at being a guest in such a house. he inwardly resolved that he would take advantage of his slight acquaintance with the gilberts and push himself into intimate friendship. in that way he would be in a position to extend his acquaintance among fashionable people. but a surprise and a shock were in store for him. as he entered the room he saw a boy standing in front of the mirror brushing his hair. he started in surprise. the figure looked familiar. could it be! yes, it was his cousin mark mason--mark mason, handsomely dressed in party costume, and with a rose in his button-hole. mark turned round to see who were the newcomers. "good evening, edgar," said mark. "_you_ here!" exclaimed edgar, in unqualified amazement. "yes; i did not expect to have the pleasure of meeting you," answered mark with an amused smile. he understood edgar's surprise, and the reason of it. meanwhile stanley rayburn stood by in silence. "introduce me to your friend, edgar," he said, for he was attracted by mark's frank, handsome face. "mark mason--stanley rayburn!" said edgar awkwardly. he would have liked to decline introducing stanley to his poor cousin, but there seemed to be no way of avoiding it. "i am glad to make your acquaintance, mr. mason," said stanley cordially. "thank you, but don't call me mr. mason." "i would rather say mark. any friend of edgar----" "mark mason and i are only acquaintances," said edgar hurriedly, and in the worst possible taste. "i hope that _we_ shall be friends," said stanley with emphasis, thinking that edgar was a cad. "i hope so too," rejoined mark earnestly, "if, after getting my 'character' from edgar," he added with a smile, "you still wish it." stanley was a little puzzled, not knowing how mark was regarded by his companion. "i think i shall go down at once," said stanley. "i don't think i require any finishing touches to my toilet." "be ready to go with me to miss gilbert," said edgar. "i will follow you in a minute." "very well." "now," said edgar, when he and his cousin were alone, "how do you happen to be here?" "by miss gilbert's invitation, of course. i suppose that is the case with you." "certainly. does she know that you are a telegraph boy?" "yes." "that's strange. did you ever meet her?" "oh, yes; i have spent the evening here two or three times." "that's queer. by the way, you seem to be very nicely dressed." "i am glad you like my suit." "yet you are as poor as poverty. it was a crazy idea to run into debt for an expensive suit." "i didn't run into debt. my suit is paid for." "yet your mother claims to be very poor." "we are getting along better now." "it would have been wiser for you to save the money you spent on this suit and keep it for rent and food." "your advice is very kind, edgar, but i really feel that i can manage my own business." "oh, well, if you choose to resent my good advice----" "i don't. i hope it springs from your interest in me." during this conversation edgar was brushing his hair carefully and "prinking" before the glass, for he was anxious to appear as fascinating as possible when he presented himself to miss gilbert. "shall we go down?" asked mark. "yes, perhaps we may as well. i suppose you would feel awkward entering the drawing-room alone." "perhaps so," said mark smiling. as the two presented themselves in the room below edgar looked about for stanley, but did not see him. "i wonder where stanley has disappeared to," he said in a tone of vexation. "he promised to go up with me to miss gilbert." "if he doesn't show up, edgar, i shall be glad to take his place. as you have only recently come to the city, i suppose you don't know her well." "i only met her once," edgar admitted, "and she may not remember me." "then come with me." almost against his wishes edgar found himself walking up to the other end of the room with his despised cousin. he would not have believed it possible if this had been predicted to him an hour earlier. "good evening, mark! i am glad to see you here," said maud gilbert, with a pleasant smile. "let me present mr. edgar talbot," said mark after a suitable acknowledgment. "i had the pleasure of meeting you when in company with stanley rayburn," explained edgar. "oh, yes, i remember. and so you are also acquainted with mark." "yes," answered edgar, rather awkwardly. "i expected mr. rayburn to present me." "you have found a sponsor equally good," returned maud. then the two walked on, giving place to others. "you seem to know miss gilbert very well," said edgar in a tone of curiosity. "yes." "it is strange. i don't understand it." edgar was relieved to find that mark did not claim him as a cousin, though to his surprise he saw that mark stood particularly well with the young hostess. "how do you, mark?" the speaker was a bright boy of sixteen, the brother of miss gilbert. "how well you are looking!" "thank you, charlie. if a young lady had told me that it would make me proud." "come along. i will introduce you to a couple of nice girls." "who is that?" asked edgar of rayburn, who had now come up. "don't you know? that is charlie gilbert, maud's brother." "so he knows mark, too." "why shouldn't he?" "because mark is--you will be surprised to hear it--a common telegraph boy." "he may be a telegraph boy, but he certainly is not a common one. he is a nice-looking fellow, and i am glad to know him." presently dancing began. in his earlier days, when his father was living, mark had taken lessons from a teacher, and though he was rather out of practise he ventured to go out on the floor, having as his partner one of the prettiest girls in the room. as there was space for but two sets of dancers, edgar was obliged to sit still and see the others dance. he felt very much dissatisfied especially as mark seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly. "society in new york seems to be very much mixed," he said to himself, "when telegraph boys can push in and make themselves so conspicuous in rich men's houses." edgar got a chance to dance once later on, but the girl he danced with was very small and insignificant in appearance. * * * * * "well, what kind of a time did you have?" asked solon talbot when his son returned home. "very good." "i suppose it was quite a brilliant affair," said solon talbot complacently. "i am glad to have you invited to such a swell house. did stanley rayburn take you up to miss gilbert?" "no; he promised to, but when i looked for him he was not to be found." "that was awkward." "no; i found a substitute, a boy whom you and i both know." "i have no idea whom you can mean." "no; you might guess all night, but without success. it was mark mason." "what! you don't mean to say that mark mason was a guest at the party?" "yes he was, and he seemed very well acquainted too." "was he in his telegraph uniform?" "no; he had on a nice new suit, as handsome as mine. he had a rose in his button-hole and looked quite like a dude." "how very extraordinary!" ejaculated solon. "i thought you would say so." "why, they are living from hand to mouth, steeped in poverty." "so i thought, but it doesn't seem like it." "the boy must be very cheeky, but even so, i can't account for his success. i shall have to call on his mother and ask what it means." chapter xxvi. an important commission. a week later mark received the following letter: "mark mason: please call at my office as soon as convenient. "d. gilbert." "this letter is from maud gilbert's father," said mark, addressing his mother. "i wonder what he wants." "nothing disagreeable, i am sure. of course you will go." "i will call to-morrow morning." mr. gilbert was a commission merchant, with an office in the lower part of the city, west of broadway. mark obtained leave of absence for an hour agreeing to pay the price usually charged to customers. he had seen mr. gilbert, a stout, portly man of fifty, during his call at the house in forty-fifth street. therefore when he was admitted to mr. gilbert's office, he addressed him not as a stranger but as an old acquaintance. "i received your note, mr. gilbert, and have called according to your request." "that is right, mark. sit down till i have finished looking over my letters. you will find the morning _herald_ on the table near you." in ten minutes the merchant had finished with his letters, and whirled round in his chair. "i believe you are a telegraph boy," he said. "yes, sir." "what pay do you receive?" "i don't average over six dollars a week." "how old are you?" "sixteen." "my daughter thinks you are unusually bright and intelligent." "i am very much obliged to miss maud for her good opinion," said mark, his face flushing with gratification. "how can you get along on six dollars a week? you have a mother partially dependent upon you, i believe." "i have lately had a present of a thousand dollars from mr. luther rockwell, the banker. i was in his office when a dynamite crank threatened to blow us all up." "i heartily congratulate you, mark. you deserved the gift for your coolness and courage, but it isn't every rich man who would make so generous an acknowledgment for your services." "that's true, sir. mr. rockwell has been very kind." "how do you like the position of telegraph boy?" "i would like to give it up. it doesn't lead to anything. but i don't want to throw myself out of work. six dollars a week is a small income, but it is better than nothing." "i approve your prudence, but i think other and better employment can be obtained for you. maud tells me that you were sent not long since to cleveland with some valuable jewelry." "yes, sir." "you succeeded in your mission?" "yes, sir." "did you meet with any adventures while you were gone?" "yes, sir." "tell me briefly what they were." mark did so. "don't think i am influenced by curiosity," said mr. gilbert. "the fact is, i have a still longer journey for you if you don't object, and i wished to assure myself that you were adequate to undertake it. it may take six weeks, or it may take two months. i should advise you to give up your position as messenger, and i will guarantee you an equally good place when you return." "thank you, sir. in that case i won't hesitate to give it up." "your week closes to-morrow, i suppose." "yes, sir." "then give notice at once." "where are you going to send me, sir?" asked mark, with pardonable curiosity. "to california." mark looked amazed. he knew that california was even further away than liverpool, and having the love of travel and adventure natural to boys of his age he felt that he should thoroughly enjoy the trip. "i should like very much to go," he said promptly. "now i must tell you why i send you. a cousin of mine has just died in california, leaving a young son of ten years of age. he wrote me a letter from his death-bed commending the boy to my care. i will gladly undertake the charge of the boy, as i had a strong regard for his father, who, by the way had died poor. "but a difficulty presented itself. the boy could not come east by himself, and there seemed no one to bring him. of course i can't leave my business, and there is no one else in my family who can be sent. under these circumstances maud has recommended me to send you." "i shall be glad to go, sir." "you are a rather young guardian for a young boy, but i think you possess the necessary qualification. your experience as a telegraph boy has made you sharp and self-reliant, and altogether i think you will acquit yourself to my satisfaction." "i will try to, sir." "i need no assurance of that." "how am i to go?" "by the union and central pacific road from omaha. i will supply you with a through ticket." "shall you wish me to return immediately?" "no; you can stay in california two or three weeks and get acquainted with the boy. i have never seen him, but i think you won't find him troublesome. are you fond of children?" "very, sir." "the poor boy will need a kind friend, having lost his father so recently. and now, there is one thing more to be spoken of--your compensation." "i shall be satisfied with whatever you think right." "then we will fix that after your return. but you will need to leave some money with your mother to pay expenses while you are away." "i can draw from mr. rockwell." "no; if you have money in his hands let it remain. i will advance you a hundred dollars to leave with your mother. i may as well do that now. on saturday evening, when you are released from your present position, call at the house and receive your ticket and final instructions." "thank you, sir." mr. gilbert rang a little bell, and a boy appeared. "go to the bank and get this check cashed," said the merchant. in a few minutes he returned with a roll of bills. "count them over and see if they are right, mark." "yes, sir; they are correct." "very good! remember that they are for your mother. tell her also that if you remain longer than i anticipate, and she gets short of money, she can call at my office and i will supply her with more." mark left the office in a state of joyful excitement. he was to make a long journey across the continent. he would see many states and cities, and become acquainted with places which he now knew only by hearsay. and after he returned his prospects would be brighter, for mr. gilbert had promised to find him a position at least equal to the one he resigned. in the afternoon as mark was returning from an errand in west fiftieth street, he saw edgar talbot in the neighborhood of bryant park. "hallo!" said edgar condescendingly. "are you on an errand?" "yes." "ho, ho! how you will look in a telegraph boy's uniform when you are a young man of twenty-five." "what makes you think i am going to be a telegraph boy so long?" "because you are not fit for any other business." mark smiled. "i am sorry for that," he said, "for as it happens i have tendered my resignation." "you don't mean that you are going to leave the messenger service?" "yes." "but how are you going to live? it won't be any use to ask father for money." "i presume not." "perhaps," suggested edgar hopefully, "you have been discharged." "i discharged myself." "have you got another position?" "i am going to travel for a while." edgar talbot was more and more perplexed. in fact he had always found mark a perplexing problem. "how can you travel without money?" "give it up. i don't propose to." "have you got any money?" mark happened to have with him the roll of bills given him for his mother. he drew it out. "do you mean to say that is yours? how much is there?" "a hundred dollars." "i don't believe it is yours." "it isn't. it belongs to my mother." "but father said she was very poor." "at any rate this money belongs to her." "where are you going to travel?" "out west." this was all the information mark would give. edgar reported the conversation to his father, who was also perplexed. "mark mason is a strange boy," he said. "i don't understand him." chapter xxvii. last instructions. mark had intended to find a new and more comfortable place for his mother, being dissatisfied with their humble rooms in st. mark's place, but the journey he was called upon so unexpectedly to make, led to a postponement of this plan. "you can move, mother, if you like," said mark, after placing the hundred dollars in her hands. "you'll have money enough." "that's true, mark, but you wouldn't know how to address me, and i might lose some of your letters. i shall be satisfied to stay here till you return. but do you think you had better go? you are very young to cross the continent alone." "i am nearly sixteen, mother, and i have been in the habit of looking out for myself. besides mr. gilbert thinks i am old enough, and if he has confidence in me i ought to have confidence in myself." "i suppose it is all right, but i shall miss you terribly." "it is for my good, and will be for yours, mother. i have long wanted to leave the messenger service and get into some steady position where i can push myself ahead, and this seems to me my chance." "you will write often, mark?" "i will be sure to do that. you don't think i will forget my mother?" on saturday evening mark went to mr. gilbert's to receive instructions. "i must tell you something about the boy of whom you are to be temporary guardian," said mr. gilbert. "perhaps it will be best for me to read you in the first place the letter i received from my poor cousin just before his death. it was written at his dictation, for he was already too weak to hold the pen." he drew from a desk this letter which he proceeded to read aloud: "gulchville, california, "oct. . "my dear cousin, "when this letter reaches you i shall in all probability be in a better world. i am dying of consumption. i leave behind me a boy of ten--my poor little philip. i leave him to the mercies of a cold world, for i am penniless. i had a little property once, but i speculated and lost all. poor philip will be an orphan and destitute. i know you are rich and prosperous. won't you, in your generosity, agree to care for my poor boy? he won't require much, and i shall be content to have him reared plainly, but i don't want him to suffer. "i am sick at the house of a cousin of my wife. he is a mean man, and his wife is also penurious and mean. they have made my sickness still more bitter by their taunts. they complain that i am an expense to them, and they would turn me out of doors, sick as i am, i am convinced, if they were not ashamed to do so. poor philip will be left to their tender mercies, but i hope only for a short time. i can bear to suffer myself, but i can't bear to think of his suffering. he is a sensitive boy, not over strong, and ill-fitted to bear the buffetings of a cold and unkind world. won't you send for him as soon as you can? in your hands i am sure he will be safe and kindly cared for. "i am getting very tired and must stop. god bless you! "your unfortunate cousin, "john lillis. "p. s. the man in whose house i am stopping is named nahum sprague." "you see, mark, your mission will be one of mercy. the sooner the poor boy is rescued from such people as mr. and mrs. sprague the better for him. by the way, i don't want them to say my cousin has been an expense to them. therefore i will authorize you to obtain from them an itemized account of what they have spent for him and the boy and pay it. you will see that they don't impose upon me by presenting too large a bill." "yes, sir. i will look sharply after your interests." "i shall give you more than enough to get you to san francisco, and i will give you a letter to a firm there, authorizing you to draw upon them for any sum you may require up to a thousand dollars." "but that will be a great deal more than i shall need." "i presume so, but i give you so large a credit to use in case of emergencies." "you are trusting me very far, mr. gilbert." "i am aware of that, but i feel entirely safe in doing so." "thank you, sir." other directions were given, and it was agreed that mark should start on his long journey on monday morning. chapter xxviii. mark at omaha. some days later mark found himself at omaha. here he was to transfer himself to the union pacific railroad; at that time the only pacific road built with the exception of the central pacific, which formed with it a continuous line to san francisco. mark decided to remain in omaha for a single day and then take the train for his destination. at the hotel mark found himself sitting next to a man with bronzed face and rough attire who embodied his ideas of a miner. the stranger during the meal devoted himself strictly to business, but going out of the dining-room at the same time with mark he grew sociable. "well, young pard.," he said, "what's your trail?" mark looked puzzled. "i mean which way are you going--east or west?" "i am going to san francisco." "ever been there before?" mark shook his head. "i never was as far west as this before," he answered. "i came from new york." "so i thought. you look like a tenderfoot. are you going out to stay?" "only a short time. i am going after a young boy. i am going to carry him back with me." "a kid, eh? you're not much more than a kid yourself." "i guess i can take care of myself," said mark with a smile. "shouldn't wonder. you look like it. nothing soft about you." "i hope i haven't got a soft head. as to my heart, i hope that isn't hard." "good for you. i reckon you're a likely kind of boy." "i suppose you have been to california," said mark, thinking it his turn to ask questions. "yes; i've been on the coast for three years, more or less." "how do you like it out there?" "well, i've had my ups and downs. a year ago, six months for that matter, i was dead broke." "did your luck change?" "not till i struck nevada. then i got a small interest in the golden hope mine----" "the golden hope mine?" exclaimed mark in excitement. "do you know anything of that mine, youngster?" "yes; i have a--a friend who owns some stock in it." "then your friend is in luck. why, do you know where the stock stands to-day?" "no, but i should like to know." "at ." mark's eyes sparkled with joyous excitement. "is it possible?" he exclaimed. "it's so. i've got a block of a hundred shares myself, which i bought eighteen months ago for a song. i give you my word i didn't think it worth more than a dollar or two a share--what i gave--when i learned not long since that they'd struck it rich, and i was no longer a pauper." "that's good news for me," said mark slowly. "why? have you got any of it?" "my mother is entitled to two hundred shares from her father's estate." "whew! have you come out to see about it?" "no; that was not my object, but i shall find what i can about it." "you're in luck." "well, perhaps so. but my uncle is trying to cheat my mother out of it." "then he must be a rascal. tell me about it." the man looked sympathetic and trustworthy, and mark without hesitation told him the story as it is already known to the reader. "do you think the stock has reached its highest point?" he asked anxiously. "no; it will probably rise to two hundred." "then my uncle probably won't close it out just at present." "no; he will hear how the matter stands, and if he is sharp he will hold on." "i am glad of that, for i want a little time to decide how to act." "i am going to stop at the mine on my way to 'frisco." "i will give you my address and ask you to write me a line to the care of my banker there, letting me know what you can about the mine." "all right, boy! i like you, and i'll do it. when do you start?" "to-morrow." "we'll start together, and i'll get off the train in nevada." chapter xxix. nahum sprague and his orphan ward. leaving mark on his way we will precede him, and carry the reader at once to gulchville, in california, where he was to find the young boy of whom mr. gilbert had requested him to take charge. in an unpainted frame house lived mr. nahum sprague. in new england such a building would hardly have cost over five hundred dollars, but here it had been erected at more than double the expense by the original owner. when he became out of health and left california it was bought for a trifling price by nahum sprague. the latter was a man of forty-five with small eyes and a face prematurely wrinkled. he was well-to-do, but how he had gained his money no one knew. he and his wife, however, were mean and parsimonious. they had one son, a boy of fifteen, who resembled them physically and mentally. he was named oscar, after a gentleman of wealth, in the hope that at his death the boy would be remembered. unfortunately for oscar the gentleman died without a will and his namesake received nothing. the disappointed parents would gladly have changed the boy's name, but oscar would not hear of it, preferring the name that had become familiar. this was the family whose grudging hospitality had embittered the last days of john lillis, and to them he was obliged to commit the temporary guardianship of his little son philip. in the field adjoining, philip lillis, a small pale boy, was playing when oscar sprague issued from the house. "come here, you little brat!" he said harshly. philip looked with a frightened expression. "what do you want of me?" he asked. "what do i want? come here and see." the little fellow approached. he was received with a sharp slap in the face. "why do you hit me, oscar?" philip asked tearfully. "because you didn't come quicker," answered the young tyrant. "i didn't know you were in a hurry." "well, you know it now." "you wouldn't have hit me when papa was alive," said philip with a flash of spirit. "well, he isn't alive, see?" "i know he isn't, and i am alone in the world." "well, don't snivel! if anything makes me sick at the stomach it is to see a boy snivel." "maybe you'd cry if your papa was dead." "there ain't much fear. the old man's too tough," responded oscar, who had no sentimental love for his father. indeed, it would have been surprising if he had shown any attachment to nahum sprague, who was about as unattractive in outward appearance as he was in character and disposition. "you didn't tell me what you wanted me to do." "just wait till i tell you, smarty. do you see this bottle?" "yes." "take it to the saloon and get it full of whisky." "papa didn't want me to go into a liquor saloon." "well, your papa ain't got nothing to do with you now. see? you just do as i tell you." philip took the bottle unwillingly and started for the saloon. "mind you don't drink any of it on the way home," called out oscar. "as if i would," said philip indignantly. "i don't drink whisky and i never will." "oh, you're an angel!" sneered oscar. "you're too good for this world. ain't you afraid you'll die young, as they say good boys do?" "i don't believe you'll die young, oscar." "hey? was that meant for an insult? but never mind! i don't pretend to be one of the goody-goody sunday-school kids. now mind you don't loiter on the way." oscar sat down on the doorstep and began to whittle. the door opened and his father came out. "why didn't you go to the saloon as i told you?" he asked hastily. "it's all the same. i sent philip." "you sent that boy? he ain't fit to send on such an errand." "why ain't he? he can ask to have the bottle filled, can't he?" "what did he say? was he willing to go?" "he said his papa," mimicked oscar, "didn't want him to go into a liquor saloon." "he did, hey? all the more reason for making him go. his poverty-stricken father can't help him now. why, i am keeping the boy from starving." "are you going to keep him always, dad?" "i ought to turn him over to the town, but folks would talk. there's a man in new york that his father said would send for him. i don't know whether he will or not. there's a matter of fifty dollars due to me for burying john lillis. that's the way i get imposed upon." philip kept on his way to the saloon. he was a timid, sensitive boy, and he shrank from going into the place which was generally filled with rough men. two miners were leaning against the front of the wooden shanty used for the sale of liquor when philip appeared. as he passed in one said to the other, "well, i'll be jiggered if here isn't a kid comin' for his liquor. i say, kid, what do you want?" "some whisky," answered philip timidly. "how old are you?" "ten." "i say, young 'un, you're beginnin' early." "i don't want it for myself," returned philip half indignantly. "oh, no, of course not. you won't take a sip yourself, of course not." "no, i won't. my papa never drank whisky, and he told me not to." "where is your papa?" "gone to heaven." the miner whistled. "then who sent you for whisky?" "mr. sprague." "old nahum?" "his name is nahum." "i thought he was too mean to buy whisky. do you live with him?" "yes, sir." "is he any kin to you?" "no," answered philip quickly. "does he treat you well?" "i don't like to answer such questions," said philip guardedly. "i suppose you are afraid to. did your father leave any money?" "no," answered philip sadly. "then i understand how it is. do you expect to keep on living with mr. sprague?" "papa wrote to a gentleman in new york. i expect he will send for me." "i hope he will for your sake, poor little chap. well, go on and get your whisky. i don't want to take up your time." as philip entered the first speaker remarked, "well, bill, i don't pretend to be an angel, but i wouldn't send a kid like that for whisky. i drink it myself, but i wouldn't want a boy like that to go for it. i'd go myself." "i agree with you," said bill. "that sprague ain't of much account any way. i'd lick him myself for a dollar. he's about as mean as they make 'em." chapter xxx. philip finds a friend. when the two unauthorized ministers of justice had departed oscar and his father looked at each other in anger and stupefaction. "it's an outrage!" exclaimed nahum sprague. "i'd like to shoot them!" returned oscar. "i'd like to see them flayed within an inch of their lives." "so would i. they are the most audacious desperadoes i ever encountered." "do you know them, dad?" "yes; they are bill murphy and joe hastings. they are always hanging round the drinking saloon." "we can lick philip at any rate!" said oscar, with a furious look at poor phil. "he brought it on us." but nahum sprague was more prudent. he had heard the threat of bill and joe to repeat the punishment if philip were attacked, and he thought it best to wait. "leave it to me," he said. "i'll flog him in due time." "ain't you going to do anything to him, dad?" asked oscar in disappointment. "yes. come here, you, sir!" phil approached his stern guardian with an uncomfortable sense of something unpleasant awaiting him. nahum sprague seized him by the collar and said, "follow me." he pushed the boy before him and walked him into the house, then up the stairs into an attic room, where he locked him in. just then the bell rang for dinner. poor phil was hungry, but nothing was said about dinner for him. a dread suspicion came to him that he was to be starved. but half an hour later the door opened, and oscar appeared with two thin slices of bread without butter. "here's your dinner," he said. it was a poor enough provision for a hungry boy, but phil ate them with relish, oscar looking on with an amused smile. "is that all i am to have?" asked phil. "yes; it is all you deserve." "i don't know what i have done." "you don't, hey? you broke the bottle and spilled the whisky." "i wouldn't have done it if you hadn't pushed me." "there you go, laying it off on me. you'd better not." "but it's true, oscar." "no, it isn't. you broke the bottle to spite pa." "i wouldn't have dared to do it," said philip. "you dared a little too much, anyway. didn't you get those men to follow you and interfere with what was none of their business?" "no, i didn't." "hadn't you spoken with them at the saloon?" "yes." "i thought so." "they asked me who sent me for the whisky and i told them." "you didn't need to tell them. if it hadn't been for that they wouldn't have come round to our place and assaulted pa and me. they'll catch it, pa says. shouldn't wonder if they'd be put in prison for five years." young as he was phil put no faith in this ridiculous statement, but he thought it best not to make any comment. "how long is your father going to keep me here?" he asked. "maybe a month." this opened a terrible prospect to poor phil, who thought mr. sprague quite capable of inflicting such a severe punishment. "if he does i won't live through it," he said desperately. "you don't mean to kill yourself!" said oscar, startled. "no, but i shall starve. i am awfully hungry now." "what, after eating two slices of bread?" "they were very thin, and i have exercised a good deal." "then i advise you to make it up with pa. if you get down on your knees and tell him you are sorry, perhaps he will forgive you, and let you out." phil did not feel willing to humiliate himself in that way, and remained silent. "there ain't any bed for me to sleep on," he said, looking around. "you will have to sleep on the floor. i guess you'll get enough of it." oscar locked the door on the outside and went down-stairs. disagreeable as he was phil was sorry to have him go. he was some company, and when left to himself there was nothing for him to do. if there had been any paper or book in the room it would have helped him tide over the time, but the apartment was bare of furniture. there was one window looking out on the side of the house. phil posted himself at this, and soon saw oscar and his father leave the premises and go down the street. nahum had a bottle in his hand, and phil concluded he was going to the drinking saloon to get a fresh bottle of whisky. phil continued to look out of the window. presently he saw a boy pass whom he knew--a boy named arthur burks. he opened the window and called out eagerly, "arthur!" arthur turned round and looking up espied philip. "hello!" he cried. "what are you doing up there?" "i am locked in." "what for?" "i accidentally dropped a bottle of whisky, and spilled it. mr. sprague got mad and locked me up here." "that's a shame. how long have you got to stay?" "oscar says he may keep me here a month." "he's only frightening you. old sprague wouldn't dare to do it." "that isn't all. i am half starved. he only gave me two small slices of bread for dinner." "he's a mean old hunks. i just wish you could come round to our house. we'd give you enough to eat." "i wish i were there now," sighed philip. "i've got an idea," said arthur, brightening up. "what time do mr. sprague and oscar go to bed?" "very early. about nine o'clock." "would you run away if you could?" "yes." "then i'll tell you what i'll do. at half-past nine albert frost and i will come around with a tall ladder--mr. frost has got one--and we'll put it up against your window. will you dare to get out of the window, and come down?" "yes, i'll do anything to get away. but can you get the ladder?" "yes; albert will manage it. do you think the old man will be likely to see or hear us?" "no; he sleeps on the other side of the house." "all right! you can expect us. i guess i had better go now, for fear i may be seen, and they might suspect something." "but where can i go when i leave here?" "come to our house. you can sleep with rob, my little brother." "thank you, arthur. i'll expect you." philip felt a good deal more cheerful after arthur had gone. he knew that in arthur's house he would be very differently treated from what he had been by nahum sprague. he did not feel it wrong to leave the spragues', as they were constantly complaining that he was a burden. "if mr. burks would only let me live with him," he thought, "i should be happy, and i would be willing to work hard." at half-past five oscar came up to the room again, this time accompanied by his father. "how do you like being locked up here?" asked nahum. "not very well." "get down on your knees and beg my pardon for your bad conduct, and i will let you out." "i would rather not, sir." "do you hear that, oscar? he would rather not." "i heard it, pa." "it is only right that he should suffer the penalty of his headstrong conduct. give him his supper and we will leave him to think of his sinfulness." oscar produced two more thin slices of bread and a cup of very weak tea. "you are not entitled to tea," said nahum. "it is only because we are kind-hearted that i permitted mrs. sprague to send up a cup. i have not put in milk or sugar because i refuse to pamper you." philip made no comment, but disposed of the tea and bread in a very short space of time. he felt ready to join in with oliver, in dickens's immortal story, when he asked for "more." but he knew it would be of no use. "now, we will go down, oscar." "all right, pa. i hope the house won't catch fire in the night," he added, with the laudable purpose of terrifying philip, "for we might not be able to come up and unlock the door." philip felt uncomfortable, but he reflected that before many hours, if arthur burks kept his promise, he would no longer be an inmate of mr. sprague's home. "he'll have a sweet time sleeping on the floor, pa," said oscar as they went down-stairs. "it will serve the little fool right," returned nahum sprague grimly. chapter xxxi. the mining stock is sold. "but i understood that you were poor," said mr. rockwell, surprised at mark's statement. "that we are so is because mr. talbot as executor has concealed from my mother the existence of the stock as a part of grandfather's estate." "how long since you grandfather died?" "nearly two years." "and the stock is only now to be sold?" "yes; my uncle had advices that it would be well to wait, as it was likely to go up." "and your mother's share is half--say, two hundred shares?" "yes, sir." "then she will be comfortable for life. at the price i am thinking of paying, this will amount to over fifty thousand dollars. now can you give me any information about the mine?" "yes, sir; i made it my business to inquire. it is confidently expected to go considerably higher. it is growing richer every day." "i shall rely upon your statements and buy the stock. after it is sold i advise you to take immediate steps to secure your share. have you consulted a lawyer?" "yes; a young man." "in a matter of this importance an older and more experienced lawyer will be better, i will give you a note to my own lawyer." "thank you, sir." "i am now going to the office of crane & lawton where i shall meet your uncle, and conclude the business. come here in less than two hours and i may be able to tell you the result." "i will do so." solon talbot was much elated when informed by crane & lawton that they had found a purchaser for his mining stock in the person of luther rockwell, the well-known banker. "do you think he would stand a higher price?" asked talbot. "it would not be wise to ask it." "he is very rich. he could afford to pay more." "true; but he became rich through prudence and shrewdness. sell to him and you won't have to wait for your money." "no doubt you are right. i will be guided by your advice." when solon talbot was introduced to mr. rockwell he made a deferential bow. "i am honored in making your acquaintance, mr. rockwell," he said. "thank you, sir." the banker would have been more cordial but for what he had heard from mark. "how long have you owned this stock, mr. talbot?" inquired mr. rockwell. "three years." "it is not held in your name." "no; it belongs to the estate of my late father-in-law, elisha doane." "i take it that you are the executor of the estate." "yes, sir." solon talbot would not have been so communicative if he had supposed that the banker was a friend to mark. he had forgotten mark's agency in protecting mr. rockwell from the dynamite fiend. "the stock was probably purchased at a very low figure." "i presume so, though i do not know what was paid for it. indeed i never heard of it until i came to examine the items of my father-in-law's estate. he didn't have much else." "it is fortunate for his heirs." "yes," answered talbot rather nervously. he was afraid mr. rockwell might inquire who were the other heirs. had he done so, he would have evaded the question or boldly declared that there was no other heirs except himself. after half an hour's conversation the purchase was made, and a check for one hundred and four thousand dollars was handed to mr. talbot. "i hope you will not have occasion to regret your purchase, mr. rockwell," said solon. "i think i shall not from advices i have received about increasing richness." at the time appointed mark called at mr. rockwell's office. "well, mark," said the lawyer, "i made the purchase." "at two hundred and sixty?" "yes. i congratulate you." "that is, if i succeed in getting our share from my uncle." "i will give you a letter to my lawyer, mr. gerrish. obtain a letter from him, as your counsel, and call to-morrow upon your uncle with a formal demand for your mother's share of the proceeds of the mining stock." chapter xxxii. conclusion. solon talbot went home in high spirits. it was only recently that he had become aware of the great value of the golden hope shares. it had come to him as an agreeable surprise. "with what i was worth before," he soliloquized, "i may now rate myself at one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. that is very good--for a beginning. i can afford to buy the house in forty-seventh street, for i shall still have a hundred thousand dollars over, and in five years i mean to make it half a million." he paced up and down his library in a state of joyous excitement. no thought of giving his sister-in-law her rightful due entered his mind. "how can she find out?" he reflected. "old mr. doane never told any of us of his mining shares. i presume he looked upon them as rather a risky investment. it has proved to be a splendid speculation, but it was rather a lucky accident than a shrewd purchase." it was after breakfast on the morning succeeding the sale of stock. mr. talbot was preparing to go over to the house which he proposed to purchase for a last examination before making up his mind, when the servant entered the library. "there is a boy down-stairs wishes to see you, mr. talbot," he said. "perhaps a boy from crane & lawton," he reflected. "show him up." directly afterwards mark mason entered the room. "mark!" exclaimed talbot. "what brings you here!" "a matter of business, uncle solon." "then you will have to wait, for i am just going out." "the business is important," said mark significantly. "well, what is it?" "i understand you sold yesterday the shares in the golden hope mine belonging to grandfather's estate." "what!" exclaimed solon talbot, his face showing his surprise and dismay. "there were four hundred shares, and they were sold to luther rockwell, the banker." "who told you this? have you had any communication from crane & lawton?" "no; though i know the sale was made through them." solon talbot paused long enough to pull himself together. it would never do to surrender at discretion. he would brazen it out to the last. "your information is partly true," he said. "i did sell some shares of mining stock, but they belonged to me. you have nothing to do with them." "uncle solon," said mark composedly, "it is useless to try to deceive me. the four hundred shares were bought by my grandfather, and belonged to his estate. half of the proceeds rightfully belongs to my mother." spots of perspiration stood on solon talbot's brow. should he allow fifty thousand dollars to slip from his grasp? "you audacious boy!" he exclaimed. "how dare you make such an assertion?" "because i happen to know that the four hundred shares stood in the name of my grandfather, elisha doane." "that is a lie. may i ask where you got this information?" "from the purchaser of the stock, luther rockwell." "what do you know of luther rockwell?" demanded solon talbot, incredulous. "he is one of my best friends. before buying the shares of the golden hope mine he asked my advice." "do you expect me to believe such ridiculous stuff? what could you know about the mine?" "i have recently returned from california. on the way i stopped in nevada, and i have in my pocket a statement signed by the secretary of the company, that four hundred shares of the stock stood in the name of my grandfather." it was a series of surprises. solon talbot walked up and down the library in a state of nervous agitation. "what do you expect me to do?" he added finally. "this letter will inform you, uncle solon." "from whom is it?" "from my lawyer, george gerrish." mr. gerrish, as mr. talbot knew, was one of the leaders of the bar. he opened it with trembling hands, and read the following: "mr. solon talbot: "dear sir: "my client, mark mason, authorizes me to demand of you an accounting of the sums received by you as executor of the estate of his late grandfather, elisha doane, to the end that his mother, co-heiress with your wife, may receive her proper shares of the estate. an early answer will oblige, "yours respectfully, "george gerrish." "do you know mr. gerrish well, too?" asked talbot. "no, sir, but mr. rockwell gave me a note to him. i have had an interview with him." "say to him that he will hear from me." mark bowed and withdrew. within a week solon talbot had agreed to make over to his sister-in-law, mrs. mason, a sum of over fifty thousand dollars, representing her share of her father's estate. he reconsidered his purpose of buying the house in west forty-seventh street, and decided to remain in the flat which he then occupied. mrs. mason and mark took a handsome flat up town, and henceforth were able to live as well as their pretentious relatives. mark was advised by mr. rockwell as to the investment of his mother's money, and it has already increased considerably. he is himself taking a mercantile course at a commercial college, and will eventually enter the establishment of mr. gilbert, with whom he is as great a favorite as ever. it never rains but it pours. one morning mrs. mack, the aged miser, was found dead in bed. she left a letter directing mark to call on her lawyer. to his surprise he found that he was left sole heir to the old lady's property, amounting to about five thousand dollars. "what shall i do with it, mother?" he asked. "i have no rightful claim to it. she only left it to me that her nephew might not get it." "keep it till he gets out of prison, and then help him judiciously if he deserves it. meanwhile invest it and give the income to charity." mark was glad that he was able to follow this advice. jack minton is still in jail, and it is to be feared that his prison life will not reform him, but mark means to give him a chance when he is released. through mark's influence, his old friend, tom trotter, has been taken into a mercantile establishment where his natural sharpness is likely to help him to speedy promotion. mark has agreed to pay his mother's rent for the next three years, and has given tom a present of two hundred dollars besides. he is not one of those who in prosperity forget their humble friends. and now after some years of privation and narrow means mrs. mason and mark seem in a fair way to see life on its sunny side. i hope my readers will agree that they merit their good fortune. on the other hand, mr. talbot has lost a part of his money by injudicious speculation, and his once despised sister-in-law is now the richer of the two. edgar has got rid of his snobbishness and through mark's friendship is likely to grow up an estimable member of society. the end. by captain alan douglas scoutmaster the victory boy scouts stories from the pen of a writer who possesses a thorough knowledge of his subject. in addition to the stories there is an addenda in which useful boy scout nature lore is given, all illustrated. there are the following twelve titles in the series: . _the campfires of the wolf patrol._ . _woodcraft; or, how a patrol leader made good._ . _pathfinder; or, the missing tenderfoot._ . _great hike; or, the pride of khaki troop._ . _endurance test; or, how clear grit won the day._ . _under canvas; or, the search for the carteret ghost._ . _storm-bound; or, a vacation among the snow-drifts._ . _afloat; or, adventures on watery trails._ . _tenderfoot squad; or, camping at raccoon lodge._ . _boy scout electricians; or, the hidden dynamo._ . _boy scouts in open plains; or, the round-up not ordered._ . _boy scouts in an airplane; or, the warning from the sky._ [illustration: ben swung his hat and shouted, and at last caught the notice of the people on the bank.--p. .] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- the telegraph messenger boy or the straight road to success by edward s. ellis author of "down the mississippi," "life of kit carson," "lost in the wilds," "red plume," etc. chatterton-peck company new york, n. y. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- copyright, , by n. l. munro copyright, , by the mershon company ------------------------------------------------------------------------- contents chapter page i. on a log ii. the collision iii. the office boy iv. a message in the night v. in storm and darkness vi. "tell mother i am all right" vii. a thrilling voyage viii. the cipher telegram ix. the translation x. farmer jones xi. the value of courtesy xii. a call xiii. at the grandin mansion xiv. the conspiracy xv. an affray at night xvi. the third telegram xvii. decidedly mixed xviii. between two fires xix. baffled! xx. watching and waiting xxi. "lay low!" xxii. the battle of life xxiii. face to face xxiv. startling discoveries xxv. in the nick of time xxvi. conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------- the telegraph messenger boy chapter i on a log i made the acquaintance of ben mayberry under peculiar circumstances. i had charge of the western union's telegraph office in damietta, where my duties were of the most exacting nature. i was kept hard at work through the winter months, and more of it crowded on me during the spring than i could manage with comfort. i strolled to the river bank one summer afternoon, and was sauntering lazily along when i noticed a young urchin, who was floating down-stream on a log, which had probably drifted thither from the lumber regions above. the boy was standing upright, with a grin of delight on his face, and he probably found more real enjoyment in floating down-stream in this style than any excursionist could obtain in a long voyage on a palace steamer. he had on an old straw hat, through the crown of which his brown hair protruded in several directions; his pantaloons were held up by a single suspender, skewered through them in front by a tenpenny nail--an arrangement which caused the garments to hang in a lopsided fashion to his shoulders. he was barefooted, and his trousers were rolled up to his knees. he wore no coat nor vest, and his shirt was of the coarsest muslin, but it was quite clean. this boy was ben mayberry, then ten years old, and he was a remarkable fellow in more than one respect. his round face was not only the picture of absolutely perfect health, but it showed unusual intelligence and brightness. his figure was beautiful in its boyish symmetry, and no one could look upon the lad without admiring his grace, of which he was entirely unconscious. in addition to this, ben mayberry was known to possess two accomplishments, as they may be called, to an extraordinary degree--he was very swift of foot and could throw with astonishing accuracy. both of these attainments are held in high esteem by all boys. i had met ben at intervals during the year past, but could hardly claim to be acquainted with him. i usually bought my morning paper of him during the cold weather, and i knew that his father was killed by a blasting accident some years before. ben was the only child of his widowed mother, who managed to eke out a subsistence somehow with the aid of the little fellow, who was ever ready and cheerful with his work. while i stood looking at ben, drifting slowly down-stream, and reflected that the water was fully two fathoms deep at that point, three other boys stopped on the bank below me to view him. they were strangers to me, but i observed they were unusually well dressed. they had that effeminate, exquisite appearance which satisfied me they were visitors from boston, sauntering along the river in order to learn whether there was anything in our town worthy of their attention. they were apparently of nearly the same age, and each was certainly one or two years older than ben mayberry. "hello," exclaimed one, as the three came to an abrupt halt, "look at that country boy out on that log over there; he thinks he's smart." "he's trying to show off, rutherford," said another. "i say, boys, let's stone him," suggested the third, in a voice so guarded that i was barely able to catch the words. the proposition was received with favor, but one of them looked furtively around and noticed me. his manner showed that he was in fear of my stopping their cruel sport. "who cares for him?" said one of the party, in a blustering voice that it was meant i should hear; "he's nobody. i'll tell him my father is one of the richest men in boston and is going to be governor some day." "and i'll let him know that my father has taken me and our folks all over yurrup. pooh! he daresn't say anything." soothed by this conclusion, the three began throwing stones at ben. ben was close at hand, and the first boy who flung a missile poised and aimed with such deliberation that i was sure ben would be hit; but the stone missed him by fully ten feet. it was not until two more had been thrown that ben awoke to the fact that he was serving as a target for the city youth. "what are you fellers doing?" he demanded, looking angrily toward them. "who you trying to hit?" they laughed, and the tallest answered, as he flung another missile with great energy but poor aim: "we're going to knock you off that log, country! what are you going to do about it?" "i'll show you mighty soon," answered the sturdy lad, who straightway pushed the long pole in his hand against the bottom of the river, so as to drive the log in toward the shore where his persecutors stood pelting him. there was something so plucky in all this that several others stopped to watch the result. i secretly resolved that if ben got the worst of it (as seemed inevitable against three boys), i would interfere at the critical moment. "he's coming ashore to whip us!" exclaimed the tallest lad, almost dropping to the ground with laughter. "i hope he will; i've been taking sparring lessons of professor sullivan for a year, and i would like the fun of knocking him out of time. i can do it in three rounds, and i want you boys to stand back and leave him to me. i'll paralyze him!" the others were reluctant, each claiming the happiness of demolishing the countryman; but the tallest, who was called rutherford, at last secured their pledge that they would keep their hands off and allow him to have all the fun to himself. "i'll try the cross-counter on him, the upper cut, and then i'll land a left-hander on his jug'lar that'll knock him stiff. oh, how i ache to get him within reach!" chapter ii the collision meanwhile ben mayberry was vigorously working the log in toward shore. it moved slowly, but the current was sluggish, the space brief, and he was certain to land in a few minutes. one of the stones struck ben on the shoulder. it must have angered him, for instead of trying to dodge the rest, he used his pushing-pole with more energy than before and paid no heed to the missiles, several of which were stopped by his body. it was plain that the valorous little fellow meant to attack the three city lads, who were pestering him not only with stones, but with taunts that were far more exasperating. "wonder who blacked his shoes?" "ain't that hat a beauty? he can comb his hair without taking it off." "that one suspender must have cost him a good deal." "by gracious, he's going to chew us up," laughed the tallest, as the log approached land; "stand back, boys, you promised him to me, and i don't want either of you to say you helped me to knock him out in the third round." the next minute the log was so close that the nimble-footed ben leaped ashore and strode straight for the valiant rutherford, who immediately threw himself in "position." his attitude was certainly artistic, with his left foot thrown forward, his right fist clinched and held across his breast, and his left extended ready to be shot forward into the first opening that his enemy presented. but it is one thing to assume the proper pugilistic attitude; it is altogether another to act the part of a trained pugilist. "come on, country!" called out the exultant rutherford; "but i hope you've bid your friends farewell." the other boys stood back and watched the singular contest. i carefully approached so as to be ready to protect ben when it should become necessary. the brave fellow never hesitated, but the instant he landed lightly on the shore he went straight for rutherford, who, it was plain, was slightly surprised and disconcerted by his unscientific conduct. but the city youth kept his guard well up, and the moment ben was within reach he struck a violent blow intended for the face. but ben dodged it easily, dropping his head and running with cat-like agility directly under the guard of his antagonist, who, before he could understand precisely what it meant, found himself clasped around the waist and thrown on his back with such violence that a loud grunt was forced from him, and his handsome new hat rolled rapidly down into the water. and i am free to confess that i was delighted when i saw ben give him several of his "best licks," which made the tall boy roar for mercy. "take him off, boys! he's killing me! quick! i can't live much longer." the others were terrified at the hurricane-like style in which the boy had turned the tables on the scientific rutherford, but they could not stand by and see their companion massacred without raising a finger to help him. "pull him off!" yelled the victim, twisting his body and banging his legs in the soft earth in his vain effort to free himself from ben, who was pegging away at him. "pull him off! put me on top, and i'll settle him!" one of the boys ran forward and reached out his hand, intending to catch ben by the shoulder and fling him to the ground; but, to my intense amazement and equally intense delight, ben caught his arm, jerked him forward across the body of rutherford, and belabored both of them. it was one of the neatest feats i ever saw performed, and, under the circumstances, i would have pronounced it impossible had it not been done before my own eyes. both the hats of the boston youths were floating down the river, and they were so close to the water's edge that they were covered with mud. the vigor of the assault on the two was increased rather than diminished, and we spectators were cruel enough to laugh heartily over the exhibition, accompanied as it was by the frenzied yells of the two lads who were receiving the wrathful attentions of ben mayberry. the third boy could not stand it. he must have thought they had come in collision with a gorilla or some sort of wild animal, for he started up the river bank, shouting "murder!" at the top of his voice. ben, having got through with the two under him, sprang off and allowed them to rise, standing ready to renew the fight should they show any desire to do so. [illustration: ben caught his arm, jerked him across the body of rutherford, and belabored both of them.--p. .] but they were too thoroughly vanquished. their plight was laughable, and yet pitiable. they were coated with mud from head to foot, and their pretty hats, with their polka-dot bands, were gone too far down the river to be recovered. they seemed dazed for a minute or so, but as soon as they realized they were on their feet they started off after their flying companion, never pausing to look behind them, but running as though a bengal tiger was at their heels. "ben," said i, walking forward as soon as i could assume a serious expression of countenance, "do you not know it is very wrong to fight?" "that's what i was tryin' to teach them city chaps. i guess they'll think so after this." "you certainly did your best to convince them it isn't wise to attack you; but, ben, what have you been doing lately?" "my last job was whipping them," replied the urchin, with a roguish twinkle of his blue eyes; "but that was fun, and if you mean work, i hain't had anything but selling papers since last summer, but sometimes i run errands." "do you go to school?" "yes, sir." "would you like a job?" "indeed i would, sir, for mother finds it hard work to get along, and sometimes there isn't anything to eat in the house. once, when i was a little fellow, when i saw mother crying, and there was no bread, i slipped out at night and stole a loaf, but mother would not touch it when i brought it home, and made me take it back. she told me i must starve before i did wrong, and so i will. i have been trying to get a job all summer, but everybody says i am too young and small. i take all the exercise i can, so as to make me grow, and that's one reason why i pitched into them city chaps and laid 'em out." "well, ben, you know where the office of the western union is; come around there to-morrow morning, at eight o'clock, and i will give you something to do." "oh, i'm very thankful to you, sir, and this will make my mother the happiest woman in damietta." i saw tears in the bright eyes, as ben ran home to carry the good news to his mother. chapter iii the office boy when i approached the office the next morning, little ben mayberry was standing outside, smiling and expectant. my heart was touched when i saw what pains his mother had taken to put her boy in presentable shape. he had on a pair of coarse shoes, carefully blacked, and a new, cheap hat replaced the dilapidated one of the day before. he wore a short coat and a vest, which must have served him as his sunday suit for a long time, as they were much too small for him. but there was a cleanly, neat look about him which attracted me at once. his face was as rosy as an apple, and his large, white teeth were as sound as new silver dollars. his dark hair, which was inclined to be curly, was cut short, and the ill-fitting clothes could not conceal the symmetry of his growing figure. "well, ben," said i cheerily, as i shook his hand, "i am glad to see you are here on time. you are young, you know, but are old enough to make a start. as i expect you to reach the top of the ladder, i mean that you shall begin at the bottom round." i am not sure he understood this figurative language, but i made it clear to him the next minute. "you are to be here every morning before seven o'clock, to sweep out the office and make it ready for business. you must see that all the spittoons are cleaned, that the ink wells at the desk are provided with ink, that the pens are good enough for use (i never yet have seen a public office where the writing facilities were not wretched), abundance of blanks on hand, and that everything is tidied up. in summer, you must wash off the ice and place it in the cooler, and in winter, see that the fires are going and the office comfortable at the time we go there for business. can you do it, ben?" "yes, sir, and glad to have the chance." "this will give you some opportunity to attend the public school, which, of course, you will take advantage of. then, when you can, you will begin to study telegraphy. i will see that you have every chance, and, at the same time, i will give you a lift now and then in your studies. this is the first step, ben; in this country anything is possible to the boy who has brains, pluck, and application. everything now depends on yourself; with the help of heaven you will succeed; if you fail, it will be your own fault. to-day you start on your career, which will lead to success and happiness or to failure and misery." ben listened respectfully to what i said, and seemed impressed by my words. i took him inside the office, explained to him more particularly his duties, gave him a key with which to enter in the morning, and told him to be on hand at six o'clock on the morrow, until which time he was excused. his wages were to be two dollars a week, to begin from the day on which i engaged him. ben raised his hat, bade me good-day, and went home, and i am sure there was no happier boy in damietta than he. it goes without saying that he attended to his duties faithfully from the very first. he went to the public school when he could gain the chance. i learned that he was a favorite there, on account of his manliness and excellent scholarship. in conjunction with the principal we arranged to give him private instruction at night, so that during the day he could devote his energies to learning telegraphy, in which he displayed great aptitude. as i was manager of the office, it was in my power to advance ben as rapidly as circumstances warranted. he was given to understand from the first that he would be assisted to the extent to which he proved himself deserving, and no further. i did not intend to spoil him by undue favors, nor did i allow him to see how much i really thought of him. one of the surest means of ruining a boy is by partiality and too rapid advancement; but i gave him an encouraging word now and then, and took pains to let his mother know that he was meeting my high expectations, and that he was fully worthy of the hopes she entertained of him. i shall never forget the glow which came into the pinched face when i addressed her thus, nor the devout expression which overspread her countenance at my liberal praise of her child. "ben has always been obedient to his father and mother. i have never known him to swear or tell an untruth, and he never took anything that was not his own--that is," the poor lady hastened to add when she recalled the painful circumstance, "he never forgot himself but once." "he told me about it; few could blame him for that misstep; i cannot think the distressing necessity will ever arise again. should heaven spare his life he will become your staff, upon which you can soon lean your whole weight." she gave a faint sigh of happiness. "my boy ben has never brought a pang to his mother's heart." ah, my young friend, can your mother say that? when that dear head is laid low, when those loving eyes shall be closed forever, and the sweet voice is hushed in the tomb, will you be able to say through your blinding tears: "i never brought a pang to her heart!" chapter iv a message in the night at the end of a month ben mayberry was made a messenger boy of the office under my charge. this cannot be called a very momentous promotion, inasmuch as many of our telegraphists begin there; but it doubled ben's wages at once, and led to his appearance in the attractive blue uniform which the boys of the western union wear. in his case it seemed to add two inches to his stature at once. ben was our best messenger from the first. he was acquainted with the city of damietta from one end to the other, and his superior fleetness of foot enabled him to outstrip the others, while his cheerful, intelligent manner added to his popularity with our customers. as he was so young, i determined to keep him messenger for a longer time than was really necessary, affording him all the opportunity he could ask in which to learn telegraphy. he picked it up rapidly, and i was surprised when i found him reading messages over the wires by sound. as everyone knows, it takes a skillful operator, or rather one of experience, to do this, a proof that ben was applying himself to learning the business with all the power at his command. in more than one instance, those who knew the high estimation in which the boy was held exerted themselves to put annoyances and obstructions in his way. all manner of pretexts were made for detaining him, and he showed no little originality and ingenuity in outwitting his very attentive friends. he continued to apply himself evenings, when not on duty at the office, and his progress was excellent in every respect. the kind principal showed great interest in him, and at the age of twelve ben mayberry possessed what may be called a good elementary english education. before, however, these two years had passed he could receive and send messages in a very acceptable manner. his wages had been advanced, and he now had his mother in comfortable quarters, dressed tastefully himself, and was developing into a handsome youth, whose brilliant work had already attracted the notice of the general superintendent. ben had been an operator a little less than a year when he met with a most extraordinary experience, which to-day is a theme of never-ending wonder to those who were living in damietta at the time. one evening a rough-bearded man entered the office, and stepping to the counter, said to me: "my name is burkhill--g. r. burkhill--and i am staying at the hotel in moorestown. i am expecting a very important dispatch to-night, but i cannot wait for it. if it reaches this office before ten o'clock, i wish to have it delivered to the hotel." moorestown lay directly across the river, and was reached by the long, covered bridge which spanned the stream. it was beyond our "jurisdiction," that is, outside the circle of free delivery, which mr. burkhill understood, as he remarked that he would pay well for the trouble. i assured him that i would see that the telegram reached him that night, if received before ten o'clock. thanking me, he said good-evening, passed out, mounted his horse, and galloped away in the wintry darkness. it was in the month of february, but the weather was mild for that season, and there had been a plentiful fall of rain. ben was on duty until ten, and he was in the very act of rising from his seat when he called out: "helloa! here comes the message for mr. burkhill." it was quite brief and ben wrote it out rapidly, took a hasty impression, thrust it into the damp yellow envelope, and whistled for a messenger boy. there was only one present, and he was a pale, delicate lad, who had gone on duty that day after a week's illness. "helloa, tim; do you want to earn a half dollar extra?" asked ben, as the boy stood expectantly before him. "i would like to, if it isn't too hard for me." ben looked sharply at him and saw that the boy was in too weak a state to undertake the task. there was no other messenger within call, and mr. burkhill was doubtless impatient for the message whose delivery i had guaranteed. "it won't do for you to cross the river to-night," said ben decisively; "the air is damp and raw, and i think it is going to rain again. i'll do it for you, and whatever extra i collect from mr. burkhill you shall have, tim; now go home and go to bed." and waving me a good-night, ben hurried out of the door and vanished down the street. "it's just like him," i muttered, as i prepared to go home; for except on special occasions we closed our office at ten, or shortly after. "that isn't the first kindness he has done that boy, and everyone in the office is bound by gratitude to him." as i stepped out on the street i observed that the fine mist was turning into rain, and another of those dismal nights, which are often experienced in the middle states during the latter part of winter, was upon the city. i did not feel sleepy after reaching home. my wife and two children had retired and were sound asleep. there was no one astir but myself, and drawing my chair to the fire, i began reading the evening paper. fully an hour had passed in this manner and i was in the act of rising from my chair, with the purpose of going to bed, when a sharp ring of the bell startled me as though i had heard burglars in the house. i felt instinctively that something serious had happened as i hurried to the door. "did ben mayberry take a telegraphic message across the river to-night?" asked the man, whom i recognized as a policeman. "he started to do so," i answered tremblingly. "what's wrong." "it's the last message he'll ever deliver; he has probably been killed!" chapter v in storm and darkness "yes, it's the last message he'll ever deliver," repeated the policeman; "ben mayberry has probably been killed!" these were the terrible words spoken by the man who had rung my bell in the middle of the night, and startled me almost out of my senses. i swallowed the lump in my throat, and with a voice tremulous with emotion, said: "no, no! it cannot be. who would kill him?" "i don't mean he was murdered," the officer hastened to add, seeing my mistake. "he was on the middle span of the bridge when it was carried away by the flood, and that's the last of him!" i drew a great sigh of relief. there was something unspeakably dreadful in the thought of noble ben mayberry being killed by anyone, and it lifted a vast burden from my shoulders to be told that no such awful fate had overtaken him. but instantly came the staggering terror that the boy had gone down in the wreck and ruin, and at that moment was floating among the great masses of ice and débris that were sweeping swiftly down the river toward the sea. "how was it?" i asked, after the officer had refused my invitation to enter. "the river began rising very fast at dark, but the bridge has stood so many freshets we were hopeful of this. the water was at the top of the abutments at nine o'clock and was still creeping up. jack sprall, who is off duty to-night, was down by the bridge watching things. a little after ten o'clock, ben mayberry came along and said he had a message which he had promised to deliver to a gentleman at the hotel in moorestown. jack told him the bridge was unsafe, but ben said he knew how to swim, and started across, whistling and jolly as usual. jack said at the same time he heard the sound of wheels, which showed that a wagon or carriage had driven on from the other side, which never ought to have been allowed when things were looking so shaky. ben had just about time to reach the middle of the bridge when the crash came, and the big span was wiped out, as though it was a chalk mark on a blackboard." "how do you know of a surety that ben mayberry did not save himself?" "he is very active and strong, i know, which made jack hope he had pulled through. in spite of the danger of the rest of the bridge going, jack crept out over it to the abutment, and shouted to ben. "it seemed that a couple of men had done the same from moorestown, and they stood on the other abutment, with the middle of the river sweeping between and threatening to take away the rest of the tottering bridge every minute. "when jack called, they answered, though it was too dark to see each other, and they asked jack whom he was looking for. he told them that ben mayberry had gone on the bridge a few minutes before from this side, and he was afraid he had been swept away. they said there could be no doubt of it, as he had not reached the span on which they were standing. they then asked jack whether he had seen anything of a horse and carriage, which drove on the bridge from the moorestown side, and which they had come out to see about. of course jack could only make the same answer, and when they explained, it was learned that the carriage contained a lady and small child--so three lives have been lost from people not doing their duty in keeping folks out of danger." "does the mother of ben know anything about this?" i asked, with a shudder at the thought of her terrible grief. "yes; i went up to her house and told her first, as i thought it my duty to do." "poor woman! she must have been overcome." "she was at first, and then when she asked me to tell her all about it, and i had done so, she said very quietly that she didn't believe her boy was drowned." "nor do i believe it!" i exclaimed, with a sudden thrill of hope. "ben mayberry is one of the best swimmers i ever saw; he went down with the lumber of the central span, and even if he could not swim, he had a good chance to float himself on some of the timbers or blocks of ice which are buoyant enough to support a dozen men." "all that is very true," replied the policeman, who seemed to have thought of everything; "and i don't deny that there is just the barest possibility in the world that you're right. but you mustn't forget that the roof of the bridge was over him, and has shut out the chance of his helping himself. don't you believe that, if he was alive, he would have answered the calls that jack made to him? jack has a voice like a fog-horn, and ben would have heard him if he was able to hear anything." this view of the case staggered me, and i hardly knew what to say, except to suggest that possibly ben had answered the call, and was unheard in the rushing waters; but the officer shook his head, and i confess i shared his doubts. "just as the splintering timbers went down, jack did hear the shout of ben; he heard, too, the scream of a woman, and that awful cry which a horse sometimes makes when in the very extremity of peril, but that was all." i could not sleep after such horrifying tidings, when the policeman had gone; i went into the house and donned my overshoes and rubber coat. fortunately my family had not been awakened by the ringing of the bell, and i did not disturb them; but, carefully closing and locking the door after me, i went out in the storm and darkness, oppressed by a grief which i had not known for years, for ben mayberry was as dear to me as my own son, and my heart bled for the stricken mother who, when she most needed a staff to lean upon during her declining years, found it cruelly snatched from her. chapter vi "tell mother i am all right" there is a fascination in the presence of danger which we all feel. the news of the dreadful disaster spread with astonishing rapidity, and when i reached the river-side it seemed as if all damietta were there. the lamps twinkled in the hands of innumerable men moving hither and thither in that restless manner which showed how deep their feelings were. people were talking in guarded voices, as if the shadow of an awful danger impended over them, and the wildest rumors, as is the case at such times, were afloat. it was said that six, eight, and a dozen persons had gone down with the bridge and were irrecoverably lost. other structures above us were carried away (though no one stopped to explain how the tidings had reached ahead of the flood itself), and it was asserted that not a span would be left on the stream at daybreak. the flickering lanterns gave a glimpse of the scene which rendered it more impressive than if viewed under the glare of midday. some daring ones ventured out to the first abutment despite the danger, and we saw the glare of their lanterns on the rushing, muddy water and the immense blocks of ice. some of the latter would impinge against the stone abutment with a prodigious grinding crash, spin around several times, and then mount up from the water, crowded by others behind, as though it was about to climb over the massive stone. then it would tumble back with a splash and swiftly sweep out of sight in the darkness. again, trees, with their bushy tops tossing above the surface, glided by as if caught in a rushing mill-race, and a grotesque character was given to the whole scene by the sudden crowing of some cocks, which must have been frightened by the twinkling lights so near them. few in damietta went to bed that night. there was a continual walking to and fro, as people are seen to do when some great calamity is about to break upon them. several mounted horses and rode down the river-bank for miles, in the weak hope of picking up tidings of the lost ones. no one could be found who knew the lady and child in the carriage which came upon the bridge from the other side. there were innumerable guesses as to their identity, but they were guesses and nothing more. no doubt was entertained that when communication could be opened with moorestown on the morrow, we would learn who they were. i stayed at the river-side for an hour, weighed down by the greatest grief of my life. i was anxious to do something, but there was absolutely nothing for me to do. ben was gone, and his friends could not begin an intelligent search for him before the morrow. i turned on my heel to go home, when a shout went up that the span on the other side of the center was going. there could be no doubt that the splintering crash and the grinding swirl of waters and ice were caused by the destruction of that span which dissolved into nothingness almost in a moment. this started the cry that the timbers nearest us were breaking up. those who were on it made a rush for shore, which was not reached a minute too soon. the entire span suddenly lifted up and was "snuffed out" so promptly that the wonder was how it had withstood the flood so long. this occurrence struck me as decisive of the fate of my young friend ben mayberry. it gave me an appreciation of the tremendous irresistibility of the freshet, which must have ended the lives of the hapless party almost on the instant. the bravest swimmer would be absolutely helpless in the grasp of such a terrific current, and in a night of pitchy darkness would be unable to make the first intelligent effort to save himself. at last i went home through the drizzling rain, as miserable a mortal as one could imagine. when i reached the house i was glad to find that my family were still asleep. it would be time enough for them to learn of my affliction and the public disaster on the coming morrow. the pattering of the rain on the roof accorded with my feeling of desolation, and i lay awake until almost daylight, listening, wretched, dismal, and utterly despairing. i slept unusually late, and i was glad, when i went down to my breakfast, to learn that some kind neighbor had told my family all i knew, and indeed, a little more. the river rose steadily until daylight, by which time it was two feet above the abutments, and not a vestige of the bridge remained. but the water had reached its highest point, for, after remaining stationary an hour, it had begun to fall, and was now a couple of inches lower than "high-water mark." there were two things which i dreaded--the sight of the furious river, and to meet the sad, white face of ben mayberry's mother. i felt that i could give her no word of comfort, for i needed it almost as much as did she. she must have abandoned all hope by this time, and her loss was enough to crush life itself from her. when walking along the street i found that everyone was talking about the unexampled flood. it had overflowed the lower part of the city, and people were making their way through the streets in boats. scores of families were made homeless, and the sights were curious enough to draw multitudes thither. i kept away from every point where i could catch so much as a glimpse of the freshet. "you have robbed me of the brightest and best boy i ever knew," i muttered, in bitterness of spirit; "he was one whom i loved as if he were a son." the shadow of death seemed to rest on the office when i reached it. the loss of ben mayberry was a personal affliction to everyone there. only the most necessary words were spoken, and the sighing, which could be heard at all times, came from the heart. i went to my desk in a mechanical way, and had just placed my hand on the instrument, when i was thrilled by a call which i would have recognized among a thousand. others heard and identified it also, and held their breath. the next instant this message reached me: "dear mr. melville--tell mother i am all right, but in need of dry clothing. "ben mayberry." chapter vii a thrilling voyage on the night that ben mayberry started across the bridge to deliver the cipher message to mr. burkhill in moorestown, he had reached the center span before he felt he was in personal danger. the few lamps which twinkled at long distances from each other were barely enough for him to see where he was going, and they did little more than make the darkness visible. by the faint light he observed a carriage and single horse approaching. the animal lifted his feet high, walked slowly, and snuffed the air as he turned his head from side to side, like an intelligent creature which feels he is approaching danger. the rattling of the narrow planks under his hoofs and the carriage wheels could be heard above the roar and sweep of the angry river beneath. suddenly the bridge trembled under a blow received from a gigantic piece of ice, which went grinding and splashing with such violence that its course could be followed by the bulging upward of the planks between ben and the horse. "my gracious! this won't do," exclaimed the boy, more alarmed for the vehicle and its occupants than for himself. he ran forward to grasp the bridle of the horse with the purpose of turning him back, when he saw that he had stopped of his own accord, and was snorting with terror. ben reached up to seize the bit, when he was made dizzy by the abrupt lifting of the planking underneath, and was thrown violently forward on his face. the brave boy knew what it meant, and kept his senses about him. it was utterly dark, and he was in the icy water with a terrified horse struggling fiercely, and in danger of beating out the boy's brains with his hoofs, while the shriek of the agonized mother rose above the horrid din: "save my child--save my child!" fortunately for ben mayberry the bridge broke up in a very unusual manner. instead of the roof coming down upon him, it seemed to fall apart, as did the narrow planking. thus his movements were not interfered with by the structure, and realizing what a desperate struggle for life was before him, he drew off his cumbersome overcoat with great deftness, and then swam as only a strong swimmer can do in the very extremity of peril. he heard nothing more of the horse, which had doubtless perished after a struggle as brief as it was fierce; but, unable to see anything at all, ben struck out toward the point whence came the cry of the mother, and which was close at hand. he had scarcely made three strokes when he came in violent collision with a huge block of ice in his path. without attempting to go around it, he grasped the edge, and, by a determined effort, drew himself upon it. fragments of the bridge were all around, and he felt some of the timber upon the support. while crawling carefully toward the other side, he shouted: "helloa! where are you? answer, and i'll help you." a faint cry made itself heard amid the rushing waters and the impenetrable darkness. it was just ahead, and the next instant ben had reached the other side of the ice raft, where, steadying himself with one hand, he groped about with the other, uttering encouraging words as he did so. suddenly he caught hold of a delicate arm, and with another cheery shout, he began drawing with all his strength. it was a hard task, under the circumstances, but he quickly succeeded, and was not a little amazed to find that instead of a lady he had helped out a small girl. but it was the cry of a mother that had reached his ears, and he did his utmost (which unfortunately was little) to help her. he called again and again, but there was no answer. he asked of the child the whereabouts of her parents, but the little one was almost senseless with bewilderment, cold, and terror, and could give no intelligible answer. "she must be drowned," was the sorrowful conclusion of ben, who was forced to cease his efforts; and i may as well add at this point, that he was right; the mother's body being carried out to sea, where it was never found. for the time, ben and the little girl were safe, but it will be seen that their condition was pitiable. it was a wintry night, the water was of an arctic temperature, and their clothing was saturated. the icy floor on which they were supported would have added to their terrible discomfort, had he not been able to gather together several of the planks within reach, with which he made a partition between them and the freezing surface. ben shouted at the top of his voice, but he was so far below the place where the bridge had stood that no one heard him, and he finally gave it up, knowing that even if he made himself known to friends, they would be powerless to help him so long as the darkness lasted. the child, so far as he could judge, was no more than nine or ten years old, but she was richly clad, as he learned from the abundance of furs, silks, and velvet. she had luxuriant hair, which streamed about her shoulders, and he was sure she must be very beautiful. she was alive, but faint and suffering. she did not wish to talk and ben did not urge her, although he was curious to know her identity. "i will learn all in the morning," he said to himself; "that is, if we are spared until then." he was too excited and terrified to fall asleep, even had his discomfort not been too great to permit it, and he found he needed his wits about him. now and then the cake of ice which supported them was crowded by others, until it seemed on the point of being overturned, in which event another terrible struggle would be necessary to save himself and the little girl. then again, there seemed to be eddies and whirlpools in the current, which threatened to dislodge them or to break up the miniature iceberg into fragments, as the bridge itself was destroyed. chapter viii the cipher telegram the almost interminable night came to an end at last and the dull gray of morning appeared in the east. ben mayberry chafed the arms of the little stranger, and even slapped her vigorously to prevent her succumbing to the cold. he was forced to rise to his feet himself at intervals and swing his arms and kick out his legs, to fight off the chilliness which seemed to penetrate to his very bones. as soon as the boy could make use of his eyes he found himself drifting through the open country, where the river was fully double the width at damietta. this gave the masses of ice much more "elbow room," and decreased the danger of capsizing. houses and villages were seen at intervals, and multitudes of people were along the bank gathering driftwood and "loot," and watching the unparalleled flood of waters. ben swung his hat and shouted, and at last caught the notice of the people on the bank. two sturdy watermen sprang into a boat and began fighting their way out to the helpless ones. it was a hard task, but they succeeded, and ben and little dolly willard (as she had given her name) were safely taken off. a crowd waited to welcome them and they received every possible attention. both were taken to the nearest farmhouse, where a kind-hearted mother took dolly in charge, for the little one needed it sadly enough. they were within half a mile of a village which was connected with damietta by telegraph, and before ben would do anything more than swallow a cup of hot coffee, and change his clothing, he was driven to the office, where he sent the message which was the first word we received in damietta to tell us that he was alive. i lost no time in hurrying to the humble dwelling of mrs. mayberry, where i made known the joyful tidings. i shall never forget the holy light which illumined the thin face as she clasped her hands in thankfulness and said: "i had not given up all hope, but i was very near doing so." ben was driven into damietta late that afternoon, where a royal welcome awaited him. he was cheered, shaken by the hand, and congratulated over and over again, and for a time it looked as though he would be pulled asunder. when he finally tore himself loose and rushed into our office, the operators and messenger boys were equally demonstrative, but he did not mind them. i stood at my desk with a swelling heart, waiting for him. suddenly he turned and caught my hand. "he that is born to be hanged will never be drowned----" he was laughing when he spoke the jest, but his voice trembled, and all at once he broke down. quickly withdrawing both hands, he put them over his face and cried like a heartbroken child. he had stood it like a hero to this point, but now, with the crowd outside peering into the windows, he sobbed with uncontrollable emotion, while my own heart was too full to speak. as soon as he could master himself he said: "i must not wait any longer; mother expects me." he was out of the door in a twinkling, and in a few minutes the mother and son were in each other's arms. the reader may think that the most remarkable part of ben mayberry's adventure on the night of the flood has already been told, but it proved to be the beginning of a train of incidents of such an extraordinary nature that i hasten to make them known. there was a direct connection between his experience on that terrible night in february and the wonderful mystery in which he became involved, and which exercised such a marked influence on his after-life. fortunately, little dolly willard suffered no serious consequences from her frightful shock and exposure. she received such excellent care that she speedily recovered, and as soon as we could re-establish communication with moorestown and engage her in conversation, we learned something of her history. she lived in new york city and had come to moorestown on a visit with her mother and uncle george. he was the g. r. burkhill who failed to receive the cipher dispatch which ben mayberry undertook to deliver to him on that eventful night. dolly said her father was dead, or had been gone from home a very long time. uncle george claimed and took her to the city, first sending a cipher dispatch to a party in the metropolis, and directing me, in case of an answer, to hold it until he called or sent for it. two days later an answer arrived in the same mystic characters as before. as it has much to do with the incidents which follow, i give this remarkable telegram in full: "new york, february th,---- "george r. burkhill, moorestown: "nvtu vzhs ujmm ezkk tbn gzr b adssdg dizodf rntsg zpvs azmj xjmm jddo. "tom." cipher telegrams are sent every day in the week, and we did not concern ourselves with this particular one, which would have received no further thought, but for an odd circumstance. on the day mr. burkhill sent his message to new york, he was followed into our office by a man who was shabbily dressed, and who impressed me as what is commonly called a "beat." he spoiled several blanks without sending a message and then abruptly tore them up, put the pieces in his pocket, and walked out after mr. burkhill. he was in the office several times the succeeding two days, made some inquiries, and sent off a couple of messages. just after ben mayberry had received the cipher telegram given above, i happened to look across my desk and observed that the fellow had taken every letter, marking it down, as he easily interpreted it by sound. it was only by accident that i made this discovery, for the man acted precisely as if he were preparing a message to send away. chapter ix the translation mr. g. r. burkhill overwhelmed ben mayberry with thanks for the heroic manner in which he saved his niece and strove to save his sister. he offered the boy a handsome reward, but i am glad to say ben refused to accept it. he promised to write the boy concerning the little one, but he must have forgotten his promise, as a long time passed without anything being heard from him. when i discovered that the seedy lounger about our office had carefully taken down the cipher telegram addressed to burkhill, i was indignant, for it was well known that one of the most important duties which the telegraph companies insist upon is the inviolability of the messages intrusted to their wires. nothing less than a peremptory order from the court is sufficient to produce the telegrams placed in our care. i was on the point of leaving my desk and compelling the impudent stranger to surrender the cipher he had surreptitiously secured, but i restrained myself and allowed him to go without suspecting my knowledge of his act. "ben," said i, addressing my young friend, whom i trusted beyond any of the older operators, "did you notice that fellow who just went out?" "yes, sir; i have seen him before. he followed me home last night, and after i went in the house, he walked up and down the pavement for more than half an hour. he was very careful, but i saw him through the blinds." "has he ever said anything to you?" "nothing, except in the office." "he took down every letter of that cipher telegram you just received for mr. burkhill." the boy was surprised and sat a minute in deep thought. "mr. melville," he said, "if you have no objection, i shall study out that cipher." "that i think is impossible; it has been prepared with care, and it will take a greater expert than you to unravel it." ben smiled in his pleasing way as he answered: "i am fond of unraveling puzzles, and i believe i can take this apart." "i will be surprised if you succeed; but if you do, keep it a secret from everyone but myself." "you may depend on that." the odd times which ben could secure through the day were spent in studying the mysterious letters; but when he placed it in his pocket at night and started for home, he had not caught the first glimmer of its meaning. but he was hopeful and said he would never give it up until he made it as clear as noonday, and i knew that if it was within the range of accomplishment, he would keep his word. i have told enough to show my readers he was unusually intelligent and quick-witted, but i am free to confess that i had scarcely a hope of his success. "i've got it!" that was the whispered exclamation with which ben mayberry greeted me the next morning when he entered the office. "no! you're jesting," i answered, convinced, at the same time, that he was in earnest. "i'll soon show you," was his exultant response. "how was it you struck the key?" "that is hard to tell, more than you can explain how it is, after you have puzzled your brain for a long time over an arithmetical problem, it suddenly becomes clear to you." he sat down by my desk. "i figured and studied, and tried those letters every way i could think of until midnight, and was on the point of going to bed, when the whole thing flashed upon me. you know, mr. melville, that in trying to unravel a cipher, the first thing necessary is to find the key-word, for it must be there somewhere; and if you look sharp enough it will reveal itself. one single letter gave it to me." "how was that?" "if you will look at the telegram," said ben, spreading it out before me, "you will notice that in one instance only is a single letter seen standing by itself. that is the letter 'b,' which i concluded must stand for the article 'a,' for i know of no other, unless it is 'i.' now, the letter 'b' is the second one in the alphabet, and stands next in order to 'a.' if this system is followed throughout the cipher, we have only to take, instead of the letters as written, the next in order as they occur in the alphabet. but when i tried it on the following word, it failed entirely. luckily i tested the second in the same manner, and i was surprised to find it made a perfect word, viz.: 'chance.' the third came to naught, but the fourth developed into 'your.' that proved that every other word of the message was constructed in this manner, and it did not take me long to bring them out into good english. this was a big help, i can tell you, and it was not long before i discovered that in the alternate words the system reversed; that is, instead of taking the letter immediately succeeding, the writer had used that which immediately precedes it in the alphabet. applying this key to the telegram, it read thus: "'must wait till fall; sam has a better chance south. your bank will keep.'" "now," added ben, who was warranted in feeling jubilant over his success, "that is a very ordinary cipher--one which hundreds would make out without trouble. had the writer run his letters all together--that is, without any break between the words--i would have been stumped. besides, he uses no blind words, as he ought to have done; and it looks very much as if he calls everything by its right name, something which i should think no person anxious to keep such a secret would do. if he means 'bank,' he might as well have called it by another name altogether." "i think ordinarily he would have been safe in writing his cipher as he has done; but, be that as it may, i am confident you have made a most important discovery." chapter x farmer jones the conclusion which i formed respecting the cipher telegram, so cleverly translated by ben mayberry, was that it concerned an intended robbery of one of the banks in damietta, and that the crime, for the reason hinted in the dispatch, was postponed until the succeeding autumn. under such circumstances it will be seen that it was my duty to communicate with the general manager of the company, which i proceeded to do without delay. in reply, he instructed me to place myself in communication with the mayor of the city, whose province it was to make provision against what certainly looked like a contemplated crime. this instruction was carried out, and the mayor promptly took every means at his command to checkmate any movement of the suspected party. he arranged to shadow him by one of the best detectives in the country, while i agreed to notify him of the contents of any more suspicious telegrams passing over the wires. it need hardly be said that the friends of ben mayberry and myself took care that his exploit on the memorable winter night should not pass by unnoticed. the single daily paper published in damietta gave a thrilling account of the carrying away of the bridge, and the terrible struggle of the boy in the raging river--an account which was so magnified that we laughed, and ben was angry and disgusted. one of the best traits of the boy was his modesty, and it was manifest to everyone that this continued laudation was distasteful to him in the highest degree. the cap-sheaf came when one of the metropolitan weeklies published an illustration of the scene, in which ben was pictured as saving not only the mother and daughter, but the horse as well, by drawing them by main force upon an enormous block of ice! there was not the slightest resemblance to the actual occurrence, and the picture of our young hero looked as much like me as it did like ben, who would have cried with vexation had not the whole thing been such a caricature that he was compelled to laugh instead. but the general manager received a truthful account from me, together with the statement that ben mayberry alone deserved the credit for deciphering the telegram which foreshadowed an intended crime. corporations, as a rule, are not given to lavish rewards, but the letter which the manager sent to ben was more highly prized than if it had been a gold watch studded with diamonds, or a deed for the best house in diamietta. his heart throbbed when he read the warm words of praise from the highest officer in the company, who told him to continue faithfully in the path on which he had started, and his reward was certain. that letter ben to-day counts among his most precious prizes, and nothing would induce him to part with it. the best thing about this whole business was the fact that ben never lost his head through the profusion of compliments from those in authority. he realized that the straight road to success lay not through accidental occurrences, which may have befriended him, but it was only by hard, painstaking, and long-continued application that substantial and enduring success is attained. ben was always punctual at the office, and never tried to avoid work which he might have contended, and with good reason, did not belong to him. his obliging disposition was shown by his volunteering to deliver the message which nearly cost him his life. the duty of the telegraphist is very confining, and so exacting that the most rugged health often gives way under it, and persons take to other business before completely broken up. but this debility is often the fault of the operators themselves, who sit bent over their desks, smoking villainous cigarettes or strong tobacco, who ride in street cars when they should gladly seize the chance to walk briskly, and who, i am sorry to say, drink intoxicating liquors, which appear to tempt sedentary persons with peculiar power. ben mayberry had none of these baneful habits. he lived a long distance from the office, and although the street cars passed within a block of his home, i never knew him to ride on one, no matter how severe the weather might be. besides this, he belonged to a baseball club, and, in good weather, when we were not pushed, managed to get away several times a week during which he gained enough vitality and renewed vigor to last him for days. one particularly busy afternoon, just as ben had finished sending off a lengthy dispatch, someone rapped sharply on the counter behind him, and turning, he saw an honest-looking farmer, who had been writing and groaning for fully twenty minutes before he was ready to send his telegram. "can you send that to makeville, young man?" "yes, sir," answered ben, springing to his feet, and taking the smeared and blotted paper from his hand. "jist let me know how much it is; i s'pose it ain't more than twenty or thirty cents. there ain't much use in sending it, but sally jane, that's my daughter, was anxious for me to send her a telegraphic dispatch, 'cause she never got one, and she'll feel proud to see how the neighbors will stare." ben had started to count the words, but he paused, and repressing a smile over the simplicity of the man, said: "it is very expensive to send messages by telegraph, and it will cost you several dollars to send this----" "thunderation!" broke in the indignant old man, growing red in the face. "i won't patronize any sich frauds." he started to go out, when ben checked him pleasantly. "it will be too bad to disappoint your daughter, and we can arrange to send her a message with very little expense. there are many words here which can be left out without affecting the sense. please run your pen through these, and let me look at it again." chapter xi the value of courtesy the following is the message as first written out by the old farmer: "sally jane jones, makeville,--i take my pen in hand to inform you that i arrived safely in damietta this morning. i have seen jim, your brother. his baby is dead in love with me, and they all join in sending their love to you. i expect to eat my supper with cousin maria and sleep in their house by the river. i will be home to-morrow afternoon. meet me at the station with the roan mare, if she ain't too tired to draw the buggy. "your affectionate father, "josiah a. jones." when ben mayberry had explained how much could be saved by crossing out the superfluous words in this message, while its main points would be left, the farmer's anger turned to pleasure. he took his pen, nodded several times, and turned smilingly to the desk, where he stood for fully a quarter of an hour, groaning, writing, and crossing out words. he labored as hard as before, and finally held the paper off at arm's length and contemplated it admiringly through his silver spectacles. "yes; that'll do," he said, nodding his head several times in a pleased way; "that reads just the same--little abrupt, maybe, but they'll git the hang of it, and it'll please sally jane, who is a good darter. here, young man, jist figger onto that, will you, and let me know how much the expense is." ben took the paper, and under the labored manipulation of the old farmer, he found it was changed in this amazing fashion: "i take my hand--damietta. jim, your brother--the baby is dead--i expect to eat cousin maria, and sleep in the river to-morrow afternoon--with the roan--if she ain't too buggy. your affectionate father, "josiah a. jones." it was hard for ben to suppress his laughter, but the farmer was looking straight at him, and the boy would not hurt his feelings. he surveyed the message a minute, and then said: "perhaps i can help you a little on this." "you can try if you want to," grunted the old man; "but i don't think you can improve much on that." under the skillful magic of the boy's pencil the telegram was speedily boiled into this shape: "met jim--all well--meet me with roan to-morrow afternoon. j. a. jones." "there are ten words," explained ben, "and that will cost you twenty-five cents. besides, it tells all that is necessary, and will please your daughter just as much as if it were five times as long." mr. jones took it up again, held it up at arm's length and then brought it closer to him, while he thoughtfully rubbed his chin with the other hand. "i s'pose that's right," he finally said, "but don't you think you orter tell her i have arrived in damietta?" "she must know you have arrived here, or you couldn't send the telegram to her." "umph! that's so; but hadn't i orter explain to her that the jim i met was her brother?" "is there any jim you expect to see except your son?" "no, that's so. i swan to gracious! but i thought it wasn't more'n perlite ter tell her that cousin maria's baby is dead in love with me." "i am sure that every baby which sees you will fall in love with you, and your daughter must be aware of that." at this rather pointed compliment the farmer's face glowed like a cider apple, and his smile seemed almost to reach to his ears. "i swan; but you're a peart chap. what wages do you git?" "forty-five dollars a month." "well, you airn it, you jist bet; but i was goin' to say that i orter speak of the roan mare, don't you think?" "have you more than one horse that is of a roan color?" "no, sir." "then when you speak of the roan, they must know that you can only mean the roan mare." the old gentleman fairly beamed with pleasure, and reaching solemnly down in his pockets, he fished out another silver quarter, which he handed to ben, saying: "i like you; take it to please me." "i thank you; i have been paid," replied ben, pushing the coin back from him. "confound it! take this, then; won't you?" as he spoke he banged down a large, red apple on the counter, and looked almost savagely at ben, as if daring him to refuse it. the boy did not decline, but picking it up, said: "thank you; i am very fond of apples. i will take this home and share it with my mother." "the next time i come to town i'll bring you a peck," and with this hearty response the farmer stumped out of the door. i had been much amused over this scene, especially when ben showed me the astonishing message the farmer had prepared to send his daughter. ben laughed, too, after the old gentleman was beyond hearing. "it's a pleasure to do a slight favor like that. i think i feel better over it than mr. jones does himself." "i think not," said i; "for it so happens that instead of that gentleman being farmer jones, he is mr. musgrave, the district superintendent, who took a fancy to find out whether his operators are as kind and obliging as they should be, i am quite sure you lost nothing that time by your courtesy and accommodating spirit." chapter xii a call i have spoken of ben mayberry's fondness for athletic sports, and the great benefit he gained from the exercise thus obtained. when business permitted, i visited the ball grounds, where his skill made him the favorite of the enthusiastic crowd which always assembled there. he played shortstop, and his activity in picking up hot grounders and his wonderful accuracy in throwing to first base were the chief attractions which brought many to the place. he was equally successful at the bat, and, when only fourteen years old, repeatedly lifted the ball over the left-field fence--a feat which was only accomplished very rarely by the heaviest batsmen of the visiting nines. there were many, including myself, who particularly admired ben's throwing. how any living person can acquire such skill is beyond my comprehension. ben was the superior of all his companions when a small urchin, and his wonderful accuracy improved as he grew older. to please a number of spectators, ben used to place himself on third base, and then "bore in" the ball to first. in its arrowy passage it seemed scarcely to rise more than two or three feet above the horizontal, and shot through the air with such unerring aim that i really believe he could have struck a breast-pin on a player's front nine times out of ten. i never saw him make a wild throw, and some of his double plays were executed with such brilliancy that a veteran player took his hand one day as he ran from the field, and said: "ben, you'll be on a professional nine in a couple of years. harry wright and the different managers are always on the lookout for talent, and they'll scoop you in." "i think not," said the modest ben, panting slightly from a terrific run. "i am a little lucky, that's all; but though i'm very fond of playing ball i never will take it up as a means of living." "there's where your head ain't level, sonny. why, you'll get more money for one summer's play than you will make in two or three years nursing a telegraph machine. besides that, think of the fun you will have." "that's all very good, and i can understand why baseball is so tempting to so many young men. but it lasts a short time, and then the player finds himself without any regular business. his fingers are banged out of shape; he has exercised so violently that more than likely his health is injured, and he is compelled to work like a common laborer to get a living. ten years from now there will hardly be one of the present professionals in the business, i'm sure." "i guess you ain't far from the fact, but for all that, if i had the chance that you have, i would be mighty glad to take in all the baseball sport i could." but ben was sensible in this respect, and steadily refused to look upon himself as training for the professional ball field. in looking back to that time, i am rejoiced that such is the fact. there are many of my readers who recall the popular players of years ago--mcbride, wright, fisler, sensenderfer, mcmullen, start, brainard, gould, leonard, dean, spalding, sweeney, radcliffe, mcdonald, addy, pierce, and a score of others. among them all i recall none still in the field. some are dead, and the rest are so "used up" that they would make a sorry exhibition if placed on the ball field to-day. ben mayberry was a swift and skillful skater, and in running there was not a boy in damietta who could equal him. it was by giving heed to these forms of healthful exercise, and by avoiding liquor and tobacco, that he preserved his rosy cheeks, his clear eye, his vigorous brain, and his bounding health. "why, how do you do, ben?" the lad looked up from his desk in the office, one clear, autumn day, as he heard these words, and i did the same. there stood one of the loveliest little girls i ever looked upon. she seemed to be ten or eleven years of age, was richly dressed, with an exuberant mass of yellow hair falling over her shoulders. her large, lustrous eyes were of a deep blue, her complexion as rich and pink as the lining of a sea shell, and her features as winsome as any that phidias himself ever carved from parian marble. ben rose in a hesitating way and walked toward her, uncertain, though he suspected her identity. "is this--no, it cannot be----" "yes; i am dolly willard, that you saved from drowning with my poor mamma last winter. i wrote you a letter soon after i got home, but you felt too important to notice it, i suppose." and the laughing girl reached her hand over the counter, while ben shook it warmly, and said: "you wrote to me? surely there was some mistake, for i never got the letter; i would have only been too glad to answer it. maybe you forgot to drop it in the office." "i gave it to uncle george, and told him to be careful and put it in the mail, and he said he did so when he came home, so it was not my fault. but i am visiting at my cousin's in commerce street, at mr. grandin's----" "i know the place." "they are going to have a grand party there to-night, and i've come down to ask you to be sure and be there." "i am delighted to receive your invitation, but----" "you can go," said i, as ben looked appealingly toward me. "thank you, sir. yes, miss dolly, i count upon great pleasure in being present." "if you don't come, i'll never speak to you again," called the pretty little miss as she passed out of the door. "i am sorry and troubled about one thing," said ben to me, when we stood together. "this uncle george of dolly's is the g. r. burkhill who received that cipher dispatch. i am satisfied he is a villain, and there's trouble close at hand." chapter xiii at the grandin mansion ben mayberry was born in damietta, and his parents, as i have shown, were extremely poor. he had been a barefooted urchin, who was ready to fight or engage in any reckless undertaking. as he grew older and became more thoughtful, he assumed better clothing, grew more studious, and, helped by his fine ability and prepossessing looks, became popular. in addition, his remarkable skill in athletic sports made him well liked among the rougher element, who would have been glad had he consented to "train with their crowd." in spite of all this, ben failed to secure the social recognition to which he was entitled. many who would greet him most cordially on the street never thought of inviting him to their homes. damietta had been a city long enough to develop social caste, which lay in such distinct strata that there seemed no possibility of their ever mingling together. i was glad, therefore, when dolly willard called at the office and personally invited ben to attend the party at mr. grandin's, which was one of the most aristocratic families in damietta. they were originally from the south, but had lived in the city a long time. my young friend was somewhat dubious about going, as he had never before been invited to cross the threshold; but there was no refusing the warm invitation of dolly, who had walked all the way to the office on purpose to secure his presence at the gathering that evening. ben mayberry was proud of dolly; that is, proud that it had fallen to his lot to befriend such a splendid girl, but there were several things that made him thoughtful. in the first place, my reader will recall that the cipher telegram which was of such a compromising character was addressed to her uncle. ben had hunted out from the files in the office the first disguised message, and it clearly referred to a contemplated robbery of one of the banks in damietta. this g. r. burkhill was a criminal who was playing a desperate game, in which he was likely to lose. it was unfortunate that he was connected by relationship with dolly willard, who was the cousin of the grandins; but it was certainly impossible that either dolly, the grandins, or mrs. willard herself, knew the character of the man. such was the view ben took of the matter, adding to himself: "i hope he will keep away, and that nothing more of the intended robbery will be heard. it is now the fall of the year, and they seemed to agree that it was the time when the crime was to be attempted." it was one of the grandest children's parties ever given in damietta. little dolly willard had mourned her mother's loss as deeply as could any child, but those of her years soon rally from affliction, and she was among the happiest of the three-score boys and girls who gathered in the roomy parlors of the grandin mansion that beautiful night in october. the wages which ben mayberry received enabled him to dress with excellent taste, and, poor as he was, there was none of the sons of the wealthiest merchants in damietta who was more faultlessly attired that evening. true, some of them sported handsome gold watches, and one or two displayed diamonds, of which ben had none, but otherwise a spectator would have placed the young telegraphist on the same social footing with the aristocratic youths around him. among the numerous misses present were many dressed with great elegance, and possessing much personal beauty; but dolly willard, by common consent, surpassed them all in personal loveliness, while the rich and severe simplicity of her attire showed either the exquisite taste of herself or of someone who had the care of her. among such an assemblage of misses and youths there are as many heart-burnings as among their elder brothers and sisters. dolly was decidedly the belle of the evening. some of the other girls were so envious over her superior attractions that they openly sneered at her, but the aspiring youth were dazzled by the sprightly girl, who attracted them as though she were a magnet and they had a big supply of steel about their persons. when ben mayberry entered the parlor a little late, dolly was standing among a group of lads who were smiling and bowing, and making desperate attempts to be funny with a view of drawing her attention especially to them. it was natural that she should be somewhat coquettish, but the instant she caught sight of ben mayberry she almost ran to him. "i was afraid you wouldn't come," she exclaimed, taking both his hands in hers; "and if you hadn't, i never, never, never would have spoken to you again." ben unquestionably was a handsome lad. his bright eyes, his white, even teeth, his slightly roman nose, his well-shaped head, his clear, bright eye, and his rosy cheeks flushed with excitement, rendered him an attractive figure among the bright faces and well-dressed figures. his superb physical poise lent a grace to all his movements, while he was self-possessed at the most trying times. he made a laughing reply to dolly, who at once seated herself beside him and began chatting in her liveliest style, which was very lively indeed. to those who approached, she introduced him as the young man who had saved her life the preceding winter, until ben begged her to make no further reference to it. many of the other girls gathered around, and showed their admiration of ben in a most marked manner. these were mostly from boston or new york, who had heard of the young hero, but had never looked upon him before. dolly was talking away with lightning speed to ben, who managed to edge in a word now and then, when a dapper young man of sixteen years spruced forward. "they are going to form for the lancers, miss dolly; i believe i have your promise for my partner." "i thank you, rutherford, but i have changed my mind, and will dance with master ben." this was a daring and almost unwarranted act on the part of the little empress, for ben had not yet spoken to her on the matter. but he was quick to seize the advantage, and, instantly rising to his feet, offered his arm to dolly, and started toward the dancing-room, as though the whole thing had been prearranged before the other party presented himself. this act brought him face to face with the disappointed young man, whose countenance flushed with anger. "rutherford, this is he who saved my life last winter, master ben mayberry; my friend, rutherford richmond." the two saluted each other somewhat distantly; and with feelings which it would be hard to describe, ben recognized the tall, rather callow youth as the rutherford who stoned him several years before, when he was floating down the river on a log, and to whom ben in turn had given a most thorough castigation. chapter xiv the conspiracy rutherford richmond recognized ben mayberry at the same instant that the latter identified him. but neither gave any evidence of the fact that could be understood by other parties. ben took his position with dolly by his side, and they were without doubt the handsomest couple on the floor that evening. their mutual interest was so marked that everyone present noticed it, and it caused comment without end. "yes, i believe he sweeps out the office for a telegraph company. he manages to save up enough money in the course of a year to buy a decent suit of clothes." ben mayberry was sitting down at the end of one of the dances, when he overheard these words, which he knew referred to him. dolly had excused herself for a few minutes, and he was alone, sniffing at a fragrant bouquet which he was protecting from all damage for her benefit. he knew, further, that the remark was intended for his ears, but he affected not to know it, while he furtively glanced behind him. there stood master rutherford richmond, with three or four lads. they were all jealous of ben, and were discussing his merits for his own especial benefit. "i understand he gets fifty cents a week for his work," observed another, making sure his voice was elevated enough to be heard half across the room, "which is a big sum for him." "i don't understand why miss jennie" (referring to jennie grandin, who gave the party) "allows such cattle here," struck in a third, in the same off-hand manner. rutherford richmond took upon himself to give the reason. "it was all on account of dolly. you know she is kind-hearted, and i understand this booby went to her and begged that she would give him a chance to see how a party of high-toned people looked. she couldn't very well refuse, and now she is trotting him around for the rest of us to laugh at." ben mayberry's cheeks burned, for none of these words escaped him. he would have given a good deal to have been outside alone for a few minutes with master rutherford richmond. but he could not call him to account under the circumstances, and he still sniffed at the bouquet in his hand, and affected to be very much interested in the action of a couple of misses on the opposite side of the room. "if miss jennie permits anything of this kind again," volunteered rutherford, "it will cause trouble. a good many will want to know, before they allow their children to come, whether they are liable to meet the telegraph office boy and the great ball player here; if there's danger they will stay at home." "i think the scum of society should be kept in its place," observed another, scarcely less bitter than young richmond in his jealousy of the lad who claimed so much of the attention of the little belle of the evening. this kind of talk was going on when, to ben's great relief, dolly came tripping to him. he added gall to the cup of the envious youths by rising, giving her his arm, and then glancing triumphantly back at them, as he escorted her to the dining room. they knew the meaning of the glance, and they were fierce enough to assault him had they dared to do so. the party came to an end before midnight. ben mayberry had saluted his friends, and was in the hall preparatory to going home, when someone slyly pulled his arm. turning, he saw that it was ned deering, a little fellow whose father was the leading physician in damietta. ned was a great admirer of ben, and he now seized the occasion to say: "look out, ben, when you get down by the bridge over the creek; they're going for you." "whom do you mean?" "that rutherford richmond and another fellow mean to hide in carter's alley, and when you come along will pounce down on you. they wanted me to go with 'em, but i begged off without letting 'em know i meant to tell you." "where are they?" asked ben, glancing furtively about him. "they slipped out ahead, and are hurrying down there. you had better take another way home. they are awful mad, and will knock the stuffing out of you." ben mayberry smiled over the earnest words and manner of the boy, and thanked him for his information. "don't let 'em know i told you," added the timid fellow, as ben moved out the door; "for if they find out that it was me that was the cause of your going the other way home, why, they'd punch my head for me. that richmond, they say, is a reg'lar fighter--has science, and can lay out anybody of his size." "they will never know you said anything to me, ned, for i shall take the usual way, and will be slow, so as to give them plenty of time to get there ahead of me." the little fellow looked wonderingly at ben as he walked away, unable to comprehend how anyone should step into a yawning chasm after being warned of his peril. chapter xv an affray at night ben mayberry was so desirous that rutherford richmond and his brother conspirator should be given all the time they needed to complete their scheme for waylaying and assaulting him, that he lingered on the road longer than was really necessary. finally he turned down the street, which crossed by the creek that ran through the center of damietta. it was a clear moonlight night, and, except in the shadow, objects could be seen distinctly for a considerable distance. he advanced with great care, and with all his wits at command, for he was confident the warning given him by ned deering was well founded. when within a block of the bridge he saw someone peep out of carter's alley and instantly draw back his head, as though fearful of being observed. a moment later, a second person did the same. rutherford richmond and his confederate were on hand. they did not look like the two boys as seen in the glare of mr. grandin's parlors, for they had disguised themselves, so far as possible, with a view of preventing their recognition by the boy whom they meant to assault. they knew they were liable to get themselves into trouble by such an outrageous violation of law, and they meant to take all the precautions necessary. each had donned a long flapping overcoat, which must have belonged to some of the older members of the families, as it dangled about his heels. they also wore slouch hats like a couple of brigands, which they pulled down over their eyes, so as to hide their features. they had no weapons, for it was calculated that by springing upon ben unawares they would easily bear him to the pavement, when both would give him a beating which he would remember for a lifetime. ben was whistling softly to himself, and he was glad that at the late hour no one else was seen in the immediate neighborhood, for all he asked was a clear field and no favor. as he walked by the open end of carter's alley, he dimly discerned two figures, which seemed plastered against the wall in the dense shadow, where they were invisible to all passers-by, unless their suspicion was directed to the spot. ben gave no evidence that he noticed them, and moved along in his deliberate fashion, changing his whistling to a low humming of no particular tune; but he used his keen eyesight and hearing for all they were worth. he had gone no more than a dozen feet beyond, when he heard a rapid but cautious footstep behind him. it increased in swiftness, and was instantly followed by a second. the two boys were approaching him stealthily from the rear. still ben walked quietly forward, humming to himself, and with no apparent thought of what was coming. suddenly, when richmond was in the very act of making a leap upon his shoulders, ben turned like a flash, and planted a stunning blow directly in the face of the exultant coward, who was knocked on his back as if kicked by a vigorous mule. his companion was at the elbow of richmond when struck in this emphatic fashion, and for the instant was bewildered by the unexpected catastrophe. before he could recover he imagined the comet which was expected at that season had caught him directly between the eyes, and he went backward over richmond, with his two legs pointing upward, like a pair of dividers, toward the stars. ben's blood was up, and he waited for the two to rise, intending to "lay them out" more emphatically than before. the lad whose name he did not know lay still, but rutherford recovered with remarkable quickness, and began struggling to his feet, without paying heed to his hat, which had rolled into the gutter. "that ain't fair to strike a fellow that way, when he ain't expecting it," growled the assassin. "why didn't you stand still like a man and not hit below the belt?" "all right; i give you notice then, friend rutherford, that i am going for you again, and this time above the belt." richmond, finding he must fight, threw up his hands and did his best to guard against the blows whose force he knew so well. he did possess some knowledge of sparring, but so did ben, who was much the stronger and more active of the two. he advanced straight upon richmond, made several feints, and then landed a blow straight from the shoulder, at the same time parrying the cross-counter which the lad came near getting in on the face. it so happened that, at that moment, the other young scamp was in the act of rising, and had got upon his hands and knees. as richmond was sent spinning backward he came in collision with him, and turned a complete somersault, the air seeming to be full of legs, long hair, hats, and flapping overcoats. "murder! help! help! police! police!" these startling cries were shouted at the top of their voices by the discomfited poltroons, and were heard a long distance on the still night. suddenly the rattle of running feet sounded on the planks of the bridge, and ben caught sight of a policeman running toward the spot. "what does this mean?" he demanded, when he came face to face with ben, whom he motioned to stop. "those two fellows attacked me when i was passing carter's alley, and i--well, i defended myself as best i could." "oh, ben, that is you; i didn't know you at first," said the policeman. "this is rather serious business; i'll run 'em in." advancing to where the boys were once more climbing to their feet, he grasped each by the collar. "i'll take you along with me, young gents; this is serious business for you." they begged piteously to be let off, declaring that it was only a joke, but the officer was inexorable, and marched them to the station house, where they spent the rest of the night, ben mayberry having been notified to be on hand at nine o'clock the next morning, when the police justice would make an investigation. chapter xvi the third telegram when the father of rutherford richmond's friend, at whose house the young bostonian was visiting, learned the facts, he was indignant beyond description. he declared that ben mayberry had served the young scapegraces right, except he ought to have punished both more severely, which was rather severe, as was shown by the blackened eyes and bruised faces. ben declined to push the matter on the morrow, as the boys had been punished, and he had proved he was able to take care of himself, as against them, at any time. but the gentleman insisted that he would not permit the matter to drop, unless his son and rutherford agreed to go to the telegraph office and beg the pardon of the boy whom he learned they had insulted under mr. grandin's roof. rutherford and his friend consented, and they humiliated themselves to that extent. the succeeding day rutherford went home to boston, and did not reappear in damietta until long afterward, when he hoped the disgraceful episode was forgotten. on the following week dolly willard returned to new york, and ben, for the first time in his life, began to feel as though his native city had lost a good deal of the sunshine to which it was entitled. "she will visit damietta again," he said to himself, with just the faintest sigh, "and she promised to write me; i hope she won't forget her promise." and, indeed, the sprightly little miss did not lose sight of her pledge. it may be suspected that she took as much pleasure in expressing on paper her warm friendship for ben, as he did in reading the pure, honest sentiments, and in answering her missives, which he did with great promptness. it was just one week after the memorable night of the party, while i was sitting at my desk, that the following cipher dispatch came over the wires, addressed to g. r. burkhill, moorestown: "fwfszuijoh hr pl nm ujnf sgtqdezw bu bnqmdq. tom." i passed the message to ben, whose eyes sparkled as he took it in hand. it required but a few minutes for him to translate it by the method which has already been made known, and the following rather startling words came to light: "everything is o. k. on time thursday at corner." this unquestionably referred to the same unlawful project outlined in the former dispatches. mr. burkhill had not been in the office for months. as yet, of the three telegrams sent him, he had not received one. the first was lost in the river, the second had been on file more than half a year, and we now had the third. but the latter did not lie uncalled for even for an hour. remembering the instruction received from the manager, i took a copy of the message, with the translation written out by ben, to the office of the mayor, where i laid the facts before him. this was on wednesday, and the contemplated robbery was fixed for the following night. by his direction i sent a dispatch at once to the address of the detective in new york, who, it had been arranged, was to look after the matter. the reply to this message was the rather surprising information that detective maxx had been in damietta several days, and knew of the contemplated robbery. he was shadowing the suspected party, and if he deemed it necessary, he would call on the mayor for assistance. while i was absent from the office, who should walk in but mr. g. r. burkhill. he greeted ben with much effusion, shaking him warmly by the hand, inquiring how he got along, and telling him that his niece sent her special regards to him. "i have been on a trip to new orleans," he added, "or i would have been down in damietta sooner, for i like the place." "the summer isn't generally considered a good time to go so far south," ventured ben. "that is true, as relates to northerners, but i was born in the crescent city, and have no fear of yellow jack; fact is, i have had the confounded disease myself. by the way, have you a message for me?" "we have two, in fact i may say three, for the copy of the first one that went down the river with me has never been handed you, and one came a day or two after you left." "i know what they are, so you needn't mind about them. i will take the last, if you please." "it arrived within the last half hour," explained ben, as he handed the damp sheet to him. the boy watched his countenance while burkhill was reading it. it took several minutes for him to study out its meaning, but he did so without the aid of pencil or paper. a strange glitter came into his gray eyes as the meaning broke upon him, and he muttered something to himself which the lad did not quite catch. then he turned to the desk, and was engaged only a minute or two when he handed a return message to ben, paying for it as the man had done who forwarded the other to him. it was this: "uibu rthsr fybdumz vhkk cf qdzex. "g. r. burkhill." applying his rule (which compelled him to go to the end of the alphabet, when, for instance, the letter "a" demanded to be represented by a preceding letter), ben mayberry very readily translated the cipher as follows: "that suits exactly. will be ready. "g. r. burkhill." chapter xvii decidedly mixed during the summer succeeding the carrying away of the bridge which connected damietta with moorestown, it was built in a more substantial manner than before. it was an easy matter, therefore, to cross from one place to another, and carriages and pedestrians went back and forth between the two states at almost every hour of the day. damietta was a large city, while moorestown was only a small town; but the latter was pleasantly located and had a large and excellent hotel, where quite a number of guests spent the most sultry months of summer. in damietta were three banks, and the cipher telegrams which i have laid before the reader, beyond a doubt referred to one of them, but it was impossible to fix with certainty upon the right one. as a matter of prudence, therefore, it was determined to keep the three under surveillance. the mechanics' bank, as it was called before it adopted the national system, stood on the corner, and the general impression prevailed that this was the institution referred to, as it will be remembered that the word "corner" occurred in one of the telegrams. a few minutes' reflection convinced me that it was utterly out of the question for the intended robbery to succeed. such desperate projects depend mainly on their secrecy for success. the watchmen in all the banks were instructed to be unusually vigilant, the policemen were apprised of what was suspected, a number of officers were to lounge upon the streets near at hand in citizens' clothes, and aristides maxx, one of the most skillful detectives in the metropolis, was engaged upon the case. the general belief was that the burglars, discovering what thorough preparations were on foot, would not make the attempt. that sort of gentry are not the ones to walk into any trap with their eyes open. respecting detective maxx, there was much wonderment, and the mayor was vexed that he did not show up. some doubted his presence in damietta, but the superior officer of the city felt that courtesy demanded that maxx should report to him before trying to follow up any trail of his own. if he was with us, he was so effectually disguised that no one suspected his identity. "i wonder whether that seedy, tramp-like fellow who stole the cipher dispatch, can be detective maxx?" said ben to me on wednesday night before he started for home. "it is not impossible," i answered, "for detectives are forced to assume all manner of disguises. he may have chosen to stroll about the city in that make-up." "but if it is the detective, why did he go to all the trouble of copying off the telegram by sound when he could have got it from us with the translation merely by making himself known?" "i admit that, if he is a detective, he acts, in my judgment, in a very unprofessional way. he was so persistent in his attentions that he must have known he was sure to draw unpleasant, if not dangerous suspicion, to himself." "do you know," said ben, with a meaning smile, "that i half believe this stranger and burkhill are partners? they have been here at the same time, they show interest in the same thing, and like enough are working out the same scheme of robbery." this had never occurred to me, and i was struck with its reasonableness, when i came to think it over. the ill-favored individual signed the name "john browning" to the dispatch which he sent some months before, as a pretext for visiting our office so much--but that was clearly an alias. "well," said i, "it is all conjecture any way. with the ample warning the authorities have received, i do not believe there is the slightest prospect of a robbery being committed. i intend to retire to-morrow night at my usual hour with little fear of my slumbers being disturbed." a few minutes after, we bade each other good-night, and wended our way quietly homeward. my experience was singular, after parting with my young friend--not meaning to imply that anything unusual occurred to me; but the mental processes to which i was subjected that evening, in the light of subsequent events, were very peculiar, to say the least. i am convinced that the inciting cause was the remark made by ben mayberry to the effect that he believed the seedy individual was a confederate of burkhill, and that the two were perfecting a scheme for robbing one of the banks--most likely the mechanics'. "ben is right," i said to myself. "his bright mind has enabled him to grasp the truth by intuition, as a woman sometimes does when a man has been laboring for hours to reach the same point." but before i could satisfy myself that the boy was right, a still stronger conviction came to me that he was wrong. the men were not pals--as they are called among the criminal classes--and they were not arranging some plan of robbery. while i was clear on this point, i was totally unable to form any theory to take the place of the one i had demolished. who was the pretended john browning, and what was the dark scheme that was being hatched "in our midst," as the expression goes? these were the questions which presented themselves to me, and which i could not answer in a manner thoroughly satisfactory to myself. "they are all wrong--everybody is wrong!" i exclaimed to myself; "whatever it is that is in the wind, no one but the parties themselves knows its nature." this was the conclusion which fastened itself in my mind more firmly the longer i thought. "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, and it is the only thing which will protect us in this case--helloa!" so rapt was i in my meditation that i had walked three squares beyond my house before i awoke to the fact. it was something which i had never done before in all my life. chapter xviii between two fires in the meantime, ben mayberry underwent an experience more peculiar than mine. i cannot speak of the mental problems with which he wrestled, but, as he explained to me afterward, he had settled down to the belief that the mechanics' bank was the one against which the burglars were perfecting their plans. he was hopeful that the only outcome of the conspiracy would be the capture of the criminals, though he felt more than one pang when he reflected that the principal one was a relative of dolly willard, who was the personification of innocence and goodness to him. ben had acquired the excellent habit of always being wide awake, excepting, of course, when he lay down for real slumber. thus it was that he had gone but a little distance on his way home when he became aware that someone was following him. i doubt whether there is a more uncomfortable feeling than that caused by such a discovery. the certainty that some unknown person, with no motive but a sinister one, is dodging at your heels, as the mountain wolf slinks along behind the belated traveler, awaiting the moment when he can spring upon him unawares, is enough to cause the bravest man to shiver with dread. the night was very dark. the day had been cloudy, and there was no moon; but ben was in a large city, with an efficient police system (that is, equal to the average), there were street lamps, the hour was not unusually late, and there were other persons beside himself abroad. and yet, in the heart of the metropolis, at the same hour, crimes have been perpetrated whose mystery has never been unraveled to this day. ben mayberry may have felt somewhat uneasy, but there was not so much fear as there was curiosity to know what earthly reason any living man could have for following him in that stealthy fashion. surely no one could suspect him of being burdened with wealth. the only article of any account about his person was a silver watch, which had cost him sixteen dollars. he never carried a pistol, for he saw no necessity for doing so. if he should find himself beset by enemies who were too strong to be resisted, he could run as rapidly as any person in the city, and a short run in damietta was enough to take him to a place of safety inaccessible to his assailants. when he turned into the narrow street which led across the bridge where he had his affray with rutherford richmond and his companion, he reflected that it was perhaps the most dangerous spot in the neighborhood. there was a single lamp just before stepping on the bridge, where one might run against another before seeing him. he hesitated a minute as he made the turn. it was easy enough to reach his home by a different route, which was somewhat longer, but which was well lighted all the way, and there could be little risk in taking it. "i'll stick to the usual way," muttered ben, striding resolutely forward; "i don't believe anything like murder is contemplated." at that moment he would have felt much more comfortable had he possessed a pistol, or some kind of weapon, but he did not hesitate, now that he had "put his hand to the plow." a minute later he stepped on the bridge, where the gas lamp shone upon him, and, with his usual deliberate tread, passed off in the gloom of the other side. the instant he believed himself beyond sight of his pursuer, he quickened his gait but continually looked back in the hope of gaining a view of the man, for the boy was naturally eager to learn who it was that was playing such a sinister trick on him. just beyond, on the limit of his field of vision, ben saw a shadowy figure cross quickly, to the other side of the street. the stranger did this before coming within the glare of the lamp, which would have revealed him too plainly to those who might be curious to secure a glimpse of his features. an instant later his footfall was heard on the bridge, and he was walking rapidly toward ben, crossing again to the same side of the street, as soon as over the stream. the boy stepped lightly but briskly forward until he reached carter's alley, into which he entered a couple of yards, and then came to a sudden halt. at the moment of doing so, his foot struck something hard. he knew what it was, and, stooping down, picked up a large stone, which he held tightly grasped in his hand. such a weapon was very formidable in the grip of a vigorous boy, who could throw with the skill and accuracy of ben mayberry. the lad had scarcely halted when he caught the tip, tip of his pursuer, who was evidently determined to overtake him before he reached the lighted regions beyond. ben was astonished just then, to note that a second person was just approaching from the opposite direction in the same guarded fashion. "it must be there are two of them," was the sensible conclusion of the boy; "they have agreed to meet here, where i wouldn't have much show against them." it followed that the party of the second part was waiting for the coming of young mayberry, doubtless with the understanding that his partner in crime should follow him to a certain point near at hand, when the two would close in on him. ben had never suspected any such conspiracy as this, and, had he gone a little further, he would have walked directly into the arms of the second ruffian, while peering behind him at the shadowy villain who "still pursued him." but the lad had stopped short and disconcerted the plans of the conspirators by so doing. the one who was lying in wait was quick to miss the boy whom he had seen cross the bridge, and, suspecting something was wrong, he hastened stealthily toward the creek to learn the explanation. chapter xix baffled! it so happened that the two men stopped directly at the mouth of the alley, within a few feet of ben mayberry, who could hear their guarded words, though he could not catch the first glimpse of their figures. a whistled signal or two first made them certain of each other's identity, and then the one who had crossed the bridge gave utterance to an oath, expressive of his anger, as he demanded: "where has he gone?" "how should i know?" growled the other. "i waited where you told me to wait, and finding he didn't come, i moved down to meet him, but he don't show up." "'sh! not so loud. he can't be far off." "i don't know how that is, but he's given us the slip. there's an alley right here, and he has turned into that." "i don't hear him." "of course not. because he's standing still and listening to us." "flash your bull's-eye into the alley." when ben mayberry heard this order he trembled, as well he might, for he was so close to the scoundrels that the first rays of the lantern would reveal him to them. indeed he dare not move, lest the noise, slight as it was, would bring them down on him. he grasped the ragged stone in his hand and braced himself for the explosion that he was sure was at hand. but fortunately, and most unexpectedly, the crisis passed. the other villain growled in return: "what do you mean by talking about a bull's-eye? i doused the glim long ago." "why did you do that?" "the cops are watching us too close. i had hard work to dodge one of 'em to-night. do you s'pose i meant to have him find any of the tools on me? not much." the other emitted another sulphurous expression, and added the sensible remark: "then there's no use of our hanging around here. he's smelt a mice and dodged off, and we won't get another such a chance to neck him." these words sounded very strange to ben mayberry. well might he ask himself what earthly purpose these scamps could have in wishing to waylay him in such a dark place, where he was not likely to secure help. the latter part of their conversation proved they contemplated violence. "there's one thing certain," ben said to himself, "if i manage to get out undiscovered, i will see that i am prepared for such gentlemen hereafter." the couple suddenly stopped talking, for the sound of approaching footsteps were heard. the two moved into the alley, and a minute after a heavy man came ponderously along with a rolling tread. he was puffing at a cigar, whose end glowed so brightly that the tip of his nose and his mustache were seen by the three standing so near him. ben believed the wretches intended to assault and rob the citizen, and doubtless they were none too good to do so. in case the attempt was made, ben meant to hurl the stone in his hand at the spot where he was sure they were, and then yell for the police. policy alone prevented the commission of the crime. "we could have managed it easily," whispered one, as the portly citizen stepped on the bridge and came in sight under the lamp-light, "but i guess it was as well we didn't." "no; it wouldn't have paid as matters stand. we might have made a good haul, but the excitement to-morrow would have been such that we wouldn't have had a show to-morrow night." the heart of the listening bob gave a quick throb, for this was another proof of the intended crime on thursday evening. "well," added one, "that telegraph fellow was too smart for us this time, and has given us the slip. we may as well go home, for there's nothing more to do." thereupon they began walking toward the creek, with the deliberate tread of law-abiding citizens, who, if encountered anywhere on the street at any hour, would not have been suspected of being "crooked." ben mayberry had good cause for feeling indignant toward these ruffians, who clearly intended personal violence toward him, and who were, in all probability, desperadoes from the metropolis, brought into damietta for the most unlawful purposes. when they had gone a short distance, ben stepped out of the alley upon the main street, and stood looking toward the bridge. this was slightly elevated, so that in approaching from either side, one had to walk up-hill. the illumination from the lamp, of which i have made mention, gave a full view of the structure itself and all who might be upon it. ben saw his pursuer, in the first place, when he stepped on the planks, but the light was at his back, and he shrouded his face so skillfully that not a glimpse was obtained of his features. in a few minutes the conspirators slowly advanced out of the gloom and began walking up the slight ascent toward the bridge, becoming more distinct each second. when they reached the middle of the structure, they were in plain sight, but their backs were toward ben, who, however, had them where he wanted them. "i think i can plug one of them," muttered the shortstop of the damietta club, as he carefully drew back his arm and fixed his eye on the fellows. "at least, here goes." gathering all his strength and skill, he hurled the stone at the one who, he believed, had been lying in wait for him. the whizzing missile shot through the air like a cannon-ball, and landed precisely where the thrower intended, directly between the shoulders of the unsuspecting villain, who was thrown forward several paces by the force of the shock, and who must have been as much jarred as though an avalanche had fallen on him. chapter xx watching and waiting what imaginings were driven into the head of the ruffian by the well-directed missile it would be impossible to say, but it is safe to conclude he was startled. his hat fell off, and, without stopping to pick it up, he broke into a frantic run, closely followed by his companion, neither of them making the least outcry, but doubtless doing a great deal of thinking. ben mayberry laughed until his sides ached, for the tables had been turned most completely on his enemies; but he became serious again when he wended his way homeward, for there was much in the incidents of the day to mystify and trouble him. his mother had retired when he reached his house, but there was a "light in the window" for him. the fond parent had such faith in her son that she did not feel alarmed when he was belated in coming home. ben made a confidante of her in many things, but the truth was he was outgrowing her. she was a good, devout lady, but neither mentally nor physically could she begin to compare with her boy. had he made known to her the contemplated robbery, or his own narrow escape from assault, she would have become nervous and alarmed. ben did not tell her about the affray with rutherford richmond and his companion, for it would only have distressed her without accomplishing any good. he saw that his terrible adventure the preceding winter, on the wrecked bridge, had shocked her more than many supposed, and more than she suspected herself. the consequences became apparent months afterward, and caused ben to do his utmost to keep everything of a disquieting nature from his beloved mother. on the morrow ben told me the whole particulars of his adventures on the way home, and asked me what i made of it. "i give it up," i answered. "it's beyond my comprehension." "do i look like a wealthy youth?" he asked, with a laugh. "it is not that; they have some other purpose." "do they imagine i carry the combination to some safe in the city, and do they mean to force it from me?" "nothing of that sort, as you very well know. it looks as if they really meditated doing you harm." "there is no room for doubt; and it was a lucky thing, after all, that the night was so dark, and the city don't furnish many lamps in that part of the town. do you think i ought to tell the mayor or some officer about this?" "could you identify either of the men if you should meet him on the street?" "i could not, unless i was allowed to examine his back, where the stone landed." "then there's no use of telling anyone else, for no one could help you. you had better carry a pistol, and take a safer route home after this. one of these days, perhaps, the whole thing will be explained, but i own that it is altogether too much for any fellow to find out just now." it was natural that i should feel nervous the entire day, for there was every reason to believe we were close upon exciting incidents, in which fate had ordered that ben mayberry and myself would have to make the initial movements. neither burkhill, the tramp-like looking individual, nor any character to whom the least suspicion could attach, put in an appearance at the telegraph office during the day; this was another disappointment to ben and myself. the mayor also was disposed to be uncommunicative, for when i dropped in on him during the afternoon, he was short in his answers, barely intimating that everything was in a satisfactory shape. when asked whether detective maxx had revealed himself, he said: "i have seen nothing of him, and do not care to see him. his help is not needed." i am convinced that the action of the famous detective had a great deal to do with the ill-humor of the mayor, who was generally one of the most affable of men. i was pretty well used up, and at eleven o'clock i closed the office and went home, separating as usual from ben mayberry, who, i was satisfied, intended to know whether anything was amiss before he lay down to slumber. although the impression was general that it was the mechanics' bank which was the objective point of the conspirators, yet the chief of police, as i have intimated, had stationed his men so as to be ready for instant use, should it prove to be any one of the moneyed institutions. ben mayberry was so well satisfied that it was the mechanics' that, after leaving me, he went in that direction, anxious to see a first-class burglary attempted and foiled. the institution, it will be remembered, stood on the corner of one of the main streets, and a lamp was burning directly opposite. the cashier reported that two suspicious characters had called during the day and made some inquiries about drafts on new york, and the officers, who had spent much time in the neighborhood, were convinced that they had seen the same individuals stealthily viewing the bank from the outside. when ben reached the vicinity he saw no person, although he well knew that in almost every dark nook and hiding place, a guardian of the law was stationed, quietly awaiting the moment when the lawbreakers would dare show themselves. ben knew, too, that more than one pair of eyes carefully scrutinized him as they did every pedestrian who passed. he continued along until he reached a point where he could stand without being noticed by anyone. then he stopped, and, wide awake as ever, resolved that he would see the thing out if he was forced to stand where he was until the rising of the sun on the morrow. chapter xxi "lay low!" the clock in the tower of the city hall solemnly boomed the hour of midnight. damietta lay wrapped in slumber--that is, so far as the majority of her citizens were concerned. her guardians of the peace, as a rule, were wide awake, and the dozens stationed within the vicinity of her three national banks were particularly so. ben mayberry counted the strokes of the iron tongue, and reflected that thursday was gone, and friday had begun. as yet nothing had been seen or heard to indicate that anything unlawful was contemplated in this immediate neighborhood. more than once he was so well convinced that my view of the case was correct, that he was on the point of starting homeward, but he checked himself and stayed. at such a time the minutes drag with exceeding slowness, and it seemed to ben that fully a couple of hours had gone by, when the huge clock struck one. during the interval a number of pedestrians had passed, and a party of roystering youths rode by in a carriage, each one singing independently of the other, and in a loud, unsteady voice, but nothing yet had occurred on which to hang a suspicion. the peculiar, ringing, wave-like tones, which are heard a few minutes after the striking of a large bell, were still lingering in the air and gradually dying out, when one of the policemen gave a guarded whistle, which was a signal for the others to "lay low," or in better english, to keep themselves unusually wide awake. a minute after two men were heard approaching, and became dimly visible in the partial illumination of the street. it so happened that they walked directly by where ben was standing. they did not notice him, though he plainly saw them. they were of large frame, and walked with a slight unsteadiness, as though under the influence of liquor. "there's the bank," said one, in an undertone, as though he was imparting a momentous secret to the other. "that's so; if we could only get in, knock the watchman on the head, and kick in the door of the safe, we would make a good haul." "suppose we try it, jack----" for more than two hours a burly watchman had been hidden close at hand, without ben suspecting his presence. the last sentence was in the mouth of the speaker when this policeman sprang upon the amazed strangers, who were discussing the burglary of the bank. he must have been surcharged with faithfulness, for, instead of waiting until an overt act was committed, as all had been instructed to do, he rushed upon the men in a burst of enthusiasm which knew no restraint and passed all bounds. "yes, you'll rob the bank, will you?" he shouted, swinging his club aloft and bringing it down on the heads of the others. "i'll show you--we've been watching you. we know you. you're a fine set of cracksmen. you think damietta is a country town, but you'll learn different----" these vigorous observations were punctuated with equally vigorous whacks of the club, which it seemed must crack the skulls of the men, and in all probability would have done so had they not risen to the exigencies of the case and turned upon the policeman with remarkable promptitude. both of them were powerful, and finding themselves assailed in this fashion, one knocked the officer half-way across the street, wrenched his club from his grasp, and began laying it over his head. the stricken guardian of the peace shouted for help, and tried desperately to draw his revolver. finally he got it out, but before he could use it that also was taken from him, and it looked as though little would be left of him. [illustration: the policeman brought his club down on the heads of the others.--p. .] but the other policemen came running up, and took a hand in the fracas. while some went for the one who was belaboring the representative of the law, others made for the second burglar. but he was more muscular, if possible, than his friend, and he laid about him with such vigor that three officers were prostrated before he could be secured. calling to his friend, the two gave themselves up, demanding to know why peaceable citizens should be clubbed when quietly walking along the street. "we had not uttered a disrespectful word," said the first, "but were joking together, when that brass-buttoned idiot pounced upon us. we simply defended ourselves, as every man has a right to do, and we don't propose to let the matter rest here." "he lies!" shouted the officer who had fared so ill, as he came forward, his hat off, and his clothing covered with dust; "he was arranging to rob the bank; they are the burglars that we've been watching for days; i know 'em all right." "we shall have to take you along," said the chief, who saw that matters were considerably mixed. at this point ben thought it was his duty to interfere. "if you will permit me, i am satisfied that some mistake has been made. these gentlemen did nothing----" "he's one of 'em," broke in the first officer, whose wrath could not be appeased; "he's been their dummy; he was on the lookout to give 'em warning; run him in, too." despite ben mayberry's protests, he was forced to go with the prisoners; but on the way to the lock-up he was recognized by several officers, including the chief, who ordered his release, ben promising to appear in the morning at the hearing. on the morrow several important facts came to light. the two individuals who had been so roughly used were honest countrymen, whose references to the robbery of the bank were purely in jest--such a project as burglary never entering their thoughts. the policeman who assailed them made a humble apology, and they agreed to let the matter drop. another fact that was established was that the policemen of damietta were very much like those of other cities. the third truth was, that no burglary took place on thursday night or friday morning, and everything was as quiet as the surface of a summer mill-pond, with the single exception of the incident just narrated. chapter xxii the battle of life after all the elaborate preparations for the capture of the burglars, the whole business had fallen so flat that the officers of the law themselves laughed at the farcical termination. nothing criminal was attempted, and damietta never was more peaceful in all its history than it was during the many weeks and months which followed. and yet, in spite of all this, there could be no question that such a burglarious scheme at one time was contemplated. the cipher telegrams, and the surveillance to which ben mayberry was subjected, together with the attempted assault upon him, made this too manifest to be disputed. "they simply discovered the preparations made by the authorities," i said to ben, "and they had prudence enough to withdraw." "do you believe they have given it up altogether?" "i doubt it. they have simply deferred the execution until some safer time. we must continue to be on the lookout for telegrams in cipher. these gentry have evil designs upon damietta, as will be proven before we are many years older." when ben mayberry reached the age of fifteen, he attained an important epoch in his life. he had long been one of the most skillful operators in the district, being remarkably quick and accurate. i have told enough to prove his courteous disposition toward all who entered our office. the pretended mr. jones, who acted the part of the ignorant farmer, was, as i have stated, a high official of the company, who took odd means to test the character and skill of our employees. the test in the case of young mayberry proved most satisfactory in every respect. at my request, i was transferred to one of the cities in the eastern states, where the climate agreed better with me. i was given charge of an important office, an advance made in my wages, and everything was done to make the change agreeable. such being the fact, it is no assumption on my part to say that my administration of the exacting duties in damietta had been fully appreciated by my superior officers. ben mayberry was made manager of the office in his native city at a salary of seventy-five dollars per month. this statement the reader may doubt, for i am quite certain that no telegraphist of his age was ever given such an important charge, nor is anyone so young paid such a liberal salary; but, did i feel at liberty to do so, i could locate ben mayberry so closely that all skeptics could ascertain the facts, in a brief time, precisely as i have given them. we have many office managers, in different parts of the country, who lack several years of their majority; but, as a rule, their stations are not very important, and their pay is nothing like what ben received. there were exceptional circumstances in his case. he was unusually bright, he was very attentive, he was courteous, cheerful, and never shirked work. he was popular with our patrons, and much of the increase in the business of the damietta office was due to ben alone. this became known to those above him, and they felt that an unusual promotion on his part would not only be a just recognition of his ability and devotion, but would do much to stimulate others to imitate the good example set by the boy. in addition to all this, it cannot be denied that fortune favored ben in a marked degree. the fact that he was swept down the river in the darkness and tempest, while trying to deliver a telegram for a messenger who was ill, and that he saved the life of a little girl, could not fail to operate strongly to his benefit. but he would have reached the end all the same, without these aids, just as you, my young friend, may attain the topmost round by climbing up, up, up, step after step, step after step. there is no cup in this life without some drops of bitterness, and, despite the promotion of ben, which he fully appreciated, he was cast down by another circumstance, which troubled him more than he would admit to his closest friends. he had not seen sweet dolly willard since the grand children's party at mr. grandin's, more than two years previous. she had written him regularly every week for months, and he had been equally prompt in answering. ben wrote a beautiful hand, and his missives to dolly were long and affectionate. she would have visited her cousins in damietta, had they not made a visit to europe, which shut off the possibility of her doing so for some time to come. ben felt that under the circumstances it was hardly the thing for him to make a call upon dolly in new york, though she invited him to do so. but during the very week that ben was given charge of the damietta office, the mail failed to bring the usual letter from dolly. he waited impatiently for several days and then wrote to her. there was no response to this, and he felt resentful. he held out for a fortnight, and then was so worried that he was forced to write again. but this was equally fruitless of results, and he became angry. "she is getting to be quite a large girl; her folks are wealthy, and she has begun to realize that i am nothing but a poor telegraphist. her folks have told her she must look higher, and she has come to that same mind herself. ah, well; let it be so!" that was expressive of his feelings. sometimes ben felt like rebelling against his fate. he had applied himself hard for years; he possessed an excellent education; he held a prominent position in the greatest telegraph company of the country, with a prospect of further advancement before him, and yet, because he was poor, he was looked down upon by those who were his inferiors in everything except the single one of wealth. "it is a great disappointment," he sometimes murmured, "but i am young; most folks would laugh that one of my age should take such a fancy to a little girl like dolly, and they would say i am certain to get over it very soon. and just there is where they would all make a great mistake." and ben mayberry was right on that point. chapter xxiii face to face ben mayberry was sitting at his desk in the damietta office, one beautiful day in indian summer, attentive as ever to his duties, when a carriage drove up to the door containing a young gentleman and a lady. the former sprang lightly out and ran into the office, after the manner of one who was in a hurry to send an important telegram. suddenly, while ben was looking at the youth he recognized him as rutherford richmond, with whom he had had several important meetings. "why, rutherford, you have grown so much i didn't recognize you; i am glad to see you; how have you been?" ben reached his hand over the counter as he greeted the young man, but the latter affected not to hear him. turning to the desk, he wrote out a message with great rapidity, wheeled about, and, without the slightest evidence of ever having seen ben, handed him the paper and ordered the dispatch to be sent to new york. this was the telegram: "richard willard, no.-- avenue, new york: "dolly and i reached here safe. big party at grandin's to-morrow; sure of grand time. will take good care of dolly. "rutherford richmond." as the writer hurried out the door, ben followed him with his eyes. there, in a handsome, single-seated carriage, sat a beautiful miss of thirteen or fourteen, elegantly dressed and looking straight toward him. it was dolly willard, more enchanting than ever, her eyes luminous with health and her cheeks as pink and rosy as the delicate tint of the coral. ben was too shocked to salute her, and probably it was as well he did not do so, for she simply stared with scarcely less directness than did her companion. only by the most supreme exertion was the youth enabled to choke down his rebellious emotions, so that none in the office noticed his excitement. it was the same on the morrow, and, as if the fates had combined to crush him in absolute wretchedness, he encountered rutherford and dolly riding out as he was making his way homeward. he affected not to see them, but he could not avoid furtively watching dolly, who certainly was the most winsome-looking young miss he had ever seen. "to-night another party is given by the grandins. their girls are ladies, and they treated me well when i was there more than two years ago, but in this matter dolly has had all to say--that is, she and rutherford. well, if she is that sort of girl, i don't want anything to do with her." that night, in spite of himself, ben could not stay at home; he strolled along, a prey to his bitter thoughts, and mechanically walked in the direction of the splendid grounds of the wealthy jeweler, mr. grandin. the sound of music from within aroused him. he saw the lights glimmering through the beautiful shade trees, and could catch sight of the gayly-dressed figures flitting by the open windows. "i can't feel any worse," muttered ben, walking through the open gate, confident that he would attract no special attention. he sauntered up the graveled walk, turning off to the right and moving slowly along, with his gaze fixed upon the gay lads and lasses within, who seemed to be in the very height of enjoyment. at that instant someone caught his arm, and ben turned with an apology for his forgetfulness. "i beg pardon, but i was so interested in the scene that i did not notice where i stepped----" he paused, fairly gasping for breath, for there stood dolly willard at his side, with her hand upon his arm. the light streaming from the windows fell upon her charming face, on which there was an expression that young mayberry did not understand. "ben," said she, in a voice that sounded unnatural, "i've got something i want to say to you." "and i have a good deal that i would like to say to you," he retorted, firing up, now that the little empress stood before him. chapter xxiv startling discoveries "you say you have something to speak about," added the boy, looking into the enchanting face, as it reflected the light from the windows near at hand; "i have only to suggest that it took you a good time to find it out." "it is not i, but you who are to blame." "possibly i am to be blamed for being born poor while you are rich; but i have paid for my mistake, and it is now too late to correct it." the conversation had reached this point when the two seemed to conclude it was altogether too public to be in good taste. several persons, standing near, stepped a little closer, so as to catch every word. "it is so warm in there," said dolly; "even with the windows open, that i came outdoors to get the fresh air. aunt maggie put my shawl about my shoulders so that i wouldn't take cold. now, ben, if you will walk with me to the summer-house yonder, we can sit down by ourselves, finish our talk, and then part forever." the last expression sent a pang to the boy's heart, but he did not allow her to see it. he followed her a short distance to one of the romantic little lattice-work structures which mr. grandin had placed on his grounds. a few rays of silvery moonlight penetrated the leafy shelter, so the two were not in complete darkness when they sat down on the rustic seat. "i am ready to listen to you," said ben in his most frigid voice, the two being separated by a space of several feet. "in the first place, if you thought so lightly of me, you never should have told me different nor asked me to correspond with you." "i do not understand you." "how can you help understanding me?" "because i see no reason for your words. i thought all the world of you; the greatest pleasure of my life was to write to you and to receive your letters in return. all at once you stopped writing; i sent you three letters, and you paid no attention----" "ben, how dare you! it was you who laughed at my letters, and took no notice of them, except to show them to your friends and ridicule what i put on paper." ben mayberry sprang to his feet. like a flash it came upon him that some dreadful misunderstanding had been brought about by other parties, for which dolly was not to blame. "tell me the whole story, dolly," he said in a kinder voice than he had used since they met, as he resumed his seat. "well," said she, beginning to feel the same suspicion that thrilled her companion, "there is a good deal to say, but i will make it short. you know my father and mr. grandin are cousins, so the girls are really my second cousins. rutherford richmond is the son of an old friend of father, who lives in boston. father has a large insurance office, and he agreed to take rutherford until he learned the business, so as to take charge of the same kind of office in boston, which his father is going to fix up for him. that's how it is rutherford has been living with us for some months. "well, a good while ago, i wrote you a letter, begging you to come and visit me; father said i might do so. you didn't accept the invitation. i wrote you again and got no answer to it; i was frightened, and thought maybe you were ill, and wrote once more, but there was no answer to it. i would have sent a letter to cousin jane to find out about you, but she was in europe. after a while i sent a fourth letter, very long, and full of things which i wouldn't have anyone else know for the world. i sent----" "who by?" "rutherford took it and several other letters, and placed them in the mail-box at father's office, so they were sure to go. but there was no answer to the last, and then i gave up. i felt awful bad; but i was nearly wild when rutherford came to me one day and said he had something which he thought he ought to tell me. when he said it was about you, i was dreadfully excited. he told me that he had made the acquaintance of a young man from damietta, who was a close friend of yours. that young person, whose name rutherford would not give, said that you showed all my letters to him and several others, and made fun of them. i wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't proved what he said?" "how did he prove it?" "by repeating what i had written; he gave me half of what was in that last letter, which he said was repeated to him by the person you told. he had them so exactly that my face burned like fire, and i was never so angry in all my life. i knew you must have done what rutherford said, for how could he know what i had written you?" "he knew it by opening your letter, reading the contents, and then destroying it. that letter, dolly, i never saw, nor did i see the three which preceded it. i also sent you three letters, of which i never heard." now that the way was opened, full explanations quickly followed. there could be no earthly doubt that the last three letters sent by ben mayberry to dolly willard had been intercepted by rutherford richmond, who had not hesitated to do the same with those sent by dolly, though most probably he had simply destroyed the three, and read only the last. "you risked your life to save mine and that of my mother," she said in a tremulous voice, "and it was an awful thing for you to believe i could ever fail to think more of you than of anyone else in the world." "i guess i shall have to own up," laughed the happy ben; "but we were both placed in a false position." "but we shall never be again----" "dolly, dolly! where are you?" the cries came from a gay party of misses who came trooping forth to look for the belle, whose absence so long from her friends had attracted inquiry. she sprang up. "good-by, ben; i must go." she caught his hand and returned the pressure, then hurried out and met her young friends, who escorted her back to the house, while ben quietly departed without attracting attention. it was past midnight, but ben thought nothing of time. he had turned off from the street and entered the main business avenue of damietta. just as he came opposite the large jewelry establishment of mr. grandin he glanced through the plate-glass window. a light was burning dimly in the rear of the store, as was the custom with many of the merchants in the city, but at the instant of looking ben saw something like a shadow flit by the light. he looked again, and was certain that another movement had taken place, though he could not define its character. he paused only an instant, when he walked on again; but in that instant he became convinced that burglars were operating in the jewelry establishment of mr. grandin. he walked slowly forward, humming to himself, as was his custom, but wide awake and alert. fifty feet further, he detected the shadowy figure of a man standing in one of the adjoining doorways. ben pretended not to see him, and continued humming gayly to himself. ben sauntered along in the same aimless fashion until sure he was not watched, when he turned and made his way directly to the police office. the chief was there and ben quickly told him everything he knew. "those are the parties who arranged to rob the bank year before last," said the chief, "but found out they were suspected." "they certainly managed it well this time; that is, so far, for there hasn't a single cipher telegram passed through our office since." "well, we are ready to move," said the chief, as he observed that four of his best officers were awaiting his orders. chapter xxv in the nick of time ben would have liked to accompany the officers, but that would have been unprofessional on their part, and he did not make the request. he waited until they had been gone several minutes, when he slipped out and passed down the street, determined to see what was to be seen. the chief managed the delicate and dangerous business with great skill. the first notice the burglars had of danger was from the rear. they were down behind a screen of dark muslin they had put up, carefully working at the safe, which contained diamonds and jewelry of immense value. they had already drilled a considerable distance into the chilled iron, when the "philistines descended upon them." the burglars sprang up like tigers, but they were caught so fairly that they were borne to the floor and handcuffs clicked around their wrists in a twinkling. there were only two, and the three policemen mastered them without difficulty. but there were two others on the street outside, and they were quick to discover what was going on within. one of these was dandy sam, who ran forward and peered through the front window. his companion was at his elbow, and they instantly saw that something was wrong. they turned to flee, when they found themselves face to face with the chief and his aid. "hold up your hands!" commanded the chief, leveling his pistol at the villains. one of them complied, but dandy sam fired point-blank at the chief, whirled on his heel, and ran like a deer down the street. the chief was not touched, and pistol in hand he started after the criminal, leaving his aid to attend to the second one. dandy sam was fleet of foot and was gaining on his pursuer, when he came face to face with ben mayberry, who was hurrying toward the scene of the burglary with a view of seeing how it terminated. the two encountered where the lamp-light showed the face of each. ben knew the scamp on the instant, from the description given him, and the sight of the flying rascal told him the truth. ben had his pistol in his pocket, but he could not bear the thought of shooting a person, especially when there was a possible doubt of the necessity. ben compromised matters by darting into the road, where he caught up a stone weighing fully a pound. the chief was some distance away shouting "stop thief!" and firing his pistol over his head, so there could be no doubt that dandy sam was "wanted." ben mayberry stood about as far from the fugitive as the space between first and second base--thirty yards--when the stone left his hand like a thunderbolt. as before, it sped true to its aim, but struck higher than then, sending the scoundrel forward on his face, and stunning him; only for a minute or so, but this was sufficient. while he was in the act of climbing to his feet again, the chief dropped upon him; there was a click, and dandy sam was at the end of his career of crime, at least for a considerable time to come. the chief started for the station-house with his man, whom he watched closely despite the stunning blow he had received. a few minutes later the other three officers came in with their prisoners, who were caught in the very act of committing burglary. the aid was absent so long that the chief felt uneasy, and started out in quest of him, but at that moment he appeared with his man. "he went peaceably enough for a while," explained the aid, "and then he tried to bribe me to let him go. when he found that wouldn't work he became ugly, and i had to use my club, but he ain't hurt much." his face was bleeding, but ben mayberry, with a shock, recognized the prisoner as g. r. burkhill, the uncle of dolly willard. the capture of the burglars made great excitement in damietta, and the part taken by ben mayberry once more placed his name in everyone's mouth. it was he who discovered the criminals, and was the direct means of securing the desperado, dandy sam, the leader of the notorious gang. it was a great shock to all, except a few, to find that burkhill, the brother-in-law of dolly willard's father, was also one of the guilty ones. but there were others (and among them mr. willard and mr. grandin) who were not surprised in the least. the facts in this singular affair, as they ultimately came to light, were as follows: george r. burkhill was the black sheep in a most estimable family, of which mrs. willard, the mother of dolly, was a member. she was the sister of burkhill, and the only one who clung to the bad brother, pronounced incorrigible by everyone else, even when a small boy. she believed there was some good in him, and, in the face of protests, she labored to bring him to a sense of right. it was through her influence that he was saved from condign punishment for more than one serious offense. all four of the burglars were duly tried, found guilty, and sentenced to the penitentiary for ten years. rather curiously, both dandy sam and burkhill died during the third year of their imprisonment, and it is safe to say the world was the gainer thereby. some few days after the capture of the burglars, came a glowing letter from dolly, who had gone home to new york, in which she said that her father insisted that ben should come and make them a visit, and would accept no excuse for refusing. "i'll go this time!" exclaimed ben, knowing he would have no trouble in obtaining permission to take a brief vacation. and go he did. chapter xxvi conclusion in closing the history of ben mayberry, the telegraph messenger boy, it seems to me i can do no better than by using the words of the hero himself. the following letter i received only a few days since. it is the last which has come to hand from ben, who writes me regularly, as he has done ever since i was transferred from the office in damietta. i should add that the date of the letter is nine years subsequent to that of his visit to the metropolis as the guest of mr. james willard: "my dear mr. melville,--i am now in my twenty-fifth year. in looking back it seems only a few years ago that you called me to you, on the street of my native city, and offered to make me general utility boy in the telegraph office of damietta. my mother and i were nearly starving at the time, and no kindness could have been more appropriate than yours, nor could anyone have shown greater tact and wisdom in cultivating the good instincts of a ragged urchin, who, otherwise, was likely to go to ruin. "you awakened my ambition and incited me to study; you impressed upon me the beauty and truth of the declaration that there is no royal road to learning; that if i expected to attain success in any walk of life it could only be done by hard, unremitting, patient work. there are many rounds to the ladder, and each must climb them one by one. "good fortune attended me in every respect. it was the providence of god which saved me and enabled me to help save sweet dolly when the bridge went down in the storm and darkness, and her mother was lost; yet, but for my determination to do my best at all times, and never to give up so long as i could struggle, i must have succumbed. "it was extremely fortunate that i saw the burglars at work in the jewelry establishment of mr. grandin on that memorable night in damietta. the same stroke of fortune might have fallen to any boy, but it was incomplete until i was able to bring the leader to the ground with the stone which i hurled at him. "it may be said that all these are but mere incidents of my history, and possibly i may have magnified their importance; but, though my progress was rapid, it never could have carried me successfully along without the regular, systematic, hard work with which i employed my spare hours, when not devoted to exercise. in this world that which wins, is work, work, work! "when i was fifteen years old, i was made the manager of the office in damietta, with a larger salary than i was entitled to. three years later, the partiality of mr. musgrave made me assistant superintendent, and now i have been general superintendent of the district for more than two years, with a handsome salary, which enables me to give my dear mother comforts and elegances of which the good lady never dreamed. "i married dolly shortly after my promotion to the office of general superintendent, and the little fellow that is learning to lisp 'papa,' you know, has been named after you, my old, true, and invaluable friend, to whose counsel and kindness i feel i am so much indebted. "dolly sits at my elbow and continually reminds me that i must insist that you come down and spend christmas with us. a chair and plate will be placed at the table for you, and you must allow nothing less than providence itself to keep you away. "as ever, "your devoted friend, "ben." the end ------------------------------------------------------------------------- the frontier boys by capt. wyn. roosevelt. this noted scout and author, known to every plainsman, has lived a life of stirring adventure. in boyhood, in the early days, he traveled with comrades the overland route to the west,--a trip of thrilling experiences, unceasing hardships and trials that would have daunted a heart less brave. his life has been spent in the companionship of the typically brave adventurers, gold seekers, cowboys and ranchmen of our great west. he has lived with more than one indian tribe, took part in a revolution at hawaii and was captured in turn by pirates and cannibals. he writes in a way sure to win the heart of every boy. frontier boys on the overland trail. frontier boys in colorado, or captured by indians. frontier boys in the grand canyon, or a search for treasure. frontier boys in mexico, or mystery mountain. finely illustrated. cloth, mo. attractive cover design. price c per volume. chatterton-peck co. new york ------------------------------------------------------------------------- the comrades series by ralph victor. this writer of boys' books has shown by his magazine work and experience that this series will be without question the greatest seller of any books for boys yet published; full of action from start to finish. cloth, mo. finely illustrated; special cover design. price, c per volume. comrades on the farm, or the mystery of deep gulch. comrades in new york, or snaring the smugglers. comrades on the ranch, or secret of the lost river. comrades in new mexico, or the round-up. comrades on the great divide (in preparation). ralph victor is probably the best equipped writer of up-to-date boy's stories of the present day. he has traveled or lived in every land, has shot big game with sears in india, has voyaged with jack london, and was a war correspondent in natal and japan. the lure of life in the open has always been his, and his experiences have been thrilling and many.--"progress." chatterton-peck co. new york proofreaders. this file was produced from images generously made available by the bibliotheque nationale de france (bnf/gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr. samuel f.b. morse his letters and journals in two volumes volume i [illustration: samuel f.b. morse] samuel f.b. morse his letters and journals edited and supplemented by his son edward lind morse illustrated with reproductions of his paintings and with notes and diagrams bearing on the invention of the telegraph volume i to my wife whose loving interest and apt criticism have been to me of great value i dedicate this work "it is the hour of fate, and those who follow me reach every state mortals desire, and conquer every foe save death. but they who doubt or hesitate-- condemned to failure, penury and woe-- seek me in vain and uselessly implore. i hear them not, and i return no more." ingalls, _opportunity_. preface arthur christopher benson, in the introduction to his studies in biography entitled "the leaves of the tree," says:-- "but when it comes to dealing with men who have played upon the whole a noble part in life, whose vision has been clear and whose heart has been wide, who have not merely followed their own personal ambitions, but have really desired to leave the world better and happier than they found it,--in such cases, indiscriminate praise is not only foolish and untruthful, it is positively harmful and noxious. what one desires to see in the lives of others is some sort of transformation, some evidence of patient struggling with faults, some hint of failings triumphed over, some gain of generosity and endurance and courage. to slur over the faults and failings of the great is not only inartistic: it is also faint-hearted and unjust. it alienates sympathy. it substitutes unreal adoration for wholesome admiration; it afflicts the reader, conscious of frailty and struggle, with a sense of hopeless despair in the presence of anything so supremely high-minded and flawless." the judgment of a son may, perhaps, be biased in favor of a beloved father; he may unconsciously "slur over the faults and failings," and lay emphasis only on the virtues. in selecting and putting together the letters, diaries, etc., of my father, samuel f.b. morse, i have tried to avoid that fault; my desire has been to present a true portrait of the man, with both lights and shadows duly emphasized; but i can say with perfect truth that i have found but little to deplore. he was human, he had his faults, and he made mistakes. while honestly differing from him on certain questions, i am yet convinced that, in all his beliefs, he was absolutely sincere, and the deeper i have delved into his correspondence, the more i have been impressed by the true nobility and greatness of the man. his fame is now secure, but, like all great men, he made enemies who pursued him with their calumnies even after his death; and others, perfectly honest and sincere, have questioned his right to be called the inventor of the telegraph. i have tried to give credit where credit is due with regard to certain points in the invention, but i have also given the documentary evidence, which i am confident will prove that he never claimed more than was his right. for many years after his invention was a proved success, almost to the day of his death, he was compelled to fight for his rights; but he was a good fighter, a skilled controversialist, and he has won out in the end. he was born and brought up in a deeply religious atmosphere, in a faith which seems to us of the present day as narrow; but, as will appear from his correspondence, he was perfectly sincere in his beliefs, and unfalteringly held himself to be an instrument divinely appointed to bestow a great blessing upon humanity. it seems not to be generally known that he was an artist of great ability, that for more than half his life he devoted himself to painting, and that he is ranked with the best of our earlier painters. in my selection of letters to be published i have tried to place much emphasis on this phase of his career, a most interesting one. i have found so many letters, diaries, and sketch-books of those earlier years, never before published, that seemed to me of great human interest, that i have ventured to let a large number of these documents chronicle the history of morse the artist. many of the letters here published have already appeared in mr. s. irenaeus prime's biography of morse, but others are now printed for the first time, and i have omitted many which mr. prime included. i must acknowledge my indebtedness to mr. prime for the possibility of filling in certain gaps in the correspondence; and for much interesting material not now otherwise obtainable. before the telegraph had demonstrated its practical utility, its inventor was subjected to ridicule most galling to a sensitive nature, and after it was a proved success he was vilified by the enemies he was obliged to make on account of his own probity, and by the unscrupulous men who tried to rob him of the fruits of his genius; but in this he was only paying the penalty of greatness, and, as the perspective of time enables us to render a more impartial verdict, his character will be found to emerge triumphant. his versatility and abounding vitality were astounding. he would have been an eminent man in his day had he never invented the telegraph; but it is of absorbing interest, in following his career, to note how he was forced to give up one ambition after another, to suffer blow after blow which would have overwhelmed a man of less indomitable perseverance, until all his great energies were impelled into the one channel which ultimately led to undying fame. in every great achievement in the history of progress one man must stand preëminent, one name must symbolize to future generations the thing accomplished, whether it be the founding of an empire, the discovery of a new world, or the invention of a new and useful art; and this one man must be so endowed by nature as to be capable of carrying to a successful issue the great enterprise, be it what it may. he must, in short, be a man of destiny. that he should call to his assistance other men, that he should legitimately make use of the labors of others, in no wise detracts from his claims to greatness. it is futile to say that without this one or that one the enterprise would have been a failure; that without his officers and his men the general could not have waged a successful campaign. we must, in every great accomplishment which has influenced the history of the world, search out the master mind to whom, under heaven, the epoch-making result is due, and him must we crown with the laurel wreath. of nothing is this more true than of invention, for i venture to assert that no great invention has ever sprung minerva-like from the brain of one man. it has been the culmination of the discoveries, the researches, yes, and the failures, of others, until the time was ripe and the destined man appeared. while due credit and all honor must be given to the other laborers in the field, the niche in the temple of fame must be reserved for the one man whose genius has combined all the known elements and added the connecting link to produce the great result. as an invention the telegraph was truly epoch-making. it came at a time when steam navigation on land and water was yet in its infancy, and it is idle to speculate on the slow progress which this would have made had it not been for the assistance of the electric spark. the science of electricity itself was but an academic curiosity, and it was not until the telegraph had demonstrated that this mysterious force could be harnessed to the use of man, that other men of genius arose to extend its usefulness in other directions; and this, in turn, stimulated invention in many other fields, and the end is not yet. it has been necessary, in selecting letters, to omit many fully as interesting as those which have been included; barely to touch on subjects of research, or of political and religious discussion, which are worthy of being pursued further, and to omit some subjects entirely. very probably another more experienced hand would have made a better selection, but my aim has been to give, through characteristic letters and contemporary opinions, an accurate portrait of the man, and a succinct history of his life and labors. if i have succeeded in throwing a new light on some points which are still the subject of discussion, if i have been able to call attention to any facts which until now have been overlooked or unknown, i shall be satisfied. if i have been compelled to use very plain language with regard to some of those who were his open or secret enemies, or who have been posthumously glorified by others, i have done so with regret. such as it is i send the book forth in the hope that it may add to the knowledge and appreciation of the character of one of the world's great men, and that it may, perhaps, be an inspiration to others who are striving, against great odds, to benefit their fellow men, or to those who are championing the cause of justice and truth. edward lind morse. contents chapter i april . --september , birth of s.f.b. morse.--his parents.--letters of dr. belknap and rev. mr. wells.--phillips, andover.--first letter.--letter from his father.-- religious letter from morse to his brothers.--letters from the mother to her sons.--morse enters yale.--his journey there.--difficulty in keeping up with his class.--letter of warning from his mother.--letters of jedediah morse to bishop of london and lindley murray.--morse becomes more studious.--bill of expenses.--longing to travel and interest in electricity.--philadelphia and new york.--graduates from college.--wishes to accompany allston to england, but submits to parents' desires chapter ii october , --august , enters bookshop as clerk.--devotes leisure to painting.--leaves shop.-- letter to his brothers on appointments at yale.--letters from joseph p. rossiter.--morse's first love affair.--paints "landing of the pilgrims." --prepares to sail with allstons for england.--letters of introduction from his father.--disagreeable stage-ride to new york.--sails on the lydia.--prosperous voyage.--liverpool.--trip to london.--observations on people and customs.--frequently cheated.--critical time in england.--dr. lettsom.--sheridan's verse.--longing for a telegraph.--a ghost chapter iii august , --december , benjamin west.--george iii.--morse begins his studies.--introduced to west.--enthusiasms.--smuggling and lotteries.--english appreciation of art.--copley.--friendliness of west.--elgin marbles.--cries of london.-- custom in knocking.--witnesses balloon ascension.--crowds.--vauxhall gardens.--st. bartholomew's fair.--efforts to be economical.--signs of war.--mails delayed.--admitted to royal academy.--disturbances, riots, and murders chapter iv january , --august , political opinions.--charles r. leslie's reminiscences of morse, allston, king, and coleridge.--c.b. king's letter.--sidney e. morse's letter.-- benjamin west's kindness.--sir william beechy.--murders, robberies, etc. --morse and leslie paint each other's portraits.--the elder morse's financial difficulties.--he deprecates the war talk.--the son differs from his father.--the prince regent.--orders in council.--estimate of west.--alarming state of affairs in england.--assassination of perceval, prime minister.--execution of assassin.--morse's love for his art.-- stephen van rensselaer.--leslie the friend and allston the master.-- afternoon tea.--the elder morse well known in europe.--lord castlereagh. --the queen's drawing-room.--kemble and mrs. siddons.--zachary macaulay. --warning letter from his parents.--war declared.--morse approves.-- gratitude to his parents, and to allston chapter v september , --june , models the "dying hercules."--dreams of greatness.--again expresses gratitude to his parents.--begins painting of "dying hercules."--letter from jeremiah evarts.--morse upholds righteousness of the war.--henry thornton.--political discussions.--gilbert stuart.--william wilberforce. --james wynne's reminiscences of morse, coleridge, leslie, allston, and dr. abernethy.--letters from his mother and brother.--letters from friends on the state of the fine arts in america.--"the dying hercules" exhibited at the royal academy.--expenses of painting.--receives adelphi gold medal for statuette of hercules.--mr. dunlap's reminiscences.-- critics praise "dying hercules" chapter vi july , --april , letter from the father on economies and political views.--morse deprecates lack of spirit in new england and rejoices at wellington's victories.--allston's poems.--morse coat-of-arms.--letter of joseph hillhouse.--letter of exhortation from his mother.--morse wishes to stay longer in europe.--amused at mother's political views.--the father sends more money for a longer stay.--sidney exalts poetry above painting.--his mother warns him against infidels and actors.--bristol.--optimism.-- letter on infidels and his own religious observances.--future of american art.--he is in good health, but thin.--letter from mr. visger.--benjamin burritt, american prisoner.--efforts in his behalf unsuccessful.--capture of paris by the allies.--again expresses gratitude to parents.--writes a play for charles mathews.--not produced chapter vii may , --october , allston writes encouragingly to the parents.--morse unwilling to be mere portrait-painter.--ambitious to stand at the head of his profession.-- desires patronage, from wealthy friends.--delay in the mails.--account of _entrée_ of louis xviii into london.--the prince regent.--indignation at acts of english.--his parents relieved at hearing from him after seven months' silence.--no hope of patronage from america.--his brothers.-- account of fêtes.--emperor alexander, king of prussia, blücher, platoff. --wishes to go to paris.--letter from m. van schaick about battle of lake erie.--disgusted with england chapter viii november , --april , does not go to paris.--letter of admonition from his mother.--his parents' early economies.--letter from leslie.--letter from rev. s.f. jarvis on politics.--the mother tells of the economies of another young american, dr. parkman.--the son resents constant exhortations to economize, and tells of meanness of dr. parkman.--writes of his own economies and industry.--disgusted with bristol.--prophesies peace between england and america.--estimates of morse's character by dr. romeyn and mr. van schaick.--the father regrets reproof of son for political views.--death of mrs. allston.--disagreeable experience in bristol.--more economies.--napoleon i.--peace chapter ix may , --october , decides to return home in the fall.--hopes to return to europe in a year.--ambitions.--paints "judgment of jupiter."--not allowed to compete for premium.--mr. russell's portrait.--reproof of his parents.--battle of waterloo.--wilberforce.--painting of "dying hercules" received by parents.--much admired.--sails for home.--dreadful voyage lasting fifty-eight days.--extracts from his journal.--home at last chapter x april , --october , very little success at home.--portrait of ex-president john adams.-- letter to allston on sale of his "dead man restored to life."--also apologizes for hasty temper.--reassured by allston.--humorous letter from leslie.--goes to new hampshire to paint portraits.--concord.--meets miss lucretia walker.--letters to his parents concerning her.--his parents reply.--engaged to miss walker.--his parents approve.--many portraits painted.--miss walker's parents consent.--success in portsmouth.--morse and his brother invent a pump.--highly endorsed by president day and eli whitney.--miss walker visits charlestown.--morse's religious convictions.--more success in new hampshire.--winter in charleston, south carolina.--john a. alston.--success.--returns north.--letter from his uncle dr. finley.--marriage chapter xi november , --march , morse and his wife go to charleston, south carolina.--hospitably entertained and many portraits painted.--congratulates allston on his election to the royal academy.--receives commission to paint president monroe.--trouble in the parish at charlestown.--morse urges his parents to leave and come to charleston.--letters of john a. alston.--return to the north.--birth of his first child.--dr. morse and his family decide to move to new haven.--morse goes to washington.--paints the president under difficulties.--hospitalities.--death of his grandfather.--dr. morse appointed indian commissioner.--marriage of morse's future mother-in-law. --charleston again.--continued success.--letters to mrs. ball.-- liberality of mr. alston.--spends the summer in new haven.--returns to charleston, but meets with poor success.--assists in founding academy of arts, which has but a short life.--goes north again chapter xii may , --december , accompanies mr. silliman to the berkshires.--takes his wife and daughter to concord, new hampshire.--writes to his wife from boston about a bonnet.--goes to washington, d.c.--paints large picture of house of representatives.--artistic but not financial success.--donates five hundred dollars to yale.--letter from mr. de forest.--new york "observer."--discouragements.--first son born.--invents marble-carving machine.--goes to albany.--stephen van rensselaer.--slight encouragement in albany.--longing for a home.--goes to new york.--portrait of chancellor kent.--appointed attaché to legation to mexico.--high hopes.-- takes affecting leave of his family.--rough journey to washington.-- expedition to mexico indefinitely postponed.--returns north.--settles in new york.--fairly prosperous chapter xiii january , --november , success in new york.--chosen to paint portrait of lafayette.--hope of a permanent home with his family.--meets lafayette in washington.--mutually attracted.--attends president's levee.--begins portrait of lafayette.-- death of his wife.--crushed by the news.--his attachment to her.--epitaph composed by benjamin silliman.--bravely takes up his work again.-- finishes portrait of lafayette.--describes it in letter of a later date. --sonnet on death of lafayette's dog.--rents a house in canal street, new york.--one of the founders of national academy of design.--tactful resolutions on organization.--first thirty members.--morse elected first president.--reëlected every year until .--again made president in .--lectures on art.--popularity chapter xiv january , --december , success of his lectures, the first of the kind in the united states.-- difficulties of his position as leader.--still longing for a home.--very busy but in good health.--death of his father.--estimates of dr. morse.-- letters to his mother.--wishes to go to europe again.--delivers address at first anniversary of national academy of design.--professor dana lectures on electricity.--morse's study of the subject.--moves to no. murray street.--too busy to visit his family.--death of his mother.--a remarkable woman.--goes to central new york.--a serious accident.--moral reflections.--prepares to go to europe.--letter of john a. dix.--sails for liverpool.--rough voyage.--liverpool chapter xv december . --february , journey from liverpool to london by coach.--neatness of the cottages.-- trentham hall.--stratford-on-avon.--oxford.--london.--charles r. leslie. --samuel rogers.--seated with academicians at royal academy lecture.-- washington irving.--turner.--leaves london for dover.--canterbury cathedral.--detained at dover by bad weather.--incident of a former visit.--channel steamer.--boulogne-sur-mer.--first impressions of france.--paris.--the louvre.--lafayette.--cold in paris.--continental sunday.--leaves paris for marseilles in diligence.--intense cold.-- dijon.--french funeral.--lyons.--the hôtel dieu.--avignon.--catholic church services.--marseilles.--toulon.--the navy yard and the galley slaves.--disagreeable experience at an inn.--the riviera.--genoa chapter xvi february , --june , serra palace in genoa.--starts for rome.--rain in the mountains.--a brigand.--carrara.--first mention of a railroad.--pisa.--the leaning tower.--rome at last.--begins copying at once.--notebooks.--ceremonies at the vatican.--pope pius viii.--academy of st. luke's.--st. peter's.-- chiesa nuova.--painting at the vatican.--beggar monks.--_festa_ of the annunciation.--soirée at palazzo sunbaldi.--passion sunday.--horace vernet.--lying in state of a cardinal.--_miserere_ at sistine chapel.-- holy thursday at st. peter's.--third cardinal dies.--meets thorwaldsen at signor persianis's.--manners of english, french, and americans.--landi's pictures.--funeral of a young girl.--trip to tivoli, subiaco.--procession of the _corpus domini_.--disagreeable experience chapter xvii june , --february , working hard.--trip to genzano.--lake of nemi.--beggars.--curious festival of flowers at genzano.--night on the campagna.--heat in rome.-- illumination of st. peter's.--st. peter's day.--vaults of the church.-- feebleness of pope.--morse and companions visit naples, capri, and amalfi.--charms of amalfi.--terrible accident.--flippancy at funerals.-- campo santo at naples.--gruesome conditions.--ubiquity of beggars.-- convent of st. martino.--masterpiece of spagnoletto.--returns to rome.-- paints portrait of thorwaldsen.--presented to him in after years by john taylor johnston.--given to king of denmark.--reflections on the social evil and the theatre.--death of the pope.--an assassination.--the honorable mr. spencer and catholicism.--election of pope gregory xvi chapter xviii february , --september , historic events witnessed by morse.--rumors of revolution.--danger to foreigners.--coronation of the new pope.--pleasant experience.--cause of the revolution a mystery.--bloody plot foiled.--plans to leave for florence.--sends casts, etc., to national academy of design.--leaves rome.--dangers of the journey.--florence.--description of meeting prince radziwill in coliseum at rome.--copies portraits of rubens and titian in florence.--leaves florence for venice.--disagreeable voyage on the po.-- venice, beautiful but smelly.--copies tintoret's "miracle of the slave." --thunderstorms.--reflections on the fourth of july.--leaves venice.-- recoaro.--milan.--reflections on catholicism and art.--como and maggiore.--the rigi.--schaffhausen and heidelberg.--evades the quarantine on french border.--thrilling experience.--paris chapter xix september , --september , takes rooms with horatio greenough.--political talk with lafayette.-- riots in paris.--letters from greenough.--bunker hill monument.--letters from fenimore cooper.--cooper's portrait by verboeckhoven.--european criticisms.--reminiscences of r.w. habersham.--hints of an electric telegraph.--not remembered by morse.--early experiments in photography.-- painting of the louvre.--cholera in paris.--baron von humboldt.--morse presides at fourth of july dinner.--proposes toast to lafayette.--letter to new york "observer" on fenimore cooper.--also on pride in american citizenship.--works with lafayette in behalf of poles.--letter from lafayette.--morse visits london before sailing for home.--sits to leslie for head of sterne chapter xx morse's life almost equally divided into two periods, artistic and scientific.--estimate of his artistic ability by daniel huntington.--also by samuel isham.--his character as revealed by his letters, notes, etc.-- end of volume i illustrations morse the artist (photogravure) painted by himself in london about . house in which morse was born, in charlestown, mass. rev. jedediah morse and s. f. b. morse--elizabeth ann morse and sidney e. morse from portraits by a mr. sargent, who also painted portraits of the washington family. the dying hercules painted by morse in . letter of morse to his parents, october , . mr. d. c. de forest--mrs. d. c. de forest from paintings by morse now in the gallery of the yale school of the fine arts. lucretia pickering walker, wife or s. f. b. morse, and two children painted by morse. study for portrait of lafayette now in new york public library. elizabeth a. morse painted by morse. jeremiah evarts from a portrait painted by morse and owned by sherman evarts, esq. de witt clinton painted by morse. owned by the metropolitan museum, new york. henry clay painted by morse. owned by the metropolitan museum, new york. susan w. morse. eldest daughter of the artist samuel f.b. morse his letters and journals chapter i april . --september , birth of s.f.b. morse.--his parents.--letters of dr. belknap and rev. mr. wells.--phillips, andover.--first letter.--letter from his father.-- religious letter from morse to his brothers.--letters from the mother to her sons.--morse enters yale.--his journey there.--difficulty in keeping up with his class.--letter of warning from his mother.--letters of jedediah morse to bishop of london and lindley murray.--morse becomes more studious.--bill of expenses.--longing to travel and interest in electricity.--philadelphia and new york.--graduates from college.--wishes to accompany allston to england, but submits to parents' desires. samuel finley breese morse was born in charlestown, massachusetts, on the th day of april, a.d. . he came of good puritan stock, his father, jedediah morse, being a militant clergyman of the congregational church, a fighter for orthodoxy at a time when unitarianism was beginning to undermine the foundations of the old, austere, childlike faith. these battles of the churches seem far away to us of the twentieth century, but they were very real to the warriors of those days, and, while many of the tenets of their faith may seem narrow to us, they were gospel to the godly of that tune, and reverence, obedience, filial piety, and courtesy were the rule and not the exception that they are to-day. jedediah morse was a man of note in his day, known and respected at home and abroad; the friend of general washington and other founders of the republic; the author of the first american geography and gazetteer. his wife, elizabeth ann breese, granddaughter of samuel finley, president of princeton college, was a woman of great strength and yet sweetness of character; adored by her family and friends, a veritable mother in israel. into this serene home atmosphere came young finley morse, the eldest of eleven children, only three of whom survived their infancy. the other two were sidney edwards and richard carey, both eminent men in their day. dr. belknap, of boston, in a letter to a friend in new york says:-- "congratulate the monmouth judge [mr. breese] on the birth of a grandson.... as to the child, i saw him asleep, so can say nothing of his eye or his genius peeing through it. he may have the sagacity of a jewish rabbi, or the profundity of a calvin, or the sublimity of a homer for aught i know. but time will show forth all things." this sounds almost prophetic in the light of future days. [illustration: house in which morse was born, in charlestown, mass.] the following letter from the reverend mr. wells is quaint and characteristic of the times:-- my dear little boy,--as a small testimony of my respect and obligation to your excellent parents and of my love to you, i send you with this six ( ) english guineas. they are pretty playthings enough, and in the country i came from many people are fond of them. your papa will let you look at them and shew them to edward, and then he will take care of them, and, by the time you grow up to be a man, they will under papa's wise management increase to double their present number. with wishing you may never be in want of such playthings and yet never too fond of them, i remain your affectionate friend, wm. wells. medford, july , . young morse was sent away early to boarding-school, as was the custom at that time. he was taken by his father to phillips academy at andover, and i believe he ran away once, being overcome by homesickness before he made up his mind to remain and study hard. the following letter is the first one written by him of which i have any knowledge:-- andover, d august, . dear papa,--i hope you are well i will thank you if you will send me up some quils give my love to mama and nancy and my little brothers pleas to kis them for me and send me up some very good paper to write to you i have as many blackberries as i want i go and pick them myself. samuel finley breese morse your son . this from his father is characteristic of many written to him and to his brothers while they were at school and college:-- charlestown, february , . my dear son,--you do not write me as often as you ought. in your next you must assign some reason for this neglect. possibly i have not received all your letters. nothing will improve you so much in epistolary writing as practice. take great pains with your letters. avoid vulgar phrases. study to have your ideas pertinent and correct and clothe them in an easy and grammatical dress. pay attention to your spelling, pointing, the use of capitals, and to your handwriting. after a little practice these things will become natural and you will thus acquire a habit of writing correctly and well. general washington was a remarkable instance of what i have now recommended to you. his letters are a perfect model for epistolary writers. they are written with great uniformity in respect to the handwriting and disposition of the several parts of the letter. i will show you some of his letters when i have the pleasure of seeing you next vacation, and when i shall expect to find you much improved. your natural disposition, my dear son, renders it proper for me earnestly to recommend to you to _attend to one thing at a time_. it is impossible that you can do two things well at the same time, and i would, therefore, never have you attempt it. never undertake to do what ought not to be done, and then, whatever you undertake, endeavor to do it in the best manner. it is said of de witt, a celebrated statesman in holland, who was torn to pieces in the year , that he did the whole business of the republic and yet had time left to go to assemblies in the evening and sup in company. being asked how he could possibly find time to go through so much business and yet amuse himself in the evenings as he did, he answered there was nothing so easy, for that it was only doing one thing at a time, and never putting off anything till to-morrow that could be done to-day. this steady and undissipated attention to one object is a sure mark of a superior genius, as hurry, bustle, and agitation are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind. i expect you will read this letter over several times that you may retain its contents in your memory, and give me your own opinion on the advice i have given you. if you improve this well, i shall be encouraged to give you more as you may need it. your affectionate parent, j. morse. this was written to a boy ten years old. i wonder if he was really able to assimilate it. i shall pass rapidly over the next few years, for, while there are many letters which make interesting reading, there are so many more of the later years of greater historical value that i must not yield to the temptation to linger. the three brothers were all sent to phillips academy to prepare for yale, from which college their father was also graduated. the following letter from finley to his brothers was written while he was temporarily at home, and shows the deep religious bent of his mind which he kept through life:-- charlestown, march , . my dear brothers,--i now write you again to inform you that mama had a baby, but it was born dead and has just been buried. now you have three brothers and three sisters in heaven and i hope you and i will meet them there at our death. it is uncertain when we shall die, but we ought to be prepared for it, and i hope you and i shall. i read a question in davie's "sermons" the last sunday which was this:-- suppose a bird should take one dust of this earth and carry it away once in a thousand years, and you was to take your choice either to be miserable in that time and happy hereafter, or happy in that time and miserable hereafter, which would you choose? write me an answer to this in your next letter.... i enclose you a little book called the "christian pilgrim." it is for both of you. we are all tolerable well except mama, though she is more comfortable now than she was. we all send a great deal of love to you. i must now bid you adieu. i remain your affectionate brother, s.f.b. morse. i am tempted to include the following extracts from letters of the good mother of the three boys as characteristic of the times and people:-- charlestown, june , . my dear son,--we have the pleasure of a letter from you which has gratified us very much. it is the only intelligence we have had from you since mr. brown left you. i began to think that something was the matter with respect to your health that occasioned your long silence.... we are very desirous, my son, that you should excel in everything that will make you truly happy and useful to your fellow men. in particular by no means neglect your duty to your heavenly father. remember, what has been said with great truth, that he can never be faithful to others who is not so to his god and his conscience. i wish you constantly to keep in mind the first question and answer in that excellent form of sound words, the assembly catechism, viz:--"what is the chief end of man?" the answer you will readily recollect is "to glorify god and enjoy him forever." let it be evident, my dear son, that this be your chief aim in all that you do, and may you be so happy as to enjoy him forever is the sincere prayer of your affectionate parent.... the fourth of july is to be celebrated here with a good deal of parade both by federalists and jacobins. the former are to meet in our meeting-house, there to hear an oration which is to be delivered by mr. aaron putnam, a prayer by your papa also. and on the hill close by the monument [bunker hill] a standard is to be presented to a new company called the warren phalanx, all federalists, by dr. putnam who is the president of the day, and all the gentlemen are to dine at seton's hall, otherwise called massachusetts hall, and the ladies are to take tea at the same place. the jacobins are to have an oration at the baptist meeting-house from mr. gleson. i know nothing more about them. the boys are forming themselves into companies also; they have two or three companies and drums which at some times are enough to craze one. i can't help thinking when i see them how glad i am that my sons are better employed at andover than beating the streets or drums; that they are laying in a good store of useful knowledge against the time to come, while these poor boys, many of them, at least, are learning what they will be glad by and by to unlearn. july , . my dear sons,--have you heard of the death of young willard at cambridge, the late president willard's son? he died of a violent fever occasioned by going into water when he was very hot in the middle of the day. he also pumped a great deal of cold water on his head. let this be a warning to you all not to be guilty of the like indiscretion which may cost you your life. dreadful, indeed, would this be to all of us. i wish you would not go into water oftener than once a week, and then either early in the morning or late in the afternoon, and not go in when hot nor stay long in the water. remember these cautions of your mama and obey them strictly. a young lady twenty years old died in boston yesterday very suddenly. she eat her dinner perfectly well and was dead in five minutes after. her name was ann hinkley. you see, my dear boys, the great uncertainty of life and, of course, the importance of being always prepared for _death_, even a _sudden death_, as we know not what an hour may bring forth. this we are sensible of, we cannot be _too soon or too well_ prepared for that all-important moment, as this is what we are sent into this world for. the main business of life is to prepare for death. let us not, then, put off these most important concerns to an uncertain to-morrow, but let us in earnest attend to the concerns of our precious, never-dying souls while we feel ourselves alive. in october, , finley morse went to new haven to enter college, and the next letter describes the journey from charlestown, and it was, indeed, a journey in those days. new haven, october , . my dear parents,--i arrived here yesterday safe and well. the first day i rode as far as williams' tavern, and put up there for the night. the next day i rode as far as dwight's tavern in western, and in the morning, it being rainy, mr. backus did not set out to ride till late, and, the stage coming to the door, mr. b. thought it a good opportunity to send me to hartford, which he did, and i arrived at hartford that night and lodged at ripley's inn opposite the state house. he treated me very kindly, indeed, wholly on account of my being your son. i was treated more like his own son than a stranger, for which i shall and ought to be very much obliged to him. the next morning i hired a horse and chaise of him to carry me to weathersfield and arrived at mr. marsh's, who was very glad to see me and begged me to stay till s. barrell went, which was the next monday, for his mother would not let him go so soon, she was so glad to see him. i was sorry to trouble them so much, but, as they desired it, and, as samuel b. was not to go till then, i agreed to stay and hope you will not disapprove it, and am sorry i could not write you sooner to relieve your minds from your anxiety on my account, and am sorry for giving my good parents so much trouble and expense. you expend and have expended a great deal more money upon me than i deserve, and granted me a great many of my requests, and i am sure i can certainly grant you one, that of being _economical_, which i shall certainly be and not get money to buy trifling things. i begin to think _money_ of some importance and too great value to be thrown away. yesterday morning about ten o'clock i set out for new haven with s. barrell and arrived well a little before dark. i went directly to dr. dwight's, which i easily found, and delivered the letter to him, drank tea at his house, and then mr. sereno dwight carried me to mr. davis's who had agreed to take me. while i was at dr. dwight's there was a woman there whom the dr. recommended to sam. b. and me to have our mending done, and mrs. davis or a washerwoman across the way will do my washing, so i am very agreeably situated. i also gave the letter to mr. beers and he has agreed to let me have what you desired. i have got homer's iliad in two volumes, with latin translation of him, for $ . . i need no other books at present. s. barrell has a room in the north college and, as he says, a very agreeable chum. next spring i hope you will come on and fix matters. i long to get into the college, for it appears to me now as though i was not a member of college but fitting for college. i hope next spring will soon come. my whole journey from charlestown here cost me £ _s._, and _d._, a great deal more than either you or i had calculated on. i am sorry to be of so much trouble to you and the cause of so much anxiety in you and especially in mama. i wish you to give my very affectionate love to my dear brothers, and tell them they must write me and not be homesick, but consider that i am farther from home than they are, miles from home. i remain your ever affectionate son, s.f.b. morse. it would seem, from other letters which follow, that he had difficulty in keeping up with his class, and that he eventually dropped a class, for he did not graduate until . he also seems to have been rooming outside of college and to have been eager to go in. it is curious, in the light of future events, to note that young morse's parents were fearful lest his volatile nature and lack of steadfastness of purpose should mar his future career. his dominating characteristic in later life was a bulldog tenacity, which led him to stick to one idea through discouragements and disappointments which would have overwhelmed a weaker nature. the following extracts are from a long letter from his mother dated november , :-- "i am fearful, my son, that you think a great deal more of your amusements than your studies, and there lies the difficulty, and the same difficulty would exist were you in college. "you have filled your letter with requests to go into college and an account of a gunning party, both of which have given us pain. i am truly sorry that you appear so unsteady as by _your own account_ you are.... "you mention in the letter you wrote first that, if you went into college, you and your chum would want brandy and wine and segars in your room. pray is that the custom among the students? we think it a very improper one, indeed, and hope the government of college will not permit it. there is no propriety at all in such young boys as you having anything to do with anything of the kind, and your papa and myself positively prohibit you the use of these things till we think them more necessary than we do at present.... "you will remember that you have promised in your first letter to be an economist. in your last letter you seem to have forgotten all about it. pray, what do your gunning parties cost you for powder and shot? i beg you to consider and not go driving on from one foolish whim to another till you provoke us to withdraw from you the means of gratifying you in anything that may be even less objectionable than gunning." these exhortations seem to have had, temporarily, at least, the desired effect, for in a letter to his parents dated december , , young morse says: "i shall not go out to gun any more, for i know it makes you anxious about me." the letters of the parents to the son are full of pious exhortations, and good advice, and reproaches to the boy for not writing oftener and more at length, and for not answering every question asked by the parents. it is comforting to the present-day parent to learn that human nature was much the same in those pious days of old, differing only in degree, and that there is hope for the most wayward son and careless correspondent. the following letters from the elder morse i shall include as being of rather more than ordinary interest, and as showing the breadth of his activity. charlestown, december , . to the bishop op london, rev'd and respected sir,--i presume that it might be agreeable to you to know the precise state of the property which originally belonged to the protestant episcopal church in virginia. i have with some pains obtained the law of that state respecting this singular business. i find that it destroys _the establishment_ and asserts that "all property belonging to the said (protestant episcopal) church devolved on the good people of this commonwealth (i.e., virginia) on the dissolution of the british government here, in the same degree in which the right and interest of the said church was therein derived from them," and authorizes the overseers of the poor of any county "in which any glebe land is vacant, or shall become so by the death or removal of any incumbent, to sell all such land and appurtenances and every other species of property incident thereto to the highest bidder"--"provided that nothing herein contained shall authorize an appropriation to _any religious purpose whatever_." i make no comments on the above. i believe no other state in the union has, in this respect, imitated the example of virginia. i take the liberty to send you a few small tracts for your acceptance in token of my high respect for your character and services. believe me, sir, unfeignedly, your obedient servant, j. morse. december , . lindley murray esq., dear sir,--your polite note and the valuable books accompanying it, forwarded by our friend perkins, of new york, have been duly and gratefully received. you will perceive, by the number of the "panoplist" enclosed, that we are strangers neither to your works nor your character. it has given me much pleasure as an american to make both more extensively known among my countrymen. i have purchased several hundred of your spelling books for a charitable society to which i belong, and they have been dispersed in the new settlements in our country, where i hope they will do immediate good, besides creating a desire and demand for more. it will ever give me pleasure to hear from you when convenient. letters left at mr. taylor's will find me. i herewith send you two or three pamphlets and a copy of the last edition of my "american gazetteer" which i pray you to accept as a small token of the high respect and esteem with which i am your friend, j. morse. young morse now settled down to serious work as the following extracts will show, which i set down without further comment, passing rapidly over the next few years. he was, however, not entirely absorbed in his books but still longed for the pleasures of the chase:-- "may , . just now i asked mr. twining to let me go a-gunning for this afternoon. he told me you had expressly forbidden it and he therefore could not. now i should wish to go once in a while, for i always intend to be careful. i have no amusement now in the vacation, and it would gratify me very much if you would consent to let me go once in a while. i suppose you would tell me that my books ought to be my amusement. i cannot study all the time and i need some exercise. if i walk, that is no amusement, and if i wish to play ball or anything else, i have no one to play with. please to write me an answer as soon as" possible. june , . my dear parents,--i hope you will excuse my not writing you sooner when i inform you that my time is entirely taken up with my studies. in the morning i must rise at five o'clock to attend prayers and, immediately after, recitation; then i must breakfast and begin to study from eight o'clock till eleven; then recite my forenoon's lesson which takes me an hour. at twelve i must study french till one, which is dinner-time. directly after dinner i must recite french to monsieur value till two o'clock, then begin to study my afternoon lesson and recite it at five. immediately after recitation i must study another french lesson to recite at seven in the evening; come home at nine o'clock and study my morning's lesson until ten, eleven, and sometimes twelve o'clock, and by that tine i am prepared to sleep.... you see now i have enough to do, my hands as full as can be, not five minutes' time to take recreation. i am determined to study and, thus far, have not missed a single word. the students call me by the nickname of "geography." "_june , ._ last week i went to mr. beers and saw a set of montaigne's 'essays' in french in eight volumes, duodecimo, handsomely bound in calf and gilt, for two dollars. the reason they are so cheap is because they are wicked and bad books for me or anybody else to read. i got them because they were cheap, and have exchanged them for a handsome english edition of 'gil blas'; price, $ . ." in the fall of finley morse returned to college accompanied by his next younger brother, sidney edwards. in a letter of march , , he says: "edwards and myself are very well and i believe we are doing well, but you will learn more of that from our instructors." in this same letter he says:-- "i find it impossible to live in college without spending money. at one time a letter is to be paid for, then comes up a great tax from the class or society, which keeps me constantly running after money. when i have money in my hand i feel as though i had stolen it, and it is with the greatest pain that i part with it. i think every minute i shall receive a letter from home blaming me for not being more economical, and thus i am kept in distress all the time. "the amount of my expenses for the last term was fifteen dollars, expended in the following manner:-- dols. cts. "postage $ . oil . taxes, fines, etc. . oysters . washbowl . - / skillet . axe $ . catalogues . . powder and shot . - / cakes, etc. etc. etc. . wine, thanks. day . toll on bridge . grinding axe . museum . poor man . carriage for trunk . pitcher . . - / sharpening skates . - / paid for circ. library . cutting wood . post papers . lent never to be returned . $ . - / . - / "in my expenses i do not include my wood, tuition bills, board or washing bills." how characteristic of all boys of all times the "etc., etc., etc.," tacked on to the "cakes" item, and how many boys of the present day would bewail the extravagance of fifteen dollars spent in one term on extras? in a postscript in this same letter he says: "the students are very fond of raising balloons at present. i will (with your leave) when i return home make one. they are pleasant sights." college terms were very different in those days from what they are at present, for september finds the boys still in new haven, and finley says, "there is but three and a half weeks to commencement." in this same letter he gives utterance to these filial sentiments: "i now make those only my companions who are the most religious and moral, and i hope sincerely that it will have a good effect in changing that thoughtless disposition which has ever been a striking trait in my character. as i grow older, i begin to think better of what you have always told me when i was small. i begin to know by experience that man is born to trouble, and that temptations to do evil are as countless as the stars, but i hope i shall be enabled to shun them." this is from a letter of january , :-- "i have been reading the first volume of professor silliman's 'journal' which he kept during his passage to and residence in europe. i am very much pleased with it. i long for the time when i shall be able to travel with improvement to myself and society, and hope it will be in your power to assist me. "i have a very ardent desire of travelling, but i consider that an education is indispensable to me and i mean to apply myself with all diligence for that purpose. _diligentia vinrit omnia_ is my maxim and i shall endeavor to follow it.... i shall be employed in the vacation in the philosophical chamber with mr. dwight, who is going to perform a number of experiments in _electricity_." it is, of course, only a curious coincidence that these two sentences should have occurred in the same letter, but it was when travelling, many years afterwards, that the first idea of the electric telegraph found lodgment in his brain, and this certainly resulted in improvement to himself and society. in february, , he writes: "my studies are at present optics in philosophy, dialling, homer, beside disputing, composing, attending lectures etc. etc., all which i find very interesting and especially mr. day's lectures who is now lecturing on _electricity_." young morse's thoughts seem to have been gradually focusing on the two subjects to which he afterwards devoted his life, for in a letter of march , , he says: "mr. day's lectures are very interesting. they are upon electricity. he has given us some very fine experiments. the whole class taking hold of hands formed the circuit of communication and we all received the shock apparently at the same moment. i never took an electric shock before. it felt as if some person had struck me a slight blow across the arms.... i think with pleasure that two thirds of this term only remain. as soon as that is passed away, i hope i shall again see home. i really long to see charlestown again; i have almost forgotten how it looks. i have some thoughts of taking a view of boston from bunker's hill when i go home again. it will be some pleasure to me to have some picture of my native place to look upon when i am from home." and in august, , he writes to his parents: "i employ all my leisure time in painting. i have a great number of persons engaged already to be drawn on ivory, no less than seven. they obtain the ivories for themselves. i have taken professor kingsley's profile for him. it is a good likeness of him and he is pleased with it. i think i shall take his likeness on ivory and present it to him as my present at the end of the year.... i have finished miss leffingwell's miniature. it is a good likeness and she is very much pleased with it." new haven, may , . my dear parents,--i arrived in this place on sabbath evening by packet from new york. i left philadelphia on thursday morning at eight o'clock and arrived in new york on friday at ten.... i stayed in new york but one night. i found it quite insipid after seeing philadelphia. [the character of the two cities seems to have changed a trifle in a hundred years, for, with all her faults, no one could nowadays accuse new york of being insipid.] i went on board the packet on saturday at twelve o'clock and arrived, as i before stated, on sabbath evening. we had, on the whole, a very good set of passengers from new york to this place. on sunday we had two sermons read to us by one of them, dr. hawley, of this place, and in the evening we sang five psalms, and during the whole of the exercises the passengers conducted themselves with perfect decorum, although one of the sermons was one hour in length.... june , . my dear parents,--i received yours of the d this day and receive with humility your reproof. i am extremely sorry it should have occasioned so many disagreeable feelings. i felt it my duty to tell you of my debts, and, indeed, i could not feel easy without. the amount of my buttery bill is forty-two or forty-three dollars. mr. nettleton is butler and is willing i should take his likeness as part pay. i shall take it on ivory, and he has engaged to allow me seven dollars for it. my price is five dollars for a miniature on ivory, and. i have engaged three or four at that price. my price for profiles is one dollar, and everybody is ready to engage me at that price.... though i have been much to blame in the present case, yet i think it but just that mr. twining should bear his part. i had begun with a determination to pay for everything as i got it, but was stopped in this in the very beginning, for, in going to mr. t. to get money, i have five times out of six found him absent, sometimes for the whole day, sometimes for a week or two weeks, and once he was absent six weeks and made no sort of provision for us. mrs. t. is never trusted with money for us. now in such case i am obliged by necessity to get a thing charged, and i have found by sad experience that a bill increases faster than i had in the least imagined.... "_july , ._ i am now released from college and am attending to painting. all my class were accepted as candidates for degrees. edwards is admitted a member of [greek: phi][greek: beta][greek: kappa] society, and is appointed as monitor to the next freshman class. richard is chosen as one of the speakers the evening before commencement. "edwards and richard are both of them very steady and good scholars, and are much esteemed by the authority of college as well as their fellow students. "as to my choice of a profession, i still think that i was made for a painter, and i would be obliged to you to make such arrangement with mr. allston for my studying with him as you shall think expedient. i should desire to study with him during the winter, and, as he expects to return to england in the spring, i should admire to be able to go with him." in answer to this letter his father wrote:-- charlestown, july , . dear finley,--i received your letter of the d to-day by mail. on the subject of your future pursuits we will converse when i see you and when you get home. it will be best for you to form no plans. your mama and i have been thinking and planning for you. i shall disclose to you our plan when i see you. till then suspend your mind. it gives us great pleasure to have you speak so well of your brothers. others do the same and we hear well of you also. it is a great comfort to us that our sons are all likely to do so well and are in good reputation among their acquaintances. could we have reason to believe you were all pious and had chosen the "good part," our joy concerning you all would be full. i hope the lord in due time will grant us this pleasure. "seek the lord," my dear son, "while he may be found." your affectionate father, j. morse. [illustration: elizabeth ann morse and sidney e. morse illustration: rev. jedediah morse and s.f.b. morse from portraits by a mr. sargent, who also painted portraits of the washington family] september , . dear mama,--papa arrived here safely this evening and i need not tell you we were glad to see him. he has mentioned to me the plan which he proposed for my future business in life, and i am pleased with it, for i was determined beforehand to conform to his and your will in everything, and, when i come home, i shall endeavor to make amends for the trouble and anxiety which you have been at on my account, by assisting papa in his labors and pursuing with ardor my own business.... i have been extremely low-spirited for some days past, and it still continues. i hope it will wear off by commencement day.... i am so low in spirits that i could almost cry. it was no wonder that he was down-hearted, for he was ambitious and longed to carve out a great career for himself, while his good parents were conservative and wished him to become independent as soon as possible. their plan was to apprentice him to a bookseller, and he dutifully conformed to their wishes for a time, but his ambition could not be curbed, and it was not long before he broke away. chapter ii october , --august . enters bookshop as clerk.--devotes leisure to painting.--leaves shop.-- letter to his brothers on appointments at yale.--letters from joseph p. rossiter.--morse's first love affair.--paints "landing of the pilgrims." --prepares to sail with allstons for england.--letters of introduction from his father.--disagreeable stage-ride to new york.--sails on the lydia.--prosperous voyage.--liverpool.--trip to london.--observations on people and customs.--frequently cheated.--critical time in england.--dr. lettsom.--sheridan's verse.--longing for a telegraph.--a ghost after his graduation from yale college in the fall of , finley morse returned to his home in charlestown, mass., and cheerfully submitted himself to his parents' wishes by entering the bookshop of a certain mr. mallory. he writes under date of october , , to his brothers who are still at college: "i am in an excellent situation and on excellent terms. i have four hundred dollars per year, but this you must not mention out. i have the choice of my hours; they are from nine till one-half past twelve, and from three till sunset." but he still clings to the idea of becoming a painter, for he adds: "my evenings i employ in painting. i have every convenience; the room over the kitchen is fitted up for me; i have a fire there every evening, and can spend it alone or otherwise as i please. i have bought me one of the new patent lamps, those with glass chimneys, which gives an excellent light. it cost me about six dollars. send on as soon as possible anything and everything which pertains to my painting apparatus." the following letter was written at some time in or . it was addressed to mr. sereno e. dwight:-- "mr. mallory a few days since handed me a letter from you requesting me, if possible, to sketch a likeness of young mr. daggett. accordingly i have made the attempt and take the present opportunity of forwarding you the results. the task was hard but pleasurable. it is one of the most difficult undertakings to endeavor to take a portrait from recollection of one whose countenance has not been examined particularly for the purpose. when i made the first attempt, not a single feature could i recall distinctly to my memory and i almost despaired of a likeness, but the thought of lessening the affliction of such a distressed family determined me to attempt it a second time. the result is on the ivory. i then showed it to my brothers, to mr. evarts, to mr. hillhouse, to mr. mallory, and to mr. read, all of whom had not the least suspicion of anything of the kind, and they have severally and separately pronounced it a likeness of young mr. daggett. this encouraged me, and i made the two other sketches which are thought likewise to be resemblances of him. "if these or any one of them can be recognized by the afflicted family as a resemblance of him they have lost, it will be an ample compensation to me to think that i have in any degree been the means of alleviating their suffering...." on december , , he writes to his brother: "i have almost completed my landscape. it is 'proper handsome,' so they say, and they want to make me believe it is so, but i shan't yet awhile." this shows the right frame of mind for an artist, and yet, like most youthful painters, he attempted more than his proficiency warranted, for in this same letter he adds: "i am going to begin, as soon as i have finished it [the landscape], a piece, the subject of which will be 'marius on the ruins of carthage.'" on december , , he writes: "i shall leave mr. mallory's next week and study painting exclusively till summer." he had at last burst his bonds, and his wise parents, seeing that his heart was only in his painting, decided to throw no further obstacles in his way, but, at the cost of much self-sacrifice on their part, to further in every way his ambition. january , . my dear brothers,--we have just received richard's letter of the th inst., and i can have a pretty correct idea of your feelings at the beginning of a vacation. you must not be melancholy and hang yourself. if you do you will have a terrible scolding when you get home again. as for richard's getting an appointment so low, if i was in his situation, i should not trouble myself one fig concerning _appointments_. they cost more than they are worth. i shall not esteem him the less for not getting a higher, and not more than one millionth part of the world knows what an appointment is. you will both of you have a different opinion of appointments after you have been out of college a short time. i had rather be richard with a dialogue than sanford with a dispute. if appointments at college decided your fate forever, you might possibly groan and wail. but then consider where poor i should come. [he got no appointment whatever.] think of this, richard, and _don't_ hang _yourself_. [it may, perhaps, be well to explain that "appointments" were given at yale to those who excelled in scholarship. "philosophical oration" was the highest, then came "high oration," "oration," etc., etc.] i have left mr. mallory's store and am helping papa in the geography. shall remain at home till the latter part of next summer and then shall go to london with mr. allston. the following extracts from two letters of a college friend i have introduced as throwing some light on morse's character at that time and also as curious examples of the epistolary style of those days:-- new haven, february , . dear finley,--yours of the th ult. i received, together with the books enclosed, which i delivered personally according to your request. did i not know the nature of your disorder and the state of your _gizzard_, i should really be surprised at the commencement, and, indeed, the whole tenor of your letter, but as it is i can excuse and feel for you. had i commenced a letter with the french _hélas! hélas!_ it would have been no more than might reasonably have been expected considering the desolate situation of new haven and the gloomy prospects before me. but for you, who are in the very vortex of fashionable life and surrounded by the amusements and bustle of the metropolis of new england, for you to exclaim, "how lonely i am!" is unpardonable, or at most admits of but one excuse, to wit, that you can plead the feelings of the youth who exclaimed, "gods annihilate both time and space and make two lovers happy!" you suppose i am so much taken up with the ladies and other good things in new haven that i have not time to think of one of my old friends. alas! morse, there are no ladies or anything else to occupy my attention. they are all gone and we have no amusements. even old value has deserted us, whose music, though an assemblage of "unharmonious sounds," is infinitely preferable to the harsh grating thunder of his brother. new haven is, indeed, this winter a dreary place. i wrote you about a month since and did then what you wish me now to do,--i mentioned all that is worth mentioning, which, by the way, is very little, about new haven and its inhabitants. since then i have been to new york and saw the miss radcliffs, and, in passing through stamford, the miss davenports. the mention of the name of davenport would at one time have excited in your breast emotions unutterable, but now, though ann is as lovely as ever, your heart requires the influence of another hart to quicken its pulsations.... last but not least comes the all-conquering, the angelic queen of harts. i have not seen her since she left new haven, but have heard from her sister eliza that she is in good health and is going in april to new york with mrs. jarvis (her sister) to spend the summer and perhaps a longer time, where she will probably break many a proud heart and bend many a stubborn knee. i fear, morse, unless you have her firmly in your toils, i fear she may not be able to withstand every attack, for new york abounds with elegant and accomplished young men. you mention that you have again changed your mind as to the business which you intend to pursue. i really thought that the plan of becoming a bookseller would be permanent because sanctioned by parental authority, but i am now convinced that your mind is so much bent upon painting that you will do nothing else effectually. it is indeed a noble art and if pursued effectually leads to the highest eminence, for painters rank with poets, and to be placed in the scale with milton and homer is an honor that few of mortal mould attain unto.... i wish, finley, that you would paint me a handsome piece for a keepsake as you are going to europe and may not be back in a hurry. present my respects to mr. hillhouse. his father's family are well. adieu. your affectionate friend, jos. p. rossiter. from this letter and from others we learn that young morse's youthful affections were fixed on a certain charming miss jannette hart, but, alas! he proved a faithless lover, for his friend rossiter thus reproves him in a letter of may , :-- "oh! most amazing change! can it be possible? oh! love, and all ye cordial powers of passion, forbid it! still, still the dreadful words glare on my sight. alas! alas! and is it, then, a fact? if so 't is pitiful, 't is wondrous pitiful. cupid, tear off your bandage, new string your bow and tip your arrows with harder adamant. oh! shame upon you, only hear the words of your exultant votarist--'even love, which according to the proverb conquers all things, when put in competition with painting, must yield the palm and be a willing captive.' oh! fie, fie, good master cupid, you shoot but poorly if a victim so often wounded can talk in terms like these. "poor luckless jannette! the epithets 'divine' and 'heavenly' which have so often been applied to thee are now transferred to miserable daubings with oil and clay. dame nature, your triumph has been short. poor foolish beldam, you thought, indeed, when you had formed your masterpiece and named her jannette, that unqualified admiration would be extorted from the lips of prejudice itself, and that, at least, till age had worn off the first dazzling lustre from your favorite, your sway would have been unlimited and your exultation immeasurable. my good old dame, hear for your comfort what a foolish, fickle youth has dared to say of your darling jannette, and that while she is yet in the first blush and bloom of virgin loveliness--'_next_ to painting i love jannette the best.' insufferable blasphemy! hear, o heavens, and be amazed! tremble, o earth, and be horribly afraid!" in spite of this impassioned arraignment, morse devoted himself exclusively to his art for the next few years, and we have only occasional references in the letters that follow to his first serious love affair. we also hear nothing further of "marius on the ruins of carthage"; but in february, , he writes to his brothers: "i am painting my large piece, the landing of our forefathers at plymouth. perhaps i shall have it finished by the time you come home in the spring. my landscape i finished sometime since, and it is framed and hung up in the front parlor." at last in july, , the great ambition of the young man was about to be realized and he prepared to set sail for england with his friend and master, washington allston. his father, having once made up his mind to allow his son to follow his bent, did everything possible to further his ambition and assist him in his student years. he gave him many letters of introduction to well-known persons in england and france, one of which, to his excellency c.m. talleyrand, i shall quote in full. sir,--i had the honor to introduce to you, some years since, a young friend of mine, mr. wilder, who has since resided in your country. your civility to him induces me to take the liberty to introduce to you my eldest son, who visits europe for the purpose of perfecting himself in the art of painting under the auspices of some of your eminent artists. should he visit france, as he intends, i shall direct him to pay his respects to you, sir, assured that he will receive your protection and patronage so far as you can with convenience afford them. in thus doing you will much oblige, sir, with high consideration your most ob'd't. serv't, jed. morse. in another letter of introduction, to whom i cannot say, as the address on the copy is lacking, the father says:-- "his parents had designed him for a different profession, but his inclination for the one he has chosen was so strong, and his talents for it, in the opinion of some good judges, so promising, that we thought it not proper to attempt to control his choice. "in this country, young in the arts, there are few means of improvement. these are to be found in their perfection only in older countries, and in none, perhaps, greater than in yours. in compliance, therefore, with his earnest wishes and those of his friend and patron, mr. allston (with whom he goes to london), we have consented to make the sacrifice of feeling (not a small one), and a pecuniary exertion to the utmost of our ability, for the purpose of placing him under the best advantage of becoming eminent in his profession, in hope that he will consecrate his acquisitions to the glory of god and the best good of his fellow men." morse arrived in new york on july , , after a several days' journey from charlestown which he describes as very terrible on account of the heat and dust. people were dying from the heat in new york where the thermometer reached ° in the shade. he says:-- "my ride to new haven was beyond everything disagreeable; the sun beating down upon the stage (the sides of which we were obliged to shut up on account of the sun) which was like an oven, and the wind, instead of being in our faces as papa supposed, was at our back and brought into our faces such columns of dust as to hinder us from seeing the other side of the stage. "i never was so completely covered with dust in my life before. mama, perhaps, will think that i experienced some inconvenience from such a fatiguing journey, but i never felt better in my life than now." the optimism of youth when it is doing what it wants to do. he had taken passage on the good ship lydia with mr. and mrs. allston and some eleven other passengers, and the sailing of the ship was delayed for several days on account of contrary winds, but at last, on july , the voyage was begun. on board the lydia, off sandy hook, july , . my dear parents,--after waiting a great length of time i have got under way. we left new york harbor on saturday, th, about twelve o'clock and went as far as the quarantine ground on staten island, where, on account of the wind, we waited over sunday. we are now under sail with the pilot on board. we have a fair wind from s.s.w. and shall soon be out of sight of land. we have fourteen very agreeable passengers, an experienced and remarkably pleasant captain, and a strong, large, fast-sailing ship. we expect from twenty-five to thirty days' passage.... we have a piano-forte on board and two gentlemen who play elegantly, so we shall have fine times. i am in good spirits, though i feel rather singularly to see my native shores disappearing so fast and for so long a time. i am not yet seasick, but expect to be a little so in a few days. we shall probably be boarded by a british vessel of war soon; there are a number off the coast, but they treat american vessels very civilly. he kept a careful diary of the voyage to england and again resumed it when he returned to america in . the voyage out was most propitious and lasted but twenty-two days in all: a very short one for that time. as the diary contains nothing of importance relating to the eastern voyage, being simply a record of good weather, fair winds, and pleasant companions, i shall not quote from it at present. it was all pleasure to the young man, who had never before been away from home, and he sees no reason why people should dread a sea voyage. the journal of the return trip tells a different story, as we shall see later on, for the passage lasted fifty-seven days, and head winds, gales, and even hurricanes were encountered all the way across, and he wonders why any one should go to sea who can remain safely on land. liverpool, august , . my dear parents,--you see from the date that i have at length arrived in england. i have had a most delightful passage of twenty days from land to land and two in coming up the channel. as this is a letter merely to inform you of my safe arrival i shall not enter into the particulars of our voyage until i get to london, to which place i shall proceed as soon as possible. suffice it to say that i have not been sick a moment of the passage, but, on the contrary, have never enjoyed my health better. i have not as yet got my trunks from the custom-house, but presume i shall meet with no difficulty. i am now at the liverpool arms inn. it is the same inn that mr. silliman put up at; it is, however, very expensive; they charge the enormous sum, i believe, of a guinea or a guinea and a half a day. if i should be detained a day or two in this place i shall endeavor to find out other lodgings; at present, however, it is unavoidable, as all the other passengers are at the same place with me. you may rest assured i shall do everything in my power to be economical, but to avoid imposition of some kind or other cannot be expected, since every one who has been in england and spoken of the subject to me has been imposed upon in some way or other. you cannot think how many times i have expressed a wish that you knew exactly how i was situated. my passage has been so perfectly agreeable, i know not of a single circumstance that has interfered to render it otherwise, through the whole passage. there has been but one day in which we have not had fair winds. mr. and mrs. allston are perfectly well. she has been seasick, but has been greatly benefited by it. she is growing quite healthy. i have grown about three shades darker in consequence of my voyage. i have a great deal to tell you which i must defer till i arrive in london.... oh! how i wish you knew at this moment that i am safe and well in england. good-bye. do write soon and often as i shall. your very affectionate son, saml. f.b. morse. everything was new and interesting to the young artist, and his critical observations on people and places, on manners and customs, are naïve and often very keen. the following are extracts from his diary:-- "as to the manners of the people it cannot be expected that i should form a correct opinion of them since my intercourse with them has been so short, but, from what little i have seen, i am induced to entertain a very favorable opinion of their hospitality. the appearance of the women as i met them in the streets struck me on account of the beauty of their complexions. their faces may be said to be handsome, but their figures are very indifferent and their gait, in walking, is very bad. "on friday, the th of august, i went to the mayor to get leave to go to london. he gave me ten days to get there, and told me, if he found me in liverpool after that time, he should put me in prison, at which i could not help smiling. his name is drinkwater, but from the appearance of his face i should judge it might be drinkbrandy. "on account of his limiting us to ten days we prepared to set out for london immediately as we should be obliged to travel slowly.... mr. and mrs. allston and myself ordered a post-chaise, and at twelve o'clock we set out for manchester, intending to stay there the first night.... the people, great numbers of whom we passed, had cheerful, healthy countenances; they were neat in their dress and appeared perfectly happy.... "much has been said concerning the miserable state in which the lower class of people live in england but especially in large manufacturing cities. that they are so unhappy as some would think i conceive to be erroneous. we are apt to suppose people are unhappy for the reason that, were we taken from our present situation of independence and placed in their situation of dependence, we should be unhappy; not considering that contentment is the foundation of happiness. as far as my own observation extends, and from what i can learn on inquiry, the lower class of people generally are contented. n.b. i have altered my opinion since writing this.... "thus far on our journey we have had a very pleasant time. there is great difference i find in the treatment of travellers. they are treated according to the style in which they travel. if a man arrives at the door of an inn in a stage-coach, he is suffered to alight without notice, and it is taken for granted that common fare will answer for him. but if he comes in a post-chaise, the whole inn is in an uproar; the whole house come to the door, from the landlord down to boots. one holds his hand to help you to alight, another is very officious in showing you to the parlor, and another gets in the baggage, whilst the landlord and landlady are quite in a bustle to know what the gentleman will please to have. this attention, however, is very pleasant, you are sure to be waited upon well and can have everything you will call for, and that of the nicest kind. it is the custom in this country to hire no servants at inns. they, on the contrary, pay for their places and the only wages they get is from the generosity of travellers. "this circumstance at first would strike a person unacquainted with the customs of england as a very great imposition. i thought so, but, since i have considered the subject better, i believe that there could not be a wiser plan formed. it makes servants civil and obliging and always ready to do anything; for, knowing that they depend altogether on the bounty of travellers, they would fear to do anything which would in the least offend them; and, as there is a customary price for each grade of servants, a person who is travelling can as well calculate the expense of his journey as though they were nothing of the kind." "_london, august , ._ you see from the date that i have at length arrived at the place of my destination. i have been in the city about three hours, so you see what is my first object.... mr. and mrs. allston with myself took a post-chaise which, indeed, is much more expensive than a stage-coach, but, on account of mrs. allston's health, which you know was not very good when in boston (although she is much benefited by her voyage), we were obliged to travel slowly, and in this manner it has cost us perhaps double the sum which it would have done had we come in a stage-coach. but necessity obliged me to act as i have done. i found myself in a land of strangers, liable to be cheated out of my teeth almost, and, if i had gone to london without mr. allston, by waiting at a boarding-house, totally unacquainted with any living creature, i should probably have expended the difference by the time he had arrived.... i trust you will not think it extravagant in me for doing as i have done, for i assure you i shall endeavor to be as economical as possible. "i also mentioned in my letter that i could scarcely expect to steer free from imposition since none of my predecessors have been able to do it. since writing that letter i have found (in spite of all my care to the contrary) my observation true. in going from the liverpool arms to mr. woolsey's, which is over a mile, i was under the necessity of getting into a hackney-coach. upon asking what was to pay he told me a shilling. i offered him half a guinea to change, which i knew to be good, having taken it at the hank in new york. "he tossed it into the air and caught it in his mouth very dexterously, and, handing it to me back again, told me it was a bad one. i looked at it and told him i was sure it was good, but, appealing to a gentleman who was passing, i found it was bad. of course i was obliged to give him other money. when i got to my lodgings i related the circumstance to some of my friends and they told me he had cheated me in this way: that it was common for them to carry bad money about them in their mouths, and, when this fellow had caught the good half-guinea in his mouth, he changed it for a bad one. this is one of the thousand tricks they play every day. i have likewise received eleven bad shillings on the road between liverpool and this place, and it is hardly to be wondered at, for the shilling pieces here are just like old buttons without eyes, without the sign of an impression on them, and one who is not accustomed to this sort of money will never know the difference. "i find, as mama used to tell me, that i must watch my very teeth or they will cheat me out of them." "_friday, th, ._ this morning i called on mr. bromfield and delivered my letters. he received me very cordially, enquired after you particularly, and invited me to dine with him at o'clock, which invitation i accepted.... i find i have arrived in england at a very critical state of affairs. if such a state continues much longer, england must fall. american measures affect this country more than you can have any idea of. the embargo, if it had continued six weeks longer, it is said would have forced this country into any measures." "_saturday, th._ i have been unwell to-day in some degree, so that i have not been able to go out all day. it was a return of the colic. i sent my letter of introduction to dr. lettsom with a request that he would call on me, which he did and prescribed a medicine which cured me in an hour or two, and this evening i feel well enough to resume my letter. "dr. lettsom is a very singular man. he looks considerably like the print you have of him. he is a moderate quaker, but not precise and stiff like the quakers of philadelphia. he is a very pleasant and sociable man and withal very blunt in his address. he is a man of excellent information and is considered among the greatest literary characters here. there is one peculiarity, however, which he has in conversation, that of using the verb in the third person singular with the pronoun in the first person singular and plural, as instead of 'i show' or 'we show,' he says 'i shows,' 'we shows,' etc., upon which peculiarity the famous mr. sheridan made the following lines in ridicule of him:-- "if patients call, both one and all i bleeds 'em and i sweats 'em, and if they die, why what care i-- "i. lettsom. "this is a liberty i suppose great men take with each other.... "perhaps you may have been struck at the lateness of the hour set by mr. bromfield for dinner [ o'clock!], but that is considered quite early in london. i will tell you the fashionable hours. a person to be genteel must rise at twelve o'clock, breakfast at two, dine at six, and sup at the same time, and go to bed about three o'clock the next morning. this may appear extravagant, but it is actually practised by the greatest of the fashionables of london.... "i think you will not complain of the shortness of this letter. i only wish you now had it to relieve your minds from anxiety, for, while i am writing, i can imagine mama wishing that she could hear of my arrival, and thinking of thousands of accidents that may have befallen me, and _i wish that in an instant i could communicate the information;_ but three thousand miles are not passed over in an instant and we must wait four long weeks before we can hear from each other." (the italics are mine, for on the outside of this letter written by morse in pencil are the words:-- "a longing for the telegraph even in this letter.") "there has a ghost made its appearance a few streets only from me which has alarmed the whole city. it appears every night in the form of shriekings and groanings. there are crowds at the house every night, and, although they all hear the noises, none can discover from whence they come. the family have quitted the house. i suppose 'tis only a hoax by some rogue which will be brought out in time." chapter iii august , --december . benjamin west.--george iii.--morse begins his studies.--introduced to west.--enthusiasms.--smuggling and lotteries.--english appreciation of art.--copley.--friendliness of west.--elgin marbles.--cries of london.-- custom in knocking.--witnesses balloon ascension.--crowds.--vauxhall gardens.--st. bartholomew's fair.--efforts to be economical.--signs of war.--mails delayed.--admitted to royal academy.--disturbances, riots, and murders. at this time benjamin west the american was president of the royal academy and at the zenith of his power and fame. young morse, admitted at once into the great man's intimacy through his connection with washington allston and by letters of introduction, was dazzled and filled with enthusiasm for the works of the master. he considered him one of the greatest of painters, if not the greatest, of all times. the verdict of posterity does not grant him quite so exalted a niche in the temple of fame, but his paintings have many solid merits and his friendship and favor were a source of great inspiration to the young artist. mr. prime in his biography of morse relates this interesting anecdote:-- "during the war of american independence, west, remaining true to his native country, enjoyed the continued confidence of the king, and was actually engaged upon his portrait when the declaration of independence was handed to him. mr. morse received the facts from the lips of west himself, and communicated them to me in these words:-- "'i called upon mr. west at his house in newman street one morning, and in conformity with the order given to his servant, robert, always to admit mr. leslie and myself, even if he was engaged in his private studies, i was shown into his studio. "'as i entered, a half-length portrait of george iii stood before me upon an easel, and mr. west was sitting with back toward me copying from it upon canvas. my name having been mentioned to him, he did not turn, but, pointing with the pencil he had in his hand to the portrait from which he was copying, he said:-- "'"do you see that picture, mr. morse?" "'"yes sir!" i said; "i perceive it is the portrait of the king." "'"well," said mr. west, "the king was sitting to me for that portrait when the box containing the american declaration of independence was handed to him." "'"indeed," i answered; "what appeared to be the emotions of the king? what did he say?" "'"well, sir," said mr. west, "he made a reply characteristic of the goodness of his heart," or words to that effect. "'well, if they can be happier under the government they have chosen than under mine, i shall be happy.'"'" on august , , morse writes to his parents:-- "i have begun my studies, the first part of which is drawing. i am drawing from the head of demosthenes at present, to get accustomed to handling black and white chalk. i shall then commence a drawing for the purpose of trying to enter the royal academy. it is a much harder task to enter now than when mr. allston was here, as they now require a pretty accurate knowledge of anatomy before they suffer them to enter, and i shall find the advantage of my anatomical lectures. i feel rather encouraged from this circumstance, since the harder it is to gain admittance, the greater honor it will be should i enter. i have likewise begun a large landscape which, at a bold push, i intend for the exhibition, though i run the risk of being refused.... "i was introduced to mr. west by mr. allston and likewise gave him your letter. he was very glad to see me, and said he would render me every assistance in his power." "at the british institution i saw his famous piece of christ healing the sick. he said to me: 'this is the piece i intended for america, but the british would have it themselves; but i shall give america the better one.' he has begun a copy, which i likewise saw, and there are several alterations for the better, if it is possible to be better. a sight of that piece is worth a voyage to england of itself. when it goes to america, if you don't go to see it, i shall think you have not the least taste for paintings." "the encomiums which mr. west has received on account of that piece have given him new life, and some say he is at least ten years younger. he is now likewise about another piece which will probably be superior to the other. he favored me with a sight of the sketch, which he said he granted to me because i was an american. he had not shown it to anybody else. mr. allston was with me and told me afterwards that, however superior his last piece was, this would far exceed it. the subject is christ before pilate. it will contain about fifty or sixty figures the size of life." "mr. west is in his seventy-sixth year (i think), but, to see him, you would suppose him only about five-and-forty. he is very active; a flight of steps at the british gallery he ran up as nimbly as i could.... i walked through his gallery of paintings of his own productions; there were upward of two hundred, consisting principally of the original sketches of his large pieces. he has painted in all upwards of six hundred pictures, which is more than any artist ever did with the exception of rubens the celebrated dutch painter.... "i was surprised on entering the gallery of paintings in the british institution, at seeing eight or ten _ladies_ as well as gentlemen, with their easels and palettes and oil colors, employed in copying some of the pictures. you can see from this circumstance in what estimation the art is held here, since ladies of distinction, without hesitation or reserve, are willing to draw in public.... "by the way, i digress a little to inform you how i got my segars on shore. when we first went ashore i filled my pockets and hat as full as i could and left the rest in the top of my trunk intending to come and get them immediately. i came back and took another pocket load and left about eight or nine dozen on the top of my clothes. i went up into the city again and forgot the remainder until it was too late either to take them out or hide them under the clothes. so i waited trembling (for contraband goods subject the whole trunk to seizure), but the custom-house officer, being very good-natured and clever, saw them and took them up. i told him they were only for my own smoking and there were so few that they were not worth seizing. 'oh,' says he, 'i shan't touch them; i won't know they are here,' and then shut down the trunk again. as he smoked, i gave him a couple of dozen for his kindness." what a curious commentary on human nature it is that even the most pious, up to our own time, can see no harm in smuggling and bribery. and, as another instance of how the standards of right and wrong change with the changing years, further on in this same letter to his strict and pious parents young morse says:-- "i have just received letters and papers from you by the galen which has arrived. i was glad to see american papers again. i see by them that the lottery is done drawing. how has my ticket turned out? if the weight will not be too great for one shipload, i wish you would send the money by the next vessel." the lottery was for the benefit of harvard college. "_september , ._ i have finished a drawing which i intended to offer at the academy for admission. mr. allston told me it would undoubtedly admit me, as it was better than two thirds of those generally offered, but advised me to draw another and remedy some defects in handling the chalks (to which i am not at all accustomed), and he says i shall enter with some éclat. i showed it to mr. west and he told me it was an extraordinary production, that i had talent, and only wanted knowledge of the art to make a great painter." in a letter to his friends, mr. and mrs. jarvis, dated september , , he says:-- "i was astonished to find such a difference in the encouragement of art between this country and america. in america it seemed to lie neglected, and only thought to be an employment suited to a lower class of people; but here it is the constant subject of conversation, and the exhibitions of the several painters are fashionable resorts. no person is esteemed accomplished or well educated unless he possesses almost an enthusiastic love for paintings. to possess a gallery of pictures is the pride of every nobleman, and they seem to vie with each other in possessing the most choice and most numerous collection.... i visited mr. copley a few days since. he is very old and infirm. i think his age is upward of seventy, nearly the age of mr. west. his powers of mind have almost entirely left him; his late paintings are miserable; it is really a lamentable thing that a man should outlive his faculties. he has been a first-rate painter, as you well know. i saw at his room some exquisite pieces which he painted twenty or thirty years ago, but his paintings of the last four or five years are very bad. he was very pleasant, however, and agreeable in his manners. "mr. west i visit now and then. he is very liberal to me and gives me every encouragement. he is a very friendly man; he talked with me like a father and wished me to call and see him often and be intimate with him. age, instead of impairing his faculties, seems rather to have strengthened them, as his last great piece testifies. he is soon coming out with another which mr. allston thinks will far surpass even this last. the subject is christ before pilate. "i went last week to burlington house in piccadilly, about forty-five minutes' walk, the residence of lord elgin, to see some of the ruins of athens. lord elgin has been at an immense expense in transporting the great collection of splendid ruins, among them some of the original statues of phidias, the celebrated ancient sculptor. they are very much mutilated, however, and impaired by time; still there was enough remaining to show the inferiority of all subsequent sculpture. even those celebrated works, the apollo belvedere, venus di medicis, and the rest of those noble statues, must yield to them.... "the cries of london, of which you have doubtless heard, are very annoying to me, as indeed they are to all strangers. the noise of them is constantly in one's ears from morning till midnight, and, with the exception of one or two, they all appear to be the cries of distress. i don't know how many times i have run to the window expecting to see some poor creature in the agonies of death, but found, to my surprise, that it was only an old woman crying 'fardin' apples,' or something of the kind. hogarth's picture of the enraged musician will give you an excellent idea of the noise i hear every day under my windows.... "there is a singular custom with respect to knocking at the doors of houses here which is strictly adhered to. a servant belonging to the house rings the bell only; a strange servant knocks once; a market man or woman knocks once and rings; the penny post knocks twice; and a gentleman or lady half a dozen quick knocks, or any number over two. a nobleman generally knocks eight or ten tunes very loud. "the accounts lately received from america look rather gloomy. they are thought here to wear a more threatening aspect than they have heretofore done. from my own observation and opportunity of hearing the opinion of the people generally, they are extremely desirous of an amicable adjustment of differences, and seem as much opposed to the idea of war as the better part of the american people.... "in this letter you will perceive all the variety of feeling which i have had for a fortnight past; sometimes in very low, sometimes in very high spirits, and sometimes a balance of each; which latter, though very desirable, i seldom have, but generally am at one extreme or the other. i wrote this in the evenings of the last two weeks, and this will account, and i hope apologize, for its great want of connection." in a long letter to a friend, dated september , , he thus describes some of the sights of london:-- "a few days since i walked about four miles out of town to a village of the name of hackney to witness the ascension of a mr. sadler and another gentleman in a balloon. it was a very grand sight, and the next day the aeronauts returned to hackney, having gone nearly fifty miles in about an hour and a half. the number of people who attended on this occasion might be fairly estimated at , , such a concourse as i never before witnessed. "when the balloon was out of sight the crowd began to return home, and such a confusion it is almost impossible for me to describe. a gang of pickpockets had contrived to block up the way, which was across a bridge, with carriages and carts, etc., and as soon as the people began to move it created such an obstruction that, in a few moments, this great crowd, in the midst of which i had unfortunately got, was stopped. this gave the pickpockets an opportunity and the people were plundered to a great amount. "i was detained in this manner, almost suffocated, in a great shower of rain, for about an hour, and, what added to the misery of the scene, there were a great many women and children crying and screaming in all directions, and no one able to assist them, not even having a finger at liberty, they were wedged in in such a manner. i had often heard of the danger of a london crowd, but never before experienced it, and i think once is amply sufficient and shall rest satisfied with it. "a few evenings since i visited the celebrated vauxhall gardens, of which you have doubtless often heard. i must say they far exceeded my expectations; i never before had an idea of such splendor. the moment i went in i was almost struck blind with the blaze of light proceeding from thousands of lamps and those of every color. "in the midst of the gardens stands the orchestra box in the form of a large temple and most beautifully illuminated. in this the principal band of music is placed. at a little distance is another smaller temple in which is placed the turkish band. on one side of the gardens you enter two splendid saloons illuminated in the same brilliant manner. in one of them the pandean band is placed, and in the other the scotch band. all around the gardens is a walk with a covered top, but opening on the sides under curtains in festoons, and these form the most splendid illuminated part of the whole gardens. the amusements of the evening are music, waterworks, fireworks, and dancing. "the principal band plays till about ten o'clock, when a little bell is rung, and the whole concourse of people (the greater part of which are females) run to a dark part of the gardens where there is an admirable deception of waterworks. a bridge is seen over which stages and wagons, men and horses, are seen passing; birds flying across and the water in great cataracts falling down from the mountains and passing over smaller falls under the bridges; men are seen rowing a boat across, and, indeed, everything which could be devised in such an exhibition was performed. "this continues for about fifteen minutes, when they all return into the illuminated part of the gardens and are amused by music from the same orchestra till eleven o'clock. they then are called away again to the dark part of the gardens, where is an exhibition of the most splendid fireworks; sky-rockets, serpents, wheels, and fountains of fire in the greatest abundance, occupying twenty minutes more of the time. "after this exhibition is closed, they again return into the illuminated parts of the gardens, where the music strikes up from the chief orchestra, and hundreds of groups are immediately formed for dancing. respectable ladies, however, seldom join in this dance, although gentlemen of the first distinction sometimes for amusement lend a hand, or rather a foot, to the general cheerfulness. "all now is gayety throughout the gardens; every one is in motion, and care, that bane of human happiness, for a time seems to have lost her dominion over the human heart. had the eastern sage, who was in search of the land of happiness, at this moment been introduced into vauxhall, i think his most exalted conceptions of happiness would have been surpassed, and he would rest contented in having at last found the object of his wishes. "in a few minutes the chief orchestra ceases and is relieved in turn by the other bands, the company following the music. the scotch band principally plays scotch reels and dances. the music and this course of dancing continue till about four o'clock in the morning, when the lights are extinguished and the company disperses. on this evening, which was by no means considered as a full night, the company consisted of perhaps three thousand persons. "i had the pleasure a few days since of witnessing one of the oddest exhibitions, perhaps, in the world. it was no other than _st. bartholomew's fair_. it is held here in london once a year and continues three days. there is a ceremony in opening it by the lord mayor, which i did not see. at this fair the lower orders of society are let loose and allowed to amuse themselves in any lawful way they please. the fair is held in smithfield market, about the centre of the city. the principal amusement appeared to be swinging. there were large boxes capable of holding five or six suspended in large frames in such manner as to vibrate nearly through a semicircle. there were, to speak within bounds, three hundred of these. they were placed all round the square, and it almost made me giddy only to see them all in motion. they were so much pressed for room that one of these swings would clear another but about two inches, and it seemed almost miraculous to me that they did not meet with more accidents than they did. "another amusement were large wheels, about thirty or forty feet in diameter, on the circumference of which were four and sometimes six boxes capable of holding four persons. these are set in slow motion, and they gradually rise to the top of the wheel and as gradually descend and so on in succession. there were various other machines on the same principle which i have not time to describe. "in the centre of the square was an assemblage of everything in the world; theatres, wild beasts, _lusus naturoe_, mountebanks, buffoons, dancers on the slack wire, fighting and swearing, pocket-picking and stealing, music and dancing, and hubbub and confusion in every confused shape. "the theatres are worth describing; they are temporary buildings put up and ornamented very richly on the exteriors to attract attention, while the interiors, like many persons' heads, are but very poorly furnished. strolling companies of players occupy these, and between the plays the actors and actresses exhibit themselves on a stage before the theatre in all their spangled robes and false jewels, and strut and flourish about till the theatre is filled. "then they go in and turn, perhaps, a very serious tragedy into one of the most ridiculous farces. they occupy about fifteen minutes in reciting a play and then a fresh audience is collected, and so they proceed through the three days and nights, so that the poor actors and actresses are killed about fifty times in the course of a day. "a person who goes into one of these theatres must not expect to hear a syllable of the tragedy. if he can look upon the stage it is as much as he can expect, for there is such a confused noise without of drums and fifes, clarionets, bassoons, hautboys, triangles, fiddles, bass-viols, and, in short, every possible instrument that can make a noise, that if a person gets safe from the fair without the total loss of his hearing for three weeks he may consider himself fortunate. contiguous to the theatres are the exhibition rooms of the jugglers and buffoons, who also between their exhibitions display their tricks on stages before the populace, and show as many antics as so many monkeys. but were i to attempt a description of everything i saw at bartholomew fair my letter, instead of being a few sheets, would swell to as many quires; so i must close it. "i shall probably soon witness an exhibition of a more interesting nature; i mean a coronation. the king is now so very low that he cannot survive more than a week or two longer, and immediately on his death the ceremony of the coronation takes place. if i should see it i shall certainly describe it to you." the king, george iii, did not, however, die until . in a letter of september to his parents he says: "i endeavor to be as economical as possible and am getting into the habit very fast. it must be learned by degrees. i shall not say, as salmagundi says,--'i shall spare no expense in discovering the most economical way of spending money,' but shall endeavor to practise it immediately." "_september , ._ you will see by the papers which accompany this what a report respecting the capture of the u.s. frigate president by melampus frigate prevails here. it is sufficient to say it is not in the least credited. "in case of war i shall be ordered out of the country. if so, instead of returning home, had i not better go to paris, as it is cheaper living there even than in london, and there are great advantages there? i only ask the question in case of war.... i am going on swimmingly. next week on monday the royal academy opens and i shall present my drawing." "_october , ._ i wrote you by the galen about three weeks ago and have this moment heard she was still in the downs. i was really provoked. there is great deception about vessels; they advertise for a certain day and perhaps do not sail under a month after. the galen has been going and going till i am sick of hearing she hasn't gone." "_november , ._ after leaving this letter so long, as you see by the different dates, i again resume it. perhaps you will be surprised when i tell you that but yesterday i heard that the galen is still wind-bound. it makes my letters which are on board of her about five or six weeks old, besides the prospect of a long voyage. however it is not her fault. there are three or four hundred vessels in the same predicament. the wind has been such that it has been impossible for any of them to get under weigh; but i must confess i feel considerably anxious on your account.... "i mentioned in one of my other letters that i had drawn a figure (the gladiator) to admit me into the academy. after i had finished it i was displeased with it, and concluded not to offer it, but to attempt another. i have accordingly drawn another from the laocoon statue, the most difficult of all the statues; have shown it to, the keeper of the academy and _am admitted for a year_ without the least difficulty. mr. allston was pleased to compliment me upon it by saying that it was better than two thirds of the drawings of those who had been drawing at the academy for two years." "_november , ._ i mentioned in my last letter that i had entered the royal academy, which information i hope will give you pleasure. i now employ my days in painting at home and in the evenings in drawing at the academy as is customary. i have finished a landscape and almost finished a copy of a portrait which mr. west lent me. mr. allston has seen it and complimented me by saying it was just a hundred tunes better than he had any idea i could do, and that i should astonish mr. west very much. i have also begun a landscape, a morning scene at sunrise, which mr. allston is very much pleased with. all these things encourage me, and, as every day passes away, i feel increased enthusiasm.... "distresses are increasing in this country, and disturbances, riots, etc., have commenced as you will see by the papers which accompany this. they are considered very alarming." "_december , ._ i am pursuing my studies with increased enthusiasm, and hope, before the three years are out, to relieve you from further expense on my account. mr. allston encourages me to think thus from the rapid improvement he says i have made. you may rest assured i shall use all my endeavors to do it as soon as may be.... "this country appears to me to be in a very bad state. i judge from the increasing disturbances at nottingham, and more especially from the startling murders lately committed in this city. "a few mornings since was published an account of the murder of a family consisting of four persons, and this moment there is another account of the murder of one consisting of three persons, making the twelfth murder committed in that part of the city within three months, and not one of the murderers as yet has been discovered, although a reward of more than seven hundred pounds has been offered for the discovery. "the inhabitants are very much alarmed, and hereafter i shall sleep with pistols at the head of my bed, although there is little to apprehend in this part of the city. still, as i find many of my acquaintance adopting that plan, i choose rather to be on the safe side and join with them." chapter iv january , --august . political opinions.--charles e. leslie's reminiscences of morse, allston, king, and coleridge.--c. b. king's letter.--sidney e. morse's letter.-- benjamin west's kindness.--sir william beechy.--murders, robberies, etc. --morse and leslie paint each other's portraits.--the elder morse's financial difficulties.--he deprecates the war talk.--the son differs with his father.--the prince regent.--orders in council.--estimate of west.--alarming state of affairs in england.--assassination of perceval, prime minister.--execution of assassin.--morse's love for his art.-- stephen van rensselaer.--leslie the friend and allston the master.-- afternoon tea.--the elder morse well known in europe.--lord castlereagh. --the queen's drawing-room.--kemble and mrs. siddons.--zachary macaulay. --warning letter from his parents.--war declared.--morse approves.-- gratitude to his parents, and to allston. the years from to which were passed by morse in the study of his art in london are full of historical interest, for england and america were at war from to , and the campaign of the allied european powers against napoleon bonaparte culminated in waterloo and the treaty of paris in . the young man took a deep interest in these affairs and expressed his opinions freely and forcibly in his letters to his parents. his father was a strong federalist and bitterly deprecated the declaration of war by the united states. the son, on the contrary, from his point of vantage in the enemy's country saw things from a different point of view and stoutly upheld the wisdom, nay, the necessity, of the war. his parents and friends urged him to keep out of politics and to be discreet, and he seems, at any rate, to have followed their advice in the latter respect, for he was not in any way molested by the authorities. at the same time he was making steady progress in his studies and making friends, both among the americans who were his fellow students or artists of established reputation, and among distinguished englishmen who were friends of his father. among the former was charles r. leslie, his room-mate and devoted friend, who afterwards became one of the best of the american painters of those days. in his autobiography leslie says:-- "my new acquaintances allston, king, and morse were very kind, but still they were _new_ acquaintances. i thought of the happy circle round my mother's fireside, and there were moments in which, but for my obligations to mr. bradford and my other kind patrons, i could have been content to forfeit all the advantages i expected from my visit to england and return immediately to america. the two years i was to remain in london seemed, in prospect, an age. "mr. morse, who was but a year or two older than myself, and who had been in london but six months when i arrived, felt very much as i did and we agreed to take apartments together. for some time we painted in one room, he at one window and i at the other. we drew at the royal academy in the evening and worked at home in the day. our mentors were allston and king, nor could we have been better provided; allston, a most amiable and polished gentleman, and a painter of the purest taste; and king, warm-hearted, sincere, sensible, prudent, and the strictest of economists. "when allston was suffering extreme depression of spirits after the loss of his wife, he was haunted during sleepless nights by horrid thoughts, and he told me that diabolical imprecations forced themselves into his mind. the distress of this to a man so sincerely religious as allston may be imagined. he wished to consult coleridge, but could not summon resolution. he desired, therefore, that i should do it, and i went to highgate where coleridge was at that time living with mr. gillman. i found him walking in the garden, his hat in his hand (as it generally was in the open air), for he told me that, having been one of the bluecoat boys, among whom it is the fashion to go bareheaded, he had acquired a dislike to any covering of the head. "i explained the cause of my visit and he said: 'allston should say to himself, "_nothing is me but my will._ these thoughts, therefore, that force themselves on my mind are no part of _me_ and there can be no guilt in them." if he will make a strong effort to become indifferent to their recurrence, they will either cease or cease to trouble him.' "he said much more, but this was the substance, and, after it was repeated to allston, i did not hear him again complain of the same kind of disturbance." mr. c.b. king, the other friend mentioned by leslie, returned to america in , and writes from philadelphia, january , :-- my dear friends, this will be handed you by mr. payne, of boston, who intends passing some time in england.... i have not been here sufficiently long to forget the delightful time when we could meet in the evening with novels, coffee, and _music by morse_, with the conversation of that dear fellow allston. the reflection that it will not again take place, comes across my mind accompanied with the same painful sensation as the thought that i must die. that morse was not forgotten by the good people at home is evidenced by a letter from his brother, sidney edwards, of january , , part of which i transcribe:-- dear brother,--i am sitting in the parlor in the armchair on the right of the fireplace, and, as i hold my paper in my hand, with my feet sprawled out before the fire, and with my body reclining in an oblique position against the back of the chair, i am penning you a letter such as it is, and for the inverted position of the letters of which i beg to apologize. as i turn my eyes upward and opposite i behold the family picture painted by an ingenious artist who, i understand, is at present residing in london. if you are acquainted with him, give my love to him and my best wishes for his prosperity and success in the art to which, if report says true, he has devoted himself with much diligence. richard sits before me writing to you, and mama says (for i have just asked her the question) that she is engaged in the same business. papa is upstairs very much engaged in the selfsame employment. four right hands are at this instant writing to give you, at some future moment, the pleasure of perusing the products of their present labor. four imaginations are now employed in conceiving of a son or a brother in a distant land. therefore we may draw the conclusion that you are not universally forgotten, and consequently all do not forget you. i have written you this long letter because i knew that you would be anxious for the information it contains; because papa told me i must write; because mama said i had better write; because i had nothing else to do, and because i hadn't time to write a shorter. i trust for these special reasons you will excuse me for this once, especially when you consider that you asked me to write you long letters; when you consider that it is my natural disposition to express my sentiments fully; that i commonly say most when i have least to say; that i promise reformation in future, and that you shall hereafter hear from me on this subject. as to news, i am sorry to say we are entirely out. we sent you the last we had by the sally ann. we hope to get some ready by the time the next ship sails, and then we will furnish you with the best the country affords. from a letter of january , , to his parents i select the following passages:-- "on tuesday last i dined at mr. west's, who requested to be particularly remembered to you. he is extremely attentive and polite to me. he called on me a few days ago, which i consider a very marked attention as he keeps so confined that he seldom pays any visits.... "i have changed my lodgings to no. in the same street [great titchfield street], and have rooms with young leslie of philadelphia who has just arrived. he is very promising and a very agreeable room-mate. we are in the same stage of advancement in art. "i have painted five pieces since i have been here, two landscapes and three portraits; one of myself, one a copy from mr. west's copy from vandyke, and the other a portrait of mr. leslie, who is also taking mine.... i called a day or two since on sir william beechy, an artist of great eminence, to see his paintings. they are beautiful beyond anything i ever imagined. his principal excellence is in coloring, which, to the many, is the most attractive part of art. sir william is considered the best colorist now living. "you may be apt to ask, 'if sir william is so great and even the best, what is mr. west's great excellence?' mr. west is a bad colorist in general, but he excels in the grandeur of his thought. mr. west is to painting what milton is to poetry, and sir william beechy to mr. west as pope to milton, so that by comparing, or rather illustrating the one art by the other, i can give you a better idea of the art of painting than in any other way. for as some poets excel in the different species of poetry and stand at the head of their different kinds, in the same manner do painters have their particular branch of their art; and as epic poetry excels all other kinds of poetry, because it addresses itself to the sublimer feelings of our nature, so does historical painting stand preëminent in our art, because it calls forth the same feelings. for poets' and painters' minds are the same, and i infer that painting is superior to poetry from this:--that the painter possesses with the poet a vigorous imagination, where the poet stops, while the painter exceeds him in the mechanical and very difficult part of the art, that of handling the pencil." "i gave you a hint in letter number and a particular account in number of the horrid murders committed in this city. it has been pretty well ascertained from a variety of evidence that all of them have been committed by one man, who was apprehended and put an end to his life in prison. very horrid attempts at robbery and murder have been very frequent of late in all parts of the city, and even so near as within two doors of me in the same street, but do not be alarmed, you have nothing to fear on my account. leslie and myself sleep in the same room and sleep armed with a pair of pistols and a sword and alarms at our doors and windows, so we are safe on that score.... "in my next i shall give you some account of politics here and as it respects america. the federalists are certainly wrong in very many things.... "p.s. i wish you would keep my letter in which i enumerate all my friends, and when i say, 'give my love to my friends,' imagine i write them all over, and distribute it out to all as you think i ought, always particularizing miss russell, my patroness, my brothers, relations, and mr. brown and nancy [his old nurse]. this will save me time, ink, trouble, and paper." concerning the portraits which morse and leslie were painting of each other, the following letter to morse's mother, from a friend in philadelphia and signed "r.w. snow," will be found interesting:-- my dear friend,--i have this moment received a letter from miss vaughan in london, dated february , , and, knowing the passage below would be interesting to you, i transcribe it with pleasure, and add my very sincere wish that all your hopes may be realized. "dr. morse's son is considered a young man of very promising talents by mr. allston and mr. west and by those who have seen his paintings. we have seen him and think his modesty and apparent amiableness promise as much happiness to his friends as his talents may procure distinction for himself. he is peculiarly fortunate, not only in having mr. allston for an adviser and friend, but in his companion in painting, mr. leslie, a young man from philadelphia highly recommended by my uncle there, and whose extreme diffidence adds to the most promising talents the patient industry and desire of improvement which are necessary to bring them to perfection. they have been drawing each other's pictures. mr. leslie is in the spanish costume and mr. morse in highland dress. they are in an unfinished state, but striking resemblances." this highland lad, i hope, my dear friend, you will see, and in due time be again blessed with the interesting original. at this time the good father was sore distressed financially. he was generous to a fault and had, by endorsing notes and giving to others, crippled his own means. he says in a letter to his son dated march , :-- "the parkman case remains yet undecided and i know not that it ever will be. there is a strange mystery surrounding the business which i am not able to unravel. the court is now in session in boston which is expected to decide the case. in a few days we shall be able to determine what we have to expect from this case. if we lose it, your mother and i have made up our minds to sit down contented with the loss. i trust we shall be enabled to pay our honest debts without it and to support ourselves. "as to you and your brothers, i trust, with your education, you will be able to maintain yourselves, and your parents, too, should they need it in their old age. probably this necessity laid on you for exertion, industry, and economy in early life will be better for you in the end than to be supported by your parents. in nine cases out of ten those who begin the world with nothing are richer and more useful men in life than those who inherit a large estate.... "we have just heard from your brothers, who are well and in fine spirits. edwards writes that he thinks of staying in new haven another year and of pursuing _general science_, and afterwards of purchasing a plantation and becoming a planter in some one of the southern states!! perhaps he intends to marry some rich planter's daughter and to get his plantation and negroes in that way. this, i imagine, will be his only way to do it. "the newspapers which i shall send with this will inform you of the state of our public affairs. we have high hopes that governor strong will be our governor next year. i have no belief that our _war hawks_ will be able to involve the country in a war with great britain, nor do i believe that the president really wishes it. it is thought that all the war talk and preparations are intended to effect the reëlection of mr. madison. the _henry plot_ is a farce intended for the same purpose, but it can never be got up. it will operate against its promoters." while the father was thus writing, on march , of the political conditions in america from his point of view, almost at the same moment the son in england was expressing himself as follows:-- "_march , ._ with respect to politics i know very little, my time being occupied with much pleasanter subjects. i, however, can answer your question whether party spirit is conducted with such virulence here as in america. it is by no means the case, for, although it is in some few instances very violent, still, for the most part, their debates are conducted with great coolness. "as to the prince regent, you have, perhaps, heard how unpopular he has made himself. he has disappointed the expectations of very many. among the most unpopular of his measures may be placed the retention of the orders in council, which orders, notwithstanding the declarations of mr. perceval [the prime minister] and others in the ministry to the contrary, are fast, very fast reducing this country to ruin; and it is the opinion of some of the best politicians in this country that, should the united states either persist in the non-intercourse law or declare war, this country would be reduced to the lowest extremity.[ ] [footnote : orders in council were issued by the sovereign, with the advice of the privy council, in periods of emergency, trusting to their future ratification by parliament. in this case, while promulgated as a retaliatory measure against bonaparte's continental system, they bore heavily upon the commerce of the united states.] "bankruptcies are daily increasing and petitions from all parts of the kingdom, praying for the repeal of the orders in council, have been presented to the prince, but he has declined hearing any of them. also the catholic cause remains undecided, and he refuses hearing anything on that subject. but no more of politics. i am sure you must have more than sufficient at home. "i will turn to a more pleasant subject and give you a slight history of the american artists now in london. "at the head stands mr. west. he stands and has stood so long preëminent that i could relate but little of his history that would be new to you, so that i shall confine myself only to what has fallen under my own observation, and, of course, my remarks will be few. "as a painter mr. west can be accused of as few faults as any artist of ancient or modern times. in his studies he has been indefatigable, and the result of those studies is a perfect knowledge of the philosophy of his art. there is not a line or a touch in his pictures which he cannot account for on philosophical principles. they are not the productions of accident, but of study. "his principal excellence is considered composition, design, and elegant grouping; and his faults were said to be a hard and harsh outline and bad coloring. these faults he has of late in a great degree amended. his outline is softer and his coloring, in some pictures in which he has attempted truth of color, is not surpassed by any artist now living, and some have even said that titian himself did not surpass it. however that may be, his pictures of a late date are admirable even in this particular, and it evinces that, if in general he neglected that fascinating branch of art in some of his paintings, he still possesses a perfect knowledge of all its artifices. he has just completed a picture, an historical landscape, which, for clearness of coloring combined with grandeur of composition, has never been excelled. "in his private character he is unimpeachable. he is a man of tender feelings, but of a mind so noble that it soars above the slanders of his enemies, and he expresses pity rather than revenge towards those who, through wantonness or malice, plan to undermine his character. no man, perhaps, ever passed through so much abuse, and none, i am confident, ever bore up against its virulence with more nobleness of spirit, with a steady perseverance in the pursuit of the sublimest of human professions. he has travelled on heedless of the sneers, the ridicule, or the detraction of his enemies, and he has arrived at that point where the lustre of his works will not fail to illuminate the dark regions of barbarism and distaste long after their bright author has ceased to exist. "excuse my fervor in the praise of this man. he is not a common man, not such a one as can be met with in every age. he is one of those geniuses who are doomed in their lifetime to endure the malice, the ridicule, and neglect of the world, and at their death to receive the praise and adoration of this same inconsistent world. i think there cannot be a stronger proof that human nature is always the same than that men of genius in all ages have been compelled to undergo the same disappointments and to pass through the same routine of calumny and abuse." the rest of this letter is missing, which is a great pity, as it would be interesting to read what morse had to say of allston, leslie, and the others. was it a presentiment of the calumnies and abuse to which he himself was to be subjected in after life which led him to express himself so heartily in sympathy with his master west? and was it the inspiring remembrance of his master's calm bearing under these afflictions which heartened him to maintain a noble serenity under even greater provocation? "_april , ._ i mentioned in my last letter that i should probably exceed my allowance this year by a few pounds, but i now begin to think that i shall not. i am trying every method to be economical and hope it will not be long before i shall relieve you from further expense on my account.... "with respect to politics they appear gloomy on both sides.... you may depend on it. england has injured us sorely and our non-intercourse is a just retaliation for those wrongs. perhaps you will believe what is said in some of the federal papers that that measure has no effect on this country. you may be assured the effects are great and severe; i am myself an eye-witness of the effects. the country is in a state of rebellion from literal starvation. accounts are daily received which grow more and more alarming from the great manufacturing towns. troops are in motion all over the country, and but last week measures were adopted by parliament to prevent this metropolis from rising to rebellion, by ordering troops to be stationed round the city to be ready at a moment's warning. this i call an alarming period. everybody thinks so and mr. perceval himself is frightened, and a committee is appointed to take into consideration the orders in council. now, when you consider that i came to this country prejudiced against our government and its measures, and that i can have no bad motive in telling you these facts, you will not think hard of me when i say that i hope that our non-intercourse law will be enforced with all its rigor, as i firmly believe it is the only way to bring this country to terms, and that, if persisted in, it will certainly bring them to terms. i know it must make some misery at home, but it will be followed by a corresponding happiness after it. some of you at home, i suppose, will call me a democrat, but facts are stubborn things, and i can't deny the truth of what i see every day before my eyes. a man to judge properly of his country must, like judging of a picture, view it at a distance." "_may , ._ i write in great haste to inform you of a dreadful event which happened here last evening, and rumors of which will probably reach you before this. not to keep you in suspense it is no less than the _assassination of mr. perceval,_ the prime minister of great britain. as he was entering the house of commons last evening a little past five o'clock, he was shot directly through the heart by a man from behind the door. he staggered forward and fell, and expired in about ten minutes.... "i have just returned from the house of commons; there was an immense crowd assembled and very riotous. in the hall was written in large letters, 'peace or the head of the regent.' this country is in a very alarming state and there is no doubt but great quantities of blood will be spilled before it is restored to order. even while i am writing a party of life guards is patrolling the streets. london must soon be the scene of dreadful events. "last night i had an opportunity of studying the public mind. it was at the theatre; the play was 'venice preserved; or, the plot discovered.' if you will take the trouble just to read the first act you will see what relation it has to the present state of affairs. when pierre says to jaffier, 'cans't thou kill a senator?' there were three cheers, and so through the whole, whenever anything was said concerning conspiracy and in favor of it, the audience applauded, and when anything was said against it they hissed. when pierre asked the conspirators if brutus was not a good man, the audience was in a great uproar, applauding so as to prevent for some minutes the progress of the performance. this i think shows the public mind to be in great agitation. the play of 'venice preserved' is not a moral play, and i should not ask you to read any part of it if i could better explain to you the feelings of the public." a few days later, on may , he says in a letter to his brothers:-- "the assassin bellingham was immediately taken into custody. he was tried on friday and condemned to be executed to-morrow morning (monday, th). i shall go to the place to see the concourse of people, for to see him executed i know i could not bear." in a postscript written the day after he says:-- "i went this morning to the execution. a very violent rain prevented so great a crowd as was expected. a few minutes before eight o'clock bellingham ascended the scaffold. he was very genteelly dressed; he bowed to the crowd, who cried out, 'god bless you,' repeatedly. i saw him draw the cap over his face and shake hands with the clergyman. i stayed no longer, but immediately turned my back and was returning home. i had taken but a few steps when the clock struck eight, and, on turning back, i saw the crowd beginning to disperse. i have felt the effects of this sight all day, and shall probably not get over it for weeks. it was a dreadful sight. there were no accidents." in spite of all these momentous occurrences, the young artist was faithfully pursuing his studies, for in this same letter to his brothers he says:-- "but enough of this; you will probably hear the whole account before this reaches you. i am wholly absorbed in the studies of my profession; it is a slow and arduous undertaking. i never knew till now the difficulties of art, and no one can duly appreciate it unless he has tried it. difficulties, however, only increase my ardor and make me more determined than ever to conquer them. "mr. west is very kind to me; i visit him occasionally of a morning to hear him converse on art. he appears quite attached to me, as he is, indeed, to all young american artists. it seems to give him the greatest pleasure to think that one day the arts will flourish in america. he says that philadelphia will be the athens of the world. that city certainly gives the greatest encouragement of any place in the united states. boston is most backward, so, if ever i should return to america, philadelphia or new york would probably be my place of abode. "i have just seen mr. stephen van rensselaer, who you know was at college with us, and with whom i was intimate. he was very glad to see me and calls on me every day while i am painting. he keeps his carriage and horses and is in the first circles here. i ride out occasionally with him; shall begin his portrait next week." like a breath of fresh air, in all the heat and dust of these troublous times, comes this request from his gentle mother in a letter of may , :-- "miss c. dexter requests the favor of you to take a sketch of the face of mr. southey and send it her. he is a favorite writer with her and she has a great desire to see the style of his countenance. if you can get it, enclose it in a genteel note to her with a brief account of him, his age and character, etc." the next letter of may , , is from morse to his parents. "i have told you in former letters that my lodgings are at great titchfield street and that my room-mate is leslie, the young man who is so much talked of in philadelphia. we have lived together since december and have not, as yet, had a falling out. i find his thoughts of art agree perfectly with my own. he is enthusiastic and so am i, and we have not time, scarcely, to think of anything else; everything we do has a reference to art, and all our plans are for our mutual advancement in it. our amusements are walking, _occasionally_ attending the theatres, and the company of mr. allston and a few other gentlemen, consisting of three or four painters and poets. we meet by turn at each other's rooms and converse and laugh. "mr. allston is our most intimate friend and companion. i can't feel too grateful to him for his attentions to me; he calls every day and superintends all we are doing. when i am at a stand and perplexed in some parts of the picture, he puts me right and encourages me to proceed by praising those parts which he thinks good, but he is faithful and always tells me when anything is bad. "it is a mortifying thing sometimes to me, when i have been painting all day very hard and begin to be pleased with what i have done, on showing it to mr. allston, with the expectation of praise, and not only of praise but a score of 'excellents,' 'well dones,' and 'admirables'; i say it is mortifying to hear him after a long silence say: 'very bad, sir; that is not flesh, it is mud, sir; it is painted with brick dust and clay.' "i have felt sometimes ready to dash my palette knife through it and to feel at the moment quite angry with him; but a little reflection restores me; i see that mr. allston is not a flatterer but a friend, and that really to improve i must see my faults. what he says after this always puts me in good humor again. he tells me to put a few flesh tints here, a few gray ones there, and to clear up such and such a part by such and such colors. and not only that, but takes the palette and brushes and shows me how, and in this way he assists me. i think it one of the greatest blessings that i am under his eye. i don't know how many errors i might have fallen into if it had not been for his attentions.... "i am painting portraits alone at present. our sitters are among our acquaintances. we paint them if they defray the expense of canvas and colors...." "mama wished me to send some specimens of my painting home that you might see my improvement. the pictures that i now paint would be uninteresting to you; they consist merely of studies and drawings from plaster figures, hands and feet and such things. the portraits are taken by those for whom they are painted. i shall soon begin a portrait of myself and will try and send that to you." "_june , ._ mama asks in one of her letters if we make our own tea. we do. the tea-kettle is brought to us boiling in the morning and evening and we make our own coffee (which, by the way, is very cheap here) and tea. we live quite in the old bachelor style. i don't know but it will be best for me to live in this style through life; my profession seems to require all my time. "mr. hurd will take a diploma to you, with others to different persons near boston. i suppose it confers some title on you of consequence, as i saw at his house a great number to be sent to all parts of the world to distinguished men. i find papa is known here pretty extensively. some one, hearing my name and that i am an american, immediately asks if i am related to you.... "the administration is at length formed, and, to the great sorrow of everybody, the old ministers are reelected. the orders in council are the subject of debate at the house of commons this evening. it is an important crisis, though there is scarcely any hope of their repeal. if not, i sincerely hope that america will declare war. "what lord castlereagh said at a public meeting a few days ago ought to be known in america. respecting the orders in council, when some one said unless they were repealed war with america must be the consequence, he replied that, '_if the people would but support the ministry in those measures for a short time, america would be compelled to submit, for she was not able to go to war_.' but i say, and so does every american here who sees how things are going with this country, that, should america but declare war, before hostilities commenced great britain would sue for peace on any terms. great britain is jealous of us and would trample on us if she could, and i feel ashamed when i see her supported through everything by some of the federal editors. i wish they could be here a few months and they would be ashamed of themselves. they are injuring their country, for it is _their_ violence that induces this government to persist in their measures by holding out hope that the parties will change, and that then they can compel america to do anything. if america loses in this contest and softens her measures towards this country, she never need expect to hold up her head again." "_june , ._ the queen held a drawing-room a short time since and i went to st. james's palace to see those who attended. it was a singular sight to see the ladies and gentlemen in their court dresses. the gentlemen were dressed in buckram skirted coats without capes, long waistcoats, cocked hats, bag-wigs, swords, and large buckles on their shoes. the ladies in monstrous hoops, so that in getting into their carriages they were obliged to go edgewise. their dresses were very rich; some ladies, i suppose, had about them to adorn them £ , or £ , worth of diamonds." "i had a sight of the prince regent as he passed in his splendid state carriage drawn by six horses. he is very corpulent, his features are good, but he is very red and considerably bloated. i likewise saw the princess charlotte of wales, who is handsome, the dukes of kent, cambridge, clarence, and cumberland, admiral duckworth, and many others. the prince held a levee a few days since at which mr. van rensselaer was presented." "i occasionally attend the theatres. at covent garden there is the best acting in the world; mr. kemble is the first tragic actor now in england; cook was a rival and excelled him in some characters. mrs. siddons is the first tragic actress, perhaps, that ever lived. she is now advanced in life and is about to retire from the stage; on the th of this month she makes her last appearance. i must say i admire her acting very much; she is rather corpulent, but has a remarkably fine face; the grecian character is finely portrayed in it; she excels to admiration in deep tragedy. in mrs. beverly, in the play of the 'gamesters' a few nights ago, she so arrested the attention of the house that you might hear your watch tick in your fob, and, at the close of the play, when she utters an hysteric laugh for joy that her husband was not a murderer, there were different ladies in the boxes who actually went into hysterics and were obliged to be carried out of the theatre. this i think is proof of good acting. mrs. siddons is a woman of irreproachable character and moves in the first circles; the stage will never again see her equal. "you mustn't think because i praise the acting that i am partial to theatres. i think in a certain degree they are harmless, but, too much attended, they dissipate the mind. there is no danger of my loving them too much; i like to go once in awhile after studying hard all day. "last night, as i was passing through tottenham court road, i saw a large collection of people of the lower class making a most terrible noise by beating on something of the sounding genus. upon going nearer and enquiring the cause, i found that a butcher had just been married, and that it is always the custom on such occasions for his brethren by trade to serenade the couple with _marrow-bones_ and _cleavers_. perhaps you have heard of the phrase 'musical as marrow-bones and cleavers'; this is the origin of it. if you wish to experience the sound let each one in the family take a pair of tongs and a shovel, and then, standing all together, let each one try to outdo the other in noise, and this will give you some idea of it. how this custom originated i don't know. i hope it is not symbolical of the _harmony_ which is to exist between the parties married." among those eminent englishmen to whom young morse had letters of introduction was zachary macaulay, editor of the "christian observer," and father of the historian. the following note from him will be found of a delightful old-time flavor:-- mr. macaulay presents his compliments to mr. morse and begs to express his regret at not having yet been so fortunate as to meet with him. mr. macaulay will be particularly happy if it should suit mr. morse to dine with him at his house at clapham on saturday next at five o'clock. mr. m.'s house is five doors beyond the plough at the entrance of clapham common. a coach goes daily to clapham from the ship at charing cross at a quarter past three, and several leave grace church street in the city every day at four. the distance from london bridge to mr. macaulay's house is about four miles. d june, . in a letter from his mother of june , , the anxious parent says:-- "although we long to see you, yet we rejoice that you are so happily situated at so great a distance from our, at present, wretched, miserably distracted country, whose mad rulers are plunging us into an unnecessary war with a country that i shall always revere as doing more to spread the glorious gospel of jesus christ to the benighted heathen, and those that are famishing from lack of knowledge, than any other nation on the globe. our hearts bleed at every pore to think of again being at war. we have not yet forgotten the wormwood and gall of the last revolution. "we hope you will steer clear of any of the difficulties of the contest that is about to take place. we wish you to be very prudent and guarded in all your conversation and actions and not to make yourself a party man on either side. have your opinions, but have them to yourself, and be sure you do not commit them to paper. it may do you great injury either on one side or the other, and you are not in your present situation as a politician but as an artist." in this same letter his father adds:-- "the die is cast and our country plunged in war.... there is great opposition to it in the country. the papers, which you will have opportunity to see, will inform you of the state of parties. your mother has given you sound advice as respects the course you should pursue. be the _artist_ wholly and let _politics_ alone. i rejoice that you are where you are at the present time. you will do what you can without delay to support yourself, as i know not how we shall be able to procure funds to transmit to you, and, if we had them, how we could transmit them should the war continue." to this the son answers in a letter of august , :-- "i am improving, perhaps, the last opportunity i shall have for some time to write you. mr. wheeler, an american, who has been here some time studying portrait painting, has kindly offered to deliver this to you. "our political affairs, it seems, have come to a crisis, which i sincerely hope will turn to the advantage of america; it certainly will not to this country. war is an evil which no man ought to think lightly of, but, if ever it was just, it now is. the english acknowledge it, and what can be more convincing proof than the confession of an enemy? i was sorry to hear of the riotous proceedings in boston. if they knew what an injury they were doing their country in the opinion of foreign nations, they certainly would refrain from them. i assert (because i have proof) that the federalists in the northern states have done more injury to their country by their violent opposition measures than even a french alliance could. their proceedings are copied into the english papers, read before parliament, and circulated through the country, and what do they say of them? do they say the federalists are patriots and are firm in asserting the rights of their country? no; they call them _cowards,_ a _base set;_ say they are traitors to their country and ought to be hanged like traitors. these things i have heard and read, and therefore must believe them. "i wish i could have a talk with you, papa; i am sure i could convince you that neither federalists nor democrats are americans; that war with this country is just, and that the present administration of our country has acted with perfect justice in all their proceedings against this country.... "to observe the contempt with which america is spoken of, and the epithets of a _'nation of cheats,' 'sprung from convicts,' 'pusillanimous,' 'cowardly,'_ and such like,--these i think are sufficient to make any true american's blood boil. these are not used by individuals only, but on the floor of the house of commons. the good effects of our declaration of war begin to be perceived already. the tone of their public prints here is a little softer and more submissive. not one has called in question the justice of the declaration of war; all say, 'we are in the wrong and we shall do well to get out of it as soon as possible.' "i could tell you volumes, but i have not time, and it would, perhaps, be impolitic in the present state of affairs. i only wish that among the infatuated party men i may not find my father, and i hope that he will be _neutral_ rather than oppose the war measure, for (if he will believe a son who loves him and his country better the longer and farther he is away from them) this war will reestablish that character for honor and spirit which our country has lost through the proceedings of _federalists_. "but i will turn from this subject. my health and spirits are excellent and my love for my profession increases. i am painting a small historical piece; the subject is 'marius in prison,' and the soldier sent to kill him who drops his sword as marius says, '_durst thou kill caius marius?_' the historical fact you must be familiar with. i am taking great pains with it, and may possibly exhibit it in february at the british gallery. "i never think of my situation in this country but with gratitude to you for suffering me to pursue the profession of my choice, and for making so many sacrifices to gratify me. i hope i shall always feel grateful to the best of parents and be able soon to show them i am so. in the mean time, if industry and application on my part can make them happy, be assured i shall use my best endeavors to be industrious, and in any other way to give them comfort. one of my greatest blessings here is mr. allston. he is like a brother to me, and not only is a most agreeable and entertaining companion, but he has been the means of giving me more knowledge (practical as well as theoretical) in my art than i could have acquired by myself in three years. "in whatever circumstance i am, mr. allston i shall esteem as one of my best and most intimate friends, and in whatever i can assist him or his i shall feel proud in being able to do it. "mr. and mrs. allston are well. i dined with them yesterday at captain visscher's, whom i have mentioned to you before as one of our passengers. he is very attentive to us, visits us constantly, and is making us presents of various kinds every day, such as half a dozen best madeira, etc. he came out here with his lady to take possession of a fortune of £ , and was immensely rich before, having married miss van rensselaer of albany." chapter v september , --june , models the "dying hercules."--dreams of greatness.--again expresses gratitude to his parents.--begins painting of "dying hercules."--letter from jeremiah evarts.--morse upholds righteousness of the war.--henry thornton.--political discussions.-- gilbert stuart.--william wilberforce.--james wynne's reminiscences of morse, coleridge, leslie, allston, and dr. abernethy.--letters from his mother and brother.--letters from friends on the state of the fine arts in america.--"the dying hercules" exhibited at the royal academy.-- expenses of painting.--receives adelphi gold medal for statuette of hercules.--mr. dunlap's reminiscences.--critics praise "dying hercules." the young artist's letters to his parents at this period are filled with patriotic sentiments, and he writes many pages descriptive of the state of affairs in england and of the effects of the war on that country. he strongly upholds the justice of that war and pleads with his parents and brothers to take his view of the matter. they, on the other hand, strongly disapprove of the american administration's position and of the war, and are inclined to censure and to laugh at the enthusiastic young man's heroics. as we are more concerned with morse's career as an artist than with his political sentiments, and as these latter, i fear, had no influence on the course of international events, i shall quote but sparingly from that portion of the correspondence, just enough to show that, whatever cause he espoused, then, and at all times during his long life, he threw himself into it heart and soul, and thoroughly believed in its righteousness. he was absolutely sincere, although he may sometimes have been mistaken. in a letter dated september , , he says:-- "i have just finished a model in clay of a figure (the 'dying hercules'), my first attempt at sculpture. mr. allston is extremely pleased with it; he says it is better than all the things i have done since i have been in england put together, and says i must send a cast of it home to you, and that it will convince you that i shall make a painter. he says also that he will write to his friends in boston to call on you and see it when i send it. "mr. west also was extremely delighted with it. he said it was not merely an academical figure, but displayed mind and thought. he could not have made me a higher compliment. "mr. west would write you, but he has been disabled from painting or writing for a long time with the gout in his right hand. this is a great trial to him. "i am anxious to send you something to show you that i have not been idle since i have been here. my passion for my art is so firmly rooted that i am confident no human power could destroy it. [and yet, as we shall see later on, human injustice so discouraged him that he dropped the brush forever.] "the more i study it, the greater i think is its claim to the appellation of '_divine_' and i never shall be able sufficiently to show my gratitude to my parents for their indulgence in so greatly enabling me to pursue that profession, without which i am sure i would be miserable. if ever it is my destiny to become great and worthy of a biographical memoir, my biographer will never be able to charge upon my parents that bigoted attachment to any individual profession, the exercise of which spirit by parents toward their children has been the ruin of some of the greatest geniuses; and the biography of men of genius has too often contained that reflection on their parents. if ever the contrary spirit was evident, it has certainly been shown by my parents towards me. indeed, they have been almost too indulgent; they have watched every change of my capricious inclinations, and seem to have made it an object to study them with the greatest fondness. but i think they will say that, when my desire for change did cease, it always settled on painting. "i hope that one day my success in my profession will reward you, in some measure, for the trouble and inconvenience i have so long put you to. "i am now going to begin a picture of the death of hercules from this figure, as large as life. the figure i shall send to you as soon as it is practicable, and also one of the same to philadelphia, if possible in time for the next exhibition in may. "i have enjoyed excellent health and spirits and am perfectly contented. the war between the two countries has not been productive of any measures against resident american citizens. i hope it will produce a good effect towards both countries." he adds in a postscript that he has removed from great titchfield street to no. buckingham place, fitzroy square. the following extract from a letter to morse written by his friend, mr. jeremiah evarts, father of william m. evarts, dated charlestown, october , , is interesting:-- "i am happy that you are so industriously and prosperously engaged in the prosecution of your profession. i hope you will let politics entirely alone for many reasons, not the least of which is a regard to the internal tranquillity of your own mind. i never yet knew a man made happy by studying politics; nor useful, unless he has great duties to perform as a citizen. you will receive this advice, i know, with your accustomed good nature." the next letter, dated november , , is a very long one, over eighteen large pages, and is an impassioned appeal to his father to look at the war from the son's point of view. i shall quote only a few sentences. "your last letter was of october , via halifax, accompanying your sermon on fast day. the letter gave me great pleasure, but i must confess that the sentiments in the sermon appeared very _strange_ to me, knowing what i, as well as every american here does, respecting the causes of the present war.... 'tis the character of englishmen to be haughty, proud, and overbearing. if this conduct meets with no resistance, their treatment becomes more imperious, and the more submissive and conciliating is the object of their imperiousness, the more tyrannical are they towards it. this has been their uniform treatment towards us, and this character pervades all ranks of society, whether in public or private life. "the only way to please john bull is to give him a good beating, and, such is the singularity of his character that, the more you beat him, the greater is his respect for you, and the more he will esteem you.... "if, after all i have now written, you still think that this war is unjust, and think it worth the trouble in order to ascertain the truth, i wish papa would take a trip across the atlantic. if he is not convinced of the truth of what i have written in less than two months, i will agree to support myself all the time i am in england after this date, and never be a farthing's more expense to you.... i was glad to hear that cousin samuel breese is in the navy. i really envy him very much. i hope one day, as a painter, i may be able to hand him down to posterity as an american nelson.... as to my letters of introduction, i find that a painter and a visitor cannot be united. were i to deliver my letters the acquaintance could not be kept up, and the bare thought of encountering the english reserve is enough to deter any one.... this objection, however, might be got over did it not take up so much time. every moment is precious to me now. i don't know how soon i may be obliged to return home for want of means to support me; for the difficulties which are increasing in this country take off the attention of the people from the fine arts, and they withhold that patronage from young artists which they would, from their liberality, in other circumstances freely bestow.... "you mention that some of the ralston family are in boston on a visit, and that mr. codman is attached to eliza. once in my life, you know, if you had told me this and i had been a very bloody-minded young man, who knows but mr. codman might have been challenged. but i suppose he takes advantage of my being in england. if it is as you say, i am very happy to hear it, for elizabeth is a girl whom i very much esteem, and there is no doubt that she will make an excellent wife." in a letter from his mother of july , , she thus reassures him: "mr. codman is married. he married a miss wheeler, of newburyport, so you will have no need of challenging him on account of eliza ralston." in a postscript to the letter of november , morse adds:-- "i have just read the political parts of this letter to my good friend mr. a----n, and he not only approves of the sentiments in it, but pays me a compliment by saying that i have expressed the truth and nothing but the truth in a very clear and proper manner, and hopes it may do good." among young morse's friends in england at that time was henry thornton, philanthropist and member of parliament. in a letter to his parents of january , , he says:-- "last thursday week i received a very polite invitation from henry thornton, esq., to dine with him, which i accepted. i had no introduction to him, but, hearing that your son was in the country, he found me out and has shown me every attention. he is a very pleasant, sensible man, but his character is too well known to you to need any eulogium from me. "at his table was a son of mr. stephen, who was the author of the odious orders in council. mr. thornton asked me at table if i thought that, if the orders in council had been repealed a month or two sooner, it would not have prevented the war. i told him i thought it would, at which he was much pleased, and, turning to mr. stephen, he said: 'do you hear that, mr. stephen? i always told you so.' "last wednesday i dined at mr. wilberforce's. i was extremely pleased with him. at his house i met mr. grant and mr. thornton, members of parliament. in the course of conversation they introduced america, and mr. wilberforce regretted the war extremely; he said it was like two of the same family quarrelling; that he thought it a judgment on this country for its wickedness, and that they had been justly punished for their arrogance and insolence at sea, as well as the americans for their vaunting on land. "as mr. thornton was going he invited me to spend a day or two at his seat at clapham, a few miles out of town. i accordingly went and was very civilly treated. the _reserve_ which i mentioned in a former letter was evident, however, here, and i felt a degree of embarrassment arising from it which i never felt in america. the second day i was a little more at my ease. "at dinner were the two sons of the mr. grant i mentioned above. they are, perhaps, the most promising young men in the country, and you may possibly one day hear of them as at the head of the nation. [one of these young men was afterwards raised to the peerage as lord glenelg.] "after dinner i got into conversation with them and with mr. thornton, when america again became the topic. they asked me a great many questions respecting america which i answered to the best of my ability. they at length asked me if i did not think that the ruling party in america was very much under french influence. i replied 'no'; that i believed on the contrary that nine tenths of the american people were prepossessed strongly in favor of this country. as a proof i urged the universal prevalence of english fashions in preference to french, and english manners and customs; the universal rejoicings on the success of the english over the french; the marked attention shown to english travellers and visitors; the neglect with which they treated their own literary productions on account of the strong prejudice in favor of english works; that everything, in short, was enhanced in its value by having attached to it the name english. "on the other hand, i told them that the french were a people almost universally despised in america, and by at least one half hated. as in england, they were esteemed the common enemies of mankind; that french fashions were discountenanced and loathed; that a frenchman was considered as a man always to be suspected; that young men were forbidden by their parents, in many instances, to associate with them, they considering their company and habits as tending to subvert their morals, and to render them frivolous and insincere. i added that in america as well as everywhere else there were bad men, men of no principles, whose consciences never stand in the way of their ambition or avarice; but that i firmly believed that, as a body, the american congress was as pure from corruption and foreign influence as any body of men in the world. they were much pleased with what i told them, and acknowledged that america and american visitors generally had been treated with too much contempt and neglect. "in the course of the day i asked mr. thornton what were the objects that the english government had in view when they laid the orders in council. he told me in direct terms, '_the universal monopoly of commerce_'; that they had long desired an excuse for such measures as the orders in council, and that the french decrees were exactly what they wished, and the opportunity was seized with avidity the moment it was offered. they knew that the orders in council bore hard upon the americans, but they considered that as merely _incidental_. "to this i replied that, if such was the case as he represented it, what blame could be attached to the american government for declaring war? he said that it was urged that america ought to have considered the circumstances of the case, and that great britain was fighting for the liberties of the world; that america was, in a great degree, interested in the decision of the contest, and that she ought to be content to suffer a little. "i told him that england had no right whatever to infringe on the neutrality of america, or to expect because she (england) supposed herself to have justice on her side in the contest with france, that, of course, the americans should think the same. the moment america declared this opinion her neutrality ceased. 'besides,' said i, 'how can they have the face to make such a declaration when you just now said that their object was universal monopoly, and they longed for an excuse to adopt measures to that end?' i told him that it showed that all the noise about england's fighting for the liberties of mankind proved to be but a thirst, a selfish desire for _universal monopoly_. "this he said seemed to be the case; he could not deny it. he was going on to observe something respecting the french decrees when we were interrupted, and i have not been able again to resume the conversation. i returned to town with him shortly after in his carriage, where, as there were strangers, i could not introduce it again." after this follow two long pages giving further reasons for the stand he has taken, which i shall not include, only quoting the following sentences towards the end of the letter:-- "you will have heard before this arrives of the glorious news from russia. bonaparte is for once _defeated_, and will probably never again recover from it. "my regards to mr. stuart [gilbert stuart]. i feel quite flattered at his remembrance of me. tell him that, by coming to england, i know how more justly to appreciate his great merits. there is really no one in england who equals him. "accompanying this are some newspapers, some of cobbett's, a man of no principle and a great rascal, yet a man of sense and says many good things." i have quoted at length from this letter in order that we may gain a clearer insight into the character of the man. while in no wise neglecting his main objects in life, he yet could not help taking a deep interest in public affairs. he was frank and outspoken in his opinions, but courteous withal. he abhorred hypocrisy and vice and was unsparing in his condemnation of both. he enjoyed a controversy and was quick to discover the weak points in his opponent's arguments and to make the most of them. these characteristics he carried with him through life, becoming, however, broader-minded and more tolerant as he grew in years and experience. morse's father had given him many letters of introduction to eminent men in england. most of these he neglected to deliver, pleading in extenuation of his apparent carelessness that he could not spare the time from his artistic studies to fulfill all the duties that would be expected of him in society, and that he also could not afford the expenses necessary to a well-dressed man. the following note from william wilberforce explains itself, but there seems to be some confusion of dates, for morse had just said in his letter of january st that he dined at mr. wilberforce's over a week before. kensington gore, january , . sir,--i cannot help entertaining some apprehension of my not having received some letter or some card which you may have done me the favor of leaving at my house. be this, however, as it may, i gladly avail myself of the sanction of a letter from your father for introducing myself to you; and, as many calls are mere matters of form, i take the liberty of begging the favor of your company at dinner on wednesday next, at a quarter before five o'clock, at kensington gore (one mile from hyde park corner), and of thereby securing the pleasure of an acquaintance with you. the high respect which i have always entertained for your father, in addition to the many obliging marks of attention which i have received from him, render me desirous of becoming personally known to you, and enable me with truth to assure you i am, with good will, sir, your faithful servant, w. wilberforce. among morse's friends in london during the period of his student years, were coleridge, rogers, lamb, and others whose names are familiar ones in the literary world. while the letters of those days give only hints of the delightful intercourse between these congenial souls, the recollection of them was enshrined in the memory of some of their contemporaries, and the following reminiscences, preserved by mr. james wynne and recorded by mr. prune in his biography, will be found interesting:-- "coleridge, who was a visitor at the rooms of leslie and morse, frequently made his appearance under the influence of those fits of despondency to which he was subject. on these occasions, by a preconcerted plan, they often drew him from this state to one of brilliant imagination. "'i was just wishing to see you,' said morse on one of these occasions when coleridge entered with a hesitating step, and replied to their frank salutations with a gloomy aspect and deep-drawn sighs. 'leslie and myself have had a dispute about certain lines of beauty; which is right?' and then each argued with the other for a few moments until coleridge became interested, and, rousing from his fit of despondency, spoke with an eloquence and depth of metaphysical reasoning on the subject far beyond the comprehension of his auditors. their point, however, was gained, and coleridge was again the eloquent, the profound, the gifted being which his remarkable productions show him to be. "'on one occasion,' said morse, 'i heard him improvise for half an hour in blank verse what he stated to be a strange dream, which was full of those wonderful creations that glitter like diamonds in his poetical productions.' 'all of which,' remarked i, 'is undoubtedly lost to the world.' 'not all,' replied mr. morse, 'for i recognize in the "ancient mariner" some of the thoughts of that evening; but doubtless the greater part, which would have made the reputation of any other man, perished with the moment of inspiration, never again to be recalled.' "when his tragedy of 'remorse,' which had a run of twenty-one nights, was first brought out, washington allston, charles king, leslie, lamb, morse, and coleridge went together to witness the performance. they occupied a box near the stage, and each of the party was as much interested in its success as coleridge himself. "the effect of the frequent applause upon coleridge was very manifest, but when, at the end of the piece, he was called for by the audience, the intensity of his emotions was such as none but one gifted with the fine sensibilities of a poet could experience. fortunately the audience was satisfied with a mere presentation of himself. his emotions would have precluded the idea of his speaking on such an occasion. "allston soon after this became so much out of health that he thought a change of air and a short residence in the country might relieve him. he accordingly set out on his journey accompanied by leslie and morse. "when he reached salt hill, near oxford, he became so ill as to be unable to proceed, and requested morse to return to town for his medical attendant, dr. tuthill, and coleridge, to whom he was ardently attached. "morse accordingly returned, and, procuring a post-chaise, immediately set out for salt hill, a distance of twenty-two miles, accompanied by coleridge and dr. tuthill. "they arrived late in the evening and were busied with allston until midnight, when he became easier, and morse and coleridge left him for the night. "upon repairing to the sitting-room of the hotel morse opened knickerbocker's 'history of new york,' which he had thrown into the carriage before leaving town. coleridge asked him what work he had. "'oh,' replied he, 'it is only an american book.' "'let me see it,' said coleridge. "he accordingly handed it to him, and coleridge was soon buried in its pages. mr. morse, overcome by the fatigues of the day, soon after retired to his chamber and fell asleep. "on awakening next morning he repaired to the sitting-room, when what was his astonishment to find it still closed, with the lights burning, and coleridge busy with the book he had lent him the previous night. "'why, coleridge,' said he, approaching him, 'have you been reading the whole night?' "'why,' remarked coleridge abstractedly, 'it is not late.' "morse replied by throwing open the blinds and permitting the broad daylight, for it was now ten o'clock, to stream in upon them. "'indeed,' said coleridge, 'i had no conception of this; but the work has pleased me exceedingly. it is admirably written; pray, who is its author?' "he was informed that it was the production of washington irving. it is needless to say that, during the long residence of irving in london, they became warm friends. "at this period mr. abernethy was in the full tide of his popularity as a surgeon, and allston, who had for some little time had a grumbling pain in his thigh, proposed to morse to accompany him to the house of the distinguished surgeon to consult him on the cause of the ailment. "as allston had his hand on the bell-pull, the door was opened and a visitor passed out, immediately followed by a coarse-looking person with a large, shaggy head of hair, whom allston at once took for a domestic. he accordingly enquired if mr. abernethy was in. "'what do you want of mr. abernethy?' demanded this uncouth-looking person with the harshest possible scotch accent. "'i wished to see him,' gently replied allston, somewhat shocked by the coarseness of his reception. 'is he at home?' "'come in, come in, mon,' said the same uncouth personage. "'but he may be engaged,' responded allston. 'perhaps i had better call another time.' "'come in, mon, i say,' replied the person addressed; and, partly by persuasion and partly by force, allston, followed by morse, was induced to enter the hall, which they had no sooner done than the person who admitted them closed the street door, and, placing his back against it, said:-- "'now, tell me what is your business with mr. abernethy. i am mr. abernethy.' "'i have come to consult you,' replied allston, 'about an affection--' "'what the de'il hae i to do with your affections?' bluntly interposed abernethy. "'perhaps, mr. abernethy,' said allston, by this time so completely overcome by the apparent rudeness of the eminent surgeon as to regret calling on him at all, 'you are engaged at present, and i had better call again.' "'de'il the bit, de'il the bit, mon,' said abernethy. 'come in, come in.' and he preceded them to his office, and examined his case, which proved to be a slight one, with such gentleness as almost to lead them to doubt whether abernethy within his consulting-room, and abernethy whom they had encountered in the passage, was really the same personage." while morse was enjoying all these new experiences in england, the good people at home were jogging along in their accustomed ruts, but were deeply interested in the doings of the absent son and brother. his mother writes on january , :-- "your letters are read with great pleasure by your acquaintance. i do not show those in which you say anything on _politics,_ as i do not approve your _change_, and think it would only prejudice others. for that reason i do not wish you to write on that subject, as i love to read all your observations to your friends. "we cannot get edwards to be a ladies' man at all. he will not visit among the young ladies; he is as old as fifty, at least." this same youthful misogynist and philosopher also writes to his brother on january : "i intend soon writing another letter in which i shall prove to your satisfaction that poetry is much superior to painting. you asserted the contrary in one of your letters, and brought an argument to prove it. i shall show the fallacy of that argument, and bring those to support my doctrine which are incontrovertible." a letter from his friend, mrs. jarvis, the sister of his erstwhile flame, miss jannette hart, informs him of the marriage of another sister to captain hull of the navy, commander of the constitution. in this letter, written on march , , at bloomingdale, new york city, mrs. jarvis says:-- "i am in general proud of the spirit of my countrymen, but there is too little attention paid to the fine arts, to men of taste and science. man here is weighed by his purse, not by his mind, and, according to the preponderance of that, he rises or sinks in the scale of individual opinion. a fine painting or marble statue is very rare in the houses of the rich of this city, and those individuals who would not pay fifty pounds for either, expend double that sum to vie with a neighbor in a piece of furniture. "but do not tell tales. i would not say this to an englishman, and i trust you have not yet become one. this, however, is poor encouragement for you to return to your native country. i hope better things of that country before you may return." a friend in philadelphia writes to him on may , :-- "your favor i received from the hands of mr. king, and have been very much gratified with the introduction it afforded me to this worthy gentleman. you have doubtless heard of his safe arrival in our city, and of his having commenced his career in america, where, i am sorry to say, the arts are not, as yet, so much patronized as i hope to see them. those of us who love them are too poor, and those who are wealthy regard them but little. i think, however, i have already witnessed an improvement in this respect, and the rich merchants and professional men are becoming more and more liberal in their patronage of genius, when they find it among native americans. "from the favorable circumstances under which your studies are progressing; from the unrivalled talents of the gentleman who conducts them; and, without flattery, suffer me to add, from the early proofs of your own genius, i anticipate, in common with many of our fellow citizens, the addition of one artist to our present roll whose name shall stand high among those of american painters. "in your companion leslie we also calculate on a very distinguished character. "our academy of fine arts has begun the all-important study of the live figure. mr. sully, mr. peale, mr. fainnan, mr. king, and several others have devoted much attention to this branch of the school, and i hope to see it in their hands highly useful and improving. "the last annual exhibition was very splendid _for us_. some very capital landscapes were produced, many admirable portraits and one or two historical pictures. "the most conspicuous paintings were mr. peale's picture of the 'roman charity' (or, if you please, the 'grecian daughter,' for murphy has it so), and mr. sully's 'lady of the lake.'" in a letter of may , , to a friend, morse says:-- "you ask in your letter what books i read and what i am painting. the little time that i can spare from painting i employ in reading and studying the old poets, spenser, chaucer, dante, tasso, etc. these are necessary to a painter. "as to painting, i have just finished a large picture, eight feet by six feet six inches, the subject, the 'death of hercules,' which is now in the royal academy exhibition at somerset house. i have been flattered by the newspapers which seldom praise young artists, and they do me the honor to say that my picture, with that of another young man by the name of monroe, form a distinguishing trait in this year's exhibition.... "this praise i consider much exaggerated. mr. west, however, who saw it as soon as i had finished it, paid me many compliments, and told me that, were i to live to his age, i should never make a better composition. this i consider but a compliment and as meant only to encourage me, and as such i receive it. "i mention these circumstances merely to show that i am getting along as well as can be expected, and, if any credit attaches to me, i willingly resign it to my country, and feel happy that i can contribute a mite to her honor. "the american character stands high in this country as to the production of artists, but in nothing else (except, indeed, i may now say _bravery_). mr. west now stands at the head, and has stood ever since the arts began to flourish in this country, which is only about fifty years. mr. copley next, then colonel trumbull. stuart in america has no rival here. as these are now old men and going off the stage, mr. allston succeeds in the prime of life, and will, in the opinion of the greatest connoisseurs in this country, carry the art to greater perfection than it ever has been carried either in ancient or modern times.... after him is a young man from philadelphia by the name of leslie, who is my room-mate." how fallible is contemporary judgment on the claims of so-called genius to immortality. "for many are called, but few are chosen." in another letter to his parents written about this time, after telling of his economies in order to make the money, advanced so cheerfully but at the cost of so much self-sacrifice on their part, last as long as possible, he adds: "my greatest expense, next to _living_, is for canvas, frames, colors, etc., and visiting galleries. the frame of my large picture, which i have just finished, cost nearly twenty pounds, besides the canvas and colors, which cost nearly eight pounds more, and the frame was the cheapest i could possibly get. mr. allston's frame cost him sixty guineas. "frames are very expensive things, and, on that account, i shall not attempt another large picture for some time, although mr. west advises me to paint _large_ as much as possible. "the picture which i have finished is 'the death of hercules'; the size is eight feet by six feet six inches. this picture i showed to mr. west a few weeks ago, and he was extremely pleased with it and paid me very many high compliments; but as praise comes better from another than from one's self, i shall send you a complimentary note which mr. west has promised to send me on the occasion. "i sent the picture to the exhibition at somerset house which opens on the d of may, and have the satisfaction not only of having it received, but of having the praises of the council who decide on the admission of pictures. six hundred were refused admission this year, so you may suppose that a picture (of the size of mine, too) must possess some merit to be received in preference to six hundred. a small picture may be received even if it is not very good, because it will serve to fill up some little space which would otherwise be empty, but a large one, from its excluding many smaller ones, must possess a great deal in its favor in order to be received. "if you recollect i told you i had completed a model of a single figure of the same subject. this i sent to the society of arts at the adelphi, to stand for the prize (which is offered every year for the best performance in painting, sculpture, and architecture and is a _gold medal_). "yesterday i received the note accompanying this, by which you will see that it is adjudged to me in sculpture this year. it will be delivered to me in public on the th of may or june, i don't know which, but i shall give you a particular account of the whole process as soon as i have received it.... i cannot close this letter without telling you how much i am indebted to that excellent man mr. allston. he is extremely partial to me and has often told me that he is proud of calling me his pupil. he visits me every evening and our conversation is generally upon the inexhaustible subject of our divine art, and upon _home_ which is next in our thoughts. "i know not in what terms to speak of mr. allston. i can truly say i do not know the slightest imperfection in him. he is amiable, affectionate, learned, possessed of the greatest powers of mind and genius, modest, unassuming, and, above all, a religious man.... i could write a quire of paper in his praise, but all i could say of him would give you but a very imperfect idea of him.... "you must recollect, when you tell friends that i am studying in england, that i am a pupil of allston and not mr. west. they will not long ask who mr. allston is; he will very soon astonish the world. he claims me as his pupil, and told me a day or two since, in a jocose manner, that he should have a battle with mr. west unless he gave up all pretension to me." we gain further information concerning morse's first triumphs, his painting and his statuette from the following reminiscences of a friend, mr. dunlap:-- "it was about the year that allston commenced his celebrated picture of the 'dead man restored to life by touching the bones of elisha,' which is now in the pennsylvania academy of arts. in the study of this picture he made a model in clay of the head of the dead man to assist him in painting the expression. this was the practice of the most eminent old masters. morse had begun a large picture to come out before the british public at the royal academy exhibition. the subject was the 'dying hercules,' and, in order to paint it with the more effect, he followed the example of allston and determined to model the figure in clay. it was his first attempt at modelling. "his original intention was simply to complete such parts of the figure as were useful in the single view necessary for the purpose of painting; but, having done this, he was encouraged, by the approbation of allston and other artists, to finish the entire figure. "after completing it, he had it cast in plaster of paris and carried it to show to west, who seemed more than pleased with it. after surveying it all round critically, with many exclamations of surprise, he sent his servant to call his son raphael. as soon as raphael made his appearance west pointed to the figure and said: 'look there, sir; i have always told you any painter can make a sculptor.' "from this model morse painted his picture of the 'dying hercules,' of colossal size, and sent it, in may, , to the royal academy exhibition at somerset house." the picture was well received. a critic of one of the journals of that day in speaking of the royal academy thus notices morse:-- "of the academicians two or three have distinguished themselves in a preëminent degree; besides, few have added much to their fame, perhaps they have hardly sustained it. but the great feature in this exhibition is that it presents several works of very high merit by artists with whose performances, and even with whose names, we were hitherto unacquainted. at the head of this class are messrs. monroe and morse. the prize of history may be contended for by mr. northcote and mr. stothard. we should award it to the former. after these gentlemen messrs. hilton, turner, lane, monroe, and morse follow in the same class." (london "globe," may , .) [illustration: the dying hercules painted by morse in ] in commemorating the "preëminent works of this exhibition," out of nearly two thousand pictures, this critic places the "dying hercules" among the first twelve. on june , , morse thus writes to his parents:-- "i send by this opportunity (mr. elisha goddard) the little cast of the hercules which obtained the prize this year at the adelphi, and also the gold medal, which was the premium presented to me, before a large assembly of the nobility and gentry of the country, by the duke of norfolk, who also paid me a handsome compliment at the same time. "there were present lord percy, the margravine of anspach, the turkish, sardinian, and russian ambassadors, who were pointed out to me, and many noblemen whom i do not now recollect. "my great picture also has not only been received at the royal academy, but has one of the finest places in the rooms. it has been spoken of in the papers, which you must know is considered a great compliment; for a young artist, unless extraordinary, is seldom or never mentioned till he has exhibited several times. they not only praise me, but place my picture among the most attractive in the exhibition. this i know will give you pleasure." chapter vi july , --april , letter from the father on economies and political views.--morse deprecates lack of spirit in new england and rejoices at wellington's victories.--allston's poems.--morse coat-of-arms.--letter of joseph hillhouse.--letter of exhortation from his mother.--morse wishes to stay longer in europe.--amused at mother's political views.--the father sends more money for a longer stay.--sidney exalts poetry above painting.--his mother warns him against infidels and actors.--bristol.--optimism.-- letter on infidels and his own religious observances.--future of american art.--he is in good health, but thin.--letter from mr. visger.--benjamin burritt, american prisoner.--efforts in his behalf unsuccessful.--capture of paris by the allies.--again expresses gratitude to parents.--writes a play for charles mathews.--not produced. the detailed accounts of his economies which the young man sent home to his parents seem to have deeply touched them, for on july , , his father writes to him: "your economy, industry, and success in pursuing your professional studies give your affectionate parents the highest gratification and reward. we wish you to avoid carrying your economy to an _extreme_. let your appearance be suited to the respectable company you keep, and your living such as will conduce most effectually to preserve health of body and vigor of mind. we shall all be willing to make sacrifices at home so far as may be necessary to the above purposes." farther on in this same letter the father says: "the character you give of mr. allston is, indeed, an exalted one, and we believe it correctly drawn. your ardor has given it a high coloring, but the excess is that of an affectionate and grateful heart." referring to his son's political views, he answers in these broad-minded words:-- "i approve your love of your country and concern for its honor. your errors, as we think them, appear to be the errors of a fair and honest mind, and are of a kind to be effectually cured by correct information of facts on both sides. "probably we may err because we are ignorant of many things which have fallen under your notice. we shall no doubt agree when we shall have opportunity to compare notes, and each is made acquainted with all that the other knows. i confidently expect an honorable peace in the course of six months, but may be deceived, as the future course of things cannot be foreseen. "the present is one of the finest and most promising seasons i ever knew; the harvest to appearance will be very abundant. heaven appears to be rewarding this part of the country for their conduct in opposing the present war." perhaps the good father did not mean to be malicious, but this is rather a wicked little thrust at the son's vehemently expressed political views. on this very same date, july , , morse writes to his parents:-- "i have just heard of the unfortunate capture of the chesapeake. is our infant hercules to be strangled at his birth? where is the spirit of former times which kindled in the hearts of the bostonians? will they still be unmoved, or must they learn from more bitter experience that britain is not for peace, and that the only way to procure it is to join heart and hand in a vigorous prosecution of the war? "it is not the time now to think of party; the country is in danger; but i hope to hear soon that the honor of our navy is retrieved. the brave captain lawrence will never, i am sure, be forgotten; his career of glory has been short but brilliant. "all is rejoicing here; illuminations and fireworks and _feux de joie_ for the capture of the chesapeake and a victory in spain. "imagine yourself, if possible, in my situation in an enemy's country and hearing songs of triumph and exultation on the misfortunes of my countrymen, and this, too, on the th of july. a less ardent spirit than mine might perhaps tolerate it, but i cannot. i do long to be at home, to be in the navy, and teach these insolent englishmen how to respect us.... "the marquis wellington has achieved a great victory in spain, and bids fair to drive the french out very soon. at this i rejoice as ought every man who abhors tyranny and loves liberty. i wish the british success against everything but _my country_. i often say with cowper: 'england, with all thy faults, i love thee still.' "i am longing for edwards' comparison between poetry and painting, and to know how he will prove the former superior to the latter. a painter _must_ be a poet, but a poet need not be a painter. how will he get over this argument? "by the way, mr. allston has just published a volume of poems, a copy of which i will endeavor to send you. they are but just published, so that the opinion of the public is not yet ascertained, but there is no doubt they will forever put at rest the calumny that america has never produced a poet. "i have lately been enquiring for the coat-of-arms which belongs to the morse family. for this purpose i wish to know from what part of this kingdom the morses emigrated, and if you can recollect anything that belongs to the arms. if you will answer these questions minutely, i can, for half a crown, ascertain the arms and crest which belong to the family, which (as there is a degree of importance attached to heraldry in this country) may be well to know. i have seen the arms of one morse which have been in the family three hundred years. so we can trace our antiquity as far as any family." a letter from a college-mate, mr. joseph hillhouse, written in boston on july , , gives a pretty picture of morse's home, and contains some quaint gossip which i shall transcribe:-- "on saturday afternoon the beauty of the weather invited my cousin catherine borland, my sister mary (who is here on a visit), and myself to take a walk over to charlestown for the purpose of paying a visit to your good parents. we found them just preparing tea, and at once concluded to join the family party. "present to the eye of your fancy the closing-in of a fine, blue-skied, sunny american saturday evening, whose tranquillity and repose rendered it the fit precursor of the sabbath. imagine the tea-table placed in your sitting-parlor, all the windows open, and round it, first, the housekeeper pouring out tea; next her, miss c. borland; next her, your mother, whose looks spoke love as often as you were mentioned, and that was not infrequently, i assure you. on your mother's right sat my sister, next whom was your father in his long green-striped study gown, his apostolic smile responding to the eye of your mother when his dear son was his theme. i was placed (and an honorable post i considered it) at his right hand. "there the scene for you. can you paint it? neither of your brothers was at home.... "in home news we have little variety. the sister of your quondam flame, miss ann hart, bestowed her hand last winter on victory as personified in our little fat captain, isaac hull, who is now reposing in the shade of his laurels, and amusing himself in directing the construction of a seventy-four at portsmouth. where the fair excellence, miss jannette herself, is at present, i am unable to say. the sunshine of her eyes has not beamed upon me since i beheld you delightedly and gallantly figuring at her side at daddy value's ball, where i exhibited sundry feats of the same sort myself. "by the way, mons. v. is still in fiddling condition, and the immaculate ann jane caroline gibbs, madame, has bestowed a subject on the state!! "a fortnight since your friend nancy goodrich was married to william ellsworth. emily webster is soon to plight her faith to his brother henry. miss mary ann woolsey thinks of consummating the blessedness of a mr. scarborough before the expiration of the summer. he is a widower of thirty or thirty-five with one child, a little girl four or five years old. "thus, you see, my dear friend, all here seem to be setting their faces heavenward; all seem ambitious of repairing the ravages of war.... "p.s. oh! horrid mistake i made on the preceding page! nancy and emily, on my knees i deprecate your wrath!! i have substituted william for henry and henry for william. no, henry is nancy's and william emily's. they are twins, and i, forsooth, must make them changelings!" in a letter of july , , his mother thus exhorts him:-- "i hope, my dear son, your success in your profession will not have a tendency to make you vain, or embolden you to look down on any in your profession whom providence may have been less favorable to in point of talents for this particular business; and that you will observe a modesty in the reception of premiums and praises on account of your talents, that shall show to those who bestow them that you are worthy of them in more senses than merely as an artist. it will likewise convince those who are less favored that you are far from exulting in their disappointments,--as i hope is truly the case,--and prevent that jealousy and envy that too often discovers itself in those of the same profession.... "we exceedingly rejoice in all your success, and hope you will persevere. remember, my son, it is easier to get a reputation than to keep it unspotted in the midst of so much pollution as we are surrounded by.... "c. dexter thanks you for your attention to her request as it respects southey's likeness. she does not wish you to take too much pains and trouble to get it, but she, i know, would be greatly pleased if you should send her one of him. if you should get acquainted with him, inform him that a very sensible, fine young lady in america requested it (but don't tell him her name) from having read his works." in a long letter of august and , , after again giving free rein to his political feelings, he returns to the subject of his art:-- "mr. west promised me a note to you, but he is an old man and very forgetful, and i suppose he has forgotten it. i don't wish to remind him of it directly, but, if in the course of conversation i can contrive to mention it, i will.... "with respect to returning home next summer, mr. allston and mr. west think it would be an injury to me. mr. allston says i ought not to return till i am a _painter_. i long to return as much as you can wish to have me, but, if you can spare me a little longer, i should wish it. i abide your decision, however, completely. mr. allston will write you fully on this subject, and i will endeavor to persuade mr. west also to do it. "france i could not, at present, visit with advantage; that is to say for, perhaps, a year. mr. allston thinks i ought to be previously well grounded in the principles of the english school to resist the corruptions of the french school; for they are corrupt in the principles of painting, as in religion and everything else; but, when well grounded in the good principles of this school, i could study and select the few beauties of the french without being in danger of following their many errors. the louvre also would, in about a year, be of the greatest advantage to me, and also the fine works in italy.... "mama has amused me very much in her letter where she writes on politics. she says that, next to changing one's religion, she would dislike a man for changing his politics. mama, perhaps, is not aware that she would in this way shut the door completely to conviction in anything. it would imply that, because a man is educated in error, he must forever live in error. i know exactly how mama feels; she thinks, as i did when at home, that it was impossible for the federalists to be in the wrong; but, as all men are fallible, i think they may stand a chance of being wrong as well as any other class of people.... "mama thinks my '_error_' arises from wrong information. i will ask mama which of us is likely to get at the truth; i, who am in england and can see and hear all their motives for acting as they have done; or mama, who gets her information from the federal papers, second-hand, with numerous additions and improvements made to answer party purposes, distorted and misrepresented? "but to give you an instance. in the massachusetts remonstrance they attribute the repeal of the orders in council to the kind disposition of the english government, and a wish on their part to do justice, whereas it is notorious in this country that they repealed them on account of the injury it was doing themselves, and took america into consideration about as much as they did the inhabitants of kamschatka. the conditional repeal of the berlin and milan decrees was a back door for them, and they availed themselves of it to sneak out of it. this necessity, this act of dire necessity, the federal papers cry up as evincing a most forbearing spirit towards us, and really astonish the english themselves who never dreamt that it could be twisted in that way. "mama assigns as a reason for my thinking well of the english that they have been very polite to me, and that it is ingratitude in me if i do otherwise. a few individuals have treated me politely, and i do feel thankful and gratified for it; but a little politeness from an individual of one nation to an individual of another is certainly not a reason that the former's government should be esteemed incapable of wrong by the latter. i esteem the english as a nation; i rejoice in their conquests on the continent, and would love them heartily, if they would let me; but i am afraid to tell them this, they are already too proud. "their treatment of america is the worse for it. they are like a poor man who has got a lottery ticket and draws a great prize, and when his poor neighbor comes sincerely to congratulate him on his success, he holds up his head, and, turning up his nose, tells him that now he is his superior and then kicks him out of doors. "papa says he expects peace in six months. it may be in the disposition of america to make peace, but not in the will of the english. it is in the power of the federalists to force her to peace, but they will not do it, so she will force us to do it." as in most discussions, political or otherwise, neither party seems to have been convinced by the arguments of the other, for the parents continue to urge him to leave politics alone; indeed, they insist on his doing so. they also urge him to make every effort to support himself, if he should decide to spend another year abroad, for they fear that they will be unable to send him any more money. however, the father, when he became convinced that it was really to his son's interest to spend another year abroad, contrived to send him another thousand dollars. this was done at the cost of great self-sacrifice on the part of himself and his family, and was all the more praiseworthy on that account. in a letter from his brother edwards, written also on the th of november, is this passage: "i must defer giving my reasons for thinking poetry superior to painting; i will mention only a few of the principles upon which i found my judgment. genius in both these arts is the power of making impressions. the question then is: which is capable of making the strongest impression; which can impress upon the mind most strongly a sublime or a beautiful idea? does the sublimest passage in milton excite a stronger sensation in the mind of a man of taste than the sublimest painting of michael angelo? or, to make the parallel more complete, does michael angelo convey to you a stronger impression of the last judgment, by his painting, than milton could by his poetry? could michael angelo convey a more sublime idea of death by his painting than milton has in his 'paradise lost'? these are the principles upon which your 'divine art' is to be degraded below poetry." this was rather acute reasoning for a boy of twenty who had spent his life in the boston and new haven of those early days. the fact that he had never seen a great painting, whereas he had greedily read the poets, will probably account for his strong partisanship. the pious mother writes on november , :-- "with regard to the americans being despised and hated in england, you were apprised by your uncle salisbury and others before you left this country that that was the case, and you ought not to be surprised when you realized it. the reason given was that a large portion of those who visit europe are _dissipated infidels_, which has justly given the english a bad opinion of us as a nation. but we are happy to find that there are many exceptions to these, who do honor to the country which gave them birth, such as a west, an allston, and many others, among whom, i am happy to say, we hope that you, my son, will be enrolled at no very distant day.... "you mention being acquainted with young payne, the play actor. i would guard you against any acquaintance with that description of people, as it will, sooner or later, have a most corrupting effect on the morals, and, as a man is known by the company he keeps, i should be very sorry to have you enrolled with such society, however pure you may believe his morals to be. "your father and myself were eleven days in company with him in coming from charleston, south carolina. his behavior was quite unexceptionable then, but he is in a situation to ruin the best morals. i hope you do not attend the theatre, as i have ever considered it a most bewitching amusement, and ruinous both to soul and body. i would therefore guard you against it." his brother richard joined the rest of the family in urging the young and impulsive artist to leave politics alone, as we learn from the following words which begin a letter of november , :-- my dear brother,--your letters by the neptune, and also the medal, gave us great pleasure. the politics, however, were very disagreeable and occupied no inconsiderable part of your letters. your kind wishes for _our_ reformation we must beg leave to retort by hoping for _your_ speedy amendment. there are gaps in the correspondence of this period. many of the letters from both sides of the atlantic seem never to have reached their destination, owing to the disturbed state of affairs arising from the war between the two countries. the young artist had gone in october, , to bristol, at the earnest solicitation of friends in that city, and seems to have spent a pleasant and profitable five months there, painting a number of portraits. he refers to letters written from bristol, but they were either never received or not preserved. of other letters i have only fragments, and some that are quoted by mr. prime in his biography have vanished utterly. still, from what remains, we can glean a fairly good idea of the life of the young man at that period. his parents continually begged him to leave politics alone and to tell them more of his artistic life, of his visits to interesting places, and of his intercourse with the literary and artistic celebrities of the day. we, too, must regret that he did not write more fully on these subjects, for there must have been a mine of interesting material at his disposal. we also learn that there seems to have been a strange fatality attached to the little statuette of the "dying hercules," for, although he packed it carefully and sent it to liverpool on june , , to be forwarded to his parents, it never reached them until over two years later. the superstitious will say that the date of sending may have had something to do with this. up to this time everything, except the attitude of england towards america, had been _couleur de rose_ to the enthusiastic young artist. he was making rapid progress in his studies and was receiving the encomiums of his fellow artists and of the critics. his parents were denying themselves in order to provide the means for his support, and, while he was duly appreciative of their goodness, he could not help taking it more or less as a matter of course. he was optimistic with regard to the future, falling into the common error of gifted young artists that, because of their artistic success, financial success must of necessity follow. he had yet to be proved in the school of adversity, and he had not long to wait. but i shall let the letters tell the story better than i can. the last letter from him to his parents from which i have quoted was written on august and , . on march , , he writes from london after his return from bristol:-- "there is a great drawback to my writing long letters to you; i mean the uncertainty of their reaching you. "mama's long letter gave me particular pleasure. some of her observations, however, made me smile, especially the reasons she assigns for the contempt and hatred of england for america. first, i am inclined to doubt the fact of there being so many _infidel_ americans in the country; second, if there were, there are not so many _religious_ people here who would take the pains to enquire whether they had religion or not; and third, it is not by seeing the individual americans that an opinion unfavorable to us is prevalent in england.... "with respect to my religious sentiments, they are unshaken; their influence, i hope, will always guide me through life. i hear various preachings on sundays, sometimes mr. burder, but most commonly the church of england clergy, as a church is in my neighborhood and mr. b.'s three miles distant. i most commonly heard dr. biddulph, of st. james's church, a most excellent, orthodox, evangelical man. i was on the point many times of going to hear mr. lowell, who is one of the dissenting clergymen of bristol, but, as the weather proved very unfavorable, uncommonly so every sunday i was there, and i was at a great distance from his church, i was disappointed. i shall endeavor to hear him preach when i go back to bristol again." this was in reply to many long exhortations in his parents' letters, and especially in his mother's, couched in the extravagant language of the very pious of those days, to seek first the welfare of his "never-dying soul." "i have returned from bristol to attend the exhibitions and to endeavor to get a picture into somerset house. my stay in bristol was very pleasant, indeed, as well as profitable. i was there five months and, in may, shall probably go again and stay all summer. i was getting into good business in the portrait way there, and, if i return, shall be enabled, probably, to support myself as long as i stay in england. "the attention shown me by mr. harman visger and family, whom i have mentioned in a former letter, i shall never forget. he is a rich merchant, an american (cousin to captain visscher, my fellow passenger, by whom i was introduced to him). he has a family of seven children. i lived within a few doors of him, and was in and out of his house ever day...." four pages of this letter are, unfortunately, missing. it begins again abruptly:-- "... prevented by illness from writing you before. "i shall endeavor to support myself, if not, necessity will compel me to return home an unfinished painter; it depends altogether on circumstances. i may get a good run of portraits or i may not; it depends so much on the whim of the public; if they should happen to fancy my pictures, i shall succeed; if not, why, i shall not succeed. i am, however, encouraged to hope.... "if i am prohibited from writing or thinking of politics, i hope my brothers will not be so ungenerous as to give me any.... "mr. allston's large picture is now exhibiting in the british gallery. it has excited a great deal of curiosity and he has obtained a wonderful share of praise for it.... the picture is very deservedly ranked among the highest productions of art, either in ancient or modern times. it is really a pleasant consideration that the palm of painting still rests with america, and is, in all probability, destined to remain with us. all we wish is a taste in the country and a little more wealth.... in order to create a taste, however, pictures, first-rate pictures, must be introduced into the country, for taste is only acquired by a close study of the merits of the old masters. in philadelphia i am happy to find they have successfully begun. i wish americans would unite in the thing, throw aside local prejudices and give their support to _one_ institution. let it be in philadelphia, since it is so happily begun there, and let every american feel a pride in supporting that institution; let it be a national not a city institution. then might the arts be so encouraged that americans might remain at home and not, as at present, be under the painful necessity of exiling themselves from their country and their friends. "this will come to pass in the course of time, but not in my day, i fear, unless there is more exertion made to forward the arts than at present...." in this he proved a true prophet, and, as we shall see later, his exertions were a potent factor in establishing the fine arts on a firm basis in new york. "i am in very good health and i hope i feel grateful for it. i have not been ill for two days together since i have been in england. i am, however, of the _walking-stick_ order, and think i am thinner than i was at home. they all tell me so. i'm not so good-looking either, i am told; i have lost my color, grown more sallow, and have a face approaching to the hatchet class; but none of these things concern me; if i can paint good-looking, plump ladies and gentlemen, i shall feel satisfied.... "we have had a dreadfully severe winter here in england, such as has not been known for twenty-two years. when i came from bristol the snow was up on each side of the road as high as the top of the coach in many places, especially on marlborough down and hounslow heath." his friend mr. visger thus writes to him from bristol on april , :-- "it gave me pleasure to learn that mr. leslie sold his picture of saul, etc., at so good a price. i hope it will stimulate a friend of his to use his best exertions and time to endeavor even to excel the 'witch of endor.' i think i perceive a few symptoms of amendment in him, and the request of his father that he must support himself is, in the opinion of his friends here, the best thing that could have befallen him. he will now have the pleasure to taste the sweets of his own labor, and i hope will, in reality, know what true independence is. let him not despair and he will certainly succeed. "excuse my having taken up so much of your time in reading what i have written about mr. leslie's friend; i hope it will not make the pencil work less smoothly. "it gave us all great pleasure to hear that mr. allston's 'dead and alive man' got the prize. it would be a great addition to our pleasure to hear that those encouragers of the fine arts have offered him fifteen hundred or two thousand guineas for it.... "there is an old lady waiting your return to have her portrait painted. bangley says one or two more are enquiring for mr. morse. "you seem to have forgotten your friend in stapleton prison. did you not succeed in obtaining his release?" this refers to a certain mr. benjamin burritt, an american prisoner of war. morse used every effort, through his friend henry thornton, to secure the release of mr. burritt. on december , , he wrote to mr. thornton from bristol:-- respected sir,--i take the liberty of addressing you in behalf of an american prisoner of war now in the stapleton depot, and i address you, sir, under the conviction that a petition in the cause of humanity will not be considered by you as obtrusive. the prisoner i allude to is a gentleman of the name of burritt, a native of new haven, in the state of connecticut; his connections are of the highest respectability in that city, which is notorious for its adherence to federal principles. his friends and relatives are among my father's friends, and, although i was not, until now, personally acquainted with him, yet his face is familiar to me, and many of his relatives were my particular friends while i was receiving my education at yale college in new haven. from that college he was graduated in the year ----. a classmate of his was the reverend mr. stuart, who is one of the professors of the andover theological institution, and of whom, i think, my father has spoken in some of his letters to mr. wilberforce. mr. burritt, after he left college, applied himself to study, so much so as to injure his health, and, by the advice of his physicians, he took to the sea as the only remedy left for him. this had the desired effect, and he was restored to health in a considerable degree. upon the breaking out of the war with this country, all the american coasting trade being destroyed, he took a situation as second mate in the schooner revenge, bound to france, and was captured on the th of may, . since that time he has been a prisoner, and, from the enclosed certificates, you will ascertain what has been his conduct. he is a man of excellent religious principles, and, i firmly believe, of the strictest integrity. so well assured am i of this that, in case it should be required, _i will hold myself bound to answer for him in my own person_. his health is suffering by his confinement, and the unprincipled society, which he is obliged to endure, is peculiarly disagreeable to a man of his education. my object in stating these particulars to you, sir, is (if possible and consistent with the laws of the country), to obtain for him, through your influence, his liberty on his parole of honor. by so doing you will probably be the means of preserving the life of a good man, and will lay his friends, my father, and myself under the greatest obligations. trusting to your goodness to pardon this intrusion upon your time, i am, sir, with the highest consideration, your most humble, obedient servant, samuel f.b. morse. to this mr. thornton replied:-- dear sir,--you will perceive by the enclosed that there is, unhappily, no prospect of our effecting our wishes in respect to your poor friend at bristol. i shall be glad to know whether you have had any success in obtaining a passport for dr. cushing. i am, dear sir, yours, etc. h. thornton. the enclosure referred to by mr. thornton was the following letter addressed to him by lord melville:-- sir,--mr. hay having communicated to me a letter which he received from you on the subject of benjamin burritt, an american prisoner of war in the depot at stapleton, i regret much that, after consulting on this case with sir rupert george, and ascertaining the usual course of procedure in similar instances, i cannot discover any circumstances that would justify a departure from the rules observed toward other prisoners of the same description. there can be no question that his case is a hard one, but i am afraid that it is inseparable from a state of war. it is not only not a solitary instance among the french and american prisoners, but, unless we were prepared to adopt the system of releasing all others of the same description, we should find that the number who might justly complain of undue partiality to this man would be very considerable. i have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient and very humble servant, melville. this was a great disappointment to morse, who had set his heart on being the means of securing the liberty of this unfortunate man. he was compelled to bow to the inevitable, however, and after this he did what he could to make the unhappy situation of the prisoner more bearable by extending to him financial assistance, although he had but little to spare at that time himself, and could but ill afford the luxury of giving. great events were occurring on the continent at this time, and it is interesting to note how the intelligence of them was received in england by an enthusiastic student, not only of the fine arts, but of the humanities, who felt that, in this case, his sympathies and those of his family were in accord:-- april , . my dear parents,--i write in much haste, but it is to inform you of a most glorious event, no less than the capture of paris, by the allies. they entered it last thursday, and you may conceive the sensations of the people of england on the occasion. as the cartel is the first vessel which will arrive in america to carry the news, i hope i shall have the great satisfaction of hearing that i am the first who shall inform you of this great event; the particulars you will see nearly as soon as this. i congratulate you and the rest of the good people of the world on the occasion. _despotism_ and _usurpation_ are fallen, never, i hope, to rise again. but what gives me the greatest pleasure in the contemplation of this occurrence is the spirit of religion and, consequently, of humanity which has constantly marked the conduct of the allies. their moderation through all their unparallelled successes cannot be too much extolled; they merit the grateful remembrance of posterity, who will bless them as the restorers of a blessing but little enjoyed by the greater part of mankind for centuries. i mean the inestimable blessing of _peace_. but i must cut short my feelings on the subject; were i to give them scope they would fill quires; they are as ardent as yours possibly can be. suffice it to say that i see the hand of providence so strongly in it that i think an infidel must be converted by it, and i hope i feel as a christian should on such an occasion. i am well, in excellent spirits and shall use my utmost endeavors to support myself, for now more than ever is it necessary for me to stay in europe. peace is inevitable, and the easy access to the continent and the fine works of art there render it doubly important that i should improve them to my utmost. i cannot ask more of my parents than they have done for me, but the struggle will be hard for me to get along and improve myself at the same time. portraits are the only things which can support me at present, but it is insipid, indeed, for one who wishes to be at the head of the first branch of the art, to be stopped halfway, and be obliged to struggle with the difficulty of maintaining himself, in addition to the other difficulties attendant on the profession. but it is impossible to place this in a clear light in a letter. i wish i could talk with you on the subject, and i could in a short time make it clear to you. i cannot ask it of you and i do not till i try what i can do. you have already done more than i deserved and it would be ingratitude in me to request more of you, and i do not; only i say these things that you may not expect so much from me in the way of improvement as you may have been led to suppose. morse seems to have made an excursion into dramatic literature at about this time, as the following draft of a letter, without date, but evidently written to the celebrated actor charles mathews, will testify:-- not having the honor of a personal acquaintance with you, i have taken the liberty of enclosing to you a farce which, if, on perusal, you should think worthy of the stage, i beg you to accept, to be performed, if consistent with your plans, on the night appointed for your benefit. if i should be so much favored as to obtain your good opinion of it, the approbation alone of mr. mathews will be a sufficient reward for the task of writing it. the pleasure which i have so often received from you in the exercise of your comic powers would alone prompt me to make some return which might show you, at least, that i can be grateful to those who have at any time afforded me pleasure. with respect to your accepting or not accepting it, i wish you to act your pleasure entirely. if you think it will be of benefit to you by drawing a full house, or in any other way, it is perfectly at your service. if you think it will not succeed, will you have the goodness to enclose it under cover and direct to mr. t.g.s., artist, great titchfield street; and i assure you beforehand that you need be under no apprehension of giving me mortification by refusing it. it would only convince me that i had not dramatic talents, and would serve, perhaps, to increase my ardor in the pursuit of my professional studies. if, however, it should meet with your approbation and you should wish to see me on the subject, a line directed as above enclosing your address shall receive immediate attention. i am as yet undecided what shall be its name. the character of oxyd i had designed for you. the farce is a first attempt and has received the approbation, not only of my theatrical friends generally, but of some confessed critics by whom it has been commended. with sentiments of respect and esteem i remain, your most obedient humble servant, t.g.s. as no further mention of this play is made i fear that the great charles mathews did not find it available. there is also no trace of the play itself among the papers, which is rather to be regretted. we can only surmise that morse came to the conclusion (very wisely) that he had no "dramatic talents," and that he turned to the pursuit of his professional studies with increased ardor. chapter vii may , --october , allston writes encouragingly to the parents.--morse unwilling to be mere portrait-painter.--ambitious to stand at the head of his profession.-- desires patronage from wealthy friends.--delay in the mails.--account of _entrée_ of louis xviii into london.--the prince regent.--indignation at acts of english.--his parents relieved at hearing from him after seven months' silence.--no hope of patronage from america.--his brothers.-- account of fêtes.--emperor alexander, king of prussia, blücher, platoff. --wishes to go to paris.--letter from m. van schaick about battle of lake erie.--disgusted with england. morse had now spent nearly three years in england. he was maturing rapidly in every way, and what his master thought of him is shown in this extract from a letter of washington allston to the anxious parent at home:-- "with regard to the progress which your son has made, i have the pleasure to say that it is unusually great for the time he has been studying, and indeed such as to make me proud of him as a pupil and to give every promise of future eminence.... "should he be obliged to return _now_ to america, i much fear that all which he has acquired would be rendered abortive. it is true he could there paint very good portraits, but i should grieve to hear at any future period that, on the foundation now laid, he shall have been able to raise no higher superstructure than the fame of a portrait-painter. i do not intend here any disrespect to portrait-painting; i know it requires no common talent to excel in it.... "in addition to this _professional report_ i have the sincere satisfaction to give my testimony to his conduct as a man, which is such as to render him still worthy of being affectionately remembered by his moral and religious friends in america. this is saying a great deal for a young man of two-and-twenty in london, but is not more than justice requires me to say of him." on may , , morse writes home:-- "you ask if you are to expect me the next summer. this leads me to a little enlargement on the peculiar circumstances in which i am now placed. mr. allston's letter by the same cartel will convince you that industry and application have not been wanting on my part, that i have made greater progress than young men generally, etc., etc., and of how great importance it is to me to remain in europe for some time yet to come. indeed i feel it so much so myself that i shall endeavor to stay at all risks. if i find that i cannot support myself, that i am contracting debts which i have no prospect of paying, i shall then return home and settle down into a mere portrait-painter for some time, till i can obtain sufficient to return to europe again; for i cannot be happy unless i am pursuing the intellectual branch of the art. portraits have none of it; landscape has some of it, but history has it wholly. i am certain you would not be satisfied to see me sit down quietly, spending my time in painting portraits, throwing away the talents which heaven has given me for the higher branches of art, and devoting my time only to the inferior. "i need not tell you what a difficult profession i have undertaken. it has difficulties in itself which are sufficient to deter any man who has not firmness enough to go through with it at all hazards, without meeting with any obstacles aside from it. the more i study it, the more i am enchanted with it; and the greater my progress, the more am i struck with its beauties, and the perseverance of those who have dared to pursue it through the thousands of natural hindrances with which the art abounds. "i never can feel too grateful to my parents for having assisted me thus far in my profession. they have done more than i had any right to expect; they have conducted themselves with a liberality towards me, both in respect to money and to countenancing me in the pursuit of one of the noblest of professions, which has not many equals in this country. i cannot ask of them more; it would be ingratitude. "i am now in the midst of my studies when the great works of ancient art are of the utmost service to me. political events have just thrown open the whole continent; the whole world will now leave war and bend their attention to the cultivation of the arts of peace. a golden age is in prospect, and art is probably destined to again revive as in the fifteenth century. "the americans at present stand unrivalled, and it is my great ambition (and it is certainly a commendable one) to stand among the first. my country has the most prominent place in my thoughts. how shall i raise her name, how can i be of service in refuting the calumny, so industriously spread against her, that she has produced no men of genius? it is this more than anything (aside from painting) that inspires me with a desire to excel in my art. it arouses my indignation and gives me tenfold energy in the pursuit of my studies. i should like to be the greatest painter _purely out of revenge_. "but what a damper is thrown upon my enthusiasm when i find that, the moment when all the treasures of art are before me, just within my reach; that advantages to the artist were never greater than now; paris with all its splendid depository of the greatest works but a day or two's journey from me, and open to my free inspection,--what a damper, i say, is it to find that my three years' allowance is just expired; that while all my contemporary students and companions are revelling in these enjoyments, and rapidly advancing in their noble studies, they are leaving me behind, either to return to my country, or, by painting portraits in bristol, just to be able to live through the year. the thought makes me melancholy, and, for the first time since i left home, have i had one of my desponding fits. i have got over it now, for i would not write to you in that mood for the world. my object in stating this is to request patronage from some rich individual or individuals for a year or two longer at the rate of £ per year. this to be advanced to me, and, if required, to be returned in money as soon as i shall be able, or by pictures to the amount when i have completed my studies.... if uncle salisbury or miss russell could do it, it would be much more grateful to me than from any others.... "the box containing my plaster cast i found, on enquiry, is still at liverpool where it has been, to my great disappointment, now nearly a year. i have given orders to have it sent by the first opportunity. mr. wilder will tell you that he came near taking out my great picture of the hercules to you. it seems as though it is destined that nothing of mine shall reach you. i packed it up at a moment's warning and sent it to liverpool to go by the cartel, and i found it arrived the day after she had sailed. i hope it will not be long before both the boxes will have an opportunity of reaching you. "i am exceedingly sorry you have forgotten a passage in one of my letters where i wished you not to feel anxious if you did not hear from me as often as you had done. i stated the reason, that opportunities were less frequent, more circuitous, and attended with greater interruptions. i told you that i should write at least once in three weeks, and that you must attribute it to anything but neglect on my part. "your last letter has hurt me considerably, for, owing to some accident or other, my letters have miscarried, and you upbraid me with neglect, and fear that i am not as industrious or correct as formerly. i know you don't wish to hurt me, but i cannot help feeling hurt when i think that my parents have not the confidence which i thought they had in me; that some interruptions, which all complain of and which are natural to a state of warfare, having prevented letters, which i have written, from being received; instead of making allowances for these things, to have them attribute it to a falling-off in industry and attention wounds me a great deal. mrs. allston, to her great surprise, received just such a letter from her friends, and it hurt her so that she was ill in consequence.... "i dine at mr. macaulay's at five o'clock to-day, and shall attend the house of commons to-morrow evening, where i expect to hear mr. wilberforce speak on the slave trade, with reference to the propriety of making the universal abolition of it an article in the pending negotiations. if i have time in this letter i will give you some account of it. in the mean time i will give you a slight account of some scenes of which i have been a happy witness in the great drama now acting in the theatre of europe. "you will probably, before this reaches you, hear of the splendid _entrée_ of louis xviii into london. i was a spectator of this scene. on the morning of the day, about ten o'clock, i went into piccadilly through which the procession was to pass. i did not find any great concourse of people at that hour except before the pultney hotel, where the sister of emperor alexander resides on a visit to this country, the grand duchess of oldenburg. i thought it probable that, as the procession would pass this place, there would be some uncommon occurrence taking place before it, so i took my situation directly opposite, determined, at any rate, to secure a good view of what happened. "i waited four or five hours, during which time the people began to collect from all quarters; the carriages began to thicken, the windows and fronts of the houses began to be decorated with the white flag, white ribbons, and laurel. temporary seats were fitted up on all sides, which began to be filled, and all seemed to be in preparation. about this time the king's splendid band of music made its appearance, consisting, i suppose, of more than fifty musicians, and, to my great gratification, placed themselves directly before the hotel. they began to play, and soon after the grand duchess, attended by several russian noblemen, made her appearance on the balcony, followed by the queen of england, the princess charlotte of wales, the princess mary, princess elizabeth, and all the female part of the royal family. from this fortunate circumstance you will see that i had an excellent opportunity of observing their persons and countenances. "the duchess of oldenburg is a common-sized woman of about four or five and twenty; she has rather a pleasant countenance, blue eyes, pale complexion, regular features, her cheek-bones high, but not disagreeably so. she resembles very much her brother the emperor, judging from his portrait. she had with her her little nephew, prince alexander, a boy of about three or four years old. he was a lively little fellow, playing about, and was the principal object of the attention of the royal family. "the queen, if i was truly directed to her, is an old woman of very sallow complexion, and nothing agreeable either in her countenance or deportment; and, if she was not called a queen, she might as well be any ugly old woman. the princess charlotte of wales i thought pretty; she has small features, regular, pale complexion, great amiability of expression and condescension of manners; the princess elizabeth is extremely corpulent, and, from what i could see of her face, was agreeable though nothing remarkable. "one of the others, i think it was the princess mary, appeared to have considerable vivacity in her manners; she was without any covering to her head, her hair was sandy, which she wore cropped; her complexion was probably fair originally, but was rather red now; her features were agreeable. "it now began to grow late, the people were beginning to be tired, wanting their dinners, and the crowd to thicken, when a universal commotion and murmur through the crowd and from the housetops indicated that the procession was at hand. this was followed by the thunder of artillery and the huzzas of the people toward the head of the street, where the houses seemed to be alive with the twirling of hats and shaking of handkerchiefs. this seemed to mark the progress of the king; for, as he came opposite each house, these actions became most violent, with cries of _'vivent les bourbons!' 'vive le roi!' 'vive louis!'_ etc. "i now grew several inches taller; i stretched my neck and opened my eyes. one carriage appeared, drawn by six horses, decorated with ribbons, and containing some of the french _noblesse;_ another, of the same description, with some of the french royal family. at length came a carriage drawn by eight beautiful arabian cream-colored horses. in this were seated louis xviii, king of france, the prince regent of england, the duchesse d'angoulême, daughter of louis xvi, and the prince of condé. they passed rather quickly, so that i had but a glance at them, though a distinct one. the prince regent i had often seen before; the king of france i had a better sight of afterwards, as i will presently relate. the duchesse d'angoulême had a fine expression of countenance, owing probably to the occasion, but a melancholy cast was also visible through it; she was pale. the prince of condé i have no recollection of. "after this part of the procession had passed, the crowd became exceedingly oppressive, rushing down the street to keep pace with the king's carriage. as the king passed the royal family he bowed, which they returned by kissing their hands to him and shaking their handkerchiefs with great enthusiasm. after they had gone by, the royal family left the balcony, where they had been between two and three hours. "my only object now was to get clear of the crowd. i waited nearly three quarters of an hour, and at length, by main strength, worked myself edgewise across the street, where i pushed down through stables and houses and by-lanes to get thoroughly clear, not caring where i went, as i knew i could easily find my way when i got into a street. this i at last gained, and, to my no small astonishment, found myself by mere chance directly opposite the hotel where louis and his suite were. "the prince regent had just left the place, and with his carriage went a great part of the mob, which left the space before the house comparatively clear. it soon filled again; i took advantage, however, and got directly before the windows of the hotel, as i expected the king would show himself, for the people were calling for him very clamorously. "i was not disappointed, for, in less than half a minute he came to the window, which was open, before which i was. i was so near him i could have touched him. he stayed nearly ten minutes, during which time i observed him carefully. he is very corpulent, a round face, dark eyes, prominent features; the character of countenance much like the portraits of the other louises; a pleasant face, but, above all, such an expression of the moment as, i shall never forget, and in vain attempt to describe. "his eyes were suffused with tears, his mouth slightly open with an unaffected smile full of gratitude, and seemed to say to every one, 'bless you.' his hands were a little extended sometimes as if in adoration to heaven, at others as if blessing the people. i entered into his feelings. i saw a monarch who, for five-and-twenty years, had been an exile from his country, deprived of his throne, and, until within a few months, not a shadow of a hope remaining of ever returning to it again. i saw him raised, as if by magic, from a private station in an instant to his throne, to reign over a nation which has made itself the most conspicuous of any nation on the globe. i tried to think as he did, and, in the heat of my enthusiasm, i joined with heart and soul in the cries of _'vive le roi!' 'vive louis!'_ which rent the air from the mouths of thousands. as soon as he left the window, i returned home much fatigued, but well satisfied that my labor had not been for naught.... "mr. wilberforce is an excellent man; his whole soul is bent on doing good to his fellow men. not a moment of his time is lost. he is always planning some benevolent scheme or other, and not only planning but executing; he is made up altogether of affectionate feeling. what i saw of him in private gave me the most exalted opinion of him as a christian. oh, that such men as mr. wilberforce were more common in this world. so much human blood would not then be shed to gratify the malice and revenge of a few wicked, interested men. "i hope cousin samuel breese will distinguish himself under so gallant a commander as captain perry. i shall look with anxiety for the sailing of the guerrière. there will be plenty of opportunity for him, for peace with us is deprecated by the people here, and it only remains for us to fight it out gallantly, as we are able to do, or submit slavishly to any terms which they please to offer us. a number of _humane_ schemes are under contemplation, such as burning new london for the sake of the frigates there; arming the blacks in the southern states; burning all of our principal cities, and such like plans, which, from the supineness of the new england people, may be easily carried into effect. but no, the _humane, generous_ english cannot do such base things--i hope not; let the event show it. it is perhaps well i am here, for, with my present opinions, if i were at home, i should most certainly be in the army or navy. my mite is small, but, when my country's honor demands it, it might help to sustain it. "there can now be no french party. i wish very much to know what effect this series of good news will have at home. i congratulate you as well as all other good people on the providential events which have lately happened; they must produce great changes with us; i hope it will be for the best. "i am in excellent health, and am painting away; i am making studies for the large picture i contemplate for next year. it will be as large, i think, as mr. allston's famous one, which was ten feet by fourteen." it can hardly be wondered at that the parents should have been somewhat anxious, when we learn from letters of june, , that they had not heard from their son for _seven months_. they were greatly relieved when letters did finally arrive, and they rejoiced in his success and in the hope of a universal peace, which should enable their sons "to act their part on the stage of life in a calmer period of the world." his mother keeps urging him to send some of his paintings home, as they wish to judge of his improvement, having, as yet, received nothing but the small pen-and-ink portrait of himself, which they do not think a very good likeness. she also emphatically discourages any idea of patronage from america, owing to the hard times brought on by the war, and the father tells his son that he will endeavor to send him one thousand dollars more, which must suffice for the additional year's study and the expenses of the journey home. it is small wonder that the three sons always manifested the deepest veneration and affection for their parents, for seldom has there been seen as great devotion and self-sacrifice, and seldom were three sons more worthy of it. sidney was at this time studying law at litchfield, connecticut, and richard was attending the theological seminary at andover, massachusetts. both became eminent in after life, though, curiously enough, neither in the law nor in the ministry. but we shall have occasion to treat more specifically of this later on. the three brothers were devotedly attached to each other to the very end of their long lives, and were mutually helpful as their lives now diverged and now came together again. the next letter from morse to his parents, written on june , , gives a further account of the great people who were at that time in london:-- "i expected at this time to have been in bristol with mr. and mrs. allston, who are now there, but the great fêtes in honor of the peace, and the visit of the allied sovereigns, have kept me in london till all is over. there are now in london upward of twenty foreign princes; also the great emperor alexander and the king of prussia. a week ago yesterday they arrived in town, and, contrary to expectation, came in a very private manner. i went to see their _entrée_, but was disappointed with the rest of the people, for the emperor alexander, disliking all show and parade, came in a private carriage and took an indirect route here. "the next and following day i spent in endeavoring to get a sight of them. i have been very fortunate, having seen the emperor alexander no less than fourteen times, so that i am quite familiar with his face; the king of prussia i have seen once; marshal blücher, five or six times; count platoff, three or four times; besides generals de yorck, bülow, etc., all whose names must be perfectly familiar to you, and the distinguished parts they have all acted in the great scenes just past. "the emperor alexander i am quite in love with; he has every mark of a great mind. his countenance is an uncommonly fine one; he has a fair complexion, hair rather light, and a stout, well-made figure; he has a very cheerful, benevolent expression, and his conduct has everywhere evinced that his face is the index of his mind. when i first saw him he was dressed in a green uniform with two epaulets and stars of different orders; he was conversing at the window of his hotel with his sister, the duchess of oldenburg. i saw him again soon after in the superb coach of the prince regent, with the duchess, his sister, going to the court of the queen. in a few hours after i saw him again on the balcony of the pultney hotel; he came forward and bowed to the people. he was then dressed in a red uniform, with a broad blue sash over the right shoulder; he appeared to great advantage; he stayed about five minutes. i saw him again five or six times through the day, but got only indifferent views of him. the following day, however, i was determined to get a better and nearer view of him than before. i went down to his hotel about ten o'clock, the time when i supposed he would leave it; i saw one of the prince's carriages drawn up, which opened at the top and was thrown back before and behind. in a few minutes the emperor with his sister made their appearance and got into it. as the carriage started, i pressed forward and got hold of the ring of the coach door and kept pace with it for about a quarter of a mile. i was so near that i could have touched him; he was in a plain dress, a brown coat, and altogether like any other gentleman. his sister, the duchess, also was dressed in a very plain, unattractive manner, and, if it had not been for the crowd which followed, they would have been taken for any lady and gentleman taking an airing. "in this unostentatious manner does he conduct himself, despising all pomp, and seems rather more intent upon inspecting the charitable, useful, and ornamental establishments of this country, with a view, probably, of benefiting his own dominions by his observations, than of displaying his rank by the splendor of dress and equipage. "his condescension also is no less remarkable. an instance or two will exemplify it. on the morning after his arrival he was up at six o'clock, and, while the lazy inhabitants of this great city were fast asleep in their beds, he was walking with his sister, the duchess, in kensington gardens. as he came across hyde park he observed a corporal drilling some recruits, upon which he went up to him and entered into familiar conversation with him, asking him a variety of questions, and, when he had seen the end of the exercise, shook him heartily by the hand and left him. when he was riding on horseback, he shook hands with all who came round him. "a few days ago, as he was coming out of the gate of the london docks on foot, after having inspected them, a great crowd was waiting to see him, among whom was an old woman of about seventy years of age, who seemed very anxious to get near him, but, the crowd pressing very much, she exclaimed, 'oh, if i could but touch his clothes!' the emperor overheard her, and, turning round, advanced to her, and, pulling off his glove, gave her his hand, and, at the same time dropping a guinea into hers, said to her, 'perhaps this will do as well.' the old woman was quite overcome, and cried, 'god bless your majesty,' till he was out of sight. "an old woman in her ninetieth year sent a pair of warm woolen stockings to the emperor, and with them a letter stating that she had knit them with her own hands expressly for him, and, as she could not afford to send him silk, she thought that woolen would be much more acceptable, and would also be more useful in his climate. the emperor was very much pleased, and determined on giving her his miniature set in gold and diamonds, but, upon learning that her situation in life was such that money would be more acceptable, he wrote her an answer, and, thanking her heartily for her present, enclosed her one hundred pounds. "these anecdotes speak more than volumes in praise of the emperor alexander. he is truly a great man. he is a great conqueror, for he has subdued the greatest country in the world, and overthrown the most alarming despotism that ever threatened mankind. he is great also because he is good; his whole time seems spent in distributing good to all around him; and where-ever he goes he makes every heart rejoice. he is very active and is all the time on the alert in viewing everything that is worth seeing. the emperor is also extremely partial to the united states; everything american pleases him, and he seems uncommonly interested in the welfare of our country. "i was introduced to-day to mr. harris, our _chargé d'affaires_ to the court of russia. he is a very intelligent, fine man, and is a great favorite with alexander. from a conversation with him i have a scheme in view which, when i have matured, i will submit to you for your approbation. "the king of prussia i have seen but once, and then had but an imperfect view of him. he came to the window with the prince regent and bowed to the people (at st. james's palace). he is tall and thin, has an agreeable countenance, but rather dejected in consequence of the late loss of his queen, to whom he was very much attached. "general blücher, now prince blücher, i have seen five or six times. i saw him on his entrance into london, all covered with dust, and in a very ordinary kind of vehicle. on the day after i saw him several times in his carriage, drawn about wherever he wished by the _mob_. he is john's greatest favorite, and they have almost pulled the brave general and his companion, count platoff, to pieces out of pure affection. platoff had his coat actually torn off him and divided into a thousand pieces as _relics_ by the good people--their kindness knows no bounds, and, i think, in all the battles which they have fought, they never have run so much risk of losing their limbs as in encountering their friends in england. "blücher is a veteran-looking soldier, a very fine head, monstrous mustaches. his head is bald, like papa's, his hair gray, and he wears powder. understanding that he was to be at covent garden theatre, i went, as the best place to see him, and i was not disappointed. he was in the prince's box, and i had a good view of him during the whole entertainment, being directly before him for three or four hours. a few nights since i also went to the theatre to see platoff, the _hetman_ (chief) of the cossacks. he has also a very fine countenance, a high and broad forehead, dark complexion, and dark hair. he is tall and well-made, as i think the cossacks are generally. he was very much applauded by a crowded house, the most part collected to see him." the following letter is from washington allston written in bristol, on july , :-- my dear sir,--i received your last on saturday and should have answered your first letter but for two reasons. first, that i had nothing to say; which, i think, metaphysicians allow to be the most natural as well as the most powerful cause of silence. second, that, if i had had anything to say, the daily expectation which i entertained of seeing you allowed no confidence in the hope that you would hear what i had to say should i have said it. i thank you for your solicitude, and can assure you that both mrs. allston and myself are in every respect better than when we left london. mr. king received me, as i wished, with undiminished kindness, and was greatly pleased with the pictures. he has not, however, seen the large one, which, to my agreeable surprise, i have been solicited from various quarters to exhibit, and that, too, without my having given the least intimation of such a design. i have taken merchant tailors' hall (a very large room) for this purpose, and shall probably open it in the course of next week. perhaps you will be surprised to hear that i have been retouching it. i have just concluded a fortnight's hard work upon it, and have the satisfaction to add that i have been seldom better satisfied than with my present labor. i have repainted the greater part of the draperies-- indeed, those of all the principal figures, excepting the dead man--with powerful and positive colors, and added double strength to the shadows of every figure, so that for force and distinctness you would hardly know it for the same picture. the "morning chronicle" would have no reason now to complain of its "wan red."... i am sorry that parliament has been so impolite to you in procrastinating the fireworks. but they are an unpolished set and will still be in the dark age of incivility notwithstanding their late illuminations. however i am in great hopes that the good people of england will derive no small degree of moral embellishment from their pure admiration of the illustrious general b----, who, it is said, for drinking and gaming has no equal. bristol, september , . my dear parents,--your kind letters of june last i have received, and return you a thousand thanks for them. they have relieved me from a painful state of anxiety with respect to my future prospects. i cannot feel too thankful for such kind parents who have universally shown so much indulgence to me. accept my gratitude and love; they are all i can give. you allow me to stay in europe another year. your letters are not in answer to some i have subsequently sent requesting leave to reside in paris. mr. allston, as well as all my friends, think it by all means necessary i should lose no time in getting to france to improve myself for a year in drawing (a branch of art in which i am very deficient). i shall therefore set out for paris in about two weeks, unless your letters in answer to those sent by drs. heyward and gushing should arrive and say otherwise. since coming to bristol i have not found my prospects so good as i before had reason to expect (owing in a great degree to political irritation). i have, however, contrived to make sufficient to pay off _all_ my _debts_, which have given me some considerable uneasiness. i can live much more reasonably in paris (indeed, some say for half what i can in london); i can improve myself more; and, therefore, all things taken into consideration, i believe it would be agreeable to my parents. as to the political state of paris, there is nothing to fear from that. it appears perfectly tranquil, and should at any time any difficulties arise, it is but three days' journey back to england again. besides this, i hope my parents will not feel any solicitude for me lest i should fall into any bad way, when they consider that i am now between twenty-three and twenty-four years of age, and that this is an age when the habits are generally fixed. as for expense, i must also request your confidence. feeling as i do the great obligations i am under to my parents, they must think me destitute of gratitude if they thought me capable, after all that has been said to me, of being prodigal. the past i trust you will find to be an example for the future. in a letter from a friend, m. van schaick, written from dartmouth, october , , after speaking in detail of the fortifications of new york harbor, which he considers "impregnable," we find the following interesting information:-- "but what satisfies my mind more than anything else is that all the heights of brooklyn on long island are occupied by strong chains of forts; the captain calls it an iron-work; and that the steamboat frigate, carrying forty-four -pounders, must by this time be finished. her sides are eight feet thick of solid timber. no ball can penetrate her.... the steamboat frigate is feet long, wide, carries her wheels in the centre like the ferry-boats, and will move six miles an hour against a common wind and tide. she is the wonder and admiration of all beholders." from this same gentleman is the following letter, dated october , :-- my dear friend,--my heart is so full that i do not know how to utter its emotions. thanks, all thanks to heaven and our glorious heroes! my satisfaction is full; it is perfect. it partakes of the character of the victory and wants nothing to make it complete. i return your felicitations upon this happy and heart-cheering occasion, and hope it may serve to suppress every sigh and to enliven every hope that animates the bosoms of my friends at bristol. give mr. allston a hearty squeeze of the hand for me in token of my gratification at this event and my remembrance of him. i enter into your feelings; i enjoy your triumph as much as if i was with you. may it do you good and lengthen your lives. really i think it is much more worth my regard to live now than ever it was before. this gives a tone to one's nerves, a zest to one's appetite, and a reality to existence that pervades all nature and exhibits its effects in every word and action. among the heroes whose names shall be inscribed upon the broad base of american independence and glory, the names of the heroes of lake erie and lake champlain will be recognized as brilliant and every way worthy; and it will hereafter be said that the example and exertions of new york have saved the nation.... what becomes of massachusetts now and its sage politicians? oh! shut the picture; i cannot bear the contrast. like a dead carcass she hangs upon the living spirit which animates the heart, and she impedes its motions. her consequence is gone, and i am sorry for it, because i have been accustomed to admire the noble spirit she once displayed, and the virtues which adorned her brighter days.... we sail on sunday or monday. i have received the box. everything is right. heaven bless you. going back a few days in point of time, the following letter was written to his parents:-- bristol, october , . your letters to the st of august have been received, and i have again to express to you my thanks for the sacrifices you are making for me. one day i hope it will be in my power to repay you for the many acts of indulgence to me.... your last letters mention nothing about my going to france. i perceive you have got my letters requesting leave, but you are altogether silent on the subject. everything is in favor of my going, my improvement, my expenses, and, last though not least, _the state of my feelings_. i shall be ruined in my feelings if i stay longer in england. i cannot endure the continued and daily insults to my feelings as an american. but on this head i promised not to write anything more; still allow me to say but a few words--on second thoughts, however, i will refer you entirely to dr. romeyn. if it is possible, as you value my comfort, see him as speedily as possible. he will give you my sentiments exactly, and i fully trust that, after you have heard him converse for a short time, you will completely liberate me from the imputation of error.... mr. bromfield [the merchant through whom he received his allowance] thinks i had better wait until i receive positive leave from you to go to france. do write me soon and do give me leave. i long to bury myself in the louvre in a country at least not hostile to mine, and where guns are not firing and bells ringing for victory over my countrymen.... where is american patriotism,--how long shall england, already too proud, glory in the blood of my countrymen? oh! for the genius of washington! had i but his talents with what alacrity would i return to the relief of that country which (without affectation, my dear parents) is dearer to me than my life. willingly (i speak with truth and deliberation), willingly would i sacrifice my life for her honor. do not think ill of me for speaking thus strongly. you cannot judge impartially of my feelings until you are placed in my situation. do not say i suffer myself to be carried away by my feelings; your feelings could never have been tried as mine have; you cannot see with the eyes i do; you cannot have the means of ascertaining facts on this side of the water that i have. but i will leave this subject and only say see _dr. romeyn_.... i find no encouragement whatever in bristol in the way of my art. national feeling is mingled with everything here; it is sufficient that i am an american, a title i would not change with the greatest king in europe. i find it more reasonable, living in bristol, or i should go to london immediately. mr. and mrs. allston are well and send you their respects. they set out for london in a few days after some months' _unsuccessful_ (between ourselves) residence here. all public feeling is absorbed in one object, the _conquest of the united states;_ no time to encourage an artist, especially an american artist. i am well, extremely well, but not in good spirits, as you may imagine from this letter. i am painting a little landscape and am studying in my mind a great historical picture, to be painted, by your leave, in paris. chapter viii november , --april . does not go to paris.--letter of admonition from his mother.--his parents' early economies.--letter from leslie.--letter from rev. s.f. jarvis on politics.--the mother tells of the economies of another young american, dr. parkman.--the son resents constant exhortations to economize, and tells of meanness of dr. parkman.--writes of his own economies and industry.--disgusted with bristol.--prophesies peace between england and america.--estimates of morse's character by dr. romeyn and mr. van schaick.--the father regrets reproof of son for political views.--death of mrs. allston.--disagreeable experience in bristol.--more economies.--napoleon i.--peace. morse did not go to paris at this time. the permission from his parents was so long delayed, owing to their not having received certain letters of his, and his mentor, mr. bromfield, advising against it, he gave up the plan, with what philosophy he could bring to bear on the situation. his mother continued to give him careful advice, covering many pages, in every letter. on november , , she says:-- "we wish to know what the plan was that you said you were maturing in regard to the emperor of russia. you must not be a schemer, but determine on a steady, uniform course. it is an old adage that 'a rolling stone never gathers any moss'; so a person that is driving about from pillar to post very seldom lays up anything against a rainy day. you must be wise, my son, and endeavor to get into such steady business as will, with the divine blessing, give you a support. secure that first, and then you will be authorized to indulge your taste and exercise your genius in other ways that may not be immediately connected with a living. "you mention patronage from this country, but such a thing is not known here unless you were on the spot, and not then, indeed, but for value received. you must therefore make up your mind to labor for yourself without leaning on any one, and look up to god for his blessing upon your endeavors. this is the way your parents set out in life about twenty-five years ago. they had nothing to look to for a support but their salary, which was a house, twenty cords of wood, and $ a year. the reception and circulation of the geography was an experiment not then made. with the blessing of heaven on these resources we have maintained an expensive family, kept open doors for almost all who chose to come and partake of our hospitality. enemies, as well as friends, have been welcomed. we have given you and your brothers a liberal education, have allowed you $ , are allowing your brothers about $ a year apiece, and are supporting our remaining family at the rate of $ a year. this is a pretty correct statement, and i make it to show you what can be done by industry and economy, with the blessing of heaven." while morse was in bristol, his friend c. r. leslie thus writes to him in lead pencil from london, on november , :-- most potent, grave and reverend doctor,--i take up my pencil to make ten thousand apologies for addressing you in humble black lead. deeply impressed as i am with the full conviction that you deserve the very best japan ink, the only excuse i can make to you is the following. it is, perhaps, needless to remind you that the tools with which ink is applied to paper, in order to produce writing, are made from goose quills, which quills i am goose enough not to keep a supply of; and not having so much money at present in my breeches pocket as will purchase one, i am forced to betake myself to my pencil; an instrument which, without paying myself any compliment, i am sure i can wield better than a pen. i am glad to hear that you are so industrious, and that mr. allston is succeeding so well with portraits. i hope he will bring all he has painted to london. i am looking out for you every day. i think we form a kind of family here, and i feel in an absence from mr. and mrs. allston and yourself as i used to do when away from my mother and sisters. by the bye, i have not had any letters from home for more than a month. it seems the americans are all united and we shall now have war in earnest. i am glad of it for many reasons; i think it will not only get us a more speedy and permanent peace, but may tend to crush the demon of party spirit and strengthen our government. i am done painting the gallery, and have finished my drawings for the frieze. thank you for your good wishes. i thought mr. allston knew how proud i am of being considered his student. tell him, if he thinks it worth while to mention me at all in his letter to delaplaine, i shall consider it a great honor to be called his student. the father, in a letter of december , , after again urging him to leave politics alone, adds this postscript: "p.s. if you can make up your mind to remain in london and finish your great picture for the exhibition; to suppress your political feelings, and resolutely turn a deaf ear to everything which does not concern your professional studies; not to talk on politics and preserve a conciliating course of conduct and conversation; make as many friends as you can, and behave as a good man ought to in your situation, and put off going to france till after your exhibition,--this plan would suit us best. but with the observations and advice now before you, we leave you to judge for yourself. let us early know your determination and intended plans. you must rely on your own resources after this year." the following letter is from his warm friend, the reverend samuel f. jarvis, written in new york, december , :-- "i am not surprised at the feelings you express with regard to england or america. the english in general have so contemptuous an opinion of us and one so exalted of themselves, that every american must feel a virtuous indignation when he hears his country traduced and belied. but, my dear sir, it is natural, on the other hand, for an exile from his native land to turn with fond remembrance to its excellences and forget its defects. you will be able some years hence to speak with more impartiality on this subject than you do at present. "the men who have involved the country in this war are wicked and corrupt. a systematic exclusion of all federalists from any office of trust is the leading feature of this administration, yet the federalists comprehend the majority of the wealth, virtue, and intelligence of the community. it is the power of the ignorant multitude by which they are supported, and i conceive that america will never be a respectable nation in the eyes of the world, till the extreme democracy of our constitution is done away with, and there is a representation of the property rather than of the population of the country. you feel nothing of the oppressive, despotic sway of the _soi-disant_ republicans, but we feel it in all its bitterness, and know that it is far worse than that of the most despotic sovereigns in europe. with such men there can be no union. "the repulsion of british invasion is the duty, and will be the pride, of every american; but, while prepared to bare his arm in defence of his much-wronged country against a proud and arrogant, and, in some instances, a cruel, foe, he cannot be blind to the unprincipled conduct of her internal enemies, and such he must conceive the present ruling party to be." on december , , his mother writes:-- "i was not a little astonished to hear you say, in one of your letters from bristol, that you had earned money enough there to pay off your debts. i cannot help asking what debts you could have to discharge with your own earnings after receiving one thousand dollars a year from us, which we are very sure must have afforded you, even by your own account of your expenses, ample means for the payment of all just, fair, and honorable debts, and i hope you contract no others. we are informed by others that they made six hundred dollars a year not only pay all their expenses of clothing, board, travelling, learning the french language, etc., etc., but they were able out of it to purchase books to send home, and actually sent a large trunk full of elegant books. now the person who told us that he did this has a father who is said to be worth a hundred and fifty thousand dollars; therefore the young man was not pinched for means, but was thus economical out of consideration to his parents, and to show his gratitude to them, as i suppose. now think, my dear son, how much more your poor parents are doing for you, how good your dear brothers are to be satisfied with so little done for them in comparison with what we are doing for you, and let the thought stimulate you to more economy and industry. i greatly fear you have been falling off in both these since the éclat you received for your first performances. it has always been a failing of yours, as soon as you found you could excel in what you undertook, to be tired of it and not trouble yourself any further about it. i was in hopes that you had got over this fickleness ere this... "you must not expect to paint anything in this country, for which you will receive any money to support you, but portraits; therefore do everything in your power to qualify you for painting and taking them in the best style. that is all your hope here, and to be very obliging and condescending to those who are disposed to employ you.... "i think young leslie is a very estimable young man to be, as i am told he is, supporting himself and assisting his widowed mother by his industry." i shall anticipate a little in order to give at once the son's answer to this reproof. he writes on april , :-- "i wish i could persuade my parents that they might place some little confidence in my judgment at the age i now am (nearly twenty-four), an age when, in ordinary people, the judgment has reached a certain degree of maturity. it is a singular and, i think, an unfortunate fact that i have not, that i recollect, since i have been in england, had a turn of low spirits except when i have received letters from home. it is true i find a great deal of affectionate solicitude in them, but with it i also find so much complaint and distrust, so much fear that i am doing wrong, so much doubt as to my morals and principles, and fear lest i should be led away by bad company and the like, that, after i have read them, i am miserable for a week. i feel as though i had been guilty of every crime, and i have passed many sleepless nights after receiving letters from you. i shall not sleep to-night in consequence of passages in your letters just received." here he quotes from his mother's letter and answers: "now as to the young man's living for six hundred dollars, i know who it is of whom you speak. it is dr. parkman, who made it his boast that he would live for that sum, but you did not enquire _how_ he lived. i can tell you. he never refused an invitation to dine, breakfast, or tea, which he used to obtain often by pushing himself into everybody's company. when he did not succeed in getting invitations, he invited himself to breakfast, dine, or sup with some of his friends. he has often walked up to breakfast with us, a distance of three or four miles. if he failed in getting a dinner or meal at any of these places, he either used to go without, or a bit of bread answered the purpose till next meal. in his dress he was so shabby and uncouth that any decent person would be ashamed to walk with him in the street. above all, his notorious meanness in his money matters, his stickling with his poor washerwoman for a halfpenny and with others for a farthing, and his uniform stinginess on all occasions rendered him notoriously disgusting to all his acquaintances, and affords, i should imagine, but a poor example for imitation.... "the fact is i could live for _fifty_ pounds a year if my only object was to live cheap, and, on the other hand, if i was allowed one thousand pounds a year, i could spend it all without the least extravagance in obtaining greater advantages in my art. but as your goodness has allowed me but two hundred pounds (and i wish you again to receive my sincere thanks for this allowance), should not my sole endeavor be to spend all this to the utmost advantage; to keep as closely within the bounds of that allowance as possible, and would not _economy_ in this instance consist in rigidly keeping up to this rule? if this is a true statement of the case, then have i been perfectly economical, for i have not yet overrun my allowance, and i think i shall be able to return home without having exceeded it a single shilling. if i have done this, and still continue to do it, why, in every letter i receive from home, is the injunction repeated of _being economical?_ it makes me exceedingly unhappy, especially when i am conscious of having used my utmost endeavors, ever since i have been in england, to be rigidly so. "as to _industry_, in which mama fears i am falling off, i gave you an account in my last letter (by mr. ralston) of the method i use in parcelling out my time. since writing that letter the spring and summer are approaching fast, and the days increasing. of course i can employ more of the time than in the winter. mr. leslie and myself rise at five o'clock in the morning and walk about a mile and a half to burlington, where are the famous elgin marbles, the works of phidias and praxiteles, brought by lord elgin from athens. from these we draw three hours every morning, wet or dry, before breakfast, and return home just as the bustle begins in london, for they are late risers in london. when we go out of a morning we meet no one but the watchman, who goes his rounds for an hour and a half after we are up. last summer mr. leslie and i used to paint in the open air in the fields three hours before breakfast, and often before sunrise, to study the morning effect on the landscape. "now, being conscious of employing my time in the most industrious manner possible, you can but faintly conceive the mortification and sorrow with which i read that part of mama's letter. i was so much hurt that i read it to mr. allston, and requested he would write to you and give you an account of my spending my time. he seemed very much astonished when i read it to him, and _authorized me to tell you from him that it was impossible for any one to be more indefatigable in his studies than i am_. "mama mentions in her letter that she hears that mr. leslie supports his mother and sisters by his labors. this is not the case. leslie was supported by three or four individuals in philadelphia till within a few months past. about a year ago he sold a large picture which he painted (whilst i was on my fruitless trip to bristol for money) for a hundred guineas. since that he has had a number of commissions in portraits and is barely able to support himself; indeed, he tells me this evening that he has but £ left. he is a very economical and a most excellent young man. his expenses in a year are, on an average, from £ to £ ; mr. allston's (single) expenses not less than £ per annum, and i know of no artist among all my acquaintance whose expenses in a year are less than £ ." returning now to the former chronological order, i shall include the following vehement letter written from london on december , :-- my dear parents,--i arrived yesterday from bristol, where i have been for several months past endeavoring to make a little in the way of my profession, but have completely failed, owing to several causes. first, the total want of anything like partiality for the fine arts in that place; the people there are but a remove from brutes. a "bristol hog" is as proverbial in this country as a "charlestown gentleman" is in boston. their whole minds are absorbed in trade; barter and gain and interest are all they understand. if i could have painted a picture for half a guinea by which they could have made twenty whilst i starved, _i could have starved_. secondly, the virulence of national prejudice which rages now with tenfold acrimony. they no longer despise, they hate, the americans. the battle on champlain and before flattsburgh has decided the business; the moans and bewailings for this business are really, to an american, quite comforting after their arrogant boasting of reducing us to unconditional submission. is it strange that i should feel a little the effects of this universal hatred? i have felt it, and i have left bristol after six months' perfect neglect. after having been invited there with promises of success, i have had the mortification to leave it without having, from bristol, a single commission. more than that, and by far the worst, if i have not gone back in my art these six months, i have at least stood still, and to me this is the most trying reflection of all. i have been immured in the paralyzing atmosphere of trade till my mind was near partaking the infection. i have been listening to the grovelling, avaricious devotees of mammon, whose souls are narrowed to the studious contemplation of a hard-earned shilling, whose leaden imaginations never soared above the prospect of a good bargain, and whose _summum bonum_ is the inspiring idea of counting a hundred thousand: i say i have been listening to these miserly beings till the idea did not seem so repugnant of lowering my noble art to a trade, of painting for money, of degrading myself and the soul-enlarging art which i possess, to the narrow idea of merely getting money. fie on myself! i am ashamed of myself; no, never will i degrade myself by making a trade of a profession. if i cannot live a gentleman, i will starve a gentleman. but i will dismiss this unpleasant subject, the particulars of which i can better relate to you than write. suffice it to say that my ill-treatment does not prey upon my spirits; i am in excellent health and spirits and have great reason to be thankful to heaven for thousands of blessings which one or two reverses shall not make me forget. reverses do i call them? how trifling are my troubles to the millions of my fellow creatures who are afflicted with all the dreadful calamities incident to this life. reverses do i call them? no, they are blessings compared with the miseries of thousands. indeed, i am too ungrateful. if a thing does not result just as i wish, i begin to repine; i forget the load of blessings which i enjoy: life, health, parents whose kindness exceeds the kindest; brothers, relatives, and friends; advantages which no one else enjoys for the pursuit of a favorite art, besides numerous others; all which are forgotten the moment an unpleasant disappointment occurs. i am very ungrateful. with respect to peace, i can only say i should not be surprised if the preliminaries were signed before january. my reasons are that great britain cannot carry on the war any longer. she may talk of her inexhaustible resources, but she well knows that the great resource, the property tax, must fail next april. the people will not submit any longer; they are taking strong measures to prevent its continuance, and without it they cannot continue the war. another great reason why i think there will be peace is the absolute _fear_ which they express of us. they fear the increase of our navy; they fear the increase of the army; they fear for canada, and they are in dread of the further disgrace of their national character. mr. monroe's plan for raising , men went like a shock through the country. they saw the united states assume an attitude which they did not expect, and the same men who cried for "war, war," "thrash the americans," now cry most lustily for peace. the union of the parties also has convinced them that we are determined to resist their most arrogant pretensions. love to all, brothers, miss russell, etc. yours very affectionately, saml. f. b. morse. he ends the letter thus abruptly, probably realizing that he was beginning to tread on forbidden ground, but being unable to resist the temptation. while from this letter and others we can form a just estimate of the character and temperament of the man, it is also well to learn the opinion of his contemporaries; i shall, therefore, quote from a letter to the elder morse of the dr. romeyn, whom the son was so anxious to have his father see, also from a letter of mr. van schaick to dr. romeyn. the former was written in new york, on december , . "the enclosed letter of my friend mr. van schaick will give you the information concerning your son which you desire. he has been intimately acquainted with your son for a considerable time. you may rely on his account, as he is not only a gentleman of unquestionable integrity, but also a professor of the lord christ. what i saw and heard of your son pleased me, and i cannot but hope he will repay all your anxieties and realize your reasonable expectations by his conduct and the standing which he must and will acquire in society by that conduct." mr. van schaick's letter was written also in new york, on december , :-- "to those passages of dr. morse's letter respecting his son, to which you have directed my attention, i hasten to reply without any form, because it will gratify me to relieve the anxiety of the parents of my friend. his religious and moral character is unexceptionally good. he feels strongly for his country and expresses those feelings among his american friends with great sensibility. i do not know that he ever indulges in any observations in the company of englishmen which are calculated to injure his standing among them. but, my dear sir, you fully know that an american cannot escape the sting of illiberal and false charges against his country and even its moral character, unless he almost entirely withholds himself from society. it cannot be expected that any human being should be so unfeeling as to suffer indignity in total silence. "but i do not think that any political collisions, which may incidentally and very infrequently arise, can injure him as an artist; for it is well known to you that the simple fact of his being an american is sufficient to prevent his rising rapidly into notice, since the possession of that character clogs the efforts, or, at least, somewhat clouds the fame of men of superior genius and established talent.... i advised samuel to go to france and bury himself for six months in the louvre; from thence to italy, the seat of the arts. he inclined to the first part of the plan, and then to return home, but deferred putting it into execution till he heard from his father. mr. allston intended to winter in london. morse has a fine taste and colors well. his drawing is capable of much improvement, but he is anxious to place himself at the head of his profession, and, with a little judicious encouragement, will probably succeed. that patient industry which has in all ages characterized the masters of the art, he will find it to his interest to apply to his studies the farther he advances in them. his success has been moderately good. if he could sell the pictures he has on hand, the avails would probably pay his way into france." referring to these letters the father, writing on january , , says:-- "we have had letters from dr. romeyn and mr. van schaick concerning you which have comforted us much. since receiving them we don't know but we have expressed ourselves, in our letters in answer to your last, a little stronger than we ought in regard to your _political_ feelings and conduct. i find others who have returned feel pretty much as you do. but it should be remembered that your situation as an artist is different from theirs. it is your wisdom to leave politics to politicians and be solely the artist. but if you are in france these cautions will probably not be necessary, as you will have no temptation to enter into any political discussions." on the d of february, , morse, in writing to his parents, has a very sad piece of news to communicate to them:-- "i write in great haste and much agitation. mrs. allston, the wife of our beloved friend, died last evening, and the event overwhelmed us all in the utmost sorrow. as for mr. allston, for several hours after the death of his wife he was almost bereft of reason. mr. leslie and i are applying our whole attention to him, and we have so far succeeded as to see him more composed." this was a terrible grief to all the little coterie of friends, for whom the allston house had been a home. one of them, mr. j.j. morgan, in a long letter to morse written from wiltshire, thus expresses himself:-- "gracious god! unsearchable, indeed, are thy ways! the insensible, the brutish, the wicked are powerful and everywhere, in everything successful; while allston, who is everything that is amiable, kind, and good, has been bruised, blow after blow, and now, indeed, his cup is full. i am too unwell, too little recovered from the effect of your letter, to write much. coleridge intends writing to-day; i hope he will. allston may derive some little relief from knowing how much his friends partake of his grief." this was a time of great discouragement to the young artist. through the failure of some of his letters to reach his parents in time, he had not received their permission to go to france until it was too late for him to go. the death of mrs. allston cast a gloom over all the little circle, and, to cap the climax, he was receiving no encouragement in his profession. on march , , he writes:-- "my jaunt to bristol in quest of money completely failed. when i was first there i expected, from the little connection i got into, i should be able to support myself. i was obliged to come to town on account of the exhibitions, and stayed longer than i expected, intending to return to bristol. during this time i received two pressing letters from. mr. visscher (which i will show you), inviting me to come down, saying that i should have plenty of business. i accordingly hurried off. a gentleman, for whom i had before painted two portraits, had promised, if i would let him have them for ten guineas apiece, twelve being my price, that he would procure me five sitters. this i acceded to. i received twenty guineas and have heard nothing from the man since, though i particularly requested mr. visscher to enquire and remind him of his promise. yet he never did anything more on the subject. i was there three months, gaining nothing in my art and without a single commission. mr. breed, of liverpool, then came to bristol. he took two landscapes which i had been amusing myself with (for i can say nothing more of them) at ten guineas each. i painted two more landscapes which are unsold. "mr. visscher, a man worth about a hundred thousand pounds, and whose annual expenses, with a large family of seven children, are not one thousand, had a little frame for which he repeatedly desired me to paint a picture. i told him i would as soon as i had finished one of my landscapes. i began it immediately, without his knowing it, and determined to surprise him with it. i also had two frames which fitted mr. breed's pictures, and which i was going to give to mr. breed with his pictures. but mr. visscher was particularly pleased with the frames, as they were a pair, and told me not to send them to mr. breed as he should like to have them himself, and wished i would paint him pictures to fit them (the two other landscapes before mentioned). i accordingly was employed three months longer in painting these three pictures. i finished them; he was very much pleased with them; all his family were very much pleased with them; all who saw them were pleased with them. but he _declined taking them_ without even asking my price, and said that he had more pictures than he knew what to do with. "mr. and mrs. allston heard him say twenty times he wished i would paint him a picture for the frame. mr. allston, who knew what i was about, told him, no doubt, i would do it for him, and in a week after i had completed it. i had told mr. visscher also that i was considerably in debt, and that, when he had paid me for these pictures, i should be something in pocket; and, by his not objecting to what i said, i took it for granted (and from his requesting me to paint the picture) that the thing was certain. but thus it was, without giving any reason in the world, except that he had pictures enough, he declined taking them, making me spend three months longer in bristol than i otherwise should have done; standing still in my art, if not actually going back; and forcing me to run in debt for some necessary expenses of clothing in bristol, and my passage from and back to london. during all this time not a single commission for a portrait, _many_ of which were promised me, nor a single call from any one to look at my pictures. thus ended my jaunt in quest of money. "do not think that this disappointment is in consequence of any misconduct of mine. mr. allston, who was with me, experienced the same treatment, and had it not been for his uncle, the american consul, he might have starved for the bristol people. his uncle was the only one who purchased any of his pictures. since i have been in london i have been endeavoring to regain what i lost in bristol, and i hope i have so far succeeded as to say: '_i have not gone back in my art_.' "in order to retrench my expenses i have taken a painting-room out of the house, at about half of the expense of my former room. though inconvenient in many respects, yet my circumstances require it and i willingly put up with it. as for _economy_, do not be at any more pains in introducing that personage to me. we have long been friends and necessary companions. if you could look in on me and see me through a day i think you would not tell me in every letter to _economize more_. it is impossible; i cannot economize more. i live on as plain food and as little as is for my health; less and plainer would make me ill, for i have given it a fair experiment. as for clothes, i have been decent and that is all. if i visited a great deal this would be a heavy expense, but, the less i go out, the less need i care for clothes, except for cleanliness. my only heavy expenses are colors, canvas, frames, etc., and these are heavy." a number of pages of this letter are missing, much to my regret. he must have been telling of some of the great events which were happening on the continent, probably of the return from elba, for it begins again abruptly. "--when he might have avoided it by quietness; by undertaking so bold an attempt as he has done without being completely sure of success, and having laid his plans deeply; and, thirdly, i knew the feelings of the french people were decidedly in his favor, more especially the military. they feel as though louis xviii was forced upon them by their conquerors; they feel themselves a conquered nation, and they look to bonaparte as the only man who can retrieve their character for them. "all these reasons rushing into my mind at the time, i gave it as my opinion that napoleon would again be emperor of the french, and again set the world by the ears, unless he may have learned a lesson from his adversity. but this cannot be expected. i fear we are apt yet to see a darker and more dreadful storm than any we have yet seen. this is, indeed, an age of wonders. "let what will happen in europe, let us have peace at home, among ourselves more particularly. but the character we have acquired among the nations of europe in our late contest with england, has placed us on such high ground that none of them, england least of all, will wish to embroil themselves with us." this was written just after peace had been established between england and america, and in a letter from his mother, written about the same time in march, , she thus comments on the joyful news: "we have now the heartfelt pleasure of congratulating you on the return of peace between our country and great britain. may it never again be interrupted, but may both countries study the things that make for peace, and love as brethren." it never has been interrupted up to the present day, for, as i am pursuing my pleasant task of bringing these letters together for publication, in the year of our lord , the newspapers are agitating the question of a fitting commemoration of a hundred years of peace between great britain and the united states. further on in this same letter the mother makes this request of her son: "when you return we wish you to bring some excellent black or corbeau cloth to make your good father and brothers each a suit of clothes. your papa also wishes you to get made a handsome black cloth cloak for him; one that will fit you he thinks will fit him. be sure and attend to this. your mama would like some grave colored silk for a gown, if it can be had but for little. don't forget that your mother is no dwarf, and that a large pattern suits her better than a small one." the letter of april , from which i have already quoted, has this sentence at the beginning: "your letters suppose me in paris, _but i am not there_; you hope that i went in october last; i intended going and wished it at that time exceedingly, but i had not leave from you to go and mr. bromfield advised me by no means to go until i heard from you. you must perceive from this case how impossible it is for me to form plans, and transmit them across the atlantic for approbation, thus letting an opportunity slip which is irrecoverable." chapter ix may . --october , decides to return home in the fall.--hopes to return to europe in a year.--ambitions.--paints "judgment of jupiter."--not allowed to compete for premium.--mr. russell's portrait.--reproof of his parents.--battle of waterloo.--wilberforce.--painting of "dying hercules" received by parents.--much admired.--sails for home.--dreadful voyage lasting fifty-eight days.--extracts from his journal.--home at last. it was with great reluctance that morse made his preparations to return home. he thought that, could he but remain a year or two longer in an atmosphere much more congenial to an artist than that which prevailed in america at that time, he would surely attain to greater eminence in his profession. he, in common with many others, imagined that, with the return of peace, an era of great prosperity would at once set in. but in this he was mistaken, for history records that just the opposite occurred. the war had made demands on manufacturers, farmers, and provision dealers which were met by an increase in inventions and in production, and this meant wealth and prosperity to many. when the war ceased, this demand suddenly fell off; the soldiers returning to their country swelled the army of the unemployed, and there resulted increased misery among the lower classes, and a check to the prosperity of the middle and upper classes. it would seem, therefore, that fate dealt more kindly with the young man than he, at that time, realized; for, had he remained, his discouragements would undoubtedly have increased; whereas, by his return to his native land, although meeting with many disappointments and suffering many hardships, he was gradually turned into a path which ultimately led to fame and fortune. on may , , he writes to his parents:-- "with respect to returning home, i shall make my arrangements to be with you (should my life be spared) by the end of september next, or the beginning of october; but it will be necessary that i should be in england again (provided always providence permits) by september following, as arrangements which i have made will require my presence. this i will fully explain when i meet you. "the moment i get home i wish to begin work, so that i should like to have some portraits bespoken in season. i shall charge forty dollars less than stuart for my portraits, so that, if any of my good friends are ready, i will begin the moment i have said 'how do ye do' to them. "i wish to do as much as possible in the year i am with you. if i could get a commission or two for some large pictures for a church or public hall, to the amount of two or three thousand dollars, i should feel much gratified. i do not despair of such an event, for, through your influence with the clergy and their influence with their people, i think some commission for a scripture subject for a church might be obtained; a crucifixion, for instance. "it may, perhaps, be said that the country is not rich enough to purchase large pictures; yes, but two or three thousand dollars can be paid for an entertainment which is gone in a day, and whose effects are to demoralize and debilitate, whilst the same sum expended on a fine picture would be adding an ornament to the country which would be lasting. it would tend to elevate and refine the public feeling by turning their thoughts from sensuality and luxury to intellectual pleasures, and it would encourage and support a class of citizens who have always been reckoned among the brightest stars in the constellation of american worthies, and who are, to this day, compelled to exile themselves from their country and all that is dear to them, in order to obtain a bare subsistence. "i do not speak of _portrait-painters;_ had i no higher thoughts than being a first-rate portrait-painter, i would have chosen a far different profession. my ambition is to be among those who shall revive the splendor of the fifteenth century; to rival the genius of a raphael, a michael angelo, or a titian; my ambition is to be enlisted in the constellation of genius now rising in this country; i wish to shine, not by a light borrowed from them, but to strive to shine the brightest. "if i could return home and stay a year visiting my friends in various parts of the union, and, by painting portraits, make sufficient to bring me to england again at the end of the year, whilst i obtained commissions enough to employ me and support me while in england, i think, in the course of a year or two, i shall have obtained sufficient credit to enable me to return home, if not for the remainder of my life, at least to pay a good long visit. "in all these plans i wish you to understand me as always taking into consideration _the will of providence;_ and, in every plan for future operation, i hope i am not forgetful of the uncertainty of human life, and i wish always to say _should i live_ i will do this or that.... "i perceive by your late letters that you suppose i am painting a large picture. i did think of it some time ago and was only deterred on account of the expenses attending it. all this i will explain to your entire satisfaction when i see you, and why i do not think it expedient to make an exhibition when i return. "i perceive also that you are a little too sanguine with respect to me and expect a little too much from me. you must recollect i am yet but a student and that a picture of any merit is not painted in a day. experienced as mr. west is (and he also paints quicker than any other artist), his last large picture cost him between three and four years' constant attention. mr. allston was nearly two years in painting his large picture. young haydon was three years painting his large picture, is now painting another on which he has been at work one year and expects to be two years more on it. leslie was ten months painting his picture, and my 'hercules' cost me nearly a year's study. so you see that large pictures are not the work of a moment. "all these matters we will talk over one of these days, and all will be set right. i had better paint miss russell's, aunt salisbury's, and dr. bartlett's pictures at home for a very good reason i will give you." he did, however, complete a large historical, or rather mythological, painting before leaving england. whether it was begun before or after writing the foregoing letter, i do not know, but mr. dunlap (whom i have already quoted) has this to say about it:-- "encouraged by the flattering reception of his first works in painting and in sculpture, the young artist redoubled his energies in his studies and determined to contend for the highest premium in historical composition offered by the royal academy at the beginning of the year . the subject was 'the judgment of jupiter in the case of apollo, marpessa and idas.' the premium offered was a gold medal and fifty guineas. the decision was to take place in december of . the composition containing four figures required much study, but, by the exercise of great diligence, the picture was completed by the middle of july. "our young painter had now been in england four years, one year longer than the time allowed him by his parents, and he had to return immediately home; but he had finished his picture under the conviction, strengthened by the opinion of west, that it would be allowed to remain and compete with those of the other candidates. to his regret the petition to the council of the royal academy for this favor, handed in to them by west and advocated strongly by him and fuseli, was not granted. he was told that it was necessary, according to the rules of the academy, that the artist should be present to receive the premium; it could not be received by proxy. fuseli expressed himself in very indignant terms at the narrowness of this decision. "thus disappointed, the artist had but one mode of consolation. he invited west to see his picture before he packed it up, at the same time requesting mr. west to inform him through mr. leslie, after the premium should be adjudged in december, what chance he would have had if he had remained. mr. west, after sitting before the picture for a long time, promised to comply with the request, but added: 'you had better remain, sir.'" in a letter quoted, without a date, by mr. prime, which was written from bristol, but which seems to have been lost, i find the following:-- "james russell, esq., has been extremely attentive to me. he has a very fine family consisting of four daughters and, i think, a son who is absent in the east indies. the daughters are very beautiful, accomplished, and amiable, especially the youngest, lucy. i came very near being at my old game of falling in love, but i find that love and painting are quarrelsome companions, and that the house of my heart is too small for both of them; so i have turned mrs. love out-of-doors. time enough, thought i (with true old bachelor complacency), time enough for you these ten years to come. mr. russell's portrait i have painted as a present to miss russell, and will send it to her as soon as i can get an opportunity. it is an excellent likeness of him." he must either have said more in this letter, or have written another after the family verdict (that terrible family verdict) had been pronounced, for in the letter of april , , from which i have already quoted, he refers to this portrait as follows:-- "as to the portrait which i painted of mr. russell, i am sorry you mentioned it to miss russell, as i particularly requested that you would not, because, in case of failure, it would be a disappointment to her; but as you have told her, i must now explain. in the first place it is not a picture that will do me any credit. i was unfortunate in the light which i chose to paint him in; i wished to make it my best picture and so made it my worst, for i worked too timidly on it. it is a likeness, indeed, a very strong likeness, but the family are not pleased with it, and they say that i have not flattered him, that i have made him too old. so i determined i would not send it, indeed, i promised them i would not send it; but, notwithstanding, as i know miss russell will be good enough to comply with my conditions, i will send it directly; for, as it is a good likeness, every one except the family knowing it instantly, and mr. allston saying that it is a _very strong likeness_, it will on that account be a gratification to her. but i _particularly_ and _expressly request_ that it be kept in a private room to be shown _only_ to friends and relations, and that i _may never be mentioned as the painter;_ and, moreover, that no _artist_ or _miniature painter_ be allowed to see it. on these conditions i send it, taking for granted they will be complied with, and without waiting for an answer." the parents of that generation were not frugal of counsel and advice, even when their children had reached years of discretion and had flown far away from the family nest. the father, in a letter of may , , thus gently reproves his son:-- "to-day we have received your letters to march .... you evidently misconceived our views in the letters to which you allude, and felt much too strongly our advice and remarks in respect to your writing us so much on politics. what we said was the affectionate advice of your parents, who loved you very tenderly, and who were not unwilling you should judge for yourself though you might differ from them. we have ever made a very candid allowance for you, and so have all your friends, and we have never for a moment believed we should differ a fortnight after you should come home and converse with us. you have, in the ardor of feeling, construed many observations in our letters as censuring you and designed to wound your feelings, which were not intended in the remotest degree by us for any such purpose.... "i am sorry to hear of the death of mr. thornton. he was a good man." his mother was much less gentle in her reproof. i cull the following sentences from a long letter of june , :-- "in perfect consistency with the feelings towards you all, above described, we may and ought to tell you, and that with the greatest plainness, of anything that we deem improper in any part of your conduct, either in a civil, social, or religious view. this we feel it our duty to do and shall continue to do as long as we live; and it will ever be your duty to receive from us the advice, counsel, and reproof, which we may, from time to time, favor you with, with the most perfect respect and dutiful observance; and, when you differ from us on any point whatever, let that difference be conveyed to us in the most delicate and gentlemanly manner. let this be done not only while you are under age and dependent on your parents for your support, but when you are independent, and when you are head of a family, and even of a profession, if you ever should be either.... i have dwelt longer on this subject, as i think you have, in some of your last letters, been somewhat deficient in that respect which your own good sense will at once convince you was, on all accounts, due, and which i know you feel the propriety of without any further observations." on june , , the father writes:-- "we have just received a letter from your uncle, james e.b. finley, of carolina. he fears you will remain in europe, but hopes you have so much _amor patrice_ as to return and display your talents in raising the military and naval glory of the nation, by exhibiting on canvas some of her late naval and land actions, and also promote the fine arts among us. he is, you know, an enthusiastic republican and patriot and a warm approver of the late war, but an amiable, excellent man. i am by no means certain that it would not be best for you to come home this fall and spend a year or two in this country in painting some portraits, but especially historical pieces and landscapes. you might, i think, in this way succeed in getting something to support you afterwards in europe for a few years. "i hope the time is not distant when artists in your profession, and of the first class, will be honorably patronized and supported in this country. in this case you can come and live with us, which would give us much satisfaction." the young man still took a deep interest in affairs political, and speculated rather keenly on the outcome of the tremendous happenings on the continent. on june , , he writes:-- "you will have heard of the dreadful battle in flanders before this reaches you. the loss of the english is immense, indeed almost all their finest officers and the flower of their army; not less than officers and upwards of , men, some say , . but it has been decisive if the news of to-day be true, that napoleon has abdicated. what the event of these unparalleled times will be no mortal can pretend to foresee. i have much to tell you when i see you. perhaps you had better not write after the receipt of this, as it may be more than two months before an answer could be received. "p.s. the papers of to-night confirm the news of this morning. bonaparte is no longer a dangerous man; he has abdicated, and, in all probability, a republican form of government will be the future government of france, if they are capable of enjoying such a government. but no one can foresee events; there may be a long peace, or the world may be torn worse than it yet has been. revolution seems to succeed revolution so rapidly that, in looking back on our lives, we seem to have lived a thousand years, and wonders of late seem to scorn to come alone; they come in clusters." the battle in flanders was the battle of waterloo, which was fought on the th day of june, and on the th of july the allied armies again entered paris. referring to these events many years later, morse said:-- "it was on one of my visits, in the year , that an incident occurred which well illustrates the character of the great philanthropist [mr. wilberforce]. as i passed through hyde park on my way to kensington gore, i observed that great crowds had gathered, and rumors were rife that the allied armies had entered paris, that napoleon was a prisoner, and that the war was virtually at an end; and it was momentarily expected that the park guns would announce the good news to the people. "on entering the drawing-room at mr. wilberforce's i found the company, consisting of mr. thornton [his memory must have played him false in this particular as mr. thornton died some time before], mr. macaulay, mr. grant, the father, and his two sons robert and charles, and robert owen of lanark, in quite excited conversation respecting the rumors that prevailed. mr. wilberforce expatiated largely on the prospects of a universal peace in consequence of the probable overthrow of napoleon, whom naturally he considered the great disturber of the nations. at every period, however, he exclaimed: 'it is too good to be true, it cannot be true.' he was altogether skeptical in regard to the rumors. "the general subject, however, was the absorbing topic at the dinner-table. after dinner the company joined the ladies in the drawing-room. i sat near a window which looked put in the direction of the distant park. presently a flash and a distant dull report of a gun attracted my attention, but was unnoticed by the rest of the company. another flash and report assured me that the park guns were firing, and at once i called mr. wilberforce's attention to the fact. running to the window he threw it up in time to see the next flash and hear the report. clasping his hands in silence, with the tears rolling down his cheeks, he stood for a few moments perfectly absorbed in thought, and, before uttering a word, embraced his wife and daughters, and shook hands with every one in the room. the scene was one not to be forgotten." we learn from a letter of his mother's dated june , , that the painting of the "dying hercules" had at last been received, but that the plaster cast of the same subject was still mysteriously missing. the painting was much admired, and the mother says:-- "your friend mr. tisdale says the picture of the hercules ought to be in boston as the beginning of a gallery of paintings, and that the bostonians ought not to permit it to go from here. whether they will or not, i know not. i place no confidence in them, but they may take a fit into their heads to patronize the fine arts, and, in that case, they have it in their power undoubtedly to do as much as any city in this country towards their support." morse had now made up his mind to return home, although his parents, in their letters of that time, had given him leave to stay longer if he thought it would be for his best interest, but his father had made it clear that he must, from this time forth, depend on his own exertions. he hoped that (providence permitting) he need only spend a year at home in earning enough money to warrant his returning to europe. providence, however, willed otherwise, and he did not return to europe until fourteen years later. the next letter is dated from liverpool, august , , and is but a short one. i shall quote the first few sentences:-- "i have arrived thus far on my way home. i left london the th and arrived in this place yesterday the th, at which time, within an hour, four years ago, i landed in england. i have not yet determined by what vessel to return; i have a choice of a great many. the ceres is the first that sails, but i do not like her accommodations. the liverpool packet sails about the th, and, as she has always been a favorite ship with me, it is not improbable i may return in her." he decided to sail in the ceres, however, to his sorrow, for the voyage home was a long and dreadful one. the record of those terrible fifty-eight days, carefully set down in his journal, reads like an odyssey of misfortune and almost of disaster. to us of the present day, who cross the ocean in a floating hotel, in a few days, arriving almost on the hour, the detailed account of the dangers, discomforts, and privations suffered by the travellers of an earlier period seems almost incredible. brave, indeed, were our fathers who went down to the sea in ships, for they never knew when, if ever, they would reach the other shore, and there could be no c.q.d. or s.o.s. flashed by wireless in the morse code to summon assistance in case of disaster. in this case storm succeeded storm; head winds were encountered almost all the way across; fine weather and fair winds were the exception, and provisions and fresh water were almost exhausted. the following quotations from the journal will give some idea of the terrors experienced by the young man, whose appointed time had not yet arrived. he still had work to do in the world which could be done by no other. "_monday, august , ._ after waiting fourteen days in liverpool for a fair wind, we set sail at three o'clock in the afternoon with the wind at southeast, in company with upwards of two hundred sail of vessels, which formed a delightful prospect. we gradually lost sight of different vessels as it approached night, and at sunset they were dispersed all over the horizon. in the night the wind sprung up strong and fair, and in the morning we were past holyhead. "_tuesday, d august._ wind directly ahead; beating all day; thick weather and gales of wind; passengers all sick and i not altogether well. little progress to-day. "_wednesday, d august._ a very disagreeable day, boisterous, head winds and rainy. beating across the channel from the irish to the welsh coast. * * * * * "_friday, th august._ dreadful still; blowing harder and harder; quite a storm and a lee shore; breakers in sight, tacked and stood over again to the irish shore under close-reefed topsails. at night saw waterford light again. * * * * * "_monday, th august._ a fair wind springing up (ten o'clock). going at the rate of seven knots on our true course. we have had just a week of the most disagreeable weather possible. i hope this is the beginning of better winds, and that, in reasonable time, we shall see our native shore. "_tuesday, th august._ still disappointed in fair winds.... since, then, i can find nothing consoling on deck, let us see what is in the cabin. all of us make six, four gentlemen and two ladies. mrs. phillips, mrs. drake, captain chamberlain, mr. bancroft, mr. lancaster, and myself. our amusements are eating and drinking, sleeping and backgammon. seasickness we have thrown overboard, and, all things considered, we try to enjoy ourselves and sometimes succeed. * * * * * "_thursday, st august._ wind as directly ahead as it can blow; squally all night and tremendous sea. what a contrast does this voyage make with my first. this day makes the tenth day out and we have advanced towards home about three hundred miles. in my last voyage, on the tenth day, we had accomplished one half our voyage, sixteen hundred miles. "_friday, st september._ dreadful weather; wind still ahead; foggy, rainy, and heavy swell; patience almost exhausted, but the will of heaven be done. if this weather is to continue i hope we shall have fortitude to bear it. all is for the best. "_saturday, th september._ nineteenth day out and not yet more than one third of our way to boston. oh! when shall we end this tedious passage? "_sunday, th september._ calm with dreadful sea. early this morning discovered a large ship to the southward, dismasted, probably in the late gale. discovered an unpleasant trait in our captain's character which i shall merely allude to. i am sorry to say he did not demonstrate that promptitude to assist a fellow creature in distress which i expected to find inherent in a seaman's breast, and especially in an american seaman's. it was not till after three or four hours' delay, and until the entreaties of his passengers and some threatening murmurs on my part of a public exposure in boston of his conduct, that he ordered the ship to bear down upon the wreck, and then with slackened sail and much grumbling. a ship and a brig were astern of us, and, though farther by some miles from the distressed ship than we were, they instantly bore down for her, and rendered her this evening the assistance we might have done at noon. we are now standing on our way with a fair wind springing up at southeast, which i suppose will last a few hours. spent the day in religious exercises, and was happy to observe on the part of the rest of the passengers a due regard for the solemnity of the day. "_monday, th september._ wind still ahead and the sky threatening.--ten o'clock. beginning to blow hard; taking in sails one after another.-- three o'clock. a perfect storm; the gale a few days ago but a gentle breeze to it.... i never witnessed so tremendous a gale; the wind blowing so that it can scarcely be faced; the sea like ink excepting the whiteness of the surge, which is carried into the air like clouds of dust, or like the driving of snow. the wind piping through our bare rigging sounds most terrific; indeed, it is a most awful sight. the sea in mountains breaking over our bows, and a single wave dispersing in mist through the violence of the storm; ship rolling to such a degree that we are compelled to keep our berths; cabin dark with the deadlights in. oh! who would go to sea when he can stay on shore! the wind in southwest driving us back again, so that we are losing all the advantages of our fair wind of yesterday, which lasted, as i supposed, two or three hours. * * * * * "_tuesday, th september._ gale abated, but head wind still.... "_wednesday, th september._ all last night a tremendous storm from northwest. "_thursday, th september._ the storm increased to a tremendous height last night. the clouds at sunset were terrific in the extreme, and, in the evening, still more so with lightning. the sea has risen frightfully and everything wears a most alarming aspect. at a.m. a squall struck us and laid us almost wholly under water; we came near losing our foremast.... none of us able to sleep from the dreadful noises; creakings and howlings and thousands of indescribable sounds. lord! who can endure the terror of thy storm!... yesterday's sea was as molehills to mountains compared with the sea to-day.... "_friday, th september._ the storm somewhat abated this morning, but still blowing hard from southwest.... twenty-four days out to-day. "_saturday, th september._ blowing a gale of wind from southwest. noon almost calm for half an hour, when, on a sudden, the wind shifted to the northeast, when it blew such a hurricane that every one on board declared they never saw its equal. for four hours it blew so hard that all the sea was in a perfect foam, and resembled a severe snowstorm more than a dry blow. if the wind roared before, it now shrilly whistled through our rigging." after some days of calm with winds sometimes favorable but light, and, when fresh, ahead, the journal continues:-- "_monday, th september._ another gale of wind last night, ahead, dreadful sea; took in sail and lay to all night.... beginning to think of our provisions; bread mouldy and little left; sugar, little left; fresh provisions, little left; beans, none left; salt pork, little left; salt beef, a plenty; water, plenty; stores of passengers, some gone and the rest drawing to a conclusion; patience drawing to a conclusion; in short all is falling short and drawing to a conclusion except _our voyage and my journal_.... "_tuesday, th september._... find our captain to be a complete old woman; takes in sail at night and never knows when to set it again; the longer we know him, the more surly he grows; he is not even civil.... several large turtles passed within a few feet of us yesterday and to-day, and, considering we are near the end of our provisions, one would have thought our captain would be anxious to take them; but no, it was too much trouble to lower the boat from the stern. * * * * * "_friday, th september._ last night another dreadful gale, as severe as any since we have been out. * * * * * "_monday, d october._ last night another gale of wind from northwest and is this morning still blowing hard and cold from the same quarter. what a dreadful passage is ours; we seem destined to have no fair wind, and to have a gale of wind every other day. "_saturday, th october._ wind still ahead and blowing hard; very cold and dismal. oh! when shall we see home!... i thought i could observe a kind of warfare between the different winds since we have been at sea. the west wind seems to be the tyrant at present, as it were the bonaparte of the air. he has been blowing his gales very lavishly, and no other wind has been able to check him with any success. "i recollect on one day, while it was calm, a thick bank of clouds began to rise in the northeast; no other clouds were in the sky. they rose gently in the calm as if fearful of rousing their deadly foe in the west. now they had gained one third of the heavens when, behold, in the southwest another bank of thick black clouds came rolling up, and, reddening in the rays of the setting sun, marched on, teeming with fury. they soon gained the middle of the heavens where the frightened northeast had not yet reached. they met, they mixed, the routed northeast skulked back, while the thick column of the southwest, having driven back its enemy, slowly returned to its repose, proudly displaying a thousand various colors, as if for victory. "at another time success seemed to be more in favor of the northeast; for, shortly after this great defeat, the southwest came forth and, like a petty tyrant intoxicated with success, began to oppress the subject ocean. it blew its gales and filled the air with clouds and rain and fog. suddenly the northeast, as under cover of the darkness, and as one driven to desperation, burst forth on its too confident enemy with redoubled fury. old ocean groans at the dreadful conflict; for, as in the warring of two hostile armies on the domains of a neutral, the neutral suffers most severely, so the neutral ocean seemed doomed to bear the weight of all their rancor. the southwest flies affrighted. and now the northeast, vaunting forth, stalks with the rage of an angry demon over the waters; the ocean foams beneath his breath, it steams and smokes and heaves in agony its troubled bosom. "but, alas! how few can bear prosperity; how few, when victory crowns their efforts, can rule with moderation; how often, does it happen that we reënact the same scenes for which we punished our enemy. for now has the northeast become the tyrant and rules with tenfold rigor; he pours forth all his strength and, drunk with success as soldiers after a victory, at length sinks away into an inglorious calm. "now does the southwest collect his routed forces, checked but not conquered; he again advances on his recreant foe and seizes the vacant throne without a struggle. ill-fated northeast! hadst thou but ruled with moderation when thou hadst gained, with masterly manoeuvre, the throne of the air; hadst thou reserved thy forces against surprise, and not, with prodigal profuseness, lavished them on thy harmless subjects, thou hadst still been monarch of the sea and air; all would have blessed thee as the restorer of peace, and as the deliverer of the ocean from western despotism. but alas! how art thou fallen an everlasting example of overreaching oppression. "this evening there is a fine fair wind from northeast carrying us on at the rate of five or six knots. this is the cause of the foregoing rhapsody. had it been otherwise than a fair wind i should never have been in spirits to have written so much stuff." still tantalized by baffling head winds and alternating calms and gales, they were, however, gradually approaching the coast. omitting the entries of the next eleven days, i shall quote the final pages of the journal. "_wednesday, th october._ last night was a sleepless night to us all. everything wore the appearance of a hard storm; all was dull in the cabin; scarce a word was spoken; every one wore a serious aspect and, as any one came from the deck into the cabin, the rest put up an inquisitive and apprehensive look, with now and then a faint, 'well, how does it look now?' our captain, as well as the passenger captain, were both alarmed, and were poring over the chart in deep deliberation. a syllable was now and then caught from them, but all seemed despairing. "at ten o'clock we lay to till twelve; at four again till five. rainy, thick, and hazy, but not blowing very hard. all is dull and dismal; a dreadful state of suspense, between feelings of exquisite joy in the hope of soon seeing home, and feelings of gloomy apprehension that a few hours may doom us to destruction. "_half-past seven._... heaven be praised! the joyful tidings are just announced of _land!!_ oh! who can conceive our feelings now? the wretch condemned to the scaffold, who receives, at the moment he expects to die, the joyful reprieve, he can best conceive the state of our minds. "the land is cape cod, distant about ten miles. joyful, joyful is the thought. to-night we shall, in all probability, be in boston. we are going at the rate of seven knots. "_half-past ._ manomet land in sight. "_ten o'clock._ cape ann in sight. "_eleven o'clock._ boston light in sight. "_one o'clock._ home!!!" [illustration: on board the ship ceres boston harbour my dear parents, thanks to a kind providence who has preserved me through all dangers, i have at length arrived in my native land. i send this just to prepare you, i shall be with you as soon as i can possibly get on shore. we have had days passage long, boisterous, and dangerous, but more when i see you. pray tell me by the bearer if i shall find all well. your very affectionate son, samuel b. morse october , ] chapter x april , --october , very little success at home.--portrait of ex-president john adams.-- letter to allston on sale of his "dead man restored to life."--also apologizes for hasty temper.--reassured by allston.--humorous letter from leslie.--goes to new hampshire to paint portraits.--concord.--meets miss lucretia walker.--letters to his parents concerning her.--his parents reply.--engaged to miss walker.--his parents approve.--many portraits painted.--miss walker's parents consent.--success in portsmouth.--morse and his brother invent a pump.--highly endorsed by president day and eli whitney.--miss walker visits charlestown.--morse's religious convictions.--more success in new hampshire.--winter in charleston, south carolina.--john a. alston.--success.--returns north.--letter from his uncle dr. finley.--marriage. there is no record of the meeting of the parents and the long-absent son, but it is easy to picture the joy of that occasion, and to imagine the many heart-to-heart conversations when all differences, political and otherwise, were smoothed over. he remained at home that winter, but seems to have met with but slight success in his profession. his "judgment of jupiter" was much admired, but found no purchaser, nor did he receive any commissions for such large historical paintings as it was his ambition to produce. he was asked by a certain mr. joseph delaplaine, of philadelphia, to paint a portrait of ex-president john adams for _half_ price, the portrait to be engraved and included in "delaplaine's repository of the lives and portraits of distinguished american characters," and, from letters of a later date, i believe that morse consented to this. it appears that he must also have received but few, if any, orders for portraits, for, in the following summer, he started on a painting tour through new hampshire, which proved to be of great moment to him in more ways than one. before we follow him on that tour, however, i shall quote from a letter written by him to his friend washington allston:-- boston, april , . my dear sir,--i have but one moment to write you by a vessel which sails to-morrow morning. i wrote leslie by new packet some months since and am hourly expecting an answer. i congratulate you, my dear sir, on the sale of your picture of the "dead man." i suppose you will have received notice, before this reaches you, that the philadelphia academy of arts have purchased it for the sum of thirty-five hundred dollars. bravo for our country! i am sincerely rejoiced for you and for the disposition which it shows of future encouragement. i really think the time is not far distant when we shall be able to settle in our native land with profit as well as pleasure. boston seems struggling in labor to bring forth an institution for the arts, but it will miscarry; i find it is all forced. they can talk, and talk, and say what a fine thing it would be, but nothing is done. i find by experience that what you have often observed to me with respect to settling in boston is well founded. i think it will be the last in the arts, though, without doubt, it is capable of being the first, if the fit would only take them. oh! how i miss you, my dear sir. i long to spend my evenings again with you and leslie. i shall certainly visit italy (should i live and no unforeseen event take place) in the course of a year or eighteen months. could there not be some arrangement made to meet you and leslie there? he lived, but the "unforeseen event" occurred to make him alter all his plans. further on in this same letter he says:-- "my conscience accuses me, and hardly too, of many instances of pettishness and ill-humor towards you, which make me almost hate myself that i could offend a temper like yours. i need not ask you to forgive it; i know you cannot harbor anger a minute, and perhaps have forgotten the instances; but i cannot forget them. if you had failings of the same kind and i could recollect any instances where you had spoken pettishly or ill-natured to me, our accounts would then have been balanced, they would have called for mutual forgetfulness and forgiveness; but when, on reflection, i find nothing of the kind to charge you with, my conscience severely upbraids me with ingratitude to you, to whom (under heaven) i owe all the little knowledge of my art which i possess. but i hope still i shall prove grateful to you; at any rate, i feel my errors and must mend them." mr. allston thus answers this frank appeal for forgiveness:-- my dear sir,--i will not apologize for having so long delayed answering your kind letter, being, as you well know, privileged by my friends to be a lazy correspondent. i was sorry to find that you should have suffered the recollection of any hasty expressions you might have uttered to give you uneasiness. be assured that they never were remembered by me a moment after, nor did they ever in the slightest degree diminish my regard or weaken my confidence in the sincerity of your friendship or the goodness of your heart. besides, the consciousness of warmth in my own temper would have made me inexcusable had i suffered myself to dwell on an inadvertent word from another. i therefore beg you will no longer suffer any such unpleasant reflections to disturb your mind, but that you will rest assured of my unaltered and sincere esteem. your letter and one i had about the same time from my sister mary brought the first intelligence of the sale of my picture, it being near three weeks later when i received the account from philadelphia. when you recollect that i considered the "dead man" (from the untoward fate he had hitherto experienced) almost literally as a _caput mortuum_, you may easily believe that i was most agreeably surprised to hear of the sale. but, pleased as i was on account of the very seasonable pecuniary supply it would soon afford me, i must say that i was still more gratified at the encouragement it seemed to hold out for my return to america. his friend leslie, in a letter from london of may , , writes: "mr. west said your picture would have been more likely than any of them to obtain the prize had you remained." in another letter from leslie of september , , occurs this amusing passage:-- "the _catalogue raisonné_ appeared according to promise, but is not near so good as the one last year. at the conclusion the author says that mr. payne knight told the directors it was the custom of the greek nobility to strip and exhibit themselves naked to the artists in various attitudes, that they might have an opportunity of studying fine form. accordingly those public-spirited men, the directors, have determined to adopt the plan, and are all practising like mad to prepare themselves for the ensuing exhibition, when they are to be placed on pedestals. "it is supposed that sir g. beaumont, mr. long, mr. knight, etc., will occupy the principal lights. the marquis of stafford, unfortunately, could not recollect the attitude of any one antique figure, but was found practising having the head of the dying gladiator, the body of the hercules, one leg of the apollo, and the other of the dancing faun, turned the wrong way. lord mulgrave, having a small head, thought of representing the torso, but he did not know what to do with his legs, and was afraid that, as master of the ordnance, he could not dispense with his _arms_." in the beginning of august, , the young man started out on his quest for money. this was frankly the object of his journey, but it was characteristic of his buoyant and yet conscientious nature that, having once made up his mind to give up, for the present, all thoughts of pursuing the higher branches of his art, he took up with zest the painting of portraits. so far from degrading his art by pursuing a branch of it which he held to be inferior, he still, by conscientious work, by putting the best of himself into it, raised it to a very high plane; for many of his portraits are now held by competent critics to rank high in the annals of art, by some being placed on a level with those of gilbert stuart. on august , , he writes to his parents from concord, new hampshire:-- "i have been in this place since monday evening. i arrived safely.... massabesek pond is very beautiful, though seen on a dull day. i think that one or two elegant views might be made from it, and i think i must sketch it at some future period. "i have as yet met with no success in portraits, but hope, by perseverance, i shall be able to find some. my stay in this place depends on that circumstance. if none offer, i shall go for hanover on saturday morning. "the scenery is very fine on the merrimack; many fine pictures could be made here alone. i made a little sketch near contoocook falls yesterday. i go this morning with dr. mcfarland to see some views. colonel kent's family are very polite to me, and i never felt in better spirits; the weather is now fine and i feel as though i was growing fat." concord, august , . i am still here and am passing my time very agreeably. i have painted five portraits at fifteen dollars each and have two more engaged and many more talked of. i think i shall get along well. i believe i could make an independent fortune in a few years if i devoted myself exclusively to portraits, so great is the desire for good portraits in the different country towns. he must have been a very rapid worker to have painted five portraits in eight days; but, perhaps, on account of the very modest price he received, these were more in the nature of quick sketches. the next letter is rather startling when we recall his recent assertions concerning "mrs. love" and the joys of a bachelor existence. concord, august , . my dear parents,--i write you a few lines just to say i am well and very industrious. next day after to-morrow i shall have received one hundred dollars, which i think is pretty well for three weeks. i shall probably stay here a fortnight from yesterday. i have other attractions besides money in this place. do you know the walkers of this place? charles walker esq., son of judge walker, has two daughters, the elder, very beautiful, amiable, and of an excellent disposition. this is her character in town. i have enquired particularly of dr. mcfarland respecting the family, and his answer is every way satisfactory, except that they are not professors of religion. he is a man of family and great wealth. this last, you know, i never made a principal object, but it is somewhat satisfactory to know that in my profession. i may flatter myself, but i think i might be a successful suitor. you will, perhaps, think me a terrible harum-scarum fellow to be continually falling in love in this way, but i have a dread of being an old bachelor, and i am now twenty-five years of age. there is still no need of hurry; the young lady is but sixteen. but all this is thinking aloud to you; i make you my confidants; i wish your advice; nothing shall be done precipitately. of course all that i say is between you and me, for it all may come to nothing; i have _some experience_ that way. what i have done i have done prayerfully. i have prayed to the giver of every good gift that he will direct me in this business; that, if it will not be to his glory and the good of his kingdom, he will frustrate all; that, if he grants me prosperity, he will grant me a heart to use it aright; and, if adversity, that he will teach me submission to his will; and that, whatever may be my lot here, i may not fall short of eternal happiness hereafter. i hope you will remember me in your prayers, and especially in reference to a connection in life. i do not think that his parents took this matter very seriously at first. his was an intensely affectionate nature, and they had often heard these same raptures before. however, like wise parents, they did not scoff. his mother wrote on august , , in answer: "with respect to the other confidential matter, i hope the lord will direct you to a proper choice. we know nothing of the family, good or bad. we do not wish you to be an old bachelor, nor do we wish you to precipitate yourself and others into difficulties which you cannot get rid of." in the same letter his father says: "in regard to the subject on which you ask our advice, we refer it, after the experience you have had, and with the advice you have often had from us, to your own judgment. be not hasty in entering into any engagement; enquire with caution and delicacy; do everything that is honorable and gentlemanly respecting yourself and those concerned. 'pause, ponder, sift.--judge before friendship--then confide till death.' (young.) above all, commit the subject to god in prayer and ask his guidance and blessing. i am glad to find you are doing this." how well he obeyed his father's injunctions may be gathered from the following letter, which speaks for itself:-- concord, september , . my dear parents,--i have just received yours of august . i leave town to-morrow morning, probably for hanover, as there is no conveyance direct to walpole. i have had no more portraits since i wrote you, so that i have received just one hundred dollars in concord. the last i took for ten dollars, as the person i painted obtained four of my sitters for me.... with respect to the confidential affair, everything is successful beyond my most sanguine expectations. the more i know of her the more amiable she appears. she is very beautiful and yet no coquetry; she is modest, quite to diffidence, and yet frank and open-hearted. wherever i have enquired concerning her i have invariably heard the same character of--"remarkably amiable, modest, and of a sweet disposition." when you learn that this is the case i think you will not accuse me of being hasty in bringing the affair to a crisis. i ventured to tell her my whole heart, and instead of obscure and ambiguous answers, which some would have given to tantalize and pain one, she frankly, but modestly and timidly, told me it was mutual. suffice it to say we are _engaged_. if i know my parents i know they will be pleased with this amiable girl. unless i was confident of it, i should never have been so hasty. i have not yet mentioned it to her parents; she requested me to defer it till next summer, or till i see her again, lest she should be thought hasty. she is but sixteen and is willing to wait two or three years if it is for our mutual interest. never, never was a human being so blest as i am, and yet what an ungrateful wretch i have been. pray for me that i may have a grateful heart, for i deserve nothing but adversity, and yet have the most unbounded prosperity. the father replies to this characteristic letter on september , :-- "i have just received yours of the d inst. its contents were deeply interesting to us, as you will readily suppose. it accounts to us why you have made so long a stay at concord.... so far as we can judge from your representations (which are all we have to judge from), we cannot refuse you our approbation, and we hope that the course, on which you have entered with your characteristic rapidity and decision, will be pursued and issue in a manner which will conduce to the happiness of all concerned.... "we think _her_ parents should be made acquainted with the state of the business, as she is so young and the thing so important to them." the son answers this letter, from walpole, new hampshire, on september , , thus naively: "you think the parents of the young lady should be made acquainted with the state of the business. i feel some degree of awkwardness as it respects that part of the affair; i don't know the manner in which it ought to be done. i wish you would have the goodness to write me immediately (at walpole, to care of thomas bellows, esq.) and inform me what i should say. might i communicate the information by writing?" here he gives a detailed account of the family, and, for the first time, mentions the young lady's name--lucretia pickering walker--and continues:-- "you ask how the family have treated me. they are all aware of the attachment between us, for i have made my attention so open and so marked that they all must have perceived it. i know that lucretia must have had some conversation with her mother on the subject, for she told me one day, when i asked her what her mother thought of my constant visits, that her mother said she 'didn't think i cared much about her,' in a pleasant way. all the family have been extremely polite and attentive to me; i received constant invitations to dinner and tea, indeed every encouragement was given me.... "i painted two hasty sketches of scenery in concord. i meet with no success in walpole. _quacks_ have been before me." there is always a touch of quaint, dry humor in his mother's letters in spite of their great seriousness, as witness the following extracts from a letter of september , :-- "we hope you will feel more than ever the absolute necessity laid upon you to procure for yourself and those you love a maintenance, as neither of you can subsist long upon air.... remember it takes a great many hundred dollars to _make_ and to _keep_ the pot a-boiling. "i wish to see the young lady who has captivated you so much. i hope she loves religion, and that, if you and she form a connection for life, some _five or six years hence_, you may go hand in hand to that better world where they neither marry nor are given in marriage.... "you have not given us any satisfaction in respect to many things about the young lady which you ought to suppose we should be anxious to know. all you have told us is that she is handsome and amiable. these are good as far as they go, but there are a great many etcs., etcs., that we want to know. "is she acquainted with domestic affairs? does she respect and love religion? how many brothers and sisters has she? how old are they? is she healthy? how old are her parents? what will they be likely to do for her some years hence, say when she is twenty years old? "in your next answer at least some of these questions. you see your mother has not lived twenty-seven years in new england without learning to ask questions." these questions he had already answered in a letter which must have crossed his mother's. on september , , he writes from windsor, vermont:-- "i am still here but shall probably leave in a week or two. i long to get home, or, at least, as far on my way as _concord_. i think i shall be tempted to stay a week or two there.... i do not like windsor very much. it is a very dissipated place, and dissipation, too, of the lowest sort. there is very little gentleman's society." windsor, vermont, september , . i am still in this place.... i have written lucretia on the subject of acquainting her parents, and i have no doubt she will assent.... i hear her spoken of in this part of the country as very celebrated, both for her beauty and, particularly, for her disposition; and this i have heard without there being the slightest suspicion of any attachment, or even acquaintance, between us. this augurs well most certainly. i know she is considered in concord as the first girl in the place. (you know i always aimed highest.) the more i think of this attachment the more i think i shall not regret the _haste_ (if it may be so called) of this proposed connection.... i am doing pretty well in this place, better than i expected; i have one more portrait to do before i leave it.... i should have business, i presume, to last me some weeks if i could stay, but i long to get home _through concord_.... mama's scheme of painting a large landscape and selling it to general bradley for two hundred dollars, must give place to another which has just come into my head: that of sending to you for my great canvas and painting the quarrel at dartmouth college, as large as life, with all the portraits of the trustees, overseers, officers of college, and students; and, if i finish it next week, to ask five thousand dollars for it and then come home in a coach and six and put ned to the blush with his nineteen subscribers a day. only think, $ a week is $ , a year, and, if i live ten years, i shall be worth $ , , ; a very pretty fortune for this time of day. is it not a grand scheme? the remark concerning his brother sidney edwards's subscribers refers to a religious newspaper, the "boston recorder," founded and edited by him. it was one of the first of the many religious journals which, since that time, have multiplied all over the country. continuing his modestly successful progress, he writes next from hanover, on october , :-- "i arrived in this place on tuesday evening and am painting away with all my might. i am painting judge woodward and lady, and think i shall have many more engaged than i can do. i painted seven portraits at windsor, one for my board and lodging at the inn, and one for ten dollars, very small, to be sent in a letter to a great distance; so that in all i received eighty-five dollars in money. i have five more engaged at windsor for next summer. so you see i have not been idle. "i _must_ spend a fortnight at concord, so that i shall not probably be at home till early in november. "i think, with proper management, that i have but little to fear as to this world. i think i can, with industry, average from two to three thousand dollars a year, which is a tolerable income, though _not equal to_ $ , , !" concord, october , . i arrived here on friday evening in good health and spirits from hanover. i painted four portraits altogether in hanover, and have many engaged for next summer. i presume i shall paint some here, though i am uncertain. i found lucretia in good health, very glad to see me. she improves on acquaintance; she is, indeed, a most amiable, affectionate girl; i know you will love her. she has consented that i should inform her parents of our attachment. i have, accordingly, just sent a letter to her father (twelve o'clock), and am now in a state of suspense anxiously waiting his answer. before i close this, i hope to give you the result. _five o'clock._ i have just called and had a conversation (by request) with mr. walker, and i have the satisfaction to say: "i have lucretia's parents' entire approbation." everything successful! praise be to the giver of every good gift! what, indeed, shall i render to him for all his unmerited and continually increasing mercies and blessings? in a letter to miss walker from a girl friend we find the following:-- "you appear to think, dear lucretia, that i am possessed of quite an insensible _heart_; pardon me if i say the same of you, for i have heard that several have become candidates for your affections, but that you remained unmoved until mr. m., of charlestown, made his appearance, when, i understand, you did hope that his sentiments in your favor were reciprocal. "i rejoice to hear this, for, though i am unacquainted with that gentleman, yet, when i heard he was likely to become a successful suitor, i have made some enquiries concerning him, and find he is possessed of every excellent and amiable quality that i should wish the person to have who was to become the husband of so dear a friend as yourself." morse must have returned home about the end of october, for we find no more letters until the th of december, when he writes from portsmouth, new hampshire:-- "i should have written you sooner but i have been employed in settling myself. i thought it best not to be precipitate in fixing on a place to board and lodge, but first to sound the public as to my success. every one thinks i shall meet with encouragement, and, on the strength of this, i have taken lodgings and a room at mrs. hinge's in jaffrey street; a very excellent and central situation.... i shall commence on monday morning with governor langdon's portrait. he is very kind and attentive to me, as, indeed, are all here, and will do everything to aid me. i wish not to raise high expectations, but i think i shall succeed tolerably well." about this time finley morse and his brother edwards had jointly devised and patented a new "flexible piston-pump," from which they hoped great things. edwards, always more or less of a wag, proposed to call it "morse's patent metallic double-headed ocean-drinker and deluge-spouter valve pump-boxes." it was to be used in connection with fire-engines, and seems really to have been an excellent invention, for president jeremiah day, of yale college, gave the young inventors his written endorsement, and eli whitney, the inventor of the cotton-gin, thus recommends it: "having examined the model of a fire-engine invented by mr. morse, with pistons of a new construction, i am of opinion that an engine may be made on that principle (being more simple and much less expensive), which would have a preference to those in common use." in the letters of the year and of several following years, even in the letters of the young man to his _fiancée,_ many long references are made to this pump and to the varying success in introducing it into general use. i shall not, however, refer to it again, and only mention it to show the bent of morse's mind towards invention. he spent some time in the early part of in portsmouth, new hampshire, meeting with success in his profession. miss walker was also there visiting friends, so we may presume that his stay was pleasant as well as profitable. in february of that year he accompanied his _fiancée_ to charlestown, his parents, naturally, wishing to make the acquaintance of the young lady, and then returned to portsmouth to finish his work there. the visit of miss walker to charlestown gave great satisfaction to all concerned. on march , , morse writes to his parents from portsmouth: "i am under the agreeable necessity (shall i say) of postponing my return ... in consequence of a _press of business_. i shall have three begun to-night; one sat yesterday (a large one), and two will sit to-day (small), and three more have it in serious contemplation. this unexpected occurrence will deprive me of the pleasure of seeing you this week at least." and on the next day, march , he writes: "the unexpected application of three sitters at a time completely stopped me. since i wrote i have taken a first sitting of a fourth (large), and a fifth (large) sits on friday morning; so you see i am over head and ears in business." as it is necessary to a clear understanding of morse's character to realize the depth of his religious convictions, i shall quote the following from this same letter of march :-- "i wish much to know the progress of the revival, how many are admitted next communion, and any religious news. "i have been in the house almost ever since i came from home sifting the scheme of universal salvation to the bottom. what occasioned this was an occurrence on the evening of sunday before last. i heard the bell ring for lecture and concluded it was at mr. putnam's; i accordingly sallied out to go to it, when i found that it was in the universalist meeting-house. "as i was out and never in a universalist meeting, i thought, for mere curiosity, i would go in. i went into a very large meeting-house; the meeting was overflowing with people of both sexes, and the singing the finest i have heard in portsmouth. i was struck with the contrast it made to mr. putnam's sacramental lecture; fifteen or sixteen persons thinly scattered over the house, and the choir consisting of four or five whose united voice could scarcely be heard in the farthest corner of the church, and, when heard, so out of harmony as to set one's teeth on edge. "the reflections which this melancholy contrast caused i could not help communicating to mr. putnam in the words of mr. spring's sermon, '_something must be done_.' he agreed it was a dreadful state of society here but almost gave up as hopeless. i told him he never should yield a post like this to the devil without a struggle; and, at any rate, i told him that the few christians that there were (and, indeed, they are but as one to one thousand) could pray, and i thought it was high time. i told him i would do all in my power to assist him in any scheme where i could be of use." the year was spent by the young man in executing the commissions which had been promised him the year before in new hampshire. in all his journeyings back and forth the road invariably led through concord, and the pure love of the young people for each other increased as the months rolled by. i shall not profane the sacredness of this love by introducing any of the more intimate passages of their letters of this and of later years. the young girl responded readily to the religious exhortations of her _fiancé_ and became a sincere and devout christian. it will not be necessary to follow him in this journey, as the experiences were but a repetition of those of the year before. he painted many portraits in concord, hanover, and other places, and finally concluded to venture on a trip to charleston, south carolina, where his kinsman, dr. finley, and mr. john a. alston had urged him to come, assuring him good business. on january , , he arrived in that beautiful southern city and thus announced his arrival to his parents: "i find myself in a new climate, the weather warm as our may. i have been introduced to a number of friends. i think my prospects are favorable." at first, however, the promised success did not materialize, and it was not until after many weeks of waiting that the tide turned. but it did turn, for an excellent portrait of dr. finley, one of the best ever painted by morse, aroused the enthusiasm of the charlestonians, and orders began to pour in, so that in a few weeks he was engaged to paint one hundred and fifty portraits at sixty dollars each. quite an advance over the meagre fifteen dollars he had received in new england. but for some of his more elaborate productions he received even more, as the following extract from a letter of mr. john a. alston, dated april , , will prove:-- "i have just received your favor of the th ultimo, and thank you very cordially for your goodness in consenting to take my daughter's full-length likeness in the manner i described, say twenty-four inches in length. i will pay you most willingly the two hundred dollars you require for it, and will consider myself a gainer by the bargain. i shall expect you to decorate this picture with the most superb landscape you are capable of designing, and that you will produce a masterpiece of painting. i agree to your taking it with you to the northward to finish it. be pleased to represent my daughter in the finest attitude you can conceive." mr. alston was a generous patron and paid the young artist liberally for the portraits of his children. in recognition of this morse presented him with his most ambitious painting, "the judgment of jupiter." mr. alston prized this picture highly during his lifetime, but after his death it was sold and for many years was lost sight of. it was purchased long afterwards in england by an american gentleman, who, not knowing who the painter was, gave it to a niece of morse's, mrs. parmalee, and it is still, i believe, in the possession of the family. while he was in charleston his father wrote to him of the dangerous illness of his mother with what he called a "peripneumony," which, from the description, must have been the term used in those days for pneumonia. her life was spared, however, and she lived for many years after this. in june of the year , morse returned to the north and spent the summer in completing such portraits as he had carried with him in an unfinished state, and in painting such others as he could procure commissions for. he planned to return to charleston in the following year, but this time with a young wife to accompany him. his uncle, dr. finley, writing to him on june , says:-- "your letter of d instant, conveying the pleasing intelligence of your safe and very short passage and happy meeting with your affectionate parents at your own home, came safe to hand in due time.... and so lucretia was expected and you intended to surprise her by your unlooked-for presence. "finley, i am afraid you will be too happy. you ought to meet a little rub or two or you will be too much in the clouds and forget that you are among mortals. let me see if i cannot give you a friendly twist downwards. "your pictures--aye--suppose i should speak of them and what is said of them during your absence. i will perform the office of him who was placed near the triumphal car of the conqueror to abuse him lest he should be too elated. "well--'his pictures,' say people, 'are undoubtedly good likenesses, but he paints carelessly and in too much haste and his draperies are not well done. he must be more attentive or he will lose his reputation.' 'see,' say others, 'how he flatters.' 'oh!' says another, 'he has not flattered me'; etc., etc. "by the bye, i saw old general c.c. pinckney yesterday, and he told me, in his laughing, humorous way, that he had requested you to draw his brother thomas twenty years younger than he really was, so as to be a companion to his own when he was twenty years younger than at this time, and to flatter him as he had directed stuart to do so to him." morse had now abandoned his idea of soon returning to europe; he renounced, for the present, his ambition to devote himself to the painting of great historical pictures, and threw himself with enthusiasm into the painting of portraits. he had an added incentive, for he wished to marry at once, and his parents and those of his _fiancée_ agreed that it would be wise for the young people to make the venture. everything seemed to presage success in life, at least in a modest way, to the young couple. on the th of october, , the following notice appeared in the new hampshire "patriot," of concord: "married in this town, october st, by rev. dr. mcfarland, mr. samuel f.b. morse (the celebrated painter) to miss lucretia walker, daughter of charles walker, esq." on the th of october the young man writes to his parents:-- "i was married, as i wrote you i should be, on tuesday morning last. we set out at nine o'clock and reached amherst over bad roads at night. the next day we continued our journey through wilton to new ipswich, eighteen miles over one of the worst roads i ever travelled, all uphill and down and very rocky, and no tavern on the road. we enquired at new ipswich our best route to northampton, where we intended to go to meet mr. and mrs. cornelius, but we found on enquiry that there were nothing but cross-roads and these very bad, and no taverns where we could be comfortably accommodated. our horse also was tired, so we thought our best way was to return. accordingly the next day we started for concord, and arrived on friday evening safe home again. "lucretia wishes to spend this week with her friends, so that i shall return (providence permitting) on this day week, and reach home by tuesday noon, probably to dinner. we are both well and send a great deal of love to you all. mr. and mrs. walker wish me to present their best respects to you. we had delightful weather for travelling, and got home just in season to escape saturday's rain." chapter xi november , --march , . morse and his wife go to charleston, south carolina.--hospitably entertained and many portraits painted.--congratulates allston on his election to the royal academy.--receives commission to paint president monroe.--trouble in the parish at charlestown.--morse urges his parents to leave and come to charleston.--letters of john a. alston.--return to the north.--birth of his first child.--dr. morse and his family decide to move to new haven.--morse goes to washington.--paints the president under difficulties.--hospitalities.--death of his grandfather.--dr. morse appointed indian commissioner.--marriage of morse's future mother-in-law. --charleston again.--continued success.--letters to mrs. ball.-- liberality of mr. alston.--spends the summer in new haven.--returns to charleston, but meets with poor success.--assists in founding academy of arts, which has but a short life.--goes north again. the young couple decided to spend the winter in charleston, south carolina, where morse had won a reputation the previous winter as an excellent portrait-painter, and where much good business awaited him. the following letter was written to his parents:-- schooner tontine, at anchor off charleston lighthouse, thursday, november , , o'clock p.m. we have arrived thus far on our voyage safely through the kind protection of providence. we have had a very rough passage attended with many dangers and more fears, but have graciously been delivered from them all. it is seven days since we left new york. if you recollect that was the time of my last passage in this same vessel. she is an excellent vessel and has the best captain and accommodations in the trade. lucretia was a little seasick in the roughest times, but, on the whole, bore the voyage extremely well. she seems a little downcast this afternoon in consequence of feeling as if she was going among strangers, but i tell her she will overcome it in ten minutes' interview with uncle and aunt finley and family. she is otherwise very well and sends a great deal of love to you all. please let mr. and mrs. walker know of our arrival as soon as may be. i will leave the remainder of this until i get up to town. we hope to go up when the tide changes in about an hour. friday morning, th, at uncle finley's. we are safely housed under the hospitable roof of uncle finley, where they received us, as you might expect, with open arms. he has provided lodgings for us at ten dollars per week. i have not yet seen them; shall go directly. i received a letter from richard at savannah; he writes in fine spirits and feels quite delighted with the hospitable people of the south. this refers to his brother richard carey morse, who was still pursuing his theological studies. the visit of the young couple to charleston was a most enjoyable one, and the artist found many patrons eager to be immortalized by his brush. on december , , he writes to his parents:-- "lucretia is well and contented. she makes many friends and we receive as much attention from the hospitable carolinians as we can possibly attend to. she is esteemed quite handsome here; she has grown quite fleshy and healthy, and we are as happy in each other as you can possibly wish us. "there are several painters arrived from new york, but i fear no competition; i have as much as i can do." as a chronicle of fair weather, favorable winds, and blue skies is apt to grow monotonous, i shall pass rapidly over the next few years, only selecting from the voluminous correspondence of that period a few extracts which have more than a passing interest. on february , , he writes to his friend and master, washington allston, who had now returned to boston:-- "excuse my neglect in not having written you before this according to my promise before i left boston. i can only plead as apology (what i know will gratify you) a multiplicity of business. i am painting from morning till night and have continual applications. i have added to my list, this season only, to the amount of three thousand dollars; that is since i left you. among them are three full lengths to be finished at the north, i hope in boston, where i shall once more enjoy your criticisms. "i am exerting my utmost to improve; every picture i try to make my best, and in the evening i draw two hours from the antique as i did in london; for i ought to inform you that i fortunately found a fine 'venus de medicis' without a blemish, imported from paris sometime since by a gentleman of this city who wished to dispose of it; also a young apollo which was so broken that he gave it to me, saying it was useless. i have, however, after a great deal of trouble, put it together entirely, and these two figures, with some fragments,--hands, feet, etc.,--make a good academy. mr. fraser, mr. cogdell, mr. fisher, of boston, and myself meet here of an evening to improve ourselves. i feel as much enthusiasm as ever in my art and love it more than ever. a few years, at the rate i am now going on, will place me independent of public patronage. "thus much for myself, for you told me in one of your letters from london that i must be more of an egotist or you should be less of one in your letters to me, which i should greatly regret. "and now, permit me, my dear sir, to congratulate you on your election to the royal academy. i know you will believe me when i say i jumped for joy when i heard it. though it cannot add to your merit, yet it will extend the knowledge of it, especially in our own country, where we are still influenced by foreign opinion, and more justly, perhaps, in regard to taste in the fine arts than in any other thing." on march , , the common council of charleston passed the following resolution:-- "resolved unanimously that his honor the intendant be requested to solicit james monroe, president of the united states, to permit a full-length likeness to be taken for the city of charleston, and that mr. morse be requested to take all necessary measures for executing the said likeness on the visit of the president to this city. "resolved unanimously that the sum of seven hundred and fifty dollars be appropriated for this purpose. "extract from the minutes. "william roach, jr., "clerk of council." this portrait of president monroe was completed later on and still hangs in the city hall of charleston. i shall have occasion to refer to it again. morse, in a letter to his parents of march , , says:-- "two of your letters have been lately received detailing the state of the parish and church. i cannot say i was surprised, for it is what might be expected from charlestown people.... as to returning home in the way i mentioned mama need not be at all uneasy on that score. it is necessary i should visit washington, as the president will stay so short a time here that i cannot complete the head unless i see him in washington.... now as to the parish and church business, i hope all things will turn out right yet, and i can't help wishing that nothing may occur to keep you any longer in that nest of vipers and conspirators. i think with edwards decidedly that, on mama's account alone, you should leave a place which is full of the most unpleasant associations to all the family, and retire to some place of quiet to enjoy your old age. "why not come to charleston? here is a fine place for usefulness, a pleasant climate especially for persons advanced in life, and your children here; for i think seriously of settling in charleston. lucretia is willing, and i think it will be much for my advantage to remain through the year. richard can find a place here if he will, and edwards can come on and be _bishop_ or _president_ or _professor_ in some of the colleges (for i can't think of him in a less character) after he has graduated. "i wish seriously you would think of this. your friends here would greatly rejoice and an opening could be found, i have no doubt. christians want their hands strengthened, and a veteran soldier, like papa, might be of great service here in the infancy of the _unitarian hydra_, who finds a population too well adapted to receive and cherish its easy and fascinating tenets." all this refers to a movement organized by the enemies of dr. morse to oust him from his parish in charlestown. he was a militant fighter for orthodoxy and an uncompromising foe to unitarianism, which was gradually obtaining the ascendancy in and near boston. the movement was finally successful, as we shall see later, but they did not go as far from their old haunts as charleston. i shall not attempt to argue the rights and wrongs of the case, which seem to have been rather complicated, for dr. morse, more than a year after this, in writing to a friend says: "the events of the last fifteen months are still involved in impenetrable mystery, which i doubt not will be unravelled in due time." the winter and spring of were spent by the young couple both pleasantly and profitably in charleston. the best society of that charming city opened its arms to them and orders flowed in in a steady stream. mr. john a. alston was a most generous patron, ordering many portraits of his children and friends, and sometimes insisting on paying the young man even more than the price agreed upon. in a letter to morse he says: "which of my friends was it who lately observed to you that i had a picture mania? you made, i understand, a most excellent reply, 'you wished i would come to town, then, and bite a dozen.' indeed, my very good sir, was it in my power to excite in them a just admiration of your talents, i would readily come to town and bite the whole community." and in another letter of april , , mr. alston says: "your portrait of my daughter was left in georgetown [south carolina], at the house of a friend; nearly all of the citizens have seen it, and i really think it will occasion you some applications.... every one thought himself at liberty to make remarks. some declared it to be a good likeness, while others insisted it was not so, and several who made such remarks, i _knew_ had _never_ seen my daughter. at last a rich jew gentleman observed, 'it was the _richest_ piece of painting he had ever seen.' this being so much in character that i assure you, sir, i could contain myself no longer, which, spreading among the audience, occasioned not an unpleasant moment." morse and his young wife returned to the north in the early summer of , and spent the summer and fall with his parents in charlestown. the young man occupied himself with the completion of the portraits which he had brought with him from the south, and his wife was busied with preparations for the event which is thus recorded in a letter of dr. morse's to his son sidney edwards at andover: "since i have been writing the above, lucretia has presented us with a fine granddaughter and is doing well. the event has filled us with joy and gratitude." the child was christened susan walker morse. in the mean time the distressing news had come from charleston of the sudden death of dr. finley, to whose kindly affection and influence morse owed much of the pleasure and success of his several visits to charleston. affairs had come to a crisis in the parish at charlestown, and dr. morse decided to resign and planned to move to new haven, connecticut, with his family in the following spring. the necessity for pursuing his profession in the most profitable field compelled morse to return to charleston by way of washington in november, and this time he had to go alone, much against his inclinations. he writes to his mother from new york on november , : "i miss lucretia and little susan more than you can think, and i shall long to have us all together at new haven in the spring." his object in going to washington was to paint the portrait of the president, and of this he says in a letter: "i began on monday to paint the president and have almost completed the head. i am thus far pleased with it, but i find it very perplexing, for he cannot sit more than ten or twenty minutes at a time, so that the moment i feel engaged he is called away again. i set my palette to-day at ten o'clock and waited until four o'clock this afternoon before he came in. he then sat ten minutes and we were called to dinner. is not this trying to one's patience?" "_december , ._ i have been here nearly a fortnight. i commenced the president's portrait on monday and shall finish it to-morrow. i have succeeded to my satisfaction, and, what is better, to the satisfaction of himself and family; so much so that one of his daughters wishes me to copy the head for her. they all say that mine is the best that has been taken of him. the daughter told me (she said as a secret) that her father was delighted with it, and said it was the only one that in his opinion looked like him; and this, too, with stuart's in the room. "the president has been very kind and hospitable to me; i have dined with him three times and taken tea as often; he and his family have been very sociable and unreserved. i have painted him at his house, next room to his cabinet, so that when he had a moment to spare he would come in to me. "wednesday evening mrs. monroe held a drawing-room. i attended and made my bow. she was splendidly and tastily dressed. the drawing-room and suite of rooms at the president's are furnished and decorated in the most splendid manner; some think too much so, but i do not. something of splendor is certainly proper about the chief magistrate for the credit of the nation. plainness can be carried to an extreme, and in national buildings and establishments it will, with good reason, be styled meanness." "_december , ._ it is obviously for my interest to hasten to charleston, as i shall there be immediately at work, and this is the more necessary as there is a fresh gang of adventurers in the brush line gone to charleston before me." a short while after this he received the news of the death of his grandfather, jedediah morse, at woodstock, connecticut, on december , aged ninety-four years. mr. prime says of him: "he was a strong man in body and mind, an able and upright magistrate, for eighteen years one of the selectmen of the town, twenty-seven years town clerk and treasurer, fifteen years a member of the colonial and state legislature, and a prominent, honored, and useful member and officer of the church." in january of the year , dr. morse, realizing that it would be for the best interests of all concerned to relinquish his pastorate at charlestown, turned his active brain in another direction, and resolved to carry out a plan which he had long contemplated. this was to secure from the government at washington an appointment as commissioner to the indians on the borders of the united states of those early days, in order to enquire into their condition with a view to their moral and physical betterment. to this end he journeyed to washington and laid his project before the president and the secretary of war, john c. calhoun. he was most courteously entertained by these gentlemen and received the appointment. in the following spring with his son richard he travelled through the northwestern frontiers of the united states, and gained much valuable information which he laid before the government. as he was a man of delicate constitution, we cannot but admire his indomitable spirit in ever devising new projects of usefulness to his fellow men. it was impossible for him to remain idle. but it is not within the scope of this work to follow him on his journeys, although his letters of that period make interesting reading. while he was in washington his wife, writing to him on january , , says: "mrs. salisbury and abby drank tea with us day before yesterday. they told us that catherine breese was married to a lieutenant in the army. this must have been a very sudden thing, and i should suppose very grievous to arthur." little did the good lady think as she penned these words that, many years afterwards, her beloved eldest son would take as his second wife a daughter of this union. why this marriage should have been "grievous" to the father, arthur breese, i do not know, unless all army officers were classed among the ungodly by the very pious of those days. as a matter of fact, lieutenant, afterwards captain, griswold was a most gallant gentleman. in the mean time finley morse had reached charleston in safety after a tedious journey of many days by stage from washington, and was busily employed in painting. on february , , he writes to his mother:-- "i received your good letter of the th and d ult., and thank you for it. i wish i had time to give you a narrative of my journey as you wish, but you know '_time is money_,' and we must '_make hay while the sun shines_,' and '_a penny saved is a penny got_," and '_least said soonest mended_,' and a good many other wise sayings which would be quite pat, but i can't think of them. "the fact is i have scarcely time to say or write a word. i am busily employed in getting the cash, or else ned's almanac for march will foretell falsely. "i am doing well, although the city fairly swarms with painters. i am the only one that has as much as he can do; all the rest are complaining. i wish i could divide with some of them, very clever men who have families to support, and can get nothing to do.... i feel rejoiced that things have come to such a crisis in charlestown that our family will be released from that region of trouble so soon. "keep up your spirits, mother, the lord will show you good days according to those in which you have seen evil.... "i am glad lucretia and the dear little susan intend meeting me at new haven. i think this by far the best plan; it will save me a great deal of time, which, as i said before, is money. "i shall have to spend some time in new haven getting settled, and i wish to commence painting as soon as possible, for i have more than a summer's work before me in the president's portrait and mrs. ball's. "as soon as the cash comes in, mother, it shall all be remitted except what i immediately want. you may depend upon it that nothing shall be left undone on my part to help you and the rest of us from that hole of vipers. "i think it very probable i shall return by the middle of may; it will depend much on circumstances, however. i wish very much to be with my dear wife and daughter. i must contrive to bring them with me next season to charleston, though it may be more expensive, yet i do not think that should be a consideration. i think that a man should be separated from his family but very seldom, and then under cases of absolute necessity, as i consider the case to be at present with me: that is, i think they should not be separated for any length of time. if i know my own disposition i am of a domestic habit, formed to this habit, probably, by the circumstances that have been so peculiar to our family in charlestown. i by no means regret having such a habit if it can be properly regulated; i think it may be carried to excess, and shut us from the opportunities of doing good by mixing with our fellow men." this pronouncement was very characteristic of the man. he was always, all through his long life, happiest when at home surrounded by all his family, and yet he never shirked the duty of absenting himself from home, even for a prolonged period, when by so doing he could accomplish some great or good work. that a portrait-painter's lot is not always a happy one may be illustrated by the following extracts from letters of morse to the mrs. ball whom he mentions in the foregoing letter to his mother, and who seems to have been a most capricious person, insisting on continual alterations, and one day pleased and the next almost insulting in her censure:-- madam,--supposing that i was dealing not only with a woman of honor, but, from her professions, with a christian, i ventured in my note of the th inst., to make an appeal to your conscience in support of the justness of my demand of the four hundred dollars still due from you for your portrait. by your last note i find you are disposed to take an advantage of that circumstance of which i did not suppose you capable. my sense of the justness of my demand was so strong, as will appear from the whole tenor of that note, that i venture this appeal, not imagining that any person of honor, of the least spark of generous feeling, and more especially of christian principle, could understand anything more than the enforcing my claim by an appeal to that principle which i knew should be the strongest in a real christian. whilst, however, you have chosen to put a different construction on this part of the note, and supposed that i left you to say whether you would pay me anything or nothing, you have (doubtless unconsciously) shown that your conscience has decided in favor of the whole amount which is my due, and which i can never voluntarily relinquish. you affirm in the first part of your note that, after due consideration, you think the real value of the picture is four hundred dollars (without the frame), yet, had your crop been good, your conscience would have adjudged me the remaining four hundred dollars without hesitation; and again (if your crop should be good) you could pay me the four hundred dollars next season. must i understand from this, madam, that the goodness or badness of your crop is the scale on which your conscience measures your obligation to pay a just debt, and that it contracts or expands as your crop increases or diminishes? pardon me, madam, if i say that this appears to be the case from your letter. my wish throughout this whole business has been to accommodate the time and terms of payment as much to your convenience as i could consistently with my duty to my family and myself. as a proof of this you need only advert to my note of yesterday, in which i inform you that i am paying interest on money borrowed for the use of my family which your debt, if it had been promptly paid, would have prevented. and in another letter he says:-- "i completed your picture in the summer with two others which have given, as far as i can learn, entire satisfaction. yours was painted with the same attention and with the same ability as the others, and admired as a picture, after it was finished, as much by some as the others, and more by many. "among these latter were the celebrated colonel trumbull and vanderlyn, painters of new york.... you cannot but recollect, madam, that when you yourself with your children visited it, not withstanding you expressed yourself before them in terms so strong against it and so wounding to my feelings, yet all your children dissented from you, the youngest saying it was 'mama,' and the eldest, 'i am sure, mother, it is very like you.'... "your picture, from the day i commenced it, has been the source of one of my greatest trials, and, if it has taught me in any degree patience and forbearance, i shall have abundant reason to be thankful for the affliction." in the end he consented to take less than had been agreed upon in order to close the incident. as a happy contrast to this episode we have the following quotation from a letter to his wife written on february , :-- "did i tell you in my last that colonel alston insisted on giving me _two hundred dollars_ more than i asked for the picture of little sally, and a commission to paint her again full length next season, smaller than the last and larger than the first portrait, for which i shall receive four hundred dollars? he intimates also that i am to paint a picture annually for him. is not he a strange man? (as people say here). i wish some more of the great fortunes in this part of the country would be as strange and encourage other artists who are men of genius and starving for want of employment." morse returned to the north in the spring of and joined his mother and his wife and daughter in new haven, where they had preceded him and where they were comfortably and agreeably settled, as will appear from the following sentence in a letter to his good friend and mentor, henry bromfield, of london, dated august, : "you will perceive by the heading of this letter that i am in new haven. my father and his family have left charlestown, massachusetts, and are settled in this place. my own family also, consisting of wife and daughter, are pleasantly settled in this delightful spot. i have built me a fine painting-room attached to my house in which i paint my large pictures in the summer, and in the winter i migrate to charleston, south carolina, where i have commissions sufficient to employ me for some years to come." he returned to charleston in the fall of and was again compelled to go alone. he writes to his wife on december : "i feel the separation this time more than ever, and i felt the other day, when i saw the steamship start for new york, that i had almost a mind to return in her." from this sentence we learn that the slow schooner of the preceding years had been supplanted by the more rapid steamship, but that is, unfortunately, all he has to say of this great step forward in human progress. further on in this same letter he says: "i am occupied fully so that i have no reason to complain. i have not a _press_ like the first season or like the last, but still i can say i am all the time employed.... my president pleases very much; i have heard no dissatisfaction expressed. it is placed in the great hall in a fine light and place.... mrs. ball wants some alterations, that is to say every five minutes she would like it to be different. she is the most unreasonable of all mortals; derangement is her only apology. i can't tell you all in a letter, must wait till i see you. i shall get the rest of the cash from her shortly." just at this time the wave of prosperity on which the young man had so long floated, began to subside, for he writes to his wife on january , :-- "i wish i could write encouragingly as to my professional pursuits, but i cannot. notwithstanding the diminished price and the increase of exertion to please, and although i am conscious of painting much better portraits than formerly (which, indeed, stands to reason if i make continual exertion to improve), yet with all i receive no new commissions, cold and procrastinating answers from those to whom i write and who had put their names on my list. i give less satisfaction to those whom i have painted; i receive less attention also from some of those who formerly paid me much attention, and none at all from most." but with his usual hopefulness he says later on in this letter:-- "why should i expect my sky to be perpetually unclouded, my sun to be never obscured? i have thus far enjoyed more of the sunshine of prosperity than most of my fellow men. 'shall i receive good at the hands of the lord and shall i not also receive evil?'" in this letter, a very long one, he suggests the establishment of an academy or school of painting in new haven, so that he may be enabled to live at home with his family, and find time to paint some of the great historical works which he still longed to do. he also tells of the formation of such an academy in charleston:-- "since writing this there has been formed here an academy of arts to be erected immediately. j.r. poinsett, esq., is president, and six others with myself are chosen directors. what this is going to lead to i don't know. i heard mr. cogdell say that it was intended to have lectures read, among other things. i feel not very sanguine as to its success, still i shall do all in my power to help it on as long as i am here." his forebodings seem to have been justified, for mr. john s. cogdell, a sculptor, thus writes of it in later years to mr. dunlap:-- "the legislature granted a charter, but, my good sir, as they possessed no powers under the constitution to confer taste or talent, and possessed none of those feelings which prompt to patronage, they gave none to the infant academy.... the institution was allowed from apathy and opposition to die; but mr. poinsett and myself with a few others have purchased, with a hope of reviving, the establishment." referring to this academy the wife in new haven, in a letter of february , , says: "mr. silliman says he is not much pleased to hear that they have an academy for painting in charleston. he is afraid they will decoy you there." on march , , morse answers thus: "tell mr. silliman i have stronger _magnets_ at new haven than any academy can have, and, while that is the case, i cannot be decoyed permanently from home." i wonder if he used the word "magnets" advisedly, for it was with professor silliman that he at that time pursued the studies in physics, including electricity, which had so interested him while in college, and it was largely due to the familiarity with the subject which he then acquired that he was, in later years, enabled successfully to perfect his invention. on the th of march, , another daughter was born to the young couple, and was named elizabeth ann after her paternal grandmother. the child lived but a few days, however, much to the grief of her parents and grandparents. charleston had now given all she had to give to the young painter, and he packed his belongings to return home with feelings both of joy and of regret. he was overjoyed at the prospect of so soon seeing his dearly loved wife and daughter, and his parents and brothers; at the same time he had met with great hospitality in charleston; had made many firm friends; had impressed himself strongly on the life of the city, as he always did wherever he went, and had met with most gratifying success in his profession. a partial list of the portraits painted while he was there gives the names of fifty-five persons, and, as the prices received are appended, we learn that he received over four thousand dollars from his patrons for these portraits alone. on march , , he joyfully announces his homecoming: "i just drop you a hasty line to say that, in all probability, your husband will be with you as soon, if not sooner than this letter. i am entirely clear of all sitters, having outstayed my last application; have been engaged in finishing off and packing up for two days past and contemplate embarking by the middle or end of the coming week in the steamship for new york. you must not be surprised, therefore, to see me soon after this reaches you; still don't be disappointed if i am a little longer, as the winds most prevalent at this season are head winds in going to the north. i am busy in collecting my dues and paying my debts." chapter xii may , --december , accompanies mr. silliman to the berkshires.--takes his wife and daughter to concord, new hampshire.--writes to his wife from boston about a bonnet.--goes to washington, d.c.--paints large picture of house of representatives.--artistic but not financial success.--donates five hundred dollars to yale.--letter from mr. deforest.--new york "observer."--discouragements.--first son born.--invents marble-carving machine.--goes to albany.--stephen van rensselaer.--slight encouragement in albany.--longing for a home.--goes to new york.--portrait of chancellor kent.--appointed attaché to legation to mexico.--high hopes.-- takes affecting leave of his family.--rough journey to washington.-- expedition to mexico indefinitely postponed.--returns north.--settles in new york.--fairly prosperous. much as morse longed for a permanent home, where he could find continuous employment while surrounded by those he loved, it was not until many years afterwards and under totally different circumstances that his dream was realized. for the present the necessity of earning money for the support of his young family and for the assistance of his ageing father and mother drove him continually forth to new fields, and on may , , which must have been only a few weeks after his return from the south, he writes to his wife from pittsfield, massachusetts:-- "we are thus far on our tour safe and sound. mr. silliman's health is very perceptibly better already. last night we lodged at litchfield; mr. silliman had an excellent night and is in fine spirits. "at litchfield i called on judge reeves and sat a little while.... i called at mr. beecher's with mr. silliman and judge gould; no one at home. called with mr. silliman at dr. shelden's, and stayed a few moments; sat a few moments also at judge gould's. "i was much pleased with the exterior appearance of litchfield; saw at a distance edwards's pickerel pond. "we left at five this morning, breakfasted at norfolk, dined at stockbridge. we there left the stage and have hired a wagon to go on to middlebury, vermont, at our leisure. we lodge here to-night and shall probably reach bennington, vermont, to-morrow night. "i have made one slight pencil sketch of the hoosac mountain. at stockbridge we visited the marble quarries, and to-morrow at lanesborough shall visit the quarries of fine white marble there. "i am much delighted with my excursion thus far. to travel with such a companion as mr. silliman i consider as highly advantageous as well as gratifying." this is all the record i have of this particular trip. the mr. beecher referred to was the father of henry ward beecher. later in the summer he accompanied his wife and little daughter to concord, new hampshire, and left them there with her father and mother. writing to her from boston on his way back to new haven, he says in characteristically masculine fashion:-- "i have talked with aunt bartlett about getting you a bonnet. she says that it is no time to get a fashionable winter bonnet in boston now, and that it would be much better if you could get it in new york, as the bostonians get their fashions from new york and, of course, much later than we should in new haven. she thinks that white is better than blue, etc., etc., etc., which she can explain to you much better than i can. she is willing, however, to get you any you wish if you still request it. she thinks, if you cannot wait for the new fashion, that your black bonnet put into proper shape with black plumes would be as _tasty_ and fashionable as any you could procure. i think so, too. you had better write aunt particularly about it." while morse had conscientiously tried to put the best of himself into the painting of portraits, and had succeeded better than he himself knew, he still longed for wider fields, and in november, , he went to washington, d.c., to begin a work which he for some time had had in contemplation, and which he now felt justified in undertaking. this was to be a large painting of the house of representatives with many portraits of the members. the idea was well received at washington and he obtained the use of one of the rooms at the capitol for a studio, making it easy for the members to sit for him. it could not have been all plain sailing, however, for his wife says to him in a letter of december , : "knowing that perseverance is a trait in your character, we do not any of us feel surprised to hear you have overcome so many obstacles. you have undertaken a great work.... every one thinks it must be a very popular subject and that you will make a splendid picture of it." writing to his wife he says:-- "i am up at daylight, have my breakfast and prayers over and commence the labors of the day long before the workmen are called to work on the capitol by the bell. this i continue unremittingly till one o'clock, when i dine in about fifteen minutes and then pursue my labors until tea, which scarcely interrupts me, as i often have my cup of tea in one hand and my pencil in the other. between ten and eleven o'clock i retire to rest. this has been my course every day (sundays, of course, excepted) since i have been here, making about fourteen hours' study out of the twenty-four. "this you will say is too hard, and that i shall injure my health. i can say that i never enjoyed better health, and my body, by the simple fare i live on, is disciplined to this course. as it will not be necessary to continue long so assiduously i shall not fail to pursue it till the work is done. "i receive every possible facility from all about the capitol. the doorkeeper, a venerable man, has offered to light the great chandelier expressly for me to take my sketches in the evening for two hours together, for i shall have it a candlelight effect, when the room, already very splendid, will appear ten times more so." on the d of january, , he writes: "i have commenced to-day taking the likenesses of the members. i find them not only willing to sit, but apparently esteeming it an honor. i shall take seventy of them and perhaps more; all if possible. i find the picture is becoming the subject of conversation, and every day gives me greater encouragement. i shall paint it on part of the great canvas when i return home. it will be eleven feet by seven and a half feet.... it will take me until october next to complete it." the room which he painted was then the hall of representatives, but is now statuary hall. as a work of art the painting is excellent and is highly esteemed by artists of the present day. it contains eighty portraits. his high expectations of gaining much profit from its exhibition and of selling it for a large sum were, however, doomed to disappointment. it did not attract the public attention which he had anticipated and it proved a financial loss to him. it was finally sold to an englishman, who took it across the ocean, and it was lost sight of until, after twenty-five years, it was found by an artist friend, mr. f.w. edmonds, in new york, where it had been sent from london. it was in a more or less damaged condition, but was restored by morse. it eventually became the property of the late daniel huntington, who loaned it to the corcoran gallery of art in washington, where it now hangs.[ ] [footnote : this painting has recently been purchased by the trustees of the corcoran gallery.] i find no more letters of special interest of the year , but mr. prime has this to record: "in the winter of , notwithstanding the great expenses to which mr. morse had been subjected in producing this picture, and before he had realized anything from its exhibition, he made a donation of five hundred dollars to the library fund of yale college; probably the largest donation in proportion to the means of the giver which that institution ever received." the corporation, by vote, presented the thanks of the board in the following letter:-- yale college, december th, . dear sir,--i am directed by the corporation of this college to present to you the thanks of the board for your subscription of five hundred dollars for the enlargement of the library. should this example of liberality be generally imitated by the friends of the institution, we should soon have a library creditable to the college and invaluable to men of literary and philosophic research. with respectful and grateful acknowledgment, your obedient servant, jeremaiah day. while he was at home in new haven in the early part of he sought orders for portraits, and that he was successful in at least one instance is evidenced by the following letter:-- mr. d.c. deforest's compliments to mr. morse. mr. deforest desires to have his portrait taken such as it would have been six or eight years ago, making the necessary calculation for it, and at the same time making it a good likeness in all other respects. this reason is not to make himself younger, but to appear to children and grandchildren more suitably matched as to age with their mother and grandmother. if mr. morse is at leisure and disposed to undertake this work, he will please prepare his canvas and let me know when he is ready for my attendance. new haven, th march, . whether morse succeeded to the satisfaction of mr. deforest does not appear from the correspondence, but both this portrait and that of mrs. deforest now hang in the galleries of the yale school of the fine arts, and are here reproduced so that the reader may judge for himself. [illustration: mr. d.c. de forest mrs. d.c. de forest from "thistle prints." copyright detroit publishing co. from a painting by morse now in the gallery of the yale school of the fine arts] on the th of may, , the first number of the new york "observer" was published. while being a religious newspaper the prospectus says it "contains also miscellaneous articles and summaries of news and information on every subject in which the community is interested." this paper was founded and edited by the two brothers sidney e. and richard c. morse, who had abandoned respectively the law and the ministry. it was very successful, and became at one time a power in the community and is still in existence. the editorial offices were first established at wall street, but later the brothers bought a lot and erected a building at the corner of nassau and beekman streets, and that edifice had an important connection with the invention of the telegraph. on the same site now stands the morse building, a pioneer sky-scraper now sadly dwarfed by its gigantic neighbors. the year was one of mingled discouragement and hope. compelled to absent himself from home for long periods in search of work, always hoping that in some place he would find enough to do to warrant his bringing his family and making for them a permanent home, his letters reflect his varying moods, but always with the underlying conviction that providence will yet order all things for the best. the letters of the young wife are pathetic in their expressions of loneliness during the absence of her husband, and yet of forced cheerfulness and submission to the will of god. on the th of march, , another child was born, a son, who was named for his maternal grandfather, charles walker. the child was at first very delicate, and this added to the anxieties of the fond mother and father, but he soon outgrew his childish ailments. morse's active mind was ever bent on invention, and in this year he devised and sought to patent a machine for carving marble statues, "perfect copies of any model." he had great hopes of pecuniary profit from this invention and it is mentioned many times in the letters of this and the following year, but he found, on enquiry, that it was not patentable, as it would have been an infringement on the machine of thomas blanchard which was patented in . so once more were his hopes of independence blasted, as they had been in the case of the pump and fire-engine. he longed, like all artists, to be free from the petty cares and humiliations of the struggle for existence, free to give full rein to his lofty aspirations, secure in the confidence that those he loved were well provided for; but, like most other geniuses, he was compelled to drink still deeper of the bitter cup, to drain it to the very dregs. in the month of august, , he went to albany, hoping through his acquaintance with the patroon, stephen van rensselaer, to establish himself there. he painted the portrait of the patroon, confident that, by its exhibition, he would secure other orders. in a letter to his wife he says:-- "i have found lodgings--a large front room on the second story, twenty-five by eighteen feet, and twelve feet high--a fine room for painting, with a neat little bedroom, and every convenience, and board, all for six dollars a week, which i think is very reasonable. my landlord is an elderly irish gentleman with three daughters, once in independent circumstances but now reduced. everything bears the appearance of old-fashioned gentility which you know i always liked. everything is neat and clean and genteel.... bishop hobart and a great many acquaintances were on board of the boat upon which i came up to this city. "i can form no idea as yet of the prospect of success in my profession here. if i get enough to employ me i shall go no farther; if not, i may visit some of the smaller towns in the interior of the state. i await with some anxiety the result of experiments with my machine. i hope the invention may enable me to remain at home." "_ th of august._ i have not as yet received any application for a portrait. many tell me i have come at the wrong time--the same tune that has been rung in my ears so long. i hope the right tune will come by and by. the winter, it is said, is the proper season, but, as it is better in the south at that season and it will be more profitable to be there, i shall give albany a thorough trial and do my best. if i should not find enough to employ me here, i think i shall return to new york and settle there. this i had rather not do at present, but it may be the best that i can do. roaming becomes more and more irksome. imperious necessity alone drives me to this course. don't think by this i am faint-hearted; i shall persevere in this course, painful as is the separation from my family, until providence clearly points out my duty to return." "_august ._ i have something to do. i have one portrait in progress and the promise of more. one hundred dollars will pay all my expenses here for three months, so that the two i am now painting will clear me in that respect and all that comes after will be clear gain. i am, therefore, easier in my mind as to this. the portrait i am now painting is judge moss kent, brother of the chancellor. he says that i shall paint the chancellor when he returns to albany, and his niece also, and from these particulars you may infer that i shall be here for some little time longer, just so long as my good prospects continue; but, should they fail, i am determined to try new york city, and sit down there in my profession permanently. i believe i have now attained sufficient proficiency to venture there. my progress may be slow at first, but i believe it will be sure. i do not like going south and i have given up the idea of new orleans or any southern city, at least for the present. circumstances may vary this determination, but i think a settlement in new york is more feasible now than ever before. i shall be near you and home in cases of emergency, and in the summer and sickly season can visit you at new haven, while you can do the same to me in new york until we live again at new haven altogether. i leave out of this calculation the _machine for sculpture_. if that should entirely succeed, my plans would be materially varied, but i speak of my present plan as if that had failed." "_august ._ i finished mr. kent's picture yesterday and received the money for it.... mr. kent is very polite to me, and has introduced me to a number of persons and families, among others to the kanes--very wealthy people--to governor yates, etc. mr. clinton's son called on me and invited me to their house.... i have been introduced to señor rocafuerto, the spaniard who made so excellent a speech before the bible society last may. he is a very handsome man, very intelligent, full of wit and vivacity. he is a great favorite with the ladies and is a man of wealth and a zealous patriot, studying our manners, customs, and improvements, with a view of benefiting his own countrymen in peru.... i long to be with you again and to see you all at _home_. i fear i dote on _home_ too much, but mine is such an uncommon home, such a delightful home, that i cannot but feel strongly my privation of its pleasures." "_august ._ my last two letters have held out to you some encouraging prospects of success here, but now they seem darkened again. i have had nothing to do this week thus far but to wait patiently. i have advertised in both of the city papers that i should remain one week to receive applications, but as yet it has produced no effect.... "chancellor kent is out of town and i was told yesterday would not be in until the end of next month. if i should have nothing to do in the mean time it is hardly worth while to stay solely for that. many have been talking of having their portraits painted, but there it has thus far ended. i feel a little perplexed to know what to do. i find nothing in albany which can profitably employ my leisure hours. if there were any pictures or statuary where i could sketch and draw, it would be different.... i have visited several families who have been very kind to me, for which i am thankful.... "i shall leave albany and return to new york a week from to-day if there is no change in my prospects.... the more i think of making a push at new york as a permanent place of residence in my profession, the more proper it seems that it should be pretty soon. there is now no rival that i should fear; a few more years may produce one that would be hard to overcome. new york does not yet feel the influx of wealth from the western canal but in a year or two she will feel it, and it will be advantageous to me to be previously identified among her citizens as a painter. "it requires some little time to become known in such a city as new york. colonel t---- is growing old, too, and there is no artist of education sufficiently prominent to take his place as president of the academy of arts. by becoming more known to the new york public, and exerting my talents to discover the best methods of promoting the arts and writing about them, i may possibly be promoted to his place, where i could have a better opportunity of doing _something for the arts in our country_, the object at which i aim." "_september ._ i have nothing to do and shall pack up on the morrow for new york unless appearances change again. i have not had full employment since i have been in albany and i feel miserable in doing nothing. i shall set out on friday, and perhaps may go to new haven for a day or two to look at you all." he did manage to pay a short visit to his home, and then he started for new york by boat, but was driven by a storm into black rock harbor and continued his journey from there by land. writing home the day after his arrival he says: "i have obtained a place to board at friend coolidge's at two dollars and twenty-five cents a week, and have taken for my studio a fine room in broadway opposite trinity churchyard, for which i am to pay six dollars and fifty cents a week, being fifty cents less than i expected to pay." there has been some increase in the rental price of rooms on broadway opposite trinity churchyard since that day. further on he says:-- "i shall go to work in a few days vigorously. it is a half mile from my room to the place where i board, so that i am obliged to walk more than three miles every day. it is good exercise for me and i feel better for it. i sleep in my room on the floor and put my bed out of sight during the day, as at washington. i feel in the spirit of 'buckling down to it,' and am determined to paint and study with all my might this winter." the loving wife is distressed at the idea of his sleeping on the floor, and thus expresses herself in a letter which is dated, curiously enough, november : "you know, dear finley, i have always set my face as a flint and have borne my testimony against your sleeping on the floor. indeed, it makes my heart ache, when i go to bed in my comfortable chamber, to think of my dear husband sleeping without a bedstead. your mother says she sent one to richard, which he has since told her was unnecessary as he used a settee, and which you can get of him. but, if it is in use, do get one or i shall take no comfort." soon after his arrival in new york he began the portrait of chancellor kent, and writing of him he says:-- "he is not a good sitter; he scarcely presents the same view twice; he is very impatient and you well know that i cannot paint an impatient person; i must have my mind at ease or i cannot paint. "i have no more applications as yet, but it is not time to expect them. all the artists are complaining, and there are many of them, and they are all poor. the arts are as low as they can be. it is no better at the south, and all the accounts of the arts or artists are of the most discouraging nature." the portrait of the chancellor seems not to have brought him more orders, for a little later he writes to his wife: "i waited many days in the hope of some application in my profession, but have been disappointed until last evening i called and spent the evening with my friend mr. van schaick, and told him i had thought of painting some little design from the 'sketch book,' so as not to be idle, and mentioned the subject of ichabod crane discovering the headless horseman. "he said: 'paint it for me and another picture of the same size, and i will take them of you.' so i am now employed.... "_my secret scheme_ is not yet disclosable, but i shall let you know as soon as i hear anything definite." still later he says:-- "i have seen many of the artists; they all agree that little is doing in the city of new york. it seems wholly given to commerce. every man is driving at one object--the making of money--not the spending of it.... "my _secret scheme_ looks promising, but i am still in suspense; you shall know the moment it is decided one way or the other." his brother, sidney edwards, in a letter to his parents of december , , says: "finley is in good spirits again; not because he has any prospect of business here, but he is dreaming of the gold mines of mexico." as his _secret_ was now out, he explains it fully in the following letter to his wife, dated december , :-- "my cash is almost gone and i begin to feel some anxiety and perplexity to know what to do. i have advertised, and visited, and hinted, and pleaded, and even asked one man to sit, but all to no purpose.... my expenses, with the most rigid economy, too, are necessarily great; my rent to-morrow will amount to thirty-three dollars, and i have nothing to pay it with. "what can i do? i have been here five weeks and there is not the smallest prospect _now_ of any difference as to business. i am willing to stay and wish to stay if there is anything to do. the pictures that i am painting for mr. van schaick will not pay my expenses if painted here; my rent and board would eat it all up. "i have thought of various plans, but what to decide upon i am completely at a loss, nor can i decide until i hear definitely from washington in regard to my mexico expedition. since brother sidney has hinted it to you i will tell you the state of it. i wrote to general van rensselaer, mr. poinsett, and colonel hayne, of the senate, applying for some situation in the legation to mexico soon to be sent thither. i stated my object in going and my wish to go free of expense and under government protection. "i received a letter a few days ago from general van rensselaer in which he says: 'i immediately laid your request before the president and seconded it with my warmest recommendations. it is impossible to predict the result at present. if our friend mr. poinsett is appointed minister, which his friends are pressing, he will no doubt be happy to have you in his suite.' "thus the case rests at present. if mr. poinsett is appointed i shall probably go to mexico, if not, it will be more doubtful.... if i go i should take my picture of the house of representatives, which, in the present state of favorable feeling towards our country, i should probably dispose of to advantage. "all accounts that i hear from mexico are in the highest degree favorable to my enterprise, and i hear much from various quarters." as can well be imagined, his wife did not look with unalloyed pleasure on this plan. she says in a letter of december , : "i have felt much for you, my dearest finley, in all your trials and perplexities. i was sorry to hear you had been unsuccessful in obtaining portraits. i hope you will, ere long, experience a change for the better.... as to the mexico plan, i know not what to think of it. how can i consent to have you be at such a distance?" however, convinced by her husband that it would be for his best interests to go, she reluctantly gave her consent and he used every legitimate effort to secure the appointment. he was finally successful. mr. poinsett was not appointed as minister; this honor was bestowed on the honorable ninian edwards, of illinois, but morse was named as one of his suite. in a note from the honorable robert young hayne, who, it will be remembered, was the opponent of daniel webster in the great debates on states' rights in the senate, morse was thus apprised of his appointment: "governor edwards's suite consists of mr. mason, of georgetown, d.c., secretary of the legation; mr. hodgson, of virginia, private secretary; and yourself, attaché." morse had great hopes of increasing his reputation as a painter and of earning much money in mexico. he was perfectly frank in stating that his principal object in seeking an appointment as attaché was that he might pursue his profession, and, in a letter to mr. edwards of april , , he thus explains why he considers this not incompatible with his duties as attaché: "that the pursuit of my profession will not be derogatory to the situation i may hold i infer from the fact that many of the ancient painters were ambassadors to different european courts, and pursued their professions constantly while abroad. rubens, while ambassador to the english court, executed some of his finest portraits and decorated the ceiling of the chapel of white hall with some of his best historical productions." when it was finally decided that he should go, he made all his preparations, including a bed and bedding among his impedimenta, being assured that this was necessary in mexico, and bade farewell to his family. his father, his wife and children, and his sister-in-law accompanied him as far as new york. writing of the parting he says: "a thousand affecting incidents of separation from my beloved family crowded upon my recollection. the unconscious gayety of my dear children as they frolicked in all their wonted playfulness, too young to sympathize in the pangs that agitated their distressed parents; their artless request to bring home some trifling toy; the parting kiss, not understood as meaning more than usual; the tears and sad farewells of father, mother, wife, sister, family, friends; the desolateness of every room as the parting glance is thrown on each familiar object, and 'farewell, farewell' seemed written on the very walls,--all these things bear upon my memory, and i realize the declaration that 'the places which now know us shall know us no more.'" [illustration: lucretia pickering walker, wife of s.f.b. morse, and two children painted by morse] it must be borne in mind that a journey in those days, even one from new york to washington, was not a few hours' ride in a luxurious pullman, but was fraught with many discomforts, delays, and even dangers. as an example of this i shall quote the first part of a letter written by morse from washington to his wife on april , :-- "i lose not a moment in informing you of my safe arrival, with all my baggage, in good order last evening. i was much fatigued, went to bed early, and this morning feel perfectly refreshed and much better for my journey. "after leaving you on wednesday morning i had but just time to reach the boat before she started. in the land carriage we occupied three stages over a very rough road. in crossing a small creek in a ferry-boat the stage ahead of ours left the boat a little too soon and came near upsetting in the water, which would have put the passengers into a dangerous situation. as it was the water came into the carriage and wet some of the baggage. it was about an hour before they could get the stage out of the water. "next came our turn. after travelling a few miles the springs on one side gave way and let us down, almost upsetting us. we got out without difficulty and, in a few minutes, by putting a rail under one side, we proceeded on again, jocosely telling the passengers in the third stage that it was their turn next. "when we arrived at the boat in the delaware to our surprise the third stage came in with a rail under one side, having met with a similar accident a few miles after we left them. so we all had our turn, but no injury to any of us." his high hopes of success in this enterprise were soon doomed to be shattered, and once again he was made to suffer a bitter disappointment. on april he writes: "i am at this moment put into a very embarrassing state of suspense by a political occurrence which has caused a great excitement here, and will cause considerable interest, no doubt, throughout the country. this morning a remonstrance was read in the house of representatives from the honorable ninian edwards against mr. crawford, which contains such charges and of so serious a nature as has led to the appointment of a select committee, with power to send for persons and papers in order to a full investigation; and i am told by many members of congress that mr. edwards will undoubtedly be sent for, which will occasion, of course, a great delay in his journey to mexico, if not cause a suspension of his going until the next season." the mr. crawford alluded to was william harris crawford, at that time a prominent candidate for the presidency in the coming election. with his customary faith in an overruling providence, morse says later in the same letter: "this delay and suspense tries me more than distance or even absence from my dear family. if i could be on my way and pursuing my profession i should feel much better. but all will be for the best; though things look dark i can and will trust him who will make my path of duty plain before me. this satisfies my mind and does not allow a single desponding thought." the sending of the legation was indefinitely postponed, and morse, much disappointed but resolved not to be overwhelmed by this crushing of his high hopes, returned to new haven. he spent the summer partly at home and partly in concord, new hampshire (where his wife and children had gone to visit her father), and in portsmouth, portland, and hartford, having been summoned to those cities by patrons who wished him to paint their portraits. we can imagine that the young wife did not grieve over the failure of the mexican trip. her letters to her husband at that period are filled with expressions of the deepest affection, but with an undertone of melancholy, due, no doubt, to the increasing delicacy of her health, never very robust. in the fall of morse resolved to make another assault on the purses of the solid men of new york, and he established himself at broadway, where, for a time, he had the satisfaction of having his wife and children with him. they, however, returned later to new haven, and on december , , he writes to his wife:-- "i am fully employed and in excellent spirits. i am engaged in painting the full-length portrait of mr. hone's little daughter, a pretty little girl just as old as susan. i have made a sketch of the composition with which i am pleased, and so are the father and mother. i shall paint her with a cat set up in her lap like a baby, with a towel under its chin and a cap on its head, and she employed in feeding it with a spoon.... "i am as happy and contented as i can be without my dear lucrece and our dear children, but i hope it will not be long before we shall be able to live together without these separations." "_december , ._ i have everything very comfortable at my rooms. my two pupils, mr. agate and mr. field, are very tractable and very useful. i have everything 'in pimlico,' as mother would say. "i have begun, and thus far carried on, a system of neatness in my painting-room which i never could have with henry. everything has its place, and every morning the room is swept and all things put in order.... "i have as much as i can do in painting. i do not mean by this that i have the overflow that i had in charleston, nor do i wish it. a hard shower is soon over; i wish rather the gentle, steady, continuing rain. i feel that i have a character to obtain and maintain, and therefore my pictures must be carefully studied. i shall not by this method paint so fast nor acquire property so fast, but i shall do what is better, secure a continuance of patronage and success. "i have no disposition to be a nine days' wonder, all the rage for a moment and then forgotten forever; compelled on this very account to wander from city to city, to shine a moment in one and then pass on to another." in a letter of a later date he says:-- "i am going on prosperously through the kindness of providence in raising up many friends who are exerting themselves in my favor. my storms are partly over, and a clear and pleasant day is dawning upon me." chapter xiii january , --november , success in new york.--chosen to paint portrait of lafayette.--hope of a permanent home with his family.--meets lafayette in washington.--mutually attracted.--attends president's levee.--begins portrait of lafayette.-- death of his wife.--crushed by the news.--his attachment to her.--epitaph composed by benjamin silliman.--bravely takes up his work again.-- finishes portrait of lafayette.--describes it in letter of a later date. --sonnet on death of lafayette's dog.--rents a house in canal street, new york.--one of the founders of national academy of design.--tactful resolutions on organization.--first thirty members.--morse elected first president.--reëlected every year until .--again made president in .--lectures on art.--popularity. it is a commonly accepted belief that a particularly fine, clear day is apt to be followed by a storm. meteorologists can probably give satisfactory scientific reasons for this phenomenon, but, be that as it may, how often do we find a parallel in human affairs. a period of prosperity and happiness in the life of a man or of a nation is almost invariably followed by calamities, small or great; but, fortunately for individuals and for nations, the converse is also true. the creeping pendulum of fate, pausing for an instant at its highest point, dips down again to gather impetus for a higher swing. and so it was with morse. fate was preparing for him a heavy blow, one of the tragedies of his eventful life, and, in order to hearten him for the trial, to give him strength to bear up under it, she cheered his professional path with the sun of prosperity. writing to his wife from new york on january , , he says:-- "you will rejoice with me, i know, in my continued and increasing success. i have just learned in confidence, from one of the members of the committee of the corporation appointed to procure a full-length portrait of lafayette, that they have designated me as the painter of it, and that a subcommittee was appointed to wait on me with the information. they will probably call to-morrow, but, until it is thus officially announced to me, i wish the thing kept secret, except to the family, until i write you more definitely on the subject, which i will do the moment the terms, etc., are settled with the committee. "i shall probably be under the necessity of going to washington to take it immediately (the corporation, of course, paying my expenses). but of this in my next." "_january , ._ i have been officially notified of my appointment to paint the full-length portrait of lafayette for the city of new york, so that you may make it as public as you please. "the terms are not definitely settled; the committee is disposed to be very liberal. i shall have at least seven hundred dollars--probably one thousand. i have to wait until an answer can be received from washington, from lafayette to know when he can see me. the answer will arrive probably on wednesday morning; after that i can determine what to do about going on. "the only thing i fear is that it is going to deprive me of my dear lucretia. recollect the old lady's saying, often quoted by mother, 'there is never a convenience but there ain't one'; i long to see you." it was well for the young man that he did not realize how dreadfully his jesting fears were to be realized. further on he says: "i have made an arrangement with mr. durand to have an engraving of lafayette's portrait. i receive half the profits. vanderlyn, sully, peale, jarvis, waldo, inman, ingham, and some others were my competitors in the application for this picture." "_january ._ your letter of the th i have just received, and one from the committee of medical students engaging me to paint dr. smith's portrait for them when i come to new haven. they are to give me one hundred dollars. i have written them that i should be in new haven by the st of february, or, at farthest, by the th; so that it is only prolonging for a little longer, my dear wife, the happy meeting which i anticipated for the th of this month. events are not under our own control. "when i consider how wonderfully things are working for the promotion of the great and _long-desired_ event--that of being constantly with my dear family--all unpleasant feelings are absorbed in this joyful anticipation, and i look forward to the spring of the year with delightful prospects of seeing my dear family permanently settled with me in our own hired house here. there are more encouraging prospects than i can trust to paper at present which must be left for your private ear, and which in magnitude are far more valuable than any encouragement yet made known to me. let us look with thankful hearts to the giver of all these blessings." "_washington, february , ._ i arrived safely in this city last evening. i find i have no time to lose, as the marquis will leave here the d. i have seen him and am to breakfast with him to-morrow, and to commence his portrait. if he allows me time sufficient i have no fear as to the result. he has a noble face. in this i am disappointed, for i had heard that his features were not good. on the contrary, if there is any truth in expression of character, there never was a more perfect example of accordance between the face and the character. he has all that noble firmness and consistency, for which he has been so distinguished, strongly indicated in his whole face. "while he was reading my letters i could not but call to mind the leading events of his truly eventful life. 'this is the man now before me, the very man,' thought i, 'who suffered in the dungeon of olmütz; the very man who took the oaths of the new constitution for so many millions, while the eyes of thousands were fixed upon him (and which is so admirably described in the life which i read to you just before i left home); the very man who spent his youth, and his fortune, and his time, to bring about (under providence) our happy revolution; the friend and companion of washington, the terror of tyrants, the firm and consistent supporter of liberty, the man whose beloved name has rung from one end of this continent to the other, whom all flock to see, whom all delight to honor; this is the man, the very identical man!' my feelings were almost too powerful for me as i shook him by the hand and received the greeting of--'sir, i am exceedingly happy in your acquaintance, and especially on such an occasion.'" thus began an acquaintance which ripened into warm friendship between morse and lafayette, and which remained unbroken until the death of the latter. "_february , ._ i went last night to the president's levee, the last which mr. monroe will hold as president of the united states. there was a great crowd and a great number of distinguished characters, among whom were general lafayette; the president-elect, j.q. adams; mr. calhoun, the vice-president elect; general jackson, etc. i paid my respects to mr. adams and congratulated him on his election. he seemed in some degree to shake off his habitual reserve, and, although he endeavored to suppress his feelings of gratification at his success, it was not difficult to perceive that he felt in high spirits on the occasion. general jackson went up to him and, shaking him by the hand, congratulated him cordially on his election. the general bears his defeat like a man, and has shown, i think, by this act a nobleness of mind which will command the respect of those who have been most opposed to him. "the excitement (if it may be called such) on this great question in washington is over, and everything is moving on in its accustomed channel again. all seem to speak in the highest terms of the order and decorum preserved through the whole of this imposing ceremony, and the good feeling which seems to prevail, with but trivial exceptions, is thought to augur well in behalf of the new administration." (there was no choice by the people in the election of that year, and john quincy adams had been chosen president by a vote of the house of representatives.) "i went last night in a carriage with four others--captain chauncey of the navy; mr. cooper, the celebrated author of the popular american novels; mr. causici (pronounced cau-see-chee), the sculptor; and mr. owen, of lanark, the celebrated philanthropist. "mr. cooper remarked that we had on board a more singularly selected company, he believed, than any carriage at the door of the president, namely, a _misanthropist_ (such he called captain chauncey, brother of the commodore), a _philanthropist_ (mr. owen), a _painter_ (myself), a _sculptor_ (mr. causici), and an _author_ (himself). "the mr. owen mentioned above is the very man i sometimes met at mr. wilberforce's in london, and who was present at the interesting scene i have often related that occurred at mr. wilberforce's. he recollected the circumstance and recognized me, as i did him, instantly, although it is twelve years ago. "i am making progress with the general, but am much perplexed for want of time; i mean _his time_. he is so harassed by visitors and has so many letters to write that i find it exceedingly difficult to do the subject justice. i give him the last sitting in washington to-morrow, reserving another sitting or two when he visits new york in july next. i have gone on thus far to my satisfaction and do not doubt but i shall succeed entirely, if i am allowed the requisite number of sittings. the general is very agreeable. he introduced me to his son by saying: 'this is mr. morse, the painter, the son of the geographer; he has come to washington to take the topography of my face.' he thinks of visiting new haven again when he returns from boston. he regretted not having seen more of it when he was there, as he was much pleased with the place. he remembers professor silliman and others with great affection. "i have left but little room in this letter to express my affection for my dearly loved wife and children; but of that i need not assure them. i long to hear from you, but direct your letters next to new york, as i shall probably be there by the end of next week, or the beginning of the succeeding one. "love to all the family and friends and neighbors. your affectionate husband, as ever." alas! that there should have been no telegraph then to warn the loving husband of the blow which fate had dealt him. as he was light-heartedly attending the festivities at the white house, and as he was penning these two interesting letters to his wife, letters which she never read, and anticipating with keenest pleasure a speedy reunion, she lay dead at their home in new haven. his father thus conveys to him the melancholy intelligence:-- "_february th, ._ my affectionately beloved son,--mysterious are the ways of providence. my heart is in pain and deeply sorrowful while i announce to you the sudden and unexpected death of your dear and deservedly loved wife. her disease proved to be an _affection of the heart_--incurable, had it been known. dr. smith's letter, accompanying this, will explain all you will desire to know on this subject. "i wrote you yesterday that she was convalescent. so she then appeared and so the doctor pronounced. she was up about five o'clock yesterday p.m. to have her bed made as usual; was unusually cheerful and social; spoke of the pleasure of being with her dear husband in new york ere long; stepped into bed herself, fell back with a momentary struggle on her pillow, her eyes were immediately fixed, the paleness of death overspread her countenance, and in five minutes more, without the slightest motion, her mortal life terminated. "it happened that just at this moment i was entering her chamber door with charles in my arms, to pay her my usual visit and to pray with her. the nurse met me affrighted, calling for help. your mother, the family, our neighbors, full of the tenderest sympathy and kindness, and the doctors thronged the house in a few minutes. everything was done that could be done to save her life, but her 'appointed time' had come, and no earthly power or skill could stay the hand of death. "it was the lord who gave her to you, the chiefest of all your earthly blessings, and it is he that has taken her away, and may you be enabled, my son, from the heart to say: 'blessed be the name of the lord.'... the shock to the whole family is far beyond, in point of severity, that of any we have ever before felt, but we are becoming composed, we hope on grounds which will prove solid and lasting. "i expect this will reach you on saturday, the day after the one we have appointed for the funeral, when you will have been in washington a week and i hope will have made such progress in your business as that you will soon be able to return.... "you need not hurry home. nothing here requires it. we are all well and everything will be taken good care of. give yourself no concern on that account. finish your business as well as you will be able to do it after receiving this sad news." this blow was an overwhelming one. he could not, of course, compose himself sufficiently to continue his work on the portrait of lafayette, and, having apprised the general of the reason for this, he received from the following sympathetic letter:-- i have feared to intrude upon you, my dear sir, but want to tell you how deeply i sympathize in your grief--a grief of which nobody can better than me appreciate the cruel feelings. you will hear from me, as soon as i find myself again near you, to finish the work you have so well begun. accept my affectionate and mournful sentiment. lafayette. the day after he received his father's letter he left washington and wrote from baltimore, where he stopped over sunday with a friend, on february :-- my dear father,--the heart-rending tidings which you communicated reached me in washington on friday evening. i left yesterday morning, spend this day here at mr. cushing's, and set out on my return home to-morrow. i shall reach philadelphia on monday night, new york on tuesday night, and new haven on wednesday night. oh! is it possible, is it possible? shall i never see my dear wife again? but i cannot trust myself to write on this subject. i need your prayers and those of christian friends to god for support. i fear i shall sink under it. oh! take good care of her dear children. your agonized son, finley. another son had been born to him on january , , and he was now left with three motherless children to provide for, and without the sustaining hope of a speedy and permanent reunion with them and with his beloved wife. writing to a friend more than a month after the death of his wife, he says:-- "though late in performing the promise i made you of writing you when i arrived home, i hope you will attribute it to anything but forgetfulness of that promise. the confusion and derangement consequent on such an afflicting bereavement as i have suffered have rendered it necessary for me to devote the first moments of composure to looking about me, and to collecting and arranging the fragments of the ruin which has spread such desolation over all my earthly prospects. "oh! what a blow! i dare not yet give myself up to the full survey of its desolating effects. every day brings to my mind a thousand new and fond connections with dear lucretia, all now ruptured. i feel a dreadful void, a heart-sickness, which time does not seem to heal but rather to aggravate. "you know the intensity of the attachment which existed between dear lucretia and me, never for a moment interrupted by the smallest cloud; an attachment founded, i trust, in the purest love, and daily strengthening by all the motives which the ties of nature and, more especially, of religion, furnish. "i found in dear lucretia everything i could wish. such ardor of affection, so uniform, so unaffected, i never saw nor read of but in her. my fear with regard to the measure of my affection toward her was not that i might fail of 'loving her as my own flesh,' but that i should put her in the place of him who has said, 'thou shalt have no other gods but me.' i felt this to be my greatest danger, and to be saved from this _idolatry_ was often the subject of my earnest prayers. "if i had desired anything in my dear lucretia different from what she was, it would have been that she had been _less lovely_. my whole soul seemed wrapped up in her; with her was connected all that i expected of happiness on earth. is it strange, then, that i now feel this void, this desolateness, this loneliness, this heart-sickness; that i should feel as if my very heart itself had been torn from me? "to any one but those who knew dear lucretia what i have said might seem to be but the extravagance of an excited imagination; but to you, who knew the dear object i lament, all that i have said must but feebly shadow her to your memory." [illustration: study for portrait of lafayette now in new york public library] it was well for him that he found constant occupation for his hand and brain at this critical period of his life. the fates had dealt him this cruel blow for some good reason best known to themselves. he was being prepared for a great mission, and it was meet that his soul, like gold, should be purified by fire; but, at the same time, that the blow might not utterly overwhelm him, success in his chosen profession seemed again to be within his grasp. writing to his parents from new york, on april , , he says:-- "i have as much as i can do, but after being fatigued at night and having my thoughts turned to my irreparable loss, i am ready almost to give up. the thought of seeing my dear lucretia, and returning home to her, served always to give me fresh courage and spirits whenever i felt worn down by the labors of the day, and now i hardly know what to substitute in her place. "to my friends here i know i seem to be cheerful and happy, but a cheerful countenance with me covers an aching heart, and often have i feigned a more than ordinary cheerfulness to hide a more than ordinary anguish. "i am blessed with prosperity in my profession. i have just received another commission from the corporation of the city to paint a common-sized portrait of rev. mr. stanford for them, to be placed in the almshouse." the loss of his young wife was the great tragedy of morse's life. time, with her soothing touch, healed the wound, but the scar remained. hers must have been, indeed, a lovely character. professor benjamin silliman, sr., one of her warmest friends, composed the epitaph which still remains inscribed upon her tombstone in the cemetery at new haven. (see opposite page.) in memory of lucretia pickering wife of samuel f.b. morse who died th of february a.d. , aged years. she combined, in her character and person, a rare assemblage of excellences: beautiful in form, features and expression peculiarly bland in her manners, highly cultivated in mind, she irresistibly drew attention, love, and respect; dignified without haughtiness, amiable without tameness, firm without severity, and cheerful without levity, her uniform sweetness of temper spread perpetual sunshine around every circle in which she moved. "when the ear heard her it blessed her, when the eye saw her it gave witness to her." in sufferings the most keen, her serenity of mind never failed her; death to her had no terrors, the grave no gloom. though suddenly called from earth, eternity was no stranger to her thoughts, but a welcome theme of contemplation. religion was the sun that illumined every virtue, and united all in one bow of beauty. hers was the religion of the gospel; jesus christ her foundation, the author and finisher of her faith. in him she rests, in sure expectation of a glorious resurrection. with a heavy heart, but bravely determining not to be overwhelmed by this crushing blow, morse took up his work again. he finished the portrait of lafayette, and it now hangs in the city hall in new york. writing of it many years later to a gentleman who had made some enquiries concerning it, he says:-- "in answer to yours of the th instant, just received, i can only say it is so long since i have seen the portrait i painted of general lafayette for the city of new york, that, strange to say, i find it difficult to recall even its general characteristics. "that portrait has a melancholy interest for me, for it was just as i had commenced the second sitting of the general at washington that i received the stunning intelligence of mrs. morse's death, and was compelled abruptly to suspend the work. i preserve, as a gratifying memorial, the letter of condolence and sympathy sent in to me at the time by the general, and in which he speaks in flattering terms of the promise of the portrait as a likeness. "i must be frank, however, in my judgment of my own works of that day. this portrait was begun under the sad auspices to which i have alluded, and, up to the close of the work, i had a series of constant interruptions of the same sad character. a picture painted under such circumstances can scarcely be expected to do the artist justice, and as a work of art i cannot praise it. still, it is a good likeness, was very satisfactory to the general, and he several times alluded to it in my presence in after years (when i was a frequent visitor to him in paris) in terms of praise. "it is a full-length, standing figure, the size of life. he is represented as standing at the top of a flight of steps, which he has just ascended upon a terrace, the figure coming against a glowing sunset sky, indicative of the glory of his own evening of life. upon his right, if i remember, are three pedestals, one of which is vacant as if waiting for his bust, while the two others are surmounted by the busts of washington and franklin--the two associated eminent historical characters of his own time. in a vase on the other side is a flower-the helianthus--with its face toward the sun, in allusion to the characteristic stern, uncompromising consistency of lafayette-a trait of character which i then considered, and still consider, the great prominent trait of that distinguished man." morse, like many men who have excelled in one branch of the fine arts, often made excursions into one of the others. i find among his papers many scraps of poetry and some more ambitious efforts, and while they do not, perhaps, entitle him to claim a poet's crown, some of them are worthy of being rescued from oblivion. the following sonnet was sent to lafayette under the circumstances which morse himself thus describes:-- "written on the loss of a faithful dog of lafayette's on board the steamboat which sank in the mississippi. the dog, supposing his master still on board, could not be persuaded to leave the cabin, but perished with the vessel. "lost, from thy care to know thy master free can we thy self-devotion e'er forget? 'twas kindred feeling in a less degree to that which thrilled the soul of lafayette. he freely braved our storms, our dangers met, nor left the ship till we had 'scaped the sea. thine was a spark of noble feeling bright caught from the fire that warms thy master's heart. his was of heaven's kindling, and no small part of that pure fire is his. we hail the light where'er it shines, in heaven, in man, in brute; we hail that sacred light howe'er minute, whether its glimmering in thy bosom rest or blaze full orb'd within thy master's breast." this was sent to general lafayette on the th of july, , accompanied by the following note:-- "in asking your acceptance of the enclosed poetic trifle, i have not the vanity to suppose it can contribute much to your gratification; but if it shall be considered as an endeavor to show to you some slight return of gratitude for the kind sympathy you evinced towards me at a time of deep affliction, i shall have attained my aim. gladly would i offer to you any service, but, while a whole nation stands waiting to answer the expression of your smallest wish, my individual desire to serve you can only be considered as contending for a portion of that high honor which all feel in serving you." concealing from the world his great sorrow, and bravely striving always to maintain a cheerful countenance, morse threw himself with energy into his work in new york, endeavoring to keep every minute occupied. he seems to have had his little daughter with him for a while, for in a letter of march , , occurs this sentence: "little susan has had the toothache once or twice, and i have promised her a doll if she would have it out to-day--i am this moment stopped by her coming in and showing me the _tooth out_, so i shall give her the doll." but he soon found that it would be impossible for him to do justice to his work and at same time fulfil his duties as a parent, and for many years afterwards his motherless children found homes with different relatives, but the expense of their keep and education was always borne by their father. on the st of may, , he moved into new quarters, having rented an entire house at no. canal street for the sum of four hundred dollars a year, and he says, "my new establishment will be very commodious for my professional studies, and i do not think its being so far '_up town_' will, on the whole, be any disadvantage to me." "may , . i have at length become comfortably settled and begin to feel at home in my new establishment. all things at present go smoothly. brother charles walker and mr. agate join with me in breakfast and tea, and we find it best for convenience, economy, and time to dine from home,--it saves the perplexity of providing marketing and the care of stores, and, besides, we think it will be more economical and the walk will be beneficial." while success in his profession seemed now assured, and while orders poured in so fast that he gladly assisted some of his less fortunate brother artists by referring his would-be patrons to them, he also took a deep interest in the general artistic movement of the time. he was, by nature, intensely enthusiastic, and his strong personality ever impressed itself on individuals and communities with which he came in contact. he was a born leader of men, and, like so many other leaders, often so forgetful of self in his eager desire for the general good as to seriously interfere with his material prosperity. this is what happened to him now, for he gave so liberally of himself in the formation of a new artistic body in new york, and in the preparation of lectures, that he encroached seriously on time which might have been more lucratively employed. his brother sidney comments on this in a letter to the other brother richard: "finley is well and in good spirits, though not advancing very rapidly in his business. he is full of the academy and of his lectures-- can hardly talk on any other subject. i despair of ever seeing him rich or even at ease in his pecuniary circumstances from efforts of his own, though able to do it with so little effort. but he may be in a better way, perhaps, of getting a fortune in his present course than he would be in the laborious path which we are too apt to think is the only road to wealth and ultimate ease." we have seen that morse was one of the founders of an academy of art in charleston, south carolina, and we have seen that, after his departure from that city, this academy languished and died. is it an unfair inference that, if he had remained permanently in charleston, so sad a fate would not have overtaken the infant academy? in support of this inference we shall now see that he was largely instrumental in bringing into being an artistic association, over which he presided for many years, and which has continued to prosper until, at the present day, it is the leading artistic body in this country. when morse settled in new york in there existed an american academy of arts, of which colonel trumbull, the celebrated painter, was the president. while eminent as a painter, trumbull seems to have lacked executive ability and to have been rather haughty and overbearing in his manner, for morse found great dissatisfaction existing among the professional artists and students. at first it was thought that, by bringing their grievances before the board of directors of the academy, conditions might be changed, and on the th of november, , a meeting was called in the rooms of the historical society, and the "new york drawing association" was formed, and morse was chosen to preside over its meetings. it was not intended, at first, that this association should be a rival of the old academy, but that it should give to its members facilities which were difficult of attainment in the academy, and should, perhaps, force that institution to become more liberal. it was not successful in the latter effort, for at a meeting of the drawing association on the evening of the th of january, , morse, the president, proposed certain resolutions which he introduced by the following remarks:-- "we have this evening assumed a new attitude in the community; our negotiations with the academy are at an end; our union with it has been frustrated after every proper effort on our part to accomplish it. the two who were elected as directors from our ticket have signified their non-acceptance of the office. we are therefore left to organize ourselves on a plan that shall meet the wishes of us all. "a plan of an institution which shall be truly liberal, which shall be mutually beneficial, which shall really encourage our respective arts, cannot be devised in a moment; it ought to be the work of great caution and deliberation and as simple as possible in its machinery. time will be required for the purpose. we must hear from distant countries to obtain their experience, and it must necessarily be, perhaps, many months before it can be matured. "in the mean time, however, a preparatory, simple organization can be made, and should be made as soon as possible, to prevent dismemberment, which may be attempted by outdoor influence. on this subject let us all be on our guard; let us point to our public documents to any who ask what we have done and why we have done it, while we go forward minding only our own concerns, leaving the academy of fine arts as much of our thoughts as they will permit us, and, bending our attention to our own affairs, act as if no such institution existed. "one of our dangers at present is division and anarchy from a want of organization suited to the present exigency. we are now composed of artists in the four arts of design, namely, painting, sculpture, architecture, and engraving. some of us are professional artists, others amateurs, others students. to the professed and practical artist belongs the management of all things relating to schools, premiums, and lectures, so that amateur and student may be most profited. the amateurs and students are those alone who can contend for the premiums, while the body of professional artists exclusively judge of their rights to premiums and award them. "how shall we first make the separation has been a question which is a little perplexing. there are none of us who can assume to be the body of artists without giving offence to others, and still every one must perceive that, to organize an academy, there must be the distinction between professional artists, amateurs who are students, and professional students. the first great division should be the body of professional artists from the amateurs and students, constituting the body who are to manage the entire concerns of the institution, who shall be its officers, etc. "there is a method which strikes me as obviating the difficulty; place it on the broad principle of the formation of any society--universal suffrage. we are now a mixed body; it is necessary for the benefit of all that a separation into classes be made. who shall make it? "why, obviously the body itself. let every member of this association take home with him a list of all the members of it. let each one select for himself from the whole list _fifteen_, whom he would call professional artists, to be the ticket which he will give in at the next meeting. "these fifteen thus chosen shall elect not less than _ten_, nor more than _fifteen_, professional artists, in or out of the association, who shall (with the previously elected fifteen) constitute the body to be called the national academy of the arts of design. to these shall be delegated the power to regulate its entire concerns, choose its members, select its students, etc. "thus will the germ be formed to grow up into an institution which we trust will be put on such principles as to encourage--not to depress--the arts. when this is done our body will no longer be the drawing association, but the national academy of the arts of design, still including all the present association, but in different capacities. "one word as to the name 'national academy of the arts of design.' any less name than 'national' would be taking one below the american academy, and therefore is not desirable. if we were simply the 'associated artists,' their name would swallow us up; therefore 'national' seems a proper one as to the arts of design. these are painting, sculpture, architecture, and engraving, while the fine arts include poetry, music, landscape gardening, and the histrionic arts. our name, therefore, expresses the entire character of our institution and that only." from this we see that morse's enthusiasm was tempered with tact and common sense. his proposals were received with unanimous approval, and on the th of january, , the following fifteen were chosen:--s.f.b. morse, henry inman, a.b. durand, john frazee, william wall, charles c. ingham, william dunlap, peter maverick, ithiel town, thomas s. cummings, edward potter, charles c. wright, mosely j. danforth, hugh reinagle, gerlando marsiglia. these fifteen professional artists added by ballot to their number the following fifteen:--samuel waldo, william jewett, john w. paradise, frederick s. agate, rembrandt peale, james coyle, nathaniel rogers, j. parisen, william main, john evers, martin e. thompson, thomas cole, john vanderlyn (who declined), alexander anderson, d.w. wilson. thus was organized the national academy of design. morse was elected its first president and was annually reëlected to that office until the year , when, the telegraph having now become an assured success, he felt that he could not devote the necessary time and thought to the interests of the academy, and he insisted on retiring. in the year he was prevailed upon by thomas s. cummings, one of the original academicians, but now a general, to become again the president, and he served in that office for a year. the general, in a letter to mr. prime in , says, "and, i may add, was beloved by all." i shall not attempt to give a detailed account of the early struggles of the academy, closely interwoven though they be with morse's life. those who may be interested in the matter will find them all detailed in general cummings' "records of the national academy of design." morse prepared and delivered a number of lectures on various subjects pertaining to the fine arts, and most of these have been preserved in pamphlet form. in this connection i shall quote again from the letter of general cummings before alluded to:-- "mr. morse's connection with the academy was doubtless unfavorable in a pecuniary point of view; his interest in it interfering with professional practice, and the time taken to enable him to prepare his course of lectures materially contributed to favor a distribution of his labors in art to other hands, and it never fully returned to him. his 'discourse on academies of art,' delivered in the chapel of columbia college, may, , will long stand as a monument of his ability in the line of art literature. "as an historical painter mr. morse, after allston, was probably the best prepared and most fully educated artist of his day, and should have received the attention of the government and a share of the distributions in art commissions." that his efforts were appreciated by his fellow artists and by the cultivated people of new york is thus modestly described in a letter to his parents of november , :-- "i mentioned that reputation was flowing in upon me. the younger artists have formed a drawing association at the academy and elected me their president. we meet in the evenings of three days in a week to draw, and it has been conducted thus far with such success as to have trebled the number of our association and excited the attention and applause of the community. there is a spirit of harmony among the artists, every one says, which never before existed in new york, and which augurs well for the success of the arts. "the artists are pleased to attribute it to my exertions, and i find in them in consequence expressions and feelings of respect which have been very gratifying to me. whatever influence i have had, however, in producing this pleasant state of things, i think there was the preparation in the state of mind of the artists themselves. i find a liberal feeling in the younger part of them, and a refinement of manners, which will redeem the character of art from the degradation to which a few dissipated interlopers have, temporarily, reduced it. "a literary society, admission to which must be by unanimous vote, and into which many respectable literary characters of the city have been denied admission, has chosen me a member, together with mr. hillhouse and mr. bryant, poets. this indicates good feelings towards me, to say the least, and, in the end, will be of advantage, i have no doubt." chapter xiv january , --december , success of his lectures, the first of the kind in the united states.-- difficulties of his position as leader.--still longing for a home.--very busy but in good health.--death of his father.--estimates of dr. morse.-- letters to his mother.--wishes to go to europe again.--delivers address at first anniversary of national academy of design.--professor dana lectures on electricity.--morse's study of the subject.--moves to no. murray street.--too busy to visit his family.--death of his mother.--a remarkable woman.--goes to central new york.--a serious accident.--moral reflections.--prepares to go to europe.--letter of john a. dix.--sails for liverpool.--rough voyage.--liverpool. january , my dear parents,--i wish you all a happy new year! kiss my little ones as a new year's present from me, which must answer until i visit them, when i shall bring them each a present if i hear good accounts from them.... the new year brings with it many painful reflections to me. when i consider what a difference a year has accomplished in my situation; that one on whom i depended so much for domestic happiness at this time last year gave me the salutations of the season, and now is gone where years are unknown; and when i think how mysteriously i am separated from my little family, and that duty may keep me i know not how much longer in this solitary state, i have much that makes the present season far from being a happy new year to me. but, mysterious as things seem in regard to the future, i know that all will be ordered right, and i have a great deal to say of mercy in the midst of judgment, and a thousand unmerited blessings with all my troubles. but why do i talk of troubles? my cup is overflowing with blessings. as far as outward circumstances are concerned, providence seems to be opening an honorable and useful course to me. oh! that i may be able to bear prosperity, if it is his will to bestow it, or be denied it if not accompanied with his blessing.... i am much engaged in my lectures, have completed two, nearly, and hope to get through the four in season for my turn at the athenæum. these lectures are of great importance to me, for, if well done, they place me alone among the artists; i being the only one who has as yet written a course of lectures in our country. time bestowed on them is not, therefore, misspent, for they will acquire me reputation which will yield wealth, as mother, i hope, will live to see. "_january , ._ on this day i seem to have the only moment in the week in which i can write you, for i am almost overwhelmed by the multitude of cares that crowd upon me.... i find that the path of duty, though plain, is not without its roughness. i can say but in one word that the association of artists, of whom i am president, after negotiations of some weeks with the academy of fine arts to come into it on terms of mutual benefit, find their efforts unavailing, and have separated and formed a new academy to be called, probably, the national academy of the arts of design. i am at its head, but the cares and responsibility which devolve on me in consequence are more than a balance for the honor. the battle is yet to be fought for the need of public favor, and were it not that the entire and perfect justness of our cause is clear to me in every point of view, i should retire from a contest which would merely serve to rouse up all the 'old adam' to no profit; but the cause of the artists seems, under providence, to be, in some degree, confided to me, and i cannot shrink from the cares and troubles at present put upon me. i have gone forward thus far, asking direction from above, and, in looking around me, i feel that i am in the path of duty. may i be kept in it and be preserved from the temptations, the various and multiplied and complicated temptations, to which i know i shall be exposed. in every step thus far i feel an approving conscience; there is none i could wish to retrace.... "i fear you will think i have but few thoughts for you all at home, and my dear little ones in particular. i do think of them, though, very often, with many a longing to have a home for them under a parent's roof, and all my efforts now are tending distantly to that end; but when i shall ever have a home of my own, or whether it will ever be, i know not. the necessity for a second connection on their account seems pressing, but i cannot find my heart ready for it. i am occasionally rallied on the subject, but the suggestion only reminds me of her i have lost, and a tear is quite as ready to appear as a smile; or, if i can disguise it, i feel a pang within that shows me the wound is not yet healed. it is eleven months since she has gone, but it seems but yesterday." "_april , ._ i don't know but you will think i have forgotten how to write letters, and i believe this is the first i have written for six weeks. "the pressure of my lectures became very great towards the close of them, and i was compelled to bend my whole attention to their completion. i did not expect, when i delivered my first, that i should be able to give more than two, but the importance of going through seemed greater as i advanced, and i was strengthened to accomplish the whole number, and, if i can judge from various indications, i think i have been successful. my audience, consisting of the most fashionable and literary society in the city, regularly increased at each successive lecture, and at the last it was said that i had the largest audience ever assembled in the room. "i am now engaged on lafayette in expectation of completing it for our exhibition in may, after which time i hope i shall be able to see you for a day or two in new haven. i long to see you all, and those dear children often make me feel anxious, and i am often tempted to break away and have a short look at them, but i am tied down here and cannot move at present. all that i am doing has some reference to their interest; they are constantly on my mind. "... my health was never better with all my intense application, sitting in my chair from seven in the morning until twelve or one o'clock the next morning, with only about an hour's intermission. i have felt no permanent inconvenience. on saturday night, generally, i have felt exceedingly nervous, so that my whole body and limbs would shake, but resting on the sabbath seemed to give me strength for the next week. since my mind is relieved from my lectures i have felt new life and spirits, and feel strong to accomplish anything." "_may , s ._ i have just heard from mother and feel anxious about father. nothing but the most imperious necessity prevents my coming immediately to new haven; indeed, as it is, i will try and break away sometime next week, if possible, and pass one day with you, but how to do it without detriment to my business i don't know.... "i have longed for some time for a little respite, but, like our good father, all his sons seem destined for most busy stations in society, and constant exertions, not for themselves alone, but for the public benefit." whether this promised visit to new haven was paid or not is not recorded, but it is to be hoped that it was made possible, for the good husband and father, the faithful worker for the betterment of mankind, was called to his well-earned rest on the th of june, . of him dr. john todd said, "dr. morse lived before his time and was in advance of his generation." president dwight of yale found him "as full of resources as an egg is of meat"; and daniel webster spoke of him as "always thinking, always writing, always talking, always acting." mr. prime thus sums up his character: "he was a man of genius, not content with what had been and was, but originating and with vast executive ability combining the elements to produce great results. to him more than to any other one man may be attributed the impulses given in his day to religion and learning in the united states. a polished gentleman in his manners; the companion, correspondent, and friend of the most eminent men in church and state; honored at the early age of thirty-four with the degree of doctor of divinity by the university of edinburgh, scotland; sought by scholars and statesmen from abroad as one of the foremost men of his country and time." the son must have felt keenly the loss of his father so soon after the death of his wife. the whole family was a singularly united one, each member depending on the others for counsel and advice, and the father, who was but sixty-five when he died, was still vigorous in mind, although of delicate constitution. later in this year morse managed to spend some time in new haven, and he persuaded his mother to seek rest and recuperation in travel, accompanying her as far as boston and writing to her there on his return to new haven. "_september , ._ i arrived safely home after leaving you yesterday and found that neither the house nor the folks had run away.... persevere in your travels, mother, as long as you think it does you good, and tell dick to brush up his best bows and bring home some lady to grace the now desolate mansion." on november , , he writes to his mother from new york:-- "don't think i have forgotten you all at home because i have been so remiss in writing you lately. i feel guilty, however, in not stealing some little time just to write you one line. i acknowledge my fault, so please forgive me and i will be a _better boy_ in future. "the fact is i have been engaged for the last three days during all my leisure moments in something unusual with me,--i mean _electioneering_. 'oh! what a sad boy!' mother will say. 'there he is leaving everything at sixes and sevens, and driving through the streets, and busying himself about those _poison politics_.' not quite so fast, however. "i have not neglected my own affairs, as you will learn one of these days. i have an historical picture to paint, which will occupy me for some time, for a proprietor of a steamboat which is building in philadelphia to be the most splendid ever built. he has engaged historical pictures of allston, vanderlyn, sully, and myself, and landscapes of the principal landscape painters, for a gallery on board the boat. i consider this as a new and noble channel for the encouragement of painting, and in such an enterprise and in such company i shall do my best. "what do you think of sparing me for about one year to visit paris and rome to finish what i began when in europe before? my education as a painter is incomplete without it, and the time is rapidly going away when my age will render it impossible to profit by such studies, even if i should be able, at a future time, to visit europe again.... i can, perhaps, leave my dear little ones at their age better than if they were more advanced, and, as my views are ultimately to benefit them, i think no one will accuse me of neglecting them. if they do, they know but little of my feelings towards them." the mother's answer to this letter has not been preserved, but whether she dissuaded him from going at that time, or whether other reasons prevented him, the fact is that he did not start on the voyage to europe (the return trip proving so momentous to himself and to the world) until exactly three years later. i shall pass rapidly over these intervening three years. they were years of hard work, but of work rewarded by material success and increasing honor in the community. on may , , on the occasion of the first anniversary of the national academy of design, morse, its president, delivered an address before a brilliant audience in the chapel of columbia college. this address was considered so remarkable that, at the request of the academy, it was published in pamphlet form. it called forth a sharp review in the "north american," which voiced the opinions of those who were hostile to the new academy, and who considered the term "national" little short of arrogant. morse replied to this attack in a masterly manner in the "journal of commerce," and this also was published in pamphlet form and ended the controversy. in the year , professor james freeman dana, of columbia college, delivered a series of lectures on the subject of electricity at the new york athenæum. professor dana was an enthusiast in the study of that science, which, at that time, was but in its infancy, and he foresaw great and beneficial results to mankind from this mysterious force when it should become more fully understood. morse, already familiar with the subject from his experiments with professor silliman in new haven, took a deep interest in these lectures, and he and professor dana became warm friends. the latter, on his side a great admirer of the fine arts, spent many hours in the studio of the artist, discussing with him the two subjects which were of absorbing interest to them both, art and electricity. in this way morse became perfectly familiar with the latest discoveries in electrical science, so that when, a few years later, his grand conception of a simple and practicable means of harnessing this mystic agent to the uses of mankind took form in his brain, it found a field already prepared to receive it. i wish to lay particular emphasis on this point because, in later years, when his claims as an inventor were bitterly assailed in the courts and in scientific circles, it was asserted that he knew nothing whatever of the science of electricity at the time of his invention, and that all its essential features were suggested to him by others. in the year , morse again changed his quarters, moving to a suite of rooms at no. murray street, close to broadway, for which he paid a "great rent," $ , and on may of that year he writes to his mother: "ever since i left you at new haven i have been over head and ears in arrangements of every kind. it is the busiest time of the whole year as it regards the national academy. we have got through the arrangement of our exhibition and yesterday opened it to the guests of the academy. we had the first people in the city, ladies and gentlemen, thronging the room all day, and the voice of all seemed to be--'it is the best exhibition of the kind that has been seen in the city.' "i am now arranging my rooms; they are very fine ones. i shall be through in a few days, and then i hope to be able to come up and see you, for i feel very anxious about you, my dear mother. i do most sincerely sympathize with you in your troubles and long to come up and take some of the care and burden from you, and will do it as soon as my affairs here can be arranged so that i can leave them without serious detriment to them.... what a siege you must have had with your _help_, as it is most strangely called in new haven. i am too aristocratic for such doings as _help_ would make those who live in new haven endure. ardently as i am attached to new haven the plague of _help_ will probably always prevent my living there again, for i would not put up with 'the world turned upside down,' and therefore should give offense to their _helpinesses_, and so lead a very uncomfortable life." from this our suspicion is strengthened that the servant question belongs to no time or country, but is and always has been a perennial and ubiquitous problem. "_may , ._ i feel very anxious about you, dear mother. i heard through mr. van rensselaer that you were better, and i hope that you will yet see many good days on earth and be happy in the affection of your children and friends here, before you go, a little before them, to join those in heaven." while expressing anxiety about his mother's health, he could not have considered her condition critical, for on the th of may he writes again:-- "i did hope so to make my arrangements as to have been with you in new haven yesterday and to-day, but i am so situated as to be unable to leave the city without great detriment to my business.... unless, therefore, there is something of pressing necessity, prudence would dictate to me to take advantage of this season, which has generally been the most profitable to others in the profession, and see if i cannot get my share of something to do. it is a great struggle with me to know what i ought to do. your situation and that of the family draw me to new haven; the state of my finances keeps me here. i will come, however, if, on the whole, you think it best." again are the records silent as to whether the visit was paid or not, but his anxiety was well founded, for his mother's appointed time had come, and just ten days later, on the th of may, , she died at the age of sixty-two. thus within the space of three years the hand of death had removed the three beings whom morse loved best. his mother, while, as we have seen, stern and uncompromising in her puritan principles, yet possessed the faculty of winning the love as well as the respect of her family and friends. dr. todd said of her home: "an orphan myself and never having a home, i have gone away from dr. morse's house in tears, feeling that such a home must be more like heaven than anything of which i could conceive." mr. prime, in his biography of morse, thus pays tribute to her:-- "two persons more unlike in temperament, it is said, could not have been united in love and marriage than the parents of morse. the husband was sanguine, impulsive, resolute, regardless of difficulties and danger. she was calm, judicious, cautious, and reflecting. and she, too, had a will of her own. one day she was expressing to one of the parish her intense displeasure with the treatment her husband had received, when dr. morse gently laid his hand upon her shoulder and said, 'my dear, you know we must throw the mantle of charity over the imperfections of others.' and she replied with becoming spirit, 'mr. morse, charity is not a fool.'" in the summer of , morse spent some time in central new york, visiting relatives and painting portraits when the occasion offered. he thus describes a narrow escape from serious injury, or even death, in a letter to his brother sidney, dated utica, august , :-- "in coming from whitesboro on friday i met with an accident and a most narrow escape with my life. the horse, which had been tackled into the wagon, was a vicious horse and had several times run away, to the danger of mr. dexter's life and others of the family. i was not aware of this or i should not have consented to go with him, much less to drive him myself. "i was alone in the wagon with my baggage, and the horse went very well for about a mile, when he gradually quickened his pace and then set out, in spite of all check, on the full run. i kept him in the road, determined to let him run himself tired as the only safe alternative; but just as i came in sight of a piece of the road which had been concealed by an angle, there was a heavy wagon which i must meet so soon that, in order to avoid it, i must give it the whole road. "this being very narrow, and the ditches and banks on each side very rough, i instantly made up my mind to a serious accident. as well as the velocity of the horse would allow me, however, i kept him on the side, rough as it was, for about a quarter of a mile pretty steadily, expecting, however, to upset every minute; when all at once i saw before me an abrupt, narrow, deep gully into which the wheels on one side were just upon the point of going down. it flashed across me in an instant that, if i could throw the horse down into the ditch, the wheels of the wagon might, perhaps, rest equipoised on each side, and, perhaps, break the horse loose from the wagon. "i pulled the rein and accomplished the object in part. the sudden plunge of the horse into the gully broke him loose from the wagon, but it at the same time turned one of the fore wheels into the gully, which upset the wagon and threw me forwards at the moment when the horse threw up his heels, just taking off my hat and leaving me in the bottom of the gully. i fell on my left shoulder, and, although muddied from head to foot, i escaped without any injury whatever; i was not even jarred painfully. i found my shoulder a little bruised, my wrist very slightly scratched, and yesterday was a little, and but very little, stiffened in my limbs, and to-day have not the slightest feeling of bruise about me, but think i feel better than i have for a long time. indeed, my health is entirely restored; the riding and country air have been the means of restoring me. i have great cause of thankfulness for so much mercy and for such special preserving care." [illustration: elizabeth a. morse painted by morse] the historian or the biographer who is earnestly desirous of presenting an absolutely truthful picture of men and of events is aided in his task by taking into account the character of the men who have made history. he must ask the question: "is it conceivable that this man could have acted thus and so under such and such circumstances when his character, as ultimately revealed through the perspective of time, has been established? could washington and lincoln, for example, have been actuated by the motives attributed to them by their enemies?" like all men who have become shining marks in the annals of history, morse could not hope to escape calumny, and in later years he was accused of actions, and motives were imputed to him, which it becomes the duty of his biographer to disprove on the broad ground of moral impossibility. among his letters and papers are many rough drafts of thoughts and observations on many subjects, interlined and annotated. some were afterwards elaborated into letters, articles, or lectures; others seem to have been the thought of the moment, which he yet deemed worth writing down, and which, perhaps better than anything else, reveal the true character of the man. the following was written by him in pencil on sunday, september , , at cooperstown, new york:-- "that temptations surround us at every moment is too evident to require proof. if they cease from without they still act upon us from within ourselves, and our most secret thoughts may as surely be drawn from the path of duty by secret temptation, by the admission of evil suggestions, and they will affect our characters as injuriously as those more palpable and tangible temptations that attack our sense. "this life is a state of discipline; a school in which to form character. there is not an event that comes to our knowledge, not a sentence that we read, not a person with whom we converse, not an act of our lives, in short, not a thought which we conceive, but is acting upon and moulding that character into a shape of good or evil; and, however unconscious we may be of the fact, a thought, casually conceived in the solitariness and silence and darkness of midnight, may so modify and change the current of our future conduct that a blessing or a curse to millions may flow from it. "all our thoughts are mysteriously connected with good or evil. their very habits, too, like the habits of our actions, are strengthened by indulgence, and, according as we indulge the evil or the good, our characters will partake of the moral character of each. but actions proceed from thoughts; we act as we think. why should we, then, so cautiously guard our actions from impropriety while we give a loose rein to our thoughts, which so certainly, sooner or later, produce their fruits in our actions? "god in his wisdom has separated at various distances sin and the consequence of sin. in some instances we see a sin instantly followed by its fruits, as of revenge by murder. in others we see weeks and months and years, aye, and ages, too, elapse before the fruits of a single act, the result, perhaps, of a single thought, are seen in all their varieties of evil. "how long ere the fruits of one sin in paradise will cease to be visible in the moral universe? "if this reasoning is correct, i shall but cheat myself in preserving a good moral outward appearance to others if every thought of the heart, in the most secret retirement, is not carefully watched and checked and guarded from evil; since the casual indulgence of a single evil thought in secret may be followed, long after that thought is forgotten by me, and when, perhaps, least expected, by overt acts of evil. "who, then, shall say that in those pleasures in which we indulge, and which by many are called, and apparently are, innocent, there are not laid the seeds of many a corrupt affection? who shall say that my innocent indulgence at the card table or at the theatre, were i inclined to visit them, may not produce, if not in me a passion for gaming or for low indulgence, yet in others may encourage these views to their ruin? "besides, 'evil communications corrupt good manners,' and even places less objectionable are studiously to be avoided. the soul is too precious to be thus exposed. "where then is our remedy? in christ alone. 'cleanse thou me from secret faults. search me, o god, and know my thoughts; try me and know my ways and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way which is everlasting.'" this is but one of many expressions of a similar character which are to be found in the letters and notes, and which are illuminating. morse was now making ready for another trip to europe. he had hoped, when he returned home in , to stay but a year or two on this side and then to go back and continue his artistic education, which he by no means considered complete, in france and italy. we have seen how one circumstance after another interfered to prevent the realization of this plan, until now, after the lapse of fourteen years, he found it possible. his wife and his parents were dead; his children were being carefully cared for by relatives, the daughter susan by her mother's sister, mrs. pickering, in concord, new hampshire, and the boys by their uncle, richard c. morse, who was then happily married and living in the family home in new haven. the national academy of design was now established on a firm footing and could spare his guiding hand for a few years. he had saved enough money to defray his expenses on a strictly economical basis, but, to make assurance doubly sure, he sought and received commissions from his friends and patrons in america for copies of famous paintings, or for original works of his own, so that he could sail with a clear conscience as regarded his finances. his friends were uniformly encouraging in furthering his plan, and he received many letters of cordial good wishes and of introduction to prominent men abroad. i shall include the following from john a. dix, at that time a captain in the army, but afterwards a general, and governor of new york, who, although he had been an unsuccessful suitor for the hand of miss walker, morse's wife, bore no ill-will towards his rival, but remained his firm friend to the end:-- cooperstown, th october, . my dear sir,--i have only time to say that i have been absent in an adjacent county and fear there is not time to procure a letter for you to mr. rives before the st. i have written to mr. van buren and he will doubtless send you a letter before the th. therefore make arrangements to have it sent after you if you sail on the st. i need not say i shall be very happy to hear from you during your sojournment abroad. especially tell me what your impressions are when you turn from david's picture with romulus and tatius in the foreground, and paul veronese's marriage at cana directly opposite, at the entrance of the picture gallery in the louvre. we are all well and all desire to be remembered. i have only time to add my best wishes for your happiness and prosperity. yours truly and constantly, john a. dix. the mr. rives mentioned in the letter was at that time our minister to france, and the mr. van buren was martin van buren, then secretary of state in president jackson's cabinet, and afterwards himself president of the united states. the following is from the pencilled draft of a letter or the beginning of a diary which was not finished, but ends abruptly:-- "on the th november, , i embarked from new york in the ship napoleon, captain smith, for liverpool. the napoleon is one of those splendid packets, which have been provided by the enterprise of our merchants, for the accommodation of persons whose business or pleasure requires a visit to europe or america. "precisely at the appointed hour, ten o'clock, the steamboat with the passengers and their baggage left the whitehall dock for our gallant ship, which was lying to above the city, heading up the north river, careening to the brisk northwest gale, and waiting with apparent impatience for us, like a spirited horse curvetting under the rein of his master, and waiting but his signal to bound away. a few moments brought us to her side, and a few more saw the steamboat leave us, and the sad farewells to relatives and friends, who had thus far accompanied us, were mutually exchanged by the waving of hands and of handkerchiefs. the 'ready about,' and soon after the 'mainsail haul' of the pilot were answered by the cheering 'ho, heave, ho' of the sailors, and, with the fairest wind that ever blew, we fast left the spires and shores of the great city behind us. in two hours we discharged our pilot to the south of sandy hook, with his pocket full of farewell letters to our friends, and then stood on our course for england. "four days brought us to the banks of newfoundland, one third of our passage. many of our passengers were sanguine in their anticipations of our making the shortest passage ever known, and, had our subsequent progress been as great as at first, we should doubtless have accomplished the voyage in thirteen days, but calms and head winds for three days on the banks have frustrated our expectations. "there is little that is interesting in the incidents of a voyage. the indescribable listlessness of seasickness, the varied state of feeling which changes with the wind and weather, have often been described. these i experienced in all their force. from the time we left the banks of newfoundland we had a continued succession of head winds, and when within one fair day's sail of land, we were kept off by severe gales directly ahead for five successive days and nights, during which time the uneasy motion of the ship deprived us all of sleep, except in broken intervals of an half-hour at a time. we neither saw nor spoke any vessel until the evening of the ----, when we descried through the darkness a large vessel on an opposite course from ourselves; we first saw her cabin lights. it was blowing a gale of wind before which we were going on our own course at the rate of eleven miles an hour. it was, of course, impossible to speak her, but, to let her know that she had company on the wide ocean, we threw up a rocket which for splendor of effect surpassed any that i had ever seen on shore. it was thrown from behind the mizzenmast, over which it shot arching its way over the main and foremasts, illuminating every sail and rope, and then diving into the water, piercing the wave, it again shot upwards and vanished in a loud report. to our companion ship the effect must have been very fine. "the sea is often complained of for its monotony, and yet there is great variety in the appearance of the sea." here it ends, but we learn a little more of the voyage and the landing in england from a letter to a cousin in america, written in liverpool, on december , :-- "i arrived safely in england yesterday after a long, but, on the whole, pleasant, passage of twenty-six days. i write you from the inn (the king's arms hotel) at which i put up eighteen years ago. this inn is the one at which professor silliman stayed when he travelled in england, and which he mentions in his travels. the old frenchman whom he mentions i well remember when i was here before. i enquired for him and am told he is still living, but i have not seen him. "there is a large black man, a waiter in the house, who is quite a polished man in his manners, and an elderly white man, with white hair, who looks so respectable and dignified that one feels a little awkward at first in ordering him to do this or that service; and the chambermaids look so venerable and matronly that to ask them for a pitcher of water seems almost rude to them. but i am in a land where domestic servants are the best in the world. no servant aspires to a higher station, but feels a pride in making himself the first in that station. i notice this, for our own country presents a melancholy contrast in this particular." here follows a description of the voyage, and he continues:-- "yesterday we anchored off the floating light, sixteen miles from the city, unable to reach the dock on account of the wind, but the post-office steamboat (or steamer, as they call them here) came to us from liverpool to take the letter-bags, and i with other passengers got on board, and at twelve o'clock i once more placed my foot on english ground. "the weather is true english weather, thick, smoky, and damp. i can see nothing of the general appearance of the city. the splendid docks, which were building when i was here before, are now completed and extend along the river. they are really splendid; everything about them is solid and substantial, of stone and iron, and on so large a scale. "i have passed my baggage through the custom-house, and on monday i proceed on my journey to london through birmingham and oxford. miss leslie, a sister of my friend leslie of london, is my _compagnon de voyage_. she is a woman of fine talents and makes my journey less tedious and irksome than it would otherwise be.... i have a long journey before me yet ere i reach rome, where i intended to be by christmas day, but my long voyage will probably defeat my intention." chapter xv december , --february , journey from liverpool to london by coach.--neatness of the cottages.-- trentham hall.--stratford-on-avon.--oxford.--london.--charles r. leslie. --samuel rogers.--seated with academicians at royal academy lecture.-- washington irving.--turner.--leaves london for dover.--canterbury cathedral.--detained at dover by bad weather.--incident of a former visit.--channel steamer.--boulogne-sur-mer.--first impressions of france.--paris.--the louvre.--lafayette.--cold in paris.--continental sunday.--leaves paris for marseilles in diligence.--intense cold.-- dijon.--french funeral.--lyons.--the hôtel dieu.--avignon.--catholic church services.--marseilles.--toulon.--the navy yard and the galley slaves.--disagreeable experience at an inn.--the riviera.--genoa. morse was now thirty-eight years old, in the full vigor of manhood, of a spare but well-knit frame and of a strong constitution. while all his life, and especially in his younger years, he was a sufferer from occasional severe headaches, he never let these interfere with the work on hand, and, by leading a sane and rational life, he escaped all serious illnesses. he was not a total abstainer as regards either wine or tobacco, but was moderate in the use of both; a temperance advocate in the true sense of the word. his character had now been moulded both by prosperity and adversity. he had known the love of wife and children, and of father and mother, and the cup of domestic happiness had been dashed from his lips. he had experienced the joy of the artist in successful creation, and the bitterness of the sensitive soul irritated by the ignorant, and all but overwhelmed by the struggle for existence. he had felt the supreme joy of swaying an audience by his eloquence, and he had endured with fortitude the carping criticism of the envious. through it all, through prosperity and through adversity, his hopeful, buoyant nature had triumphed. prosperity had not spoiled him, and adversity had but served to refine. he felt that he had been given talents which he must utilize to the utmost, that he must be true to himself, and that, above all, he must strive in every way to benefit his fellow men. this motive we find recurring again and again in his correspondence and in his ultimate notes. not, "what can i do for myself?" but "what can i do for mankind?" never falsely humble, but, on the contrary, properly proud of his achievements, jealous of his own good name and fame and eager _honestly_ to acquire wealth, he yet ever put the public good above his private gain. he was now again in europe, the goal of his desires for many years, and he was about to visit the continent, where he had never been. paris, with her treasures of art, italy, the promised land of every artist, lay before him. we shall miss the many intimate letters to his wife and to his parents, but we shall find others to his brothers and to his friends, perhaps a shade less unreserved, but still giving a clear account of his wanderings, and, from a mass of little notebooks and sketch-books, we can follow him on his pilgrimage and glean some keen observations on the peoples and places visited by him. it must be remembered that this was still the era of the stage-coach and the diligence, and that it took many days to accomplish a journey which is now made in almost the same number of hours. on christmas day, , he begins a letter from dover to a favorite cousin, mrs. margaret roby, of utica, new york:-- "when i left liverpool i took my seat upon the outside of the coach, in order to see as much as possible of the country through which i was to pass. unfortunately the fog and smoke were so dense that i could see objects but a few yards from the road. occasionally, indeed, the fog would become less dense, and we could see the fine lawns of the seats of the nobility and gentry, which were scattered on our route, and which still retained their verdure. now and then the spire and towers of some ancient village church rose out of the leafless trees, beautifully simple in their forms, and sometimes clothed to the very tops with the evergreen ivy. it was severely cold; my eyebrows, hair, cap, and the fur of my cloak were soon coated with frost, but i determined to keep my seat though i suffered some from the cold. "their fine natural health, or the frosty weather, gave to the complexions of the peasantry, particularly the females and children, a beautiful rosy bloom. through all the villages there was the appearance of great comfort and neatness,--a neatness, however, very different from ours. their nicely thatched cottages bore all the marks of great antiquity, covered with brilliant green moss like velvet, and round the doors and windows were trained some of the many kinds of evergreen vines which abound here. most of them also had a trim courtyard before their doors, planted with laurel and holly and box, and sometimes a yew cut into some fantastic shape. the whole appearance of the villages was neat and venerable; like some aged matron who, with all her wrinkles, her stooping form, and grey locks, preserves the dignity of cleanliness in her ancient but becoming costume. "at trentham we passed one of the seats of the marquis of stafford, trentham hall. here the marquis has a fine gallery of pictures, and among them allston's famous picture of 'uriel in the sun.' "i slept the first night in birmingham, which i had no time to see on account of darkness, smoke, and fog: three most inveterate enemies to the seekers of the picturesque and of antiquities. in the morning, before daylight, i resumed my journey towards london. at stratford-on-avon i breakfasted, but in such haste as not to be able to visit again the house of shakespeare's birth, or his tomb. this house, however, i visited when in england before. at oxford, the city of so many classical recollections, i stopped but a few moments to dine. i was here also when before in england. it is a most splendid city; its spires and domes and towers and pinnacles, rising from amid the trees, give it a magnificent appearance as you approach it. "before we reached oxford we passed through woodstock and blenheim, the seat of the duke of marlborough, whose splendid estates are at present suffering from the embarrassment of the present duke, who has ruined his fortunes by his fondness for play. "darkness came on after leaving oxford; i saw nothing until arriving in the vicinity of the great metropolis, which has, for many miles before you enter it, the appearance of a continuous village. we saw the brilliant gas-lights of its streets, and our coach soon joined the throng of vehicles that rattled over its pavements. i could scarcely realize that i was once more in london after fourteen years' absence. "my first visit was to my old friend and fellow pupil, leslie, who seemed overjoyed to see me and has been unremitting in his attentions during my stay in london. leslie i found, as i expected, in high favor with the highest classes of england's noblemen and literary characters. his reputation is well deserved and will not be ephemeral. "i received an invitation to breakfast from samuel rogers, esq., the celebrated poet, which i accepted with my friend leslie. mr. rogers is the author of 'pleasures of memory,' of 'italy,' and other poems. he has not the proverbial lot of the poet,--that of being poor,--for he is one of the wealthiest bankers and lives in splendid style. his collection of pictures is very select, chosen by himself with great taste. "i attended, a few evenings since, the lecture on anatomy at the royal academy, where i was introduced to some of the most distinguished artists; to mr. shee, the poet and author as well as painter; to mr. howard, the secretary of the academy; to mr. hilton, the keeper; to mr. stothard, the librarian; and several others. i expected to have met and been introduced to sir thomas lawrence, the president, but he was absent, and i have not had the pleasure of seeing him. i was invited to a seat with the academicians, as was also mr. cole, a member of our academy in new york. i was gratified in seeing america so well represented in the painters leslie and newton. the lecturer also paid, in his lecture, a high compliment to allston by a deserved panegyric, and by several quotations from his poems, illustrative of principles which he advanced. "after the lecture i went home to tea with newton, accompanied by leslie, where i found our distinguished countryman, washington irving, our secretary of legation, and w.e. west, another american painter, whose portrait of lord byron gave him much celebrity. i passed a very pleasant evening, of course. "the next day i visited the national gallery of pictures, as yet but small, but containing some of the finest pictures in england. among them is the celebrated 'raising of lazarus' by sebastian del piombo, for which a nobleman of this country offered to the late proprietor sixteen thousand pounds sterling, which sum was refused. i visited also mr. turner, the best landscape painter living, and was introduced to him.... "i did not see so much of london or its curiosities as i should have done at another season of the year. the greater part of the time was night-- literally night; for, besides being the shortest days of the year (it not being light until eight o'clock and dark again at four), the smoke and fog have been most of the time so dense that darkness has for many days occupied the hours of daylight.... "on the d inst., tuesday, i left london, after having obtained in due form my passports, for the continent, in company with j. town, esq., and n. jocelyn, esq., american friends, intending to pass the night at canterbury, thirty-six miles from london. the day was very unpleasant, very cold, and snowing most of the time. at blackheath we saw the palace in which the late unfortunate queen of george iv resided. on the heath among the bushes is a low furze with which it is in part covered. there were encamped in their miserable blanket huts a gang of gypsies. no wigwams of the oneidas ever looked so comfortless. on the road we overtook a gypsy girl with a child in her arms, both having the stamp of that singular race strongly marked upon their features; black hair and sparkling black eyes, with a nut-brown complexion and cheeks of russet red, and not without a shrewd intelligence in their expression. "at about nine o'clock we arrived at the guildhall tavern in the celebrated and ancient city of canterbury. early in the morning, as soon as we had breakfasted, we visited the superb cathedral. this stupendous pile is one of the most distinguished gothic structures in the world. it is not only interesting from its imposing style of architecture, but from its numerous historical associations. the first glimpse we caught of it was through and over a rich, decayed gateway to the enclosure of the cathedral grounds. after passing the gate the vast pile--with its three great towers and innumerable turrets, and pinnacles, and buttresses, and arches, and painted windows--rose in majesty before us. the grand centre tower, covered with a grey moss, seemed like an immense mass of the palisades, struck out with all its regular irregularity, and placed above the surrounding masses of the same grey rocks. the bell of the great tower was tolling for morning service, and yet so distant, from its height, that it was scarcely heard upon the pavement below. "we entered the door of one of the towers and came immediately into the nave of the church. the effect of the long aisles and towering, clustered pillars and richly carved screens of a gothic church upon the imagination can scarcely be described--the emotion is that of awe. "a short procession was quickly passing up the steps of the choir, consisting of the beadle, or some such officer, with his wand of office, followed by ten boys in white surplices. behind these were the prebendaries and other officers of the church; one thin and pale, another portly and round, with powdered hair and sleepy, dull, heavy expression of face, much like the face that hogarth has chosen for the 'preacher to his sleepy congregation.' this personage we afterward heard was lord nelson, the brother of the celebrated nelson and the heir to his title. "the service was read in a hurried and commonplace manner to about thirty individuals, most of whom seemed to be the necessary assistants at the ceremonies. the effect of the voices in the responses and the chanting of the boys, reverberating through the aisles and arches and recesses of the church, was peculiarly imposing, but, when the great organ struck in, the emotion of grandeur was carried to its height,--i say nothing of devotion. i did not pretend on this occasion to join in it; i own that my thoughts as well as my eyes were roaming to other objects, and gathering around me the thousand recollections of scenic splendor, of terror, of bigotry, and superstition which were acted in sight of the very walls by which i was surrounded. here the murder of thomas à becket was perpetrated; there was his miracle-working shrine, visited by pilgrims from all parts of christendom, and enriched with the most costly jewels that the wealth of princes could purchase and lavish upon it; the very steps, worn into deep cavities by the knees of the devotees as they approached the shrine, were ascended by us. there stood the tomb of henry iv and his queen; and here was the tomb of edward, the black prince, with a bronze figure of the prince, richly embossed and enamelled, reclining upon the top, and over the canopy were suspended the surcoat and casque, the gloves of mail and shield, with which he was accoutred when he fought the famous battle of crécy. there also stood the marble chair in which the saxon kings were crowned, and in which, with the natural desire that all seemed to have in such cases, i could not avoid seating myself. from this chair, placed at one end of the nave, is seen to best advantage the length of the church, five hundred feet in extent. "after the service i visited more at leisure the tombs and other curiosities of the church. the precise spot on which archbishop becket was murdered is shown, but the spot on which his head fell on the pavement was cut out as a relic and sent to rome, and the place filled in with a fresh piece of stone, about five inches square.... "in the afternoon we left canterbury and proceeded to dover, intending to embark the next morning (thursday, december ) for calais or boulogne in the steamer. the weather, however, was very unpromising in the morning, being thick and foggy and apparently preparing for a storm. we therefore made up our minds to stay, hoping the next day would be more favorable; but friday, christmas day, came with a most violent northeast gale and snowstorm. saturday the th, sunday the th, and, at this moment, monday the th, the storm is more violent than ever, the streets are clogged with snow, and we are thus embargoed completely for we know not how long a time to come. "notwithstanding the severity of the weather on thursday, we all ventured out through the wind and snow to visit dover castle, situated upon the bleak cliffs to the north of the town.... "the castle, with its various towers and walls and outworks, has been the constant care of the government for ages. here are the remains of every age from the time of the romans to the present. about the centre of the enclosure stand two ancient ruins, the one a tower built by the romans, thirty-six years after christ, and the other a rude church built by the saxons in the sixth century. other remains of towers and walls indicate the various kinds of defensive and offensive war in different ages, from the time when the round or square tower, with its loopholes for the archers and crossbowmen, and gates secured by heavy portcullis, were a substantial defence, down to the present time, when the bastion of regular sides advances from the glacis, mounted with modern ordnance, keeping at a greater distance the hostile besiegers. "through the glacis in various parts are sally-ports, from one of which, opening towards the road to ramsgate, i well remember seeing a corporal's guard issue, about fifteen years ago, to take possession of me and my sketch-book, as i sat under a hedge at some distance to sketch the picturesque towers of this castle. somewhat suspicious of their intentions, i left my retreat, and, by a circuitous route into the town, made my escape; not, however, without ascertaining from behind a distant hedge that i was actually the object of their expedition. they went to the spot where i had been sitting, made a short search, and then returned to the castle through the same sally-port. "at that time (a time of war not only with france but america also) the strictest watch was kept, and to have been caught making the slightest sketch of a fortification would have subjected me to much trouble. times are now changed, and had jack frost (the only commander of rigor now at the castle) permitted, i might have sketched any part of the interior or exterior." "_boulogne-sur-mer, france, december , ._ this morning at ten o'clock, after our tedious detention, we embarked from dover in a steamer for this place instead of calais. i mentioned the steamer, but, cousin, if you have formed any idea of elegance, or comfort, or speed in connection with the name of steamer from seeing our fine steamboats, and have imagined that english or french boats are superior to ours, you may as well be undeceived. i know of no description of packet-boats in our waters bad enough to convey the idea. they are small, black, dirty, confined things, which would be suffered to rot at the wharves for want of the least custom from the lowest in our country. you may judge of the extent of the accommodations when i tell you that there is in them but one cabin, six feet six inches high, fourteen feet long, eleven feet wide, containing eight berths. "our passage was, fortunately, short, and we arrived in the dominions of 'his most christian majesty' charles x at five o'clock. the transition from a country where one's own language is spoken to one where the accents are strange; from a country where the manners and habits are somewhat allied to our own to one where everything is different, even to the most trifling article of dress, is very striking on landing after so short an interval from england to france. "the pier-head at our landing was filled with human beings in strange costume, from the grey _surtout_ and belt of the _gendarmes_ to the broad twilled and curiously plaited caps of the masculine women; which latter beings, by the way, are the licensed porters of baggage to the custom-house." "_paris, january , ._ here have i been in this great capital of the continent since the first day of the year. i shall remember my first visit to paris from the circumstance that, at the dawn of the day of the new year, we passed the porte saint-denis into the narrow and dirty streets of the great metropolis. "the louvre was the first object we visited. our passports obtained us ready admittance, and, although our fingers and feet were almost frozen, we yet lingered three hours in the grand gallery of pictures. indeed, it is a long walk simply to pass up and down the long hall, the end of which from the opposite end is scarcely visible, but is lost in the mist of distance. on the walls are twelve hundred and fifty of some of the _chefs d'oeuvre_ of painting. here i have marked out several which i shall copy on my return from italy. "i have my residence at present at the hôtel de lille, which is situated very conveniently in the midst of all the most interesting objects of curiosity to a stranger in paris,--the palace of the tuileries, the palais royal, the bibliothèque royale, or royal library, and numerous other places, all within a few paces of us. on new year's day the equipages of the nobility and foreign ambassadors, etc., who paid their respects to the king and the duke of orléans, made considerable display in the place du carrousel and in the court of the tuileries. "at an exhibition of manufactures of porcelain, tapestry, etc., in the louvre, where were some of the most superb specimens of art in the world in these articles, we also saw the duchesse de berri. she is the mother of the little duc de bordeaux, who, you know, is the heir apparent to the crown of france. she was simply habited in a blue pelisse and blue bonnet, and would not be distinguished in her appearance from the crowd except by her attendants in livery. "i cannot close, however, without telling you what a delightful evening i passed evening before last at general lafayette's. he had a soirée on that night at which there were a number of americans. when i went in he instantly recognized me; took me by both hands; said he was expecting to see me in france, having read in the american papers that i had embarked. he met me apparently with great cordiality, then introduced me to each of his family, to his daughters, to madame lasterie and her two daughters (very pretty girls) and to madame rémusat,[ ] and two daughters of his son, g.w. lafayette, also very accomplished and beautiful girls. the general inquired how long i intended to stay in france, and pressed me to come and pass some time at la grange when i returned from italy. general lafayette looks very well and seems to have the respect of all the best men in france. at his soirée i saw the celebrated benjamin constant, one of the most distinguished of the liberal party in france. he is tall and thin with a very fair, white complexion, and long white, silken hair, moving with all the vigor of a young man." [footnote : this was not, of course, the famous madame de rémusat; probably her daughter-in-law.] in a letter to his brothers written on the same day, january th, he says:-- "if i went no farther and should now return, what i have already seen and studied would be worth to me all the trouble and expense thus far incurred. i am more and more satisfied that my expedition was wisely planned. "you cannot conceive how the cold is felt in paris, and, indeed, in all france. not that their climate is so intensely cold as ours, but their provision against the cold is so bad. fuel is excessively high; their fireplaces constructed on the worst possible plan, looking like great ovens dug four or five feet into the wall, wasting a vast deal of heat; and then the doors and windows are far from tight; so that, altogether, paris in winter is not the most comfortable place in the world. "mr. town and i, and probably mr. jocelyn, set out for italy on monday by the way of chalons-sur-saone, lyons, avignon, and nice. i long to get to rome and naples that i may commence to paint in a warm climate, and so keep warm weather with me to france again.... "i don't know what to do about writing letters for the 'journal of commerce.' i fear it will consume more of my time than the thing is worth, and will be such a hindrance to my professional studies that i must, on the whole, give up the thought of it. my time here is worth a guinea a minute in the way of my profession. i could undoubtedly write some interesting letters for them, but i do not feel the same ease in writing for the public that i do in writing to a friend, and, in correcting my language for the press, i feel that it is going to consume more of my time than i can spare. i will write if i can, but they must not expect it, for i find my pen and pencil are enemies to each other. i must write less and paint more. my advantages for study never appeared so great, and i never felt so ardent a desire to improve them." morse spent about two weeks in paris visiting churches, picture galleries, palaces, and other show places. he finds the giraffe or camelopard the most interesting animal at the jardin des plantes, and he dislikes a ceiling painted by gros: "it is allegorical, which is a class of painting i detest." he deplores the continental sunday: "oh! that we appreciated in america the value of our sabbath; a sabbath of rest from labor; a sabbath of moral and religious instruction; a sabbath the greatest barrier to those floods of immorality which have in times past deluged this devoted country in blood, and will again do it unless the sabbath gains its ascendancy once more." from an undated and unfinished draft of a letter to his cousin, mrs. roby, we learn something of his journey from paris to rome, or rather of the first part of it:-- "i wrote you from paris giving you an account of my travels to that city, and i now improve the first moments of leisure since to continue my journal. after getting our passports signed by at least half a dozen ambassadors preparatory to our long journey, we left paris on wednesday, january , at eight o'clock, for dijon, in the diligence. the weather was very cold, and we travelled through a very uninteresting country. it seemed like a frozen ocean, the road being over an immense plain unbroken by trees or fences. "we stopped a few moments at melun, at joigny and tonnerre, which latter place was quite pretty with a fine-looking gothic church. we found the villages from paris thus far much neater and in better style than those on the road from boulogne. "our company consisted of mr. town, of new york, mr. jocelyn, of new haven, a very pretty frenchwoman, and myself. the frenchwoman was quite a character; she could not talk english nor could we talk french, and yet we were talking all the time, and were able to understand and be understood. "at four o'clock the next morning we _dined!!_ at montbar, which place we entered after much detention by the snow. it was so deep that we were repeatedly stopped for some time. at a picturesque little village, called val de luzon, where we changed horses, the country began to assume a different character. it now became mountainous, and, had the season been propitious, many beautiful scenes for the pencil would have presented themselves. as it was, the forms of the mountains and the deep valleys, with villages snugly situated at the bottom, were grateful to the eye amidst the white shroud which everywhere covered the landscape. we could but now and then catch a glimpse of the scenery through our coach window by thawing a place in the thickly covered glass, which was so plated with the arborescent frost as not to yield to the warmth of the sun at midday. "we arrived at dijon at nine o'clock on saturday evening, after three days and two nights of fatiguing riding. the diligence is, on the whole, a comfortable carriage for travelling. i can scarcely give you any idea of its construction; it is so unlike in many respects to our stage-coach. it is three carriage-bodies together upon one set of wheels. the forward part is called the _coupé_, which holds but three persons, and, from having windows in front so that the country is seen as you travel, is the most expensive. the middle carriage is the largest, capable of holding six persons, and is called the _intérieur_. the other, called the _derrière_, is the cheapest, but is generally filled with low people. the _intérieur_ is so large and so well cushioned that it is easy to sleep in it ordinarily, and, had it not been for the sudden stops occasioned by the clogging of the wheels in the snow, we should have had very good rest; but the discordant music made by the wheels as they ground the frozen snow, sounding like innumerable instruments, mostly discordant, but now and then concordant, prevented our sound sleep. "the cold we found as severe as any i have usually experienced in america. the snow is as deep upon the hills, being piled up on each side of the road five or six feet high. the water in our pitchers froze by the fireside, and the glass on the windows, even in rooms comfortably warmed, was encrusted with arborescent frost. the floors, too, of all the rooms are paved with bricks or tiles, and, although comfortable in summer, are far from desirable in such a winter. "at dijon we stopped over the sabbath, for the double purpose of avoiding travelling on that day and from really needing a day of rest. on sunday morning we enquired of our landlord, mons. ripart, of the hôtel du parc, for a protestant church, and were informed that there was not any in the place. we learned, however, afterwards that there was one, but too late to profit by the information. we walked out in the cold to find some church, and, entering a large, irregular gothic structure, much out of repair, we pressed towards the altar where the funeral service of the catholic church was performing over a corpse which lay before it. the priests, seven or eight in number, were in the midst of their ceremonies. they had their hair shorn close in front, but left long behind and at the sides, and powdered, and, while walking, covered partially with a small, black, pyramidal velvet cap with a tuft at the top. while singing the service they held long, lighted wax tapers in their hands. there was much ceremony, but scarcely anything that was imposing; its heartlessness was so apparent, especially in the conduct of some of the assistants, that it seemed a solemn mockery. one in particular, who seemed to pride himself on the manner in which he vociferated 'amen,' was casting his eyes among the crowd, winking and laughing at various persons, and, from the extravagance of his manners, bawling out most irreverently and closing by laughing, i wondered that he was not perceived and rebuked by the priests. "as the procession left the church it was headed by an officer bearing a pontoon;[ ] then one bearing the silver crucifix; then eight or ten boys with lighted wax tapers by the side of the corpse; then followed the priests, six or eight in number, and then the relatives and friends of the deceased. at the grave the priests and assistants chanted a moment, the coffin was lowered, the earth thrown upon it, and then an elder priest muttered something over the grave, and, with an instrument consisting of a silver ball with a small handle, made the sign of the cross over the body, which ceremony was repeated by each one in the procession, to whom in succession the instrument was handed. [footnote : this must be a mistake.] "there were, indeed, two or three real mourners. one young man in particular, to whom the female might have been related as wife or sister, showed all the signs of heartfelt grief. it did not break out into extravagant gesture or loud cries, but the tears, as they flowed down his manly face, seemed to be forced out by the agony within, which he in vain endeavored to suppress. the struggle to restrain them was manifest, and, as he made the sign of the cross at the grave in his turn, the feebleness with which he performed the ceremony showed that the anguish of his heart had almost overcome his physical strength. i longed to speak to him and to sympathize with him, but my ignorance of the language of his country locked me out from any such purpose.... "accustomed to the proper and orderly manner of keeping the sabbath so universal in our country, there are many things that will strike an american not only as singular but disgusting. while in paris we found it to be customary, not only on week days but also on the sabbath, to have musicians introduced towards the close of dinner, who play and sing all kinds of songs. we supposed that this custom was a peculiarity of the capital, but this day after dinner a hand-organ played waltzes and songs, and, as if this were not enough, a performer on the guitar succeeded, playing songs, while two or three persons with long cards filled with specimens of natural history--lobsters, crabs, and shells of various kinds--were busy in displaying their handiwork to us, and each concluded his part of the ceremony by presenting a little cup for a contribution." the letter ends here, and, as i have found but few more of that year, we must depend on his hurriedly written notebooks for a further record of his wanderings. leaving dijon on january , morse and his companions continued their journey through châlons-sur-saone, to macon and lyons, which they reached late at night. the next two days were spent in viewing the sights of lyons, which are described at length in his journal. most of these notes i shall omit. descriptions of places and of scenery are generally tiresome, except to the authors of them, and i shall transcribe only such portions as have a more than ordinary personal or historic interest. for instance the following entry is characteristic of morse's simple religious faith:-- "from the musee we went to the hôtel dieu, a hospital on a magnificent and liberal scale. the apartments for the sick were commodiously and neatly arranged. in one of them were two hundred and twelve cots, all of which showed a pale or fevered face upon the pillow. the attendants were women called 'sisters of charity,' who have a peculiar costume. these are benevolent women who (some of them of rank and wealth) devote themselves to ministering to the comfort and necessities of the wretched. "benevolence is a trait peculiarly feminine. it is seen among women in all countries and all religions, and although true religion sets out this jewel in the greatest beauty, yet superstition and false religions cannot entirely destroy its lustre. it seems to be one of those virtues permitted in a special manner by the father of all good to survive the ruins of sin on earth, and to withstand the attacks of satan in his attempts on the happiness of man; and to woman in a marked manner he has confided the keeping of this virtue. she was first in the transgression but last at the cross." leaving lyons at four o'clock on the morning of the d, they journeyed slowly towards avignon, delayed by the condition of the roads covered by an unusual fall of snow which was now melting under the breath of a warm breeze from the south. on the way they pass "between the two hills a telegraph making signals." this was, of course, a semaphore by means of which visual signals were made. reaching avignon on the night of the d, they went the next day, which was sunday, in search of a protestant church, but none was to be found in this ancient city of the popes, so they followed a fine military band to the church of st. agricola and attended the services there, the band participating and making most glorious music. morse, with his puritan background and training, was not much edified by the ritual of the catholic church, and, after describing it, he adds:-- "i looked around the church to ascertain what was the effect upon the multitude assembled. the females, kneeling in their chairs, many with their prayer-books reading during the whole ceremony, seemed part of the time engaged in devotional exercises. far be it from me to say there were not some who were actually devout, hard as it is to conceive of such a thing; but this i will say, that everything around them, instead of aiding devotion, was calculated entirely to destroy it. the imagination was addressed by every avenue; music and painting pressed into the service of--not religion but the contrary--led the mind away from the contemplation of all that is practical in religion to the charms of mere sense. no instruction was imparted; none seems ever to be intended. what but ignorance can be expected when such a system prevails?... "last evening we were delighted with some exquisite sacred music, sung apparently by men's voices only, and slowly passing under our windows. the whole effect was enchanting; the various parts were so harmoniously adapted and the taste with which these unknown minstrels strengthened and softened their tones gave us, with the recollection of the music at the church, which we had heard in the morning, a high idea of the musical talent of this part of the world. we have observed more beautiful faces among the women in a single day in avignon than during the two weeks we were in paris." after a three days' rest in avignon, visiting the palace of the popes and other objects of interest, and being quite charmed with the city as a whole and with the hôtel de l'europe in particular, the little party left for marseilles by way of aix. the air grows balmier as they near the mediterranean, and they are delighted with the vineyards and the olive groves. the first sight of the blue sea and of the beautiful harbor of marseilles rouses the enthusiasm of the artist, and some days are spent in exploring the city. the journal continues:-- "_thursday, january ._ took our seats in the malle poste for toulon and experienced one of those vexations in delay which travellers must expect sometimes to find. we had been told by the officer that we must be ready to go at one o'clock. we were, of course, ready at that time, but not only were we not called at one, but we waited in suspense until six o'clock in the evening before we were called, and before we left the city it was seven o'clock; thus consuming a half-day of daylight which we had promised ourselves to see the scenery, and bringing all our travelling in the night, which we wished specially to avoid. besides this, we found ourselves in a little, miserable, jolting vehicle that did not, like the diligence, suffer us to sleep. "thus we left marseilles, pursuing our way through what seemed to us a wild country, with many a dark ravine on our roadside and impending cliffs above us; a safe resort for bandits to annoy the traveller if they felt disposed." at toulon they visited the arsenal and navy yard. "we saw many ships of all classes in various states of equipment, and every indication, from the activity which pervaded every department, that great attention is paying by the french to their marine. their ships have not the neatness of ours; there seems to be a great deal of ornament, and such as i should suppose was worse than useless in a ship of war. "we noticed the galley slaves at work; they had a peculiar dress to mark them. they were dressed in red frocks with the letters 'g a l' stamped on each side of the back, as they were also on their pantaloons. the worst sort, those who had committed murder, had been shipped lately to brest. those who had been convicted twice had on a green cap; those who were ordinary criminals had on a red cap; and those who were least criminal, a blue cap. "a great mortality was prevailing among them. there are about five hundred at this place, and i was told by the sentinel that twenty-two had been buried yesterday. three bodies were carried out whilst we were in the yard. we, of course, did not linger in the vicinity of the hospitals.... "on saturday, january , we left toulon in a _voiture_ or private carriage, the public conveyances towards italy being now uncertain, inconvenient, and expensive. there were five of us and we made an agreement in writing with a _vetturino_ to carry us to nice, the first city in italy, for twenty-seven francs each, the same as the fare in the diligence, to which place he agreed to take us in two days and a half. of course necessity obliges us in this instance to travel on the sabbath, which we tried every means in our power to avoid. "at twelve we stopped at the village of cuers, an obscure, dirty place, and stopped at an inn called 'la croix d'or' for breakfast. we here met with the first gross imposition in charges that occurred to us in france. our _déjeuner_ for five consisted of three cups of miserable coffee, without milk or butter; a piece of beef stewed with olives for two; mutton chops for five; eggs for five; some cheese, and a meagre dessert of raisins, hazel nuts, and olives, with a bottle of sour _vin ordinaire;_ and for this we were charged fifteen francs, or three francs each, while at the best hotels in paris, and in all the cities through which we passed, we had double the quantity of fare, and of the best kind, for two francs and sometimes for one and one half francs. all parleying with the extortionate landlord had only the effect of making him more positive and even insolent; and when we at last threw him the money to avoid further detention, he told us to mark his house, and, with the face of a demon, told us we should never enter his house again. we can easily bear our punishment. as we resumed our journey we were saluted with a shower of stones." the journal continues and tells of the slow progress along the riviera, through cannes, which was then but an unimportant village; nice, at that time belonging to italy, and where they saw in the cathedral charles felix, king of sardinia. it took them many days to climb up and down the rugged road over the mountains, while now the traveller is whisked under and around the same mountains in a few hours. "at eleven we had attained a height of at least two thousand feet and the precipices became frightful, sweeping down into long ravines to the very edge of the sea; and then the road would wind at the edge of the precipice two or three thousand feet deep. such scenes pass so rapidly it is impossible to make note of them. "from the heights on which la turbia stands, with its dilapidated walls, we see the beautiful city of monaco, on a tongue of land extending into the sea." the great gambling establishment of monte carlo did not invade this beautiful spot until many years later, in . the travellers stopped for a few hours at mentone,--"a beautiful place for an artist,"--passed the night at san remo, and, sauntering thus leisurely along the beautiful riviera, arrived in genoa on the th of february. [illustration: jeremiah evarts from a portrait painted by morse owned by sherman evarts, esq.] chapter xvi february , --june , serra palace in genoa.--starts for rome.--rain in the mountains.--a brigand.--carrara.--first mention of a railroad.--pisa.--the leaning tower.--rome at last.--begins copying at once.--notebooks.--ceremonies at the vatican.--pope pius viii.--academy of st. luke's.--st peter's.-- chiesa nuova.--painting at the vatican.--beggar monks.--fata of the annunciation.--soirée at palazzo simbaldi.--passion sunday.--horace vernet.--lying in state of a cardinal.--_miserere_ at sistine chapel.-- holy thursday at st peter's.--third cardinal dies.--meets thorwaldsen at signor persianis's.--manners of english, french, and americans.--landi's pictures.--funeral of a young girl.--trip to tivoli, subiaco.--procession of the _corpus domini._--disagreeable experience. the enthusiastic artist was now in italy, the land of his dreams, and his notebooks are filled with short comments or longer descriptions of churches, palaces, and pictures in genoa and in the other towns through which he passed on his way to rome, or with pen-pictures of the wild country through which he and his fellow travellers journeyed. in genoa, where he stopped several days, he was delighted with the palaces and churches, and yet he found material for criticism:-- "the next place of interest was the serra palace, now inhabited by one of that family, who, we understood, was insane. after stopping a moment in the anteroom, the ceiling of which is painted in fresco by somnio, we were ushered into the room called the most splendid in europe, and, if carving and gilding and mirrors and chandeliers and costly colors can make a splendid room, this is certainly that room. the chandeliers and mirrored sides are so arranged as to create the illusion that the room is of indefinite extent. to me it appeared, on the whole, tawdry, seeing it in broad daylight. in the evening, when the chandeliers are lighted, i have no doubt of its being a most gorgeous exhibition, but, like some showy belle dressed and painted for evening effect, the daylight turns her gold into tinsel and her bloom into rouge. "after having stayed nearly four days in genoa, and after having made arrangements with our honest _vetturino_, dominique, to take us to rome, stopping at various places on the way long enough to see them, we retired late to bed to prepare for our journey in the morning. "on wednesday morning, february , we rose at five o'clock, and, after breakfast of coffee, etc., we set out at six on our journey towards rome." i shall not follow them every step of the way, but shall select only the more personal entries in the diary. "a little after eleven o'clock we stopped at a single house upon a high hill overlooking the sea, to breakfast. it has the imposing title of 'locanda della gran bretagna.' we expected little and got less, and had a specimen of the bad faith of these people. we enquired the price of our _déjeuner_ before we ordered it, which is always necessary. we were told one franc each, but after our breakfast, we were told one and a half each, and no talking with the landlord would alter his determination to demand his price. there is no remedy for travellers; they must pay or be delayed. "at one o'clock we left this hole of a place, where we were more beset with beggars and spongers than at any place since we had been in italy." stopping overnight at sestri, they set out again on the th at five o'clock in the morning:-- "it was as dark as the moon, obscured by thick clouds, would allow it to be, and, as we left the courtyard of the inn, it began to rain violently. our road lay over precipitous mountains away from the shore, and the scenery became wild and grand. as the day dawned we found ourselves in the midst of stupendous mountains rising in cones from the valleys below. deep basins were formed at the bottom by the meeting of the long slopes; clouds were seen far below us, some wasting away as they sailed over the steeps, and some gathering denseness as they were detained by the cold, snowy peaks which shot up beyond. now and then a winding stream glittered at the bottom of some deep ravine amidst the darkness around it, and occasionally a light from the cottage of some peasant glimmered like a star through the clouds. "as we labored up the steep ascent little brawling cascades without number, from the heights far above us, in milky streams, gathering power from innumerable rills, dashed at our feet, and, passing down through the artificial passages beneath the road, swept down into the valleys in torrents, and swelling the rivers, whose broad beds were seen through the openings, rushed with irresistible power to the sea. "we found, from the violence of the storm, that the road was heavy and much injured in some parts by the washing down of rocks from the heights. some of great size lay at the sides recently thrown down, and now and then one of some hundred pounds' weight was found in the middle of the road. "we continued to ascend about four hours until we came again from a region of summer into the region of snow, and the height from the sea was greater than we had at any time previously attained. the scenery around us, too, was wilder and more sterile. the apennines here are very grand, assuming every variety of shape and color. long slopes of clay color were interlocked with dark browns sprinkled with golden yellow; slate blue and grey, mixed with greens and purples, and the pure, deep ultramarine blue of distant peaks finished the background." after breakfasting at borghetto at a miserable inn, where they were much annoyed by beggars of all descriptions, they continued their journey through much the same character of country for the rest of the day, and towards dark they met with a slight adventure:-- "our road was down a steep declivity winding much in the same way as at finale. precipices were at the side without a protecting barrier, and we felt some uneasiness at our situation, which was not decreased by suddenly finding our coach stopped and a man on horseback (or rather muleback) stopping by the side of the coach. it was but for a moment; our _vetturino_ authoritatively ordered him to pass on, which he did with a _'buona sera_,' and we never parted with a companion more gladly. from all the circumstances attending it we were inclined to believe that he had some design upon us, but, finding us so numerous, thought it best not to run the risk." spezia was their resting-place for that night, and, after an early start the next morning, they reached the banks of the vara at nine o'clock. "we had a singular time in passing the river in a boat. many women of the lower orders crossed at the same time. the boat being unable to approach the shore, we were obliged to ride papoose-back upon the shoulders of the brawny watermen for some little distance; but what amused us much was the perfect _sang-froid_ with which the women, with their bare legs, held up their clothes above the knees and waded to the boat before us.... "at half-past twelve we came in sight of carrara. this place we went out of our course to see, and at one o'clock entered the celebrated village, prettily situated in a valley at the base of stupendous mountains. a deep ravine above the village contains the principal quarries of most exquisite marbles for which this place has for so many ages been famous. the clouds obscuring the highest peaks, and ascending from the valleys like smoke from the craters of many volcanoes, gave additional grandeur to a scene by nature so grand in itself. "after stopping at the hôtel de nouvelle paros, which we found a miserable inn with bad wine, scanty fare and high charges, we took a hasty breakfast, and procuring a guide we walked out to see the curiosities of the place. it rained hard and the road was excessively bad, sometimes almost ankle-deep in mud. notwithstanding the forbidding weather and bad road, we labored up the deep ravine on the sides of which the excavations are made. dark peaks frowned above us capped with clouds and snow; white patches midway the sides showed the veins of the marble, and immense heaps of detritus, the accumulation of ages, mountains themselves, sloped down on each side like masses of piled ice to the very edge of the road. the road itself, white with the material of which it is made, was composed of loose pieces of the white marble of every size.... continuing the ascent by the side of a milky stream, which rushed down its rocky bed, and which here and there was diverted off into aqueducts to the various mills, we were pointed to the top of a high hill by the roadside where was the entrance to a celebrated grotto, and at the base close by, a cavern protected a beautiful, clear, crystal fountain, which gushed from up the bottom forming a liquid, transparent floor, and then glided to mingle its pure, unsullied waters with the cloudy stream that rushed by it. "climbing over piles of rock like refined sugar and passing several wagons carrying heavy blocks down the road, we arrived at the mouth of the principal quarry where the purest statuary marble is obtained. i could not but think how many exquisite statues here lay entombed for ages, till genius, at various times, called them from their slumbers and bid them live.... "on our return we again passed the wagons laden with blocks, and mules with slabs on each side sometimes like the roof of a house over the mule.... the wagons and oxen deserve notice. the former are very badly constructed; they are strong, but the wheels are small, in diameter about two feet and but about three inches wide, so sharp that the roads must suffer from them. the oxen are small and, without exception, mouse-colored. the driver, and there is usually one to each pair, sits on the yoke between them, and, like the oarsman of a boat, with his back towards the point towards which he is going. two huge blocks were chained upon one of these wagons, and behind, dragging upon the ground by a chain, was another. three yoke of these small oxen, apparently without fatigue, drew the load thus constructed over this wretched road. an enterprising company of americans or english, by the construction of a railroad, which is more practicable than a canal, but which latter might be constructed, would, i should think, give great activity to the operations here and make it very profitable to themselves." it is rather curious to note that this is the first mention of a railroad made by morse in his notes or letters, although he was evidently aware of the experiments which were being made at that time both in europe and america, and these must have been of great interest to him. it is also well to bear in mind that the great development of transportation by rail could not occur until the invention of the telegraph had made it possible to send signals ahead, and, in other ways, to control the movement of traffic. at the present day the railroad at carrara, which morse saw in his visions of the future, has been built, but the ox teams are also still used, and linger as a reminder of more primitive days. continuing their journey, the travellers spent the night at lucca, and in the morning explored the town, which they found most interesting as well as neat and clean. leaving lucca, "with much reluctance," on the th, the journal continues:-- "at half-past five, at sunset, pisa with its leaning tower (the _duomo_ of the cathedral and that of the baptistery being the principal objects in the view), was seen across the plain before us. towards the west was a long line of horizon, unbroken, except here and there by a low-roofed tower or the little pyramidal spire of a village church. to the southeast the plain stretched away to the base of distant blue mountains, and to the east and the north the rude peaks through which we had travelled, their cold tops tinged with a warmer glow, glittered beyond the deep brown slopes, which were more advanced and confining the plain to narrower limits." they found the hôtel royal de l'hussar an excellent inn, and, the next day being sunday, they attended an english service and heard an excellent sermon by the reverend mr. ford, an englishman. "in the evening we walked to the famous leaning tower, the cathedral, the baptistery, and campo santo, which are clustered together in the northern part of the city. in going there we went some distance along the quay, which was filled with carriages and pedestrians, among whom were many masques and fancy dresses of the most grotesque kind. it is the season of carnival, and all these fooleries are permitted at this time. we merely glanced at the exterior of the celebrated buildings, leaving till to-morrow a more thorough examination." "_monday, february ._ we rose early and went again to the leaning tower and its associated buildings. the tower, which is the _campanile_ of the cathedral and is about one hundred and ninety feet high, leans from its perpendicular thirteen feet. we ascended to the top by a winding staircase. one ascending feels the inclination every step he takes, and, when he reaches the top and perceives that that which should be horizontal is an inclined plane, the sensation is truly startling. it is difficult to persuade one's self that the tower is not actually falling, and i could not but imagine at intervals that it moved, reasoning myself momentarily into security from the fact that it had thus stood for ages. i could not but recur also to the fact that once it stood upright; that, although ages had been passed in assuming its present inclination to the earth, the time would probably come when it would actually fall, and the idea would suggest itself with appalling force that that time might be now. the reflection suggested by one of our company that it would be a glorious death, for one thus perishing would be sure of an imperishable name, however pleasing in romantic speculation, had no great power to dispel the shrinking fear produced by the vivid thought of the possibility when on the top of the tower.... the _campanile_ is not the only leaning tower in pisa. we observed that several varied from the perpendicular, and the sides of many of the buildings, even parts of the cathedral and the baptistery, inclined at a considerable angle. the soil is evidently unfavorable to the erection of high, heavy buildings." after a side trip to leghorn and further loitering along the way, stopping but a short time in florence, which he purposed to visit and study at his leisure later on, he saw, at nine o'clock on the morning of february , the dome of st. peter's in the distance, and, at two o'clock he and his companions entered rome through the porta del popolo. taking lodgings at no. via de prefetti, he spent the first few days in a cursory examination of the treasures by which he was surrounded, but he was eager to begin at once the work for which he had received commissions, and on march he writes home:-- "i have begun to copy the 'school of athens' from raphael for mr. r. donaldson. the original is on the walls of one of the celebrated camera of raphael in the vatican. it is in fresco and occupies one entire side of the room. it is a difficult picture to copy and will occupy five or six weeks certainly. every moment of my time, from early in the morning until late at night, when not in the vatican, is occupied in seeing the exhaustless stores of curiosities in art and antiquities with which this wonderful city abounds. "i find i can endure great fatigue, and my spirits are good, and i feel strong for the pleasant duties of my profession. i feel particularly anxious that every gentleman who has given me a commission shall be more than satisfied that he has received an equivalent for the sum generously advanced to me. but i find that, to accomplish this, i shall need all my strength and time for more than a year to come, and that will be little enough to do myself and them justice. i am delighted with my situation and more than ever convinced of the wisdom of my course in coming to italy." morse's little notebooks and sketch-books are filled with short, abrupt notes on the paintings, religious ceremonies, and other objects of interest by which he is surrounded, but sometimes he goes more into detail. i shall select from these voluminous notes only those which seem to me to be of the greatest interest. "_march ._ mr. fenimore cooper and family are here. i have passed many pleasant hours with them, particularly one beautiful moonlight evening visiting the coliseum. after the holy week i shall visit naples, probably with mr. theodore woolsey, who is now in rome. "_march ._ ceremonies at the consistory; delivery of the cardinals' hats. at nine o'clock went to the vatican; two large fantails with ostrich feathers; ladies penned up; pope; cardinals kiss his hand in rotation; address in latin, tinkling, like water gurgling from a bottle. the english cardinal first appeared, went up and was embraced and kissed on each cheek by the pope; then followed the others in the same manner; then each new cardinal embraced in succession all the other cardinals; after this, beginning with the english cardinal, each went to the pope, and he, putting on their heads the cardinal's hat, blessed them in the name of the trinity. they then kissed the ring on his hand and his toe and retired from the throne. the pope then rose, blessed the assembly by making the sign of the cross three times in the air with his two fingers, and left the room. his dress was a plain mitre of gold tissue, a rich, garment of gold and crimson, embroidered, a splendid clasp of gold, about six inches long by four wide, set with precious stones, upon his breast. he is very decrepit, limping or tottering along, has a defect in one eye, and his countenance has an expression of pain, especially as the new cardinals approached his toe.[ ] [footnote : this was pope pius viii.] "the cardinals followed the pope two and two with their train-bearers. after a few minutes the doors opened again and a procession, headed by singers, entered chanting as they went. the cardinals followed them with their train-bearers; they passed through the consistory, and thus closed the ceremony of presenting the cardinals' hats. "a multitude of attendants, in various costumes, surrounded the pontiff's throne during the ceremony, among whom was bishop dubois of new york.... "academy of st. luke's: raphael's skull; harlow's picture of the making of a cardinal; said to have been painted in twelve days; i don't believe it. 'the angels appearing to the shepherds,' by bassan--good for color; much trash in the way of portraits. lower rooms contain the pictures for the premiums; some good; all badly colored. third room: bas-reliefs for the premiums. fourth room: smaller premium pictures; bad. fifth room: drawings; the oldest best, modern bad. "_friday, march ._ we went to st. peter's to see the procession of cardinals singing in the capella. cardinals walked two and two through st. peter's, knelt on purple velvet cushions before the capella in prayer, then successively kissed the toe of the bronze image of st. peter as they walked past it. "this statue of st. peter, as a work of art, is as execrable as possible. part of the toe and foot is worn away and polished, not by the kisses, but by the wiping of the foot after the kisses by the next comer preparatory to kissing it; sometimes with the coat-sleeve by a beggar; with the corner of the cloak by the gentlemen; the shawl by the females; and with a nice cambric handkerchief by the attendant at the ceremony, who wiped the toe after each cardinal's performance. this ceremony is variously performed. some give it a single kiss and go away; others kiss the toe and then touch the forehead to it and kiss the toe again, repeating the operation three times." the ceremonies and ritual of the roman catholic church, while appealing to the eye of the artist, were repugnant to his puritan upbringing, and we find many scornful remarks among his notes. in fact he was, all his life, bitterly opposed to the doctrines of rome, and in later years, as we shall see, he entered into a heated controversy with a prominent ecclesiastic of that faith in america. "_march ._ chiesa nuova at seven o'clock in the evening; a sacred opera called 'the death of aaron.' church dark; women not admitted; bell rings and a priest before the altar chants a prayer, after which a boy, about twelve years old apparently, addresses the assembly from the pulpit. i know not the drift of his discourse, but his utterance was like the same gurgling process which i noticed in the orator who addressed the pope. it was precisely like the fitful tone of the oneida interpreter. "_tuesday, march ._ at the vatican all the morning. while preparing my palette a monk, decently habited for a monk, who seemed to have come to the vatican for the purpose of viewing the pictures, after a little time approached me and, with a very polite bow, offered me a pinch of snuff, which, of course, i took, bowing in return, when he instantly asked me alms. i gave him a _bajocco_ for which he seemed very grateful. truly this is a nation of beggars. "_wednesday, march ._ vatican all the morning. saw in returning a great number of priests with a white bag over the left shoulder and begging of the persons they met. this is another instance of begging and robbing confined to one class. "_thursday, march ._ _festa_ of the annunciation; vatican shut. doors open at eight of the chiesa di minerva; obtained a good place for seeing the ceremony. at half-past nine the cardinals began to assemble; cardinal barberini officiated in robes, white embroidered with gold; singing; taking off and putting on mitres, etc.; jumping up and bowing; kissing the ring on the finger of the cardinal; putting incense into censers; monotonous reading, or rather whining, of a few lines of prayer in latin; flirting censers at each cardinal in succession; cardinals bowing to one another; many attendants at the altar; cardinals embrace one another; after mass a contribution among the cardinals in rich silver plate. enter the virgins in white, with crowns, two and two, and candles; they kiss the hem of the garment of one of the cardinals; they are accompanied by three officers and exit. cardinals' dresses exquisitely plaited; sixty-two cardinals in attendance.... "palazzo simbaldi: at half-past eight the company began to assemble in the splendid saloon of this palace, to which i was invited. the singers, about forty in number, were upon a stage erected at the end of the room; white drapery hung behind festoons with laurel wreaths (the walls were painted in fresco). four female statues standing on globes upheld seven long wax-lights; the instrumental musicians, about forty, were arranged at the foot of these statues; _sala_ was lighted principally by six glass chandeliers; much female beauty in the room; dresses very various. "signora luigia tardi sang with much judgment and was received with great applause. a little girl, apparently about twelve years old, played upon the harp in a most exquisite manner, and called forth _bravas_ of the italians and of the foreigners bountifully. "the manners of the audience were the same as those of fashionable society in our own country, and indeed in any other country; the display in dress, however, less tasteful than i have seen in new york. but, in truth, i have not seen more beauty and taste in any country, combined with cultivation of mind and delicacy of manner, than in our own. at one o'clock in the morning, or half-past six italian time, the concert was over. "_saturday, march ._ on returning to dinner i found at the post-office, to my great joy, the first letter from america since i left it. "_sunday, march ._ passion sunday. kept awake nearly all last night by a severe toothache; sent for a dentist and had the tooth extracted, for which he had the conscience to ask me three dollars--he took two. was prevented by this circumstance from going to church this morning; went in the afternoon, and, after church, to st. peter's; found all the crosses covered with black and all the pictures veiled. there were a great many in the church to hear the music which is considered very fine; some of it i was well pleased with, but it is by no means so impressive as the singing of the nuns at the trinita di monti, to which church we repaired at vespers. "in st. peter's we found a procession of about forty nuns; some of them were very pretty and their neat white headdresses, and kerchiefs, and hair dressed plain, gave a pleasing simplicity to their countenances. some, looked arch enough and far from serious. "_monday, march ._ early this morning was introduced to the chevalier horace vernet, principal of the french academy; found him in the beautiful gardens of the academy. he came in a _négligé_ dress, a cap, or rather turban, of various colors, a parti-colored belt, and a cloak. he received me kindly, walked through the antique gallery of casts, a long room and a splendid collection selected with great judgment. "_wednesday, march ._ early this morning was waked by the roar of a cannon; learned that it was the anniversary of the present pope's election. went to the vatican; the colonnade was filled with the carriages of the cardinals; that of the new english cardinal, weld, was the most showy. "_thursday, april ._ went in the evening to the soirée of the chevalier vernet, director of the french academy. he is a gentleman of elegant manners and sees at his soirées the first society in rome. his wife is highly accomplished and his daughter is a beautiful girl, full of vivacity, and speaks english fluently.... during the evening there was music; his daughter played on the piano and others sang. there was chess, and, at a sideboard, a few played cards. the style was simple, every one at ease like our soirées in america. several noblemen and dignitaries of the church were present." on april , palm sunday, he attended the services at the sistine chapel, which he found rather tedious, with much mummery. going from there to the cancellerie he describes the following scene:-- "cardinal giulio maria della somaglia in state on an elevated bed of cloth-of-gold and black embroidered with gold, his head on a black velvet cushion embroidered with gold, dressed in his robes as when alive. he officiated, i was told, on ash wednesday. four wax-lights, two on each side of the bed; great throng of people of all grades through the suite of apartments--the cancellerie--in which he lived; they were very splendid, chiefly of crimson and gold. the cardinal has died unpopular, for he has left nothing to his servants by his will; he directed, however, that no expense should be spared in his funeral, wishing that it might be splendid, but, unfortunately for him, he has died precisely at that season of the year (the holy week) when alone it is impossible, according to the church customs, to give him a splendid burial." "_wednesday, april ._ went to the piazza navone, being market-day, in search of prints. the scene here is very amusing; the variety of wares exposed, and the confusion of noises and tongues, and now and then a jackass swelling the chorus with his most exquisite tones. "at three o'clock went to st. peter's to see ceremonies at the sistine chapel. cardinals asleep; monotonous bawling, long and tedious; candles put out one by one, fifteen in number; no ceremonies at the altar; cardinals present nineteen in number; seven yawns from the cardinals; tiresome and monotonous beyond description. "after three hours of this most tiresome chant, all the candles having been extinguished, the celebrated _miserere_ commenced. it is, indeed, sublime, but i think loses much of its effect from the fatigue of body, and mind, too, in which it is heard by the auditors. the _miserere_ is the composition of the celebrated allegri, and for giving the effect of wailing and lamentation, without injury to harmony, it is one of the most perfect of compositions. the manner of sustaining a strain of concord by new voices, now swelling high, now gradually dying away, now sliding imperceptibly into discord and suddenly breaking into harmony, is admirable. the imagination is alive and fancies thousands of people in the deepest contrition. it closed by the cardinals clapping their hands for the earthquake." on april (holy thursday), morse went early with mr. fenimore cooper and other americans to st. peter's. after describing some of the preliminary ceremonies he continues:-- "having examined the splendid chair in which he was to be borne, and while he was robing in another apartment, we found that, although we might have a complete view of the pope and the ceremonies before and after the benediction, yet the principal effect was to be seen below. we therefore left our place at the balcony, where we could see nothing but the crowd, and hastened below. on passing into the hall we were so fortunate as to be just in season for the procession from the sistine chapel to the pauline. the cardinals walked in procession, two and two, and one bore the host, while eight bearers held over him a rich canopy of silver tissue embroidered with gold. "thence we hastened to the front of st. peter's, where, in the centre upon the highest step, we had an excellent view of the balcony, and, turning round, could see the immense crowd which had assembled in the piazza and the splendid square of troops which were drawn up before the steps of the church. here i had scarcely time to make a hasty sketch, in the broiling sun, of the window and its decorations, before the precursors of the pope, the two large feather fans, made their appearance on each side of the balcony, which was decorated with crimson and gold, and immediately after the pope, with his mitre of gold tissue and his splendid robes of gold and jewels, was borne forward, relieving finely from the deep crimson darkness behind him. he made the usual sign of blessing, with his two fingers raised. a book was then held before him in which he read, with much motion of his head, for a minute. he then rose, extending both his arms--this was the benediction--while at the same moment the soldiers and crowd all knelt; the cannon from the castle of st. angelo was discharged, and the bells in all the churches rang a simultaneous peal. "the effect was exceedingly grand, the most imposing of all the ceremonies i have witnessed. the pope was then borne back again. two papers were thrown from the balcony for which there was a great scramble among the crowd." on friday, april (good friday), many of the ceremonies so familiar to visitors to rome during holy week are described at length in the notebooks, but i shall omit most of these. the following note, however, seems worthy of being recorded:-- "on our way to st. peter's i ought to have noticed our visit to a palace in which another cardinal (the third who has died within a few days) was lying in state--cardinal bertazzoli. "it is a singular fact, of which i was informed, that about the same time last year three cardinals died, and that it was a common remark that when one died two more soon followed, and the pope always created three cardinals at a time." "_friday, april ._ at the vatican all day. i went to the soirée of the signor persianis in the evening. here i had the pleasure of meeting for the first line with the chevalier thorwaldsen, the great danish sculptor, the first now living. he is an old man in appearance having a profusion of grey hair, wildly hanging over his forehead and ears. his face has a strong northern character, his eyes are light grey, and his complexion sandy; he is a large man of perfectly unassuming manners and of most amiable deportment. daily receiving homage from all the potentates of europe, he is still without the least appearance of ostentation. he readily assented to a request to sit for his portrait which i hope soon to take. "_tuesday, april ._ my birthday. how time flies and to how little purpose have i lived!! "_wednesday, april ._ i have noticed a difference in manners between the english, french, and americans. if you are at the house of a friend and should happen to meet englishmen who are strangers to you, no introduction takes place unless specially requested. the most perfect indifference is shown towards you by these strangers, quite as much as towards a chair or table. should you venture a word in the general conversation, they might or might not, as the case may be, take notice of it casually, but coldly and distantly, and even if they should so far relax as to hold a conversation with you through the evening, the moment they rise to go all recognition ceases; they will take leave of every one else, but as soon think of bowing to the chair they had left as to you. "a frenchman, on the contrary, respectfully salutes all in the room, friends and strangers alike. he seems to take it for granted that the friends of his friend are at least entitled to respect if not to confidence, and without reserve he freely enters into conversation with you, and, when he goes, he salutes all alike, but no acquaintance ensues. "an american carries his civility one step further; if he meets you afterwards, in other company, the fact that he has seen you at this friend's and had an agreeable chit-chat is introduction enough, and, unless there is something _peculiar_ in your case, he will ever after know you and be your friend. this is not the case with the two former. "the american is in this, perhaps, too unsuspicious and the others may have good reasons for their mode, but that of the americans has more of generous sincerity and frankness and kindness in it. "_friday, april ._ painting all day except two hours at the colonna palace--landi's pictures--horrible!! how i was disappointed. i had heard landi, the chevalier landi, lauded to the skies by the italians as the greatest modern colorist. he was made a chevalier, elected a member of the academy at florence and of the academy of st. luke in rome, and there were his pictures which i was told i must by all means see. they are not merely bad, they are execrable. there is not a redeeming point in a single picture that i saw, not one that would have placed him on a level with the commonest sign-painter in america. his largest work in his rooms at present is the 'departure of mary queen of scots from paris.' the story is not told; the figures are not grouped but huddled together; they are not well-drawn individually; the character is vulgar and tame; there is no taste in the disposal of the drapery and ornaments, no effect of _chiaroscuro._ it is flimsy and misty, and, as to color, the quality to which i was specially directed, if total disregard of arrangement, if the scattering of tawdry reds and blues and yellows over the picture, all quarrelling for the precedence; if leather complexions varied by those of chalk, without truth or depth or tone, constitute good color, then are they finely colored. but, if landi is a colorist, then are titian and veronese never more to be admired. in short, i have never met with the works of an artist who had a name like landi's so utterly destitute of even the shadow of merit. there is but one word which can express their character, they are _execrable!_ "it is astonishing that with such works of the old masters before them as the italians have, they should not perceive the defects of their own painters in this particular. cammuccini is the only one among them who possesses genius in the higher departments, and he only in drawing; his color is very bad. "a funeral procession passed the house to-day. on the bier, exposed as is customary here, was a beautiful young girl, apparently of fifteen, dressed in rich laces and satins embroidered with gold and silver and flowers tastefully arranged, and sprinkled also with real flowers, and at her head was placed a coronet of flowers. she had more the appearance of sleep than of death. no relative appeared near her; the whole seemed to be conducted by the priests and monks and those hideous objects in white hoods, with faces covered except two holes for the eyes." in early may, morse, in company with other artists, went on a sketching trip to tivoli, subiaco, vico, and vara. this must have been one of the happiest periods of his life. he was in italy, the cradle of the art he loved; he was surrounded by beauty, both natural and that wrought by the hand of man; he had daily intercourse with congenial souls, and home, with its cares and struggles, seemed far away. his notebooks are largely filled with simple descriptions of the places visited, but now and then he indulges in rhapsody. at subiaco he comes upon this scene:-- "upon a solitary seat (a fit place for meditation and study), by a gate which shut the part of the terrace near the convent from that which goes round the hill, sat a monk with his book. he seemed no further disturbed by my passing than to give me the usual salutation. "i stopped at a little distance from him to look around and down into the chasm below. it was enchanting in spite of the atmosphere of the sirocco. the hills covered with woods, at a distance, reminded me of my own country, fresh and variegated; the high peaks beyond were grey from distance, and the sides of the nearer mountains were marked with many a winding track, down one of which a shepherd and his sheep were descending, looking like a moving pathway. no noise disturbed the silence but the distant barking of the shepherd's dog (as he, like a busy marshal, kept the order of his procession unbroken) mixing with the faint murmuring of the waterfall and the song of the birds that inhabited the ilex grove. it was altogether a place suited to meditation, and, were it consistent with those duties which man owes his fellow man, here would be the spot to which one, fond of study and averse to the noise and bustle of the world, would love to retire." returning to rome on june , after enjoying to the full this excursion, from which he brought back many sketches, he found the city given over to ceremony after ceremony connected with the church. saint's day followed saint's day, each with its appropriate (or, from the point of view of the new englander, inappropriate) pageant; or some new church was dedicated and the nights made brilliant with wonderful pyrotechnical displays. he went often with pleasure to the trinita di monti, where the beautiful singing of the nuns gave him special pleasure. commenting sarcastically on a display of fireworks in honor of st. francesco caracciolo, he says:-- "as far as whizzing serpents, wheels, port-fires, rockets, and other varieties of pyrotechnic art could set forth the humility of the saint, it was this night brilliantly displayed." and again, in describing the procession of the _corpus domini_, "the most splendid of all the church ceremonies," it is this which particularly impresses him:-- "next came monks of the franciscan and capuchin orders, with their brown dresses and heads shaved and such a set of human faces i never beheld. they seemed, many of them, like disinterred corpses, for a moment reanimated to go through this ceremony, and then to sink back again into their profound sleep. pale and haggard and unearthly, the wild eye of the visionary and the stupid stare of the idiot were seen among them, and it needed no stretch of the imagination to find in most the expression of the worst passions of our nature. they chanted as they went, their sepulchral voices echoing through the vaulted piazza, while the bell of st. peter's, tolling a deep bass drone, seemed a fitting accompaniment for their hymns." later, on this same day, while watching a part of the ceremonies on the gorso, he has this rather disagreeable experience:-- "i was standing close to the side of the house when, in an instant, without the slightest notice, my hat was struck off to the distance of several yards by a soldier, or rather a poltroon in a soldier's costume, and this courteous manoeuvre was performed with his gun and bayonet, accompanied with curses and taunts and the expression of a demon in his countenance. "in cases like this there is no redress. the soldier receives his orders to see that all hats are off in this religion of force, and the manner is left to his discretion. if he is a brute, as was the case in this instance, he may strike it off; or, as in some other instances, if the soldier be a gentleman, he may ask to have it taken off. there was no excuse for this outrage on all decency, to which every foreigner is liable and which is not of infrequent occurrence. the blame lies after all, not so much with the pitiful wretch who perpetrates this outrage, as it does with those who gave him such base and indiscriminate orders." chapter xvii june , --february , working hard.--trip to genzano.--lake of nemi.--beggars.--curious festival of flowers at genzano.--night on the campagna.--heat in rome.-- illumination of st. peter's.--st. peter's day.--vaults of the church.-- feebleness of pope.--morse and companions visit naples, capri, and amalfi.--charms of amalfi.--terrible accident.--flippancy at funerals.-- campo santo at naples.--gruesome conditions.--ubiquity of beggars.-- convent of st. martino.--masterpiece of spagnoletto.--returns to rome.-- faints portrait of thorwaldsen.--presented to him in after years by john taylor johnston.--given to king of denmark.--reflections on the social evil and the theatre.--death of the pope.--an assassination.--the honorable mr. spencer and catholicism.--election of pope gregory xvi. during all these months morse was diligently at work in the various galleries, making the copies for which he had received commissions, and the day's record almost invariably begins with "at the colonna palace all day"; or, "at the vatican all day"; or wherever else he may have been working at the time. the heat of the roman summer seems not yet to have inconvenienced him, for he does not complain, but simply remarks: "sun almost vertical,... houses and shops shut at noon." he has this to say of an italian institution: "lotteries in rome make for the government eight thousand scudi per week; common people venture in them; are superstitious and consult _cabaliste_ or lucky numbers; these tolerated as they help sell the tickets." while working hard, he occasionally indulged himself in a holiday, and on june he, in company with three other artists, engaged a carriage for an excursion to albano, aricia, and genzano, "to witness at the latter place the celebrated _festa infiorata_, which occurs every year on the th of june." after spending the night at albano, which they found crowded with artists of various nationalities and with other sight-seers, "we set out for genzano, a pleasant walk of a little more than a mile through a winding carriage-road, thickly shaded with fine trees of elm and chestnut and ilex. a little fountain by the wayside delayed us for a moment to sketch it, and we then continued our way through a straight, level, paved road, shaded on each side with trees, into the pretty village of genzano." finding that the principal display was not until the afternoon, they strolled to the lake of nemi, "situated in a deep basin, the crater of a volcano." those italian lakes which he had so far seen, while lovely and especially interesting from their historical or legendary associations and the picturesque buildings on their shores, seemed to the artist (ever faithful to his native land) less naturally attractive than the lakes with which he was familiar at home--lake george, otsego lake, etc. he had not yet seen como or maggiore. then he touches upon the great drawback to all travelling in italy:-- "throughout the day, wherever we went, beggars in every shape annoyed us, nor could we scarcely hear ourselves talk when on the borders of the lake for the swarms which importuned us. a foolish italian, in the hope probably of getting rid of them, commenced giving a _mezzo biochi_ to each, and such a clamor, such devouring eyes, such pushing and bawling, such teasing importunity for more, and from some who had received and concealed their gift, i could not have conceived, nor do i ever wish again to see so disgusting a sight. the foolish fellow who invented this plan of satisfying an italian beggar's appetite found to his sorrow that, instead of thanks, he obtained curses and an increase of importunity.... "after dinner we again walked to genzano, whither we found were going great multitudes of every class; elegant equipages and _vetture_ racing with each other; donkeys and horses and foot travellers; and not among the least striking were the numbers of women, some of whom were splendidly dressed, all riding on horseback, a foot in each stirrup, and riding with as much ease and fine horsemanship as the men. "when we arrived at genzano the decoration of the streets had commenced. two of the principal and wide streets ascend a little, diverging from each other, from the left side of the common street which goes through the village. the middle of these streets was the principal scene of decoration. on each side of the centre of the street, leaving a good-sized sidewalk, were pillars at a distance of eight or nine feet from each other composed of the evergreen box and tufted at the top with every variety of flowers. they were in many places also connected by festoons of box. the pavement of the street between the pillars in both streets, and for a distance of at least one half a mile, was most exquisitely figured with flowers of various colors, looking like an immense and gorgeously figured carpet. "the devices were in the following order which i took note of on the spot: first, a temple with four columns of yellow flowers (the flower of the broom) containing an altar on which was the holy sacrament. in the pediment of the temple a column surmounted by a halfmoon, which is the arms of the colonna family. second was a large crown. third, the holy sacrament again with various rich ornaments. fourth, stars and circles. fifth, a splendid coat-of-arms as accurate and rich as if emblazoned in permanent colors, with a cardinal's hat and a shield with the words _'prudens'_ and _'fidelis'_ upon it." there were twenty of these wonderful floral decorations on the pavement of one street and fourteen on that of the other and all are described in the notes, but i have particularized enough to show their character. the journal continues:-- "all these figures were as elegantly executed as if made for permanency, some with a minuteness truly astonishing. among other decorations of the day was the free-will offering of one of the people who had it displayed at the side of his shop on a rude pedestal. it was called the 'flight into egypt,' and represented joseph and mary and the infant on an ass, and all composed of shrubs and flowers. it was, indeed, a most ludicrous-looking affair; joseph with a face (if such it might be called) of purple flowers and a flaxen wig, dressed in a coarse pilgrim's cape studded over with yellow flowers, was leading by a hay band a green donkey, made of a kind of heath grass, with a tail of lavender and hoofs of cabbage leaves. of this latter composition were also the sandals of mary, whose face, as well as that of the _bambino_, was also of purple flowers and shapeless. the frock of the infant was of the gaudiest red poppy. it excited the laughter of almost all who saw it, except now and then some of the ignorant lower classes would touch their hats, cross themselves, and mumble a prayer." after describing some of the picturesque costumes of the _contadini_, he continues:-- "it was nearly dark before the procession, to which all these preparations had reference, began to move. at length the band of music was heard at the lower end of one of the streets, and a man, in ample robes of scarlet and blue, with a staff, was seen leading the procession, which need be no further described than to say it consisted of the usual quantity of monks chanting, with wax-tapers in their hands, crosses, and heavy, unwieldy banners which endanger the heads of the multitude as they pass; of a fine band of music playing beautiful waltzes and other compositions, and a _quantum suff._ of men dressed in the garb of soldiers to keep the good people uncovered and on their knees. "the head of the procession had arrived at the top of the street when-- crack! pop!--went forty or fifty crackers, which had been placed against the walls of a house near us, and which added wonderfully to the solemnity of the scene, and, accordingly, were repeated every few seconds, forming a fine accompaniment to the waltzes and the chanting of the monks. in a few minutes all the beauty of the flower-carpeted street was trodden out, and the last of the procession had hardly passed before all the flowers disappeared from the pillars, and all was ruin and disorder. "the procession halted at a temporary altar at the top of the street, and we set out on our return at the same moment down the street, facing the immense multitude which filled the whole street. we had scarcely proceeded a third of the distance down when we suddenly saw all before us uncovered and upon their knees. we alone formed an exception, and we continued our course with various hints from those around us to stop and kneel, which we answered by talking english to each other in a louder tone, and so passed for unchristian _forestieri_, and escaped unmolested, especially as the soldiers were all at the head of the street. "the effect, however, was exceedingly grand of such a multitude upon their knees, and, could i have divested myself of the thought of the compulsory measures which produced it and the object to which they knelt, the picture of the virgin, i should have felt the solemnity of a scene which seemed in the outward act to indicate such a universal reverence for him who alone rightfully claims the homage and devotion of the heart." whether this curious custom still persists in genzano i know not; baedeker is silent on the subject. it was nearly dark before they started on the drive back to rome, and quite dark after they had gone a short distance. "we passed the tombs of the horatii and curiatii, which looked much grander in the light of the torches than in the day, and, driving hastily through albano, came upon the campagna once more. it was still more like a desert in the night than in the day, for it was an interminable ocean, and the masses of ruins, coming darker than the rest, seemed like deserted wrecks upon its bosom. "it is considered dangerous in the summer to sleep while crossing the campagna; indeed, in certain parts of it, over the pontine marshes in july and august, it is said to be certain, death, but, if the traveller can keep awake, there is no danger. in spite of the fears which we naturally entertained lest it might be already dangerous, most of us could not avoid sleeping, nor could i, with every effort made for that purpose." the days following his return to rome were employed chiefly in copying at the colonna palace. the heat was now beginning to grow more oppressive, and we find this note on june :-- "in the cool of the morning you see the doors of the cafes thronged with people taking their coffee and sitting on chairs in the streets for some distance round. at _mezzo giorno_ the streets are deserted, the shop-doors are closed, and all is still; they have all gone to their _siesta_, their midday sleep. at four o'clock all is bustle again; it seems a fresh morning; the streets and cafés are thronged and the corso is filled with the equipages of the wealthy, enjoying till quite dark the cool of the evening air. "the sun is now oppressively warm; the heat is unlike anything i have felt in america. there is a scorching character about it which is indescribable, and the glare of the light is exceedingly painful to the eyes. the evenings are delightful, cool and clear, showing the lustre of the stars gloriously. "_june ._ in the evening went to the piazza of st. peter's to witness the illumination of its magnificent dome and the piazza. the change from the smaller to the larger illumination is one of the grandest spectacles i ever beheld. "the lanterns which are profusely scattered over it, showing its whole form in lines of fire, glow brighter and brighter as the evening advances from twilight to dark, till it seems impossible for its brilliance to increase. the crowds below, on foot and in carriages, are in breathless expectation. the great bell of st. peter's at length strikes the hour of nine, and, at the first stroke, a great ball of light is seen ascending the cross to its pinnacle. this is the signal for thousands of assistants, who are concealed over its vast extent, to light the great lamps, and in an instant all is motion, the whole mass is like a living thing, fire whirling and flashing over it in all directions, till the vast pile blazes as if lighted with a thousand suns. the effect is truly magical, for the agents by whom this change is wrought are invisible." after the illumination of st. peter's he went to the castle of st. angelo where he witnessed what he describes as the grandest display of fireworks he had ever seen. "_tuesday, june ._ this day is st. peter's day, the grandest _festa_ of the romish church. i went with mr. b. early to st. peter's to see the ceremonies. the streets were filled with equipages, among which the splendid scarlet-and-gold equipages of the cardinals made the most conspicuous figure. cardinal weld's carriage was the richest, and next in magnificence was that of cardinal barberini. "on entering st. peter's we found it hung throughout with crimson damask and gold and filled with people, except a wide space in the centre with soldiers on each side to keep it open for the procession. we passed up near the statue of st. peter, who was to-day dressed out in his papal robes, his black face (for it is of bronze) looking rather frightful from beneath the splendid tiara which crowned his head, and the scarlet-and-gold tissue of his robes. "having a little time to spare, we followed a portion of the crowd down the steps beside the pedestal of the statue of st. veronica into the vaults beneath the church, which are illuminated on this festival. mass was performing in several of the splendid chapels, whose rich decorations of paintings and sculpture are but once a year revealed to the light, save from the obscure glimmering of the wax-taper, which is carried by the guide, to occasional visitors. it is astonishing what a vast amount of expense is here literally buried. "the ornamented parts are beneath the dome; the other parts are plain, heavy arches and low, almost numberless, and containing the sarcophagi of the popes and other distinguished characters. the illumination here was confined to a single lamp over each arch, which rather made darkness visible and gave an awful effect to some of the gloomier passages. "in one part we saw, through a long avenue of arches, an iron-grated door; within was a dim light which just sent its feeble rays upon some objects in its neighborhood, not strong enough to show what they were. it required no great effort of the imagination to fancy an emaciated, spectral figure of a monk poring over a large book which lay before him. it might have been as we imagined; we had not time to examine, for the sound of music far above us summoned us into the regions of day again, and we arrived in the body of the church just as the trumpets were sounding from the balcony within the church over the great door of entrance. the effect of the sound was very grand, reverberating through the lofty arches and aisles of the church. "we got sight of the head of the procession coming in at the great door, and soon after the pope, borne in his crimson chair of state, and with the triple crown upon his head and a crimson, gold-embroidered mantilla over his shoulders, was seen entering accompanied by his fan-bearers and other usual attendants, and after him the cardinals and bishops. the pope, as usual, made the sign of the cross as he went. "the procession passing up the great aisle went round to the back of the great altar, where was the canopy for the pope and seats for the cardinals and bishops. the pope is too feeble to go through the ceremony of high mass; it was, therefore, performed before him by one of the cardinals. there was nothing in this ceremony that was novel or interesting; it was the same monotonous chant from the choir, the same numberless bowings, and genuflections, and puffings of incense, and change of garments, and fussing about the altar. all that was new was the constant bustle about the pope, kissing of his toe and his hand, helping him to rise and to sit again, bringing and taking away of cushions and robes and tiaras and mitres, and a thousand other little matters that would have enraged any man of weak nerves, if it did not kill him. after two hours of this tedious work (the people in the mean time perfectly inattentive), the ceremony ended, and the pope was again borne through the church and the crowd returned." on july , morse, with four friends, left rome at four o'clock in the morning for naples, where they arrived on the th after the usual experiences; beggars continually marring the peaceful beauty of every scene by their importunities; good inns, with courteous landlords and servants, alternating with wretched taverns and insolent attendants. the little notebook detailing the first ten days' experiences in naples is missing, and the next one takes up the narrative on july , when he and his friends are in sorrento. i shall not transcribe his impressions of that beautiful town or those of the island of capri. these places are too familiar to the visitor to italy and have changed but little in the last eighty years. prom capri they were rowed over to amalfi, and narrowly escaped being dashed on the rocks by the sudden rising of a violent gale. at amalfi they found lodgings in the franciscan monastery, which is still used as an inn, and here i shall again quote from the journal:-- "the place is in decay and is an excellent specimen of their monastic buildings. it is now in as romantic a state as the most poetic imagination could desire. here are gloomy halls and dark and decayed rooms; long corridors of chambers, uninhabited except by the lizard and the bat; terraces upon the brow of stupendous precipices; gloomy cells with grated windows, and subterranean apartments and caverns. remains of rude frescoes stain the crumbling ceiling, and ivy and various wild plants hang down from the opening crevices and cover the tops of the broken walls. "a rude sundial, without a gnomon, is almost obliterated from the wall of the cloisters, but its motto, '_dies nostri quasi umbra super terram et nulli est mora_', still resists the effects of decay, as if to serve the appropriate purpose of the convent's epitaph. at the foot of the long stairs in the great hall is the ruined chapel, its altar broken up and despoiled of its pictures and ornaments. "we were called to dinner by our host, who was accompanied by his wife, a very pretty woman, two children, the elder carried by the mother, the younger by the old grandparent, an old man of upwards of eighty, who seemed quite pleased with his burden and delighted to show us his charge. the whole family quite prepossessed us in their favor; there seemed to be an unusual degree of affection displayed by the members towards each other which we could not but remark at the time. our dining apartment was the old _domus refectionis_ of the convent, as its name, written over the door which led into the choir, manifested. after an excellent dinner we retired to our chambers for the night. "_tuesday, july ._ we all rested but badly last night. the heat was excessive, the insects, especially mosquitoes, exceedingly troublesome, and the sound of the waves, as they beat against the rocks and chafed the beach in the gusty night, and the howling of the wind, which for a time moaned through the deserted chambers of the convent, all made us restless. i rose several times in the night and, opening my window, looked out on the dark waters of the bay, till the dawn over the mountains warned me that the time for sleep was passing away, and i again threw myself on the bed to rest. but scarcely had i lost myself in sleep before the sound of loud voices below and wailings again waked me. i looked out of my window on the balcony below; it was filled with armed men; soldiers and others like brigands with muskets were in hurried commotion, calling to each other from the balcony and from the terraced steps below. "while perplexed in conjecturing the meaning of what i saw, mr. c. called at my door requesting me to rise, as the whole house was in agitation at a terrible accident which had occurred in the night. dressing in great haste, i went into the contiguous room and, looking out of the window down upon a terrace some thirty feet below, saw the lifeless body of a man, with spots of blood upon his clothes, lying across the font of water. a police officer with a band of men appeared, taking down in writing the particulars for a report. on enquiry i found that the body was that of the old man, the father of our host, whom we had seen the evening before in perfect health. he had the dangerous habit of walking in his sleep and had jumped, it is supposed, in that state out of his chamber window which was directly beneath us; at what time in the night was uncertain. his body must have been beneath me while i was looking from my window in the night. "our host, but particularly his brother, seemed for a time almost inconsolable. the lamentations of the latter over the bloody body (as they were laying it out in the room where we had the evening before dined), calling upon his father and mingling his cries with a chant to the virgin and to the saints, were peculiarly plaintive, and, sounding through the vacant halls of the convent, made a melancholy impression upon us all.... soon after breakfast we went downstairs; several priests and funeral attendants had arrived; the poor old man was laid upon a bed, the room darkened, and four wax-lights burned, two each side of the bed. a short time was taken in preparation, and then upon a bier borne by four bearers, a few preceding it with wax-lights, the body, with the face exposed, as is usual in italy, was taken down the steep pathway to its long home. "i could not help remarking the total want of that decent deportment in all those officiating which marks the conduct of those that attend the interment of the dead in our own country. even the priests 'seemed to be in high glee, talking and heartily laughing with each other; at what it perplexed me to conjecture. "i went into the room in which the old man had slept; all was as he had left it. over the head of the bed were the rude prints of the virgin and saints, which are so common in all the houses of italy, and which are supposed to act as charms by these superstitious people. the lamp was on the window ledge where he had placed it, and his scanty wardrobe upon a chair by the bedside. over the door was a sprig of laurel, placed there since his death. "the accident of the morning threw a gloom over the whole day; we, however, commenced our sketches from different parts of the convent, and i commenced a picture, a view of amalfi from the interior of the grotto." several of the notebooks are here missing, and from the next in order we find that the travellers must have lingered in or near sorrento until august , when they returned to naples. the next entry of interest, while rather gruesome, seems to be worth recording. "_wednesday, september ._ morning painting. in the afternoon took a ride round the suburbs and visited the campo santo. the campo santo is the public burial-place. it is a large square enclosure having high walls at the sides and open at the top. it contains three hundred and sixty vaults, one of which is opened every day to receive the dead of that day, and is not again opened until all the others in rotation have been opened. "as we entered the desolate enclosure the only living beings were three miserable-looking old women gathered together upon the stone of one of the vaults. they sat as if performing some incantation, mumbling their prayers and counting their beads; and one other of the same fraternity, who had been kneeling before a picture, left her position as we entered and knelt upon another of the vaults, where she remained all the time we were present, telling her beads. "at the farther end of the enclosure was a large portable lever to raise the stones which covered the vaults. upon the promise of a few _grains_ the stone of the vault for the day was raised, and, with the precaution of holding our kerchiefs to our noses, we looked down into the dark vault. death is sufficiently terrible in itself, and the grave in its best form has enough of horror to make the stoutest heart quail at the thought, but nothing i have seen or read of can equal the campo santo for the most loathsome and disgusting mode of burial. the human, carcasses of all ages and sexes are here thrown in together to a depth of, perhaps, twenty feet, without coffins, in heaps, most of them perfectly naked, and left to corrupt in a mass, like the offal from a slaughter house. so disgusting a spectacle i never witnessed. there were in sight about twenty bodies, men, women, and children. a child of about six years, with beautiful fair hair, had fallen across the body of a man and lay in the attitude of sleeping. "but i cannot describe the positions of all without offence, so i forbear. we were glad to turn away and retrace our steps to our carriage. never, i believe, in any country, christian or pagan, is there an instance of such total want of respect for the remains of the dead." [illustration: de witt clinton painted by morse. property of the metropolitan museum of art] on september , he again reverts to the universal plague of beggars in italy:-- "in passing through the country you may not take notice of a pretty child or seem pleased with it; so soon as you do the mother will instantly importune you for '_qualche cosa_' for the child. neither can you ask for a cup of cold water at a cottage door, nor ask the way to the next village, nor even make the slightest inquiry of a peasant on any subject, but the result will be '_qualche cosa, signore_.' the first act which a child is taught in italy is to hold out its hand to beg. children too young to speak i have seen holding out their little hands for that purpose, and so mechanical is this action that i have seen, in one instance, a boy of nine years nodding in his sleep and yet at regular intervals extending his hand to beg. begging is here no disgrace; on the contrary, it is made respectable by the customs of the church." on september , after visiting the catacombs, he goes to the convent of st. martino, and indulges in this rhapsody:-- "from a terrace and balcony two views of the beautiful scenery of the city and bay are obtained. from the latter place especially you look down upon the city which is spread like a model far beneath you. there is a great deal of the sublime in thus looking down upon a populous city; one feels for the time separated from the concerns of the world. "we forget, while we consider the insignificance of that individual man, moving in yonder street and who is scarcely visible to us, that we ourselves are equally insignificant. it is in such a situation that the superiority of the mind over the body is felt. paradoxical as it may at first seem, its greatness is evinced in the feeling of its own littleness.... after gazing here for a while we were shown into the chapel through the choir.... in the sacristy is a picture of a dead christ with the three marys and joseph, by spagnoletto, not only the finest picture by that master, but i am quite inclined to say that it is the finest picture i have yet seen. there is in it a more perfect union of the great qualities of art,--fine conception, just design, admirable disposition of _chiaroscuro_, exquisite color,--whether truth is considered or choice of tone in congruity with the subject's most masterly execution and just character and expression. if any objection were to be made it would, perhaps, be in the particular of character, which, in elevation, in ideality, falls far short of raphael. in other points it has not its superior." returning to rome on september , the only entries i find in the journal for the first few days are, "painting all day at home," and a short account of a soirée at the persianis'. "_monday, september ._ began the portrait of the celebrated sculptor thorwaldsen. he is a most amiable man and is universally respected. he was never married. in early life he had two children by a mistress; one, a daughter, is now in a convent. it was said that a noble lady of england, of great fortune, became attached to him, and he no less to her, but that the circumstance of his having two illegitimate children prevented a marriage. he is the greatest sculptor of the age. i have studied his works; they are distinguished for simple dignity, just expression, and truth in character and design. the composition is also characterized by simplicity. these qualities combined endow them with that beauty which we so much admire in the works of greece, whether in literature or art. thorwaldsen cannot be said to imitate the antique; he rather seems to be one born in the best age of grecian art; imbued with the spirit of that age, and producing from his own resources kindred works." the following letter was written by morse before he left rome for naples, but can be more appropriately introduced at this point:-- to the cavalier thorwaldsen, my dear sir,--i had hoped to have the pleasure of painting your portrait, for which you were so good as to promise to sit, before i left rome for naples; but the weather is becoming so oppressive, and there being a party of friends about to travel the same road, i have consented to join them. i shall return to rome in september or october, and i therefore beg you will allow me then to claim the fulfilment of your kind promise. what a barrier, my dear sir, is difference of language to social intercourse! i never felt the curse that befell the architects of babel so sensibly as now, since, as one of the effects of their folly, i am debarred from the gratification and profit which i had promised myself in being known to you. with highest respect, etc. curiously enough, morse never learned to speak a foreign language fluently, although he could read quite easily french and, i believe, german and italian, and from certain passages in his journal we infer that he could make himself understood by the italians. the portrait of thorwaldsen was completed and became the property of philip hone, esq., who had given morse a commission to paint a picture for one hundred dollars, the subject to be left to the discretion of the artist. mr. hone valued the portrait highly, and it remained in his gallery until his death. it was then sold and morse lost track of it for many years. in , being particularly desirous of gaining possession of it again, for a purpose which is explained in a letter quoted a little farther on, he instituted a search for it, and finally learned that it had been purchased by mr. john taylor johnston for four hundred dollars. before he could enter into negotiations for its purchase, mr. johnston heard of his desire to possess it, and of his reasons for this wish, and he generously insisted on presenting it to morse. i shall now quote the following extracts from a letter written in dresden, on january , , to mr. johnston:-- my dear sir,--your letter of the th inst. is this moment received, in which i have been startled by your most generous offer presenting me with my portrait of the renowned thorwaldsen, for which he sat to me in rome in . i know not in what terms, my dear sir, to express to you my thanks for this most acceptable gift. i made an excursion to copenhagen in the summer of , as a sort of devout pilgrimage to the tombs of two renowned danes, whose labors in their respective departments--the one, oersted, of science, the other, thorwaldsen, of art--have so greatly enriched the world. the personal kindness of the late king frederick vii, who courteously received me at his castle of fredericksborg, through the special presentation of colonel raslof (more recently the danish minister at washington); the hospitalities of many of the principal citizens of copenhagen; the visits to the tomb and museum of the works of thorwaldsen, and to the room in which the immortal oersted made his brilliant electro-magnetic discovery; the casual and accidental introduction and interview with a daughter of oersted,--all created a train of reflection which prompted me to devise some suitable mode of showing to these hospitable people my appreciation of their friendly attentions, and i proposed to myself the presentation to his majesty the king of denmark of this portrait of thorwaldsen, for which he sat to me in rome, and with which i knew he was specially pleased. my desire to accomplish this purpose was further strengthened by the additional attention of the king at a later period in sending me the decoration of his order of the danebrog. from the moment this purpose was formed, twelve years ago, i have been desirous of obtaining this portrait, and watching for the opportunity of possessing it again. here follows a detailed account of the circumstances of the painting of the portrait and of its disappearance, with which we are familiar, and he closes by saying:-- "this brief history will show you, my dear sir, what a boon you have conferred upon me. indeed, it seems like a dream, and if my most cordial thanks, not merely for the _gift_, but for the graceful and generous manner in which it has been offered, is any compensation, you may be sure they are yours. "these are no conventional words, but they come from a heart that can gratefully appreciate the noble sentiments which have prompted your generous act." returning from this little excursion into later years, i shall take up the narrative again as revealed in the notebooks. while occasionally visiting the opera and the theatre, morse does not altogether approve of them, and, on september , he indulges in the following reflections on them and on the social evil:-- "no females of openly dissolute character were seen, such as occupy particular parts of the theatre in england and america. indeed, they never appear on the streets of rome in that unblushing manner as in london, and even in new york and philadelphia. it must not from hence be inferred that vice is less frequent here than elsewhere; there is enough of it, but it is carried on in secret; it is deeper and preys more on the vitals of society than with us. this vice with us, like a humor on the skin, deforms the surface, but here it infects the very heart; the whole system is affected; it is rotten to the core. "theatres here and with us are different institutions. here, where thousands for want of thought, or rather matter for thought, would die of ennui, where it is an object to escape from home and even from one's self, the theatre serves the purpose of a momentary excitement. a new piece, a new performer, furnishes matter for conversation and turns off the mind from the discussion of points of theology or politics. the theatre is therefore encouraged by the government and is guarded against the abuses of popular assemblage by strong military guards. "but what have we to do with theatres in america? have we not the whole world of topics for discussion or conversation open to us? is not truth in religion, politics, and science suffered to be assailed by enemies freely, and does it not, therefore, require the time of all intelligent men to study, and understand, and defend, and fortify themselves in truth? have we time to throw away? "more than this, have we not homes where domestic endearments charm us, where domestic duties require our attention, where the relations of wife, of husband, of children have the ties of mutual affection and mutual confidence to attach us to our firesides? need we go abroad for amusement? can the theatre, with all its tinsel finery, attract away from home the man who has once tasted the bliss of a happy family circle? is there no pleasure in seeing that romping group of children, in the heyday of youth, amuse themselves ere they go to rest; is there no pleasure in studying the characters of your little family as they thus undisguisedly display themselves, and so give you the opportunity of directing their minds to the best advantage? is there no amusement in watching the development of the infant mind and in assisting its feeble efforts? "he must be of most unsocial mould who can leave the thousand charms of home to pass those precious hours in the noxious atmosphere of a theatre, there to be excited, to return at midnight, to rise from a late bed, to pass the best hours of the day in a feverish reverie succeeded by the natural depression which is sure to follow, and to crave a renewed indulgence. repeated renewal causes indifference and ennui to succeed, till excitement is no longer produced, but gives place to a habit of listless indifference, or a spirit of captious criticism. "_monday, november , ._ a year to-day since i left home. "_tuesday, november ._ ignorance at post-office. sent letters for united states to england, because the united states belong to england! "_wednesday, december ._ many reports for some days past prepared us for the announcement of the death of the pope, pius viii, who died last evening at nine o'clock at the quirinal palace." the ceremonies connected with the funeral of the dead pope and with the choice of his successor are described at great length, and the eye of the artist was fascinated by the wealth of color and the pomp, while his protestant soul was wearied and disgusted by the tediousness and mummery of the ceremonials. "_december ._ much excitement has been created by fear of revolution, but from what cause i cannot learn. many arrests and banishments have occurred, among whom are some of the bonaparte family. artists are suspected of being liberals. "an assassination occurred at one of the altars in st. john lateran a few weeks ago. a young man, jealous of a girl, whom he thought to be more partial to another, stabbed her to the heart while at mass. "_saturday, january , ._ at the beginning of the year, as with us, you hear the salutation of '_felicissimo capo d'anno_,' and the custom of calling and felicitating friends is nearly the same as in new york, with this difference, indeed, that there is no cheer in rome as with our good people at home. "_friday, january ._ in the afternoon count grice and the honorable mr. spencer, son of earl spencer, who has within a few years been converted to the catholic faith, called. had an interesting conversation with him on religious topics, in which the differences of the protestant and catholic faiths were discussed; found him a candid, fair-minded man, but evidently led away by a too easy assent to the sophistry and fable which have been dealt out to him. he gave me a slight history of his change; i shall see him again. "_tuesday, january ._ called with count grice on the honorable mr. spencer at the english college and was introduced to the rector, dr. wiseman. after a few moments went into the library with mr. spencer and commenced the argument, in which being interrupted we retired to his room, where for three hours we discussed various points of difference in our faith. many things i urged were not answered, such as the fruits of the catholic religion in the various countries where it prevails; the objection concerning forbidding to marry; idolatry of the virgin mary, etc., etc.; yet there is a gentleness, an amiability in the man which makes me think him sincere but deceived. "_wednesday, february ._ went this morning at ten o'clock to hear a sermon by mr. spencer in the chapel of the english college. it was on the occasion of the _festa_ of the purification of the virgin. many parts were good, and i could agree with him in the general scope of his discourse. "while we were in the chapel the cannon of st. angelo announced the election of the new pope. i hurried to the quirinal palace to see the ceremony of announcing him to the people, but was too late. the ceremony was over, the walled window was broken down and the cardinals had presented the new pope on the balcony. he is cardinal cappellari who has taken the title of gregorio xvi. to-morrow he will go to st. peter's." chapter xviii february , --september , . historic events witnessed by morse.--rumors of revolution.--danger to foreigners.--coronation of the new pope.--pleasant experience.--cause of the revolution a mystery.--bloody plot foiled.--plans to leave for florence.--sends casts, etc., to national academy of design.--leaves rome.--dangers of the journey.--florence.--description of meeting with prince radziwill in coliseum at rome.--copies portraits of rubens and titian in florence.--leaves florence for venice.--disagreeable voyage on the po.--venice, beautiful but smelly.--copies tintoret's "miracle of the slave."--thunderstorms.--reflections on the fourth of july.--leaves venice.--recoaro.--milan.--reflections on catholicism and art.--como and maggiore.--the rigi.--schaffhausen and heidelberg.--evades the quarantine on french border.--thrilling experience.--paris. it was morse's good fortune to have been a spectator, at various times and in different places, of events of more or less historical moment. we have seen that he was in england during the war of ; that he witnessed the execution of the assassin of a prime minister; that he was a keen and interested observer of the festivities in honor of a czar of russia, a king of france, and a famous general (blücher); and although not mentioned in his correspondence, he was fond of telling how he had seen the ship sailing away to distant st. helena bearing the conquered napoleon bonaparte into captivity. now, while he was diligently pursuing his art in rome, he was privileged to witness the funeral obsequies of one pope and the ceremonies attendant upon the installation of his successor. in future years the same good fortune followed him. his presence on these occasions was not always unattended by danger to himself. his discretion during the years of war between england and america saved him from possible annoyance or worse, and now again in rome he was called upon to exercise the same virtue, for the church had entered upon troublous times, and soon the lives of foreigners were in danger, and many of them left the city. on thursday, february , there is this entry in the journal: "the revolutions in the papal states to the north at bologna and ancona, and in the duchy of modena, have been made known at rome. great consternation prevails." we learn further that, on february , "rumors of conspiracy are numerous. the time, the places of rendezvous, and even the numbers are openly talked of. the streets are filled with the people who gaze at each other inquisitively, and apprehension seems marked on every face. the shops are shutting, troops are stationed in the piazzas, and everything wears a gloomy aspect. at half-past seven a discharge of musketry is heard. among the reports of the day is one that the trasteverini have plotted to massacre the _forestieri_ in case of a revolt." while the festivities of the carnival were, on account of these disturbances, ordered by the pope to be discontinued, the religious ceremonies were still observed, and, going to st. peter's one day--"to witness the ceremonies of consecration as a bishop and coronation as a king of the pope"--morse had this pleasant experience:-- "the immense area seemed already filled; a double line of soldiers enclosed a wide space, from the great door through the middle of the church, on each side of the altar, and around the richly enclosed space where were erected the two papal thrones and the seats for the cardinals. into this soldier-invested space none but the privileged were permitted to enter; ambassadors, princes, dukes, and nobles of every degree were seen, in all their splendor of costume, promenading. "i was with the crowd without, making up my mind to see nothing of the ceremonies, but, being in full dress, and remembering that, on former occasions, i had been admitted as a stranger within the space, i determined to make the effort again. i therefore edged myself through the mass of people until i reached the line of soldiers, and, catching the eye of the commanding officer as he passed by, i beckoned to him, and, as he came to me, i said, '_sono un americano, un forestiero, signore_,' which i had no sooner said than, taking me by the hand, he drew me in, and, politely bowing, gave me leave to go where i pleased." from this point of vantage he had an excellent view of all the ceremonies, which were much like the others he had witnessed and do not need to be described. he wanted very much to go to florence at this time to fulfil some of the commissions he had received for copies of famous paintings in that city, but his departure was delayed, for, as he notes on february :-- "there are many alarming rumors, one in particular that the trasteverini and galleotti, or galley slaves, have been secretly armed by the government, and that the former are particularly incensed against the _forestieri_ as the supposed instigators of the revolution.... these facts have thrown us all into alarm, for we know not what excesses such men may be guilty of when excited by religious enthusiasm to revenge themselves on those they call heretics. we are compelled, too, to remain in rome from the state of the country, it being not safe to travel on account of brigands who now infest the roads. "_february ._ i have never been in a place where it was so difficult to ascertain the truth as in this city. i have enquired the reason of this movement hostile to the government, but cannot ascertain precisely its object. some say it is to deprive the pope of his temporal power,--and some catholics seem to think that their religion would flourish the better for it; others that it is a plan, long digested, for bringing all italy under one government, having it divided into so many federative states, like the united states.... "the trasteverini seem to be a peculiar class, proud, as believing themselves to be the only true descendants from the ancient romans, and, therefore, hating the other romans. poor from that very pride; ignorant and attached to their faith, they are the class of all others to be dreaded in a season of anarchy. it is easy by flattery, by a little distribution of money, and by a cry of danger to their religion, to rouse them to any degree of enthusiasm, and no one can set bounds to the excesses of such a set of fiends when let loose upon society. "the government at present have them in their interest, and, while that is the case, no danger is to be dreaded. it is in that state of anarchy which, for a longer or shorter period, intervenes in the changes of government, between the established rule of the one and of the other, that such a class of men is to be feared. "_february ._ the plan said to have been determined on by the conspirators was this: the last night of the carnival was fixed for the execution of the plan. this was tuesday night when it is customary to have the _moccoletti_, or small wax-candles, lighted by the crowd. the conspirators were each to be placed, as it were by accident, by the side of a soldier (which in so great a crowd could be done without suspicion), and, when the cannon fired which gave the signal for closing the course, it was also to serve as a signal for each one to turn upon the soldier and, by killing him, to seize his arms. this would, indeed, have been a bloody scene, and for humanity's sake it is well that it was discovered and prevented. "_february ._ i learn that the pope is desirous of yielding to the spirit of the times, and is disposed to grant a constitution to the people, but that the cardinals oppose it. he is said also to be prepared to fly from rome, and even has declared his intention of resigning the dignity of pope and retiring again to the solitude of the convent. "_february ._ it seems to be no longer doubtful that a revolutionary army is approaching rome from the revolted provinces, and that they advance rapidly.... the city is tranquil enough; no troops are seen, except at night a sentinel at some corner cries as you pass, '_chi viva?_' and you are obliged to cry, '_il papa_'; which one may surely do with a good conscience, for he is entitled to great respect for his personal character. "_february ._ went to-day to get my passport viséed for florence, whither i intended to go on tuesday next, but am advised by the consul and others not to risk the journey at present, as it is unsafe." i break the continuity of the narrative for a moment to note that while morse was making copies of famous paintings in rome, and studying intelligently the works of the old masters, he was not forgetful of the young academy at home, which he had helped to found and of which he was still president. on march he writes jubilantly to the secretary, j.l. morton, that he has succeeded in obtaining by gift a number of casts of ancient and modern sculpture which he will send home by the first opportunity. among the generous donors he mentions thorwaldsen, daniel coit, esq., richard wyatt, esq., signor trentanove, and george washington lee, esq. he adds at the end of the letter:-- "i leave rome immediately and know not when i shall be allowed to rest, the revolution here having turned everything into confusion, rendering the movements of travellers uncertain and unsafe, and embarrassing my studies and those of other artists exceedingly. i shall try to go to florence, but must pass through the two hostile armies and through a country which, in a season of confusion like the present, is sure to be infested with brigands. if i reach florence in safety and am allowed to remain, which is somewhat doubtful, you shall hear of me again, either directly or through my brothers." mr. morton, answering this letter on may , informs morse of his reëlection as president of the national academy of design, and adds: "by the by, talking of coming back, do try and make your arrangements as soon as possible. we want you very much, if it is only to set us all right again. we begin to feel the want of our _head man_." reverting to the journal again, we find this note: "march . for some days past i have been engaged in packing up and taking leave, and yesterday was introduced by the count le grice to cardinal weld, who received me very politely, presented me with a book, and sent me two letters of introduction to london." on march , morse, with four companions, started from rome on the seemingly perilous journey to florence. they passed through the lines of both armies, but, contrary to their expectations, they were most courteously treated by the officers on both sides. it is true that they learned afterwards that they came near being arrested at civita castellana, where the papal army was assembled in force, for--"when we took leave of the marquis at terni he told us that it was well we left civita castellana as we did, for an order for our arrest was making out, and in a few minutes more we should not have been allowed to leave the place. indeed, when i think of the case, it was a surprising thing that we were allowed to go into all parts of the place, to see their position, to count their men and know their strength, and then to immediately pass over to their enemy and to give him, if we chose, all the information that any spy could have given." it is not within the province of this work to deal at length with the political movements of the times. as we have seen, morse was fortunate in avoiding danger, and we learn from history that this revolt, which threatened at one time to become very serious, was eventually suppressed by the papal arms aided by the austrians. having passed safely through the zone of danger, they travelled on, and, on march :-- "at half-past three the _beautiful city_ was seen to our left reposing in sunshine in the wide vale of the arno. the duomo and the campanile were the most conspicuous objects. at half-past four we entered florence and obtained rooms at the leone bianco in the via vigna nuova. "_march ._ we found to-day, to our great discomfiture, that we are allowed by the police to stay but three days in the city. no entreaties through our consul, nor offers of guaranty on his part, availed to soften towards us the rigor of the decree, which they say applies to all foreigners. i have written to our consul at leghorn to petition the government for our stay, as mr. ombrosi, the united states consul here, is not accredited by the government." he must have succeeded in obtaining permission to remain, although the fact is not noted in the journal, for the next entry is on april , and finds him still in florence. it begins: "various engagements preventing my entering regularly in my journal every day's events as they occurred, i have been compelled to make a gap, which i fill up from recollection." before following him further, however, i shall quote from a letter written to his brothers on april , but referring to events which happened some time before:-- "we have recently heard of the disasters of the poles. what noble people; how deserving of their freedom. i must tell you of an interesting circumstance that occurred to me in relation to poland. it was in the latter part of june of last year, just as i was completing my arrangements for my journey to naples, that i was tempted by one of those splendid moonlight evenings, so common in italy, to visit once more the ruins of the coliseum. i had frequently been to the coliseum in company, but now i had the curiosity to go alone--i wished to enjoy, if possible, its solitude and its solemn grandeur unannoyed by the presence of any one. "it was eleven o'clock when i left my lodgings and no one was walking at that hour in the solitary streets of rome. from the corso to the forum all was as still as in a deserted city. the ruins of the forum, the temples and pillars, the arch of titus and the gigantic arcade of the temple of peace, seemed to sleep in the gravelike stillness of the air. the only sound that reached my ears was that of my own footsteps. i slowly proceeded, stopping occasionally, and listening and enjoying the profound repose and the solemn, pure light, so suited to the ruined magnificence around me. as i approached the coliseum the shriek of an owl and the answering echo broke the stillness for a moment, and all was still again. "i reached the entrance, before which paced a lonely sentinel, his arms flashing in the moonbeams. he abruptly stopped me and told me i could not enter. i asked him why. he replied that his orders were to let no one pass. i told him i knew better, that he had no such orders, that he was placed there to protect visitors, and not to prevent their entrance, and that i should pass. finding me resolute (for i knew by experience his motive was merely to extort money), he softened in his tone, and wished me to wait until he could speak to the sergeant of the guard. to this i assented, and, while he was gone, a party of gentlemen approached also to the entrance. one of them, having heard the discourse between the sentinel and myself, addressed me. perceiving that he was a foreigner, i asked him if he spoke english. he replied with a slight accent, 'yes, a little. you are an englishman, sir?' 'no,' i replied, 'i am an american from the united states.' 'indeed,' said he, 'that is much better'; and, extending his hand, he shook me cordially by the hand, adding, 'i have a great respect for your country and i know many of your countrymen.' he then mentioned dr. jarvis and mr. cooper, the novelist, the latter of whom he said was held in the greatest estimation in europe, and nowhere more so than in his country, poland, where his works were more sought after than those of scott, and his mind was esteemed of an equal if not of a superior cast. "this casual introduction of literary topics furnished us with ample matter for conversation while we were not engaged in contemplating the sublime ruins over which, when the sentinel returned, we climbed. i asked him respecting the literature of poland, and particularly if there were now any living poets of eminence. he observed: 'yes, sir, i am happily travelling in company with the most celebrated of our poets, meinenvitch'; and who, as i understood him, was one of the party walking in another part of the ruins. "engaged in conversation we left the coliseum together and slowly proceeded into the city. i told him of the deep interest with which poland was regarded in the united states, and that her heroes were spoken of with the same veneration as our own. as some evidence of this estimation i informed him of the monument erected by the cadets of west point to the memory of kosciusko. with this intelligence he was evidently much affected; he took my hand and exclaimed with great enthusiasm and emphatically: 'we, too, sir, shall be free; the time is coming; we too shall be free; my unhappy country will be free.' (this was before the revolution in france.) "as i came to the street where we were to part he took out his notebook, and, going under the lamp of a madonna, near the piazza colonna, he wished me to write my name for him among the other names of americans which he had treasured in his book. i complied with his request. in bidding me adieu he said: 'it will be one of my happiest recollections of rome that the last night which i passed in this city was passed in the coliseum, and with an american, a citizen of a free country. if you should ever visit warsaw, pray enquire for prince----; i shall be exceedingly glad to see you.' "thus i parted with this interesting pole. that i should have forgotten a polish name, pronounced but once, you will not think extraordinary. the sequel remains to be told. when the polish revolution broke out, what was my surprise to find the poet meinenvitch and a prince, whose name seemed like that which he pronounced to me, and to which was added--'just returned from italy'--among the first members of the provisional government." morse assured himself afterwards, and so noted it in his journal, that this chance acquaintance was prince michael jerome radziwill, who had served as lieutenant in the war of independence under kosciusko; fought under napoleon in russia (by whom he was made a brigadier-general); and, shortly after the meeting in the coliseum, was made general-in-chief of the polish army. after the defeat of this army he was banished to central russia until , when he retired to dresden. reverting again to the notebooks, we find that florence, with her wealth of beauty in architecture, sculpture, and painting, appealed strongly to the artist, and the notes are chiefly descriptions of what he sees, and which it will not be necessary to transcribe. he had, during all the time he was in italy, been completing, one after another, the copies for which he had received commissions, and had been sending them home. he thus describes to his friend, mr. van schaick, the paintings made for him:-- "_florence, may , ._ i have at length completed the two pictures which you were so kind as to commission me to execute for you, and they are packed in a case, ready to send to you from leghorn by the first opportunity, through messrs. bell, de yongh & co. of that city. "as your request was that these pictures should be heads, i have chosen two of the most celebrated in the gallery of portraits in the florence gallery. these are the heads of rubens and titian from the portraits by themselves. as the portraits of the two great masters of color they will alone be interesting, but they are more so from giving a fair specimen of their two opposite styles of color. that of rubens, from its gaiety, will doubtless be more popular, but that of titian, from its sobriety and dignity, pleases me better. in hanging the pictures they should be placed apart. the styles are so opposed that, were they placed near to each other, they would mutually affect each other unfavorably. rubens may be placed in more obscurity, but titian demands to be more in the light. "i have no time to add, as i am preparing to leave florence on monday for bologna and venice." travelling in italy in those days was fraught with many annoyances, for, in addition to the slow progress made in the _vetture_, there seems to have been (judging from the journal) a _dogana_, or custom-house, every few miles, where the luggage and clothing of travellers were examined, sometimes hastily and courteously, sometimes with more rigor. and yet this leisurely rate of progress, the travellers walking up most of the hills, must have had a charm unknown to the present-day tourist, who is whisked unseeing through the most characteristic parts of a foreign country. the beautiful scenery of the apennines was in this way enjoyed to the full by the artist, but i shall not linger over the journey nor shall i include any notes concerning bologna. he found the city most interesting--"a piece of porphyry set in verd antique"--and those to whom he had letters of introduction more hospitable than in any other city in italy. from bologna the route lay through ferrara and then to pontelagoscuro on the river po, where he was to take the courier boat for venice, down the po and through a canal. to add to the discomforts of this part of the trip it rained steadily for several days, and, on may , morse paints this dreary picture:-- "when we waked this morning we found it still raining and, apparently, so to continue all day. the rainy day at a country inn, so exquisitely described by irving in all its disagreeable features, is now before us. a solitary inn with nothing indoors to attract; cold and damp and dark. the prospect from the windows is a low muddy foreground, the north bank of the muddy po; a pile of brushwood, a heap of offal, a melancholy group of cattle, who show no other signs of life than the occasional sly attack by one of them upon a poor, dripping, half-starved dog, who, with tail between his legs, now and then ventures near them to search for his miserable meal. beyond, on the river, a few barks silently lying upon the stream, and on the opposite bank some buildings with a church and a campanile dimly seen through the mist. after coffee we were obliged to go to the _dogana_ to see to the searching of all our trunks and luggage. the principals were present and we were not severely searched. a frenchman, however, who had come on a little before us, was stripped to his skin, some papers were found upon him, and i understand he has made his escape and they are now searching for him.... "at . , after having dined, we waded through the mud in a pelting rain to the _dogana_ for our luggage, and, after getting completely wet, we embarked on board the courier boat, with a cabin seven feet long, six feet wide, and six high, into which six of us, having a gentleman from trieste and his mother added to our number, were crowded, with no beds.... rain, rain, rain!!! in torrents, cold and dreary through a perfectly flat country.... at ten o 'clock we arrived at a place called cavanella, where is a _locanda_ upon the canal which should have been open to receive us, but they were all asleep and no calling would rouse them. so we were obliged to go supperless to bed, and such abed! there being no room to spread mattresses for six in the cabin, three dirty mattresses, without sheets or blankets, were laid on the floor of the forward cabin (if it might so be called). this cabin was a hole down into which two or three steps led. we could not stand upright,--indeed, kneeling, our heads touched the top,--and when stretched at full length the tallest of us could touch with his head and feet from side to side. but, it being dreary and damp without and we being sleepy, we considered not the place, nor its inconveniences, nor its little pests which annoyed us all night, nor its vicinity to a magazine of cheese, with which the boat was laden and the odors from which assailed us. we lay down in our clothes and slept; the rain pattering above our heads only causing us to sleep the sounder." continuing their leisurely journey in this primitive manner, the rain finally ceasing, but the sky remaining overcast and the weather cold and wintry, they reached chioggia, and "at . , the towers and spires of venice were seen at a distance before us rising from the sea." venice, of course, was a delight to morse's eye, but his nose was affected quite differently, for he says: "those that have resided in venice a long time say it is not an unhealthy place. i cannot believe it, for the odors from the canals cannot but produce illness of some kind. that which is constantly offensive to any of our organs of sense must affect them injuriously." several severe thunderstorms broke over the city while he was there, and one was said to be the worst which had been known within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. after describing it he adds: "i was at the academy. the rain penetrated through the ceiling at the corner of the picture i was copying--'the miracle of the slave,' by tintoret--and threatened injury to it, but happily it escaped." on june , he thus moralizes: "the piazza of st. mark is the great place of resort, and on every evening, but especially on sundays or _festas_, the arcades and cafés are crowded with elegantly dressed females and their gallants. chairs are placed in great numbers under the awnings before the cafés. a people that have no homes, who are deprived from policy of that domestic and social intercourse which we enjoy, must have recourse to this empty, heartless enjoyment; an indolent enjoyment, when all their intercourse, too, is in public, surrounded by police agents and soldiers to prevent excess. hallam, in his 'middle ages,' has this just reflection on the condition of this same city when under the council of ten: 'but how much more honorable are the wildest excesses of faction than the stillness and moral degradation of servitude.' quiet is, indeed, obtained here, but at what immense expense! expense of wealth, although excessive, is nothing compared with the expense of morality and of all intellectual exercise." on june , he witnessed another thunderstorm from the piazza of st. mark:-- "the lightning, flashing in the dark clouds that were gathering from the tyrolese alps, portended another storm which soon burst over us and hastened the conclusion of the music. the lightning was incessant. i stood at the corner of the piazza and watched the splendid effects of lights and darks, in a moment coming and in a moment gone, on the campanile and church of st. mark's. it was most sublime. the gilt statue of the angel on the top of the campanile never looked so sublime, seeming to be enveloped in the glory of the vivid light, and, as the electric fluid flashed behind it from cloud to cloud incessantly, it seemed to go and come at the bidding of the angel." this sounds almost like a prophetic vision, written by the pencil of the man who, in a few years from then, was to make the lightning go and come at his bidding. "_july ._ this anniversary of the day of our national birth found but two americans in venice. we met in the evening over a cup of coffee and thought and talked of the happiest of countries. we had no patriotic toasts, but the sentiments of our hearts were--'peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces.' never on any anniversary of our independence have i felt so strongly the great reason i have for gratitude in having been born in such a country. when i think of the innumerable blessings we enjoy over every other country in the world, i am constrained to praise god who hath made us to differ, for 'he hath not dealt so with any nation, and as for his judgments, we have not known them.' while pestilence and famine and war surround me here in these devoted countries, i fix my thoughts on one bright spot on earth; truly (if our too ungrateful countrymen would but see it), truly a terrestrial paradise." this attack of nostalgia was probably largely due to atmospheric conditions, for at least one thunderstorm seems to have been a matter of daily occurrence. this, added to the noisome odors arising from the canals, affected his health, for he complains of feeling more unwell than at any time since he left home. it must, therefore, have been with no feelings of great regret that he packed his belongings and prepared to leave venice with a companion, mr. ferguson, of natchez, on the th of july. his objective point was paris, but he planned to linger by the way and take a leisurely course through the italian lake region, switzerland, and germany. the notebooks give a detailed but rather dry account of the daily happenings. it was, presumably, morse's intention to elaborate these, at some future day, into a more entertaining record of his wanderings; but this was never done. i shall, therefore, pass on rapidly, touching but lightly on the incidents of the journey, which were, in the main, without special interest. the route lay through padua, vicenza, verona, and brescia to milan. from vicenza a side trip was made to the watering-place of recoaro, where a few days were most delightfully spent in the company of the english consul at venice, mr. money, and his family. "recoaro, like all watering-places, is beginning to be the resort of the fashionable world. the grand duchess of tuscany is now here, and on saturday the vice-queen of italy is expected from milan to visit her aunt, the grand duchess.... towards evening parties of ladies and gentlemen are seen promenading or riding on donkeys along the brows of the mountains and among the trees, and many priests are seen disfiguring the landscape with their tasteless, uncouth dresses; most of them coming, i was informed on the best authority, for the purpose of gambling and dissipating that time of which, from the trifling nature of their duties and the almost countless increase of their numbers, they have so much to spare. cards have the most fascination for them." another incident of the stay at recoaro is worth recording. referring to the family of mr. money, he says:-- "in the afternoon took an excursion on donkeys with the whole family among the wild and romantic scenery. in returning, while riding by the side of mr. money and in conversation with him, my donkey stumbled upon his knees and threw me over his head, without injury to me, but mrs. money, who was just before me, seeing the accident, was near fainting and, during the rest of the day, was invisible. i was somewhat surprised at the effect produced on her until i learned that the news of the loss of her son in india by a fall from his horse, which had recently reached her, had rendered her nerves peculiarly sensitive." two days later, however, he joined them in another excursion. "on returning we stopped to take tea at mrs. ireland's lodgings, an english lady who is here with her two daughters, accomplished and highly agreeable people. i was told by them that after i left rome a most diabolical attempt was made to poison the english artists who had made a party to grotto ferrata. they were mistaken by the persons who attempted the deed for germans. they all became exceedingly ill immediately after dinner, and, as the wine was the only thing they had taken there, having brought their food with them, it was suspected and a strong solution of copper was proved to be in it. i was told that messrs. gibson and desoulavy suffered a great deal, the latter being confined to his bed for three weeks. had i been in rome it is more than probable i should have been of their party, for i had never visited grotto ferrata, and the company of those with whom i had associated would have induced me to join them without a doubt." morse enjoyed his stay at recoaro so much that he was persuaded by his hospitable friends to prolong his visit for a few days longer than he had planned, but, on july , he and his friend mr. ferguson bade adieu and proceeded on their journey. verona and brescia were visited and on july they came to milan. the cathedral he finds "a most gorgeous building, far exceeding my conception of it"; and of the beautiful street of the corso porta orientale he says: "it is wider than broadway and as superior as white marble palaces are to red brick houses. there is an opinion prevalent among some of our good citizens that broadway is not only the longest and widest, but the most superbly built, street in the world. the sooner they are undeceived the better. broadway is a beautiful street, a very beautiful street, but it is absurd to think that our brick houses of twenty-five feet front, with plain doors and windows, built by contract in two or three months, and holding together long enough to be let, can rival the spacious stone palaces of hundreds of feet in length, with lofty gates and balconied windows, and their foundations deeply laid and slowly constructed to last for ages." this was, of course, when broadway even below fourteenth street, was a residence street. attending service in the cathedral on sunday, and being, as usual, wearied by the monotony and apparent insincerity of it all, he again gives vent to his feelings:-- "how admirably contrived is every part of the structure of this system to take captive the imagination. it is a religion of the imagination; all the arts of the imagination are pressed into its service; architecture, painting, sculpture, music, have lent all their charm to enchant the senses and impose on the understanding by substituting for the solemn truths of god's word, which are addressed to the understanding, the fictions of poetry and the delusions of feeling. the theatre is a daughter of this prolific mother of abominations, and a child worthy of its dam. the lessons of morality are pretended to be taught by both, and much in the same way, by scenic effect and pantomime, and the fruits are much the same. "i am sometimes even constrained to doubt the lawfulness of my own art when i perceive its prostitution, were i not fully persuaded that the art itself, when used for its legitimate purposes, is one of the greatest correcters of grossness and promoters of refinement. i have been led, since i have been in italy, to think much of the propriety of introducing pictures into churches in aid of devotion. i have certainly every inducement to decide in favor of the practice did i consult alone the seeming interest of art. that pictures may and do have the effect upon some rightly to raise the affections, i have no doubt, and, abstractly considered, the practice would not merely be harmless but useful; but, knowing that man is led astray by his imagination more than by any of his other faculties, i consider it so dangerous to his best interests that i had rather sacrifice the interests of the arts, if there is any collision, than run the risk of endangering those compared with which all others are not for a moment to be considered. but more of this another time." i have introduced here and at other times morse's strictures on the roman catholic religion, and on other subjects, without comment on my part, even when these strictures seem to verge on illiberality. my desire is to present a true portrait of the man, with the shadows as well as the lights duly emphasized, fully realizing that what may appear faults to some, to others will shine out as virtues, and _vice versa_. from milan, morse and his companion planned to cross the mountains to geneva, but, having a day or two to spare, they visited the lake of como, which, as was to be expected, satisfied the eye of the artist: "it is shut in by mountains on either side, reminding me of the scenery of lake george, to which its shores are very similar. in the transparency of the water, however, lake george is its superior, and in islands also, but in all things else the lake of como must claim the precedence. the palaces and villas and villages which skirt its shores, the mountains, vine-clad and cultivated to their summits, all give a charm for which we look in vain as yet in our country. the luxuries of art have combined with those of nature in a wonderful degree in this enchanting spot." on august , they left milan in the diligence for lago maggiore, and we learn that: "our coach is accompanied by _gendarmes_. we enquired the reason of the conductor, who was in the coach with us. he told us that the road is an unsafe one; that every day there are instances of robbery perpetrated upon those who travel alone." [illustration: henry clay painted by morse. now in the metropolitan museum, new york] it would be pleasant to follow the travellers through beautiful maggiore and up the rugged passes from italy to switzerland and thence to germany and paris, and to see through the unspoiled eyes of an enthusiast the beauties of that playground of the nations, but it would be but the repetition of an oft-told tale, and i must hasten on, making but a few extracts from the diary. no thrilling adventures were met with, except towards the end, but they enjoyed to the full the grand scenery, the picturesque costumes of the peasants and the curious customs of the different countries through which they passed. the weather was sometimes fine, but more often overcast or rainy, and we find this note on august : "how much do a traveller's impressions depend upon the weather, and even on the time of day in which he sees objects. he sees most of the country through which he travels but once, and it is the face which any point assumes at that one moment which is brought to his recollection. if it is under a gloomy atmosphere, it is not possible that he should remember it under other form or aspect." on sunday, august , he watched the sunrise from the summit of the rigi under ideal conditions, and, after describing the scene and saying that the rest of the company had gone back to bed, he adds:-- "i had found too little comfort in the wretched thing that had been provided for me in the shape of a bed to desire to return thither, and i also felt too strongly the emotions which the scene i had just witnessed had excited, to wish for their dissipation in troubled dreams. "if there is a feeling allied to devotion, it is that which such a scene of sublimity as this we have just witnessed inspires, and yet that feeling is not devotion. i am aware that it is but the emotion of taste. it may exist without a particle of true religious feeling, or it may coexist and add strength to it. there are thousands, probably, who have here had their emotion of taste excited without one thought of that being by whom these wonders were created, one thought of their relation to him, of their duty to him, or of admiration at that unmerited goodness which allows them to be witnesses of his majesty and power as exhibited in these wonders of nature. shut out as i am by circumstances from the privileges of this day in public worship, i have yet on the top of this mountain a place of private worship such as i have not had for some time past. i am alone on the mountain with such a scene spread before me that i must adore, and weak, indeed, must be that faith which, on this day, in such a scene, does not lift the heart from nature up to nature's god." on august , on the road to zurich, he makes this rather interesting observation: "we noticed in a great many instances that wires were attached to the electric rods and conducted to posts near the houses, when a chime of bells was so arranged as to ring in a highly charged state of the atmosphere (franklin's experiment)." journeying on past schaffhausen, where the beautiful falls of the rhine filled him with admiration, he and his companion came to heidelberg and explored the ruins of the stupendous castle. here he parted with his travelling companion, mr. ferguson, who went on to frankfort, which city morse avoided because the french government had established a strict quarantine against it on account of some epidemic, the nature of which is not disclosed in the notes. he was eager to get to paris now and wished to avoid all delays. "_september ._ i engaged my passage in the diligence for mannheim, and, for the first time since i have been in europe, set out alone.... i learn from the gentleman in the coach that the _cordon sanitaire_ in france is to be enforced with great rigor from the th of september; i hope, therefore, to get into france before that date. "_september , saarbruck._ we last night took our places for metz, not knowing, however, or even thinking it probable that we should be able to get there. it was hinted by some that a small _douceur_ would enable us to pass the _cordon_, but how to be applied i knew not. "among our passengers who joined me yesterday was a young german officer who was the only one who could speak french. with him i contrived to converse during the day. we had beds in the same room and, as we were about retiring, he told me, as i understood him, that by giving the keys of my luggage to the coachman in the morning, the business of passing at the _douane_ on the frontier would be facilitated. i assented and told him, as he understood the language better than i, i left it to him to make any arrangements and i would share the expense with him. "we were called sometime before day and i left my bed very reluctantly. the morning was cloudy and dark and so far favorable to the enterprise we were about to undertake, and of the nature and plan of which i had not the slightest suspicion. we were soon settled in the diligence and left saarbruck for the frontier. i composed myself to sleep and had just got into a doze when suddenly the coach stopped, and, the door opening, a man touching me said in a low voice--'_descendez, monsieur, descendez._' i asked the reason but got no answer. my companion and i alighted. there was no house near; a bright streak in the east under the heavy black clouds showed that it was just daybreak, and ahead of us in the road a great light from the windows of a long building showed us the place of the hospital of the _cordon_. "our guide, for so he proved to be, taking the knapsack of my companion and a basket of mine, in which i carry my portfolio and maps, struck off to the left into a newly ploughed field, while our carriage proceeded at a quick pace onward again. i asked where we were going, but got no other reply than '_doucement, monsieur_.' it then for the first time flashed across my mind that we had undertaken an unlawful and very hazardous enterprise, that of running by the _cordon_. i had now, however, no alternative; i must follow, for i knew not what other course to take. "after passing through ploughed fields and wet grass and grain for some time a small by-path crossed from the main road. our guide beckoned us back, while he went forward each way to see that all was clear, and then we crossed and proceeded again over ploughed fields and through the clover. it now began to rain which, disagreeable as it was, i did not regret, all things considered. we soon came to another and wider cross-path; we stopped and our guide went forward again in the same cautious manner, stooping down and listening, like an indian, near the ground. he beckoned us to cross over and again we traversed the fields, passing by the base of a small hill, when, as we softly crept up the side, we saw the form of a sentinel against the light of the sky. our guide whispered, '_doucement_' again, and we gently retreated, my companion whispering to me, '_très dangèreux, monsieur, très désagréable_.' "we took a wider circuit behind some small buildings, and at length came into one of the smaller streets in the outskirts of forbach. here were what appeared to me barracks. the caution was given to walk softly and separately (we were all, fortunately, in dark clothes), our guide passing first round the corners, and, having passed the sentry-boxes, in which, with one exception, we saw no person, and in this instance the sentinel did not hail us (but this was in the city), we came to a house at the window of which our guide tapped. a man opened it, and, after some explanation, ascertaining who we were, opened the door and, striking a light, set some wine and bread before us. "here we remained for some time to recover breath after our perilous adventure, for, if one of the sentinels had seen us, we should in all probability have been instantly shot. i knew not that we were now entirely free from the danger of being arrested, until we heard our carriage in the street and had ascertained that all our luggage had passed the _douane_ without suspicion. we paid our guide eight francs each, and, taking our seats again in the carriage, drove forward toward metz." there were no further adventures, although they trembled with anxiety every time their passports were called for. morse regretted having been innocently led into this escapade, and would have made a clean breast of it to the police, as he had not been near frankfort, but he feared to compromise his travelling companion who had come from that city. on september they finally arrived in paris. "how changed are the circumstances of this city since i was last here nearly two years ago. a traitor king has been driven into exile; blood has flowed in its streets, the price of its liberty; our friend, the nation's guest, whom i then saw at his house, with apparently little influence and out of favor with the court, the great lafayette, is now second only to the king in honor and influence as the head of a powerful party. these and a thousand other kindred reflections, relating also to my own circumstances, crowd upon me at the moment of again entering this famous city." chapter xix september , --september , takes rooms with horatio greenough.--political talk with lafayette.-- riots in paris.--letters from greenough.--bunker hill monument.--letters from fenimore cooper.--cooper's portrait by verboeckhoven.--european criticisms.--reminiscences of r.w. habersham.--hints of an electric telegraph.--not remembered by morse.--early experiments in photography.-- painting of the louvre.--cholera in paris.--baron von humboldt.--morse presides at th of july dinner.--proposes toast to lafayette.--letter to new york "observer" on fenimore cooper.--also on pride in american citizenship.--works with lafayette in behalf of poles.--letter from lafayette.--morse visits london before sailing for home.--sits to leslie for head of sterne. the diary was not continued beyond this time and was never seriously resumed, so that we must now depend on letters to and from morse, on fugitive notes, or on the reminiscences of others for a record of his life. the first letter which i shall introduce was written from paris to his brothers on september , :-- "i arrived safely in this city on monday noon in excellent health and spirits. my last letter to you was from venice just as i was about to leave it, quite debilitated and unwell from application to my painting, but more, i believe, from the climate, from the perpetual sirocco which reigned uninterrupted for weeks. i have not time now to give you an account of my most interesting journey through lombardy, switzerland, part of germany, and through the eastern part of france. i found, on my arrival here, my friend mr. greenough, the sculptor, who had come from florence to model the bust of general lafayette, and we are in excellent, convenient rooms together, within a few doors of the good general. "i called yesterday on general lafayette early in the morning. the servant told me that he was obliged to meet the polish committee at an early hour, and feared he could not see me. i sent in my card, however, and the servant returned immediately saying that the general wished to see me in his chamber. i followed him through several rooms and entered the chamber. the general was in dishabille, but, with his characteristic kindness, he ran forward, and, seizing both my hands, expressed with great warmth how glad he was to see me safely returned from italy, and appearing in such good health. he then told me to be seated, and without any ceremony began familiarly to question me about my travels, etc. the conversation, however, soon turned upon the absorbing topic of the day, the fate of poland, the news of the fall of warsaw having just been received by telegraphic dispatch. i asked him if there was now any hope for poland. he replied: 'oh, yes! their cause is not yet desperate; their army is safe; but the conduct of france, and more especially of england, has been most pusillanimous and culpable. had the english government shown the least disposition to coalesce in vigorous measures with france for the assistance of the poles, they would have achieved their independence.' "the general looks better and younger than ever. there is a healthy freshness of complexion, like that of a young man in full vigor, and his frame and step (allowing for his lameness) are as firm and strong as when he was our nation's guest. i sat with him ten or fifteen minutes and then took my leave, for i felt it a sin to consume any more of the time of a man engaged as he is in great plans of benevolence, and whose every moment is, therefore, invaluable. "the news of the fall of warsaw is now agitating paris to a degree not known since the trial of the ex-ministers. about three o'clock our servant told us that there was fighting at the palais royal, and we determined to go as far as we prudently could to see the tumult. we proceeded down the rue saint-honoré. there was evident agitation in the multitudes that filled the sidewalks--an apprehension of something to be dreaded. there were groups at the corners; the windows were filled, persons looking out as if in expectation of a procession or of some fête. the shops began to be shut, and every now and then the drum was heard beating to arms. the troops were assembling and bodies of infantry and cavalry were moving through the various streets. during this time no noise was heard from the people--a mysterious silence was observed, but they were moved by the slightest breath. if one walked quicker than the rest, or suddenly stopped, thither the enquiring look and step were directed, and a group instantly assembled. at the palais royal a larger crowd had collected and a greater body of troops were marching and countermarching in the place du palais royal. the palais royal itself had the interior cleared and all the courts. everything in this place of perpetual gayety was now desolate; even the fountains had ceased to play, and the seared autumnal leaves of the trees, some already fallen, seemed congruous with the sentiment of the hour. most of the shops were also shut and the stalls deserted. still there was no outcry and no disturbance. "passing through the rue vivienne the same collections of crowds and of troops were seen. some were reading a police notice just posted on the walls, designed to prevent the riotous assembling of the people, and advising them to retire when the riot act should be read. the notice was read with murmurs and groans, and i had scarcely ascertained its contents before it was torn from the walls with acclamations. as night approached we struck into the boulevard de la madeleine. at the corner of this boulevard and the rue des capucines is the hotel of general sebastiani. we found before the gates a great and increasing crowd. "we took a position on the opposite corner, in such a place as secured a safe retreat in case of need, but allowed us to observe all that passed. here there was an evident intention in the crowd of doing some violence, nor was it at all doubtful what would be the object of their attack. they seemed to wait only for the darkness and for a leader. "the sight of such a crowd is fearful, and its movements, as it was swayed by the incidents of the moment, were in the highest degree exciting. a body of troops of the line would pass; the crowd would silently open for their passage and close immediately behind them. a body of the national guard would succeed, and these would be received with loud cheers and gratulations. a soldier on guard would exercise a little more severity than was, perhaps, necessary for the occasion; yells, and execrations, and hisses would be his reward. "night had now set in; heavy, dark clouds, with a misty rain, had made the heavens above more dark and gloomy. a man rushed forward toward the gate, hurling his hat in the air, and followed by the crowd, which suddenly formed into long lines behind him. i now looked for something serious. a body of troops was in line before the gate. at this moment two police officers, on horseback, in citizens' dress, but with a tricolored belt around their bodies, rode through the crowd and up to the gate, and in a moment after i perceived the multitude from one of the streets rushing in wild confusion into the boulevard, and the current of the people setting back in all directions. "while wondering at the cause of this sudden movement, i heard the trampling of horses, and a large band of carabiniers, with their bright helmets glittering in the light of the lamps, dashed down the street and drew up before the gate. the police officers put themselves at their head and harangued the people. the address was received with groans. the _carabiniers_ drew their swords, orders were given for the charge, and in an instant they dashed down the street, the people dispersing like the mist before the wind. the charge was made down the opposite sidewalk from that where we had placed ourselves, so i kept my station, and, when they returned up the middle of the street to charge on the other side, i crossed over behind them and avoided them." i have given enough of this letter to show that morse was still surrounded by dangers of various sorts, and it is also a good pen-picture of the irresponsible actions of a cowardly mob, especially of a parisian mob. the letters which passed between morse and his friends, james fenimore cooper, the novelist, and horatio greenough, the sculptor, are most interesting, and would of themselves fill a volume. both cooper and greenough wrote fluently and entertainingly, and i shall select a few characteristic sentences from the letters of each, resisting the strong temptation to include the whole correspondence. greenough returned to florence after having roomed with morse in paris, and wrote as follows from there:-- as for the commission from government, i don't speak of it yet. after about a fortnight i shall be calm, i think. morse, i have made up my mind on one score, namely, that this order shall not be fruitless to the greater men who are now in our rear. they are sucking now and rocking in cradles, but i can hear the pung! pung! puffetty! of their hammers, and i am prophetic, too. we'll see if yankee land can't muster some ten or a dozen of them in the course of as many years... you were right, i had heard of the resolution submitted to congress, etc. mr. cooper wrote me about it. i have not much faith in congress, however. i will confess that, when the spectre debt has leaned over my pillow of late, and, smiling ghastlily, has asked if she and i were not intended as companions through life, i snap my fingers at her and tell her that brother jonathan talks of adopting me, and that he won't have her of his household. "go to london, you hag," says i, "where they say you're handsome and wholesome; don't grind your long teeth at me, or i'll read the declaration of independence to ye." so you see i make uncertain hopes fight certain fears, and borrow from the generous, good-natured future the motives for content which are denied me by the stinted present... what shall i say in answer to your remarks on my opinions? shall i go all over the ground again? it were useless. that my heart is wrong in a thousand ways i daily feel, but 't is my stubborn head which refuses to comprehend the creation as you comprehend it. that we should be grateful for all we have, i feel--for all we have is given us; nor do i think we have little. for my part i would be blest in mere existence were i not goaded by a wish to make my one talent two; and we have scripture for the rectitude of such a wish. i don't think the stubborn resistance of the tide of ill-fortune can be called rebellion against providence. "help yourself and heaven will help you," says the proverb.... there hangs before me a print of the bunker hill monument. pray be judge between me and the building committee of that monument. there you observe that my model was founded solidly, and on each of its square plinths were trophies, or groups, or cannon, as might be thought fit. (no. i.) well, they have taken away the foundation, made the shaft start sheer from the dirt like a spear of asparagus, and, instead of an acute angle, by which i hoped to show the work was done and lead off the eye, they have made an obtuse one, producing the broken-chimney-like effect which your eye will not fail to condemn in no. ii. then they have enclosed theirs with a light, elegant fence, _à la parigina_, as though the austere forms of egypt were compatible with the decorative flummery of the boulevards. let 'em go for dunderheads as they are.... i congratulate you on your sound conscience with regard to the affair that you wot of. as for your remaining free, that's all very well to think during the interregnum, but a man without a true love is a ship without ballast, a one-tined fork, half a pair of scissors, an utter flash in the pan.... so you are going home, my dear morse, and god knows if ever i shall see you again. pardon, i pray you, anything of levity which you may have been offended at in me. believe me it arose from my so rarely finding one to whom i could be natural and give loose without fear of good faith or good nature ever failing. wherever i am your approbation will be dearer to me than the hurrah of a world. i shall write to glorious fenimore in a few days. my love to allston and dana. god bless you, h. greenough. these extracts are from different letters, but they show, i think, the charming character of the man and reflect his admiration for morse. from the letters of james fenimore cooper, written while they were both in europe, i select the two following as characteristic: july , . my dear morse,--here we are at spa--the famous hard-drinking, dissipated, gambling, intriguing spa--where so much folly has been committed, so many fortunes squandered, and so many women ruined! how are the mighty fallen! we have just returned from a ramble in the environs, among deserted reception-houses and along silent roads. the country is not unlike ballston, though less wooded, more cultivated, and perhaps a little more varied.... i have had a great compliment paid me, master samuel, and, as it is nearly the only compliment i have received in travelling over europe, i am the more proud of it. here are the facts. you must know there is a great painter in brussels of the name of verboeckhoven (which, translated into the vernacular, means a _bull and a book baked in an oven!_), who is another paul potter. he outdoes all other men in drawing cattle, etc., with a suitable landscape. in his way he is truly admirable. well, sir, this artist did me the favor to call at brussels with the request that i would let him sketch my face. he came after the horses were ordered, and, knowing the difficulty of the task, i thanked him, but was compelled to refuse. on our arrival at liège we were told that a messenger from the governor had been to enquire for us, and i began to bethink me of my sins. there was no great cause for fear, however, for it proved that mr. bull-and-book-baked had placed himself in the diligence, come down to liège (sixty-three miles), and got the governor to give him notice, by means of my passport, when we came. of course i sat. i cannot say the likeness is good, but it has a vastly life-like look and is like all the other pictures you have seen of my chameleon face. let that be as it will, the compliment is none the less, and, provided the artist does not mean to serve me up as a specimen of american wild beasts, i shall thank him for it. to be followed twelve posts by a first-rate artist, who is in favor with the king, is so unusual that i was curious to know how far our minds were in unison, and so i probed him a little. i found him well skilled in his art, of course, but ignorant on most subjects. as respects our general views of men and things there was scarcely a point in common, for he has few salient qualities, though he is liberal; but his gusto for natural subjects is strong, and his favorite among all my books is "the prairie," which, you know, is filled with wild beasts. here the secret was out. that picture of animal nature had so caught his fancy that he followed me sixty miles to paint a sketch. while this letter of cooper's was written in lighter vein, the following extracts from one written on august show another side of his character:-- the criticisms of which you speak give me no concern.... the "heidenmauer" is not equal to the "bravo," but it is a good book and better than two thirds of scott's. they may say it is like his if they please; they have said so of every book i have written, even the "pilot." but the "heidenmauer" is like and was intended to be like, in order to show how differently a democrat and an aristocrat saw the same thing. as for french criticisms they have never been able to exalt me in my own opinion nor to stir my bile, for they are written with such evident ignorance (i mean of english books) as to be beneath notice. what the deuce do i care whether my books are on their shelves or not? what did i ever get from france or continental europe? neither personal favors nor money. but this they cannot understand, for so conceited is a frenchman that many of them think that i came to paris to be paid. now i never got the difference in the boiling of the pot between new york and paris in my life. the "journal des débats" was snappish with "water witch," merve [?] i believe with "bravo," and let it bark at "heidenmauer" and be hanged. no, no more. the humiliation comes from home. it is biting to find that accident has given me a country which has not manliness and pride to maintain its own opinions, while it is overflowing with conceit. but never mind all this. see that you do not decamp before my departure and i'll promise not to throw myself into the rhine.... i hope the fourth of july is not breaking out in habersham's noddle, for i can tell him that was the place most affected during the dinner. adieu, yours as ever, j. fenimore cooper. the mr. habersham here jokingly referred to was r.w. habersham, of augusta, georgia, who in the year was an art student in the _atelier_ of baron gros, and between whom and morse a friendship sprang up. they roomed together at a time when the cholera was raging in paris, but, owing to mr. habersham's wise insistence that all the occupants of the house should take a teaspoonful of charcoal every morning, all escaped the disease. mr. habersham in after years wrote and sent to morse some of his reminiscences of that period, and from these i shall quote the following as being of more than ordinary interest:-- "the louvre was always closed on monday to clean up the gallery after the popular exhibition of the paintings on sunday, so that monday was our day for visits, excursions, etc. on one occasion i was left alone, and two or three times during the week he was absent. this was unusual, but i asked no questions and made no remarks. but on saturday evening, sitting by our evening lamp, he seemed lost in thought, till suddenly he remarked: 'the mails in our country are too slow; this french telegraph is better, and would do even better in our clear atmosphere than here, where half the time fogs obscure the skies. but this will not be fast enough--_the lightning would serve us better_.' "these may not be the exact words, but they convey the sense, and i, laughing, said: 'aha! i see what you have been after, you have been examining the french system of telegraphing.' he admitted that he had taken advantage of the kind offer of one in authority to do so.... "there was, on one occasion, another reference made to the conveyance of sound under water, and to the length of time taken to communicate the letting in of the water into the erie canal by cannon shots to new york, and other means, during which the suggestion of using keys and wires, like the piano, was rejected as requiring too many wires, if other things were available. i recollect also that in our frequent visits to mr. j. fenimore cooper's, in the rue st. dominique, these subjects, so interesting to americans, were often introduced, and that morse seemed to harp on them, constantly referring to franklin and lord bacon. now i, while recognizing the intellectual grandeur of both these men, had contracted a small opinion of their moral strength; but morse would uphold and excuse, or rather deny, the faults attributed. lord bacon, especially, he held to have _sacrificed himself to serve the queen in her aberrations_; while of franklin, 'the great american,' recognized by the french, he was particularly proud." cooper also remembered some such hints of a telegraph made by morse at that time, for in "the sea lions,"[ ] on page , he says:-- [footnote : the riverside press, .] "we pretend to no knowledge on the subject of the dates of discoveries in the arts and sciences, but well do we remember the earnestness, and single-minded devotion to a laudable purpose, with which our worthy friend first communicated to us his ideas on the subject of using the electric spark by way of a telegraph. it was in paris and during the winter of - and the succeeding spring, and we have a satisfaction in recording this date that others may prove better claims if they can." curiously enough, morse himself could, in after years, never remember having suggested at that time the possibility of using electricity to convey intelligence. he always insisted that the idea first came to him a few months later on his return voyage to america, and in he wrote to mr. cooper saying that he must be mistaken, to which the latter replied, under date of may :-- "for the time i still stick to paris, so does my wife, so does my eldest daughter. you did no more than to throw out the general idea, but i feel quite confident this occurred in paris. i confess i thought the notion evidently chimerical, and as such spoke of it in my family. i always set you down as a sober-minded, common-sense sort of a fellow, and thought it a high flight for a painter to make to go off on the wings of the lightning. we may be mistaken, but you will remember that the priority of the invention was a question early started, and my impressions were the same much nearer to the time than it is to-day." that the recollections of his friends were probably clearer than his own on this point is admitted by morse in the following letter:-- irving house, new york, september , . my dear sir,--i was agreeably surprised this morning in conversing with professor renwick to find that he corroborates the fact you have mentioned in your "sea lions" respecting the earlier conception of my telegraph by me, than the date i had given, and which goes only so far back in my own recollection as . professor renwick insists that immediately after professor dana's lectures at the new york athenaeum, i consulted with him on the subject of the velocity of electricity and in such a way as to indicate to him that i was contriving an electric telegraph. the consultation i remember, but i did not recollect the time. he will depose that it was before i went to europe, after those lectures; now i went in ; this makes it almost certain that the impression you and mrs. cooper and your daughter had that i conversed with you on the subject in after my return from italy is correct. if you are still persuaded that this is so, your deposition before the commission in this city to that fact will render me an incalculable service. i will cheerfully defray your expenses to and from the city if you will meet me here this week or beginning of next. in haste, but with best respects to mrs. cooper and family, i am, dear sir, as ever your friend and servant, saml. f. b. morse. j. fenimore cooper, esq. all this is interesting, but, of course, has no direct bearing on the actual date of invention. it is more than probable that morse did, while he was studying the french semaphores, and at an even earlier date, dream vaguely of the possibility of using electricity for conveying intelligence, and that he gave utterance among his intimates to these dreams; but the practical means of so utilizing this mysterious agent did not take shape in his mind until . an inchoate vision of the possibility of using electricity is far different from an actual plan eventually elaborated into a commercial success. another extract from mr. habersham's reminiscences, on a totally different subject, will be found interesting: "i have forgot to mention that one day, while in the rue surenne, i was studying from my own face reflected in a glass, as is often done by young artists, when i remarked how grand it would be if we could invent a method of fixing the image on the mirror. professor morse replied that he had thought of it while a pupil at yale, and that professor silliman (i think) and himself had tried it with a wash of nitrate of silver on a piece of paper, but that, unfortunately, it made the lights _dark_ and the shadows _light_, but that if they could be reversed, we should have a facsimile like india-ink drawings. had they thought of using glass, as is now done, the daguerreotype would have been perhaps anticipated--certainly the photograph." this is particularly interesting because, as i shall note later on, morse was one of the pioneers in experimenting with the daguerreotype in america. among the paintings which morse executed while he was in paris was a very ambitious one. this was an interior of one of the galleries in the louvre with carefully executed miniature copies of some of the most celebrated canvases. writing of it, and of the dreadful epidemic of cholera, to his brothers on may , , he says:-- "my anxiety to finish my picture and to return drives me, i fear, to too great application and too little exercise, and my health has in consequence been so deranged that i have been prevented from the speedy completion of my picture. from nine o'clock until four daily i paint uninterruptedly at the louvre, and, with the closest application, i shall not be able to finish it before the close of the gallery on the th of august. the time each morning before going to the gallery is wholly employed in preparation for the day, and, after the gallery closes at four, dinner and exercise are necessary, so that i have no time for anything else. "the cholera is raging here, and i can compare the state of mind in each man of us only to that of soldiers in the heat of battle; all the usual securities of life seem to be gone. apprehension and anxiety make the stoutest hearts quail. any one feels, when he lays himself down at night, that he will in all probability be attacked before daybreak; for the disease is a pestilence that walketh in darkness, and seizes the greatest number of its victims at the most helpless hour of the night. fifteen hundred were seized in a day, and fifteen thousand at least have already perished, although the official accounts will not give so many. "_may ._ my picture makes progress and i am sanguine of success if nothing interferes to prevent its completion. i shall take no more commissions here and shall only complete my large picture and a few unfinished works. "general lafayette told me a few weeks ago, when i was returning with him in his carriage, that the financial condition of the united states was a subject of great importance, and he wished that i would write you and others, who were known as statistical men, and get your views on the subject. there never was a better time for demonstrating the principles of our free institutions by showing a result favorable to our country." among the men of note whom morse met while he was in paris was baron alexander von humboldt, the famous traveller and naturalist, who was much attracted towards the artist, and often went to the louvre to watch him while he was at work, or to wander through the galleries with him, deep in conversation. he was afterwards one of the first to congratulate morse on the successful exhibition of his telegraph before the french academy of science. as we have already seen, morse was intensely patriotic. he followed with keen interest the developments in our national progress as they unrolled themselves before his eyes, and when the occasion offered he took active part in furthering what he considered the right and in vigorously denouncing the wrong. he was never blind to our national or party failings, but held the mirror up before his countrymen's eyes with steady hand, and yet he was prouder of being an american than of anything else, and, as i have had occasion to remark before, his ruling passion was an intense desire to accomplish some great good for his beloved country, to raise her in the estimation of the rest of the world. on the th of july, , he was called on to preside at the banquet given by the americans resident in paris, with mr. cooper as vice-president. general lafayette was the guest of honor, and the american minister hon. william c. rives, g.w. haven, and many others were present. morse, in proposing the toast to general lafayette, spoke as follows:-- "i cannot propose the next toast, gentlemen, so intimately connected with the last, without adverting to the distinguished honor and pleasure we this day enjoy above the thousands, and i may say hundreds of thousands, of our countrymen who are at this moment celebrating this great national festival--the honor and pleasure of having at our board our venerable guest on my right hand, the hero whom two worlds claim as their own. yes, gentlemen, he belongs to america as well as to europe. he is our fellow citizen, and the universal voice of our country would cry out against us did we not manifest our nation's interest in his person and character. "with the mazes of european politics we have nothing to do; to changing schemes of good or bad government we cannot make ourselves a party; with the success or defeat of this or that faction we can have no sympathy; but with the great principles of rational liberty, of civil and religious liberty, those principles for which our guest fought by the side of our fathers, and which he has steadily maintained for a long life, 'through good report and evil report,' we do sympathize. we should not be americans if we did not sympathize with them, nor can we compromise one of these principles and preserve our self-respect as loyal american citizens. they are the principles of order and good government, of obedience to law; the principles which, under providence, have made our country unparalleled in prosperity; principles which rest, not in visionary theory, but are made palpable by the sure test of experiment and time. "but, gentlemen, we honor our guest as the stanch, undeviating defender of these principles, of our principles, of american principles. has he ever deserted them? has he ever been known to waver? gentlemen, there are some men, some, too, who would wish to direct public opinion, who are like the buoys upon tide-water. they float up and down as the current sets this way or that. if you ask at an emergency where they are, we cannot tell you; we must first consult the almanac; we must know the quarter of the moon, the way of the wind, the time of the tide, and then we may guess where you will find them. "but, gentlemen, our guest is not of this fickle class. he is a tower amid the waters, his foundation is upon a rock, he moves not with the ebb and flow of the stream. the storm may gather, the waters may rise and even dash above his head, or they may subside at his feet, still he stands unmoved. we know his site and his bearings, and with the fullest confidence we point to where he stood six-and-fifty years ago. he stands there now. the winds have swept by him, the waves have dashed around him, the snows of winter have lighted upon him, but still he is there. "i ask you, therefore, gentlemen, to drink with me in honor of general lafayette." portions of many of morse's letters to his brothers were published in the new york "observer," owned and edited by them. part of the following letter was so published, i believe, but, at mr. cooper's request, the sentences referring to his personal sentiments were omitted. there can be no harm, however, in giving them publicity at this late day. the letter was written on july , , and begins by gently chiding his brothers for not having written to him for nearly four months, and he concludes this part by saying, "but what is past can't be helped. i am glad, exceedingly glad, to hear of your prosperity and hope it may be continued to you." and then he says:-- "i am diligently occupied every moment of my time at the louvre finishing the great labor which i have there undertaken. i say 'finishing,' i mean that part of it which can only be completed there, namely, the copies of the pictures. all the rest i hope to do at home in new york, such as the frames of the pictures, the figures, etc. it is a great labor, but it will be a splendid and valuable work. it excites a great deal of attention from strangers and the french artists. i have many compliments upon it, and i am sure it is the most correct one of its kind ever painted, for every one says i have caught the style of each of the masters. cooper is delighted with it and i think he will own it. he is with me two or three hours at the gallery (the hours of his relaxation) every day as regularly as the day comes. i spend almost every evening at his house in his fine family. "cooper is very little understood, i believe, by our good people. he has a bold, original, independent mind, thoroughly american. he loves his country and her principles most ardently; he knows the hollowness of all the despotic systems of europe, and especially is he thoroughly conversant with the heartless, false, selfish system of great britain; the perfect antipodes of our own. he fearlessly supports american principles in the face of all europe, and braves the obloquy and intrigues against him of all the european powers. i say all the european powers, for cooper is more read, and, therefore, more feared, than any american,--yes, more than any european with the exception, possibly, of scott. his works are translated into all the languages of the continent; editions of every work he publishes are printed in, i think, more than thirty different cities, and all this without any pains on his part. he deals, i believe, with only one publisher in paris and one in london. he never asks what effect any of his sentiments will have upon the sale of his works; the only question he asks is--'are they just and true?' "i know of no man, short of a true christian, who is so truly guided by high principles as cooper. he is not a religious man (i wish from my heart he was), yet he is theoretically orthodox, a great respecter of religion and religious men, a man of unblemished moral character. he is courted by the greatest and the most aristocratic, yet he never compromises the dignity of an american citizen, which he contends is the highest distinction a man can have in europe, and there is not a doubt but he commands the respect of the exclusives here in a tenfold degree more than those who truckle and cringe to european opinions and customs. they love an independent man and know enough of their own heartless system to respect a real freeman. i admire exceedingly his proud assertion of the rank of an american (i speak from a political point of view), for i know no reason why an american should not take rank, and assert it, too, above any of the artificial distinctions that europe has made. we have no aristocratic grades, no titles of nobility, no ribbons, and garters, and crosses, and other gewgaws that please the great babies of europe; are we, therefore, to take rank below or above them? i say above them, and i hope that every american who comes abroad will feel that he is bound, for his country's sake, to take that stand. i don't mean ostentatiously, or offensively, or obtrusively, but he ought to have an american self-respect. "there can be no _condescension_ to an american. an american gentleman is equal to any title or rank in europe, kings and emperors not excepted. why is he not? by what law are we bound to consider ourselves inferior because we have stamped _folly_ upon the artificial and unjust grades of european systems, upon these antiquated remnants of feudal barbarism? "cooper sees and feels the absurdity of these distinctions, and he asserts his american rank and maintains it, too, i believe, from a pure patriotism. such a man deserves the support and respect of his countrymen, and i have no doubt he has them.... it is high time we should assume a more american tone while europe is leaving no stone unturned to vilify and traduce us, because the rotten despotisms of europe fear our example and hate us. you are not aware, perhaps, that the _trollope_ system is political altogether. you think that, because we know the grossness of her libels and despise her abuse, england and europe do the same. you are mistaken; they wish to know no good of us. mrs. trollope's book is more popular in england (and that, too, among a class who you fain would think know better) than any book of travels ever published in america.[ ] it is also translating into french, and will be puffed and extolled by france, who is just entering upon the system of vilification of america and her institutions, that england has been pursuing ever since we as colonies resisted her oppressive measures. tory england, aristocratic england, is the same now towards us as she was then, and tory france, aristocratic france, follows in her steps. we may deceive ourselves on this point by knowing the kindly feeling manifested by religious and benevolent men towards each other in both countries, but we shall be wanting in our usual yankee penetration if the good feeling of these excellent and pious men shall lead us to think that their governments, or even the mass of their population, are actuated by the same kindly regard. no, they hate us, cordially hate us. we should not disguise the truth, and i will venture to say that no genuine american, one who loves his country and her distinctive principles, can live abroad in any of the countries of europe, and not be thoroughly convinced that europe, as it is, and america, as it is, can have no feeling of cordiality for each other. [footnote : this refers to mrs. frances trollope's book _domestic manners of the americans_, which created quite a stir in its day.] "america is the stronghold of the popular principle, europe of the despotic. these cannot unite; there can be, at present, no sympathy.... we need not quarrel with europe, but we must keep ourselves aloof and suspect all her manoeuvres. she has no good will towards us and we must not be duped by her soft speeches and fair words, on the one side, nor by her contemptible detraction on the other." morse found time, in spite of his absorption in his artistic work, to interest himself and others in behalf of the poles who had unsuccessfully struggled to maintain their independence as a nation. he was an active member of a committee organized to extend help to them, and this committee was instrumental in obtaining the release from imprisonment in berlin of dr. s.g. howe, who "had been entrusted with twenty thousand francs for the relief of the distressed poles." in this work he was closely associated with general lafayette, already his friend, and their high regard for each other was further strengthened and resulted in an interchange of many letters. some of these were given away by morse to friends desirous of possessing autographs of the illustrious lafayette; others are still among his papers, and some of these i shall introduce in their proper chronological order. the following one was written on september , , from la grange:-- my dear sir,--i am sorry to see you will not take paris and la grange in your way to havre, unless you were to wait for the packet of the th in company with general cadwalader, commodore biddle, and those young, amiable philadelphians who contemplate sailing on that day. but if you persist to go by the next packet, i beg you here to receive my best wishes and those of my family for your happy voyage. upon you, my dear sir, i much depend to give our friends in the united states a proper explanation of the state of things in europe. you have been very attentive to what has passed since the revolution of . much has been obtained here and in other parts of europe in this whirlwind of a week. further consequences here and in other countries--great britain and ireland included--will be the certain result, though they have been mauled and betrayed where they ought to have received encouragement. but it will not be so short and so cheap as we had a right to anticipate it might be. i think it useful, on both sides of the water, to dispel the cloud which ignorance or design may throw over the real state of european and french politics. in the mean while i believe it to be the duty of every american returned home to let his fellow citizens know what wretched handle is made of the violent collisions, threats of a separation, and reciprocal abuse, to injure the character and question the stability of republican institutions. i too much depend upon the patriotism and good sense of the several parties in the united states to be afraid that those dissensions may terminate in a final dissolution of the union; and should such an event be destined in future to take place, deprecated as it has been by the best wishes of the departed founders of the revolution,--washington at their head,--it ought at least, in charity, not to take place before the not remote period when every one of those who have fought and bled in the cause shall have joined their contemporaries. what is to be said of poland and the situation of her heroic, unhappy sons, you well know, having been a constant and zealous member of our committee. you know what sort of mental perturbation, among the ignorant part of every european nation, has accompanied the visit of the cholera in russia, germany, hungary, and several parts of great britain and france-- suspicions of poison, prejudices against the politicians, and so forth. i would tike to know whether the population of the united states has been quite free of these aberrations, as it would be an additional argument in behalf of republican institutions and superior civilization resulting from them. most truly and affectionately, your friend, lafayette as we see from the beginning of this letter, morse had now determined to return home. he had executed all the commissions for copies which had been given to him, and his ambitious painting of the interior of the louvre was so far finished that he could complete it at home. he sailed from havre on the st of october in the packetship sully. the name of this ship has now become historic, and a chance conversation in mid-ocean was destined to mark an epoch in human evolution. before sailing, however, he made a flying trip to england, and he writes to his brothers from london on september :-- "here i am once more in england and on the wing _home_. i shall probably sail from havre in the packet of october (the sully), and i shall leave london for southampton and havre on the th inst., to be prepared for sailing. "i am visiting old friends and renewing old associations in london. twenty years make a vast difference as well in the aspect of this great city as in the faces of old acquaintances. london may be said literally to have gone into the country. where i once was accustomed to walk in the fields, so far out of town as even to shoot at a target against the trees with impunity, now there are spacious streets and splendid houses and gardens. "i spend a good deal of my spare time with leslie. he is the same amiable, intelligent, unassuming gentleman that i left in . he is painting a little picture--'sterne recovering his manuscripts from the curls of his hostess at lyons.' i have been sitting to him for the head of sterne, whom he thinks i resemble very strongly. at any rate, he has made no alteration in the character of the face from the one he had drawn from sterne's portrait, and has simply attended to the expression. "when i left paris i was feeble in health, so much so that i was fearful of the effects of the journey to london, especially as i passed through villages suffering severely from the cholera. but i proceeded moderately, lodged the first night at boulogne-sur-mer, crossed to dover in a severe southwest gale, and passed the next night at canterbury, and the next day came to london. i think the ride did me good, and i have been exercising a great deal, riding and walking, since, and my general health is certainly improving. i am in hopes that the voyage will completely set me up again." chapter xx morse's life almost equally divided into two periods, artistic and scientific.--estimate of his artistic ability by daniel huntington.--also by samuel isham.--his character as revealed by his letters, notes, etc.-- end of volume i. morse's long life (he was eighty-one when he died) was almost exactly divided, by the nature of his occupations, into two equal periods. during the first, up to his forty-first year, he was wholly the artist, enthusiastic, filled with a laudable ambition to excel, not only for personal reasons, but, as appears from his correspondence, largely from patriotic motives, from a wish to rescue his country from the stigma of pure commercialism which it had incurred in the eyes of the rest of the world. it is true that his active brain and warm heart spurred him on to interest himself in many other things, in inventions of more or less utility, in religion, politics, and humanitarian projects; but next to his sincere religious faith, his art held chiefest sway, and everything else was made subservient to that. during the latter half of his life, however, a new goddess was enshrined in his heart, a goddess whose cult entailed even greater self-sacrifice; keener suffering, both mental and physical; more humiliation to a proud and sensitive soul, shrinking alike from the jeers of the incredulous and the libels and plots of the envious and the unscrupulous. while he plied his brush for many years after the conception of his epoch-making invention, it was with an ever lessening enthusiasm, with a divided interest. art no longer reigned supreme; invention shared the throne with her and eventually dispossessed her. it seems, therefore, fitting that, in closing the chronicle of morse the artist, his rank in the annals of american art should be estimated as viewed by a contemporary and by the more impartial historian of the present day. from a long article prepared by the late daniel huntington for mr. prime, i shall select the following passages:-- "my acquaintance with professor morse began in the spring of , when i was placed under his care by my father as a pupil. he then lived in greenwich lane (now greenwich avenue), and several young men were studying art under his instruction.... he gave a short time every day to each pupil, carefully pointing out our errors and explaining the principles of art. after drawing for some time from casts with the crayon, he allowed us to begin the use of the brush, and we practised painting our studies from the casts, using black, white, and raw umber. "i believe this method was of great use in enabling us early to acquire a good habit of painting. i only regret that he did not insist on our sticking to this kind of study a longer time and drill us more severely in it; but he indulged our hankering for color too soon, and, when once we had tasted the luxury of a full palette of colors, it was a dry business to go back to plain black and white. "in the autumn of that year, , he removed to spacious rooms in the new york university on washington square. in the large studio in the north wing he painted several fine portraits, among them the beautiful full-length of his daughter, mrs. lind. he also lectured before the students and a general audience, illustrating his subject by painted diagrams.... "professor morse's love of scientific experiments was shown in his artist life. he formed theories of color, tried experiments with various vehicles, oils, varnishes, and pigments. his studio was a kind of laboratory. a beautiful picture of his wife and two children was painted, he told me, with colors ground in milk, and the effect was juicy, creamy, and pearly to a degree. another picture was commenced with colors mixed with beer; afterwards solidly impasted and glazed with rich, transparent tints in varnish. his theory of color is fully explained in the account of his life in dunlap's 'arts of design.' he proved its truth by boxes and balls of various colors. he had an honest, solid, vigorous _impasto_, which he strongly insisted on in his instructions--a method which was like the great masters of the venetian school. this method was modified in his practice by his studies under west in england, and by his intimacy with allston, for whose genius he had a great reverence, and by whose way of painting he was strongly influenced. "he was a lover of simple, unaffected truth, and this trait is shown in his works as an artist. he had a passion for color, and rich, harmonious tints run through his pictures, which are glowing and mellow, and yet pearly and delicate. "he had a true painter's eye, but he was hindered from reaching the fame his genius promised as a painter by various distractions, such as the early battles of the academy of design in its struggles for life, domestic afflictions, and, more than all, the engrossing cares of his invention. [illustration: susan morse eldest daughter of the artist.] "the 'hercules,' with its colossal proportions and daring attitude, is evidence of the zeal and courage of his early studies.... it is worthy of being carefully preserved in a public gallery, not only as an instance of successful study in a young artist (morse was in his twenty-first year), but as possessing high artistic merit, and a force and richness which plainly show that, if his energies had not been diverted, he might have achieved a name in art equal to the greatest of his contemporaries.... "professor morse's world-wide fame rests, of course, on his invention of the electric telegraph; but it should be remembered that the qualities of mind which led to it were developed in the progress of his art studies, and if his paintings, in the various fields of history, portrait, and landscape, could be brought together, it would be found that he deserved an honored place among the foremost american artists." this was an estimate of morse's ability as a painter by a man of his own day, a friend and pupil. as this would, naturally, be somewhat biased, it will be more to the point to see what a competent critic of the present day has to say. mr. samuel isham, in his authoritative "history of american painting," published in , after giving a brief biographical sketch of morse and telling why he came to abandon the brush, thus sums up:-- "it was a serious loss, for morse, without being a genius, was yet, perhaps, better calculated than another to give in pictures the spirit of the difficult times from to . he was a man sound in mind and body, well born, well educated, and both by birth and education in sympathy with his time. he had been abroad, had seen good work, and received sound training. his ideals were not too far ahead of his public. working as he did under widely varying conditions, his paintings are dissimilar, not only in merit but in method of execution; even his portraits vary from thin, free handling to solid _impasto_. yet in the best of them there is a real painter's feeling for his material; the heads have a soundness of construction and a freshness in the carnations that recall raeburn rather than west; the poses are graceful or interesting, the costumes are skilfully arranged, and in addition he understands perfectly the character of his sitters, the men and women of the transition period, shrewd, capable, but rather commonplace, without the ponderous dignity of copley's subjects or the cosmopolitan graces of a later day. "the struggles incident to the invention and development of telegraphy turned morse from the practice of art, but up to the end of his life he was interested in it and aggressive in any scheme for its advancement." i think that from the letters, notes, etc., which i have in the preceding pages brought together, a clear conception of morse's character can be formed. the dominant note was an almost childlike religious faith; a triumphant trust in the goodness of god even when his hand was wielding the rod; a sincere belief in the literal truth of the bible, which may seem strange to us of the twentieth century; a conviction that he was destined in some way to accomplish a great good for his fellow men. next to love of god came love of country. he was patriotic in the best sense of the word. while abroad he stoutly upheld the honor of his native land, and at home he threw himself with vigor into the political discussions of the day, fighting stoutly for what he considered the right. while sometimes, in the light of future events, he seems to have erred in allowing his religious beliefs to tinge too much his political views, he was always perfectly sincere and never permitted expediency to brush aside conviction. we have seen that wherever he went he had the faculty of inspiring respect and affection, and that an ever widening circle of friends admitted him to their intimacy, sought his advice, and confided in him with the perfect assurance of his ready sympathy. a favorite bible quotation of his was "woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you." he deeply deplored the necessity of making enemies, but he early in his career became convinced that no man could accomplish anything of value in this world without running counter either to the opinions of honest men, who were as sincere as he, or to the self-seeking of the dishonest and the unscrupulous. up to this time he had had mainly to deal with the former class, as in his successful efforts to establish the national academy of design on a firm footing; but in the future he was destined to make many and bitter enemies of both classes. in the controversies which ensued he always strove to be courteous and just, even when vigorously defending his rights or taking the offensive. that he sometimes erred in his judgment cannot be denied, but the errors were honest, and in many cases were kindled and fanned into a flame by the crafty malice of third parties for their own pecuniary advantage. so now, having followed him in his career as an artist, which, discouraging and troubled as it may often have seemed to him, was as the calm which precedes the storm to the years of privation and heroic struggle which followed, i shall bring this first volume to a close. end of volume i [illustration: samuel finley breese morse inventor of the telegraph] masters of space morse _and the telegraph_ thompson _and the cable_ bell _and the telephone_ marconi _and the wireless telegraph_ carty _and the wireless telephone_ by walter kellogg towers illustrated to my co-laborer and companion berenice laura towers whose encouragement and assistance were constant in the gathering and preparation of material for this volume. contents chap. preface i. communication among the ancients ii. signals past and present iii. forerunners of the telegraph iv. inventions of sir charles wheatstone v. the achievement of morse vi. "what hath god wrought?" vii. development of the telegraph system viii. telegraphing beneath the sea ix. the pioneer atlantic cable x. a successful cable attained xi. alexander graham bell, the youth xii. the birth of the telephone xiii. the telephone at the centennial xiv. improvement and expansion xv. telegraphing without wires xvi. an italian boy's work xvii. wireless telegraphy established xviii. the wireless serves the world xix. speaking across the continent xx. telephoning through space appendix a appendix b index illustrations samuel finley breese morse morse's first telegraph instrument cyrus w. field william thomson (lord kelvin) the "great eastern" laying the atlantic cable, alexander graham bell thomas a. watson professor bell's vibrating reed professor bell's first telephone the first telephone switchboard used in new haven, conn., for eight subscribers early new york exchange professor bell in salem, mass., and mr. watson in boston, demonstrating the telephone before audiences in doctor bell at the telephone opening the new york-chicago line, october , guglielmo marconi a remarkable photograph taken outside of the clifden station while messages were being sent across to cape race marconi station at clifden, ireland preface this is the story of talking at a distance, of sending messages through space. it is the story of great men--morse, thomson, bell, marconi, and others--and how, with the aid of men like field, vail, catty, pupin, the scientist, and others in both the technical and commercial fields, they succeeded in flashing both messages and speech around the world, with wires and without wires. it is the story of how the thought of the world has been linked together by those modern wonders of science and of industry--the telegraph, the submarine cable, the telephone, the wireless telegraph, and, most recently, the wireless telephone. the story opens with the primitive methods of message-sending by fire or smoke or other signals. the life and experiments of morse are then pictured and the dramatic story of the invention and development of the telegraph is set forth. the submarine cable followed with the struggles of field, the business executive, and thomson, the inventor and scientific expert, which finally culminated in success when the _great eastern_ landed a practical cable on the american coast. the early life of alexander graham bell was full of color, and i have told the story of his patient investigations of human speech and hearing, which, finally culminated in a practical telephone. there follows the fascinating story of marconi and the wireless telegraph. last comes the story of the wireless telephone, that newest wonder which has come among us so recently that we can scarcely realize that it is here. an inner view of the marvelous development of the telephone is added in an appendix. the part played by the great business leaders who have developed and extended the new inventions, placing them at the service of all, has not been forgotten. not only have means of communication been discovered, but they have been improved and put to the widest practical use with remarkable efficiency and celerity. the stories of these developments, in both the personal and executive sides, embody the true romance of the modern business world. the great scientists and engineers who have wrought these wonders which have had so profound an influence upon the life of the world lived, and are living, lives filled with patient effort, discouragement, accomplishment, and real romance. they are interesting men who have done interesting things. better still, they have done important, useful things. this book relates their life stories in a connected form, for they have all worked for a similar end. the story of these men, who, starting in early youth in the pursuit of a great idea, have achieved fame and success and have benefited civilization, cannot but be inspiring. they did not stumble upon their discoveries by any lucky accident. they knew what they sought, and they labored toward the goal with unflagging zeal. had they been easily discouraged we might still be dependent upon the semaphore and the pony express for the transmission of news. but they persevered until success was attained, and in the account of their struggle to success every one may find encouragement in facing his own tasks. one can scarce overestimate the value of modern methods of communication to the world. so much of our development has been more or less directly dependent upon it that it is difficult to fancy our situation without the telegraph and telephone. the diligence with which the ancients sought speedy methods for the sending of messages demonstrates the human need for them. the solution of this great problem, though long delayed, came swiftly, once it was begun. even the simple facts regarding "masters of space" and their lives of struggle and accomplishment in sending messages between distant points form an inspiring story of great achievement. w.k.t. #masters of space# i communication among the ancients signaling the fall of troy--marine signaling among the argonauts--couriers of the greeks, romans, and aztecs--sound-signaling--stentorophonic tube--the shouting sentinels--the clepsydra--signal columns--indian fire and smoke signals. it was very early in the history of the world that man began to feel the urgent need of communicating with man at a distance. when village came into friendly contact with village, when nations began to form and expand, the necessity of sending intelligence rapidly and effectively was clearly realized. and yet many centuries passed without the discovery of an effective system. those discoveries were to be reserved for the thinkers of our age. we can understand the difficulties that beset king agamemnon as he stood at the head of his armies before the walls of troy. many were the messages he would want to send to his native kingdom in greece during the progress of the siege. those at home would be eager for news of the great enterprise. many contingencies might arise which would make the need for aid urgent. certainly queen clytemnestra eagerly awaited word of the fall of the city. yet the slow progress of couriers must be depended upon. one device the king hit upon which was such as any boy might devise to meet the simplest need. "if i can go skating tonight," says johnny jones to his chum, "i'll put a light in my window." such is the simple device which has been used to bear the simplest message for ages. so king agamemnon ordered beacon fires laid on the tops of mount ida, mount athos, mount cithæron, and on intervening eminences. beside them he placed watchers who were always to have their faces toward troy. when troy fell a near-by fire was kindled, and beacon after beacon sprang into flame on the route toward greece. thus was the message of the fall of troy quickly borne to the waiting queen by this preconceived arrangement. yet neither king agamemnon nor his sagest counselors could devise an effective system for expediting their messages. prearranged signals were used to convey news in even earlier times. fire, smoke, and flags were used by the egyptians and the assyrians previous to the trojan war. the towers along the chinese wall were more than watch-towers; they were signal-towers. a flag or a light exhibited from tower to tower would quickly convey a certain message agreed upon in advance. human thought required a system which could convey more than one idea, and yet skill in conveying news grew slowly. perhaps the earliest example of marine signaling of which we know is recorded of the argonautic expedition. theseus devised the use of colored sails to convey messages from ship to ship of the fleet, and caused the death of his father by his failure to handle the signals properly. theseus sailed into conflict with the enemy with black sails set, a signal of battle and of death. with the battle over and himself the victor, he forgot to lower the black flag and set the red flag of victory. his father, the aged Ægeus, seeing the black flag, believed it reported his son's death, and, flinging himself into the sea, was drowned. in time it occurred to the great monarchs as their domains extended to establish relays of couriers to bear the messages which must be carried. such systems were established by the greeks, the romans, and the aztecs. each courier would run the length of his own route and would then shout or pass the message to the next runner, who would speed it away in turn. such was the method employed by our own pony-express riders. an ancient persian king thought of having the messages shouted from sentinel to sentinel, instead of being carried more slowly by relays of couriers. so he established sentinels at regular intervals within hearing of one another, and messages were shouted from one to the other. just fancy the number of sentinels required to establish a line between distant cities, and the opportunities for misunderstanding and mistake! the ancient gauls also employed this method of communication. cæsar records that the news of the massacre of the romans at orleans was sent to auvergne, a distance of nearly one hundred and fifty miles, by the same evening. though signaling by flashes of light occurred to the ancients, we have no knowledge that they devised a way of using the light-flashes for any but the simplest prearranged messages. the mirrors of the pharaohs were probably used to flash light for signal purposes. we know that the persians applied them to signaling in time of war. it is reported that flashes from the shields were used to convey news at the battle of marathon. these seem to be the forerunners of the heliograph. but the heliograph using the dot-and-dash system of the morse code can be used to transmit any message whatever. the ancients had evolved systems by which any word could be spelled, but they did not seem to be able to apply them practically to their primitive heliographs. an application of sound-signaling was worked out for alexander the great, which was considered one of the scientific wonders of antiquity. this was called a stentorophonic tube, and seems to have been a sort of gigantic megaphone or speaking-trumpet. it is recorded that it sent the voice for a dozen miles. a drawing of this strange instrument is preserved in the vatican. another queer signaling device, built and operated upon a novel principle, was an even greater wonder among the early peoples. this was known as a clepsydra. fancy a tall glass tube with an opening at the bottom in which a sort of faucet was fixed. at varying heights sentences were inscribed about the tube. the tube, being filled with water, with, a float at the top, all was ready for signaling any of the messages inscribed on the tube to a station within sight and similarly equipped. the other station could be located as far away as a light could be seen. the station desiring to send a message to another exhibited its light. when the receiving station showed its light in answer, the tap was opened at the bottom of the tube in each station. when the float dropped until it was opposite the sentence which it was desired to transmit, the sending station withdrew its light and closed the tap. this was a signal for the receiving station to stop the flow of water from its tube. as the tubes were just alike, and the water had flowed out during the same period at equal speed, the float at the receiving station then rested opposite the message to be conveyed. many crude systems of using lights for signaling were employed. lines of watch-towers were arranged which served as signal-stations. the ruins of the old roman and gallic towers may still be found in france. hannibal erected them in africa and spain. colored tunics and spears were also used for military signals in the daytime. for instance, a red tunic displayed meant prepare for battle; while a red spear conveyed the order to sack and devastate. an ancient system of camp signals from columns is especially interesting as showing a development away from the prearranged signals of limited application. for these camp signals the alphabet was divided into five or six parts, and a like number of columns erected at each signal-station. each column represented one group of letters. suppose that we should agree to get along without the q and the z and reduce our own alphabet to twenty-four letters for use in such a system. with six columns we would then have four letters for each column. the first column would be used to signal a, b, c, and d. one light or flag shown from column one would represent a, two flags or lights b, and so on. thus any word could be spelled out and any message sent. without doubt the system was slow and cumbersome, but it was a step in the right direction. the american indians developed methods of transmitting news which compare very favorably with the means employed by the ancients. smoke-rings and puffs for the daytime, and fire-arrows at night, were used by them for the sending of messages. smoke signals are obtained by building a fire of moist materials. the indian obtains his smoke-puffs by placing a blanket or robe over the fire, withdrawing it for an instant, and then replacing it quickly. in this way puffs of smoke may be sent aloft as frequently as desired. a column of smoke-puffs was used as a warning signal, its meaning being: look out, the enemy is near. one smoke-puff was a signal for attention; two puffs indicated that the sender would camp at that place. three puffs showed that the sender was in danger, as the enemy was near. fire-arrows shot across the sky at night had a similar meaning. the head of the arrow was dipped in some highly inflammable substance and then set on fire at the instant before it was discharged from the bow. one fire-arrow shot into the sky meant that the enemy were near; two signaled danger, and three great danger. when the indian shot many fire-arrows up in rapid succession he was signaling to his friends that his enemies were too many for him. two arrows discharged into the air at the same time indicated that the party sending them was about to attack. three indicated an immediate attack. a fire-arrow discharged diagonally across the sky indicated the direction in which the sender would travel. such were the methods which the indians used, working out different meanings for the signals in the various tribes. very slight progress was made in message-sending in medieval times, and it was the middle of the seventeenth century before even signal systems were attained which were in any sense an improvement. for many centuries the people of the world existed, devising nothing better than the primitive methods outlined above. ii signals past and present marine and military signals--code flags--wig-wag--semaphore telegraphs--heliographs--ardois signals--submarine signals. in naval affairs some kind of an effective signal system is imperative. even in the ordinary evolutions of a fleet the commander needs some better way of communicating with the ship captains than despatching a messenger in a small boat. the necessity of quick and sure signals in time of battle is obvious. yet for many centuries naval signals were of the crudest. the first distinct advance over the primitive methods by which the commander of one roman galley communicated with another came with the introduction of cannon as a naval arm. the use of signal-guns was soon thought of, and war-ships used their guns for signal purposes as early as the sixteenth century. not long after came the square-rigged ship, and it soon occurred to some one that signals could be made by dropping a sail from the yard-arm a certain number of times. up to the middle of the seventeenth century the possibilities of the naval signal systems were limited indeed. only a few prearranged orders and messages could be conveyed. unlimited communication at a distance was still impossible, and there were no means of sending a message to meet an unforeseen emergency. so cumbersome were the signal systems in use that even though they would convey the intelligence desired, the speaking-trumpet or a courier was employed wherever possible. to the officers of the british navy of the seventeenth century belongs the credit for the first serious attempt to create a system of communication which would convey any and all messages. it is not clear whether admiral sir william penn or james ii. established the code. it was while he was duke of york and the commander of britain's navy, that the james who was later to be king took this part in the advancement of means of communication. messages were sent by varying the position of a single signal flag. in admiral kempenfeldt thought of adding other signal flags instead of depending upon the varied positions of a single signal. from his plan the flag signals now in use by the navies of the world were developed. the basis of his system was the combining of distinct flags in pairs. the work of admiral philip colomb marked another long step forward in signaling between ships. while a young officer he developed a night-signal system of flashing lights, still in use to some extent, and which bears his name. colomb's most important contribution to the art of signaling was his realization of the utility of the code which morse had developed in connection with the telegraph. code flags, which are largely used between ships, have not been entirely displaced by the wireless. the usual naval code set consists of a set of alphabet flags and pennants, ten numeral flags, and additional special flags. this of course provides for spelling out any conceivable message by simply hoisting letter after letter. so slow a method is seldom used, however. various combinations of letters and figures are used to indicate set terms or sentences set forth in the code-book. thus the flags representing a and e, hoisted together, may be found on reference to the code-book to mean, "weigh anchor." each navy has its own secret code, which is carefully guarded lest it be discovered by a possible enemy. naval code-books are bound with metal covers so that they may be thrown overboard in case a ship is forced to surrender. the international code is used by ships of all nations. it is the universal language of the sea, and by it sailors of different tongues may communicate through this common medium. any message may be conveyed by a very few of the flags in combination. the wig-wag system, a favorite and familiar method of communication with every boy scout troop, is in use by both army and navy. the various letters of the alphabet are indicated by the positions in which the signaler holds his arms. keeping the arms always forty-five degrees apart, it is possible to read the signals at a considerable distance. navy signalers have become very efficient with this form of communication, attaining a speed of over fifteen words a minute. a semaphore is frequently substituted for the wig-wag flags both on land and on sea. navy semaphores on big war-ships consist of arms ten or twelve feet long mounted at the masthead. the semaphore as a means of communication was extensively used on land commercially as well as by the army. a regular semaphore telegraph system, working in relays over considerable distances was in operation in france a century ago. other semaphore telegraphs were developed in england. the introduction of the morse code and its adaptation to signaling by sight and sound did much to simplify these means of communication. the development of signaling after the adoption of the morse code, though it occurred subsequent to the introduction of the telegraph, may properly be spoken of here, since the systems dependent upon sight and sound grow from origins more primitive than those which depend upon electricity. up to the middle of the nineteenth century armies had made slight progress in perfecting means of communication. the british army had no regular signal service until after the recommendations of colomb proved their worth in naval affairs. the german army, whose systems of communication have now reached such perfection, did not establish an army signal service until . the simplicity of the dot and dash of the morse code makes it readily available for almost any form of signaling under all possible conditions. two persons within sight of each other, who understand the code, may establish communication by waving the most conspicuous object at hand, using a short swing for a dot and a long swing for a dash. two different shapes may also be exhibited, one representing a dot and the other a dash. the dot-and-dash system is also admirably adapted for night signaling. a search-light beam may be swung across the sky through short and long arcs, a light may be exhibited and hidden for short and long periods, and so on. where the search-light may be played upon a cloud it may be seen for very considerable distances, messages having been sent forty miles by this means. fog-horns, whistles, etc., may be similarly employed during fogs or amid thick smoke. a short blast represents a dot, and a long one a dash. the heliograph, which established communication by means of short and long light-flashes, is another important means of signaling to which the morse code has been applied. this instrument catches the rays of the sun upon a mirror, and thence casts them to a distant receiving station. a small key which throws the mirror out of alignment serves to obscure the flashes for a space at the will of the sender, and so produces short or long flashes. the british army has made wide use of the heliograph in india and africa. during the british-boer war it formed the sole means of communication between besieged garrisons and the relief forces. where no mountain ranges intervene and a bright sun is available, heliographic messages may be read at a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. while the british navy used flashing lights for night signals, the united states and most other navies adopted a system of fixed colored lights. the system in use in the united states navy is known as the ardois system. in this system the messages are sent by four lights, usually electric, which are suspended from a mast or yard-arm. the lights are manipulated by a keyboard situated at a convenient point on the deck. a red lamp is flashed to indicate a dot in the morse code, while a white lamp indicates a dash. the ardois system is also used by the army. the perfection of wireless telegraphy has caused the ardois and other signal systems depending upon sight or sound to be discarded in all but exceptional cases. the wig-wag and similar systems will probably never be entirely displaced by even such superior systems as wireless telegraphy. the advantage of the wig-wag lies in the fact that no apparatus is necessary and communication may thus be established for short distances almost instantly. its disadvantages are lack of speed, impenetrability to dust, smoke, and fog, and the short ranges over which it may be operated. there is another form of sound-signaling which, though it has been developed in recent years, may properly be mentioned in connection with earlier signal systems of similar nature. this is the submarine signal. we have noted that much attention was paid to communication by sound-waves through the medium of the air from the earliest times. it was not until the closing years of the past century, however, that the superior possibilities of water as a conveyer of sound were recognized. arthur j. mundy, of boston, happened to be on an american steamer on the mississippi river in the vicinity of new orleans. it was rumored that a spanish torpedo-boat had evaded the united states war vessels and made its way up the great river. the general alarm and the impossibility of detecting the approach of another vessel set mundy thinking. it seemed to him that there should be some way of communicating through the water and of listening for sounds underwater. he recalled his boyhood experiments in the old swimming-hole. he remembered how distinctly the sound of stones cracked together carried to one whose ears were beneath the surface. thus the idea of underwater signaling was born. mundy communicated this idea to elisha gray, and the two, working together, evolved a successful submarine signal system. it was on the last day of the nineteenth century that they were able to put their experiments into practical working form. through a well in the center of the ship they suspended an eight-hundred-pound bell twenty feet beneath the surface of the sea. a receiving apparatus was located three miles distant, which consisted simply of an ear-trumpet connected to a gas-pipe lowered into the sea. the lower end of the pipe was sealed with a diaphragm of tin. when submerged six feet beneath the surface the strokes of the bell could be heard. then a special electrical receiver of extreme sensitiveness, known as a microphone, was substituted and connected at the receiving station with an ordinary telephone receiver. with this receiving apparatus the strokes of the bell could be heard at a distance of over ten miles. this system has had a wide practical application for communication both between ship and ship and between ship and shore. most transatlantic ships are now equipped with such a system. the transmitter consists of a large bell which is actuated either by compressed air or by an electro-magnetic system. this is so arranged that it may be suspended over the side of the ship and lowered well beneath the surface of the water. the receivers consist of microphones, one on each side of the ship. the telephone receivers connected to the two microphones are mounted close together on an instrument board on the bridge of the ship. the two instruments are used when it is desired to determine the direction from which the signals come. if the sound is stronger in the 'phone on the right-hand side of the ship the commander knows that the signals are coming from that direction. if the signals are from a ship in distress he may proceed toward it by turning his vessel until the sound of the signal-bell is equal in the two receivers. the ability to determine the direction from which the signal comes is especially valuable in navigating difficult channels in foggy weather. signal-bells are located near lighthouses and dangerous reefs. each calls its own number, and the vessel's commander may thus avoid obstructions and guide the ship safely into the harbor. the submarine signal is equally useful in enabling vessels to avoid collision in fogs. because water conducts sound much better than air, submarine signals are far better than the fog-horn or whistles. the submarine signal system has also been applied to submarine war-ships. by this means alone may a submarine communicate with another, with a vessel on the surface, or with a shore station. an important and interesting adaptation of the marine signal was made to meet the submarine warfare of the great european conflict. at first it seemed that battle-ship and merchantman could find no way to locate the approach of an enemy submarine. but it was found that by means of the receiving apparatus of the submarine telephone an approaching submarine could be heard and located. while the sounds of the submarine's machinery are not audible above the water, the delicate microphone located beneath the water can detect them. hearing a submarine approaching beneath the surface, the merchantman may avoid her and the destroyers and patrol-boats may take means to effect her capture. iii forerunners of the telegraph from lodestone to leyden jar--the mysterious "c.m."--spark and frictional telegraphs--the electro-magnet--davy and the relay system. the thought and effort directed toward improving the means of communication brought but small results until man discovered and harnessed for himself a new servant--electricity. the story of the growth of modern means of communication is the story of the application of electricity to this particular one of man's needs. the stories of the masters of space are the stories of the men who so applied electricity that man might communicate with man. some manifestations of electricity had been known since long before the christian era. a greek legend relates how a shepherd named magnes found that his crook was attracted by a strange rock. thus was the lodestone, the natural magnetic iron ore, discovered, and the legend would lead us to believe that the words magnet and magnetism were derived from the name of the shepherd who chanced upon this natural magnet and the strange property of magnetism. the ability of amber, when rubbed, to attract straws, was also known to the early peoples. how early this property was found, or how, we do not know. the name electricity is derived from _elektron_, the greek name for amber. the early chinese and persians knew of the lodestone, and of the magnetic properties of amber after it has been rubbed briskly. the romans were familiar with these and other electrical effects. the romans had discovered that the lodestone would attract iron, though a stone wall intervened. they were fond of mounting a bit of iron on a cork floating in a basin of water and watch it follow the lodestone held in the hand. it is related that the early magicians used it as a means of transmitting intelligence. if a needle were placed upon a bit of cork and the whole floated in a circular vessel with the alphabet inscribed about the circle, one outside the room could cause the needle to point toward any desired letters in turn by stepping to the proper position with the lodestone. thus a message could be sent to the magician inside and various feats of magic performed. our own modern magicians are reported as availing themselves of the more modern applications of electricity in somewhat similar fashion and using small, easily concealed wireless telegraph or telephone sets for communication with their confederates off the stage. the idea of encircling a floating needle with the alphabet was developed into the sympathetic telegraph of the sixteenth century, which was based on a curious error. it was supposed that needles which had been touched by the same lodestone were sympathetic, and that if both were free to move one would imitate the movements of another, though they were at a distance. thus, if one needle were attracted toward one letter after the other, and the second similarly mounted should follow its movements, a message might readily be spelled out. of course the second needle would not follow the movements of the first, and so the sympathetic telegraph never worked, but much effort was expended upon it. in the mean time others had learned that many substances besides amber, on being rubbed, possessed magnetic properties. machines by which electricity could be produced in greater quantities by friction were produced and something was learned of conductors. benjamin franklin sent aloft his historic kite and found that electricity came down the silken cord. he demonstrated that frictional and atmospheric electricity are the same. franklin and others sent the electric charge along a wire, but it did not occur to them to endeavor to apply this to sending messages. credit for the first suggestion of an electric telegraph must be given to an unknown writer of the middle eighteenth century. in the _scots magazine_ for february , , there appeared an article signed simply, "c.m.," which suggested an electric telegraph. the writer's idea was to lay an insulated wire for each letter of the alphabet. the wires could be charged from an electrical machine in any desired order, and at the receiving end would attract disks of paper marked with the letter which that wire represented, and so any message could be spelled out. the identity of "c.m." has never been established, but he was probably charles morrison, a scotch surgeon with a reputation for electrical experimentation, who later emigrated to virginia. of course "c.m.'s" telegraph was not practical, because of the many wires required, but it proved to be a fertile suggestion which was followed by many other thinkers. one experimenter after another added an improvement or devised a new application. a french scientist devised a telegraph which it is suspected might have been practical, but he kept his device secret, and, as napoleon refused to consider it, it never was put to a test. an englishman devised a frictional telegraph early in the last century and endeavored to interest the admiralty. he was told that the semaphore was all that was required for communication. another submitted a similar system to the same authorities in , and was told that "telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary." an american inventor fared no better, for one harrison gray dyar, of new york, was compelled to abandon his experiments on long island and flee because he was accused of conspiracy to carry on secret communication, which sounded very like witchcraft to our forefathers. his telegraph sent signals by having the electric spark transmitted by the wire decompose nitric acid and so record the signals on moist litmus paper. it seems altogether probable that had not the discovery of electro-magnetism offered improved facilities to those seeking a practical telegraph, this very chemical telegraph might have been put to practical use. in the early days of the nineteenth century the battery had come into being, and thus a new source of electric current was available for the experimenters. coupled with this important discovery in its effect upon the development of the telegraph was the discovery of electro-magnetism. this was the work of hans christian oersted, a native of denmark. he first noticed that a current flowing through a wire would deflect a compass, and thus discovered the magnetic properties of the electric current. a frenchman named ampère, experimenting further, discovered that when the electric current is sent through coils of wire the magnetism is increased. the possibility of using the deflection of a magnetic needle by an electric current passing through a wire as a means of conveying intelligence was quickly grasped by those who were striving for a telegraph. experiments with spark and chemical telegraphs were superseded by efforts with this new discovery. ampère, acting upon the suggestion of la place, an eminent mathematician, published a plan for a feasible telegraph. this was later improved upon by others, and it was still early in the nineteenth century that a model telegraph was exhibited in london. about this time two professors at the university of göttingen were experimenting with telegraphy. they established an experimental line between their laboratories, using at first a battery. then faraday discovered that an electric current could be generated in a wire by the motion of a magnet, thus laying the basis for the modern dynamo. professors gauss and weber, who were operating the telegraph line at göttingen, adapted this new discovery to their needs. they sent the message by moving a magnetic key. a current was thus generated in the line, and, passing over the wire and through a coil at the farther end, moved a magnet suspended there. the magnet moved to the right or left, depending on the direction of the current sent through the wire. a tiny mirror was mounted on the receiving magnet to magnify its movement and so render it more readily visible. one steinheil, of munich, simplified it and added a call-bell. he also devised a recording telegraph in which the moving needle at the receiving station marked down its message in dots and dashes on a ribbon of paper. he was the first to utilize the earth for the return circuit, using a single wire for despatching the electric current used in signaling and allowing it to return through the ground. in , the same year in which wheatstone and morse were busy perfecting their telegraphs, as we shall see, edward davy exhibited a needle telegraph in london. davy also realized that the discoveries of arago could be used in improving the telegraph and making it practical. arago discovered that the current passing through a coil of wire served to magnetize temporarily a piece of soft iron within it. it was this principle upon which morse was working at this time. davy did not carry his suggestions into effect, however. he emigrated to australia, and the interruption in his experiments left the field open for those who were finally to bring the telegraph into usable form. davy's greatest contribution to telegraphy was the relay system by which very weak currents could call into play strong currents from a local battery, and so make the signals apparent at the receiving station. iv inventions of sir charles wheatstone wheatstone and his enchanted lyre--wheatstone and cooke--first electric telegraph line installed--the capture of the "kwaker"--the automatic transmitter. before we come to the story of samuel f.b. morse and the telegraph which actually proved a commercial success as the first practical carrier of intelligence which had been created for the service of man, we should pause to consider the achievements of charles wheatstone. together with william fothergill cooke, another englishman, he developed a telegraph line that, while it did not attain commercial success, was the first working telegraph placed at the service of the public. charles wheatstone was born near gloucester in . having completed his primary schooling, charles was apprenticed to his uncle, who was a maker and seller of musical instruments. he showed little aptitude either in the workshop or in the store, and much preferred to continue the study of books. his father eventually took him from his uncle's charge and allowed him to follow his bent. he translated poetry from the french at the age of fifteen, and wrote some verse of his own. he spent all the money he could secure on books. becoming interested in a book on volta's experiments with electricity, he saved up his coppers until he could purchase it. it was in french, and he found the technical descriptions rather too difficult for his comprehension, so that he was forced to save again to buy a french-english dictionary. with the aid of this he mastered the volume. immediately his attention was turned toward the wonders of the infant science of electricity, and he eagerly endeavored to perform the experiments described. aided by his older brother, he set to work on a battery as a source of current. running short of funds with which to purchase copper plates, he again began to save his pennies. then the idea occurred to him to use the pennies themselves, and his first battery was soon complete. he continued his experiments in various fields until, at the age of nineteen, he first brought himself to public notice with his enchanted lyre. this he placed on exhibition in music-shops in london. it consisted of a small lyre suspended from the ceiling which gave forth, in turn, the sounds of various musical instruments. really the lyre was merely a sounding-box, and the vibrations of the music were conveyed from instruments, played in the next room, to the lyre through a steel rod. the young man spent much time experimenting with the transmission of sound. having conveyed music through the steel rod to his enchanted lyre, much to the mystification of the londoners, he proposed to transmit sounds over a considerable distance by this method. he estimated that sound could be sent through steel rods at the rate of two hundred miles a second and suggested the use of such a rod as a telegraph between london and edinburgh. he called his arrangement a telephone. a scientific writer of the day, commenting in a scientific journal on the enchanted lyre which wheatstone had devised, suggested that it might be used to render musical concerts audible at a distance. thus an opera performed in a theater might be conveyed through rods to other buildings in the vicinity and there reproduced. this was never accomplished, and it remained for our own times to accomplish this and even greater wonders. wheatstone also devised an instrument for increasing feeble sound, which he called a microphone. this consisted of a pair of rods to convey the sound vibrations to the ears, and does not at all resemble the modern electrical microphone. other inventions in the transmission and reproduction of sound followed, and he devoted no little attention to the construction of improved musical instruments. he even made some efforts to produce a practical talking-machine, and was convinced that one would be attained. at thirty-two he was widely famed as a scientist and had been made a professor of experimental physics in king's college, london. his most notable work at this time was measuring the speed of the electric current, which up to that time had been supposed to be instantaneous. by wheatstone had abandoned his plans for transmitting sounds through long rods of metal and was studying the telegraph. he experimented with instruments of his own and proposed a line across the thames. it was in that mr. cooke, an army officer home on leave, became interested in the telegraph and devoted himself to putting it on a working basis. he had already exhibited a crude set when he came to wheatstone, realizing his own lack of scientific knowledge. the two men finally entered into partnership, wheatstone contributing the scientific and cooke the business ability to the new enterprise. the partnership was arranged late in , and a patent taken out on wheatstone's five-needle telegraph. in this telegraph a magnetic needle was located within a loop formed by the telegraph circuit at the receiving end. when the circuit was closed the needle was deflected to one side or the other, according to the direction of the current. five separate circuits and needles were used, and a variety of signals could thus be sent. five wires, with a sixth return wire, were used in the first experimental line erected in london in . so in the year when morse was constructing his models wheatstone and cooke were operating an experimental line, crude and impracticable though it was, and enjoying the sensations of communicating with each other at a distance. in the telegraph was placed on public exhibition at so much a head, but it was viewed as an entertaining novelty without utility by the public at large. after many disappointments the inventors secured the cooperation of the great western railroad, and a line was erected for a distance of thirteen miles. but the public would not patronise the line until its utility was strikingly demonstrated by the capture of the "kwaker." early one morning a woman was found dead in her home in the suburbs of london. a man had been observed leaving the house, and his appearance had been noted. inquiries revealed that a man answering his description had left on the slow train for london. without the telegraph he could not have been apprehended. but the telegraph was available at this point, and his description was telegraphed ahead and the police in london were instructed to arrest him upon his arrival. "he is dressed as a quaker," ran the message. there was no q in the alphabet of-the five-needle instrument, and so the sender spelled quaker, kwaker. the clerk at the receiving end could not-understand the strange word, and asked to have it repeated again and again. finally some one suggested that the message be completed and the whole was then deciphered. when the man dressed as a quaker stepped from the slow train on his arrival at london the police were awaiting him; he was arrested and eventually confessed the murder. the news of this capture and the part the telegraph played gave striking proof of the utility of the new invention, and public skepticism and indifference were overcome. by wheatstone had so improved his apparatus that but one wire was required. the single-needle instrument pointed out the letters on the dial around it by successive deflections in which it was arranged to move, step by step, at the will of the sending station. the single-needle instrument, though generally displaced by morse's telegraph, remained in use for a long time on some english lines. wheatstone had also invented a type-printing telegraph, which he patented in . this required two circuits. with a working telegraph attained, the partners became involved in an altercation as to which deserved the honor of inventing the same. the quarrel was finally submitted to two famous scientists for arbitration. they reported that the telegraph was the result of their joint labors. to wheatstone belongs the credit for devising the apparatus; to cooke for introducing it and placing it before the public in working form. here we see the combination of the man of science and the man of business, each contributing needed talents for the establishment of a great invention on a working basis. wheatstone's researches in the field of electricity were constant. in he devised a magnetic clock and proposed a plan by which many clocks, located at different points, could be set at regular intervals with the aid of electricity. such a system was the forerunner of the electrically wound and regulated clocks with which we are now so familiar. he also devised a method for measuring the resistance which wires offer to the passage of an electric current. this is known as wheatstone's bridge and is still in use in every electrical and physical laboratory. he also invented a sound telegraph by which signals were transmitted by the strokes of a bell operated by the current at the receiving end of the circuit. the invention of wheatstone's which proved to be of greatest lasting importance in connection with the telegraph was the automatic transmitter. by this system the message is first punched in a strip of paper which, when passed through the sending instrument, transmits the message. by this means he was able to send messages at the rate of one hundred words a minute. this automatic transmitter is much used for press telegrams where duplicate messages are to be sent to various points. the automatic transmitter brought knighthood to its inventor, wheatstone receiving this honor in . wheatstone took an active part in the development of the telegraph and the submarine cable up to the time of his death in . wheatstone's telegraph would have served the purposes of humanity and probably have been universally adopted, had not a better one been invented almost before it was established. and it is because morse, taking up the work where others had left off, was able to invent an instrument which so fully satisfied the requirements of man for so long a period that he is known to all of us as the inventor of the telegraph. and yet, without belittling the part played by morse, we must recognize the important work accomplished by sir charles wheatstone. v the achievement of morse morse's early life--artistic aspirations--studies in paris--his paintings--beginnings of his invention--the first instrument--the morse code--the first written message. when we consider the youth and immaturity of america in the first half of the nineteenth century, it seems the more remarkable that the honor of making the first great practical application of electricity should have been reserved for an american. with the exception of the isolated work of franklin, the development of the new science of electrical learning was the work of europeans. this was natural, for it was europe which was possessed of the accumulated wealth and learning which are usually attained only by older civilizations. yet, with all these advantages, electricity remained largely a scientific plaything. it was an american who fully recognized the possibilities of this new force as a servant of man, and who was possessed of the practical genius and the business ability to devise and introduce a thoroughly workable system of rapid and certain communication. we have seen that wheatstone was early trained as a musician. samuel morse began life as an artist. but while wheatstone early indicated his lack of interest in music and devoted himself to scientific studies while yet a youth, morse's artistic career was of his own choosing, and he devoted himself to it for many years. this explains the fact that wheatstone attained much scientific success before morse, though he was eleven years his junior. it was in that samuel morse was born. samuel finley breese morse was the entire name with which he was endowed by his parents. he came from the sturdiest of puritan stock, his father being of english and his mother of scotch descent. his father was an eminent divine, and also notable as a geographer, being the author of the first american geography of importance. his mother also was possessed of unusual talent and force. it is interesting to note that samuel morse first saw the light in charlestown, massachusetts, at the foot of breed's hill, but little more than a mile from the birthplace of benjamin franklin. he came into the world about a year after franklin died. it is interesting to believe that some of the practical talent of america's first great electrician in some way descended to samuel morse. he received an unusual education. at the age of seven he was sent to a school at andover, massachusetts, to prepare him for phillips academy. at the academy he was prepared for yale college, which he entered when fifteen years of age. with the knowledge of science so small at the time, collegiate instruction in such subjects was naturally meager in the extreme. jeremiah day was then professor of natural philosophy at yale, and was probably america's ablest teacher of the subject. his lectures upon electricity and the experiments with which he illustrated them aroused the interest of morse, as we learn from the letters he wrote to his parents at this time. one principle in particular impressed morse. this was that "if the electric circuit be interrupted at any place the fluid will become visible, and when it passes it will leave an impression upon any intermediate body." thus was it stated in the text-book in use at yale at that time. more than a score of years after the telegraph had been achieved morse wrote: the fact that the presence of electricity can be made visible in any desired part of the circuit was the crude seed which took root in my mind, and grew into form, and ripened into the invention of the telegraph. we shall later hear of the occasion which recalled this bit of information to morse's mind. but though yale college was at that time a center of scientific activity, and morse showed more than a little interest in electricity and chemistry, his major interest remained art. he eagerly looked forward to graduation that he might devote his entire time to the study of painting. it is significant of the tolerance and breadth of vision of his parents that they apparently put no bars in the path of this ambition, though they had sacrificed to give him the best of collegiate trainings that he might fit himself for the ministry, medicine, or the law. as a boy of fifteen samuel morse had painted water-colors that attracted attention, and he was possessed of enough talent to paint miniatures while at yale which were salable at five dollars apiece, and so aided in defraying his college expenses. after his graduation from yale in , morse devoted himself entirely to the study of art, still being dependent upon his parents for support. he secured the friendship and became the pupil of washington allston, then a foremost american painter. in the summer of allston sailed for england, and morse accompanied him. in london he came to the attention of benjamin west, then at the height of his career, and benefited by his advice and encouragement. that he had no ambition other than his art at this period we may learn from a letter he wrote to his mother in . my passion for my art [he wrote] is so firmly rooted that i am confident no human power could destroy it. the more i study the greater i think is its claim to the appellation divine. i am now going to begin a picture of the death of hercules, the figure to be large as life. when he had completed this picture to his own satisfaction, he showed it to west. "go on and finish it," was west's comment. "but it is finished," said morse. "no, no. see here, and here, and here are places you can improve it." morse went to work upon his painting again, only to meet the same comment when he again showed it to west. this happened again and again. when the youth had finally brought it to a point where west was convinced it was the very best morse could do he had learned a lesson in thoroughness and painstaking attention to detail that he never forgot. that he might have a model for his painting morse had molded a figure of hercules in clay. at the advice of west he entered the cast in a competition for a prize in sculpture, with the result that he received the prize and a gold medal for his work. he then plunged into the competition for a prize and medal offered by the royal academy for the best historical painting. his subject was, "the judgment of jupiter in the case of apollo, marpessa, and idas." though he completed the picture to the satisfaction of west, morse was not able to remain in london and enter it in the competition. the rules required that the artist be present in person if he was to receive the prize, but morse was forced to return to america. he had been in england for four years--a year longer than had originally been planned for him--and he was out of funds, and his parents could support him no longer. morse lived in london during the war of , but seems to have suffered no annoyance other than that of poverty, which the war intensified by raising the prices of food as well as his necessary artist's materials to an almost prohibitive figure. the last of the napoleonic wars was also in progress. news of the battle of waterloo reached london but a short time before morse sailed for america. it required two days for the news to reach the english capital. the young american, whose inability to sell his paintings was driving him from london, was destined to devise a system which would have carried the great news to its destination within a few seconds. but while he gained fame in america and secured praise and attention as he had in london, he found art no more profitable. he contrived to eke out an existence by painting an occasional portrait, going from town to town in new england for this purpose. he turned from art to invention for a time, joining with his brother in devising a fire-engine pump of an improved pattern. they secured a patent upon it, but could not sell it. he turned again to the life of a wandering painter of portraits. in he went to charleston, south carolina, at the invitation of his uncle. his portraits proved very popular and he was soon occupied with work at good prices. this prosperity enabled him to take unto himself a wife, and the same year he married lucretia walker, of concord, new hampshire. after four years in the south morse returned to the north, hoping that larger opportunities would now be ready for him. the result was again failure. he devoted his time to huge historical paintings, and the public would neither buy them nor pay to see them when they were exhibited. another blow fell upon him in when his wife died. at last he began to secure more sitters for his portraits, though his larger works still failed. he assisted in the organization of the national academy of design and became its first president. in he again sailed for europe to spend three years in study in the galleries of paris and rome. still he failed to attain any real success in his chosen work. he had made many friends and done much worthy work, yet there is little probability that he would have attained lasting fame as an artist even though his energies had not been turned to other interests. it was on the packet ship _sully_, crossing the atlantic from france, that morse conceived the telegraph which was to prove the first great practical application of electricity. one noon as the passengers were gathered about the luncheon-table, a dr. charles t. jackson, of boston, exhibited an electro-magnet he had secured in europe, and described certain electrical experiments he had seen while in paris. he was asked concerning the speed of electricity through a wire, and replied that, according to faraday, it was practically instantaneous. the discussion recalled to morse his own collegiate studies in electricity, and he remarked that if the circuit were interrupted the current became visible, and that it occurred to him that these flashes might be used as a means of communication. the idea of using the current to carry messages became fixed in his mind, and he pondered, over it during the remaining weeks of the long, slow voyage. doctor jackson claimed, after morse had perfected and established his telegraph, that the idea had been his own, and that morse had secured it from him on board the _sully_. but doctor jackson was not a practical man who either could or did put any ideas he may have had to practical use. at the most he seems to have simply started morse's mind along a new train of thought. the idea of using the current as a carrier of messages, though it was new to morse, had occurred to others earlier, as we have seen. but at the very outset morse set himself to find a means by which he might make the current not only signal the message, but actually record it. before he landed from the _sully_ he had worked out sketches of a printing telegraph. in this the current actuated an electro-magnet on the end of which was a rod. this rod was to mark down dots and dashes on a moving tape of paper. thus was the idea born. of course the telegraph was still far from an accomplished fact. without the improved electro-magnets and the relay of professor henry, morse had not yet even the basic ideas upon which a telegraph to operate over considerable distances could be constructed. but morse was possessed of yankee imagination and practical ability. he was possessed of a fair technical education for that day, and he eagerly set himself to attaining the means to accomplish his end. that he realized just what he sought is shown by his remark to the captain of the _sully_ when he landed at new york. "well, captain," he remarked, "should you hear of the telegraph one of these days as the wonder of the world, remember that the discovery was made on board the good ship _sully_." with the notion of using an electro-magnet as a receiver, an alphabet consisting of dots and dashes, and a complete faith in the practical possibilities of the whole, morse went to work in deadly earnest. but poverty still beset him and it was necessary for him to devote most of his time to his paintings, that he might have food, shelter, and the means to buy materials with which to experiment. from to he was able to make but small progress. in the latter year he secured an appointment as professor of the literature of the arts of design in the newly established university of the city of new york. he soon had his crude apparatus set up in a room at the college and in was able to transmit messages. he now had a little more leisure and a little more money, but his opportunities were still far from what he would have desired. the principal aid which came to him at the university was from professor gale, a teacher of chemistry. gale became greatly interested in morse's apparatus, and was able to give him much practical assistance, becoming a partner in the enterprise. morse knew little of the work of other experimenters in the field of electricity and gale was able to tell morse what had been learned by others. particularly he brought to morse's attention the discoveries of another american, prof. joseph henry. the electro-magnet which actuated the receiving instrument in the crude set in use by morse in had but a few turns of thick wire. professor henry, by his experiments five years earlier, had demonstrated that many turns of small wire made the electro-magnet far more sensitive. morse made this improvement in his own apparatus. in henry had devised a telegraph very similar to that of morse by which he signaled through a mile of wire. his receiving apparatus was an electro-magnet, the armature of which struck a bell. thus the messages were read by sound, instead of being recorded on a moving strip of paper as by morse's system. while henry was possibly the ablest of american electricians at that time, he devoted himself entirely to science and made no effort to put his devices to practical use. neither did he endeavor to profit by his inventions, for he secured no patents upon them. professor henry realized, in common with morse and others, that if the current were to be conducted over long wires for considerable distances it would become so weak that it would not operate a receiver. henry avoided this difficulty by the invention of what is known as the relay. at a distance where the current has become weak because of the resistance of the wire and losses due to faulty insulation, it will still operate a delicate electro-magnet with a very light armature so arranged as to open and close a local circuit provided with suitable batteries. thus the recording instrument may be placed on the local circuit and as the local circuit an opened and closed in unison with the main circuit, the receiver can be operated. it was the relay which made it possible to extend telegraph lines to a considerable distance. it is not altogether clear whether morse adopted henry's relay or devised it for himself. it is believed, however, that professor henry explained the relay to professor gale, who in turn placed it before his partner, morse. by morse had completed a model, had improved his apparatus, had secured stronger batteries and longer wires, and mastered the use of the relay. it was in this year that the house of representatives ordered the secretary of the treasury to investigate the feasibility of establishing a system of telegraphs. this action urged morse to complete his apparatus and place it before the government. he was still handicapped by lack of money, lack of scientific knowledge, and the difficulty of securing necessary materials and devices. to-day the experimenter may buy wire, springs, insulators, batteries, and almost anything that might be useful. morse, with scanty funds and limited time, had to search for his materials and puzzle out the way to make each part for himself with such crude tools as he had available. need we wonder that his progress was slow? instead we should wonder that, despite all discouragements and handicaps, he clung to his great idea and labored on. but assistance was to come to him in this same eventful year of , and that quite unexpectedly. on a saturday in september a young man named alfred vail wandered into professor gale's laboratory. morse was there engaged in exhibiting his model to an english professor then visiting in new york. the youth was deeply impressed with what he saw. he realized that here were possibilities of an instrument that would be of untold service to mankind. asking professor morse whether he intended to experiment with a longer line, he was informed that such was his intention as soon as he could secure the means. young vail replied that he thought he could secure the money if morse would admit him as a partner. to this morse assented. vail plunged into the enterprise with all the enthusiasm of youth. that very evening he studied over the commercial possibilities, and before he retired had marked out on the maps in his atlas the routes for the most needed lines of communication. the young man applied to his father for support. the senior vail was the head of the speedwell iron works at morristown, new jersey, and was a man of unusual enterprise and ability. he determined to back his son in the enterprise, and morse was invited to come and exhibit his model. two thousand dollars was needed to make the necessary instruments and secure the patents. on september , , the agreement was drawn up by the terms of which alfred vail was, at his own expense, to construct apparatus suitable for exhibition to congress and to secure a patent. in return he was to receive a one-fourth interest. very shortly afterward they filed a caveat in the patent office, which is a notice serving to protect an impending invention. alfred vail immediately set to work on the apparatus, his only helper being a fifteen-year-old apprentice boy named william baxter. the two worked early and late for many months in a secret room in the iron-works, being forced to fashion every part for themselves. the first machine was a copy of morse's model, but vail's native ability as a mechanic and his own ingenuity enabled him to make many improvements. the pencil fastened to the armature which had marked zigzag lines on the moving paper was replaced by a fountain-pen which inscribed long and short lines, and thus the dashes and dots of the morse code were put into their present form. morse had worked out an elaborate telegraphic code or dictionary, but a simpler code by which combinations of dots and dashes were used to represent letters instead of numbers in a code was now devised. vail recognized the importance of having the simplest combinations of dots and dashes stand for the most used letters, as this would increase the speed of sending. he began to figure out for himself the frequency with which the various letters occur in the english language. then he thought of the combination of types in a type-case, and, going to a local newspaper office, found the result all worked out for him. in each case of type such common letters as _e_ and _t_ have many more types than little used letters such as _q_ and _z_. by observing the number of types of each letter provided, vail was enabled to arrange them in the order of their importance in assigning them symbols in the code. thus the morse code was arranged as it stands to-day. alfred vail played a very important part in the arrangement of the code as well as in the construction of the apparatus, and there are many who believe that the code should have been called the vail code instead of the morse code. [illustration: morse's first telegraph instrument a pen was attached to the pendulum and drawn across the strip of paper by the action of the electro-magnet. the lead type shown in the lower right-hand corner was used in making electrical contact when sending a message. the modern instrument shown in the lower left-hand corner is the one that sent a message around the world in .] morse came down to speedwell when he could to assist vail with the work, and yet it progressed slowly. but at last, early in january of they had the telegraph at work, and william baxter, the apprentice boy, was sent to call the senior vail. within a few moments he was in the work-room studying the apparatus. alfred vail was at the sending key, and morse was at the receiver. the father wrote on a piece of paper these words: "a patient waiter is no loser." handing it to his son, he stated that if he could transmit the message to morse by the telegraph he would be convinced. the message was sent and recorded and instantly read by morse. the first test had been completed successfully. vi "what hath god wrought?" congress becomes interested--washington to baltimore line proposed--failure to secure foreign patents--later indifference of congress--lean years--success at last--the line is built--the first public message--popularity. morse and his associates now had a telegraph which they were confident would prove a genuine success. but the great work of introducing this new wonder to the public, of overcoming indifference and skepticism, of securing financial support sufficient to erect a real line, still remained to be done. we shall see that this burden remained very largely upon morse himself. had morse not been a forceful and able man of affairs as well as an inventor, the introduction of the telegraph might have been even longer delayed. the new telegraph was exhibited in new york and philadelphia without arousing popular appreciation. it was viewed as a scientific toy; few saw in it practical possibilities. morse then took it to washington and set up his instruments in the room of the committee on commerce of the house of representatives in the capitol. here, as in earlier exhibitions, a majority of those who saw the apparatus in operation remained unconvinced of its ability to serve mankind. but morse finally made a convert of the hon. francis o.j. smith, chairman of the committee on commerce. smith had previously been in correspondence with the inventor, and morse had explained to him at length his belief that the government should own the telegraph and control and operate it for the public good. he believed that the government should be sufficiently interested to provide funds for an experimental line a hundred miles long. in return he was willing to promise the government the first rights to purchase the invention at a reasonable price. later he changed his request to a line of fifty miles, and estimated the cost of erection at $ , . smith aided in educating the other members of his committee, and one day in february of he secured the attendance of the entire body at a test of the telegraph over ten miles of wire. the demonstration convinced them, and many were their expressions of wonder and amazement. one member remarked, "time and space are now annihilated." as a result the committee reported a bill appropriating $ , for the erection of an experimental line between washington and baltimore. smith's report was most enthusiastic in his praise of the invention. in fact, the congressman became so much interested that he sought a share in the enterprise, and, securing it, resigned from congress that he might devote his efforts to securing the passage of the bill and to acting as legal adviser. at this time the enterprise was divided into sixteen shares: morse held nine; smith, four; alfred vail, two; and professor gale, one. we see that morse was a good enough business man to retain the control. wheatstone and others were developing their telegraphs in europe, and morse felt that it was high time to endeavor to secure foreign patents on his invention. accompanied by smith, he sailed for england in may, taking with him a new instrument provided by vail. arriving in london, they made application for a patent. they were opposed by wheatstone and his associates, and could not secure even a hearing from the patent authorities. morse strenuously insisted that his telegraph was radically different from wheatstone's, laying especial emphasis on the fact that his recording instrument printed the message in permanent form, while wheatstone's did not. morse always placed great emphasis on the recording features of his apparatus, yet these features were destined to be discarded in america when his telegraph at last came into use. with no recourse open to him but an appeal to parliament, a long and expensive proceeding with little apparent possibility of success, morse went to france, hoping for a more favorable reception. he found the french cordial and appreciative. french experts watched his tests and examined his apparatus, pronouncing his telegraph the best of all that had been devised. he received a patent, only to learn that to be effective the invention must be put in operation in france within two years, under the french patent law. morse sought to establish his line in connection with a railway, as wheatstone had established his in england, but was told that the telegraph must be a government monopoly, and that no private parties could construct or operate. the government would not act, and morse found himself again defeated. faring no better with other european governments, morse decided to return to america to push the bill for an appropriation before congress. while morse was in europe gaining publicity for the telegraph, but no patents, his former fellow-passenger on the _sully_, dr. charles jackson, had laid claim to a share in the invention. he insisted that the idea had been his and that he had given it to morse on the trip across the atlantic. this morse indignantly denied. congress would now take no action upon the invention. a heated political campaign was in progress, and no interest could be aroused in an invention, no matter what were its possibilities in the advancement of the work and development of the nation. smith was in politics, the vails were suffering from a financial depression, professor gale was a man of very limited means, and so morse found himself without funds or support. in paris he had met m. daguerre, who had just discovered photography. morse had learned the process and, in connection with doctor draper, he fitted up a studio on the roof of the university. here they took the first daguerreotypes made in america. morse's work in art had been so much interrupted that he had but few pupils. the fees that these brought to him were small and irregular, and he was brought to the very verge of starvation. we are told of the call morse made upon one pupil whose tuition was overdue because of a delay in the arrival of funds from his home. "well, my boy," said the professor, "how are we off for money?" the student explained the situation, adding that he hoped to have the money the following week. "next week!" exclaimed morse. "i shall be dead by next week--dead of starvation." "would ten dollars be of any service?" asked the student, astonished and distressed. "ten dollars would save my life," was morse's reply. the student paid the money--all he had--and they dined together, morse remarking that it was his first meal for twenty-four hours. morse's situation and feelings at this time are also illustrated by a letter he wrote to smith late in . i find myself [he wrote] without sympathy or help from any who are associated with me, whose interests, one would think, would impell them to at least inquire if they could render me some assistance. for nearly two years past i have devoted all my time and scanty means, living on a mere pittance, denying myself all pleasures and even necessary food, that i might have a sum, to put my telegraph into such a position before congress as to insure success to the common enterprise. i am crushed for want of means, and means of so trifling a character, too, that they who know how to ask (which i do not) could obtain in a few hours.... as it is, although everything is favorable, although i have no competition and no opposition--on the contrary, although every member of congress, so far as i can learn, is favorable--yet i fear all will fail because i am too poor to risk the trifling expense which my journey and residence in washington will occasion me. i will not run in debt, if i lose the whole matter. no one can tell the days and months of anxiety and labor i have had in perfecting my telegraphic apparatus. for want of means i have been compelled to make with my own hands (and to labor for weeks) a piece of mechanism which could be made much better, and in a tenth the time, by a good mechanician, thus wasting time--time which i cannot recall and which seems double-winged to me. "hope deferred maketh the heart sick." it is true, and i have known the full meaning of it. nothing but the consciousness that i have an invention which is to mark an era in human civilization, and which is to contribute to the happiness of millions, would have sustained me through so many and such lengthened trials of patience in perfecting it. a patent on the telegraph had been issued to morse in . the issuance had been delayed at morse's request, as he desired to first secure foreign patents, his own american rights being protected by the caveat he had filed. although the commercial possibilities, and hence the money value of the telegraph had not been established, morse was already troubled with the rival claims of those who sought to secure a share in his invention. while working and waiting and saving, morse conceived the idea of laying telegraph wires beneath the water. he prepared a wire by wrapping it in hemp soaked in tar, and then covering the whole with rubber. choosing a moonlight night in the fall of , he submerged his cable in new york harbor between castle garden and governors island. a few signals were transmitted and then the wire was carried away by a dragging anchor. truly, misfortune seemed to dog morse's footsteps. this seems to have been the first submarine cable, and in writing of it not long after morse hazarded the then astonishing prediction that europe and america would be linked by telegraphic cable. failing to secure effective aid from his associates, morse hung on grimly, fighting alone, and putting all of his strength and energy into the task of establishing an experimental line. it was during these years that he demonstrated his greatness to the full. his letters to the members of the congressional committee on commerce show marked ability. they outline the practical possibilities very clearly. morse realized not only the financial possibilities of his invention, but its benefit to humanity as well. he also presented very practical estimates of the cost of establishing the line under consideration. the committee again recommended that $ , be appropriated for the construction of a washington-baltimore line. the politicians had come to look upon morse as a crank, and it was extremely difficult for his adherents to secure favorable action in the house. many a congressman compared morse and his experiments to mesmerism and similar "isms," and insisted that if the government gave funds for this experiment it would be called upon to supply funds for senseless trials of weird schemes. the bill finally passed the house by the narrow margin of six votes, the vote being taken orally because so many congressmen feared to go on record as favoring an appropriation for such a purpose. the bill had still to pass the senate, and here there seemed little hope. morse, who had come to washington to press his plan, anxiously waited in the galleries. the bill came up for consideration late one evening just before the adjournment. a senator who noticed morse went up to him and said: "there is no use in your staying here. the senate is not in sympathy with your project. i advise you to give it up, return home, and think no more about it." the inventor went back to his room, with how heavy a heart we may well imagine. he paid his board bill, and found himself with but thirty-seven cents in the world. after many moments of earnest prayer he retired. early next morning there came to him miss annie ellsworth, daughter of his friend the commissioner of patents, and said, "professor, i have come to congratulate you." "congratulate me!" replied morse. "on what?" "why," she exclaimed, "on the passage of your bill by the senate!" the bill had been passed without debate in the closing moments of the session. as morse afterward stated, this was the turning-point in the history of the telegraph. his resources were reduced to the minimum, and there was little likelihood that he would have again been able to bring the matter to the attention of congress. so pleased was morse over the news of the appropriation, and so grateful to miss ellsworth for her interest in bringing him the good news, that he promised her that she should send the first message when the line was complete. with the government appropriation at his disposal, morse immediately set to work upon the washington-baltimore line. professors gale and fisher served as his assistants, and mr. vail was in direct charge of the construction work. another person active in the enterprise was ezra cornell, who was later to found cornell university. cornell had invented a machine for laying wires underground in a pipe. it was originally planned to place the wires underground, as this was thought necessary or their protection. after running the line some five miles out from baltimore it was found that this method of installing the line was to be a failure. the insulation was not adequate, and the line could not be operated to the first relay station. a large portion of the $ , voted by congress had been spent and the line was still far from completion. disaster seemed imminent. smith lost all faith in the enterprise, demanded most of the remaining money under a contract he had taken to lay the line, and a quarrel broke out between him and morse which further jeopardized the undertaking. morse and such of his lieutenants as remained faithful in this hour of trial, after a long consultation, decided to string the wire on poles. the method of attaching the wire to the poles was yet to be determined. they finally decided to simply bore a hole through each pole near the top and push the wire through it. stringing the wire in such fashion was no small task, but it was finally accomplished. it was later found necessary to insulate the wire with bottle necks where it passed through the poles. on may , , the line was complete. remembering his promise to miss ellsworth, morse called upon her next morning to give him the first message. she chose, "what hath god wrought?" and early on the morning of the th morse sat at the transmitter in the supreme court room in the capitol and telegraphed these immortal words to vail at baltimore. the message was received without difficulty and repeated back to morse at washington. the magnetic telegraph was a reality. still the general public remained unconvinced. as in the case of wheatstone's needle telegraph a dramatic incident was needed to demonstrate the utility of this new servant. fortunately for morse, the telegraph's opportunity came quickly. the democratic national convention was in session at baltimore. after an exciting struggle they dropped van buren, then president, and nominated james k. polk. silas wright was named for the vice-presidency. at that time mr. wright was in washington. hearing of the nomination, alfred vail telegraphed it to morse in washington. morse communicated with wright, who stated that he could not accept the honor. the telegraph was ready to carry his message declining the nomination, and within a very few minutes vail had presented it to the convention at baltimore, to the intense surprise of the delegates there assembled. they refused to believe that wright had been communicated with, and sent a committee to washington to see wright and make inquiries. they found that the message was genuine, and the utility of the telegraph had been strikingly established. vii development of the telegraph system the magnetic telegraph company--the western union--crossing the continent--the improvements of alfred vail--honors awarded to morse--duplex telegraphy--edison's improvements. for some time the telegraph line between washington and baltimore remained on exhibition as a curiosity, no charge being made for demonstrating it. congress made an appropriation to keep the line in operation, vail acting as operator at the washington end. on april , , the line was put in operation on a commercial basis, service being offered to the public at the rate of one cent for four characters. it was operated as a branch of the post-office department. on the th of april a visitor from virginia came into the washington office wishing to see a demonstration. up to this time not a paid message had been sent. the visitor, having no permit from the postmaster-general, was told that he could only see the telegraph in operation by sending a message. one cent being all the money he had other than twenty-dollar bills, he asked for one cent's worth. the washington operator asked of baltimore, "what time is it?" which in the code required but one character. the reply came, "one o'clock," another single character. thus but two characters had been used, or one-half cent's worth of telegraphy. the visitor expressed himself as satisfied, and waived the "change." this penny was the line's first earnings. under the terms of the agreement by which congress had made the appropriation for the experimental line, morse was bound to give the government the first right to purchase his invention. he accordingly offered it to the united states for the sum of $ , . there followed a distressing example of official stupidity and lack of foresight. with the opportunity to own and control the nation's telegraph lines before it the government declined the offer. this action was taken at the recommendation of the hon. cave johnson, then postmaster-general, under whose direction the line had been operated. he had been a member of congress at the time the original appropriation was voted, and had ridiculed the project. the nation was now so unfortunate as to have him as its postmaster-general, and he reported "that the operation of the telegraph between washington and baltimore had not satisfied him that, under any rate of postage that could be adopted, its revenues could be made equal to its expenditures." and yet the telegraph, here offered to the government for $ , , was developed under private management until it paid a profit on a capitalization of $ , , . morse seems to have had a really patriotic motive, as well as a desire for immediate return and the freedom from further worries, in his offer to the government. he was greatly disappointed at its refusal to purchase, a refusal that was destined to make morse a wealthy man. amos kendall, who had been postmaster-general under jackson, was now acting as morse's agent, and they decided to depend upon private capital. plans were made for a line between new york and philadelphia, and to arouse interest and secure capital the apparatus was exhibited in new york city at a charge of twenty-five cents a head. the public refused to patronize in sufficient numbers to even pay expenses, and the entire exhibition was so shabby, and the exhibitors so poverty-stricken, that the sleek capitalists who came departed without investing. some of the exhibitors slept on chairs or on the floor in the bare room, and it is related that the man who was later to give his name and a share of his fortune to cornell university was overjoyed at finding a quarter on the sidewalk, as it enabled him to buy a hearty breakfast. though men of larger means refused to take shares, some in humbler circumstances could recognize the great idea and the wonderful vision which morse had struggled so long to establish--a vision of a nation linked together by telegraphy. the magnetic telegraph company was formed and work started on the line. in august of morse sailed for europe in an endeavor to enlist foreign capital. the investors of europe proved no keener than those of america, and the inventor returned without funds, but imbued with increased patriotism. he had become convinced that the telegraph could and would succeed on american capital alone. in the next year a line was constructed from philadelphia to washington, thus extending the new york-philadelphia line to the capital. henry o'reilly, of rochester, new york, took an active part in this construction work and now took the contract to construct a line from philadelphia to st. louis. this line was finished by december of . the path having been blazed, others sought to establish lines of their own without regard to morse's patents. one of these was o reilly, who, on the completion of the line to st. louis, began one to now orleans, without authority from morse or his company. o'reilly called his telegraph "the people's line," and when called to account in the courts insisted not only that his instruments were different from morse's, and so no infringement of his patents, but also that the morse system was a harmful monopoly and that "the people's line" should be encouraged. it was further urged that wheatstone in england and steinheil in germany had invented telegraphs before morse, and that professor henry had invented the relay which made it possible to operate the telegraph over long distances. the suits resulted in a legal victory for morse, and his patents were maintained. but still other rival companies built lines, using various forms of apparatus, and though the courts repeatedly upheld morse's patent rights, the pirating was not effectively checked. the telegraph had come to be a necessity and the original company lacked the capital to construct lines with sufficient rapidity to meet the need. within ten years after the first line had been put into operation the more thickly settled portions of the united states were served by scores of telegraph lines owned by a dozen different companies. hardly any of these were making any money, though the service was poor and the rates were high. they were all operating on too small a scale and business uses of the telegraph had not yet developed sufficiently. an amalgamation of the scattered, competing lines was needed, both to secure better service for the public and proper dividends for the investors. this amalgamation was effected by mr. hiram sibley, who organized the western union in . the plan was ridiculed at the time, some one stating that "the western union seems very like collecting all the paupers in the state and arranging them into a union so as to make rich men of them." but these pauper companies did become rich once they were united under efficient management. the nation was just then stretching herself across to the pacific. the commercial importance of california was growing rapidly. by stage-coaches were crossing the plains and the pony-express riders were carrying the mail. the pioneers of the telegraph felt that a line should span the continent. this was then a tremendous undertaking, and when mr. sibley proposed that the western union should undertake the construction of such a line he was met with the strongest opposition. the explorations of frémont were not far in the past, and the vast extent of country west of the mississippi was regarded as a wilderness peopled with savages and almost impossible of development. but sibley had faith; he was possessed of morse's vision and morse's courage. the western union refusing to undertake the enterprise, he began it himself. the government, realizing the military and administrative value of a telegraph line to california, subsidized the work. additional funds were raised and a route selected was through omaha and salt lake city to san francisco. the undertaking proved less formidable than had been anticipated, for, instead of two years, less than five months were occupied in completing the line. sibley's tact and ability did much to avoid opposition by the indians. he made the red men his friends and impressed upon them the wonder of the telegraph. when the line was in operation between fort kearney and fort laramie he invited the chief of the arapahoes at fort kearney to communicate by telegraph with his friend the chief of the sioux at fort laramie. the two chiefs exchanged telegrams and were deeply impressed. they were told that the telegraph was the voice of the manitou or great spirit. to convince them it was suggested that they meet half-way and compare their experiences. though they were five hundred miles apart, they started out on horseback, and on meeting each other found that the line had carried their words truly. the story spread among the tribes, and so the telegraph line became almost sacred to the indians. they might raid the stations and kill the operators, but they seldom molested the wires. among many ignorant peoples the establishment of the telegraph has been attained with no small difficulty. the chinese showed a dread of the telegraph, frequently breaking down the early lines because they believed that they would take away the good luck of their district. the arabs, on the other hand, did not oppose the telegraph. this is partly because the name is one which they can understand, _tel_ meaning wire to them, and _araph_, to know. thus in arabic _tele-agraph_ means to know by wire. just as the indians of our own plains had difficulty in understanding the telegraph, so the primitive peoples in other parts of the world could scarce believe it possible. a story is told of the construction of an early line in british india. the natives inquired the purpose of the wire from the head man. "the wire is to carry messages to calcutta," he replied. "but how can words run along a wire?" they asked. the head man puzzled for a moment. "if there were a dog," he replied, "with a tail long enough to reach from here to calcutta, and you pinched his tail here, wouldn't he howl in calcutta?" once sibley and the other american telegraph pioneers had spanned the continent, they began plans for spanning the globe. their idea was to unite america and europe by a line stretched through british columbia, alaska, the aleutian islands, and siberia. siberia had been connected with european russia, and thus practically the entire line could be stretched on land, only short submarine cables being necessary. it was then seriously doubted that cables long enough to cross the atlantic were practicable. the expedition started in , a fleet of thirty vessels carrying the men and supplies. tremendous difficulties had been overcome and a considerable part of the work accomplished when the successful completion of the atlantic cable made the work useless. nearly three million dollars had been expended by the western union in this attempt. yet, despite this loss, its affairs were so generally successful and the need for the telegraph so real that it continued to thrive until it reached its present remarkable development. while the line-builders were busy stretching telegraph wires into almost every city and town in the nation, others were perfecting the apparatus. alfred vail was a leading figure in this work. already he had played a large part in designing and constructing the apparatus to carry out morse's ideas, and he continued to improve and perfect until practically nothing remained of morse's original apparatus. the original morse transmitter had consisted of a porte-rule and movable type. this was cumbersome, and vail substituted a simple key to make and break the circuit. vail had also constructed the apparatus to emboss the message upon the moving strip of paper, but this he now improved upon. the receiving apparatus was simplified and the pen was replaced by a disk smeared with ink which marked the dots and dashes upon the paper. as we have noticed, morse took particular pride in the fact that the receiving apparatus in his telegraph was self-recording, and considered this as one of the most important parts of his system. but when the telegraph began to come into commercial use the operators at the receiving end noticed that they could read the messages from the long and short periods between the clicks of the receiving mechanism. thus they were taking the message by ear and the recording mechanism was superfluous. rules and fines failed to break them of the habit, and vail, recognizing the utility of the development, constructed a receiver which had no recording device, but from which the messages were read by listening to the clicks as the armature struck against the frame in which it was set. thus the telegraph returned in its elements to the form of professor henry's original bell telegraph. with his bell telegraph and his relay henry had the elements of a successful system. he failed, however, to develop them practically or to introduce them to the attention of the public. he was the man of science rather than the practical inventor. alfred vail, joining with morse after the latter had conceived the telegraph, but before his apparatus was in practical form, was a tireless and invaluable mechanical assistant. his inventions of apparatus were of the utmost practical value, and he played a very large part in bringing the telegraph to a form where it could serve man effectively. after success had been won morse did not extend to vail the credit which it seems was his due. yet, though morse made free use of the ideas and assistance of others, he was richly deserving of a major portion of the fame and the rewards that came to him as inventor of the telegraph. morse was the directing genius; he contributed the idea and the leadership, and bore the brunt of the burdens when all was most discouraging. honors were heaped upon morse both at home and abroad as his telegraph established itself in all parts of the world. orders of knighthood, medals, and decorations were conferred upon him. though he had failed to secure foreign patents, many of the foreign governments recognized the value of his invention, and france, austria, belgium, netherlands, russia, sweden, turkey, and some smaller nations joined in paying him a testimonial of four hundred thousand francs. it is to be noticed that great britain did not join in this testimonial, though morse's system had been adopted there in preference to the one developed by wheatstone. in a statue of morse was erected in central park, new york city. it was in the spring of the next year that another statue was unveiled, this time one of benjamin franklin, and morse presided at the ceremonies. the venerable man received a tremendous ovation on this occasion, but the cold of the day proved too great a strain upon him. he contracted a cold which eventually resulted in his death on april , . while extended consideration cannot be given here to the telegraphic inventions of thomas a. edison, no discussion of the telegraph should close without at least some mention of his work in this field. edison started his career as a telegrapher, and his first inventions were improvements in the telegraph. his more recent and more wonderful inventions have thrown his telegraphic inventions into the shadow. on the telegraph as invented by morse but one message could be sent over a single wire at one time. it was later discovered that two messages' could be sent over the single wire in opposite directions at the same time. this was called duplex telegraphy. edison invented duplex telegraphy by which two messages could be sent over the same wire in the same direction at the same time. later he succeeded in combining the two, which resulted in the quadruplex, by which four messages may be sent over one wire at one time. though edison received comparatively little for this invention, its commercial value may be estimated from the statement by the president of the western union that it saved that company half a million dollars in a single year. edison's quadruplex system was also adopted by the british lines. before this he had perfected an automatic telegraph, work on which had been begun by george little, an englishman. little could make the apparatus effective only over a short line and attained no very great speed. edison improved the apparatus until it transmitted thirty-five hundred words a minute between new york and philadelphia. such is the perfection to which morse's marvel has been brought in the hands of the most able of modern inventors. viii telegraphing beneath the sea early efforts at underwater telegraphy--cable construction and experimentation--the first cables--the atlantic cable projected--cyrus w. field becomes interested--organizes atlantic telegraph company--professor thomson as scientific adviser--his early life and attainments. the idea of laying telegraph wires beneath the sea was discussed long before a practical telegraph for use on land had been attained. it is recorded that a spaniard suggested submarine telegraphy in . experiments were conducted early in the nineteenth century with various materials in an effort to find a covering for the wires which would be both a non-conductor of electricity and impervious to water. an employee of the east india company made an effort to lay a cable across the river hugli as early as . his method was to coat the wire with pitch inclose it in split rattan, and then wrap the whole with tarred yarn. wheatstone discussed a calais-dover cable in , but it remained for morse to actually lay an experimental cable. we have already heard of his experiments in new york harbor in . his insulation was tarred hemp and india rubber. wheatstone performed a similar experiment in the bay of swansea a few months later. perhaps the first practical submarine cable was laid by ezra cornell, one of morse's associates, in . he laid twelve miles of cable in the hudson river, connecting fort lee with new york city. the cable consisted of two cotton-covered wires inclosed in rubber, and the whole incased in a lead pipe. this cable was in use for several months until it was carried away by the ice in the winter of . these early experimenters found the greatest difficulty in incasing their wires in rubber, practical methods of working that substance being then unknown. the discovery of gutta-percha by a scotch surveyor of the east india company in , and the invention of a machine for applying it to a wire, by dr. werner siemens, proved a great aid to the cable-makers. these gutta-percha-covered wires were used for underground telegraphy both in england and on the continent. tests were made with such a cable for submarine work off dover in , and, proving successful, the first cable across the english channel was laid the next year by john watkins brett. the cable was weighted with pieces of lead fastened on every hundred yards. a few incoherent signals were exchanged and the communication ceased. a boulogne fisherman had caught the new cable in his trawl, and, raising it, had cut a section away. this he had borne to port as a great treasure, believing the copper to be gold in some new form of deposit. this experience taught the need of greater protection for a cable, and the next year another was laid across the channel, which was protected by hemp and wire wrappings. this proved successful. in england and ireland were joined by cable, and the next year a cable was laid across the north sea to holland. the success of these short cables might have promised success in an attempt to cross the atlantic had not failures in the deep water of the mediterranean made it seem an impossibility. we have noted that morse suggested the possibility of uniting europe and america by cable. the same thought had occurred to others, but the undertaking was so vast and the problems so little understood that for many years none were bold enough to undertake the project. a telegraph from new york to st. john's, newfoundland, was planned, however, which was to lessen the time of communication between the continents. news brought by boats from england could be landed at st. john's and telegraphed to new york, thus saving two days. f.n. gisborne secured the concession for such a line in , and began the construction. cables were required to connect newfoundland with the continent, and to cross the gulf of st. lawrence, but the rest of the line was to be strung through the forests. before much had been accomplished, gisborne had run out of funds, and work was suspended. in gisborne met cyrus west field, of new york, a retired merchant of means. field became interested in gisborne's project, and as he examined the globe in his library the thought occurred to him that the line to st. john's was but a start on the way to england. the idea aroused his enthusiasm, and he determined to embark upon the gigantic enterprise. he knew nothing of telegraph cables or of the sea-bottom, and so sought expert information on the subject. one important question was as to the condition of the sea-bottom on which the cable must rest. lieutenant berryman of the united states navy had taken a series of soundings and stated that the sea-bottom between newfoundland and ireland was a comparatively level plateau covered with soft ooze, and at a depth of about two thousand fathoms. this seemed to the investigators to have been provided for the especial purpose of receiving a submarine cable, so admirably was it suited to this purpose. morse was consulted, and assured field that the project was entirely feasible, and that a submarine cable once laid between the continents could be operated successfully. field thereupon adopted the plans of gisborne as the first step in the larger undertaking. in an attempt was made to lay a cable across the gulf of st. lawrence, but a storm arose, and the cable had to be cut to save the ship from which it was being laid. another attempt was made the following summer with better equipment, and the cable was successfully completed. other parts of the line had been finished, the telegraph now stretched a thousand miles toward england, and new york was connected with st. john's. desiring more detailed information of the ocean-bed along the proposed route, field secured the assistance of the united states and british governments. lieutenant berryman, u.s.n., in the _arctic_, and lieutenant dayman, r.n., in the _cyclops_, made a careful survey. their soundings revealed a ridge near the irish coast, but the slope was gradual and the general conditions seemed especially favorable. the preliminary work had been done by an american company with field at the head and morse as electrician. now field went to england to secure capital sufficient for the larger enterprise. with the assistance of mr. j.w. brett he organized the atlantic telegraph company, field himself supplying a quarter of the capital. associated with field and brett in the leadership of the enterprise was charles tiltson bright, a young englishman who became engineer for the new company. besides the enormous engineering difficulties of producing a cable long enough and strong enough, and laying it at the bottom of the atlantic, there were electrical problems involved far greater than morse seems to have realized. it had been discovered that the passage of a current through a submarine cable is seriously retarded. the retarding of the current as it passes through the water is a difficulty that does not exist with the land telegraph stretched on poles. faraday had demonstrated that this retarding was caused by induction between the electricity in the wire and the water about the cable. the passage of the current through the wire induces currents in the water, and these moving in the opposite direction act as a drag on the passage of the message through the wire. what the effect of this phenomenon would be on a cable long enough to cross the atlantic wan a serious problem that required deep study by the company's engineers. it seemed entirely possible that the messages would move so slowly that the operation of the cable, once it was laid, would not pay. faraday failed to give any definite information on the subject, but professor william thomson worked out the law of retardation accurately and furnished to the cable-builders the accurate information which was required. doctor whitehouse, electrician for the atlantic company, conducted some experiments of his own and questioned the accuracy of thomson's statements. thomson maintained his position so ably, and proved himself so thoroughly a master of the subject that field and his associates decided to enlist him in the enterprise. this addition to the forces was one of the utmost importance. william thomson, later to become lord kelvin, was probably the ablest scientist of his generation, and was destined to prove his great abilities in his early work with the atlantic cable. william thomson was born in belfast, ireland, in . his father was a teacher and took an especially keen interest in the affairs of his boys because their mother had died while william was very young. when william was eight years of age his father removed to glasgow, scotland, where he had secured the chair of mathematics in glasgow university. his early education he secured from his father, and this training, coupled with his natural brilliancy, enabled him to develop genuine precocity. at the age of eight he attended his father's university lectures as a visitor, and it is reported that on one occasion he answered his father's questions when all of the class had failed. at the age of ten he entered the university, together with his brother james, who was but two years older. the brothers displayed marked interest in science and invention, eagerly pursued their studies in these branches, and performed many electrical experiments together. [illustration: cyrus w. field] [illustration: william thomson (lord kelvin)] james took the degrees b.a. and m.a. in successive years. though william also passed the examinations, he did not take the degrees, because he had decided to go to cambridge, and it was thought best that he take all his degrees from that great school. in writing to his older brother at this time, william was accustomed to sign himself "b.a.t.a.i.a.p.," which signified "b.a. to all intents and purposes." after finishing their work at glasgow the boys traveled extensively on the continent. at seventeen william entered st. peter's college, cambridge university, taking courses in advanced mathematics and continuing to distinguish himself. he took an active part in the life of the university, making something of a record us an athlete, winning the silver sculls, and rowing on a 'varsity crew which took the measure of oxford in the great annual boat-race. he also interested himself in literature and music, but his real passion was science. already he had written many learned essays on mathematical electricity and was accomplishing valuable research work. on the completion of his work at cambridge he secured a fellowship which brought him an income of a thousand dollars a year and enabled him to pursue his studies in paris. when he was but twenty-two years of age he was made professor of natural philosophy at the university of glasgow. though young, he proved entirely successful, and wan immensely popular with his students. at that time the university had no experimental laboratory, and professor thomson and his pupils performed their experiments in the professor's room and in an abandoned coal-cellar, slowly developing a laboratory for themselves. his development continued until, when at the age of thirty-three he was called upon to assist with the work of laying an atlantic cable, he was possessed of scientific attainments which made him invaluable among the cable pioneers. ix the pioneer atlantic cable making the cable--the first attempt at laying--another effort checked by storm--the cable laid at last--messages cross the ocean--the cable fails--professor thomson's inventions and discoveries--their part in designing and constructing an improved cable and apparatus. field and his business associates were extremely anxious that the cable be laid with all possible speed, and little time was allowed the engineers and electricians for experimentation. the work of building the cable was begun early in by two english firms. it consisted of seven copper wires covered with gutta-percha and wound with tarred hemp. over this were wound heavy iron wires to give protection and added strength. the whole weighed about a ton to the mile, and was both strong and flexible. the distance from the west coast of ireland to newfoundland being , nautical miles, it was decided to supply , miles of cable, an extra length being, of course, necessary to allow for the inequalities at the bottom of the sea, and the possibility of accident. the british and american governments had already provided subsidies, and they now supplied war-ships for use in the work of laying the cable. the _agamemnon_, one of the largest of england's war-ships, and the _niagara_, giant of the united states navy, were to do the actual work of cable-laying, the cable being divided between them. they were accompanied by the united states frigate _susquehanna_ and the british war-ships _leopard_ and _cyclops_. in august of the fleet assembled on the irish coast for the start, and the american sailors landed the end of the cable amid great ceremony. the work of cable-laying was begun by the _niagara_, which steamed slowly away, accompanied by the fleet. the great cable payed out smoothly as the irish coast was left behind and the frigate increased her speed. the submarine hill with its dangerous slopes was safely passed, and it was felt that the greatest danger was past. the paying-out machinery seemed to be working perfectly. telegraphic communication was constantly maintained with the shore end. for six days all went well and nearly four hundred miles of cable had been laid. with the cable dropping to the bottom two miles down it was found that it was flowing out at the rate of six miles an hour while the _niagara_ was steaming but four. it was evident that the cable was being wasted, and to prevent its running out too fast at this great depth the brake controlling the flow of the cable was tightened. the stern of the vessel rising suddenly on a wave, the strain proved too great and the cable parted and was lost. instant grief swept over the ship and squadron, for the heart of every one was in the great enterprise. it was felt that it would be useless to attempt to grapple the cable at this great depth, and there seemed nothing to do but abandon it and return. the loss of the cable and of a year's time--since another attempt could not be made until the next season--resulted in a total loss to the company of half a million dollars. public realization of the magnitude of the task had been awakened by the failure of the first expedition and field found it far from easy to raise additional capital. it was finally accomplished, however, and a new supply of cable was constructed. professor thomson had been studying the problems of submarine telegraphy with growing enthusiasm, and had now arrived at the conclusion that the conductivity of the cable depended very largely upon the purity of the copper employed. he accordingly saw to it that in the construction of the new section all the wires were carefully tested and such as did not prove perfect were discarded. in the mean time the engineers were busy improving the paying-out machinery. they designed an automatic brake which would release the cable instantly upon the strain becoming too great. it was thus hoped to avoid a recurrence of the former accident. chief-engineer bright also arranged a trial trip for the purpose of drilling the staff in their various duties. the same vessels were provided to lay the cable on the second attempt and the fleet sailed in june of , this time without celebration or public ceremony. on this occasion the recommendation of chief-engineer bright was followed, and it was arranged that the _niagara_ and _agamemnon_ should meet in mid-ocean, there splice the cable together and proceed in opposite directions, laying the cable simultaneously. on this expedition professor thomson was to assume the real scientific leadership, professor morse, though he retained his position with the company, taking no active part. the ships had not proceeded any great distance before they ran into a terrible gale. the _agamemnon_ had an especially difficult time of it, her great load of cable overbalancing the ship and threatening to break loose again and again and carry the great vessel and her precious cargo to the bottom. the storm continued for over a week, and when at last it had blown itself out the _agamemnon_ resembled a wreck and many of her crew had been seriously injured. but the cable had been saved and the expedition was enabled to proceed to the rendezvous. the _niagara_, a larger ship, had weathered the storm without mishap. the splice was effected on saturday, the th, but before three miles had been laid the cable caught in the paying-out machinery on the _niagara_ and was broken off. another splice was made that evening and the ships started again. the two vessels kept in communication with each other by telegraph as they proceeded, and anxious inquiries and many tests marked the progress of the work. when fifty miles were out, the cable parted again at some point between the vessels and they again sought the rendezvous in mid-atlantic. sufficient cable still remained and a third start was made. for a few days all went well and some four hundred miles of cable had been laid with success as the messages passing from ship to ship clearly demonstrated. field, thomson, and bright began to believe that their great enterprise was to be crowned with success when the cable broke again, this time about twenty feet astern of the _agamemnon_. this time there was no apparent reason for the mishap, the cable having parted without warning when under no unusual strain. the vessels returned to queenstown, and field and thomson went to london, where the directors of the company were assembled. many were in favor of abandoning the enterprise, selling the remaining cable for what it would bring, and saving as much of their investment as possible. but field and thomson were not of the sort who are easily discouraged, and they managed to rouse fresh courage in their associates. yet another attempt was decided upon, and with replenished stores the _agamemnon_ and _niagara_ once again proceeded to the rendezvous. the fourth start was made on the th of july. on several occasions as the work progressed communication failed, and professor thomson on the _agamemnon_ and the other electricians on the _niagara_ spent many anxious moments fearing that the line had again been severed. on each occasion, however, the current resumed. it was afterward determined that the difficulties were because of faulty batteries rather than leaks in the cable. on both ships bad spots were found in the cable as it was uncoiled and some quick work was necessary to repair them before they dropped into the sea, since it was practically impossible to stop the flow of the cable without breaking it. the _niagara_ had some narrow escapes from icebergs, and the _agamemnon_ had difficulties with ships which passed too close and a whale which swam close to the ship and grazed the precious cable. but this time there was no break and the ships approached their respective destinations with the cable still carrying messages between them. the _niagara_ reached the newfoundland coast on august th, and early the next morning landed the cable in the cable-house at trinity bay. the _agamemnon_ reached the irish coast but a few hours later, and her end of the cable was landed on the afternoon of the same day. the public, because of the repeated failures, had come to look upon the cable project as a sort of gigantic wild-goose chase. the news that a cable had at last been laid across the ocean was received with incredulity. becoming convinced at last, there was great rejoicing in england and america. queen victoria sent to president buchanan a congratulatory message in which she expressed the hope "that the electric cable which now connects great britain with the united states will prove an additional link between the two nations, whose friendship is founded upon their mutual interest and reciprocal esteem." the president responded in similar vein, and expressed the hope that the neutrality of the cable might be established. honors were showered upon the leaders in the enterprise. charles bright, the chief engineer, was knighted, though he was then but twenty-six years of age. banquet after banquet was held in england at which bright and thomson were the guests of honor. new york celebrated in similar fashion. a grand salute of one hundred guns was fired, the streets were decorated, and the city was illuminated at night. the festivities rose to the highest pitch in september with field receiving the plaudits of all new york. special services were held in trinity church, and a great celebration was held in crystal palace. the mayor presented to field a golden casket, and the ceremony was followed by a torchlight parade. that very day the last message went over the wire. the shock to the public was tremendous. many insisted that the cable had never been operated and that the entire affair was a hoax. this was quickly disproved. aside from the messages between queen and president many news messages had gone over the cable and it had proved of great value to the british government. the indian mutiny had been in progress and regiments in canada had received orders by mail to sail for india. news reached england that the mutiny was at an end, and the cable enabled the government to countermand the orders, thus saving a quarter of a million dollars that would have been expended in transporting the troops. the engineers to whom the operations of the cable had been intrusted had decided that very high voltages were necessary to its successful operation. they had accordingly installed huge induction coils and sent currents of two thousand volts over the line. even this voltage had failed to operate the morse instruments, the drag by induction proving too great. the strain of this high voltage had a very serious effect upon the insulation. abandoning the morse instruments and the high voltage, recourse was then had to professor thomson's instruments, which proved entirely effective with ordinary battery current. because of the effect of induction the current is much delayed in traveling through a long submarine cable and arrives in waves. professor thomson devised his mirror galvanometer to meet this difficulty. this device consists of a large coil of very fine wire, in the center of which, in a small air-chamber, is a tiny mirror. mounted on the back of the mirror are very small magnets. the mirror is suspended by a fiber of the finest silk. thus the weakest of currents coming in over the wire serve to deflect the mirror, and a beam of light being directed upon the mirror and reflected by it upon a screen, the slightest movement of the mirror is made visible. if the mirror swings too far its action is deadened by compressing the air in the chamber. the instrument is one of the greatest delicacy. such was the greatest contribution of professor thomson to submarine telegraphy. without it the cable could not have been operated even for a short period. had it been used from the first the line would not have been ruined and might have been used for a considerable period. professor thomson together with engineer bright made a careful investigation of the causes of failure. the professor pointed out that had the mirror galvanometer been used with a moderate current the cable could have been continued in successful operation. ha continued to improve this apparatus and at the same time busied himself with a recording instrument to be used for cable work. both thomson and bright had recommended a larger and stronger cable, and other failures in cable-laying in the red sea and elsewhere in the next few years bore out their contentions. but with each failure new experience was gained and methods were perfected. professor thomson continued his work with the utmost diligence and continued to add to the fund of scientific knowledge on the subject. so it was that he was prepared to take his place as scientific leader of the next great effort. x a successful cable attained field raises new capital--the _great eastern_ secured and equipped--staff organized with professor thomson as scientific director--cable parts and is lost--field perseveres--the cable recovered--the continents linked at last--a commercial success--public jubilation--modern cables. the early 'sixties were trying years for the cable pioneers. it required all of field's splendid genius and energy to keep the project alive. in the face of repeated failures, and doubt as to whether messages could be sent rapidly enough to make any cable a commercial success, it was extremely difficult to raise fresh capital. america continued to evince interest in the cable, but with, the civil war in progress it was not easy to raise funds. but no discouragement could deter field. though he suffered severely from seasickness, he crossed the atlantic sixty-four times in behalf of the great enterprise which he had begun. it was necessary to raise three million dollars to provide a cable of the improved type decided upon and to install it properly. the english firm of glass, eliot & company, which was to manufacture the cable, took a very large part of the stock. the new cable was designed in accordance with the principles enunciated by professor thomson. the conductor consisted of seven wires of pure copper, weighing three hundred pounds to the mile. this copper core was covered with chatterton's compound, which served as water-proofing. this was surrounded by four layers of gutta-percha, cemented together by the compound, and about this hemp was wound. the outer layer consisted of eighteen steel wires wound spirally, each being covered with a wrapping of hemp impregnated with a preservative solution. the new cable was twice as heavy as the old and more than twice as strong, a great advance having been made in the methods of manufacturing steel wire. it was decided that the cable should, be laid by one vessel, instead of endeavoring to work from two as in the past. happily, a boat was available which was fitted to carry this enormous burden. this was the _great eastern_, a mammoth vessel far in advance of her time. this great ship of , tons had been completed in , but had not proved a commercial success. the docks of that day were not adequate, the harbors were not deep enough, and the cargoes were insufficient. she had long lain idle when she was secured by the cable company and fitted out for the purpose of laying the cable, which was the first useful work which had been found for the great ship. the , miles of heavy cable was coiled into the hull and paying-out machinery was installed upon the decks. huge quantities of coal and other supplies were added. capt. james anderson of the cunard line was placed in command of the ship for the expedition, with captain moriarty, r.n., as navigating officer. professor thomson and mr. c.f. varley represented the atlantic telegraph company as electricians and scientific advisers. mr. samuel canning was engineer in charge for the contractors. mr. field was also on board. it was on july , , that the expedition started from the irish coast, where the eastern end of the cable had been landed. less than a hundred miles of cable had been laid when the electricians discovered a fault in the cable. the _great eastern_ was stopped, the course was retraced, and the cable picked up until the fault was reached. it was found that a piece of iron wire had in some way pierced the cable so that the insulation was ruined. this was repaired and the work of laying was again commenced. five days later, when some seven hundred miles of cable had been laid, communication was again interrupted, and once again they turned back, laboriously lifting the heavy cable from the depths, searching for the break. again a wire was found thrust through the cable, and this occasioned no little worry, as it was feared that this was being done maliciously. it was on august d that the next fault was discovered. nearly two-thirds of the cable was now in place and the depth was here over one mile. raising the cable was particularly difficult, and just at this juncture the _great eastern's_ machinery broke down, leaving her without power and at the mercy of the waves. subjected to an enormous strain, the precious cable parted and was lost. despite the great depth, efforts were made to grapple the lost cable. twice the cable was hooked, but on both occasions the rope parted and after days of tedious work the supply of rope was exhausted and it was necessary to return to england. still another cable expedition had ended in failure. field, the indomitable, began all over again, raising additional funds for a new start. the _great eastern_ had proved entirely satisfactory, and it was hoped that with improvements in the grappling-gear the cable might be recovered. the old company gave way before a new organization known as the anglo-american telegraph company. it was decided to lay an entirely new cable, and then to endeavor to complete the one partially laid in . with no services other than private prayers at the station on the irish shore, the _great eastern_ steamed away for the new effort on july , . this time the principal difficulties arose within the ship. twice the cable became tangled in the tanks and it was necessary to stop the ship while the mass was straightened out. most of the time the "coffee-mill," as the seamen called the paying-out machinery, ground steadily away and the cable sank into the sea. as the work progressed field and thomson, who had suffered so many failures in their great enterprise, watched with increasing anxiety. they were almost afraid to hope that the good fortune would continue. just two weeks after the irish coast had been left behind the _great eastern_ approached newfoundland just as the shadows of night were added to those of a thick fog. on the next morning, july th, she steamed into trinity bay, where flags were flying in the little town in honor of the great accomplishment. amid salutes and cheers the cable was landed and communication between the continents was established. almost the first news that came over the wire was that of the signing of the treaty of peace which ended the war between prussia and austria. early in august the _great eastern_ again steamed away to search for the cable broken the year before. arriving on the spot, the grapples were thrown out and the tedious work of dragging the sea-bottom was begun. after many efforts the cable was finally secured and raised to the surface. a new section was spliced on and the ship again turned toward america. on september th the second cable was successfully landed, and two wires were now in operation between the continents. thus was the great task doubly fulfilled. once again there were public celebrations in england and america. field received the deserved plaudits of his countrymen and thomson was knighted in recognition of his achievements. [illustration: the "great eastern" laying the atlantic cable. ] the new cables proved a success and were kept in operation for many years. thomson's mirror receiver had been improved until it displayed remarkable sensitiveness. using the current from a battery placed in a lady's thimble, a message was sent across the atlantic through one cable and back through the other. professor thomson was to give to submarine telegraphy an even more remarkable instrument. the mirror instrument did not give a permanent record of the messages. the problem of devising a means of recording the messages delicate enough so that it could be operated with rapidity by the faint currents coming over a long cable was extremely difficult. but thomson solved it with his siphon recorder. in this a small coil is suspended between the poles of a large magnet; the coil being free to turn upon its axis. when the current from the cable passes through the coil it moves, and so varies the position of the ink-siphon which is attached to it. the friction of a pen on paper would have proved too great a drag on so delicate an instrument, and so a tiny jet of ink from the siphon was substituted. the ink is made to pass through the siphon with sufficient force to mark down the message by a delightfully ingenious method. thomson simply arranged to electrify the ink, and it rushes through the tiny opening on to the paper just as lightning leaps from cloud to earth. professor, now sir, thomson continued to take an active part in the work of designing and laying new cables. not only did he contribute the apparatus and the scientific information which made cables possible, but he attained renown as a physicist and a scientist in many other fields. in he was given the title of lord kelvin, and it was by this name that he was known as the leading physicist of his day. he survived until . to cyrus w. field must be assigned a very large share of the credit for the establishment of telegraphic communication between the continents. he gave his fortune and all of his tremendous energy and ability to the enterprise and kept it alive through failure after failure. he was a promoter of the highest type, the business man who recognized a great human need and a great opportunity for service. without his efforts the scientific discoveries of thomson could scarcely have been put to practical use. the success of the first cable inspired others. in a cable from france to the united states was laid from the _great eastern_. in the direct united states cable company laid another cable to england, which was followed by another cable to france. one cable after another was laid until there are now a score. this second great development in communication served to bring the two continents much closer together in business and in thought and has proved of untold benefit. xi alexander graham bell, the youth the family's interest in speech improvement--early life-influence of sir charles wheatstone--he comes to america--visible speech and the mohawks--the boston school for deaf mutes--the personality of bell. the men of the bell family, for three generations, have interested themselves in human speech. the grandfather, the father, and the uncle of alexander graham bell were all elocutionists of note. the grandfather achieved fame in london; the uncle, in dublin; and the father, in edinburgh. the father applied himself particularly to devising means of instructing the deaf in speech. his book on _visible speech_ explained his method of instructing deaf mutes in speech by the aid of their sight, and of teaching them to understand the speech of others by watching their lips as the words are spoken. alexander graham bell was born in edinburgh in , and received his early education in the schools of that city. he later studied at warzburg, germany, where he received the degree of doctor of philosophy. he followed very naturally in the footsteps of his father, taking an early interest in the study of speech. he was especially anxious to aid his mother, who was deaf. as a boy he exhibited a genius for invention, as well as for acoustics. much of this was duo to the wise encouragement of his father. he himself has told of a boyhood invention. my father once asked my brother melville and myself to try to make a speaking-machine, i don't suppose he thought we could produce anything of value, in itself. but he knew we could not even experiment and manufacture anything which even tried to speak, without learning something of the voice and the throat; and the mouth--all that wonderful mechanism of sound production in which he was so interested. so my brother and i went to work. we divided the task--he was to make the lungs and the vocal cords, i was to make the mouth and the tongue. he made a bellows for the lungs and a very good vocal apparatus out of rubber. i procured a skull and molded a tongue with rubber stuffed with cotton wool, and supplied the soft parts of the throat with the same material then i arranged joints, so the jaw and the tongue could move. it was a great day for us when we fitted the two parts of the device together. did it speak? it squeaked and squawked a good deal, but it made a very passable imitation of "mam-ma--mam-ma." it sounded very much like a baby. my father wanted us to go on and try to get other sounds, but we were so interested in what we had done we wanted to try it out. so we proceeded to use it to make people think there was a baby in the house, and when we made it cry "mam-ma," and heard doors opening and people coming, we were quite happy. what has become of it? well, that was across the ocean, in scotland, but i believe the mouth and tongue part that i made is in georgetown somewhere; i saw it not long ago. the inventor tells of another boyhood invention that, though it had no connection with sound or speech, shows his native ingenuity. again we will tell it in his own words. i remember my first invention very well. there were several of us boys, and we were fond of playing around a mill where they ground wheat into flour. the miller's son was one of the boys, and i am afraid he showed us how to be a good deal of a nuisance to his father. one day the miller called us into the mill and said, "why don't you do something useful instead of just playing all the time?" i wasn't afraid of the miller as much as his son was, so i said, "well, what can we do that is useful?" he took up a handful of wheat, ran it over in his hand and said: "look at that! if you could manage to get the husks off that wheat, that would be doing something useful!" so i took some wheat home with me and experimented. i found the husks came off without much difficulty. i tried brushing them off and they came off beautifully. then it occurred to me that brushing was nothing but applying friction to them. if i could brush the husks off, why couldn't the husks be rubbed off? there was in the mill a machine--i don't know what it was for--but it whirled its contents, whatever it was, around in a drum. i thought, "why wouldn't the husks come off if the raw wheat was whirled around in that drum?" so back i went to the miller and suggested the idea to him. "why," he said, "that's a good idea." so he called his foreman and they tried it, and the husks came off beautifully, and they've been taking husks off that way ever since. that was my very first invention, and it led me to thinking for myself, and really had quite an influence on my way and methods of thought. up to his sixteenth year young bell's reading consisted largely of novels, poetry, and romantic tales of scotch heroes. but in addition he was picking up some knowledge of anatomy, music, electricity, and telegraphy. when he was but sixteen years of age his father secured for him a position as teacher of elocution and this necessarily turned his thought into more serious channels. he now spent his leisure studying sound. during this period he made several discoveries in sound which were of some small importance. when he was twenty-one years of age he went to london and there had the good fortune to come to the attention of charles wheatstone and alex j. ellis. ellis was at that time president of the london philological society, and had translated helmholtz's _the sensation of tone_ into english. he had made no little progress with sound, and demonstrated to bell the methods by which german scientists had caused tuning-forks to vibrate by means of electro-magnets and had combined the tones of several tuning-forks in an effort to reproduce the sound of the human voice. helmholtz had performed this experiment simply to demonstrate the physical basis of sound, and seems to have had no idea of its possible use in telephony. that an electro-magnet could vibrate a tuning-fork and so produce sound was an entirely new and fascinating idea to the youth. it appealed to his imagination, quickened by his knowledge of speech. "why not an electrical telegraph?" he asked himself. his idea seems to have been that the electric current could carry different notes over the wire and reproduce them by means of the electro-magnet. although bell did not know it, many others were struggling with the same problem, the answer to which proved most elusive. it gave bell a starting-point, and the search for the telephone began. sir charles wheatstone was then england's leading man of science, and so bell sought his counsel. wheatstone received the young man and listened to his statement of his ideas and ambitions and gave him every encouragement. he showed him a talking-machine which had recently been invented by baron de kempelin, and gave him the opportunity to study it closely. thus bell, the eager student, the unknown youth of twenty-two, came under the influence of wheatstone, the famous scientist and inventor of sixty-seven. this influence played a great part in shaping bell's career, arousing as it did his passion for science. this decided him to devote himself to the problem of reproducing sounds by mechanical means. thus a new improvement in the means of human communication was being sought and another pioneer of science was at work. the death of the two brothers of the young scientist from tuberculosis, and the physician's report that he himself was threatened by the dread malady, forced a change in his plans and withdrew him from an atmosphere which was so favorable to the development of his great ideas. he was told that he must seek a new climate and lead a more vigorous life in the open. accompanied by his father, he removed to america and at the age of twenty-six took up the struggle for health in the little canadian town of brantford. he occupied himself by teaching his father's system of visible speech among the mohawk indians. in this work he met with no little success. at the same time he was gaining in bodily vigor and throwing off the tendency to consumption which had threatened his life. he did not forget the great idea which filled his imagination and eagerly sought the telephone with such crude means as were at hand. he succeeded in designing a piano which, with the aid of the electric current, could transmit its music over a wire and reproduce it. while lecturing in boston on his system of teaching visible speech, the elder bell received a request to locate in that city and take up his work in its schools. he declined the offer, but recommended his son as one entirely competent for the position. alexander graham bell received the offer, which he accepted, and he was soon at work teaching the deaf mutes in the school which boston had opened for those thus afflicted. he met with the greatest success in his work, and ere long achieved a national reputation. during the first year of his work, , he was the sensation of the educational world. boston university offered him a professorship, in which position he taught others his system of teaching, with increased success. the demand for his services led him to open a school of vocal physiology. he had made some improvements in his father's system for teaching the deaf and dumb to speak and to understand spoken words, and displayed great ability as a teacher. his experiments with telegraphy and telephony had been laid aside, and there seemed little chance that he would turn from the work in which he was accomplishing so much for so many sufferers, and which was bringing a comfortable financial return, and again undertake the tedious work in search for a telephone. fortunately, bell was to establish close relationships with those who understood and appreciated his abilities and gave him encouragement in his search for a new means of communication. thomas sanders, a resident of salem, had a five-year-old son named georgie who was a deaf mute. mr. sanders sought bell's tutelage for his son, and it was agreed that bell should give georgie private lessons for the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars a year. it was also arranged that bell was to reside at the sanders home in salem. he made arrangements to conduct his future experiments there. another pupil who came to him about this time was mabel hubbard, a fifteen-year-old girl who had lost her hearing and consequently her powers of speech, through an attack of scarlet fever when an infant. she was a gentle and lovable girl, and bell fell completely in love with his pupil. four years later he was to marry her and she was to prove a large influence in helping him to success. she took the liveliest interest in all of his experiments and encouraged him to new endeavor after each failure. she kept his records and notes and wrote his letters. through her bell secured the support of her father, gardiner g. hubbard, who was widely known as one of boston's ablest lawyers. he was destined to become bell's chief spokesman and defender. hubbard first became aware of bell's inventive genius when the latter was calling one evening at the hubbard home in cambridge. bell was illustrating some mysteries of acoustics with the aid of the piano. "do you know," he remarked, "that if i sing the note g close to the strings of the piano, the g string will answer me?" this did not impress the lawyer, who asked its significance. "it is a fact of tremendous importance," answered bell. "it is evidence that we may some day have a musical telegraph which will enable us to send as many messages simultaneously over one wire as there are notes on that piano." from that time forward hubbard took every occasion to encourage bell to carry forward his experiments in musical telegraphy. as a young man bell was tall and slender, with jet-black eyes and hair, the latter being pushed back into a curly tangle. he was sensitive and high-strung, very much the artist and the man of science. his enthusiasms were intense, and, once his mind was filled with an idea, he followed it devotedly. he was very little the practical business man and paid scant attention to the small, practical details of life. he was so interested in visible speech, and so keenly alert to the pathos of the lives of the deaf mutes, that he many times seriously considered giving over all experiments with the musical telegraph and devoting his entire life and energies to the amelioration of their condition. xii the birth of the telephone the cellar at sanderses'--experimental beginnings--magic revived in salem town--the dead man's ear--the right path--trouble and discouragement--the trip to washington--professor joseph henry--the boston workshop--the first faint twang of the telephone--early development. alexander graham bell had not resided at the sanderses' home very long before he had fitted the basement up as a workshop. for three years he haunted it, spending all of his leisure time in his experiments. here he had his apparatus, and the basement was littered with a curious combination of electrical and acoustical devices--magnets, batteries, coils of wire, tuning-forks, speaking-trumpets, etc. bell had a great horror that his ideas might be stolen and was very nervous over any possible intrusion into his precious workshop. only the members of the sanders family were allowed to enter the basement. he was equally cautious in purchasing supplies and equipment lest his very purchases reveal the nature of his experiments. he would go to a half-dozen different stores for as many articles. he usually selected the night for his experiments, and pounded and scraped away indefatigably, oblivious of the fact that the family, as well as himself, was sorely in need of rest. "bell would often awaken me in the middle of the night," says mr. sanders, "his black eyes blazing with excitement. leaving me to go down to the cellar, he would rush wildly to the barn and begin to send me signals along his experimental wires. if i noticed any improvement in his apparatus he would be delighted. he would leap and whirl around in one of his 'war-dances,' and then go contentedly to bed. but if the experiment was a failure he would go back to his work-bench to try some different plan." in common with other experimenters who were searching for the telephone, bell was experimenting with a sort of musical telegraph. eagerly and persistently he sought the means that would replace the telegraph with its cumbersome signals by a new device which would enable the human voice itself to be transmitted. the longer he worked the greater did the difficulties appear. his work with the deaf and dumb was alluring, and on many occasions he seriously considered giving over his other experiments and devoting himself entirely to the instruction of the deaf and dumb and to the development of his system of making speech visible by making the sound-vibrations visible to the eye. but as he mused over the difficulties in enabling a deaf mute to achieve speech nothing else seemed impossible. "if i can make a deaf mute talk," said bell, "i can make iron talk." one of his early ideas was to install a harp at one end of the wire and a speaking-trumpet at the other. his plan was to transmit the vibrations over the wire and have the voice reproduced by the vibrations of the strings of the harp. by attaching a light pencil or marker to a cord or membrane and causing the latter to vibrate by talking against it, he could secure tracings of the sound-vibrations. different tracings were secured from different sounds. he thus sought to teach the deaf to speak by sight. at this time bell enjoyed the friendship of dr. clarence j. blake, an eminent boston aurist, who suggested that the experiments be conducted with a human ear instead of with a mechanical apparatus in imitation of the ear. bell eagerly accepted the idea, and doctor blake provided him with an ear and connecting organs cut from a dead man's head. bell soon had the ghastly specimen set up in his workshop. he moistened the drum with glycerine and water and, substituting a stylus of hay for the stapes bone, he obtained a wonderful series of curves which showed the vibrations of the human voice as recorded by the ear. one can scarce imagine a stranger picture than bell must have presented in the conduct of those experiments. we can almost see him with his face the paler in contrast with his black hair and flashing black eyes as he shouted and whispered by turns into the ghastly ear. surely he must have looked the madman, and it is perhaps fortunate that he was not observed by impressionable members of the public else they would have been convinced that the witches had again visited old salem town to ply their magic anew. but it was a new and very real and practical sort of magic which was being worked there. his experiments with the dead man's ear brought to bell at least one important idea. he noted that, though the ear-drum was thin and light, it was capable of sending vibrations through the heavy bones that lay back of it. and so he thought of using iron disks or membranes to serve the purpose of the drum in the ear and arrange them so that they would vibrate an iron rod. he thought of connecting two such instruments with an electrified wire, one of which would receive the sound-vibrations and the other of which would reproduce them after they had been transmitted along the wire. at last the experimenter was on the right track, with a conception of a practicable method of transmitting sound. he now possessed a theoretical knowledge of what the telephone he sought should be, but there yet remained before him the enormous task of devising and constructing the apparatus which would carry out the idea, and find the best way of utilizing the electrical current for this work. bell was now at a critical point in his career and was confronted by the same difficulty which assails so many inventors. in his constant efforts to achieve a telephone he had entirely neglected his school of vocal physiology, which was now abandoned. georgie sanders and mabel hubbard were his only pupils. though sanders and hubbard were genuinely interested in bell and his work, they felt that he was impractical, and were especially convinced that his experiments with the ear and its imitations were entirely useless. they believed that the electrical telegraph alone presented possibilities, and they told bell that unless he would devote himself entirely to the improvement of this instrument and cease wasting time and money over ear toys that had no commercial value they would no longer give him financial support. hubbard went even further, and insisted that if bell did not abandon his foolish notions he could not marry his daughter. bell was almost without funds, his closest friends now seemed to turn upon him, and altogether he was in a sorry plight. of course sanders and hubbard meant the best, yet in reality they were seeking to drive their protégé in exactly the wrong direction. as far back as a german scientist named philipp reis produced a musical telephone that even transmitted a few imperfect words. but it would not talk successfully. others had followed in his footsteps, using the musical telephone to transmit messages with the morse code by means of long and short hums. elisha gray, of chicago, also experimented with the musical telegraph. at the transmitting end a vibrating steel tongue served to interrupt the electric current which passed over the wire in waves, and, passing through the coils of an electro-magnet at the receiving end, caused another strip of steel located near the magnet to vibrate and so produce a tone which varied with the current. all of these developments depended upon the interruption of the current by some kind of a vibrating contact. the limitations which sanders and hubbard sought to impose upon bell, had they been obeyed to the letter, must have prevented his ultimate success. in a letter to his mother at this time, he said: i am now beginning to realize the cares and anxieties of being an inventor. i have had to put off all pupils and classes, for flesh and blood could not stand much longer such a strain as i have had upon me. but good fortune was destined to come to bell along with the bad. on an enforced trip to washington to consult his patent attorney--a trip he could scarce raise funds to make--bell met prof. joseph henry. we have seen the part which this eminent scientist had played in the development of the telegraph. now he was destined to aid bell, as he had aided morse a generation earlier. the two men spent a day over the apparatus which bell had with him. though professor henry was fifty years his senior and the leading scientist in america, the youth was able to demonstrate that he had made a real discovery. "you are in possession of the germ of a great invention," said henry, "and i would advise you to work at it until you have made it complete." "but," replied bell, "i have not got the electrical knowledge that is necessary." "get it," was henry's reply. this proved just the stimulus bell needed, and he returned to boston with a new determination to perfect his great idea. bell was no longer experimenting in the sanderses' cellar, having rented a room in boston in which to carry on his work. he had also secured the services of an assistant, one thomas watson, who received nine dollars a week for his services in bell's behalf. the funds for this work were supplied by sanders and hubbard jointly, but they insisted that bell should continue his experiments with the musical telegraph. though he was convinced that the opportunities lay in the field of telephony, bell labored faithfully for regular periods with the devices in which his patrons were interested. the remainder of his time and energy he put upon the telephone. the basis of his telephone was still the disk or diaphragm which would vibrate when the sound-waves of the voice were thrown against it. behind this were mounted various kinds of electro-magnets in series with the electrified wire over which the inventor hoped to send his messages. for three years they labored with this apparatus, trying every conceivable sort of disk. it is easy to pass over those three years, filled as they were with unceasing toil and patient effort, because they were drab years when little of interest occurred. but these were the years when bell and watson were "going to school," learning how to apply electricity to this new use, striving to make their apparatus talk. how dreary and trying these years must have been for the experimenters we may well imagine. it requires no slight force of will to hold oneself to such a task in the face of failure after failure. by june of bell had completed a new instrument. in this the diaphragm was a piece of gold-beater's skin, which bell had selected as most closely resembling the drum in the human ear. this was stretched tight to form a sort of drum, and an armature of magnetized iron was fastened to its middle. thus the bit of iron was free to vibrate, and opposite it was an electro-magnet through which flowed the current that passed over the line. this acted as the receiver. at the other end of the wire was a sort of crude harmonica with a clock spring, reed, and magnet. bell and watson had been working upon their crude apparatus for months, and finally, on june d, sounds were actually transmitted. bell was afire with enthusiasm; the first great step had been taken. the electric current had carried sound-vibrations along the wire and had reproduced them. if this could be done a telephone which would reproduce whole words and sentences could be attained. [illustration: alexander graham bell] [illustration: thomas a. watson] so great was bell's enthusiasm over this achievement that he succeeded in convincing sanders and hubbard that his idea was practical, and they at last agreed to finance him in his further experiments with the telephone. a second membrane receiver was constructed, and for many more weeks the experiments continued. it was found that sounds were carried from instrument to instrument, but as a telephone they were still far from perfection. it was not until march of that bell, speaking into the instrument in the workroom, was heard and understood by watson at the other instrument in the basement. the telephone had carried and delivered an intelligible message. the telephone which bell had invented, and on which he received a patent on his twenty-ninth birthday, consisted of two instruments similar in principle to what we would now call receivers. if you will experiment with the receiver of a modern telephone you will find that it will transmit as well as receive sound. the heart of the transmitter was an electro-magnet in front of which was a drum-like membrane with a piece of iron cemented to its center opposite the magnet. a mouthpiece was arranged to throw the sounds of the voice against the diaphragm, and as the membrane vibrated the bit of iron upon it--acting as an armature--induced currents corresponding to the sound-waves, in the coils of the electro-magnet. passing over the line the current entered the coils of the tubular electro-magnet in the receiver. a thin disk of soft iron was fastened at the end of this. when the current-waves passed through the coils of the magnet the iron disk was thrown into vibration, thus producing sound. as it vibrated with the current produced by the iron on the vibrating membrane in the transmitter acting as an armature, transmitter and receiver vibrated in unison and so the same sound was given off by the receiver and made audible to the human ear as was thrown against the membrane of the transmitter by the voice. the patent issued to bell has been described as "the most valuable single patent ever issued." certainly it was destined to be of tremendous service to civilization. it was so entirely new and original that bell found difficulty in finding terms in which to describe his invention to the patent officials. he called it "an improvement on the telegraph," in order that it might be identified as an improvement in transmitting intelligence by electricity. in reality the telephone was very far from being a telegraph or anything in the nature of a telegraph. as bell himself stated, his success was in large part due to the fact that he had approached the problem from the viewpoint of an expert in sound rather than as an electrician. "had i known more about electricity and less about sound," he said, "i would never have invented the telephone." as we have seen, those electricians who worked from the viewpoint of the telegraph never got beyond the limitations of the instrument and found that with it they could transmit signals but not sounds. bell, with his knowledge of the laws of speech and sound, started with the principles of the transmission of sound as a basis and set electricity to carrying the sound-vibrations. xiii the telephone at the centennial boll's impromptu trip to the exposition--the table under the stairs--indifference of the judges--enter don pedro, emperor of brazil--attention and amazement--skepticism of the public--the aid of gardiner hubbard--publicity campaign. the philadelphia centennial exposition--america's first great exposition--opened within a month after the completion of the first telephone. the public knew nothing of the telephone, and before it could be made a commercial success and placed in general service the interest of investors and possible users had to be aroused. the centennial seemed to offer an unusual opportunity to place the telephone before the public. but bell, like morse, had no money with which to push his invention. hubbard was one of the commissioners of the exposition, and exerted his influence sufficiently so that a small table was placed in an odd corner in the department of education for the exhibition of the apparatus. the space assigned was a narrow strip between the stairway and the wall. but no provision was made to allow bell himself to be present. the young inventor was almost entirely without funds. sanders and hubbard had paid nothing but his room rent and the cost of his experiments. he had devoted himself to his inventions so entirely that he had lost all of his professional income. so it was that he was forced to face the prospect of staying in boston and allowing this opportunity of opportunities to pass unimproved. his fiancée, miss hubbard, expected to attend the exposition, and had heard nothing of bell's inability to go. he went with her to the station, and as the train was leaving she learned for the first time that he was not to accompany her. she burst into tears at the disappointment. seeing this, bell dashed madly after the train and succeeded in boarding it. without money or baggage, he nevertheless succeeded in arriving in philadelphia. bell arrived at the exposition but a few days before the judges were to make their tour of inspection. with considerable difficulty hubbard had secured their promise that they would stop and examine the telephone. they seemed to regard it as a toy not worth their attention, and the public generally had displayed no interest in the device. when the day for the inspection arrived bell waited eagerly. as the day passed his hope began to fall, as there seemed little possibility that the judges would reach his exhibit. the western union's exhibit of recording telegraphs, the self-binding harvester, the first electric light, gray's musical telegraph, and other prominently displayed wonders had occupied the attention of the scientists. it was well past supper-time when they came to bell's table behind the stairs, and most of the judges were tired out and loudly announced their intention of quitting then and there. at this critical moment, while they were fingering bell's apparatus indifferently and preparing for their departure, a strange and fortunate thing occurred. followed by a group of brilliantly attired courtiers, the emperor of brazil appeared. he rushed up to bell and greeted him with a warmth of affection that electrified the indifferent judges. they watched the scene in astonishment, wondering who this young bell was that he could attract the attention and the friendship of the emperor. the emperor had attended bell's school for deaf mutes in boston when it was at the height of its success, and had conceived a warm admiration for the young man and taken a deep interest in his work. the emperor was ready to examine bell's invention, though the judges were not. bell showed him how to place his ear to the receiver, and he then went to the transmitter which had been placed at the other end of the wire strung along the room. the emperor waited expectantly, the judges watched curiously. bell, at a distance, spoke into the transmitter. in utter wonderment the emperor raised his head from the receiver. "my god," he cried, "it talks!" skepticism and indifference were at an end among the judges, and they eagerly followed the example of the emperor. joseph henry, the most venerable savant of them all, took his place at the receiver. though his previous talk with bell, when the telephone was no more than an idea, should perhaps have prepared him, he showed equal astonishment, and instantly expressed his admiration. next followed sir william thomson, the hero of the cable and england's greatest scientist. after his return to england thomson described his sensations. "i heard," he said, "'to be or not to be ... there's the rub,' through an electric wire; but, scorning monosyllables, the electric articulation rose to higher flights, and gave me passages from the new york newspapers. all this my own ears heard spoken to me with unmistakable distinctness by the then circular-disk armature of just such another little electro-magnet as this i hold in my hand." thomson pronounced bell's telephone "the most wonderful thing he had seen in america." the judges had forgotten that they were hungry and tired, and remained grouped about the telephone, talking and listening in turn until far into the evening. with the coming of the next morning bell's exhibit was moved from its obscure corner and given the most prominent place that could be found. from that time forward it was the wonder of the centennial. [illustration: professor bell's vibrating reed] [illustration: professor bell's first telephone] [illustration: the first telephone switchboard used in new haven, conn, for eight subscribers] [illustration: early new york exchange boys were employed as operators at first, but they were not adapted to the work so well as girls.] [illustration: professor bell in salem, mass., and mr. watson in boston, demonstrating the telephone before audiences in ] [illustration: dr bell at the telephone opening the new york-chicago line, october , ] yet but a small part of the public could attend the exposition and actually test the telephone for themselves. many of these believed that it was a hoax, and general skepticism still prevailed. business men, though they were convinced that the telephone would carry spoken messages, nevertheless insisted that it presented no business possibilities. hubbard, however, had faith in the invention, and as bell was not a business man, he took upon himself the work of promotion--the necessary, valuable work which must be accomplished before any big idea or invention may be put at the service of the public. hubbard's first move was to plan a publicity campaign which should bring the new invention favorably to the attention of all, prove its claims, and silence the skeptics. they were too poor to set up an experimental line of their own, and so telegraph lines were borrowed for short periods wherever possible, demonstrations were given and tests made. the assistance of the newspapers was invoked and news stories of the tests did much to popularize the new idea. an opportunity then came to bell to lecture and demonstrate the telephone before a scientific body in essex. he secured the use of a telegraph line and connected the hall with the laboratory in boston. the equipment consisted of old-fashioned box 'phones over a foot long and eight inches square, built about an immense horseshoe magnet. watson was stationed in the boston laboratory. bell started his lecture, with watson constantly listening over the telephone. bell would stop from time to time and ask that the ability of the telephone to transmit certain kinds of sounds be illustrated. musical instruments were played in boston and heard in essex; then watson talked, and finally he was instructed to sing. he insisted that he was not a singer, but the voices of others less experienced in speaking over the crude instruments often failed to carry sufficiently well for demonstration purposes. so watson sang, as best he could, "yankee doodle," "auld lang syne," and other favorites. after the lecture had been completed members of the audience were invited to talk over the telephone. a few of them mustered confidence to talk with watson in boston, and the newspaper reporters carefully noted down all the details of the conversation. the lecture aroused so much interest that others were arranged. the first one had been free, but admission was charged for the later lectures and this income was the first revenue bell had received for his invention. the arrangements were generally the same for each of the lectures about boston. the names of longfellow, of holmes, and of other famous american men of letters are found among the patrons of some of the lectures in boston. bell desired to give lectures in new york city, but was not certain that his apparatus would operate at that distance over the lines available. the laboratory was on the third floor of a rooming-house, and watson shouted so loud in his efforts to make his voice carry that the roomers complained. so he took blankets and erected a sort of tent over the instruments to muffle the sound. when the signal came from bell that he was ready for the test, watson crawled into the tent and began his shoutings. the day was a hot one, and by the time that the test had been completed watson was completely wilted. but the complaints of the roomers had been avoided. for one of the new york demonstrations the services of a negro singer with a rich barytone voice had been secured. watson had no little difficulty in rehearsing him for the part, as he objected to placing his lips close to the transmitter. when the time for the test arrived he persisted in backing away from the mouthpiece when he sang, and, though watson endeavored to hold the transmitter closer to him, his efforts were of no avail. finally bell told watson that as the negro could not be heard he would have to sing himself. the girl operator in the laboratory had assembled a number of her girl friends to watch the test, and watson, who did not consider himself a vocalist, did not fancy the prospect. but there was no one else to sing, the demonstration must proceed, and finally watson struck up "yankee doodle" in a quavering voice. the negro looked on in disgust. "is that what you wanted me to do, boss?" "yes," replied the embarrassed watson. "well, boss, i couldn't sing like that." the telegraph wires which were borrowed to demonstrate the utility of the telephone proved far from perfect for the work at hand. many of the wires were rusted and the insulation was poor. the stations along the line were likely to cut in their relays when the test was in progress, and bell's instruments were not arranged to overcome this retardation. however, the lectures were a success from the popular viewpoint. the public flocked to them and the fame of the telephone grew. so many cities desired the lecture that it finally became necessary for bell to employ an assistant to give the lecture for him. frederick gower, a providence newspaper man, was selected for this task, and soon mastered bell's lecture. it was then possible to give two lectures on the same evening, bell delivering one, gower the other, and watson handling the laboratory end for both. gower secured a contract for the exclusive use of the telephone in new england, but failed to demonstrate much ability in establishing the new device on a business basis. how little the possibilities of the telephone were then appreciated we may understand from the fact that gower exchanged his immensely valuable new england rights for the exclusive right to lecture on the telephone throughout the country. the success of these lectures made it possible for bell to marry, and he started for england on a wedding-trip. the lectures also aroused the necessary interest and made it possible to secure capital for the establishment of telephone lines. it also determined hubbard in his plan of leasing the telephones instead of selling them. this was especially important, as it made possible the uniformity of the efficient bell system of the present day. xiv improvement and expansion the first telephone exchange--the bell telephone association--theodore n. vail--the fight with the western union--edison and blake invent transmitters--last effort of the western union--mushroom companies and would-be inventors--the controversy with gray--dolbear's claims--the drawbaugh case--on a firm footing. through public interest had been aroused in the telephone, it was still very far from being at the service of the nation. the telephone increases in usefulness just in proportion to the number of your acquaintances and business associates who have telephones in their homes or offices. instruments had to be manufactured on a commercial scale, telephone systems had to be built up. while the struggles of the inventor who seeks to apply a new idea are often romantic, the efforts of the business executives who place the invention, once it is achieved, at the service of people everywhere, are not less praiseworthy and interesting. a very few telephones had been leased to those who desired to establish private lines, but it was not until may of that the first telephone system was established with an exchange by means of which those having telephones might talk with one another. there was a burglar-alarm system in boston which had wires running from six banks to a central station. the owner of this suggested that telephones be installed in the banks using the burglar-alarm wires. hubbard gladly loaned the instruments for the purpose. instruments were installed in the banks without saying anything to the bankers, or making any charge for the service. one banker demanded that his telephone be removed, insisting that it was a foolish toy. but even with the crude little exchange the first system proved its worth. others were established in new york, philadelphia, and other cities on a commercial basis. a man from michigan appeared and secured the perpetual rights for his state, and for his foresight and enterprise he was later to be rewarded by the sale of these rights for a quarter of a million dollars. the free service to the boston bankers was withdrawn and a commercial system installed there. but these exchanges served but a few people, and were poorly equipped. there was, of course, no provision for communication between cities. with the telephone over a year old, less than a thousand instruments were in use. but hubbard, who was directing the destinies of the enterprise during bell's absence in europe, decided that the time had come to organize. accordingly the bell telephone association was formed, with bell, hubbard, sanders, and watson as the shareholders. sanders was the only one of the four with any considerable sum of money, and his resources were limited. he staked his entire credit in the enterprise, and managed to furnish funds with which the fight for existence could be carried on. but a business depression was upon the land and it was not easy to secure support for the telephone. the entrance of the western union telegraph company into the telephone field brought the affairs of the bell company to a crisis. as we have seen, the telegraph company had developed into a great and powerful corporation with wires stretching across the length and breadth of the land and agents and offices established in every city and town of importance. once the telephone began to be used as a substitute for the telegraph in conveying messages, the telegraph officials awoke to the fact that here, possibly, was a dangerous rival, and dropped the viewpoint that bell's telephone was a mere plaything. they acquired the inventions of edison, gray, and dolbear, and entered the telephone field, announcing that they were prepared to furnish the very best in telephonic communication. this sudden assault by the most powerful corporation in america, while it served to arouse public confidence in the telephone, made it necessary for hubbard to reorganize his forces and find a general capable of doing battle against such a foe. hubbard's political activities had brought to him a presidential appointment as head of a commission on mail transportation. in the course of the work for the government he had come much in contact with a young man named theodore n. vail, who was head of the government mail service. he had been impressed by vail's ability and had in turn introduced vail to the telephone and aroused his enthusiasm in its possibilities. this vail was a cousin of the alfred vail who was morse's co-worker, and who played so prominent a part in the development of the telegraph. his experience in the post-office department had given him an understanding of the problems of communication in the united states, and had developed his executive ability. realizing the possibilities of the telephone, he relinquished his governmental post and cast his fortunes with the telephone pioneers, becoming general manager of the bell company. the western union strengthened its position by the introduction of a new and improved transmitter. this was the work of thomas edison, and was so much better than bell's transmitter that it enabled the western union to offer much better telephonic equipment. as we have seen, bell's transmitter and receiver were very similar, being about the same as the receiver now in common use. in his transmitter edison placed tiny bits of carbon in contact with the diaphragm. as the diaphragm vibrated under the sound-impulses the pressure upon the carbon granules was varied. an electric current was passed through the carbon particles, whose electrical resistance was varied by the changing pressure from the diaphragm. thus the current was thrown into undulations corresponding to the sound-waves, and passed over the line and produced corresponding sounds in the receiver. much stronger currents could be utilized than those generated by bell's instrument, and thus the transmitter was much more effective for longer distances. bell returned from europe to find the affairs of his company in a sorry plight. only the courage and generalship of vail kept it in the field at all. bell was penniless, having failed to establish the telephone abroad, even as morse before him had failed to secure foreign revenue from his invention. bell's health failed him, and as he lay helpless in the hospital his affairs were indeed at a low ebb. at this juncture francis blake, of boston, came forward with an improved transmitter which he offered to the bell company in exchange for stock. the instrument proved a success and was gladly adopted, proving just what was needed to make possible successful competition with the western union. prolonged patent litigation followed, and after a bitter legal struggle the western union officials became convinced of two things: one, that the bell company, under vail's leadership, would not surrender; second, that bell was the original inventor of the telephone and that his patent was valid. the western union, however, seemed to have strong basis for its claim that the new transmitter of the bell people was an infringement of edison's patent. a compromise was arranged between the contestants by which the two companies divided the business of furnishing communication by wire in the united states. this agreement proved of the greatest benefit to both organizations, and did much to make possible the present development and universal service of both the telephone and telegraph. by the terms of the agreement the western union recognized bell's patent and agreed to withdraw from the telephone business. the bell company agreed not to engage in the telegraph business and to take over the western union telephone system and apparatus, paying a royalty on all telephone rentals. experience has demonstrated that the two businesses are not competitive, but supplement each other. it is therefore proper that they should work side by side with mutual understanding. success had come at last to the telephone pioneers. other battles were still to be fought before their position was to be made secure, but from the moment when the western union admitted defeat the bell company was the leader. the stock of the company advanced to a point where bell, hubbard, sanders, and watson found themselves in the possession of wealth as a reward for their pioneering. the western union had no sooner withdrawn as a competitor of the bell organization than scores of small, local companies sprang up, all ready to pirate the bell patent and push the claims of some rival inventor. a very few of them really tried to establish telephone systems, but the majority were organized simply to sell stock to a gullible public. they stirred up a continuous turmoil, and made much trouble for the larger company, though their patent claims were persistently defeated in the courts. most of the rival claimants who sprang up, once the telephone had become an established fact and had proved its value, were men of neither prominence nor scientific attainments. of a very different type was elisha gray, whose work we have before noticed, and who now came forward with the claim that he had invented a telephone in advance of bell. gray was a practical man of real scientific attainments, but, as we have noticed, his efforts in search of a telephone were from the viewpoint of a musical telegraph and so destined to failure. it has frequently been stated that gray filed his application for a patent on a telephone of his invention but a few minutes after bell, and so bell wrested the honor from him by the scantiest of margins. a careful reading of the testimony brought out in gray's suit against bell does not support such a statement. while bell filed an application for a patent on a completed, invention, gray filed, a few moments later, a caveat. this was a document, stating that he hoped to invent a telephone of a certain kind therein stated, and would serve to protect his rights until he should have time to perfect it. thus gray did not have a completed invention, and he later failed to perfect a telephone along the lines described in his caveat. the decision of the court supported bell's claims in full. another of the western union's telephone experts, professor dolbear, of tufts college, also sought to make capital of his knowledge of the telephone. he based his claims upon an improvement of the reis musical telegraph, which had formed the starting-point for so many experimenters. the case fell flat, however, for when the apparatus was brought into court no one could make it talk. none of the attacks upon bell's claim to be the original inventor of the telephone aroused more popular interest at the time than the famous drawbaugh case. daniel drawbaugh was a country mechanic with a habit of reading of the new inventions in the scientific journals. he would work out models of many of these for himself, and, showing them very proudly, often claim them as his own devices. drawbaugh was now put forward by the opponents of the bell organization as having invented a telephone before bell. it was claimed that he had been too poor to secure a patent or to bring his invention to popular notice. much sympathy was thus aroused for him and the legal battle was waged to interminable length, with the usual result. bell's patent was again sustained, and drawbaugh's claims were pronounced without merit. many other legal battles followed, but the dominance of the bell organization, resting upon the indisputable fact that bell was the first man to conceive and execute a practical telephone, could not be shaken. the telephone business was on a firm footing: it had demonstrated its real service to the public; it had become a necessity; and, under the able leadership of vail, was fast extending its field of usefulness. xv telegraphing without wires the first suggestion--morse sends messages through the water--trowbridge telegraphs through the earth--experiments of preece and heaviside in england--edison telegraphs from moving trains--researches of hertz disclose the hertzian waves. great as are the possibilities of the telegraph and the telephone in the service of man, these instruments are still limited to the wires over which they must operate. communication was not possible until wires had been strung; where wires could not be strung communication was impossible. much yet remained to be done before perfection in communication was attained, and, though the public generally considered the telegraph, and the telephone the final achievement, men of science were already searching for an even better way. the first suggestion that electric currents carrying messages might some day travel without wires seems to have come from k.a. steinheil, of munich. in he discovered that if the two ends of a single wire carrying the electric current be connected with the ground a complete circuit is formed, the earth acting as the return. thus he was able to dispense with one wire, and he suggested that some day it might be possible to eliminate the wire altogether. the fact that the current bearing messages could be sent through the water was demonstrated by morse as early as . he placed plates at the termini of a circuit and submerged them in water some distance apart on one side of a canal. other plates were placed on the opposite side of the waterway and were connected by a wire with a sensitive galvanometer in series to act as a receiver. currents sent from the opposite side were recorded by the galvanometer and the possibility of communication through the water was established. others carried these experiments further, it being even suggested that messages might be sent across the atlantic by this method. but bell's greatest contribution to the search for wireless telegraphy was not his direct work in this field, but the telephone itself. his telephone receiver provided the wireless experimenters with an instrument of extreme sensitiveness by which they were able to detect currents which the mirror galvanometer could not receive. while experimenting with a telephone along a telegraph line a curious phenomenon was noticed. the telephone experimenters heard music very clearly. they investigated and found that another telegraph wire, strung along the same poles, but at the usual distance and with the usual insulation, was being used for a test of edison's musical telephone. many other similar tests were made and the effect was always noted. in some way the message on one line had been conveyed across the air-gap and had been recorded by the telephones on the other line. it was decided that this had been caused by induction. prof. john trowbridge, of harvard university, might well be termed the grandfather of wireless telegraphy. he made the first extensive investigation of the subject, and his experiments in sending messages without wires and his discoveries furnished information and inspiration for those who were to follow. his early experiments tested the possibility of using the earth as a conductor. he demonstrated that when an electric current is sent into the earth it spreads from that point in waves in all directions, just as when a stone is cast into a pond the ripples widen out from that point, becoming fainter and fainter until they reach the shore. he further found that these currents could be detected by grounding the terminals of a telephone circuit. telegraphy through the earth was thus possible. however, the farther the receiving station was from the sending station the wider must be the distance between the telephone terminals and the smaller the current received. professor trowbridge did not find it possible to operate his system at a sufficient distance to make it of value, but he did demonstrate that the currents do travel through the earth and that they can be set to carrying messages. professor trowbridge also revived the idea of telegraphing across the atlantic by utilizing the conductivity of the sea-water to carry the currents. in working out the plan theoretically he discovered that the terminals on the american side would have to be widely separated--one in nova scotia and the other in florida--and that they would have to be connected by an insulated cable. two widely separated points on the coast of france were suggested for the other terminals. he also calculated that very high voltages would be necessary, and the practical difficulties involved made it seem certain that such a system would cost far too much to construct and to operate to be profitable. trowbridge suggested the possibility of using such a system for establishing communication between ships at sea. ship could communicate with ship, over short distances, during a fog. a trailing wire was to be used to increase the sending and receiving power, and trowbridge believed that with a dynamo capable of supplying current for a hundred lights, communication could be established at a distance of half a mile. not satisfied with the earth or the sea as a medium for carrying the current, trowbridge essayed to use the air. he believed that this was possible, and that it would be accomplished at no distant date. he believed, however, that such a system could not be operated over considerable distances because of the curvature of the earth. he endeavored to establish communication through the air by induction. he demonstrated that if one coil of wire be set up and a current sent through it, a similar coil facing it will have like currents induced within it, which may be detected with a telephone receiver. he also determined that the currents were strongest in the receiving coil when it was placed in a plane parallel with the sending coil. by turning the receiving coil about until the sound was strongest in the telephone receiver, it was thus possible to determine the direction from which the messages were coming. trowbridge recognized the great value of this feature to a ship at sea. but these induced currents could only be detected at a distance by the use of enormous coils. to receive at a half-mile a coil of eight hundred feet radius would have been necessary, and this was obviously impossible for use on shipboard. so these experiments also developed no practical improvement in the existing means of communication. but professor trowbridge had demonstrated new possibilities, and had set men thinking along new lines. he was the pioneer who pointed the way to a great invention, though he himself failed to attain it. bell followed up trowbridge's suggestions of using the water as a medium of communication, and in a series of experiments conducted on the potomac river established communication between moving ships. professor dolbear also turned from telephone experimentation to the search for the wireless. he grounded his wires and sent high currents into the earth, but improved his system and took another step toward the final achievement by adding a large induction coil to his sending equipment. he suggested that the spoken word might be sent as well as dots and dashes, and so sought the wireless telephone as well as the wireless telegraph. like his predecessors, his experiments were successful only at short distances. the next application of the induction telegraph was to establish communication with moving trains. several experimenters had suggested it, but it remained for thomas a. edison to actually accomplish it. he set up a plate of tin-foil on the engine or cars, opposite the telegraph wires. currents could be induced across the gap, no matter what the speed of the train, and, traveling along the wires to the station, communication was thus established. had edison continued his investigation further, instead of turning to other pursuits, he might have achieved the means of communicating through the air at considerable distances. these experiments by americans in the early 'eighties seemed to promise that america was to produce the wireless telegraph, as it had produced the telegraph and the telephone. but the greatest activity now shifted to europe and the american men of science failed to push their researches to a successful conclusion. sir w.h. preece, an englishman, brought himself to public notice by establishing communication with the isle of wight by morse's method. messages were sent and received during a period when the cable to the island was out of commission, and thus telegraphing without wires was put to practical use. preece carried his experiments much further. in he laid out two great squares of insulated wire, a quarter of a mile to the side, and at a distance of a quarter of a mile from each other. telephonic communication was established between them, and thus he had attained wireless telephony by induction. in , another englishman, a.w. heaviside, laid circuits over two miles long on the surface and other circuits in the galleries of a coal-mine three hundred and fifty feet below, and established communication between the circuits. working together, preece and heaviside extended the distances over which they could communicate. preece finally decided that a combination of conduction and induction was the best means of wireless communication. he grounded the wire of his circuit at two points and raised it to a considerable height between these points. preece's work was to put the theories of professor trowbridge to practical use and thus bring the final achievement a step nearer. but conduction and induction combined would not carry messages to a distance that would enable extensive communication. a new medium had yet to be found, and this was the work of heinrich hertz, a young german scientist. he was experimenting with two flat coils of wire, as had many others before him, but one of the coils had a small gap in it. passing the discharge from a condenser into this coil, hertz discovered that the spark caused when the current jumped the gap set up electrical vibrations that excited powerful currents in the other coil. these currents were noticeable, though the coils were a very considerable distance apart. thus hertz had found out how to send out electrical waves that would travel to a considerable distance. what was the medium that carried these waves? this was the question that hertz asked himself, and the answer was, the ether. we know that light will pass through a vacuum, and these electric waves would do likewise. it was evident that they did not pass through the air. the answer, as evolved by hertz and approved by other scientists, is that they travel through the ether, a strange substance which pervades all space. hertz discovered that light and his electrical waves traveled at the same speed, and so deduced that light consists of electrical vibrations in the ether. with the knowledge that this all-pervading ether would carry electric waves at the speed of light, that the waves could be set up by the discharge of a spark across a spark-gap in a coil, and that they could be received in another coil in resonance with the first, the establishment of a practical wireless telegraph was not far away. xvi an italian boy's work the italian youth who dreamed wonderful dreams--his studies--early detectors--marconi seeks an efficient detector--devises new sending methods--the wireless telegraph takes form--experimental success. with the nineteenth century approaching its close, man had discovered that the electric waves would travel through the ether; he had learned something of how to propagate those waves, and something of how to receive them. but no one had yet been able to combine these discoveries in practical form, to apply them to the task of carrying messages, to make the improvements necessary to make them available for use at considerable distances. though many mature scientists had devoted themselves to the problem, it remained for a youth to solve it. the youth was guglielmo marconi, an italian. we have noticed that the telegraph, the cable, and the telephone were the work of those of the anglo-saxon race--englishmen or americans--so it came as a distinct surprise that an italian youth should make the next great application of electricity to communication. but anglo-saxon blood flows in marconi's veins. though his father was an italian, his mother was an irishwoman. he was born at villa griffone near bologna, italy, on april , . he studied in the schools of bologna and of florence, and early showed his interest in scientific affairs. from his mother he learned english, which he speaks as fluently as he does his native tongue. as a boy he was allowed to attend english schools for short periods, spending some time at bedford and at rugby. one of his italian teachers was professor righi, who had made a close study of the hertzian waves, and who was himself making no small contributions to the advancement of the science. from him young marconi learned of the work which had been accomplished, and of the apparatus which was then available. marconi was a quiet boy--almost shy. he did not display the aggressive energy so common with many promising youths. but though he was quiet, he was not slothful. he entered into his studies with a determination and an application that brought to him great results. he was a student and a thinker. any scientific book or paper which came before him was eagerly devoured. it was this habit of careful and persistent study that made it possible for marconi to accomplish such wonderful things at an early age. marconi had learned of the hertzian waves. it occurred to him that by their aid wireless telegraphy might be accomplished. the boy saw the wonderful possibilities; he dreamed dreams of how these waves might carry messages from city to city, from ship to shore, and from continent to continent without wires. he realized his own youth and inexperience, and it seemed certain to him that many able scientists had had the same vision and must be struggling toward its attainment. for a year marconi dreamed those dreams, studying the books and papers which would tell him more of these wonderful waves. each week he expected the news that wireless telegraphy had been established, but the news never came. finally he concluded that others, despite their greater opportunities, had not been so far-seeing as he had thought. marconi attacked the problem himself with the dogged persistence and the studious care so characteristic of him. he began his experiments upon his father's farm, the elder marconi encouraging the youth and providing him with funds with which to purchase apparatus. he set up poles at the opposite sides of the garden and on them mounted the simple sending and receiving instruments which were then available, using plates of tin for his aerials. he set up a simple spark-gap, as had hertz, and used a receiving device little more elaborate. a morse telegraph-key was placed in circuit with the spark-gap. when the key was held down for a longer period a long spark passed between the brass knobs of the spark-gap and a dash was thus transmitted. when the key was depressed for a shorter period a dot in the morse code was sent forth. after much work and adjustment marconi was able to send a message across the garden. others had accomplished this for similar distances, but they lacked marconi's imagination and persistence, and failed to carry their experiments further. to the young irish-italian this was but a starting-point. [illustration: guglielmo marconi photographed in the uniform of an officer in the italian army] marconi quickly found that the receiver was the least effective part of the existing apparatus. the waves spread in all directions from the sending station and become feebler and feebler as the distance increases. to make wireless telegraphy effective over any considerable distance a highly efficient and extremely sensitive receiving device is necessary. some special means of detecting the feeble currents was necessary. the coherer was the solution. as early as a mr. s.a. varley, an englishman, had discovered that when he endeavored to send a current through a mass of carbon granules the tiny particles arranged themselves in order under the influence of the electric current, and offered a free path for the passage of the current. when shaken apart they again resisted the flow of current until it became powerful enough to cause them to again arrange themselves into a sort of bridge for its passage. thus was the principle of the coherer discovered. an italian scientist, professor calzecchi-onesti, carried these experiments still further. he used various substances in place of the carbon granules and showed that some of them will arrange themselves so as to allow the passage of a current under the influence of the spark setting up the hertzian waves. professor e. branly, of the catholic university of paris, took up this work in . he arranged metal filings in a small glass tube six inches long and arranged a tapper to disarrange the filings after they had been brought together under the influence of the spark. with the branly coherer as the basis marconi sought to make improvements which would result in the detector he was seeking. for his powder he used nickel, mixed with a small proportion of fine silver filings. this he placed between silver plugs in a small glass tube. platinum wires were connected to the silver plugs and brought out at the opposite ends of the tube. it required long study to determine just how to adjust the plugs between which the powder was loosely arranged. if the particles were pressed together too tightly they would not fall apart readily enough under the influence of the tapper. if too much space was allowed they would not cohere readily enough. marconi also discovered that a larger proportion of silver in the powder and a smaller amount between the plugs increased the sensitiveness of the receiver. yet he found it well not to have it too sensitive lest it cohere for every stray current and so give false signals. under the influence of the electric waves set up from the spark-gap those tiny particles so arranged themselves that they would readily carry a current between the plugs. by placing these plugs with their platinum terminals in circuit with a local battery the current from this local battery was given a passage through the coherer by the action of the electric waves coming through the ether. while these waves themselves were too feeble to operate a receiving mechanism, they were strong enough to arrange the particles of the sensitive metal in the tube in order, so that the current from the local battery could pass through them. this current operated a telegraph relay which in turn operated a morse receiving instrument. an electrical tapper was also arranged in this circuit so that it would strike the tube a light blow after each long or short wave representing a dot or a dash had been received. thus the particles were disarranged, ready to array themselves when the next wave came through the ether and so form the bridge over which the stronger local circuit could convey the signal. marconi further discovered that the most effective arrangement was to run a wire from one terminal of the coherer into the ground, and from the other to an elevated metal plate or wire. the waves coming through the ether were received by the elevated wire and were conducted down to the coherer. experimenting with his apparatus on the posts in the garden, he discovered that an increase in the height of the wire greatly increased the receiving distance. at his sending station he used the exciter of his teacher, professor righi. this, too, he modified and perfected for his practical purpose. as he used the device it consisted of two brass spheres a millimeter apart. an envelope was provided so that the sides of the spheres toward each other and the space between was occupied by vaseline oil which served to keep the faces of the spheres clean and produce a more uniform spark. outside the two spheres, but in line with them, were placed two smaller spheres at a distance of about two-fifths of a centimeter. the terminals of the sending circuit were attached to these. the secondary coil of a large induction coil was placed in series with them, and batteries were wired in series with the primary of the coil with a sending key to make and break the circuit. when the key was closed a series of sparks sprang across the spark-gap, and the waves were thus set up in the ether and carried the message to the receiving station. as in the case of his receiving station, marconi found that results were much improved when he wired his sending apparatus so that one terminal was grounded and the other connected with an elevated wire or aerial, which is now called the antenna. by marconi had brought this apparatus to a state of perfection where he could transmit messages to a distance of several miles. this irish-italian youth of twenty-two had mastered the problem which had baffled veteran scientists and was ready to place a new wonder at the service of the world. the devices which marconi thus assembled and put to practical use had been, in the hands of others, little more than scientific toys. others had studied the hertzian waves and the methods of sending and detecting them from a purely scientific viewpoint. marconi had the vision to realize the practical possibilities, and, though little more than a boy, had assembled the whole into a workable system of communication. he richly deserves the laurels and the rewards as the inventor of the wireless telegraph. xvii wireless telegraphy established marconi goes to england--he confounds the skeptics--a message to france without wires--the attempt to span the ocean--marconi in america receives the first message from europe--fame and recognition achieved. the time had now come for marconi to introduce himself and his discoveries to the attention of the world. he went to england, and on june , , applied for a patent on his system of wireless telegraphy. soon afterward his plans were submitted to the postal-telegraph authorities. fortunately for marconi and for the world, w.h. preece was then in authority in this department. he himself had experimented with some little success with wireless messages. he was able enough to see the merit in marconi's discoveries and generous enough to give him full recognition and every encouragement. the apparatus was first set up in the general post-office in london, another station being located on the roof but a hundred yards away. though several walls intervened, the hertzian waves traversed them without difficulty, and messages were sent and received. stations were then set up on salisbury plain, some two miles apart, and communication was established between them. though the postal-telegraph authorities received marconi's statements of his discoveries with open mind and put his apparatus to fair tests, the public at large was much less tolerant. the skepticism which met morse and bell faced marconi. men of science doubted his statements and scoffed at his claims. the hertzian waves might be all right to operate scientific playthings, they thought, but they were far too uncertain to furnish a medium for carrying messages in any practical way. then, as progress was made and marconi began to prove his system, the inevitable jealousies arose. experimenters who might have invented the wireless telegraph, but who did not, came forward to contest marconi's claims and to seek to snatch his laurels from him. the young inventor forged steadily ahead, studying and experimenting, devising improved apparatus, meeting the difficulties one by one as they arose. in most of his early experiments he had used a modification of the little tin boxes which had been set up in his father's garden as his original aerials. having discovered that the height of the aerials increased the range of the stations, he covered a large kite with tin-foil and, sending it up with a wire, used this as an aerial. balloons were similarly employed. he soon recognized, however, that a practical commercial system, which should be capable of sending and receiving messages day and night, regardless of the weather, could not be operated with kites or balloons. the height of masts was limited, so he sought to increase the range by increasing the electrical power of the current sending forth the sparks from the sending station. here he was on the right path, and another long step forward had been taken. in the fall of he set up a mast on the isle of wight, one hundred and twenty feet high. from the top of this was strung a single wire and a new series of experiments was begun. marconi had spent the summer in italy demonstrating his apparatus, and had established communication between a station on the shore and a war-ship of the italian navy equipped with his apparatus. he now secured a small steamer for his experiments from his station on the isle of wight and equipped it with a sixty-foot mast. communication was maintained with the boat day after day, regardless of weather conditions. the distance at which communication could be maintained was steadily increased until communication was established with the mainland. in july of the wireless demonstrated its utility as a conveyer of news. an enterprising dublin newspaper desired to cover the kingstown regatta with the aid of the wireless. in order to do this a land station was erected at kingstown, and another on board a steamer which followed the yachts. a telephone wire connected the kingstown station with the newspaper office, and as the messages came by wireless from the ship they were telephoned to dublin and published in successive editions of the evening papers. this feat attracted so much attention that queen victoria sought the aid of the wireless for her own necessities. her son, the prince of wales, lay ill on his yacht, and the aged queen desired to keep in constant communication with him. marconi accordingly placed one station on the prince's yacht and another at osborne house, the queen's residence. communication was readily maintained, and one hundred and fifty messages passed by wireless between the prince and the royal mother. while the electric waves bearing the messages were found to pass through wood, stone, or earth, it was soon noticed in practical operation that when many buildings, or a hill, or any other solid object of size intervened between the stations the waves were greatly retarded and the messages seriously interfered with. when the apparatus was placed on board steel vessels it was found that any part of the vessel coming between the stations checked the communication. marconi sought to avoid these difficulties by erecting high aerials at every point, so that the waves might pass through the clear air over solid obstructions. marconi's next effort was to connect france with england. he went to france to demonstrate his apparatus to the french government and set up a station near boulogne. the aerial was raised to a height of one hundred and fifty feet. another station was erected near folkestone on the english coast, across the channel. a group of french officials gathered in the little station near folkestone for the test, which was made on the th of march, . marconi sent the messages, which were received by the station on the french shore without difficulty. other messages were received from france, and wireless communication between the nations was an accomplished fact. the use of the wireless for ships and lighthouses sprang into favor, and wireless stations were established all around the british coasts so that ships equipped with wireless might keep in communication with the land. the british admiralty quickly recognized the value of wireless telegraphy to war vessels. while field telegraphs and telephones had served the armies, the navies were still dependent upon primitive signals, since a wire cannot be strung from ship to ship nor from ship to shore. so the british battle-ships were equipped with wireless apparatus and a thorough test was made. a sham battle was held in which all of the orders were sent by wireless, and communication was constantly maintained both between the flag-ships and the vessels of their fleets and between the flag-ships and the shore. marconi's invention had again proved itself. the wireless early demonstrated its great value as a means of saving life at sea. lightships off the english coast were equipped with the wireless and were thus enabled to warn ships of impending storms, and on several occasions the wireless was used to summon aid from the shore when ships were sinking because of accidents near the lightship. following the establishment of communication with france, marconi increased the range of his apparatus until he was able to cover most of eastern europe. in one of his demonstrations he sent messages to italy. his ambition, however, was to send messages across the atlantic, and he now attacked this stupendous task. on the coast of cornwall, england, he began the construction of a station which should have sufficient power to send a message to america. instead of using a single wire for his aerial, he erected many tall poles and strung a number of wires from pole to pole. the comparatively feeble batteries which had furnished the currents used in the earlier efforts were replaced with great power-driven dynamos, and converters were used instead of the induction coil. thus was the great poldhu station established. late in marconi crossed to america to superintend the preparations there, and that he himself might be ready to receive the first message, should it prove possible to span the ocean. signal hill, near st. john's, newfoundland was selected as the place for the american station. the expense of building a great aerial for the test was too great, and so dependence was had upon kites to send the wires aloft. for many days marconi's assistants struggled with the great kites in an effort to get them aloft. at last they flew, carrying the wire to a great height. the wire was carried into a small government building near by in which marconi stationed himself. at his ear was a telephone receiver, this having been substituted for the relay and the morse instrument because of its far greater sensitiveness. marconi had instructed his operator at poldhu to send simply the letter "s" at an hour corresponding to . a.m. in newfoundland. great was the excitement and suspense in cornwall when the hour for the test arrived. forgetting that they were sleepy, the staff crowded about the sending key, and the little building at the foot of the ring of great masts supporting the aerial shook with the crash of the blinding sparks as the three, dots which form the letter "s" were sent forth. even greater was the tension on the newfoundland coast, where marconi sat eagerly waiting for the signal. finally it came, three faint ticks in the telephone receiver. the wireless had crossed the atlantic. marconi had no sending apparatus, so that it was not until the cable had carried the news that those in england knew that the message had been received. because marconi had never made a statement or a claim he had not been able to prove, he had attained a reputation for veracity which made his statement that he had received a signal across the atlantic carry weight with the scientists. many, of course, were skeptical, and insisted that the simple signal had come by chance from some ship not far away. but the inventor pushed quietly and steadily ahead, making arrangements to perfect the system and establish it so that it would be of commercial use. marconi returned to england, but two months later set out for america again on the liner _philadelphia_ with improved apparatus. he kept in constant communication with his station at poldhu until the ship was a hundred and fifty miles from shore. beyond that point he could not send messages, as the sending apparatus on the ship lacked sufficient power. messages were received, however, until the sending station was over two thousand miles away. this seemed miraculous to those on shipboard, but marconi accepted it as a matter of course. he had equipped the poldhu station to send twenty-one hundred miles, and he knew that it should accomplish the feat. a large station was set up at cape breton, nova scotia, and regular communication was established between there and poldhu. with the establishment of regular transatlantic communication the utility of marconi's invention, even for work at great distances, was no longer open to question. by quiet, unassuming, conscientious work he had put another great carrier of messages at the service of the world, and he now reaped the fame and fortune which he so richly deserved. xviii the wireless serves the world marconi organized wireless telegraphy commercially--the new wonder at the service of the world--marine disasters prevented--the extension of the wireless on shipboard--improved apparatus--the wireless in the world war--the boy and the wireless. with his clear understanding of the possibilities of his invention, marconi was not long in establishing the wireless upon a commercial basis. he is a man of keen business judgment, and as he brought his invention forward and clearly demonstrated its worth at a time when commercial enterprise was alert he found no great difficulty in establishing his company. the first marconi company was organized as early as under the name of the wireless telegraph and signal company, limited. this was later displaced by the marconi telegraph company, which operates a regular system of stations on a commercial basis, carrying messages in competition with the cable and telegraph companies. it also erects stations for other companies which are operated under the marconi patents. with the telegraph and the telephone so well established and serving the needs of ordinary communication on land, it was natural that the wireless should make headway but slowly as a commercial proposition between points on land. for communication at sea, however, it had no competition, and merchant-ships as well as war vessels were rapidly equipped with wireless apparatus. when the great liner _republic_ was sinking as a result of a collision off the port of new york in her wireless brought aid. her passengers and crew were taken off in safety, and what otherwise would have been a terrible disaster was avoided by the use of the wireless. the utility of the wireless was again brought sharply to the attention of the world. it was realized that a wireless set on a passenger-ship was necessary if the lives of the passengers were to be safeguarded. the united states government by its laws now requires that passenger-ships shall be equipped with wireless apparatus in charge of a competent operator. one of the early objections made to the wireless was its apparent lack of secrecy, since any other receiving apparatus within range of the waves sent forth by the sending station can receive the signals. it was also realized that as soon as any considerable number of stations were established about the world, and began sending messages to and fro, there would be a perfect jumble of waves flying about in all directions through the ether, so that no messages could be sent or received. marconi's answer to these difficulties was the tuning apparatus. the electric waves carrying the messages may be sent out at widely varying lengths. marconi found that it was possible to adjust a receiving station so that it would receive only waves of a certain length. thus stations which desired to communicate could select a certain wave-length, and they could send and receive messages without interfering with others using different wave-lengths, or without the receiving station being confused by messages coming in from other stations using different wave-lengths. you know that when a tuning-fork is set in vibration another of the same pitch near it will vibrate with it, but others of different pitch will not be affected. the operation of wireless stations in tune with each other is similar. [illustration: a remarkable photograph taken outside of the clifden station while messages were being sent across to cape race the camera was exposed for two hours, and the white bars show the sparks leaving the wires for their journey through the air for seventeen hundred miles.] [illustration: marconi station at clifden, ireland these dynamos send a message straight across the ocean.] an example of the value of tuning is afforded by the manner in which press reports are sent from the great marconi station at poldhu. each night at a certain hour this station sends out news reports of the events of the day, using a certain set wave-length. each ship on the atlantic and every land station within range which is to receive the reports at that hour adjusts its receiving set to receive waves of that length. in this way they hear nothing but the poldhu news reports which they desire to receive, and are not troubled by messages from other stations within range. secrecy is also attained by the use of tuning. it is possible that another station may discover the wave-length being used for a secret message and "listen in," but there are so many possible wave-lengths that this is difficult. secrecy may also be secured by the use of code messages. many of the advantages of tuning were lost by the international agreement which provided that but two wave-lengths should be used for commercial work. this, however, enables ships to get in touch with other ships in time of need. with his telephone receivers the operator can hear the passage of the waves as they are brought to him by his aerial and the dots and dashes sound as buzzes of greater or less length. out of the confusion of currents passing through the air he can select the messages he wishes to read by sound. you may wonder how one wireless operator gets into communication with another. he first listens in to determine whether messages are coming through the ether within range in the wave-length he is to use. hearing nothing, he adjusts his sending apparatus to the desired wave-length and switches this in with the signal aerial which serves both his sending and his receiving set. this at the same time disconnects his receiving set. he sends out the call letters of the station to which he wishes to send a message, following them with his own call letters, as a signature to show who is calling. after repeating these signals several times he switches out his sending set and listens in with his receiving set. if he then gets an answer from the other station he can begin sending the message. marconi was not allowed to hold the wireless field unmolested. many others set up wireless stations, some of them infringing upon marconi's patents. others have devised wireless systems along more original lines. particularly we should mention two american experimenters, dr. de forest and professor fessenden. both have established wireless systems with no little promise. the system of professor fessenden is especially unique and original and may be destined to work a revolution in the methods of wireless telegraphy. with an increase in the number of wireless stations and varieties of apparatus came a wide increase in the uses to which wireless telegraphy was applied. we have already noticed the press service from poldhu. the british government makes use of this same station to furnish daily news to its representatives in all parts of the world. the wireless is also used to transmit the time from the great observatories. some of the railroads in the united states have equipped their trails as well as their stations with wireless sets. it has proved its worth in communicating between stations, taking the place in time of need of either the telegraph or the telephone. in equipping the trains with sets a difficulty was met in arranging the aerials. it is, of course, impossible to arrange the wires at any height above the cars, since they would be swept away in passing under bridges. even with very low aerials, however, communication has been successfully maintained at a distance of over a hundred miles. the speed of the fastest train affects the sending and receiving of messages not at all. it was also found that messages passed without hindrance, even though the train was passing through a tunnel. another interesting application of wireless telegraphy is to the needs of the fire-fighters. fire stations in new york city have been equipped with wireless telegraph sets, and they have proved so useful in spreading alarms and transmitting news of fires that they seem destined to come into universal use. the outbreak of the world war gave a tremendous impetus to the development of wireless telegraphy. the german cable to the united states was cut in the early days of the conflict. the sending power of wireless stations had been sufficiently increased, however, so that the great german stations could communicate with those in the united states. communication was readily maintained between the allies by means of wireless, the great stations at poldhu and at the eiffel tower in paris being in constant communication with each other and with the stations in italy and in russia. portable field sets had been used with some slight success even in the boer war, and had definitely proved their worth in the balkans. the outbreak of the greater war found all of the nations equipped with portable apparatus for the use of their armies. these proved of great use. the field sets of the united states army also proved their utility in the campaign into mexico in pursuit of villa. by their means it was possible for general pershing's forces to keep in constant touch with the headquarters in the united states. the wireless proved as valuable to the navies as had been anticipated. the germans in particular made great improvements in light wireless sets designed for use on aircraft. the problem of placing an aerial on an aeroplane is difficult, but no little headway has been made in this direction. it is the american boy who has done the most interesting work with the wireless in the united states. while the commercial development has been comparatively slow, the boys have set up stations by the thousands. most of these stations were constructed by the boys themselves, who have learned and are learning how best to apply this modern wonder to the service of man. so many amateurs set up stations that the government found it necessary to regulate them by law. the law now requires that amateur experimenters use only short wave-lengths in their sending, which will not interfere with messages from government or commercial stations. it also provides for the licensing of amateurs who prove competent. the stations owned and operated by boys have already proved of great use. in times of storm and flood when wire communication failed they have proved the only means of communicating with many districts. in time of war these amateur stations, scattered in all parts of the country, might prove immensely valuable. means have now been taken to so organize the amateurs that they can communicate with one another, and by this means messages may be sent to any part of the country. one young american, john hays hammond, jr., has applied the wireless in novel and interesting ways. by means of special apparatus mounted on a small boat he can by the means of a wireless station on shore start or stop the vessel, or steer it in any direction by his wireless control. he has applied the same system to the control of torpedoes. by this means a torpedo may be controlled after it has left the shore and may be directed in any direction as long as it is within sight. this invention may prove of incalculable benefit should america be attacked by a foreign power. what startling developments of wireless telegraphy lie still in the future we do not know. marconi has predicted that wireless messages will circle the globe. "i believe," he has said, "that in the near future a wireless message will be sent from new york completely around the world without relaying, and will be received by an instrument in the same office with the transmitter, in perhaps less time than shakespeare's forty minutes." not long ago the united states battle-ship _wyoming_, lying off cape henry on the atlantic coast, communicated with the _san diego_ at guaymas, on the pacific coast of mexico. this distance, twenty-five hundred miles across land, shows that marconi's prediction may be realized in the not distant future. xix speaking across the continent a new "hello boy" in boston--why the boy sought the job--the useful things the boy found to do--young carty and the multiple switchboard--called to new york city--he quiets the roaring wires--carty made engineer-in-chief--extending the range of the human voice--new york talks to san francisco over a wire. it seemed to many that the wireless telegraph was to be the final word in the development of communication, but two striking achievements coming in proved this to be far from the case. while one group of scientists had given themselves to experimentation with the hertzian waves which led to wireless telegraphy, other scientists and engineers were busily engaged in bringing the telephone to a perfection which would enable it to accomplish even more striking feats. these electrical pioneers did not work as individuals, but were grouped together as the engineering staff of the american telephone and telegraph company. at their head was john j. carty, and it was under his guiding genius that the great work was accomplished. john carty is the american son of irish parents. he was born in cambridge, massachusetts, on april , . his father was a gun-maker and an expert mechanic of marked intelligence and ingenuity who numbered among his friends howe, the creator of the sewing-machine. as a boy john carty displayed the liveliest interest in things electrical. when the time came for him to go to school, physics was his favorite study. he showed himself to be possessed of a keen mind and an infinite capacity for work. to these advantages was added a good elementary education. he was graduated from cambridge latin school, where he prepared for harvard university. before he could enter the university his eyesight failed, and the doctor forbade continuance of study. many a boy would have been discouraged by this physical handicap which denied him complete scholastic preparation. but this boy was not the kind that gives up. he had been supplementing his school work in physics with experimentations upon his own behalf. let us let mr. carty tell in his own words how he next occupied himself. i had often visited the shop of thomas hall, at bromfield street, and looked in the window. i went in from time to time, not to make large purchases, but mostly to make inquiries and to buy some blue vitriol, wire, or something of the kind. it was a store where apparatus was sold for experimentation in schools, and on saturdays a number of harvard and institute of technology professors could be found there. it was quite a rendezvous for the scientific men in those days, just the same as the old corner bookstore at the corner of school and washington streets was a place where the literary men used to congregate. don't think that i was an associate of these great scientists, but i was very much attracted to the atmosphere of that store. i wanted to get in and handle the apparatus. finally it occurred to me that i would like to get into the business, somehow. but i did not have the courage to go in and ask them for a job. one day i was going by and saw a sign hanging out, "boy wanted." i was about nineteen, and really thought i was something of a scientist, not exactly a boy. i was a boy, however. i walked by on one side of the street and then on the other, looking in, and finally the idea possessed me to go in and strike for that job. so i took down the sign, which was outside the window, put it under my arm, and went in and persuaded tom hall that i was the boy he wanted. he said, "when can you begin?" i said, "now." there was no talk of wages or duties. he said, "take this package around to earle & prew's express and hurry back, as i have another errand for you to do." so i had to take a great, heavy box around to the express-office and get a receipt for it. i found, when saturday night came around, that i had been engaged at the rate of fifty cents a day. i would have been glad to work for nothing. well, i did not get near that apparatus in a hurry, not until the time came for fixing up the window. my first talk in regard to it had no reference to services in a scientific capacity on my part. i had rather hoped that the boss would come around and consult with, me as to how to adjust the apparatus. but that was not it. he said: "john, clean out that window. everything is full of dust, and be careful and don't break anything!" so i cleaned it out. i swept out the place, cleaned about there, did errands, mixed battery solutions, and got a great deal of experience there in one way or another. i did whatever there was to do and got a good deal of fun out of it, while becoming acquainted with the state of the art of that day. i got to know intimately all the different sorts of philosophical apparatus there were, and how to mix the various battery solutions. in fact, i became really quite experienced for those times in such matters. it was not long before young carty lost his job. being a regular boy, he had been guilty of too much skylarking. this experience steadied him, and he forthwith sought a new job. he had met some of the employees of the telephone company and was naturally interested in their work. at that time "hello boys" held sway in the crude telephone exchanges, the "hello girl" having not yet appeared. so john carty at the age of nineteen went to work in the boston telephone exchange. the switchboard at which they placed him had been good enough for the other boys who had been called upon to operate it, and indeed it represented the best thought and effort of the leaders in the telephone world. but it did not satisfy carty, who, not content with simply-operating the board, studied its construction and began planning improvements. as mr. carty himself puts it: the little switchboards of that day were a good deal like the automobiles of some years ago--one was likely to spend more time under the switchboard than, sitting at it! in that way i learned a great deal about the arrangement and construction of switchboards. encountering the trouble first, i had an advantage over others in being able to suggest a remedy. so i have always thought it was a good thing to have troubles, as long as they are not too serious or too numerous. troubles are certainly a great advantage, if we manage them correctly. certainly carty made these switchboard troubles the first stepping-stone in his climb to the top in the field of telephone engineering. the improvements which the youngster suggested were so valuable that they were soon being made under his direction, and ere long he installed in the boston exchange the first multiple switchboard, the fundamental features of which are in the switchboards of to-day. in his work with the switchboards young carty early got in touch with charles e. scribner, another youngster who was doing notable work in this field. the young men became fast friends and worked much together. scribner devoted himself almost exclusively to switchboards and came to be known as the father of the modern switchboard. boston had her peculiar problems and an "express" service was needed. how to handle this in the exchange was another problem, and this, too, carty solved. for this purpose he designed and installed the first metallic circuit, multiple switchboard to go into service. the problems of the exchange were among the most serious of the many which troubled the early telephone companies. of course every telephone-user desired to be able to converse with any other who had a telephone in his office or residence. the development of the switchboards had been comparatively slow in the past, and the service rendered by the boys proved far from satisfactory. the average boy proved himself too little amenable to discipline, too inclined to "sass" the telephone-users, and too careless. but the early use of "hello boys" was at least a success for the telephone in that it brought to its service john j. carty. this boy pointed the way to the great improvements that made it possible to handle the constantly growing volume of calls expeditiously and effectively. the early telephones were operated with a single wire grounded at either end, the earth return being used to complete the circuit as with the telegraph. but while the currents used to operate the telegraph are fairly strong and so can dominate the earth currents, the tiny currents which represented the vibrations of the human voice were all too often drowned by the earth currents which strayed on to the lines. telephone engineers were not then agreed that this caused the difficulty; but they did know there was difficulty. many weird noises played over the lines and as often as not the spoken word was twisted into the strangest gibberish and rendered unintelligible. if the telephone was to satisfy its patrons and prove of real service to the world, the difficulty had to be overcome. some of the more progressive engineers insisted that a double-wire system without a ground was necessary. this, of course, involved tremendous expenses in rebuilding every line and duplicating every wire. the more conservative hesitated, but carty forged ahead. in he was engaged in operating a new line out of boston. he was convinced that the double-wire system alone could be successful, and he arranged to operate a line on this plan. taking two single lines, he instructed the operator at the other end to join them, forming a two-wire circuit. the results justified him. at last a line had been attained which could be depended upon to carry the conversation. no sooner was one problem solved than another presented itself. what to do with the constantly increasing number of wires was a pressing difficulty. all telephone circuits had been strung overhead, and with the demand for telephones for office and residence rapidly increasing, the streets of the great cities were becoming a perfect forest of telephone poles, with the sky obscured by a maze of wires. poles were constantly increased in height until a line was strung along wall street in new york city at a height of ninety feet. from the poles the wires overflowed to the housetops, increasing the difficulty of the engineers. how to protect the wires so that they could be placed underground was the problem. we have noticed that theodore vail had been brought to the head of the bell system in its infancy and had led the fight against the rival companies until it was thoroughly established. now he was directing his genius and executive ability to so improving the telephone that it should serve every need of communication. while the engineers discussed theories vail began actual tests. a trench five miles long was dug beside a railway track by the simple expedient of hitching a plow to a locomotive. in this trench were laid a number of wires, each with a different covering. the gutta-percha and the rubber coverings which had been used in cable construction predominated. it was found that these wires would carry the telephone currents, not as well as might be desired, but well enough to assure vail that he was on the right track. the companies began to place their wires underground, and vail saw to it that the experiments with coverings for telephone wires were continued. the result was the successful underground cables in use to-day. at the same time vail and his engineers were seeking to improve the wires themselves. iron and steel wires had been used, but they proved unsatisfactory, as they rusted and were poor conductors. copper was an excellent conductor, but the metal in the pure state is soft and no one then knew how to make a copper wire that would sustain its own weight. but vail kept his men at the problem and the hard-drawn copper wire was at length evolved. this proved just what was needed for the telephone circuits. the copper wire was four times as expensive as the iron, but as it was four times as good vail adopted it. john carty had rather more than kept pace with these improvements. he was but twenty-six years of age when union n. bethell, head of the new york company, picked carty to take charge of the telephone engineering work in the metropolis. bethell was vail's chief executive officer, and under him carty received an invaluable training in executive work. carty's largest task was putting the wires underground, and here again he was a tremendous success. he found ways to make cables cheaper and better, and devised means of laying them at half the former cost. having solved the most pressing problems in this field, his employers, who had come to recognize his marked genius, set him to work again on the switchboard. he was placed in charge of the switchboard department of the western electric company, the concern which manufactures the apparatus for the telephone company. the switchboard, as we have seen, was carty's first love, and again he pointed the way to great improvements. most of the large switchboards of that time were installed under his direction, and they were better switchboards than had ever been known before. up to this time it had been thought necessary to have individual batteries supplying current to each line. these were a constant source of difficulty, and carty directed his own attention, and that of his associate engineers, to finding a satisfactory solution. he sought a method of utilizing one common battery at the central station and the way was found and the improvement accomplished. though the telephone circuits were now protected from the earth, telephone-users, at times when the lines were busy, were still troubled with roarings and strange cross-talk. though busy with the many engineering problems which the telephone heads had assigned to him, carty found time for some original research. he showed that the roarings in the wires were largely caused by electro-static induction. in he read a paper before the electric club that startled the engineers of that day. he demonstrated that in every telephone circuit there is a particular point at which, if a telephone is inserted, no cross-talk can be heard. he had worked out the rules for determining this point. thus he had at once discovered the trouble and prescribed the cure. of course it could not be expected that the sage experts would all agree with young carty right away; but they were forced to in the end, for again he was proved right. by carty was ready with another invention which was to place the telephone in the homes of hundreds of thousands who, without it, could scarcely have afforded this modern necessity. this was the "bridging bell" which made possible the party line. by its use four telephones could be placed on a single line, each with its own signal, so that any one could be rung without ringing the others. its introduction inaugurated a new boom in the use of the telephone. theodore vail had resigned from his positions with the telephone companies in with the determination to retire from business. but when the panic of came the directors of the company went to him on his vermont farm and pleaded with him to return and again resume the leadership. other and younger men would not do in this business crisis. they also pointed out that the nation's telephones had not yet been molded into the national system which had been his dream--a system of universal service in which any one at any point in the country might talk by telephone with any other. so vail re-entered the telephone field and again took the presidency of the american telephone and telegraph company. one of his first official acts was to appoint john j. carty his chief engineer. vail had selected the right man to make his dreams come true; carty now had the executive who would make it possible for him to accomplish even larger things. he set about building up the engineering organization which was to accomplish the work, selecting the most brilliant graduates of american technical schools. he set this organization to work upon the extension and development of the long-distance telephone lines. as a "hello boy" carty had believed in the possibility of the long-distance telephone when others had scoffed. he has told of an early experience while in the boston exchange: one hot day an old lady toiled up the inevitable flights of stairs which led to the telephone-office of those times. out of breath, she sat down, and when she had recovered sufficiently to speak she said she wanted to talk to chicago. my colleagues of that time were all what the ethnologists would rank a little bit lower than the wild indian. these youngsters set up a great laugh; and, indeed, the absurdity of the old lady's project could hardly be overstated, because at that time salem was a long-distance line, lowell sometimes worked, and worcester was the limit--that is, in every sense of the word. the lowell line was so unreliable that we had a telegraph operator there, and when the talk was not possible, he pushed the message through by morse. it is no wonder that the absurdity of the old lady's proposal was the cause of poorly suppressed merriment. but i can remember that i explained to her that our wires had not yet been extended to chicago, and that, after she had departed, i turned to the other operators and said that the day would come when we could talk to chicago. my prophecy was received with what might be called--putting it mildly--vociferous discourtesy. nevertheless, i remember very well the impression which that old lady's request made upon me; and i really did believe that, some day or other, in some way, we would be able to talk to chicago. by it was possible to talk from new york to denver, a distance of , miles. no european engineers had achieved any such results, and this feat brought to carty and his wonderful staff the admiration of foreign experts. but for the american engineers this was only a starting-point. the next step was to link new york and california. this was more than a matter of setting poles and stringing wires, stupendous though this task was. the line crosses thirteen states, and is carried on , poles. three thousand tons of wire are used in the line. the panama canal took nine years to complete, and cost over three hundred million dollars; but within that time the telephone company spent twice that amount in engineering construction work alone, extending the scope of the telephone. the technical problems were even more difficult. carty and his engineers had to find a way to send something three thousand miles with the breath as its motive power. it was a problem of the conservation of the tiny electric current which carried the speech. the power could not be augmented or speech would not result at the destination. added to the efforts of these able engineers was the work of prof. michael i. pupin, of columbia university, whose brilliant invention of the loading coil some ten years before had startled the scientific world and had increased the range of telephonic transmission through underground cables and through overhead wires far beyond what had formerly been possible. professor pupin applied his masterful knowledge of physics and his profound mathematical attainments so successfully to the practical problems of the transmission of telephone speech that he has been called "the telephone scientist." it is impossible to talk over long-distance lines anywhere in america without speaking through pupin coils, which are distributed throughout the hundreds of thousands of miles of wire covering the north american continent. in the transcontinental telephone line pupin coils play a most important part, and they are distributed at eight-mile intervals throughout its entire length from the atlantic to the pacific. in speaking at a dinner of eminent scientists, mr. carty once said that on account of his distinguished scientific attainments and wonderful telephonic inventions, professor pupin would rank in history alongside of bell himself. we have seen how alexander graham bell, standing in the little room in boston, spoke through the crude telephone he had constructed the first words ever carried over a wire, and how these words were heard and understood by his associate, thomas watson. this was in , and it was in january of --less than forty years later--that these two men talked across the continent. the transcontinental line was complete. bell in the offices of the company in new york talked freely with watson in san francisco, and all in the most conversational tone, without a trace of the difficulty that had attended their first conversation over the short line. thus, within the span of a single life the telephone had been developed from a crude instrument which transmitted speech with difficulty over a wire a hundred feet long, until one could be heard perfectly, though over three thousand miles of wire intervened. the spoken word travels across the continent almost instantaneously, far faster than the speed of sound. if it were possible for one to be heard in san francisco as he shouted from new york through the air, four hours would be required before the sound would arrive. thus the telephone has been brought to a point of perfection where it carries sound by electricity and reproduces it again far more rapidly and efficiently than sound can be transmitted through its natural medium. xx telephoning through space the search for the wireless telephone--early successes--carty and his assistants seek the wireless telephone--the task before them--de forest's amplifier--experimental success achieved--the test--honolulu and paris hear arlington--the future. no sooner had marconi placed the wireless telegraph at the service of the world than men of science of all nations began the search for the wireless telephone. but the vibrations necessary to reproduce the sound of the human voice are so infinitely more complex than those which will suffice to carry signals representing the dots and dashes of the telegraph code that the problem long defied solution. scientists attacked the problem with vigor, and various means of wireless telephony were developed, without any being produced which were effective over sufficient ranges to make them really useful. probably the earliest medium chosen to carry wireless speech was light rays. a microphone transmitter was arranged so that the vibrations of the voice would affect the stream of gas flowing in a sensitive burner. the flame was thus thrown into vibrations corresponding to the vibrations of sound. the rays from this flame were then directed by mirrors to a distant receiving station and there concentrated on a photo-electric selenium cell, which has the strange property of varying its resistance according to the illumination. thus a telephone receiver arranged in series with it was made to reproduce the sounds. this strange, wireless telephone was so arranged that a search-light beam could be used for the light path, and distances up to three miles were covered. even with this limited range the search-light telephone had certain advantages. its message could be received only by those in the direct line of the light. neither did it require aerial masts or wires and a trained telegrapher who could send and receive the telegraph code. it was put to some use between battle-ships and smaller craft lying within a radius of a few miles. the sensitive selenium cell proved unreliable, however, and this means of communication was destined to failure. the experimenters realized that future success lay in making the ether carry telephonic currents as it carried telegraphic currents. they succeeded in establishing communication without wires, using the same antenna as in wireless telegraphy, and the principles determined are those used in the wireless telephone of to-day. the sending apparatus was so arranged that continuous oscillations are set up in the ether, either by a high-frequency machine or from an electric arc. where set up by spark discharges the spark frequency must be above twenty thousand per second. this unbroken wave train does not affect the telephone and is not audible in a telephone receiver inserted in the radio receiving circuit. but when a microphone transmitter is inserted in the sending circuit, instead of the make-and-break key used for telegraphy, the waves of the voice, thrown against the transmitter in speaking, break up the waves so that the telephone receiver in the receiving circuit will reproduce sound. here was and is the wireless telephone. marconi and many other scientists were able to operate it successfully over comparatively short distances, and were busily engaged in extending its range and improving the apparatus. one great difficulty involved was in increasing the power of the sending apparatus. greater range has been secured in wireless telegraphy by using stronger sending currents. but the delicate microphone would not carry these stronger currents. increased sensitiveness in the receiving apparatus was also necessary. not content with their accomplishments in increasing the scope of the wire telephone, the engineers of the bell organization, headed by john j. carty, turned their attention to the wireless transmission of speech. determined that the existing telephone system should be extended and supplemented in every useful way, they attacked the problem with vigor. it was a problem that had long baffled the keenest of european scientists, including marconi himself, but that did not deter carty and his associates. they were determined that the glory of spanning the atlantic by wireless telephone should come to america and american engineers. they wanted history to record the wireless telephone as an american achievement along with the telegraph and the telephone. the methods used in achieving the wireless telephone were widely different from those which brought forth the telegraph and the telephone. times had changed. men had found that it was more effective to work together through organizations than to struggle along as individuals. the very physical scope of the undertakings made the old methods impracticable. one cannot perfect a transcontinental telephone line nor a transatlantic wireless telephone in a garret. and with a powerful organization behind them it was not necessary for carty and his associates to starve and skimp through interminable years, handicapped by the inadequate equipment, while they slowly achieved results. this great organization, working with modern methods, produced the most wonderful results with startling rapidity. important work had already been done by marconi, fessenden, de forest, and others. but their results were still incomplete; they could not talk for any considerable distance. carty organized his staff with care, bancroft gerhardi, doctor jewett, h.d. arnold, and colpitts being prominent among the group of brilliant american scientists who joined with carty in his great undertaking. while much had been accomplished, much still remained to be done, and the various contributions had to be co-ordinated into a unified, workable whole. in large part it was carty's task to direct the work of this staff and to see that all moved smoothly and in the right direction. just as the telephone was more complex than the telegraph, and the wireless telegraph than the telephone, so the apparatus used in wireless telephony is even more complex and technical. working with the intricate mechanisms and delicate apparatus, one part after another was improved and adapted to the task at hand. to the devices of carty and his associates was added the extremely delicate detector that was needed. this was the invention of dr. lee de forest, an american inventor and a graduate of the sheffield technical school of yale university. de forest's contribution was a lamp instrument, a three-step audion amplifier. this is to the wireless telephone what the coherer is to the wireless telegraph. it is so delicate that the faintest currents coming through the ether will stimulate it and serve to set in motion local sources of electrical energy so that the waves received are magnified to a point where they will produce sound. by the spring of , but a few months after the transcontinental telephone line had been put in operation, carty had his wireless telephone apparatus ready for extended tests. a small experimental tower was set up at montauk point, long island, and another was borrowed at wilmington, delaware. the tests were successful, and the experimenters found that they could talk freely with each other. soon they talked over a thousand miles, from the tower at montauk point to another at st. simon's island, georgia. this in itself was a great achievement, but the world was not told of it. "do it first and then talk about it" is the maxim with theodore vail and his telephone men. this was but a beginning, and carty had far more wonderful things in mind. it was on the th of september, , that carty conducted the demonstrations which thrilled the world and showed that wireless telephony was an accomplished fact. sitting in his office in new york, president theodore vail spoke into his desk telephone of the familiar type. the wires carried his words to the towers of the navy wireless station at arlington, virginia, where they were delivered to the sending apparatus of the wireless telephone. leaping into space, they traveled in every direction through the ether. the antenna of the wireless station at mare island, california, caught part of the waves and they were amplified so that john carty, sitting with his ear to the receiver, could hear the voice of his chief. carty and his associates had not only developed a system which made it possible to talk across the continent without wires, but they had made it possible to combine wire and wireless telegraphy. he and vail talked with each other freely and easily, while the naval officers who verified the tests marveled. but even more wonderful things were to come. early in the morning of the next day other messages were sent from the arlington tower, and these messages were heard by lloyd espenschied, one of carty's engineers, who was stationed at the wireless station at pearl harbor, near honolulu, hawaii. the distance covered was nearly five thousand miles, and half of it was across land, which is the more remarkable as the wireless does not operate so readily over land as over water. the distance covered in this test was greater than the distance from washington to london, paris, berlin, vienna, or petrograd. the successful completion of this test meant that the capitals of the great nations of the world might communicate, might talk with one another, by wireless telephone. only a receiving set had been installed at hawaii, so that it was not possible for espenschied to reply to the message from arlington, and it was not until his message came by cable that those at arlington knew that the words they had spoken had traveled five thousand miles. other receiving sets had been located at san diego and at darien on the isthmus of panama, and at these points also the words were distinctly heard. by the latter part of october all was in readiness for a transatlantic test, and on the th of october american engineers, with american apparatus installed at the great french station at the eiffel tower, paris, heard the words spoken at arlington, virginia. carty and his engineers had bridged the atlantic for the spoken word. because of war-time conditions it was not possible to secure the use of the french station for an extended test, but the fact was established that once the apparatus is in place telephonic communication between europe and america may he carried on regularly. the apparatus used as developed by the engineers of the bell system was in a measure an outgrowth of their work with the long-distance telephone. wireless telephony, despite the wonders it has already accomplished, is still in its infancy. with more perfect apparatus and the knowledge that comes with experience we may expect that speech will girdle the earth. it is natural that one should wonder whether the wireless telephone is destined to displace our present apparatus. this does not seem at all probable. in the first place, wireless telephony is now, and probably always will be, very expensive. where the wire will do it is the more economical. there are many limitations to the use of the other for talking purposes, and it cannot be drawn upon too strongly by the man of science. it will accomplish miracles, but must not be overtaxed. millions of messages going in all directions, crossing and recrossing one another, as is done every day by wire, are probably an impossibility by wireless telephony. weird and little-understood conditions of the ether, static electricity, radio disturbances, make wireless work uncertain, and such a thing as twenty-four-hour service, seven days in the week, can probably never be guaranteed. in radio communication all must use a common medium, and as its use increases, so also do the difficulties. the privacy of the wire is also lacking with the wireless telephone. but because a way was found to couple the wireless telephone with the wire telephone, the new wonder has great possibilities as a supplement to our existing system. before so very long it may be possible for an american business man sitting in his office to call up and converse with a friend on a liner crossing the atlantic. the advantages of speaking between ship and ship as an improvement over wireless telegraphy in time of need are obvious. a demonstration of the part this great national telephone system would play in the country's defense in case of attack was held in may of . the navy department at washington was placed in communication with every navy-yard and post in the united states, so that the executive officers could instantly talk with those in charge of the posts throughout the country. the wireless telephone was used in addition to the long distance, and secretary of the navy daniels, sitting at his desk at washington, talked with captain chandler, who was at his station on the bridge of the u.s.s. _new hampshire_ at hampton roads. whatever the future limitations of wireless telephony, there is no doubt as to the place it will take among the scientific accomplishments of the age. merely as a scientific discovery or invention, it ranks among the wonders of civilization. much as the tremendous leap of human voice across the line from new york to san francisco appealed to the mind, there is something infinitely more fascinating in this new triumph of the engineer. the human mind can grasp the idea of the spoken word being carried along wires, though that is difficult enough, but when we try to understand its flight through space we are faced with something beyond the comprehension of the layman and almost past belief. we have seen how communication has developed, very slowly at first, and then, as electricity was discovered, with great rapidity until man may converse with man at a distance of five thousand miles. what the future will bring forth we do not know. the ether may be made to accomplish even more wonderful things as a bearer of intelligence. though we cannot now see how it would be possible, the day may come when every automobile and aeroplane will be equipped with its wireless telephone, and the motorist and aviator, wherever they go, may talk with anyone anywhere. the transmission of power by wireless is confidently predicted. pictures have been transmitted by telegraph. it may be possible to transmit them by wireless. then some one may find out how to transmit moving pictures through the ether. then one might sit and see before him on a screen a representation of what was then happening thousands of miles away, and, listening through a telephone, hear all the sounds at the same place. wonders that we cannot even now imagine may lie before us. appendix a new developments of the telegraph _by f.w. lienan, superintendent tariff bureau, western union telegraph company_ the invention of samuel f.b. morse is unique in this, that the methods and instruments of telegraph operation as he evolved them from his first experimental apparatus were so simple, and yet so completely met the requirements, that they have continued in use to the present day in practically their original form. but this does not mean that there has not been the same constant striving for betterment in this as in every other art. many minds have, since the birth of the telegraph, occupied themselves with the problem of devising improved means of telegraphic transmission. the results have varied according to the point of view from which the subject was approached, but all, directly or indirectly, sought the same goal (the obvious one, since speed is the essence of telegraphy), to find the best means of sending more messages over the wire in a given time. it will readily suggest itself that the solution of this problem lies either in an arrangement enabling the wire to carry more than one message at once, or in some apparatus capable of transmitting messages over the wire more rapidly than can be done by hand, or in a combination of both these principles. duplex and quadruples operations are perhaps the most generally known methods by which increased utilization of the capacity of the line has been achieved. duplex operation permits of the sending of two messages over one wire in opposite directions at the same time; and quadruples, the simultaneous transmission of four messages, two going in each direction. truly a remarkable accomplishment; but, like many other things that have found their permanent place in daily use, become so familiar that we no longer pause to marvel at it. these expedients constitute a direct and very effective attack on the problem how to get more work out of the wire with the existing means of operation, and on account of their fundamental character and the important place which by reason thereof they have taken in the telegraphic art, are entitled to first mention. the problem of increasing the rapidity of transmission has been met by various automatic systems of telegraphy, so called because they embody the idea of mechanical transmission with resulting gain in speed and other advantages. the number of these which have from time to time been devised is considerable. not all have proven to be practicable, but those which have failed to prove in under actual operating conditions none the less display evidence of ingenuity which may well excite our admiration. to mention one or two which may be interesting on account of the oddity of their method--there was, for instance, an early device, similar in principle to the calling apparatus of the automatic telephone, which involved the turning of a movable disk so that a projection on its circumference pointed successively to the letters to be transmitted. experiments were made with ordinary metal type set up in a composing-stick, a series of brushes passing over the type faces and producing similar characters on a tape at the other end of the line. in another more recent ingenious device a pivoted mirror at the receiving end was so manipulated by the electrical impulses that a ray of light reflected from the surface of the mirror actually wrote the message upon sensitized paper, like a pencil, in a fair handwriting. in another the receiving apparatus printed vertical, horizontal, and slanting lines in such manner that they combined to make letters, rather angular, it is true, but legible. these and other kindred devices are interesting as efforts to accomplish the direct production of legible messages. in experimental tests they performed their function successfully, and in some cases with considerable speed, but some of them required more than one line wire, some were too sensitive to disturbance by inductive currents and some developed other weaknesses which have prevented their incorporation in the actual operating machinery of to-day. in the general development of the so-called automatic telegraph devices which have been or now are in practical operation, two lines have been pursued. one involves direct keyboard transmission; the other, the use at the sending end of a perforated tape capable of being run through a transmitting machine at high speed. one type of the former is the so-called step-by-step process, in which a revolving body in the transmitting apparatus, as, for instance, a cylinder provided with pegs placed at intervals around its circumference in spiral fashion, is arrested by the depression of the keys of the keyboard in such a way that a type wheel in the receiving apparatus at the distant end of the line prints the corresponding letter. this method was employed in the house and phelps printing telegraphs operated by the western union telegraph company in its earlier days, and is to-day used in the operation of the familiar ticker. in another type of direct keyboard operation the manipulation of the keys transmits the impulses directly to the line and the receiving apparatus translates them by electrically controlled mechanical devices into printed characters in message form. the systems best adapted to rapid telegraph work are predicated on the use of a perforated tape on which, by means of a suitable perforating apparatus, little round holes are produced in various groupings, each group, when the tape is passed through the transmitter, causing a certain combination of electrical impulses to pass over the wire. the transmitter as a rule consists of a mechanically or motor driven mechanism which causes the telegraph impulses to be transmitted to the line, and the combination and character of the impulses are determined by the tape perforations. the rapidity with which the tape may be driven through the transmitter makes very high speed operation possible. of course it is necessary that there should be at the other end of the wire apparatus capable of receiving and recording the signals as speedily as they are sent. as early as alexander bain perfected a system involving the use of the perforated transmitting tape; at the receiving station the messages were recorded in dots and dashes upon a chemically prepared strip of paper by means of iron pens, the metal of which was, through the combined action of the electrical current and the chemical preparation, decomposed, producing black marks in the form of dots and dashes upon the paper. the bain apparatus was in actual operation in the younger days of the telegraph. various systems, based on similar principles, involving tape transmission and the production of dots and dashes on a receiving tape, have from time to time been devised, but have generally not succeeded in establishing any permanent usefulness in competition with more effective instrumentalities which have been perfected. the hardiest survivor of them is the wheatstone apparatus, which has been in successful operation for years. originally the perforating--or, to use the commonly current term, the punching--of the wheatstone sending tape was accomplished by a mechanism equipped with three keys--one for the dot, one for the dash, and one for the space. the keys were struck with rubber-tipped mallets held in the hands of the operator and brought down with considerable force. later this rather primitive perforator was supplanted by one equipped with a full keyboard on the order of a typewriter keyboard. at the receiving end of the line the messages are produced on a tape in dots and dashes of the morse alphabet, and hence a further process of translation is necessary. this system has proven very useful, particularly in times of wire trouble and scarcity of facilities, when it is essential to move as many messages as possible over the available lines. the schemes devised for combining automatic transmission by the perforated-tape method with direct production of the message at its destination in ordinary letters and figures, eliminating the intervening step of translation from morse characters, have been many. their individual enumeration is beyond the scope of the present discussion, and would in any event involve a wearisome exposition of their distinguishing technical features. several of these systems are at present in practical and very effective operation. one of the forerunners of the printing telegraph systems now in use was the buckingham system, for many years employed by the western union telegraph company, but now for some time obsolete. the receiving mechanism of this system printed the messages on telegraph blanks placed upon a cylinder of just the right circumference to accommodate two telegraph blanks. the blanks were arranged in pairs, rolled into the form of a tube and placed around the cylinder. when two messages had been written a new pair of blanks had to be substituted. this was a rather awkward arrangement, but at a time when more highly developed apparatus had not been perfected it served its purpose to good advantage. the printing telegraphs of to-day produce their messages by the direct operation of typewriting machines or mechanisms operating substantially in the same manner as the ordinary typewriting machine. the methods by which the electrical impulses coming over the line are transformed into mechanical operation of the typewriter keys, or what corresponds to the typewriter keys, vary. it would be difficult to describe how this function is performed without entering upon much detail of a highly technical character. suffice it to say that means have been devised by which each combination of electrical impulses coming over the line wire causes a channel to be opened for the motor operation of the typewriting key-bar operating the corresponding letter upon the typewriter apparatus. these machines write the messages with proper arrangement of the date line, address, text, and signature, operating not only the type, but also the carriage shift and the line spacing as required. a further step in advance has been made by feeding the blanks into the receiving typewriter from a continuous roll, an attendant tearing the messages off as they are completed. the entire operation is automatic from beginning to end and capable of considerable speed. there remained the problem of devising some means by which a number of automatic units could be operated over the same line at the same time. this is not by any means a new proposition. here again various solutions have been offered by the scientists both of europe and of this country, and different systems designed to accomplish the desired object have been placed in operation. one of the most recent, and we believe the most efficient so far developed, is the so-called multiplex printer system, devised by the engineers of the western union telegraph company and now being extensively used by that company. perhaps the best picture of what is accomplished by this system can be given by an illustration. let us assume a single wire between new york and chicago. at the new york end there are connected with this wire four combined perforators and transmitters, and four receiving machines operating on the typewriter principle. at the chicago end the wire is connected with a like number of sending and receiving machines. all these machines are in simultaneous operation; that is to say, four messages are being sent from new york to chicago, and four messages are being sent from chicago to new york, all at the same time and over a single wire, and the entire process is automatic. the method by which eight messages can be sent over a single wire at the same time without interfering with one another cannot readily be described in simple terms. it may give some comprehension of the underlying principle to say that the heart of the mechanism is in two disks at each end of the line, which are divided into groups of segments insulated from each other, each group being connected to one of the sending or receiving machines, respectively. a rotating contact brush connected to the line wire passes over the disk, so that, as it comes into contact with each segment, the line wire is connected in turn with the channel leading to the corresponding operating unit. the brushes revolve in absolute unison of time and position. to use the same illustration as before, the brush on the chicago disk and the brush on the new york disk not only move at exactly the same speed, but at any given moment the two brushes are in exactly the same position with regard to the respective group of segments of both disks. if we now conceive of these brushes passing over the successive segments of the disks at a very great rate of speed, it may be understood that the effect is that the electrical impulses are distributed, each receiving machine receiving only those produced by the corresponding sending machine at the other end. in other words, each of the sets of receiving and sending apparatus really gets the use of the line for a fraction of the time during each revolution of the brushes of the distributer or disk mechanism. the multiplex automatic circuits are being extended all over the country and are proving extremely valuable in handling the constantly growing volume of telegraph traffic. what has thus been achieved in developing the technical side of telegraph operation must be attributed in part to that impulse toward improvement which is constantly at work everywhere and is the most potent factor in the progress of all industries, but in large measure it is the reflex of the growing--and recently very rapidly growing--demands which are made upon the telegraph service. emphasis is placed on the larger ratio of growth in this demand in recent years because it is peculiarly symptomatic of a noticeably wider realization of the advantages which the telegraph offers as an effective medium for business and social correspondence than has heretofore been in evidence. it means that we have graduated from that state of mind which saw in the telegraph something to be resorted to only under the stress of emergency, which caused many good people to associate a telegram with trouble and bad news and sudden calamity. there are still some dear old ladies who, on receipt of a telegram, make a rapid mental survey of the entire roster of their near and distant relatives and wonder whose death or illness the message may announce before they open the fateful envelope, only to find that up-to-date cousin mary, who has learned that the telegraph is as readily used as the mail and many times more rapid and efficient, wants to know whether they can come out for the week-end. when cousin mary of to-day wants to know, she wants to know right away--not only that she has her arrangements to make, but also because she just does not propose to wait a day or two to get a simple answer to a simple question. therein she embodies the spirit of the times. our ancestors were content to jog along for days in a stuffy stage-coach; we complain that the train which accomplishes the same distance in a few hours is too slow. we act more quickly; we think more quickly. we have to if we want to keep within earshot of the band. this speeding up makes itself quite obviously most apparent in our business processes. no body of business men need be told how much keener competition is becoming daily, how much narrower the margin by which success must be won. familiar phrases, these. but behind them lies a wealth of tragedy. how many have fallen by the way? it is estimated that something less than ten per cent. of those who engage in business on their own account succeed. how terrible the percentage of those who fail! the race has become too swift for them. driven by the lash of competition, business must perforce move faster and faster. time is becoming ever more precious. negotiations must be rapidly conducted, decisions arrived at quickly, transactions closed on the moment. what wonder that all this makes for a vastly increased use of the quickest method of communication? that is but one of the conditions which accounts for the growing use of the telegraph. another is to be found in the recognition of the convenience of the night letter and day letter. this has brought about a considerable increase in the volume of family and social correspondence by telegraph, which will grow to very much greater proportions as experience demonstrates its value. in business life the night letter and day letter have likewise established a distinct place for themselves. here also the present development of this traffic can be regarded as only rudimentary in comparison with the possibilities of its future development, indications of which are already apparent. it has been discovered that the telegram, on account of its peculiar attention-compelling quality, is an effective medium not only for the individual appeal, but for placing business propositions before a number of people at once, the night letters and day letters being particularly adapted to this purpose by reason of the greater scope of expression which they offer. again, business men are developing the habit of using the telegram in keeping in touch with their field forces and their salesmen and encouraging their activities, in cultivating closer contact with their customers, in placing their orders, in replenishing their stocks, and in any number of other ways calculated to further the profitable conduct of their enterprises. all this means that the telegraph is increasingly being utilized as a means of correspondence of every conceivable sort. it means also that with the growing appreciation of its adaptability to the every-day needs of social and business communication a very much larger public demand upon it must be anticipated, and it is to meet this demand with prompt and satisfactory service that the telegraph company has been bending its efforts to the perfection of a highly developed organization and of operating appliances of the most modern and efficient type. appendix b through the courtesy of j.j. carty, esq., chief engineer of the american telephone and telegraph company, there follows the clean-cut survey of the evolution of the telephone presented in his address before the franklin institute in philadelphia, may , , when he received the gold medal of the institute. more than any other, the telephone art is a product of american institutions and reflects the genius of our people. the story of its wonderful development is a story of our own country. it is a story exclusively of american enterprise and american progress, for, although the most powerful governments of europe have devoted their energies to the development and operation of telephone systems, great contributions to the art have not been made by any of them. with very few exceptions, the best that is used in telephony everywhere in the world to-day has been contributed by workers here in america. it is of peculiar interest to recall the fact that the first words ever transmitted by the electric telephone were spoken in a building at boston, not far from where benjamin franklin first saw the light. the telephone, as well as franklin, was born at boston, and, like franklin, its first journey into the world brought it to philadelphia, where it was exhibited by its inventor, alexander graham bell, at the centennial exhibition in , held here to commemorate the first hundred years of our existence as a free and independent nation. it was a fitting contribution to american progress, representing the highest product of american inventive genius, and a worthy continuance of the labors of franklin, one of the founders of the science of electricity as well as of the republic. nothing could appeal more to the genius of franklin than the telephone, for not only have his countrymen built upon it an electrical system of communication of transcendent magnitude and usefulness, but they have made it into a powerful agency for the advancement of civilization, eliminating barriers to speech, binding together our people into one nation, and now reaching out to the uttermost limits of the earth, with the grand aim of some day bringing together the people of all the nations of the earth into one common brotherhood. on the tenth day of march, , the telephone art was born, when, over a wire extending between two rooms on the top floor of a building in boston, alexander graham bell spoke to his associate, thomas a. watson, saying: "mr. watson, please come here. i want you." these words, then heard by mr. watson in the instrument at his ear, constitute the first sentence ever received by the electric telephone. the instrument into which doctor bell spoke was a crude apparatus, and the current which it generated was so feeble that, although the line was about a hundred feet in length, the voice heard in the receiver was so faint as to be audible only to such a trained and sensitive ear as that of the young mr. watson, and then only when all surrounding noises were excluded. following the instructions given by doctor bell, mr. watson with his own hands had constructed the first telephone instruments and ran the first telephone wire. at that time all the knowledge of the telephone art was possessed exclusively by those two men. there was no experience to guide and no tradition to follow. the founders of the telephone, with remarkable foresight, recognized that success depended upon the highest scientific knowledge and technical skill, and at once organized an experimental and research department. they also sought the aid of university professors eminent for their scientific attainments, although at that time there was no university giving the degree of electrical engineer or teaching electrical engineering. from this small beginning there has been developed the present engineering, experimental and research department which is under my charge. from only two men in this staff has, in , grown to more than six hundred engineers and scientists, including former professors, post-graduate students, and scientific investigators, graduates of nearly a hundred american colleges and universities, thus emphasizing in a special way the american character of the art. the above number includes only those devoted to experimental and research work and engineering development and standardization, and does not include the very much larger body of engineers engaged in manufacturing and in practical field work throughout the united states. not even the largest and most powerful government telephone and telegraph administration of europe has a staff to be compared with this. it is in our great universities that anything like it is to be found, but even here we find that it exceeds in number the entire teaching staff of even our largest technical institutions. a good idea may spring up in the mind of man anywhere, but as applied to such a complex entity as a telephone system, the countless parts of which cover a continent, no individual unaided can bring the idea to a successful conclusion. a comprehensive and effective engineering and scientific and development organization such as this is necessary, and years of expensive work are required before the idea can be rendered useful to the public. but, vital as they are to its success, the, telephone art requires more than engineers and scientists. so we find that in the building and operation and maintenance of that vast continental telephone system which bears the name of bell, in honor of the great inventor, there are at work each day more than , employees, of which nearly , are engaged in the manufacture of telephones, switchboards, cables, and all of the thousands and tens of thousands of parts required for the operation of the telephone system of america. the remaining , are distributed throughout all of the states of the union. about , of these are women, largely telephone operators; , are linemen, installers, cable splicers, and the like, engaged in the building and maintaining of the continental plant. there are thousands of other employees in the accounting, legal, commercial and other departments. there are , engineers located in different parts of the country. the majority of these engineers have received technical training in american technical schools, colleges, and universities. this number does not include by any means all of those in the other departments who have received technical or college training. in view of the technical and scientific nature of the telephone art, an unusually high-grade personnel is required in all departments, and the amount of unskilled labor employed is relatively very small. no other art calls forth in a higher degree those qualities of initiative, judgment, skill, enterprise, and high character which have in all times distinguished the great achievements of america. in the telephone plant of the whole world could be carried away in the arms of one man. it consisted of two crude telephones like the one now before you, connected together by a wire of about one hundred feet in length. a piece cut from this wire by mr. watson himself is here in this little glass case. at this time there was no practical telephone transmitter, no hard-drawn copper wire, no transposed and balanced metallic circuits, no multiple telephone switchboard, or telephone switchboard of any kind, no telephone cable that would work satisfactorily; in fact, there were none of the multitude of parts which now constitute the telephone system. the first practical telephone line was a copy of the best telegraph line of the day. a line wire was strung on the poles and housetops, using the ground for the return circuit. electrical disturbances, coming from no one knows where, were picked up by this line. frequently the disturbances were so loud in the telephone as to destroy conversation. when a second telephone line was strung alongside the first, even though perfectly insulated, another surprise awaited the telephone pioneers. conversation carried on over one of these wires could plainly be heard on the other. another strange thing was discovered. iron wire was not so good a conductor for the telephone current as it was for the telegraph current. the talking distance, therefore, was limited by the imperfect carrying power of the conductor and by the confusing effect of all sorts of disturbing currents from the atmosphere and from neighboring telephone and telegraph wires. these and a multitude of other difficulties, constituting problems of the most intricate nature, impeded the progress of the telephone art, but american engineers, by persistent study, incessant experimentation, and the expenditure of immense sums of money, have overcome these difficulties. they have created a new art, inventing, developing, and perfecting, making improvements great and small in telephone, transmitter, line, cable, switchboard, and every other piece of apparatus and plant required for the transmission of speech. as the result of nearly forty years of this unceasing, organized effort, on the th of january, , there was dedicated to the service of the american public a transcontinental telephone line, , miles long, joining the atlantic and the pacific, and carrying the human voice instantly and distinctly between san francisco and new york and philadelphia and boston. on that day over this line doctor bell again talked to mr. watson, who was now , miles away. it was a day of romantic triumph for these two men and for their associates and their thousands of successors who have built up the great american telephone art. the th of february following was another day of triumph for the telephone art as a product of american institutions, for, in the presence of dignitaries of the city and state here at philadelphia and at san francisco, the sound of the liberty bell, which had not been heard since it tolled for the death of chief-justice marshall, was transmitted by telephone over the transcontinental line to san francisco, where it was plainly heard by all those there assembled. immediately after this the stirring tones of the "star-spangled banner" played on the bugle at san francisco were sent like lightning back across the continent to salute the old bell in philadelphia. it had often been pointed out that the words of the tenth verse of the twenty-fifth chapter of leviticus, added when the bell was recast in , were peculiarly applicable to the part played by the old bell in . but the words were still more prophetic. the old bell had been silent for nearly eighty years, and it was thought forever, but by the use of the telephone a gentle tap, which could be heard through the air only a few feet away, was enough to transmit the tones of the historic relic all the way across the continent from the atlantic to the pacific. thus, by the aid of the telephone art, the liberty bell was enabled literally to fulfil its destiny and "proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." the two telephone instruments of had become many millions by , and the first telephone line, a hundred feet long, had grown to one of more than three thousand miles in length. this line is but part of the american telephone system of twenty-one million miles of wire, connecting more than nine million telephone stations located everywhere throughout the united states, and giving telephone service to one hundred million people. universal telephone service throughout the length and breadth of our land, that grand objective of theodore n. vail, has been attained. while alexander graham bell was the first to transmit the tones of the human voice over a wire by electricity, he was also the first to transmit the tones of the human voice by the wireless telephone, for in he spoke along a beam of light to a point a considerable distance away. while the method then used is different from that now in vogue, the medium employed for the transmission is the same--the ether, that mysterious, invisible, imponderable wave-conductor which permeates all creation. while many great advances in the wireless art were made by marconi and many other scientists in america and elsewhere, it remained for that distinguished group of american scientists and engineers working under my charge to be the first to transmit the tones of the human voice in the form of intelligible speech across the atlantic ocean. this great event and those immediately preceding it are so fresh in the public mind that i will make but a brief reference to them here. on april , , we were successful in transmitting speech without the use of wires from our radio station at montauk point on long island to wilmington, delaware. on may th we talked by radio telephone from our station on long island to st. simon island in the atlantic ocean, off the coast of georgia. on the th of august, with our apparatus installed by permission of the navy department at the arlington, virginia, radio station, speech was successfully transmitted from that station to the navy wireless station equipped with our receiving apparatus at the isthmus of panama. on september th, speech was successfully transmitted by wire from new york city to the radio station at arlington, virginia, and thence by wireless telephone across the continent to the radio station at mare island navy-yard, california, where i heard and understood the words of mr. theodore n. vail speaking to me from the telephone on his desk at new york. on the next morning at about one o'clock, washington time, we established wireless telephone communication between arlington, virginia, and pearl harbor in the hawaiian islands, where an engineer of our staff, together with united states naval officers, distinctly heard words spoken into the telephone at arlington, virginia. on october d, from the arlington tower in virginia, we successfully transmitted speech across the atlantic ocean to the eiffel tower at paris, where two of our engineers, in company with french military officers, heard and understood the words spoken at arlington. on the same day when speech was being transmitted by the apparatus at arlington to our engineers and to the french military officers at the eiffel tower in paris, our telephone engineer at pearl harbor, hawaii, together with an officer of the united states navy, heard the words spoken from arlington to paris and recognized the voice of the speaker. as a result of exhaustive researches, too extensive to describe here, it has been ascertained that the function of the wireless telephone is not to do away with the use of wires, but rather to be employed in situations where wires are not available or practicable, such as between ship and ship, and ship and shore, and across large bodies of water. the ether is a universal conductor for wireless telephone and telegraph impulses and must be used in common by all who wish to employ those agencies of communication. in the case of the wireless telegraph the number of messages which may be sent simultaneously is much restricted. in the case of the wireless telephone, owing to the thousands of separate wave-lengths required for the transmission of speech, the number of telephone conversations which may be carried on at the same time is still further restricted and is so small that all who can employ wires will find it necessary to do so, leaving the ether available for those who have no other means of communication. this quality of the ether which thus restricts its use is really a characteristic of the greatest value to mankind, for it forms a universal party line, so to speak, connecting together all creation, so that anybody anywhere, who connects with it in the proper manner, may be heard by every one else so connected. thus, a sinking ship or a human being anywhere can send forth a cry for help which may be heard and answered. no one can tell how far away are the limits of the telephone art, i am certain that they are not to be found here upon the earth, for i firmly believe in the fulfilment of that prophetic aspiration expressed by theodore n. vail at a great gathering in washington, that some day we will build up a world telephone system, making necessary to all peoples the use of a common language or a common understanding of languages which will join all of the people of the earth into one brotherhood. i believe that the time will come when the historic bell which now rests in independence hall will again be sounded, and that by means of the telephone art, which to-day has received such distinguished recognition at your hands, it will proclaim liberty once more, but this time throughout the whole world unto all the inhabitants thereof. and, when this world is ready for the message, i believe the telephone art will provide the means for transmitting to all mankind a great voice saying, "peace on earth, good will toward men." index a ampere's telegraph, . anglo-american telegraph co., . ardois signal system, . atlantic cable projected, ; attempted, , , , ; completed, , . audion amplifier, . automatic telegraphy, , , . b baltimore-washington telegraph line, . bell, alexander graham, parentage, ; youth, ; teaches elocution, ; experiments with speech, , ; meets henry, ; invents telephone, ; at centennial exposition, ; demonstrates telephone, ; bell telephone association, ; bell-western union settlement; bell and wireless telegraphy, ; transcontinental telephone, . bethell, union n., . blake, clarence j., . blake, francis, invents telephone transmitter, . branly coherer, . brett, j.w., . bright, charles tiltson, , , , . c cable laid across channel, . carty, j.j., youth, ; enters telephone field, ; carty and the switchboard, , ; uses metallic circuit, ; in new york city, ; invents bridging bell, ; chief engineer, ; extends long-distance telephone, ; seeks wireless telephone, ; talks across continent by wireless, . clepsydra, . code flags at sea, . coherer, . colomb's flashing lights, . congress votes funds for telegraph, . cooke, william p., , . cornell, ezra, , , . d davy's needle telegraph, . de forest, dr. lee, , . dolbear and telephone, ; wireless telegraphy, . drawbaugh case, . duplex telegraphy, , . dyar, harrison gray, . e edison, and the telegraph, ; telephone transmitter ; wireless telegraphy, . ellsworth, annie, . f field, cyrus w., plans transatlantic cable, ; honors, , ; develops cable, , . g gale, professor, , . gauss and weber's telegraph, . gisborne, f.n., . gray, elisha, , . _great eastern_, , , . guns as marine signals, . h hammond, john hays, . heaviside, a.w., . heliograph, . henry, joseph, , , , . hertz and the hertzian waves, . hubbard, gardiner g., , , , . hubbard, mabel, , . i indian smoke signals, . j jackson, dr. charles t., , . k kelvin, lord (see thomson), . "kwaker" captured, . l long-distance telephone, . m magnetic telegraph co., . marconi, boyhood, ; accomplished wireless telegraphy, ; demonstration in england, ; transatlantic telegraphy, ; marconi telegraph company, . marine signals on argonautic expedition, . mirror galvanometer, . mirrors of pharaoh, . morse at university of new york, . morse, code in signals, ; parentage, ; at yale, ; art student, ; artist, ; conceives the telegraph, ; exhibits telegraph, ; offers telegraph to congress, , ; patents telegraph, ; submarine cable, , ; erects first line, ; dies, . multiplex printer telegraph, . mundy, arthur j., . o o'reilly, henry, . p preece, w.h., , . printing telegraph, . pupin, michael i., . q quadruplex telegraphy, , . r reis's musical telegraph, . s sanders, thomas, , , . scribner, charles e., . searchlight telephone, . semaphore signals, . shouting sentinels, . sibley, hiram, , . signal columns, . siphon recorder, . smith, francis o.j., . stentorophonic tube, . submarine signals, . t telegraph, first suggestion, ; patented, ; development, . telephone invented and patented, ; at centennial, ; exchange, . thomson, youth, ; cable adviser, ; invents mirror galvanometer, ; knighted, ; invents siphon recorder, ; connection with telephone, . transatlantic cable (see atlantic cable). transatlantic wireless telegraphy, . transatlantic wireless telephone, . transcontinental telegraph, . transcontinental telephone, . transcontinental wireless telephone, . trowbridge, john, . troy, signaling fall of, . tuning the wireless telegraph, . v vail, alfred, arranges morse code, joins morse, ; makes telephone apparatus, ; operates first line, ; improves telegraph, . vail, theodore, joins telephone forces, ; puts wires underground, ; adopts copper circuits, ; resumes telephone leadership, ; talks across continent without wires, . w watson, aids bell with telephone, ; telephone partner, ; helps demonstrate telephone, ; telephones across continent, . western union, organized, ; enters telephone field, . wheatstone, ; boyhood, ; five-needle telegraph, ; single-needle telegraph, ; wheatstone-cooke controversy, ; automatic transmitter, ; bridge, ; opposes morse, ; encourages bell, . wig-wag system, . wireless telegraphy suggested, ; invented, ; on shipboard, ; in the future, . wireless telephone, conceived, ; future, ; in navy, . the line, passed through a coil and deflected a suspended magnet to the right or left, according to the direction of the current. a mirror attached to the suspension magnified the movement of the needle, and indicated the signals after the manner of the thomson mirror galvanometer. this telegraph, which was large and clumsy, was nevertheless used not only for scientific, but for general correspondence. steinheil, of munich, simplified it, and added an alarm in the form of a bell. in , steinheil also devised a recording telegraph, in which the movable needles indicated the message by marking dots and dashes with printer's ink on a ribbon of travelling paper, according to an artificial code in which the fewest signs were given to the commonest letters in the german language. with this apparatus the message was registered at the rate of six words a minute. the early experimenters, as we have seen, especially salva, had utilised the ground as the return part of the circuit; and salva had proposed to use it on his telegraph, but steinheil was the first to demonstrate its practical value. in trying, on the suggestion of gauss, to employ the rails of the nurenberg to furth railway as the conducting line for a telegraph in the year , he found they would not serve; but the failure led him to employ the earth as the return half of the circuit. in , professor stratingh, of groninque, holland, devised a telegraph in which the signals were made by electro-magnets actuating the hammers of two gongs or bells of different tone; and m. amyot invented an automatic sending key in the nature of a musical box. from - , edward davy, a devonshire surgeon, exhibited a needle telegraph in london, and proposed one based on the discovery of arago, that a piece of soft iron is temporarily magnetised by the passage of an electric current through a coil surrounding it. this principle was further applied by morse in his electro-magnetic printing telegraph. davy was a prolific inventor, and also sketched out a telegraph in which the gases evolved from water which was decomposed by the current actuated a recording pen. but his most valuable discovery was the 'relay,' that is to say, an auxiliary device by which a current too feeble to indicate the signals could call into play a local battery strong enough to make them. davy was in a fair way of becoming one of the fathers of the working telegraph, when his private affairs obliged him to emigrate to australia, and leave the course open to cooke and wheatstone. chapter ii. charles wheatstone. the electric telegraph, like the steam-engine and the railway, was a gradual development due to the experiments and devices of a long train of thinkers. in such a case he who crowns the work, making it serviceable to his fellow-men, not only wins the pecuniary prize, but is likely to be hailed and celebrated as the chief, if not the sole inventor, although in a scientific sense the improvement he has made is perhaps less than that of some ingenious and forgotten forerunner. he who advances the work from the phase of a promising idea, to that of a common boon, is entitled to our gratitude. but in honouring the keystone of the arch, as it were, let us acknowledge the substructure on which it rests, and keep in mind the entire bridge. justice at least is due to those who have laboured without reward. sir william fothergill cooke and sir charles wheatstone were the first to bring the electric telegraph into daily use. but we have selected wheatstone as our hero, because he was eminent as a man of science, and chiefly instrumental in perfecting the apparatus. as james watt is identified with the steam-engine, and george stephenson with the railway, so is wheatstone with the telegraph. charles wheatstone was born near gloucester, in february, . his father was a music-seller in the town, who, four years later, removed to , pall mall, london, and became a teacher of the flute. he used to say, with not a little pride, that he had been engaged in assisting at the musical education of the princess charlotte. charles, the second son, went to a village school, near gloucester, and afterwards to several institutions in london. one of them was in kennington, and kept by a mrs. castlemaine, who was astonished at his rapid progress. from another he ran away, but was captured at windsor, not far from the theatre of his practical telegraph. as a boy he was very shy and sensitive, liking well to retire into an attic, without any other company than his own thoughts. when he was about fourteen years old he was apprenticed to his uncle and namesake, a maker and seller of musical instruments, at , strand, london; but he showed little taste for handicraft or business, and loved better to study books. his father encouraged him in this, and finally took him out of the uncle's charge. at the age of fifteen, wheatstone translated french poetry, and wrote two songs, one of which was given to his uncle, who published it without knowing it as his nephew's composition. some lines of his on the lyre became the motto of an engraving by bartolozzi. small for his age, but with a fine brow, and intelligent blue eyes, he often visited an old book-stall in the vicinity of pall mall, which was then a dilapidated and unpaved thoroughfare. most of his pocket-money was spent in purchasing the books which had taken his fancy, whether fairy tales, history, or science. one day, to the surprise of the bookseller, he coveted a volume on the discoveries of volta in electricity, but not having the price, he saved his pennies and secured the volume. it was written in french, and so he was obliged to save again, till he could buy a dictionary. then he began to read the volume, and, with the help of his elder brother, william, to repeat the experiments described in it, with a home-made battery, in the scullery behind his father's house. in constructing the battery the boy philosophers ran short of money to procure the requisite copper-plates. they had only a few copper coins left. a happy thought occurred to charles, who was the leading spirit in these researches, 'we must use the pennies themselves,' said he, and the battery was soon complete. in september, , wheatstone brought himself into public notice by exhibiting the 'enchanted lyre,' or 'aconcryptophone,' at a music-shop at pall mall and in the adelaide gallery. it consisted of a mimic lyre hung from the ceiling by a cord, and emitting the strains of several instruments--the piano, harp, and dulcimer. in reality it was a mere sounding box, and the cord was a steel rod that conveyed the vibrations of the music from the several instruments which were played out of sight and ear-shot. at this period wheatstone made numerous experiments on sound and its transmission. some of his results are preserved in thomson's annals of philosophy for . he recognised that sound is propagated by waves or oscillations of the atmosphere, as light by undulations of the luminiferous ether. water, and solid bodies, such as glass, or metal, or sonorous wood, convey the modulations with high velocity, and he conceived the plan of transmitting sound-signals, music, or speech to long distances by this means. he estimated that sound would travel miles a second through solid rods, and proposed to telegraph from london to edinburgh in this way. he even called his arrangement a 'telephone.' [robert hooke, in his micrographia, published in , writes: 'i can assure the reader that i have, by the help of a distended wire, propagated the sound to a very considerable distance in an instant, or with as seemingly quick a motion as that of light.' nor was it essential the wire should be straight; it might be bent into angles. this property is the basis of the mechanical or lover's telephone, said to have been known to the chinese many centuries ago. hooke also considered the possibility of finding a way to quicken our powers of hearing.] a writer in the repository of arts for september , , in referring to the 'enchanted lyre,' beholds the prospect of an opera being performed at the king's theatre, and enjoyed at the hanover square rooms, or even at the horns tavern, kennington. the vibrations are to travel through underground conductors, like to gas in pipes. 'and if music be capable of being thus conducted,' he observes,'perhaps the words of speech may be susceptible of the same means of propagation. the eloquence of counsel, the debates of parliament, instead of being read the next day only,--but we shall lose ourselves in the pursuit of this curious subject.' besides transmitting sounds to a distance, wheatstone devised a simple instrument for augmenting feeble sounds, to which he gave the name of 'microphone.' it consisted of two slender rods, which conveyed the mechanical vibrations to both ears, and is quite different from the electrical microphone of professor hughes. in , his uncle, the musical instrument maker, died, and wheatstone, with his elder brother, william, took over the business. charles had no great liking for the commercial part, but his ingenuity found a vent in making improvements on the existing instruments, and in devising philosophical toys. at the end of six years he retired from the undertaking. in , wheatstone introduced his 'kaleidoscope,' a device for rendering the vibrations of a sounding body apparent to the eye. it consists of a metal rod, carrying at its end a silvered bead, which reflects a 'spot' of light. as the rod vibrates the spot is seen to describe complicated figures in the air, like a spark whirled about in the darkness. his photometer was probably suggested by this appliance. it enables two lights to be compared by the relative brightness of their reflections in a silvered bead, which describes a narrow ellipse, so as to draw the spots into parallel lines. in , wheatstone improved the german wind instrument, called the mund harmonica, till it became the popular concertina, patented on june , the portable harmonium is another of his inventions, which gained a prize medal at the great exhibition of . he also improved the speaking machine of de kempelen, and endorsed the opinion of sir david brewster, that before the end of this century a singing and talking apparatus would be among the conquests of science. in , wheatstone, who had won a name for himself, was appointed to the chair of experimental physics in king's college, london, but his first course of lectures on sound were a complete failure, owing to an invincible repugnance to public speaking, and a distrust of his powers in that direction. in the rostrum he was tongue-tied and incapable, sometimes turning his back on the audience and mumbling to the diagrams on the wall. in the laboratory he felt himself at home, and ever after confined his duties mostly to demonstration. he achieved renown by a great experiment--the measurement of the velocity of electricity in a wire. his method was beautiful and ingenious. he cut the wire at the middle, to form a gap which a spark might leap across, and connected its ends to the poles of a leyden jar filled with electricity. three sparks were thus produced, one at either end of the wire, and another at the middle. he mounted a tiny mirror on the works of a watch, so that it revolved at a high velocity, and observed the reflections of his three sparks in it. the points of the wire were so arranged that if the sparks were instantaneous, their reflections would appear in one straight line; but the middle one was seen to lag behind the others, because it was an instant later. the electricity had taken a certain time to travel from the ends of the wire to the middle. this time was found by measuring the amount of lag, and comparing it with the known velocity of the mirror. having got the time, he had only to compare that with the length of half the wire, and he found that the velocity of electricity was , miles a second. till then, many people had considered the electric discharge to be instantaneous; but it was afterwards found that its velocity depended on the nature of the conductor, its resistance, and its electro-static capacity. faraday showed, for example, that its velocity in a submarine wire, coated with insulator and surrounded with water, is only , miles a second, or still less. wheatstone's device of the revolving mirror was afterwards employed by foucault and fizeau to measure the velocity of light. in , at the dublin meeting of the british association, wheatstone showed that when metals were volatilised in the electric spark, their light, examined through a prism, revealed certain rays which were characteristic of them. thus the kind of metals which formed the sparking points could be determined by analysing the light of the spark. this suggestion has been of great service in spectrum analysis, and as applied by bunsen, kirchoff, and others, has led to the discovery of several new elements, such as rubidium and thallium, as well as increasing our knowledge of the heavenly bodies. two years later, he called attention to the value of thermo-electricity as a mode of generating a current by means of heat, and since then a variety of thermo-piles have been invented, some of which have proved of considerable advantage. wheatstone abandoned his idea of transmitting intelligence by the mechanical vibration of rods, and took up the electric telegraph. in he lectured on the system of baron schilling, and declared that the means were already known by which an electric telegraph could be made of great service to the world. he made experiments with a plan of his own, and not only proposed to lay an experimental line across the thames, but to establish it on the london and birmingham railway. before these plans were carried out, however, he received a visit from mr. fothergill cooke at his house in conduit street on february , , which had an important influence on his future. mr. cooke was an officer in the madras army, who, being home on furlough, was attending some lectures on anatomy at the university of heidelberg, where, on march , , he witnessed a demonstration with the telegraph of professor moncke, and was so impressed with its importance, that he forsook his medical studies and devoted all his efforts to the work of introducing the telegraph. he returned to london soon after, and was able to exhibit a telegraph with three needles in january, . feeling his want of scientific knowledge, he consulted faraday and dr. roget, the latter of whom sent him to wheatstone. at a second interview, mr. cooke told wheatstone of his intention to bring out a working telegraph, and explained his method. wheatstone, according to his own statement, remarked to cooke that the method would not act, and produced his own experimental telegraph. finally, cooke proposed that they should enter into a partnership, but wheatstone was at first reluctant to comply. he was a well-known man of science, and had meant to publish his results without seeking to make capital of them. cooke, on the other hand, declared that his sole object was to make a fortune from the scheme. in may they agreed to join their forces, wheatstone contributing the scientific, and cooke the administrative talent. the deed of partnership was dated november , . a joint patent was taken out for their inventions, including the five-needle telegraph of wheatstone, and an alarm worked by a relay, in which the current, by dipping a needle into mercury, completed a local circuit, and released the detent of a clockwork. the five-needle telegraph, which was mainly, if not entirely, due to wheatstone, was similar to that of schilling, and based on the principle enunciated by ampere--that is to say, the current was sent into the line by completing the circuit of the battery with a make and break key, and at the other end it passed through a coil of wire surrounding a magnetic needle free to turn round its centre. according as one pole of the battery or the other was applied to the line by means of the key, the current deflected the needle to one side or the other. there were five separate circuits actuating five different needles. the latter were pivoted in rows across the middle of a dial shaped like a diamond, and having the letters of the alphabet arranged upon it in such a way that a letter was literally pointed out by the current deflecting two of the needles towards it. an experimental line, with a sixth return wire, was run between the euston terminus and camden town station of the london and north western railway on july , . the actual distance was only one and a half mile, but spare wire had been inserted in the circuit to increase its length. it was late in the evening before the trial took place. mr. cooke was in charge at camden town, while mr. robert stephenson and other gentlemen looked on; and wheatstone sat at his instrument in a dingy little room, lit by a tallow candle, near the booking-office at euston. wheatstone sent the first message, to which cooke replied, and 'never,' said wheatstone, 'did i feel such a tumultuous sensation before, as when, all alone in the still room, i heard the needles click, and as i spelled the words, i felt all the magnitude of the invention pronounced to be practicable beyond cavil or dispute.' in spite of this trial, however, the directors of the railway treated the 'new-fangled' invention with indifference, and requested its removal. in july, , however, it was favoured by the great western railway, and a line erected from the paddington terminus to west drayton station, a distance of thirteen miles. part of the wire was laid underground at first, but subsequently all of it was raised on posts along the line. their circuit was eventually extended to slough in , and was publicly exhibited at paddington as a marvel of science, which could transmit fifty signals a distance of , miles in a minute. the price of admission was a shilling. notwithstanding its success, the public did not readily patronise the new invention until its utility was noised abroad by the clever capture of the murderer tawell. between six and seven o'clock one morning a woman named sarah hart was found dead in her home at salt hill, and a man had been observed to leave her house some time before. the police knew that she was visited from time to time by a mr. john tawell, from berkhampstead, where he was much respected, and on inquiring and arriving at slough, they found that a person answering his description had booked by a slow train for london, and entered a first-class carriage. the police telegraphed at once to paddington, giving the particulars, and desiring his capture. 'he is in the garb of a quaker,' ran the message, 'with a brown coat on, which reaches nearly to his feet.' there was no 'q' in the alphabet of the five-needle instrument, and the clerk at slough began to spell the word 'quaker' with a 'kwa'; but when he had got so far he was interrupted by the clerk at paddington, who asked him to 'repent.' the repetition fared no better, until a boy at paddington suggested that slough should be allowed to finish the word. 'kwaker' was understood, and as soon as tawell stepped out on the platform at paddington he was 'shadowed' by a detective, who followed him into a new road omnibus, and arrested him in a coffee tavern. tawell was tried for the murder of the woman, and astounding revelations were made as to his character. transported in for the crime of forgery, he obtained a ticket-of-leave, and started as a chemist in sydney, where he flourished, and after fifteen years left it a rich man. returning to england, he married a quaker lady as his second wife. he confessed to the murder of sarah hart, by prussic acid, his motive being a dread of their relations becoming known. tawell was executed, and the notoriety of the case brought the telegraph into repute. its advantages as a rapid means of conveying intelligence and detecting criminals had been signally demonstrated, and it was soon adopted on a more extensive scale. in wheatstone introduced two improved forms of the apparatus, namely, the 'single' and the 'double' needle instruments, in which the signals were made by the successive deflections of the needles. of these, the single-needle instrument, requiring only one wire, is still in use. in a difference arose between cooke and wheatstone as to the share of each in the honour of inventing the telegraph. the question was submitted to the arbitration of the famous engineer, marc isambard brunel, on behalf of cooke, and professor daniell, of king's college, the inventor of the daniell battery, on the part of wheatstone. they awarded to cooke the credit of having introduced the telegraph as a useful undertaking which promised to be of national importance, and to wheatstone that of having by his researches prepared the public to receive it. they concluded with the words: 'it is to the united labours of two gentlemen so well qualified for mutual assistance that we must attribute the rapid progress which this important invention has made during five years since they have been associated.' the decision, however vague, pronounces the needle telegraph a joint production. if it was mainly invented by wheatstone, it was chiefly introduced by cooke. their respective shares in the undertaking might be compared to that of an author and his publisher, but for the fact that cooke himself had a share in the actual work of invention. in wheatstone had patented an alphabetical telegraph, or, 'wheatstone a b c instrument,' which moved with a step-by-step motion, and showed the letters of the message upon a dial. the same principle was utilised in his type-printing telegraph, patented in . this was the first apparatus which printed a telegram in type. it was worked by two circuits, and as the type revolved a hammer, actuated by the current, pressed the required letter on the paper. in wheatstone also brought out his magneto-electrical machine for generating continuous currents, and his chronoscope, for measuring minute intervals of time, which was used in determining the speed of a bullet or the passage of a star. in this apparatus an electric current actuated an electro-magnet, which noted the instant of an occurrence by means of a pencil on a moving paper. it is said to have been capable of distinguishing / part of a second, and the time a body took to fall from a height of one inch. the same year he was awarded the royal medal of the royal society for his explanation of binocular vision, a research which led him to construct the stereoscope. he showed that our impression of solidity is gained by the combination in the mind of two separate pictures of an object taken by both of our eyes from different points of view. thus, in the stereoscope, an arrangement of lenses and mirrors, two photographs of the same object taken from different points are so combined as to make the object stand out with a solid aspect. sir david brewster improved the stereoscope by dispensing with the mirrors, and bringing it into its existing form. the 'pseudoscope' (wheatstone was partial to exotic forms of speech) was introduced by its professor in , and is in some sort the reverse of the stereoscope, since it causes a solid object to seem hollow, and a nearer one to be farther off; thus, a bust appears to be a mask, and a tree growing outside of a window looks as if it were growing inside the room. on november , , he exhibited his electro-magnetic clock in the library of the royal society, and propounded a plan for distributing the correct time from a standard clock to a number of local timepieces. the circuits of these were to be electrified by a key or contact-maker actuated by the arbour of the standard, and their hands corrected by electro-magnetism. the following january alexander bain took out a patent for an electro-magnetic clock, and he subsequently charged wheatstone with appropriating his ideas. it appears that bain worked as a mechanist to wheatstone from august to december, , and he asserted that he had communicated the idea of an electric clock to wheatstone during that period; but wheatstone maintained that he had experimented in that direction during may. bain further accused wheatstone of stealing his idea of the electro-magnetic printing telegraph; but wheatstone showed that the instrument was only a modification of his own electro-magnetic telegraph. in wheatstone communicated an important paper to the royal society, entitled 'an account of several new processes for determining the constants of a voltaic circuit.' it contained an exposition of the well-known balance for measuring the electrical resistance of a conductor, which still goes by the name of wheatstone's bridge or balance, although it was first devised by mr. s. w. christie, of the royal military academy, woolwich, who published it in the philosophical transactions for . the method was neglected until wheatstone brought it into notice. his paper abounds with simple and practical formula: for the calculation of currents and resistances by the law of ohm. he introduced a unit of resistance, namely, a foot of copper wire weighing one hundred grains, and showed how it might be applied to measure the length of wire by its resistance. he was awarded a medal for his paper by the society. the same year he invented an apparatus which enabled the reading of a thermometer or a barometer to be registered at a distance by means of an electric contact made by the mercury. a sound telegraph, in which the signals were given by the strokes of a bell, was also patented by cooke and wheatstone in may of that year. the introduction of the telegraph had so far advanced that, on september , , the electric telegraph company was registered, and wheatstone, by his deed of partnership with cooke, received a sum of l , for the use of their joint inventions. from - wheatstone had thought a good deal about submarine telegraphs, and in he gave evidence before the railway committee of the house of commons on the feasibility of the proposed line from dover to calais. he had even designed the machinery for making and laying the cable. in the autumn of , with the assistance of mr. j. d. llewellyn, he submerged a length of insulated wire in swansea bay, and signalled through it from a boat to the mumbles lighthouse. next year he suggested the use of gutta-percha for the coating of the intended wire across the channel. though silent and reserved in public, wheatstone was a clear and voluble talker in private, if taken on his favourite studies, and his small but active person, his plain but intelligent countenance, was full of animation. sir henry taylor tells us that he once observed wheatstone at an evening party in oxford earnestly holding forth to lord palmerston on the capabilities of his telegraph. 'you don't say so!' exclaimed the statesman. 'i must get you to tell that to the lord chancellor.' and so saying, he fastened the electrician on lord westbury, and effected his escape. a reminiscence of this interview may have prompted palmerston to remark that a time was coming when a minister might be asked in parliament if war had broken out in india, and would reply, 'wait a minute; i'll just telegraph to the governor-general, and let you know.' at christchurch, marylebone, on february , , wheatstone was married. his wife was the daughter of a taunton tradesman, and of handsome appearance. she died in , leaving a family of five young children to his care. his domestic life was quiet and uneventful. one of wheatstone's most ingenious devices was the 'polar clock,' exhibited at the meeting of the british association in . it is based on the fact discovered by sir david brewster, that the light of the sky is polarised in a plane at an angle of ninety degrees from the position of the sun. it follows that by discovering that plane of polarisation, and measuring its azimuth with respect to the north, the position of the sun, although beneath the horizon, could be determined, and the apparent solar time obtained. the clock consisted of a spy-glass, having a nichol or double-image prism for an eye-piece, and a thin plate of selenite for an object-glass. when the tube was directed to the north pole--that is, parallel to the earth's axis--and the prism of the eye-piece turned until no colour was seen, the angle of turning, as shown by an index moving with the prism over a graduated limb, gave the hour of day. the device is of little service in a country where watches are reliable; but it formed part of the equipment of the north polar expedition commanded by captain nares. wheatstone's remarkable ingenuity was displayed in the invention of cyphers which have never been unravelled, and interpreting cypher manuscripts in the british museum which had defied the experts. he devised a cryptograph or machine for turning a message into cypher which could only be interpreted by putting the cypher into a corresponding machine adjusted to reproduce it. the rapid development of the telegraph in europe may be gathered from the fact that in , the death of the emperor nicholas at st. petersburg, about one o'clock in the afternoon, was announced in the house of lords a few hours later; and as a striking proof of its further progress, it may be mentioned that the result of the oaks of was received in new york fifteen seconds after the horses passed the winning-post. wheatstone's next great invention was the automatic transmitter, in which the signals of the message are first punched out on a strip of paper, which is then passed through the sending-key, and controls the signal currents. by substituting a mechanism for the hand in sending the message, he was able to telegraph about words a minute, or five times the ordinary rate. in the postal telegraph service this apparatus is employed for sending press telegrams, and it has recently been so much improved, that messages are now sent from london to bristol at a speed of words a minute, and even of words a minute between london and aberdeen. on the night of april , , when mr. gladstone introduced his bill for home rule in ireland, no fewer than , , words were despatched from the central station at st. martin's-le-grand by wheatstone transmitters. were mr. gladstone himself to speak for a whole week, night and day, and with his usual facility, he could hardly surpass this achievement. the plan of sending messages by a running strip of paper which actuates the key was originally patented by bain in ; but wheatstone, aided by mr. augustus stroh, an accomplished mechanician, and an able experimenter, was the first to bring the idea into successful operation. in wheatstone was appointed by the board of trade to report on the subject of the atlantic cables, and in he was one of the experts who advised the atlantic telegraph company on the construction of the successful lines of and . on february , , he published the principle of reaction in the dynamo-electric machine by a paper to the royal society; but mr. c. w. siemens had communicated the identical discovery ten days earlier, and both papers were read on the same day. it afterwards appeared that herr werner siemens, mr. samuel alfred varley, and professor wheatstone had independently arrived at the principle within a few months of each other. varley patented it on december , ; siemens called attention to it on january , ; and wheatstone exhibited it in action at the royal society on the above date. but it will be seen from our life of william siemens that soren hjorth, a danish inventor, had forestalled them. in the electric telegraph lines of the united kingdom, worked by different companies, were transferred to the post office, and placed under government control. wheatstone was knighted in , after his completion of the automatic telegraph. he had previously been made a chevalier of the legion of honour. some thirty-four distinctions and diplomas of home or foreign societies bore witness to his scientific reputation. since he had been a fellow of the royal society, and in he was appointed a foreign associate of the french academy of sciences. the same year he was awarded the ampere medal by the french society for the encouragement of national industry. in he was created an honorary member of the institution of civil engineers. he was a d.c.l. of oxford and an ll.d. of cambridge. while on a visit to paris during the autumn of , and engaged in perfecting his receiving instrument for submarine cables, he caught a cold, which produced inflammation of the lungs, an illness from which he died in paris, on october , . a memorial service was held in the anglican chapel, paris, and attended by a deputation of the academy. his remains were taken to his home in park crescent, london, and buried in kensal green. chapter iii. samuel morse. cooke and wheatstone were the first to introduce a public telegraph worked by electro-magnetism; but it had the disadvantage of not marking down the message. there was still room for an instrument which would leave a permanent record that might be read at leisure, and this was the invention of samuel finley breeze morse. he was born at the foot of breed's hill, in charlestown, massachusetts, on the th of april, . the place was a little over a mile from where benjamin franklin was born, and the date was a little over a year after he died. his family was of british origin. anthony morse, of marlborough, in wiltshire, had emigrated to america in , and settled in newbury, massachusetts, he and his descendants prospered. the grandfather of morse was a member of the colonial and state legislatures, and his father, jedediah morse, d.d., was a well-known divine of his day, and the author of morse's american geography, as well as a compiler of a universal gazetteer. his mother was elizabeth ann breeze, apparently of welsh extraction, and the grand-daughter of samuel finley, a distinguished president of the princeton college. jedediah morse is reputed a man of talent, industry, and vigour, with high aims for the good of his fellow-men, ingenious to conceive, resolute in action, and sanguine of success. his wife is described as a woman of calm, reflective mind, animated conversation, and engaging manners. they had two other sons besides samuel, the second of whom, sidney e. morse, was founder of the new york observer, an able mathematician, author of the art of cerography, or engraving upon wax, to stereotype from, and inventor of a barometer for sounding the deep-sea. sidney was the trusted friend and companion of his elder brother. at the age of four samuel was sent to an infant school kept by an old lady, who being lame, was unable to leave her chair, but carried her authority to the remotest parts of her dominion by the help of a long rattan. samuel, like the rest, had felt the sudden apparition of this monitor. having scratched a portrait of the dame upon a chest of drawers with the point of a pin, he was called out and summarily punished. years later, when he became notable, the drawers were treasured by one of his admirers. he entered a preparatory school at andover, mass., when he was seven years old, and showed himself an eager pupil. among other books, he was delighted with plutarch's lives, and at thirteen he composed a biography of demosthenes, long preserved by his family. a year later he entered yale college as a freshman. during his curriculum he attended the lectures of professor jeremiah day on natural philosophy and professor benjamin sieliman on chemistry, and it was then he imbibed his earliest knowledge of electricity. in - dr. day was teaching from enfield's text-book on philosophy, that 'if the (electric) circuit be interrupted, the fluid will become visible, and when: it passes it will leave an impression upon any intermediate body,' and he illustrated this by sending the spark through a metal chain, so that it became visible between the links, and by causing it to perforate paper. morse afterwards declared this experiment to have been the seed which rooted in his mind and grew into the 'invention of the telegraph.' it is not evident that morse had any distinct idea of the electric telegraph in these days; but amidst his lessons in literature and philosophy he took a special interest in the sciences of electricity and chemistry. he became acquainted with the voltaic battery through the lectures of his friend, professor sieliman; and we are told that during one of his vacations at yale he made a series of electrical experiments with dr. dwight. some years later he resumed these studies under his friend professor james freeman dana, of the university of new york, who exhibited the electro-magnet to his class in , and also under professor renwick, of columbia college. art seems to have had an equal if not a greater charm than science for morse at this period. a boy of fifteen, he made a water-colour sketch of his family sitting round the table; and while a student at yale he relieved his father, who was far from rich, of a part of his education by painting miniatures on ivory, and selling them to his companions at five dollars a-piece. before he was nineteen he completed a painting of the 'landing of the pilgrims at plymouth,' which formerly hung in the office of the mayor, at charlestown, massachusetts. on graduating at yale, in , he devoted himself to art, and became a pupil of washington allston, the well-known american painter. he accompanied allston to europe in , and entered the studio of benjamin west, who was then at the zenith of his reputation. the friendship of west, with his own introductions and agreeable personality, enabled him to move in good society, to which he was always partial. william wilberforce, zachary macaulay, father of the historian, coleridge, and copley, were among his acquaintances. leslie, the artist, then a struggling genius like himself, was his fellow-lodger. his heart was evidently in the profession of his choice. 'my passion for my art,' he wrote to his mother, in , 'is so firmly rooted that i am confident no human power could destroy it. the more i study the greater i think is its claim to the appellation of divine. i am now going to begin a picture of the death of hercules the figure to be as large as life.' after he had perfected this work to his own eyes, he showed it, with not a little pride, to mr. west, who after scanning it awhile said, 'very good, very good. go on and finish it.' morse ventured to say that it was finished. 'no! no! no!' answered west; 'see there, and there, and there. there is much to be done yet. go on and finish it.' each time the pupil showed it the master said, 'go on and finish it.' [the telegraph in america, by james d. reid] this was a lesson in thoroughness of work and attention to detail which was not lost on the student. the picture was exhibited at the royal academy, in somerset house, during the summer of , and west declared that if morse were to live to his own age he would never make a better composition. the remark is equivocal, but was doubtless intended as a compliment to the precocity of the young painter. in order to be correct in the anatomy he had first modelled the figure of his hercules in clay, and this cast, by the advice of west, was entered in competition for a prize in sculpture given by the society of arts. it proved successful, and on may the sculptor was presented with the prize and a gold medal by the duke of norfolk before a distinguished gathering in the adelphi. flushed with his triumph, morse determined to compete for the prize of fifty guineas and a gold medal offered by the royal academy for the best historical painting, and took for his subject, 'the judgment of jupiter in the case of apollo, marpessa, and idas.' the work was finished to the satisfaction of west, but the painter was summoned home. he was still, in part at least, depending on his father, and had been abroad a year longer than the three at first intended. during this time he had been obliged to pinch himself in a thousand ways in order to eke out his modest allowance. 'my drink is water, porter being too expensive,' he wrote to his parents. 'i have had no new clothes for nearly a year. my best are threadbare, and my shoes are out at the toes. my stockings all want to see my mother, and my hat is hoary with age.' mr. west recommended him to stay, since the rules of the competition required the winner to receive the prize in person. but after trying in vain to get this regulation waived, he left for america with his picture, having, a few days prior to his departure, dined with mr. wilberforce as the guns of hyde park were signalling the victory of waterloo. arriving in boston on october , he lost no time in renting a studio. his fame had preceded him, and he became the lion of society. his 'judgment of jupiter' was exhibited in the town, and people flocked to see it. but no one offered to buy it. if the line of high art he had chosen had not supported him in england, it was tantamount to starvation in the rawer atmosphere of america. even in boston, mellowed though it was by culture, the classical was at a discount. almost penniless, and fretting under his disappointment, he went to concord, new hampshire, and contrived to earn a living by painting cabinet portraits. was this the end of his ambitious dreams? money was needful to extricate him from this drudgery and let him follow up his aspirations. love may have been a still stronger motive for its acquisition. so he tried his hand at invention, and, in conjunction with his brother sidney, produced what was playfully described as 'morse's patent metallic double-headed ocean-drinker and deluge-spouter pump-box.' the pump was quite as much admired as the 'jupiter,' and it proved as great a failure. succeeding as a portrait painter, he went, in , on the invitation of his uncle, dr. finley, to charleston, in south carolina, and opened a studio there. after a single season he found himself in a position to marry, and on october , , was united to lucretia p. walker, of concord, new hampshire, a beautiful and accomplished lady. he thrived so well in the south that he once received as many as one hundred and fifty orders in a few weeks; and his reputation was such that he was honoured with a commission from the common council of charleston to execute a portrait of james monroe, then president of the united states. it was regarded as a masterpiece. in january, , he instituted the south carolina academy of fine arts, which is now extinct. after four years of life in charleston he returned to the north with savings to the amount of l , and settled in new york. he devoted eighteen months to the execution of a large painting of the house of representatives in the capitol at washington; but its exhibition proved a loss, and in helping his brothers to pay his father's debts the remains of his little fortune were swept away. he stood next to allston as an american historical painter, but all his productions in that line proved a disappointment. the public would not buy them. on the other hand, he received an order from the corporation of new york for a portrait of general lafayette, the hero of the hour. while engaged on this work he lost his wife in february, , and then his parents. in he visited europe, and spent his time among the artists and art galleries of england, france, and italy. in paris he undertook a picture of the interior of the louvre, showing some of the masterpieces in miniature, but it seems that nobody purchased it. he expected to be chosen to illustrate one of the vacant panels in the rotunda of the capitol at washington; but in this too he was mistaken. however, some fellow-artists in america, thinking he had deserved the honour, collected a sum of money to assist him in painting the composition he had fixed upon: 'the signing of the first compact on board the mayflower.' in a far from hopeful mood after his three years' residence abroad he embarked on the packet sully, captain pell, and sailed from havre for new york on october , . among the passengers was dr. charles t. jackson, of boston, who had attended some lectures on electricity in paris, and carried an electro-magnet in his trunk. one day while morse and dr. jackson, with a few more, sat round the luncheon table in the cabin, he began to talk of the experiments he had witnessed. some one asked if the speed of the electricity was lessened by its passage through a long wire, and dr. jackson, referring to a trial of faraday, replied that the current was apparently instantaneous. morse, who probably remembered his old lessons in the subject, now remarked that if the presence of the electricity could be rendered visible at any point of the circuit he saw no reason why intelligence might not be sent by this means. the idea became rooted in his mind, and engrossed his thoughts. until far into the night he paced the deck discussing the matter with dr. jackson, and pondering it in solitude. ways of rendering the electricity sensible at the far end of the line were considered. the spark might pierce a band of travelling paper, as professor day had mentioned years before; it might decompose a chemical solution, and leave a stain to mark its passage, as tried by mr. dyar in ; or it could excite an electro-magnet, which, by attracting a piece of soft iron, would inscribe the passage with a pen or pencil. the signals could be made by very short currents or jets of electricity, according to a settled code. thus a certain number of jets could represent a corresponding numeral, and the numeral would, in its turn, represent a word in the language. to decipher the message, a special code-book or dictionary would be required. in order to transmit the currents through the line, he devised a mechanical sender, in which the circuit would be interrupted by a series of types carried on a port-rule or composing-stick, which travelled at a uniform speed. each type would have a certain number of teeth or projections on its upper face, and as it was passed through a gap in the circuit the teeth would make or break the current. at the other end of the line the currents thus transmitted would excite the electro-magnet, actuate the pencil, and draw a zig-zag line on the paper, every angle being a distinct signal, and the groups of signals representing a word in the code. during the voyage of six weeks the artist jotted his crude ideas in his sketch-book, which afterwards became a testimony to their date. that he cherished hopes of his invention may be gathered from his words on landing, 'well, captain pell, should you ever hear of the telegraph one of these days as the wonder of the world, remember the discovery was made on the good ship sully.' soon after his return his brothers gave him a room on the fifth floor of a house at the corner of nassau and beekman streets, new york. for a long time it was his studio and kitchen, his laboratory and bedroom. with his livelihood to earn by his brush, and his invention to work out, morse was now fully occupied. his diet was simple; he denied himself the pleasures of society, and employed his leisure in making models of his types. the studio was an image of his mind at this epoch. rejected pictures looked down upon his clumsy apparatus, type-moulds lay among plaster-casts, the paint-pot jostled the galvanic battery, and the easel shared his attention with the lathe. by degrees the telegraph allured him from the canvas, and he only painted enough to keep the wolf from the door. his national picture, 'the signing of the first compact on board the mayflower,' was never finished, and the dollars which had been subscribed for it were finally returned with interest. for morse by nature was proud and independent, with a sensitive horror of incurring debt. he would rather endure privation than solicit help or lie under a humiliating obligation. his mother seems to have been animated with a like spirit, for the hon. amos kendall informs us that she had suffered much through the kindness of her husband in becoming surety for his friends, and that when she was dying she exacted a promise from her son that he would never endanger his peace of mind and the comfort of his home by doing likewise. during the two and a half years from november, , to the summer of he was obliged to change his residence three times, and want of money prevented him from combining the several parts of his invention into a working whole. in , however, his reputation as an historical painter, and the esteem in which he was held as a man of culture and refinement, led to his appointment as the first professor of the literature of the arts of design in the newly founded university of the city of new york. in the month of july he took up his quarters in the new buildings of the university at washington square, and was henceforth able to devote more time to his apparatus. the same year professor daniell, of king's college, london, brought out his constant-current battery, which befriended morse in his experiments, as it afterwards did cooke and wheatstone, hitherto the voltaic battery had been a source of trouble, owing to the current becoming weak as the battery was kept in action. the length of line through which morse could work his apparatus was an important point to be determined, for it was known that the current grows feebler in proportion to the resistance of the wire it traverses. morse saw a way out of the difficulty, as davy, cooke, and wheatstone did, by the device known as the relay. were the current too weak to effect the marking of a message, it might nevertheless be sufficiently strong to open and close the circuit of a local battery which would print the signals. such relays and local batteries, fixed at intervals along the line, as post-horses on a turnpike, would convey the message to an immense distance. 'if i can succeed in working a magnet ten miles,' said morse,'i can go round the globe. it matters not how delicate the movement may be.' according to his own statement, he devised the relay in or earlier; but it was not until the beginning of that he explained the device, and showed the working of his apparatus to his friend, mr. leonard d. gale, professor of chemistry in the university. this gentleman took a lively interest in the apparatus, and proved a generous ally of the inventor. until then morse had only tried his recorder on a few yards of wire, the battery was a single pair of plates, and the electro-magnet was of the elementary sort employed by moll, and illustrated in the older books. the artist, indeed, was very ignorant of what had been done by other electricians; and professor gale was able to enlighten him. when gale acquainted him with some results in telegraphing obtained by mr. barlow, he said he was not aware that anyone had even conceived the notion of using the magnet for such a purpose. the researches of professor joseph henry on the electro-magnet, in , were equally unknown to morse, until professor gale drew his attention to them, and in accordance with the results, suggested that the simple electro-magnet, with a few turns of thick wire which he employed, should be replaced by one having a coil of long thin wire. by this change a much feebler current would be able to excite the magnet, and the recorder would mark through a greater length of line. henry himself, in , had devised a telegraph similar to that of morse, and signalled through a mile of wire, by causing the armature of his electro-magnet to strike a bell. this was virtually the first electro-magnetic acoustic telegraph.[american journal of science.] the year of the telegraph-- --was an important one for morse, as it was for cooke and wheatstone. in the privacy of his rooms he had constructed, with his own hands, a model of his apparatus, and fortune began to favour him. thanks to professor gale, he improved the electro-magnet, employed a more powerful battery, and was thus able to work through a much longer line. in february, , the american house of representatives passed a resolution asking the secretary of the treasury to report on the propriety of establishing a system of telegraphs for the united states, and on march issued a circular of inquiry, which fell into the hands of the inventor, and probably urged him to complete his apparatus, and bring it under the notice of the government. lack of mechanical skill, ignorance of electrical science, as well as want of money, had so far kept it back. but the friend in need whom he required was nearer than he anticipated. on saturday, september , , while morse was exhibiting the model to professor daubeny, of oxford, then visiting the states, and others, a young man named alfred vail became one of the spectators, and was deeply impressed with the results. vail was born in , a son of judge stephen vail, master of the speedwell ironworks at morristown, new jersey. after leaving the village school his father took him and his brother george into the works; but though alfred inherited a mechanical turn of mind, he longed for a higher sphere, and on attaining to his majority he resolved to enter the presbyterian church. in he went to the university of the city of new york, where he graduated in october, . near the close of the term, however, his health failed, and he was constrained to relinquish his clerical aims. while in doubts as to his future he chanced to see the telegraph, and that decided him. he says: 'i accidentally and without invitation called upon professor morse at the university, and found him with professors torrey and daubeny in the mineralogical cabinet and lecture-room of professor gale, where professor morse was exhibiting to these gentlemen an apparatus which he called his electro-magnetic telegraph. there were wires suspended in the room running from one end of it to the other, and returning many times, making a length of seventeen hundred feet. the two ends of the wire were connected with an electro-magnet fastened to a vertical wooden frame. in front of the magnet was its armature, and also a wooden lever or arm fitted at its extremity to hold a lead-pencil.... i saw this instrument work, and became thoroughly acquainted with the principle of its operation, and, i may say, struck with the rude machine, containing, as i believed, the germ of what was destined to produce great changes in the conditions and relations of mankind. i well recollect the impression which was then made upon my mind. i rejoiced to think that i lived in such a day, and my mind contemplated the future in which so grand and mighty an agent was about to be introduced for the benefit of the world. before leaving the room in which i beheld for the first time this magnificent invention, i asked professor morse if he intended to make an experiment on a more extended line of conductors. he replied that he did, but that he desired pecuniary assistance to carry out his plans. i promised him assistance provided he would admit me into a share of the invention, to which proposition he assented. i then returned to my boarding-house, locked the door of my room, threw myself upon the bed, and gave myself up to reflection upon the mighty results which were certain to follow the introduction of this new agent in meeting and serving the wants of the world. with the atlas in my hand i traced the most important lines which would most certainly be erected in the united states, and calculated their length. the question then rose in my mind, whether the electro-magnet could be made to work through the necessary lengths of line, and after much reflection i came to the conclusion that, provided the magnet would work even at a distance of eight or ten miles, there could be no risk in embarking in the enterprise. and upon this i decided in my own mind to sink or swim with it.' young vail applied to his father, who was a man of enterprise and intelligence. he it was who forged the shaft of the savannah, the first steamship which crossed the atlantic. morse was invited to speedwell with his apparatus, that the judge might see it for himself, and the question of a partnership was mooted. two thousand dollars were required to procure the patents and construct an instrument to bring before the congress. in spite of a financial depression, the judge was brave enough to lend his assistance, and on september , , an agreement was signed between the inventor and alfred vail, by which the latter was to construct, at his own expense, a model for exhibition to a committee of congress, and to secure the necessary patents for the united states. in return vail was to receive one-fourth of the patent rights in that country. provision was made also to give vail an interest in any foreign patents he might furnish means to obtain. the american patent was obtained by morse on october , . he had returned to new york, and was engaged in the preparation of his dictionary. for many months alfred vail worked in a secret room at the iron factory making the new model, his only assistant being an apprentice of fifteen, william baxter, who subsequently designed the baxter engine, and died in . when the workshop was rebuilt this room was preserved as a memorial of the telegraph, for it was here that the true morse instrument, such as we know it, was constructed. it must be remembered that in those days almost everything they wanted had either to be made by themselves or appropriated to their purpose. their first battery was set up in a box of cherry-wood, parted into cells, and lined with bees-wax; their insulated wire was that used by milliners for giving outline to the 'sky-scraper' bonnets of that day. the first machine made at speedwell was a copy of that devised by morse, but as vail grew more intimate with the subject his own ingenuity came into play, and he soon improved on the original. the pencil was discarded for a fountain pen, and the zig-zag signals for the short and long lines now termed 'dots' and 'dashes.' this important alteration led him to the 'morse alphabet,' or code of signals, by which a letter is transmitted as a group of short and long jets, indicated as 'dots' and 'dashes' on the paper. thus the letter e, which is so common in english words, is now transmitted by a short jet which makes a dot; t, another common letter, by a long jet, making a dash; and q, a rare letter, by the group dash, dash, dot, dash. vail tried to compute the relative frequency of all the letters in order to arrange his alphabet; but a happy idea enabled him to save his time. he went to the office of the local newspaper, and found the result he wanted in the type-cases of the compositors. the morse, or rather vail code, is at present the universal telegraphic code of symbols, and its use is extending to other modes of signalling-for example, by flags, lights, or trumpets. the hard-fisted farmers of new jersey, like many more at that date, had no faith in the 'telegraph machine,' and openly declared that the judge had been a fool for once to put his money in it. the judge, on his part, wearied with the delay, and irritated by the sarcasm of his neighbours, grew dispirited and moody. alfred, and morse, who had come to assist, were careful to avoid meeting him. at length, on january , , alfred told the apprentice to go up to the house and invite his father to come down to see the telegraph at work. it was a cold day, but the boy was so eager that he ran off without putting on his coat. in the sitting-room he found the judge with his hat on as if about to go out, but seated before the fire leaning his head on his hand, and absorbed in gloomy reflection. 'well, william?' he said, looking up, as the boy entered; and when the message was delivered he started to his feet. in a few minutes he was standing in the experimental-room, and the apparatus was explained. calling for a piece of paper he wrote upon it the words, 'a patient waiter is no loser,' and handed it to alfred, with the remark, 'if you can send this, and mr. morse can read it at the other end, i shall be convinced.' the message was transmitted, and for a moment the judge was fairly mastered by his feelings. the apparatus was then exhibited in new york, in philadelphia, and subsequently before the committee of congress at washington. at first the members of this body were somewhat incredulous about the merits of the uncouth machine; but the chairman, the hon. francis o. j. smith, of maine, took an interest in it, and secured a full attendance of the others to see it tried through ten miles of wire one day in february. the demonstration convinced them, and many were the expressions of amazement from their lips. some said, 'the world is coming to an end,' as people will when it is really budding, and putting forth symptoms of a larger life. others exclaimed, 'where will improvements and discoveries stop?' and 'what would jefferson think should he rise up and witness what we have just seen?' one gentleman declared that, 'time and space are now annihilated.' the practical outcome of the trial was that the chairman reported a bill appropriating , dollars for the erection of an experimental line between washington and baltimore. mr. smith was admitted to a fourth share in the invention, and resigned his seat in congress to become legal adviser to the inventors. claimants to the invention of the telegraph now began to spring up, and it was deemed advisable for mr. smith and morse to proceed to europe and secure the foreign patents. alfred vail undertook to provide an instrument for exhibition in europe. among these claimants was dr. jackson, chemist and geologist, of boston, who had been instrumental in evoking the idea of the telegraph in the mind of morse on board the sully. in a letter to the new york observer he went further than this, and claimed to be a joint inventor; but morse indignantly repudiated the suggestion. he declared that his instrument was not mentioned either by him or dr. jackson at the time, and that they had made no experiments together. 'it is to professor gale that i am most of all indebted for substantial and effective aid in many of my experiments,' he said; 'but he prefers no claim of any kind.' morse and smith arrived in london during the month of june. application was immediately made for a british patent, but cooke and wheatstone and edward davy, it seems, opposed it; and although morse demonstrated that his was different from theirs, the patent was refused, owing to a prior publication in the london mechanics' magazine for february , , in the form of an article quoted from silliman's american journal of science for october, . morse did not attempt to get this legal disqualification set aside. in france he was equally unfortunate. his instrument was exhibited by arago at a meeting of the institute, and praised by humboldt and gay-lussac; but the french patent law requires the invention to be at work in france within two years, and when morse arranged to erect a telegraph line on the st. germain railway, the government declined to sanction it, on the plea that the telegraph must become a state monopoly. all his efforts to introduce the invention into europe were futile, and he returned disheartened to the united states on april , . while in paris, he had met m. daguerre, who, with m. niepce, had just discovered the art of photography. the process was communicated to morse, who, with dr. draper, fitted up a studio on the roof of the university, and took the first daguerreotypes in america. the american congress now seemed as indifferent to his inventions as the european governments. an exciting campaign for the presidency was at hand, and the proposed grant for the telegraph was forgotten. mr. smith had returned to the political arena, and the vails were under a financial cloud, so that morse could expect no further aid from them. the next two years were the darkest he had ever known. 'porte crayon' tells us that he had little patronage as a professor, and at one time only three pupils besides himself. crayon's fee of fifty dollars for the second quarter were overdue, owing to his remittance from home not arriving; and one day the professor said, 'well, strother, my boy, how are we off for money?' strother explained how he was situated, and stated that he hoped to have the money next week. 'next week!' repeated morse. 'i shall be dead by that time... dead of starvation.' 'would ten dollars be of any service?' inquired the student, both astonished and distressed. 'ten dollars would save my life,' replied morse; and strother paid the money, which was all he owned. they dined together, and afterwards the professor remarked, 'this is my first meal for twenty-four hours. strother, don't be an artist. it means beggary. a house-dog lives better. the very sensitiveness that stimulates an artist to work keeps him alive to suffering.' towards the close of he wrote to alfred vail: 'i have not a cent in the world;' and to mr. smith about the same time he wrote: 'i find myself without sympathy or help from any who are associated with me, whose interests, one would think, would impell them at least to inquire if they could render some assistance. for nearly two years past i have devoted all my time and scanty means, living on a mere pittance, denying myself all pleasures, and even necessary food, that i might have a sum to put my telegraph into such a position before congress as to insure success to the common enterprise. i am crushed for want of means, and means of so trifling a character too, that they who know how to ask (which i do not) could obtain in a few hours.... as it is, although everything is favourable, although i have no competition and no opposition--on the contrary, although every member of congress, so far as i can learn, is favourable--yet i fear all will fail because i am too poor to risk the trifling expense which my journey and residence in washington will occasion me. i will not run into debt, if i lose the whole matter. so unless i have the means from some source, i shall be compelled, however reluctantly, to leave it. no one call tell the days and months of anxiety and labour i have had in perfecting my telegraphic apparatus. for want of means i have been compelled to make with my own hands (and to labour for weeks) a piece of mechanism which could be made much better, and in a tenth part of the time, by a good mechanician, thus wasting time--time which i cannot recall, and which seems double-winged to me. '"hope deferred maketh the heart sick." it is true, and i have known the full meaning of it. nothing but the consciousness that i have an invention which is to mark an era in human civilisation, and which is to contribute to the happiness of millions, would have sustained me through so many and such lengthened trials of patience in perfecting it.' morse did not invent for money or scientific reputation; he believed himself the instrument of a great purpose. during the summer of he insulated a wire two miles long with hempen threads saturated with pitch-tar and surrounded with india-rubber. on october , during bright moonlight, he submerged this wire in new york harbour, between castle garden and governor's island, by unreeling it from a small boat rowed by a man. after signals had been sent through it, the wire was cut by an anchor, and a portion of it carried off by sailors. this appears to be the first experiment in signalling on a subaqueous wire. it was repeated on a canal at washington the following december, and both are described in a letter to the secretary of the treasury, december , , in which morse states his belief that 'telegraphic communication on the electro-magnetic plan may with certainty be established across the atlantic ocean. startling as this may now seem, i am confident the time will come when the project will be realised.' in december, , the inventor made another effort to obtain the help of congress, and the committee on commerce again recommended an appropriation of , dollars in aid of the telegraph. morse had come to be regarded as a tiresome 'crank' by some of the congressmen, and they objected that if the magnetic telegraph were endowed, mesmerism or any other 'ism' might have a claim on the treasury. the bill passed the house by a slender majority of six votes, given orally, some of the representatives fearing that their support of the measure would alienate their constituents. its fate in the senate was even more dubious; and when it came up for consideration late one night before the adjournment, a senator, the hon. fernando wood, went to morse, who watched in the gallery, and said,'there is no use in your staying here. the senate is not in sympathy with your project. i advise you to give it up, return home, and think no more about it.' morse retired to his rooms, and after paying his bill for board, including his breakfast the next morning, he found himself with only thirty-seven cents and a half in the world. kneeling by his bed-side he opened his heart to god, leaving the issue in his hands, and then, comforted in spirit, fell asleep. while eating his breakfast next morning, miss annie g. ellsworth, daughter of his friend the hon. henry l. ellsworth, commissioner of patents, came up with a beaming countenance, and holding out her hand, said-- 'professor, i have come to congratulate you.' 'congratulate me!' replied morse; 'on what?' 'why,' she exclaimed,' on the passage of your bill by the senate!' it had been voted without debate at the very close of the session. years afterwards morse declared that this was the turning-point in the history of the telegraph. 'my personal funds,' he wrote,' were reduced to the fraction of a dollar; and had the passage of the bill failed from any cause, there would have been little prospect of another attempt on my part to introduce to the world my new invention.' grateful to miss ellsworth for bringing the good news, he declared that when the washington to baltimore line was complete hers should be the first despatch. the government now paid him a salary of , dollars a month to superintend the laying of the underground line which he had decided upon. professors gale and fisher became his assistants. vail was put in charge, and mr. ezra cornell, who founded the cornell university on the site of the cotton mill where he had worked as a mechanic, and who had invented a machine for laying pipes, was chosen to supervise the running of the line. the conductor was a five-wire cable laid in pipes; but after several miles had been run from baltimore to the house intended for the relay, the insulation broke down. cornell, it is stated, injured his machine to furnish an excuse for the stoppage of the work. the leaders consulted in secret, for failure was staring them in the face. some , dollars of the government grant were spent, and mr. smith, who had lost his faith in the undertaking, claimed of the remaining dollars under his contract for laying the line. a bitter quarrel arose between him and morse, which only ended in the grave. he opposed an additional grant from government, and morse, in his dejection, proposed to let the patent expire, and if the government would use his apparatus and remunerate him, he would reward alfred vail, while smith would be deprived of his portion. happily, it was decided to abandon the subterranean line, and erect the conductor on poles above the ground. a start was made from the capitol, washington, on april , , and the line was carried to the mount clare depot, baltimore, on may , . next morning miss ellsworth fulfilled her promise by inditing the first message. she chose the words, 'what hath god wrought?' and they were transmitted by morse from the capitol at . a.m., and received at mount clare by alfred vail. this was the first message of a public character sent by the electric telegraph in the western world, and it is preserved by the connecticut historical society. the dots and dashes representing the words were not drawn with pen and ink, but embossed on the paper with a metal stylus. the machine itself was kept in the national museum at washington, and on removing it, in , to exhibit it at the morse memorial celebration at new york, a member of the vail family discovered a folded paper attached to its base. a corner of the writing was torn away before its importance was recognised; but it proved to be a signed statement by alfred vail, to the effect that the method of embossing was invented by him in the sixth storey of the new york observer office during , prior to the erection of the washington to baltimore line, without any hint from morse. 'i have not asserted publicly my right as first and sole inventor,' he says, 'because i wished to preserve the peaceful unity of the invention, and because i could not, according to my contract with professor morse, have got a patent for it.' the powers of the telegraph having been demonstrated, enthusiasm took the place of apathy, and morse, who had been neglected before, was in some danger of being over-praised. a political incident spread the fame of the telegraph far and wide. the democratic convention, sitting in baltimore, nominated mr. james k. polk as candidate for the presidency, and mr. silas wright for the vice-presidency. alfred vail telegraphed the news to morse in washington, and he at once told mr. wright. the result was that a few minutes later the convention was dumbfounded to receive a message from wright declining to be nominated. they would not believe it, and appointed a committee to inquire into the matter; but the telegram was found to be genuine. on april , , the baltimore to washington line was formally opened for public business. the tariff adopted by the postmaster-general was one cent for every four characters, and the receipts of the first four days were a single cent. at the end of a week they had risen to about a dollar. morse offered the invention to the government for , dollars, but the postmaster-general declined it on the plea that its working 'had not satisfied him that under any rate of postage that could be adopted its revenues could be made equal to its expenditures.' thus through the narrow views and purblindness of its official the nation lost an excellent opportunity of keeping the telegraph system in its own hands. morse was disappointed at this refusal, but it proved a blessing in disguise. he and his agent, the hon. amos kendall, determined to rely on private enterprise. a line between new york and philadelphia was projected, and the apparatus was exhibited in broadway at a charge of twenty-five cents a head. but the door-money did not pay the expenses. there was an air of poverty about the show. one of the exhibitors slept on a couple of chairs, and the princely founder of cornell university was grateful to providence for a shilling picked up on the side-walk, which enabled him to enjoy a hearty breakfast. sleek men of capital, looking with suspicion on the meagre furniture and miserable apparatus, withheld their patronage; but humbler citizens invested their hard-won earnings, the magnetic telegraph company was incorporated, and the line was built. the following year, , another line was run from philadelphia to baltimore by mr. henry o'reilly, of rochester, n.y., an acute pioneer of the telegraph. in the course of ten years the atlantic states were covered by a straggling web of lines under the control of thirty or forty rival companies working different apparatus, such as that of morse, bain, house, and hughes, but owing to various causes only one or two were paying a dividend. it was a fit moment for amalgamation, and this was accomplished in by mr. hiram sibley. 'this western union,' says one in speaking of the united corporation, 'seems to me very like collecting all the paupers in the state and arranging them into a union so as to make rich men of them.' but 'sibley's crazy scheme' proved the salvation of the competing companies. in , after the first stage coach had crossed the plains to california, mr. henry o'reilly proposed to build a line of telegraph, and mr. sibley urged the western union to undertake it. he encountered a strong opposition. the explorations of fremont were still fresh in the public mind, and the country was regarded as a howling wilderness. it was objected that no poles could be obtained on the prairies, that the indians or the buffaloes would destroy the line, and that the traffic would not pay. 'well, gentlemen,' said sibley, 'if you won't join hands with me in the thing, i'll go it alone.' he procured a subsidy from the government, who realised the value of the line from a national point of view, the money was raised under the auspices of the western union, and the route by omaha, fort laramie, and salt lake city to san francisco was fixed upon. the work began on july , , and though it was expected to occupy two years, it was completed in four months and eleven days. the traffic soon became lucrative, and the indians, except in time of war, protected the line out of friendship for mr. sibley. a black-tailed buck, the gift of white cloud, spent its last years in the park of his home at rochester. the success of the overland wire induced the company to embark on a still greater scheme, the project of mr. perry macdonough collins, for a trunk line between america and europe by way of british columbia, alaska, the aleutian islands, and siberia. a line already existed between european russia and irkutsk, in siberia, and it was to be extended to the mouth of the amoor, where the american lines were to join it. two cables, one across behring sea and another across the bay of anadyr, were to link the two continents. the expedition started in the summer of with a fleet of about thirty vessels, carrying telegraph and other stores. in spite of severe hardships, a considerable part of the line had been erected when the successful completion of the trans-atlantic cable, in , caused the enterprise to be abandoned after an expenditure of , , dollars. a trace cut for the line through the forests of british columbia is still known as the 'telegraph trail.' in spite of this misfortune the western union telegraph company has continued to flourish. in its capital amounted to , , dollars, and it now possesses a virtual monopoly of telegraphic communication in the united states. morse did not limit his connections to land telegraphy. in , when mr. cyrus field brought out the atlantic telegraph company, to lay a cable between europe and america, he became its electrician, and went to england for the purpose of consulting with the english engineers on the execution of the project. but his instrument was never used on the ocean lines, and, indeed, it was not adapted for them. during this time alfred vail continued to improve the morse apparatus, until it was past recognition. the porte-rule and type of the transmitter were discarded for a simple 'key' or rocking lever, worked up and down by the hand, so as to make and break the circuit. the clumsy framework of the receiver was reduced to a neat and portable size. the inking pen was replaced by a metal wheel or disc, smeared with ink, and rolling on the paper at every dot or dash. vail, as we have seen, also invented the plan of embossing the message. but he did still more. when the recording instrument was introduced, it was found that the clerks persisted in 'reading' the signals by the clicking of the marking lever, and not from the paper. threats of instant dismissal did not stop the practice when nobody was looking on. morse, who regarded the record as the distinctive feature of his invention, was very hostile to the practice; but nature was too many for him. the mode of interpreting by sound was the easier and more economical of the two; and vail, with his mechanical instinct, adopted it. he produced an instrument in which there is no paper or marking device, and the message is simply sounded by the lever of the armature striking on its metal stops. at present the morse recorder is rarely used in comparison with the 'sounder.' the original telegraph of morse, exhibited in , has become an archaic form. apart from the central idea of employing an electro-magnet to signal--an idea applied by henry in , when morse had only thought of it--the development of the apparatus is mainly due to vail. his working devices made it a success, and are in use to-day, while those of morse are all extinct. morse has been highly honoured and rewarded, not only by his countrymen, but by the european powers. the queen of spain sent him a cross of the order of isabella, the king of prussia presented him with a jewelled snuff-box, the sultan of turkey decorated him with the order of glory, the emperor of the french admitted him into the legion of honour. moreover, the ten european powers in special congress awarded him , francs (some , dollars), as an expression of their gratitude: honorary banquets were a common thing to the man who had almost starved through his fidelity to an idea. but beyond his emoluments as a partner in the invention, alfred vail had no recompense. morse, perhaps, was somewhat jealous of acknowledging the services of his 'mechanical assistant,' as he at one time chose to regard vail. when personal friends, knowing his services, urged vail to insist upon their recognition, he replied, 'i am confident that professor morse will do me justice.' but even ten years after the death of vail, on the occasion of a banquet given in his honour by the leading citizens of new york, morse, alluding to his invention, said: 'in , according to the concurrent testimony of many witnesses, it lisped its first accents, and automatically recorded them a few blocks only distant from the spot from which i now address you. it was a feeble child indeed, ungainly in its dress, stammering in its speech; but it had then all the distinctive features and characteristics of its present manhood. it found a friend, an efficient friend, in mr. alfred vail, of new jersey, who, with his father and brother, furnished the means to give the child a decent dress, preparatory to its' visit to the seat of government.' when we remember that even by this time vail had entirely altered the system of signals, and introduced the dot-dash code, we cannot but regard this as a stinted acknowledgment of his colleague's work. but the man who conceives the central idea, and cherishes it, is apt to be niggardly in allowing merit to the assistant whose mechanical skill is able to shape and put it in practice; while, on the other hand, the assistant is sometimes inclined to attach more importance to the working out than it deserves. alfred vail cannot be charged with that, however, and it would have been the more graceful on the part of morse had he avowed his indebtedness to vail with a greater liberality. nor would this have detracted from his own merit as the originator and preserver of the idea, without which the improvements of vail would have had no existence. in the words of the hon. amos kendall, a friend of both: 'if justice be done, the name of alfred vail will for ever stand associated with that of samuel f. b. morse in the history and introduction into public use of the electro-magnetic telegraph.' professor morse spent his declining years at locust grove, a charming retreat on the banks of the river hudson. in private life he was a fine example of the christian gentleman. in the summer of , the telegraphic brotherhood of the world erected a statue to his honour in the central park, new york. delegates from different parts of america were present at the unveiling; and in the evening there was a reception at the academy of music, where the first recording telegraph used on the washington to baltimore line was exhibited. the inventor himself appeared, and sent a message at a small table, which was flashed by the connected wires to the remotest parts of the union, it ran: 'greeting and thanks to the telegraph fraternity throughout the world. glory to god in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill towards men.' it was deemed fitting that morse should unveil the statue of benjamin franklin, which had been erected in printing house square, new york. when his venerable figure appeared on the platform, and the long white hair was blown about his handsome face by the winter wind, a great cheer went up from the assembled multitude. but the day was bitterly cold, and the exposure cost him his life. some months later, as he lay on his sick bed, he observed to the doctor, 'the best is yet to come.' in tapping his chest one day, the physician said,' this is the way we doctors telegraph, professor,' and morse replied with a smile, 'very good--very good.' these were his last words. he died at new york on april , , at the age of eighty-one years, and was buried in the greenwood cemetery. chapter iv. sir william thomson. sir william thomson, the greatest physicist of the age, and the highest authority on electrical science, theoretical and applied, was born at belfast on june , . his father, dr. james thomson, the son of a scots-irish farmer, showed a bent for scholarship when a boy, and became a pupil teacher in a small school near ballynahinch, in county down. with his summer earnings he educated himself at glasgow university during winter. appointed head master of a school in connection with the royal academical institute, he subsequently obtained the professorship of mathematics in that academy. in he was called to the chair of mathematics in the university of glasgow, where he achieved a reputation by his text-books on arithmetic and mathematics. william began his course at the same college in his eleventh year, and was petted by the older students for his extraordinary quickness in solving the problems of his father's class. it was quite plain that his genius lay in the direction of mathematics; and on finishing at glasgow he was sent to the higher mathematical school of st. peter's college, cambridge. in he graduated as second wrangler, but won the smith prize. this 'consolation stakes' is regarded as a better test of originality than the tripos. the first, or senior, wrangler probably beat him by a facility in applying well-known rules, and a readiness in writing. one of the examiners is said to have declared that he was unworthy to cut thomson's pencils. it is certain that while the victor has been forgotten, the vanquished has created a world-wide renown. while at cambridge he took an active part in the field sports and athletics of the university. he won the silver sculls, and rowed in the winning boat of the oxford and cambridge race. he also took a lively interest in the classics, in music, and in general literature; but the real love, the central passion of his intellectual life, was the pursuit of science. the study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination, and soon engrossed all the teeming faculties of his mind. at the age of seventeen, when ordinary lads are fond of games, and the cleverer sort are content to learn without attempting to originate, young thomson had begun to make investigations. the cambridge mathematical journal of contains a paper by him--'on the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity.' in this he demonstrated the identity of the laws governing the distribution of electric or magnetic force in general, with the laws governing the distribution of the lines of the motion of heat in certain special cases. the paper was followed by others on the mathematical theory of electricity; and in he gave the first mathematical development of faraday's notion, that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or 'dielectric,' and not by some incomprehensible 'action at a distance.' he also devised an hypothesis of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, or the science which deals with the forces of electricity at rest. on gaining a fellowship at his college, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated regnault, at paris; but in he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the university of glasgow. it was due to the brilliant promise he displayed, as much as to the influence of his father, that at the age of twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a freshman but a few years before. thomson became a man of public note in connection with the laying of the first atlantic cable. after cooke and wheatstone had introduced their working telegraph in ; the idea of a submarine line across the atlantic ocean began to dawn on the minds of men as a possible triumph of the future. morse proclaimed his faith in it as early as the year , and in he submerged a wire, insulated with tarred hemp and india-rubber, in the water of new york harbour, and telegraphed through it. the following autumn wheatstone performed a similar experiment in the bay of swansea. a good insulator to cover the wire and prevent the electricity from leaking into the water was requisite for the success of a long submarine line. india-rubber had been tried by jacobi, the russian electrician, as far back as . he laid a wire insulated with rubber across the neva at st. petersburg, and succeeded in firing a mine by an electric spark sent through it; but india-rubber, although it is now used to a considerable extent, was not easy to manipulate in those days. luckily another gum which could be melted by heat, and readily applied to the wire, made its appearance. gutta-percha, the adhesive juice of the isonandra gutta tree, was introduced to europe in by dr. montgomerie, a scotch surveyor in the service of the east india company. twenty years before he had seen whips made of it in singapore, and believed that it would be useful in the fabrication of surgical apparatus. faraday and wheatstone soon discovered its merits as an insulator, and in the latter suggested that it should be employed to cover the wire which it was proposed to lay from dover to calais. it was tried on a wire laid across the rhine between deutz and cologne. in mr. c. v. walker, electrician to the south eastern railway company, submerged a wire coated with it, or, as it is technically called, a gutta-percha core, along the coast off dover. the following year mr. john watkins brett laid the first line across the channel. it was simply a copper wire coated with gutta-percha, without any other protection. the core was payed out from a reel mounted behind the funnel of a steam tug, the goliath, and sunk by means of lead weights attached to it every sixteenth of a mile. she left dover about ten o'clock on the morning of august , , with some thirty men on board and a day's provisions. the route she was to follow was marked by a line of buoys and flags. by eight o'clock in the evening she arrived at cape grisnez, and came to anchor near the shore. mr. brett watched the operations through a glass at dover. 'the declining sun,' he says, 'enabled me to discern the moving shadow of the steamer's smoke on the white cliff; thus indicating her progress. at length the shadow ceased to move. the vessel had evidently come to an anchor. we gave them half an hour to convey the end of the wire to shore and attach the type-printing instrument, and then i sent the first electrical message across the channel. this was reserved for louis napoleon.' according to mr. f. c. webb, however, the first of the signals were a mere jumble of letters, which were torn up. he saved a specimen of the slip on which they were printed, and it was afterwards presented to the duke of wellington. next morning this pioneer line was broken down at a point about yards from cape grisnez, and it turned out that a boulogne fisherman had raised it on his trawl and cut a piece away, thinking he had found a rare species of tangle with gold in its heart. this misfortune suggested the propriety of arming the core against mechanical injury by sheathing it in a cable of hemp and iron wires. the experiment served to keep alive the concession, and the next year, on november , , a protected core or true cable was laid from a government hulk, the blazer, which was towed across the channel. next year great britain and ireland were linked together. in may, , england was joined to holland by a cable across the north sea, from orfordness to the hague. it was laid by the monarch, a paddle steamer which had been fitted for the work. during the night she met with such heavy weather that the engineer was lashed near the brakes; and the electrician, mr. latimer clark, sent the continuity signals by jerking a needle instrument with a string. these and other efforts in the mediterranean and elsewhere were the harbingers of the memorable enterprise which bound the old world and the new. bishop mullock, head of the roman catholic church in newfoundland, was lying becalmed in his yacht one day in sight of cape breton island, and began to dream of a plan for uniting his savage diocese to the mainland by a line of telegraph through the forest from st. john's to cape ray, and cables across the mouth of the st. lawrence from cape ray to nova scotia. st. john's was an atlantic port, and it seemed to him that the passage of news between america and europe could thus be shortened by forty-eight hours. on returning to st. john's he published his idea in the courier by a letter dated november , . about the same time a similar plan occurred to mr. f. n. gisborne, a telegraph engineer in nova scotia. in the spring of he procured a grant from the legislature of newfoundland, resigned his situation in nova scotia, and having formed a company, began the construction of the land line. but in his bills were dishonoured by the company, he was arrested for debt, and stripped of all his fortune. the following year, however, he was introduced to mr. cyrus field, of new york, a wealthy merchant, who had just returned from a six months' tour in south america. mr. field invited mr. gisborne to his house in order to discuss the project. when his visitor was gone, mr. field began to turn over a terrestrial globe which stood in his library, and it flashed upon him that the telegraph to newfoundland might be extended across the atlantic ocean. the idea fired him with enthusiasm. it seemed worthy of a man's ambition, and although he had retired from business to spend his days in peace, he resolved to dedicate his time, his energies, and fortune to the accomplishment of this grand enterprise. a presentiment of success may have inspired him; but he was ignorant alike of submarine cables and the deep sea. was it possible to submerge the cable in the atlantic, and would it be safe at the bottom? again, would the messages travel through the line fast enough to make it pay! on the first question he consulted lieutenant maury, the great authority on mareography. maury told him that according to recent soundings by lieutenant berryman, of the united states brig dolphin, the bottom between ireland and newfoundland was a plateau covered with microscopic shells at a depth not over fathoms, and seemed to have been made for the very purpose of receiving the cable. he left the question of finding a time calm enough, the sea smooth enough, a wire long enough, and a ship big enough,' to lay a line some sixteen hundred miles in length to other minds. as to the line itself, mr. field consulted professor morse, who assured him that it was quite possible to make and lay a cable of that length. he at once adopted the scheme of gisborne as a preliminary step to the vaster undertaking, and promoted the new york, newfoundland, and london telegraph company, to establish a line of telegraph between america and europe. professor morse was appointed electrician to the company. the first thing to be done was to finish the line between st. john's and nova scotia, and in an attempt was made to lay a cable across the gulf of the st. lawrence, it was payed out from a barque in tow of a steamer; but when half was laid a gale rose, and to keep the barque from sinking the line was cut away. next summer a steamboat was fitted out for the purpose, and the cable was submerged. st. john's was now connected with new york by a thousand miles of land and submarine telegraph. mr. field then directed his efforts to the completion of the trans-oceanic section. he induced the american government to despatch lieutenant berryman, in the arctic, and the british admiralty to send lieutenant: dayman, in the cyclops, to make a special survey along the proposed route of the cable. these soundings revealed the existence of a submarine hill dividing the 'telegraph plateau' from the shoal water on the coast of ireland, but its slope was gradual and easy. till now the enterprise had been purely american, and the funds provided by american capitalists, with the exception of a few shares held by mr. j. w. brett. but seeing that the cable was to land on british soil, it was fitting that the work should be international, and that the british people should be asked to contribute towards the manufacture and submersion of the cable. mr. field therefore proceeded to london, and with the assistance of mr. brett the atlantic telegraph company was floated. mr. field himself supplied a quarter of the needed capital; and we may add that lady byron, and mr. thackeray, the novelist, were among the shareholders. the design of the cable was a subject of experiment by professor morse and others. it was known that the conductor should be of copper, possessing a high conductivity for the electric current, and that its insulating jacket of gutta-percha should offer a great resistance to the leakage of the current. moreover, experience had shown that the protecting sheath or armour of the core should be light and flexible as well as strong, in order to resist external violence and allow it to be lifted for repair. there was another consideration, however, which at this time was rather a puzzle. as early as mr. (afterwards sir) francis ronalds had observed that electric signals were retarded in passing through an insulated wire or core laid under ground, and the same effect was noticeable on cores immersed in water, and particularly on the lengthy cable between england and the hague. faraday showed that it was caused by induction between the electricity in the wire and the earth or water surrounding it. a core, in fact, is an attenuated leyden jar; the wire of the core, its insulating jacket, and the soil or water around it stand respectively for the inner tinfoil, the glass, and the outer tinfoil of the jar. when the wire is charged from a battery, the electricity induces an opposite charge in the water as it travels along, and as the two charges attract each other, the exciting charge is restrained. the speed of a signal through the conductor of a submarine cable is thus diminished by a drag of its own making. the nature of the phenomenon was clear, but the laws which governed it were still a mystery. it became a serious question whether, on a long cable such as that required for the atlantic, the signals might not be so sluggish that the work would hardly pay. faraday had said to mr. field that a signal would take 'about a second,' and the american was satisfied; but professor thomson enunciated the law of retardation, and cleared up the whole matter. he showed that the velocity of a signal through a given core was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the core. that is to say, in any particular cable the speed of a signal is diminished to one-fourth if the length is doubled, to one-ninth if it is trebled, to one-sixteenth if it is quadrupled, and so on. it was now possible to calculate the time taken by a signal in traversing the proposed atlantic line to a minute fraction of a second, and to design the proper core for a cable of any given length. the accuracy of thomson's law was disputed in by dr. edward o. wildman whitehouse, the electrician of the atlantic telegraph company, who had misinterpreted the results of his own experiments. thomson disposed of his contention in a letter to the athenaeum, and the directors of the company saw that he was a man to enlist in their adventure. it is not enough to say the young glasgow professor threw himself heart and soul into their work. he descended in their midst like the very genius of electricity, and helped them out of all their difficulties. in he published in the engineer the whole theory of the mechanical forces involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and showed that when the line is running out of the ship at a constant speed in a uniform depth of water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline from the point where it enters the water to that where it touches the bottom. to these gifts of theory, electrical and mechanical, thomson added a practical boon in the shape of the reflecting galvanometer, or mirror instrument. this measurer of the current was infinitely more sensitive than any which preceded it, and enables the electrician to detect the slightest flaw in the core of a cable during its manufacture and submersion. moreover, it proved the best apparatus for receiving the messages through a long cable. the morse and other instruments, however suitable for land lines and short cables, were all but useless on the atlantic line, owing to the retardation of the signals; but the mirror instrument sprang out of thomson's study of this phenomenon, and was designed to match it. hence this instrument, through being the fittest for the purpose, drove the others from the field, and allowed the first atlantic cables to be worked on a profitable basis. the cable consisted of a strand of seven copper wires, one weighing pounds a nautical mile or knot, covered with three coats of gutta-percha, weighing pounds a knot, and wound with tarred hemp, over which a sheath of eighteen strands, each of seven iron wires, was laid in a close spiral. it weighed nearly a ton to the mile, was flexible as a rope, and able to withstand a pull of several tons. it was made conjointly by messrs. glass, elliot & co., of greenwich, and messrs. r. s. newall & co., of liverpool. the british government promised mr. field a subsidy of l , a year, and the loan of ships to lay the cable. he solicited an equal help from congress, but a large number of the senators, actuated by a national jealousy of england, and looking to the fact that both ends of the line were to lie in british territory, opposed the grant. it appeared to these far-sighted politicians that england, the hereditary foe, was 'literally crawling under the sea to get some advantage over the united states.' the bill was only passed by a majority of a single vote. in the house of representatives it encountered a similar hostility, but was ultimately signed by president pierce. the agamemnon, a british man-of-war fitted out for the purpose, took in the section made at greenwich, and the niagara, an american warship, that made at liverpool. the vessels and their consorts met in the bay of valentia island, on the south-west coast of ireland, where on august , , the shore end of the cable was landed from the niagara. it was a memorable scene. the ships in the bay were dressed in bunting, and the lord lieutenant of ireland stood on the beach, attended by his following, to receive the end from the american sailors. visitors in holiday attire collected in groups to watch the operations, and eagerly joined with his excellency in helping to pull the wire ashore. when it was landed, the reverend mr. day, of kenmore, offered up a prayer, asking the almighty to prosper the undertaking, next day the expedition sailed; but ere the niagara had proceeded five miles on her way the shore-end parted, and the repairing of it delayed the start for another day. at first the niagara went slowly ahead to avoid a mishap, but as the cable ran out easily she increased her speed. the night fell, but hardly a soul slept. the utmost vigilance was maintained throughout the vessel. apart from the noise of the paying-out machinery, there was an awful stillness on board. men walked about with a muffled step, or spoke in whispers, as if they were afraid the sound of their voices would break the slender line. it seemed as though a great and valued friend lay at the point of death. the submarine hill, with its dangerous slope, was passed in safety, and the 'telegraph plateau,' nearly two miles deep, was reached, when suddenly the signals from ireland, which told that the conductor was intact, stopped altogether. professor morse and de sauty, the electricians, failed to restore the communication, and the engineers were preparing to cut the cable, when quite as suddenly the signals returned, and every face grew bright. a weather-beaten old sailor said, 'i have watched nearly every mile of it as it came over the side, and i would have given fifty dollars, poor man as i am, to have saved it, although i don't expect to make anything by it when it is laid down.' but the joy was short-lived. the line was running out at the rate of six miles an hour, while the vessel was only making four. to check this waste of cable the engineer tightened the brakes; but as the stern of the ship rose on the swell, the cable parted under the heavy strain, and the end was lost in the sea. the bad news ran like a flash of lightning through all the ships, and produced a feeling of sorrow and dismay. no attempt was made to grapple the line in such deep water, and the expedition returned to england. it was too late to try again that year, but the following summer the agamemnon and niagara, after an experimental trip to the bay of biscay, sailed from plymouth on june with a full supply of cable, better gear than before, and a riper experience of the work. they were to meet in the middle of the atlantic, where the two halves of the cable on board of each were to be spliced together, and while the agamemnon payed out eastwards to valentia island the niagara was to pay out westward to newfoundland. on her way to the rendezvous the agamemnon encountered a terrific gale, which lasted for a week, and nearly proved her destruction. on saturday, the th, the middle splice was effected and the bight dropped into the deep. the two ships got under weigh, but had not proceeded three miles when the cable broke in the paying-out machinery of the niagara. another splice, followed by a fresh start, was made during the same afternoon; but when some fifty miles were payed out of each vessel, the current which kept up communication between them suddenly failed owing to the cable having snapped in the sea. once more the middle splice was made and lowered, and the ships parted company a third time. for a day or two all went well; over two hundred miles of cable ran smoothly out of each vessel, and the anxious chiefs began to indulge in hopes of ultimate success, when the cable broke about twenty feet behind the stern of the agamemnon. the expedition returned to queenstown, and a consultation took place. mr. field, and professor thomson, who was on board the agamemnon, were in favour of another trial, and it was decided to make one without delay. the vessels left the cove of cork on july ; but on this occasion there was no public enthusiasm, and even those on board felt as if they were going on another wild goose chase. the agamemnon was now almost becalmed on her way to the rendezvous; but the middle splice was finished by . p.m. on july , , and immediately dropped into the sea. the ships thereupon started, and increased their distance, while the cable ran easily out of them. some alarm was caused by the stoppage of the continuity signals, but after a time they reappeared. the niagara deviated from the great arc of a circle on which the cable was to be laid, and the error was traced to the iron of the cable influencing her compass. hence the gorgon, one of her consorts, was ordered to go ahead and lead the way. the niagara passed several icebergs, but none injured the cable, and on august she arrived in trinity bay, newfoundland. at . a.m. next morning the shore end was landed into the telegraph-house which had been built for its reception. captain hudson, of the niagara, then read prayers, and at one p.m. h.m.s. gorgon fired a salute of twenty-one guns. the agamemnon made an equally successful run. about six o'clock on the first evening a huge whale was seen approaching on the starboard bow, and as he sported in the waves, rolling and lashing them into foam, the onlookers began to fear that he might endanger the line. their excitement became intense as the monster heaved astern, nearer and nearer to the cable, until his body grazed it where it sank into the water; but happily no harm was done. damaged portions of the cable had to be removed in paying-out, and the stoppage of the continuity signals raised other alarms on board. strong head winds kept the agamemnon back, and two american ships which got into her course had to be warned off by firing guns. the signals from the niagara became very weak, but on professor thomson asking the electricians on board of her to increase their battery power, they improved at once. at length, on thursday, august, , the agamemnon, with her consort, the valorous, arrived at valentia island, and the shore end was landed into the cable-house at knightstown by p.m., and a royal salute announced the completion of the work. the news was received at first with some incredulity, but on being confirmed it caused a universal joy. on august queen victoria sent a telegram of congratulation to president buchanan through the line, and expressed a hope that it would prove 'an additional link between the nations whose friendship is founded on their common interest and reciprocal esteem.' the president responded that, 'it is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle. may the atlantic telegraph, under the blessing of heaven, prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by divine providence to diffuse religion, civilisation, liberty, and law throughout the world.' these messages were the signal for a fresh outburst of enthusiasm. next morning a grand salute of guns resounded in new york, the streets were decorated with flags, the bells of the churches rung, and at night the city was illuminated. the atlantic cable was a theme of inspiration for innumerable sermons and a prodigious quantity of doggerel. among the happier lines were these:-- ''tis done! the angry sea consents, the nations stand no more apart; with clasped hands the continents feel throbbings of each other's heart. speed! speed the cable! let it run a loving girdle round the earth, till all the nations 'neath the sun shall be as brothers of one hearth. as brothers pledging, hand in hand, one freedom for the world abroad, one commerce over every land, one language, and one god.' the rejoicing reached a climax in september, when a public service was held in trinity church, and mr. field, the hero of the hour, as head and mainspring of the expedition, received an ovation in the crystal palace at new york. the mayor presented him with a golden casket as a souvenir of 'the grandest enterprise of our day and generation.' the band played 'god save the queen,' and the whole audience rose to their feet. in the evening there was a magnificent torchlight procession of the city firemen. that very day the cable breathed its last. its insulation had been failing for some days, and the only signals which could be read were those given by the mirror galvanometer.[it is said to have broken down while newfoundland was vainly attempting to inform valentia that it was sending with three hundred and twelve cells!] the reaction at this news was tremendous. some writers even hinted that the line was a mere hoax, and others pronounced it a stock exchange speculation. sensible men doubted whether the cable had ever 'spoken;' but in addition to the royal despatch, items of daily news had passed through the wire; for instance, the announcement of a collision between two ships, the arabia and the europa, off cape race, newfoundland, and an order from london, countermanding the departure of a regiment in canada for the seat of the indian mutiny, which had come to an end. mr. field was by no means daunted at the failure. he was even more eager to renew the work, since he had come so near to success. but the public had lost confidence in the scheme, and all his efforts to revive the company were futile. it was not until that with the assistance of mr. thomas (afterwards lord) brassey, and mr. (now sir) john fender, that he succeeded in raising the necessary capital. the glass, elliot, and gutta-percha companies were united to form the well-known telegraph construction and maintenance company, which undertook to manufacture and lay the new cable. much experience had been gained in the meanwhile. long cables had been submerged in the mediterranean and the red sea. the board of trade in had appointed a committee of experts, including professor wheatstone, to investigate the whole subject, and the results were published in a blue-book. profiting by these aids, an improved type of cable was designed. the core consisted of a strand of seven very pure copper wires weighing lbs. a knot, coated with chatterton's compound, which is impervious to water, then covered with four layers of gutta-percha alternating with four thin layers of the compound cementing the whole, and bringing the weight of the insulator to lbs. per knot. this core was served with hemp saturated in a preservative solution, and on the hemp as a padding were spirally wound eighteen single wires of soft steel, each covered with fine strands of manilla yam steeped in the preservative. the weight of the new cable was . cwt. per knot, or nearly twice the weight of the old, and it was stronger in proportion. ten years before, mr. marc isambard brunel, the architect of the great eastern, had taken mr. field to blackwall, where the leviathan was lying, and said to him, 'there is the ship to lay the atlantic cable.' she was now purchased to fulfil the mission. her immense hull was fitted with three iron tanks for the reception of , miles of cable, and her decks furnished with the paying-out gear. captain (now sir) james anderson, of the cunard steamer china, a thorough seaman, was appointed to the command, with captain moriarty, r.n., as chief navigating officer. mr. (afterwards sir) samuel canning was engineer for the contractors, the telegraph construction and maintenance company, and mr. de sauty their electrician; professor thomson and mr. cromwell fleetwood varley were the electricians for the atlantic telegraph company. the press was ably represented by dr. w. h. russell, correspondent of the times. the great eastern took on board seven or eight thousand tons of coal to feed her fires, a prodigious quantity of stores, and a multitude of live stock which turned her decks into a farmyard. her crew all told numbered men. at noon on saturday, july , , the great eastern left the nore for foilhommerum bay, valentia island, where the shore end was laid by the caroline. at . p.m. on sunday, july , amidst the firing of cannon and the cheers of the telegraph fleet, she started on her voyage at a speed of about four knots an hour. the weather was fine, and all went well until next morning early, when the boom of a gun signalled that a fault had broken out in the cable. it turned out that a splinter of iron wire had penetrated the core. more faults of the kind were discovered, and as they always happened in the same watch, there was a suspicion of foul play. in repairing one of these on july , after , miles had been payed out, the cable snapped near the stern of the ship, and the end was lost. 'all is over,' quietly observed mr. canning; and though spirited attempts were made to grapple the sunken line in two miles of water, they failed to recover it. the great eastern steamed back to england, where the indomitable mr. field issued another prospectus, and formed the anglo-american telegraph company, with a capital of l , , to lay a new cable and complete the broken one. on july , , the william cory laid the shore end at valentia, and on friday, july , about p.m., the great eastern started paying-out once more. [friday is regarded as an unlucky, and sunday as a lucky day by sailors. the great eastern started on sunday before and failed; she succeeded now. columbus sailed on a friday, and discovered america on a friday.] a private service of prayer was held at valentia by invitation of two directors of the company, but otherwise there was no celebration of the event. professor thomson was on board; but dr. w. h. russell had gone to the seat of the austro-prussian war, from which telegrams were received through the cable. the 'big ship' was attended by three consorts, the terrible, to act as a spy on the starboard how, and warn other vessels off the course, the medway on the port, and the albany on the starboard quarter, to drop or pick up buoys, and make themselves generally useful. despite the fickleness of the weather, and a 'foul flake,' or clogging of the line as it ran out of the tank, there was no interruption of the work. the 'old coffee mill,' as the sailors dubbed the paying-out gear, kept grinding away. 'i believe we shall do it this time, jack,' said one of the crew to his mate. on the evening of friday, july , the expedition made the entrance of trinity bay, newfoundland, in a thick fog, and next morning the great eastern cast her anchor at heart's content. flags were flying from the little church and the telegraph station on shore. the great eastern was dressed, three cheers were given, and a salute was fired. at a.m. a message from england cited these words from a leading article in the current times: 'it is a great work, a glory to our age and nation, and the men who have achieved it deserve to be honoured among the benefactors of their race.' 'treaty of peace signed between prussia and austria.' the shore end was landed during the day by the medway; and captain anderson, with the officers of the telegraph fleet, went in a body to the church to return thanks for the success of the expedition. congratulations poured in, and friendly telegrams were again exchanged between her majesty and the united states. the great work had been finally accomplished, and the two worlds were lastingly united. on august the great eastern put to sea again in order to grapple the lost cable of , and complete it to newfoundland. arriving in mid-ocean she proceeded to fish for the submerged line in two thousand fathoms of water, and after repeated failures, involving thirty casts of the grapnel, she hooked and raised it to surface, then spliced it to the fresh cable in her hold, and payed out to heart's content, where she arrived on saturday, september . there were now two fibres of intelligence between the two hemispheres. on his return home, professor thomson was among those who received the honour of knighthood for their services in connection with the enterprise. he deserved it. by his theory and apparatus he probably did more than any other man, with the exception of mr. field, to further the atlantic telegraph. we owe it to his admirable inventions, the mirror instrument of and the siphon recorder of , that messages through long cables are so cheap and fast, and, as a consequence, that ocean telegraphy is now so common. hence some account of these two instruments will not be out of place. sir william thomson's siphon recorder, in all its present completeness, must take rank as a masterpiece of invention. as used in the recording or writing in permanent characters of the messages sent through long submarine cables, it is the acknowledged chief of 'receiving instruments,' as those apparatus are called which interpret the electrical condition of the telegraph wire into intelligible signals. like other mechanical creations, no doubt its growth in idea and translation into material fact was a step-by-step process of evolution, culminating at last in its great fitness and beauty. the marvellous development of telegraphy within the last generation has called into existence a great variety of receiving instruments, each admirable in its way. the hughes, or the stock exchange instruments, for instance, print the message in roman characters; the sounders strike it out on stops or bells of different tone; the needle instruments indicate it by oscillations of their needles; the morse daubs it in ink on paper, or embosses it by a hard style; while bain's electro-chemical receiver stains it on chemically prepared paper. the meyer-baudot and the quadruple receive four messages at once and record them separately; while the harmonic telegraph of elisha gray can receive as many as eight simultaneously, by means of notes excited by the current in eight separate tuning forks. but all these instruments have one great drawback for delicate work, and, however suitable they may be for land lines, they are next to useless for long cables. they require a certain definite strength of current to work them, whatever it may be, and in general it is very considerable. most of the moving parts of the mechanism are comparatively heavy, and unless the current is of the proper strength to move them, the instrument is dumb, while in bain's the solution requires a certain power of current to decompose it and leave the stain. in overland lines the current traverses the wire suddenly, like a bullet, and at its full strength, so that if the current be sufficiently strong these instruments will be worked at once, and no time will be lost. but it is quite different on submarine cables. there the current is slow and varying. it travels along the copper wire in the form of a wave or undulation, and is received feebly at first, then gradually rising to its maximum strength, and finally dying away again as slowly as it rose. in the french atlantic cable no current can be detected by the most delicate galvanoscope at america for the first tenth of a second after it has been put on at brest; and it takes about half a second for the received current to reach its maximum value. this is owing to the phenomenon of induction, very important in submarine cables, but almost entirely absent in land lines. in submarine cables, as is well known, the copper wire which conveys the current is insulated from the sea-water by an envelope, usually of gutta-percha. now the electricity sent into this wire induces electricity of an opposite kind to itself in the sea-water outside, and the attraction set up between these two kinds 'holds back' the current in the wire, and retards its passage to the receiving station. it follows, that with a receiving instrument set to indicate a particular strength of current, the rate of signalling would be very slow on long cables compared to land lines; and that a different form of instrument is required for cable work. this fact stood greatly in the way of early cable enterprise. sir william (then professor) thomson first solved the difficulty by his invention of the 'mirror galvanometer,' and rendered at the same time the first atlantic cable company a commercial success. the merit of this receiving instrument is, that it indicates with extreme sensibility all the variations of the current in the cable, so that, instead of having to wait until each signal wave sent into the cable has travelled to the receiving end before sending another, a series of waves may be sent after each other in rapid succession. these waves, encroaching upon each other, will coalesce at their bases; but if the crests remain separate, the delicate decipherer at the other end will take cognisance of them and make them known to the eye as the distinct signals of the message. the mirror galvanometer is at once beautifully simple and exquisitely scientific. it consists of a very long fine coil of silk-covered copper wire, and in the heart of the coil, within a little air-chamber, a small round mirror, having four tiny magnets cemented to its back, is hung, by a single fibre of floss silk no thicker than a spider's line. the mirror is of film glass silvered, the magnets of hair-spring, and both together sometimes weigh only one-tenth of a grain. a beam of light is thrown from a lamp upon the mirror, and reflected by it upon a white screen or scale a few feet distant, where it forms a bright spot of light. when there is no current on the instrument, the spot of light remains stationary at the zero position on the screen; but the instant a current traverses the long wire of the coil, the suspended magnets twist themselves horizontally out of their former position, the mirror is of course inclined with them, and the beam of light is deflected along the screen to one side or the other, according to the nature of the current. if a positive current--that is to say, a current from the copper pole of the battery--gives a deflection to the right of zero, a negative current, or a current from the zinc pole of the battery, will give a deflection to the left of zero, and vice versa. the air in the little chamber surrounding the mirror is compressed at will, so as to act like a cushion, and 'deaden' the movements of the mirror. the needle is thus prevented from idly swinging about at each deflection, and the separate signals are rendered abrupt and 'dead beat,' as it is called. at a receiving station the current coming in from the cable has simply to be passed through the coil of the 'speaker' before it is sent into the ground, and the wandering light spot on the screen faithfully represents all its variations to the clerk, who, looking on, interprets these, and cries out the message word by word. the small weight of the mirror and magnets which form the moving part of this instrument, and the range to which the minute motions of the mirror can be magnified on the screen by the reflected beam of light, which acts as a long impalpable hand or pointer, render the mirror galvanometer marvellously sensitive to the current, especially when compared with other forms of receiving instruments. messages have been sent from england to america through one atlantic cable and back again to england through another, and there received on the mirror galvanometer, the electric current used being that from a toy battery made out of a lady's silver thimble, a grain of zinc, and a drop of acidulated water. the practical advantage of this extreme delicacy is, that the signal waves of the current may follow each other so closely as almost entirely to coalesce, leaving only a very slight rise and fall of their crests, like ripples on the surface of a flowing stream, and yet the light spot will respond to each. the main flow of the current will of course shift the zero of the spot, but over and above this change of place the spot will follow the momentary fluctuations of the current which form the individual signals of the message. what with this shifting of the zero and the very slight rise and fall in the current produced by rapid signalling, the ordinary land line instruments are quite unserviceable for work upon long cables. the mirror instrument has this drawback, however--it does not 'record' the message. there is a great practical advantage in a receiving instrument which records its messages; errors are avoided and time saved. it was to supply such a desideratum for cable work that sir william thomson invented the siphon recorder, his second important contribution to the province of practical telegraphy. he aimed at giving a graphic representation of the varying strength of the current, just as the mirror galvanometer gives a visual one. the difficulty of producing such a recorder was, as he himself says, due to a difficulty in obtaining marks from a very light body in rapid motion, without impeding that motion. the moving body must be quite free to follow the undulations of the current, and at the same time must record its motions by some indelible mark. as early as , sir william sent out to the red sea cable a piece of apparatus with this intent. the marker consisted of a light platinum wire, constantly emitting sparks from a rhumkorff coil, so as to perforate a line on a strip of moving paper; and it was so connected to the movable needle of a species of galvanometer as to imitate the motions of the needle. but before it reached the red sea the cable had broken down, and the instrument was returned dismantled, to be superseded at length by the siphon recorder, in which the marking point is a fine glass siphon emitting ink, and the moving body a light coil of wire hung between the poles of a magnet. the principle of the siphon recorder is exactly the inverse of the mirror galvanometer. in the latter we have a small magnet suspended in the centre of a large coil of wire--the wire enclosing the magnet, which is free to rotate round its own axis. in the former we have a small coil suspended between the poles of a large magnet--the magnet enclosing the coil, which is also free to rotate round its own axis. when a current passes through this coil, so suspended in the highly magnetic space between the poles of the magnet, the coil itself experiences a mechanical force, causing it to take up a particular position, which varies with the nature of the current, and the siphon which is attached to it faithfully figures its motion on the running paper. the point of the siphon does not touch the paper, although it is very close. it would impede the motion of the coil if it did. but the 'capillary attraction' of so fine a tube will not permit the ink to flow freely of itself, so the inventor, true to his instincts, again called in the aid of electricity, and electrified the ink. the siphon and reservoir are together supported by an ebonite bracket, separate from the rest of the instrument, and insulated from it; that is to say, electricity cannot escape from them to the instrument. the ink may, therefore, be electrified to an exalted state, or high potential as it is called, while the body of the instrument, including the paper and metal writing-tablet, are in connection with the earth, and at low potential, or none at all, for the potential of the earth is in general taken as zero. the ink, for example, is like a highly-charged thunder-cloud supported over the earth's surface. now the tendency of a charged body is to move from a place of higher to a place of lower potential, and consequently the ink tends to flow downwards to the writing-tablet. the only avenue of escape for it is by the fine glass siphon, and through this it rushes accordingly and discharges itself in a rain upon the paper. the natural repulsion between its like electrified particles causes the shower to issue in spray. as the paper moves over the pulleys a delicate hair line is marked, straight when the siphon is stationary, but curved when the siphon is pulled from side to side by the oscillations of the signal coil. it is to the mouse-mill that me must look both for the electricity which is used to electrify the ink and for the motive power which drives the paper. this unique and interesting little motor owes its somewhat epigrammatic title to the resemblance of the drum to one of those sparred wheels turned by white mice, and to the amusing fact of its capacity for performing work having been originally computed in terms of a 'mouse-power.' the mill is turned by a stream of electricity flowing from the battery above described, and is, in fact, an electro-magnetic engine worked by the current. the alphabet of signals employed is the 'morse code,' so generally in vogue throughout the world. in the morse code the letters of the alphabet are represented by combinations of two distinct elementary signals, technically called 'dots' and 'dashes,' from the fact that the morse recorder actually marks the message in long and short lines, or dots and dashes. in the siphon recorder script dots and dashes are represented by curves of opposite flexure. the condensers are merely used to sharpen the action of the current, and render the signals more concise and distinct on long cables. on short cables, say under three hundred miles long, they are rarely, if ever, used. the speed of signalling by the siphon recorder is of course regulated by the length of cable through which it is worked. the instrument itself is capable of a wide range of speed. the best operators cannot send over thirty-five words per minute by hand, but a hundred and twenty words or more per minute can be transmitted by an automatic sender, and the recorder has been found on land lines and short cables to write off the message at this incredible speed. when we consider that every word is, on the average, composed of fifteen separate waves, we may better appreciate the rapidity with which the siphon can move. on an ordinary cable of about a thousand miles long, the working speed is about twenty words per minute. on the french atlantic it is usually about thirteen, although as many as seventeen have sometimes been sent. the 'duplex' system, or method of telegraphing in opposite directions at once through the same wire, has of late years been applied, in connection with the recorder, to all the long cables of that most enterprising of telegraph companies--the eastern--so that both stations may 'speak' to each other simultaneously. thus the carrying capacity of the wire is in practice nearly doubled, and recorders are busy writing at both ends of the cable at once, as if the messages came up out of the sea itself. we have thus far followed out the recorder in its practical application to submarine telegraphy. let us now regard it for a moment in its more philosophic aspect. we are at once struck with its self-dependence as a machine, and even its resemblance in some respects to a living creature. all its activity depends on the galvanic current. from three separate sources invisible currents are led to its principal parts, and are at once physically changed. that entering the mouse-mill becomes transmuted in part into the mechanical motion of the revolving drum, and part into electricity of a more intense nature--into mimic lightning, in fact, with its accompaniments of heat and sound. that entering the signal magnet expends part of its force in the magnetism of the core. that entering the signal coil, which may be taken as the brain of the instrument, appears to us as intelligence. the recorder is now in use in all four quarters of the globe, from northern europe to southern brazil, from china to new england. many and complete are the adjustments for rendering it serviceable under a wide range of electrical conditions and climatic changes. the siphon is, of course, in a mechanical sense, the most delicate part, but, in an electrical sense, the mouse-mill proves the most susceptible. it is essential for the fine marking of the siphon that the ink should neither be too strongly nor too feebly electrified. when the atmosphere is moderately humid, a proper supply of electricity is generated by the mouse-mill, the paper is sufficiently moist, and the ink flows freely. but an excess of moisture in the air diminishes the available supply of exalted electricity. in fact, the damp depositing on the parts leads the electricity away, and the ink tends to clog in the siphon. on the other hand, drought not only supercharges the ink, but dries the paper so much that it insulates the siphon point from the metal tablet and the earth. there is then an insufficient escape for the electricity of the ink to earth; the ink ceases to flow down the siphon; the siphon itself becomes highly electrified and agitated with vibrations of its own; the line becomes spluttered and uncertain. various devices are employed at different stations to cure these local complaints. the electrician soon learns to diagnose and prescribe for this, his most valuable charge. at aden, where they suffer much from humidity, the mouse-mill is or has been surrounded with burning carbon. at malta a gas flame was used for the same purpose. at suez, where they suffer from drought, a cloud of steam was kept rising round the instrument, saturating the air and paper. at more temperate places the ordinary means of drying the air by taking advantage of the absorbing power of sulphuric acid for moisture prevailed. at marseilles the recorder acted in some respects like a barometer. marseilles is subject to sudden incursions of dry northerly winds, termed the mistral. the recorder never failed to indicate the mistral when it blew, and sometimes even to predict it by many hours. before the storm was itself felt, the delicate glass pen became agitated and disturbed, the frail blue line broken and irregular. the electrician knew that the mistral would blow before long, and, as it rarely blows for less than three days at a time, that rather rude wind, so dreaded by the marseillaise, was doubly dreaded by him. the recorder was first used experimentally at st. pierre, on the french atlantic cable, in . this was numbered , as we were told by mr. white of glasgow, the maker, whose skill has contributed not a little to the success of the recorder. no. was first used practically on the falmouth and gibraltar cable of the eastern telegraph company in july, . no. was also exhibited at mr. (now sir john) pender's telegraph soiree in . on that occasion, memorable even beyond telegraphic circles, 'three hundred of the notabilities of rank and fashion gathered together at mr. pender's house in arlington street, piccadilly, to celebrate the completion of submarine communication between london and bombay by the successful laying of the falmouth, gibraltar and malta and the british indian cable lines.' mr. pender's house was literally turned outside in; the front door was removed, the courtyard temporarily covered with an iron roof and the whole decorated in the grandest style. over the gateway was a gallery filled with the band of the scots fusilier guards; and over the portico of the house door hung the grapnel which brought up the cable, made resplendent to the eye by a coating of gold leaf. a handsome staircase, newly erected, permitted the guests to pass from the reception-room to the drawing-room. in the grounds at the back of the house stood the royal tent, where the prince of wales and a select party, including the duke of cambridge and lady mayo, wife of the viceroy of india at that time, were entertained at supper. into this tent were brought wires from india, america, egypt, and other places, and lady mayo sent off a message to india about half-past eleven, and had received a reply before twelve, telling her that her husband and sons were quite well at five o'clock the next morning. the recorder, which was shown in operation, naturally stood in the place of honour, and attracted great attention. the minor features of the recorder have been simplified by other inventors of late; for example, magnets of steel have been substituted for the electro-magnets which influence the swinging coil; and the ink, instead of being electrified by the mouse-mill, is shed on the paper by a rapid vibration of the siphon point. to introduce his apparatus for signalling on long submarine cables, sir william thomson entered into a partnership with mr. c. f. varley, who first applied condensers to sharpen the signals, and professor fleeming jenkin, of edinburgh university. in conjunction with the latter, he also devised an 'automatic curb sender,' or key, for sending messages on a cable, as the well-known wheatstone transmitter sends them on a land line. in both instruments the signals are sent by means of a perforated ribbon of paper; but the cable sender was the more complicated, because the cable signals are formed by both positive and negative currents, and not merely by a single current, whether positive or negative. moreover, to curb the prolongation of the signals due to induction, each signal was made by two opposite currents in succession--a positive followed by a negative, or a negative followed by a positive, as the case might be. the after-current had the effect of curbing its precursor. this self-acting cable key was brought out in , and tried on the lines of the eastern telegraph company. sir william thomson took part in the laying of the french atlantic cable of , and with professor jenkin was engineer of the western and brazilian and platino-brazilian cables. he was present at the laying of the para to pernambuco section of the brazilian coast cables in , and introduced his method of deep-sea sounding, in which a steel pianoforte wire replaces the ordinary land line. the wire glides so easily to the bottom that 'flying soundings' can be taken while the ship is going at full speed. a pressure-gauge to register the depth of the sinker has been added by sir william. about the same time he revived the sumner method of finding a ship's place at sea, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application. his most important aid to the mariner is, however, the adjustable compass, which he brought out soon afterwards. it is a great improvement on the older instrument, being steadier, less hampered by friction, and the deviation due to the ship's own magnetism can be corrected by movable masses of iron at the binnacle. sir william is himself a skilful navigator, and delights to cruise in his fine yacht, the lalla rookh, among the western islands, or up the mediterranean, or across the atlantic to madeira and america. his interest in all things relating to the sea perhaps arose, or at any rate was fostered, by his experiences on the agamemnon and the great eastern. babbage was among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made to signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light; but sir william pointed out the merits of the morse telegraphic code for the purpose, and urged that the signals should consist of short and long flashes of the light to represent the dots and dashes. sir william has done more than any other electrician to introduce accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. as early as his mind was attracted to this subject. he pointed out that the experimental results of william snow harris were in accordance with the laws of coulomb. in the memoirs of the roman academy of sciences for he published a description of his new divided ring electrometer, which is based on the old electroscope of bohnenberger and since then he has introduced a chain or series of beautiful and effective instruments, including the quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic measurement. his delicate mirror galvanometer has also been the forerunner of a later circle of equally precise apparatus for the measurement of current or dynamic electricity. to give even a brief account of all his physical researches would require a separate volume; and many of them are too abstruse or mathematical for the general reader. his varied services have been acknowledged by numerous distinctions, including the highest honour a british man of science can obtain--the presidency of the royal society of london, to which he was elected at the end of last year. sir william thomson has been all his life a firm believer in the truth of christianity, and his great scientific attainments add weight to the following words, spoken by him when in the chair at the annual meeting of the christian evidence society, may , :--'i have long felt that there was a general impression in the non-scientific world, that the scientific world believes science has discovered ways of explaining all the facts of nature without adopting any definite belief in a creator. i have never doubted that that impression was utterly groundless. it seems to me that when a scientific man says--as it has been said from time to time--that there is no god, he does not express his own ideas clearly. he is, perhaps, struggling with difficulties; but when he says he does not believe in a creative power, i am convinced he does not faithfully express what is in his own mind, he does not fully express his own ideas. he is out of his depth. 'we are all out of our depth when we approach the subject of life. the scientific man, in looking at a piece of dead matter, thinking over the results of certain combinations which he can impose upon it, is himself a living miracle, proving that there is something beyond that mass of dead matter of which he is thinking. his very thought is in itself a contradiction to the idea that there is nothing in existence but dead matter. science can do little positively towards the objects of this society. but it can do something, and that something is vital and fundamental. it is to show that what we see in the world of dead matter and of life around us is not a result of the fortuitous concourse of atoms. 'i may refer to that old, but never uninteresting subject of the miracles of geology. physical science does something for us here. st. peter speaks of scoffers who said that "all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation;" but the apostle affirms himself that "all these things shall be dissolved." it seems to me that even physical science absolutely demonstrates the scientific truth of these words. we feel that there is no possibility of things going on for ever as they have done for the last six thousand years. in science, as in morals and politics, there is absolutely no periodicity. one thing we may prophesy of the future for certain--it will be unlike the past. everything is in a state of evolution and progress. the science of dead matter, which has been the principal subject of my thoughts during my life, is, i may say, strenuous on this point, that the age of the earth is definite. we do not say whether it is twenty million years or more, or less, but me say it is not indefinite. and we can say very definitely that it is not an inconceivably great number of millions of years. here, then, we are brought face to face with the most wonderful of all miracles, the commencement of life on this earth. this earth, certainly a moderate number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot globe; all scientific men of the present day agree that life came upon this earth somehow. if some form or some part of the life at present existing came to this earth, carried on some moss-grown stone perhaps broken away from mountains in other worlds; even if some part of the life had come in that way--for there is nothing too far-fetched in the idea, and probably some such action as that did take place, since meteors do come every day to the earth from other parts of the universe;--still, that does not in the slightest degree diminish the wonder, the tremendous miracle, we have in the commencement of life in this world.' chapter v. charles william siemens. charles william siemens was born on april , , at the little village of lenthe, about eight miles from hanover, where his father, mr. christian ferdinand siemens, was 'domanen-pachter,' and farmed an estate belonging to the crown. his mother was eleonore deichmann, a lady of noble disposition, and william, or carl wilhelm, was the fourth son of a family of fourteen children, several of whom have distinguished themselves in scientific pursuits. of these, ernst werner siemens, the fourth child, and now the famous electrician of berlin, was associated with william in many of his inventions; fritz, the ninth child, is the head of the well-known dresden glass works; and carl, the tenth child, is chief of the equally well-known electrical works at st. petersburg. several of the family died young; others remained in germany; but the enterprising spirit, natural to them, led most of the sons abroad--walter, the twelfth child, dying at tiflis as the german consul there, and otto, the fourteenth child, also dying at the same place. it would be difficult to find a more remarkable family in any age or country. soon after the birth of william, mr. siemens removed to a larger estate which he had leased at menzendorf, near lubeck. as a child william was sensitive and affectionate, the baby of the family, liking to roam the woods and fields by himself, and curious to observe, but not otherwise giving any signs of the engineer. he received his education at a commercial academy in lubeck, the industrial school at magdeburg (city of the memorable burgomaster, otto von guericke), and at the university of gottingen, which he entered in , while in his eighteenth year. were he attended the chemical lectures of woehler, the discoverer of organic synthesis, and of professor himly, the well-known physicist, who was married to siemens's eldest sister, mathilde. with a year at gottingen, during which he laid the basis of his theoretical knowledge, the academical training of siemens came to an end, and he entered practical life in the engineering works of count stolberg, at magdeburg. at the university he had been instructed in mechanical laws and designs; here he learned the nature and use of tools and the construction of machines. but as his university career at gottingen lasted only about a year, so did his apprenticeship at the stolberg works. in this short time, however, he probably reaped as much advantage as a duller pupil during a far longer term. young siemens appears to have been determined to push his way forward. in his brother werner obtained a patent in prussia for electro-silvering and gilding; and in charles william came to england to try and introduce the process here. in his address on 'science and industry,' delivered before the birmingham and midland institute in , while the paris electrical exhibition was running, sir william gave a most interesting account of his experiences during that first visit to the country of his adoption. 'when,' said he, 'the electrotype process first became known, it excited a very general interest; and although i was only a young student at gottingen, under twenty years of age, who had just entered upon his practical career with a mechanical engineer, i joined my brother, werner siemens, then a young lieutenant of artillery in the prussian service, in his endeavours to accomplish electro-gilding; the first impulse in this direction having been given by professor c. himly, then of gottingen. after attaining some promising results, a spirit of enterprise came over me, so strong that i tore myself away from the narrow circumstances surrounding me, and landed at the east end of london with only a few pounds in my pocket and without friends, but with an ardent confidence of ultimate success within my breast. 'i expected to find some office in which inventions were examined into, and rewarded if found meritorious, but no one could direct me to such a place. in walking along finsbury pavement, i saw written up in large letters, "so-and-so" (i forget the name), "undertaker," and the thought struck me that this must be the place i was in quest of; at any rate, i thought that a person advertising himself as an "undertaker" would not refuse to look into my invention with a view of obtaining for me the sought-for recognition or reward. on entering the place i soon convinced myself, however, that i came decidedly too soon for the kind of enterprise here contemplated, and, finding myself confronted with the proprietor of the establishment, i covered my retreat by what he must have thought a very lame excuse. by dint of perseverance i found my way to the patent office of messrs. poole and carpmael, who received me kindly, and provided me with a letter of introduction to mr. elkington. armed with this letter, i proceeded to birmingham, to plead my cause before your townsman. 'in looking back to that time, i wonder at the patience with which mr. elkington listened to what i had to say, being very young, and scarcely able to find english words to convey my meaning. after showing me what he was doing already in the way of electro-plating, mr. elkington sent me back to london in order to read some patents of his own, asking me to return if, after perusal, i still thought i could teach him anything. to my great disappointment, i found that the chemical solutions i had been using were actually mentioned in one of his patents, although in a manner that would hardly have sufficed to enable a third person to obtain practical results. on my return to birmingham i frankly stated what i had found, and with this frankness i evidently gained the favour of another townsman of yours, mr. josiah mason, who had just joined mr. elkington in business, and whose name, as sir josiah mason, will ever be remembered for his munificent endowment of education. it was agreed that i should not be judged by the novelty of my invention, but by the results which i promised, namely, of being able to deposit with a smooth surface dwt. of silver upon a dish-cover, the crystalline structure of the deposit having theretofore been a source of difficulty. in this i succeeded, and i was able to return to my native country and my mechanical engineering a comparative croesus. 'but it was not for long, as in the following year ( ) i again landed in the thames with another invention, worked out also with my brother, namely, the chronometric governor, which, though less successful, commercially speaking, than the first, obtained for me the advantage of bringing me into contact with the engineering world, and of fixing me permanently in this country. this invention was in course of time applied by sir george airy, the then astronomer-royal, for regulating the motion of his great transit and touch-recording instrument at the royal observatory, where it still continues to be employed. 'another early subject of mine, the anastatic printing process, found favour with faraday, "the great and the good," who made it the subject of a friday evening lecture at the royal institution. these two circumstances, combined, obtained for me an entry into scientific circles, and helped to sustain me in difficulty, until, by dint of a certain determination to win, i was able to advance step by step up to this place of honour, situated within a gunshot of the scene of my earliest success in life, but separated from it by the time of a generation. but notwithstanding the lapse of time, my heart still beats quick each time i come back to the scene of this, the determining incident of my life.' the 'anastatic' process, described by faraday in , and partly due to werner siemens, was a method of reproducing printed matter by transferring the print from paper to plates of zinc. caustic baryta was applied to the printed sheet to convert the resinous ingredients of the ink into an insoluble soap, the stearine being precipitated with sulphuric acid. the letters were then transferred to the zinc by pressure, so as to be printed from. the process, though ingenious and of much interest at the time, has long ago been superseded by photographic methods. even at this time siemens had several irons in the fire. besides the printing process and the chronometric governor, which operated by the differential movement between the engine and a chronometer, he was occupied with some minor improvements at hoyle's calico printing works. he also engaged in railway works from time to time; and in he brought out a double cylinder air-pump, in which the two cylinders are so combined, that the compressing side of the first and larger cylinder communicated with the suction side of the second and smaller cylinder, and the limit of exhaustion was thereby much extended. the invention was well received at the time, but is now almost forgotten. siemens had been trained as a mechanical engineer, and, although he became an eminent electrician in later life, his most important work at this early stage was non-electrical; indeed, the greatest achievement of his life was non-electrical, for we must regard the regenerative furnace as his magnum opus. though in he published a paper in liebig's annalen der chemie on the 'mercaptan of selenium,' his mind was busy with the new ideas upon the nature of heat which were promulgated by carnot, clayperon, joule, clausius, mayer, thomson, and rankine. he discarded the older notions of heat as a substance, and accepted it as a form of energy. working on this new line of thought, which gave him an advantage over other inventors of his time, he made his first attempt to economise heat, by constructing, in , at the factory of mr. john hick, of bolton, an engine of four horse-power, having a condenser provided with regenerators, and utilising superheated steam. two years later he continued his experiments at the works of messrs. fox, henderson, and co., of smethwick, near birmingham, who had taken the matter in hand. the use of superheated steam was, however, attended with many practical difficulties, and the invention was not entirely successful, but it embraced the elements of success; and the society of arts, in , acknowledged the value of the principle, by awarding mr. siemens a gold medal for his regenerative condenser. various papers read before the institution of mechanical engineers, the institution of civil engineers, or appearing in dingler's journal and the journal of the franklin institute about this time, illustrate the workings of his mind upon the subject. that read in , before the institution of civil engineers, 'on the conversion of heat into mechanical effect,' was the first of a long series of communications to that learned body, and gained for its author the telford premium and medal. in it he contended that a perfect engine would be one in which all the heat applied to the steam was used up in its expansion behind a working piston, leaving none to be sent into a condenser or the atmosphere, and that the best results in any actual engine would be attained by carrying expansion to the furthest possible limit, or, in practice, by the application of a regenerator. anxious to realise his theories further, he constructed a twenty horse-power engine on the regenerative plan, and exhibited it at the paris universal exhibition of ; but, not realising his expectations, he substituted for it another of seven-horse power, made by m. farcot, of paris, which was found to work with considerable economy. the use of superheated steam, however, still proved a drawback, and the siemens engine has not been extensively used. on the other hand, the siemens water-meter, which he introduced in , has been very widely used, not only in this country, but abroad. it acts equally well under all variations of pressure, and with a constant or an intermittent supply. meanwhile his brother werner had been turning his attention to telegraphy, and the correspondence which never ceased between the brothers kept william acquainted with his doings. in , werner, then an officer in the prussian army, was appointed to a berth in the artillery workshops of berlin, where he began to take an interest in the new art of telegraphy. in werner patented his dial and printing telegraph instruments, which came into use all over germany, and introduced an automatic alarm on the same principle. these inventions led to his being made, in , a member of a commission in berlin for the introduction of electric telegraphs instead of semaphores. he advocated the use of gutta-percha, then a new material, for the insulation of underground wires, and in designed a screw-press for coating the wires with the gum rendered plastic by heat. the following year he laid the first great underground telegraph line from berlin to frankfort-on-the-main, and soon afterwards left the army to engage with mr. halske in the management of a telegraph factory which they had conjointly established in . in william took an office in john street, adelphi, with a view to practise as a civil engineer. eleven years later, mr. halske and william siemens founded in london the house of siemens, halske & co., which began with a small factory at millbank, and developed in course of time into the well-known firm of messrs. siemens brothers, and was recently transformed into a limited liability company. in william siemens became a naturalised englishman, and from this time forward took an active part in the progress of english engineering and telegraphy. he devoted a great part of his time to electrical invention and research; and the number of telegraph apparatus of all sorts--telegraph cables, land lines, and their accessories--which have emanated from the siemens telegraph works has been remarkable. the engineers of this firm have been pioneers of the electric telegraph in every quarter of the globe, both by land and sea. the most important aerial line erected by the firm was the indo-european telegraph line, through prussia, russia, and persia, to india. the north china cable, the platino-brazileira, and the direct united states cable, were laid by the firm, the latter in - so also was the french atlantic cable, and the two jay could atlantic cables. at the time of his death the manufacture and laying of the bennett-mackay atlantic cables was in progress at the company's works, charlton. some idea of the extent of this manufactory may be gathered from the fact that it gives employment to some , men. all branches of electrical work are followed out in its various departments, including the construction of dynamos and electric lamps. on july , , siemens was married at st. james's, paddington, to anne, the youngest daughter of mr. joseph gordon, writer to the signet, edinburgh, and brother to mr. lewis gordon, professor of engineering in the university of glasgow, he used to say that on march of that year he took oath and allegiance to two ladies in one day--to the queen and his betrothed. the marriage was a thoroughly happy one. although much engaged in the advancement of telegraphy, he was also occupied with his favourite idea of regeneration. the regenerative gas furnace, originally invented in by his brother friedrich, was perfected and introduced by him during many succeeding years. the difficulties overcome in the development of this invention were enormous, but the final triumph was complete. the principle of this furnace consists in utilising the heat of the products of combustion to warm up the gaseous fuel and air which enters the furnace. this is done by making these products pass through brickwork chambers which absorb their heat and communicate it to the gas and air currents going to the flame. an extremely high temperature is thus obtained, and the furnace has, in consequence, been largely used in the manufacture of glass and steel. before the introduction of this furnace, attempts had been made to produce cast-steel without the use of a crucible--that is to say, on the 'open hearth' of the furnace. reaumur was probably the first to show that steel could be made by fusing malleable iron with cast-iron. heath patented the process in ; and a quantity of cast-steel was actually prepared in this way, on the bed of a reverberatory furnace, by sudre, in france, during the year . but the furnace was destroyed in the act; and it remained for siemens, with his regenerative furnace, to realise the object. in mr. charles atwood, of tow law, agreed to erect such a furnace, and give the process a fair trial; but although successful in producing the steel, he was afraid its temper was not satisfactory, and discontinued the experiment. next year, however, siemens, who was not to be disheartened, made another attempt with a large furnace erected at the montlucon works, in france, where he was assisted by the late m. le chatellier, inspecteur-general des mines. some charges of steel were produced; but here again the roof of the furnace melted down, and the company which had undertaken the trials gave them up. the temperature required for the manufacture of the steel was higher than the melting point of most fire-bricks. further endeavours also led to disappointments; but in the end the inventor was successful. he erected experimental works at birmingham, and gradually matured his process until it was so far advanced that it could be trusted to the hands of others. siemens used a mixture of cast-steel and iron ore to make the steel; but another manufacturer, m. martin, of sireuil, in france, developed the older plan of mixing the cast-iron with wrought-iron scrap. while siemens was improving his means at birmingham, martin was obtaining satisfactory results with a regenerative furnace of his own design; and at the paris exhibition of samples of good open-hearth steel were shown by both manufacturers. in england the process is now generally known as the 'siemens-martin,' and on the continent as the 'martin-siemens' process. the regenerative furnace is the greatest single invention of charles william siemens. owing to the large demand for steel for engineering operations, both at home and abroad, it proved exceedingly remunerative. extensive works for the application of the process were erected at landore, where siemens prosecuted his experiments on the subject with unfailing ardour, and, among other things, succeeded in making a basic brick for the lining of his furnaces which withstood the intense heat fairly well. the process in detail consists in freeing the bath of melted pig-iron from excess of carbon by adding broken lumps of pure hematite or magnetite iron ore. this causes a violent boiling, which is kept up until the metal becomes soft enough, when it is allowed to stand to let the metal clear from the slag which floats in scum upon the top. the separation of the slag and iron is facilitated by throwing in some lime from time to time. spiegel, or specular iron, is then added; about per cent. more than in the scrap process. from to cwt. of ore are used in a -ton charge, and about half the metal is reduced and turned into steel, so that the yield in ingots is from to per cent. more than the weight of pig and spiegel iron in the charge. the consumption of coal is rather larger than in the scrap process, and is from to cwt. per ton of steel. the two processes of siemens and martin are often combined, both scrap and ore being used in the same charge, the latter being valuable as a tempering material. at present there are several large works engaged in manufacturing the siemens-martin steel in england, namely, the landore, the parkhead forge, those of the steel company of scotland, of messrs. vickers & co., sheffield, and others. these produced no less than , tons of steel during the year , and two years later the total output had risen to half a million tons. in the british admiralty built two iron-clads, the mercury and iris, of siemens-martin steel, and the experiment proved so satisfactory, that this material only is now used in the royal dockyards for the construction of hulls and boilers. moreover, the use of it is gradually extending in the mercantile marine. contemporaneous with his development of the open-hearth process, william siemens introduced the rotary furnace for producing wrought-iron direct from the ore without the need of puddling. the fervent heat of the siemens furnace led the inventor to devise a novel means of measuring high temperatures, which illustrates the value of a broad scientific training to the inventor, and the happy manner in which william siemens, above all others, turned his varied knowledge to account, and brought the facts and resources of one science to bear upon another. as early as , while engaged in testing the conductor of the malta to alexandria telegraph cable, then in course of manufacture, he was struck by the increase of resistance in metallic wires occasioned by a rise of temperature, and the following year he devised a thermometer based on the fact which he exhibited before the british association at manchester. mathiessen and others have since enunciated the law according to which this rise of resistance varies with rise of temperature; and siemens has further perfected his apparatus, and applied it as a pyrometer to the measurement of furnace fires. it forms in reality an electric thermometer, which will indicate the temperature of an inaccessible spot. a coil of platinum or platinum-alloy wire is enclosed in a suitable fire-proof case and put into the furnace of which the temperature is wanted. connecting wires, properly protected, lend from the coil to a differential voltameter, so that, by means of the current from a battery circulating in the system, the electric resistance of the coil in the furnace can be determined at any moment. since this resistance depends on the temperature of the furnace, the temperature call be found from the resistance observed. the instrument formed the subject of the bakerian lecture for the year . siemens's researches on this subject, as published in the journal of the society of telegraph engineers (vol. i., p. , and vol. iii., p. ), included a set of curves graphically representing the relation between temperature and electrical resistance in the case of various metals. the electric pyrometer, which is perhaps the most elegant and original of all william siemens's inventions, is also the link which connects his electrical with his metallurgical researches. his invention ran in two great grooves, one based upon the science of heat, the other based upon the science of electricity; and the electric thermometer was, as it were, a delicate cross-coupling which connected both. siemens might have been two men, if we are to judge by the work he did; and either half of the twin-career he led would of itself suffice to make an eminent reputation. the success of his metallurgical enterprise no doubt reacted on his telegraphic business. the making and laying of the malta to alexandria cable gave rise to researches on the resistance and electrification of insulating materials under pressure, which formed the subject of a paper read before the british association in . the effect of pressure up to atmospheres was observed, and the fact elicited that the inductive capacity of gutta-percha is not affected by increased pressure, whereas that of india-rubber is diminished. the electrical tests employed during the construction of the malta and alexandria cable, and the insulation and protection of submarine cables, also formed the subject of a paper which was read before the institution of civil engineers in . it is always interesting to trace the necessity which directly or indirectly was the parent of a particular invention; and in the great importance of an accurate record of the sea-depth in which a cable is being laid, together with the tedious and troublesome character of ordinary sounding by the lead-line, especially when a ship is actually paying out cable, we may find the requirements which led to the invention of the 'bathometer,' an instrument designed to indicate the depth of water over which a vessel is passing without submerging a line. the instrument was based on the ingenious idea that the attractive power of the earth on a body in the ship must depend on the depth of water interposed between it and the sea bottom; being less as the layer of water was thicker, owing to the lighter character of water as compared with the denser land. siemens endeavoured to render this difference visible by means of mercury contained in a chamber having a bottom extremely sensitive to the pressure of the mercury upon it, and resembling in some respects the vacuous chamber of an aneroid barometer. just as the latter instrument indicates the pressure of the atmosphere above it, so the bathometer was intended to show the pull of the earth below it; and experiment proved, we believe, that for every , fathoms of sea-water below the ship, the total gravity of the mercury was reduced by / part. the bathometer, or attraction-meter, was brought out in , and exhibited at the loan exhibition in south kensington. the elastic bottom of the mercury chamber was supported by volute springs which, always having the same tension, caused a portion of the mercury to rise or fall in a spiral tube of glass, according to the variations of the earth's attraction. the whole was kept at an even temperature, and correction was made for barometric influence. though of high scientific interest, the apparatus appears to have failed at the time from its very sensitiveness; the waves on the surface of the sea having a greater disturbing action on its readings than the change of depth. siemens took a great interest in this very original machine, and also devised a form applicable to the measurement of heights. although he laid the subject aside for some years, he ultimately took it up again, in hopes of producing a practical apparatus which would be of immediate service in the cable expeditions of the s.s. faraday. this admirable cable steamer of , tons register was built for messrs. siemens brothers by messrs. mitchell & co., at newcastle. the designs were mainly inspired by siemens himself; and after the hooper, now the silvertown, she was the second ship expressly built for cable purposes. all the latest improvements that electric science and naval engineering could suggest were in her united. with a length of feet, a width of feet, and a depth of feet in the hold, she was fitted with a rudder at each end, either of which could be locked when desired, and the other brought into play. two screw propellers, actuated by a pair of compound engines, were the means of driving the vessel, and they were placed at a slight angle to each other, so that when the engines were worked in opposite directions the faraday could turn completely round in her own length. moreover, as the ship could steam forwards or backwards with equal ease, it became unnecessary to pass the cable forward before hauling it in, if a fault were discovered in the part submerged: the motion of the ship had only to be reversed, the stern rudder fixed, and the bow rudder turned, while a small engine was employed to haul the cable back over the stern drum, which had been used a few minutes before to pay it out. the first expedition of the faraday was the laying of the direct united states cable in the winter of a work which, though interrupted by stormy weather, was resumed and completed in the summer of . she has been engaged in laying several atlantic cables since, and has been fitted with the electric light, a resource which has proved of the utmost service, not only in facilitating the night operations of paying-out, but in guarding the ship from collision with icebergs in foggy weather off the north american coast. mention of the electric light brings us to an important act of the inventor, which, though done on behalf of his brother werner, was pregnant with great consequences. this was his announcement before a meeting of the royal society, held on february , , of the discovery of the principle of reinforcing the field magnetism of magneto-electric generators by part or the whole of the current generated in the revolving armature--a principle which has been applied in the dynamo-electric machines, now so much used for producing electric light and effecting the transmission of power to a distance by means of the electric current. by a curious coincidence the same principle was enunciated by sir charles wheatstone at the very same meeting; while a few months previously mr. s. a. varley had lodged an application for a british patent, in which the same idea was set forth. the claims of these three inventors to priority in the discovery were, however, anticipated by at least one other investigator, herr soren hjorth, believed to be a dane by birth, and still remembered by a few living electricians, though forgotten by the scientific world at large, until his neglected specification was unexpectedly dug out of the musty archives of the british patent office and brought into the light. the announcement of siemens and wheatstone came at an apter time than hjorth's, and was more conspicuously made. above all, in the affluent and enterprising hands of the brothers siemens, it was not suffered to lie sterile, and the siemens dynamo-electric machine was its offspring. this dynamo, as is well known, differs from those of gramme and paccinotti chiefly in the longitudinal winding of the armature, and it is unnecessary to describe it here. it has been adapted by its inventors to all kinds of electrical work, electrotyping, telegraphy, electric lighting, and the propulsion of vehicles. the first electric tramway run at berlin in was followed by another at dusseldorf in , and a third at paris in . with all of these the name of werner siemens was chiefly associated; but william siemens had also taken up the matter, and established at his country house of sherwood, near tunbridge wells, an arrangement of dynamos and water-wheel, by which the power of a neighbouring stream was made to light the house, cut chaff turn washing-machines, and perform other household duties. more recently the construction of the electric railway from portrush to bushmills, at the giant's causeway, engaged his attention; and this, the first work of its kind in the united kingdom, and to all appearance the pioneer of many similar lines, was one of his very last undertakings. in the recent development of electric lighting, william siemens, whose fame had been steadily growing, was a recognised leader, although he himself made no great discoveries therein. as a public man and a manufacturer of great resources his influence in assisting the introduction of the light has been immense. the number of siemens machines and siemens electric lamps, together with measuring instruments such as the siemens electro-dynamometer, which has been supplied to different parts of the world by the firm of which he was the head, is very considerable, and probably exceeds that of any other manufacturer, at least in this country. employing a staff of skilful assistants to develop many of his ideas, dr. siemens was able to produce a great variety of electrical instruments for measuring and other auxiliary purposes, all of which bear the name of his firm, and have proved exceedingly useful in a practical sense. among the most interesting of siemens's investigations were his experiments on the influence of the electric light in promoting the growth of plants, carried out during the winter of in the greenhouses of sherwood. these experiments showed that plants do not require a period of rest, but continue to grow if light and other necessaries are supplied to them. siemens enhanced the daylight, and, as it were, prolonged it through the night by means of arc lamps, with the result of forcing excellent fruit and flowers to their maturity before the natural time in this climate. while siemens was testing the chemical and life-promoting influence of the electric arc light, he was also occupied in trying its temperature and heating power with an 'electric furnace,' consisting of a plumbago crucible having two carbon electrodes entering it in such a manner that the voltaic arc could be produced within it. he succeeded in fusing a variety of refractory metals in a comparatively short time: thus, a pound of broken files was melted in a cold crucible in thirteen minutes, a result which is not surprising when we consider that the temperature of the voltaic arc, as measured by siemens and rosetti, is between , and , deg. centigrade, or about one-third that of the probable temperature of the sun. sir humphry davy was the first to observe the extraordinary fusing power of the voltaic arc, but siemens first applied it to a practical purpose in his electric furnace. always ready to turn his inventive genius in any direction, the introduction of the electric light, which had given an impetus to improvement in the methods of utilising gas, led him to design a regenerative gas lamp, which is now employed on a small scale in this country, either for street lighting or in class-rooms and public halls. in this burner, as in the regenerative furnace, the products of combustion are made to warm up the air and gas which go to feed the flame, and the effect is a full and brilliant light with some economy of fuel. the use of coal-gas for heating purposes was another subject which he took up with characteristic earnestness, and he advocated for a time the use of gas stoves and fires in preference to those which burn coal, not only on account of their cleanliness and convenience, but on the score of preventing fogs in great cities, by checking the discharge of smoke into the atmosphere. he designed a regenerative gas and coke fireplace, in which the ingoing air was warmed by heat conducted from the back part of the grate; and by practical trials in his own office, calculated the economy of the system. the interest in this question, however, died away after the close of the smoke abatement exhibition; and the experiments of mr. aiken, of edinburgh, showed how futile was the hope that gas fires would prevent fogs altogether. they might indeed ameliorate the noxious character of a fog by checking the discharge of soot into the atmosphere; but mr. aiken's experiments showed that particles of gas were in themselves capable of condensing the moisture of the air upon them. the great scheme of siemens for making london a smokeless city, by manufacturing gas at the coal-pit and leading it in pipes from street to street, would not have rendered it altogether a fogless one, though the coke and gas fires would certainly have reduced the quantity of soot launched into the air. siemens's scheme was rejected by a committee of the house of lords on the somewhat mistaken ground that if the plan were as profitable as siemens supposed, it would have been put in practice long ago by private enterprise. from the problem of heating a room, the mind of siemens also passed to the maintenance of solar fires, and occupied itself with the supply of fuel to the sun. some physicists have attributed the continuance of solar heat to the contraction of the solar mass, and others to the impact of cometary matter. imbued with the idea of regeneration, and seeking in nature for that thrift of power which he, as an inventor, had always aimed at, siemens suggested a hypothesis on which the sun conserves its heat by a circulation of its fuel in space. the elements dissociated in the intense heat of the glowing orb rush into the cooler regions of space, and recombine to stream again towards the sun, where the self-same process is renewed. the hypothesis was a daring one, and evoked a great deal of discussion, to which the author replied with interest, afterwards reprinting the controversy in a volume, on the conservation of solar energy. whether true or not--and time will probably decide--the solar hypothesis of siemens revealed its author in a new light. hitherto he had been the ingenious inventor, the enterprising man of business, the successful engineer; but now he took a prominent place in the ranks of pure science and speculative philosophy. the remarkable breadth of his mind and the abundance of his energies were also illustrated by the active part he played in public matters connected with the progress of science. his munificent gifts in the cause of education, as much as his achievements in science, had brought him a popular reputation of the best kind; and his public utterances in connection with smoke abatement, the electric light. electric railways, and other topics of current interest, had rapidly brought him into a foremost place among english scientific men. during the last years of his life, siemens advanced from the shade of mere professional celebrity into the strong light of public fame. president of the british association in , and knighted in , siemens was a member of numerous learned societies both at home and abroad. in he became a member of the institution of civil engineers; and in he was elected a fellow of the royal society. he was twice president of the society of telegraph engineers and the institution of mechanical engineers, besides being a member of council of the institution of civil engineers, and a vice-president of the royal institution. the society of arts, as we have already seen, was the first to honour him in the country of his adoption, by awarding him a gold medal for his regenerative condenser in ; and in he became its chairman. many honours were conferred upon him in the course of his career--the telford prize in , gold medals at the various great exhibitions, including that of paris in , and a grand prix at the earlier paris exhibition of for his regenerative furnace. in he received the royal albert medal for his researches on heat, and in the bessemer medal of the iron and steel institute. moreover, a few days before his death, the council of the institution of civil engineers awarded him the howard quinquennial prize for his improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel. at the request of his widow, it took the form of a bronze copy of the 'mourners,' a piece of statuary by j. g. lough, originally exhibited at the great exhibition of , in the crystal palace. in the university of oxford conferred upon him the high distinction of d.c.l. (doctor of civil law); and besides being a member of several foreign societies, he was a dignitario of the brazilian order of the rose, and chevalier of the legion of honour. rich in honours and the appreciation of his contemporaries, in the prime of his working power and influence for good, and at the very climax of his career, sir william siemens was called away. the news of his death came with a shock of surprise, for hardly any one knew he had been ill. he died on the evening of monday, november , , at nine o'clock. a fortnight before, while returning from a managers' meeting of the royal institution, in company with his friend sir frederick bramwell, he tripped upon the kerbstone of the pavement, after crossing hamilton place, piccadilly, and fell heavily to the ground, with his left arm under him. though a good deal shaken by the fall, he attended at his office in queen anne's gate, westminster, the next and for several following days; but the exertion proved too much for him, and almost for the first time in his busy life he was compelled to lay up. on his last visit to the office he was engaged most of the time in dictating to his private secretary a large portion of the address which he intended to deliver as chairman of the council of the society of arts. this was on thursday, november , and the following saturday he awoke early in the morning with an acute pain about the heart and a sense of coldness in the lower limbs. hot baths and friction removed the pain, from which he did not suffer much afterwards. a slight congestion of the left lung was also relieved; and sir william had so far recovered that he could leave his room. on saturday, the th, he was to have gone for a change of air to his country seat at sherwood; but on wednesday, the th, he appears to have caught a chill which affected his lungs, for that night he was seized with a shortness of breath and a difficulty in breathing. though not actually confined to bed, he never left his room again. on the last day, and within four hours of his death, we are told, his two medical attendants, after consultation, spoke so hopefully of the future, that no one was prepared for the sudden end which was then so near. in the evening, while he was sitting in an arm-chair, very quiet and calm, a change suddenly came over his face, and he died like one who falls asleep. heart disease of long standing, aggravated by the fall, was the immediate cause; but the opinion has been expressed by one who knew him well, that siemens 'literally immolated himself on the shrine of labour.' at any rate he did not spare himself, and his intense devotion to his work proved fatal. every day was a busy one with siemens. his secretary was with him in his residence by nine o'clock nearly every morning, except on sundays, assisting him in work for one society or another, the correction of proofs, or the dictation of letters giving official or scientific advice, and the preparation of lectures or patent specifications. later on, he hurried across the park 'almost at racing speed,' to his offices at westminster, where the business of the landore-siemens steel company and the electrical works of messrs. siemens brothers and company was transacted. as chairman of these large undertakings, and principal inventor of the processes and systems carried out by them, he had a hundred things to attend to in connection with them, visitors to see, and inquiries to answer. in the afternoon and evenings he was generally engaged at council meetings of the learned societies, or directory meetings of the companies in which he was interested. he was a man who took little or no leisure, and though he never appeared to over-exert himself, few men could have withstood the strain so long. siemens was buried on monday, november , in kensal green cemetery. the interment was preceded by a funeral service held in westminster abbey, and attended by representatives of the numerous learned societies of which he had been a conspicuous member, by many leading men in all branches of science, and also by a large body of other friends and admirers, who thus united in doing honour to his memory, and showing their sense of the loss which all classes had sustained by his death. siemens was above all things a 'labourer.' unhasting, unresting labour was the rule of his life; and the only relaxation, not to say recreation, which he seems to have allowed himself was a change of task or the calls of sleep. this natural activity was partly due to the spur of his genius, and partly to his energetic spirit. for a man of his temperament science is always holding out new problems to solve and fresh promises of triumph. all he did only revealed more work to be done; and many a scheme lies buried in his grave. though siemens was a man of varied powers, and occasionally gave himself to pure speculation in matters of science, his mind was essentially practical; and it was rather as an engineer than a discoverer that he was great. inventions are associated with his name, not laws or new phenomena. standing on the borderland between pure and applied science, his sympathies were yet with the latter; and as the outgoing president of the british association at southport, in , he expressed the opinion that 'in the great workshop of nature there are no lines of demarcation to be drawn between the most exalted speculation and common-place practice.' the truth of this is not to be gain-said, but it is the utterance of an engineer who judges the merit of a thing by its utility. he objected to the pursuit of science apart from its application, and held that the man of science does most for his kind who shows the world how to make use of scientific results. such a view was natural on the part of siemens, who was himself a living representative of the type in question; but it was not the view of such a man as faraday or newton, whose pure aim was to discover truth, well knowing that it would be turned to use thereafter. in faraday's eyes the new principle was a higher boon than the appliance which was founded upon it. tried by his own standard, however, siemens was a conspicuous benefactor of his fellow-men; and at the time of his decease he had become our leading authority upon applied science. in electricity he was a pioneer of the new advances, and happily lived to obtain at least a pisgah view of the great future which evidently lies before that pregnant force. if we look for the secret of siemens's remarkable success, we shall assuredly find it in an inventive mind, coupled with a strong commercial instinct, and supported by a physical energy which enabled him to labour long and incessantly. it is told that when a mechanical problem was brought to him for solution, he would suggest six ways of overcoming the difficulty, three of which would be impracticable, the others feasible, and one at least successful. from this we gather that his mind was fertile in expedients. the large works which he established are also a proof that, unlike most inventors, he did not lose his interest in an invention, or forsake it for another before it had been brought into the market. on the contrary, he was never satisfied with an invention until it was put into practical operation. to the ordinary observer, siemens did not betray any signs of the untiring energy that possessed him. his countenance was usually serene and tranquil, as that of a thinker rather than a man of action; his demeanour was cool and collected; his words few and well-chosen. in his manner, as well as in his works, there was no useless waste of power. to the young he was kind and sympathetic, hearing, encouraging, advising; a good master, a firm friend. his very presence had a calm and orderly influence on those about him, which when he presided at a public meeting insensibly introduced a gracious tone. the diffident took heart before him, and the presumptuous were checked. the virtues which accompanied him into public life did not desert him in private. in losing him, we have lost not only a powerful intellect, but a bright example, and an amiable man. chapter vi. fleeming jenkin. the late fleeming jenkin, professor of engineering in edinburgh university, was remarkable for the versatility of his talent. known to the world as the inventor of telpherage, he was an electrician and cable engineer of the first rank, a lucid lecturer, and a good linguist, a skilful critic, a writer and actor of plays, and a clever sketcher. in popular parlance, jenkin was a dab at everything. his father, captain charles jenkin, r.n., was the second son of mr. charles jenkin, of stowting court, himself a naval officer, who had taken part in the actions with de grasse. stowting court, a small estate some six miles north of hythe, had been in the family since the year , and was held of the crown by the feudal service of six men and a constable to defend the sea-way at sandgate. certain jenkins had settled in kent during the reign of henry viii., and claimed to have come from yorkshire. they bore the arms of jenkin ap phillip of st. melans, who traced his descent from 'guaith voeth,' lord of cardigan. while cruising in the west indies, carrying specie, or chasing buccaneers and slavers, charles jenkin, junior, was introduced to the family of a fellow midshipman, son of mr. jackson, custos rotulorum of kingston, jamaica, and fell in love with henrietta camilla, the youngest daughter. mr. jackson came of a yorkshire stock, said to be of scottish origin, and susan, his wife, was a daughter of [sir] colin campbell, a greenock merchant, who inherited but never assumed the baronetcy of auchinbreck. [according to burke's peerage ( ), the title went to another branch.] charles jenkin, senior, died in , leaving his estate so heavily encumbered, through extravagance and high living, that only the mill-farm was saved for john, the heir, an easy-going, unpractical man, with a turn for abortive devices. his brother charles married soon afterwards, and with the help of his wife's money bought in most of stowting court, which, however, yielded him no income until late in life. charles was a useful officer and an amiable gentleman; but lacking energy and talent, he never rose above the grade of commander, and was superseded after forty-five years of service. he is represented as a brave, single-minded, and affectionate sailor, who on one occasion saved several men from suffocation by a burning cargo at the risk of his own life. henrietta camilla jackson, his wife, was a woman of a strong and energetic character. without beauty of countenance, she possessed the art of pleasing, and in default of genius she was endowed with a variety of gifts. she played the harp, sang, and sketched with native art. at seventeen, on hearing pasta sing in paris, she sought out the artist and solicited lessons. pasta, on hearing her sing, encouraged her, and recommended a teacher. she wrote novels, which, however, failed to make their mark. at forty, on losing her voice, she took to playing the piano, practising eight hours a day; and when she was over sixty she began the study of hebrew. the only child of this union was henry charles fleeming jenkin, generally called fleeming jenkin, after admiral fleeming, one of his father's patrons. he was born on march , , in a building of the government near dungeness, his father at that time being on the coast-guard service. his versatility was evidently derived from his mother, who, owing to her husband's frequent absence at sea and his weaker character, had the principal share in the boy's earlier training. jenkin was fortunate in having an excellent education. his mother took him to the south of scotland, where, chiefly at barjarg, she taught him drawing among other things, and allowed him to ride his pony on the moors. he went to school at jedburgh, and afterwards to the edinburgh academy, where he carried off many prizes. among his schoolfellows were clerk maxwell and peter guthrie tait, the friends of his maturer life. on the retirement of his father the family removed to frankfort in , partly from motives of economy and partly for the boy's instruction. here fleeming and his father spent a pleasant time together, sketching old castles, and observing the customs of the peasantry. fleeming was precocious, and at thirteen had finished a romance of three hundred lines in heroic measure, a scotch novel, and innumerable poetical fragments, none of which are now extant. he learned german in frankfort; and on the family migrating to paris the following year, he studied french and mathematics under a certain m. deluc. while here, fleeming witnessed the outbreak of the revolution of , and heard the first shot. in a letter written to an old schoolfellow while the sound still rang in his ears, and his hand trembled with excitement, he gives a boyish account of the circumstances. the family were living in the rue caumartin, and on the evening of february he and his father were taking a walk along the boulevards, which were illuminated for joy at the resignation of m. guizot. they passed the residence of the foreign minister, which was guarded with troops, and further on encountered a band of rioters marching along the street with torches, and singing the marseillaise. after them came a rabble of men and women of all sorts, rich and poor, some of them armed with sticks and sabres. they turned back with these, the boy delighted with the spectacle, 'i remarked to papa' (he writes),'i would not have missed the scene for anything. i might never see such a splendid one; when pong went one shot. every face went pale: r--r--r--r--r went the whole detachment [of troops], and the whole crowd of gentlemen and ladies turned and cut. such a scene!---ladies, gentlemen, and vagabonds went sprawling in the mud, not shot but tripped up, and those that went down could not rise--they were trampled over.... i ran a short time straight on and did not fall, then turned down a side street, ran fifty yards, and felt tolerably safe; looked for papa; did not see him; so walked on quickly, giving the news as i went.' next day, while with his father in the place de la concorde, which was filled with troops, the gates of the tuileries garden were suddenly flung open, and out galloped a troop of cuirassiers, in the midst of whom was an open carriage containing the king and queen, who had abdicated. then came the sacking of the tuileries, the people mounting a cannon on the roof, and firing blank cartridges to testify their joy. 'it was a sight to see a palace sacked' (wrote the boy), 'and armed vagabonds firing out of the windows, and throwing shirts, papers, and dresses of all kinds out.... they are not rogues, the french; they are not stealing, burning, or doing much harm.' [memoir of fleeming jenkin, by r. l. stevenson.] the revolution obliged the jenkins to leave paris, and they proceeded to genoa, where they experienced another, and mrs. jenkin, with her son and sister-in-law, had to seek the protection of a british vessel in the harbour, leaving their house stored with the property of their friends, and guarded by the union jack and captain jenkin. at genoa, fleeming attended the university, and was its first protestant student. professor bancalari was the professor of natural philosophy, and lectured on electro-magnetism, his physical laboratory being the best in italy. jenkin took the degree of m.a. with first-class honours, his special subject having been electro-magnetism. the questions in the examinations were put in latin, and answered in italian. fleeming also attended an art school in the city, and gained a silver medal for a drawing from one of raphael's cartoons. his holidays were spent in sketching, and his evenings in learning to play the piano; or, when permissible, at the theatre or opera-house; for ever since hearing rachel recite the marseillaise at the theatre francaise, he had conceived a taste for acting. in fleeming spent some time in a genoese locomotive shop under mr. philip taylor, of marseilles; but on the death of his aunt anna, who lived with them, captain jenkin took his family to england, and settled in manchester, where the lad, in , was apprenticed to mechanical engineering at the works of messrs. fairbairn, and from half-past eight in the morning till six at night had, as he says, 'to file and chip vigorously, in a moleskin suit, and infernally dirty.' at home he pursued his studies, and was for a time engaged with dr. bell in working out a geometrical method of arriving at the proportions of greek architecture. his stay amidst the smoke and bustle of manchester, though in striking contrast to his life in genoa, was on the whole agreeable. he liked his work, had the good spirits of youth, and made some pleasant friends, one of them the authoress, mrs. gaskell. even as a boy he was disputatious, and his mother tells of his having overcome a consul at genoa in a political discussion when he was only sixteen, 'simply from being well-informed on the subject, and honest. he is as true as steel,' she writes, 'and for no one will he bend right or left... do not fancy him a bobadil; he is only a very true, candid boy. i am so glad he remains in all respects but information a great child.' on leaving fairbairn's he was engaged for a time on a survey for the proposed lukmanier railway, in switzerland, and in he entered the engineering works of mr. penn, at greenwich, as a draughtsman, and was occupied on the plans of a vessel designed for the crimean war. he did not care for his berth, and complained of its late hours, his rough comrades, with whom he had to be 'as little like himself as possible,' and his humble lodgings, 'across a dirty green and through some half-built streets of two-storied houses.... luckily,' he adds, 'i am fond of my profession, or i could not stand this life.' there was probably no real hardship in his present situation, and thousands of young engineers go through the like experience at the outset of their career without a murmur,' and even with enjoyment; but jenkin had been his mother's pet until then, with a girl's delicate training, and probably felt the change from home more keenly on that account. at night he read engineering and mathematics, or carlyle and the poets, and cheered his drooping spirits with frequent trips to london to see his mother. another social pleasure was his visits to the house of mr. alfred austin, a barrister, who became permanent secretary to her majesty's office of works and public buildings, and retired in with the title of c.b. his wife, eliza barron, was the youngest daughter of mr. e. barron, a gentleman of norwich, the son of a rich saddler, or leather-seller, in the borough, who, when a child, had been patted on the head, in his father's shop, by dr. johnson, while canvassing for mr. thrale. jenkin had been introduced to the austins by a letter from mrs. gaskell, and was charmed with the atmosphere of their choice home, where intellectual conversation was happily united with kind and courteous manners, without any pretence or affectation. 'each of the austins,' says mr. stevenson, in his memoir of jenkin, to which we are much indebted, 'was full of high spirits; each practised something of the same repression; no sharp word was uttered in the house. the same point of honour ruled them: a guest was sacred, and stood within the pale from criticism.' in short, the austins were truly hospitable and cultured, not merely so in form and appearance. it was a rare privilege and preservative for a solitary young man in jenkin's position to have the entry into such elevating society, and he appreciated his good fortune. annie austin, their only child, had been highly educated, and knew greek among other things. though jenkin loved and admired her parents, he did not at first care for annie, who, on her part, thought him vain, and by no means good-looking. mr. stevenson hints that she vanquished his stubborn heart by correcting a 'false quantity' of his one day, for he was the man to reflect over a correction, and 'admire the castigator.' be this as it may, jenkin by degrees fell deeply in love with her. he was poor and nameless, and this made him diffident; but the liking of her parents for him gave him hope. moreover, he had entered the service of messrs. liddell and gordon, who were engaged in the new work of submarine telegraphy, which satisfied his aspirations, and promised him a successful career. with this new-born confidence in his future, he solicited the austins for leave to court their daughter, and it was not withheld. mrs. austin consented freely, and mr. austin only reserved the right to inquire into his character. neither of them mentioned his income or prospects, and jenkin, overcome by their disinterestedness, exclaimed in one of his letters, 'are these people the same as other people?' thus permitted, he addressed himself to annie, and was nearly rejected for his pains. miss austin seems to have resented his courtship of her parents first; but the mother's favour, and his own spirited behaviour, saved him, and won her consent. then followed one of the happiest epochs in jenkin's life. after leaving penn's he worked at railway engineering for a time under messrs. liddell and gordon; and, in , became engineer to messrs. r. s. newall & co., of gateshead, who shared the work of making the first atlantic cable with messrs. glass, elliott & co., of greenwich. jenkin was busy designing and fitting up machinery for cableships, and making electrical experiments. 'i am half crazy with work,' he wrote to his betrothed; 'i like it though: it's like a good ball, the excitement carries you through.' again he wrote, 'my profession gives me all the excitement and interest i ever hope for.'... 'i am at the works till ten, and sometimes till eleven. but i have a nice office to sit in, with a fire to myself, and bright brass scientific instruments all round me, and books to read, and experiments to make, and enjoy myself amazingly. i find the study of electricity so entertaining that i am apt to neglect my other work.'... 'what shall i compare them to,' he writes of some electrical experiments, 'a new song? or a greek play?' in the spring of he was fitting out the s.s. elba, at birkenhead, for his first telegraph cruise. it appears that in mr. henry brett attempted to lay a cable across the mediterranean between cape spartivento, in the south of sardinia, and a point near bona, on the coast of algeria. it was a gutta-percha cable of six wires or conductors, and manufactured by messrs. glass & elliott, of greenwich--a firm which afterwards combined with the gutta-percha company, and became the existing telegraph construction and maintenance company. mr. brett laid the cable from the result, a sailing ship in tow, instead of a more manageable steamer; and, meeting with fathoms of water when twenty-five miles from land, the cable ran out so fast that a tangled skein came up out of the hold, and the line had to be severed. having only miles on board to span the whole distance of miles, he grappled the lost cable near the shore, raised it, and 'under-run' or passed it over the ship, for some twenty miles, then cut it, leaving the seaward end on the bottom. he then spliced the ship's cable to the shoreward end and resumed his paying-out; but after seventy miles in all were laid, another rapid rush of cable took place, and mr. brett was obliged to cut and abandon the line. another attempt was made the following year, but with no better success. mr. brett then tried to lay a three-wire cable from the steamer dutchman, but owing to the deep water--in some places fathoms--its egress was so rapid, that when he came to a few miles from galita, his destination on the algerian coast, he had not enough cable to reach the land. he therefore telegraphed to london for more cable to be made and sent out, while the ship remained there holding to the end. for five days he succeeded in doing so, sending and receiving messages; but heavy weather came on, and the cable parted, having, it is said, been chafed through by rubbing on the bottom. after that mr. brett went home. it was to recover the lost cable of these expeditions that the elba was got ready for sea. jenkin had fitted her out the year before for laying the cagliari to malta and corfu cables; but on this occasion she was better equipped. she had a new machine for picking up the cable, and a sheave or pulley at the bows for it to run over, both designed by jenkin, together with a variety of wooden buoys, ropes, and chains. mr. liddell, assisted by mr. f. c. webb and fleeming jenkin, were in charge of the expedition. the latter had nothing to do with the electrical work, his care being the deck machinery for raising the cable; but it entailed a good deal of responsibility, which was flattering and agreeable to a young man of his parts. 'i own i like responsibility,' he wrote to miss austin, while fitting up the vessel; 'it flatters one; and then, your father might say, i have more to gain than lose. moreover, i do like this bloodless, painless combat with wood and iron, forcing the stubborn rascals to do my will, licking the clumsy cubs into an active shape, seeing the child of to-day's thought working to-morrow in full vigour at his appointed task.' another letter, dated may , gives a picture of the start. 'not a sailor will join us till the last moment; and then, just as the ship forges ahead through the narrow pass, beds and baggage fly on board, the men, half tipsy, clutch at the rigging, the captain swears, the women scream and sob, the crowd cheer and laugh, while one or two pretty little girls stand still and cry outright, regardless of all eyes.' the elba arrived at bona on june , and jenkin landed at fort genova, on cape hamrah, where some arabs were building a land line. 'it was a strange scene,' he writes, 'far more novel than i had imagined; the high, steep bank covered with rich, spicy vegetation, of which i hardly knew one plant. the dwarf palm, with fan-like leaves, growing about two feet high, forms the staple verdure.' after dining in fort genova, he had nothing to do but watch the sailors ordering the arabs about under the 'generic term "johnny."' he began to tire of the scene, although, as he confesses, he had willingly paid more money for less strange and lovely sights. jenkin was not a dreamer; he disliked being idle, and if he had had a pencil he would have amused himself in sketching what he saw. that his eyes were busy is evident from the particulars given in his letter, where he notes the yellow thistles and 'scotch-looking gowans' which grow there, along with the cistus and the fig-tree. they left bona on june , and, after calling at cagliari and chia, arrived at cape spartivento on the morning of june . the coast here is a low range of heathy hills, with brilliant green bushes and marshy pools. mr. webb remarks that its reputation for fever was so bad as to cause italian men-of-war to sheer off in passing by. jenkin suffered a little from malaria, but of a different origin. 'a number of the saturday review here,' he writes; 'it reads so hot and feverish, so tomb-like and unhealthy, in the midst of dear nature's hills and sea, with good wholesome work to do.' there were several pieces of submerged cable to lift, two with their ends on shore, and one or two lying out at sea. next day operations were begun on the shore end, which had become buried under the sand, and could not be raised without grappling. after attempts to free the cable from the sand in small boats, the elba came up to help, and anchored in shallow water about sunset. curiously enough, the anchor happened to hook, and so discover the cable, which was thereupon grappled, cut, and the sea end brought on board over the bow sheave. after being passed six times round the picking-up drum it was led into the hold, and the elba slowly forged ahead, hauling in the cable from the bottom as she proceeded. at half-past nine she anchored for the night some distance from the shore, and at three next morning resumed her picking up. 'with a small delay for one or two improvements i had seen to be necessary last night,' writes jenkin, 'the engine started, and since that time i do not think there has been half an hour's stoppage. a rope to splice, a block to change, a wheel to oil, an old rusted anchor to disengage from the cable, which brought it up--these have been our only obstructions. sixty, seventy, eighty, a hundred, a hundred and twenty revolutions at last my little engine tears away. the even black rope comes straight out of the blue, heaving water, passes slowly round an open-hearted, good-tempered-looking pulley, five feet in diameter, aft past a vicious nipper, to bring all up should anything go wrong, through a gentle guide on to a huge bluff drum, who wraps him round his body, and says, "come you must," as plain as drum can speak; the chattering pauls say, "i've got him, i've got him; he can't come back," whilst black cable, much slacker and easier in mind and body, is taken by a slim v-pulley and passed down into the huge hold, where half a dozen men put him comfortably to bed after his exertion in rising from his long bath. 'i am very glad i am here, for my machines are my own children, and i look on their little failings with a parent's eye, and lead them into the path of duty with gentleness and firmness. i am naturally in good spirits, but keep very quiet, for misfortunes may arise at any instant; moreover, to-morrow my paying-out apparatus will be wanted should all go well, and that will be another nervous operation. fifteen miles are safely in, but no one knows better than i do that nothing is done till all is done.' june .--'it would amuse you to see how cool (in head) and jolly everybody is. a testy word now and then shows the nerves are strained a little, but every one laughs and makes his little jokes as if it were all in fun....i enjoy it very much.' june , sunday.--'it now (at . ) blows a pretty stiff gale, and the sea has also risen, and the elba's bows rise and fall about nine feet. we make twelve pitches to the minute, and the poor cable must feel very sea-sick by this time. we are quite unable to do anything, and continue riding at anchor in one thousand fathoms, the engines going constantly, so as to keep the ship's bows close up to the cable, which by this means hangs nearly vertical, and sustains no strain but that caused by its own weight and the pitching of the vessel. we were all up at four, but the weather entirely forbade work for to-day; so some went to bed, and most lay down, making up our lee-way, as we nautically term our loss of sleep. i must say liddell is a fine fellow, and keeps his patience and his temper wonderfully; and yet how he does fret and fume about trifles at home!' june .--'by some odd chance a times of june has found its way on board through the agency of a wretched old peasant who watches the end of the line here. a long account of breakages in the atlantic trial trip. to-night we grapple for the heavy cable, eight tons to the mile. i long to have a tug at him; he may puzzle me; and though misfortunes, or rather difficulties, are a bore at the time, life, when working with cables, is tame without them.-- p.m. hurrah! he is hooked--the big fellow--almost at the first cast. he hangs under our bows, looking so huge and imposing that i could find it in my heart to be afraid of him.' june .--'we went to a little bay called chia, where a fresh-water stream falls into the sea, and took in water. this is rather a long operation, so i went up the valley with mr. liddell. the coast here consists of rocky mountains to feet high, covered with shrubs of a brilliant green. on landing, our first amusement was watching the hundreds of large fish who lazily swam in shoals about the river. the big canes on the further side hold numberless tortoises, we are told, but see none, for just now they prefer taking a siesta. a little further on, and what is this with large pink flowers in such abundance?--the oleander in full flower! at first i fear to pluck them, thinking they must be cultivated and valuable; but soon the banks show a long line of thick tall shrubs, one mass of glorious pink and green, set there in a little valley, whose rocks gleam out blue and purple colours, such as pre-raphaelites only dare attempt, shining out hard and weird-like amongst the clumps of castor-oil plants, cistus, arbor-vitae, and many other evergreens, whose names, alas! i know not; the cistus is brown now, the rest all deep and brilliant green. large herds of cattle browse on the baked deposit at the foot of these large crags. one or two half-savage herdsmen in sheepskin kilts, etc., ask for cigars; partridges whirr up on either side of us; pigeons coo and nightingales sing amongst the blooming oleander. we get six sheep, and many fowls too, from the priest of the small village, and then run back to spartivento and make preparations for the morning.' june .--'the short length (of the big-cable) we have picked up was covered at places with beautiful sprays of coral, twisted and twined with shells of those small fairy animals we saw in the aquarium at home. poor little things! they died at once, with their little bells and delicate bright tints.' june .--'hour after hour i stand on the fore-castle-head picking off little specimens of polypi and coral, or lie on the saloon deck reading back numbers of the times, till something hitches, and then all is hurly-burly once more. there are awnings all along the ship, and a most ancient and fish-like smell (from the decaying polypi) beneath.' june .--'yesterday the cable was often a lovely sight, coming out of the water one large incrustation of delicate net-like corals and long white curling shells. no portion of the dirty black wire was visible; instead we had a garland of soft pink, with little scarlet sprays and white enamel intermixed. all was fragile, however, and could hardly be secured in safety; and inexorable iron crushed the tender leaves to atoms.' june .--'the whole day spent in dredging, without success. this operation consists in allowing the ship to drift slowly across the line where you expect the cable to be, while at the end of a long rope, fast either to the bow or stern, a grapnel drags along the ground. the grapnel is a small anchor, made like four pot-hooks tied back to back. when the rope gets taut the ship is stopped and the grapnel hauled up to the surface in the hopes of finding the cable on its prongs. i am much discontented with myself for idly lounging about and reading westward ho! for the second time instead of taking to electricity or picking up nautical information.' during the latter part of the work much of the cable was found to be looped and twisted into 'kinks' from having been so slackly laid, and two immense tangled skeins were raised on board, one by means of the mast-head and fore-yard tackle. photographs of this ravelled cable were for a long time exhibited as a curiosity in the windows of messrs. newall & co's. shop in the strand, where we remember to have seen them. by july the whole of the six-wire cable had been recovered, and a portion of the three-wire cable, the rest being abandoned as unfit for use, owing to its twisted condition. their work was over, but an unfortunate accident marred its conclusion. on the evening of the nd the first mate, while on the water unshackling a buoy, was struck in the back by a fluke of the ship's anchor as she drifted, and so severely injured that he lay for many weeks at cagliari. jenkin's knowledge of languages made him useful as an interpreter; but in mentioning this incident to miss austin, he writes, 'for no fortune would i be a doctor to witness these scenes continually. pain is a terrible thing.' in the beginning of he made the acquaintance of sir william thomson, his future friend and partner. mr. lewis gordon, of messrs. r. s. newall & co., afterwards the earliest professor of engineering in a british university, was then in glasgow seeing sir william's instruments for testing and signalling on the first atlantic cable during the six weeks of its working. mr. gordon said he should like to show them to 'a young man of remarkable ability,' engaged at their birkenhead works, and jenkin, being telegraphed for, arrived next morning, and spent a week in glasgow, mostly in sir william's class-room and laboratory at the old college. sir william tells us that he was struck not only with jenkin's brightness and ability, but with his resolution to understand everything spoken of; to see, if possible, thoroughly into every difficult question, and to slur over nothing. 'i soon found,' he remarks, 'that thoroughness of honesty was as strongly engrained in the scientific as in the moral side of his character.' their talk was chiefly on the electric telegraph; but jenkin was eager, too, on the subject of physics. after staying a week he returned to the factory; but he began experiments, and corresponded briskly with sir william about cable work. that great electrician, indeed, seems to have infected his visitor during their brief contact with the magnetic force of his personality and enthusiasm. the year was propitious, and, in addition to this friend, fortune about the same time bestowed a still better gift on jenkin. on saturday, february , during a four days' leave, he was married to miss austin at northiam, returning to his work the following tuesday. this was the great event of his life; he was strongly attached to his wife, and his letters reveal a warmth of affection, a chivalry of sentiment, and even a romance of expression, which a casual observer would never have suspected in him. jenkin seemed to the outside world a man without a heart, and yet we find him saying in the year , 'people may write novels, and other people may write poems, but not a man or woman among them can say how happy a man can be who is desperately in love with his wife after ten years of marriage.' five weeks before his death he wrote to her, 'your first letter from bournemouth gives me heavenly pleasure--for which i thank heaven and you, too, who are my heaven on earth.' during the summer he enjoyed another telegraph cruise in the mediterranean, a sea which for its classical memories, its lovely climate, and diversified scenes, is by far the most interesting in the world. this time the elba was to lay a cable from the greek islands of syra and candia to egypt. cable-laying is a pleasant mode of travel. many of those on board the ship are friends and comrades in former expeditions, and all are engaged in the same venture. some have seen a good deal of the world, both in and out of the beaten track; they have curious 'yarns to spin,' and useful hints or scraps of worldly wisdom to bestow. the voyage out is like a holiday excursion, for it is only the laying that is arduous, and even that is lightened by excitement. glimpses are got of hide-away spots, where the cable is landed, perhaps. on the verge of the primeval forest or near the port of a modern city, or by the site of some ruined monument of the past. the very magic of the craft and its benefit to the world are a source of pleasure to the engineer, who is generally made much of in the distant parts he has come to join. no doubt there are hardships to be borne, sea-sickness, broken rest, and anxiety about the work--for cables are apt suddenly to fail, and the ocean is treacherous; but with all its drawbacks this happy mixture of changing travel and profitable labour is very attractive, especially to a young man. the following extracts from letters to his wife will illustrate the nature of the work, and also give an idea of jenkin's clear and graphic style of correspondence:--may .--'syra is semi-eastern. the pavement, huge shapeless blocks sloping to a central gutter; from this base two-storeyed houses, sometimes plaster, many-coloured, sometimes rough-hewn marble, rise, dirty and ill-finished, to straight, plain, flat roofs; shops guiltless of windows, with signs in greek letters; dogs, greeks in blue, baggy, zouave breeches and a fez, a few narghilehs, and a sprinkling of the ordinary continental shop-boys. in the evening i tried one more walk in syra with a----, but in vain endeavoured to amuse myself or to spend money, the first effort resulting in singing doodah to a passing greek or two, the second in spending--no, in making a---- spend--threepence on coffee for three.' canea bay, in candia (or crete), which they reached on may , appeared to jenkin one of the loveliest sights that man could witness. may .--'i spent the day at the little station where the cable was landed, which has apparently been first a venetian monastery and then a turkish mosque. at any rate the big dome is very cool, and the little ones hold batteries capitally. a handsome young bashi-bazouk guards it, and a still handsomer mountaineer is the servant; so i draw them and the monastery and the hill till i'm black in the face with heat, and come on board to hear the canea cable is still bad.' may .--'we arrived in the morning at the east end of candia, and had a glorious scramble over the mountains, which seem built of adamant. time has worn away the softer portions of the rock, only leaving sharp, jagged edges of steel; sea eagles soaring above our heads--old tanks, ruins, and desolation at our feet. the ancient arsinoe stood here: a few blocks of marble with the cross attest the presence of venetian christians; but now--the desolation of desolations. mr. liddell and i separated from the rest, and when we had found a sure bay for the cable, had a tremendous lively scramble back to the boat. these are the bits of our life which i enjoy; which have some poetry, some grandeur in them. may .-'yesterday we ran round to the new harbour (of alexandria), landed the shore end of the cable close to cleopatra's bath, and made a very satisfactory start about one in the afternoon. we had scarcely gone yards when i noticed that the cable ceased to run out, and i wondered why the ship had stopped.' the elba had run her nose on a sandbank. after trying to force her over it, an anchor was put out astern and the rope wound by a steam winch, while the engines were backed; but all in vain. at length a small turkish steamer, the consort of the elba, came to her assistance, and by means of a hawser helped to tug her off: the pilot again ran her aground soon after, but she was delivered by the same means without much damage. when two-thirds of this cable was laid the line snapped in deep water, and had to be recovered. on saturday, june , they arrived at syra, where they had to perform four days' quarantine, during which, however, they started repairing the canea cable. bad weather coming on, they took shelter in siphano, of which jenkin writes: 'these isles of greece are sad, interesting places. they are not really barren all over, but they are quite destitute of verdure; and tufts of thyme, wild mastic, or mint, though they sound well, are not nearly so pretty as grass. many little churches, glittering white, dot the islands; most of them, i believe, abandoned during the whole year with the exception of one day sacred to their patron saint. the villages are mean; but the inhabitants do not look wretched, and the men are capital sailors. there is something in this greek race yet; they will become a powerful levantine nation in the course of time.' in jenkin left the service of newall & co., and entered into partnership with mr. h. c. forde, who had acted as engineer under the british government for the malta-alexandria cable, and was now practising as a civil engineer. for several years after this business was bad, and with a young family coming, it was an anxious time for him; but he seems to have borne his troubles lightly. mr. stevenson says it was his principle 'to enjoy each day's happiness as it arises, like birds and children.' in his first son was born, and the family removed to a cottage at claygate, near esher. though ill and poor at this period, he kept up his self-confidence. 'the country,' he wrote to his wife, 'will give us, please god, health and strength. i will love and cherish you more than ever. you shall go where you wish, you shall receive whom you wish, and as for money, you shall have that too. i cannot be mistaken. i have now measured myself with many men. i do not feel weak. i do not feel that i shall fail. in many things i have succeeded, and i will in this.... and meanwhile, the time of waiting, which, please heaven, shall not be so long, shall also not be so bitter. well, well, i promise much, and do not know at this moment how you and the dear child are. if he is but better, courage, my girl, for i see light.' he took to gardening, without a natural liking for it, and soon became an ardent expert. he wrote reviews, and lectured, or amused himself in playing charades, and reading poetry. clerk maxwell, and mr. ricketts, who was lost in the la plata, were among his visitors. during october, , he superintended the repairs of the bona-spartivento cable, revisiting chia and cagliari, then full of garibaldi's troops. the cable, which had been broken by the anchors of coral fishers, was grapnelled with difficulty. 'what rocks we did hook!' writes jenkin. 'no sooner was the grapnel down than the ship was anchored; and then came such a business: ship's engines going, deck engine thundering, belt slipping, tear of breaking ropes; actually breaking grapnels. it was always an hour or more before we could get the grapnels down again.' in , on the birth of his second son, mrs. jenkin was very ill, and jenkin, after running two miles for a doctor, knelt by her bedside during the night in a draught, not wishing to withdraw his hand from hers. never robust, he suffered much from flying rheumatism and sciatica ever afterwards. it nearly disabled him while laying the lowestoft to norderney cable for mr. reuter, in . this line was designed by messrs. forde & jenkin, manufactured by messrs. w. t. henley & co., and laid by the caroline and william cory. miss clara volkman, a niece of mr. reuter, sent the first message, mr. c. f, varley holding her hand. in jenkin was appointed to the professorship of engineering in university college, london. two years later his prospects suddenly improved; the partnership began to pay, and he was selected to fill the chair of engineering, which had been newly established, in edinburgh university. what he thought of the change may be gathered from a letter to his wife: 'with you in the garden (at claygate), with austin in the coach-house, with pretty songs in the little low white room, with the moonlight in the dear room upstairs--ah! it was perfect; but the long walk, wondering, pondering, fearing, scheming, and the dusty jolting railway, and the horrid fusty office, with its endless disappointments, they are well gone. it is well enough to fight, and scheme, and bustle about in the eager crowd here (in london) for awhile now and then; but not for a lifetime. what i have now is just perfect. study for winter, action for summer, lovely country for recreation, a pleasant town for talk.' the liberality of the scotch universities allowed him to continue his private enterprises, and the summer holiday was long enough to make a trip round the globe. the following june he was on board the great eastern while she laid the french atlantic cable from brest to st. pierre. among his shipmates were sir william thomson, sir james anderson, c. f. varley, mr. latimer clark, and willoughby smith. jenkin's sketches of clark and varley are particularly happy. at st. pierre, where they arrived in a fog, which lifted to show their consort, the william cory, straight ahead, and the gulnare signalling a welcome, jenkin made the curious observation that the whole island was electrified by the battery at the telegraph station. jenkin's position at edinburgh led to a partnership in cable work with sir william thomson, for whom he always had a love and admiration. jenkin's clear, practical, and business-like abilities were doubtless an advantage to sir william, relieving him of routine, and sparing his great abilities for higher work. in the siphon recorder, for tracing a cablegram in ink, instead of merely flashing it by the moving ray of the mirror galvanometer, was introduced on long cables, and became a source of profit to jenkin and varley as well as to sir william, its inventor. in thomson and jenkin were engineers for the western and brazilian cable. it was manufactured by messrs. hooper & co., of millwall, and the wire was coated with india-rubber, then a new insulator. the hooper left plymouth in june, and after touching at madeira, where sir william was up 'sounding with his special toy' (the pianoforte wire) 'at half-past three in the morning,' they reached pernambuco by the beginning of august, and laid a cable to para. during the next two years the brazilian system was connected to the west indies and the river plate; but jenkin was not present on the expeditions. while engaged in this work, the ill-fated la plata, bound with cable from messrs. siemens brothers to monte video, perished in a cyclone off cape ushant, with the loss of nearly all her crew. the mackay-bennett atlantic cables were also laid under their charge. as a professor jenkin's appearance was against him; but he was a clear, fluent speaker, and a successful teacher. of medium height, and very plain, his manner was youthful, and alert, but unimposing. nevertheless, his class was always in good order, for his eye instantly lighted on any unruly member, and his reproof was keen. his experimental work was not strikingly original. at birkenhead he made some accurate measurements of the electrical properties of materials used in submarine cables. sir william thomson says he was the first to apply the absolute methods of measurement introduced by gauss and weber. he also investigated there the laws of electric signals in submarine cables. as secretary to the british association committee on electrical standards he played a leading part in providing electricians with practical standards of measurement. his cantor lectures on submarine cables, and his treatise on electricity and magnetism, published in , were notable works at the time, and contained the latest development of their subjects. he was associated with sir william thomson in an ingenious 'curb-key' for sending signals automatically through a long cable; but although tried, it was not adopted. his most important invention was telpherage, a means of transporting goods and passengers to a distance by electric panniers supported on a wire or conductor, which supplied them with electricity. it was first patented in , and jenkin spent his last years on this work, expecting great results from it; but ere the first public line was opened for traffic at glynde, in sussex, he was dead. in mechanical engineering his graphical methods of calculating strains in bridges, and determining the efficiency of mechanism, are of much value. the latter, which is based on reulaux's prior work, procured him the honour of the keith gold medal from the royal society of edinburgh. another successful work of his was the founding of the sanitary protection association, for the supervision of houses with regard to health. in his leisure hours jenkin wrote papers on a wide variety of subjects. to the question, 'is one man's gain another man's loss?' he answered 'not in every case.' he attacked darwin's theory of development, and showed its inadequacy, especially in demanding more time than the physicist could grant for the age of the habitable world. darwin himself confessed that some of his arguments were convincing; and munro, the scholar, complimented him for his paper on lucretius and the atomic theory.' in he constructed a phonograph from the newspaper reports of this new invention, and lectured on it at a bazaar in edinburgh, then employed it to study the nature of vowel and consonantal sounds. an interesting paper on rhythm in english verse,' was also published by him in the saturday review for . he was clever with his pencil, and could seize a likeness with astonishing rapidity. he has been known while on a cable expedition to stop a peasant woman in a shop for a few minutes and sketch her on the spot. his artistic side also shows itself in a paper on 'artist and critic,' in which he defines the difference between the mechanical and fine arts. 'in mechanical arts,' he says, 'the craftsman uses his skill to produce something useful, but (except in the rare case when he is at liberty to choose what he shall produce) his sole merit lies in skill. in the fine arts the student uses skill to produce something beautiful. he is free to choose what that something shall be, and the layman claims that he may and must judge the artist chiefly by the value in beauty of the thing done. artistic skill contributes to beauty, or it would not be skill; but beauty is the result of many elements, and the nobler the art the lower is the rank which skill takes among them.' a clear and matter-of-fact thinker, jenkin was an equally clear and graphic writer. he read the best literature, preferring, among other things, the story of david, the odyssey, the arcadia, the saga of burnt njal, and the grand cyrus. aeschylus, sophocles, shakespeare, ariosto, boccaccio, scott, dumas, dickens, thackeray, and george eliot, were some of his favourite authors. he once began a review of george eliot's biography, but left it unfinished. latterly he had ceased to admire her work as much as before. he was a rapid, fluent talker, with excited utterance at times. some of his sayings were shrewd and sharp; but he was sometimes aggressive. 'people admire what is pretty in an ugly thing,' he used to say 'not the ugly thing.' a lady once said to him she would never be happy again. 'what does that signify?' cried jenkin; 'we are not here to be happy, but to be good.' on a friend remarking that salvini's acting in othello made him want to pray, jenkin answered, 'that is prayer.' though admired and liked by his intimates, jenkin was never popular with associates. his manner was hard, rasping, and unsympathetic. 'whatever virtues he possessed,' says mr. stevenson, 'he could never count on being civil.' he showed so much courtesy to his wife, however, that a styrian peasant who observed it spread a report in the village that mrs. jenkin, a great lady, had married beneath her. at the saville club, in london, he was known as the 'man who dines here and goes up to scotland.' jenkin was conscious of this churlishness, and latterly improved. 'all my life,' he wrote,'i have talked a good deal, with the almost unfailing result of making people sick of the sound of my tongue. it appeared to me that i had various things to say, and i had no malevolent feelings; but, nevertheless, the result was that expressed above. well, lately some change has happened. if i talk to a person one day they must have me the next. faces light up when they see me. "ah! i say, come here." "come and dine with me." it's the most preposterous thing i ever experienced. it is curiously pleasant.' jenkin was a good father, joining in his children's play as well as directing their studies. the boys used to wait outside his office for him at the close of business hours; and a story is told of little frewen, the second son, entering in to him one day, while he was at work, and holding out a toy crane he was making, with the request, 'papa you might finiss windin' this for me, i'm so very busy to-day.' he was fond of animals too, and his dog plate regularly accompanied him to the university. but, as he used to say, 'it's a cold home where a dog is the only representative of a child.' in summer his holidays were usually spent in the highlands, where jenkin learned to love the highland character and ways of life. he was a good shot, rode and swam well, and taught his boys athletic exercises, boating, salmon fishing, and such like. he learned to dance a highland reel, and began the study of gaelic; but that speech proved too stubborn, craggy, and impregnable even for jenkin. once he took his family to alt aussee, in the stiermark, styria, where he hunted chamois, won a prize for shooting at the schutzen-fest, learned the dialect of the country, sketched the neighbourhood, and danced the steierisch and landler with the peasants. he never seemed to be happy unless he was doing, and what he did was well done. above all, he was clear-headed and practical, mastering many things; no dreamer, but an active, business man. had he confined himself to engineering he might have adorned his profession more, for he liked and fitted it; but with his impulses on other lines repressed, he might have been less happy. moreover, he was one who believed, with the sage, that all good work is profitable, having its value, if only in exercise and skill. his own parents and those of his wife had come to live in edinburgh; but he lost them all within ten months of each other. jenkin had showed great devotion to them in their illnesses, and was worn out with grief and watching. his telpherage, too, had given him considerable anxiety to perfect; and his mother's illness, which affected her mind, had caused himself to fear. he was meditating a holiday to italy with his wife in order to recuperate, and had a trifling operation performed on his foot, which resulted, it is believed, in blood poisoning. there seemed to be no danger, and his wife was reading aloud to him as he lay in bed, when his intellect began to wander. it is doubtful whether he regained his senses before he died, on june , . at one period of his life jenkin was a freethinker, holding, as mr. stevenson says, all dogmas as 'mere blind struggles to express the inexpressible.' nevertheless, as time went on he came back to a belief in christianity. 'the longer i live,' he wrote, 'the more convinced i become of a direct care by god--which is reasonably impossible--but there it is.' in his last year he took the communion. chapter vii. johann philipp reis. johann philipp reis, the first inventor of an electric telephone, was born on january , , at the little town of gelnhausen, in cassel, where his father was a master baker and petty farmer. the boy lost his mother during his infancy, and was brought up by his paternal grandmother, a well-read, intelligent woman, of a religious turn. while his father taught him to observe the material world, his grandmother opened his mind to the unseen. at the age of six he was sent to the common school of the town, where his talents attracted the notice of his instructors, who advised his father to extend his education at a higher college. mr. reis died before his son was ten years old; but his grandmother and guardians afterwards placed him at garnier's institute, in friedrichsdorf, where he showed a taste for languages, and acquired both french and english, as well as a stock of miscellaneous information from the library. at the end of his fourteenth year he passed to hassel's institute, at frankfort-on-the-main, where he picked up latin and italian. a love of science now began to show itself, and his guardians were recommended to send him to the polytechnic school of carlsruhe; but one of them, his uncle, wished him to become a merchant, and on march , , reis was apprenticed to the colour trade in the establishment of mr. j. f beyerbach, of frankfort, against his own will. he told his uncle that he would learn the business chosen for him, but should continue his proper studies by-and-by. by diligent service he won the esteem of mr. beyerbach, and devoted his leisure to self-improvement, taking private lessons in mathematics and physics, and attending the lectures of professor r. bottger on mechanics at the trade school. when his apprenticeship ended he attended the institute of dr. poppe, in frankfort, and as neither history nor geography was taught there, several of the students agreed to instruct each other in these subjects. reis undertook geography, and believed he had found his true vocation in the art of teaching. he also became a member of the physical society of frankfort. in he completed his year of military service at cassel, then returned to frankfort to qualify himself as a teacher of mathematics and science in the schools by means of private study and public lectures. his intention was to finish his training at the university of heidelberg, but in the spring of he visited his old friend and master, hofrath garnier, who offered him a post in garnier's institute. in the autumn of he removed to friedrichsdorf, to begin his new career, and in september following he took a wife and settled down. reis imagined that electricity could be propagated through space, as light can, without the aid of a material conductor, and he made some experiments on the subject. the results were described in a paper 'on the radiation of electricity,' which, in , he posted to professor poggendorff; for insertion in the well-known periodical, the annalen der physik. the memoir was declined, to the great disappointment of the sensitive young teacher. reis had studied the organs of hearing, and the idea of an apparatus for transmitting sound by means of electricity had been floating in his mind for years. incited by his lessons on physics, in the year he attacked the problem, and was rewarded with success. in he again tried poggendorff, with an account of his 'telephon,' as he called it;[the word 'telephone' occurs in timbs' repository of science and art for , in connection with a signal trumpet operated by compressed air.] but his second offering was rejected like the first. the learned professor, it seems, regarded the transmission of speech by electricity as a chimera; but reis, in the bitterness of wounded feeling, attributed the failure to his being 'only a poor schoolmaster.' since the invention of the telephone, attention has been called to the fact that, in , m. charles bourseul, a french telegraphist, [happily still alive ( ).] had conceived a plan for conveying sounds and even speech by electricity. 'suppose,' he explained, 'that a man speaks near a movable disc sufficiently flexible to lose none of the vibrations of the voice; that this disc alternately makes and breaks the currents from a battery: you may have at a distance another disc which will simultaneously execute the same vibrations.... it is certain that, in a more or less distant future, speech will be transmitted by electricity. i have made experiments in this direction; they are delicate and demand time and patience, but the approximations obtained promise a favourable result.'[see du moncel's expose des applications, etc.] bourseul deserves the credit of being perhaps the first to devise an electric telephone and try to make it; but to reis belongs the honour of first realising the idea. a writer may plot a story, or a painter invent a theme for a picture; but unless he execute the work, of what benefit is it to the world? true, a suggestion in mechanics may stimulate another to apply it in practice, and in that case the suggester is entitled to some share of the credit, as well as the distinction of being the first to think of the matter. but it is best when the original deviser also carries out the work; and if another should independently hit upon the same idea and bring it into practice, we are bound to honour him in full, though we may also recognise the merit of his predecessor. bourseul's idea seems to have attracted little notice at the time, and was soon forgotten. even the count du moncel, who was ever ready to welcome a promising invention, evidently regarded it as a fantastic notion. it is very doubtful if reis had ever heard of it. he was led to conceive a similar apparatus by a study of the mechanism of the human ear, which he knew to contain a membrane, or 'drum,' vibrating under the waves of sound, and communicating its vibrations through the hammer-bone behind it to the auditory nerve. it therefore occurred to him, that if he made a diaphragm in imitation of the drum, and caused it by vibrating to make and break the circuit of an electric current, he would be able through the magnetic power of the interrupted current to reproduce the original sounds at a distance. in - professor page, of massachusetts, had discovered that' a needle or thin bar of iron, placed in the hollow of a coil or bobbin of insulated wire, would emit an audible 'tick' at each interruption of a current, flowing in the coil, and that if these separate ticks followed each other fast enough, by a rapid interruption of the current, they would run together into a continuous hum, to which he gave the name of 'galvanic music.' the pitch of this note would correspond to the rate of interruption of the current. from these and other discoveries which had been made by noad, wertheim, marrian, and others, reis knew that if the current which had been interrupted by his vibrating diaphragm were conveyed to a distance by a metallic circuit, and there passed through a coil like that of page, the iron needle would emit a note like that which had caused the oscillation of the transmitting diaphragm. acting on this knowledge, he constructed a rude telephone. dr. messel informs us that his first transmitter consisted of the bung of a beer barrel hollowed out in imitation of the external ear. the cup or mouth-piece thus formed was closed by the skin of a german sausage to serve as a drum or diaphragm. to the back of this he fixed, with a drop of sealing-wax, a little strip of platinum, representing the hammer-bone, which made and broke the metallic circuit of the current as the membrane oscillated under the sounds which impinged against it. the current thus interrupted was conveyed by wires to the receiver, which consisted of a knitting-needle loosely surrounded by a coil of wire fastened to the breast of a violin as a sounding-board. when a musical note was struck near the bung, the drum vibrated in harmony with the pitch of the note, the platinum lever interrupted the metallic circuit of the current, which, after traversing the conducting wire, passed through the coil of the receiver, and made the needle hum the original tone. this primitive arrangement, we are told, astonished all who heard it. [it is now in the museum of the reichs post-amt, berlin.] another of his early transmitters was a rough model of the human ear, carved in oak, and provided with a drum which actuated a bent and pivoted lever of platinum, making it open and close a springy contact of platinum foil in the metallic circuit of the current. he devised some ten or twelve different forms, each an improvement on its predecessors, which transmitted music fairly well, and even a word or two of speech with more or less perfection. but the apparatus failed as a practical means of talking to a distance. the discovery of the microphone by professor hughes has enabled us to understand the reason of this failure. the transmitter of reis was based on the plan of interrupting the current, and the spring was intended to close the contact after it had been opened by the shock of a vibration. so long as the sound was a musical tone it proved efficient, for a musical tone is a regular succession of vibrations. but the vibrations of speech are irregular and complicated, and in order to transmit them the current has to be varied in strength without being altogether broken. the waves excited in the air by the voice should merely produce corresponding waves in the current. in short, the current ought to undulate in sympathy with the oscillations of the air. it appears from the report of herr von legat, inspector of the royal prussian telegraphs, on the reis telephone, published in , that the inventor was quite aware of this principle, but his instrument was not well adapted to apply it. no doubt the platinum contacts he employed in the transmitter behaved to some extent as a crude metal microphone, and hence a few words, especially familiar or expected ones, could be transmitted and distinguished at the other end of the line. but reis does not seem to have realised the importance of not entirely breaking the circuit of the current; at all events, his metal spring is not in practice an effective provision against this, for it allows the metal contacts to jolt too far apart, and thus interrupt the current. had he lived to modify the spring and the form or material of his contacts so as to keep the current continuous--as he might have done, for example, by using carbon for platinum--he would have forestalled alike bell, edison, and hughes in the production of a good speaking telephone. reis in fact was trembling on the verge of a great discovery, which was, however, reserved for others. his experiments were made in a little workshop behind his home at friedrichsdorff; and wires were run from it to an upper chamber. another line was erected between the physical cabinet at garnier's institute across the playground to one of the class-rooms, and there was a tradition in the school that the boys were afraid of creating an uproar in the room for fear herr reis should hear them with his 'telephon.' the new invention was published to the world in a lecture before the physical society of frankfort on october , , and a description, written by himself for the jahresbericht, a month or two later. it excited a good deal of scientific notice in germany; models of it were sent abroad, to london, dublin, tiflis, and other places. it became a subject for popular lectures, and an article for scientific cabinets. reis obtained a brief renown, but the reaction soon set in. the physical society of frankfort turned its back on the apparatus which had given it lustre. reis resigned his membership in ; but the free german institute of frankfort, which elected him an honorary member, also slighted the instrument as a mere 'philosophical toy.' at first it was a dream, and now it is a plaything. have we not had enough of that superior wisdom which is another name for stupidity? the dreams of the imagination are apt to become realities, and the toy of to-day has a knack of growing into the mighty engine of to-morrow. reis believed in his invention, if no one else did; and had he been encouraged by his fellows from the beginning, he might have brought it into a practical shape. but rebuffs had preyed upon his sensitive heart, and he was already stricken with consumption. it is related that, after his lecture on the telephone at geissen, in , professor poggendorff, who was present, invited him to send a description of his instrument to the annalen. reis answered him,'ich danke ihnen recht sehr, herr professor; es ist zu spaty. jetzt will ich nicht ihn schickeny. mein apparat wird ohne beschreibung in den annalen bekannt werden.' ('thank you very much, professor, but it is too late. i shall not send it now. my apparatus will become known without any writing in the annalen.') latterly reis had confined his teaching and study to matters of science; but his bad health was a serious impediment. for several years it was only by the exercise of a strong will that he was able to carry on his duties. his voice began to fail as the disease gained upon his lungs, and in the summer of he was obliged to forsake tuition during several weeks. the autumn vacation strengthened his hopes of recovery, and he resumed his teaching with his wonted energy. but this was the last flicker of the expiring flame. it was announced that he would show his new gravity-machine at a meeting of the deutscher naturforscher of wiesbaden in september, but he was too ill to appear. in december he lay down, and, after a long and painful illness, breathed his last at five o'clock in the afternoon of january , . in his curriculum vitae he wrote these words: 'as i look back upon my life i call indeed say with the holy scriptures that it has been "labour and sorrow." but i have also to thank the lord that he has given me his blessing in my calling and in my family, and has bestowed more good upon me than i have known how to ask of him. the lord has helped hitherto; he will help yet further.' reis was buried in the cemetery of friedrichsdorff, and in , after the introduction of the speaking telephone, the members of the physical society of frankfort erected over his grave an obelisk of red sandstone bearing a medallion portrait. chapter viii. graham bell. the first to produce a practicable speaking telephone was alexander graham bell. he was born at edinburgh on march , , and comes of a family associated with the teaching of elocution. his grandfather in london, his uncle in dublin, and his father, mr. andrew melville bell, in edinburgh, were all professed elocutionists. the latter has published a variety of works on the subject, several of which are well known, especially his treatise on visible speech, which appeared in edinburgh in . in this he explains his ingenious method of instructing deaf mutes, by means of their eyesight, how to articulate words, and also how to read what other persons are saying by the motions of their lips. graham bell, his distinguished son, was educated at the high school of edinburgh, and subsequently at warzburg, in germany, where he obtained the degree of ph.d. (doctor of philosophy). while still in scotland he is said to have turned his attention to the science of acoustics, with a view to ameliorate the deafness of his mother. in he accompanied his father to montreal, in canada, where he was employed in teaching the system of visible speech. the elder bell was invited to introduce it into a large day-school for mutes at boston, but he declined the post in favour of his son, who soon became famous in the united states for his success in this important work. he published more than one treatise on the subject at washington, and it is, we believe, mainly through his efforts that thousands of deaf mutes in america are now able to speak almost, if not quite, as well as those who are able to hear. before he left scotland mr. graham bell had turned his attention to telephony, and in canada he designed a piano which could transmit its music to a distance by means of electricity. at boston he continued his researches in the same field, and endeavoured to produce a telephone which would not only send musical notes, but articulate speech. if it be interesting to trace the evolution of an animal from its rudimentary germ through the lower phases to the perfect organism, it is almost as interesting to follow an invention from the original model through the faultier types to the finished apparatus. in philipp reis, as we have seen, produced a telephone which could transmit musical notes, and even a lisping word or two; and some ten years later mr. cromwell fleetwood varley, f.r.s., a well-known english electrician, patented a number of ingenious devices for applying the musical telephone to transmit messages by dividing the notes into short or long signals, after the morse code, which could be interpreted by the ear or by the eye in causing them to mark a moving paper. these inventions were not put in practice; but four years afterwards herr paul la cour, a danish inventor, experimented with a similar appliance on a line of telegraph between copenhagen and fredericia in jutland. in this a vibrating tuning-fork interrupted the current, which, after traversing the line, passed through an electro-magnet, and attracted the limbs of another fork, making it strike a note like the transmitting fork. by breaking up the note at the sending station with a signalling key, the message was heard as a series of long and short hums. moreover, the hums were made to record themselves on paper by turning the electro-magnetic receiver into a relay, which actuated a morse printer by means of a local battery. mr. elisha gray, of chicago, also devised a tone telegraph of this kind about the same time as herr la cour. in this apparatus a vibrating steel tongue interrupted the current, which at the other end of the line passed through the electro-magnet and vibrated a band or tongue of iron near its poles. gray's 'harmonic telegraph,' with the vibrating tongues or reeds, was afterwards introduced on the lines of the western union telegraph company in america. as more than one set of vibrations--that is to say, more than one note--can be sent over the same wire simultaneously, it is utilised as a 'multiplex' or many-ply telegraph, conveying several messages through the same wire at once; and these can either be interpreted by the sound, or the marks drawn on a ribbon of travelling paper by a morse recorder. gray also invented a 'physiological receiver,' which has a curious history. early in his nephew was playing with a small induction coil, and, having connected one end of the secondary circuit to the zinc lining of a bath, which was dry, he was holding the other end in his left hand. while he rubbed the zinc with his right hand gray noticed that a sound proceeded from it, which had the pitch and quality of the note emitted by the vibrating contact or electrotome of the coil. 'i immediately took the electrode in my hand,' he writes, 'and, repeating the operation, found to my astonishment that by rubbing hard and rapidly i could make a much louder sound than the electrotome. i then changed the pitch of the vibration, and found that the pitch of the sound under my hand was also changed, agreeing with that of the vibration.' gray lost no time in applying this chance discovery by designing the physiological receiver, which consists of a sounding-box having a zinc face and mounted on an axle, so that it can be revolved by a handle. one wire of the circuit is connected to the revolving zinc, and the other wire is connected to the finger which rubs on the zinc. the sounds are quite distinct, and would seem to be produced by a microphonic action between the skin and the metal. all these apparatus follow in the track of reis and bourseul--that is to say, the interruption of the current by a vibrating contact. it was fortunate for bell that in working with his musical telephone an accident drove him into a new path, which ultimately brought him to the invention of a speaking telephone. he began his researches in with a musical telephone, in which he employed the interrupted current to vibrate the receiver, which consisted of an electro-magnet causing an iron reed or tongue to vibrate; but, while trying it one day with his assistant, mr. thomas a. watson, it was found that a reed failed to respond to the intermittent current. mr. bell desired his assistant, who was at the other end of the line, to pluck the reed, thinking it had stuck to the pole of the magnet. mr. watson complied, and to his astonishment bell observed that the corresponding reed at his end of the line thereupon began to vibrate and emit the same note, although there was no interrupted current to make it. a few experiments soon showed that his reed had been set in vibration by the magneto-electric currents induced in the line by the mere motion of the distant reed in the neighbourhood of its magnet. this discovery led him to discard the battery current altogether and rely upon the magneto-induction currents of the reeds themselves. moreover, it occurred to him that, since the circuit was never broken, all the complex vibrations of speech might be converted into sympathetic currents, which in turn would reproduce the speech at a distance. reis had seen that an undulatory current was needed to transmit sounds in perfection, especially vocal sounds; but his mode of producing the undulations was defective from a mechanical and electrical point of view. by forming 'waves' of magnetic disturbance near a coil of wire, professor bell could generate corresponding waves of electricity in the line so delicate and continuous that all the modulations of sound could be reproduced at a distance. as professor of vocal physiology in the university of boston, he was engaged in training teachers in the art of instructing deaf mutes how to speak, and experimented with the leon scott phonautograph in recording the vibrations of speech. this apparatus consists essentially of a thin membrane vibrated by the voice and carrying a light stylus, which traces an undulatory line on a plate of smoked glass. the line is a graphic representation of the vibrations of the membrane and the waves of sound in the air. on the suggestion of dr. clarence j. blake, an eminent boston aurist, professor bell abandoned the phonautograph for the human ear, which it resembled; and, having removed the stapes bone, moistened the drum with glycerine and water, attached a stylus of hay to the nicus or anvil, and obtained a beautiful series of curves in imitation of the vocal sounds. the disproportion between the slight mass of the drum and the bones it actuated, is said to have suggested to him the employment of goldbeater's skin as membrane in his speaking telephone. be this as it may, he devised a receiver, consisting of a stretched diaphragm or drum of this material having an armature of magnetised iron attached to its middle, and free to vibrate in front of the pole of an electro-magnet in circuit with the line. this apparatus was completed on june , , and the same day he succeeded in transmitting sounds and audible signals by magneto-electric currents and without the aid of a battery. on july , , he instructed his assistant to make a second membrane-receiver which could be used with the first, and a few days later they were tried together, one at each end of the line, which ran from a room in the inventor's house at boston to the cellar underneath. bell, in the room, held one instrument in his hands, while watson in the cellar listened at the other. the inventor spoke into his instrument, 'do you understand what i say?' and we can imagine his delight when mr. watson rushed into the room, under the influence of his excitement, and answered,'yes.' a finished instrument was then made, having a transmitter formed of a double electro-magnet, in front of which a membrane, stretched on a ring, carried an oblong piece of soft iron cemented to its middle. a mouthpiece before the diaphragm directed the sounds upon it, and as it vibrated with them, the soft iron 'armature' induced corresponding currents in the cells of the electro-magnet. these currents after traversing the line were passed through the receiver, which consisted of a tubular electro-magnet, having one end partially closed by a thin circular disc of soft iron fixed at one point to the end of the tube. this receiver bore a resemblance to a cylindrical metal box with thick sides, having a thin iron lid fastened to its mouth by a single screw. when the undulatory current passed through the coil of this magnet, the disc, or armature-lid, was put into vibration and the sounds evolved from it. the apparatus was exhibited at the centennial exhibition, philadelphia, in , and at the meeting of the british association in glasgow, during the autumn of that year, sir william thomson revealed its existence to the european public. in describing his visit to the exhibition, he went on to say: 'in the canadian department i heard, "to be or not to be... there's the rub," through an electric wire; but, scorning monosyllables, the electric articulation rose to higher flights, and gave me passages taken at random from the new york newspapers: "s.s. cox has arrived" (i failed to make out the s.s. cox); "the city of new york," "senator morton," "the senate has resolved to print a thousand extra copies," "the americans in london have resolved to celebrate the coming fourth of july!" all this my own ears heard spoken to me with unmistakable distinctness by the then circular disc armature of just such another little electro-magnet as this i hold in my hand.' to hear the immortal words of shakespeare uttered by the small inanimate voice which had been given to the world must indeed have been a rare delight to the ardent soul of the great electrician. the surprise created among the public at large by this unexpected communication will be readily remembered. except one or two inventors, nobody had ever dreamed of a telegraph that could actually speak, any more than they had ever fancied one that could see or feel; and imagination grew busy in picturing the outcome of it. since it was practically equivalent to a limitless extension of the vocal powers, the ingenious journalist soon conjured up an infinity of uses for the telephone, and hailed the approaching time when ocean-parted friends would be able to whisper to one another under the roaring billows of the atlantic. curiosity, however, was not fully satisfied until professor bell, the inventor of the instrument, himself showed it to british audiences, and received the enthusiastic applause of his admiring countrymen. the primitive telephone has been greatly improved, the double electro-magnet being replaced by a single bar magnet having a small coil or bobbin of fine wire surrounding one pole, in front of which a thin disc of ferrotype is fixed in a circular mouthpiece, and serves as a combined membrane and armature. on speaking into the mouthpiece, the iron diaphragm vibrates with the voice in the magnetic field of the pole, and thereby excites the undulatory currents in the coil, which, after travelling through the wire to the distant place, are received in an identical apparatus. [this form was patented january , .] in traversing the coil of the latter they reinforce or weaken the magnetism of the pole, and thus make the disc armature vibrate so as to give out a mimesis of the original voice. the sounds are small and elfin, a minim of speech, and only to be heard when the ear is close to the mouthpiece, but they are remarkably distinct, and, in spite of a disguising twang, due to the fundamental note of the disc itself, it is easy to recognise the speaker. this later form was publicly exhibited on may , at a lecture given by professor bell in the boston music hall. 'going to the small telephone box with its slender wire attachments,' says a report, 'mr. bell coolly asked, as though addressing some one in an adjoining room, "mr. watson, are you ready!" mr. watson, five miles away in somerville, promptly answered in the affirmative, and soon was heard a voice singing "america."....going to another instrument, connected by wire with providence, forty-three miles distant, mr. bell listened a moment, and said, "signor brignolli, who is assisting at a concert in providence music hall, will now sing for us." in a moment the cadence of the tenor's voice rose and fell, the sound being faint, sometimes lost, and then again audible. later, a cornet solo played in somerville was very distinctly heard. still later, a three-part song floated over the wire from the somerville terminus, and mr. bell amused his audience exceedingly by exclaiming, "i will switch off the song from one part of the room to another, so that all can hear." at a subsequent lecture in salem, massachusetts, communication was established with boston, eighteen miles distant, and mr. watson at the latter place sang "auld lang syne," the national anthem, and "hail columbia," while the audience at salem joined in the chorus.' bell had overcome the difficulty which baffled reis, and succeeded in making the undulations of the current fit the vibrations of the voice as a glove will fit the hand. but the articulation, though distinct, was feeble, and it remained for edison, by inventing the carbon transmitter, and hughes, by discovering the microphone, to render the telephone the useful and widespread apparatus which we see it now. bell patented his speaking telephone in the united states at the beginning of , and by a strange coincidence, mr. elisha gray applied on the same day for another patent of a similar kind. gray's transmitter is supposed to have been suggested by the very old device known as the 'lovers' telephone,' in which two diaphragms are joined by a taut string, and in speaking against one the voice is conveyed through the string, solely by mechanical vibration, to the other. gray employed electricity, and varied the strength of the current in conformity with the voice by causing the diaphragm in vibrating to dip a metal probe attached to its centre more or less deep into a well of conducting liquid in circuit with the line. as the current passed from the probe through the liquid to the line a greater or less thickness of liquid intervened as the probe vibrated up and down, and thus the strength of the current was regulated by the resistance offered to the passage of the current. his receiver was an electro-magnet having an iron plate as an armature capable of vibrating under the attractions of the varying current. but gray allowed his idea to slumber, whereas bell continued to perfect his apparatus. however, when bell achieved an unmistakable success, gray brought a suit against him, which resulted in a compromise, one public company acquiring both patents. bell's invention has been contested over and over again, and more than one claimant for the honour and reward of being the original inventor of the telephone have appeared. the most interesting case was that of signor antonio meucci, an italian emigrant, who produced a mass of evidence to show that in , while in havanna, cuba, he experimented with the view of transmitting speech by the electric current. he continued his researches in - , and subsequently at staten island, u.s.; and in deputed a friend visiting europe to interest people in his invention. in he filed a caveat in the united states patent office, and tried to get mr. grant, president of the new york district telegraph company, to give the apparatus a trial. ill-health and poverty, consequent on an injury due to an explosion on board the staten island ferry boat westfield, retarded his experiments, and prevented him from completing his patent. meucci's experimental apparatus was exhibited at the philadelphia exhibition of , and attracted much attention. but the evidence he adduces in support of his early claims is that of persons ignorant of electrical science, and the model shown was not complete. the caveat of is indeed a reliable document; but unfortunately for him it is not quite clear from it whether he employed a 'lovers' telephone,' with a wire instead of a string, and joined a battery to it in the hope of enhancing the effect. 'i employ,' he says, 'the well known conducting effect of continuous metallic conductors as a medium for sound, and increase the effect by electrically insulating both the conductor and the parties who are communicating. it forms a speaking telegraph without the necessity of any hollow tube.' in connection with the telephone he used an electric alarm. it is by no means evident from this description that meucci had devised a practicable speaking telephone; but he may have been the first to employ electricity in connection with the transmission of speech. [meucci is dead.] 'this crowning marvel of the electric telegraph,' as sir william thomson happily expressed it, was followed by another invention in some respects even more remarkable. during the winter of professor bell was in england, and while lecturing at the royal institution, london, he conceived the idea of the photophone. it was known that crystalline selenium is a substance peculiarly sensitive to light, for when a ray strikes it an electric current passes far more easily through it than if it were kept in the dark. it therefore occurred to professor bell that if a telephone were connected in circuit with the current, and the ray of light falling on the selenium was eclipsed by means of the vibrations of sound, the current would undulate in keeping with the light, and the telephone would emit a corresponding note. in this way it might be literally possible 'to hear a shadow fall athwart the stillness.' he was not the first to entertain the idea, for in the summer of , one 'l. f. w.,' writing from kew on june to the scientific journal nature describes an arrangement of the kind. to professor bell, in conjunction with mr. summer tainter, belongs the honour of having, by dint of patient thought and labour, brought the photophone into material existence. by constructing sensitive selenium cells through which the current passed, then directing a powerful beam of light upon them, and occulting it by a rotary screen, he was able to vary the strength of the current in such a manner as to elicit musical tones from the telephone in circuit with the cells. moreover, by reflecting the beam from a mirror upon the cells, and vibrating the mirror by the action of the voice, he was able to reproduce the spoken words in the telephone. in both cases the only connecting line between the transmitting screen or mirror and the receiving cells and telephone was the ray of light. with this apparatus, which reminds us of the invocation to apollo in the martyr of antioch-- 'lord of the speaking lyre, that with a touch of fire strik'st music which delays the charmed spheres.' professor bell has accomplished the curious feat of speaking along a beam of sunshine feet long. the apparatus consisted of a transmitter with a mouthpiece, conveying the sound of the voice to a silvered diaphragm or mirror, which reflected the vibratory beam through a lens towards the selenium receiver, which was simply a parabolic reflector, in the focus of which was placed the selenium cells connected in circuit with a battery and a pair of telephones, one for each ear. the transmitter was placed in the top of the franklin schoolhouse, at washington, and the receiver in the window of professor bell's laboratory in l street. 'it was impossible,' says the inventor, 'to converse by word of mouth across that distance; and while i was observing mr. tainter, on the top of the schoolhouse, almost blinded by the light which was coming in at the window of my laboratory, and vainly trying to understand the gestures he was making to me at that great distance, the thought occurred to me to listen to the telephones connected with the selenium receiver. mr. tainter saw me disappear from the window, and at once spoke to the transmitter. i heard him distinctly say, "mr. bell, if you hear what i say, come to the window and wave your hat!" it is needless to say with what gusto i obeyed.' the spectroscope has demonstrated the truth of the poet, who said that 'light is the voice of the stars,' and we have it on the authority of professor bell and m. janssen, the celebrated astronomer, that the changing brightness of the photosphere, as produced by solar hurricanes, has produced a feeble echo in the photophone. pursuing these researches, professor bell discovered that not only the selenium cell, but simple discs of wood, glass, metal, ivory, india-rubber, and so on, yielded a distinct note when the intermittent ray of light fell upon them. crystals of sulphate of copper, chips of pine, and even tobacco-smoke, in a test-tube held before the beam, emitted a musical tone. with a thin disc of vulcanite as receiver, the dark heat rays which pass through an opaque screen were found to yield a note. even the outer ear is itself a receiver, for when the intermittent beam is focussed in the cavity a faint musical tone is heard. another research of professor bell was that in which he undertook to localise the assassin's bullet in the body of the lamented president garfield. in professor hughes brought out his beautiful induction balance, and the following year professor bell, who had already worked in the same field, consulted him by telegraph as to the best mode of applying the balance to determining the place of the bullet, which had hitherto escaped the probes of the president's physicians. professor hughes advised him by telegraph, and with this and other assistance an apparatus was devised which indicated the locality of the ball. a full account of his experiments was given in a paper read before the american association for the advancement of science in august, . professor bell continues to reside in the united states, of which he is a naturalised citizen. he is married to a daughter of mr. gardiner g. hubbard, who in , when she was four years of age, lost her hearing by an illness, but has learned to converse by the horace-mann system of watching the lips. both he and his father-in-law (who had a pecuniary interest in his patents) have made princely fortunes by the introduction of the telephone. chapter ix. thomas alva edison. thomas alva edison, the most famous inventor of his time and country, was born at milan, erie county, ohio, in the united states, on february , . his pedigree has been traced for two centuries to a family of prosperous millers in holland, some of whom emigrated to america in . thomas, his great-grandfather, was an officer of a bank in manhattan island during the revolution, and his signature is extant on the old notes of the american currency. longevity seems a characteristic of the strain, for thomas lived to the patriarchal term of , his son to , and samuel, the father of the inventor, is, we understand, a brisk and hale old man of eighty-six. born at digby, in the county of annapolis, nova scotia, on august , , samuel was apprenticed to a tailor, but in his manhood he forsook the needle to engage in the lumber trade, and afterwards in grain. he resided for a time in canada, where, at vienna, he was married to miss nancy elliott, a popular teacher in the high school. she was of scotch descent, and born in chenango county, new york, on january , . after his marriage he removed, in , to detroit, michigan, and the following year settled in milan. in his younger days samuel edison was a man of fine appearance. he stood feet inches in his stockings, and even at the age of sixty-four he was known to outjump soldiers of a regiment quartered at fort gratiot, in michigan. his wife was a fine-looking woman, intelligent, well-educated, and a social favourite. the inventor probably draws his physical endurance from his father, and his intellect from his mother. milan is situated on the huron river, about ten miles from the lake, and was then a rising town of , inhabitants, mostly occupied with the grain and timber trade. mr. edison dwelt in a plain cottage with a low fence in front, which stood beside the roadway under the shade of one or two trees. the child was neither pale nor prematurely thoughtful; he was rosy-cheeked, laughing, and chubby. he liked to ramble in the woods, or play on the banks of the river, and could repeat the songs of the boatmen ere he was five years old. still he was fond of building little roads with planks, and scooping out canals or caverns in the sand. an amusing anecdote is imputed to his sister, mrs. homer page, of milan. having been told one day that a goose hatches her goslings by the warmth of her body, the child was missed, and subsequently found in the barn curled up in a nest beside a quantity of eggs! the lake shore railway having injured the trade of milan, the family removed to port huron, in michigan, when edison was about seven years old. here they lived in an old-fashioned white frame-house, surrounded by a grove, and commanding a fine view of the broad river, with the canadian hills beyond. his mother undertook his education, and with the exception of two months he never went to school. she directed his opening mind to the acquisition of knowledge, and often read aloud to the family in the evening. she and her son were a loving pair, and it is pleasant to know that although she died on april , , before he finally emerged from his difficulties, her end was brightened by the first rays of his coming glory. mr. edison tells us that his son never had any boyhood in the ordinary sense, his early playthings being steam-engines and the mechanical powers. but it is like enough that he trapped a wood-chuck now and then, or caught a white-fish with the rest. he was greedy of knowledge, and by the age of ten had read the penny encyclopaedia; hume's history of england; dubigne's history of the reformation; gibbon's decline and fall of the roman empire, and sears' history of the world. his father, we are told, encouraged his love of study by making him a small present for every book he read. at the age of twelve he became a train-boy, or vendor of candy, fruit, and journals to the passengers on the grand trunk railway, between port huron and detroit. the post enabled him to sleep at home, and to extend his reading by the public library at detroit. like the boy ampere, he proposed, it is said, to master the whole collection, shelf by shelf, and worked his way through fifteen feet of the bottom one before he began to select his fare. even the principia of newton never daunted him; and if he did not understand the problems which have puzzled some of the greatest minds, he read them religiously, and pressed on. burton's anatomy of melancholy, ure's dictionary of chemistry, did not come amiss; but in victor hugo's les miserables and the toilers of the sea he found a treasure after his own heart. like ampere, too, he was noted for a memory which retained many of the facts thus impressed upon it, as the sounds are printed on a phonogram. the boy student was also a keen man of business, and his pursuit of knowledge in the evening did not sap his enterprises of the day. he soon acquired a virtual monopoly for the sale of newspapers on the line, and employed four boy assistants. his annual profits amounted to about dollars, which were a substantial aid to his parents. to increase the sale of his papers, he telegraphed the headings of the war news to the stations in advance of the trains, and placarded them to tempt the passengers. ere long he conceived the plan of publishing a newspaper of his own. having bought a quantity of old type at the office of the detroit free press, he installed it in a spingless car, or 'caboose' of the train meant for a smoking-room, but too uninviting to be much used by the passengers. here he set the type, and printed a smallsheet about a foot square by pressing it with his hand. the grand trunk herald, as he called it, was a weekly organ, price three cents, containing a variety of local news, and gossip of the line. it was probably the only journal ever published on a railway train; at all events with a boy for editor and staff, printer and 'devil,' publisher and hawker. mr. robert stephenson, then building the tubular bridge at montreal, was taken with the venture, and ordered an extra edition for his own use. the london times correspondent also noticed the paper as a curiosity of journalism. this was a foretaste of notoriety. unluckily, however, the boy did not keep his scientific and literary work apart, and the smoking-car was transformed into a laboratory as well as a printing house. having procured a copy of fresenius' qualitive analysis and some old chemical gear; he proceeded to improve his leisure by making experiments. one day, through an extra jolt of the car, a bottle of phosphorus broke on the floor, and the car took fire. the incensed conductor of the train, after boxing his ears, evicted him with all his chattels. finding an asylum in the basement of his father's house (where he took the precaution to label all his bottles 'poison'), he began the publication of a new and better journal, entitled the paul pry. it boasted of several contributors and a list of regular subscribers. one of these (mr. j.h.b.), while smarting under what he considered a malicious libel, met the editor one day on the brink of the st. clair, and taking the law into his own hands, soused him in the river. the editor avenged his insulted dignity by excluding the subscriber's name from the pages of the paul pry. youthful genius is apt to prove unlucky, and another story (we hope they are all true, though we cannot vouch for them), is told of his partiality for riding with the engine-driver on the locomotive. after he had gained an insight into the working of the locomotive he would run the train himself; but on one occasion he pumped so much water into the boiler that it was shot from the funnel, and deluged the engine with soot. by using his eyes and haunting the machine shops he was able to construct a model of a locomotive. but his employment of the telegraph seems to have diverted his thoughts in that direction, and with the help of a book on the telegraph he erected a makeshift line between his new laboratory and the house of james ward, one of his boy helpers. the conductor was run on trees, and insulated with bottles, and the apparatus was home-made, but it seems to have been of some use. mr. james d. reid, author of the telegraph in america, would have us believe that an attempt was made to utilise the electricity obtained by rubbing a cat connected up in lieu of a battery; but the spirit of artemus ward is by no means dead in the united states, and the anecdote may be taken with a grain of salt. such an experiment was at all events predestined to an ignominious failure. an act of heroism was the turning-point in his career. one day, at the risk of his life, he saved the child of the station-master at mount clemens, near port huron, from being run over by an approaching train, and the grateful father, mr. j. a. mackenzie, learning of his interest in the telegraph, offered to teach him the art of sending and receiving messages. after his daily service was over, edison returned to mount clemens on a luggage train and received his lesson. at the end of five months, while only sixteen years of age, he forsook the trains, and accepted an offer of twenty-five dollars a month, with extra pay for overtime, as operator in the telegraph office at port huron, a small installation in a jewelry store. he worked hard to acquire more skill; and after six months, finding his extra pay withheld, he obtained an engagement as night operator at stratford, in canada. to keep him awake the operator was required to report the word 'six,' an office call, every half-hour to the manager of the circuit. edison fulfilled the regulation by inventing a simple device which transmitted the required signals. it consisted of a wheel with the characters cut on the rim, and connected with the circuit in such a way that the night watchman, by turning the wheel, could transmit the signals while edison slept or studied. his employment at stratford came to a grievous end. one night he received a service message ordering a certain train to stop, and before showing it to the conductor he, perhaps for greater certainty, repeated it back again. when he rushed out of the office to deliver it the train was gone, and a collision seemed inevitable; but, fortunately, the opposing trains met on a straight portion of the track, and the accident was avoided. the superintendent of the railway threatened to prosecute edison, who was thoroughly frightened, and returned home without his baggage. during this vacation at port huron his ingenuity showed itself in a more creditable guise. an 'ice-jam' occurred on the st. clair, and broke the telegraph cable between port huron and sarnia, on the opposite shore. communication was therefore interrupted until edison mounted a locomotive and sounded the whistle in short and long calls according to the well-known 'morse,' or telegraphic code. after a time the reporter at sarnia caught the idea, and messages were exchanged by the new system. his next situation was at adrian, in michigan, where he fitted up a small shop, and employed his spare time in repairing telegraph apparatus and making crude experiments. one day he violated the rules of the office by monopolising the use of the line on the strength of having a message from the superintendent, and was discharged. he was next engaged at fort wayne, and behaved so well that he was promoted to a station at indianapolis. while there he invented an 'automatic repeater,' by which a message is received on one line and simultaneously transmitted on another without the assistance of an operator. like other young operators, he was ambitious to send or receive the night reports for the press, which demand the highest speed and accuracy of sending. but although he tried to overcome his faults by the device of employing an auxiliary receiver working at a slower rate than the direct one, he was found incompetent, and transferred to a day wire at cincinnati. determined to excel, however, he took shift for the night men as often as he could, and after several months, when a delegation of cleveland operators came to organise a branch of the telegraphers' union, and the night men were out on 'strike,' he received the press reports as well as he was able, working all the night. for this feat his salary was raised next day from sixty-five to one hundred and five dollars, and he was appointed to the louisville circuit, one of the most desirable in the office. the clerk at louisville was bob martin, one of the most expert telegraphists in america, and edison soon became a first-class operator. in , tempted by a better salary, he removed to memphis, where he found an opportunity of introducing his automatic repeater, thus enabling louisville to communicate with new orleans without an intermediary clerk. for this innovation he was complimented; but nothing more. he embraced the subject of duplex telegraphy, or the simultaneous transmission of two messages on the same wire, one from each end; but his efforts met with no encouragement. men of routine are apt to look with disfavour on men of originality; they do not wish to be disturbed from the official groove; and if they are not jealous of improvement, they have often a narrow-minded contempt or suspicion of the servant who is given to invention, thinking him an oddity who is wasting time which might be better employed in the usual way. a telegraph operator, in their eyes, has no business to invent. his place is to sit at his instrument and send or receive the messages as fast as he can, without troubling his mind with inventions or anything else. when his shift is over he can amuse himself as he likes, provided he is always fit for work. genius is not wanted. the clerks themselves, reckless of a culture which is not required, and having a good string to their bow in the matter of livelihood, namely, the mechanical art of signalling, are prone to lead a careless, gay, and superficial life, roving from town to town throughout: the length and breadth of the states. but for his genius and aspirations, edison might have yielded to the seductions of this happy-go-lucky, free, and frivolous existence. dissolute comrades at memphis won upon his good nature; but though he lent them money, he remained abstemious, working hard, and spending his leisure upon books and experiments. to them he appeared an extraordinary fellow; and so far from sympathising with his inventions, they dubbed him 'luny,' and regarded him as daft. what with the money he had lent, or spent on books or apparatus, when the memphis lines were transferred from the government to a private company and edison was discharged, he found himself without a dollar. transported to decatur, he walked to nashville, where he found another operator, william foley, in the like straits, and they went in company to louisville. foley's reputation as an operator was none of the best; but on his recommendation edison obtained a situation, and supported foley until he too got employment. the squalid office was infested with rats, and its discipline was lax, in all save speed and quality of work, and some of his companions were of a dissipated stamp. to add to his discomforts, the line he worked was old and defective; but he improved the signals by adjusting three sets of instruments, and utilising them for three different states of the line. during nearly two years of drudgery under these depressing circumstances, edison's prospects of becoming an inventor seemed further off than ever. perhaps he began to fear that stern necessity would grind him down, and keep him struggling for a livelihood. none of his improvements had brought him any advantage. his efforts to invent had been ridiculed and discountenanced. nobody had recognised his talent, at least as a thing of value and worthy of encouragement, let alone support. all his promotion had come from trying to excel in his routine work. perhaps he lost faith in himself, or it may be that the glowing accounts he received of south america induced him to seek his fortune there. at all events he caught the 'craze' for emigration that swept the southern states on the conclusion of the civil war, and resolved to emigrate with two companions, keen and warren. but on their arriving at new orleans the vessel had sailed. in this predicament edison fell in with a travelled spaniard, who depicted the inferiority of other countries, and especially of south america, in such vivid colours, that he changed his intention and returned home to michigan. after a pleasant holiday with his friends he resumed his occupation in the louisville office. contact with home seems to have charged him with fresh courage. he wrote a work on electricity, which for lack of means was never published, and improved his penmanship until he could write a fair round backhand at the rate of forty-five words a minute--that is to say, the utmost that an operator can send by the morse code. the style was chosen for its clearness, each letter being distinctly formed, with little or no shading. his comrades were no better than before. on returning from his work in the small hours, edison would sometimes find two or three of them asleep in his bed with their boots on, and have to shift them to the floor in order that he might 'turn in.' a new office was opened, but strict orders were issued that nobody was to interfere with the instruments and their connections. he could not resist the infringement of this rule, however, and continued his experiments. in drawing some vitriol one night, he upset the carboy, and the acid eating its way through the floor, played havoc with the furniture of a luxurious bank in the flat below. he was discharged for this, but soon obtained another engagement as a press operator in cincinnati. he spent his leisure in the mechanics' library, studying works on electricity and general science. he also developed his ideas on the duplex system; and if they were not carried out, they at least directed him to the quadruplex system with which his name was afterwards associated. these attempts to improve his time seem to have made him unpopular, for after a short term in cincinnati, he returned to port huron. a friend, mr. f. adams, operator in the boston office of the western union telegraph company, recommended edison to his manager, mr. g. f. milliken, as a good man to work the new york wire, and the berth was offered to edison by telegraph. he accepted, and left at once for boston by the grand trunk railway, but the train was snowed up for two days near the bluffs of the st. lawrence. the consequence might have been serious had provisions not been found by a party of foragers. mr. milliken was the first of edison's masters, and perhaps his fellows, who appreciated him. mediocrity had only seen the gawky stripling, with his moonstruck air, and pestilent habit of trying some new crotchet. himself an inventor, milliken recognised in his deep-set eye and musing brow the fire of a suppressed genius. he was then just twenty-one. the friendship of mr. milliken, and the opportunity for experiment, rendered the boston office a congenial one. his by-hours were spent in a little workshop he had opened. among his inventions at this period were a dial telegraph, and a 'printer' for use on private lines, and an electro-chemical vote recorder, which the legislature of massachusetts declined to adopt. with the assistance of mr. f. l. pope, patent adviser to the western union telegraph company, his duplex system was tried, with encouraging results. the ready ingenuity of edison is shown by his device for killing the cockroaches which overran the boston office. he arranged some strips of tinfoil on the wall, and connected these to the poles of a battery in such a way that when the insects ran towards the bait which he had provided, they stepped from one foil to the other, and completed the circuit of the current, thus receiving a smart shock, which dislodged them into a pail of water, standing below. in , after two years in boston, where he had spent all his earnings, chiefly on his books and workshop, he found himself in new york, tramping the streets on the outlook for a job, and all but destitute. after repeated failures he chanced to enter the office of the laws gold reporting telegraph company while the instrument which mr. laws had invented to report the fluctuations of the money market had broken down. no one could set it right; there was a fever in the market, and mr. laws, we are told, was in despair. edison volunteered to set it right, and though his appearance was unpromising, he was allowed to try. the insight of the born mechanic, the sleight of hand which marks the true experimenter, have in them something magical to the ignorant. in edison's hands the instrument seemed to rectify itself. this was his golden opportunity. he was engaged by the company, and henceforth his career as an inventor was secure. the gold indicator company afterwards gave him a responsible position. he improved their indicator, and invented the gold and stock quotation printer, an apparatus for a similar purpose. he entered into partnership with mr. pope and mr. ashley, and introduced the pope and edison printer. a private line which he established was taken over by the gold and stock telegraph company, and soon their system was worked almost exclusively with edison's invention. he was retained in their service, and that of the western union telegraph company, as a salaried inventor, they having the option of buying all his telegraphic inventions at a price to be agreed upon. at their expense a large electrical factory was established under his direction at newark, new jersey, where he was free to work out his ideas and manufacture his apparatus. now that he was emancipated from drudgery, and fairly started on the walk which nature had intended for him, he rejoiced in the prolific freedom of his mind, which literally teemed with projects. his brain was no longer a prey to itself from the 'local action,' or waste energy of restrained ideas and revolving thoughts. [the term 'local action' is applied by electricians to the waste which goes on in a voltaic battery, although its current is not flowing in the outer circuit and doing useful work.] if anything, he attempted too much. patents were taken out by the score, and at one time there were no less than forty-five distinct inventions in progress. the commissioner of patents described him as 'the young man who kept the path to the patent office hot with his footsteps.' his capacity for labouring without rest is very remarkable. on one occasion, after improving his gold and stock quotation printer, an order for the new instruments, to the extent of , dollars, arrived at the factory. the model had acted well, but the first instruments made after it proved a failure. edison thereupon retired to the upper floor of the factory with some of his best workmen, and intimated that they must all remain there until the defect was put right. after sixty hours of continuous toil, the fault was remedied, and edison went to bed, where he slept for thirty-six hours. mr. johnson, one of his assistants, informs us that for ten years he worked on an average eighteen hours a day, and that he has been known to continue an experiment for three months day and night, with the exception of a nap from six o'clock to nine of the morning. in the throes of invention, and under the inspiration of his ideas, he is apt to make no distinction between day and night, until he arrives at a result which he considers to be satisfactory one way or the other. his meals are brought to him in the laboratory, and hastily eaten, although his dwelling is quite near. long watchfulness and labour seem to heighten the activity of his mind, which under its 'second wind,' so to speak, becomes preternaturally keen and suggestive. he likes best to work at night in the silence and solitude of his laboratory when the noise of the benches or the rumble of the engines is stilled, and all the world about him is asleep. fortunately, he can work without stimulants, and, when the strain is over, rest without narcotics; otherwise his exhausted constitution, sound as it is, would probably break down. still, he appears to be ageing before his time, and some of his assistants, not so well endowed with vitality, have, we believe, overtaxed their strength in trying to keep up with him. at this period he devised his electric pen, an ingenious device for making copies of a document. it consists essentially of a needle, rapidly jogged up and down by means of an electro-magnet actuated by an intermittent current of electricity. the writing is traced with the needle, which perforates another sheet of paper underneath, thus forming a stencil-plate, which when placed on a clean paper, and evenly inked with a rolling brush, reproduces the original writing. in edison was married to miss mary stillwell, of newark, one of his employees. his eldest child, mary estelle, was playfully surnamed 'dot,' and his second, thomas alva, jun., 'dash,' after the signals of the morse code. mrs. edison died several years ago. while seeking to improve the method of duplex working introduced by mr. steams, edison invented the quadruplex, by which four messages are simultaneously sent through one wire, two from each end. brought out in association with mr. prescott, it was adopted by the western union telegraph company, and, later, by the british post office. the president of the western union reported that it had saved the company , dollars a year in the construction of new lines. edison also improved the bain chemical telegraph, until it attained an incredible speed. bain had left it capable of recording words a minute; but edison, by dint of searching a pile of books ordered from new york, paris, and london, making copious notes, and trying innumerable experiments, while eating at his desk and sleeping in his chair, ultimately prepared a solution which enabled it to register over words a minute. it was exhibited at the philadelphia centenial exhibition in , where it astonished sir william thomson. in , edison sold his factory at newark, and retired to menlo park, a sequestered spot near metuchin, on the pennsylvania railroad, and about twenty-four miles from new york. here on some rising ground he built a wooden tenement, two stories high, and furnished it as a workshop and laboratory. his own residence and the cottages of his servants completed the little colony. the basement of the main building was occupied by his office, a choice library, a cabinet replete with instruments of precision, and a large airy workshop, provided with lathes and steam power, where his workmen shaped his ideas into wood and metal. the books lying about, the designs and placards on the walls, the draught-board on the table, gave it the appearance of a mechanics' club-room. the free and lightsome behaviour of the men, the humming at the benches, recalled some school of handicraft. there were no rigid hours, no grinding toil under the jealous eye of the overseer. the spirit of competition and commercial rivalry was absent. it was not a question of wringing as much work as possible out of the men in the shortest time and at the lowest price. moreover, they were not mere mechanical drudges--they were interested in their jobs, which demanded thought as well as skill. upstairs was the laboratory proper--a long room containing an array of chemicals; for edison likes to have a sample of every kind, in case it might suddenly be requisite. on the tables and in the cupboards were lying all manner of telegraphic apparatus, lenses, crucibles, and pieces of his own inventions. a perfect tangle of telegraph wires coming from all parts of the union were focussed at one end of the room. an ash-covered forge, a cabinet organ, a rusty stove with an old pivot chair, a bench well stained with oils and acids, completed the equipment of this curious den, into which the sunlight filtered through the chemical jars and fell in coloured patches along the dusty floor. the moving spirit of this haunt by day and night is well described as an overgrown school-boy. he is a man of a slim, but wiry figure, about five feet ten inches in height. his face at this period was juvenile and beardless. the nose and chin were shapely and prominent, the mouth firm, the forehead wide and full above, but not very high. it was shaded by dark chestnut hair, just silvered with grey. his most remarkable features were his eyes, which are blue-grey and deeply set, with an intense and piercing expression. when his attention was not aroused, he seemed to retire into himself, as though his mind had drifted far away, and came back slowly to the present. he was pale with nightwork, and his thoughtful eyes had an old look in serious moments. but his smile was boyish and pleasant, and his manner a trifle shy. there was nothing of the dandy about edison, he boasted no jewelled fingers or superfine raiment. an easy coat soiled with chemicals, a battered wide-awake, and boots guiltless of polish, were good enough for this inspired workman. an old silver watch, sophisticated with magnetism, and keeping an eccentric time peculiar to it, was his only ornament. on social occasions, of course, he adopted a more conventional costume. visitors to the laboratory often found him in his shirt-sleeves, with dishevelled hair and grimy hands. the writer of 'a night with edison' has described him as bending like a wizard over the smoky fumes of some lurid lamps arranged on a brick furnace, as if he were summoning the powers of darkness. 'it is much after midnight now,' says this author. 'the machinery below has ceased to rumble, and the tired hands have gone to their homes. a hasty lunch has been sent up. we are at the thermoscope. suddenly a telegraph instrument begins to click. the inventor strikes a grotesque attitude, a herring in one hand and a biscuit in the other, and with a voice a little muffled with a mouthful of both, translates aloud, slowly, the sound intelligible to him alone: "london.--news of death of lord john russell premature." "john blanchard, whose failure was announced yesterday, has suicided (no, that was a bad one) succeeded! in adjusting his affairs, and will continue in business."' his tastes are simple and his habits are plain. on one occasion, when invited to a dinner at delmonico's restaurant, he contented himself with a slice of pie and a cup of tea. another time he is said to have declined a public dinner with the remark that , dollars would not tempt him to sit through two hours of 'personal glorification.' he dislikes notoriety, thinking that a man is to be 'measured by what he does, not by what is said about him.' but he likes to talk about his inventions and show them to visitors at menlo park. in disposition he is sociable, affectionate, and generous, giving himself no airs, and treating all alike. his humour is native, and peculiar to himself, so there is some excuse for the newspaper reporters who take his jokes about the capabilities of nature au serieux; and publish them for gospel. his assistants are selected for their skill and physical endurance. the chief at menlo park was mr. charles batchelor, a scotchman, who had a certain interest in the inventions, but the others, including mathematicians, chemists, electricians, secretary, bookkeeper, and mechanics, were paid a salary. they were devoted to edison, who, though he worked them hard at times, was an indulgent master, and sometimes joined them in a general holiday. all of them spoke in the highest terms of the inventor and the man. the menlo establishment was unique in the world. it was founded for the sole purpose of applying the properties of matter to the production of new inventions. for love of science or the hope of gain, men had experimented before, and worked out their inventions in the laboratories of colleges and manufactories. but edison seems to have been the first to organise a staff of trained assistants to hunt up useful facts in books, old and modern, and discover fresh ones by experiment, in order to develop his ideas or suggest new ones, together with skilled workmen to embody them in the fittest manner; and all with the avowed object of taking out patents, and introducing the novel apparatus as a commercial speculation. he did not manufacture his machines for sale; he simply created the models, and left their multiplication to other people. there are different ways of looking at nature: 'to some she is the goddess great; to some the milch-cow of the field; their business is to calculate the butter she will yield.' the institution has proved a remarkable success. from it has emanated a series of marvellous inventions which have carried the name of edison throughout the whole civilised world. expense was disregarded in making the laboratory as efficient as possible; the very best equipment was provided, the ablest assistants employed, and the profit has been immense. edison is a millionaire; the royalties from his patents alone are said to equal the salary of a prime minister. although edison was the master spirit of the band, it must not be forgotten that his assistants were sometimes co-inventors with himself. no doubt he often supplied the germinal ideas, while his assistants only carried them out. but occasionally the suggestion was nothing more than this: 'i want something that will do so-and-so. i believe it will be a good thing, and can be done.' the assistant was on his mettle, and either failed or triumphed. the results of the experiments and researches were all chronicled in a book, for the new facts, if not then required, might become serviceable at a future time. if a rare material was wanted, it was procured at any cost. with such facilities, an invention is rapidly matured. sometimes the idea was conceived in the morning, and a working model was constructed by the evening. one day, we are told, a discovery was made at p.m., and edison telegraphed it to his patent agent, who immediately drew up the specification, and at nine o'clock next morning cabled it to london. before the inventor was out of bed, he received an intimation that his patent had been already deposited in the british patent office. of course, the difference of time was in his favour. when edison arrived at the laboratory in the morning, he read his letters, and then overlooked his employees, witnessing their results and offering his suggestions; but it often happened that he became totally engrossed with one experiment or invention. his work was frequently interrupted by curious visitors, who wished to see the laboratory and the man. although he had chosen that out-of-the-way place to avoid disturbance, they were never denied: and he often took a pleasure in showing his models, or explaining the work on which he was engaged. there was no affectation of mystery, no attempt at keeping his experiments a secret. even the laboratory notes were open to inspection. menlo park became a kind of mecca to the scientific pilgrim; the newspapers and magazines despatched reporters to the scene; excursion parties came by rail, and country farmers in their buggies; till at last an enterprising yankee even opened a refreshment room. the first of edison's greater inventions in menlo park was the 'loud-speaking telephone.' professor graham bell had introduced his magneto-electric telephone, but its effect was feeble. it is, we believe, a maxim in biology that a similarity between the extremities of a creature is an infallible sign of its inferiority, and that in proportion as it rises in the scale of being, its head is found to differ from its tail. now, in the bell apparatus, the transmitter and the receiver were alike, and hence clerk maxwell hinted that it would never be good for much until they became differentiated from each other. consciously or unconsciously edison accomplished the feat. with the hardihood of genius, he attempted to devise a telephone which would speak out loud enough to be heard in any corner of a large hall. in the telephone of bell, the voice of the speaker is the motive power which generates the current in the line. the vibrations of the sound may be said to transform themselves into electrical undulations. hence the current is very weak, and the reproduction of the voice is relatively faint. edison adopted the principle of making the vibrations of the voice control the intensity of a current which was independently supplied to the line by a voltaic battery. the plan of bell, in short, may be compared to a man who employs his strength to pump a quantity of water into a pipe, and that of edison to one who uses his to open a sluice, through which a stream of water flows from a capacious dam into the pipe. edison was acquainted with two experimental facts on which to base the invention. in , or thereabout, he claimed to have observed, while constructing rheostats, or electrical resistances for making an artificial telegraph line, that powdered plumbago and carbon has the property of varying in its resistance to the passage of the current when under pressure. the variation seemed in a manner proportional to the pressure. as a matter of fact, powdered carbon and plumbago had been used in making small adjustable rheostats by m. clerac, in france, and probably also in germany, as early as or . clerac's device consisted of a small wooden tube containing the material, and fitted with contacts for the current, which appear to have adjusted the pressure. moreover, the count du moncel, as far back as , had clearly discovered that when powdered carbon was subjected to pressure, its electrical resistance altered, and had made a number of experiments on the phenomenon. edison may have independently observed the fact, but it is certain he was not the first, and his claim to priority has fallen to the ground. still he deserves the full credit of utilising it in ways which were highly ingenious and bold. the 'pressure-relay,' produced in , was the first relay in which the strength of the local current working the local telegraph instrument was caused to vary in proportion to the variation; of the current in the main line. it consisted of an electro-magnet with double poles and an armature which pressed upon a disc or discs of plumbago, through which the local current passed. the electro-magnet was excited by the main line current and the armature attracted to its poles at every signal, thus pressing on the plumbago, and by reducing its resistance varying the current in the local circuit. according as the main line current was strong or weak, the pressure on the plumbago was more or less, and the current in the local circuit strong or weak. hence the signals of the local receiver were in accordance with the currents in the main line. edison found that the same property might be applied to regulate the strength of a current in conformity with the vibrations of the voice, and after a great number of experiments produced his 'carbon transmitter.' plumbago in powder, in sticks, or rubbed on fibres and sheets of silk, were tried as the sensitive material, but finally abandoned in favour of a small cake or wafer of compressed lamp-black, obtained from the smoke of burning oil, such as benzolene or rigolene. this was the celebrated 'carbon button,' which on being placed between two platinum discs by way of contact, and traversed by the electric current, was found to vary in resistance under the pressure of the sound waves. the voice was concentrated upon it by means of a mouthpiece and a diaphragm. the property on which the receiver was based had been observed and applied by him some time before. when a current is passed from a metal contact through certain chemical salts, a lubricating effect was noticeable. thus if a metal stylus were rubbed or drawn over a prepared surface, the point of the stylus was found to slip or 'skid' every time a current passed between them, as though it had been oiled. if your pen were the stylus, and the paper on which you write the surface, each wave of electricity passing from the nib to the paper would make the pen start, and jerk your fingers with it. he applied the property to the recording of telegraph signals without the help of an electro-magnet, by causing the currents to alter the friction between the two rubbing surfaces, and so actuate a marker, which registered the message as in the morse system. this instrument was called the 'electromotograph,' and it occurred to edison that in a similar way the undulatory currents from his carbon transmitter might, by varying the friction between a metal stylus and the prepared surface, put a tympanum in vibration, and reproduce the original sounds. wonderful as it may appear, he succeeded in doing so by the aid of a piece of chalk, a brass pin, and a thin sheet or disc of mica. he attached the pin or stylus to the centre of the mica, and brought its point to bear on a cylindrical surface of prepared chalk. the undulatory current from the line was passed through the stylus and the chalk, while the latter was moved by turning a handle; and at every pulse of the electricity the friction between the pin and chalk was diminished, so that the stylus slipped upon its surface. the consequence was a vibration of the mica diaphragm to which the stylus was attached. thus the undulatory current was able to establish vibrations of the disc, which communicated themselves to the air and reproduced the original sounds. the replica was loud enough to be heard by a large audience, and by reducing the strength of the current it could be lowered to a feeble murmur. the combined transmitter and receiver took the form of a small case with a mouthpiece to speak into, an car-piece on a hinged bracket for listening to it, press-keys for manipulating the call-bell and battery, and a small handle by which to revolve the little chalk cylinder. this last feature was a practical drawback to the system, which was patented in . the edison telephone, when at its best, could transmit all kinds of noises, gentle or harsh; it could lift up its voice and cry aloud, or sink it to a confidential whisper. there was a slight punchinellian twang about its utterances, which, if it did not altogether disguise the individuality of the distant speaker, gave it the comicality of a clever parody, and to hear it singing a song, and quavering jauntily on the high notes, was irresistibly funny. instrumental notes were given in all their purity, and, after the phonograph, there was nothing more magical in the whole range of science than to hear that fragment of common chalk distilling to the air the liquid melody of sweet bells jingling in tune. it brought to mind that wonderful stone of memnon, which responded to the rays of sunrise. it seemed to the listener that if the age of miracles was past that of marvels had arrived, and considering the simplicity of the materials, and the obscurity of its action, the loud-speaking telephone was one of the most astonishing of recent inventions. after professor hughes had published his discovery of the microphone, edison, recognising, perhaps, that it and the carbon transmitter were based on the same principle, and having learnt his knowledge of the world in the hard school of adversity, hastily claimed the microphone as a variety of his invention, but imprudently charged professor hughes and his friend, mr. w. h. preece, who had visited edison at menlo park, with having 'stolen his thunder.' the imputation was indignantly denied, and it was obvious to all impartial electricians that professor hughes had arrived at his results by a path quite independent of the carbon transmitter, and discovered a great deal more than edison had done. for one thing, edison believed the action of his transmitter as due to a property of certain poor or 'semi-conductors,' whereby their electric resistance varied under pressure. hughes taught us to understand that it was owing to a property of loose electrical contact between any two conductors. the soft and springy button of lamp-black became no longer necessary, since it was not so much the resistance of the material which varied as the resistance at the contacts of its parts and the platinum electrodes. two metals, or two pieces of hard carbon, or a piece of metal and a piece of hard carbon, were found to regulate the current in accordance with the vibrations of the voice. edison therefore discarded the soft and fragile button, replacing it by contacts of hard carbon and metal, in short, by a form of microphone. the carbon, or microphone transmitter, was found superior to the magneto-electric transmitter of bell; but the latter was preferable as a receiver to the louder but less convenient chemical receiver of edison, and the most successful telephonic system of the day is a combination of the microphone, or new carbon transmitter, with the bell receiver. the 'micro-tasimeter,' a delicate thermoscope, was constructed in , and is the outcome of edison's experiments with the carbon button. knowing the latter to be extremely sensitive to minute changes of pressure, for example, those of sonorous vibrations, he conceived the idea of measuring radiant heat by causing it to elongate a thin bar or strip of metal or vulcanite, bearing at one end on the button. to indicate the effect, he included a galvanometer in the circuit of the battery and the button. the apparatus consisted of a telephone button placed between two discs of platinum and connected in circuit with the battery and a sensitive galvanometer. the strip was supported so that one end bore upon the button with a pressure which could be regulated by an adjustable screw at the other. the strip expanded or contracted when exposed to heat or cold, and thrust itself upon the button more or less, thereby varying the electric current and deflecting the needle of the galvanometer to one side or the other. the instrument was said to indicate a change of temperature equivalent to one-millionth of a degree fahrenheit. it was tested by edison on the sun's corona during the eclipse observations of july , , at rawlings, in the territory of wyoming. the trial was not satisfactory, however, for the apparatus was mounted on a hen-house, which trembled to the gale, and before he could get it properly adjusted the eclipse was over. it is reported that on another trial the light from the star arcturus, when focussed on the vulcanite, was capable of deflecting the needle of the galvanometer. when gelatine is substituted for vulcanite, the humidity of the atmosphere can also be measured in the same way. edison's crowning discovery at menlo park was the celebrated 'phonograph,' or talking machine. it was first announced by one of his assistants in the pages of the scientific american for . the startling news created a general feeling of astonishment, mingled with incredulity or faith. people had indeed heard of the talking heads of antiquity, and seen the articulating machines of de kempelen and faber, with their artificial vocal organs and complicated levers, manipulated by an operator. but the phonograph was automatic, and returned the words which had been spoken into it by a purely mechanical mimicry. it captured and imprisoned the sounds as the photograph retained the images of light. the colours of nature were lost in the photograph, but the phonograph was said to preserve the qualities even of the human voice. yet this wonderful appliance had neither tongue nor teeth, larynx nor pharynx. it appeared as simple as a coffee-mill. a vibrating diaphragm to collect the sounds, and a stylus to impress them on a sheet of tinfoil, were its essential parts. looking on the record of the sound, one could see only the scoring of the stylus on the yielding surface of the metal, like the track of an alpine traveller across the virgin snow. these puzzling scratches were the foot-prints of the voice. speech is the most perfect utterance of man; but its powers are limited both in time and space. the sounds of the voice are fleeting, and do not carry far; hence the invention of letters to record them, and of signals to extend their range. these twin lines of invention, continued through the ages, have in our own day reached their consummation. the smoke of the savage, the semaphore, and the telegraph have ended in the telephone, by which the actual voice can speak to a distance; and now at length the clay tablet of the assyrian, the wax of the ancient greek, the papyrus of the egyptian, and the modern printing-press have culminated in the phonograph, by which the living words can be preserved into the future. in the light of a new discovery, we are apt to wonder why our fathers were so blind as not to see it. when a new invention has been made, we ask ourselves, why was it not thought of before? the discovery seems obvious, and the invention simple, after we know them. now that speech itself can be sent a thousand miles away, or heard a thousand years after, we discern in these achievements two goals toward which we have been making, and at which we should arrive some day. we marvel that we had no prescience of these, and that we did not attain to them sooner. why has it taken so many generations to reach a foregone conclusion? alas! they neither knew the conclusion nor the means of attaining to it. man works from ignorance towards greater knowledge with very limited powers. his little circle of light is surrounded by a wall of darkness, which he strives to penetrate and lighten, now groping blindly on its verge, now advancing his taper light and peering forward; yet unable to go far, and even afraid to venture, in case he should be lost. to the infinite intelligence which knows all that is hidden in that darkness, and all that man will discover therein, how poor a thing is the telephone or phonograph, how insignificant are all his 'great discoveries'! this thought should imbue a man of science with humility rather than with pride. seen from another standpoint than his own, from without the circle of his labours, not from within, in looking back, not forward, even his most remarkable discovery is but the testimony of his own littleness. the veil of darkness only serves to keep these little powers at work. men have sometimes a foreshadowing of what will come to pass without distinctly seeing it. in mechanical affairs, the notion of a telegraph is very old, and probably immemorial. centuries ago the poet and philosopher entertained the idea of two persons far apart being able to correspond through the sympathetic property of the lodestone. the string or lovers' telephone was known to the chinese, and even the electric telephone was thought about some years before it was invented. bourseul, reis, and others preceded graham bell. the phonograph was more of a surprise; but still it was no exception to the rule. naturally, men and women had desired to preserve the accents as well as the lineaments of some beloved friend who had passed away. the chinese have a legend of a mother whose voice was so beautiful that her children tried to store it in a bamboo cane, which was carefully sealed up. long after she was dead the cane was opened, and her voice came out in all its sweetness, but was never heard again. a similar idea (which reminds us of munchausen's trumpet) is found in the natural magick of john baptista porta, the celebrated neapolitan philosopher, and published at london in . he proposes to confine the sound of the voice in leaden pipes, such as are used for speaking through; and he goes on to say that 'if any man, as the words are spoken, shall stop the end of the pipe, and he that is at the other end shall do the like, the voice may be intercepted in the middle, and be shut up as in a prison, and when the mouth is opened, the voice will come forth as out of his mouth that spake it.... i am now upon trial of it. if before my book be printed the business take effect, i will set it down; if not, if god please, i shall write of it elsewhere.' porta also refers to the speaking head of albertus magnus, whom, however, he discredits. he likewise mentions a colossal trumpeter of brass, stated to have been erected in some ancient cities, and describes a plan for making a kind of megaphone, 'wherewith we may hear many miles.' in the voyage a la lune of de cyrano bergerac, published at paris in , and subsequently translated into english, there is a long account of a 'mechanical book' which spoke its contents to the listener. 'it was a book, indeed,' says cyrano, 'but a strange and wonderful book, which had neither leaves nor letters,' and which instructed the youth in their walks, so that they knew more than the greybeards of cyrano's country, and need never lack the company of all the great men living or dead to entertain them with living voices. sir david brewster surmised that a talking machine mould be invented before the end of the century. mary somerville, in her connection of the physical sciences, wrote some fifty years ago: 'it may be presumed that ultimately the utterances or pronunciation of modern languages will be conveyed, not only to the eye, but also to the ear of posterity. had the ancients possessed the means of transmitting such definite sounds, the civilised world must have responded in sympathetic notes at the distance of many ages.' in the memoires du geant of m. nadar, published in , the author says: 'these last fifteen years i have amused myself in thinking there is nothing to prevent a man one of these days from finding a way to give us a daguerreotype of sound--the phonograph--something like a box in which melodies will be fixed and kept, as images are fixed in the dark chamber.' it is also on record that, before edison had published his discovery to the world, m. charles cros deposited a sealed packet at the academie des sciences, paris, giving an account of an invention similar to the phonograph. ignorance of the true nature of sound had prevented the introduction of such an instrument. but modern science, and in particular the invention of the telephone with its vibrating plate, had paved the way for it. the time was ripe, and edison was the first to do it. in spite of the unbridled fancies of the poets and the hints of ingenious writers, the announcement that a means of hoarding speech had been devised burst like a thunderclap upon the world. [in seeing his mother's picture byron wished that he might hear her voice. tennyson exclaims, 'oh for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of a voice that is still!' shelley, in the witch of atlas, wrote: 'the deep recesses of her odorous dwelling were stored with magic treasures--sounds of air, which had the power all spirits of compelling, folded in cells of crystal silence there; such as we hear in youth, and think the feeling will never die--yet ere we are aware, the feeling and the sound are fled and gone, and the regret they leave remains alone.' again, in his spirit of solitude, we find: 'the fire of those soft orbs has ceased to burn, and silence too enamoured of that voice locks its mute music in her rugged cell,'] the phonograph lay under the very eyes of science, and yet she did not see it. the logograph had traced all the curves of speech with ink on paper; and it only remained to impress them on a solid surface in such a manner as to regulate the vibrations of an artificial tympanum or drum. yet no professor of acoustics thought of this, and it was left to edison, a telegraphic inventor, to show them what was lying at their feet. mere knowledge, uncombined in the imagination, does not bear fruit in new inventions. it is from the union of different facts that a new idea springs. a scholar is apt to be content with the acquisition of knowledge, which remains passive in his mind. an inventor seizes upon fresh facts, and combines them with the old, which thereby become nascent. through accident or premeditation he is able by uniting scattered thoughts to add a novel instrument to a domain of science with which he has little acquaintance. nay, the lessons of experience and the scruples of intimate knowledge sometimes deter a master from attempting what the tyro, with the audacity of genius and the hardihood of ignorance, achieves. theorists have been known to pronounce against a promising invention which has afterwards been carried to success, and it is not improbable that if edison had been an authority in acoustics he would never have invented the phonograph. it happened in this wise. during the spring of , he was trying a device for making a telegraph message, received on one line, automatically repeat itself along another line. this he did by embossing the morse signals on the travelling paper instead of merely inking them, and then causing the paper to pass under the point of a stylus, which, by rising and falling in the indentations, opened and closed a sending key included in the circuit of the second line. in this way the received message transmitted itself further, without the aid of a telegraphist. edison was running the cylinder which carried the embossed paper at a high speed one day, partly, as we are told, for amusement, and partly to test the rate at which a clerk could read a message. as the speed was raised, the paper gave out a humming rhythmic sound in passing under the stylus. the separate signals of the message could no longer be distinguished by the ear, and the instrument seemed to be speaking in a language of its own, resembling 'human talk heard indistinctly.' immediately it flashed on the inventor that if he could emboss the waves of speech upon the paper the words would be returned to him. to conceive was to execute, and it was but the work of an hour to provide a vibrating diaphragm or tympanum fitted with an indenting stylus, and adapt it to the apparatus. paraffined paper was selected to receive the indentations, and substituted for the morse paper on the cylinder of the machine. on speaking to the tympanum, as the cylinder was revolved, a record of the vibrations was indented on the paper, and by re-passing this under the indenting point an imperfect reproduction of the sounds was heard. edison 'saw at once that the problem of registering human speech, so that it could be repeated by mechanical means as often as might he desired, was solved.' [t. a. edison, north american review, june, ; new york electrical review, ,] the experiment shows that it was partly by accident, and not by reasoning on theoretical knowledge, that the phonograph was discovered. the sound resembling 'human talk heard indistinctly' seems to have suggested it to his mind. this was the germ which fell upon the soil prepared for it. edison's thoughts had been dwelling on the telephone; he knew that a metal tympanum was capable of vibrating with all the delicacies of speech, and it occurred to him that if these vibrations could be impressed on a yielding material, as the morse signals were embossed upon the paper, the indentations would reproduce the speech, just as the furrows of the paper reproduced the morse signals. the tympanum vibrating in the curves of speech was instantly united in his imagination with the embossing stylus and the long and short indentations on the morse paper; the idea of the phonograph flashed upon him. many a one versed in acoustics would probably have been restrained by the practical difficulty of impressing the vibrations on a yielding material, and making them react upon the reproducing tympanum. but edison, with that daring mastery over matter which is a characteristic of his mechanical genius, put it confidently to the test. soon after this experiment, a phonograph was constructed, in which a sheet of tinfoil was wrapped round a revolving barrel having a spiral groove cut in its surface to allow the point of the indenting stylus to sink into the yielding foil as it was thrust up and down by the vibrating tympanum. this apparatus--the first phonograph--was published to the world in , and created a universal sensation. [scientific american, march , ] it is now in the south kensington museum, to which it was presented by the inventor. the phonograph was first publicly exhibited in england at a meeting of the society of telegraph engineers, where its performances filled the audience with astonishment and delight. a greeting from edison to his electrical brethren across the atlantic had been impressed on the tinfoil, and was spoken by the machine. needless to say, the voice of the inventor, however imperfectly reproduced, was hailed with great enthusiasm, which those who witnessed will long remember. in this machine, the barrel was fitted with a crank, and rotated by handle. a heavy flywheel was attached to give it uniformity of motion. a sheet of tinfoil formed the record, and the delivery could be heard by a roomful of people. but articulation was sacrificed at the expense of loudness. it was as though a parrot or a punchinello spoke, and sentences which were unexpected could not be understood. clearly, if the phonograph were to become a practical instrument, it required to be much improved. nevertheless this apparatus sufficiently demonstrated the feasibility of storing up and reproducing speech, music, and other sounds. numbers of them were made, and exhibited to admiring audiences, by license, and never failed to elicit both amusement and applause. to show how striking were its effects, and how surprising, even to scientific men, it may be mentioned that a certain learned savant, on hearing it at a seance of the academie des sciences, paris, protested that it was a fraud, a piece of trickery or ventriloquism, and would not be convinced. after edison became too much engaged with the development of the electric light to give much attention to the phonograph, which, however, was not entirely overlooked. his laboratory at menlo park, new jersey, where the original experiments were made, was turned into a factory for making electric light machinery, and edison removed to new york until his new laboratory at orange, new jersey, was completed. of late he has occupied the latter premises, and improved the phonograph so far that it is now a serviceable instrument. in one of his patents, the use of wax to take the records in place of tinfoil is indicated, and it is chiefly to the adoption of this material that the success of the 'perfected phonograph' is due. wax is also employed in the 'graphophone' of mr. tainter and professor bell, which is merely a phonograph under another name. numerous experiments have been made by edison to find the bees-wax which is best adapted to receive the record, and he has recently discovered a new material or mixture which is stated to yield better results than white wax. the wax is moulded into the form of a tube or hollow cylinder, usually / inches long by inches in diameter, and / inch thick. such a size is capable of taking a thousand words on its surface along a delicate spiral trace; and by paring off one record after another can be used fifteen times. there are a hundred or more lines of the trace in the width of an inch, and they are hardly visible to the naked eye. only with a magnifying glass can the undulations caused by the vibrating stylus be distinguished. this tube of wax is filed upon a metal barrel like a sleeve, and the barrel, which forms part of a horizontal spindle, is rotated by means of a silent electro-motor, controlled by a very sensitive governor. a motion of translation is also given to the barrel as it revolves, so that the marking stylus held over it describes a spiral path upon its surface. in front of the wax two small metal tympanums are supported, each carrying a fine needle point or stylus on its under centre. one of these is the recording diaphragm, which prints the sounds in the first place; the other is the reproducing diaphragm, which emits the sounds recorded on the wax. they are used, one at a time, as the machine is required, to take down or to render back a phonographic message. the recording tympanum, which is about the size of a crown-piece, is fitted with a mouthpiece, and when it is desired to record a sentence the spindle is started, and you speak into the mouthpiece. the tympanum vibrates under your voice, and the stylus, partaking of its motion, digs into the yielding surface of the wax which moves beneath, and leaves a tiny furrow to mark its passage. this is the sonorous record which, on being passed under the stylus of the reproducing tympanum, will cause it to give out a faithful copy of the original speech. a flexible india-rubber tube, branching into two ear-pieces, conveys the sound emitted by the reproducing diaphragm to the ears. this trumpet is used for privacy and loudness; but it may be replaced by a conical funnel inserted by its small end over the diaphragm, which thereby utters its message aloud. it is on this plan that edison has now constructed a phonograph which delivers its reproduction to a roomful of people. keys and pedals are provided with which to stop the apparatus either in recording or receiving, and in the latter case to hark back and repeat a word or sentence if required. this is a convenient arrangement in using the phonograph for correspondence or dictation. each instrument, as we have seen, can be employed for receiving as well as recording; and as all are made to one pattern, a phonogram coming from any one, in any art of the world, can be reproduced in any other instrument. a little box with double walls has been introduced for transmitting the phonograms by post. a knife or cutter is attached to the instrument for the purpose of paring off an old message, and preparing a fresh surface of the wax for the reception of a new one. this can be done in advance while the new record is being made, so that no time is lost in the operation. a small voltaic battery, placed under the machine, serves to work the electric motor, and has to be replenished from time to time. a process has also been devised for making copies of the phonograms in metal by electro-deposition, so as to produce permanent records. but even the wax phonogram may be used over and over again, hundreds of times, without diminishing the fidelity of the reproduction. the entire phonograph is shown in our figure. [the figure is omitted from this e-text] it consists of a box, b, containing the silent electro-motor which drives the machine, and supporting the works for printing and reproducing the sounds. apart from the motive power, which might, as in the graphophone, be supplied by foot, the apparatus is purely mechanical, the parts acting with smoothness and precision. these are, chiefly, the barrel or cylinder, c, on which the hollow wax is placed; the spindle, s, which revolves the cylinder and wax; and the two tympana, t, t', which receive the sounds and impress them on the soft surface of the wax. a governor, g, regulates the movement of the spindle; and there are other ingenious devices for starting and stopping the apparatus. the tympanum t is that which is used for recording the sounds, and m is a mouthpiece, which is fixed to it for speaking purposes. the other tympanum, t', reproduces the sounds; and e e is a branched ear-piece, conveying them to the two ears of the listener. the separate wax tube, p, is a phonogram with the spiral trace of the sounds already printed on its surface, and ready for posting. the box below the table contains the voltaic battery which actuates the electro-motor. a machine which aims at recording and reproducing actual speech or music is, of course, capable of infinite refinement, and edison is still at work improving the instrument, but even now it is substantially perfected. phonographs have arrived in london, and through the kindness of mr. edison and his english representative, colonel g. e. gouraud, we have had an opportunity of testing one. a number of phonograms, taken in edison's laboratory, were sent over with the instruments, and several of them were caused to deliver in our hearing the sounds which were 'sealed in crystal silence there.' the first was a piece which had been played on the piano, quick time, and the fidelity and loudness with which it was delivered by the hearing tube was fairly astonishing, especially when one considered the frail and hair-like trace upon the wax which had excited it. there seemed to be something magical in the effect, which issued, as it were, from the machine itself. then followed a cornet solo, concert piece of cornet, violin, and piano, and a very beautiful duet of cornet and piano. the tones and cadences were admirably rendered, and the ear could also faintly distinguish the noises of the laboratory. speaking was represented by a phonogram containing a dialogue between mr. edison and colonel gouraud which had been imprinted some three weeks before in america. with this we could hear the inventor addressing his old friend, and telling him to correspond entirely with the phonograph. colonel gouraud answers that he will be delighted to do so, and be spared the trouble of writing; while edison rejoins that he also will be glad to escape the pains of reading the gallant colonel's letters. the sally is greeted with a laugh, which is also faithfully rendered. one day a workman in edison's laboratory caught up a crying child and held it over the phonograph. here is the phonogram it made, and here in england we can listen to its wailing, for the phonograph reproduces every kind of sound, high or low, whistling, coughing, sneezing, or groaning. it gives the accent, the expression, and the modulation, so that one has to be careful how one speaks, and probably its use will help us to improve our utterance. by speaking into the phonograph and reproducing the words, we are enabled for the first time to hear ourselves speak as others hear us; for the vibrations of the head are understood to mask the voice a little to our own ears. moreover, by altering the speed of the barrel the voice can be altered, music can be executed in slow or quick time, however it is played, inaudible notes can be raised or lowered, as the case may be, to audibility. the phonograph will register notes as low as ten vibrations a second, whereas it is well known the lowest note audible to the human ear is sixteen vibrations a second. the instrument is equally capable of service and entertainment. it can be used as a stenograph, or shorthand-writer. a business man, for instance, can dictate his letters or instructions into it, and they can be copied out by his secretary. callers can leave a verbal message in the phonograph instead of a note. an editor or journalist can dictate articles, which may be written out or composed by the printer, word by word, as they are spoken by the reproducer in his ears. correspondence can be carried on by phonograms, distant friends and lovers being able thus to hear each other's accents as though they were together, a result more conducive to harmony and good feeling than letter-writing. in matters of business and diplomacy the phonogram will teach its users to be brief, accurate, and honest in their speech; for the phonograph is a mechanical memory more faithful than the living one. its evidence may even be taken in a court of law in place of documents, and it is conceivable that some important action might be settled by the voice of this deus ex machina. will it therefore add a new terror to modern life? shall a visitor have to be careful what he says in a neighbour's house, in case his words are stored up in some concealed phonograph, just as his appearance may be registered by a detective camera? in ordinary life--no; for the phonograph has its limitations, like every other machine, and it is not sufficiently sensitive to record a conversation unless it is spoken close at hand. but there is here a chance for the sensational novelist to hang a tale upon. the 'interviewer' may make use of it to supply him with 'copy,' but this remains to be seen. there are practical difficulties in the way which need not be told over. perhaps in railway trains, steamers, and other unsteady vehicles, it will be-used for communications. the telephone may yet be adapted to work in conjunction with it, so that a phonogram can be telephoned, or a telephone message recorded in the phonograph. such a 'telephonograph' is, however, a thing of the future. wills and other private deeds may of course be executed by phonograph. moreover, the loud-speaking instrument which edison is engaged upon will probably be applied to advertising and communicating purposes. the hours of the day, for example, can be called out by a clock, the starting of a train announced, and the merits of a particular commodity descanted on. all these uses are possible; but it is in a literary sense that the phonograph is more interesting. books can now be spoken by their authors, or a good elocutionist, and published in phonograms, which will appeal to the ear of the 'reader' instead of to his eye. 'on, four cylinders inches long, with a diameter of ,' says edison, 'i can put the whole of nicholas nickleby.' to the invalid, especially, this use would come as a boon; and if the instrument were a loud speaker, a circle of listeners could be entertained. how interesting it would be to have nicholas nickleby read to us in the voice of dickens, or tam o' shanter in that of burns! if the idea is developed, we may perhaps have circulating libraries which issue phonograms, and there is already some talk of a phonographic newspaper which will prattle politics and scandal at the breakfast-table. addresses, sermons, and political speeches may be delivered by the phonograph; languages taught, and dialects preserved; while the study of words cannot fail to benefit by its performance. musicians will now be able to record their improvisations by a phonograph placed near the instrument they are playing. there need in fact be no more 'lost chords.' lovers of music, like the inventor himself, will be able to purchase songs and pieces, sung and played by eminent performers, and reproduce them in their own homes. music-sellers will perhaps let them out, like books, and customers can choose their piece in the shop by having it rehearsed to them. in preserving for us the words of friends who have passed away, the sound of voices which are stilled, the phonograph assumes its most beautiful and sacred character. the egyptians treasured in their homes the mummies of their dead. we are able to cherish the very accents of ours, and, as it were, defeat the course of time and break the silence of the grave. the voices of illustrious persons, heroes and statesmen, orators, actors, and singers, will go down to posterity and visit us in our homes. a new pleasure will be added to life. how pleasant it would be if we could listen to the cheery voice of gordon, the playing of liszt, or the singing of jenny lind! doubtless the rendering of the phonograph will be still further improved as time goes on; but even now it is remarkable; and the inventor must be considered to have redeemed his promises with regard to it. notwithstanding his deafness, the development of the instrument has been a labour of love to him; and those who knew his rare inventive skill believed that he would some time achieve success. it is his favourite, his most original, and novel work. for many triumphs of mind over matter edison has been called the 'napoleon of invention,' and the aptness of the title is enhanced by his personal resemblance to the great conqueror. but the phonograph is his victory of austerlitz; and, like the printing-press of gutenberg, it will assuredly immortalise his name. 'the phonograph,' said edison of his favourite, 'is my baby, and i expect it to grow up a big fellow and support me in my old age.' some people are still in doubt whether it will prove more than a curious plaything; but even now it seems to be coming into practical use in america, if not in europe. after the publication of the phonograph, edison, owing, it is stated, to an erroneous description of the instrument by a reporter, received letters from deaf people inquiring whether it would enable them to hear well. this, coupled with the fact that he is deaf himself, turned his thoughts to the invention of the 'megaphone,' a combination of one large speaking and two ear-trumpets, intended for carrying on a conversation beyond the ordinary range of the voice--in short, a mile or two. it is said to render a whisper audible at a distance of yards; but its very sensitiveness is a drawback, since it gathers up extraneous sounds. to the same category belongs the 'aerophone,' which may be described as a gigantic tympanum, vibrated by a piston working in a cylinder of compressed air, which is regulated by the vibrations of the sound to be magnified. it was designed to call out fog or other warnings in a loud and penetrating tone, but it has not been successful. the 'magnetic ore separator' is an application of magnetism to the extraction of iron particles from powdered ores and unmagnetic matter. the ground material is poured through a funnel or 'hopper,' and falls in a shower between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet, which draws the metal aside, thus removing it from the dress. among edison's toys and minor inventions may be mentioned a 'voice mill,' or wheel driven by the vibrations of the air set up in speaking. it consists of a tympanum or drum, having a stylus attached as in the phonograph. when the tympanum vibrates under the influence of the voice, the stylus acts as a pawl and turns a ratchet-wheel. an ingenious smith might apply it to the construction of a lock which would operate at the command of 'open, sesame!' another trifle perhaps worthy of note is his ink, which rises on the paper and solidifies, so that a blind person can read the writing by passing his fingers over the letters. edison's next important work was the adaptation of the electric light for domestic illumination. at the beginning of the century the cornish philosopher, humphrey davy, had discovered that the electric current produced a brilliant arch or 'arc' of light when passed between two charcoal points drawn a little apart, and that it heated a fine rod of charcoal or a metal wire to incandescence--that is to say, a glowing condition. a great variety of arc lamps were afterwards introduced; and mr. staite, on or about the year - , invented an incandescent lamp in which the current passed through a slender stick of carbon, enclosed in a vacuum bulb of glass. faraday discovered that electricity could be generated by the relative motion of a magnet and a coil of wire, and hence the dynamo-electric generator, or 'dynamo,' was ere long invented and improved. in the boulevards of paris were lit by the arc lamps of jablochkoff during the season of the exhibition, and the display excited a widespread interest in the new mode of illumination. it was too brilliant for domestic use, however, and, as the lamps were connected one after another in the same circuit like pearls upon a string, the breakage of one would interrupt the current and extinguish them all but for special precautions. in short, the electric light was not yet 'subdivided.' edison, in common with others, turned his attention to the subject, and took up the neglected incandescent lamp. he improved it by reducing the rod of carbon to a mere filament of charcoal, having a comparatively high resistance and resembling a wire in its elasticity, without being so liable to fuse under the intense heat of the current. this he moulded into a loop, and mounted inside a pear-shaped bulb of glass. the bulb was then exhausted of its air to prevent the oxidation of the carbon, and the whole hermetically sealed. when a sufficient current was passed through the filament, it glowed with a dazzling lustre. it was not too bright or powerful for a room; it produced little heat, and absolutely no fumes. moreover, it could be connected not in but across the main circuit of the current, and hence, if one should break, the others would continue glowing. edison, in short, had 'subdivided' the electric light. in october, , he telegraphed the news to london and paris, where, owing to his great reputation, it caused an immediate panic in the gas market. as time passed, and the new illuminant was backward in appearing, the shares recovered their old value. edison was severely blamed for causing the disturbance; but, nevertheless, his announcement had been verified in all but the question of cost. the introduction of a practical system of electric lighting employed his resources for several years. dynamos, types of lamps and conductors, electric meters, safety fuses, and other appliances had to be invented. in he returned to new york, to superintend the installation of his system in that city. his researches on the dynamo caused him to devise what he calls an 'harmonic engine.' it consists of a tuning-fork, kept in vibration by two small electro-magnets, excited with three or four battery cells. it is capable of working a small pump, but is little more than a scientific curiosity. with the object of transforming heat direct from the furnace into electricity, he also devised a 'pyro-electric generator,' but it never passed beyond the experimental stage. the same may be said for his pyro-electric motor. his dynamo-electric motors and system of electric railways are, however, a more promising invention. his method of telegraphing to and from a railway train in motion, by induction through the air to a telegraph wire running along the line, is very ingenious, and has been tried with a fair amount of success. at present he is working at the 'kinetograph,' a combination of the phonograph and the instantaneous photograph as exhibited in the zoetrope, by which he expects to produce an animated picture or simulacrum of a scene in real life or the drama, with its appropriate words and sounds. edison now resides at llewellyn park, orange, a picturesque suburb of new york. his laboratory there is a glorified edition of menlo park, and realises the inventor's dream. the main building is of brick, in three stories; but there are several annexes. each workshop and testing room is devoted to a particular purpose. the machine shops and dynamo rooms are equipped with the best engines and tools, the laboratories with the finest instruments that money can procure. there are drawing, photographic, and photometric chambers, physical, chemical, and metallurgical laboratories. there is a fine lecture-hall, and a splendid library and reading-room. he employs several hundred workmen and assistants, all chosen for their intelligence and skill. in this retreat edison is surrounded with everything that his heart desires. in the words of a reporter, the place is equally capable of turning out a 'chronometer or a cunard steamer.' it is probably the finest laboratory in the world. in , edison, accompanied by his second wife, paid a holiday visit to europe and the paris exhibition. he was received everywhere with the greatest enthusiasm, and the king of italy created him a grand officer of the crown of italy, with the title of count. but the phonograph speaks more for his genius than the voice of the multitude, the electric light is a better illustration of his energy than the ribbon of an order, and the finest monument to his pluck, sagacity, and perseverance is the magnificent laboratory which has been built through his own efforts at llewellyn park. [one of his characteristic sayings may be quoted here: 'genius is an exhaustless capacity for work in detail, which, combined with grit and gumption and love of right, ensures to every man success and happiness in this world and the next.'] chapter x. david edwin hughes. there are some leading electricians who enjoy a reputation based partly on their own efforts and partly on those of their paid assistants. edison, for example, has a large following, who not only work out his ideas, but suggest, improve, and invent of themselves. the master in such a case is able to avail himself of their abilities and magnify his own genius, so to speak. he is not one mind, but the chief of many minds, and absorbs into himself the glory and the work of a hundred willing subjects. professor hughes is not one of these. his fame is entirely self-earned. all that he has accomplished, and he has done great things, has been the labour of his own hand and brain. he is an artist in invention; working out his own conceptions in silence and retirement, with the artist's love and self-absorption. this is but saying that he is a true inventor; for a mere manufacturer of inventions, who employs others to assist him in the work, is not an inventor in the old and truest sense. genius, they say, makes its own tools, and the adage is strikingly verified in the case of professor hughes, who actually discovered the microphone in his own drawing-room, and constructed it of toy boxes and sealing wax. he required neither lathe, laboratory, nor assistant to give the world this remarkable and priceless instrument. having first become known to fame in america, professor hughes is usually claimed by the americans as a countryman, and through some error, the very date and place of his birth there are often given in american publications; but we have the best authority for the accuracy of the following facts, namely that of the inventor himself. david edwin hughes was born in london in . his parents came from bala, at the foot of snowdon, in north wales, and in , when david was seven years old, his father, taking with him his family, emigrated to the united states, and became a planter in virginia. the elder mr. hughes and his children seem to have inherited the welsh musical gift, for they were all accomplished musicians. while a mere child, david could improvise tunes in a remarkable manner, and when he grew up this talent attracted the notice of herr hast, an eminent german pianist in america, who procured for him the professorship of music in the college of bardstown, kentucky. mr. hughes entered upon his academical career at bardstown in , when he was nineteen years of age. although very fond of music and endowered by nature with exceptional powers for its cultivation, professor hughes had, in addition, an inborn liking and fitness for physical science and mechanical invention. this duality of taste and genius may seem at first sight strange; but experience shows that there are many men of science and inventors who are also votaries of music and art. the source of this apparent anomaly is to be found in the imagination, which is the fountain-head of all kinds of creation. professor hughes now taught music by day for his livelihood, and studied science at night for his recreation, thus reversing the usual order of things. the college authorities, knowing his proficiency in the subject, also offered him the chair of natural philosophy, which became vacant; and he united the two seemingly incongruous professorships of music and physics in himself. he had long cherished the idea of inventing a new telegraph, and especially one which should print the message in roman characters as it is received. so it happened that one evening while he was under the excitement of a musical improvisation, a solution of the problem flashed into his ken. his music and his science had met at this nodal point. all his spare time was thenceforth devoted to the development of his design and the construction of a practical type-printer. as the work grew on his hands, the pale young student, beardless but careworn, became more and more engrossed with it, until his nights were almost entirely given to experiment. he begrudged the time which had to be spent in teaching his classes and the fatigue was telling upon his health, so in he removed to bowlingreen, in warren co., kentucky, where he acquired more freedom by taking pupils. the main principle of his type-printer was the printing of each letter by a single current; the morse instrument, then the principal receiver in america, required, on the other hand, an average of three currents for each signal. in order to carry out this principle it was necessary that the sending and receiving apparatus should keep in strict time with each other, or be synchronous in action; and to effect this was the prime difficulty which professor hughes had to overcome in his work. in estimating the hughes' type-printer as an invention we must not forget the state of science at that early period. he had to devise his own governors for the synchronous mechanism, and here his knowledge of acoustics helped him. centrifugal governors and pendulums would not do, and he tried vibrators, such as piano-strings and tuning-forks. he at last found what he wanted in two darning needles, borrowed from an old lady in the house where he lived. these steel rods fixed at one end vibrated with equal periods, and could be utilised in such a way that the printing wheel could be corrected into absolute synchronism by each signal current. in , professor hughes went to louisville to superintend the making of his first instrument; but it was unprotected by a patent in the united states until . in that form straight vibrators were used as governors, and a separate train of wheel-work was employed in correcting: but in later forms the spiral governor was adopted, and the printing and correcting is now done by the same action. in , the invention may be said to have become fit for employment, and no sooner was this the case, than professor hughes received a telegram from the editors of the new york associated press, summoning him to that city. the american telegraph company, then a leading one, was in possession of the morse instrument, and levied rates for transmission of news which the editors found oppressive. they took up the hughes' instrument in opposition to the morse, and introduced it on the lines of several companies. after a time, however, the separate companies amalgamated into one large corporation, the western union telegraph company of to-day. with the morse, hughes, and other apparatus in its power, the editors were again left in the lurch. in , professor hughes leaving his instrument in the hands of the western union telegraph company, came to england to effect its introduction here. he endeavoured to get the old electric telegraph company to adopt it, but after two years of indecision on their part, he went over to france in , where he met with a more encouraging reception. the french government telegraph administration became at once interested in the new receiver, and a commission of eminent electricians, consisting of du moncel, blavier, froment, gaugain, and other practical and theoretical specialists, was appointed to decide on its merits. the first trial of the type-printer took place on the paris to lyons circuit, and there is a little anecdote connected with it which is worthy of being told. the instrument was started, and for a while worked as well as could be desired; but suddenly it came to a stop, and to the utter discomfiture of the inventor he could neither find out what was wrong nor get the printer to go again. in the midst of his confusion, it seemed like satire to him to hear the commissioners say, as they smiled all round, and bowed themselves gracefully off, 'tres-bien, monsieur hughes--tres-bien, je vous felicite.' but the matter was explained next morning, when professor hughes learned that the transmitting clerk at lyons had been purposely instructed to earth the line at the time in question, to test whether there was no deception in the trial, a proceeding which would have seemed strange, had not the occurrence of a sham trial some months previous rendered it a prudent course. the result of this trial was that the french government agreed to give the printer a year of practical work on the french lines, and if found satisfactory, it was to be finally adopted. daily reports were furnished of its behaviour during that time, and at the expiration of the term it was adopted, and professor hughes was constituted by napoleon iii. a chevalier of the legion of honour. the patronage of france paved the way of the type-printer into almost all other european countries; and the french agreement as to its use became the model of those made by the other nations. on settling with france in , professor hughes went to italy. here a commission was likewise appointed, and a period of probation--only six months--was settled, before the instrument was taken over. from italy, professor hughes received the order of st. maurice and st. lazare. in , the united kingdom telegraph co., england, introduced the type-printer in their system. in , professor hughes proceeded to russia, and in that country his invention was adopted after six months' trial on the st. petersburg to moscow circuit. at st. petersburg he had the honour of being a guest of the emperor in the summer palace, czarskoizelo, the versailles of russia, where he was requested to explain his invention, and also to give a lecture on electricity to the czar and his court. he was there created a commander of the order of st. anne. in , professor hughes also went to berlin, and introduced his apparatus on the prussian lines. in , he went on a similar mission to austria, where he received the order of the iron crown; and to turkey, where the reigning sultan bestowed on him the grand cross of the medjidie. in this year, too he was awarded at the paris exhibition, a grand hors ligne gold medal, one out of ten supreme honours designed to mark the very highest achievements. on the same occasion another of these special medals was bestowed on cyrus field and the anglo-american telegraph company. in , he introduced it into holland; and in , into bavaria and wurtemburg, where he obtained the noble order of st. michael. in , he also installed it in switzerland and belgium. coming back to england, the submarine telegraph company adopted the type-printer in , when they had only two instruments at work. in they had twenty of them in constant use, of which number nine were working direct between london and paris, one between london and berlin, one between london and cologne, one between london and antwerp, and one between london and brussels. all the continental news for the times and the daily telegraph is received by the hughes' type-printer, and is set in type by a type-setting machine as it arrives. further, by the international telegraph congress it was settled that for all international telegrams only the hughes' instrument and the morse were to be employed. since the post office acquired the cables to the continent in , a room in st. martin's-le-grand has been provided for the printers working to paris, berlin, and rome. in , professor hughes introduced the type-printer into spain, where he was made a commander of the royal and distinguished order of carlos iii. in every country to which it was taken, the merits of the instrument were recognised, and professor hughes has none but pleasant souvenirs of his visits abroad. during all these years the inventor was not idle. he was constantly improving his invention; and in addition to that, he had to act as an instructor where-ever he went, and give courses of lectures explaining the principles and practice of his apparatus to the various employees into whose hands it was to be consigned. the years - will be distinguished in the history of our time for a triad of great inventions which, so to speak, were hanging together. we have already seen how the telephone and phonograph have originated; and to these two marvellous contrivances we have now to add a third, the microphone, which is even more marvellous, because, although in form it is the simplest of them all, in its action it is still a mystery. the telephone enables us to speak to distances far beyond the reach of eye or ear, 'to waft a sigh from indus to the pole; 'the phonograph enables us to seal the living speech on brazen tablets, and store it up for any length of time; while it is the peculiar function of the microphone to let us hear those minute sounds which are below the range of our unassisted powers of hearing. by these three instruments we have thus received a remarkable extension of the capacity of the human ear, and a growth of dominion over the sounds of nature. we have now a command over sound such as we have over light. for the telephone is to the ear what the telescope is to the eye, the phonograph is for sound what the photograph is for light, and the microphone finds its analogue in the microscope. as the microscope reveals to our wondering sight the rich meshes of creation, so the microphone can interpret to our ears the jarr of molecular vibrations for ever going on around us, perchance the clash of atoms as they shape themselves into crystals, the murmurous ripple of the sap in trees, which humboldt fancied to make a continuous music in the ears of the tiniest insects, the fall of pollen dust on flowers and grasses, the stealthy creeping of a spider upon his silken web, and even the piping of a pair of love-sick butterflies, or the trumpeting of a bellicose gnat, like the 'horns of elf-land faintly blowing.' the success of the hughes type-printer may be said to have covered its author with titles and scientific honours, and placed him above the necessity of regular employment. he left america, and travelled from place to place. for many years past, however, he has resided privately in london, an eminent example of that modesty and simplicity which is generally said to accompany true genius. mechanical invention is influenced to a very high degree by external circumstances. it may sound sensational, but it is nevertheless true, that we owe the microphone to an attack of bronchitis. during the thick foggy weather of november , professor hughes was confined to his home by a severe cold, and in order to divert his thoughts he began to amuse himself with a speaking telephone. then it occurred to him that there might be some means found of making the wire of the telephone circuit speak of itself without the need of telephones at all, or at least without the need of one telephone, namely, that used in transmitting the sounds. the distinguished physicist sir william thomson, had lately discovered the peculiar fact that when a current of electricity is passed through a wire, the current augments when the wire is extended, and diminishes when the wire is compressed, because in the former case the resistance of the material of the wire to the passage of the current is lessened, and in the latter case it becomes greater. now it occurred to professor hughes that, if this were so, it might be possible to cause the air-vibrations of sound to so act upon a wire conveying a current as to stretch and contract it in sympathy with themselves, so that the sound-waves would create corresponding electric waves in the current, and these electric waves, passed through a telephone connected to the wire, would cause the telephone to give forth the original sounds. he first set about trying the effect of vibrating a wire in which a current flowed, to see if the stretching and compressing thereby produced would affect the current so as to cause sounds in a telephone connected up in circuit with the wire--but without effect. he could hear no sound whatever in the telephone. then he stretched the wire till it broke altogether, and as the metal began to rupture he heard a distinct grating in the telephone, followed by a sharp 'click,' when the wire sundered, which indicated a 'rush' of electricity through the telephone. this pointed out to him that the wire might be sensitive to sound when in a state of fracture. acting on the hint, he placed the two broken ends of the wire together again, and kept them so by the application of a definite pressure. to his joy he found that he had discovered what he had been in search of. the imperfect contact between the broken ends of the wire proved itself to be a means of transmitting sounds, and in addition it was found to possess a faculty which he had not anticipated--it proved to be sensitive to very minute sounds, and was in fact a rude microphone. continuing his researches, he soon found that he had discovered a principle of wide application, and that it was not necessary to confine his experiments to wires, since any substance which conducted an electric current would answer the purpose. all that was necessary was that the materials employed should be in contact with each other under a slight but definite pressure, and, for the continuance of the effects, that the materials should not oxidise in air so as to foul the contact. for different materials a different degree of pressure gives the best results, and for different sounds to be transmitted a different degree of pressure is required. any loose, crazy unstable structure, of conducting bodies, inserted in a telephone circuit, will act as a microphone. such, for example, as a glass tube filled with lead-shot or black oxide of iron, or 'white bronze' powder under pressure; a metal watch-chain piled in a heap. surfaces of platinum, gold, or even iron, pressed lightly together give excellent results. three french nails, two parallel beneath and one laid across them, or better still a log-hut of french nails, make a perfect transmitter of audible sounds, and a good microphone. because of its cheapness, its conducting power, and its non-oxidisability, carbon is the most select material. a piece of charcoal no bigger than a pin's head is quite sufficient to produce articulate speech. gas-carbon operates admirably, but the best carbon is that known as willow-charcoal, used by artists in sketching, and when this is impregnated with minute globules of mercury by heating it white-hot and quenching it in liquid mercury, it is in a highly sensitive microphonic condition. the same kind of charcoal permeated by platinum, tin, zinc, or other unoxidisable metal is also very suitable; and it is a significant fact that the most resonant woods, such as pine, poplar, and willow, yield the charcoals best adapted for the microphone. professor hughes' experimental apparatus is of an amusingly simple description. he has no laboratory at home, and all his experiments were made in the drawing-room. his first microphones were formed of bits of carbon and scraps of metal, mounted on slips of match-boxes by means of sealing-wax; and the resonance pipes on which they were placed to reinforce the effect of minute sounds, were nothing more than children's toy money boxes, price one halfpenny, having one of the ends knocked out. with such childish and worthless materials he has conquered nature in her strongholds, and shown how great discoveries can be made. the microphone is a striking illustration of the truth that in science any phenomenon whatever may be rendered useful. the trouble of one generation of scientists may be turned to the honour and service of the next. electricians have long had sore reasons for regarding a 'bad contact' as an unmitigated nuisance, the instrument of the evil one, with no conceivable good in it, and no conceivable purpose except to annoy and tempt them into wickedness and an expression of hearty but ignominious emotion. professor hughes, however, has with a wizard's power transformed this electrician's bane into a professional glory and a public boon. verily there is a soul of virtue in things evil. the commonest and at the same time one of the most sensitive forms of the instrument is called the 'pencil microphone,' from the pencil or crayon of carbon which forms the principal part of it. this pencil may be of mercurialised charcoal, but the ordinary gas-carbon, which incrusts the interior of the retorts in gas-works, is usually employed. the crayon is supported in an upright position by two little brackets of carbon, hollowed out so as to receive the pointed ends in shallow cups. the weight of the crayon suffices to give the required pressure on the contacts, both upper and lower, for the upper end of the pencil should lean against the inner wall of the cup in the upper bracket. the brackets are fixed to an upright board of light, dry, resonant pine-wood, let into a solid base of the same timber. the baseboard is with advantage borne by four rounded india-rubber feet, which insulate it from the table on which it may be placed. to connect the microphone up for use, a small voltaic battery, say three cells (though a single cell will give surprising results), and a bell speaking telephone are necessary. a wire is led from one of the carbon brackets to one pole of the battery, and another wire is led from the other bracket to one terminal screw of the telephone, and the circuit is completed by a wire from the other terminal of the telephone to the other pole of the battery. if now the slightest mechanical jar be given to the wooden frame of the microphone, to the table, or even to the walls of the room in which the experiment takes place, a corresponding noise will be heard in the microphone. by this delicate arrangement we can play the eavesdropper on those insensible vibrations in the midst of which we exist. if a feather or a camel-hair pencil be stroked along the base-board, we hear a harsh grating sound; if a pin be laid upon it, we hear a blow like a blacksmith's hammer; and, more astonishing than all, if a fly walk across it we hear it tramping like a charger, and even its peculiar cry, which has been likened, with some allowance for imagination, to the snorting of an elephant. moreover it should not be forgotten that the wires connecting up the telephone may be lengthened to any desired extent, so that, in the words of professor hughes, 'the beating of a pulse, the tick of a watch, the tramp of a fly can then be heard at least a hundred miles from the source of sound.' if we whisper or speak distinctly in a monotone to the pencil, our words will be heard in the telephone; but with this defect, that the timbre or quality is, in this particular form of the instrument, apt to be lost, making it difficult to recognise the speaker's voice. but although a single pencil microphone will under favourable circumstances transmit these varied sounds, the best effect for each kind of sound is obtained by one specially adjusted. there is one pressure best adapted for minute sounds, another for speech, and a third for louder sounds. a simple spring arrangement for adjusting the pressure of the contacts is therefore an advantage, and it can easily be applied to a microphone formed of a small rod of carbon pivoted at its middle, with one end resting on a block or anvil of carbon underneath. the contact between the rod and the block in this 'hammer-and-anvil' form is, of course, the portion which is sensitive to sound. the microphone is a discovery as well as an invention, and the true explanation of its action is as yet merely an hypothesis. it is supposed that the vibrations put the carbons in a tremor and cause them to approach more or less nearly, thus closing or opening the breach between them, which is, as it were, the floodgate of the current. the applications of the microphone were soon of great importance. dr. b. w. richardson succeeded in fitting it for auscultation of the heart and lungs; while sir henry thompson has effectively used it in those surgical operations, such as probing wounds for bullets or fragments of bone, in which the surgeon has hitherto relied entirely on his delicacy of touch for detecting the jar of the probe on the foreign body. there can be no doubt that in the science of physiology, in the art of surgery, and in many other walks of life, the microphone has proved a valuable aid. professor hughes communicated his results to the royal society in the early part of , and generously gave the microphone to the world. for his own sake it would perhaps have been better had he patented and thus protected it, for mr. edison, recognising it as a rival to his carbon-transmitter, then a valuable property, claimed it as an infringement of his patents and charged him with plagiarism. a spirited controversy arose, and several bitter lawsuits were the consequence, in none of which, however, professor hughes took part, as they were only commercial trials. it was clearly shown that clerac, and not edison, had been the first to utilise the variable resistance of powdered carbon or plumbage under pressure, a property on which the edison transmitter was founded, and that hughes had discovered a much wider principle, which embraced not only the so-called 'semi-conducting' bodies, such as carbon; but even the best conductors, such as gold, silver, and other metals. this principle was not a mere variation of electrical conductivity in a mass of material brought about by compression, but a mysterious variation in some unknown way of the strength of an electric current in traversing a loose joint or contact between two conductors. this discovery of hughes really shed a light on the behaviour of edison's own transmitter, whose action he had until then misunderstood. it was now seen that the particles of carbon dust in contact which formed the button were a congeries of minute micro-phones. again it was proved that the diaphragm or tympanum to receive the impression of the sound and convey it to the carbon button, on which edison had laid considerable stress, was non-essential; for the microphone, pure and simple, was operated by the direct impact of the sonorous waves, and required no tympanum. moreover, the microphone, as its name implies, could magnify a feeble sound, and render audible the vibrations which would otherwise escape the ear. the discovery of these remarkable and subtle properties of a delicate contact had indeed confronted edison; he had held them in his grasp, they had stared him in the face, but not-withstanding all his matchless ingenuity and acumen, he, blinded perhaps by a false hypothesis, entirely failed to discern them. the significant proof of it lies in the fact that after the researches of professor hughes were published the carbon transmitter was promptly modified, and finally abandoned for practical work as a telephone, in favour of a variety of new transmitters, such as the blake, now employed in the united kingdom, in all of which the essential part is a microphone of hard carbon and metal. the button of soot has vanished into the limbo of superseded inventions. science appears to show that every physical process is reciprocal, and may be reversed. with this principle in our minds, we need not be surprised that the microphone should not only act as a transmitter of sounds, but that it should also act as a receiver. mr. james blyth, of edinburgh, was the first to announce that he had heard sounds and even speech given out by a microphone itself when substituted for the telephone. his transmitting microphone and his receiving one were simply jelly-cans filled with cinders from the grate. it then transpired that professor hughes had previously obtained the same remarkable effects from his ordinary 'pencil' microphones. the sounds were extremely feeble, however, but the transmitting microphones proved the best articulating ones. professor hughes at length constructed an adjustable hammer-and-anvil microphone of gas-carbon, fixed to the top of a resonating drum, which articulated fairly well, although not so perfectly as a bell telephone. perhaps a means of improving both the volume and distinctness of the articulation will yet be forthcoming and we may be able to speak solely by the microphone, if it is found desirable. the marvellous fact that a little piece of charcoal can, as it were, both listen and speak, that a person may talk to it so that his friend can hear him at a similar piece a hundred miles away, is a miracle of nineteenth century science which far transcends the oracles of antiquity. the articulating telephone was the forerunner of the phonograph and microphone, and led to their discovery. they in turn will doubtless lead to other new inventions, which it is now impossible to foresee. we ask in vain for an answer to the question which is upon the lips of every one-what next? the microphone has proved itself highly useful in strengthening the sounds given out by the telephone, and it is probable that we shall soon see those three inventions working unitedly; for the microphone might make the telephone sounds so powerful as to enable them to be printed by phonograph as they are received, and thus a durable record of telephonic messages would be obtained. we can now transmit sound by wire, but it may yet be possible to transmit light, and see by telegraph. we are apparently on the eve of other wonderful inventions, and there are symptoms that before many years a great fundamental discovery will be made, which will elucidate the connection of all the physical forces, and will illumine the very frame-work of nature. in , professor hughes endowed the scientific world with another beautiful apparatus, his 'induction balance.' briefly described, it is an arrangement of coils whereby the currents inducted by a primary circuit in the secondary are opposed to each other until they balance, so that a telephone connected in the secondary circuit is quite silent. any disturbance of this delicate balance, however, say by the movement of a coil or a metallic body in the neighbourhood of the apparatus, will be at once reported by the induction currents in the telephone. being sensitive to the presence of minute masses of metal, the apparatus was applied by professor graham bell to indicate the whereabouts of the missing bullet in the frame of president garfield, as already mentioned, and also by captain mcevoy to detect the position of submerged torpedoes or lost anchors. professor roberts-austen, the chemist to the mint, has also employed it with success in analysing the purity and temper of coins; for, strange to say, the induction is affected as well by the molecular quality as the quantity of the disturbing metal. professor hughes himself has modified it for the purpose of sonometry, and the measurement of the hearing powers. to the same year, , belong his laborious investigations on current induction, and some ingenious plans for eliminating its effects on telegraph and telephone circuits. soon after his discovery of the microphone he was invited to become a fellow of the royal society, and a few years later, in he received the royal medal of the society for his experiments, and especially those of the microphone. in he represented the united kingdom as a commissioner at the paris international exhibition of electricity, and was elected president of one of the sections of the international congress of electricians. in he filled the office of president of the society of telegraph engineers and of electricians. the hughes type-printer was a great mechanical invention, one of the greatest in telegraphic science, for every organ of it was new, and had to be fashioned out of chaos; an invention which stamped its author's name indelibly into the history of telegraphy, and procured for him a special fame; while the microphone is a discovery which places it on the roll of investigators, and at the same time brings it to the knowledge of the people. two such achievements might well satisfy any scientific ambition. professor hughes has enjoyed a most successful career. probably no inventor ever before received so many honours, or bore them with greater modesty. ***** appendix. i. charles ferdinand gauss. charles ferdinand gauss was born at braunschweig on april , . his father, george dietrich, was a mason, who employed himself otherwise in the hard winter months, and finally became cashier to a todtencasse, or burial fund. his mother dorothy was the daughter of christian benze of the village of velpke, near braunschweig, and a woman of talent, industry, and wit, which her son appears to have inherited. the father died in after his son had become distinguished. the mother lived to the age of ninety-seven, but became totally blind. she preserved her low saxon dialect, her blue linen dress and simple country manners, to the last, while living beside her son at the observatory of gottingen. frederic, her younger brother, was a damask weaver, but a man with a natural turn for mathematics and mechanics. when gauss was a boy, his parents lived in a small house in the wendengrahen, on a canal which joined the ocker, a stream flowing through braunschweig. the canal is now covered, and is the site of the wilhelmstrasse, but a tablet marks the house. when a child, gauss used to play on the bank of the canal, and falling in one day he was nearly drowned. he learned to read by asking the letters from his friends, and also by studying an old calendar which hung on a wall of his father's house, and when four years old he knew all the numbers on it, in spite of a shortness of sight which afflicted him to the end. on saturday nights his father paid his workmen their wages, and once the boy, who had been listening to his calculations, jumped up and told him that he was wrong. revision showed that his son was right. at the age of seven, gauss went to the catherine parish school at braunschweig, and remained at it for several years. the master's name was buttner, and from a raised seat in the middle of the room, he kept order by means of a whip suspended at his side. a bigger boy, bartels by name, used to cut quill pens, and assist the smaller boys in their lessons. he became a friend of gauss, and would procure mathematical books, which they read together. bartels subsequently rose to be a professor in the university of dorpat, where he died. at the parish school the boys of fourteen to fifteen years were being examined in arithmetic one day, when gauss stepped forward and, to the astonishment of buttner, requested to be examined at the same time. buttner, thinking to punish him for his audacity, put a 'poser' to him, and awaited the result. gauss solved the problem on his slate, and laid it face downward on the table, crying 'here it is,' according to the custom. at the end of an hour, during which the master paced up and down with an air of dignity, the slates were turned over, and the answer of gauss was found to be correct while many of the rest were erroneous. buttner praised him, and ordered a special book on arithmetic for him all the way from hamburg. from the parish school gauss went to the catherine gymnasium, although his father doubted whether he could afford the money. bartels had gone there before him, and they read the higher mathematics. gauss also devoted much of his time to acquiring the ancient and modern languages. from there he passed to the carolinean college in the spring of . shortly before this the duke charles william ferdinand of braunschweig among others had noticed his talents, and promised to further his career. in he published his first papers; and in the autumn of he entered the university of gottingen. at this time he was hesitating between the pursuit of philology or mathematics; but his studies became more and more of the latter order. he discovered the division of the circle, a problem published in his disquisitiones arithmeticae, and henceforth elected for mathematics. the method of least squares, was also discovered during his first term. on arriving home the duke received him in the friendliest manner, and he was promoted to helmstedt, where with the assistance of his patron he published his disquisitiones. on january , , piazzi, the astronomer of palermo, discovered a small planet, which he named ceres ferdinandia, and communicated the news by post to bode of berlin, and oriani of milan. the letter was seventy-two days in going, and the planet by that time was lost in the glory of the sun, by a method of his own, published in his theoria motus corporum coelestium, gauss calculated the orbit of this planet, and showed that it moved between mars and jupiter. the planet, after eluding the search of several astronomers, was ultimately found again by zach on december , , and on january , . the ellipse of gauss was found to coincide with its orbit. this feat drew the attention of the hanoverian government, and of dr. olbers, the astronomer, to the young mathematician. but some time elapsed before he was fitted with a suitable appointment. the battle of austerlitz had brought the country into danger, and the duke of braunschweig was entrusted with a mission from berlin to the court of st. petersburg. the fame of gauss had travelled there, but the duke resisted all attempts to bring or entice him to the university of that place. on his return home, however, he raised the salary of gauss. at the beginning of october , the armies of napoleon were moving towards the saale, and ere the middle of the month the battles of auerstadt and jena were fought and lost. duke charles ferdinand was mortally wounded, and taken back to braunschweig. a deputation waited on the offended emperor at halle, and begged him to allow the aged duke to die in his own house. they were brutally denied by the emperor, and returned to braunschweig to try and save the unhappy duke from imprisonment. one evening in the late autumn, gauss, who lived in the steinweg (or causeway), saw an invalid carriage drive slowly out of the castle garden towards the wendenthor. it contained the wounded duke on his way to altona, where he died on november , , in a small house at ottensen, 'you will take care,' wrote zach to gauss, in , 'that his great name shall also be written on the firmament.' for a year and a half after the death of the duke gauss continued in braunschweig, but his small allowance, and the absence of scientific company made a change desirable. through olbers and heeren he received a call to the directorate of gottingen university in , and at once accepted it. he took a house near the chemical laboratory, to which he brought his wife and family. the building of the observatory, delayed for want of funds, was finished in , and a year or two later it was fully equipped with instruments. in , gauss measured a degree of latitude between gottingen and altona. in geodesy he invented the heliotrope, by which the sunlight reflected from a mirror is used as a "sight" for the theodolite at a great distance. through professor william weber he was introduced to the science of electro-magnetism, and they devised an experimental telegraph, chiefly for sending time signals, between the observatory and the physical cabinet of the university. the mirror receiving instrument employed was the heavy prototype of the delicate reflecting galvanometer of sir william thomson. in messages were transmitted through the line in presence of h.r.h. the duke of cambridge; but it was hardly fitted for general use. in (?) he published an absolute system of magnetic measurements. on july , , the jubilee of gauss was celebrated at the university; the famous jacobi, miller of cambridge, and others, taking part in it. after this he completed several works already begun, read a great deal of german and foreign literature, and visited the museum daily between eleven and one o'clock. in the winters of - gauss complained of his declining health, and on the morning of february , , about five minutes past one o'clock, he breathed his last. he was laid on a bed of laurels, and buried by his friends. a granite pillar marks his resting-place at gottingen. ii. william edward weber. william edward weber was born on october , , at wittenberg, where his father, michael weber, was professor of theology. william was the second of three brothers, all of whom were distinguished by an aptitude for the study of science. after the dissolution of the university of wittenberg his father was transferred to halle in . william had received his first lessons from his father, but was now sent to the orphan asylum and grammar school at halle. after that he entered the university, and devoted himself to natural philosophy. he distinguished himself so much in his classes, and by original work, that after taking his degree of doctor and becoming a privat-docent he was appointed professor extraordinary of natural philosophy at halle. in , on the recommendation of gauss, he was called to gottingen as professor of physics, although but twenty-seven years of age. his lectures were interesting, instructive, and suggestive. weber thought that, in order to thoroughly understand physics and apply it to daily life, mere lectures, though illustrated by experiments, were insufficient, and he encouraged his students to experiment themselves, free of charge, in the college laboratory. as a student of twenty years he, with his brother, ernest henry weber, professor of anatomy at leipsic, had written a book on the 'wave theory and fluidity,' which brought its authors a considerable reputation. acoustics was a favourite science of his, and he published numerous papers upon it in poggendorff's annalen, schweigger's jahrbucher fur chemie und physic, and the musical journal caecilia. the 'mechanism of walking in mankind' was another study, undertaken in conjunction with his younger brother, edward weber. these important investigations were published between the years and . displaced by the hanoverian government for his liberal opinions in politics weber travelled for a time, visiting england, among other countries, and became professor of physics in leipsic from to , when he was reinstalled at gottingen. one of his most important works was the atlas des erdmagnetismus, a series of magnetic maps, and it was chiefly through his efforts that magnetic observatories were instituted. he studied magnetism with gauss, and in published his 'electrodynamic proportional measures' containing a system of absolute measurements for electric currents, which forms the basis of those in use. weber died at gottingen on june , . iii. sir william fothergill cooke. william fothergill cooke was born near ealing on may , , and was a son of dr. william cooke, a doctor of medicine, and professor of anatomy at the university of durham. the boy was educated at a school in durham, and at the university of edinburgh. in he joined the east india army, and held several staff appointments. while in the madras native infantry, he returned home on furlough, owing to ill-health, and afterwards relinquished this connection. in - he studied anatomy and physiology in paris, acquiring great skill at modelling dissections in coloured wax. in the summer of , while touring in switzerland with his parents, he visited heidelberg, and was induced by professor tiedeman, director of the anatomical institute, to return there and continue his wax modelling. he lodged at , stockstrasse, in the house of a brewer, and modelled in a room nearly opposite. some of his models have been preserved in the anatomical museum at heidelberg. in march , hearing accidentally from mr. j. w. r. hoppner, a son of lord byron's friend, that the professor of natural philosophy in the university, geheime hofrath moncke had a model of baron schilling's telegraph, cooke went to see it on march , in the professor's lecture room, an upper storey of an old convent of dominicans, where he also lived. struck by what he witnessed, he abandoned his medical studies, and resolved to apply all his energies to the introduction of the telegraph. within three weeks he had made, partly at heidelberg, and partly at frankfort, his first galvanometer, or needle telegraph. it consisted of three magnetic needles surrounded by multiplying coils, and actuated by three separate circuits of six wires. the movements of the needles under the action of the currents produced twenty-six different signals corresponding to the letters of the alphabet. 'whilst completing the model of my original plan,' he wrote to his mother on april , 'others on entirely fresh systems suggested themselves, and i have at length succeeded in combining the utile of each, but the mechanism requires a more delicate hand than mine to execute, or rather instruments which i do not possess. these i can readily have made for me in london, and by the aid of a lathe i shall be able to adapt the several parts, which i shall have made by different mechanicians for secrecy's sake. should i succeed, it may be the means of putting some hundreds of pounds in my pocket. as it is a subject on which i was profoundly ignorant, until my attention was casually attracted to it the other day, i do not know what others may have done in the same way; this can best be learned in london.' the 'fresh systems' referred to was his 'mechanical' telegraph, consisting of two letter dials, working synchronously, and on which particular letters of the message were indicated by means of an electro-magnet and detent. before the end of march he invented the clock-work alarm, in which an electro-magnet attracted an armature of soft iron, and thus withdrew a detent, allowing the works to strike the alarm. this idea was suggested to him on march , , while reading mrs. mary somerville's 'connexion of the physical sciences,' in travelling from heidelberg to frankfort. cooke arrived in london on april , and wrote a pamphlet setting forth his plans for the establishment of an electric telegraph; but it was never published. according to his own account he also gave considerable attention to the escapement principle, or step by step movement, afterwards perfected by wheatstone. while busy in preparing his apparatus for exhibition, part of which was made by a clock-maker in clerkenwell, he consulted faraday about the construction of electro-magnets, the philosopher saw his apparatus and expressed his opinion that the 'principle was perfectly correct,' and that the 'instrument appears perfectly adapted to its intended uses.' nevertheless he was not very sanguine of making it a commercial success. 'the electro-magnetic telegraph shall not ruin me,' he wrote to his mother, 'but will hardly make my fortune.' he was desirous of taking a partner in the work, and went to liverpool in order to meet some gentleman likely to forward his views, and endeavoured to get his instrument adopted on the incline of the tunnel at liverpool; but it gave sixty signals, and was deemed too complicated by the directors. soon after his return to london, by the end of april, he had two simpler instruments in working order. all these preparations had already cost him nearly four hundred pounds. on february , cooke, being dissatisfied with an experiment on a mile of wire, consulted faraday and dr. roget as to the action of a current on an electro-magnet in circuit with a long wire. dr. roget sent him to wheatstone, where to his dismay he learned that wheatstone had been employed for months on the construction of a telegraph for practical purposes. the end of their conferences was that a partnership in the undertaking was proposed by cooke, and ultimately accepted by wheatstone. the latter had given cooke fresh hopes of success when he was worn and discouraged. 'in truth,' he wrote in a letter, after his first interview with the professor, 'i had given the telegraph up since thursday evening, and only sought proofs of my being right to do so ere announcing it to you. this day's enquiries partly revives my hopes, but i am far from sanguine. the scientific men know little or nothing absolute on the subject: wheatstone is the only man near the mark.' it would appear that the current, reduced in strength by its passage through a long wire, had failed to excite his electro-magnet, and he was ignorant of the reason. wheatstone by his knowledge of ohm's law and the electro-magnet was probably able to enlighten him. it is clear that cooke had made considerable progress with his inventions before he met wheatstone; he possessed a needle telegraph like wheatstone, an alarm, and a chronometric dial telegraph, which at all events are a proof that he himself was an inventor, and that he doubtless bore a part in the production of the cooke and wheatstone apparatus. contrary to a statement of wheatstone, it appears from a letter of cooke dated march , , that wheatstone 'handsomely acknowledged the advantage' of cooke's apparatus had it worked;' his (wheatstone's) are ingenious, but not practicable.' but these conflicting accounts are reconciled by the fact that cooke's electro-magnetic telegraph would not work, and wheatstone told him so, because he knew the magnet was not strong enough when the current had to traverse a long circuit. wheatstone subsequently investigated the conditions necessary to obtain electro-magnetic effects at a long distance. had he studied the paper of professor henry in silliman's journal for january , he would have learned that in a long circuit the electro-magnet had to be wound with a long and fine wire in order to be effective. as the cooke and wheatstone apparatus became perfected, cooke was busy with schemes for its introduction. their joint patent is dated june , , and before the end of the month cooke was introduced to mr. robert stephenson, and by his address and energy got leave to try the invention from euston to camden town along the line of the london and birmingham railway. cooke suspended some thirteen miles of copper, in a shed at the euston terminus, and exhibited his needle and his chronometric telegraph in action to the directors one morning. but the official trial took place as we have already described in the life of wheatstone. the telegraph was soon adopted on the great western railway, and also on the blackwall railway in . three years later it was tried on a government line from london to portsmouth. in , the electric telegraph company, the pioneer association of its kind, was started, and mr. cooke became a director. wheatstone and he obtained a considerable sum for the use of their apparatus. in , her majesty conferred the honour of knighthood on the co-inventors; and in , cooke was granted a civil list pension of l a year. his latter years were spent in seclusion, and he died at farnham on june th, . outside of telegraphic circles his name had become well-nigh forgotten. iv. alexander bain. alexander bain was born of humble parents in the little town of thurso, at the extreme north of scotland, in the year . at the age of twelve he went to hear a penny lecture on science which, according to his own account, set him thinking and influenced his whole future. learning the art of clockmaking, he went to edinburgh, and subsequently removed to london, where he obtained work in clerkenwell, then famed for its clocks and watches. his first patent is dated january th, , and is in the name of john barwise, chronometer maker, and alexander bain, mechanist, wigmore street. it describes his electric clock in which there is an electro-magnetic pendulum, and the electric current is employed to keep it going instead of springs or weights. he improved on this idea in following patents, and also proposed to derive the motive electricity from an 'earth battery,' by burying plates of zinc and copper in the ground. gauss and steinheil had priority in this device which, owing to 'polarisation' of the plates and to drought, is not reliable. long afterwards mr. jones of chester succeeded in regulating timepieces from a standard astronomical clock by an improvement on the method of bain. on december , , bain, in conjunction with lieut. thomas wright, r.n., of percival street, clerkenwell, patented means of applying electricity to control railway engines by turning off the steam, marking time, giving signals, and printing intelligence at different places. he also proposed to utilise 'natural bodies of water' for a return wire, but the earlier experimenters had done so, particularly steinheil in . the most important idea in the patent is, perhaps, his plan for inverting the needle telegraph of ampere, wheatstone and others, and instead of making the signals by the movements of a pivoted magnetic needle under the influence of an electrified coil, obtaining them by suspending a movable coil traversed by the current, between the poles of a fixed magnet, as in the later siphon recorder of sir william thomson. bain also proposed to make the coil record the message by printing it in type; and he developed the idea in a subsequent patent. next year, on december st, , he projected a mode of measuring the speed of ships by vanes revolving in the water and indicating their speed on deck by means of the current. in the same specification he described a way of sounding the sea by an electric circuit of wires, and of giving an alarm when the temperature of a ship's hold reached a certain degree. the last device is the well-known fire-alarm in which the mercury of a thermometer completes an electric circuit, when it rises to a particular point of the tube, and thus actuates an electric bell or other alarm. on december , , bain, who was staying in edinburgh at that time, patented his greatest invention, the chemical telegraph, which bears his name. he recognised that the morse and other telegraph instruments in use were comparatively slow in speed, owing to the mechanical inertia of the parts; and he saw that if the signal currents were made to pass through a band of travelling paper soaked in a solution which would decompose under their action, and leave a legible mark, a very high speed could be obtained. the chemical he employed to saturate the paper was a solution of nitrate of ammonia and prussiate of potash, which left a blue stain on being decomposed by the current from an iron contact or stylus. the signals were the short and long, or 'dots' and 'dashes' of the morse code. the speed of marking was so great that hand signalling could not keep up with it, and bain devised a plan of automatic signalling by means of a running band of paper on which the signals of the message were represented by holes punched through it. obviously if this tape were passed between the contact of a signalling key the current would merely flow when the perforations allowed the contacts of the key to touch. this principle was afterwards applied by wheatstone in the construction of his automatic sender. the chemical telegraph was tried between paris and lille before a committee of the institute and the legislative assembly. the speed of signalling attained was words in fifty-two seconds, a marvellous advance on the morse electro-magnetic instrument, which only gave about forty words a minute. in the hands of edison the neglected method of bain was seen by sir william thomson in the centennial exhibition, philadelphia, recording at the rate of words in fifty-seven seconds. in england the telegraph of bain was used on the lines of the old electric telegraph company to a limited extent, and in america about the year it was taken up by the energetic mr. henry o'reilly, and widely introduced. but it incurred the hostility of morse, who obtained an injunction against it on the slender ground that the running paper and alphabet used were covered by his patent. by , as mr. shaffner tells us, there was only one line in america on which the bain system was in use, namely, that from boston to montreal. since those days of rivalry the apparatus has never become general, and it is not easy to understand why, considering its very high speed, the chemical telegraph has not become a greater favourite. in bain devised an automatic method of playing on wind instruments by moving a band of perforated paper which controlled the supply of air to the pipes; and likewise proposed to play a number of keyed instruments at a distance by means of the electric current. both of these plans are still in operation. these and other inventions in the space of six years are a striking testimony to the fertility of bain's imagination at this period. but after this extraordinary outburst he seems to have relapsed into sloth and the dissipation of his powers. we have been told, and indeed it is plain that he received a considerable sum for one or other of his inventions, probably the chemical telegraph. but while he could rise from the ranks, and brave adversity by dint of ingenuity and labour, it would seem that his sanguine temperament was ill-fitted for prosperity. he went to america, and what with litigation, unfortunate investment, and perhaps extravagance, the fortune he had made was rapidly diminished. whether his inventive genius was exhausted, or he became disheartened, it would be difficult to say, but he never flourished again. the rise in his condition may be inferred from the preamble to his patent for electric telegraphs and clocks, dated may , , wherein he describes himself as 'gentleman,' and living at beevor lodge, hammersmith. after an ephemeral appearance in this character he sank once more into poverty, if not even wretchedness. moved by his unhappy circumstances, sir william thomson, the late sir william siemens, mr. latimer clark and others, obtained from mr. gladstone, in the early part of , a pension for him under the civil list of l a year; but the beneficiary lived in such obscurity that it was a considerable time before his lodging could be discovered, and his better fortune take effect. the royal society had previously made him a gift of l . in his latter years, while he resided in glasgow, his health failed, and he was struck with paralysis in the legs. the massive forehead once pregnant with the fire of genius, grew dull and slow of thought, while the sturdy frame of iron hardihood became a tottering wreck. he was removed to the home for incurables at broomhill, kirkintilloch, where he died on january , , and was interred in the old aisle cemetery. he was a widower, and had two children, but they were said to be abroad at the time, the son in america and the daughter on the continent. several of bain's earlier patents are taken out in two names, but this was perhaps owing to his poverty compelling him to take a partner. if these and other inventions were substantially his own, and we have no reason to suppose that he received more help from others than is usual with inventors, we must allow that bain was a mechanical genius of the first order--a born inventor. considering the early date of his achievements, and his lack of education or pecuniary resource, we cannot but wonder at the strength, fecundity, and prescience of his creative faculty. it has been said that he came before his time; but had he been more fortunate in other respects, there is little doubt that he would have worked out and introduced all or nearly all his inventions, and probably some others. his misfortunes and sorrows are so typical of the 'disappointed inventor' that we would fain learn more about his life; but beyond a few facts in a little pamphlet (published by himself, we believe), there is little to be gathered; a veil of silence has fallen alike upon his triumphs, his errors and his miseries. v. dr. werner siemens. the leading electrician of germany is dr. ernst werner siemens, eldest brother of the same distinguished family of which our own sir william siemens was a member. ernst, like his brother william, was born at lenthe, near hanover, on december , . he was educated at the college of lubeck in maine, and entered the prussian artillery service as a volunteer. he pursued his scientific studies at the artillery and engineers' school in berlin, and in obtained an officer's commission. physics and chemistry were his favourite studies; and his original researches in electro-gilding resulted in a prussian patent in . the following year he, in conjunction with his brother william, took out another patent for a differential regulator. in he was appointed to a post in the artillery workshops in berlin, where he learned telegraphy, and in patented a dial and printing telegraph, which is still in use in germany. in , he was made a member of a commission organised in berlin to introduce electric telegraphs in place of the optical ones hitherto employed in prussia, and he succeeded in getting the commission to adopt underground telegraph lines. for the insulation of the wires he recommended gutta-percha, which was then becoming known as an insulator. in the following year he constructed a machine for covering copper wire with the melted gum by means of pressure; and this machine is substantially the same as that now used for the purpose in cable factories. in , when the war broke out with denmark, he was sent to kiel where, together with his brother-in-law, professor c. himly, he laid the first submarine mines, fired by electricity and thus protected the town of kiel from the advance of the enemies' fleet. of late years the german government has laid a great network of underground lines between the various towns and fortresses of the empire; preferring them to overhead lines as being less liable to interruption from mischief, accident, hostile soldiers, or stress of weather. the first of such lines was, however, laid as long ago as , by werner siemens, who, in the autumn of that year, deposited a subterranean cable between berlin and frankfort-on-the-main. next year a second cable was laid from the capital to cologne, aix-la-chapelle, and verviers. in the subject of our memoir had, along with mr. halske, founded a telegraph factory, and he now left the army to give himself up to scientific work and the development of his business. this factory prospered well, and is still the chief continental works of the kind. the new departure made by werner siemens was fortunate for electrical science; and from then till now a number of remarkable inventions have proceeded from his laboratory. the following are the more notable advances made:--in october , a machine for the measurement of small intervals of time, and the speed of electricity by means of electric sparks, and its application in for measuring the speed of the electric current in overland lines. in january , a paper on telegraph lines and apparatus, in which the theory of the electro-static charge in insulated wires, as well as methods and formula: for the localising of faults in underground wires were first established. in , the firm erected the first automatic fire telegraphs in berlin, and in the same year, werner siemens wrote a treatise on the experience gained with the underground lines of the prussian telegraph system. the difficulty of communicating through long underground lines led him to the invention of automatic translation, which was afterwards improved upon by steinheil, and, in , he furnished the warsaw-petersburg line with automatic fast-speed writers. the messages were punched in a paper band by means of the well-known siemens' lever punching apparatus, and then automatically transmitted in a clockwork instrument. in the discovery (contemporaneous with that of frischen) of simultaneous transmission of messages in opposite directions, and multiplex transmission of messages by means of electro-magnetic apparatus. the 'duplex' system which is now employed both on land lines and submarine cables had been suggested however, before this by dr. zetsche, gintl, and others. in he invented the siemens' magneto-electric dial instrument giving alternate currents. from this apparatus originated the well-known siemens' armature, and from the receiver was developed the siemens' polarised relay, with which the working of submarine and other lines could be effected with alternate currents; and in the same year, during the laying of the cagliari to bona cable, he constructed and first applied the dynamometer, which has become of such importance in the operations of cable laying. in , he investigated the electro-static induction and retardation of currents in insulated wires, a phenomenon which he had observed in , and communicated an account of it to the french academy of sciences. 'in these researches he developed mathematically faraday's theory of molecular induction, and thereby paved the way in great measure for its general acceptance.' his ozone apparatus, his telegraph instrument working with alternate currents, and his instrument for translating on and automatically discharging submarine cables also belong to the year . the latter instruments were applied to the sardinia, malta, and corfu cable. in , he constructed an electric log; he discovered that a dielectric is heated by induction; he introduced the well known siemens' mercury unit, and many improvements in the manufacture of resistance coils. he also investigated the law of change of resistance in wires by heating; and published several formulae and methods for testing resistances and determining 'faults' by measuring resistances. these methods were adopted by the electricians of the government service in prussia, and by messrs. siemens brothers in london, during the manufacture of the malta to alexandria cable, which, was, we believe, the first long cable subjected to a system of continuous tests. 'in , he showed that the electrical resistance of molten alloys is equal to the sum of the resistances of the separate metals, and that latent heat increases the specific resistance of metals in a greater degree than free heat.' in he made researches on the heating of the sides of a leyden jar by the electrical discharge. in he published the general theory of dynamo-electric machines, and the principle of accumulating the magnetic effect, a principle which, however, had been contemporaneously discovered by mr. s. a. varley, and described in a patent some years before by mr. soren hjorth, a danish inventor. hjorth's patent is to be found in the british patent office library, and until lately it was thought that he was the first and true inventor of the 'dynamo' proper, but we understand there is a prior inventor still, though we have not seen the evidence in support of the statement. the reversibility of the dynamo was enunciated by werner siemens in ; but it was not experimentally demonstrated on any practical scale until , when m. hippolite fontaine succeeded in pumping water at the vienna international exhibition by the aid of two dynamos connected in circuit; one, the generator, deriving motion from a hydraulic engine, and in turn setting in motion the receiving dynamo which worked the pump. professor clerk maxwell thought this discovery the greatest of the century; and the remark has been repeated more than once. but it is a remark which derives its chief importance from the man who made it, and its credentials from the paradoxical surprise it causes. the discovery in question is certainly fraught with very great consequences to the mechanical world; but in itself it is no discovery of importance, and naturally follows from faraday's far greater and more original discovery of magneto-electric generation. in , dr. siemens published a treatise on the laying and testing of submarine cables. in , and , he investigated the action of light on crystalline selenium, and in he studied the action of the telephone. the recent work of dr. siemens has been to improve the pneumatic railway, railway signalling, electric lamps, dynamos, electro-plating and electric railways. the electric railway at berlin in , and paris in , was the beginning of electric locomotion, a subject of great importance and destined in all probability, to very wide extension in the immediate future. dr. siemens has received many honours from learned societies at home and abroad; and a title equivalent to knighthood from the german government. vi. latimer clark. mr. clark was born at great marlow in , and probably acquired his scientific bent while engaged at a manufacturing chemist's business in dublin. on the outbreak of the railway mania in he took to surveying, and through his brother, mr. edwin clark, became assistant engineer to the late robert stephenson on the britannia bridge. while thus employed, he made the acquaintance of mr. ricardo, founder of the electric telegraph company, and joined that company as an engineer in . he rose to be chief engineer in , and held the post till , when he entered into a partnership with mr. charles t. bright. prior to this, he had made several original researches; in , he found that the retardation of current on insulated wires was independent of the strength of current, and his experiments formed the subject of a friday evening lecture by faraday at the royal institution--a sufficient mark of their importance. in he introduced the pneumatic dispatch into london, and, in , he patented his well-known double-cup insulator. in , he and mr. bright produced the material known as 'clark's compound,' which is so valuable for protecting submarine cables from rusting in the sea-water. in , mr. clark was appointed engineer to the atlantic telegraph company which tried to lay an anglo-american cable in . in partnership with sir c. t. bright, who had taken part in the first atlantic cable expedition, mr. clark laid a cable for the indian government in the red sea, in order to establish a telegraph to india. in , the partnership ceased; but, in , mr clark went out to the persian gulf to lay a second cable there. here he was nearly lost in the shipwreck of the carnatic on the island of shadwan in the red sea. subsequently mr. clark became the head of a firm of consulting electricians, well known under the title of clark, forde and company, and latterly including the late mr. c. hockin and mr. herbert taylor. the mediterranean cable to india, the east indian archipelago cable to australia, the brazilian atlantic cables were all laid under the supervision of this firm. mr. clark is now in partnership with mr. stanfield, and is the joint-inventor of clark and stanfield's circular floating dock. he is also head of the well-known firm of electrical manufacturers, messrs. latimer clark, muirhead and co., of regency street, westminster. the foregoing sketch is but an imperfect outline of a very successful life. `but enough has been given to show that we have here an engineer of various and even brilliant gifts. mr. clark has applied himself in divers directions, and never applied himself in vain. there is always some practical result to show which will be useful to others. in technical literature he published a description of the conway and britannia tubular bridges as long ago as . there is a valuable communication of his in the board of trade blue rook on submarine cables. in , he issued a useful work on electrical measurements, and in joined with mr. robert sabine in producing the well-known electrical tables and formulae, a work which was for a long time the electrician's vade-mecum. in , he communicated a lengthy paper on the new standard of electromotive power now known as clark's standard cell; and quite recently he published a treatise on the use of the transit instrument. mr. clark is a fellow of the royal society of london, as well as a member of the institution of civil engineers, the royal astronomical society, the physical society, etc., and was elected fourth president of the society of telegraph engineers and of electricians, now the institution of electrical engineers. he is a great lover of books and gardening--two antithetical hobbies--which are charming in themselves, and healthily counteractive. the rich and splendid library of electrical works which he is forming, has been munificently presented to the institution of electrical engineers. vii. count du moncel. theodose-achille-louis, comte du moncel, was born at paris on march , . his father was a peer of france, one of the old nobility, and a general of engineers. he possessed a model farm near cherbourg, and had set his heart on training his son to carry on this pet project; but young du moncel, under the combined influence of a desire for travel, a love of archaeology, and a rare talent for drawing, went off to greece, and filled his portfolio with views of the parthenon and many other pictures of that classic region. his father avenged himself by declining to send him any money; but the artist sold his sketches and relied solely on his pencil. on returning to paris he supported himself by his art, but at the same time gratified his taste for science in a discursive manner. a beautiful and accomplished lady of the court, mademoiselle camille clementine adelaide bachasson de montalivet, belonging to a noble and distinguished family, had plighted her troth with him, and, as we have been told, descended one day from her carriage, and wedded the man of her heart, in the humble room of a flat not far from the grand opera house. they were a devoted pair, and madame du moncel played the double part of a faithful help-meet, and inspiring genius. heart and soul she encouraged her husband to distinguish himself by his talents and energy, and even assisted him in his labours. about he began to occupy himself almost exclusively with electrical science. his most conspicuous discovery is that pressure diminishes the resistance of contact between two conductors, a fact which clerac in utilised in the construction of a variable resistance from carbon, such as plumbage, by compressing it with an adjustable screw. it is also the foundation of the carbon transmitter of edison, and the more delicate microphone of professor hughes. but du moncel is best known as an author and journalist. his 'expose des applications de l'electricite' published in et seq., and his 'traite pratique de telegraphie,' not to mention his later books on recent marvels, such as the telephone, microphone, phonograph, and electric light, are standard works of reference. in the compilation of these his admirable wife assisted him as a literary amanuensis, for she had acquired a considerable knowledge of electricity. in he was created an officer of the legion of honour, and he became a member of numerous learned societies. for some time he was an adviser of the french telegraph administration, but resigned the post in . the following year he was elected a member of the academy of sciences, paris. in , he became editor of a new electrical journal established at paris under the title of 'la lumiere electrique,' and held the position until his death, which happened at paris after a few days' illness on february , . his devoted wife was recovering from a long illness which had caused her affectionate husband much anxiety, and probably affected his health. she did not long survive him, but died on february , , at mentone in her fifty-fifth year. count du moncel was an indefatigable worker, who, instead of abandoning himself to idleness and pleasure like many of his order, believed it his duty to be active and useful in his own day, as his ancestors had been in the past. viii. elisha gray. this distinguished american electrician was born at barnesville in belmont county, ohio, on august , . his family were quakers, and in early life he was apprenticed to a carpenter, but showed a taste for chemistry, and at the age of twenty-one he went to oberlin college, where he studied for five years. at the age of thirty he turned his attention to electricity, and invented a relay which adapted itself to the varying insulation of the telegraph line. he was then led to devise several forms of automatic repeaters, but they are not much employed. in - , he brought out a needle annunciator for hotels, and another for elevators, which had a large sale. his 'private telegraph line printer' was also a success. from - he was engaged in perfecting his 'electro-harmonic telegraph.' his speaking telegraph was likewise the outcome of these researches. the 'telautograph,' or telegraph which writes the messages as a fac-simile of the sender's penmanship by an ingenious application of intermittent currents, is the latest of his more important works. mr. gray is a member of the firm of messrs. gray and barton, and electrician to the western electric manufacturing company of chicago. his home is at highland park near that city. [illustration: thomas a. edison pioneer electrical investigator and inventor of numerous telegraph, telephone, lighting, and other electrical devices.] cyclopedia of telephony and telegraphy _a general reference work on_ telephony, substations, party line systems, protection, manual switchboards, automatic systems, power plants, special service features, construction, engineering, operation, maintenance, telegraphy, wireless telegraphy and telephony, etc. _prepared by a corps of_ telephone and telegraph experts, and electrical engineers of the highest professional standing _illustrated with over two thousand engravings_ four volumes chicago american school of correspondence copyright, , , by american school of correspondence copyright, , by american technical society entered at stationers' hall, london all rights reserved authors and collaborators * * * * * kempster b. miller, m.e. consulting engineer and telephone expert of the firm of mcmeen and miller, electrical engineers and patent experts, chicago american institute of electrical engineers western society of engineers * * * * * george w. patterson, s.b., ph.d. head, department of electrical engineering, university of michigan * * * * * charles thom chief of quadruplex department, western union main office, new york city * * * * * robert andrews millikan, ph.d. associate professor of physics, university of chicago member, executive council, american physical society * * * * * samuel g. mcmeen consulting engineer and telephone expert of the firm of mcmeen and miller, electrical engineers and patent experts, chicago american institute of electrical engineers western society of engineers * * * * * lawrence k. sager, s.b., m.p.l. patent attorney and electrical expert formerly assistant examiner, u.s. patent office * * * * * glenn m. hobbs, ph.d. secretary, american school of correspondence formerly instructor in physics, university of chicago american physical society * * * * * charles g. ashley electrical engineer and expert in wireless telegraphy and telephony * * * * * a. frederick collins editor, _collins wireless bulletin_ author of "wireless telegraphy, its history, theory, and practice" * * * * * francis b. crocker, e.m., ph.d. head, department of electrical engineering, columbia university past-president, american institute of electrical engineers * * * * * morton arendt, e.e. instructor in electrical engineering, columbia university, new york * * * * * edward b. waite head, instruction department, american school of correspondence american society of mechanical engineers western society of engineers * * * * * david p. moreton, b.s., e.e. associate professor of electrical engineering, armour institute of technology american institute of electrical engineers * * * * * leigh s. keith, b.s. managing engineer with mcmeen and miller, electrical engineers and patent experts chicago associate member, american institute of electrical engineers * * * * * jessie m. shepherd, a.b. associate editor, textbook department, american school of correspondence * * * * * ernest l. wallace, b.s. assistant examiner, united states patent office, washington, d. c. * * * * * george r. metcalfe, m.e. editor, _american institute of electrical engineers_ formerly head of publication department, westinghouse elec. & mfg. co. * * * * * j. p. schroeter graduate, munich technical school instructor in electrical engineering, american school of correspondence * * * * * james dixon, e.e. american institute of electrical engineers * * * * * harris c. trow, s.b., _managing editor_ editor-in-chief, textbook department, american school of correspondence authorities consulted the editors have freely consulted the standard technical literature of america and europe in the preparation of these volumes. they desire to express their indebtedness particularly to the following eminent authorities, whose well-known works should be in the library of every telephone and telegraph engineer. grateful acknowledgment is here made also for the invaluable co-operation of the foremost engineering firms and manufacturers in making these volumes thoroughly representative of the very best and latest practice in the transmission of intelligence, also for the valuable drawings, data, suggestions, criticisms, and other courtesies. * * * * * arthur e. kennely, d.sc. professor of electrical engineering, harvard university. joint author of "the electric telephone," "the electric telegraph," "alternating currents," "arc lighting," "electric heating," "electric motors," "electric railways," "incandescent lighting," etc. * * * * * henry smith carhart, a.m., ll.d. professor of physics and director of the physical laboratory, university of michigan. author of "primary batteries," "elements of physics," "university physics," "electrical measurements," "high school physics," etc. * * * * * francis b. crocker, m.e., ph.d. head of department of electrical engineering, columbia university, new york; past-president, american institute of electrical engineers. author of "electric lighting;" joint author of "management of electrical machinery." * * * * * horatio a. foster consulting engineer; member of american institute of electrical engineers; member of american society of mechanical engineers. author of "electrical engineer's pocket-book." * * * * * william s. franklin, m.s., d.sc. professor of physics, lehigh university. joint author of "the elements of electrical engineering," "the elements of alternating currents." * * * * * lamar lyndon, b.e., m.e. consulting electrical engineer; associate member of american institute of electrical engineers; member, american electro-chemical society. author of "storage battery engineering." * * * * * robert andrews millikan, ph.d. professor of physics, university of chicago. joint author of "a first course in physics," "electricity, sound and light," etc. * * * * * kempster b. miller, m.e. consulting engineer and telephone expert; of the firm of mcmeen and miller, electrical engineers and patent experts, chicago. author of "american telephone practice." * * * * * william h. preece chief of the british postal telegraph. joint author of "telegraphy," "a manual of telephony," etc. * * * * * louis bell, ph.d. consulting electrical engineer; lecturer on power transmission, massachusetts institute of technology. author of "electric power transmission," "power distribution for electric railways," "the art of illumination," "wireless telephony," etc. * * * * * oliver heaviside, f.r.s. author of "electro-magnetic theory," "electrical papers," etc. * * * * * silvanus p. thompson, d.sc., b.a., f.r.s., f.r.a.s. principal and professor of physics in the city and guilds of london technical college. author of "electricity and magnetism," "dynamo-electric machinery," "polyphase electric currents and alternate-current motors," "the electromagnet," etc. * * * * * andrew gray, m.a., f.r.s.e. author of "absolute measurements in electricity and magnetism." * * * * * albert cushing crehore, a.b., ph.d. electrical engineer; assistant professor of physics, dartmouth college; formerly instructor in physics, cornell university. author of "synchronous and other multiple telegraphs;" joint author of "alternating currents." * * * * * j. j. thomson, d.sc., ll.d., ph.d., f.r.s. fellow of trinity college, cambridge university; cavendish professor of experimental physics, cambridge university. author of "the conduction of electricity through gases," "electricity and matter." * * * * * frederick bedell, ph.d. professor of applied electricity, cornell university. author of "the principles of the transformer;" joint author of "alternating currents." * * * * * dugald c. jackson, c.e. head of department of electrical engineering, massachusetts institute of technology; member, american institute of electrical engineers, etc. author of "a textbook on electromagnetism and the construction of dynamos;" joint author of "alternating currents and alternating-current machinery." * * * * * michael idvorsky pupin, a.b., sc.d., ph.d. professor of electro-mechanics, columbia university, new york. author of "propagation of long electric waves," and "wave-transmission over non-uniform cables and long-distance air lines." * * * * * frank baldwin jewett, a.b., ph.d. transmission and protection engineer, with american telephone & telegraph co. author of "modern telephone cable," "effect of pressure on insulation resistance." * * * * * arthur crotch formerly lecturer on telegraphy and telephony at the municipal technical schools, norwich, eng. author of "telegraphy and telephony." * * * * * james erskine-murray, d.sc. fellow of the royal society of edinburgh; member of the institution of electrical engineers. author of "a handbook of wireless telegraphy." * * * * * a. h. mcmillan, a.b., ll.b. author of "telephone law, a manual on the organization and operation of telephone companies." * * * * * william esty, s.b., m.a. head of department of electrical engineering, lehigh university. joint author of "the elements of electrical engineering." * * * * * george w. wilder, ph.d. formerly professor of telephone engineering, armour institute of technology. author of "telephone principles and practice," "simultaneous telegraphy and telephony," etc. * * * * * william l. hooper, ph.d. head of department of electrical engineering, tufts college. joint author of "electrical problems for engineering students." * * * * * david s. hulfish technical editor, _the nickelodeon_; telephone and motion-picture expert; solicitor of patents. author of "how to read telephone circuit diagrams." * * * * * j. a. fleming, m.a., d.sc. (lond.), f.r.s. professor of electrical engineering in university college, london; late fellow and scholar of st. john's college, cambridge; fellow of university college, london. author of "the alternate-current transformer," "radiotelegraphy and radiotelephony," "principles of electric wave telegraphy," "cantor lectures on electrical oscillations and electric waves," "hertzian wave wireless telegraphy," etc. * * * * * f. a. c. perrine, a.m., d.sc. consulting engineer; formerly president, stanley electric manufacturing company; formerly professor of electrical engineering, leland stanford, jr. university. author of "conductors for electrical distribution." * * * * * a. frederick collins editor, _college wireless bulletin_. author of "wireless telegraphy, its history, theory and practice," "manual of wireless telegraphy," "design and construction of induction coils," etc. * * * * * schuyler s. wheeler, d.sc. president, crocker-wheeler co.; past-president, american institute of electrical engineers. joint author of "management of electrical machinery." * * * * * charles proteus steinmetz consulting engineer, with the general electric co.; professor of electrical engineering, union college. author of "the theory and calculation of alternating-current phenomena," "theoretical elements of electrical engineering," etc. * * * * * george w. patterson, s.b., ph.d. head of department of electrical engineering, university of michigan. joint author of "electrical measurements." * * * * * william maver, jr. ex-electrician baltimore and ohio telegraph company; member of the american institute of electrical engineers. author of "american telegraphy and encyclopedia of the telegraph," "wireless telegraphy." * * * * * john price jackson, m.e. professor of electrical engineering, pennsylvania state college. joint author of "alternating currents and alternating-current machinery." * * * * * augustus treadwell, jr., e.e. associate member, american institute of electrical engineers. author of "the storage battery, a practical treatise on secondary batteries." * * * * * edwin j. houston, ph.d. professor of physics, franklin institute, pennsylvania; joint inventor of thomson-houston system of arc lighting; electrical expert and consulting engineer. joint author of "the electric telephone," "the electric telegraph," "alternating currents," "arc lighting," "electric heating," "electric motors," "electric railways," "incandescent lighting," etc. * * * * * william j. hopkins professor of physics in the drexel institute of art, science, and industry, philadelphia. author of "telephone lines and their properties." [illustration: grosse point exchange rack detroit home telephone company, detroit, mich. _the dean electric co._] [illustration: line side of large main distributing frame] foreword the present day development of the "talking wire" has annihilated both time and space, and has enabled men thousands of miles apart to get into almost instant communication. the user of the telephone and the telegraph forgets the tremendousness of the feat in the simplicity of its accomplishment; but the man who has made the feat possible knows that its very simplicity is due to the complexity of the principles and appliances involved; and he realizes his need of a practical, working understanding of each principle and its application. the cyclopedia of telephony and telegraphy presents a comprehensive and authoritative treatment of the whole art of the electrical transmission of intelligence. the communication engineer--if so he may be called--requires a knowledge both of the mechanism of his instruments and of the vagaries of the current that makes them talk. he requires as well a knowledge of plants and buildings, of office equipment, of poles and wires and conduits, of office system and time-saving methods, for the transmission of intelligence is a business as well as an art. and to each of these subjects, and to all others pertinent, the cyclopedia gives proper space and treatment. the sections on telephony cover the installation, maintenance, and operation of all standard types of telephone systems; they present without prejudice the respective merits of manual and automatic exchanges; and they give special attention to the prevention and handling of operating "troubles." the sections on telegraphy cover both commercial service and train dispatching. practical methods of wireless communication--both by telephone and by telegraph--are thoroughly treated. the drawings, diagrams, and photographs incorporated into the cyclopedia have been prepared especially for this work; and their instructive value is as great as that of the text itself. they have been used to illustrate and illuminate the text, and not as a medium around which to build the text. both drawings and diagrams have been simplified so far as is compatible with their correctness, with the result that they tell their own story and always in the same language. the cyclopedia is a compilation of many of the most valuable instruction papers of the american school of correspondence, and the method adopted in its preparation is that which this school has developed and employed so successfully for many years. this method is not an experiment, but has stood the severest of all tests--that of practical use--which has demonstrated it to be the best yet devised for the education of the busy, practical man. in conclusion, grateful acknowledgment is due to the staff of authors and collaborators, without whose hearty co-operation this work would have been impossible. table of contents volume ii manual switchboards _by k. b. miller and s. g. mcmeen_[a] page[b] common-battery switchboards--line signals--cord circuit--lamps--mechanical signals--relays--jacks--switchboard assembly--transfer switchboard--transfer lines--handling transfers--multiple switchboard--busy test--influence of traffic--magneto-multiple switchboard--multiple boards: series, branch-terminal, modern magneto, common-battery--western electric no. relay board--western electric no. board--types of multiple boards--apparatus--trunking--western electric and kellogg trunk circuits automatic systems _by k. b. miller and s. g. mcmeen_ page automatic vs. manual--operation--selecting switch--line switch--trunking systems--two- and three-wire systems--subscriber's station apparatus--first and second selector operation--connector--release after conversation--multi-office system--automatic sub-offices--rotary connector--party lines--two-wire automatic system--lorimer system--central-office apparatus--operation--automanual system--operation--subscriber's apparatus--operator's equipment--switching equipment--distribution of calls--connection--speed power plants and buildings _by k. b. miller and s. g. mcmeen_ page currents employed--types--operator's transmitter supply--ringing-current supply--auxiliary signaling current--primary sources--duplicate apparatus--storage batteries--power switchboards--circuits--central-office building--arrangement of apparatus--manual offices--automatic offices special service features _by k. b. miller and s. g. mcmeen_ page private-branch exchanges--switchboards--supervision--with automatic offices--battery supply--ringing current--inter-communicating systems--magneto system--common-battery systems--types--long-distance switching--operator's orders--trunking--way stations--traffic--measured service--charging--rates--toll service--local service telegraph and railway work _by k. b. miller and s. g. mcmeen_ page phantom, simplex, and composite circuits--ringing--railway composite--telephone train dispatching--railroad conditions--transmitting orders--apparatus--telephone equipment--types of circuits--test boards--blocking sets--dispatching on electric railways review questions page index page [footnote a: for professional standing of authors, see list of authors and collaborators at front of volume.] [footnote b: for page numbers, see foot of pages.] [illustration: portion of terminal room of large common-battery office prospect office, new york telephone co.] chapter xxii the simple common-battery switchboard =advantages of common-battery operation.= the advantages of the common-battery system of operation, alluded to in chapter xiii, may be briefly summarized here. the main gain in the common-battery system of supply is the simplification of the subscribers' instruments, doing away with the local batteries and the magneto generators, and the concentration of all these many sources of current into one single source at the central office. a considerable saving is thus effected from the standpoint of maintenance, since the simpler common-battery instrument is not so likely to get out of order and, therefore, does not have to be visited so often for repairs, and the absence of local batteries, of course, makes the renewal of the battery parts by members of the maintenance department, unnecessary. another decided advantage in the common-battery system is the fact that the centralized battery stands ready always to send current over the line when the subscriber completes the circuit of the line at his station by removing his receiver from its hook. the common-battery system, therefore, lends itself naturally to the purposes of automatic signaling, since it is only necessary to place at the central office a device in the circuit of each line that will be responsive to the current which flows from the central battery when the subscriber removes his receiver from its hook. it is thus that the subscriber is enabled automatically to signal the central office when he desires a connection; and as will be shown, it is by the same sort of means, associated with the cord circuits used in connecting his line with some other line, that the operator is automatically notified when a disconnection is desired, the cessation of current through the subscriber's line when he hangs up his receiver being made to actuate certain responsive devices which are associated with the cord at that time connected with his line, and which convey the proper disconnect signal to the operator. concentration of sources of energy into a single large unit, the simplification of the subscriber's station equipment, and the ready adaptability to automatic signaling from the subscriber to the central office are, therefore, the reasons for the existence of the common-battery system. =common battery vs. magneto.= it must not be supposed, however, that the common-battery system always has advantages over the magneto system, and that it is superior to the magneto or local-battery system for all purposes. it is the outward attractiveness of the common-battery system and the arguments in its favor, so readily made by over-zealous salesmen, that has led, in many cases, to the adoption of this system when the magneto system would better have served the purpose of utility and economy. to say the least, the telephone transmission to be had from common-battery systems is no better than that to be had from local-battery systems, and as a rule, assuming equality in other respects, it is not as good. it is perhaps true, however, that under average conditions common-battery transmission is somewhat better, because whereas the local batteries at the subscribers' stations in the local-battery system are not likely to be in uniformly first-class condition, the battery in a common-battery system will be kept up to its full voltage except under the grossest neglect. the places in which the magneto, or local-battery, system is to be preferred to the common-battery system, in the opinion of the writers, are to be found in the small rural communities where the lines have a rather great average length; where a good many subscribers are likely to be found on some of the lines; where the sources of electrical power available for charging storage batteries are likely either not to exist, or to be of a very uncertain nature; and where it is not commercially feasible to employ a high-grade class of attendants, or, in fact, any attendant at all other than the operator at the central office. in large or medium-sized exchanges it is always possible to procure suitable current for charging the storage batteries required in common-battery systems, and it is frequently economical, on account of the considerable quantity of energy that is thus used, to establish a generating plant in connection with the central office for developing the necessary electrical energy. in very small rural places there are frequently no available sources of electrical energy, and the expense of establishing a power plant for the purpose cannot be justified. but even if there is an electric light or railway system in the small town, so that the problem of available current supply does not exist, the establishment of a common-battery system with its storage battery and the necessary charging machinery requires the daily attendance at the central office of some one to watch and care for this battery, and this, on account of the small gross revenue that may be derived from a small telephone system, often involves a serious financial burden. there is no royal road to a proper decision in the matter, and no sharp line of demarcation may be drawn between the places where common-battery systems are superior to magneto and _vice versâ_. it may be said, however, that in the building of all new telephone plants having over about local subscribers, the common-battery system is undoubtedly superior to the magneto. if the plant is an old one, however, and is to be re-equipped, the continuance of magneto apparatus might be justified for considerably larger exchanges than those having subscribers. telephone operating companies who have changed over the equipment of old plants from magneto to common battery have sometimes been led into rather serious difficulty, owing to the fact that their lines, while serving tolerably well for magneto work, were found inadequate to meet the more exacting demands of common-battery work. again in an old plant the change from magneto to common-battery equipment involves not only the change of switchboards, but also the change of subscribers' instruments that are otherwise good, and this consideration alone often, in our opinion, justifies the replacing of an old magneto board with a new magneto board, even if the exchange is of such size as to demand a small multiple board. where the plant to be established is of such size as to leave doubt as to whether a magneto or a common-battery switchboard should be employed, the questions of availability of the proper kind of power for charging the batteries, the proper kind of help for maintaining the batteries and the more elaborate central-office equipment, the demands and previous education of the public to be served, all are factors which must be considered in reaching the decision. it is not proper to say that anything like all exchanges having fewer than local lines, should be equipped with magneto service. where all the lines are short, where suitable power is available, and where a good grade of attendants is available--as, for instance, in the case of private telephone exchanges that serve some business establishment or other institution located in one building or a group of buildings--the common-battery system is to be recommended and is largely used, even though it may have but a dozen or so subscribers' lines. it is for such uses, and for use in those regular public-service exchange systems where the conditions are such as to warrant the common-battery system, and yet where the number of lines and the traffic are small enough to be handled by such a small group of operators that any one of them may reach over the entire face of the board, that the simple non-multiple common-battery system finds its proper field of usefulness. =line signals.= the principles and means by which the subscriber is enabled to call the central-office operator in a common-battery system have been referred to briefly in chapter iii. we will review these at this point and also consider briefly the way in which the line signals are associated with the connective devices in the subscribers' lines. _direct-line lamp._ the simplest possible way is to put the line signal directly in the circuit of the line in series with the central-office battery, and so to arrange the jack of the corresponding line that the circuit through the line signal will be open when the operator inserts a plug into that jack. this arrangement is shown in fig. where the subscriber's station at the left is indicated in the simplest of its forms. it is well to repeat here that in all common-battery manual systems, the subscriber's station equipment, regardless of the arrangement or type of its talking and signaling apparatus, must have these features: first, that the line shall be normally open to direct currents at the subscriber's station; second, that the line shall be closed to direct currents when the subscriber removes his receiver from its hook in making or in answering a call; third, that the line normally, although open to direct currents, shall afford a proper path for alternating or varying currents through the signal receiving device at the sub-station. the subscriber's station arrangement shown in fig. , and those immediately following, is the simplest arrangement that possesses these three necessary features for common-battery service. [illustration: fig. . direct-line lamp] considering the arrangement at the central office, fig. , the two limbs of the line are permanently connected to the tip and sleeve contacts of the jack. these two main contacts of the jack normally engage two anvils so connected that the tip of the jack is ordinarily connected through its anvil to ground, while the sleeve of the jack is normally connected through its anvil to a circuit leading through the line signal--in this case a lamp--and the common battery, and thence to ground. the operation is obvious. normally no current may flow from the common battery through the signal because the line is open at the subscriber's station. the removal of the subscriber's receiver from its hook closes the circuit of the line and allows the current to flow through the lamp, causing it to glow. when the operator inserts the plug into the jack, in response to the call, the circuit through the lamp is cut off at the jack and the lamp goes out. this arrangement, termed the direct-line lamp arrangement, is largely used in small common-battery telephone systems where the lines are very short, such as those found in factories or other places where the confines of the exchange are those of a building or a group of neighboring buildings. many of the so-called private-branch exchanges, which will be considered more in detail in a later chapter, employ this direct-line lamp arrangement. [illustration: fig. . direct-line lamp with ballast] _direct-line lamp with ballast._ obviously, however, this direct-line lamp arrangement is not a good one where the lines vary widely in length and resistance. an incandescent lamp, as is well known, must not be subjected to too great a variation in current. if the current that is just right in amount to bring it to its intended degree of illumination is increased by a comparatively small amount, the life of the lamp will be greatly shortened, and too great an increase will result in the lamp's burning out immediately. on the other hand, a current that is too small will not result in the proper illumination of the lamp, and a current of one-half the proper normal value will just suffice to bring the lamp to a dull red glow. with lines that are not approximately uniform in length and resistance the shorter lines would afford too great a flow of current to the lamps and the longer lines too little, and there is always the danger present, unless means are taken to prevent it, that if a line becomes short-circuited or grounded near the central office, the lamp will be subjected to practically the full battery potential and, therefore, to such a current as will burn it out. one of the very ingenious and, we believe, promising methods that has been proposed to overcome this difficulty is that of the iron-wire ballast, alluded to in chapter iii. this, it will be remembered, consists of an iron-wire resistance enclosed in a vacuum chamber and so proportioned with respect to the flow of current that it will be subjected to a considerable heating effect by the amount of current that is proper to illuminate the lamp. as has already been pointed out, carbon has a negative temperature coefficient, that is, its resistance decreases when heated. iron, on the other hand, has a positive temperature coefficient, its resistance increasing when heated. when such an iron-wire ballast is put in series with the incandescent lamp forming the line signal, as shown in fig. , it is seen that the resistance of the carbon in the lamp filament and of the iron in the ballast will act in opposite ways when the current increases or decreases. an increase of current will tend to heat up the iron wire of the ballast and, therefore, increase its resistance, and the ballast is so proportioned that it will hold the current that may flow through the lamp within the proper maximum and minimum limits, regardless of the resistance of the line in which the lamp is used. this arrangement has not gone into wide use up to the present time. _line lamp with relay._ by far the most common method of associating the line lamp with the line is to employ a relay, of which the actuating coil is in the line circuit, this relay serving to control a local circuit containing the battery and the lamp. this arrangement and the way in which these parts are associated with the jack are clearly indicated in fig. . here the relay may receive any amount of current, from the smallest which will cause it to pull up its armature, to the largest which will not injure its winding by overheat. relays may be made which will attract their armatures at a certain minimum current and which will not burn out when energized by currents about ten times as large, and it is thus seen that a very large range of current through the relay winding is permissible, and that, therefore, a very great latitude as to line resistance is secured. on the other hand, it is obvious that the lamp circuit, being entirely local, is of uniform resistance, the lamp always being subjected, in the arrangement shown, to practically the full battery potential, the lamp being selected to operate on that potential. [illustration: fig. . line lamp with relay] _pilot signals._ in the circuits of figs. , , and , but a single line and its associated apparatus is shown, and it may not be altogether clear to the uninitiated how it is that the battery shown in those figures may serve, without interference of any function, a larger number of lines than one. it is to be remembered that this battery is the one which serves not only to operate the line signals, but also to supply talking current to the subscribers and to supply current for the operation of the cord-circuit signals after the cord circuits are connected with the lines. in fig. this matter is made clear with respect to the association of this common battery with the lines for operating the line signals, and also another important feature of common-battery work is brought out, viz, the pilot lamp and its association with a group of line lamps. three subscribers' lines only are shown, but this serves clearly to illustrate the association of any larger number of lines with the common battery. ignoring at first the pilot relay and the pilot lamp, it will be seen that each of the tip-spring anvils of the jacks is connected to a common wire _ _ which is grounded. each of the sleeve-contact anvils is connected through the coil of the line relay to another common wire _ _, which connects with the live side of the common battery. obviously, therefore, this arrangement corresponds with that of fig. , since the battery may furnish current to energize any one of the line relays upon the closure of the circuit of the corresponding line. each of the relay armatures in fig. is connected to ground. here we wish to bring out an important thing about telephone circuit diagrams which is sometimes confusing to the beginner, but which really, when understood, tends to prevent confusion. the showing of a separate ground for each of the line-relay armatures does not mean that literally each one of these armatures is connected by a separate wire to earth, and it is to be understood that the three separate grounds shown in connection with these relay armatures is meant to indicate just such a set of affairs as is shown in connection with the tip-spring anvils of the jacks, all of which are connected to a common wire which, in turn, is grounded. obviously, the result is the same, but in the case of this particular diagram it is seen that a great deal of crossing of lines is prevented by showing a separate ground at each one of the relay armatures. the same practice is followed in connection with the common battery. sometimes it is very inconvenient in a complicated diagram to run all of the wires that are supposed to connect with one terminal of the battery across the diagram to represent this connection. it is permissible, therefore, and in fact desirable, that separate battery symbols be shown wherever by so doing the diagram will be simplified, the understanding being, in the absence of other information or of other indications, that the same battery is referred to, just as the same ground is referred to in connection with the relay armatures in the figure under discussion. each line lamp in fig. is shown connected on one hand to its corresponding line relay contact and on the other hand to a common wire which leads through the winding of the pilot relay to the live side of the battery. it is obvious here that whenever any one of the line relays attracts its armature the local circuit containing the corresponding lamp and the common battery will be closed and the lamp illuminated. whenever any line relay operates, the current, which is supplied to its lamp, must come through the pilot-relay winding, and if a number of line relays are energized, then the current flow of the corresponding lamps must flow through this relay winding. therefore, this relay winding must be of low resistance, so that the drop through its winding may not be sufficient to interfere with the proper burning of the lamps, even though a large number of lamps be fed simultaneously through it. the pilot relay must be so sensitive that the current, even through one lamp, will cause it to attract its armature. when it does attract its armature it causes illumination of the pilot lamp in the same way that the line relays cause the illumination of the line lamps. the pilot lamp, which is commonly associated with a group of line lamps that are placed on any one operator's position of the switchboard, is located in a conspicuous place in the switchboard cabinet and is provided with a larger lens so as to make a more striking signal. as a result, whenever any line lamp on a given position lights, the pilot lamp does also and serves to attract the attention, even of those located in distant portions of the room, to the fact that a call exists on that position of the board, the line lamp itself, which is simultaneously lighted, pointing out the particular line on which the call exists. pilot lamps, in effect, perform similar service to the night alarm in magneto boards, but, of course, they are silent and do not attract attention unless within the range of vision of the operator. they are used not only in connection with line lamps, but also in connection with the cord-circuit lamps or signals, as will be pointed out. [illustration: fig. . battery supply through impedance coils] [illustration: fig. . battery supply through repeating coils] [illustration: fig. . battery supply with impedance coils and condensers] =cord circuit.= _battery supply._ were it not for the necessity of providing for cord-circuit signals in common-battery switchboards, the common-battery cord circuit would be scarcely more complex than that for magneto working. stripped of all details, such as signals, ringing and listening keys, and operator's equipment, cord circuits of three different types are shown in figs. , , and . these merely illustrate the way in which the battery is associated with the cord circuits and through them with the line circuits for supplying current for talking purposes to the subscribers. it is thought that this matter will be clear in view of the discussion of the methods by which current is supplied to the subscribers' transmitters in common-battery systems as discussed in chapter xiii. while the arrangements in this respect of figs. , , and illustrate only three of the methods, these three are the ones that have been most widely and successfully used. _supervisory signals._ the signals that are associated with the cord circuits are termed supervisory signals because of the fact that by their means the operator is enabled to supervise the condition of the lines during times when they are connected for conversation. the operation of these supervisory signals may be best understood by considering the complete circuits of a simple switchboard and must be studied in conjunction with the circuits of the lines as well as those of the cords. [illustration: fig. . simple common-battery switchboard] _complete circuit._ such complete circuits are shown in fig. . the particular arrangement indicated is that employed by the kellogg company, and except for minor details may be considered as typical of other makes also. two subscribers' lines are shown extending from station a and station b, respectively, to the central office. the line wires are shown terminating in jacks in the same manner as indicated in figs. , , and , and their circuits are normally continued from these jacks to the ground on one side and to the line relay and battery on the other. the jack in this case has three contacts adapted to register with three corresponding contacts in each of the plugs. the thimble of the jack in this case forms no part of the talking circuit and is distinct from the two jack springs which form the line terminals. it and the auxiliary contact _ _ in each of the plugs with which it registers, are solely for the purpose of co-operating in the control of the supervisory signals. the tip and sleeve strands of the cord are continuous from one plug to the other except for the condensers. the two batteries indicated in connection with the cord circuit are separate batteries, a characteristic of the kellogg system. one of these batteries serves to supply current to the tip and sleeve strand of the cord circuit through the two windings _ _ and _ _, respectively, of the supervisory relay connected with the answering side of the cord circuit, while the other battery similarly supplies current through the windings _ _ and _ _ of the supervisory relay associated with the calling side of the cord circuit. the windings of these relays, therefore, act as impedance coils and the arrangement by which battery current is supplied to the cord circuits and, therefore, to the lines of the connected subscribers, is seen to be the combined impedance coil and condenser arrangement discussed in chapter xiii. as soon as a plug is inserted into the jack of a line, the line relay will be removed from the control of the line, and since the two strands of the cord circuit now form continuations of the two line conductors, the supervisory relay will be substituted for the line relay and will be under control of the line. since all of the current which passes to the line after a plug is inserted must pass through the cord-circuit connection and through the relay windings, and since current can only flow through the line when the subscriber's receiver is off its hook, it follows that the supervisory relays will only be energized after the corresponding plug has been inserted into a jack of the line and after the subscriber has removed his receiver. unlike the line relays, the supervisory relays open their contacts to break the local circuits of the supervisory lamps _ _ and _ _ when the relay coils are energized, and to close them when de-energized; but the armatures of the supervisory relays do alone control the circuits of the supervisory lamps. these circuits are normally held open in another place, that is, between the plug contacts _ _ and the jack thimbles. it is only, therefore, when a plug is inserted into a jack and when the supervisory relay is de-energized, that the supervisory lamp may be lighted. when a plug is inserted into a jack and when the corresponding supervisory relay is de-energized, the circuit may be traced from ground at the cord-circuit batteries through the left-hand battery, for instance, through lamp _ _, thence through the contacts of the supervisory relay to the contact _ _ of the plug, thence through the thimble of the jack to ground. when a plug is inserted into the jack, therefore, the necessary arrangements are completed for the supervisory lamp to be under the control of the subscriber. under this condition, whenever the subscriber's receiver is on its hook, the circuit of the line will be broken, the supervisory relay will be de-energized, and the supervisory lamp will be lighted. when, on the other hand, the subscriber's receiver is off its hook, the circuit of the line will be complete, the supervisory relay will be energized, and the supervisory lamp will be extinguished. _salient features of supervisory operation._ it will facilitate the student's understanding of the requirements and mode of operation of common-battery supervisory signals in manual systems, whether simple or multiple, if he will firmly fix the following facts in his mind. in order that the supervisory signal may become operative at all, some act must be performed by the operator--this being usually the act of plugging into a jack--and then, until the connection is taken down, the supervisory signal is under the control of the subscriber, and it is displayed only when the subscriber's receiver is placed on its hook. _cycle of operations._ we may now trace through the complete cycle of operations of the simple common-battery switchboard, the circuits of which are shown in fig. . assume all apparatus in its normal condition, and then assume that the subscriber at station a removes his receiver from its hook. this pulls up the line relay and lights the line lamp, the pilot relay also pulling up and lighting the common pilot lamp which is not shown. in response to this call, the operator inserts the answering plug and throws her listening key _l.k._ the operator's talking set is thus bridged across the cord circuit and she is enabled to converse with the calling subscriber. the answering supervisory lamp _ _ did not light when the operator inserted the answering plug into the jack, because, although the contacts in the lamp circuit were closed by the plug contact _ _ engaging the thimble of the jack, the lamp circuit was held open by the attraction of the supervisory relay armature, the subscriber's receiver being off its hook. learning that the called-for subscriber is the one at station b, the operator inserts the calling plug into the jack at that station and presses the ringing key _r.k._, in order to ring the bell. the act of plugging in, it will be remembered, cuts off the line-signaling apparatus from connection with that line. as the subscriber at station b was not at his telephone when called and his receiver was, therefore, on its hook, the insertion of the calling plug did not energize the supervisory relay coils _ _ and _ _, and, therefore, that relay did not attract its armature. the supervisory lamp _ _ was thus lighted, the circuit being from ground through the right-hand cord-circuit battery, lamp _ _, back contacts of the supervisory relay, third strand of the cord to contact _ _ of the calling plug, and thence to ground through the thimble of the jack. the lighting of this lamp is continued until the party at station b responds by removing his receiver from its hook, which completes the line circuit, energizes relay windings _ _ and _ _, causes that relay to attract its armature, and thus break the circuit of the lamp _ _. both supervisory lamps remain out as long as the two subscribers are conversing, but when either one of them hangs up his receiver the corresponding supervisory relay becomes de-energized and the corresponding lamp lights. when both of the lamps become illuminated, the operator knows that both subscribers are through talking and she takes down the connection. countless variations have been worked in the arrangement of the line and cord circuits, but the general mode of operation of this particular circuit chosen for illustration is standard and should be thoroughly mastered. the operation of other arrangements will be readily understood from an inspection of the circuits, once the fundamental mode of operation that is common to all of them is well in mind. =lamps.= the incandescent lamps used in connection with line and supervisory signals are specially manufactured, but differ in no sense from the larger lamps employed for general lighting purposes, save in the details of size, form, and method of mounting. usually these lamps are rated at about one-third candle-power, although they have a somewhat larger candle-power as a rule. they are manufactured to operate on various voltages, the most usual operating pressures being , , and volts. the -volt lamp consumes about one-tenth of an ampere when fully illuminated, the lamp thus consuming about . watts. the - and -volt lamps consume about the same amount of energy and corresponding amounts of current. [illustration: fig. . switchboard lamp] _lamp mounting._ the usual form of screw-threaded mounting employed in lamps for commercial lighting was at first applied to the miniature lamps used for switchboard work, but this was found unsatisfactory and these lamps are now practically always provided with two contact strips, one on each side of the glass bulb, these strips forming respectively the terminals for the two ends of the filament within. such a construction of a common form of lamp is shown in fig. , where these terminals are indicated by the numerals _ _ and _ _, _ _ being a dry wooden block arranged between the terminals at one end for securing greater rigidity between them. [illustration: fig. . line lamp mounting] the method of mounting these lamps is subject to a good deal of variation in detail, but the arrangement is always such that the lamp is slid in between two metallic contacts forming terminals of the circuit in which the lamp is to operate. such an arrangement of springs and the co-operating mounting forming a sort of socket for the reception of switchboard lamps is referred to as a _lamp jack_. these are sometimes individually mounted and sometimes mounted in strips in much the same way that jacks are mounted in strips. a strip of lamp jacks as manufactured by the kellogg company is shown in fig. . the opalescent lens is adapted to be fitted in front of the lamp after it has been inserted into the jack. fig. gives an excellent view of an individually-mounted lamp jack with its lamp and lens, this also being of kellogg manufacture. this figure shows a section of the plug shelf which is bored to receive a lamp. in order to protect the lamps and lenses from breakage, due to the striking of the plugs against them, a metal shield is placed over the lens, as shown in this figure, this being so cut away as to allow sufficient openings for the light to shine through. sometimes instead of employing lenses in front of the lamps, a flat piece of translucent material is used to cover the openings of the lamp, this being protected by suitable perforated strips of metal. a strip of lamp jacks employing this feature is shown in fig. , this being of dean manufacture. an advantage of this for certain types of work is that the flat translucent plate in front of the lamp may readily carry designating marks, such as the number of the line or something to indicate the character of the line, which marks may be readily changed as required. [illustration: fig. . supervisory lamp mounting] [illustration: fig. . line lamp mounting] [illustration: fig. . individual lamp jacks] in the types made by some manufacturers the only difference between the pilot lamp and the line lamp is in the size of the lens in front of it, the jack and the lamp itself being the same for each, while others use a larger lamp for the pilot. in fig. are shown two individual lamp jacks, the one at the top being for supervisory lamps and the one at the bottom being provided with a large lens for serving as a pilot lamp. [illustration: terminal room apparatus in process of installation installed by dean electric company at detroit, mich.] =mechanical signals.= as has been stated the so-called mechanical signals are sometimes used in small common-battery switchboards instead of lamps. where this is done the coil of the signal, if it is a line signal, is substituted in the line circuit in place of the relay coil. if the signals are used in connection with cord circuits for supervisory signals, their coils are put in the circuit in place of the supervisory relay coils. (these signals are referred to in chapter iii in connection with fig. .) they are so arranged that the attraction of the armature lifts a target on the end of a lever, and this causes a display of color or form. the release of the armature allows this target to drop back, thus obliterating the display. such signals, often called _visual signals_ and _electromagnet signals_, should be distinguished from the drops considered in connection with magneto switchboards in which the attraction of the armature causes the display of the signal by the falling of a drop, the signal remaining displayed until restored by some other means, the restoration depending in no wise on when the armature is released. _western electric._ the mechanical signal of the western electric company, shown in fig. , has a target similar to that shown in fig. but without a latch. it is turned to show a different color by the attraction of the armature and allowed to resume its normal position when the armature is released. [illustration: fig. . mechanical signal] _kellogg._ fig. gives a good idea of a strip of mechanical signals as manufactured by the kellogg company. this is known as the _gridiron_ signal on account of the cross-bar striping of its target. the white bars on the target normally lie just behind the cross-bars on the shield in front, but a slight raising of the target--about one-eighth of an inch--exposes these white bars to view, opposite the rectangular openings in the front shield. [illustration: fig. . strip of gridiron signals] _monarch._ in fig. is shown the visual signal manufactured by the monarch telephone company. [illustration: fig. . mechanical signal] =relays.= the line relays for common-battery switchboards likewise assume a great variety of forms. the well-known type of relay employed in telegraphy would answer the purpose well but for the amount of room that it occupies, as it is sometimes necessary to group a large number of relays in a very small space. nearly all present-day relays are of the single-coil type, and in nearly all cases the movement of the armature causes the movement of one or more switching springs, which are thus made to engage or disengage their associated spring or springs. one of the most widely used forms of relays has an l-shaped armature hung across the front of a forwardly projecting arm of iron, on the knife-edge corner of which it rocks as moved by the attraction of the magnet. the general form of this relay was illustrated in fig. . sometimes this relay is made up in single units and frequently a large number of such single units are mounted on a single mounting plate. this matter will be dealt with more in detail in the discussion of common-battery multiple switchboards. in other cases these relays are built _en bloc_, a rectangular strip of soft iron long enough to afford space for ten relays side by side being bored out with ten cylindrical holes to receive the electromagnets. the iron of the block affords a return path for the lines of force. the l-shaped armatures are hung over the front edge of this block, so that their free ends lie opposite the magnet cores within the block. this arrangement as employed by the kellogg company is shown in two views in figs. and . [illustration: fig. . strip of relays] [illustration: fig. . strip of relays] a bank of line relays especially adapted for small common-battery switchboards as made by the dean company, is shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . bank of relays] =jacks.= the jacks in common-battery switchboards are almost always mounted in groups of ten or twenty, the arrangement being similar to that discussed in connection with lamp strips. ordinarily in common-battery work the jack is provided with two inner contacts so as to cut off both sides of the signaling circuit when the operator plugs in. a strip of such jacks is shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . strip of cut-off jacks] ringing and listening keys for simple common-battery switchboards differ in no essential respect from those employed in magneto boards. [illustration: fig. . details of lamp, plug, and key mounting] =switchboard assembly.= the general assembly of the parts of a simple common-battery switchboard deserves some attention. the form of the switchboard need not differ essentially from that employed in magneto work, but ordinarily the cabinet is somewhat smaller on account of the smaller amount of room required by its lamps and jacks. an excellent idea of the line jacks and lamps, plugs, keys, and supervisory signals may be obtained from fig. , which is a detail view taken from a kellogg board. in the vertical panel of the board above the plug shelf are arranged the line jacks and the lamps in rows of twenty each, each lamp being immediately beneath its corresponding jack. such jacks are ordinarily mounted on / -inch centers both vertically and horizontally, so that a group of one hundred lamps and line jacks will occupy a space only slightly over by inches. such economy of space is not required in the simple magneto board, because the space might easily be made larger without in any way taxing the reach of the operator. the reason for this comparatively close mounting is a result, not of the requirements of the simple non-multiple common-battery board itself, but of the fact that the jack strips and lamp strips, which are required in very large numbers in multiple boards, have to be mounted extremely close together, and as the same lamp strips and jack strips are often available for simple switchboards, an economy in manufacture is effected by adherence to the same general dimensions. [illustration: fig. . simple common-battery switchboard with removable relay panel] a rear view of a common form of switchboard cabinet, known as the _upright type_ and manufactured by the dean company, is shown in fig. . in this all the relays are mounted on a hinged rack, which, when opened out as indicated, exposes the wiring to view for inspection or repairs. access to both sides of the relays is thus given to the repairman who may do all his work from the rear of the board without disturbing the operator. fig. shows a three-position cabinet of kellogg manufacture, this being about the limit in size of boards that could properly be called simple. obviously, where a switchboard cabinet must be made of greater length than this, _i. e._, than is required to accommodate three operators, it becomes too long for the operators to reach all over it without undue effort or without moving from their seats. the so-called _transfer board_ and the _multiple board_ (to be considered in subsequent chapters), constitute methods of relief from such a condition in larger exchanges. [illustration: fig. . three-position lamp board] chapter xxiii transfer switchboard when the traffic originating in a switchboard becomes so great as to require so many operators that the board must be made so long that any one of the operators cannot reach over its entire face, the simple switchboard does not suffice. either some form of transfer switchboard or of multiple switchboard must be used. in this chapter the transfer switchboard will be briefly discussed. the transfer switchboard is so named because its arrangement is such that some of the connections through it are handled by means of two operators, the operator who answers the call transferring it to another operator who completes the connection desired. =limitations of simple switchboard.= conceive a number of simple magneto switchboards, or a number of common-battery switchboards, arranged side by side, their number being so great as to form, by their combination, a board too long for the ordinary cords and plugs to reach between its extremities. on each of these simple switchboards, which we will say are each of the one-position type, there terminates a group of subscribers' lines so great in number, considering the traffic on them, that the efforts of one operator will just about be taxed to properly attend to their calls during the busiest hours of the day. if, now, these subscribers would be sufficiently accommodating to call for no other subscribers than those whose lines terminate on the same switchboard section or on one of the immediately adjacent switchboard sections, all would be well, but subscribers will not be so restricted. they demand universal service; that is, they demand the privilege of having their own lines connected with the line of any other person in the exchange. obviously, in the arrangement just conceived, any operator may answer any call originating at her own board and complete the connection with the desired subscriber if that subscriber's jack terminates on her own section or on one of the adjacent ones. beyond that she is powerless unless other means are provided. =transfer lines.= in the transfer board these other means consist in the provision of groups of local trunk lines or transfer lines extending from each switchboard position to each other non-adjacent switchboard position. when an operator receives a call for some line on a non-adjacent position, having answered this call with her answering plug, she inserts the calling plug into the jack of one of these transfer lines that leads to the proper other section. the operator at that section is notified either verbally or by signal, and she completes the connection between the other end of the transfer line and the line of the called subscriber; the connection between the two subscribers thus being effected through the cords of the two operators in question linked together by the transfer line. such a transfer line as just described, requiring the connection at each of its ends by one of the plugs of the operator's cord pair, is termed a _jack-ended trunk_ or a _jack-ended transfer line_ because each of its ends terminates in a jack. [illustration: fig. . jack-ended transfer circuit] there is another method of accomplishing the same general result by the employment of the so-called _plug-ended trunk_ or _plug-ended transfer line_. in this the trunk or transfer line terminates at one end, the answering end, in a jack as before, and the connection is made with it by the answering operator by means of the calling plug of the pair with which she answered the originating call. the other end of this trunk, instead of terminating in a jack, ends in a plug and the second operator involved in the connection, after being notified, picks up this plug and inserts it in the jack of the called subscriber, thus completing the connection without employing one of her regular cord pairs. _jack-ended trunk._ in fig. are shown the circuits of a commonly employed jack-ended trunk for transfer boards. the talking circuit, as usual, is shown in heavy lines and terminates in the tip and sleeve of the transfer jacks at each end. the auxiliary contacts in these jacks and the circuits connecting them are absolutely independent of the talking circuit and are for the purpose of signaling only, the arrangement of the jacks being such that when a plug is inserted, the spring _ _ will break from spring _ _ and make with spring _ _. obviously, the insertion of a plug in either of the jacks will establish such connections as to light both lamps, since the engagement of spring _ _ with spring _ _ in either of the jacks will connect both of the lamps in multiple across the battery, this connection including always the contacts _ _ and _ _ of the other jack. from this it follows that the insertion of a plug in the other end of the trunk will, by breaking contact between springs _ _ and _ _, put out both the lamps. one plug inserted will, therefore, light both lamps; two plugs inserted or two plugs withdrawn will extinguish both lamps. [illustration: fig. . jack-ended transfer circuit] if an operator located at one end of this trunk answers a call and finds that the called-for subscriber's line terminates within reach of the operator near the other end of this trunk, she will insert a calling plug, corresponding to the answering plug used in answering a call, into the jack of this trunk and thus light the lamp at both its ends. the operator at the other end upon seeing this transfer lamp illuminated inserts one of her answering plugs into the jack, and by means of her listening key ascertains the number of the subscriber desired, and immediately inserts her calling plug into the jack of the subscriber wanted and rings him in the usual manner. the act of this second operator in inserting her answering plug into the jack extinguishes the lamp at her own end and also at the end where the call originated, thus notifying the answering operator that the call has been attended to. as long as the lamps remain lighted, the operators know that there is an unattended connection on that transfer line. such a transfer line is called a _two-way_ line or a _single-track_ line, because traffic over it may be in either direction. in fig. is shown a trunk that operates in a similar way except that the two lamps, instead of being arranged in multiple, are arranged in series. [illustration: fig. . jack- and plug-ended transfer circuit] _plug-ended trunk._ in fig. is shown a plug-ended trunk, this particular arrangement of circuits being employed by the monarch company in its transfer boards. this is essentially a one-way trunk, and traffic over it can pass only in the direction of the arrow. traffic in the opposite direction between any two operators is handled by another trunk or group of trunks similar to this but "pointed" in the other direction. for this reason such a system is referred to as a _double-track_ system. the operation of signals is the same in this case as in fig. , except that the switching device at the left-hand end of the trunk instead of being associated with the jack is associated with the plug seat, which is a switch closely associated with the seat of a plug so as to be operated whenever the plug is withdrawn from or replaced in its seat. the operation of this arrangement is as follows: whenever an operator at the right-hand end of this trunk receives a call for a subscriber whose line terminates within the reach of the operator at the left-hand end of the trunk, she inserts the calling plug of the pair used in answering the calling subscriber into the jack of the trunk, and thus lights both of the trunk lamps. the operator at the other end of the trunk, seeing the trunk lamp lighted, raises the plug from its seat and, having learned the wishes of the calling subscriber, inserts this plug into the jack of the called subscriber without using one of her regular pairs. when she raised the trunk plug from its seat, she permitted the long spring _ _ of the plug seat switch to rise, thus extinguishing both lamps and giving the signal to the originating operator that the trunk connection has received attention. on taking down the connection, the withdrawal of the plug from the right hand of the trunk lights both lamps, and the restoring of the trunk plug to its normal seat again extinguishes both lamps. =plug-seat switch.= the plug-seat switch is a device that has received a good deal of attention not only for use with transfer systems, but also for use in a great variety of ways with other kinds of manual switching systems. the placing of a plug in its seat or withdrawing it therefrom offers a ready means of accomplishing some switching or signaling operation automatically. the plug-seat switch has, however, in spite of its possibilities, never come into wide use, and so far as we are aware the monarch telephone manufacturing company is the only company of prominence which incorporates it in its regular output. the monarch plug-switch mechanism is shown in fig. , and its operation is obvious. it may be stated at this point that one of the reasons why the plug-seat switch has not been more widely adopted for use, is the difficulty that has been experienced due to lint from the switchboard cords collecting on or about the contact points. in the construction given in the detailed cut, upper part, fig. , is shown the means adopted by the monarch company for obviating this difficulty. the contact points are carried in the upper portion of an inverted cup mounted on the under side of the switchboard shelf, and are thus protected, in large measure, from the damaging influence of dust and lint. [illustration: fig. . plug-seat switch] [illustration: fig. . order-wire arrangement] =methods of handling transfers.= one way of giving the number of the called subscriber to the second operator in a transfer system is to have that operator listen in on the circuit after it is continued to her position and receive the number either from the first operator or from the subscriber. receiving it from the first operator has the disadvantage of compelling the first operator to wait on the circuit until the second operator responds; receiving it from the subscriber has the disadvantage of sometimes being annoying to him. this, however, is to be preferred to the loss of time on the part of the originating operator that is entailed by the first method. a better way than either of these is to provide between the various operators working in a transfer system, a so-called _order-wire_ system. an order wire, as ordinarily arranged, is a circuit terminating at one end permanently in the head receiver of an operator, and terminating at the other end in a push button which, when depressed, will connect the telephone set of the operator at that end with the order wire. the operator at the push-button end of the order wire may, therefore, at will, communicate with the other operator in spite of anything that the other operator may do. an order-wire system suitable for transfer switchboards consists in an order wire leading from each operator's receiver to a push button at each of the other operator's positions, so that every operator has it within her power to depress a key or button and establish communication with a corresponding operator. when, therefore, an operator in a transfer system answers a call that must be completed through a transfer circuit, she establishes connection with that transfer circuit and then informs the operator at the other end of that circuit by order wire of the number of the trunk and the number of the subscriber with which that trunk is to be connected. fig. shows a system of order-wire buttons by means of which each operator may connect her telephone set with that of every other operator in the room, the number in this case being confined to three. assuming that each pair of wires leading from the lower portion of this figure terminates respectively in the operator's talking apparatus of the three respective operators, then it is obvious that operator no. , by depressing button no. , will connect her telephone set with that of operator no. ; likewise that any operator may communicate with any other operator by depressing the key bearing the corresponding number. =limitations of transfer system.= it may be stated that the transfer system at present has a limited place in the art of telephony. the multiple switchboard has outstripped it in the race for popular approval and has demonstrated its superiority in practically all large manual exchange work. this is not because of lack of effort on the part of telephone engineers to make the transfer system a success in a broad way. a great variety of different schemes, all embodying the fundamental idea of having one operator answer the call and another operator complete it through a trunk line, have been tried. in san francisco, the sabin-hampton system was in fairly successful service and served many thousands of lines for a number of years. it was, however, afterwards replaced by modern multiple switchboards. _examples of obsolete systems._ the sabin-hampton system was unique in many respects and involved three operators in each connection. it was one of the very first systems which employed automatic signaling throughout and did away with the subscribers' generators. it did not, however, dispense with the subscribers' local batteries. another large transfer system, used for years in an exchange serving at a time as many as , , was employed at grand rapids, michigan. this was later replaced by an automatic switchboard. [illustration: fig. . three-position transfer switchboard] =field of usefulness.= the real field of utility for the transfer system today is to provide for the growth of simple switchboards that have extended beyond their originally intended limits. by the adding of additional sections to the simple switchboard and the establishment of a comparatively cheap transfer system, the simple boards may be made to do continued service without wasting the investment in them by discarding them and establishing a completely new system. however, switchboards are sometimes manufactured in which the transfer system is included as a part of the original equipment. in fig. is shown a three-position transfer switchboard, manufactured by the monarch telephone company. at first glance the switchboard appears to be exactly like those described in chapter xxi, but on close observation, the transfer jacks and signals may be seen in the first and third positions, just below the line jacks and signals. there is no transfer equipment in the second position of this switchboard because the operator at that position is able to reach the jacks of all the lines and, therefore, is able to complete all calls originating on her position without the use of any transfer equipment. referring to fig. , which illustrates a two-position simple switchboard, it may readily be seen that if the demands for telephone service in the locality in which this switchboard is installed should increase so as to require the addition of more switchboard positions, this switchboard could readily be converted to a transfer switchboard by placing the necessary transfer jacks and signals in the vacant space between the line jacks and clearing-out drops. [illustration: cable turning sections, between a and b boards cortlandt office, new york telephone co.] chapter xxiv principles of the multiple switchboard =field of utility.= the multiple switchboard, unlike the transfer board, provides means for each operator to complete, without assistance, a connection with any subscriber's line terminating in the switchboard no matter how great the number of lines may be. it is used only where the simple switchboard will not suffice; that is, where the number of lines and the consequent traffic is so great as to require so many operators and, therefore, so great a length of board as to make it impossible for any one operator to reach all over the face of the board without moving from her position. =the multiple feature.= the fundamental feature of the multiple switchboard is the placing of a jack for every line served by the switchboard within the reach of every operator. this idea underlying the multiple switchboard may be best grasped by merely considering the mechanical arrangement and grouping of parts without regard to their details of operation. the idea is sometimes elusive, but it is really very simple. if the student at the outset will not be frightened by the very large number of parts that are sometimes involved in multiple switchboards, and by the great complexity which is apparent in the wiring and in the action of these parts; and will remember that this apparent complexity results from the great number of repetitions of the same comparatively simple group of apparatus and circuits, much will be done toward a mastery of the subject. the multiple switchboard is divided into sections, each section being about the width and height that will permit an ordinary operator to reach conveniently all over its face. the usual width of a section brought about by this limitation is from five and one-half to six feet. such a section affords room for three operators to sit side by side before it. now each line, instead of having a single jack as in the simple switchboard, is provided with a number of jacks and one of these is placed on each of the sections, so that each one of the operators may have within her reach a jack for each line. it is from the fact that each line has a multiplicity of jacks, that the term multiple switchboard arises. _number of sections._ since there is a jack for each line on each section of the switchboard, it follows that on each section there are as many jacks as there are lines; that is, if the board were serving , lines there would be , jacks. let us see now what it is that determines the number of sections in a multiple switchboard. in the final analysis, it is the amount of traffic that arises in the busiest period of the day. assume that in a particular office serving , lines, the subscribers call at such a very low rate that even at the busiest time of the day only enough calls are made to keep, say, three operators busy. in this case there would be no need for the multiple switchboard, for a single section would suffice. the three operators seated before that section would be able to answer and complete the connections for all of the calls that arose. but subscribers do not call at this exceedingly low rate. a great many more calls would arise on , lines during the busiest hour than could be handled by three operators and, therefore, a great many more operators would be required. space has to be provided for these operators to work in, and as each section accommodates three operators the total number of sections must be at least equal to the total number of required operators divided by three. let us assume, for instance, that each operator can handle calls during the busy hour. assume further that during the busy hour the average number of calls made by each subscriber is two. one hundred subscribers would, therefore, originate calls within this busy hour and this would be just sufficient to keep one operator busy. since one operator can handle only the calls of one hundred subscribers during the busy hour, it follows that as many operators must be employed as there are hundreds of subscribers whose lines are served in a switchboard, and this means that in an exchange of , subscribers, operators' positions would be required, or - / sections. each of these sections would be equipped with the full , jacks, so that each operator could have a connection terminal for each line. _the multiple._ these groups of , jacks, repeated on each of the sections are termed multiple jacks, and the entire equipment of these multiple jacks and their wiring is referred to as the multiple. it will be shown presently that the multiple jacks are only used for enabling the operator to connect with the called subscriber. in other words these jacks are for the purpose of enabling each operator to have within her reach any line that may be called for regardless of what line originates the call. we will now consider what arrangements are provided for enabling the operator to receive the signal indicating a call and what provisions are made for her to answer the call in response to such a signal. =line signals.= obviously it is not necessary to have the line signals repeated on each section of the board as are the multiple jacks. if a line has one definite place on the switchboard where its signal may be received and its call may be answered, that suffices. each line, therefore, in addition to having its multiple jacks distributed one on each section of the switchboard, has a line signal and an individual jack immediately associated with it, located on one only of the sections. this signal usually is in the form of a lamp and is termed the line signal, and this jack is termed the answering jack since it is by means of it that the operator always answers a call in response to the line signal. _distribution of line signals._ it is evident that it would not do to have all of these line signals and answering jacks located at one section of the board for then they would not be available to all of the operators. they are, therefore, distributed along the board in such a way that one group of them will be available to one operator, another group to another operator, and so on; the number of answering jacks and signals in any one group being so proportioned with respect to the number of calls that come in over them during the busy hour that it will afford just about enough calls to keep the operator at that position busy. we may summarize these conditions with respect to the jack and line-signal equipment of the multiple switchboard by saying that each line has a multiple jack on each section of the board and in addition to this has on one section of the board an answering jack and a line signal. these answering jacks and line signals are distributed in groups along the face of the board so that each operator will receive her proper quota of the originating calls which she will answer and, by virtue of the multiple jack, be able to complete the connections with the desired subscribers without moving from her position. =cord circuits.= each operator is also provided with a number of pairs of cords and plugs with proper supervisory or clearing-out signals and ringing and listening keys, the arrangement in this respect being similar to that already described in connection with the simple switchboard. =guarding against double connections.= from what has been said it is seen that a call originating on a given line may be answered at one place only, but an outgoing connection with that line may be made at any position. this fact that a line may be connected with when called for at any one of the sections of the switchboard makes necessary the provision that two or more connections will not be made with the same line at the same time. for instance, if a call came in over a line whose signal was located on the first position of the switchboard for a connection with line no. , , the operator at the first position would connect this calling line with no. , through the multiple jack on the first section of the switchboard. assume now that some line, whose signal was located on the th position of the switchboard, should call also for line no. , while that line was still connected with the first calling subscriber. obviously confusion would result if the operator at the th position, not knowing that line no. , was already busy, should connect this second line with it, thereby leaving both of the calling subscribers connected with line no. , , and as a result all of these three subscribers connected together. the provisions for suitable means for preventing the making of a connection with a line that is already switched at some other section of the switchboard, has offered one of the most fertile fields for invention in the whole telephone art. the ways that have been proposed for accomplishing this are legion. fortunately common practice has settled on one general plan of action and that is to so arrange the circuits that whenever a line is switched at one section, such an electrical condition will be established on the forward contacts of all of its multiple jacks that any operator at any other section in attempting to make a connection with that line will be notified of the fact that it is already switched by an audible signal, which she will receive in her head receiver. on the other hand the arrangement is such that when a line is not busy, _i. e._, it is not switched at any of the positions of the switchboard, the operator on attempting to make a connection with such a line will receive no such guarding signal and will, therefore, proceed with the connection. we may liken a line in a multiple switchboard to a lane having a number of gates giving access to it. one of these gates--the answering jack--is for the exclusive use of the proprietor of that lane. all of the other gates to the lane--the multiple jacks--are for affording means for the public to enter. but whenever any person enters one of these gates, a signal is automatically put up at all of the other gates forbidding any other person to enter the lane as long as the first person is still within. [illustration: fig. . principle of multiple switchboard] =diagram showing multiple board principle.= for those to whom the foregoing description of the multiple board is not altogether clear, the diagram of fig. may offer some assistance. five subscribers' lines are shown running through four sections of a switchboard. each of these lines is provided with a multiple jack on each section of the board. each line is also provided with an answering jack and a line signal on one of the sections of the board. thus the answering jacks and the line signals of lines _ _ and _ _ are shown in section i, that of line _ _ is shown in section ii, that of line _ _ in section iii, and that of line _ _ in section iv. at section i, line _ _ is shown in the condition of having made a call and having had this call answered by the operator inserting one of her plugs into its answering jack. in response to the instructions given by the subscriber, the operator has inserted the other plug of this same pair in the multiple jack of line _ _, thus connecting these two lines for conversation. at section iii, line _ _ is shown as having made a call, and the operator as having answered by inserting one of her plugs into the answering jack. it happens that the subscriber on line _ _ requests a connection with line _ _, and the condition at section iii is that where the operator is about to apply the tip of the calling plug to the jack of line _ _ to ascertain whether or not that line is busy. as before stated, when the contact is made between the tip of the calling plug and the forward contact of the multiple jack, the operator will receive a click in the ear (by means that will be more fully discussed in later chapters), this click indicating to her that line _ _ is not available for connection because it is already switched at some other section of the switchboard. =busy test.= the busy signal, by which an operator in attempting to make a connection is informed that the line is already busy, has assumed a great variety of forms and has brought forth many inventions. it has been proposed by some that the insertion of a plug into any one of the jacks of a line would automatically close a little door in front of each of the other jacks of the line, therefore making it impossible for any other operator to insert a plug as long as the line is in use. it has been proposed by others to ring bells or to operate buzzers whenever the attempt was made by an operator to plug into a line that was already in use. still others have proposed to so arrange the circuits that the operator would get an electric shock whenever she attempted to plug into a busy line. the scheme that has met with universal adoption, however, is that the operator shall, when the tip of her calling plug touches the forward contact of the jack of a line that is already switched, receive a click in her telephone which will forbid her to insert the plug. the absence of this click, or silence in her telephone, informs her that she may safely make the connection. _principle._ the means by which the operator receives or fails to receive this click, according to whether the line is busy or idle, vary widely, but so far as the writers are aware they all have one fundamental feature in common. the tip of the calling plug and the test contact of all of the multiple jacks of an idle line must be absolutely at the same potential before the test, so that no current will flow through the test circuit when the test is actually made. the test thimbles of all the jacks of a busy line must be at a different potential from the tip of the test plug so that a current will flow and a click result when the test is made. _potential of test thimbles._ it has been found an easy matter to so arrange the contacts in the jacks of a multiple switchboard that whenever the line is idle the test thimbles of that line will be a certain potential, the same as that of all the unused calling plug tips. it has also been easy to so arrange these contacts that the insertion of a plug into any one of the jacks will, by virtue of the contacts established, change the potential of all the test thimbles of that line so that they will be at a different potential from that of the tips of the calling plugs. it has not been so easy, however, to provide that these conditions shall exist under all conditions of practice. a great many busy tests that looked well on paper have been found faulty in practice. as is always the case in such instances, this has been true because the people who considered the scheme on paper did not foresee all of the conditions that would arise in practice. many busy-test systems will operate properly while everything connected with the switchboard and the lines served by it remains in proper order. but no such condition as this can be depended on in practice. switchboards, no matter how perfectly made and no matter with how great care they may be installed and maintained, will get out of order. telephone lines will become grounded or short-circuited or crossed or opened. such conditions, in a faulty busy-test system, may result in a line that is really idle presenting a busy test, and thus barring the subscriber on that line from receiving calls from other lines just as completely as if his line were broken. on the other hand, faulty conditions either in the switchboard or in the line may make a line that is really busy, test idle, and thus result in the confusion of having two or more subscribers connected to the same line at the same time. _busy-test faults._ to show how elusive some of the faults of a busy test may be, when considered on paper, it has come within the observation of the writers that a new busy-test system was thought well enough of by a group of experienced engineers to warrant its installation in a group of very large multiple switchboards, the cost of which amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and yet when so installed it developed that a single short-circuited cord in a position would make the test inoperative on all the cords of that position--obviously an intolerable condition. luckily the remedy was simple and easily applied. in a well-designed busy-test system there should be complete silence when the test is made of an idle line, and always a well-defined click when the test is made of a busy line. the test on busy lines should result in a uniform click regardless of length of lines or the condition of the apparatus. it does not suffice to have a little click for an idle line and a big click for a busy line, as practice has shown that this results in frequent errors on the part of the operators. good operating requires that the tip of the calling plug be tapped against the test thimble several times in order to make sure of the state of the called line. in some multiple switchboards the arrangement has been such that the jacks of a line would test busy as soon as the subscriber on that line removed his receiver from its hook to make a call, as well as while any plug was in any jack of that line. the advocates of this added feature, in connection with the busy test, have claimed that the receiver, when removed from its hook in making a call, should make the line test busy and that a line should not be connected with when the subscriber's receiver was off its hook any more than it should be when it was already connected with at some other section of the switchboard. while it is true that a line may be properly termed busy when the subscriber has removed his receiver in order to make a call, it is not true that there is any real necessity for guarding against a connection with it while he is waiting for the operator to answer. leaving the line unguarded for this brief period may result in the subscriber, who intended to make the call, having to defer his call until he has conversed with the party who is trying to reach him. this cannot be said to be a detriment to the service, however, since the second party gets the connection he desires much sooner than he otherwise would, and the first party may still make his first intended call as soon as he has disposed of the party who reached him while he was waiting for his own operator to answer. it may be said, therefore, in connection with this matter of making the line test busy as soon as a subscriber has removed his receiver from the hook, that it is not considered an essential, and in case of those switchboard systems which naturally work out that way it is not considered a disadvantage. =field of each operator.= it was stated earlier in this chapter that as each section accommodated three operators, the total number of sections in a switchboard will be at least one-third the total number of required operators. this thought needs further development, for to stop at that statement is to arrive somewhat short of the truth. in order to do this it is necessary to consider the field in the multiple, reached by each operator. the section is of such size, or should be, that an operator seated in the center position of it may, without undue effort, reach all over the multiple. but the operator at the right-hand position cannot reach the extreme left portion of the multiple of that section, nor can the operator at the left reach the extreme right. how then may each operator reach a jack for every line? remembering that the multiple jacks are arranged exactly the same in each section, each jack always occupying the same relative position, it is easy to see that while the operator at a right-hand position of a section cannot reach the left-hand third of the multiple in her own section, she may reach the left-hand third of the multiple in the section at her right, and this, together with the center and right-hand thirds of her own section, represents the entire number of lines. so it is with the left-hand operator at any section, she reaches two-thirds of all the lines in the multiple of her own section and one-third in that of the section at her left. _end positions._ this makes it necessary to inquire about the operators at the end positions of the entire board. to provide for these the multiple is extended one-third of a section beyond them, so as to supply at the ends of the switchboard jacks for those lines which the end operators cannot reach on their own sections. sometimes instead of adding these end sections to the multiple for the end operators, the same result is accomplished by using only the full and regular sections of the multiple, and leaving the end positions without operators' equipment, as well as without answering jacks, line signals, and cords and plugs, so that in reality the end operator is at the middle position of the end section. this, in our opinion, is the better practice, since it leaves the sections standard, and makes it easier to extend the switchboard in length, as it grows, by the mere addition of new sections without disturbing any of the old multiple. =influence of traffic.= we wish again to emphasize the fact that it is the traffic during the busiest time of day and not the number of lines that determine the size of a multiple switchboard so far as its length is concerned. the number of lines determines the size of the multiple in any one section, but it is the amount of traffic, the number of calls that are made in the busiest period, that determines the number of operators required, and thus the number of positions. had this now very obvious fact been more fully realized in the past, some companies would be operating at less expense, and some manufacturers would have sold less expensive switchboards. the whole question as to the number of positions boils down to how many answering jacks and line signals may be placed at each operator's position without overburdening the operator with incoming traffic at the busy time of day. obviously, some lines will call more frequently than others, and hence the proper number of answering jacks at the different positions will vary. obviously, also, due to changes in the personnel of the subscribers, the rates of calling of different groups of lines will change from time to time, and this may necessitate a regrouping of the line signals and answering jacks on the positions; and changes in the personnel of the operators or in their skill also demand such regrouping. _intermediate frame._ the intermediate distributing frame is provided for this purpose, and will be more fully discussed in subsequent chapters. suffice it to say here that the intermediate distributing frame permits the answering jacks and line signals to be shifted about among the operators' positions, so that each position will have just enough originating traffic to keep each of the operators economically busy during the busiest time of the day. chapter xxv the magneto multiple switchboard =field of utility.= the principles of the multiple switchboard set forth in the last chapter were all developed long before the common-battery system came into existence, and consequently all of the first multiple switchboards were of the magneto type. although once very widely used, the magneto multiple switchboard has almost passed out of existence, since it has become almost universal practice to equip exchanges large enough to employ multiple boards with common-battery systems. nevertheless there is a field for magneto multiple switchboards, and in this field it has recently been coming into increasing favor. in those towns equipped with magneto systems employing simple switchboards or transfer switchboards, and which require new switchboards by virtue of having outgrown or worn out their old ones, the magneto multiple switchboard is frequently found to best fit the requirements of economy and good practice. the reason for this is that by its use the magneto telephones already in service may be continued, no change being required outside of the central office. furthermore, with the magneto multiple switchboard no provision need be made for a power plant, which, in towns of small size, is often an important consideration. again, many companies operate over a considerable area, involving a collection of towns and hamlets. it may be that all of these towns except one are clearly of a size to demand magneto equipment and that magneto equipment is the standard throughout the entire territory of the company. if, however, one of the towns, by virtue of growth, demands a multiple switchboard, this condition affords an additional argument for the employment of the magneto multiple switchboard, since the same standards of equipment and construction may be maintained throughout the entire territory of the operating company, a manifest advantage. on the other hand, it may be said that the magneto multiple switchboard has no proper place in modern exchanges of considerable size--say, having upward of one thousand subscribers--at least under conditions found in the united states. notwithstanding the obsolescence of the magneto multiple switchboard for large exchanges, a brief discussion of some of the early magneto multiple switchboards, and particularly of one of the large ones, is worth while, in that a consideration of the defects of those early efforts will give one a better understanding and appreciation of the modern multiple switchboard, and particularly of the modern multiple common-battery switchboard, the most highly organized of all the manual switching systems. brief reference will, therefore, be made to the so-called series multiple switchboard, and then to the branch terminal multiple switchboard, which latter was the highest type of switchboard development at the time of the advent of common-battery working. [illustration: fig. . series magneto multiple switchboard] =series-multiple board.= in fig. are shown the circuits of a series magneto multiple switchboard as developed by the engineers of the western electric company during the eighties. as is usual, two subscribers' lines and a single cord circuit are shown. one side of each line passes directly from the subscriber's station to one side of the drop, and also branches off to the sleeve contact of each of the jacks. the other side of the line passes first to the tip spring of the first jack, thence to the anvil of that jack and to the tip spring of the next jack, and so on in series through all of the jacks belonging in that line to the other terminal of the drop coil. normally, therefore, the drop is connected across the line ready to be responsive to the signal sent from the subscriber's generator. the cord circuit is of the two-conductor type, the plugs being provided with tip and sleeve contacts, the tips being connected by one of the flexible conductors through the proper ringing and listening key springs, and the sleeve being likewise connected through the other flexible conductor and the other springs of the ringing and listening keys. it is obvious that when any plug is inserted into a jack, the circuit of the line will be continued to the cord circuit and at the same time the line drop will be cut out of the circuit, because of the lifting of the tip spring of the jack from its anvil. permanently connected between the sleeve side of the cord circuit and ground is a retardation coil _ _ and a battery. another retardation coil _ _ is connected between the ground and a point on the operator's telephone circuit between the operator's head receiver and the secondary of her induction coil. these two retardation coils have to do with the busy test, the action of which is as follows: normally, or when a line is not switched at the central office, the test thimbles will all be at substantially ground potential, _i. e._, they are supposed to be. the point on the operator's receiver circuit which is grounded through the retardation coil _ _ will also be of ground potential because of that connection to ground. in order to test, the operator always has to throw her listening key _l.k._ into the listening position. she also has to touch the tip of the calling plug _p_c to a sleeve or jack of the line that is being tested. if, therefore, a test is made of an idle or non-busy line, the touching of the tip of the calling plug with the test thimble of that line will result in no flow of current through the operator's receiver, because there will be no difference of potential anywhere in the test circuit, which test circuit may be traced from the test thimble of the line under test to the tip of the calling plug, thence through the tip strand of the cord to the listening key, thence to the outer anvil of the listening key on that side, through the operator's receiver to ground through the impedance coil _ _. if, however, the line had already been switched at some other section by the insertion of either a calling or answering plug, all of the test thimbles of that line would have been raised to a potential above that of the ground, by virtue of the battery connected with the sleeve side of the cord circuit through the retardation coil _ _. if the operator had made a test of such a line, the tip of her testing plug would have found the thimble raised to the potential of the battery and, therefore, a flow of current would occur which would give her the busy click. the complete test circuit thus formed in testing a busy line would be from the ungrounded pole of the battery through the impedance coil _ _ associated with the cord that was already in connection with the line, thence to the sleeve strand of that cord to the sleeve of the jack at which the line was already switched, thence through that portion of the line circuit to which all of the sleeve contacts were connected, and therefore to the sleeve or test thimble of the jack at which the test is made, thence through the tip of the calling plug employed in making the test through the tip side of that cord circuit to the outer listening key contact of the operator making the test, and thence to ground through the operator's receiver and the impedance coil _ _. the resultant click would be an indication to the operator that the line was already in use and that, therefore, she must not make the connection. the condenser _ _ is associated with the operator's talking set and with the extra spring in the listening key _l.k._ in such a manner that when the listening key is thrown, the tip strand of the cord circuit is divided and the condenser included between them. this is for the purpose of preventing any potentials, which might exist on the line with which the answering plug _p_a was connected, from affecting the busy-test conditions. _operation._ the operation of the system aside from the busy-test feature is just like that described in connection with the simple magneto switchboard. assuming that the subscriber at station _a_ makes the call, he turns his hand generator, which throws the drop on his line at the central office. the operator, seeing the signal, inserts the answering plug of one of her idle pairs of cords into the answering jack and throws her listening key _l.k._ this enables the operator to talk with the calling subscriber, and having found that he desires a connection with the line extending to station _b_, she touches the tip of her calling plug to the multiple jack of that line that is within her reach, it being remembered that each one of the multiple jacks shown is on a different section. she leaves the listening key in the listening position when she does this. if the line is busy, the click will notify her that she must not make the connection, in which case she informs the calling subscriber that the line is busy and requests him to call again. if, however, she received no click, she would insert the calling plug into the jack, thus completing the connection between the two lines. she would then press the ringing key associated with the calling plug and that momentarily disconnects the calling plug from the answering plug and at the same time establishes connection between the ringing generator and the called line. the release of the ringing key again connects the calling and answering plugs and, therefore, connects the two subscribers' lines ready for conversation. all that is then necessary is that the called subscriber shall respond and remove his receiver from its hook, the calling subscriber already having done this. when the conversation is finished, both of the subscribers (if they remember it) will operate their ringing generators, which will throw the clearing-out drop as a signal to the operator for disconnection. if it should become necessary for the operator to ring back on the line of the calling subscriber, she may do so by pressing the ringing key associated with the calling plug. frequently this multiple switchboard arrangement was used with grounded lines, in which case the single line wire extending from the subscriber's station to the switchboard was connected with the tip spring of the first jack, the circuit being continued in series through the jack to the drop and thence to ground through a high non-inductive resistance. _defects._ this series multiple magneto system was used with a great many variations, and it had a good many defects. one of these defects was due to the necessary extending of one limb of the line through a large number of series contacts in the jacks. this is not to be desired in any case, but it was particularly objectionable in the early days before jacks had been developed to their present high state of perfection. a particle of dust or other insulating matter, lodging between the tip spring and its anvil in any one of the jacks, would leave the line open, thus disabling the line to incoming signals, and also for conversation in case the break happened to occur between the subscriber and the jack that was used in connecting with the line. another defect due to the same cause was that the line through the switchboard was always unbalanced by the insertion of a plug, one limb of the line always extending clear through the switchboard to the drop and the other, when the plug was inserted, extending only part way through the switchboard and being cut off at the jack where the connection was made. the objection will be apparent when it is remembered that the wires in the line circuit connecting the multiple jacks are necessarily very closely bunched together and, therefore, there is very likely to be cross-talk between two adjacent lines unless the two limbs of each line are exactly balanced throughout their entire length. again the busy-test conditions of this circuit were not ideal. the fact that the test rings of the line were connected permanently with the outside line circuit subjected these test rings to whatever potentials might exist on the outside lines, due to any causes whatever, such as a cross with some other wire; thus the test rings of an idle line might by some exterior cause be raised to such a potential that the line would test busy. it may be laid down as a fundamental principle in good multiple switchboard practice that the busy-test condition should be made independent of any conditions on the line circuit outside of the central office, and such is not the case in this circuit just described. [illustration: cable run from intermediate frame to multiple cortlandt office, new york telephone co.] =branch-terminal multiple board.= the next important step in the development of the magneto multiple switchboard was that which produced the so-called branch-terminal board. this came into wide use in the various bell operating companies before the advent of the common-battery systems. its circuits and the principles of operation may be understood in connection with fig. . in the branch-terminal system there are no series contacts in the jacks and no unbalancing of the line due to a cutting off of a portion of the line circuit when a connection was made with it. furthermore, the test circuits were entirely local to the central office and were not likely to be affected by outside conditions on the line. this switchboard also added the feature of the automatic restoration of the drops, thus relieving the operator of the burden of doing that manually, and also permitting the drops to be mounted on a portion of the switchboard that was not available for the mounting of jacks, and thus permitting a greater capacity in jack equipment. [illustration: fig. . branch-terminal magneto multiple switchboard] each jack has five contacts, and the answering and multiple jacks are alike, both in respect to their construction and their connection with the line. the drops are the electrically self-restoring type shown in fig. . the line circuits extended permanently from the subscriber's station to the line winding of the drop and the two limbs of the line branched off to the tip and sleeve contacts _ _ and _ _ respectively of each jack. another pair of wires extended through the multiple parallel to the line wires and these branched off respectively to the contact springs _ _ and _ _ of each of the jacks. this pair of wires formed portions of the drop-restoring circuit, including the restoring coil _ _ and the battery _ _, as indicated. the test thimble _ _ of each of the jacks is connected permanently with the spring _ _ of the corresponding jack and, therefore, with the wire which connects through the restoring coil _ _ of the corresponding drop to ground through the battery _ _. the plugs were each provided with three contacts. two of these were the usual tip and sleeve contacts connected with the two strands of the cord circuit. the third contact _ _ was not connected with any portion of the cord circuit, being merely an insulated contact on the plug adapted, when the plug was fully inserted, to connect together the springs _ _ and _ _. the cord circuit itself is readily understood from the drawing, having two features, however, which merit attention. one is the establishing of a grounded battery connection to the center portion of the winding of the receiver for the purposes of the busy test, and the other is the provision of a restoring coil and restoring circuit for the clearing-out drop, this circuit being closed by an additional contact on the listening key so as to restore the clearing-out drop whenever the listening key was operated. _operation._ an understanding of the operation of this system is easy. the turning of the subscriber's generator, when the line was in its normal condition, caused the display of the line signal. the insertion of the answering plug, in response to this call, did three things: ( ) it extended the line circuit to the tip and sleeve strand of the cord circuit. ( ) it energized the restoring coil _ _ of the drop by establishing the circuit from the contact spring _ _ through the plug contact _ _ to the other contact spring _ _, thus completing the circuit between the two normally open auxiliary wires. ( ) the connecting of the springs _ _ and _ _ established a connection from ground to the test thimbles of all the jacks on a line, the spring _ _ being always grounded and the spring _ _ being always connected to the test thimble _ _. it is to be noted that on idle lines the test rings are always at the same potential as the ungrounded pole of the battery _ _, being connected thereto through the winding _ _ of the restoring coil. on all busy lines, however, the test rings are dead grounded through the contact _ _ of the plug that is connected with the line. the tip of the testing plug at the time of making a test will also be at the same potential as that of the ungrounded pole of the battery _ _, since this pole of the battery _ _ is always connected to the center portion of the operator's receiver winding, and when the listening key is thrown the tip of the calling plug is connected therewith and is at the same potential. when, therefore, the operator touches the tip of the calling plug to the test thimble of an idle line, she will get no click, since the tip of the plug and the test thimble will be at the same potential. if, however, the line has already been switched at another section of the board, there will be a difference of potential, because the test thimble will be grounded, and the circuit, through which the current which causes the click flows, may be traced from the ungrounded pole of the battery _ _ to the center portion of the operator's receiver, thence through one-half of the winding to the tip of the calling plug, thence to the test thimble of the jack under test, thence to the spring _ _ of the jack on another section at which the connection exists, through the contact _ _ on the plug of that jack to the spring _ _, and thence to ground and back to the other terminal of the battery _ _. _magnet windings._ coils of the line and clearing-out drops by which these drops are thrown, are wound to such high resistance and impedance as to make it proper to leave them permanently bridged across the talking circuit. the necessity for cutting them out is, therefore, done away with, with a consequent avoidance, in the case of the line drops, of the provision of series contacts in the jacks. _arrangement of apparatus._ in boards of this type the line and clearing-out drops were mounted in the extreme upper portion of the switchboard face so as to be within the range of vision of the operator, but yet out of her reach. therefore, the whole face of the board that was within the limit of the operator's reach was available for the answering and multiple jacks. a front view of a little over one of the sections of the switchboard, involving three complete operator's positions, is shown in fig. , which is a portion of the switchboard installed by the western electric company in one of the large exchanges in paris, france. (this has recently been replaced by a common-battery multiple board.) in this the line drops may be seen at the extreme top of the face of the switchboard, and immediately beneath these the clearing-out drops. beneath these are the multiple jacks arranged in banks of one hundred, each hundred consisting of five strips of twenty. at the extreme lower portion of the jack space are shown the answering jacks and beneath these on the horizontal shelf, the plugs and keys. these jacks were mounted on / -inch centers, both vertically and horizontally and each section had in multiple banks of each, making , in all. subsequent practice has shown that this involves too large a reach for the operators and that, therefore, , is too large a number of jacks to place on one section if the jacks are not spaced closer than on / -inch centers. with the jack involving as many parts as that required by this branch terminal system, it was hardly feasible to make them smaller than this without sacrificing their durability, and one of the important features of the common-battery multiple system which has supplanted this branch-terminal magneto system is that the jacks are of such a simple nature as to lend themselves to mounting on / -inch centers, and in some cases on / -inch centers. [illustration: fig. . face of magneto multiple switchboard] =modern magneto multiple board.= coming now to a consideration of modern magneto multiple switchboards, and bearing in mind that such boards are to be found in modern practice only in comparatively small installations and then only under rather peculiar conditions, as already set forth, we will consider the switchboard of the monarch telephone manufacturing company as typical of good practice in this respect. [illustration: fig. . monarch magneto multiple switchboard circuits] _line circuit._ the line and cord circuits of the monarch system are shown in fig. . it will be seen that each jack has in all five contacts, numbered from _ _ to _ _ respectively, of which _ _ and _ _ are the springs which register with the tip and ring contacts of the plug and through which the talking circuit is continued, while _ _ and _ _ are series contacts for cutting off the line drop when a plug is inserted, and _ _ is the test contact or thimble adapted to register with the sleeve contact on the plug when the plug is fully inserted. the line circuit through the drop may be traced normally from one side of the line through the drop coil, thence through all of the pairs of springs _ _ and _ _ in the jacks of that line, and thence to spring _ _ of the last jack, this spring always being strapped to the spring _ _ in the last jack, and thence to the other side of the line. all the ring springs _ _ are permanently tapped on to one side of the line, and all of the tip springs _ _ are permanently tapped to the other side of the line. this system may, therefore, properly be called a branch-terminal system. it is seen that as soon as a plug is inserted into any of the jacks, the circuit through the drop will be broken by the opening of the springs _ _ and _ _ in that jack. the drop shown immediately above the answering jack is so associated mechanically with that jack as to be mechanically self-restored when the answering plug is inserted into the answering jack in response to a call. the arrangement in this respect is the same as that shown in fig. , illustrating the monarch combined drop and jack. _cord circuit._ the cord circuit needs little explanation. the tip and ring strands are the ones which carry the talking current and across these is bridged the double-wound clearing-out drop, a condenser being included in series in the tip strand between the two drop windings in the manner already explained in connection with fig. . the third or sleeve strand of the cord is continuous from plug to plug, and between it and the ground there is permanently connected a retardation coil. _test._ the test is dependent on the presence or absence of a path to ground from the test thimbles through some retardation coil associated with a cord circuit. obviously, in the case of an idle line there will be no path to ground from the test thimbles, since normally they are merely connected to each other and are insulated from everything else. when, however, a plug is inserted into a multiple or answering jack, the test thimbles of that line are connected to ground through the retardation coil associated with the third strand of the plug used in making the connection. when the operator applies the tip of the calling plug to a test contact of a multiple jack there will be no path to ground afforded if the line is idle, while if it is busy the potential of the tip of the test plug will cause a current to flow to ground through the impedance coil associated with the plug used in making the connection. this will be made clearer by tracing the test circuit. with the listening key thrown this may be traced from the live side of the battery through the retardation coil _ _, which is common to an operator's position, thence through the tip side of the listening key to the tip conductor of the calling cord, and thence to the tip of the calling plug and the thimble of the jack under test. if the line is idle there will be no path to ground from this point and no click will result, but if the line is busy, current will flow from the tip of the test plug to the thimble of the jack tested, thence by the test wire in the multiple to the thimble of the jack at which a connection already exists, and thence to ground through the third strand of the cord used in making that connection and the impedance coil associated therewith. the current which flows in this test circuit changes momentarily the potential of the tip side of the operator's telephone circuit, thus unbalancing her talking circuit and causing a click. [illustration: fig. . magneto multiple switchboard] if this test system were used in a very large board where the multiple would extend through a great many sections, there would be some liability of a false test due to the static capacity of the test contacts and the test wire running through the multiple. for small boards, however, where the multiple is short, this system has proven reliable. a multiple magneto switchboard employing the form of circuits just described is shown in fig. . this switchboard consists of three sections of two positions each. the combined answering jacks and drops may be seen at the lower part of the face of the switchboard and occupying somewhat over one-half of the jack and drop space. the multiple jacks are above the answering jacks and drops and it may be noted that the same arrangement and number of these jacks is repeated in each section. this switchboard may be extended by adding more sections and increasing the multiple in those already installed to serve , lines. _assembly._ in connection with the assembly of these magneto multiple switchboards, as installed by the monarch company, fig. shows the details of the cord rack at the back of the board. it shows how the ends of the switchboard cords opposite to the ends that are fastened to the plugs are connected permanently to terminals on the cord rack, at which point the flexible conductors are brought out to terminal clips or binding posts, to which the wires leading from the other portions of the cord circuit are led. in order to relieve the conductors in the cords from strain, the outer braiding of the cord at the rack end is usually extended to form what is called a _strain cord_, and this attached to an eyelet under the cord rack, so that the weight of the cord and the cord weights will be borne by the braiding rather than by the conductors. this leaves the insulated conductors extending from the ends of the cords free to hang loose without strain and be connected to the terminals as shown. this method of connecting cords, with variations in form and detail, is practically universal in all types of switchboards. [illustration: fig. . cord-rack connectors] a detail of the assembly of the drops and jacks in such a switchboard is shown in fig. . the single pair of clearing-out drops is mounted in the lower part of the vertical face of the switchboard just above the space occupied by the plug shelf. vertical stile strips extend above the clearing-out drop space for supporting the drops and jacks. a single row of answering jacks and the corresponding line drops are shown in place. above these there would be placed, in the completely assembled board, the other answering jacks and line signals that were to occupy this panel, and above these the strips of multiple jacks. the rearwardly projecting pins from the stile strips are for the support of the multiple jack strips, these pins supporting the strips horizontally by suitable multiple clips at the ends of the jack strips; the jack strips being fastened from the rear by means of nuts engaging the screw threads on these pins. this method of supporting drops and jacks is one that is equally adaptable for use in other forms of boards, such as the simple magneto switchboard. [illustration: fig. . drop and jack mounting] [illustration: fig. . keyboard wiring] in fig. is shown a detail photograph of the key shelf wiring in one of these monarch magneto switchboards. in this the under side of the keys is shown, the key shelf being raised on its hinge for that purpose. the cable, containing all of the insulated wires leading to these keys, enters the space under the key shelf at the extreme left and from the rear. it then passes to the right of this space where a "knee" is formed, after which the cable is securely strapped to the under side of the key shelf. by this construction sufficient flexibility is provided for in the cable to permit the raising and lowering of the key shelf, the long reach of the cable between the "knee" and the point of entry at the left serving as a torsion member, so that the raising of the shelf will give the cable a slight twist rather than bend it at a sharp angle. chapter xxvi the common-battery multiple switchboard =western electric no. relay board.= the common-battery multiple switchboard differs from the simple or non-multiple common-battery switchboard mainly in the provision of multiple jacks and in the added features which are involved in the provision for a busy test. the principles of signaling and of supplying current to the subscribers for talking are the same as in the non-multiple common-battery board. for purposes of illustrating the practical workings of the common-battery multiple switchboard, we will take the standard form of the western electric company, choosing this only because it is the standard with nearly all the bell operating companies throughout the united states. [illustration: fig. . line circuit western electric no. . board] _line circuit._ we will first consider the line circuit in simplified form, as shown in fig. . at the left in this figure the common-battery circuit is shown at the subscriber's station, and at the right the central-office apparatus is indicated so far as equipment of a single line is concerned. in this simplified diagram no attempt has been made to show the relative positions of the various parts, these having been grouped in this figure in such a way as to give as clear and simple an idea as possible of the circuit arrangements. it is seen at a glance that this is a branch terminal board, the three contacts of each jack being connected by separate taps or legs to three wires running throughout the length of the board, these three wires being individual to the jacks of one line. on this account this line circuit is commonly referred to as a three-wire circuit. by the same considerations it will be seen that the switchboard line circuit of the branch-terminal multiple magneto system, shown in fig. , would be called a four-wire circuit. it will be shown later that other multiple switchboards in wide use have a still further reduction in the number of wires running through the jacks, or through the multiple as it is called, such being referred to as two-wire switchboards. the two limbs of the line which extend from the subscriber's circuit, beside being connected by taps to the tip and sleeve contacts of the jack respectively, connect with the two back contacts of a cut-off relay, and when this relay is in its normal or unenergized condition, these two limbs of the line are continued through the windings of the line relay and thence one to the ungrounded or negative side of the common-battery and the other to the grounded side. the subscriber's station circuit being normally open, no current flows through the line, but when the subscriber removes his receiver for the purpose of making a call the line circuit is completed and current flows through the coil of the line relay, thus energizing that relay and causing it to complete the circuit of the line lamp. the cut-off relay plays no part in the operation of the subscriber's calling, but merely leaves the circuit of the line connected through to the calling relay and battery. the coil of the cut-off relay is connected to ground on one side and on the other side to the third wire running through the switchboard multiple and which is tapped off to each of the test rings on the jacks. as will be shown later, when the operator plugs into the jack of a line, such a connection is established that the test ring of that jack will be connected to the live or negative pole of the common battery, which will cause current to flow through the coil of the cut-off relay, which will then operate to _cut off_ both of the limbs of the line from their normal connection with ground and the battery and the line relay. hence the name _cut-off relay_. the use of the cut-off relay to sever the calling apparatus from the line at all times when the line is switched serves to make possible a very much simpler jack than would otherwise be required, as will be obvious to anyone who tries to design a common-battery multiple system without a cut-off relay. the additional complication introduced by the cut-off relay is more than offset by the saving in complexity of the jacks. it is desirable, on account of the great number of jacks necessarily employed in a multiple switchboard, that the jacks be of the simplest possible construction, thus reducing to a minimum their first cost and making them much less likely to get out of order. _cord circuit._ the cord circuit of the western electric standard multiple common-battery switchboard is shown in fig. . this cord circuit involves the use of three strands in the flexible cords of both the calling and the answering plugs. two of these are the ordinary tip and ring conductors over which speech is transmitted to the connected subscriber's wire. the third, the sleeve strand, carries the supervisory lamps and has associated with it other apparatus for the control of these lamps and of the test circuit. [illustration: fig. . cord circuit western electric no. board] the system of battery feed is the well-known split repeating-coil arrangement already discussed. the tip strand runs straight through to the repeating coil, while the ring strand contains, in each case, the winding of the supervisory relay corresponding to either the calling or the answering plug. in order that the presence in the talking circuit of a magnet winding possessing considerable impedance may not interfere with the talking efficiency, each of these supervisory relay windings is shunted by a non-inductive resistance. in practice the supervisory relay windings have each a resistance of about ohms and the shunt around them each a resistance of about ohms. in the third strand of each cord is placed a -volt supervisory lamp, and in series with it a resistance of about ohms. each supervisory relay is adapted, when energized, to close a -ohm shunt about its supervisory lamp. the arrangement and proportion of these resistances is such that when a plug is inserted into the jack of a line the lamp will receive current from a circuit traced from the negative pole of the battery in the center of the cord circuit through the lamp and the -ohm series resistance, through the third strand of the cord to the test thimble of the jack, and thence to the positive or grounded pole of the battery through the third conductor in the multiple and the winding of the cut-off relay. this current always flows as long as the plug is inserted, and it is just sufficient to illuminate the lamp when the supervisory relay armature is not attracted. when, however, the supervisory relay armature is attracted, the shunting of the lamp by the -ohm resistance cuts down the current to such a degree as to prevent the illumination of the lamp, although some current still flows through it. the usual ringing and listening key is associated with the calling plug, and in some cases a ring-back key is associated with the answering plug, but this is not standard practice. _operation._ the operation of this cord circuit in conjunction with the line circuit of fig. may best be understood by reference to fig. . this figure employs a little different arrangement of the line circuit in order more clearly to indicate how the two lines may be connected by a cord; a study of the two line circuits, however, will show that they are identical in actual connections. it is to be remembered that all of the battery symbols shown in this figure represent in reality the same battery, separate symbols being shown for greater simplicity in circuit connections. we will assume the subscriber at station _a_ calls for the subscriber at station _b_. the operation of the line relay and the consequent lighting of the line lamp, and also the operation of the pilot relay will be obvious from what has been stated. the response of the operator by inserting the answering plug into the answering jack, and the throwing of her listening key so as to bridge her talking circuit across the cord in order to place herself in communication with the subscriber, is also obvious. the insertion of the answering plug into the answering jack completed the circuit through the third strand of the cord and the winding of the cut-off relay of the calling line, and this accomplishes three desirable results. the circuit so completed may be traced from the negative or ungrounded side of the battery to the center portion of the cord circuit, thence through the supervisory lamp _ _, resistance _ _, to the third conductor on the plug, test thimble on the jack, thence through the winding of the cut-off relay to ground, which forms the other terminal of the battery. the results accomplished by the closing of this circuit are: first, the energizing of the cut-off relay to cut off the signaling portion of the line; second, the flowing of current through the lamp that is almost sufficient to illuminate it, but not quite so because of the closure of the shunt about it, for the reason that will be described; third, the raising of the potential of all the contact thimbles on the jacks from zero to a potential different from that of the ground and equal in amount to the fall of potential through the winding of the cut-off relay. a condition is thus established at the test rings such that some other operator at some other section in testing the line will find it busy and will not connect with it. [illustration: fig. . western electric no. board] the reason why the lamp _ _, connected with the answering plug, was not lighted was that the supervisory relay _ _, associated with the answering plug, became energized when the operator plugged in, due to the flow of current from the battery through the calling subscriber's talking apparatus, this flow of current being permitted by the removal of the calling subscriber's receiver from its hook. the energizing of this relay magnet by causing the attraction of its armature, closed the shunt about the lamp _ _, which shunt contains the -ohm resistance _ _, and thus prevents the lamp from receiving enough current to illuminate it. obviously, as soon as the calling subscriber replaces his receiver on its hook, the supervisory relay _ _ will be de-energized, the shunt around the lamp will be broken, and the lamp will be illuminated to indicate to the operator the fact that the subscriber with whose line her calling plug is connected has replaced his receiver on its hook. _testing--called line idle._ having now shown how the operator connects with the calling subscriber's line and how that line automatically becomes guarded as soon as it is connected with, so that no other operator will connect with it, we will discuss how the operator tests the called line and subsequently connects with that line, if it is found proper to do so. if, on making the test with one of the multiple jacks of the line leading to station _b_, that line is idle and free to be connected with, its test rings will all be at zero potential because of the fact that they are connected with ground through the cut-off relay winding with no source of current connected with them. the tip of the calling plug will also be at zero potential in making this test, because it is connected to ground through the tip side of the calling-plug circuit and one winding of the cord-circuit repeating coil. as a result no flow of current will occur, the operator will receive no click, and she will know that she is free to connect with the line. as soon as she does so, by inserting the plug, the third strand of the cord will be connected with the test thimble of the calling line and the resulting flow of current will bring about three results, two of which are the same, and one of which is slightly different from those described as resulting from the insertion of the answering plug into the jack of the calling line. first, the cut-off relay will be operated and cut off the line signaling apparatus from the called line; second, a flow of current will result through the calling supervisory lamp _ _, which in this case will be sufficient to illuminate that lamp for the reason that the called subscriber has not yet responded, the calling supervisory relay _ _ has, therefore, not yet been energized, and the lamp has not, therefore, been shunted by its associated resistance _ _; third, the test thimbles of the called line will be raised to a potential above that of the earth, and thus the line will be guarded against connection at another section of the switchboard. as soon as the called subscriber responds to the ringing current sent out by the operator, current will flow over the cord circuit and over his line through his transmitter. this will cause the calling supervisory relay to be energized and the calling lamp to be extinguished. both lamps _ _ and _ _ remain extinguished as long as the connected subscribers are in conversation, but as soon as either one of them hangs up his receiver the corresponding lamp will be lighted, due to the de-energization of the supervisory relay and the breaking of the shunt around the lamp. the lighting of both lamps associated with a cord circuit is a signal to the operator for disconnection. [illustration: terminal room in medium-sized manual office relay rack at right. this employs the kellogg parallel arrangement of frames.] _testing--called line busy._ if we now assume that the called line was already busy, by virtue of being connected with at another section, the test rings of that line would accordingly all be raised to a potential above that of the earth. as a result, when the operator applied the tip of her calling plug to a test thimble on that line, current would flow from this test thimble through the tip of the calling plug and tip strand of the cord and through one winding of the cord-circuit repeating coil to ground. this would cause a slight raising of potential of the entire tip side of the cord circuit and a consequent momentary flow of current through the secondary of the operator's circuit bridged across the cord circuit at that time. _operator's circuit details._ the details of the operator's talking circuit shown in fig. deserve some attention. the battery supply to the operator's transmitter is through an impedance coil _ _. the condenser _ _ is bridged around the transmitter and the two primary windings _ _ and _ _, which windings are in parallel so as to afford a local circuit for the passage of fluctuating currents set up by the transmitter. the two primary windings _ _ and _ _ are on separate induction coils, the secondary windings _ _ and _ _ being, therefore, on separate cores. the winding _ _, in circuit with the secondary winding _ _ and the receiver, is a non-inductive winding and is supposed to have a resistance about equal to the effective resistance to fluctuating currents of a subscriber's line of average length. owing to the respective directions of the primary and secondary windings _ _ and _ _, _ _ and _ _, the result is that the outgoing currents set up by the operator's transmitter are largely neutralized in the operator's receiver. incoming currents from either of the connected subscribers, however, pass, in the main, through the secondary coil _ _ and the operator's receiver, rather than through the shunt path formed by the secondary _ _, and the non-inductive resistance _ _. this is known as an "anti-side tone" arrangement, and its object is to prevent the operator from receiving her own voice transmission so loudly as to make her ear insensitive to the feebler voice currents coming in from the subscribers. _order-wire circuits._ the two keys _ _ and _ _, shown in connection with the operator's talking circuit in fig. , play no part in the regular operation of connecting two local lines, as described above. they are order-wire keys, and the circuits with which they connect lead to the telephone sets of other operators at distant central offices, and by pressing either one of these keys the operator is enabled to place herself in communication over these so-called order-wire circuits with such other operators. the function and mode of operation of these order-wire circuits will be described in the next chapter, wherein inter-office connections will be discussed. _wiring of line circuit._ the line circuits shown in figs. and are, as stated, simplified to facilitate understanding, although the connections shown are those which actually exist. the more complete wiring of a single line circuit is shown in fig. . the line wires are shown entering at the left. they pass immediately, upon entering the central office, through the main distributing frame, the functions and construction of which will be considered in detail in a subsequent chapter. the dotted portions of the circuit shown in connection with this main distributing frame indicate the path from the terminals on one side of the frame to those on the other through so-called jumper wires. the two limbs of the line then pass to terminals _ _ and _ _ on one side of the so-called intermediate distributing frame. here the circuit of each limb of the line divides, passing, on the one hand, to the tip and sleeve springs of all the multiple jacks belonging to that line; and, on the other hand, through the jumper wires indicated by dotted lines on the intermediate distributing frame, and thence to the tip and ring contacts of the answering jack. a consideration of this connection will show that the actual electrical connections so far as already described are exactly those of figs. and , although those figures omitted the main and intermediate distributing frames. only two limbs of the line are involved in the main frame. in the intermediate frame the test wire running through the multiple is also involved. this test wire, it will be seen, leads from the test thimbles of all the multiple jacks to the terminal _ _ on the intermediate frame, thence through the jumper wire to the terminal _ _ of this frame, and to the test thimble of the answering jack. here again the electrical connections are exactly those represented in figs. and , although those figures do not show the intermediate frame. the two terminals _ _ and _ _ of the intermediate frame, besides being connected to the tip and sleeve springs of the answering jack, are connected to the contacts of the cut-off relay, and thence through the coils of the line relay to ground on one side and to battery on the other. thus the line relay and battery are normally included in the circuit of the line. the contact _ _ on the intermediate distributing frame, besides being connected to the test thimble of all the jacks, is connected through the coil of the cut-off relay to ground, thus establishing a path by which current is supplied to the cut-off relay when connection is made to the line at any jack. there is another contact _ _ on the intermediate distributing frame which merely forms a terminal for joining one side of the line lamp to the back contact of the line relay. _functions of distributing frames._ since the line circuit thus far described in connection with fig. is exactly the same as that of fig. in its electrical connections, it becomes obvious that the main and intermediate distributing frames play no part in the operation of the circuit any more than a binding post of a telephone plays a part in its operation. these frames carry terminals for facilitating the connection of the various wires in the line circuit and, as will be shown later, for facilitating certain changes in the line connection. [illustration: fig. . line circuit no. board] remembering that the dotted lines in fig. indicate jumper wires of the main and intermediate distributing frames, and that these are in the nature of temporary or readily changeable connections, and that the full lines, whether heavy or light, are permanent connections not readily changeable, it will be seen that the wires leading through the multiple jacks of a certain line are permanently associated with each other, and with certain terminals on the main distributing frame and certain other terminals on the intermediate distributing frame. it will also be seen that the line lamp and the answering jack, together with the cut-off relay and line relay, are permanently associated with each other and with another group of terminals _ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _ on the intermediate distributing frame. it will also be apparent that by changing the jumper wires on the main frame, any outside line may be connected with any different set of line switchboard equipment, and also that by making changes in the jumper wires on the intermediate frame, any given answering jack and line lamp with its associated line cut-off relay may be associated with any set of multiple jacks. _pilot signals._ in a portion of the circuit leading from the battery that is common to a group of line lamps is the winding of the pilot relay, which is common to this group of line lamps. this controls, as already described, the circuit of the pilot lamp common to the same group of line lamps. in addition, a night-bell circuit is sometimes provided, this usually being in the form of an ordinary polarized ringer, the circuit of which is controlled by a night-bell relay common to the entire office. normally, this relay is shunted out of the circuit of the common portion of the lead to the pilot relay contacts by the key _ _, but when the key _ _ is opened all current that is fed to the pilot lamps passes through the night-bell relay, and thus, whenever any pilot lamp is lighted, the night-bell relay will attract its armature and thus close the circuit of the calling generator through the night bell. a study of this figure will make clear to the student how the portions of the circuit that are individual to the line are associated with such things as the battery, that are common to the entire office, and such as the pilot relay and lamp, that are common to a group of lines terminating in one position. _modified relay windings._ in some cases, the line relay instead of being double wound, as shown, is made with a single winding, this winding being normally included between the ring side of the cut-off relay and the battery, the tip side of the cut-off relay being run direct to ground. the present practice of the western electric company is towards the double-wound relay, however, and that is considered standard in all of their large no. multiple boards, except where the customer, owing to special reasons, demands a single wound relay on the ring side of the line. the prime reason for the two-winding line relay is the lessened click in the calling-subscriber's receiver which occurs when the operator answers. all line relays prior to were single-wound, but after that they were made double and used some turns of resistance wire to limit the normal calling current. _relay mounting._ in the standard no. relay board of the western electric company and, in fact, in nearly all common-battery multiple boards that are manufactured by other companies, the line and cut-off relays are mounted on separate racks outside the switchboard room and adjacent to the main and intermediate distributing frames, the wiring being extended from the relays to the jacks and lamps on the switchboard proper by means of suitable cables. the western electric company has recently instituted a departure from this practice in the case of some of their smaller no. switchboard installations. where it is thought that the ultimate capacity required by the board will not be above , lines, the relay rack is dispensed with and all of the line and cut-off relays, as well as the supervisory relays, are mounted in the rear of the switchboard frame. for this purpose the line and cut-off relays are specially made with the view to securing the utmost compactness. in still other cases, in switchboards of relatively small ultimate capacity, they use this small line and cut-off relay mounted on a separate relay rack, in which case the board is the standard no. board except for the type of relays. in all of these modifications of the no. board adapted for the use of the smaller and cheaper relays, the line relay has but a single winding, the small size of the relay winding not lending itself readily to double winding with the added necessary coil terminals. _capacity range._ the no. western electric board is made in standard sizes up to an ultimate capacity of , lines. for all capacities above , lines, a / -inch jack, vertical and horizontal face dimensions, is employed. for this capacity the smaller types of cut-off and line relays are not employed. up to ultimate capacities of , lines, / -inch jacks are employed, and either the small or the large relays mounted on a separate rack are available. up to , lines ultimate capacity, the / -inch jack is employed, and either the small or the large cut-off and line relays are available, but in case the small type is used the purchaser has the option of mounting them on a separate relay rack, as in ordinary practice, or mounting them in the switchboard cabinet and dispensing with the relay rack. =western electric no. board.= the no. common-battery multiple switchboard, regardless of its size and type of arrangement of line and cut-off relays, involves two relays for each line, the line relay energized by the taking of the receiver off its hook, and the cut-off relay energized by the act of the operator on plugging in and serving to remove the line relay from the circuit whenever and as long as a plug is inserted into any jack of the line. this seems to involve a considerable expense in relays, but this, as has been stated, is warranted by the greater simplicity in jacks which the use of the cut-off relay makes possible. in addition to this expense of investment in the line and cut-off relays, the amount of current required to hold up the cut-off relays during conversations foots up to a considerable item of expense, particularly as the system of supervisory signals is one in which the supervisory lamp takes current not only while burning, but its circuit takes even more current when the lamp is extinguished during the time of a connection. for all of these reasons, and some other minor ones, it was deemed expedient by the engineers of the western electric company to design a common-battery multiple switchboard for small and medium-sized exchanges in which certain sacrifices might be made to the end of accomplishing certain savings. the result has been a type of switchboard, designated the no. , which may be found in a number of bell exchanges, it being considered particularly adaptable to installations of from to , lines. although this board has been subject to a good deal of adverse criticism, and although it seems probable that even for the cheaper boards the no. type with some of the modifications just described will eventually supersede this no. board, yet the present extent of use of the no. board and the instructive features which its type displays warrant its discussion here. _circuits._ the circuits of this switchboard are shown in fig. , this indicating two-line circuits and a connecting cord circuit, together with the auxiliary apparatus employed in connection with the operator's telephone circuit, the pilot and night alarm circuits. the most noticeable feature is that cut-off jacks are employed, the circuit of the line normally extending through the sets of jack springs in the multiple, and answering jacks to the line relay and battery on one side of the line, and to ground on the other side. obviously, the additional complexity of the jack saves the use of a cut-off relay and the relay equipment of each line consists, therefore, of but a single line relay, which controls the lamp in an obvious manner. [illustration: fig. . western electric no. board] the cord circuit is of the three-conductor type, the two talking strands extending to the usual split repeating-coil arrangement, and battery current for talking purposes being fed through these windings as in the standard no. board. the supervisory relay is included in the ring strand of the cord circuit and is shunted by a non-inductive resistance, so that its impedance will not interfere with the talking currents. the armature of the supervisory relay closes the lamp contact on its back stroke, so that the lamp is always held extinguished when the relay is energized. the supervisory lamp is included in a connection between the back contact of the supervisory relay and ground, this connection including the central-office battery. as a result, the illumination of the supervisory lamp is impossible until a plug has been inserted into a jack, in which case, assuming the supervisory relay to be de-energized, the lamp circuit is completed through the wire connecting all of the test thimbles and the resistance permanently bridged to ground from that wire. _test._ for purposes of the test it is evident that the test rings of an idle line are always at ground potential, due to their connection to ground through the resistance coil. it is also evident that the tip of an unused calling plug will always be at ground potential and, therefore, that the testing of an idle line will result in no click in the operator's receiver. when a line is switched, however, the potential of all the test rings will be raised due to their being connected with the live pole of the battery through the third strand of the cord. when the operator in testing touches the test contact of the jack of a busy line, a current will, therefore, flow from this test contact to the tip strand of the cord and thence to ground through one of the repeating coil windings. the potential of the tip side of the cord will, therefore, be momentarily altered, and this will result in a click in the operator's receiver bridged across the cord circuit at the time. the details of the operator's cord circuit and of the pilot lamp and night alarm circuits will be clear from the diagram. _operation._ a brief summary of the operation of this system is as follows: the subscriber removes his receiver from its hook, thus drawing up the armature of the line relay and lighting his line lamp. the operator answers. the line lamp is extinguished by the falling back of the line-relay armature, due to the breaking of the relay circuit at the jack contacts. the subscriber then receives current for his transmitter through the cord-circuit battery connections. the supervisory relay connected with the answering cord is not lighted, because, although the lamp-circuit connection is completed at the jack, the supervisory relay is operated to hold the lamp circuit open. conversation ensues between the operator and the subscriber, after which the operator tests the line called for with the tip of the calling plug of the pair used in answering. if the called line is not busy, no click will ensue, because both the tested ring and the calling plug are at the same potential. finding no click, the operator will insert the plug and ring by means of the ringing key. when the operator plugs in, the supervisory lamp, associated with the calling plug, becomes lighted because the circuit is completed at the jack and the supervisory relay remains de-energized, since the line circuit is open at the subscriber's station. when the called subscriber responds, the calling supervisory lamp goes out because of the energization of the supervisory relay. both lamps remain out during the conversation, but when either subscriber hangs up, the corresponding supervisory lamp will be lighted because of the falling back of the supervisory relay armature. if the called line is busy, a click will be heard, for the reason described, and the operator will so inform the calling subscriber. it goes without saying, that in any multiple-switchboard system a plug may be found in the actual multiple jack that is reached for, in which case, although no test will be made, the busy condition will be reported back to the calling subscriber. _economy._ it has been the belief of the western electric engineers that a real economy is accomplished in this type of board by the saving in relay equipment. it is, of course, apparent at a glance that with a switchboard long enough and of sections enough, the cost of extra jack springs and their platinum contacts must become great enough to offset the saving accomplished by omitting the cut-off relay. this makes it apparent that if there is any economy in this type of multiple switchboard, it must be found in the very small boards where there are but few jacks per line and where the extra cost of the cut-off jack is not enough to offset the extra cost of an added relay. it is the growing belief, however, among engineers, that the multiple switchboard must be very small indeed in order that the added complexity of the cut-off jacks and wiring may be able to save anything over the two-relay type of line; and it is believed that where economy is necessary in small boards, it may be best effected by employing cheaper and more compact forms of relays and mounting them, if necessary, directly in the switchboard cabinet. note. these two standard types of common-battery multiple switchboards of the western electric company represent the development through long years of careful work on the part of the western electric and bell engineers, credit being particularly due to scribner, mcberty, and mcquarrie of the western electric company, and hayes of the american telephone and telegraph company. =kellogg two-wire multiple board.= the simplicity in the jacks permitted by the use of the cut-off relay in the western electric common-battery multiple switchboard for larger exchanges was carried a step further by dunbar and miller in the development of the so-called two-wire common-battery multiple switchboard, which for many years has been the standard of the kellogg switchboard and supply company. the particular condition which led to the development of the two-wire system was the demand at that time on the kellogg company for certain very large multiple switchboards, involving as many as , lines in the multiple. obviously, this necessitated a small jack, and obviously a jack having only two contacts, a tip spring and a sleeve, could be made more easily and with greater durability of this very small size than a jack requiring three or more contacts. other reasons that were considered were, of course, cheapness in cost of construction and extreme simplicity, which, other things being equal, lends itself to low cost of maintenance. _line circuit._ like the standard western electric board for large offices, the kellogg two-wire board employs two relays for each line, the line relay under the control of the subscriber and in turn controlling the lamp, and a cut-off relay under the control of the operator and in turn controlling the connection of the line relay with the line. the line circuit as originally developed and as widely used by the kellogg company is shown in fig. . the extreme simplicity of the jacks is apparent, as is also the fact that but two wires lead through the multiple. another distinguishing feature is, that all of the multiple and answering jacks are normally cut off from the line at the cut-off relay, but when the cut-off relay operates it serves, in addition to cutting off the line relay, to attach the two limbs of the line to the two wires leading through the multiple and answering jacks. the control of the line relay by the subscriber's switch hook is clear from the figure. the control of the cut-off relay is secured by attaching one terminal of the cut-off relay winding permanently to that wire leading through the multiple which connects with the sleeve contacts of the jack, the other terminal of the cut-off relay being grounded. the way in which this relay is operated will be understood when it is stated that the sleeve contacts of both the answering and calling plugs always carry full battery potential and, therefore, whenever any plug is inserted into any jack, current flows from the sleeve of the jack through the sleeve contact of the jack to ground, through the winding of the cut-off relay, which relay becomes energized and performs the functions just stated. it is seen that the wire running through the multiple to which the sleeve jack contacts are attached, is thus made to serve the double purpose of answering as one side of the talking circuit, and also of performing the functions carried out by the separate or third wire in the three-wire system. it will be shown also that, in addition, this wire is made to lend itself to the purposes of the busy test without any of these functions interfering with each other in any way. [illustration: fig. . two-wire line circuit] _cord circuit._ the cord circuit in somewhat simplified form is shown in fig. . here again there are but two conductors to the plugs and two strands to the cords. this greater simplicity is in some measure offset by the fact that four relays are required, two for each plug. this so-called four-relay cord circuit may be most readily understood by considering half of it at a time, since the two relays associated with the answering plug act in exactly the same way as those connected with the calling plug. [illustration: fig. . two-wire cord circuit] associated with each plug of a pair are two relays _ _ and _ _, in the case of the answering cord, and _ _ and _ _ in the case of the calling cord. the coils of the relays _ _ and _ _ are connected in series and bridged across the answering cord, a battery being included between the coils in this circuit. the coils of the relays _ _ and _ _ are similarly connected across the calling cord. a peculiar feature of the kellogg system is that two batteries are used in connection with the cord circuit, one of them being common to all answering cords and the other to all calling cords. the operation of the system would, however, be exactly the same if a single battery were substituted for the two. _supervisory signals._ considering the relays associated with the answering cord, it is obvious that these two relays _ _ and _ _ together control the circuit of the supervisory lamp _ _, the circuit of this lamp being closed only when the relay _ _ is de-energized and the relay _ _ is energized. we will find in discussing the operation of these that the relay _ _ is wholly under the control of the operator, and that the relay _ _, after its plug has been connected with a line, is wholly under the control of the subscriber on that line. it is through the windings of these two relays that current is fed to the line of the subscriber connected with the corresponding cord. when a plug--the answering plug, for instance--is inserted into a jack, current at once flows from the positive pole of the left-hand battery through the winding of the relay _ _ to the sleeve of the plug, thence to the sleeve of the jack and through the cut-off relay to ground. this at once energizes the supervisory relay _ _ and the cut-off relay associated with the line. the cut-off relay acts, as stated, to continue the tip and sleeve wires associated with the jacks to the line leading to the subscriber, and also to cut off the line relay. the supervisory relay _ _ acts at the same time to attract its armature and thus complete its part in closing the circuit of the supervisory lamp. whether or not the lamp will be lighted at this time depends on whether the relay _ _ is energized or not, and this, it will be seen, depends on whether the subscriber's receiver is off or on its hook. if off its hook, current will flow through the metallic circuit of the line for energizing the subscriber's transmitter, and as whatever current goes to the subscriber's line must flow through the relay _ _, that relay will be energized and prevent the lighting of the supervisory lamp _ _. if, on the other hand, the subscriber's receiver is on its hook, no current will flow through the line, the supervisory relay will not be energized, and the lamp _ _ will be lighted. in a nutshell, the sleeve supervisory relay normally prevents the lighting of the corresponding supervisory lamp, but as soon as the operator inserts a plug into the jack of the line, the relay _ _ establishes such a condition as to make possible the lighting of the supervisory lamp, and the lighting of this lamp is then controlled entirely by the relay _ _, which is, in turn, controlled by the position of the subscriber's switch hook. _battery feed._ a -microfarad condenser is included in each strand of the cord, and battery is fed through the relay windings to the calling and called subscribers on opposite sides of these condensers, in accordance with the combined impedance coil and condenser method described in chapter xiii. here the relay windings do double duty, serving as magnets for operating the relays and as retardation coils in the system of battery supply. _complete cord and line circuits._ the complete cord and line circuits of the kellogg two-wire system are shown in fig. . in the more recent installations of the kellogg company the cord and line circuits have been slightly changed from those shown in figs. and , and these changes have been incorporated in fig. . the principles of operation described in connection with the simplified figures remain, however, exactly the same. one of the changes is, that the tip side of the lines is permanently connected to the tips of the jacks instead of being normally cut off by the cut-off relay, as was done in the system as originally developed. another change is, that the line relay is associated with the tip side of the line, rather than with the sleeve side, as was formerly done. the cord circuit shown in fig. shows exactly the same arrangement of supervisory relays and exactly the same method of battery feed as in the simplified cord circuit of fig. , but in addition to this the detailed connections of the operator's talking set and of her order-wire keys are indicated, and also the ringing equipment is indicated as being adapted for four-party harmonic work. [illustration: fig. . kellogg two-wire board] in connection with this ringing key it may be stated that the springs _ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _ are individually operated by the pressure of one of the ringing key buttons, while the spring _ _, connected with the sleeve side of the calling plug, is always operated simultaneously with the operation of any one of the other springs. as a result the proper ringing circuit is established, it being understood that the upper contacts of the springs _ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _ lead to the terminals of their respective ringing generators, the other terminals of which are grounded. the circuit is, therefore, from the generator, through the ringing key, out through the tip side of the line, back over the sleeve side of the line, and to ground through the spring _ _, resistance _ _, and the battery, which is one of the cord-circuit batteries. the object of this coil _ _ and the battery connection through it to the ringing-key spring is to prevent the falling back of the cut-off relay when the ringing key is operated. this will be clear when it is remembered that the cut-off relay is energized by battery current fed over the sleeve strand of the cord, and obviously, since it is necessary when the ringing key is operated to cut off the supply wire back of the key, this would de-energize the cut-off relay when the ringing key was depressed, and the falling back of the cut-off relay contacts would make it impossible to ring because the sleeve side of the line would be cut off. the battery supply through the resistance _ _ is, therefore, substituted on the sleeve strand of the cord for the battery supply through the normal connection. _busy test._ the busy test depends on all of the test rings being at zero potential on an idle line and at a higher potential on a busy line. obviously, when the line is not switched, the test rings are at zero potential on account of a ground through the cut-off relay. when, however, a plug is inserted in either the answering or multiple jacks, the test rings will all be raised in potential due to being connected with the live side of the battery through the sleeve strand of the cord. conditions on the line external to the central office cannot make an idle line test busy because, owing to the presence of the cut-off relay, the sleeve contacts of all the jacks are disconnected from the line when it is idle. the test circuit from the tip of the calling plug to ground at the operator's set passes through the tip strand of the cord, thence through a pair of normally closed extra contacts on the supervisory relay _ _, thence in series through all the ringing key springs _ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _, thence through an extra pair of springs _ _ and _ _ on the listening key--closed only when the listening key is operated--and thence to ground through a retardation coil _ _. no battery or other source of potential exists in this circuit between ground and the tip of the calling plug and, therefore, the tip is normally at ground potential. the sleeve ring of the jack being at ground potential if the line is idle, no current will flow and no click will be produced in testing such a line. if, however, the line is busy, the test ring will be at a higher potential and, therefore, current will flow from the tip of the calling plug to ground over the path just traced, and this will cause a rise in potential at the terminal of the condenser _ _ and a momentary flow of current through the tertiary winding _ _ of the operator's induction coil; hence the click. [illustration: switch room of citizens' telephone company, grand rapids, mich. one of the earliest large automatic offices.] obviously the testing circuit from the tip of the calling plug to ground at the operator's set is only useful during the time when the calling plug is not in a jack, and as the tip strand of the calling plug has to do double duty in testing and in serving as a part of the talking circuit, the arrangement is made that the testing circuit will be automatically broken and the talking circuit through the tip strand automatically completed when the plug is inserted into a jack in establishing a connection. this is accomplished by means of the extra contact on the relay _ _, which relay, it will be remembered, is held energized when its corresponding plug is inserted in a jack. during the time when the plug is not inserted, this relay is not energized and the test circuit is completed through the back contact of its right-hand armature. when connection is made at the jack, this relay becomes energized and the tip strand of the cord circuit is made complete by the right-hand lever being pulled against the front contact of this relay. the keys shown to the right of the operator's set are order-wire keys. _summary of operation._ we may give a brief summary of the operation of this system as shown in fig. . the left-hand station calls and the line relay pulls up, lighting the lamp. the operator inserts an answering plug in the answering jack, thus energizing the cut-off relay which operates to cut off the line relay and to complete the connection between the jacks and the external line. the act of plugging in by the operator also raises the potential of all the test rings so as to guard the line against intrusion by other callers. the supervisory lamp _ _ remains unlighted because, although the relay _ _ is operated, the relay _ _ is also operated, due to the calling subscriber's receiver being off its hook. the operator throws her listening key, communicates with the subscriber, and, learning that the right-hand station is wanted, proceeds to test that line. if the line is idle, she will get no click, because the tip of her calling plug and the tested ring will be at the same ground potential. she then plugs in and presses the proper ringing-key button to send out the proper frequency to ring the particular subscriber on the line--if there be more than one--the current from the battery through the coil _ _ and spring _ _ serving during this operation to hold up the cut-off relay. as soon as the operator plugs in with the calling plug, the supervisory lamp _ _ lights, assuming that the called subscriber had not already removed his receiver from its hook, due to the fact that the relay _ _ is energized and the relay _ _ is not. as soon as the called subscriber responds, the relay _ _ becomes energized and the supervisory lamp goes out. if the line called for had been busy by virtue of being plugged at another section, the tip of the operator's plug in testing would have found the test ring raised to a potential above the ground, and, as a consequence, current would have flowed from the tip of this plug through the back contact of the right-hand lever of relay _ _, thence through the ringing key springs and the auxiliary listening-key springs to ground through the retardation coil _ _. this would have produced a click by causing a momentary flow of current through the tertiary winding _ _ of the operator's set. _wiring of line circuit._ the more complete wiring diagram of a single subscriber's line, fig. , shows the placing in the circuits of the terminals and jumper wires of the main distributing frame and of the intermediate distributing frame, and also shows how the pilot lamps and night-alarm circuits are associated with a group of lines. the main distributing frame occupies the same relative position in this line circuit as in the western electric, being located in the main line circuit outside of all the switchboard apparatus. the intermediate distributing frame occupies a different relative position from that in the western electric line. it will be recalled by reference to fig. that the line lamp and the answering jack were permanently associated with the line and cut-off relays, such mutations of arrangement as were possible at the intermediate distributing frame serving only to vary the connection between the multiple of a line and one of the various groups of apparatus consisting of an answering jack and line lamp and associated relays. in the kellogg arrangement, fig. , the line and cut-off relays, instead of being permanently associated with the answering jack and line lamp, are permanently associated with the multiple jacks, no changes, of which the intermediate or main frames are capable, being able to alter the relation between a group of multiple jacks and its associated line and cut-off relays. in this kellogg arrangement the intermediate distributing frame may only alter the connection of an answering jack and line lamp with the multiple and its permanently associated relays. the pilot and night alarm arrangements of fig. should be obvious from the description already given of other similar systems. [illustration: fig. . kellogg two-wire line circuit] =dean multiple board.= in fig. are shown the circuits of the multiple switchboard of the dean electric company. the subscriber's station equipment shown at station _a_ and station _b_ will be recognized as the wheatstone-bridge circuit of the dean company. _line circuit._ the line circuit is easily understood in view of what has been said concerning the western electric line circuit, the line relay _ _ being single wound and between the live side of the battery and the ring side of the line. the cut-off relay _ _ is operated whenever a plug is inserted in a jack and serves to sever the connection of the line with the normal line signaling apparatus. _cord circuit._ the cord circuit is of the four-relay type, but employs three conductors instead of two, as in the two-wire system. the relay _ _, being in series between the battery and the sleeve contact on the plug, is energized whenever a plug is inserted in the jack, its winding being placed in series with the cut-off relay of the line with which the plug is connected. this completes the circuit through the associated supervisory lamp unless the relay _ _ is energized, the local lamp circuit being controlled by the back contact of relay _ _ and the front contact of relay _ _. it is through the two windings of the relay _ _ that current is fed to the subscriber's station, and, therefore, the armature of this relay is responsive to the movements of the subscriber's hook. as the relay _ _ holds the supervisory lamp circuit closed as long as a plug is inserted in a jack of the line, it follows that during a connection the relay _ _ will have entire control of the supervisory lamp. _listening key._ the listening key, as usual, serves to connect the operator's set across the talking strands of the cord circuit, and the action of this in connection with the operator's set needs no further explanation. _ringing keys._ the ringing-key arrangement illustrated is adapted for use with harmonic ringing, the single springs _ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _ each being controlled by a separate button and serving to select the particular frequency that is to be sent to line. the two springs _ _ and _ _ always act to open the cord circuit back of the ringing keys, whenever any one of the selective buttons is depressed, in order to prevent interference by ringing current with the other operations of the circuit. two views of these ringing keys are shown in figs. and . fig. is an end view of the entire set. in fig. the listening key is shown at the extreme right and the four selective buttons at the left. when a button is released it rises far enough to cause the disengagement of the contacts, but remains partially depressed to serve as an indication that it was last used. the group of springs at the extreme left of fig. are the ones represented at _ _ and _ _ in fig. and by the anvils with which those springs co-operate. [illustration: fig. . dean multiple board circuits] _test._ the test in this dean system is simple, and, like the western electric and kellogg systems, it depends on the raising of the potential of the test thimbles of all the line jacks of a line when a connection is made with that line by a plug at any position. when an operator makes a test by applying the tip of the calling plug to the test thimble of a busy line, current passes from the test thimble through the tip strand of the cord to ground through the left-hand winding of the calling supervisory relay _ _. the drop of potential through this winding causes the tip strand of the cord to be raised to a higher potential than it was before, and as a result the upper plate of the condenser _ _ is thus altered in potential and this change in potential across the condenser results in a click in the operator's ear. [illustration: fig. . dean party line ringing key] [illustration: fig. . dean party line ringing key] =stromberg-carlson multiple board.= _line circuit._ in fig. is shown the multiple common-battery switchboard circuits employed by the stromberg-carlson telephone manufacturing company. the subscriber's line circuits shown in this drawing are of the three-wire type and, with the exception of the subscriber's station, are the same as already described for the western electric company's system. _cord circuit._ the cord circuit employed is of the two-conductor type, the plugs being so constructed as to connect the ring and thimble contacts of the jack when inserted. this cord circuit is somewhat similar to that employed by the kellogg switchboard and supply company, shown in fig. , except that only one battery is employed, and that certain functions of this circuit are performed mechanically by the inter-action of the armatures of the relays. _supervisory signals._ when the answering plug is inserted in a jack, in response to a call, the current passing to the subscriber's station and also through the cut-off relay must flow through the relay _ _, thus energizing it. as the calling subscriber's receiver is at this time removed from the hook switch, the path for current will be completed through the tip of the jack, thence through the tip of the plug, through relay _ _ to ground, causing relay _ _ to be operated and to break the circuit of the answering supervisory lamp. the two relays _ _ and _ _ are so associated mechanically that the armature of _ _ controls the armature of _ _ in such a manner as to normally hold the circuit of the answering supervisory lamp open. but, however, when the plug is inserted in a jack, relay _ _ is operated and allows the operation of relay _ _ to be controlled by the hook switch at the subscriber's station. the supervisory relay _ _ associated with the calling cord is operated when the calling plug is placed in a jack, and this relay normally holds the armature of relay _ _ in an operated position in a similar manner as the armature of relay _ _ controlled that of relay _ _. supervisory relay _ _ is under the control of the hook switch at the called subscriber's station. _test._ in this circuit, as in several previously described, when a plug is inserted in a jack of a line, the thimble contacts of the jacks associated with that line are raised to a higher potential than that which they normally have. the operator in testing a busy line, of course having previously moved the listening key to the listening position, closes a path from the test thimble of the jack, through the tip of the calling plug, through the contacts of the relay _ _, the inside springs of the listening key, thence through a winding of the induction coil associated with her set to ground. the circuit thus established allows current to flow from the test thimble of the jack through the winding of her induction coil to ground, causing a click in her telephone receiver. the arrangement of the ringing circuit does not differ materially from that already described for other systems and, therefore, needs no further explanation. [illustration: fig. . stromberg-carlson multiple board circuits] =multiple switchboard apparatus.= coming now to a discussion of the details of apparatus employed in multiple switchboards, it may be stated that much of the apparatus used in the simpler types is capable of doing duty in multiple switchboards, although, of course, modification in detail is often necessary to make the apparatus fit the particular demands of the system in which it is to be used. _jacks._ probably the most important piece of apparatus in the multiple switchboard is the jack, its importance being increased by the fact that such very large numbers of them are sometimes necessary. switchboards having hundreds of thousands of jacks are not uncommon. the multiple jacks are nearly always mounted in strips of twenty and the answering jacks usually in strips of ten, the length of the jack strip being the same in each case in the same board and, therefore, giving twice as wide a spacing in the answering as in the multiple jacks. the distance between centers in the multiple jacks varies from a quarter of an inch--which is perhaps the extreme minimum--to half an inch, beyond which larger limit there seems to be no need of going in any case. it is customary that the jack strip shall be made of the same total thickness as the distance between the centers of two of its jacks, and from this it follows that the strips when piled one upon the other give the same vertical distance between jack centers as the horizontal distance. in fig. is shown a strip of multiple and a strip of answering jacks of western electric make, this being the type employed in the no. standard switchboards for large exchanges. in fig. are shown the multiple and answering jacks employed in the no. western electric switchboard. the multiple jacks in the no. switchboard are mounted on / -inch centers, the jacks having three branch terminal contacts. the multiple jacks of the no. switchboard indicated in fig. are mounted on / -inch centers, each jack having five contacts as indicated by the requirement of the circuits in fig. . in fig. are shown the answering and multiple jacks of the kellogg switchboard and supply company's two-wire system. the extreme simplicity of these is particularly well shown in the cut of the answering jack, and these figures also show clearly the customary method of numbering jacks. in very large multiple boards it has been the practice of the kellogg company to space the multiple jacks on / -inch centers, and in their smaller multiple work, they employ the / -inch spacing. with the / -inch spacing that company has been able to build boards having a capacity of , lines, that many jacks being placed within the reach of each operator. in all modern multiple switchboards the test thimble or sleeve contacts are drawn up from sheet brass or german silver into tubular form and inserted in properly spaced borings in strips of hard rubber forming the faces of the jacks. these strips sometimes are reinforced by brass strips on their under sides. the springs forming the other terminals of the jack are mounted in milled slots in another strip of hard rubber mounted in the rear of and parallel to the front strip and rigidly attached thereto by a suitable metal framework. in this way desired rigidity and high insulation between the various parts is secured. [illustration: fig. . answering and multiple jacks for no. board] _lamp jacks._ the lamp jacks employed in multiple work need no further description in view of what has been said in connection with lamp jacks for simple common-battery boards. the lamp jack spacing is always the same as the answering jack spacing, so that the lamps will come in the same vertical alignment as their corresponding answering jacks when the lamp strips and answering jack strips are mounted in alternate layers. [illustration: fig. . answering and multiple jacks for no. board] [illustration: fig. . answering and multiple jacks for kellogg two-wire board] _relays._ next in order of importance in the matter of individual parts for multiple switchboards is the relay. the necessity for reliability of action in these is apparent, and this means that they must not only be well constructed, but that they must be protected from dust and moisture and must have contact points of such a nature as not to corrode even in the presence of considerable sparking and of the most adverse atmospheric conditions. economy of space is also a factor and has led to the almost universal adoption of the single-magnet type of relay for line and cut-off as well as supervisory purposes. [illustration: fig. . type of line relay] [illustration: fig. . type of cut-off relay] the western electric company employs different types of relays for line, cut-off, and supervisory purposes. this is contrary to the practice of most of the other companies who make the same general type of relay serve for all of these purposes. a good idea of the type of western electric line relay, as employed in its no. board, may be had from fig. . as is seen this is of the tilting armature type, the armature rocking back and forth on a knife-edge contact at its base, the part on which it rests being of iron and of such form as to practically complete, with the armature and core, the magnetic circuit. the cut-off relay, fig. , is of an entirely different type. the armature in this is loosely suspended by means of a flexible spring underneath two l-shaped polar extensions, one extending up from the rear end of the core and the other from the front end. when energized this armature is pulled away from the core by these l-shaped pieces and imparts its motion through a hard-rubber pin to the upper pair of springs so as to effect the necessary changes in the circuit. [illustration: fig. . western electric combined line and cut-off relay] [illustration: fig. . western electric supervisory relay] [illustration: fig. . line relay no. board] much economy in space and in wiring is secured in the type of switchboards employing cut-off as well as line relays by mounting the two relays together and in making of them, in fact, a unitary piece of apparatus. since the line relay is always associated with the cut-off relay of the same line and with no other, it is obvious that this unitary arrangement effects a great saving in wiring and also secures a great advantage in the matter of convenience of inspection. such a combined cut-off and line relay, employed in the western electric no. relay board, is shown in fig. . these are mounted in banks of ten pairs, a common dust cap of sheet iron covering the entire group. the western electric supervisory relay, fig. , is of the tilting armature type and is copper clad. the dust cap in this case fits on with a bayonet joint as clearly indicated. in fig. is shown the line relay employed in the western electric no. board. [illustration: fig. . kellogg line and cut-off relays] [illustration: fig. . strip of kellogg line and cut-off relays] the kellogg company employs the type of relay of which the magnetic circuit was illustrated in fig. . in its multiple boards it commonly mounts the line and cut-off relays together, as shown in fig. . a single, soft iron shell is used to cover both of these, thus serving as a dust shield and also as a magnetic shield to prevent cross-talk between adjacent relays--an important feature, since it will be remembered the cut-off relays are left permanently connected with the talking circuit. fig. , which shows a strip of twenty such pairs of relays, from five of which the covers have been removed, is an excellent detail view of the general practice in this respect; obviously, a very large number of such relays may be mounted in a comparatively small space. the mounting strip shown in this cut is of heavy rolled iron and is provided with openings through which the connection terminals--shown more clearly in fig. --project. on the back of this mounting strip all the wiring is done and much of this wiring--that connecting adjacent terminals on the back of the relay strip--is made by means of thin copper wires without insulation, the wires being so short as to support themselves without danger of crossing with other wires. when these wires are adjacent to ground or battery wires they may be protected by sleeving, so as to prevent crosses. [illustration: fig. . monarch relay] an interesting feature in relay construction is found in the relay of the monarch telephone manufacturing company shown in figs. and . the assembled relay and its mounting strip and cap are shown in fig. . this relay is so constructed that by the lifting of a single latch not only the armature but the coil may be bodily removed, as shown in fig. , in which the latch is shown in its raised position. as seen, the armature has an l-shaped projection which serves to operate the contact springs lying on the iron plate above the coil. the simplicity of this device is attractive, and it is of convenience not only from the standpoint of easy repairs but also from the standpoint of factory assembly, since by manufacturing standard coils with different characters of windings and standard groups of springs, it is possible to produce without special manufacture almost any combination of relay. [illustration: fig. . monarch relay] =assembly.= the arrangement of the key and jack equipment in complete multiple switchboard sections is clearly shown in fig. , which shows a single three-position section of one of the small multiple switchboards of the kellogg switchboard and supply company. the arrangement of keys and plugs on the key shelf is substantially the same as in simple common-battery boards. as in the simple switchboards the supervisory lamps are usually mounted on the hinged key shelf immediately in the rear of the listening and ringing keys and with such spacing as to lie immediately in front of the plugs to which they correspond. the reason for mounting the supervisory lamps on the key shelf is to make them easy of access in case of the necessity of lamp renewals or repairs on the wiring. the space at the bottom of the vertical panels, containing the jacks, is left blank, as this space is obstructed by the standing plugs in front of it. above the plugs, however, are seen the alternate strips of line lamps and answering jacks, the lamps in each case being directly below the corresponding answering jacks. above the line lamps and answering jacks in the two positions at the right there are blank strips into which additional line lamps and jacks may be placed in case the future needs of the system demand it. the space above these is the multiple jack space, and it is evident from the small number of multiple jacks in this little switchboard that the present equipment of the board is small. it is also evident from the amount of blank space left for future installations of multiple jacks that a considerable growth is expected. thus, while there are but four banks of multiple jacks, or in all, there is room in the multiple for banks of multiple jacks, or , in all. the method of grouping the jacks in banks of and of providing for their future growth is clearly indicated in this figure. the next section at the right of the one shown would contain a duplicate set of multiple jacks and also an additional equipment of answering jacks and lamps. [illustration: a multiple manual switching board for toll connections in an automatic system multiple jacks are provided for each line through which toll connections are handled directly.] [illustration: fig. . small multiple board section] for ordinary local service no operator would sit at the left-hand position of the section shown, that being the end position, since the operator there would not be able easily to reach the extreme right-hand portion of the third position and would have nothing to reach at her left. this end position in this particular board illustrated is provided with toll-line equipment, a practice not uncommon in small multiple boards. to prevent confusion let us assume that the multiple jack space contains its full equipment of , jacks on each section. the operator in the center position of the section shown could easily reach any one of the jacks on that section. the operator at the third position could reach any jack on the second and third position of her section, but could not well reach multiple jacks in the first position. she would, however, have a duplicate of the multiple jacks in this first position in the section at her right, _i. e._, in the fourth position, and it makes no difference on what portion of the switchboard she plugs into the multiple so long as she plugs into a jack of the right line. chapter xxvii trunking in multi-office systems it has been stated that a single exchange may involve a number of offices, in which case it is termed a multi-office exchange. in a multi-office exchange, switchboards are necessary at each office in which the subscribers' lines of the corresponding office district terminate. means for intercommunication between the subscribers in one office and those in any other office are afforded by inter-office trunks extended between each office and each of the other offices. if the character of the community is such that each of the offices has so few lines as to make the simple switchboard suffice for its local connections, then the trunking between the offices may be carried out in exactly the same way as explained between the various simple switchboards in a transfer system, the only difference being that the trunks are long enough to reach from one office to another instead of being short and entirely local to a single office. such a condition of affairs would only be found in cases where several small communities were grouped closely enough together to make them operate as a single exchange district, and that is rather unusual. the subject of inter-office trunking so far as manual switchboards are concerned is, therefore, confined mainly to trunking between a number of offices each equipped with a manual multiple switchboard. =necessity for multi-office exchanges.= before taking up the details of the methods and circuits employed in trunking in multi-office systems, it may be well to discuss briefly why the multi-office exchange is a necessity, and why it would not be just as well to serve all of the subscribers in a large city from a single huge switchboard in which all of the subscribers' lines would terminate. it cannot be denied, when other things are equal, that it is better to have only one operator involved in any connection which means less labor and less liability of error. the reasons, however, why this is not feasible in really large exchanges are several. the main one is that of the larger investment required. considering the investment first from the standpoint of the subscriber's line, it is quite clear that the average length of subscriber's line will be very much greater in a given community if all of the lines are run to a single office, than will be the case if the exchange district is divided into smaller office districts and the lines run merely from the subscribers to the nearest office. there is a direct and very large gain in this respect, in the multi-office system over the single office system in large cities, but this is not a net gain, since there is an offsetting investment necessary in the trunk lines between the offices, which of course are separate from the subscribers' lines. approaching the matter from the standpoint of switchboard construction and operation, another strong reason becomes apparent for the employment of more than one office in large exchange districts. both the difficulties of operation and the expense of construction and maintenance increase very rapidly when switchboards grow beyond a certain rather well-defined limit. obviously, the limitation of the multiple switchboard as to size involves the number of multiple jacks that it is feasible to place on a section. multiple switchboards have been constructed in this country in which the sections had a capacity of , jacks. schemes have been proposed and put into effect with varying success, for doubling and quadrupling the capacity of multiple switchboards, one of these being the so-called divided multiple board devised by the late milo g. kellogg, and once used in cleveland, ohio, and st. louis, missouri. each of these boards had an ultimate capacity of , lines, and each has been replaced by a "straight" multiple board of smaller capacity. in general, the present practice in america does not sanction the building of multiple boards of more than about , lines capacity, and as an example of this it may be cited that the largest standard section manufactured for the bell companies has an ultimate capacity of , lines. european engineers have shown a tendency towards the opposite practice, and an example of the extreme in this case is the multiple switchboard manufactured by the ericsson company, and installed in stockholm, in which the jacks have been reduced to such small dimensions as to permit an ultimate capacity of , lines. the reasons governing the decision of american engineers in establishing the practice of employing no multiple switchboards of greater capacity than about , lines, briefly outlined, are as follows: the building of switchboards with larger capacity, while perfectly possible, makes necessary either a very small jack or some added complexity, such as that of the divided multiple switchboard, either of which is considered objectionable. extremely small jacks and large multiples introduce difficulties as to the durability of the jacks and the plugs, and also they tend to slow down the work of operators and to introduce errors. they also introduce the necessity of a smaller gauge of wire through the multiple than it has been found desirable to employ. considered from the standpoint of expense, it is evident that as a multiple switchboard increases in number of lines, its size increases in two dimensions, _i. e._, in length of board and height of section, and this element of expense, therefore, is a function of the square of the number of lines. the matter of insurance, both with respect to the risk as to property loss and the risk as to breakdown of the service, also points distinctly in the direction of a plurality of offices rather than one. both from the standpoint of risk against fire and other hazards, which might damage the physical property, and of risk against interruption to service due to a breakdown of the switchboard itself, or a failure of its sources of current, or an accident to the cable approaches, the single office practice is like putting all one's eggs in one basket. another factor that has contributed to the adoption of smaller switchboard capacities is the fact that in the very large cities even a , line multiple switchboard would still not remove the necessity of multi-office exchanges with the consequent certainty that a large proportion of the calls would have to be trunked anyway. undoubtedly, one of the reasons for the difference between american and european practice is the better results that american operating companies have been able to secure in the handling of calls at the incoming end of trunks. this is due, no doubt, in part to the differences in social and economic conditions under which exchanges are operated in this country and abroad, and also in part to the characteristics of the english tongue when compared to some of the other tongues in the matter of ease with which numbers may be spoken. in america it has been found possible to so perfect the operation of trunking under proper operating conditions and with good equipment as to relieve multi-office practice of many of the disadvantages which have been urged against it. =classification.= broadly speaking there are two general methods that may be employed in trunking between exchanges. the first and simplest of these methods is to employ so-called _two-way trunks_. these, as their name indicates, may be used for completing connections between offices in either direction, that is, whether the call originates at one end or the other. the other way is by the use of _one-way trunks_, wherein each trunk carries traffic in one direction only. where such is the case, one end of the trunk is always used for connecting with the calling subscriber's line and is termed the _outgoing_ end, and the other end is always used in completing the connection with the called subscriber's line, and is referred to as the _incoming_ end. traffic in the other direction is handled by another set of trunks differing from the first set only in that their outgoing and incoming ends are reversed. as has already been pointed out, a system of trunks employing two-way trunks is called a _single-track system_, and a system involving two sets of one-way trunks is called a _double-track system_. it is to be noted that the terms outgoing and incoming, as applied to the ends of trunks and also as applied to traffic, always refer to the direction in which the trunk handles traffic or the direction in which the traffic is flowing with respect to the particular office under consideration at the time. thus an _incoming trunk_ at one office is an _outgoing trunk_ at the other. _two-way trunks._ two-way trunks are nearly always employed where the traffic is very small and they are nearly always operated by having the _a_-operator plug directly into the jack at her end of the trunk and displaying a signal at the other end by ringing over the trunk as she would over an ordinary subscriber's line. the operator at the distant exchange answers as she would on an ordinary line, by plugging into the jack of that trunk, and receives her orders over the trunk either from the originating operator or from the subscriber, and then completes the connection with the called subscriber. such trunks are often referred to as "ring-down" trunks, and their equipment consists in a drop and jack at each end. in case there is a multiple board at either or both of the offices, then the equipment at each end of the trunk would consist of a drop and answering jack, together with the full quota of multiple jacks. it is readily seen that this mode of operation is slow, as the work that each operator has to do is the same as that in connecting two local subscribers, plus the time that it takes for the operators to communicate with each other over the trunk. _one-way trunks._ where one-way trunks are employed in the double-track system, the trunks, assuming that they connect multiple boards, are provided with multiple jacks only at their outgoing ends, so that any operator may reach them for an outgoing connection, and at their incoming ends they terminate each in a single plug and in suitable signals and ringing keys, the purpose of which will be explained later. over such trunks there is no verbal communication between the operators, the instructions passing between the operators over separate order-wire circuits. this is done in order that the trunk may be available as much as possible for actual conversation between the subscribers. it may be stated at this point that the duration of the period from the time when a trunk is appropriated by the operators for the making of a certain connection until the time when the trunk is finally released and made available for another connection is called the _holding time_, and this holding time includes not only the period while the subscribers are in actual conversation over it, but also the periods while the operators are making the connection and afterwards while they are taking it down. it may be said, therefore, that the purpose of employing separate order wires for communication between the operators is to make the holding time on the trunks as small as possible and, therefore, for the purpose of enabling a given trunk to take part in as many connections in a given time as possible. in outline the operation of a one-way trunk between common-battery, manual, multiple switchboards is, with modifications that will be pointed out afterwards, as follows: when a subscriber's line signal is displayed at one office, the operator in attendance at that position answers and finding that the call is for a subscriber in another office, she presses an order-wire key and thereby connects her telephone set directly with that of a _b_-operator at the proper other office. unless she finds that other operators are talking over the order wire, she merely states the number of the called subscriber, and the _b_-operator whose telephone set is permanently connected with that order wire merely repeats the number of the called subscriber and follows this by designating the number of the trunk which the _a_-operator is to employ in making the connection. the _a_-operator, thereupon, immediately and without testing, inserts the calling plug of the pair used in answering the call into the trunk jack designated by the _b_-operator; the _b_-operator simultaneously tests the multiple jack of the called subscriber and, if she finds it not busy, inserts the plug of the designated trunk into the multiple jack of the called subscriber and rings his bell by pressing the ringing key associated with the trunk cord used. the work on the part of the _a_-operator in connecting with the outgoing end of the trunk and on the part of the _b_-operator in connecting the incoming end of the trunk with the line goes on simultaneously, and it makes no difference which of these operators completes the connection first. it is the common practice of the bell operating companies in this country to employ what is called automatic or machine ringing in connection with the _b_-operator's work. when the _b_-operator presses the ringing key associated with the incoming trunk cord, she pays no further attention to it, and she has no supervisory lamp to inform her as to whether or not the subscriber has answered. the ringing key is held down, after its depression by the operator, either by an electromagnet or by a magnet-controlled latch, and the ringing of the subscriber's bell continues at periodic intervals as controlled by the ringing commutator associated with the ringing machine. when the subscriber answers, however, the closure of his line circuit results in such an operation of the magnet associated with the ringing key as to release the ringing key and thus to automatically discontinue the ringing current. when a connection is established between two subscribers through such a trunk the supervision of the connection falls entirely upon the _a_-operator who established it. this means that the calling supervisory lamp at the _a_-operator's position is controlled over the trunk from the station of the called subscriber, the answering supervisory lamp being, of course, under the control of the calling subscriber as in the case of a local connection. it is, therefore, the _a_-operator who always initiates the taking down of a trunk connection, and when, in response to the lighting of the two lamps, she withdraws her calling plug from the trunk jack, the supervisory lamp associated with the incoming end of the trunk at the other office is lighted, and the _b_-operator obeys it by pulling down the plug. if, upon testing the multiple jack of the called subscriber's line, the _b_-operator finds the line to be busy, she at once inserts the trunk plug into a so-called "busy-back" jack, which is merely a jack whose terminals are permanently connected to a circuit that is intermittently opened and closed, and which also has impressed upon it an alternating current of such a nature as to produce the familiar "buzz-buzz" in a telephone receiver. the opening and closing of this circuit causes the calling supervisory lamp of the _a_-operator to flash at periodic intervals just as if the called subscriber had raised and lowered his receiver, but more regularly. this is the indication to the _a_-operator that the line called for is busy. the buzzing sound is repeated back through the cord circuit of the _a_-operator to the calling subscriber and is a notification to him that the line is busy. sometimes, as is practiced in new york city, for instance, the buzzing feature is omitted, and the only indication that the calling subscriber receives that the called-for line is busy is being told so by the _a_-operator. this may be considered a special feature and it is employed in new york because there the custom exists of telling a calling subscriber, when the line he has called for has been found busy, that the party will be secured for him and that he, the calling subscriber, will be called, if he desires. a modification of this busy-back feature that has been employed in boston, and perhaps in other places, is to associate with the busy-back jack at the _b_-operator's position a phonograph which, like a parrot, keeps repeating "line busy--please call again." where this is done the calling subscriber, _if he understands what the phonograph says_, is supposed to hang up his receiver, at which time the _a_-operator takes down the connection and the _b_-operator follows in response to the notification of her supervisory lamp. the phonograph busy-back scheme, while ingenious, has not been a success and has generally been abandoned. as a rule the independent operating companies in this country have not employed automatic ringing, and in this case the _b_-operators have been required to operate their ringing keys and to watch for the response of the called subscriber. in order to arrange for this, another supervisory lamp, termed the _ringing lamp_, is associated with each incoming trunk plug, the going out of this lamp being a notification to the _b_-operator to discontinue ringing. =western electric trunk circuits.= the principles involved in inter-office trunking with automatic ringing, are well illustrated in the trunk circuit employed by the western electric company in connection with its no. relay boards. the dotted dividing line through the center of fig. represents the separating space between two offices. the calling subscriber's line in the first office is shown at the extreme left and the called subscriber's line in the second office is shown at the extreme right. both of these lines are standard multiple switchboard lines of the form already discussed. the equipment illustrated in the first office is that of an _a_-board, the cord circuit shown being that of the regular _a_-operator. the outgoing trunk jacks connecting with the trunk leading to the other office are, it will be understood, multipled through the _a_-sections of the board and contain no relay equipment, but the test rings are connected to ground through a resistance coil _ _, which takes the place of the cut-off relay winding of a regular line so far as test conditions and supervisory relay operation are concerned. the equipment illustrated in the second office is that of a _b_-board, it being understood that the called subscriber's line is multipled through both the _a_- and _b_-boards at that office. the part of the equipment that is at this point unfamiliar to the reader is, therefore, the cord circuit at the _b_-operator's board. this includes, broadly speaking, the means: ( ) for furnishing battery current to the called subscriber; ( ) for accomplishing the ringing of the called subscriber and for automatically stopping the ringing when he shall respond; ( ) for performing the ordinary switching functions in connection with the relays of the called subscriber's line in just the same way that an _a_-operator's cord carries out these functions; and ( ) for causing the operation of the calling supervisory relay of the _a_-operator's cord circuit in just the same manner, under control of the connected called subscriber, as if that subscriber's line had been connected directly to the _a_-operator's cord circuit. [illustration: fig. . inter-office connection--western electric system] the operation of these devices in the _b_-operator's cord circuit may be best understood by following the establishment of the connection. assuming that the calling subscriber in the first office desires a connection with the subscriber's line shown in the second office, and that the _a_-operator at the first office has answered the call, she will then communicate by order wire with the _b_-operator at the second office, stating the number of the called subscriber and receiving from that operator in return the number of the trunk to be employed. the two operators will then proceed simultaneously to establish the connection, the _a_-operator inserting the calling plug into the outgoing trunk jack, and the _b_-operator inserting the trunk plug into the multiple jack of the called subscriber's line after testing. we will assume at first that the called subscriber's line is found idle and that both of the operators complete their respective portions of the work at the same time and we will consider first the condition of the calling supervisory relay at the _a_-operator's position. the circuit of the calling supervisory lamp will have been closed through the resistance coil _ _ connected with the outgoing trunk jacks and the lamp will be lighted because, as will be shown, it is not yet shunted out by the operation of its associated supervisory relay. tracing the circuit of the calling supervisory relay of the _a_-operator's circuit, it will be found to pass from the live side of the battery to the ring side of the trunk circuit through one winding of the repeating coil of the _b_-operator's cord; beyond this the circuit is open, since no path exists through the condenser _ _ bridged across the trunk circuit or through the normally open contacts of the relay _ _ connected in the talking circuit of the trunk. the association of this relay _ _ with the repeating coil and the battery of the trunk is seen to be just the same as that of a supervisory relay in the _a_-operator's cord, and it is clear, therefore, that this relay _ _ will not be energized until the called subscriber has responded. when it is energized it will complete the path to ground through the _a_-operator's calling supervisory relay and operate to shunt out the _a_-operator's calling supervisory lamp in just the same manner as if the _a_-operator's calling plug had been connected directly with the line of the calling subscriber. in other words, the called subscriber in the second office controls the relay _ _, which, in turn, controls the calling supervisory relay of the _a_-operator, which, in turn, shunts out its lamp. the connection being completed between the two subscribers, the _b_-operator depresses one or the other of the ringing keys _ _ or _ _, according to which party on the line is called, assuming that it is a two-party line. it will be noticed that the springs of these ringing keys are not serially arranged in the talking circuit, but the cutting off of the trunk circuit back of the ringing keys is accomplished by the set of springs shown just at the left of the ringing keys, which set of springs _ _ is operated whenever either one of the ringing keys is depressed. an auxiliary pair of contacts, shown just below the group of springs _ _, is also operated mechanically whenever either one of the ringing keys is depressed, and this serves to close one of two normally open points in the circuit of the ringing-key holding magnet _ _. this holding magnet _ _ is so arranged with respect to the contacts of the ringing key that whenever any one of them is depressed by the operator, it will be held depressed as long as the magnet is energized just the same as if the operator kept her finger on the key. the other normally open point in the circuit of the holding magnet _ _ is at the lower pair of contacts of the test and holding relay _ _. this relay is operated whenever the trunk plug is inserted in the jack of a called line, regardless of the position of the subscriber's equipment on that line. the circuit may be traced from the live side of the battery through the trunk disconnect lamp _ _, coil _ _, sleeve strand of cord, and to ground through the cut-off relay of the line. the insertion of the trunk plug into the jack thus leaves the completion of the holding-magnet circuit dependent only upon the auxiliary contact on the ringing key, and, therefore, as soon as the operator presses either one of these keys, the clutch magnet is energized and the key is held down, so that ringing current continues to flow at regular intervals to the called subscriber's station. the ringing current issues from the generator _ _, but the supply circuit from it is periodically interrupted by the commutator _ _ geared to the ringing-machine shaft. this periodically interrupted ringing current passes to the ringing-key contacts through the coil of the ringing cut-off relay _ _, and thence to the subscriber's line. the ringing current is, however, insufficient to cause the operation of this relay _ _ as long as the high resistance and impedance of the subscriber's bell and condenser are in the circuit. it is, however, sufficiently sensitive to be operated by this ringing current when the subscriber responds and thus substitutes the comparatively low resistance and impedance path of his talking apparatus for the previous path through his bell. the pulling up of the ringing cut-off relay _ _ breaks a third normally closed contact in the circuit of the holding coil _ _, de-energizing that coil and releasing the ringing key, thus cutting off ringing current. there is a third brush on the commutator _ _ connected with the live side of the central battery, and this is merely for the purpose of assuring the energizing of the ringing cut-off relay _ _, should the subscriber respond during the interval while the commutator _ _ held the ringing current cut off. the relay _ _ may thus be energized either from the battery, if the subscriber responds during a period of silence of his ringer, or from the generator _ _, if the subscriber responds during a period while his bell is sounding; in either case the ringing current will be promptly cut off by the release of the ringing key. the trunk operator's "disconnect lamp" is shown at _ _, and it is to be remembered that this lamp is lighted only when the _a_-operator takes down the connection at her end, and also that this lamp is entirely out of the control of the subscribers, the conditions which determine its illumination being dependent on the positions of the operators' plugs at the two ends of the trunk. with both plugs up, the lamp _ _ will receive current, but will be shunted to prevent its illumination. the path over which it receives this current may be traced from battery through the lamp _ _, thence through the coil of the relay _ _ and the cut-off relay of the called subscriber's line. this current would be sufficient to illuminate the lamp, but the lamp is shunted by a circuit which may be traced from the live side of battery through the contact of the relay _ _, closed at the time, and through the coil of the trunk cut-off relay coil _ _. the resistance of this coil is so proportioned to the other parts of the circuit as to prevent the illumination of the lamp just exactly as in the case of the shunting resistances of the lamps in the _a_-operator's cord. it will be seen, therefore, that the supply of current to the trunk disconnect lamp is dependent on the trunk plug being inserted into the jack of the subscriber's line and that the shunting out of this lamp is dependent on the energization of the relay _ _. this relay _ _ is energized as long as the _a_-operator's plug is inserted into the outgoing trunk jack, the path of the energizing circuit being traced from the live side of the battery at the second office through the right-hand winding of this relay, thence over the tip side of the trunk to ground at the first office. from this it follows that as long as both plugs are up, the disconnect lamp will receive current but will be shunted out, and as soon as the _a_-operator pulls down the connection, the relay _ _ will be de-energized and will thus remove the shunt from about the lamp, allowing its illumination. the left-hand winding of the relay _ _ performs no operating function, but is merely to maintain the balance of the talking circuit, it being bridged during the connection from the ring side of the trunk to ground in order to balance the bridge connection of the right-hand coil from the live side of battery to the tip side of the trunk circuit. the relay _ _, already referred to as forming a shunt for the trunk disconnect lamp, has for its function the keeping of the talking circuit through the trunk open until such time as the relay _ _ operates, this being purely an insurance against unnecessary ringing of a subscriber in case the _a_-operator should by mistake plug into the wrong trunk. it is not, therefore, until the _a_-operator has plugged into the trunk and the relay _ _ has been operated to cause the energization of the relay _ _ that the ringing of the called subscriber can occur, regardless of what the _b_-operator may have done. the relay _ _ has an additional function to that of helping to control the circuit of the ringing-key holding magnet. this is the holding of the test circuit complete until the operator has tested and made a connection and then automatically opening it. the test circuit of the _b_-operator's trunk may be traced, at the time of testing, from the thimble of the multiple jack under test, through the tip of the cord, thence through the uppermost pair of contacts of the relay _ _ to ground through a winding of the _b_-operator's induction coil. after the test has been made and the plug inserted, the relay _ _, which is operated by the insertion of the plug, acts to open this test circuit and at the same time complete the tip side of the cord circuit. in the upper portion of fig. the order-wire connections, by which the _a_-operator and the _b_-operator communicate, are indicated. it must be remembered in connection with these that the _a_-operator only has control of this connection, the _b_-operator being compelled necessarily to hear whatever the _a_-operators have to say when the _a_-operators come in on the circuit. [illustration: fig. . incoming trunk circuit] the incoming trunk circuit employed by the western electric company for four-party line ringing is shown in fig. , it being necessarily somewhat modified from that shown in fig. , which is adapted for two-party line ringing only. in addition to the provision of the four-party line ringing keys, by which positive or negative pulsating current is received over either limb of the line, and to the provision of the regular alternating current ringing key for ringing on single party lines, it is necessary in the ringing cut-off relay to provide for keeping the alternating and the pulsating ringing currents entirely separate. for this reason, the ringing cut-off relay _ _ is provided with two windings, that at the right being in the path of the alternating ringing currents that are supplied to the alternating current key, and that at the left being in the ground return path for all of the pulsating ringing currents supplied to the pulsating keys. with this explanation it is believed that this circuit will be understood from what has been said in connection with fig. . the operation of the holding coil _ _ is the same in each case, the holding magnet in fig. serving to hold depressed any one of the five ringing keys that may have been used in calling the subscriber. [illustration: automatic equipment, main office, berkeley, california a feature of interest here is that the cement floor is treated with a filler and painted, with no other covering.] [illustration: fig. . western electric trunk ringing key] the standard four-party line, trunk ringing key of the western electric company is shown in fig. . in this the various keys operate not by pressure but rather by being pulled by the finger of the operator in such a way as to subject the key shaft to a twisting movement. the holding magnet lies on the side opposite to that shown in the figure and extends along the full length of the set of keys, each key shaft being provided with an armature which is held by this magnet until the magnet is de-energized by the action of the ringing cut-off relay. [illustration: fig. . trunk relay] [illustration: fig. . trunk relay] the standard trunk relays employed by the western electric company in connection with the circuits just described are shown in figs. and . in each case the dust-cap or shield is also shown. the relay of fig. is similar to the regular cut-off relay and is the one used for relays _ _ and _ _ of figs. and . the relay of fig. is somewhat similar to the subscriber's line relay in that it has a tilting armature, and is the one used at _ _ in figs. and . the trunk relay _ _ in figs. and is the same as the _a_-operator's supervisory relays already discussed. it has been stated that under certain circumstances _b_-operator's trunk circuits devoid of ringing keys, and consequently of all keys, may be employed. this, so far as the practice of the bell companies is concerned, is true only in offices where there are no party lines, or where, as in many of the chicago offices, the party lines are worked on the "jack per station" basis. in "jack per station" working, the selection of the station on a party line is determined by the jack on which the plug is put, rather than by a ringing key, and hence the keyless trunk may be employed. [illustration: fig. . keyless trunk] a keyless trunk as used in new york is shown in fig. . this has no manually operated keys whatever, and the relay _ _, when it is operated, establishes connection between the ringing generator and the conductors of the trunk plug. the relays _ _, _ _, and _ _ operate in a manner identical with those bearing corresponding numbers in fig. . as soon as the trunk operator plugs into the multiple jack of the called subscriber, the relay _ _ will operate for the same reason that the relay _ _ operated in connection with fig. . the trunk disconnect lamp will receive current, but if the operator has already established connection with the other end of the trunk, this lamp will not be lighted because shunted by the relay _ _, due to the pulling up of the armature of the relay _ _. the relay _ _ plays no part in the operation so far described, because of the fact that its winding is short-circuited by its own contacts and those of relay _ _, when the latter is not energized. as a result of the operation of the relay _ _, ringing current is sent to line, the supply circuit including the coil of the relay _ _. as soon as the subscriber responds to this ringing current, the armature of the relay _ _ is pulled up, thus breaking the shunt about the relay _ _, which, therefore, starts to operate in series with the relay _ _, but as its armatures assume their attracted position, the relay _ _ is cut out of the circuit, the coil of the relay _ _ being substituted for that of the relay _ _ in the shunt path around the lamp _ _. the relay _ _ falls back and cuts off the ringing current. the relay _ _ now occupies the place with respect to the shunt around the lamp _ _ that the relay _ _ formerly did, the continuity of this shunt being determined by the energization of the relay _ _. when the _a_-operator at the distant exchange withdraws the calling plug from the trunk jack, this relay _ _ becomes de-energized, breaking the shunt about the lamp _ _ and permitting the display of that lamp as a signal to the operator to take down the connection. it may be asked why the falling back of relay _ _ will not again energize relay _ _ and thus cause a false ring on the called subscriber. this will not occur because both the relays _ _ and _ _ depend for their energization on the closure of the contacts of the relay _ _, and when this falls back the relay _ _ cannot again be energized even though the relay _ _ assumes its normal position. =kellogg trunk circuits.= the provision for proper working of trunk circuits in connection with the two-wire multiple switchboards is not an altogether easy matter, owing particularly to the smaller number of wires available in the plug circuits. it has been worked out in a highly ingenious way, however, by the kellogg company, and a diagram of their incoming trunk circuit, together with the associated circuits involved in an inter-office connection, is shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . inter-office connection--kellogg system] this figure illustrates a connection from a regular two-wire multiple subscriber's line in one office, through an _a_-operator's cord circuit there, to the outgoing trunk jacks at that office, thence through the incoming trunk circuit at the other office to the regular two-wire multiple subscriber's line at that second office. the portion of this diagram to be particularly considered is that of the _b_-operator's cord circuit. the trunk circuit terminates in the multipled outgoing trunk jacks at the first office, the trunk extending between offices consisting, of course, of but two wires. we will first consider the control of the calling supervisory lamp in the _a_-operator's cord circuit, it being remembered that this control must be from the called subscriber's station. it will be noticed that the left-hand armature of the relay _ _ serves normally to bridge the winding of relay _ _ across the cord circuit around the condenser _ _. when, however, the relay _ _ pulls up, the coil of relay _ _ is substituted in this bridge connection across the trunk. the relay _ _ has a very high resistance winding--about , ohms--and this resistance is so great that the tip supervisory relay of the _a_-operator's cord will not pull up through it. as a result, when this relay is bridged across the trunk circuit, the tip relay on the calling side of the _a_-operator's cord circuit is de-energized, just as if the trunk circuit were open, and this results in the lighting of the _a_-operator's calling supervisory lamp. the winding of the relay _ _, however, is of low resistance--about ohms--and when this is substituted for the high-resistance winding of the relay _ _, the tip relay on the calling side of the _a_-operator's cord is energized, resulting in the extinguishing of the calling supervisory lamp. the illumination of the _a_-operator's calling supervisory lamp depends, therefore, on whether the high-resistance relay _ _, or the low-resistance relay _ _, is bridged across the trunk, and this depends on whether the relay _ _ is energized or not. the relay _ _, being bridged from the tip side of the trunk circuit to ground and serving as the means of supply of battery current to the called subscriber, is operated whenever the called subscriber's receiver is removed from its hook. therefore, the called subscriber's hook controls the operation of this relay _ _, which, in turn, controls the conditions which cause the illumination or darkness of the calling supervisory lamp at the distant office. assuming that the _a_-operator has received and answered a call, and has communicated with the _b_-operator, telling her the number of the called subscriber, and has received, in turn, the number of the trunk to be used, and that both operators have put up the connection, then it will be clear from what has been said that the calling supervisory lamp of the _a_-operator will be lighted until the called subscriber removes his receiver from its hook, because the tip relay in the _a_-operator's cord circuit will not pull up through the , -ohm resistance winding of the relay _ _. as soon as the subscriber responds, however, the relay _ _ will be operated by the current which supplies his transmitter. this will substitute the low-resistance winding of the relay _ _ for the high-resistance winding of the relay _ _, and this will permit the energizing of the tip supervisory relay of the _a_-operator and put out the calling supervisory lamp at her position. as in the western electric circuit, therefore, the control of the _a_-operator's calling supervisory lamp is from the called subscriber's station and is relayed back over the trunk to the originating office. in this circuit, manual instead of automatic ringing is employed, therefore, unlike the western electric circuit, means must be provided for notifying the b-operator when the calling subscriber has answered. this is done by placing at the _b_-operator's position a ringing lamp associated with each trunk cord, which is illuminated when the _b_-operator places the plug of the incoming trunk into the multiple jack of the subscriber's line, and remains illuminated until the subscriber has answered. this is accomplished in the following manner: when the operator plugs into the jack of the line called, relay _ _ is energized but is immediately de-energized by the disconnecting of the circuit of this relay from the sleeve conductor of the cord when the ringing key is depressed, the selection of the ringing key being determined by the particular party on the line desired. these ringing keys have associated with them a set of springs _ _, which springs are operated when any one of the ringing keys is depressed. thus, with a ringing key depressed and the relay _ _ de-energized, the ringing lamp will be illuminated by means of a circuit as follows: from the live side of the battery, through the ringing lamp _ _, through the back contact and armature of the relay _ _, through the armature and contact of relay _ _, then through the armature and front contact of relay _ _--which at this time is the relay bridged across the trunk and, therefore, energized--and thence through the back contact and armature of relay _ _ to ground. when the subscriber removes his receiver from the hook, the relay _ _ will become energized as previously described, and will, therefore, operate relay _ _ to break the circuit of the ringing lamp. the circuit thus established by the operation of relay _ _ is as follows: from the live side of battery, through the winding of relay _ _, through the armature and contact of relay _ _, through the armature and contact of relay _ _, through the armature and front contact of relay _ _, thence through the armature and back contact of relay _ _ to ground. as soon as the _b_-operator notes that the ringing lamp has gone out, she knows that no further ringing is required on that line, thus allowing the operation of relay _ _ and accomplishing the locking out of the ringing lamp during the remainder of that connection. the relay _ _, after having once pulled up, remains locked up through the rear contact of the left-hand armature of relay _ _ and ground, until the plug is removed from the jack. at the end of the conversation, when the _a_-operator has disconnected her cord circuit on the illumination of the supervisory signals, both relays _ _ and _ _ will be in an unoperated condition and will provide a circuit for illuminating the disconnect lamp associated with the _b_-operator's cord. this circuit may be traced as follows: from battery through the disconnect lamp, through the armatures and contacts of relays _ _ and _ _, thence through the front contact and armature of relay _ _ to ground, thus illuminating the disconnect lamp. the ringing lamp will not be re-illuminated at this time, due to the fact that it has been previously locked out by relay _ _. the operator then removes the plug from the jack of the line called, and the apparatus in the trunk circuit is restored to normal condition. in the circuit shown only keys are provided for ringing two parties. this circuit, however, is not confined to the use of two-party lines, but may be extended to four parties by simply duplicating the ringing keys and by connecting them with the proper current for selectively ringing the other stations. the method of determining as to whether the called line is free or busy is similar to that previously described for the _a_-operator's cord circuit when making a local connection, and differs only in the fact that in the case of the trunk cord the test circuit is controlled through the contacts of a relay, whereas in the case of the _a_-operator's cord, the test circuit was controlled through the contacts of the listening key. the function of the resistance _ _ and the battery connected thereto is the same as has been previously described. the general make-up of trunking switchboard sections is not greatly different from that of the ordinary switchboard sections where no trunking is involved. in small exchanges where ring-down trunks are employed, the trunk line equipment is merely added to the regular jack and drop equipment of the switchboard. in common-battery multiple switchboards the _a_-boards differ in no respect from the standard single office multiple boards, except that immediately above the answering jacks and below the multiple there are arranged in suitable numbers the jacks of the outgoing trunks. where the offices are comparatively small, the incoming trunk portions of the _b_-boards are usually merely a continuance of the _a_-boards, the subscriber's multiple being continuous with and differing in no respect from that on the _a_-sections. instead of the usual pairs of _a_-operators' plugs, cords, and supervisory equipment, there are on the key and plug shelves of these _b_-sections the incoming trunk plugs and their associated equipment. in large offices it is customary to make the _b_-board entirely separate from the _a_-board, although the general characteristics of construction remain the same. the reason for separate _a_- and _b_-switchboards in large exchanges is to provide for independent growth of each without the growth of either interfering with the other. a portion of an incoming trunk, or _b_-board, is shown in fig. . the multiple is as usual, and, of course, there are no outgoing trunk jacks nor regular cord pairs. instead the key and plug shelves are provided with the incoming-trunk plug equipments, thirty of these being about the usual quota assigned to each operator's position. in multi-office exchanges, employing many central offices, such, for instance, as those in new york or chicago, it is frequently found that nearly all of the calls that originate in one office are for subscribers whose lines terminate in some other office. in other words, the number of calls that have to be trunked to other offices is greatly in excess of the number of calls that may be handled through the multiple of the _a_-board in which they originate. it is not infrequent to have the percentage of trunked calls run as high as per cent of the total number of calls originating in any one office, and in some of the offices in the larger cities this percentage runs higher than per cent. [illustration: fig. . section of trunk switchboard] [illustration: fig. . section of partial multiple switchboard] this fact has brought up for consideration the problem as to whether, when the nature of the traffic is such that only a very small portion of the calls can be handled in the office where they originate, it is worth while to employ the multiple terminals for the subscribers' lines on the _a_-boards. in other words, if so great a proportion as per cent of the calls have to be trunked any way, is it worth while to provide the great expense of a full multiple on all the sections of the _a_-board in order to make it possible to handle the remaining per cent of the calls directly by the _a_-operators? as a result of this consideration it has been generally conceded that where such a very great percentage of trunking was necessary, the full multiple of the subscribers' lines on each section was not warranted, and what is known as the partial multiple board has come into existence in large manual exchanges. in these the regular subscribers' multiple is entirely omitted from the _a_-board, all subscribers' calls being handled through outgoing trunk jacks connected by trunks to _b_-boards in the same as well as other offices. in these partial multiple _a_-boards, the answering jacks are multipled a few times, usually twice, so that calls on each line may be answered from more than one position. this multipling of answering jacks does not in any way take the place of the regular multipling in full multiple boards, since in no case are the calls completed through the multiple jacks. it is done merely for the purpose of contributing to team work between the operators. a portion of such a partial multiple _a_-board is shown in fig. . this view shows slightly more than one section, and the regular answering jacks and lamps may be seen at the bottom of the jack space just above the plugs. above these are placed the outgoing trunk jacks, those that are in use being indicated with white designation strips. above the outgoing trunk jacks are placed the multiples of the answering jacks, these not being provided with lamps. the partial multiple _a_-section of fig. is a portion of the switchboard equipment of the same office to which the trunking section shown in fig. belongs. that this is a large multiple board may be gathered from the number of multiple jacks in the trunking section, , being installed with room for , . that the board is a portion of an equipment belonging to an exchange of enormous proportions may be gathered from the number of outgoing trunk jacks shown in the _a_-board, and in the great number of order-wire keys shown between each of the sets of regular cord-circuit keys. the switchboards illustrated in these two figures are those of one of the large offices of the new york telephone company on manhattan island, and the photographs were taken especially for this work by the western electric company. =cable color code.= a great part of the wiring of switchboards requires to be done with insulated wires grouped into cables. in the wiring of manual switchboards as described in the seven preceding chapters, and of automatic and automanual systems and of private branch-exchange and intercommunicating systems described in succeeding chapters, cables formed as follows are widely used: tinned soft copper wires, usually of no. or no. b. & s. gauge, are insulated, first with two coverings of silk, then with one covering of cotton. the outer (cotton) insulation of each wire is made of white or of dyed threads. if dyed, the color either is solid red, black, blue, orange, green, brown, or slate, or it is striped, by combining one of those colors with white or a remaining color. the object of coloring the wires is to enable them to be identified by sight instead of by electrical testing. wires so insulated are twisted into pairs, choosing the colors of the "line" and "mate" according to a predetermined plan. an assortment of these pairs then is laid up spirally to form the cable core, over which are placed certain wrappings and an outer braid. a widely used form of switchboard cable has paper and lead foil wrappings over the core, and the outer cotton braid finally is treated with a fire-resisting paint. standard color code for cables +---------------+-------------------------------------------------+ | | mate | | line wire +-------+-------+-------+-----------+-------------+ | | white | red | black | red-white | black-white | +---------------+-------+-------+-------+-----------+-------------+ | blue | | | | | | | orange | | | | | | | green | | | | | | | brown | | | | | | | slate | | | | | | | blue-white | | | | | | | blue-orange | | | | | | | blue-green | | | | | | | blue-brown | | | | | | | blue-slate | | | | | | | orange-white | | | | | | | orange-green | | | | | | | orange-brown | | | | | | | orange-slate | | | | | | | green-white | | | | | | | green-brown | | | | | | | green-slate | | | | | | | brown-white | | | | | | | brown-slate | | | | | | | slate-white | | | | | | +---------------+-------+-------+-------+-----------+-------------+ the numerals represent the pair numbers in the cable. the wires of spare pairs usually are designated by solid red with white mate for first spare pair, and solid black with white mate for second spare pair. individual spare wires usually are colored red-white for first individual spare, and black-white for second individual spare. chapter xxviii fundamental considerations of automatic systems =definition.= the term automatic, as applied to telephone systems, has come to refer to those systems in which machines at the central office, under the guidance of the subscribers, do the work that is done by operators in manual systems. in all automatic telephone systems, the work of connecting and disconnecting the lines, of ringing the called subscriber, even though he must be selected from among those on a party line, of refusing to connect with a line that is already in use, and informing the calling subscriber that such line is busy, of making connections to trunk lines and through them to lines in other offices and doing the same sort of things there, of counting and recording the successful calls made by a subscriber, rejecting the unsuccessful, and nearly all the thousand and one other acts necessary in telephone service, are performed without the presence of any guiding intelligence at the central office. the fundamental object of the automatic system is to do away with the central-office operator. in order that each subscriber may control the making of his own connections there is added to his station equipment a call transmitting device by the manipulation of which he causes the central-office mechanisms to establish the connections he desires. we think that the automatic system is one of the most astonishing developments of human ingenuity. the workers in this development are worthy of particular notice. from occupying a position in popular regard in common with long-haired men and short-haired women they have recently appeared as sane, reasonable men with the courage of their convictions and, better yet, with the ability to make their convictions come true. the scoffers have remained to pray. =arguments against automatic idea.= naturally there has been a bitter fight against the automatic. those who have opposed it have contended: first: that it is too complicated and, therefore, could be neither reliable or economical. second: that it is too expensive, and that the necessary first cost could not be justified. third: that it is too inflexible and could not adapt itself to special kinds of service. fourth: that it is all wrong from the subscribers' point of view as the public will not tolerate "doing its own operating." _complexity._ this first objection as to complexity, and consequent alleged unreliability and lack of economy should be carefully analyzed. it too often happens that a new invention is cast into outer darkness by those whose opinions carry weight by such words as "it cannot work; it is too complicated." fortunately for the world, the patience and fortitude which men must possess before they can produce meritorious, though intricate inventions, are usually sufficient to prevent their being crushed by any such offhand condemnation, and the test of time and service is allowed to become the real criterion. it would be difficult to find an art that has gone forward as rapidly as telephony. within its short life of a little over thirty years it has grown from the phase of trifling with a mere toy to an affair of momentous importance to civilization. there has been a tendency, particularly marked during recent years, toward greater complexity; and probably every complicated new system or piece of apparatus has been roundly condemned, by those versed in the art as it was, as being unable to survive on account of its complication. to illustrate: a prominent telephone man, in arguing against the nickel-in-the-slot method of charging for telephone service once said, partly in jest, "the lord never intended telephone service to be given in that way." this, while a little off the point, is akin to the sweeping aside of new telephone systems on the sole ground that they are complicated. these are not real reasons, but rather convenient ways of disposing of vexing problems with a minimum amount of labor. important questions lying at the very root of the development of a great industry may not be put aside permanently in this offhand way. the lord has never, so far as we know, indicated just what his intentions were in the matter of nickel service; and no one has ever shown yet just what degree of complexity will prevent a telephone system from working. it is safe to say that, if other things are equal, the simpler a machine is, the better; but simplicity, though desirable, is not all-important. complexity is warranted if it can show enough advantages. if one takes a narrow view of the development of things mechanical and electrical, he will say that the trend is toward simplicity. the mechanic in designing a machine to perform certain functions tries to make it as simple as possible. he designs and re-designs, making one part do the work of two and contriving schemes for reducing the complexity of action and form of each remaining part. his whole trend is away from complication, and this is as it should be. other things being equal, the simpler the better. a broad view, however, will show that the arts are becoming more and more complicated. take the implements of the art of writing: the typewriter is vastly more complicated than the pen, whether of steel or quill, yet most of the writing of today is done on the typewriter, and is done better and more economically. the art of printing affords even more striking examples. in telephony, while every effort has been made to simplify the component parts of the system, the system itself has ever developed from the simple toward the complex. the adoption of the multiple switchboard, of automatic ringing, of selective ringing on party lines, of measured-service appliances, and of automatic systems have all constituted steps in this direction. the adoption of more complicated devices and systems in telephony has nearly always followed a demand for the performance by the machinery of the system of additional or different functions. as in animal and plant life, so in mechanics--the higher the organism functionally the more complex it becomes physically. greater intricacy in apparatus and in methods is warranted when it is found desirable to make the machine perform added functions. once the functions are determined upon, then the whole trend of the development of the machine for carrying them out should be toward simplicity. when the machine has reached its highest stage of development some one proposes that it be required to do something that has hitherto been done manually, or by a separate machine, or not at all. with this added function a vast added complication may come, after which, if it develops that the new function may with economy be performed by the machine, the process of simplification again begins, the whole design finally taking on an indefinable elegance which appears only when each part is so made as to be best adapted in composition, form, and strength to the work it is to perform. achievements in the past teach us that a machine may be made to do almost anything automatically if only the time, patience, skill, and money be brought to bear. this is also true of a telephone system. the primal question to decide is, what functions the system is to perform within itself, automatically, and what is to be done manually or with manual aid. sometimes great complications are brought into the system in an attempt to do something which may very easily and cheaply be done by hand. cases might be pointed out in which fortunes and life-works have been wasted in perfecting machines for which there was no real economic need. it is needless to cite cases where the reverse is true. the matter of wisely choosing the functions of the system is of fundamental importance. in choosing these the question of complication is only one of many factors to be considered. one of the strongest arguments against intricacy in telephone apparatus is its greater initial cost, its greater cost of maintenance, and its liability to get out of order. greater complexity of apparatus usually means greater first cost, but it does not necessarily mean greater cost of up-keep or lessened reliability. a dollar watch is more simple than an expensive one. the one, however, does its work passably and is thrown away in a year or so; the other does its work marvelously well and may last generations, being handed down from father to son. merely reducing the number of parts in a machine does not necessarily mean greater reliability. frequently the attempt to make one part do several diverse things results in such a sacrifice in the simplicity of action of that part as to cause undue strain, or wear, or unreliable action. better results may be attained by adding parts, so that each may have a comparatively simple thing to do. [illustration: western electric company typical charging outfit at dawson, georgia] the stage of development of an art is a factor in determining the degree of complexity that may be allowed in the machinery of that art. a linotype machine, if constructed by miracle several hundred years ago, would have been of no value to the printer's art then. the skill was not available to operate and maintain it, nor was the need of the public sufficiently developed to make it of use. similarly the automatic telephone exchange would have been of little value thirty years ago. the knowledge of telephone men was not sufficiently developed to maintain it, telephone users were not sufficiently numerous to warrant it, and the public was not sufficiently trained to use it. industries, like human beings, must learn to creep before they can walk. another factor which must be considered in determining the allowable degree of complexity in a telephone system is the character of the labor available to care for and manage it. usually the conditions which make for unskilled labor also lend themselves to the use of comparatively simple systems. thus, in a small village remote from large cities the complexity inherent in a common-battery multiple switchboard would be objectionable. the village would probably not afford a man adequately skilled to care for it, and the size of the exchange would not warrant the expense of keeping such a man. fortunately no such switchboard is needed. a far simpler device, the plain magneto switchboard--so simple that the girl who manipulates it may also often care for its troubles--is admirably adapted to the purpose. so it is with the automatic telephone system; even its most enthusiastic advocate would be foolish indeed to contend that for all places and purposes it was superior to the manual. these remarks are far from being intended as a plea for complex telephone apparatus and systems; every device, every machine, and every system should be of the simplest possible nature consistent with the functions it has to perform. they are rather a protest against the broadcast condemnation of complex apparatus and systems just because they are complicated, and without regard to other factors. such condemnation is detrimental to the progress of telephony. where would the printing art be today if the linotype, the cylinder press, and other modern printing machinery of marvelous intricacy had been put aside on account of the fact that they were more complicated than the printing machinery of our forefathers? that the automatic telephone system is complex, exceedingly complex, cannot be denied, but experience has amply proven that its complexity does not prevent it from giving reliable service, nor from being maintained at a reasonable cost. _expense._ the second argument against the automatic--that it is too expensive--is one that must be analyzed before it means anything. it is true that for small and medium-sized exchanges the total first cost of the central office and subscribers' station equipment, is greater than that for manual exchanges of corresponding sizes. the prices at which various sizes of automatic exchange equipments may be purchased vary, however, almost in direct proportion to the number of lines, whereas in manual equipment the price per line increases very rapidly as the number of lines increases. from this it follows that for very large exchanges the cost of automatic apparatus becomes as low, and may be even lower than for manual. roughly speaking the cost of telephones and central-office equipment for small exchanges is about twice as great for automatic as for manual, and for very large exchanges, of about , lines, the cost of the two for switchboards and telephones is about equal. for all except the largest exchanges, therefore, the greater first cost of automatic apparatus must be put down as one of the factors to be weighed in making the choice between automatic and manual, this factor being less and less objectionable as the size of the equipment increases and finally disappearing altogether for very large equipments. greater first cost is, of course, warranted if the fixed charges on the greater investment are more than offset by the economy resulting. the automatic screw machine, for instance, costs many times more than the hand screw machine, but it has largely displaced the hand machine nevertheless. _flexibility._ the third argument against the automatic telephone system--its flexibility--is one that only time and experience has been able to answer. enough time has elapsed and enough experience has been gained, however, to disprove the validity of this argument. in fact, the great flexibility of the automatic system has been one of its surprising developments. no sooner has the statement been made that the automatic system could not do a certain thing than forthwith it has done it. it was once quite clear that the automatic system was not practicable for party-line selective ringing; yet today many automatic systems are working successfully with this feature; the selection between the parties on a line being accomplished with just as great certainty as in manual systems. again it has seemed quite obvious that the automatic system could not hope to cope with the reverting call problem, _i. e._, enabling a subscriber on a party line to call back to reach another subscriber on the same line; yet today the automatic system may do this in a way that is perhaps even more satisfactory than the way in which it is done in multiple manual switchboards. it is true that the automatic system has not done away with the toll operator and it probably never will be advantageous to require it to do so for the simple reason that the work of the toll operator in recording the connections and in bringing together the subscribers is a matter that requires not only accuracy but judgment, and the latter, of course, no machine can supply. it is probable also that the private branch-exchange operator will survive in automatic systems. this is not because the automatic system cannot readily perform the switching duties, but the private branch-exchange operator has other duties than the mere building up and taking down of connections. she is, as it were, a door-keeper guarding the telephone door of a business establishment; like the toll operator she must be possessed of judgment and of courtesy in large degree, neither of which can be supplied by machinery. in respect to toll service and private branch-exchange service where, as just stated, operators are required on account of the nature of the service, the automatic system has again shown its adaptability and flexibility. it has shown its capability of working in harmony with manual switchboards, of whatever nature, and there is a growing tendency to apply automatic devices and automatic principles of operation to manual switchboards, whether toll or private branch or other kinds, even though the services of an operator are required, the idea being to do by machinery that portion of the work which a machine is able to do better or more economically than a human being. _attitude of public._ the attitude of the public toward the automatic is one that is still open to discussion; at least there is still much discussion on it. a few years ago it did seem reasonable to suppose that the general telephone user would prefer to get his connection by merely asking for it rather than to make it himself by "spelling" it out on the dial of his telephone instrument. we have studied this point carefully in a good many different communities and it is our opinion that the public finds no fault with being required to make its own connections. to our minds it is proven beyond question that either the method employed in the automatic or that in the manual system is satisfactory to the public as long as good service results, and it is beyond question that the public may get this with either. _subscriber's station equipment._ the added complexity of the mechanism at the subscriber's station is in our opinion the most valid objection that can be urged against the automatic system as it exists today. this objection has, however, been much reduced by the greater simplicity and greater excellence of material and workmanship that is employed in the controlling devices in modern automatic systems. however, the automatic system must always suffer in comparison with the manual in respect of simplicity of the subscriber's equipment. the simplest conceivable thing to meet all of the requirements of telephone service at a subscriber's station is the modern common-battery manual telephone. the automatic telephone differs from this only in the addition of the mechanism for enabling the subscriber to control the central-office apparatus in the making of calls. from the standpoint of maintenance, simplicity at the subscriber's station is, of course, to be striven for since the proper care of complex devices scattered all over a community is a much more serious matter than where the devices are centered at one point, as in the central office. nevertheless, as pointed out, complexity is not fatal, and it is possible, as has been proven, to so design and construct the required apparatus in connection with the subscribers' telephones as to make them subject to an amount of trouble that is not serious. =comparative costs.= a comparison of the total costs of owning, operating, and maintaining manual and automatic systems usually results in favor of the automatic, except in small exchanges. this seems to be the consensus of opinion among those who have studied the matter deeply. although the automatic usually requires a larger investment, and consequently a larger annual charge for interest and depreciation, assuming the same rates for each case, and although the automatic requires a somewhat higher degree of skill to maintain it and to keep it working properly than the manual, the elimination of operators or the reduction in their number and the consequent saving of salaries and contributory expenses together with other items of saving that will be mentioned serves to throw the balance in favor of the automatic. the ease with which the automatic system lends itself to inter-office trunking makes feasible a greater subdivision of exchange districts into office districts and particularly makes it economical, where such would not be warranted in manual working. all this tends toward a reduction in average length of subscribers' lines and it seems probable that this possibility will be worked upon in the future, more than it has been in the past, to effect a considerable saving in the cost of the wire plant, which is the part of a telephone plant that shows least and costs most. =automatic vs. manual.= taking it all in all the question of automatic versus manual may not and can not be disposed of by a consideration of any single one of the alleged features of superiority or inferiority of either. each must be looked at as a practical way of giving telephone service, and a decision can be reached only by a careful weighing of all the factors which contribute to economy, reliability, and general desirability from the standpoint of the public. public sentiment must neither be overlooked nor taken lightly, since, in the final analysis, it is the public that must be satisfied. =methods of operation.= in all of the automatic telephone systems that have achieved any success whatever, the selection of the desired subscriber's line by the calling subscriber is accomplished by means of step-by-step mechanism at the central office, controlled by impulses sent or caused to be sent by the acts of the subscriber. _strowger system._ in the so-called strowger system, manufactured by the automatic electric company of chicago, the subscriber, in calling, manipulates a dial by which the central-office switching mechanism is made to build up the connection he wants. the dial is moved as many times as there are digits in the called subscriber's number and each movement sends a series of impulses to the central office corresponding in number respectively to the digits in the called subscriber's number. during each pause, except the last one, between these series of impulses, the central-office mechanism operates to shift the control of the calling subscriber's line from one set of switching apparatus at the central office to another. in case a four-digit number is being selected first, the movement of the dial by the calling subscriber will correspond to the thousands digit of the number being called, and the resulting movement of the central-office apparatus will continue the calling subscriber's line through a trunk to a piece of apparatus capable of further extending his line toward the line terminals of the thousand subscribers whose numbers begin with the digit chosen. the next movement of the dial corresponding to the hundreds digit of the called number will operate this piece of apparatus to again extend the calling subscriber's line through another trunk to apparatus representing the particular hundred in which the called subscriber's number is. the third movement of the dial corresponding to the tens digit will pick out the group of ten containing the called subscriber's line, and the fourth movement corresponding to the units digit will pick out and connect with the particular line called. _lorimer system._ in the lorimer automatic system invented by the lorimer brothers, and now being manufactured by the canadian machine telephone company of toronto, canada, the subscriber sets up the number he desires complete by moving four levers on his telephone so that the desired number appears visibly before him. he then turns a handle and the central-office apparatus, under the control of the electrical conditions thus set up by the subscriber, establishes the connection. in this system, unlike the strowger system, the controlling impulses are not caused by the movement of the subscriber's apparatus in returning to its normal position after being set by the subscriber. instead, the conditions established at the subscriber's station by the subscriber in setting up the desired number, merely determine the point in the series of impulses corresponding to each digit at which the stepping impulses local to the central office shall cease, and in this way the proper number of impulses in the series corresponding to each digit is determined. _magnet- vs. power-driven switches._ these two systems differ radically in another respect. in the strowger system it is the electrical impulses initiated at the subscriber's apparatus that actually cause the movement of the switching parts at the central office, these impulses energizing electromagnets which move the central-office switching devices a step at a time the desired number of steps. in the lorimer system the switches are all power-driven and the impulses under the control of the subscriber's instrument merely serve to control the application of this power to the various switching mechanisms. these details will be more fully dealt with in subsequent chapters. _multiple vs. trunking._ it has been shown in the preceding portion of this work that the tendency in manual switchboard practice has been away from trunking between the various sections or positions of a board, and toward the multiple idea of operating, wherein each operator is able to complete the connection with any line in the same office without resorting to trunks or to the aid of other operators. strangely enough the reverse has been true in the development of the automatic system. as long as the inventors tried to follow the most successful practice in manual working, failure resulted. the automatic systems of today are essentially trunking systems and while they all involve multiple connections in greater or less degree, all of them depend fundamentally upon the extending of the calling line by separate lengths until it finally reaches and connects with the called line. _grouping of subscribers._ in this connection we wish to point out here two very essential features without which, so far as we are aware, no automatic telephone system has been able to operate successfully. the first of these is the division of the total number of lines in any office of the exchange into comparatively small groups and the employment of correspondingly small switch units for each group. many of the early automatic systems that were proposed involved the idea of having each switch capable in itself of making connection with any line in the entire office. as long as the number of lines was small--one hundred or thereabouts--this might be all right, but where the lines number in the thousands, it is readily seen that the switches would be of prohibitive size and cost. _trunking between groups._ this feature made necessary the employment of trunk connections between groups. by means of these the lines are extended a step at a time, first entering a large group of groups, containing the desired subscriber; then entering the smaller group containing that subscriber; and lastly entering into connection with the line itself. the carrying out of this idea was greatly complicated by the necessity of providing for many simultaneous connections through the switchboard. it was comparatively easy to accomplish the extension of one line through a series of links or trunks to another line, but it was not so easy to do this and still leave it possible for any other line to pick out and connect with any other idle line without interference with the first connection. a number of parallel paths must be provided for each possible connection. groups of trunks are, therefore, provided instead of single trunks between common points to be connected. the subscriber who operates his instrument in making a call knows nothing of this and it is, of course, impossible for him to give any thought to the matter as to which one of the possible paths he shall choose. it was by a realization of these facts that the failures of the past were turned into the successes of the present. the subscriber by setting his signal transmitter was made to govern the action of the central-office apparatus in the selection of the proper _group_ of trunks. the group being selected, the central-office apparatus was made to act at once _automatically_ to pick out and connect with _the first idle trunk of such group_. thus, we may say _that the subscriber by the act performed on his signal transmitter, voluntarily chooses the group of trunks, and immediately thereafter the central-office apparatus without the volition of the subscriber picks out the first idle one of this group of trunks so chosen_. this fundamental idea, so far as we are aware, underlies all of the successful automatic telephone-exchange systems. it provides for the possibility of many simultaneous connections through the switchboard, and it provides against the simultaneous appropriation of the same path by two or more calling subscribers and thus assures against interference in the choice of the paths. _outline of action._ in order to illustrate this point we may briefly outline the action of the strowger automatic system in the making of a connection. assume that the calling subscriber desires a connection with a subscriber whose line bears the number , . the subscriber in making the call will, by the first movement of his dial, transmit nine impulses over his line. this will cause the selective apparatus at the central office, that is at the time associated with the calling subscriber's line, to move its selecting fingers opposite a group of terminals representing the ends of a group of trunk lines leading to apparatus employed in connecting with the ninth thousand of the subscribers' lines. while the calling subscriber is getting ready to transmit the next digit, the automatic apparatus, without his volition, starts to pick out the first idle one of the group of trunks so chosen. having found this it connects with it and the calling subscriber's line is thus extended to another selective apparatus capable of performing the same sort of function in choosing the proper hundreds group. in the next movement of his dial the calling subscriber will send five impulses. this will cause the last chosen selective switch to move its selective fingers opposite a group of terminals representing the ends of a group of trunks each leading to a switch that is capable of making connection with any one of the lines in the fifth hundred of the ninth thousand. again during the pause by the subscriber, the switch that chose this group of trunks will start automatically to pick out and connect with the first idle one of them, and will thus extend the line to a selective switch that is capable of reaching the desired line, since it has access to all of the lines in the chosen hundred. the third movement of the dial sends six impulses and this causes this last chosen switch to move opposite the sixth group of ten terminals, so that there has now been chosen the nine hundred and fifty-sixth group of ten lines. the final movement of the dial sends seven impulses and the last mentioned switch connects with the seventh line terminal in the group of ten previously chosen and the connection is complete, assuming that the called line was not already engaged. if it had been found busy, the final switch would have been prevented from connecting with it by the electrical condition of certain of its contacts and the busy signal would have been transmitted back to the calling subscriber. _fundamental idea._ this idea of subdividing the subscribers' lines in an automatic exchange, of providing different groups of trunks so arranged as to afford by combination a number of possible parallel paths between any two lines, of having the calling subscriber select, by the manipulation of his instrument, the proper group of trunks any one of which might be used to establish the connection he desires, and of having the central-office apparatus act automatically to choose and connect with an idle one in this chosen group, should be firmly grasped. it appears, as we have said, in every successful automatic system capable of serving more than one small group of lines, and until it was evolved automatic telephony was not a success. _testing._ as each trunk is chosen and connected with, conditions are established, by means not unlike the busy test in multiple manual switchboards, which will guard that trunk and its associated apparatus against appropriation by any other line or apparatus as long as it is held in use. likewise, as soon as any subscriber's line is put into use, either by virtue of a call being originated on it, or by virtue of its being connected with as a called line, conditions are automatically established which guard it against being connected with any other line as long as it is busy. these guarding conditions of both trunks and lines, as in the manual board, are established by making certain contacts, associated with the trunks or lines, assume a certain electrical condition when busy that is different from their electrical condition when idle; but unlike the manual switchboard this different electrical condition does not act to cause a click in any one's ear, but rather to energize or de-energize certain electromagnets which will establish or fail to establish the connection according to whether it is proper or improper to do so. _local and inter-office trunks._ the groups of trunks that are used in building up connections between subscribers' lines may be local to the central office, or they may extend between different offices. the action of the two kinds of trunks, local or inter-office, is broadly the same. chapter xxix the automatic electric company's system almost wherever automatic telephony is to be found--and its use is extensive and rapidly growing--the so-called strowger system is employed. it is so named because it is the outgrowth of the work of almon b. strowger, an early inventor in the automatic telephone art. that the system should bear the name of strowger, however, gives too great prominence to his work and too little to that of the engineers of the automatic electric company under the leadership of alexander e. keith. =principles of selecting switch.= the underlying features of this automatic system have already been referred to in the abstract. a better grasp of its principles may, however, be had by considering a concrete example of its most important piece of apparatus--the selecting switch. the bare skeleton of such a switch, sufficient only to illustrate the salient point in its mode of operation, is shown in fig. . the essential elements of this are a vertical shaft capable of both longitudinal and rotary motion; a pawl and ratchet mechanism actuated by a magnet for moving the shaft vertically a step at a time; another pawl and ratchet mechanism actuated by another magnet for rotating the shaft a step at a time; an arm carrying wiper contacts on its outer end, mounted on and moving with the shaft; and a bank of contacts arranged on the inner surface of a section of a cylinder adapted to be engaged by the wiper contacts on this movable arm. these various elements are indicated in the merest outline and with much distortion in fig. , which is intended to illustrate the principles of operation rather than the details as they actually are in the system. in the upper left-hand corner of this figure, the magnet shown will, if energized by impulses of current, attract and release its armature and, in doing so, cause the pawl controlled by this magnet to move the vertical shaft of the switch up a step at a time, as many steps as there are impulses of current. the vertical movement of this shaft will carry the wiper arm, attached to the lower end of the shaft, up the same number of steps and, in doing so, will bring the contacts of this wiper arm opposite, but not engaging, the corresponding row of stationary contacts in the semi-cylindrical bank. likewise, through the ratchet cylinder on the intermediate portion of the shaft, the magnet shown at the right-hand portion of this figure will, when energized by a succession of electrical impulses, rotate the shaft a step at a time, as many steps as there are impulses. this will thus cause the contacts of the wiper arm to move over the successive contacts in the row opposite to which the wiper had been carried in its vertical movement. [illustration: fig. . principles of automatic switch] at the lower left-hand corner of this figure, there is shown a pair of keys either one of which, when operated, will complete the circuit of the magnet to which it is connected, this circuit including a common battery. in a certain rough way this pair of key switches in the lower left-hand corner of the drawing may be taken as representing the call-transmitting apparatus at the subscriber's station, and the two wires extending therefrom may be taken as representing the line wires connecting that subscriber's station to the central office; but the student must avoid interpreting them as actual representations of the subscriber's station calling apparatus or the subscriber's line since their counterparts are not to be found in the system as it really exists. here again accuracy has been sacrificed for ease in setting forth a feature of operation. still referring to fig. , it will be seen that the bank contacts consist of ten rows, each having ten pairs of contacts. assume again, for the sake of simplicity, that the exchange under consideration has one hundred subscribers and that each pair of bank contacts represents the terminals of one subscriber's line. assume further that the key switches in the lower left-hand corner of the figure are being manipulated by a subscriber at that station and that he wishes to obtain a connection with line no. . by pressing and releasing the left-hand key six times, he will cause six separate impulses of current to flow through the upper left-hand magnet and this will cause the switch shaft to move up six steps and bring the wiper arm opposite the sixth row of bank contacts. if he now presses and releases his right-hand key seven times, he will, through the action of the right-hand magnet, rotate the shaft seven steps, thus bringing the wipers into contact with the seventh contact of the sixth row and thus into contact with the desired line. as the wiper contacts on the switch arm form the terminals of the calling subscriber's line, it will be apparent that the calling subscriber is now connected through his switch with the line of subscriber no. . as stated, each of the pairs of bank contacts are connected with the line of a subscriber; the line, fig. , is shown so connected to the forty-first pair of contacts, that is to the first contact in the fourth row. the selecting switch shown in fig. would be for the sole use of the subscriber on the line no. . each of the other subscribers would have a similar switch for his own exclusive use. since any of the switches must be capable of reaching line no. , for instance, when moved _up_ six rows and _around_ seven, it follows that the sixty-seventh pair of contacts in each bank of the entire one hundred switches must also be connected together and to line no. . the same is, of course, true of all the contacts corresponding to any other number. multiple connections are thus involved between the corresponding contacts of the banks, in much the same way as in the corresponding jacks in the multiple of a manual switchboard. as a result of this multiple connection of the bank contacts, any subscriber may move the wiper arm of his selecting switch into connection with the line of any other subscriber. _the "up-and-around" movement._ the elemental idea to be grasped by the discussion so far, is the so-called "up-and-around" method of action of the selecting switches employed in this system. this preliminary discussion may be carried a step further by saying that the arrangement is such that when a subscriber presses both his keys and grounds both of the limbs of his line, such a condition is brought about as will cause all holding pawls to be withdrawn from the shaft, and thus allow it to return to its normal position with respect to both its vertical and rotary movements. no attempt has been made in fig. to show how this is accomplished. =function of line switch.= such a system as has been briefly outlined in the foregoing would require a separate selecting switch for each subscriber's line and would be limited to use in exchanges having not more than one hundred lines. in the modern system of the automatic electric company, the requirement that each subscriber shall have a selective switch, individual to his own line, has been eliminated by introducing what is called an _individual line switch_ by means of which any one of a group of subscribers' lines, making a call, automatically appropriates one of a smaller group of selecting switches and makes it its own only while the connection exists. =subdivision of subscribers' lines.= the limitation as to the size of the exchange has been overcome, without increasing the number of bank contacts in any selecting switch, by dividing the subscribers' lines into groups of one hundred and causing selecting switches automatically to extend the calling subscriber's line first into a group of groups corresponding, for instance, to the thousand containing the called subscriber's line, and then into the particular group containing the line, and lastly, to connect with the individual line in that group. =underlying feature of trunking system.= it will be remembered that in the chapter on fundamental principles of automatic systems, it was stated that the subscriber, by means of the signal transmitter at his station, was made to govern the action of the central-office apparatus in the selection of a proper group of trunks; and the group being selected, the central-office apparatus was made to act automatically to pick out and connect with the first idle trunk of such group. this selection by the subscriber of a group followed by the automatic selection from among that group forms the basis of the trunking system. it is impossible, by means of any simple diagram, to show a complete scheme of trunking employed, but fig. will give a fundamental conception of it. this figure shows how a single calling line, indicated at the bottom, may find access into any particular line in an office having a capacity for ten thousand. =names of selecting switches.= selecting switches of the "up-and-around" type are the means by which the calling line selects and connects with the trunk lines required in building up the connection, and finally selects and connects with the line of the called subscriber. where such a switch is employed for the purpose of selecting a _trunk_, it is called a selector switch. it is a _first selector_ when it serves to pick out a major group of lines, _i. e._, a group containing a particular thousand lines or, in a multi-office system, a group represented by a complete central office. it is a _second selector_ when it serves to make the next subdivision of groups; a _third selector_ if further subdivision of groups is necessary; and finally it is _a connector_ when it is employed to pick out and connect with the _particular line in the final group of one hundred lines_ to which the connection has been brought by the selectors. in a single office of , -line capacity, therefore, we would have first and second selectors and connectors, the first selectors picking out the thousands, the second selectors the hundreds, and the connectors the individual line. in a multi-office system we may have first, second, and third selectors and connectors, the first selector picking out the office, the second selector the thousands in that office, the third selector the hundreds, and the connector the individual lines. =the line switch.= in addition to the selectors and connectors there are line switches, which are comparatively simple, one individual to each line. each of these has the function, purely automatic, of always connecting a line, as soon as a call is originated on it, to some one of a smaller group of first selectors available to that line. this idea may be better grasped when it is understood that, in the earlier systems of the automatic electric company, there was a first selector permanently associated with each line. by the addition of the comparatively simple line switch, a saving of about ninety per cent of the first selectors was effected, since the number of first selectors was thereby reduced from a number equal to the number of lines in a group to a number equal to the number of simultaneous connections resulting from calls originating in that group. in other words, by the line switch, the number of first selectors is determined by the traffic rather than by the number of lines. =scheme of trunking.= with this understanding as to the names and broader functions of the things involved, fig. may now be understood. the line switch of the single line, as indicated here, has only the power of selection among three trunks, but it is to be understood that in actual practice, it would have access to a greater number, usually ten. so, also, throughout this diagram we have shown the apparatus and trunks arranged in groups of three instead of in groups of ten, only the first three thousands groups being indicated and the first three hundreds groups in each thousand. again only three levels instead of ten are indicated for each selecting switch, it being understood that in the diagram the various levels are represented by concentric arcs of circles, and the trunk contacts by dots on these arcs. _line-switch action._ when the subscriber, whose line is shown at the bottom of the figure, begins to make a call, the line switch acts to connect his line with one of the first selector trunks available to it. this selection is entirely preliminary and, except to start it, is in no way under the control of the calling subscriber. the calling line now has under its control a first selector which, for the time being, becomes individual to it. let it be assumed that the line switch found the first of the first selector trunks already appropriated by some other switch, but that the second one of these trunks was found idle. this trunk being appropriated by the line switch places the center one of the first selectors shown under the control of the subscriber's line. this first selector then acts in response to the first set of selective impulses sent out by his signal transmitter. [illustration: dean harmonic converter dry cell type for magneto exchange. _the dean electric co._] [illustration: fig. . scheme of trunking] _first selector action._ we will assume that the calling subscriber desires to connect with no. . the first movement of the subscriber's signal transmitter will send, therefore, three impulses over the line. these impulses will act on the vertical magnet of the first selector switch to move it up three steps. on this "level" of the contact bank of this switch all of the contacts will represent second selector trunks leading to the _third_ thousand group. the other ends of these trunks will terminate in the wipers and also in the controlling magnets of second selectors serving this thousand. this function on the part of the first selector controlled by the act of the subscriber will have thus selected a _group_ of trunks leading to the _third_ thousand, but the subscriber has nothing to do with which one of the trunks of this group will actually be used. immediately following the vertical movement of the first selector switch the rotary movement of this switch will start and will continue until the wipers of that switch have found contacts of an idle trunk leading to a second selector. assuming that the first trunk was the one found idle, the first selector wipers would pause on the first pair of contacts in the third level of its bank, and the trunk chosen may be seen leading from that contact off to the group of second selectors belonging to the third thousand. for clearness, the chosen trunks in this assumed connection are shown heavier than the others. _second selector action._ the next movement of the dial by the subscriber in establishing his desired connection will send two impulses, it being desired to choose the _second_ hundred in the _third_ thousand. the first selector will have become inoperative before this second series of impulses is sent and, therefore, only the second selector will respond. its vertical magnet acting under the influence of these two impulses will step up its wiper contacts opposite the second row of bank contacts, and the subscriber will thus have chosen the _group_ of trunks leading to the _second_ hundred in the _third_ thousand. here, again, the automatic operation of picking out the first idle one of this chosen group of trunks will take place without the volition of the subscriber, and it will be assumed that the first two trunks on this level of the second selector were found already engaged and that the third was therefore chosen. the connection continues, as indicated by heavy lines in fig. , to the third one of the connectors in the _second_ hundred of the _third_ thousand. any one of these connectors would have accomplished the purpose but this is assumed to be the first one found idle by the second selector. _connector action._ the third movement of the subscriber's dial will send but one impulse, this corresponding to the _first_ group of ten in the _second_ hundred in the _third_ thousand. this impulse will move the connector shaft up to the first level of bank contacts; and from now on the action of the connector differs radically from that of the selectors. the connector is not searching for an idle trunk in the group but for a particular line and, therefore, having chosen the group of ten lines in the desired hundred, the connector switch waits for further guidance from the subscriber. this comes in the form of the final set of impulses sent by the subscriber's signal transmitter which, in this case, will be three in number, corresponding to the final digit in the number of the called subscriber. this series of impulses will control the rotary movement of the connector wipers which will move along the first level and stop on the third one. the process is seen to be one of successive selection, first of a large group, then of a smaller, again of a smaller, and finally of an individual. if the line is found not busy, the connection between the two subscribers is complete and the called subscriber's bell will be rung. if it is found busy, however, the connector will refuse to connect and will drop back to its normal position, sending a busy signal back to the calling subscriber. the details of ringing and the busy-back operation may only be understood by a discussion of drawings, subsequently to be referred to. =two-wire and three-wire systems.= in most of the systems of the automatic electric company in use today the impulses by which the subscriber controls the central-office apparatus flow over one side of the line or the other and return by ground. the metallic circuit is used for talking and for ringing the called subscriber's bell, while ground return circuits, on one side of the line or the other, are used for sending all the switch controlling impulses. recently this company has perfected a system wherein no ground is required at the subscriber's station and no ground return path is used for any purpose between the subscriber and the central office. this later system is known as the "two-wire" system, and in contra-distinction to it, the earlier and most used system has been referred to as the "three-wire." it is not meant by this that the line circuits actually have three wires but that each line employs three conductors, the two wires of the line and the earth. the three-wire system will be referred to and described in detail, and from it the principles of the two-wire system will be readily understood. [illustration: fig. . automatic wall set] [illustration: fig. . automatic desk stand] =subscriber's station apparatus.= the detailed operation of the three-wire system may be best understood by considering the subscriber's station apparatus first. the general appearance of the wall set is shown in fig. , and of the desk set in fig. . these instruments embody the usual talking and call-receiving apparatus of a common-battery telephone and in addition to this, the signal transmitter, which is the thing especially to be considered now. the diagrammatic illustration of the signal transmitter and of the relation that its parts bear to the other elements of the telephone set is shown in fig. . it has already been stated that the subscriber manipulates the signal transmitter by rotating the dial on the face of the instrument. a clearer idea of this dial and of the finger stop for it may be obtained from figs. and . [illustration: fig. . circuits of telephone set] _operation._ to make a call for a given number the subscriber removes his receiver from its hook, then places his forefinger in the hole opposite the number corresponding to the first digit of the desired number. by means of the grip thus secured, he rotates the dial until its movement is stopped by the impact of the finger against the stop. the dial is then released and in its return movement it sends the number of impulses corresponding to the first digit in the called number. a similar movement is made for each digit. in fig. is given a phantom view of the dial, in order to show more clearly the relation of the mechanical parts and contacts controlled by it. for a correct idea of its mechanical action it must be understood that the shaft _ _, the lever _ _, and the interrupter segment _ _ are all rigidly fastened to the dial and move with it. a coiled spring always tends to move the dial and these associated parts back to their normal positions when released by the subscriber, and a centrifugal governor, not shown, limits the speed of the return movement. the subscriber's hook switch is mechanically interlocked with the dial so as to prevent the dial being moved from its normal position until the hook is in its raised position. this interlocking function involves also the pivoted dog _ _. normally the lower end of this dog lies in the path of the pin _ _ carried on the lever _ _, and thus the shaft, dial, and segment are prevented from any considerable movement when the receiver is on the hook. however, when the receiver is removed from its hook, the upwardly projecting arm from the hook engages a projection on the dog _ _ and moves the dog out of the path of the pin _ _. thus the dial is free to be rotated by the subscriber. the pin _ _ is mounted in a stationary position and serves to limit the backward movement of the dial by the lever _ _ striking against it. ground springs:--five groups of contact springs must be considered, some of which are controlled wholly by the position of the switch hook, others jointly by the position of the switch hook and the dial, others by the movement of the dial itself, and still others by the pressure of the subscriber's finger on a button. the first of these groups consists of the springs _ _ and _ _, the function of which is to control the continuity of the ground connection at the subscriber's station. the arrangement of these two springs is such that the ground connection will be broken until the subscriber's receiver is removed from its hook. as soon as the receiver is raised, these springs come together in an obvious manner, the dog _ _ being lifted out of the way by the action of the hook. the ledge on the lower portion of the spring _ _ serves as a rest for the insulated arm of the dog _ _ to prevent this dog, which is spring actuated, from returning and locking the dial until after the receiver has been hung up. bell and transmitter springs:--the second group is that embracing the springs _ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _. the springs _ _ and _ _ are controlled by the lower projection from the switch hook, the spring _ _ engaging the spring _ _ only when the hook is down. the spring _ _ engages the spring _ _ only when the hook lever is up and not then unless the dial is in its normal position. while the hook is raised, therefore, the springs _ _ and _ _ break contact whenever the dial is moved and make contact again when it returns to its normal position. the springs _ _ and _ _ control the circuit through the subscriber's bell while the springs _ _ and _ _ control the continuity of the circuit from one side of the line to the other so as to isolate the limbs from each other while the signal transmitter is sending its impulses to the central office. impulse springs:--the third group embraces springs _ _, _ _, and _ _ and these are the ones by which the central-office switches are controlled in building up a connection. something of the prevailing nomenclature which has grown up about the automatic system may be introduced at this point. the movements of the selecting switches at the central office are referred to as _vertical_ and _rotary_ for obvious reasons. on account of this the magnet which causes the vertical movement is referred to as the _vertical magnet_ and that which accomplishes the _rotary_ movement as the _rotary magnet_. it happens that in all cases the selecting impulses sent by the subscriber's station, corresponding respectively to the number of digits in the called subscriber's number, are sent over one side of the line and in nearly all cases these selecting impulses actuate the vertical movements of the selecting switches. for this reason the particular limb of the line over which the selecting impulses are sent is called the _vertical limb_. the other limb of the line is the one over which the single impulse is sent after each group of selecting impulses, and it is this impulse in every case which causes the selector switch to start rotating in its hunt for an idle trunk. this side of the line is, therefore, called _rotary_. for the same reasons the impulses over the vertical side of the line are called _vertical impulses_ and those over the rotary side, _rotary impulses_. the naming of the limbs of the line and of the current impulses _vertical_ and _rotary_ may appear odd but it is, to say the least, convenient and expressive. coming back to the functions of the third group of springs, _ _, _ _, and _ _, _ _ may be called the _vertical spring_ since it sends vertical impulses; _ _, the _rotary spring_ since it sends rotary impulses; and _ _, the _ground spring_ since, when the hook is up, it is connected with the ground. on the segment _ _ there are ten projections or cams _ _ which, when the dial is moved, engage a projection of the spring _ _. when the dial is being pulled by the subscriber's finger, these cams engage the spring _ _ in such a way as to move it away from the ground spring and no electrical contact is made. on the return of the dial, however, these cams engage the projection on the spring _ _ in the opposite way and the passing of each cam forces this vertical spring into engagement with the ground spring. it will readily be seen, therefore, by a consideration of the spacing of these cams on the segment and the finger holes in the dial that the number of cams which pass the vertical spring _ _ will correspond to the number on the hole used by the subscriber in moving the dial. near the upper right-hand corner of the segment _ _, as shown in fig. , there is another projection or cam _ _, the function of which is to engage the rotary spring _ _ and press it into contact with the ground spring. thus, the first thing that happens in the movement of the dial is for the projection _ _ to ride over the hump on the rotary spring and press the contact once into engagement with the ground spring; and likewise, the last thing that happens on the return movement of the dial is for the rotary spring to be connected once to the ground spring after the last vertical impulse has been sent. if both the rotary and vertical sides of the line are connected with the live side of the central-office battery, it follows that every contact between the vertical and the ground spring or between the rotary and the ground spring will allow an impulse of current to flow over the vertical or the rotary side of the line. we may summarize the action of these impulse springs by saying that whenever the dial is moved from its normal position, there is, at the beginning of this movement, a single rotary impulse over the rotary side of the line; and that while the dial returns, there is a series of vertical impulses over the vertical side of the line; and just before the dial reaches its normal position, after the sending of the last vertical impulse, there is another impulse over the rotary side of the line. the mechanical arrangements of the interrupter segment _ _ and its associated parts have been greatly distorted in fig. in order to make clear their mode of operation. this drawing has been worked out with great care, with this in mind, at a sacrifice of accuracy in regard to the actual structural details. ringing springs:--the fourth group of springs in the subscriber's telephone is the ringing group and embraces the springs _ _, _ _, and _ _. the springs _ _ and _ _ are normally closed and maintain the continuity of the talking circuit. when, however, the button attached to the spring _ _--which button may be seen projecting from the instrument shown in fig. , and from the base of the one shown in fig. --is pressed, the continuity of the talking circuit is interrupted and the vertical side of the line is connected with the ground. it is by this operation, after the connection has been made with the desired subscriber's line, that the central-office apparatus acts to send ringing current out on that line. release springs:--the fifth set of springs is the one shown at the left-hand side of fig. , embracing springs _ _, _ _, and _ _. the long curved spring _ _ is engaged by the projecting lug on the switch hook when it rises so as to press this spring away from the other two. on the return movement of the hook, however, this spring is pressed to the left so as to bring all three of them into contact, and this, it will be seen, grounds both limbs of the line at the subscriber's station. this combination cannot be effected by any of the other springs at any stage of their operation, and it is the one which results in the energization of such a combination of relays and magnets at the central office as will release all parts involved in the connection and allow them to return to their normal positions ready for another call. _salient points._ if the following things are borne in mind about the operation of the subscriber's station apparatus, an understanding of the central-office operations will be facilitated. first, the selective impulses always flow over the vertical side of the line; they are always preceded and always followed by a single impulse over the rotary side of the line. the ringing button grounds the vertical side of the line and the release springs ground both sides of the line simultaneously. =the line switch.= the first thing to be considered in connection with the central-office apparatus is the line switch. this, it will be remembered, is the device introduced into each subscriber's line at the central office for the purpose of effecting a reduction of the number of first selectors required at the central office, and also for bringing about certain important functional results in connection with trunking between central and sub-offices. the function of the line switch in connection with the subscriber's line, however, is purely that of reducing the number of first selectors. the line switches of one hundred lines are all associated to form a single unit of apparatus, which, besides the individual line switches, includes certain other apparatus common to those lines. such a group of one hundred line switches and associated common apparatus is called a _line-switch unit_, or frequently, a _keith unit_. confusion is likely to arise in the mind of the reader between the individual line switch and the line-switch unit, and to avoid this we will refer to the piece of apparatus individual to the line as the line switch, and to the complete unit formed of one hundred of these devices as a line-switch unit. _line and trunk contacts._ each line switch has its own bank of contacts arranged in the arc of a circle, and in this same arc are also placed the contacts of each of the ten individual trunks which it is possible for that line to appropriate. the contacts individual to the subscriber's line in the line switch are all multipled together, the arrangement being such that if a wedge or plunger is inserted at any point, the line contacts will be squeezed out of their normal position so as to engage the contacts of the trunk corresponding to the particular position in the arc at which the wedge or plunger is inserted. a small plunger individual to each line is so arranged that it may be thrust in between the contact springs in the line-switch bank in such manner as to connect any one of the trunks with the line terminals represented in that row, the particular trunk so connected depending on the portion of the arc toward which the plunger is pointed at the time it is thrust in the contacts. these banks of lines and trunk contacts are horizontally arranged, and piled in vertical columns of twenty-five line switches each. the ten trunk contacts are multipled vertically through the line-switch banks, so that the same ten trunks are available to each of the twenty-five lines. we thus have, in effect, an old style, western union, cross-bar switchboard, the line contacts being represented in horizontal rows and the trunk contacts in vertical rows, the connection between any line and any trunk being completed by inserting a plunger at the point of intersection of the horizontal and the vertical rows corresponding to that line and trunk. _trunk selection._ the plungers by which the lines and trunks are connected are, as has been said, individual to the line, and all of the twenty-five plungers in a vertical row are mounted in such manner as to be normally held in the same vertical plane, and this vertical plane is made to oscillate back and forth by an oscillating shaft so as always _to point the plungers toward a vertical row of trunk contacts that represent a trunk that is not in use at the time_. the to-and-fro movement of this oscillating shaft, called the _master bar_, is controlled by a master switch and the function of this master switch is always to keep the plungers pointed toward the row of contacts of an idle trunk. the thrusting movement of the individual plungers into the contact bank is controlled by magnets individual to the line and under control of the subscriber in initiating a call. as soon as the plunger of a line has been thus thrust into the contact bank so as to connect the terminals of that line with a given trunk, the plunger is no longer controlled by the master bar and remains stationary. the master bar then at once moves all of the other plungers that are not in use so that they will point to the terminals of another trunk that is not in use. the plungers of all the line switches in a group of twenty-five are, therefore, subject to the oscillating movements of the master bar when the line is not connected to a first selector trunk. as soon as a call is originated on a line, the corresponding plunger is forced into the bank and is held stationary in maintaining the connection to a first selector trunk, and all of the other plungers not so engaged, move on so as to be ready to engage another idle trunk. _trunk ratio._ the assignment of ten trunks to twenty-five lines would be a greater ratio of trunks than ordinary traffic conditions require. this ratio of trunks to lines is, however, readily varied by multipling the trunk contacts of several twenty-five line groups together. thus, ten trunks may be made available to one hundred subscribers' lines by multipling the trunks of four twenty-five line switch groups together. in this case the four master bars corresponding to the four groups of twenty-five line switches are all mechanically connected together so as to move in unison under the control of a single master switch. if more than ten and less than twenty-one trunks are assigned to one hundred lines, then each set of ten trunks is multipled to the trunk contacts of fifty line switches, the two master bars of these switches being connected together and controlled by a common master switch. _structure of line switch._ the details of the parts of a line switch that are individual to the line are shown in fig. , the line and trunk contact bank being shown in the lower portion of this figure and also in a separate view in the detached figure at the right. a detailed group of several such line switches with the oscillating master bar is shown in fig. . this figure shows quite clearly the relative arrangement of the line and trunk contact banks, the plungers for each bank, and the master bar. [illustration: fig. . line switch] in practice, four groups of twenty-five line switches each are mounted on a single framework and the group of one hundred line switches, together with certain other portions of the apparatus that will be referred to later, form a line-switch unit. a front view of such a unit is shown in fig. . in order to give access to all portions of the wiring and apparatus, the framework supporting each column of fifty line switches is hinged so as to open up the interior of the device as a whole. a line-switch unit thus opened out is shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . portion of line-switch unit] _circuit operation._ the mode of operation of the line switch may be best understood in connection with fig. , which shows in a schematic way the parts of a line switch that are individual to a subscriber's line, and also those that are common to a group of fifty or one hundred lines. those portions of fig. which are individual to the line are shown below the dotted line extending across the page. the task of understanding the line switch will be made somewhat easier if figs. and are considered together. the individual parts of the line switch are shown in the same relation to each other in these two figures with the exception that the bank of line and trunk springs in the lower right-hand corner of fig. have been turned around edgewise so as to make an understanding of their circuit connections possible. [illustration: fig. . line-switch unit] [illustration: fig. . line-switch unit] [illustration: fig. . circuits of line-switch unit] the vertical and rotary sides of the subscriber's line are shown entering at the lower left-hand corner of this figure, and they pass to the springs of the contact bank. immediately adjacent to these springs are the trunk contacts from which the vertical and the rotary limbs of the first selector trunk proceed. the plunger is indicated at _ _, it being in the form of a wheel of insulating material. it is carried on the rod _ _ pivoted on a lever _ _, which, in turn, is pivoted at _ _ in a stationary portion of the framework. a spring _ _, secured to the underside of the lever _ _ and projecting to the left beyond the pivot _ _ of this lever, serves always to press the right-hand portion of the lever _ _ forward in such direction as to tend to thrust it into the contact bank. the plunger is normally held out of the contact bank by means of the latch _ _ carried on the armature _ _ of the trip magnet. when the trip magnet is energized it pulls the armature _ _ to the left and thus releases the plunger and allows it to enter the contact bank. [illustration: power switchboard for medium-sized office mercury arc rectifier panel and transformer at right.] the master bar is shown at _ _, and a feather on this bar engages a notch in the segment attached to the rear end of the plunger rod _ _. this master bar is common to all of the plunger rods and by its oscillatory movement, under the influence of the master switch, it always keeps all of the idle plunger bars pointed toward the contacts of an idle trunk. as soon, however, as the trip magnet is operated to cause the insertion of a plunger into the contact bank, the feather on the master bar is disengaged by the notch in the segment of the plunger rod, and the plunger rod is, therefore, no longer subject to the oscillating movement of the master bar. when the release magnet is energized, it attracts its armature _ _ and this lifts the armature _ _ of the trip magnet so that the latch _ _ rides on top of the left-hand end of the lever _ _. then, when the release magnet is de-energized, the spring _ _, which was put under tension by the latch, moves the entire structure of levers back to its normal position, withdrawing the plunger from the bank of contacts. the notch on the edge of the segment of the plunger rod, when thus released, will probably not strike the feather on the master bar, and the plunger rod will thus not come under the control of the master bar until the master bar has moved, in its oscillation, so that the feather registers with the notch, after which this bar will move with all the others. if, while the plunger is waiting to be picked up by the master bar, the same subscriber should call again, his line will be connected with the same trunk as before. there is no danger in this, however, that the trunk will be found busy, because the master bar will not have occupied a position which would make it possible for any of the lines to appropriate this trunk during the intervening time. _master switch._ associated with each master bar there is a master switch which determines the position in which the master bar shall stop in order that the idle plungers may be pointed always to the contacts of an idle trunk. the arm _ _ of this switch is attached to the master bar and oscillates with it and serves to connect the segment _ _ successively with the contacts _ _, which are connected respectively to the third, or release wire of each first selector trunk. in the figure the arm _ _ is shown resting on the sixth contact of the switch and this sixth contact is connected to a spring _ _ in the line-switch contact bank that has not yet been referred to. as soon as the plunger is inserted into the contact bank, the spring _ _ will be pressed into engagement with the spring _ _, and this spring _ _ is connected with the live side of the battery through the release magnet winding. the contact strip _ _ on the master switch is thus connected through the release magnet to the battery and from this current flows through the left-hand winding of the master-switch relay. this energizes this relay and causes the closure of the circuit of the locking magnet which magnet unlocks the master bar to permit its further rotation. the unlocking of the master bar brings the spring _ _ into engagement with _ _ and thus energizes the master magnet, the armature of which vibrates back and forth after the manner of an electric-bell armature, and steps the wheel _ _ around. the wheel _ _ is mechanically connected to the master bar so that each complete revolution of the wheel will cause one complete oscillation of the master bar. the master bar will thus be moved so as to cause all the idle plungers to sweep through an arc and this movement will stop as soon as the master-switch arm _ _ connects the arc _ _ with one of the contacts _ _ that is not connected to the live side of the battery through the springs _ _ and _ _ of some other line switch. it is by this means that the plungers of the line switches are always kept pointing at the contacts of an idle trunk. the way in which this feature has been worked out must demand admiration and accounts for the marvelous quickness of this line switch. the fact that the plungers are pointed in the right direction before the time comes for their use, leaves only the simple thrusting motion of the plunger to accomplish the desired connection immediately upon the initiation of a call by the subscriber. _locking segment._ it will be understood that the locking segment _ _ and the master-switch contact finger _ _ are both rigidly connected with the master bar _ _ and move with it, the locking segment _ _ serving always to determine accurately the angular position at which the master bar and the master-switch arm are brought to rest. _bridge cut-off._ one important feature of automatic switching, particularly as exemplified in the system of the automatic electric company, is the disconnection, after its use, of each operating magnet of each piece of apparatus involved in making a connection. since these operating magnets are always bridged across the line at the time of their operation and then cut off after they have performed their function, this feature may be referred to as the _bridge cut-off_. _guarding functions._ still another feature of importance is the means for guarding a line or a piece of apparatus that has already been appropriated or made busy, so that it will not be appropriated or connected with for use in some other connection. for this latter purpose contacts and wires are associated with each piece of apparatus, which are multipled to similar contacts on other pieces of apparatus in much the same way and for a similar purpose that the test thimbles in a multiple switchboard are multipled together. such wires and contacts in the automatic electric company's apparatus are called _private wires_ and _contacts_. the bridge cut-off and guarding functions are provided for in the line switch by a bridge cut-off relay shown in fig. and also in fig. , it being the upper one of the individual line relays in each of those figures. this bridge cut-off relay is operated as soon as the plunger of the line is thrust into the bank; the contacts _ _ and _ _, closed by the plunger, serving to complete the circuit of this relay. to make clear the bridge cut-off feature it will be noted that the trip magnet of a line switch is connected in a circuit traced from the rotary side of the line through the contacts _ _ and _ _ of the bridge cut-off relay, thence through the coil of the trip magnet to the common wire leading to the spring _ _ of the master-bar locking device and thence to the live side of the battery. obviously, therefore, as soon as the bridge cut-off relay operates, the trip magnet becomes inoperative and can cause no further action of the line switch because its circuit is broken between the springs _ _ and _ _. the private or guarding feature is taken care of by the action of the plunger in closing contacts _ _ and _ _, since the private wire leading to the bridge cut-off relay is, as has already been stated, connected to ground when these contacts are closed. this private wire leads off and is multipled to the private contacts on all the connectors that have the ability to reach this line, and the fact that this wire is grounded by the line switch as soon as it becomes busy, establishes such conditions at all of the connectors that they will refuse to connect with this line as long as it is busy, in a way that will be pointed out later on. _relation of line switch and connectors._ the vertical and rotary wires of the subscriber's line are shown leading off to the connector banks at the left-hand side of fig. , and one side of this connection passes through the contacts _ _ and _ _ of the bridge cut-off relay on the line switch. it is through this path that a connection from some other line through a connector to this line is established and it is seen that this path is held open until the bridge cut-off relay of the line switch is operated. for such a connection to this line the bridge cut-off relay of the line switch is operated over the private wire leading from the connector, and the operation of the bridge cut-off relay at this time serves to render inoperative the line switch, so that it will not perform its usual functions should the called subscriber start to make a call after his line had been seized. _summary of line-switch operation._ to summarize the operation of a line switch when a call is originated on its line, the first movement of the calling subscriber's dial will ground the rotary side of the line and operate the trip magnet. this will cause the plunger to be inserted into the bank, and thus extend the line to the first selector trunk through the closing of the right-hand set of springs shown in the lower right-hand corner of fig. . the insertion of the plunger will also connect the battery through the left-hand winding of the master-switch relay and, by the sequence of operations which follows, cause the master bar to move all of the idle plungers so as to again point them to an idle trunk. the closure of contacts _ _ and _ _ by the plunger causes the operation of the bridge cut-off relay which opens the circuit of the trip magnet, rendering it inoperative; and also establishes ground potential on all the private wire contacts of that line in the banks of the connectors, so as to guard the line and its associated apparatus against intrusion by others. the line is cut through, therefore, to a first selector and all of the line-switch apparatus is completely cut off from the talking circuit. it must be remembered that all of the actions of the line switch, which it has taken so long to describe, occur practically instantaneously and as a result of the first part of the first movement of the subscriber's dial. the line switch has done its work and "gone out of business" before the selective impulses of the first digit begin to take place. =selecting switches.= the first selector is now in control of the calling subscriber. the circuits and elements of the first selector switch are shown in fig. . the general mechanical structure of the first selectors, second selectors, and connectors, is the same and may be referred to briefly here. fig. shows a rear view of a first selector; fig. , a side view of a second selector; and fig. , a front view of a connector. the arrangement of the vertical and rotary magnets, of the selector shafts, and of the contact banks are identical in all three of these pieces of apparatus and all these switches work on the "up-and-around principle" referred to in connection with fig. . it is thought that with the general structure shown in figs. , , and in mind, the actual operation may be understood much more readily from fig. . four magnets--the vertical, the rotary, the private, and the release--produce the switching movements of the machine. these magnets are controlled by various combinations brought upon the circuits by three relays--the vertical, the rotary, and the back release. the fourth relay shown, called the _off-normal_, is purely for signaling purposes, as will be described. _side switch._ another important element of the selecting switches is the so-called side switch which might better be called a pilot switch--but we are not responsible for its name. this side switch has for its function the changing of the control of the subscriber's line to successive portions of the selector mechanism, rendering inoperative those portions that have already performed their functions and that, therefore, are no longer needed. this switch may be seen best in fig. just above the upper bank of contacts. it is shown in fig. greatly distorted mechanically so as to better illustrate its electrical functions. [illustration: fig. . circuits of first selector] the contact levers _ _, _ _, _ _, and _ _ of the side switch are carried upon the arm _ _ which is pivoted at _ _. all of these contact levers, therefore, move about _ _ as an axis. the side switch has three positions and it is shown, in fig. , in the first one of these. when the private magnet armature is attracted and released once, the escapement carried by it permits the spring _ _ to move the arm _ _ so as to bring the wipers of the side switch into its second position; the second pulling up and release of the private magnet armature will cause the movement of the side switch wipers into the third position. it is to be noted that the escapement which releases the side switch arm may be moved either by the private or by the rotary magnet, since the armature of the latter has a finger which engages the private magnet armature. [illustration: fig. . rear view of first selector] _functions of side switch._ the functions of the side switch may be briefly outlined in connection with the first selector, as an example. in the first position it extends the control of the subscriber's signal transmitter through the first selector trunk and line relays to the vertical and private magnets so that these magnets will be responsive to the selecting impulses corresponding to the first digit. in its second position it brings about such a condition of affairs that the rotary magnet will be brought into play and automatically move the wipers over the bank contacts in search of an idle trunk. in its third position, both the vertical and rotary relays are cut off and the line is cut straight through to the second selector trunk, and only those parts of the first selector apparatus are left in an operative state which have to do with the private or guarding circuits and with the release. similar functions are performed by the side switch in connection with the other selecting switches. [illustration: fig. . side view of second selector] _release mechanism._ another one of the features of the switch that needs to be considered before a detailed understanding of its operation may be had, is the mechanical relation of the holding and the release dog. this dog is shown at _ _ and, in the language of the art, is called the _double dog_. as will be seen, it has two retaining fingers, one adapted to engage the vertical ratchet and the other, the rotary ratchet on the selector shaft. this double dog is pivoted at _ _ and is interlinked in a peculiar way with the armature of the vertical magnet, the armature of the release magnet, and the arm of the side switch. the function of this double dog is to hold the shaft in whatever vertical position it is moved by the vertical magnet and then, when the rotary magnet begins to operate, to hold the shaft in its proper angular position. it will be noted that the fixed dog _ _ is ineffective when the shaft is in its normal angular position. but as soon as the shaft is rotated, this fixed dog _ _ becomes the real holding pawl so far as the vertical movement is concerned. the double dog _ _ is normally held out of engagement with the vertical and the rotary ratchets by virtue of the link connection, shown at _ _, between the release magnet armature and the rear end of the double dog. on the previous release of the switch the attraction of the release magnet armature permitted the link _ _ to hook over the end of the dog _ _ and thus, on its return movement, to pull this dog out of engagement with its ratchets. this movement also resulted in pushing on the link _ _ which is pivoted to the side switch arm _ _, and thus the return movement of the release magnet is made to restore the side switch to its normal position. in order that the double dog may be made effective when it is required, and in order that the side switch may be free to move under the influence of the private magnet, the double dog is released from its connection with the release magnet armature by the first movement of the vertical magnet in a manner which is clear from the drawing. =first selector operation.= in discussing the details of operation of the various selectors it will be found convenient to divide the discussion according to the position of the side switch. this will bring about a logical arrangement because it is really the side switch which determines by its position the sequence of operation. [illustration: fig. . front view of connector] _first position of side switch._ this is the position shown in fig. , and is the normal position. the vertical and the rotary lines extending from the calling subscriber are continued by the levers _ _ and _ _ of the side switch through the vertical and the rotary relay coils, respectively, to the live side of battery. the lever _ _ of the side switch in this position connects to ground the circuit leading from the line switch through the release trunk, and the winding of the off-normal relay. this winding is thus put in series with the release magnet of the line switch, but on account of high resistance of the off-normal relay no operation of the release magnet is caused. this will, however, permit such current to flow through the release circuit as will energize the sensitive off-normal relay and cause it to attract its armature and light the off-normal lamp. if this lamp remains lighted more than a brief period of time, it will attract notice and will indicate that the corresponding selector has been appropriated by a line switch and that for some reason the selector has gone no further. this lamp, therefore, is an aid in preventing the continuance of this abnormal condition. the first thing that happens after the line switch has connected the calling subscriber with the first selector is a succession of impulses over the vertical side of the line, this being the set of impulses corresponding in number to the thousands digit or to the office, if there is more than one. it will be understood that here we are considering a single office of ten-thousand-line capacity or thereabouts, and that, therefore, this first set of impulses corresponds to the thousands digit in the called subscriber's line. each one of these impulses will flow from the battery through the vertical relay and each movement of this relay armature will close the circuit of the vertical magnet and cause the shaft of the selector to be stepped up to the proper level. immediately following the first series of selecting impulses from the subscriber's station, a single impulse follows over the rotary side of the line. this gives the rotary relay armature one impulse and this in turn closes the circuit of the private magnet once. the single movement of the private magnet armature allows the escapement finger on the arm _ _ to move one step and this brings the side switch contacts into the second position. _second position of side switch._ in this position lever _ _ of the side switch places a ground on the wire leading through the rotary magnet to a source of interrupted battery current. the impulses which thus flow through the rotary magnet occur at a frequency dependent upon the battery interrupter and this is at a rate of approximately fifteen impulses per second. the rotary magnet will step the selector shaft rapidly around until something occurs to stop these impulses. this something is the finding by the private wiper of an ungrounded private contact in the bank, since all of the contacts corresponding to busy trunks are grounded, as will be explained. the action of the private magnet enters into this operation in the following way: a circuit may be traced from the battery through the private magnet to the third side switch wiper when in its second position, thence through the back release relay to the private wiper. if the wiper is at the time on the private bank contact of a busy trunk, it will find that contact grounded and the private magnet will be energized. the energizing of this magnet will not, however, cause the release of the side switch. it must be energized and de-energized. the private magnet armature will, therefore, be operated by the finger of the rotary magnet armature on the first rotary step. the private magnet will be energized and hold its armature operated if the private wiper finds a ground on the first bank contact and will stay energized as long as the private wiper is passing over private contacts of busy trunks. its armature will not be allowed to fall back during the passage of the wiper from one trunk to another, because during that interval the finger of the rotary magnet will hold it operated. as soon, however, as the private wiper reaches the private bank contact of an idle trunk, no ground will be found and the circuit of the private magnet will be left open. when the impulse through the rotary magnet ceases, the private magnet armature will fall back and the side switch will be released to its third position. _third position of side switch._ the first thing to be noted in this position is that the calling line is cut straight through to the second selector trunk, the connection being clean with no magnets bridged across or tapped off. the third wiper of the side switch, when in its third position, is grounded and this connects the release wire of the second selector trunk, on which the switch wipers rest, through the private wiper, the winding of the back release magnet, and the third wiper of the side switch to ground. this establishes a path for the subsequent release current through the back release magnet; and, of equal importance, it places a ground on the private bank contact of that trunk so that the private wiper of any other switch will be prevented from stopping on the contacts of this trunk in the same manner that the wiper of this switch was prevented from stopping on other trunks that were already in use. the fourth lever on the side switch, when in its third position, serves merely to close the circuit of the rotary off-normal lamp. this lamp is for the purpose of calling attention to any first selector switch that has been brought into connection with some second selector trunk and which, for some reason, has failed in its release. these off-normal lamps are so arranged that they may be switched off manually to avoid burning them during the hours of heaviest traffic. at night they afford a ready means of testing for switches that have been left off-normal, since the manual switches controlling these lamps may then be closed, and any lamps which burn will show that the switches corresponding to them are off-normal. simple tests then suffice to show whether they are properly or improperly in their off-normal position. _release of the first selector._ as will be shown later, the normal way of releasing the switches is from the connector back over the release wire. it is sufficient to say at this point that when the proper time for release comes, an impulse of current will come back over the second selector trunk release wire through the private wiper, to the back release relay magnet, and thence to ground through the third wiper of the side switch which is in its third position. it may be asked why the back release magnet was not energized during the previous operations described, when current passed through it. the reason for this is that in those previous operations the private magnet was always included in series in the circuit and on account of the high resistance of the private magnet, sufficient current did not pass through the back release magnet to energize it. when the back release relay is energized, it closes the circuit of the release magnet and thus, through the link _ _, draws the double dog away from its engagement with the shaft ratchets and at the same time, through the link _ _, restores the side switch to its normal position. whenever the release magnet is operated it acts as a relay to close a pair of contacts associated with it and thus to momentarily ground the release wire of the first selector trunk extending back to the line switch. referring to fig. , it will be seen that this path leads through the contacts _ _ and _ _ and the release magnet to the battery. it is by this means that the line switch is released, the release impulse being relayed back from the first selector. =second selector operation.= for the purpose of considering the action of the second selector, we will go back to the point where the first selector had connected with a second selector trunk and where its side switch had moved into its third position. in this condition, it will be remembered, the trunk line was cut through to a second selector trunk and all first selector apparatus cleared from the talking circuit. the second selector chosen is one corresponding to the thousands group as determined by the first digit of the called subscriber's number. the circuits of a second selector are shown in fig. and it must be borne in mind that the mechanical arrangements for producing the vertical and the rotary movement of the shaft and for operating the side switch are practically the same as those of the first selector. as in the first selector, the sequence of operation is controlled by the successive positions of the side switch, the first position permitting the selection of the hundreds corresponding to the vertical impulses, the second position allowing the selector to search for an idle trunk in that hundred, and the third position cutting the trunk through and clearing the circuit of obstructing apparatus. _first position of side switch._ the first thing that happens when the subscriber begins to move his dial in the transmission of the second series of selecting impulses is the sending of a preliminary impulse over the rotary side of the line. this, in the case of the second selector, energizes the rotary relay which, in turn, energizes the private magnet; but the private magnet in the case of the second selector can do nothing toward the release of the side switch because the projection _ '_, on the side switch arm _ _, meets a projection on the rear of the selector shaft which thus prevents the movement of the side switch arm _ _ until the selector shaft has been moved out of its normal position. immediately after the establishment of the connection to the selector, the second set of selecting impulses comes in over the vertical wire from the subscriber's station. these impulses, corresponding in number to the hundreds digit, will energize the vertical relay and cause it, in turn, to energize the vertical magnet, stepping up the selector shaft to the level corresponding to the hundred sought. the single rotary impulse, which follows just before the subscriber's dial reaches its normal position, will energize the rotary relay of the second selector. this, in turn, energizes the private magnet which makes a single movement of its armature and allows the escapement finger on the side switch arm to move one step and bring the side switch contacts into the second position. [illustration: fig. . circuits of second selector] _second position of side switch._ no detailed discussion of this is necessary, since, with the side switch in its second position, the actions which occur in causing the wipers of the second selector to seek and connect with an idle trunk line, are exactly the same as in the case of the first selector. when the second selector wipers finally reach a resting place on the bank contacts, the private magnet armature, operated during the hunting process, is released and the side switch is thus shifted into the third position. _third position of side switch._ the moving of the side switch into its final position brings about the same state of affairs with respect to the second selector that already exists with respect to the first selector. the trunk line is cut straight through and all bridge circuits or by-paths from it are cut off. the same guarding conditions are established to prevent other lines or other pieces of apparatus from making connections that will interfere with the one being established, and the same provisions are made for working the back release when the proper impulse comes from the connector, and for passing this back release impulse on to the first selector in the same way that the first selector passes it on to the line switch. the line of the calling subscriber has now been extended to a connector, and that connector is one of a group--usually ten--which alone has the ability to reach the particular hundred lines containing the line of the desired subscriber. the selection has, therefore, been narrowed down from one in ten thousand to one in one hundred. =the connector=--_its functions._ it has already been stated that the connector is of the same general type of apparatus as the first and the second selectors. unlike the first and the second selectors, however, the connector is required to make a double selection under the guidance of the subscriber. the first selector makes a single selection of a group under the guidance of the subscriber and then an automatic selection in that group not controlled by the subscriber. so it is with the second selector. the connector, however, makes a selection of a group of ten under the guidance of the subscriber and then, again under the guidance of the subscriber, it picks out a particular one of that group. the connector also has other functions in relation to the ringing of the called subscriber and the giving of a busy signal to the calling subscriber in case the line wanted is found busy. it has still other functions in that the talking current, which is finally supplied to connected subscribers, is supplied through paths furnished by it. _location of the connectors._ connectors are the only ones of the selecting switches that are in any sense individual to the subscribers' lines. none of them is individual to a subscriber's line, but it may be said that a group of ten connectors is individual to a group of one hundred subscribers' lines. since each group of one hundred lines has a group of connectors of its own and since each one hundred lines also has a line-switch unit of its own, and since the lines of this group must be multipled through the bank contacts of the connectors of this individual group and through the bank contacts of the line switches of this particular unit, it follows that on account of the wiring problems involved there is good reason for mounting the connectors in close proximity to the line switches representing the same group of lines. some help in the grasping of this thought may result if it be remembered that the line switch is, so to speak, the point of entry of a call and that the connector is the point of exit, and, in order to reduce the amount of wiring and to economize space, the point of exit and the point of entry are made as close together as possible. the relative locations and grouping of the line switches and connectors are clearly shown in fig. , which is a rear view of the same line-switch unit that was illustrated in figs. and . [illustration: gas engine and power board citizens' telephone co., racine, wis. _the dean electric co._] =operation of the connector.= the circuits of the connector are shown in fig. . in addition to the features that have been pointed out in the first and the second selectors, all of which are to be found, with some modifications, perhaps, in the connector, there must be considered the features in the connector of busy-signal operation, of ringing the called subscriber, of battery supply to both subscribers, and of the trunk release operation. these may be best understood by tracing through the operations of the connector from the time it is picked up by a second selector until the connection is finally completed, or until the busy signal has been given in case completion was found impossible. as in the first and the second selectors, the sequence of operations is determined by the position of the side switch. [illustration: fig. . connector side of line-switch unit] [illustration: fig. . circuits of connector] _first position of side switch._ the connector in a ten-thousand-line system is the recipient of the impulses resulting from the third and fourth movements of the subscriber's dial. considering the third movement of the subscriber's dial, the first impulse resulting from it comes over the rotary side of the line and results in the rotary relay attracting its armature once. this results in a single impulse through the private magnet which, however, does nothing because the projection _ '_ strikes against a projection on the selector shaft. these two projections interfere only when the selector shaft is in its normal position. then follows the series of impulses from the subscriber's station corresponding to the tens digit in the called subscriber's number. these pass over the vertical side of the line and through the vertical relay, energizing that relay a corresponding number of times. the vertical magnet, as in the case of the first and the second selectors, is included in the circuit controlled by the vertical relay and this results in the connector shaft being stepped up to the level corresponding to the particular tens group containing the called subscriber's number. it will be noted that the impulses from the vertical side of the line, which cause this selection, pass through one winding _ _ of the calling battery supply relay. this relay is operated by these vertical selecting impulses, but in this position of the side switch the closure of its local circuits accomplishes nothing. immediately after the tens group of selecting impulses over the vertical side of the line, there follows a single rotary impulse from the subscriber's station which, as in the case of the first and the second selectors, energizes the rotary relay and causes it to give one impulse to the private magnet. this impulse is now able, since the shaft has moved from its normal position, to release the side switch arm one notch, and the side switch, therefore, moves into its second position. _second position of side switch._ it is principally in this second position of the side switch that the connector selecting function differs from that of the first and the second selector. there is no trunk to be hunted, but rather the rotary movement of the connector wipers must be made in response to the impulses, from the subscriber's station, which correspond to the units digit in the selected number. the first impulse corresponding to the fourth movement of the subscriber's dial is a rotary one, and, as usual, it passes through the rotary relay winding and this, in turn, gives an impulse to the private magnet. the private magnet at this time has already released the side switch arm to its second position, but it is unable to release it further because of a feather on the wiper shaft--which projects just far enough to engage the lug _ '_, when the shaft is in its normal angular position--thus preventing the side switch arm from moving farther than its second position. then follows over the vertical side of the line the last set of selecting impulses corresponding to the units digit. this, as before, energizes the vertical relay, but in the second position of the side switch, it is to be noted, that the vertical relay no longer controls the vertical magnet; the side switch has shifted the control of the vertical relay to the rotary magnet. the rotary magnet is, therefore, energized a number of times corresponding to the last digit in the called number and the wipers of the connectors are thus brought to the contacts of the line sought--their final goal. at this point many things may happen, and the things that do happen depend on whether the called subscriber's line is idle or busy. called-line busy:--it will first be assumed that the called line is busy. the testing operation at the connectors occurs in the second position of the side switch. if the called line is busy, it will be either because it is connected to by some other connector or because it has itself made a call. in the former case the private contacts of that line in the banks of all the connectors serving that hundreds group of lines will be grounded through the private wiper of some other connector. that this is so, may be seen by tracing the circuit from the private wiper on the shaft to the third side switch wiper which is grounded in the third position; the other connector that has already engaged the line will, of course, have its side switch in its final, or third position. again, if the line called is busy, because a call has already been made from this line to some other line, the private contacts on the connectors corresponding to the line will be grounded, as will be seen by tracing from the private bank contacts, which are shown in fig. , through the private wire to the line switch, which is shown in fig. , and from thence to ground through the springs _ _ and _ _, which are brought together when the line switch is operated. in any event, therefore, the determining condition of a busy line is that its private bank contacts on all connectors of its group shall be grounded. under the present assumed condition, therefore, the connector wipers, which have been brought to the bank contacts of the desired line, will find a ground at the private bank contact. the connector shaft stops for an instant on the contacts of this busy line and immediately there follows over the rotary side of the line the inevitable single rotary impulse. this energizes the rotary relay and this, as usual, energizes the private magnet. remembering now that the connector side switch is in its second position and that the private wiper of the connector has found a ground, we may trace back from the private wiper through the third side switch wiper to its second contact; thence through the contact springs _ _ and _ _, closed by the private magnet; thence through the release magnet; thence through the contact springs _ _ and _ _ of the calling battery supply relay to the live side of the battery. this calling battery supply relay will, at this time, have its core energized because the coil _ _ is in series with the rotary relay coil which, as just stated, was energized by the last rotary impulse. this series of operations has led to the energizing of the release magnet, and, as a result, the double dog of the connector is pulled out of the connector shaft ratchets and the shaft and the side switch are restored to their normal position. busy-back signal:--the connector has dropped back to normal in all respects. the calling subscriber, not knowing this, presses his ringing button. this grounds the vertical side of the line at his station and operates the vertical relay at the connector. this steps the shaft of the connector up one step and causes the closure of the contacts _ _ and _ _ at the top of the connector shaft. this establishes a connection to a circuit carrying periodically interrupted battery current on which an inductive hum is placed. this circuit may be traced from this source through the springs _ _ and _ _ to the first wiper of the side switch, thence through the normally closed contacts of the ringing relay to the rotary side of the line, and the varying potential to which this path is subjected produces an inductive flow back to the calling subscriber's telephone, and gives him the necessary signal which consists of a hum or buzzing noise with which all users of automatic systems soon become familiar. release on busy connection:--the connector, since its last release, has been stepped up one notch and must again be released. when the subscriber hangs up his receiver after receiving the busy signal, he grounds both sides of his line momentarily by the action of the springs _ _, _ _, and _ _ of fig. . this operates the rotary and the vertical relays on the connector simultaneously and brings together for the first time the springs _ _ and _ _ of fig. . this establishes a connection from the battery through the springs _ _ and _ _ on the calling battery supply relay, thence through the release magnet of the connector, thence through the springs _ _ and _ _ of the vertical and the rotary relay, thence through the release trunk back to the second selector. from here the circuit passes through the private wiper of that selector and the back release relay to ground through the third side switch wiper which is in the third position. considering this circuit in respect to its action on the connector it is obvious that it energizes the release magnet on the connector which restores the connector to normal as before. at the second selector this circuit passed through the back release relay, which closed a circuit through the release magnet and through the back release relay contacts, thence back over the second selector release trunk to the back release relay of the first selector, and through the third wiper of the side switch on that selector to ground, since that side switch also is in its third position. the current through this circuit energizes the release magnet of the second selector and restores it to its normal position and also energizes the back release relay of the first selector. this, in turn, closes the circuit from the battery through the release magnet of the first selector and contacts of the back release relay to ground. this works the release magnet of the first selector and restores that selector to normal. the contacts on the first selector release magnet, shown in fig. , are closed by the action of the release magnet and this closes the path from ground back through the first selector release wire, and through the contacts _ _ and _ _ of the line switch, through the line switch release magnet to battery, and this restores the line switch to normal. the reason for the term _back release_ will now be apparent. the release operation at the connector is relayed back to the second selector; that of the second selector back to the first selector; and that of the first selector back to the line switch. until this plan was adopted, the release magnet of each selector and connector involved in a connection was left bridged across the talking circuit so as to be available for release; and it sometimes occurred that a first selector would be released before a second selector or connector, which latter switches would thus be left off-normal until rescued by an attendant. the back release plan makes it impossible for the connection necessary for the release of a switch to be torn down until the release is actually accomplished. called line found idle:--it will be remembered that, before the digression necessary to trace through the operations occurring upon the finding of a busy line, the connector wipers had been brought, by the influence of the calling subscriber's impulses, into engagement with the contacts of the desired line; that the connector side switch was in its second position; and that the final rotary impulse following the last series of selecting impulses had not been sent. the condition now to be assumed is that the called subscriber's line is free and the private wiper, therefore, has found and rests on an ungrounded private bank contact. the final rotary impulse which immediately follows will operate the rotary relay and this, in turn, will operate the private magnet. this happened under the assumed condition that the line was busy, but in that case the release magnet was also operated at the same time and restored all conditions to normal. under the present condition the operation of the private magnet will perform its usual function and move the side switch of the connector into its third position. _third position of side switch._ when the side switch of the connector moves to its third position, it, as usual, cuts the talking circuit straight through from the vertical and the rotary sides of the trunk leading from the previous selector to the outgoing terminal of the subscriber's line, which may be traced upon fig. back through the line switch, shown in fig. . several things are to be noted about the talking circuit so established: first, the inclusion of the condensers in the vertical and the rotary sides of the connector circuit. the purpose of this will be referred to later. second, the inclusion in this circuit at the connector of a pair of normally closed contacts in the ringing relay. it may be said in passing that the ringing relay corresponds exactly in function to a ringing key in a manual switchboard. third, the talking circuit leading from the connector to the called subscriber's line passes on one side through the springs _ _ and _ _ of the bridge cut-off relay of the line switch, which is shown in fig. . these springs are normally open and would prevent the completion of the talking circuit but for the fact that the bridge cut-off relay of the line switch is energized over the private wire leading to the connector bank and then through the connector wiper to the third side switch wiper which, at this time, is in its third position. the talking circuit is thus complete. the operation of this bridge cut-off relay on the line switch has not only completed the talking circuit but it has also opened the circuit of the trip magnet of the line switch so as to prevent the operation of the trip magnet by the subscriber on that line in case he should attempt to make a call during the interval between the time when his line was connected with by the connector and the time when he answers the call. the third wiper of the connector side switch when moved into its third position, puts the ground on all of the private bank contacts of the line chosen and thus guards that line against connection by others, as already described. it also operates the bridge cut-off relay of the line switch as just mentioned. the fourth wiper of the side switch, when moved into its third position, establishes such a connection as will place the ringing relay under the control of the vertical relay. this may be seen by tracing from ground to the vertical relay springs _ _ and _ _, thence through the normally closed upper pair of contacts on the private magnet, thence through the fourth wiper on the side switch to its third contact, thence through the ringing relay magnet, and through the springs _ _ and _ _ of the calling battery supply relay and to battery. the calling battery supply relay winding being in series with the vertical relay winding, the two operate together and close the two normally open points in the ringing relay circuit. this ringing relay acts as an ordinary ringing key and connects the generator to the called subscriber's line in an obvious manner, at the same time opening the talking circuit back of the ringing relay in order to prevent the ringing current chattering the relays in the circuit back of it. all that remains now is for the called subscriber to respond. when he does he closes the metallic circuit of the line through his talking apparatus. _battery supply to connected subscriber._ throughout the whole process of building up a connection, it will be remembered that both sides of the calling line are connected through the respective vertical and rotary relays involved in building up the connection with the live side of the battery. at the time when the connection is finally established and the called subscriber rung, both sides of the calling line are connected through various relay windings to the live side of the battery. such a condition leaves both sides of the line at the same potential and, therefore, there is no tendency for current to flow through the calling subscriber's talking apparatus, even though it is connected across the circuit of the line. it remains, therefore, to be seen how these conditions are so changed after the building up of a connection as to supply the calling subscriber with talking current. the calling subscriber can get no current until the called subscriber responds. when the connection is first made with the called subscriber's line, battery connection to his line is made from the live side of battery through the normally closed contacts of the calling battery supply relay, thence through the winding _ _ of the called battery supply relay to the vertical side of the called line. the grounded side of the battery is connected to the rotary side of his line through the third wiper of the connector and the coil _ _ of the called battery supply relay. as a result, this subscriber receives proper talking current through the coils _ _ and _ _, and this relay is operated by the flow of this current. the operation of this called battery supply relay merely shifts the connection of the rotary side of the calling subscriber's line from its normal battery connection, to ground, and thus the battery is placed straight across the calling subscriber's line so as to supply talking current. this supply circuit to the calling subscriber may be traced from the live side of the battery through the winding _ _ of the calling battery supply relay and the winding of the vertical relay to the vertical side of the line, and from the grounded side of battery through the third side switch wiper in its third position to the now closed pair of contacts in the called battery supply relay through the coil _ _ of the calling battery supply relay and the coil of the rotary relay to the rotary side of the line. it will be noted that the system of battery supply is that of the standard condenser and retardation coil scheme largely employed in manual practice; and that aside from the coils through which the battery current is supplied to the connected subscribers, there are no taps from, or bridges across, the two sides of the talking circuit. =release after conversation.= it remains now only to secure the disconnection of the subscribers after they are through talking. when the calling subscriber hangs up, the whole disconnection is brought about, all of the apparatus, including connector, selectors, and line switch, returning to normal. this is done by the back release system and is accomplished in almost the same way as has already been described in connection with the disconnect after an unsuccessful call. there is this difference, however: after an unsuccessful call when the line called for was found busy, the release was made while the connector side switch was in its normal position. in the present case, the release must be made with the connector side switch in its third position and with the talking battery bridged across the metallic circuit rather than connected between each limb of the line and ground. it must be remembered that the calling battery supply relay, while traversed by current during the conversation, is not magnetically energized because, with the current flowing through the metallic circuit of the line, the two windings exert a differential effect. as soon, however, as the calling subscriber hangs up his receiver, this differential action ceases, due to the grounding of both sides of the line at the subscriber's station. this relay, therefore, operates and cuts off battery from the called battery supply relay and this, in turn, releases its armature and thus changes the connection of the rotary side of the calling line from ground to live side of the battery. the normal condition of the battery connection now being restored, both the vertical and the rotary relays at the connector become operated, due to the ground on both sides of the line at the subscriber's station, and this, as we have seen, is the condition which brings about the operation of the connector release magnet, and the relaying back of the disconnect impulse successively through the selectors to the line switch. =multi-office system.= in exchanges involving more than one office, the same general principles and mode of operation already outlined apply. if the total number of subscribers in the multi-office exchange is to be less than ten thousand, then four digit numbers suffice, and the first movement of the dial may be made to select the office into which the connection is to go, the subscribers' lines being so numbered with respect to the offices that each office will contain only certain thousands. the choosing of the thousand by the calling subscriber, therefore, takes care in itself of the choice of offices. where, however, a multi-office exchange is to provide for connections among a greater number of lines than ten thousand and less than one hundred thousand, then it will take five movements of the dial to make the selection--the five movements corresponding either to the five digits in a number or to the name of an office, as indicated on the dial, and the four digits of a smaller number. the lines may all carry five digit numbers or, what is considered better practice, may be designated by an office name followed by a four digit number. in this latter case the numbers of the subscribers' lines will in each case be contained in one or more of the tens of thousands groups, no number having more than four digits. and the first movement of the dial, whether the name or number plan be adopted, will select an office; or, looking at it another way, will select a group of ten thousand and this being done, the next four successive movements of the dial will select the numbers in that ten thousand in just the some way that has been already described. certain difficulties arise, however, in multi-office working due to the fact that the three-wire trunks between offices would in most cases be objectionable. as long as the trunks extend between the various groups of apparatus in the same office, it is cheaper to provide three wires for each of them than it is to make any additional complication in the apparatus. where the trunking is done between offices, however, the system may be so modified as to work over two wire inter-office trunks. _the trunk repeater._ the purpose of the trunk repeater is to enable the inter-office trunking to be done over two wires. it may be said that the trunk repeater is a device placed in the outgoing trunk circuit at the office in which a call originates, which will do over the two wires of the trunk leading from it to the distant office just the same thing that the subscriber's signal transmitter does over the two wires of the subscriber's lines. it has certain other functions in regard to feeding the battery for talking purposes back to the calling subscriber's line, taking the place in this respect of the calling battery feed relay in the connector in a single office exchange. [illustration: fig. . circuits of trunk repeater] the circuits of a trunk repeater are shown in fig. . in considering it, it must be understood that the three wires entering the figure at the left are the vertical, rotary, and release wires of a second selector trunk leading from the first selector banks in the same office. the two wires leading from the right of the figure are those extending to the distant office, and terminate there in second selectors. the vertical and the rotary sides of this trunk as shown at the left will receive the impulses from the subscriber's station coming through the line switch and the first selector, as usual. the vertical impulses will pass through the winding of the vertical relay and through the winding _ _ of the calling battery supply relay and thence to battery, the same as on a connector. these impulses will work the armatures of both of these relays in unison. the movements of the vertical relay armature in response to these impulses will cause corresponding impulses to flow over a circuit which may be traced from ground, through the springs _ _ and _ _ of the vertical relay, the springs _ _ and _ _ of the bridged relay _ _ and thence to the vertical side of the trunk and to the distant office, where it passes into a second selector and through its vertical relay to battery. thus the vertical impulses are passed on over the two-wire trunk to the second selector at the distant office. it becomes necessary, however, to prevent these impulses from passing back through the winding of the bridge relay _ _ and this is done by means of the sluggish relay _ _. this relay receives local battery impulses in unison with those sent over the trunk by the vertical relay, these being supplied from the battery at the local office through the contacts _ _ and _ _ of the calling battery supply relay, which works in unison with the vertical relay. these rapidly recurring impulses are too fast for the sluggish relay _ _ to follow. and this relay merely pulls up its armature and cuts off both sides of the trunk leading back to the first selector. the rotary impulses are repeated to the rotary side of the two-wire trunk in a similar way. considering now the operation of the trunk repeater in the reverse direction, the action of the bridging relay _ _ is of vital importance. normally both sides of trunk line are connected to the live side of the battery and, therefore, there is no difference of potential between them and no tendency to operate the bridged relay. when the connection has been fully established to the subscriber at the distant office, and that subscriber has responded, the action of his battery supply relay will, as before stated, change the connection of the rotary side of the line from battery to ground, and thus bridge the battery at the distant exchange across the trunk. this action will pull up the bridged relay _ _ at the trunk repeater and will perform exactly the same function with respect to the connection of the battery with the calling subscriber's line. in other words, it will change the connection of the rotary side of the calling line from battery to ground, thus establishing the necessary difference in potential to give the calling subscriber the necessary current for transmission purposes. the disconnect feature is about the same as already described. when the calling subscriber hangs up his receiver both the vertical and rotary relays of the trunk repeater operate, which places the ground on both sides of the two-wire trunk to the distant office, which is the condition for releasing all of the apparatus there. for the purpose of convenience the simplified diagram of fig. has been prepared, which shows the complete connection from a calling subscriber to a called subscriber in a multi-office exchange, wherein the first movement of the dial is employed to establish the connection to the proper office and the four succeeding movements to make a selection among ten thousand lines in that office. this circuit, therefore, employs at the first office the line switch, the first selector, and the trunk repeater; and at the second office the second selector, third selector, connector, and line switch. the third selector is omitted from fig. , but this will cause no confusion, since it is exactly like the second selector. the circuits shown are exactly like those previously described but in drawing them the main idea has been to simplify the connections to the greatest possible extent at a sacrifice in the clearness with which the mechanical inter-relation of parts is shown. no correct understanding of the circuits of an automatic system is possible without a clear idea of the mechanical functions performed by the different parts, and, therefore, we have described what are apparently the more complex circuit drawings first. it is believed that the student, in attempting to gain an understanding of this marvel of mechanical and electrical intricacy, will find his task less burdensome if he will refer freely to both the simplified circuit drawing of fig. and the more complex ones preceding it. by doing so he will often be enabled to clear up a doubtful circuit point from the simpler diagram and a doubtful mechanical point from those diagrams which represent more clearly the mechanical relation of parts. [illustration: fig. . connection between a calling and a called subscriber in an automatic system] =automatic sub-offices.= obviously, the system of trunking employed in automatic exchanges lends itself with great facility to the subdivision of an exchange into a large number of comparatively small office districts and the establishment of branch offices or sub-offices at the centers of these districts. the trunking between large offices has already been described. an attractive feature of the automatic system is the establishment of so-called sub-stations or sub-offices. where there is, in an outlying district, a distinct group of subscribers whose lines may readily be centered at a common point within that district and where the number of such subscribers and lines is insufficient to establish a fully equipped office, it is possible to establish a so-called sub-station or sub-office connected with the main office of that district by trunk lines. at this sub-office there are placed only line switches and connectors. when a call is originated on one of these sub-office lines, the line switch acts instantly to connect that line with one of the trunks leading to the main office of that district, at which this trunk terminates in a first selector. from there on, the connection is the same as that in a system in which no sub-offices are employed. calls coming into this sub-office over trunk lines from the main office are received on the connectors at the sub-office and the connection is made with the sub-office line by the connector in the usual manner. this arrangement, it is seen, amounts merely to a stretching of the connector trunks for a given group of lines so that they will reach out from a main office to a sub-office, it being more economical to lengthen the smaller number of trunks and by so doing to decrease in length the larger number of subscribers' lines. =the rotary connector.= for certain purposes it becomes desirable in automatic work to employ a special form of connector which will have in itself a certain ability to make automatic selection of one of a group of previously chosen trunks in much the same manner as the first and second selectors automatically choose the first idle one of a group of trunks. such a use is demanded in private branch-exchange working where a given business establishment, for instance, has a plurality of lines connecting its own private switchboard with the central office. the directory number of all these lines is, for convenience, made the same, and it is important, therefore, that when a person attempts to make a connection with this establishment, he will not fail to get his connection simply because the first one of these lines happens to be busy. for such use a given horizontal row of connector terminals or a part of such a row is assigned to the lines leading to the private branch exchange and the connector is so modified as to have a certain "discretionary" power of its own. as a result, when the common number of all these lines is called, the connector will choose the first one, if it is not already engaged by some other connector, but if it is, it will pass on to the next, and so on until an idle one is found. it is only when the connector has hunted through the entire group of lines and found them all busy that it will refuse to connect and will give the busy signal to the calling subscriber. =party lines.= the description of this system as given above has been confined entirely to direct line working; however, party lines may be and are frequently employed. the circuits and apparatus used with direct lines are, with slight modifications, applicable to use with party lines. the harmonic method of ringing is employed and the stations are so arranged with respect to the connectors that those requiring the same frequency for ringing the bells are in groups served by the same set of connectors. [illustration: power machinery citizens' telephone company, racine, wis. _the dean electric co._] the party lines are operated on the principle commonly known in manual practice as the jack per station arrangement. each party line will, therefore, have sets of terminals appearing in separate hundreds; the connectors associated with each of these hundreds being so arranged as to impress the proper frequency of ringing current on the line. from the subscribers' standpoint the operation is the same as for direct lines, as the particular hundreds digit of a number serves to select one of a group of connectors capable of connecting the proper ringing current to the line. to avoid confusion, which would be caused by a subscriber on a party line attempting to make a call when the line is already in use by some other subscriber, the subscribers' stations are so arranged that when the line is in use all other stations on the line are locked out. [illustration: fig. . wall set for two-wire system] =the two-wire automatic system.= the two-wire system that has recently been introduced by the automatic electric company brings about the very important result of accomplishing all of the automatic switching over metallic circuit lines without the use of ground or common returns. the system is thus relieved of the disturbing influences to which the three-wire system is sometimes subjected, due to differences in earth potential between various portions of the system, which may add to or subtract from the battery potential and alter the net potential available between two distant points. the introduction of this system has also made possible certain other incidental features of advantage, one of which is a great simplification and reduction in size of the subscriber's station signal-transmitting apparatus. with the doing away of the ground as a return circuit, it becomes impossible to send vertical impulses over one side of the line and to follow them by single rotary impulses over the other side of the line. yet it becomes necessary to distinguish between the pure selective impulses and those impulses which dictate a change of function at the central office. the plan has, therefore, been adopted of accomplishing the selection in each case by short and rapidly recurring impulses and of accomplishing those functions formerly brought about by the single impulse over the rotary side of the line by a pause between the respective series of selective impulses. this is accomplished at the central office by replacing the vertical and the rotary relays of the three-wire system by a quick-acting and a sluggish relay, respectively; the quick-acting relay performing the functions previously carried out by the vertical relay, and the sluggish relay acting only during the pauses between the successive series of quick impulses to do the things formerly done by the rotary relay. this has resulted in a delightful simplification of subscriber's apparatus, since it is now necessary only to provide a device which will connect the two sides of the line together the required number of times in quick succession and then allow a pause with the circuit closed while the subscriber is getting ready to transmit another set of impulses corresponding to another digit. the calling device has no mechanical function co-acting with any of the other parts of the telephone and may be considered as a separate mechanical device electrically connected with the line. the transmitting device is not much larger than a large watch and a good idea of it may be had from fig. , which shows the latest wall set, and fig. , which shows the latest desk set of the automatic electric company. we regret the fact that this company has made the request that the complete details of their two-wire system be not published at this time. [illustration: fig. . desk stand for two-wire system] chapter xxx the lorimer automatic system the lorimer automatic telephone system has not been commercially used in this country but is in commercial operation in a few places in canada. it is interesting from several points of view. it was invented, built, and installed by the lorimer brothers--hoyt, george william, and egbert--of brantford, ontario. these young men without previous telephonic training and, according to their statements, without ever having seen the inside of a telephone office, conceived and developed this system and put it in practical operation. with the struggles and efforts of these young men in accomplishing this feat we have some familiarity, and it impresses us as one of the most remarkable inventive achievements that has come to our attention, regardless of whatever the merits or demerits of the system may be. the lorimer system is interesting also from the fact that, in most cases, it represents the mechanical rather than the electrical way of doing things. the switches are power driven and electrically controlled rather than electrically driven and electrically controlled, as in the system of the automatic electric company. the subscriber's station apparatus consists of the usual receiver, speech transmitter, call bell, and hook switch, and in addition a signal transmitter arranged to be manipulated by the subscriber so as to control the operation of the central-office apparatus in connecting with any desired line in the system. the central-office apparatus is designed throughout upon the principle of switching by means of power-driven switches which are under the control of the signal transmitters of the calling subscriber's station. the switches employed in making a connection are all so arranged with respect to constantly rotating shafts that the movable member of such switches may be connected to the shafts by means of electromagnets controlled directly or indirectly by relays, which, in turn, are brought under the control of the signal transmitters. the circuits are so designed in many instances that the changes necessary for the different steps are brought about by the movement of the switches themselves, thus permitting the use of circuits which are rather simple. the switches employed are all of a rotary type; the co-ordinate selection, which is accomplished in the automatic electric company's system by a vertical and rotary movement, being brought about in this system by the independent rotation of two switches. =subscriber's station equipment.= a subscriber's desk-stand set, except the call bell, is shown in fig. , and a wall set complete in fig. . in both of these illustrations may be seen the familiar transmitter, receiver, and hook switch, and in the wall set, the call bell. the portion of these telephone sets which is unfamiliar at present is the part which is enclosed in the enlarged base of the desk stand and the protruding device below the speech transmitter in the wall set--the signal transmitter referred to earlier in the chapter. the small push button and small plate through which the number may be seen directly below the transmitter in fig. , are for the purpose of registering calls. [illustration: fig. . lorimer automatic desk stand] the signal transmitter is a device whose function is to record mechanically the number of the subscriber's station with which connection is desired, and to transmit that record to the central office by a system of electrical impulses over the line conductors. instead of operating by its own initiative, the signal transmitter is adapted to respond to central-office control in transmitting electrically the number which has been recorded mechanically upon it. the signal transmitter shown removed from the base of the desk stand at the left in fig. comprises in part four sets of contact pins having ten pins in each set, one set for each of the digits of a four-digit number. there are also several additional contact pins for signaling and auxiliary controlling purposes. all of these contact pins are arranged upon the circumference of a circle and a movable brush mounted upon a shaft at the center of the circle is adapted to be rotated by a clock spring and to make contact with each of the pins successively. the call is started, after the number desired has been set on the dial, by giving the crank at the right of the signal transmitter a complete turn and thus winding the spring. the shaft carrying the signal transmitter brush carries also an escapement wheel, the pallet of which is directly controlled by an electromagnet. [illustration: fig. . lorimer automatic wall set] the four dials with the numerals printed on them are attached to four levers, respectively, and are moved by their levers opposite windows, near the top of the casing. through each of these windows a single numeral may be seen on the corresponding one of the dials. the dials may be adjusted so that the four numerals seen will read from left to right to correspond to the number of the line with which connection is desired. the setting of the dials so that the number desired shows at the small circular opening results in connecting the earth or a common return conductor to one pin of each set of ten pins, the pin grounded in each set depending upon the numerical value of the digit for which the dial is set. the circle of contact pins is set in an insulating disk, the signal transmitting brush operates upon the pins on one side of the disk, and electrical fingers attached to the dials operate upon the pins on the other side of the disk. the escapement wheel is a single toothed disk attached directly to the shaft which carries the signal brush and its pallet is attached rigidly to the magnet armature. [illustration: fig. . desk stand with signal transmitter removed] once a call has been turned in, the entire subscriber's station equipment is locked beyond power of the subscriber to tamper with it in any way, rendering it impossible either to defeat the call which has been started or to prevent the subscriber's station as a whole from returning completely to normal position and thus restoring itself for regular service. the key shown just below the signal transmitter in the case of the desk stand, and at the right in the wall set, is for the purpose of operating a relay at the central office which, in turn, connects ringing current to the line of the subscriber with which connection has been made, and thus actuates the call bell. as the number set up at the signal transmitter remains in full view until reset for some other number, it is easily checked by inspection and also lessens the labor involved in making a second call for the same line, which is frequently necessary when the line is found busy the first time called. =central-office apparatus.= the subscriber's lines are divided into groups of one hundred lines each at the central office, each group being served by a single unit of central-office apparatus. in a central-office unit there is "sectional apparatus" which appears but once for the unit of one hundred lines; "divisional apparatus" which appears a number of times for each unit, depending upon the traffic; and "line apparatus" which appears one hundred times for each unit or once for each line. the sectional apparatus comprises devices whose duties are, first, to detect a calling line, and second, to assign to the calling line a set of idle divisional apparatus which serves to perform the necessary switching functions and complete the connection. the sets of divisional apparatus, or, as called in this system, "divisions," are common to a section and are employed in a manner similar to the connecting cords of a manual switchboard. the number of these divisions provided for each section is, therefore, determined by the number of simultaneous connections resulting from calls originating in the section. it has been the custom in building this apparatus to provide each section with seven divisions or connective elements. the line apparatus comprises one relay, having a single winding, and two pairs of contacts operated by its armature. this device is substantially the well known cut-off relay almost universally employed in common-battery systems. the fixed multiple contacts of the lines in the switching banks of the connecting apparatus are considered as pertaining to the various pieces of apparatus on which they are found rather than to their respective lines. a good idea may be obtained of the arrangement of the sectional and divisional apparatus by referring to fig. , which is one unit of a thousand-line equipment. the apparatus in the vertical row at the extreme left of the illustration is the sectional apparatus, while the remaining seven vertical rows of apparatus are the divisions. _the section._ the sectional apparatus for each unit consists of three separate devices called for convenience a _decimal indicator_, a _division starter_, and a _decimal-register controller_. all of these devices are normally motionless when idle. the energization of the decimal indicator, in response to the inauguration of a call at a subscriber's station, results immediately in an action of the division starter which starts a division to connect with the line calling. it results also in the starting of the decimal-register controller, the remaining unit of sectional apparatus. it is thus seen that upon the starting of a call by a subscriber, all of the sectional apparatus belonging to his one hundred lines immediately becomes active, the division starter acting to start a division, the decimal indicator becoming energized to indicate the tens group in which the call has appeared, and the decimal-register controller becoming active to adjust the decimal register of the division assigned by the division starter. the division starter having assigned a division for the exclusive use of this particular call, passes to a position from which it may start a similar idle division when the next call is received. the decimal register controller makes its half revolution for the call and comes to rest, awaiting a subsequent call, and the decimal indicator continues energized but only momentarily, since it is released by the action of the cut-off relay when the call is taken in charge by the divisional connective devices. calls may follow each other rapidly, the connective devices being entirely independent of each other after having been assigned to the respective calling lines. as has been described, the decimal indicator starts the division starter and the decimal-register controller in quick succession. the division starter, shown at the extreme bottom of the left-hand row of fig. , is a cylinder switch of the same general type as used throughout this system. in it the terminals of a switch in each division appear as fixed contact points in a circle over which move the brushes of the division starter. the decimal-register controller has the duties of transmitting to the divisional apparatus a series of current impulses corresponding in number to the numerical value of the tens digit of the calling line. this is effected by providing before a movable brush ten contacts from which the brush may receive current. these contacts are normally not connected to battery, so that the brush in passing over them does not receive current from them; however, when the brush has reached the contact corresponding in number to the tens digit of the calling line, a relay associated with the decimal-register controller charges the contacts with the potential of the main battery, and each of the remaining contacts passed over by the brush sends a current impulse to a device designed to indicate on the division selected for the call the tens digit of the calling line. _the connective division._ the connective division, seven of which are shown in fig. , is an assemblage of switches comprising, as a whole, a set suitable for a complete connection from calling to called subscriber. each connective division in the unit illustrated is completely equipped to care for a called number of three digits, _i. e._, each division will connect its calling line with any one of one thousand lines which may be called. by a system of interconnecting between divisions, each division may be equipped with interconnecting apparatus so as to make it possible to complete a call with any one of ten thousand lines. each connecting division of a ten-thousand-line exchange comprises six major switches. of the six major switches, one is termed a _secondary connector_, another an _interconnector_, and the four remaining are termed the _primary portion_ of the division. [illustration: fig. . unit of switching apparatus] before taking up the operation of the switches, the mechanical nature of the switches themselves will be described. the switches are built with a contact bank cylindrical in form and with internal movable brushes traveling in a rotary manner in circular paths upon horizontal rows of contacts fixed in the cylindrical banks. for driving these brushes a constantly rotating main power-driven shaft is provided. between each shaft and the rotating brushes of each major switch is an electric clutch, which, by the movement of an armature, causes the brushes of the switch to partake of the motion of the shaft and by the return of the armature to come again to rest. the motion of the brushes of the major switches, or cylinder switches, as they are frequently called because of their form, is constantly in the same direction. they have a normal position upon a set of the cylinder contacts. they leave their normal position and take any predetermined position as controlled by the magnets of the clutch, and, having served the transient purpose, they return to their normal position by traversing the remainder of their complete revolution and stopping in their position of rest or idleness. the mechanical construction of each of the cylinder switches is such that it may disengage its clutch and bring its brushes to rest only with the brushes in some one of a number of predetermined positions. the locations of the brushes in these positions of rest, or "stop" positions, as they are called, may differ with the different cylinder switches, according to the nature of the duty required of the switch, and the total number of stop positions also may vary. the primary and secondary connectors, the interconnector selectors, and the interconnectors each have eleven stop positions; the rotary switch has eight stop positions; the signal-transmitter controller has but two. in the six cylinder switches making up a connective division and required for any conversation, in a ten-thousand-line exchange some of the switches are set to positions which are determined by the control of the calling subscriber and represent by their selective positions the value of some digit of the calling or called subscriber's number. others are switches controlling the call in its progress and controlling the switches responsive to the call. these latter switches take positions independent of the numbers. in addition to the major switches, there are upon each division four minor switches termed _registers_. each consists of an arc of fixed contacts accompanied by a set of brushes which sweep over the contacts. instead of being driven by an electromagnet, the register brushes are placed under tension of a spring which tends at all times to draw them forward. they are then restrained by an escapement device similar to a pallet escapement in a clock, the pallet being controlled by the register's magnets. when a series of impulses are received by the register magnets, the pallet is actuated a corresponding number of times and the register brushes are permitted to move forward under tension of their powerful propelling spring. each register is associated with a major switch, and the register brushes are engaged by a cam upon the associated major switch, and are restored to normal position against the tension of their propelling spring, the force of restoration being obtained from the main shaft. the electrical clutches which connect and disconnect the movable brushes of the major switches from the main driving shaft are controlled in all instances by circuits local to the central office. in some instances these circuits include relay contacts and are controlled by a relay. in other instances they are formed solely through switch contacts. in all cases the control, when from a distance, is received upon relays suitable for being controlled by the small currents which are adapted to flow over long lines. in all instances the power for moving a brush is derived from the main shaft and only the control of the movement is derived from electromagnets, relays, or other electric sources. in many instances the clutch circuit is closed through contacts of its own switch and, therefore, may be closed only when its switch is in some predetermined position. all of the switches are mechanically powerful and designed particularly to sustain the wear of long-continued and oft-repeated usage. this is true also of the moving parts which carry the brushes and of the journals sustaining those parts. _the switches of the connective division._ the six major switches of the connecting division are as follows: the primary connector:--the function of this switch is to connect the conductors of the calling line with the switching devices of the connective division. associated with this switch is a register termed the _decimal register_. the one hundred lines of the section are terminated in fixed multiple contacts in the cylinder switch of the primary connector. the calling line is selected and connected with by adjusting the decimal register to a position corresponding to the calling line's tens digit and adjusting the brushes of the cylinder switch to a position corresponding to the calling line's unit digit. the rotary switch:--this is a master switch, or pilot switch, consisting of a cylinder switch without register. its duty is the control of other switches and the completion of circuits formed in part through other switches. it is the pilot switch and the switch of initiative and control for the entire connective division. signal-transmitter controller:--the primary function of this switch is the generation of signaling impulses of two classes. impulses of the first class pass over central-office circuits only and are effective upon magnets of the divers major and minor switches; impulses of the second class pass over a line conductor of the calling line and are effective upon the signal transmitter at the subscriber's station. the impulses sent out over the line to the subscriber's station cause the brush to pass over the contacts and thereby indicate the numerical values of the various digits set by the dials. this switch also enters in an important manner into the circuits involved in the testing of the called line for the busy condition. it is controlled by the rotary switch. interconnector selector:--in an exchange using four digits in the numbers, the register of the interconnector selector is adjusted in each call to a position corresponding to the numerical value of the thousands digit of the called number. the cylinder switch then acts to select an idle trunk. the switch is controlled by the rotary switch in connection with the signal transmitter controller. interconnector:--this switch is similar to the interconnector selector in design and in function. it is a cylinder switch with register. the register is adjusted in each call to a position corresponding to the numerical value of the hundreds digit of the number called and the cylinder switch then operates to select an idle trunk. the switch is controlled by the rotary switch in connection with the signal transmitter controller. secondary connector:--this switch contains in its cylinder bank of contacts the multiple points of one hundred subscribers' lines and its function is to connect the conductors of the called line to the conductors of the connective division. this is accomplished by adjusting the register to correspond to the value of the tens digit of the line desired and by adjusting the cylinder brushes to correspond to the value of the units digit of the line. the switch is controlled by the rotary switch in connection with the signal-transmitter controller. =operation.= a brief description of the progress of a call from its institution to the complete connection and subsequent disconnection begins with the adjustment of the dial indicators of the telephone set and the turning of the crank of the signal transmitter one revolution. this act, performed by the calling subscriber, connects one of the line conductors to earth. immediately the decimal indicator associated with the section in which the calling line terminates is energized and starts the division starter. the division starter instantly starts the rotary switch of an idle division. the rotary switch now starts the decimal-register controller and connects to it the decimal register of the primary connector of the division selected. all of the above acts in the central office occur practically simultaneously. the impulses generated by the controller are effective upon the decimal register of the started division and, therefore, adjust that register to a position corresponding to the tens value of the calling line. the rotary switch now disconnects the tens register and starts the cylinder brushes of the primary connector which automatically stop when they encounter the calling line. at this instant the cut-off relay of the line is energized and the decimal indicator is released. the call now is clear of all sectional apparatus and another call may come through immediately, being assigned in charge of another idle division. the total time in which any call is in charge of the sectional apparatus, _i. e._, the total time from the grounding of the line conductor at the sub-station until the line has been connected with by the primary connector of some division of that section and the sectional apparatus has been released by the operation of the cut-off relay, approximates two-fifths of a second. the next operation initiated by the rotary switch is the starting of the signal-transmitter controller of the connective division, which, in turn, adjusts the register of the interconnector selector to a position corresponding to the thousands digit of the number of the called line as indicated by the signal transmitter at the calling station. this selects an interconnector serving the lines of the selected thousand. this initial selection being completed the rotary switch readjusts the circuits of the connective division in such manner that in the further progress of the signal-transmitter controller, its impulses will be effective upon the register of the selected interconnector. in this manner, the register of the interconnector, which may be upon the same connective division as the rotary switch handling the call, or which may be the interconnector of some other division, as determined by the number of the called subscriber, is adjusted to a position corresponding to the second or hundreds digit of the number called. the cylinder switch of the interconnector then selects and appropriates an idle trunk extending to a secondary connector upon some connective division serving the hundred selected. the rotary switch again shifts the circuits of the connective division in such manner that the signal-transmitter controller is effective upon the secondary connector, both register and cylinder, and adjusts the register and cylinder, respectively, with their brushes in contact with the tens and units digits, respectively, of the number of the called line. the conductors of the called line now are connected through the secondary connector, the interconnector, and the interconnector selector to the rotary switch; the conductors of the calling line are connected through the primary connector to the rotary switch; thus completely connecting the lines except at the rotary switch. to effect the connecting together of the two lines, both rotary switch and signal-transmitter controller must pass forward into their next positions, the connection when thus effected being made through conductors containing a repeating coil and main battery connection for supplying talking current to the two lines and containing also ringing and supervisory relays. the called line is tested to determine if busy during the short interval in which the rotary switch takes a short step to connect the calling and the called lines. in this step of the rotary switch the busy-test relay is connected to the guard wire or busy-test wire of the called line, and if that line be busy, the relay interferes with the control exercised by the rotary switch upon the signal-transmitter controller, and the controller is prevented from taking the step required to connect the line. thus, when a busy line is encountered, the final step of the rotary switch is taken to set up the conversation conditions, but the signal-transmitter controller does not take its final step; by this failure of the signal-transmitter controller due to the action of the busy-test relay, the calling line is not connected to the called line but is connected to a busy-back tone generator instead. whether the line encountered be busy or idle, the connective division remains in its condition as then adjusted until the subscriber hangs his receiver upon the hook switch to obtain disconnection. the ringing of the bell of the called station is done directly by the calling subscriber in pressing the ringing key. the disconnection is effected, when the receiver of the calling line is hung up, by the supervisory relay in the central office, whose winding is included in the line circuit, and whose contacts act directly to start the rotary switch. in disconnecting, the rotary switch starts the primary and the secondary connectors and thus instantly releases both the calling and the called lines. thereafter the rotary switch in passing from position to position restores switch after switch of the connective division to normal and finally itself returns to normal in preparation for its assignment to service in answering a subsequent call. chapter xxxi the automanual system two systems of telephony are now in common use in this country--the manual system and the automatic. with the growth of the automatic, and the gradually ripening conviction, which is now fully matured in the minds of most telephone engineers, that automatic switching is practical, there has been a growing tendency toward doing automatically many of the things that had previously been done manually. one of the results of this tendency has been the production of the _automanual_ system, the invention of edward e. clement, an engineer and patent attorney, of washington, d. c. in connection with mr. clement's name, as inventor, must be mentioned that of charles h. north, whose excellent work as a designer and manufacturer has contributed much toward the present excellence of this highly interesting system. =characteristics of system.= the name "automanual" is coined from the two words, automatic and manual, and is intended to suggest the idea that the system partakes in part of the features of the automatic system and in part of those of the manual system. we regret that neither space nor the professional relation which we have had with the development of this system will permit us to make public an extended and detailed description of its apparatus and circuits. only the general features of the system may, therefore, be dealt with. [illustration: power apparatus for common-battery manual office of medium size] the underlying idea of the automanual system is to relieve the subscriber of all work in connection with the building up of his connection, except the asking for it; to complicate the subscriber's station equipment in no way, it being left the same as in the common-battery manual system; to do away with manual apparatus, such as jacks, cords and plugs, at the central office, and to substitute for it automatic switching apparatus which will be guided in its movements, not by the subscriber, but by a very much smaller number of operators than would be necessary to manipulate a manual switchboard. =general features of operation.= a broad view of the operation of the system is this. the subscriber desiring to make a call takes down his receiver, and this causes a lamp to light in front of an operator. the operator presses a button and is in telephonic communication with the subscriber. receiving the number desired, the operator sets it up on a keyboard in just about the same way that a typist will set up the letters of a short word on a typewriting machine. the setting up of the number on the keyboard being accomplished, the proper condition of control of the associated automatic apparatus at the central office is established and the operator has no further connection with the call. the automatic switching apparatus guided by the conditions set up on the operator's keyboard proceeds to make the proper selection of trunks and to establish the proper connections through them to build up a talking circuit between the calling subscriber and the called and to ring the called subscriber's bell, or, if his line is found busy, the apparatus refuses to connect with it and sends a busy signal back to the calling subscriber. the operator performs no work in disconnecting the subscribers, that being automatically taken care of when they hang up their receivers at the close of the conversation. from the foregoing it will be seen that there is this fundamental difference between the automatic and the automanual--the automatic system dispenses entirely with the central-office operator for all ordinary switching functions; the automanual employs operators but attempts to so facilitate their work that they may handle very many more calls than would be possible in a manual system, and at the same time secures the advantages of secrecy which the automatic system secures to its subscribers. =subscriber's apparatus.= one of the main points in the controversy concerning automatic _versus_ manual systems is whether or not it is desirable to have the subscriber ask for his connection or to have him make certain simple movements with his fingers which will lead to his securing it. the developers of the automanual system have taken the position that the most desirable way, so far as the subscriber is concerned, is to let him ask for it. it is probable that this point will not be a deciding one in the choice of future systems, since it already seems to be proven that the subscribers in automatic systems are willing to go through the necessary movements to mechanically set up the call. the advantage which the automanual system shares with the manual, however, in the greater simplicity of its subscriber's station apparatus, cannot be gainsaid. [illustration: fig. . operators' key tables] [illustration: fig. . top view of key table] =operator's equipment.= the general form of the operator's equipment is shown in fig. . a closer view of the top of one of the key tables is shown in fig. . as will be seen, the equipment on each operator's position consists of three separate sets of push-button keys closely resembling in external appearance the keys of a typewriter or adding machine. immediately above each set of keys are the signal lamps belonging to that set. the operator's keys are arranged in strips of ten, placed _across_ rather than _lengthwise_ on the key shelf. one of these strips is shown in fig. . there are as many strips of keys in each set as there are digits in the subscribers' numbers, _i. e._, three in a system having a capacity of less than one thousand; four in a system of less than ten thousand; and so on. in addition to the number keys of each set is a partial row of keys, including what is called a _starting key_ and also keys for making the party-line selection. [illustration: fig. . strip of selecting keys] [illustration: fig. . wiring of key shelf] the simplicity of the operator's key equipment is one of its attractive features. fig. shows one of the key shelves opened so as to expose to view all of the apparatus and wiring that is placed before the operator. the reason for providing more than one key set on each operator's position is, that after a call has been set up on one key set, a few seconds is required before the automatic apparatus controlled by the key set can do its work and release the key set ready for another call. the provision of more than one key set makes it possible for the operator to start setting up another call on another key set without waiting for the first to be released by the automatic apparatus. [illustration: fig. . switch room of automanual central office] =automatic switching equipment.= a general view of the arrangement of automatic switches in an exchange established by the north electric company at ashtabula, ohio, is shown in fig. . the desk in the foreground is that of the wire chief. this automatic apparatus consists largely of relays and automatic selecting switches. the switches are of the step-by-step type, having vertical and rotary movements, and an idea of one of them, minus its contact banks, is given in fig. . the control of the automatic switches by the operator's key sets is through the medium of a power-driven, impulse-sending machine. from this machine impulses are taken corresponding to the numbers of the keys depressed. [illustration: fig. . selecting switch] =automatic distribution of calls.= a feature of great interest in this system is the manner in which the incoming calls are distributed among the operators. from each key set an operator's trunk is extended to what is called a secondary selector switch, through which it may be connected to a primary selector trunk and calling line. when a subscriber calls by taking down his receiver, his line relay pulls up and causes a primary selector switch to connect his line with an idle local trunk or link circuit, at the same time starting up a secondary selector switch which immediately connects the primary trunk and the calling line to an operator's idle key set. if an operator is at the time engaged in setting up a call on a key set, or if that key set is still acting to control the sending of impulses to the automatic switches, it may be said to be busy, and it is not selected by this preliminary selecting apparatus in response to an incoming call. as soon, however, as the necessary impulses have been taken from the key set by the automatic apparatus, that key set is released and is again ready to receive a call. in this way the calls come before each operator only as that operator is able and ready to receive them. =setting up a connection.= as soon as the key-set lamp lights, in response to such an incoming call, the operator presses a listening button, receives the number from the subscriber, and depresses the corresponding number buttons on that key set, thereby determining the numbers in each of the series of impulses to be sent to the selector and the connector switches to make the desired connection. the operator repeats this number to the calling subscriber as she sets it up, and then presses the starting button, whereupon her work is done so far as that call is concerned. if, upon repeating the call to the subscriber, the operator finds that she is in error, she may change the number set up at any time before she has pressed the starting button. =building up a connection.= the keys so set up determine the number of impulses that will be transmitted by the impulse-sending machine to the selector and the connector switches. these switches, impelled by these impulses, establish the connection if the line called for is not already connected to. if a party-line station is called for, the proper station on it will be selectively rung as determined by the party-line key depressed by the operator. if the line is found busy, the connector switch refuses to make the connection and places a busy-back signal on the calling line. =speed in handling calls.= this necessarily brief outline gives an idea only of the more striking features of the automanual system. a study of the rapidity with which calls may be handled in actual practice shows remarkable results as compared with manual methods of operating. the operators set up the number keys corresponding to a called number with the same rapidity that the keys of a typewriter are pressed in spelling a word. in fact, even greater speed is possible, since it is noticed that the operators frequently will depress all of the keys of a number at once, as by a single striking movement of the fingers. the rapidity with which this is done defies accurate timing by a stop watch in the hands of an expert. it is practically true, therefore, that the time consumed by the operator in handling any one call is that which is taken in getting the number from the subscriber and in repeating it back to him. table xi total time consumed by operator in handling calls on automanual system +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | first calls | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ |longest individual period . seconds | |average five longest individual periods . seconds | |average ten longest individual periods . seconds | |shortest individual period . seconds | |average five shortest individual periods . seconds | |average ten shortest individual periods . seconds | |average entire calls . seconds | |hourly rate at which calls were being handled | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | second calls | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ |longest individual period . seconds | |average five longest individual periods . seconds | |average ten longest individual periods . seconds | |shortest individual period . seconds | |average five shortest individual periods . seconds | |average ten shortest individual periods . seconds | |average entire calls . seconds | |hourly rate at which calls were being handled | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | third calls | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ |longest individual period . seconds | |average five longest individual periods . seconds | |average ten longest individual periods . seconds | |shortest individual period . seconds | |average five shortest individual periods . seconds | |average ten shortest individual periods . seconds | |average entire calls . seconds | |hourly rate at which calls were being handled | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ owing to the difficulty of securing accurate traffic data by means of a stop watch, an automatic, electrical timing device, capable of registering seconds and hundredths of a second, has been used in studying the performance of this system in regular operation at ashtabula harbor. the operators were not informed that the records were being taken, and the data tabulated represents the work of two operators in handling regular subscribers' calls. the figures in table xi are given by c. h. north as representing the total time consumed by the operator from the time her line lamp was lighted until her work in connection with the call was finished, and it included, therefore, the pressing of the listening button, the receiving of the number from the subscriber, repeating it back to him, setting up the connection on the keys, and pressing the starting key. it will be seen that the average time for each calls is quite uniform and is slightly over three seconds. the considerable variation in the individual calls, ranging from a maximum of . seconds down to a minimum of . seconds, is due almost entirely to the difference between the subscribers in the speed with which they can give their numbers. these figures indicate that, in each of the tests, calls were being handled at the rate of more than one thousand per hour by each operator. the test of the subscriber's waiting time, _i. e._, the time that he waited for the operator to answer, for one hundred calls made without the knowledge of the operator, showed the results as given in table xii, in which a split second stop watch was used in making the observations. table xii subscribers' waiting time +----------------------------------------------------------+ |number of calls tested | |longest individual period . seconds | |average longest individual periods . seconds | |average longest individual periods . seconds | |shortest individual period . seconds | |average shortest individual periods . seconds | |average shortest individual periods . seconds | |average entire calls . seconds | +----------------------------------------------------------+ the length of time which the subscriber has to wait before receiving an answer from the operator is, of course, one of the factors that enters into the giving of good telephone service, and the times shown by this test are considerably shorter than ordinarily maintained in manual practice. the waiting time of the subscriber is not, of course, a part of the time that is consumed by the operator, and the real economy so far as the operator's time is concerned is shown in the tests recorded in table xi. chapter xxxii power plants the power plant is an organization of devices to furnish to a telephone system the several kinds of current, at proper pressures, for the performance of the several general electrical tasks within the exchange. =kinds of currents employed.= sources of both direct and alternating current are required and a single exchange may employ these for one or more of the following purposes: _direct current._ current which flows always in one direction whether steady or varying, is referred to as direct current, and may be required for transmitters, for relays, for line, supervisory, and auxiliary signals, for busy tests, for automatic switches, for call registers, for telegraphy, and in the form of pulsating current for the ringing of biased bells. _alternating current._ sources of alternating current are required for the ringing of bells, for busy-back and other automatic signals to subscribers, for howler signals to attract the attention of subscribers who have left their receivers off their hooks, and for signaling over composite lines. =types of power plants.= clearly the requirements for current supply differ greatly for magneto and common-battery systems. there is, however, no great difference between the power plants required for the automatic and the manual common-battery systems. in the simplest form of telephone system--two magneto telephones on a private line--the power plant at each station consists of two elements: one, the magneto generator, which is a translating device for turning hand power into alternating current for ringing the bell of the distant station; and the other, a primary battery which furnishes current to energize the transmitter. in such a system, therefore, each telephone has its own power plant. the term power plant, however, as commonly employed in telephone work, refers more particularly to the organization of devices at the central office for furnishing the required kinds of current, and it is to power plants in this sense that this chapter is devoted. _magneto systems._ if magneto lines be connected to a switchboard, the current for throwing the drop at the switchboard is furnished by the subscriber's generator, and the current for energizing the subscriber's transmitter is furnished by the local battery at his station; but sources of current must be provided for enabling the central-office operator to signal or talk to the subscribers. these are about the only needs for which current must be furnished in an ordinary magneto central office. if a multiple board is employed, direct current is also needed for the purpose of the busy test and also for operating the drop restoring circuits, if the electrical method of restoring the drops is employed. _common-battery systems._ in common-battery systems the requirements are very much more extensive. the subscribers' telephones have no power plants of their own, but are provided with a common source of direct current located at the central office for supplying the talking current, and for operating the central-office signals, and the operators are provided with one or more common sources of alternating or pulsating current for ringing the subscribers' bells. common-battery equipment requires the use of currents of different kinds for a greater number of auxiliary purposes than does magneto equipment. these facts make the power plant in a common-battery office much more important than in a magneto office. =operators' transmitter supply.= in a small magneto exchange, the transmitter current may be had from primary batteries, a separate battery being employed for each operator's set. when there are more than three or four operators, however, it is usual, even in magneto offices, to obtain the transmitter current from a common storage battery. a storage battery has the fortunate quality of very low internal resistance, therefore a number of operators' transmitters may be actuated by one source without introducing cross-talk. in other words, a storage battery is a current-furnishing device of good regulation, the variation of consumption in one circuit leading from it causing slight variation in the currents of other circuits leading from it. if this were not so, cross-talk would exist between the telephones of the operators' positions connected to the same battery. this regulating quality enables the multiple feeding of telephone circuits to be carried further than the mere supplying of operators' sets and is the quality which makes possible the successful use of a storage battery as the single source of transmitter current for common-battery central-office equipment. in furnishing a plurality of operators' transmitters from a common battery, the importance of low resistance and inductance in the portion of the path that is common to all of the circuits must not be overlooked. not only is a battery of extremely low resistance required, but also conductors leading from it that are common to two or more of the circuits should be of very low resistance and consequently large in cross-section and as short as possible. in common-battery offices there is obviously no need of employing a separate battery for the operators' transmitters, since they may readily be supplied from the common storage battery which supplies direct current to the subscribers' lines. =ringing-current supply.= _magneto generators._ as a central-office equipment is required to ring many subscribers' bells, only the small ones find it convenient to ring them by means of hand-operated magneto generators. small magneto switchboards are usually equipped so that each operator is provided with a hand-generator, but even where such is the case some source of ringing current not manually operated is desirable. in larger switchboards the hand generators are entirely dispensed with. the magneto generator may be driven by a belt from any convenient constantly moving pulley, and the early telephone exchanges were often equipped with such generators having better bearings and more current capacity than those in magneto telephones. these were adapted to be run constantly from some source of power, delivering ringing current to the operators' keyboards at from to cycles per second. _pole changers._ vibrating pole changers were also used in the early exchanges, but passed out of use, partly because of poor design, but more because of the absence of good forms of primary batteries for vibrating them and for furnishing the direct currents to be transformed into alternating line current for ringing the bells. the pole changer was redesigned after the beginning of the great spread of telephony in the united states in . today it is firmly established as an element of good telephone practice. fig. illustrates the principle upon which one of the well-known pole changers--the warner--operates. in this _ _ is an electromagnet supplied by a constant-current battery _ _ to keep the vibratory system continually in motion. this motor magnet and its battery work in a local circuit and cause vibration in exactly the same manner as the armature of an ordinary electric door bell is caused to vibrate. the battery from which the ringing current is derived is indicated at _ _, and the poles of this are connected, respectively, to the vibrating contacts _ _ and _ _. these contacts are merely the moving members of a pole changing switch, and a study of the action will readily show that when these moving parts engage the right-hand contacts, current will flow to the line supposed to be connected to the terminals _ _ and _ _ in one direction, while, when these parts engage the left-hand contacts, current will flow to the line in the reverse direction. the circuit of the condenser shown is controlled by the armature of the relay _ _. the winding of this relay is put directly in the circuit of the main battery _ _, so that whenever current is drawn from this battery to ring a distant bell, this relay will be operated and will bridge the condenser across the circuit of the line. the purpose of the condenser is to make the impulses flowing from the pole changer less abrupt, and the reason for having its bridged circuit normally broken is to prevent a waste of current from the battery _ _, due to the energy which would otherwise be consumed by the condenser if it were left permanently across the line. [illustration: fig. . warner pole changer] [illustration: fig. . pole changers for harmonic ringing] pole changers for ringing bells of harmonic party lines are required to produce alternating currents of practically constant frequencies. the ideal arrangement is to cause the direct currents from a storage battery to be alternated by means of the pole changers, and then transformed into higher voltages required for ringing purposes, the transformer also serving to smooth the current wave, making it more suitable for ringing purposes. in fig. such an arrangement, adapted to develop currents for harmonic ringing on party lines, is shown. the regular common battery of the central office is indicated at _ _, _ _ being an auxiliary battery of dry cells, the purpose of which will be presently referred to. at the right of the battery _ _ there is shown the calling plug with its associated party-line ringing keys adapted to impress the several frequencies on the subscribers' lines. the method by which the current from the main storage battery passes through the motor magnets of the several vibrators, and by which the primary currents through the transformers are made to alternate at the respective frequencies of these vibrators, will be obvious from the drawing. it is also clear that the secondary currents developed in these transformers are led to the several ringing keys so as to be available for connection with the subscribers' lines at the will of the operator. the condensers are bridged across the primary windings of the transformers for the purpose of aiding in smoothing out the current waves. the use of the auxiliary battery _ _ and the retardation coil _ _ in the main supply lead is for the purpose of preventing the pulsating currents drawn from the main battery _ _ from making the battery "noisy." these two batteries have like poles connected to the supply lead, and the auxiliary battery furnishes no current to the system except when the electromotive force of the impulse flowing from the main battery is choked down by the impedance coil and the deficiency is then momentarily supplied for each wave by the auxiliary battery. this is the method developed by the dean electric company for preventing the pole-changer system from causing disturbances on lines supplied from the same main battery. [illustration: fig. . multi-cyclic generator set] _ringing dynamos._ alternating and pulsating currents for ringing purposes are also largely furnished from alternating-current dynamos similar to those used in commercial power and lighting work, but specially designed to produce ringing currents of proper frequency and voltage. these are usually driven by electric motors deriving their current either from the commercial supply mains or from the central-office battery. in large exchanges harmonic ringers are usually operated by alternating-current generators driven by motors, a separate dynamo being provided to furnish the current of each frequency. fig. shows a set of four such generators directly connected to a common motor. as no source of commercial power for driving such generators is absolutely uniform, and since the frequency of the ringing current must remain very close to a constant predetermined rate, some means must be employed for holding the generators at a constant speed of revolution, and this is done by means of a governor shown at the right-hand end of the shaft in fig. . the principle of this governor is shown in fig. . a weighted spring acts, by centrifugal force, to make a contact against an adjustable screw, when the speed of the shaft rises a predetermined amount. this spring and its contact are connected to two collector rings _ _ and _ _ on the motor shaft, and connection is made with these by the brushes _ _ and _ _. the closing of the governor contact serves, therefore, merely to short-circuit the resistance _ _, which is normally included in the shunt field of the motor. this governor is based on the principle that weakening the field increases the speed. it acts to insert the resistance in series with the field winding when the speed falls, and this, in turn, results in restoring the speed to normal. [illustration: fig. . governor for harmonic ringing generators] =auxiliary signaling currents.= alternating currents, such as those employed for busy signals to subscribers in automatic systems, those for causing loud tones in receivers which have been left off the hook switch, and those for producing loud tones in calling receivers connected to composite lines, all need to be of much higher frequency than alternating current for ringing bells. the simplest way of producing such tones is by means of an interrupter like that of a vibrating bell; but this is not the most reliable way and it is usual to produce busy or "busy-back" currents by rotating commutators to interrupt a steady current at the required rate. as the usual busy-back signal is a series of recurrent tones about one-half second long, interspersed with periods of silence, the rapidly commuted direct current is required to be further commuted at a slow rate, and this is conveniently done by associating a high-speed commutator with a low-speed one. such an arrangement may be seen at the left-hand end of the multicyclic alternating machine shown in fig. . this commuting device is usually associated with the ringing machine because that is the one thing about a central office that is available for imparting continuous rotary motion. =primary sources.= most telephone power plants consume commercial electric power and deliver special electric current. usually some translating device, such as a motor-generator or a mercury-arc rectifier, is employed to transform the commercial current into the specialized current required for the immediate uses of the exchange. _charging from direct-current mains._ in some cases commercial direct current is used to charge the storage batteries without the intervention of the translating devices, resistances being used in series with the battery to regulate the amount of current. commercial direct current usually is available at pressures from volts and upward, while telephone power plants contain storage batteries rarely of pressures higher than volts. to charge a -volt storage battery direct from -volt mains results in the loss of about half the energy purchased, this lost energy being set free in the form of heat generated in the resistance devices. notwithstanding this, it is sometimes economical to charge directly from the commercial direct-current power mains, but only in small offices where the total amount of current consumed is not large and where the greatest simplicity in equipment is desirable. it is better, however, in nearly all cases, to convert the purchased power from the received voltage to the required voltage by some form of translating device, such as a rotary converter or a mercury-arc rectifier. _rotary converters._ broadly speaking, a rotary converter consists of a motor adapted to the voltage and kind of current received, mechanically coupled to a generator adapted to produce current of the required kind and voltage. the harmonic ringing machine shown in fig. is an example of this, this particular one being adapted to receive direct current at ordinary commercial pressure and to deliver four different alternating currents of suitable pressures and frequencies. it is to be understood, however, that the conversion may be from direct current to direct current, from alternating to direct, or from direct to alternating. such a device where the motor is a separate and distinct machine from the generator or generators is called a _motor-generator_. it is usual to connect the motors and the generators together directly by a coupling having some flexibility, as shown in fig. , so as to prevent undue friction in the bearings. [illustration: the power and wire chief's room of the exchange at webb city, missouri] as an alternative to the converting device made up of a motor coupled to a generator, both motor and generator windings may be combined on the same core and rotate within the same field. such a rotary converter has been called a _dynamotor_. as a rule the dynamotor is only suitable for small power-plant work. it has the following objectionable features: (_a_) it is difficult to regulate its output, since the same field serves for both the motor and the dynamo windings. for this reason its main use is as a ringing machine where the regulation of the output is not an important factor. (_b_) furthermore, the fact that the motor and dynamo armature windings are on the same core makes it difficult to guard against breakdowns of the insulation between the two windings, especially when the driving current is of high voltage. _charging dynamos._ the dynamo for charging the storage battery is, of course, a direct-current machine and may be a part of a motor generator or it may derive its power from some other than an electric motor, such as a gas or steam engine. it should be able to develop a voltage slightly above that of the voltage of the storage battery when at its maximum charge, so as always to be able to deliver current to the charging battery regardless of the state of charge. a -volt generator, for example, can charge eleven cells in series economically; a -volt generator can charge twenty-five cells in series economically. battery-charging generators are controlled as to their output by varying a resistance in series with their fields. such machines are usually shunt-wound. sometimes they are compound-wound, but compounding is less important in telephone generators than in some other uses. a feature of great importance in the design of charging generators is smoothness of current. if it were possible to design generators to produce absolutely even or smooth current, the storage battery would not be such an essential feature to common-battery exchanges, because then the generator might deliver its current directly to the bus bars of the office without any storage-battery connection and without causing noise on the lines. such generators have been built in small units. even if these smooth current generators were commercially developed to a degree to produce absolutely no noise on the lines, the storage battery would still be used, since its action as a reservoir for electrical energy is important. it not only dispenses with the necessity of running the generators continuously, but it also affords a safeguard against breakdowns which is one of its important uses. the ability to carry the load of a central office directly on the charging generator without the use of a storage battery is of no importance except in an emergency which takes the storage battery wholly out of service. since the beginning of common-battery working such emergencies have happened a negligible number of times. far more communities have lacked telephone service because of accidents beyond human control than because of storage-battery failures. in power plants serving large offices, the demand upon the storage battery is great enough to require large plate areas in each cell. the internal resistance, therefore, is small and considerable fluctuations may exist in the charging current without their being heard in the talking circuits. the amount of noise to be heard depends also on the type of charging generator. increasing the number of armature coils and commutator segments increases the smoothness of the charging current. the shape of the generator pole pieces is also a factor in securing such smoothness. if, with a given machine and storage battery, the talking circuits are disturbed by the charging current, relief may be obtained by inserting a large impedance in the charging circuit. this impedance requires to be of low resistance, because whatever heat is developed in it is lost energy. this means that the best conditions exist when the resistance is low and the inductance large. these conditions are satisfied by using in the impedance coil many turns of large wire and an ample iron core. dynamotors are not generally suitable for charging purposes. not only is the difficulty in regulating their output a disadvantage, but the fact that the primary and secondary windings are so closely associated on the armature core makes them carry into the charging current, not only the commutator noises of the generator end, but of the motor end as well. _mercury-arc rectifiers._ in common-battery offices serving a few hundred lines, and where the commercial supply is alternating current, it is good practice to transform it into direct-battery charging current by means of a mercury-arc rectifier. it is a device broadly similar to the mercury-arc lamp produced by peter cooper hewitt. it contains no moving parts and operates at high efficiency without introducing noises into the telephone lines. it requires little care and has good length of life. [illustration: fig. . mercury-arc rectifier circuits] the circuit of a mercury-arc rectifier charging outfit is shown in fig. . the mercury-arc rectifier proper consists of a glass bulb containing vacuum and a small amount of mercury. when its terminals are connected, as indicated--the two anodes across an alternating-current source and the cathode with a circuit that is to be supplied with direct current--this device has the peculiarity of action that current will flow alternately from the two anodes always to the cathode and never from it. the cathode, therefore, becomes a source of positive potential and, as such, is used in charging the storage battery through the series reactance coil and the compensating reactances, as indicated. the line transformer shown at the upper portion of fig. , is the one for converting the high-potential alternating current to the comparatively low-potential current required for the action of the rectifier. the transformer below this has a one-to-one ratio, and is called the insulating transformer. its purpose is to safeguard the telephone apparatus and circuits against abnormal potentials from the line, and also to prevent the ground, which is commonly placed on the neutral wire of transformers on commercial lighting circuits, from interfering with the ground that is commonly placed on the positive pole of the central-office battery. =provision against breakdown.= in order to provide against breakdown of service, a well-designed telephone power plant should have available more than one primary source of power and more than one charging unit and ringing unit. _duplicate primary sources._ in large cities where the commercial power service is highly developed and a breakdown of the generating station is practically impossible, it is customary to depend on that service alone. in order to insure against loss of power due to an accident to portions of the distributing system, it is the common custom to run two entirely separate power leads into the office, coming, if possible, from different parts of the system so that a breakdown on one section will not deprive the telephone exchange of primary power. in smaller places where the commercial service is not so reliable, it is usual to provide, in addition to the commercial electric-power service, an independent source of power in the form of a gas or steam engine. this may be run as a regular source, the commercial service being employed as an emergency or _vice versâ_, as economy may dictate. in providing a gas engine for driving charging dynamos, it is important to obtain one having as good regulation as possible, in order to obtain a charging current of practically constant voltage. _duplicate charging machines._ the storage batteries of telephone exchanges are usually provided of sufficient capacity to supply the direct-current needs of the office for twenty-four hours after a full charge has been given them. this in itself is a strong safeguard against breakdown. in addition to this the charging machines should be in duplicate, so that a burnt-out armature or other damage to one of the charging units will not disable the plant. _duplicate ringing machines._ it is equally important that the ringing machines, whether of the rotary or vibrating type, be in duplicate. for large exchanges the ringing machines are usually dynamos, and it is not unusual to have one of these driven from the commercial power mains and the other from the storage battery. with this arrangement complete failure of all sources of primary power would still leave the exchange operative as long as sufficient charge remains in the storage battery. _capacity of power units._ in designing telephone switchboards it is the common practice to so design the frameworks that the space for multiple jacks is in excess of that required for the original installation. in a like manner, the power plant is also designed with a view of being readily increased in capacity to an amount sufficient to provide current for the ultimate number of subscribers' lines for which the switchboard is designed. the motor generators, or whatever means are provided for charging the storage batteries, are usually installed of sufficient size to care for the ultimate requirements of the office. the ringing machines are also provided for the ultimate equipment. however, in the case of the storage battery, it is common practice to provide the battery tanks of sufficient size to care for the ultimate capacity, while the plates are installed for a capacity only slightly in excess of that required for the original installation. as the equipment of subscribers' lines is increased, additional plates may, therefore, be added to the cells without replacing the storage battery as a whole, and without making extraordinary provisions to prevent the interruption of service. it is also customary to provide charging and supply leads from the storage battery of carrying capacity sufficient for the ultimate requirements of the office. =storage battery.= the storage battery is the power plant element which has made common-battery systems possible. the common-battery system is the element which has made the present wide development of telephony possible. a storage-battery cell is an electro-chemical device in which a chemical state is changed by the passage of current through the cell, this state tending to revert when a current is allowed to flow in the opposite direction. a storage cell consists of two conductors in a solution, the nature and the relation of these three elements being such that when a direct current is made to pass from one conductor to the other through the solution, the compelled chemical change is proportional to the product of the current and its duration. when the two conductors are joined by a path over which current may flow, a current does flow in the opposite direction to that which charged the cell. all storage batteries so far in extensive use in telephone systems are composed of lead plates in a solution of sulphuric acid in water called the _electrolyte_. in charging, the current tends to oxidize the lead of one plate and de-oxidize the other. in discharging, the tendency is toward equilibrium. the containers, employed in telephone work, for the plates and electrolyte are either of glass or wood with a lead lining, the glass jars being used for the smaller sized plates of small capacity cells, while the lead-lined wooden tanks are employed with the larger capacity cells. the potential of a cell is slightly over two volts and is independent of the shape or size of the plates for a given type of battery. the storage capacity of a cell is determined by the size and the number of plates. therefore, by increasing the number of plates and the areas of their surfaces, the ampere-hour capacity of the cell is correspondingly increased. the desired potential of the battery is obtained by connecting the proper number of cells in series. storage-battery cells used in telephone work vary from plates having an area of square inches each, to cells having over plates, each plate having an area of square inches. the ampere-hour capacity of these batteries varies from ampere hours to , ampere hours, respectively, when used at an average -hour discharge rate. in fig. is illustrated a storage cell employing a glass container and having fifteen plates. each plate is inches high and - / inches wide, with an area, therefore, of . square inches. such a cell has a normal capacity of ampere hours. the type illustrated is one made by the electric storage battery company of philadelphia, pa.[a] [illustration: fig. . storage cell] _installation._ in installing the glass jars it is customary to place them in trays partially filled with sand. they are, however, at times installed on insulators so designed as to prevent moisture from causing leakage between the cells. the cells using wooden tanks are placed on glass or porcelain insulators, and the tanks are placed with enough clearance between them to prevent the lead lining of adjacent tanks from being in contact and thereby short-circuiting the cells. after the positive and the negative plates have been installed in the tanks, their respective terminals are connected to bus bars, these bus bars being, for the small types of battery, lead-covered clamping bolts, while in the larger types reinforced lead bus bars are employed, to which the plates are securely joined by a process called lead burning. this process consists in melting a portion of the bus bar and the terminal lug of the plate by a flame of very high temperature, thus fusing each individual plate to the proper bus bar. the plates of adjacent cells are connected to the same bus bar, thus eliminating the necessity of any other connection between the cells. _initial charge._ as soon as the plates have been installed in the tanks and welded to the bus bars, the cell should be filled with electrolyte having a specific gravity of . to . to one-half inch above the tops of the plates and then the charge should be immediately started at about the normal rate. in the case of a battery consisting of cells of large capacity, it is customary to place the electrolyte in the cells as nearly simultaneously as possible rather than to completely fill the cells in consecutive order. when the electrolyte is placed in the cells simultaneously, the charge is started at a very much reduced rate before the cells are completely filled, the rate being increased as the cells are filled, the normal rate of charge being reached when the cells are completely filled. readings should be taken hourly of the specific gravity and temperature of the electrolyte, voltage of the cells, and amperage of charging current. a record or log should be kept of the specific gravity and voltage of each of the cells of the battery regularly during the life of the battery and it is well to commence this record with the initial charge. the initial charge should be maintained for at least ten hours after the time when the voltage and specific gravity have reached a maximum. if for any reason it is impractical to continue the initial charge uninterrupted, the first period of charging should be at least from twelve to fifteen hours. however, every effort should be made to have the initial charge continuous, as an interruption tends to increase the time necessary for the initial charge, and if the time be too long between the periods of the initial charge, the efficiency and capacity of the cells are liable to be affected. in case of a large battery, precaution should be taken to insure that the ventilation is exceptionally good, because if it is not good the temperature is liable to increase considerably and thereby cause an undue amount of evaporation from the cells. the object of the temperature readings taken during the charge is to enable corrections to be made to the specific gravity readings as obtained by the hydrometer, in order that the correct specific gravity may be ascertained. this correction is made by adding . specific gravity for each three degrees in temperature above ° fahrenheit, or subtracting the same amount for each three degrees below ° fahrenheit. at the time the cells begin to gas they should be gone over carefully to see that they gas evenly, and also to detect and remedy early in the charging period any defects which may exist. if there is any doubt in regard to the time at which the cells reach a maximum voltage and specific gravity, the charge should be continued sufficiently long before the last ten hours of the charge are commenced to eliminate any such doubt, as in many cases poor efficiency and low capacity of a cell later in its life may be traced to an insufficient initial charge. _operation._ after the battery has been put in commission the periodic charges should be carefully watched, as excessive charging causes disintegration and decreases the life and capacity of the battery; while, on the other hand, undercharging will result in sulphating of the plates and decrease of capacity, and, if the undercharge be great, will result in a disintegration of the plates. it is, therefore, essential that the battery be charged regularly and at the rate specified for the particular battery in question. in order to minimize the chance of either continuously overcharging or undercharging the battery, the charges are divided into two classes, namely, regular charges and overcharges. the regular charges are the periodic charges for the purpose of restoring the capacity of the battery after discharge. the overcharges, which should occur once a week or once in every two weeks, according to the use of the battery, are for the purpose of insuring that all cells have received their proper charge, for reducing such sulphating as may have occurred on cells undercharged, and for keeping the plates, in general, in a healthy condition. the specific gravity of the electrolyte, the voltage of the battery, and the amount of gasing observed are all indications of the amount of charge which the battery has received and should all be considered when practicable. either the specific gravity or voltage may be used as the routine method of determining the proper charge, but, however, if the proper charge is determined by the voltage readings, this should be frequently checked by the specific gravity, and _vice versâ_. during the charging and discharging of a battery the level of the electrolyte in the cells will fall. as the portion of the electrolyte which is evaporated is mainly water, the electrolyte may be readily restored to its normal level by adding distilled water or carefully collected rain water. _pilot cell._ as the specific gravity of all the cells of a battery, after having once been properly adjusted, will vary the same in all the cells during use, it has been found satisfactory to use one cell, commonly termed the pilot cell, for taking the regular specific gravity readings and only reading the specific gravity of all the cells occasionally or on the overcharge. this cell must be representative of all the cells of the battery, and if the battery is so subdivided in use that several sets of cells are liable to receive different usage, a pilot cell should be selected for each group. _overcharge._ if the battery is charged daily, it should receive an overcharge once a week, or if charged less frequently, an overcharge should be given at least once every two weeks. in making an overcharge this should be done at a constant rate and at a rate specified for the battery. during the overcharge the voltage of the battery and the specific gravity of the pilot cell should be taken every fifteen minutes from the time the gasing begins. the charge should be continued until five consecutive, specific-gravity readings are practically the same. the voltage of the battery should not increase during the last hour of the charge. as the principal object of the overcharge is to insure that all of the cells have received the proper charge, it must, therefore, be continued long enough to not only properly charge the most efficient cells, but also to properly charge those which are lower in efficiency. the longer the interval between overcharges, the greater will be the variation between the cells and, therefore, it is necessary to continue the overcharge longer when the interval between overcharges is as great as two weeks. before the overcharge is made the cells should be carefully inspected for short circuits and other abnormal conditions. these inspections may best be made by submerging an electric lamp in the cell, if the cell be of wood, or of allowing it to shine through from the outside, if it be of glass. by this means any foreign material may be readily detected and removed before serious damage is caused. in making these inspections it must be borne in mind that whatever tools or implements are used must be non-metallic and of some insulating material. _regular charge._ regular charges are the periodic charges for restoring the capacity of the battery, and should be made as frequently as the use of the battery demands. the voltage of the cells is a good guide for determining when the battery should be recharged. the voltage of a cell should never be allowed to drop below . volts, and it is usually considered better practice to recharge when the battery has reached . volts. if a battery is to remain idle for even a short time, it should be left in a completely charged condition. the regular charges for cells completely equipped with plates should be continued until the specific gravity of the pilot cell has risen to five points below the maximum attained on the preceding overcharge, or, if only partially equipped with plates, until it has risen to three points below the previous maximum. the voltage per cell at this time should be from . volts to . volts below that obtained on the previous overcharge. at this time all the cells should be gasing, but not as freely as on an overcharge. _low cells._ an unhealthy condition in a cell usually manifests itself in one of the following ways: falling off in specific gravity or voltage relative to the rest of the cells, lack of gasing when charged, and color of the plates, either noticeably lighter or darker than those of other cells of the battery. when any of the above conditions are found in a cell, the cell should receive immediate attention, as a delay may mean serious trouble. the cell should be thoroughly inspected to determine if a short-circuit exists, either caused by some foreign substance, by an excess of sediment in the bottom of the tank, or by portions of the plates themselves. if such a condition is found, the cause should be immediately removed and, if the defect has been of short duration, the next overcharge will probably restore it to normal condition. if the defect has existed for some time, it is often necessary to give the cell a separate charge. this may be done by connecting it directly to the charging generator with temporary leads and thus bring it back to its normal condition. it is sometimes found necessary to replace the cell in order to restore the battery to its normal condition. _sediment._ the cells of the battery should be carefully watched to prevent the sediment which collects in the bottom of the jar or tank during use from reaching the bottom of the plates, thereby causing short circuits between them. when the sediment in the cell has reached within one-half inch of the bottom of the plates, it should be removed at once. with small cells using glass jars this can most easily be done directly after an overcharge by carefully drawing off the electrolyte without disturbing the sediment and then removing it from the jar. the plates and electrolyte should be replaced in the jar as soon as convenient to prevent the plates from becoming dry. if the plates are large and in wooden tanks, the sediment can most easily be removed by means of a scoop made especially for the purpose. the preferable time to clean the tanks is just before an overcharge. _replacing batteries._ there comes a time in the life of nearly every central-office equipment when the storage battery must be completely renewed. this is due to the fact that the life of even the best of storage batteries is not as great as the life of the average switchboard equipment. it may also be due to the necessity for greater capacity than can be secured with the existing battery tanks, usually caused by underestimating the traffic the office will be required to handle. again, it is sometimes necessary to make extensive alterations in an existing battery, perhaps due to the necessity for changing its location. to change a battery one cell at a time, keeping the others in commission meanwhile, has often been done, but it is always expensive and unsatisfactory and is likely to shorten the life of the battery, due to improper and irregular forming of the plates during the initial charge. the advent of the electric automobile industry has brought with it a convenient means for overcoming this difficulty. portable storage cells for automobile use are available in almost every locality and may often be rented at small cost. a sufficient number of such cells may be temporarily installed, enough of them being placed in multiple to give the necessary output. by floating a temporary battery so formed across the charging mains and running the generators continuously, a temporary source of current supply may be had at small expense for running the exchange during the period required for alterations. usually a time of low traffic is chosen for making the changes, such as from saturday evening to monday morning. very large central-office batteries, serving as many as , lines, have thus been taken out of service and replaced without interfering with the traffic and with the use of but a comparatively few portable cells. one precaution has to be observed in such work, and that is not to subject the portable cells to too great an overcharge, due to the great excess of generator over battery capacity. this is easily avoided by watching the ammeters to see that the input is not in too great excess of the output, and if necessary, by frequently stopping the machines to avoid this. =power switchboard.= the clearing-house of the telephone power plant is the power board. in most cases, it carries switches, meters, and protective devices. _switches._ the switches most essential are those for opening and closing the motor and the generator circuits of the charging sets and with these usually are associated the starting rheostats of the motors and the field rheostats of the generators. the starting rheostats are adapted to allow resistance to be removed from the motor armature circuit, allowing the armature to gain speed and increase its counter-electromotive force without overheating. the accepted type has means for opening the driving circuit automatically in case its voltage should fall, thus preventing a temporary interruption of driving current from damaging the motor armature on its return to normal voltage. [illustration: fig. . power-plant circuits] _meters._ the meters usually are voltmeters and ammeters, the former being adapted to read the several voltages of direct currents in the power plant. an important one to be known is the voltage of the generator before beginning a battery charge, so that the generator may not be thrown on the storage battery while generating a voltage less than that of the battery. if this were done, the battery would discharge through the generator armature. the voltmeter enables the voltage of the charging generator to be kept above that of the battery, as the latter rises during charge. it enables the performance of several cells of the battery to be observed. a convenient way is to connect the terminals of the several cells to jacks on the power board and to terminate the voltmeter in a plug. the ammeter, with suitable connections, enables the battery-charge rate to be kept normal and the battery discharge to be observed. in order to economize power, it is best to charge the battery during the hours of heavy load. the generator output then divides, the switchboard taking what the load requires, the battery receiving the remainder. in systems requiring the terminal voltage of the equipment to be kept constant within close limits, either it is necessary to use two batteries--never drawing current from a battery during charge--or to provide means of compensating for the rise of voltage while the battery is under charge. the latter is the more modern method and is done either by using fewer cells when the voltage per cell is higher or by inserting counter-electromotive force cells in the discharge leads, opposing the discharge by more or fewer cells as the voltage of the battery is higher or lower. in either method, switches on the power board enable the insertion and removal of the necessary end cells or counter-electromotive force cells. _protective devices._ the protective devices required on a power board are principally _circuit-breakers_ and _fuses_. circuit-breakers are adapted to open motor and generator circuits when their currents are too great, too small, or in the wrong direction. fuses are adapted to open circuits when the currents in them are too great. the best type is that in which the operation of the fuses sounds or shows an alarm, or both. =power-plant circuits.= the circuit arrangement of central-office power plants is subject to wide variation according to conditions. the type of telephone switchboard equipment, whether magneto or common-battery, automatic or manual, will, of course, largely affect the circuit arrangement of the power plant. fig. shows a typical example of good practice in this respect for use with a common-battery manual switchboard equipment. besides showing the switches for handling the various machines and the charge-and-discharge leads from the storage battery, this diagram shows how current from the storage battery is delivered to various parts of the central-office equipment. [footnote a: the instructions given later in this chapter are for batteries of this make, although they are applicable in many respects to all types commonly used in telephone work.] chapter xxxiii housing central-office equipment =the central-office building.= proper arrangement of the central-office equipment depends largely upon the design of the central-office building. the problem involved should not be solved by the architect alone. the most careful co-operation between the engineer and the architect is necessary in order that the various parts of the telephonic equipment may be properly related, and that the wires connecting them with each other and with the outside lines be disposed of with due regard to safety, economy, and convenience. so many factors enter into the design of a central-office building that it is impossible to lay down more than the most general rules. the attainment of an ideal is often impossible, because of the fact that the building is usually in congested districts, and its very shape and size must be governed by the lot on which it is built, and by the immediate surroundings. frequently, also, the building must be used for other purposes than those of a telephone office, so that the several purposes must be considered in its design. again, old buildings, designed for other purposes, must sometimes be altered to meet the requirements of a telephone office, and this is perhaps the most difficult problem of all. the exterior of the building is a matter that may be largely decided by the architect and owner after the general character of the building has been determined. one important feature, however, and one that has been overlooked in many cases that we know of, is to so arrange the building that switchboard sections and other bulky portions of the apparatus, which are necessarily assembled at the factory rather than on the site, may be brought into the building without tearing down the walls. _fire hazard._ the apparatus to be housed in a central-office building often represents a cost running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars; but whether of large or small first cost, it is evident that its destruction might incur a very much greater loss than that represented by its replacement value. in guarding the central-office equipment against destruction by fire or other causes, the telephone company is concerned to a very much greater extent than the mere cost of the physical property; since it is guarding the thing which makes it possible to do business. while the cost of the central office and its contents may be small in comparison with the total investment in outside plant and other portions of the equipment, it is yet true that these larger portions of the investment become useless with the loss of the central office. there is another consideration, and that is the moral obligation of the operating company to the public. a complete breakdown of telephone service for any considerable period of time in a large city is in the nature of a public calamity. for these reasons the safeguarding of the central office against damage by fire and water should be in all cases a feature of fundamental importance, and should influence not only the character of the building itself, but in many cases the choice of its location. _size of building._ it goes without saying that the building must be large enough to accommodate the switchboards and other apparatus that is required to be installed. the requirement does not end here, however. telephone exchange systems have, with few exceptions, grown very much faster than was expected when they were originally installed. many buildings have had to be abandoned because outgrown. in planning the building, therefore, the engineer should always have in mind its ultimate requirements. it is not always necessary that the building shall be made large enough at the outset to take care of the ultimate requirements, but where this is not done, the way should be left clear for adding to it when necessity demands. [illustration: ringing and charging machines and power board plaza office, new york telephone co.] _strength of building._ the major portion of telephone central-office apparatus, whether automatic or manual, is not of such weight as to demand excessive strength in the floors and walls of buildings. exceptions to this may be found in the storage battery, in the power machinery, especially where subject to vibration, and in certain cases in the cable runs. after the ultimate size of the equipment has been determined, the engineer and the architect should confer on this point, particularly with reference to the heavier portions of the apparatus, to make sure that adequate strength is provided. the approximate weights of all parts of central-office equipments may readily be ascertained from the manufacturers. _provision for employes._ in manual offices particularly it has been found to be not only humane, but economical to provide adequate quarters for the employes, both in the operating rooms and places where they actually perform their work, and in the places where they may assemble for recreation and rest. the work of the telephone operator, particularly in large cities, is of such a nature as often to demand frequent periods of rest. this is true not only on account of the nervous strain on the operator, but also on account of the necessity, brought about by the demands of economy, for varying the number of operators in accordance with the traffic load. these features accentuate the demand for proper rooms where recreation, rest, and nourishment may be had. _provision for cable runways._ in very small offices no special structural provision need be made in the design of the building itself for the entrance of the outside cables, and for the disposal of the cables and wires leading between various portions of the apparatus. for large offices, however, this must necessarily enter as an important feature in the structure of the building itself. it is important that the cables be arranged systematically and in such a way that they will be protected against injury and at the same time be accessible either for repairs or replacement, or for the addition of new cables to provide for growth. disorderly arrangement of the wires or cables results in disorder indeed, with increased maintenance cost, uneconomical use of space, inaccessibility, liability to injury, and general unsightliness. the carrying of cables from the basement to the upper floors or between floors elsewhere must be provided for in a way that will not be wasteful of space, and arrangements must be made for supporting the cables in their vertical runs. in the aggregate their weight may be great, and furthermore each individual cable must be so supported that its sheath will not be subject to undue strain. another factor which must be considered in vertical cable runs is the guarding against such runs forming natural flues through which flames or heated gases would pass, in the event of even an unimportant fire at their lower ends. =arrangement of apparatus in small manual offices.= where a common-battery multiple switchboard equipment is used, at least three principal rooms should be provided--one for the multiple switchboard proper; one for the terminal and power apparatus, including the distributing frames, racks, and power machinery; and the third for the storage battery. these should adjoin each other for purposes of convenience and of economy in wiring. [illustration: fig. . typical small office floor plan] _floor plans for small manual offices._ as was pointed out, there are several plans of disposing of the main and intermediate distributing frames and the line and cut-off relay racks. the one most practiced is to mount the relay rack alongside the main and intermediate distributing frame in the terminal room. a typical floor plan of such an arrangement for a small office, employing as a maximum five sections of multiple switchboards, is shown in fig. . this is an ideal arrangement well adapted for a rectangular floor space and on that account may often be put into effect. it should be noted that the switchboard grows from left to right, and that alternative arrangements are shown for disposing of those sections beyond the second. the cable turning section through which the multiple and answering jacks are led to the terminal frames is placed as close as possible to the terminal frames. this results in a considerable saving in cable. an interesting feature of this floor plan is the arrangement of unitary sections of main and intermediate frames and relay racks, representing recent practice of the western electric company. the iron work of the three racks is built in sections and these are structurally connected across so that the first section of the main frame, the intermediate frame, and the relay rack form one unit, the structural iron work which ties them together forming the runway for the cables between them. but two of these units, including two sections of each frame, are shown installed, the provision for growth being indicated by dotted lines. the battery room in this case provides for the disposal of the battery cells in two tiers. this room is merely partitioned off from the distributing or terminal room. where this is done the partition walls should be plastered on both sides so as to prevent, as far as possible, the entrance of any battery fumes into the apparatus rooms. the wire chief's desk, as will be noted, is located in such a position as to give easy access from it not only to the distributing frames and relay rack, but to the power apparatus as well. _combined main and intermediate frames._ for use in small exchanges, the western electric company has recently put on the market a combined main and intermediate distributing frame. this is constructed about the same as an ordinary main frame, the protectors being on one side and the line and intermediate frame terminals on the other. the lower half of the terminals on each vertical bay is devoted to the outside line terminals and the upper half is devoted to intermediate frame terminals. this arrangement is indicated in the elevation in fig. . with the use of this combined main and intermediate frame, the floor plan of fig. may be modified, as shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . combined main and intermediate frames] [illustration: fig. . small office floor plan] [illustration: fig. . terminal apparatus--small office] in fig. is given an excellent idea of terminal-room apparatus carried out in accordance with the more usual plan of employing separate main and intermediate distributing frames. at the extreme right of this figure the protector side of the main frame is shown. it will be understood that the line cables terminate on the horizontal terminal strips on the other side of this frame and are connected through the horizontal and vertical runways of the frame to the protector terminals. the intermediate frame is shown in the central portion of the figure, the side toward the left containing the answering-jack terminals, and the side toward the right the multiple jack terminals, these latter being arranged horizontally. this horizontal and vertical arrangement of the terminals on the main and intermediate distributing frames has been the distinguishing feature between the bell and independent practice, the bell companies adhering to the horizontal and vertical arrangement, while the independent companies have employed the vertical arrangement on both sides. we are informed that in the future the new smaller installations of the bell companies will be made largely with the vertical arrangement on both sides. at the left of fig. is shown the relay rack in two sections of two bays each. this illustration also gives a good idea of the common practice in disposing of the cables between the frames in iron runways just below the ceiling of the terminal room. _types of line circuits._ the design of the terminal-room floor plan will depend largely on the arrangement of apparatus in the subscribers' line circuits with respect to the distributing frames and relay racks. the bell practice in this respect has already been referred to and is illustrated in fig. . in this the line and cut-off relays are permanently associated with the answering jacks and lamps, resulting in the answering-jack equipment being subject to change with respect to the multiple and the line through the jumpers of the intermediate frame. the practice of the kellogg company, on the other hand, has been illustrated in fig. , and in this the line and cut-off relays are permanently associated with the multiple and with the line, only the answering jacks and lamps being subject to change through the jumper wires on the intermediate frame. this latter arrangement has led to a very desirable parallel arrangement of the two distributing frames and the relay rack. these are made of equal length so as to correspond bay for bay, and are placed side by side with only enough space between them for the passage of workmen--the relay rack lying between the main and intermediate frames. in this scheme all the multiple and answering-jack cables run from the intermediate distributing frame, and the cabling between the intermediate frame and the relay rack and between the relay rack and the main frame is run straight across from one rack to the other. this results in a great saving of cable within the terminal room, over that arrangement wherein the cabling from one frame to another is necessarily led along the length of the frame to its end and then passes through a single runway to the end of the other frame. =large manual offices.= for purposes of illustrating the practice in housing the apparatus in very large offices equipped with manual switchboards, we have chosen the chelsea office of the new york telephone company as an excellent example of modern practice. [illustration: fig. . floor plan, operating room, chelsea office, new york city] the ground plan of the building is u-shaped, in order to provide the necessary light over the rather large floor areas. the plan of the operating floor--the sixth floor of the building--is shown in fig. . as will be seen, this constitutes a single operating room, the _a_-board being located in the right wing and the _b_-board in the left. the point from which both boards grow is near the center of the front of the building, the boards coming together at this point in a common cable turning section. the disposal of the various desks for the manager, chief operator, and monitors is indicated. those switchboard sections which are shown in full lines are the ones at present installed, the provision for growth being indicated in dotted lines. [illustration: fig. . terminal room and operators' quarters, chelsea office, new york city] the fifth floor is devoted to the terminal room and operators' quarters, the terminal room occupying the left-hand wing and the major portion of the front of the building, and the operators' quarters the right-hand wing. the line and the trunk cables come up from the basement of the building at the extreme left, being supported directly on the outside wall of the building. arriving at the fifth floor, they turn horizontally and are led under a false flooring provided with trap doors, to the protector side of the main frame. the disposal of the cables between the various frames will be more readily understood by reference to the following photographs. a general view of a portion of the _a_-board of the chelsea office is shown in fig. , this view being taken from a point in the left-hand wing looking toward the front. in fig. is shown a closer view of a smaller portion of the board. fig. gives an excellent idea of the rear of this switchboard and of the disposal of the cables and wires. the main mass of cables at the top are those of the multiple. immediately below these may be seen the outgoing trunk cables. the forms of the answering-jack cables lie below these and are not so readily seen, but the cables leading from these forms are led down to the runway at the bottom of the sections, and thence along the length of the board to the intermediate distributing frame on the floor below. the layer of cables, supported on the iron rack immediately above the answering-jack cable runway, shown at the extreme bottom of the view, are those containing the wires leading from the repeating coils to the cord circuits. an interesting feature of this board is the provisions for protection against injury by fire and water. on top of the boards throughout their entire length there is laid a heavy tarpaulin curtain with straps terminating in handles hanging down from its edges. these may be seen in fig. and also in fig. . the idea of this is that if the board is exposed to a water hazard, as in the case of fire, the board may be completely covered, front and rear, with this tarpaulin curtain, by merely pulling the straps. the entire force--both operators and repairmen--is drilled to assure the carrying out of this plan. the rear of the boards is adapted to be enclosed by wooden curtains, similar to those employed in roll-top desks. these are all raised in the rear view of fig. , the housing for the rolled-up curtain being shown at the extreme top of the sections. in order to guard the multiple cables and the multiple jacks against fire which might originate in the cord-circuit wiring, a heavy asbestos partition is placed immediately above the cord racks and is clearly shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . subscribers' board. chelsea office, new york city] [illustration: fig. . subscribers' board. chelsea office, new york city] [illustration: fig. . rear view chelsea switchboard] [illustration: fig. . terminal and power apparatus. chelsea office] a view of the terminal and power room is shown in fig. . in the upper left-hand corner the cables may be seen in their passage downward from the cable turning section between the _a_- and _b_-boards. the large group of cables shown at the extreme left is the _a_-board multiple. this passes down and then along the horizontal shelves of the intermediate frame, which is the frame in the extreme left of this view. the _b_-board multiple comes down through another opening in the floor, and as is shown, after passing under the _a_-board multiple joins it in the same vertical run from which it passes to the intermediate frame. the cord-circuit cables lead down through the same opening as that occupied by the _a_-board multiple and pass off to the right-hand one of the racks shown, which contains the repeating coils. the cables leading from the opening in the ceiling to the right-hand side of the intermediate distributing frame are the answering-jack cables, and from the terminals on this side of this frame other cables pass in smaller groups to the relay terminals on the relay racks which lie between the intermediate frame and the coil rack. the power board is shown at the extreme right. the fuse panel at the left of the power board contains in its lower portion fuses for the battery supply leads to the operator's position and to private-branch exchanges, and in its upper portion lamps and fuses for the ringing generator circuits for the various operators' positions and also for private-branch exchanges. at the lower left-hand portion of this view is shown the battery cabinet. it is the practice of the new york telephone company not to employ separate battery rooms, but to locate its storage batteries directly in the terminal room and to enclose them, as shown, in a wooden cabinet with glass panels, which is ventilated by means of a lead pipe extending to a flue in the wall. one unit of charging machines, consisting of motor and generator, is shown in the immediate foreground. a duplicate of this unit is employed but is not shown in this view. the various ringing and message register machines are shown beyond the charging machines. three of these smaller machines are for supplying ringing current and the remainder are for supplying -volt direct current for operating the message registers. one of the machines of each set is wound to run from the main storage battery in case of a failure of the general lighting service from which the current for operating is normally drawn. [illustration: fig. . terminal apparatus. chelsea office] [illustration: fig. . floor plan, automatic office, lansing, michigan] another view of the terminal-room apparatus is given in fig. . this is taken from the point marked _b_ on the floor plan of fig. . at the right may be seen the message registers on which the calls of the subscribers in this office are counted as a basis for the bills for their service. at the extreme left is shown the private-line test board. through this board run all of the lines leased for private use, and also all of the order wire or call lines passing through this office. the purpose of such an arrangement is to facilitate the testing of such line wires. at the right of this private-line test board is shown a four-position wire chief's desk, upon which are provided facilities for making all of the tests inside and outside. [illustration: fig. . line-switch units] [illustration: fig. . automatic apparatus at lansing office] the main frame is shown at the right of fig. , just to the right of a gallery from which a step-ladder leads. the left-hand side of this frame is the line or protector side, but the portion toward the observer in this picture is unequipped. these equipped protector strips carry pairs of terminals each, and the consequent length of these strips makes necessary the gallery shown, in order that all of them may be readily accessible. [illustration: fig. . main distributing frame, lansing office] [illustration: fig. . line switches] [illustration: power plant for automatic switchboard equipment bay cities home telephone company, berkeley, cal.] [illustration: fig. . secondary line switches and first selectors] =automatic offices.= there is no great difference in the amount of floor space required in central offices employing automatic and manual equipment. whatever difference there is, is likely to be in favor of the automatic. the fact that no such rigid requirement exists in the arrangement of automatic apparatus, as that which makes it necessary to place the sections of a multiple board all in one row, makes it possible to utilize the available space more economically with automatic than with manual equipment. [illustration: fig. . second selectors] [illustration: fig. . toll distributing frame and harmonic converters] in manual practice it is necessary to place the distributing frames and power apparatus in a separate room from that containing the switchboard, but in an automatic exchange no such necessity exists; in fact, so far as the distributing-frame equipment is concerned, it is considered desirable to have it located in the same room as the automatic switches. the battery room in an automatic exchange should be entirely separate from the operating room, since the fumes from the battery would be fatal to the proper working of the automatic switches. _typical automatic office._ the floor-plan and views of a medium-sized automatic office at lansing, michigan, have been chosen as representing typical practice. the floor plan is shown in fig. . the apparatus indicated in full lines represents the present equipment, and that in dotted lines the space that will be required by the expected future equipment. in fig. is shown a group of five line-switch units, representing a total of five hundred lines. the length of such a unit is practically fourteen feet and the breadth over all about twenty-two inches. fig. shows a general view of this lansing office, taken from a point of view indicated at _a_ on the floor plan of fig. . fig. shows the main distributing frame, which is of ordinary type; fig. shows a closer view of some of the primary line switches; fig. is a view of the secondary line switches and first selectors, the latter being on the right; fig. is a view of the frequency selectors and second selectors, the former being used in connection with party-line work; and fig. is a view of the toll distributing frame and harmonic converters for party-line ringing. a general view of the main switching room in the grant avenue office of the home telephone company of san francisco is given in fig. , this being taken before the work of installation had been fully completed. the present capacity of the equipment is , and the ultimate , lines. this office is one of a number of similar ones recently installed for the home telephone company in san francisco, the combination of which forms by far the largest automatic exchange yet installed. the scope of the plans is such as to enable , subscribers to be served without any change in the fundamental design, and by means merely of addition in equipment and lines as demanded by the future subscriptions for telephone service. [illustration: fig. . grant avenue office--san francisco] chapter xxxiv private branch exchanges =definitions.= a telephone exchange devoted to the purely local uses of a private establishment such as a store, factory, or business office, is a private exchange. if, in addition to being used for such local communication, it serves also for communication with the subscribers of a city exchange, it becomes in effect a branch of the city exchange and, therefore, a private branch exchange. the term "p. b. x." has become a part of the telephone man's vocabulary as an abbreviation for private branch exchange. private exchanges for purely local use require no separate treatment as any of the types of switching equipments for interconnecting the lines for communication, that have been or that will be described herein, may be used. the problem becomes a special one, however, when communication must also be had with the subscribers of a public exchange, since then trunking is involved in which the conditions differ materially from those encountered in trunking between the several offices in a multi-office exchange. for such communication one or more trunk lines are led from the private branch office usually to the nearest central office of the public exchange and such trunks are called private branch-exchange trunks. they are the paths for communication between the private exchange and the public exchange. for establishing the connections either between the local lines themselves or between the local lines and the trunks, and for performing other duties that will be referred to, one or more private branch-exchange operators are employed at the switchboard of the private establishment. the private branch exchange may operate in conjunction with a manual or an automatic public exchange, but whether manual or automatic, the private exchange is usually manually operated, although it is quite possible to make a private branch exchange that is wholly automatic and will, therefore, involve no operator at all. =functions of the private branch-exchange operator.= it is possible, as just stated, entirely to dispense with the private branch-exchange operator so far as the mere connection and disconnection of the lines is concerned. but the real function of the private branch-exchange operator is a broader one than this and it is for this reason that even in connection with automatic public exchanges, operators are desirable at the private branches. the private branch-exchange operator is, as it were, the doorkeeper of the telephone entrance to the private establishment. she is the person first met by the public in entering this telephone door. there is the same reason, therefore, why she should be intelligent, courteous, and obliging as that the ordinary doorkeeper should possess these characteristics. as to incoming traffic to a private branch exchange, an intelligent operator may do much toward directing the calls to the proper department or person, even though the person calling may have little idea as to whom he desires to reach. this saves the time of the person who makes the call as well as that of the people at the private branch stations, since it prevents their being unnecessarily called. the functions of the private branch-exchange operator are no less important with respect to outgoing calls. it is the duty of the operator to obtain connections through the city exchange for the private branch subscriber, who merely asks for a certain connection and hangs up his receiver to await her call when she shall have obtained it. this saving of time of busy people by having the branch-exchange operator make their calls for them has one attending disadvantage, which is that the person in the city exchange who is called does not, when he answers his telephone, find the real party with whom he is to converse, but has to wait until that party responds to the private branch operator's call. this is akin to asking a person to call at one's office and then being out when he gets there. this drawback is greatly accentuated where both the parties that are to be involved in the connection are people high in authority in certain establishments at private branch exchanges. some business houses have made the rule that the private branch operator shall not connect with their lines until she has actually heard the voice of the proper party at the other end. when two subscribers in two different private branch exchanges where this rule is enforced, attempt to get into communication with each other, the possibilities of trouble are obvious. all that may be said on this matter is that the person who calls another by telephone should extend that person the same courtesies that he would had he called him in person to his office; and that a person who is called by telephone by another should meet him with the same consideration as if he had received a personal call at his office or home. the arbitrary ruling made by some corporations and persons, which results always in the "other fellow's" doing the waiting, is not ethically correct nor is it good policy. =private branch switchboards.= private branch switchboards may be of common-battery or magneto types regardless of whether they work in conjunction with main office equipments having common-battery or magneto equipments. usually a magneto private branch exchange works in conjunction with a magneto main office, but this is not always true. there are cases where the private branch equipment of modern common-battery type works in conjunction with main office equipment of the magneto type; and in some of these cases the private branch exchange has a much larger number of subscribers than the main office. this is likely to be true in large summer resort hotels located in small and otherwise unimportant rural districts. in one such case within our knowledge the private branch exchange has a larger number of stations than the total census population of the town, resulting in an apparent telephone development considerably greater than one hundred per cent. _magneto type._ where both the private branch and the main office equipments are of the magneto type, the private branch requirements are met by a simple magneto switchboard of the requisite size, and the trunking conditions are met by ring-down trunks extending to the main office. in this case the supervision is that of the ordinary clearing-out drop type, the operators working together as best they may. _common-battery type._ the cases where the private branch board is of common-battery type and the main office of magneto type are comparatively so few that they need not be treated here. where they do occur they demand special treatment because the main portion of the traffic over the trunk lines to the city or town central office is likely to be toll traffic through that office over long-distance lines. the principal reason why the equipment of the town offices under such conditions is magneto rather than common battery is that the traffic conditions are those of short season and heavy toll, and common-battery switching equipment at the main office has no especial advantages for toll work. [illustration: fig. . desk type, private branch board] for small private branch exchanges the desk type of switch board, shown in fig. , is largely used. the operator frequently has other work to do and the desk is, therefore, a convenience. in larger private exchanges, such as those requiring more than one operator, some form of upright cabinet is employed, and if, as sometimes occurs, the branch exchange is of such size as to demand a multiple board, then the general form of the board does not differ materially from the standard types of multiple board employed in regular central office work. the most common private branch-exchange condition is that of a common-battery branch working into a common-battery main office. in such the main point to be considered is that of supervision of trunk-line connections. _cord type._ for the larger sizes of branch exchange switchboards, the switching apparatus is practically the same as that of ordinary manual switchboards wherein the connections are made between the various lines by means of pairs of cords and plugs. the private branch-exchange trunk lines usually terminate on the private branch board in jacks but in some cases plug-ended trunks are used. [illustration: fig. . key type, private branch board] the line signals may consist in mechanical visual signals or in lamps, the choice between these depending largely on the source of battery supply at the branch exchange, a matter which will be considered later. the trunk-line signals at the private branch board are usually ordinary drops which are thrown when the main-exchange operator rings on the line as she would on an ordinary subscriber's line. frequently, however, lamp signals are used for this purpose, being operated by locking relays energized when the main-office operator rings or, in some cases, operated at the time when the main-office operator plugs into the trunk-line jack. [illustration: fig. . circuits, key-type board] _key type._ for small private branch-exchange switchboards, a type employing no cords and plugs has come into great favor during recent years. instead of connecting the lines by jacks and plugs, they are connected by means of keys closely resembling ordinary ringing and listening keys. such a switchboard is shown in fig. , this having a capacity of three trunks, seven local lines, and the equivalent of five cord circuits. the drops associated with the three trunks may be seen in the upper left-hand side of the face of the switchboard. immediately below these in three vertical rows are the keys which are used in connecting the trunks with the "cord circuits" or connecting bus wires. at the right of the drop associated with the trunks are seven visual signals, these being the calling signals of the local lines. the seven vertical rows of keys, immediately to the right of the three trunk-line rows, are the line keys. the throwing of any one of these keys and of a trunk-line key in the same horizontal row in the same direction will connect a line with a trunk through the corresponding bus wires, leaving one of the supervisory visual signals, shown at the extreme top of the board, connected with the circuit. the keys in a single row at the right are those by means of which the operator may bridge her talking set across any of the "cord circuits." the circuits of this particular board are shown in fig. . this is equipped for common-battery working, the battery feed wires being shown at the left. =supervision of private branch connections.= at the main office where common-battery equipment is used, the private branch trunks terminate before the _a_-operators exactly in the same way as ordinary subscribers' lines, _i. e._, each in an answering jack and lamp at one position and in a multiple jack on each section. it goes without saying, therefore, that the handling of a private branch call, either incoming or outgoing, should be done by the _a_-operator in the same manner as a call on an ordinary subscriber's line, and that the supervision of the connection should impose no special duties on the _a_-operator. there has been much discussion, and no final agreement, as to the proper method of controlling the supervisory lamp at the main office of a cord that is, at the time, connected to a private branch trunk. three general methods have been practiced: the first method is to have the private branch subscriber directly control the supervisory lamp at the main office without producing any effect upon the private branch supervisory signal; this latter signal being displayed only after the connection has been taken down at the main office and in response to the withdrawal of the main office plug from the private branch jack. this is good practice so far as the main-office discipline is concerned but it results in a considerable disadvantage to both the city and private branch subscribers in that it is impossible for the private branch subscriber, when connected to the other, to re-signal the private branch operator without the connection being first taken down. the second method is to have the private branch subscriber control both the supervisory signal at the private branch board and at the main board. this has the disadvantage of bringing both operators in on the circuit when the private branch subscriber signals. the third method, and one that seems best, is to place the supervisory lamp of the private branch board alone under the control of the private branch subscriber, so that he may attract the attention of the private branch operator without disturbing the supervisory signal at the main office. the supervisory signal at the main office in this case is displayed only when the private branch operator takes down the connection. this practice results in a method of operation at the main office that involves no special action on the part of the _a_-operator. she takes down the connection only when the main-office subscriber has hung up his telephone and the private branch subscriber has disconnected from the trunk. whatever method is employed, private branch disconnection is usually slow, and for this reason many operating companies instruct the _a_-operators to disconnect on the lighting of the supervisory lamp of the city subscriber. =with automatic offices.= private branch exchanges most used in connection with automatic offices employ manual switchboards, with the cord circuits of which is associated a signal transmitting device by which the operator instead of the subscriber may manipulate the automatic apparatus of the public exchange by impulses sent over the private branch-exchange trunk lines. the subscriber's equipment at the private branch stations may be either automatic or manual. frequently the same private branch exchange will contain both kinds. with the manual sub-station equipment the operation is exactly the same as in a private branch of a manual exchange, except that the private branch operator by means of her dial makes the central-office connection instead of telling the main-office operator to do so for her. with automatic sub-station equipment at the private branch the subscribers, by removing their receivers from their hooks, call the attention of the private branch operator, who may receive their orders and make the desired central-office connection for them, or who may plug their lines through to the central office and allow the subscribers to make the connection themselves with their own dials. in automatic equipment of the common-battery type, some change always takes place in the calling line at the time the called subscriber answers. in the three-wire system during the time of calling, both wires are of the same polarity with respect to earth. at the time of the answering of the called subscriber, the two wires assume different polarities, one being positive to the other. such a change is sufficient for the actuation of devices local to the private exchange switchboard and may be interpreted through the calling supervisory signal in such a way as to allow it to glow during calling and not to glow after the called subscriber has answered. in the two-wire automatic system a similar change can be arranged for, with similar advantageous results. _secrecy._ in private exchanges operating in connection with automatic central offices, the secret feature of individual lines may or may not be carried into the private exchange equipment. some patrons of automatic exchanges set a high value on the absence of any operator in a connection and transact business over such lines which they would not transact at all over manual lines or would not transact in the same way over manual lines. to some such patrons, the presence of a private exchange operator, even though employed and supervised by themselves, seems to be a disadvantage. to meet such a feeling, it is not difficult to arrange the circuits of a private exchange switchboard so that the operator may listen in upon a cord circuit at any time and overhear what is being said upon it _so long as two subscribers are not in communication on that cord circuit_. that is, she may answer a call and may speak to the calling person at any time she wishes until the called person answers. when he does answer and conversation can take place, some device operates to disconnect her listening circuit from the cord circuit, not to be connected again until at least one of the subscribers has hung up his receiver. with private exchange apparatus so arranged, the secrecy of the system is complete. =battery supply.= there are three available methods of supplying direct current for talking and signaling purposes to private branch exchanges, each of which represents good practice under certain conditions. first, by means of pairs of wires extended from the central-office battery; second, by means of a local storage battery at the private branch exchange charged over wires from the central office; and third, by means of a local storage battery at the private exchange charged from a local source. the choice of these three methods depends always on the local conditions and it is a desirable feature, to be employed by large operating companies, to have all private branch-exchange switchboards provided with simple convertible features contained within the switchboard for adapting it to any one of these methods of supplying current. if a direct-current power circuit is available at the private branch exchange, it may be used for charging the local storage battery by inserting mere resistance devices in the charging leads. if the local power circuit carries alternating current, a converting device of some sort must be used and for this purpose, if the exchange is large enough to warrant it, a mercury rectifier is an economical and simple device. the supply of current to private branch exchanges over wires leading to the central-office battery has the disadvantage of requiring one or several pairs of wires in the cables carrying the trunk wires. no special wires are run, regular pairs in the paper insulated line or trunk cables being admirably suited for the purpose. sufficient conductivity may be provided by placing several such pairs in multiple. if the amount of current required by the private exchange warrants it, pairs of charging wires from the central office may be fewer if a battery is charged over them than if they are used direct to the bus bars of the private exchange switchboard. if they are used in the latter way, and this is simpler for reasons of maintenance, some means must be provided to prevent the considerable resistance of the supply wires from introducing cross-talk into the circuit of the private exchange. this is accomplished by bridging a considerable capacity across the supply pairs at the private exchange--ten to twelve microfarads usually suffice. this point has already been referred to and illustrated in connection with fig. . the number of pairs of wires, or, in other words, the amount of copper in the battery lead between the central office and the private branch-exchange switchboard needs to be properly determined not only to eliminate cross-talk when the proper condensers are used with them, but to furnish the proper difference of potential at the private exchange bus bars, so that the line and supervisory signals will receive the proper current. it is a convenience in installing and maintaining private exchange switchboards of this kind to prepare tables showing the number of pairs of no. gauge and no. gauge wires required for a private exchange at a given distance from its central office and of a probable amount of traffic. the traffic may be expressed in the maximum number of pairs of cords which will be in use at one time. with this fact and the distance, the number of pairs of wires required may be determined. =ringing current.= the ringing current may be provided in two ways: over pairs of wires from the city-office ringing machines or by means of a local hand generator, or both. a key should enable either of these sources of ringing current to be chosen at will. =marking of apparatus.= all apparatus should be marked with permanent and clear labels. that private exchange switchboard is best at which an almost uninformed operator could sit and operate it at once. it is not difficult to lay out a scheme of labels which will enable such a board to be operated without any detailed instructions being given. =desirable features.= the board should contain means of connecting certain of the local private exchange lines to the central-office trunks when the board is unattended. also, it is desirable that it should contain means whereby any local private exchange line may be connected to the trunk so that its station will act as an ordinary subscriber's station. whether the trunks of the private exchange lead to a manual or an automatic equipment, it often is desired to connect a local line through in that way, either so that the calling person may make his calls without the knowledge of the private exchange operator, because he wishes to make a large number of calls in succession, or because for some other reason he prefers to transact his business directly with or through the exchange than to entrust it to his operator. chapter xxxv intercommunicating systems =definition.= the term "intercommunicating" has been given to a specialized type of telephone system wherein the line belonging to each station is extended to each of the other stations, resulting in all lines extending to all stations. each station is provided with apparatus by means of which the telephone user there may connect his own telephone with the line of the station with which he wishes to communicate, enabling him to signal and talk with the person at that station. =limitations.= the idea is simple. each person does his own switching directly, and no operator is required. it is easy to see, however, that the system has limitations. the amount of line wire necessary in order to run each line to each station is relatively great, and becomes prohibitive except in exchanges involving a very small number of subscribers, none of which is remote from the others. again, the amount of switching apparatus required becomes prohibitive for any but a small number of stations. as a result, twenty-five or thirty stations are considered the usual practical limit for intercommunicating systems. =types.= an intercommunicating system may be either magneto or common-battery, according to whether it uses magneto or common-battery telephones. the former is the simpler; the latter is the more generally used. [illustration: western electric company battery room at monmouth, illinois] =simple magneto system.= the schematic circuit arrangement of an excellent form of magneto intercommunicating system is given in fig. . in this, five metallic circuit lines are led to as many stations, an ordinary two-contact open jack being tapped off of each line at each station. a magneto bell of the bridging type is permanently bridged across each line at the station to which that line belongs. the telephone at each station is an ordinary bridging magneto set except that its bell is, in each case, connected to the line as just stated. each telephone is connected through a flexible cord to a two-contact plug adapted to fit into any of the jacks at the same station. the operation is almost obvious. if a person at station _a_ desires to call station _e_, he inserts his plug into the jack of line _e_ at his station and turns his generator crank. the bell of station _e_ rings regardless of where the plug of that station may be. the person at station _e_ responds by inserting his own plug in the jack of line _e_, after which the two parties are enabled to converse over a metallic circuit. it makes no difference whether the persons, after talking, leave these plugs in the jacks or take them out, since the position of the plug does not alter the relation of the bell with the line. [illustration: fig. . magneto intercommunicating system] this system has the advantage of great simplicity and of being about as "fool proof" as possible. it is, however, not quite as convenient to use as the later common-battery systems which require no turning of a generator crank. =common-battery systems.= in the more popular common-battery systems two general plans of operation are in vogue, one employing a plug and jacks at each station for switching the "home" instrument into circuit with any line, and the other employing merely push buttons for doing the same thing. these may be referred to as the plug type and the push-button type, respectively. [illustration: fig. . plug type of common-battery intercommunicating system] _kellogg plug type._ the circuits of a plug type of intercommunicating system, as manufactured by the kellogg company, are shown in fig. . while only three stations are shown, the method of connecting more will be obvious. this system requires as many pairs of wires running to all stations as there are stations, and in addition, two common wires for ringing purposes. the talking battery feed is through retardation coils to each line. when all the hooks are down, each call bell is connected between the lower common wire and the tip side of the talking circuit individual to the corresponding station. the ringing buttons at each station are connected between the tip of the plug at that station and the upper common wire. as a result, when a person at one station desires to call another, it is only necessary for him to insert his plug in the jack of the desired station and press his ringing button; the circuit being traced from one pole of the ringing battery through the upper common ringing wire, ringing key of the station making the call, tip of plug, tip conductor of called station's line, bell of called station, and back to the ringing battery through the lower common ringing wire. [illustration: fig. . push-button wall set] _kellogg push-button type._ fig. shows a kellogg wall-type intercommunicating set employing the push-button method of selecting, and fig. shows the internal arrangement of this set. [illustration: fig. . push-button wall set] _western electric system._ the method of operation of the push-button key employed in the intercommunicating system of the western electric company is well shown in fig. . when the button is depressed all the way down, as shown in the center cut of fig. , which represents the ringing position of the key, contact is made with the line wires of the station called, and ringing current is placed on the line. when the pressure is released, the button assumes an intermediate position, as shown in the right-hand cut, which represents the talking position of the key and in which the ringing contacts _ _ and _ _ are open, but contact with the line for talking purposes is maintained. the key is automatically held in this intermediate position by locking plate _ _ until this plate is actuated by the operation of another button which releases the key so that it assumes its normal position as shown in the left-hand cut. when a button is depressed to call a station, it first connects the called station's line to the calling station through the two pairs of contacts _ _ and _ _ and then connects the ringing battery to that line by causing the spring _ _ to engage the contact _ _. the ringing current then passes through the bell at the called station, through the back contacts of the switch hook at that station, over one side of the line, and through the "way-down" contact _ _ of the button at the calling station, thence over the other side of the battery line back to the ringing battery, operating the bell at the called station. [illustration: fig. . push-button action, western electric system] the circuits of the western electric system are similar to those of fig. , but adapted, of course, to the push-button arrangement of switches. two batteries are employed, one for ringing and the other for talking, talking current being fed to the lines through retardation coils to prevent interference or cross-talk from other stations which might be connected together at the same time. _monarch system._ as the making of connections in an intercommunicating system is entirely in the hands of the user, it is desirable that the operation be simple and that carelessness on the part of the user result in as few evil effects as possible. for instance, the leaving of the receiver off its hook will, in many systems, result in such a drain on the battery as to greatly shorten its life. the system of the monarch company has certain distinctive features in this respect. it is of the push-button type and as in the system just discussed, one pressure of the finger on one button clears the station of previous connections, rings the station called, and establishes a talking connection between the caller's telephone and the line desired. in addition to this, the system is designed to eliminate battery waste by so arranging the circuits that the battery current does not flow through either called or calling instrument until a complete connection is made--the calling button down at one station, the home button down at the called station, and both receivers off the hook. it does not hurt the batteries, therefore, if one neglects to hang up his receiver. [illustration: fig. . push-button wall set] [illustration: fig. . push-button action, monarch system] three views of the wall set of this system are shown in fig. , which illustrates how both the door and the containing box are separately hinged for easy access to the apparatus and connecting rack. as in the western electric and kellogg push-button systems, each push-button key has three positions, as shown in fig. . the first button shows all the springs open, the normal position of the key. the second button is in the half-way or talking position with all the springs, except the ringing spring, in contact. the third button shows the springs all in contact, the condition which exists when ringing a station. the mechanical construction of the key is shown in fig. . each button has a separate frame upon which the springs are mounted. any one of the frames with its group of contact springs may be removed without interfering with either the electrical or the mechanical operation of the others. this is a convenient feature, making possible the installation of as few stations as are needed at first, and the subsequent addition of buttons as other stations are added. [illustration: fig. . push-button keys] the restoring feature is a horizontal metal carriage, in construction very much like a ladder--one round pressing against each key frame, due to the tension on the carriage exerted by a single flat spring. the plunger of each button is equipped with a shoulder, which normally is above the round of the ladder. when the button is operated, this shoulder presses against a round of the carriage forcing it over far enough so that the shoulder can slip by. the upper surface of the shoulder is flat, and on passing below the pin, allows the carriage to slip back into its normal position and the pin rests on the top of the shoulder holding the plunger down. this position places the talking springs in contact. the ringing springs are open until the plunger is pressed all the way down, then the ringing contact is made. when the pressure is released, the plunger comes back to the half-way or talking position, leaving the ringing contacts open again. when another button is pressed, the same operation takes place and, by virtue of the carriage being temporarily displaced, the original key is left free to spring back to its normal position. each station is provided with a button for each other station and a "home" button. the salient feature of the system is that before a connection may be established, the button at the calling station corresponding to the station called and also the home button of the station called must be depressed, if it is not already down. the home key at any station, when depressed, transposes the sides of the line with respect to the talking apparatus. the home key also has a spring which changes the normal connection of the line at that station from the negative to the positive side of the talking battery. unless, therefore, a connection between two stations is made through the calling key at one station and the home key at the other, no current can flow even though both receivers are off their hooks, because in that case no connection will exist with the positive side of the battery. this relation is shown in fig. , which gives a simplified circuit arrangement for two connected stations. [illustration: fig. . monarch intercommunicating system] referring to fig. , when the station called depresses the home button the talking circuit is then completed after the hook switch is raised. this is because the talking battery is controlled by the home key. conductors from both the negative and the positive sides of the battery enter this key. in the normal position of the springs, the negative side of the battery is in contact with the master spring in the home key and through these springs the negative battery is applied to all the calling keys, and from there on to the hook switch. when, however, the home button is operated, the spring which carries the negative battery to the home key is opened, and the spring which carries the positive battery is closed. this puts the positive battery on at the hook switch instead of the negative battery, as in its normal condition. in this system it is seen that a separate pair of line wires is used for each station, and in addition to these, two common pairs are run to all stations, one for ringing and one for talking battery connections. =for private branch exchanges.= so far the intercommunicating system has been discussed only with respect to its use in small isolated plants. it has a field of usefulness in connection with city exchange work, as it may be made to serve admirably as a private branch exchange. where this is done, one or more trunk lines leading to an office of the city exchange are run through the intercommunicating system exactly as a local line in that system, being tapped to a jack or push button at every station. a person at any one of the stations may originate a call to the main office by inserting his plug in the trunk jack, or pushing his trunk push button. also any station, within hearing or sight of the trunk-line signal from the main office, may answer a main-office call in the same way. in order that the convenience of a private branch exchange may be fully realized, however, it is customary to provide an attendant's station at which is placed the drop or bell on which the incoming trunk signal is received. the duty of this attendant during business hours is to answer trunk calls from the main office and finding out what party is desired, call up the proper station on the intercommunicating system. the party at that station may then connect himself with the trunk. the practice of the dean company, for instance, is as follows in regard to trunking between intercommunicating systems and main offices with common-battery equipment. the attendant's station telephone cabinet contains, besides the push-button keys for local and trunk connections, a drop signal and release key, together with relays in each trunk circuit. the latter are used to hold the trunks until the desired party responds. the main-exchange trunk lines, besides terminating at the attendant's station, are wired through the complete intercommunicating system so that any intercommunicating telephone can be connected direct to the central office by depressing the trunk key, which is provided with a button of distinctive color. the pressing of the trunk key allows the telephone to take its current from the main-office storage battery and to operate the main-office line and supervisory signals direct, without making it necessary to call on the attendant to set up the connection. [illustration: fig. . junction box] [illustration: fig. . typical arrangement of intercommunicating system] incoming calls from the common-battery main office to the intercommunicating system are all handled by the attendant. the main-office operator signals the intercommunicating system by ringing, the same as for a regular subscriber's line. this will operate a drop in the attendant's station cabinet, and through an armature contact, give a signal on a low-pitched buzzer. this alarm buzzer operates only when the main exchange is ringing and, therefore, does not require that the drop shutter be restored immediately. an extra key may be provided for an extension night-alarm bell, for use where the attendant also does work in a room separate from that containing the attendant's station telephone equipment. the attendant operator answers the main-line signal by pressing the proper trunk button, as designated by the operated drop on the attendant's cabinet. the answering of the trunk connects a locking relay across the circuit so that the attendant may call the desired party on the intercommunicating system without having to hold the trunk manually. the party desired is then notified which trunk to use and the attendant operator hangs up her receiver, no further attention being necessary on her part. the trunk-holding relay is automatically released when the desired party (with the telephone receiver off the hook) depresses the proper trunk button, thus clearing the trunk line of all bridged apparatus and making the talking circuit the same as in the regular type of private branch-exchange switchboard. the most convenient way of installing the wires of an intercommunicating system is to run a cable containing the proper number of pairs to provide for the ultimate number of stations to all the stations, tapping off from the conductors in the cable to the jacks or push buttons at each station. these tap connections are best made by means of junction boxes which contain terminals for all the conductors. such a junction box, with the through cable and the tap cable in place, is illustrated in fig. . a schematic lay-out of the various parts of a dean intercommunicating system, provided with an attendant's station and with trunks to a city office, is given in fig. . chapter xxxvi long-distance switching =definitions.= telephone messages between communities are called long-distance messages. they are also called toll messages. almost all long-distance traffic is handled by message-rate (measured-service) methods of charge. all measured-service messages are toll messages, whether they are completed within a given community or between communities. the term "long-distance," therefore, is more descriptive than the term "toll." the subject of local and long-distance measured service is treated exhaustively in a chapter of its own. some telephone-exchange operating companies call their own inter-city business "toll," and use the term "long-distance" for business carried between exchanges for them by another company. the distinction seems to be unwarranted. =use of repeating coil.= most long-distance lines are magneto circuits. if they are switched to grounded circuits, repeating coils need to be inserted. toll switching equipments contain means of inserting repeating coils in the connecting cords when required. their use reduces the volume of transmitted speech, but often is essential even in connecting metallic circuit lines, as a quiet local metallic circuit may have a ground upon it which will cause excessive noises when a quiet long-distance line is connected to it. =switching through local board.= in the simplest form of long-distance switching, the lines terminate in switchboards with local lines and may be connected with each other and with the local lines through the regular cord circuits, if the equipment be of the magneto type. the waystations on such a line are equipped with magneto generators. these waystations may signal each other by bell ringing; the central office may call any waystation by ringing the proper signal and may supervise in a way all traffic on such lines by noting the calls for other stations than the supervising exchange. =operators' orders.= _by call circuits._ where the long-distance traffic between two communities is large, economy requires that the sending of signals by ringing over the line, waiting for an answer, and then reciting the details of the call, be improved upon. if the traffic is large and the distance between communities small, call circuits are established in the same way as between the switchboards in several manual central offices of an exchange. the long-distance operator handling the originating call passes the necessary details to the distant operator by telephone over the call circuit. such circuits also are known as order circuits. they are accessible to originating operators at keys and are connected directly and permanently to the telephone sets of receiving operators. one call circuit can handle the orders for a large number of actual conversation circuits. the operator at the receiving end designates the conversation circuit which shall be used, the originating operator following that instruction. _by telegraph._ where traffic and distance are large, conversation lines cost more than in the case last assumed. it then is of greater importance to use all the possible talking circuits for actual conversations in order that the revenue may be as high as possible. a phantom circuit good enough for call circuit purposes would be good enough for actual commercial messages, therefore, it is customary to furnish such originating and receiving operators with morse telegraph sets. the lines are obtained by applying composite apparatus to the conversation circuits. two morse circuits can be had from each long-distance line without impairing any quality of that line except the ability to ring over it. as one morse circuit can carry information enough between two operators to enable them to keep many telephone circuits busy, they do not need to ring upon the composited lines, so that nothing is lost while revenue is gained. =two-number calls.= in cases where the traffic between communities is large, where the rate is small, and where the conversations are short and more on the general order of local calls, it is usual to handle the switches exactly as local calls are trunked between central offices of the same exchange. that is, the subscriber's operator who answers the call trunks it, by the assistance of a call circuit and an incoming trunk operator. the subscriber's operator records only the numbers of the calling and called subscribers. no long-distance operators at all assist in these connections. they are known as "two-number calls." the calling subscriber remains at his telephone until the conversation is finished. =particular-party-calls.= in cases where the traffic is smaller, and where the rate is large, it is customary to handle the calls through long-distance operators. the ticket records the particular party wished, and the calls are named "particular party" calls. in such connections the calling patron is allowed to hang up his receiver, after his call is recorded, and is called again when his correspondent is found and is ready to talk. this makes _all calls for conversations_ outgoing ones. only recording operators receive calls _from_ patrons. line operators make calls _to_ patrons. =trunking.= long-distance lines entering a city usually terminate in one office only, no matter how many offices the local exchange may have. it is possible to terminate these long-distance lines on a position of the multiple switchboard for local lines. for a variety of reasons this is not practiced except in special cases. the usual method is to terminate them in a special long-distance board and to provide trunk lines from this board to the one or more local switchboards of the exchange. in common-battery systems these toll trunks are so arranged that the called local subscriber receives transmitter current from the office nearest to him, yet is able to show the long-distance operator the position of his switch hook and is able to be called by the long-distance operator without the intervention of the switching operator in the local office, even though two repeating coils may be in the trunk circuit. _through ringing._ there is a distinct traffic advantage in having the ringing of the subscriber under the control of the long-distance operator. the latter may call for the subscriber by stating her wish over the call circuit associated with the long-distance trunk. the connection having been made by the switching operator, the long-distance operator may withhold ringing the subscriber's bell until all is in readiness for the conversation. _high-voltage toll trunks._ in some systems, the long-distance trunks are further specialized by being enabled to furnish transmitter current to subscribers at a higher voltage than is used in local conversations. with a given construction of transmitters there is a critical maximum current which can be carried by the granular carbon of the instrument without excessive heating, consequent noises, and permanent damage. the shortest lines and the longest lines of an exchange district being served by a source of current common to all, the standard potential of this source must be such as to give the longest lines current enough without giving the shortest lines too much. the very longest local lines, however, do not receive current enough from the standard potential to give maximum efficiency when talking over long distances, though they get enough for local conversations. by providing a battery with a voltage twice that used for local conversations and connecting it into the current supply element of the toll trunk through non-inductive resistances, not too much current may be given to the shortest lines and considerably more than normal current to the longest lines. =ticket passing.= when only one operator is necessary in a town, her duty being to switch both local and long-distance lines, she may write her own tickets and execute them entire. in larger communities with larger long-distance traffic, the duties need to be specialized. the subscribers' wants as to long-distance connections are given by themselves to recording long-distance operators, who write them on tickets and pass these to operators who get the parties together. the problem of ticket-passing becomes important and many mechanical carriers have been tried, culminating in the system which utilizes vacuum tubes. this is in some ways similar to vacuum or compressed-air tube systems for carrying cash in retail stores. the ticket is carried, however, without any enclosing case and the tubes are flat instead of round, _i. e._, they are rectangular in section. by suitable means a vacuum is maintained in a large common tube having a tap to a box-like valve at each line operator's position. a ticket tube connects this valve with a distributing table at or near which the tickets are written. the tickets are of uniform size and are so made as to enable a flap to be bent up easily along one edge. the distributing operator has merely to insert the ticket, bent edge foremost, in the open end of the tube, whereupon the air pressure behind it will drive it through to its destination, near by or far away. the tickets travel thirty feet a second. the tube may be bent into almost any required form. the ticket, on arriving at a line operator's position, slides between two springs, breaking a shunt around a relay and allowing the latter to light the lamp. =waystations.= waystations on long-distance lines may be equipped in several ways. most of them have magneto sets and can ring each other. some are equipped with common-battery sets and get all current for signaling and transmission from a terminal central office. in the latter case, there is the advantage that the ringers are in series with condensers, assisting greatly in tests for fault locations. such tests are hindered by the presence of ringer bridges across the line, as in magneto practice. condensers can be inserted in series with ringers of magneto sets if the testing advantage is valued highly enough. a disadvantage of the use of common-battery sets in waystations on long-distance lines is the lessened transmission volume of the stations farthest from the current source. _center checking._ an operating advantage of common-battery sets on long-distance lines is that all calls are forced to be answered by the terminal station. waystations can not call each other, as they have no calling means. with magneto sets, waystation agents sometimes call each other direct and neglect to record the call and to remit its price. when they can not call each other direct, the revenues of the company increase. a traffic method which requires all calls from waystations to be made to a central switching office is called a center-checking system. it is so called because all checking for stations so switched is done at the central point instead of each waystation keeping its own records of calls sent and received. in such practice it is usual to bill each station once a month for the messages it sent. where center checking is not practiced, the agent makes a report and sends a remittance. center checking comes about naturally for waystations having no ringing equipment. center checking originated long before the invention of common-battery systems. it requires merely that no waystation shall have a generator which can ring a bell. the method most widely used is to equip the waystations with magneto generators which produce direct currents only; such a generator cannot operate a polarized ringer. it is not usual to produce the direct current by actually rectifying the alternating current, but merely by omitting half the impulses, sending to the line only alternate half-cycles of the current generated. any drop or relay adapted to respond to regular ringing current will respond to this modified form of generator. chapter xxxvii telephone traffic the term "traffic," with reference to telephone service, has come to mean the gross transaction of communication between telephone users. this traffic may be expressed in whatever terms are found convenient for the particular phase considered. =unit of traffic.= with reference to payment for local telephone service, the conversation is the unit of traffic. in the daily operations of telephone systems there are fewer conversations than there are connections and fewer connections than there are calls, because lines are found busy and all calls to subscribers are not answered. for these reasons, in traffic inquiries which have to do with the amount of business which subscribers attempt to transact, the total traffic in a given time usually is considered as so many calls originated by the subscribers in the community. from this condition arises the term "originating calls." for the reason that the purpose of the switching equipment in a central office is to make connections, the abilities of operators and of equipments frequently are measured in terms of connections per hour or per other unit of time. for the reason that in charging for service all unavailing calls are omitted, the conversation is the unit of traffic. =traffic variations.= telephone-exchange traffic is subject to such general variations as are noted in the way a compass needle points north, the migrations of birds, the blowing of the trade winds, and other natural phenomena. there are variations in traffic which occur each day, others which change with the seasons, and still others which are related to holidays and other special commercial and social events. for instance, the day before thanksgiving day, in many regions, is the busiest telephone traffic day in the year. [illustration: western electric motor-generator charging set] the daily variations in telephone traffic are closely related to commercial activities and certain general features of this daily variation are common to all telephone systems everywhere. fig. is a typical graphic record of the traffic of a telephone exchange and represents what happens in almost every town or city. the total calls in this figure are not given as absolute units but would vary to adapt the figure to a particular case. the figure shows principally that the traffic in the night is light; that it rises to its maximum height somewhere between o'clock a.m. and noon; that though it is never as high again during that day, the afternoon peak is over per cent as great; and that two minor peaks appear about the dinner hour and after evening entertainments. [illustration: fig. . load curve] _busy-hour ratio._ if the story told by fig. were to be turned into a table of calls per hour, the busiest hour of the day would be found to correspond to the highest portion of the figure, and in that busiest hour of the day, if a number of selected days were to be compared, would be found a very constant traffic. the number of calls made, or the number of connections completed, in that particular hour, day by day, would be found to be much the same. the ratio of the number of units in that hour to the number of units in that entire day would be found to be practically the same ratio day by day. this ratio of busy hour to total day would be found to be much more nearly constant than the gross number of calls per hour or per day. in a large, busy city, about one-eighth of the total daily calls are in some one hour; in a smaller, less active city, probably one-tenth are so congested. this is reasonable when one remembers that in the larger city the active business of the day begins later and ends earlier. =importance of traffic study.= a knowledge of the amount of traffic in an exchange, and its distribution as to time and as to the divisions of the exchange, is important for a number of reasons. traffic knowledge is essential in order that the equipment may be designed and placed in the proper way and the total load distributed properly on that apparatus and its operators. for example, in an office equipped with a manual multiple switchboard, the length of the switchboard is governed entirely by the number of operators who must work before it. it is mechanically possible to make a switchboard for ten thousand lines only feet long, seating seven operators. the entire multiple of ten thousand lines could appear three times in such a switchboard. the seven operators could not handle the traffic we know would be originated by ten thousand lines, with any present system of charging for service. even a rough knowledge of the probable traffic would enable us to approximate the number of operators needed and to equip each position, not only with access to the ten thousand lines to be called, but also with just enough keyboard equipment, serving as tools, and just enough answering jacks, serving as means of bringing the traffic to her. it is foreknowledge of traffic which enables a switchboard to fit the task it is to perform. =rates of calling.= the rates of calling of different kinds of lines vary. the lines of business stations originate more calls than do the lines of residences. some kinds of business originate more calls than others. some kinds of business have a higher rate of calling in one season than in others. flat-rate lines originate more calls than do message-rate lines. when a line changes from a flat rate to a message rate, the number of originating calls per day decreases. an operator's position, handling message-rate lines only, can serve more lines than if all of them were at flat rates. the number of message-rate or coin-prepayment lines which an operator's position can care for depends not only on the traffic but on the method of charging for service, whether by tickets or meters and upon the kind of meters; or it depends on the method of collecting the coins. in some regions, the rate of calling, on the introduction of a complete measured-service plan, has been reduced to one-fourth of what it was on the flat-rate plan. in manual switchboards of early types, wherein the position of the subscriber's answering jack was fixed by his telephone number, the inequality of traffic became a serious problem. most of the subscribers who first installed telephones when the exchange was small, retained their telephones and numbers; as their use of the telephone grew with their business, it was customary to find the positions answering the lower numbers much more busy than the positions answering the higher numbers, the latter belonging to later and usually less active business places. _functions of intermediate distributing frame._ the intermediate distributing board was invented to meet these conditions of unequal traffic upon lines and of variations in traffic with changes of seasons and of charges. the intermediate distributing board enables a line to retain its number and its position in the multiple, but to keep its answering jack and lamp signal in any desired position. if a flat-rate subscriber changes to a message rate, his line may be moved to a message-rate position and be answered, in company with others like it, by an operator serving many more lines than she could serve if all of them were flat rate. =methods of traffic study.= the best way to learn traffic facts for the purposes of designing and operating equipment is to conduct systematic series of observations in all exchanges; to record them in company with all related facts; and to compare them from time to time, recording the results of the comparisons. then when it is required to solve a new problem, the traffic data will enable the probable future conditions to be known with as great exactness as is possible in studies with relation to transportation or any other human activity. table xiii calling rates +-------------------------+-------------------------------+ | | calls per day with different | | kind of service | methods of charge | | +-------------+-----------------+ | | flat rate | message rate | +-------------------------+-------------+-----------------+ |residence | | | |business | to | to | |private exchange trunk | | | |hotel exchange trunk | | | |apartment house trunk | | | +-------------------------+-------------+-----------------+ there are three general ways of observing traffic. a record of originating calls is known as a "peg count," because the counting formerly was done by moving a peg from place to place in a series of holes. the simplest exact way is to provide each operator with a small mechanical counter, the key of which she can depress once for each call to be counted. a second way is to determine a ratio which exists, for the particular time and place, between the number of calls in a given period and the average number of cord circuits in use. knowing this ratio, the cord circuits can be counted, the ratio applied, and the probable total known. the third method, which is applicable to offices having service meters on all lines, is to associate one master meter per position or group of lines with all the meters of that position or group, so that each time any service meter of that position is operated, the master meter will count one unit. this method applies to either manual or automatic equipments. =representative traffic data.= for purposes of comparison, the following are representative facts as to certain traffic conditions. _calling rates._ the number of calls originated per day by different kinds of lines with different methods of charge are shown in table xiii. _operators' loads._ the abilities of subscribers' operators to switch these calls depend on the type of equipment used, on the kind of management exercised, and on the individual skill of operators. with manual multiple equipment of the common-battery type, and good management, the numbers of originating calls per busy hour given in table xiv can be handled by an average operator. the number of calls per operator per busy hour depends upon the amount of trunking to other offices which that operator is required to do. in a small city, for example, where all the lines are handled by one switchboard, there is no local switching problem except to complete the connection in the multiple before each position. in a large city, where wire economy and mechanical considerations compel the lines to be handled by a number of offices with manual equipment, some portion of the total originating load of each office must be trunked to others. table xiv shows that an increase of per cent in the amount of out-trunking has decreased the operator's ability to less than per cent of the possible maximum. table xiv effect of out-trunking on operator's capacity +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ |per cent originating calls | capacity of subscribers' operator's | |trunked to other offices | position in calls per busy hour | +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ _trunking factor._ in providing the system of trunks interconnecting the offices, whether the equipment be manual or automatic, it is essential to know not only how much traffic originates in each office, but how much of it will be trunked to each other office and how many trunks will be required. an interesting phase of telephone traffic studies is that it is possible to determine in advance the amount of traffic which can be completed directly in the multiple of that office and how much must be trunked elsewhere. theoretical considerations would indicate that if the local multiple contains one-eighth of the total lines of the city, one-eighth of the calls originating in that office could be completed locally and seven-eighths would be trunked out. in almost all cases, however, it is found that more than the theoretical percentage of originating calls are for the neighborhood of that office and can be completed in the multiple. this results in the determination of a factor by which the theoretical out-trunking can be multiplied to determine the probable real out-trunking. in most cases, the ratio of actual to theoretical out-trunking is per cent, or approximately that. in special cases, it may be far from per cent. _trunk efficiency._ the capacities of trunks vary with their methods of operation and with the number of trunks in a group. for example, in the manual system where trunk operators in distant offices are instructed over call circuits and make disconnections in response to lamp signals, such an incoming trunk operator can complete from to connections per busy hour. the actual ability depends upon the number of distant offices served by that operator and upon the amount of work she has to perform on each call. the number of messages which can be handled by one trunk in the busy hour will depend upon the number of trunks in the group and upon the system employed. it appears that the ability of trunks in this regard is higher in the automatic system than in the manual system. for the latter, table xv gives representative facts. table xv messages per trunk in manual system +----------------------------+------------------------+ | number of trunks in group, | messages per trunk per | | manual system | busy hour | +----------------------------+------------------------+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +----------------------------+------------------------+ some of the reasons for the higher efficiencies of trunks in the automatic system are not well defined, but unquestionably exist. they have to do partly with the prompter answering observable in automatic systems. the operation of calling being simple, a called subscriber seems to fear that unless he answers promptly the calling party will disconnect and perhaps may call a competitor. the introduction of machine-ringing on automatic lines, where existing in competition with manual ringing on manual lines, seems to encourage subscribers to answer even more promptly. the length of conversation in automatic systems seems to be shorter than in manual systems. still more important, disconnection in automatic systems is instantaneous during all hours, whereas in manual systems it is less prompt in the busiest and least busy hours than in the hours of intermediate congestion. the practical results of trunk efficiencies in automatic systems are given in table xvi. table xvi messages per trunk in automatic system +----------------------------+------------------------+ | number of trunks in group, | messages per trunk per | | automatic system | busy hour | +----------------------------+------------------------+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +----------------------------+------------------------+ _toll traffic._ toll or long-distance traffic follows the general laws of local or exchange traffic. conversations are of greater average length in long-distance traffic. the long-distance line is held longer for an average conversation than is a local-exchange line. the local trunks which connect long-distance lines with exchange lines for conversation are held longer than are the actual long-distance trunks between cities. knowing the probable traffic to be brought to the long-distance switching center by the long-distance trunks from exchange centers, the number of trunks required may be determined by knowing the capacity of each trunk. these trunk capacities vary with the method of handling the traffic and they vary as do local trunks with the number of trunks in a group. table xvii illustrates this variation of capacity with sizes of groups. table xvii messages per trunk in long-distance groups +--------------------------+-------------------------+ | number of long-distance | messages per trunk per | | trunks in group | busy hour | +--------------------------+-------------------------+ | | | | | | | | . | | | . | | | | | | . | +--------------------------+-------------------------+ =quality of service.= the quality of telephone service rendered by a particular equipment managed in a particular way depends on a great variety of elements. the handling of the traffic presented by patrons is a true manufacturing problem. the quality of the service rendered requires continuous testing in order that the management may know whether the service is reaching the standard; whether the standard is high enough; whether the cost of producing it can be reduced without lowering the quality; and whether the patrons are getting from it as much value as they might. in manual systems, the quality of telephone service depends upon a number of elements. the following are some principal ones: . prompt answering. . prompt disconnection. . freedom from errors in connecting with the called line. . promptness in connecting with the called line. . courtesy and the use of form. . freedom from failure by busy lines and failure to answer. . clear enunciation. . team work. _answering time._ there is an interrelation between these elements. team work assists both answering and prompt disconnection. the quality of telephone service can not be measured alone in terms of prompt answering. formerly telephone service was boasted of as being "three-second service" if most of the originating calls were answered in three seconds. often such prompt answering reacts to prevent prompt disconnecting. patient, systematic work is required to learn the real quality of the service. as to answering, the clearest, truest statement concerning manual service is found by making test calls to each position, dividing them into groups of various numbers of whole seconds each, and comparing the percentage of these groups to the whole number of telephones to that position. for example, assume each of the calls to a given position to have been answered in ten seconds or less, in which per cent are answered in ten seconds or less; per cent in eight seconds or less; per cent in six seconds or less. it is probable that a reasonably uniform manual service will show only a small percentage answered in three seconds or under. such percentages may be drawn in the form of curves, so that at a glance one may learn efficiency in terms of prompt answering. _disconnecting time._ prompt disconnection was improved enormously by the introduction of relay manual boards. just before the installation of relay boards in new york city, the average disconnecting time was over seventeen seconds. on the completion of an entire relay equipment, the average disconnecting time was found to be under three seconds. the introduction of relay manual apparatus has led subscribers to a larger traffic and to the making of calls which succeed each other very closely. a most important rule is, _that disconnect signals shall be given prompt attention either by the operator who made the connection, by an operator adjacent, or by a monitor who may be assisting_; and another, still more important one is, _that a flashing keyboard lamp indicating a recall shall be given precedence over all originating and all other disconnect signals_. _accuracy and promptness._ promptness and accuracy in connecting with the called line are vital, and yet a large percentage of errors in these elements might exist in an exchange having a very high average speed of answering the originating call. indeed, it seems quite the rule that where the effort of the management is devoted toward securing and maintaining extreme speed of original answering, all the other elements suffer in due proportion. _courtesy and form._ it goes without saying that operators should be courteous; but it is necessary to say it, and keep saying it in the most effective form, in order to prevent human nature under the most exasperating circumstances from lapsing a little from the standard, however high. the use of form assists both the operators and the subscribers, because in all matters of strict routine it is much easier to secure high speed and great accuracy by making as many as possible of the operations automatic. the use of the word "number" and other well-accepted formalities has assisted greatly in securing speed, clear understanding, and accurate performance. the simple expedient of spelling numbers by repeating the figures in a detached form--as " - - " for --has taught subscribers the same expedient, and the percentage of possible error is materially reduced by going one step further and having the operator, in repeating, use always the opposite form from that spoken by the calling subscriber. _busy and don't answer calls._ notwithstanding the old impression of the public to the contrary, the operator has no control over the "busy line" and "don't answer" situation. it is, however, of high importance that the management should know, by the analysis of repeated and exhaustive tests of the service, to what extent these troubles are degrading it. in addition to improving the service by the elimination of busy reports, there is no means of increasing revenue which is so easy and so certain as that which comes from following up the tabulated results of busy calls. _enunciation._ it must be remembered that clear enunciation for telephone purposes is a matter wholly relative, and the ability of an operator in this regard can be determined only by a close analysis of many observations from the standpoint of a subscriber. a trick of speech rather than a pleasant voice and an easy address has made the answering ability of many an operator captivating to a group of satisfied subscribers. _team work._ by team work is meant the ability of a group of operators, seated side by side, to work together as a unit in caring for the service brought to them by the answering jacks within their reach. in switchboards of the construction usual today, a call before any operator may be answered by her, or by the operator at either the right or the left of her position. in many exchanges this advantage is wholly overlooked. in the period of general re-design of central-office equipments about fourteen years ago, a switchboard was installed with mechanical visual signals and answering-jacks on a flat-top board, and an arrangement of operators such that the signal of any call was extremely prominent and in easy reach of each one of four or possibly five operators. associated with the line signals within the reach of such a group was an auxiliary lamp signal which would light when a call was made by any of the lines so terminating. it was found that with this arrangement the calls were answered in a strictly even manner, special rushes being cared for by the joint efforts of the group rather than serving to swamp the operator who happened to be in charge of the particular section affected by the rush. this principle has been tried out in so many ways that it is astonishing that it is not recognized as being a vital one. the whole matter is accomplished by impressing upon each operator that her duty is, _not_ to answer the calls of a specific number of lines before her, but to answer, with such promptness as is possible, _any call which is within the reach of her answering equipment_. =observation of service.= all that is required to be known concerning the form of address and courtesy may be learned by a close observation of the operators' work by the chief operators and monitors, and by the use of listening circuits permanently connected to the operators' sets. it is naturally necessary that the use of these listening circuits by the chief operator or her assistants must not be known to the operators at the times of use, even though they may know of the existence of such facilities. with a well-designed and properly maintained automatic equipment, the eight elements of good manual service reduce themselves to only one or two. freedom from failure by busy lines and failure to answer are service-qualities independent of the kind of switching apparatus. too great a percentage of busy calls for a given line indicates that the telephone facilities for calls incoming to that subscriber are inadequate. the best condition would be for each subscriber to have lines enough so that none of them ever would be found busy. this is the condition the telephone company tries to establish between its various offices. in manual practice it is possible to keep such records as will enable the traffic department to know when the lines to a subscriber are insufficient for the traffic trying to reach him. as soon as such facts are known, they can be laid before the subscriber so that he may arrange for additional incoming lines. in automatic practice this is not so simple, as the source and destination of traffic in general is not so clearly known to the traffic department. automatic recorders of busy calls are necessary to enable the facts to be tabulated. chapter xxxviii measured service in the commercial relation between the public and a telephone system, the commodity which is produced by the latter and consumed by the former is telephone service. users often consider that payment is made for rental of telephone apparatus and to some persons the payment per month seems large for the rental of a mere telephone which could be bought outright for a few dollars. the telephone instrument is but a small part of the physical property used by a patron of a telephone system. even the _entire_ group of property elements used by a patron in receiving telephone service represents much less than what really is his proportion of the service-rendering effort. what the patron receives is service and its value during a time depends largely on how much of it he uses in that time, and less on the number of telephones he can call. _the cost of telephone service varies as the amount of use._ it is just, therefore, that the selling price should vary as the amount of use. =rates.= there are two general methods of charging for telephone service and of naming rates for this charge. these are called flat rates and measured-service rates. the latter are also known as message rates, because the message or conversation is the unit. flat rates are those which are also known as rentals. the service furnished under flat rates is also known as unlimited service, for the reason that under it a patron pays the same amount each month and is entitled to hold as many conversations--send as many messages and make as many calls--as he wishes, without any additional payment. in the measured-service plan, the amount of payment in a month varies in some way with the amount of use, depending on the plan adopted. the patron may pay a fixed base amount per month, entitling him to have equipment for telephone service and to receive messages, but being required to pay, in addition to this base amount, a sum which is determined by the number of messages which he sends. or he may pay a base amount per month and be entitled to have the equipment, to receive calls, and to send a certain number of messages, paying specifically in addition only for messages exceeding that certain number. whether flat rates or measured-service rates are practiced, the general tendency is to establish lower rates for service in homes than in business places. this is another recognition of the justice of graduating the rates in accordance with the amount of use. =units of charging.= while both the flat-rate and the measured-rate methods of charging for unlimited and measured service are practiced in local exchanges, long-distance service universally is sold at message rates. the unit of message rates in long-distance service is time. the charge for a message between two points joined by long-distance lines usually is a certain sum for a conversation three minutes long plus a certain sum for each additional minute or fraction of a minute. in local service, the message-rate time charge per message takes less account of the time unit. the conversation is almost universally the unit in exchanges. some managements restrict messages of multi-party lines to five minutes per conversation, because of the desire to avoid withholding the line from other parties upon it for too long periods. service sold at public stations similarly is restricted as to time, even though the message be local to the exchange. three to five minutes local conversation is sold generally for five cents in the united states. the time of the average local message, counting actual conversation time only, is one hundred seconds. =toll service.= _long haul._ in long-distance service, there are two general methods of handling traffic, as to the relations between the calling and the called stations. for the greater distances, as between cities not closely related because not belonging to one general community, the calling patron calls a particular person and pays nothing unless he holds conversation with that person. in this method, the operator records the name of the person called for; the name, telephone number, or both, of the person calling; the names of the towns where the message originated and ended; the date, the time conversation began, and the length of time it lasted. _short haul._ where towns are closely related in commercial and social ways and where the traffic is large and approaches local service in character, and yet where conversations between them are charged at different rates than are local calls within them, a more rapid system of toll charging than that just described is of advantage. in these conditions, patrons are not sold a service which allows a particular party to be named and found, nor is the identity of the calling person required. the operator needs to know merely of these calls that they originate at a certain telephone and are for a certain other. the facts she must record are fewer and her work is simpler. therefore, the cost of such switching is less than for true long-distance calls and it can be learned by careful auditing just when traffic between points becomes great enough to warrant switching them in this way. such switching, for example, exists between new york and brooklyn, between chicago and suburbs around it which have names of their own but really are part of the community of chicago, and between san francisco and other cities which cluster around san francisco bay. calls of the "long-haul" class are known as "particular person" or "particular party" calls, while "short-haul" calls are known as "two-number" long-distance calls. it is customary to handle particular party calls on long-distance switchboards and to handle two-number calls in manual systems on subscribers' switchboards exactly like local calls, except that the two-number calls are ticketed. it is customary in automatic systems to handle two-number calls by means of the regular automatic equipment plus ticketing by a suburban or two-number operator. _timing toll connections._ it formerly was customary to measure the time of long-distance conversations by noting on the ticket the time of its beginning and the time of its ending, the operator reading the time from a clock. for human and physical reasons, such timing seems not to be considered infallible by the patron who pays the charge, and in cases of dispute concerning overtime charges so timed, telephone companies find it wisest to make concessions. the physical cause of error in reading time from a clock is that of parallax; that is, the error which arises from the fact that the minute hand of a clock is some distance from the surface of the dial so that one can "look under it." on an ordinary clock having a large face and its minute hand pointing upward or downward, five people standing in a row could read five different times from it at the same instant. the middle person might see the minute hand pointing at , indicating the time to be half-past something; whereas, person no. and person no. in the row might read the time respectively and minutes past something. operators far to the right or to the left of a clock will get different readings, and an operator below a clock will get different kinds of readings at different times and correct readings at few times. timing machines:--machines which record time directly on long-distance tickets are of value and machines which automatically compute the time elapsing during a conversation are of much greater value. the calculagraph is a machine of the latter class. the use of some such machine uniformly reduces controversy as to time which really elapsed. parallax errors are avoided. the record possesses a dignity which carries conviction. [illustration: fig. . calculagraph records] calculagraph records are shown in fig. . in the one shown in the upper portion of this figure, the conversation began at . p.m. this is shown by the right-hand dial of the three which constitute the record. the minutes past o'clock are shown by the hand within the dial and the hour is shown by the triangular mark just outside the dial between x and xi. the duration of the conversation is shown by the middle and the left-hand dials. the figures on both these dials indicate minutes. the middle dial indicates roughly that the conversation lasted for a time between and minutes. the left-hand dial indicates with greater exactness that the conversation lasted one and one-quarter minutes. the hand of the left-hand dial makes one revolution in five minutes; of the middle dial, one revolution in an hour. the middle dial tells how many full periods of five minutes have elapsed and the left-hand dial shows the excess over the five-minute interval. the lower portion of fig. is a similar record beginning at the same time of day, but lasting about five and one-half minutes. as before, the readings of the two dials are added to get the elapsed time. [illustration: fig. . relative position of hands and dials] the right-hand dial, showing merely time of day, stands still while its hands revolve. the dies which print the dials and hands of the middle and the left-hand records rotate together. examining the machine, one finds that the hands of these dials always point to zero. the middle dial and hand make one complete revolution in an hour; the left-hand dial and hand, one in five minutes. in making the records, the dials are printed at the beginning and the hands at the end of the conversation. therefore, the hands will have moved forward during the conversation--still pointing to zero in both cases--but when printed the hands will point to some other place than they were pointing when the dials were printed. in this way, their angular distances truly indicate the lapse of time. fig. shows the relative position of the hands and dials within the machine at all times. it will be noted that the arrow of the left-hand dial does not point exactly to zero. this is due to the fact that the dials and hands are printed by separate operations and cannot be printed simultaneously. [illustration: western electric ringing machine] another method of timing toll connections has been developed by the monarch telephone manufacturing company. this employs a master clock of great accuracy, which may be mounted on the wall anywhere in the building or another building if desired. a circuit leads from this clock to a time-stamp device on the operator's key shelf, and the clock closes this circuit every quarter minute. the impulses thus sent over the circuit energize the magnet of the time stamp, which steps a train of printing wheels around so as always to keep them set in such position as to properly print the correct time on a ticket whenever the head of the stamp is moved by the operator into contact with the ticket. a large number of such stamps may be operated from the same master clock. by printing the starting time of a connection below the finishing time the computation of lapsed time becomes a matter of subtraction. a typical toll ticket with the beginning and ending time printed by the time stamp in the upper left-hand corner and the elapsed time recorded by hand in the upper right-hand corner is shown in fig. . it is seen that this stamp records in the order mentioned the month, the day, the hour, the minute and quarter minute, the a.m. and p.m. division of the day, and the year. [illustration: fig. . toll ticket used with monarch system] an interesting feature of this system is that the same master clock may be made in a similar manner to actuate secondary clocks placed at subscribers' stations, the impulses being sent over wires in the same cables as those containing the subscribers' lines. this system, therefore, serves not only as a means for timing the toll tickets and operating time stamps wherever they are required in the business of the telephone company, but also to supply a general clock and time-stamp service to the patrons of the telephone company as a "by-product" of the general telephone business. exchange service is measured in terms of conversations without much regard to their length. the payment for the service may be made at the time it is received, as in public stations and at telephones equipped with coin prepayment devices; or the calls from a telephone may be recorded and collection for them made at agreed intervals. in the prepayment method the price per call is uniform. in the deferred payment method the calls are recorded as they are made, their number summed up at intervals, and the amount due determined by the price per call. the price per call may vary with the number of calls sold. a large user may have a lower rate per call than a small user. =local service.= _ticket method._ measured local service sometimes is recorded by means of tickets, similarly to the described method of charging long-distance calls, except that the time of day and the duration of conversation are not so important. where local ticketing is practiced, it is usual to write on the ticket only the number of the calling telephone and the date, and to pass into the records only those tickets which represent actual conversations, keeping out tickets representing calls for busy lines and calls which were not answered. _meter method._ the requirements of speed in good local service are opposed to the ticketing method. where measured service is supplied to a substantial proportion of the lines of a large exchange, electro-mechanical service meters are attached to the lines. these service meters register as a consequence of some act on the part of the switchboard operator, or may be caused to register by the answering of the called subscriber. [illustration: fig. . connection meter] in manual practice, meters of the type shown in fig. are associated with the lines as in fig. . the meters are mounted separately from the switchboard, needing only to be connected to the test-strand of the line by cabled wires. if desired, the meter may be mounted on racks in quarters especially devoted to them, and the cases in which the racks are mounted may be kept locked. in such an arrangement the meters are read from time to time through the glass doors of the cases. the meters are caused to operate by pressure on the meter key _mk_, associated with the answering cord as in fig. . this increases the normal potential to volts. when the armature of the meter has made a part of its stroke, it closes a contact which places its -ohm winding in shunt with its -ohm winding, thus furnishing ample power for turning the meter wheels. [illustration: fig. . western electric line circuit and service meter] such meters are in common use in large exchanges, notable examples being the cities of new york and london. in london, there is a zone within which the price per call is one penny and between which and other zones the price is twopence. calls within the zone either are completed by the answering operator directly in the multiple before her or are trunked to other offices in that zone. calls for points outside of that zone are trunked to other offices and in giving the order the operator finds that the call circuit key lights a special signal lamp before her. this reminds her that the call is at a twopence price, so in recording it she presses the meter key twice. this counts two units on the meter and the units are billed at a penny each. in automatic systems it is not possible to operate a meter system in which the operator will press a key for each call to be charged, because there is no operator. in such systems--a notable example being the measured-service automatic system in san francisco--the meter registers only upon the answering of the called subscriber. calls for lines found busy and calls which are not answered do not register. calls for long-distance recording operators, two-number ticket operators, information, complaint, and other company departments are not registered. in the chinatown quarter of san francisco, where most calls begin and end in the neighborhood, service is sold at an unlimited flat rate for neighborhood calls and at a message rate for other calls. the meter system recognizes this condition and does not register calls _from_ chinese subscribers _for_ chinese subscribers, though it does register calls from chinese subscribers to caucasian subscribers. the nature of the system is such as to enable it to discriminate as to races, localities, or other peculiarities as may be desired. [illustration: fig. . western electric cord circuit and service meter key] in the manual meter circuits of figs. and , the meter windings have no relation to the line conductors. in the automatic arrangement just described, there are meter windings in the line during times of calling, but none in the line during times of conversation. the balance of the line, therefore, is undisturbed at all times wherein balance is of any importance. in both systems just described, the meters of all lines are in their respective central offices. meters for use at subscribers' stations have been devised and there is no fundamental reason why the record might not be made at the subscriber's station instead of, or in addition to, a central-office record. experience has shown that confidence in a meter system can be secured if the meters be positive, accurate, and reliable. the labor of reading the meters is much less when they are kept in central offices. subscribers may have access to them if they wish. _prepayment method._ prepayment measured-service mechanisms permit a coin or token to be dropped into a machine at the subscriber's telephone at the time the conversation is held. a variety of forms of telephone coin collectors are in use, their operations being fundamentally either electrical or mechanical. electrically operated coin collectors require either that the coin be dropped into the machine in order to enable the central office to be signaled in manual systems, or the switches to be operated in automatic systems, or they require that the coin be dropped into the machine after calling, but before the conversation is permitted. western electric company coin collectors, shown in fig. , may be operated in either way in connection with manual systems. the usual way is to require the coin to be dropped before the central-office line lamp can glow. the operator then rings the called subscriber and upon his answering places a sufficient potential upon the calling line to operate the polarized relay and to drop the coin into the cash box. if the called subscriber does not answer or his line is busy, potential is placed on the calling line, moving the polarized relay in the other direction and dropping the coin into a return chute so that the subscriber may take it. if it is preferred that the coin be paid only on the request of the operator, the return feature need not be provided. in both forms of operation, the western electric coin collector is adapted to bridge its polarized relay between one limb of the line and ground during the time a coin rests on the pins, as shown in fig. . when no coin is on the pins--_i. e._, before calling and after the called station responds--the relay is not so bridged. [illustration: fig. . principle of western electric coin collector] the armature of the relay responds only to a high potential and this is applied by the operator. if the coin is to be taken by the company, one polarity is sent; if it is to be returned to the patron, the other polarity is sent. these polarities are applied to a limb of the line proper. it will be recalled that pressures to actuate service meters are applied to the test-strand. if wished, keys may be arranged so as to apply volts to the test-strand and the collecting potential to the line at the same operation. this enables the service meter to count the tokens placed in the cash box of the coin collector, and serves as a valuable check. in automatic systems, in one arrangement, coin collectors are arranged so that no impulses can be sent unless a coin has been deposited, the coin automatically passing to the cash box when the called subscriber answers, or to the patron if it is not answered. in another arrangement, calls are made exactly as in unlimited service, but a coin must be deposited before a conversation can be held. the calling person can hear the called party speak and may speak himself but can not be heard until the coin is deposited. no coin-return mechanism is required in this method. coin collectors of these types usually are adapted to receive only one kind of coin, these, in the united states, being either nickels or dimes. for long-distance service, where the charges vary, it is necessary to signal to an operator just what coins are paid. it is uniformly customary to send these signals by sound, the collector being so arranged that the coins strike gongs. in coin collectors of the gray telephone paystation company, the coins strike these gongs by their own weight in falling through chutes. in coin collectors of the baird electric company, the power for the signals is provided by hand power, a lever being pulled for each coin deposited. both methods are in wide use. chapter xxxix phantom, simplex, and composite circuits =definitions.= phantom circuits are arrangements of telephone wires whereby more working, non-interfering telephone lines exist than there are sets of actual wires. when four wires are arranged to provide three metallic circuits for telephone purposes, two of the lines are physical circuits and one is a phantom circuit. simplex and composite circuits are arrangements of wires whereby telephony and telegraphy can take place at the same time over the same wires without interference. [illustration: fig. . phantom circuit] =phantom.= in fig. four wires join two offices. _rr_ are repeating coils, designed for efficient transforming of both talking and ringing currents. the devices marked _a_ in this and the following figures are air-gap arresters. currents from the telephones connected to either physical pair of wires pass, at any instant, in opposite directions in the two wires of the pair. the phantom circuit uses one of the physical pairs as a _wire_ of its line. it does this by tapping the middle point of the line side of each of the repeating coils. the impedance of the repeating-coil winding is lowered because, all the windings being on the same core, the phantom line currents pass from the middle to the outer connections so as to neutralize each other's influence. the currents of the phantom circuit, unlike those of the physical circuits, are _in the same direction_ in both wires of a pair at any instant. their potentials, therefore, are equal and simultaneous. a phantom circuit is formed most simply when both physical lines end in the same two offices. if one physical line is longer than the other, a phantom circuit may be formed as in fig. , wherein the repeating coil is inserted in the longer line where it passes through a terminal station of the shorter. [illustration: fig. . phantom from two physical circuits of unequal length] [illustration: fig. . two phantoms joined by physical circuit] a circuit may be built up by adding a physical circuit to a phantom. a circuit may be made up of two or more phantom circuits, joined by physical ones. in fig. a phantom circuit is extended by the use of a physical circuit, while in fig. , two phantom circuits are joined by placing between them a physical circuit. [illustration: fig. . phantom extended by physical circuit] _transpositions._ in phantom circuits formed merely by inserting repeating coils in physical circuits and doing nothing else, an exact balance of the sides of the phantom circuit is lacking. the resistances, insulations, and capacities to earth of the sides may be equal, but the exposures to adjacent telephone and telegraph circuits and to power circuits will not be equal unless the phantom circuits are transposed. to transpose a set of lines of two physical wires each, is not complicated, though it must be done with care and in accordance with a definite, foreknown plan. transposing phantom circuits is less simple, however, as four wires per circuit have to be transposed, instead of two. [illustration: fig. . transposition of phantom circuits] in fig. , the general spacing of transposition sections is the usual one, , feet, of the _abcb_ system widely in use. the pole circuit, on pins _ _ and _ _ of the upper arm, is transposed once each two miles. the pole circuit of the second arm transposes either once or twice a mile. but neither pole circuit differs in transposition from any other regular scheme except in the frequency of transposition. all the other wires of each arm, however, are so arranged that each wire on either side of the pole circuit moves from pin to pin at section-ends, till it has completed a cycle of changes over all four of the pins on its side. in doing so, each phantom circuit is transposed with proper regard to each of the other three on that twenty-wire line. the "new transposition" lettering in fig. is for the purpose of identifying the exact scheme of wiring each transposition pole. the complication of wiring at each transposition pole is increased by the adoption of phantom circuits. maintenance of all the circuits is made more costly and less easy unless the work at points of transposition is done with care and skill. phantom circuits, to be always successful, require that the physical circuits be balanced and kept so. _transmission over phantom circuits._ under proper conditions phantom circuits are better than physical circuits, and in this respect it may be noted that some long-distance operating companies instruct their operators always to give preference to phantom circuits, because of the better transmission over them. the use of phantom circuits is confined almost wholly to open-wire circuits; and while the capacity of the phantom circuit is somewhat greater than that of the physical circuit, its resistance is considerably smaller. in the actual wire the phantom loop is only half the resistance of either of the physical lines from which it is made, for it contains twice as much copper. the resistance of the repeating coils, however, is to be added. =simplex.= simplex telegraph circuits are made from metallic circuit telephone lines, as shown in fig. . the principle is identical with that of phantom telephone circuits. the potentials placed on the telephone line by the telegraph operations are equal and simultaneous. they cause no current to flow _around_ the telephone loop, only _along_ it. if all qualities of the loop are balanced, the telephones will not overhear the telegraph impulses. in the figure, _aa_ are arresters, as before, _gg_ are morse relays; a -microfarad condenser is shunted around the contact of each morse key _f_ to quench the noises due to the sudden changes on opening the keys between dots and dashes. [illustration: fig. . simplex telegraph circuit] a simplex arrangement even more simple substitutes impedance coils for the repeating coils of fig. . the operation of the morse circuit is the same. an advantage of such a circuit, as shown in fig. , is that the telephone circuit does not suffer from the two repeating-coil losses in series. a disadvantage is, that in ringing on such a line with a grounded generator, the morse relays are caused to chatter. [illustration: fig. . simplex telegraph circuit] the circuit of fig. may be made to fit the condition of a through telephone line and a way telegraph station. the midway morse apparatus of fig. is looped in by a combination of impedance coils and condensers. the plans of figs. and here are combined, with the further idea of stopping direct and passing alternating currents, as is so well accomplished by the use of condensers. [illustration: fig. . simplex circuit with waystation] [illustration: fig. . composite circuit] =composite.= composite circuits depend on another principle than that of producing equal and simultaneous potentials on the two wires of the telephone loop. the opposition of impedance coils to alternating currents and of condensers to direct currents are the fundamentals. the early work in this art was done by van rysselberghe, of belgium. in fig. , one telephone circuit forms two morse circuits, two wires carrying three services. each morse circuit will be seen to include, serially, two -ohm impedance coils, and to have shunts through condensers to ground. the -ohm coils are connected differentially, offering low consequent impedance to morse impulses, whose frequency of interruption is not great. as the impedance coils are large, have cores of considerable length, and are wound with two separate though serially connected windings each, their impedance to voice currents is great. they act as though they were not connected differentially, so far as voice currents are concerned. because of the condensers serially in the telephone line, voice currents can pass through it, but direct currents can not. impulses due to discharges of cores, coils, and capacities in the morse circuit _could_ make sounds in the telephones, but these are choked out, or led to earth by the -ohm impedance coils and the heavy morse condensers. =ringing.= ringing over simplex circuits is done in the way usual where no telegraph service is added. both telegraphy and telephony over simplex circuits follow their usual practice in the way of calling and conversing. in composite working, however, ringing by usual methods either is impossible because of heavy grounds and shunts, or if it is possible to get ringing signals through at all, the relays of the morse apparatus will chatter, interfering with the proper use of the telegraph portion of the service. it is customary, therefore, either to equip composite circuits with special signaling devices by which high-frequency currents pass over the telephone circuits, operating relays which in turn operate local ringing signals; or to refrain from ringing on composite circuits and to transmit orders for connections by telegraph. the latter is wholly satisfactory over composite lines between points having heavy telegraph traffic, and it is between such points as these that composite practice is most general. =phantoms from simplex and composite circuits.= phantom and simplex principles are identical, and by adding the composite principle, two simplex circuits may have a phantom superadded, as in fig. . similarly, as in fig. , two composite circuits can be phantomed. this case gives seven distinct services over four wires: three telephone loops--two physical and one phantom--and four morse lines. [illustration: fig. . phantom of two simplex circuits] [illustration: fig. . phantom of two composite circuits] =railway composite.= the foregoing are problems of making telegraphy a by-product of telephony. with so many telegraph wires on poles over the country, it has seemed a pity not to turn the thing around and provide for telephony as a by-product of telegraphy. this has been accomplished, and the result is called a railway composite system. for the reason that the telegraph circuits are not in pairs, accurately matched one wire against another, and are not always uniform as to material, it has not been possible to secure as good telephone circuits from telegraph wires as telegraph circuits from telephone wires. practical results are secured by adaptation of the original principle of different frequencies. a study of fig. shows that over such a composite circuit the usual method of ringing from station to station over the telephone circuit by an alternating current of a frequency of about sixteen per second is practically impossible. this is because of the heavy short-circuit provided by the two -ohm choke coils at each of the stations, the heavy shunt of the large condensers, and the grounding through the -ohm choke coils. if high-frequency speech currents can pass over these circuits with a very small loss, other high-frequency circuits should find a good path. there are many easy ways of making such currents, but formerly none very simple for receiving them. fig. shows one simple observer of such high-frequency currents, it being merely an adaptation of the familiar polarized ringer used in every subscriber's telephone. in either position of the armature it makes contact with one or the other of two studs connected to the battery, so that in all times of rest the relay _a_ is energized. when a high-frequency current passes through this polarized relay, however, there is enough time in which the armature is out of contact with either stud to reduce the total energy through the relay _a_ and allow its armature to fall away, ringing a vibrating bell or giving some other signal. [illustration: fig. . ringing device for composite circuits] fig. shows a form of apparatus for producing the high-frequency current necessary for signaling. it is evident that if a magneto generator, such as is used in ordinary magneto telephones, could be made to drive its armature fast enough, it also might furnish the high-frequency current necessary for signaling through condensers and past heavy impedances. [illustration: fig. . ringing current device] applying these principles of high-frequency signals sent and received to a single-wire telegraph circuit, the arrangement shown in fig. results, this being a type of railway composite circuit. the principal points of interest herein are the insertion of impedances in series with the telegraph lines, the shunting of the telegraph relays by small condensers, the further shunting of the whole telegraph mechanism of a station by another condenser, and thus keeping out of the line circuit changes in current values which would be heard in the telephones if violent, and might be inaudible if otherwise. [illustration: fig. . railway composite circuit] [illustration: front of long-distance power board u.s. telephone company, cleveland, ohio. _the dean electric co._] a further interesting element is the very heavy shunting of the telephone receiver by means of an inductive coil. this shunt is applied for by-path purposes so that heavy disturbing currents may be kept out of the receiver while a sufficient amount of voice current is diverted through the receiver. it is well to have the inductance of this shunt made adjustable by providing a movable iron core for the shunt winding. when the core is drawn out of the coil, its impedance is diminished because the inductance is diminished. this reduces the amount of disturbing noise in the receiver. the core should be withdrawn as little as the amount of disturbance permits, as this also diminishes the loudness of the received speech. because the signaling over lines equipped with this form of composite working results in the ringing of a bell by means of local current, it is of particular advantage in cases where the bell needs to ring loudly. switch stations, crossings, and similar places where the attendant is not constantly near the telephone can be equipped with this type of composite apparatus and it so offers a valuable substitute for regular railway telegraph equipment, with which the attendant may not be familiar. the success of the local bell-ringing arrangement, however, depends on accurate relay adjustment and on the maintenance of a primary battery. the drain on the ringing battery is greater than on the talking battery. a good substitute for the bell signal on railway composite circuits is a telephone receiver responding directly to high-frequency currents over the line. the receiver is designed specially for the purpose and is known as a "howler." its signal can be easily heard through a large room. the condenser in series with it is of small capacity, limiting the drain upon the line. usually the howler is detached by the switch hook during conversation from a station. _railway composite set._ the circuit of a set utilizing such an arrangement together with other details of a complete railway composite set is shown in fig. . the drawing is arranged thus, in the hope of simplifying the understanding of its principles. it will be seen that the induction coil serves as an interrupter as well as for transmission. all of the contacts are shown in the position they have during conversation. the letters _hc _, _hc _, etc., and _kc _, _kc _, etc., refer to hook contacts and key contacts, respectively, of the numbers given. the arrangements of the hook and key springs are shown at the right of the figure. _rr_ represent impedance coils connected serially in the line and placed at terminal stations. the composite telephone sets are bridged from the line to ground at any points between the terminal impedance coils. the direct currents of telegraphy are prevented from passing to ground through the telephone set during conversation by the -microfarad condenser which is in series with the receiver. they are prevented from passing to ground through the telephone set when the receiver is on the hook by a . microfarad condenser in series with the howler. the alternating currents of speech and interrupter signaling are kept from passing to ground at terminals by the impedance coils. signals are sent from the set by pressing the key _k_. this operates the vibrator by closing contacts _kc _ and _kc _. the howler is cut off and the receiver is short-circuited by the same operation of the key. the impedance of the coil _i_ is changed by moving its adjustable core. [illustration: fig. . railway composite set] =applications.= a chief use of composite and simplex circuits is for ticket wire purposes. these are circuits over which long-distance operators instruct each other as to connecting and disconnecting lines, the routing of calls, and the making of appointments. one such wire will care for all the business of many long-distance trunks. the public also absorbs the telegraph product of telephone lines. such telegraph service is leased to brokers, manufacturers, merchants, and newspapers. railway companies use portable telephone adjuncts to telegraph circuits on trains for service from stations not able to support telegraph attendants, and in a limited degree for the dispatching of trains. telephone train dispatching, however, merits better equipment than a railway composite system affords. chapter xl telephone train dispatching[a] it has been only within the past three few that the telephone has begun to replace the telegraph for handling train movements. the telegraph and the railroads have grown up together in this country since , and in view of the excellent results that the telegraph has given in train dispatching and of the close alliance that has always naturally existed between the railway and the telegraph, it has been difficult for the telephone, which came much later, to enter the field. =rapid growth.= the telephone has been in general use among the railroads for many years, but only on a few short lines has it been used for dispatching trains. in these cases the ordinary magneto circuit and instruments have been employed, differing in no respect from those used in commercial service at the present time. code ringing was used and the number of stations on a circuit was limited by the same causes that limit the telephones on commercial party lines at present. the present type of telephone dispatching systems, however, differs essentially from the systems used in commercial work, and is, in fact, a highly specialized party-line system, arranged for selective ringing and _many stations_. the first of the present type was installed by the new york central and hudson river railroad in october, , between albany and fonda, new york, a distance of miles. this section of the road is on the main line and has four tracks controlled by block signals. the chicago, burlington, and quincy railroad was the second to install train-dispatching circuits. in december, , a portion of the main line from aurora to mendota, illinois, a distance of miles, was equipped. this was followed in quick succession by various other circuits ranging, in general, in lengths over miles. at the present time there are over train-dispatching circuits on the chicago, burlington, and quincy railroad covering miles of double track, miles of multi-track, and , miles of single track, and connecting with stations. other railroads entered this field in quick order after the initial installations, and at the present time nearly every large railroad system in the united states is equipped with several telephone train-dispatching circuits and all of these seem to be extending their systems. in , several railroads, including the delaware, lackawanna, and western, had their total mileage equipped with telephone dispatching circuits. the atchison, topeka, and santa fe railroad is equipping its whole system as rapidly as possible and already is the largest user of this equipment in this country. from latest information, over railroads have entered this field, with the result that the telephone is now in use in railroad service on over , miles of line. =causes of its introduction.= the reasons leading to the introduction of the telephone into the dispatching field were of this nature: first, and most important, was the enactment of state and federal laws limiting to nine hours the working day of railroad employes transmitting or receiving orders pertaining to the movement of trains. the second, which is directly dependent upon the first, was the inability of the railroads to obtain the additional number of telegraph operators which were required under the provisions of the new laws. it was estimated that , additional operators would be required to maintain service in the same fashion after the new laws went into effect in . the increased annual expense occasioned by the employment of these additional operators was roughly estimated at $ , , . a third reason is found in the decreased efficiency of the average railway and commercial telegraph operator. there is a very general complaint among the railroads today regarding this particular point, and many of them welcome the telephone, because, if for no other reason, it renders them independent of the telegrapher. what has occasioned this decrease in efficiency it is not easy to say, but there is a strong tendency to lay it, in part, to the attitude of the telegraphers' organization toward the student operator. it is a fact, too, that the limits which these organizations have placed on student operators were directly responsible for the lack of available men when they were needed. =advantages.= in making this radical change, railroad officials were most cautious, and yet we know of no case where the introduction of the telephone has been followed by its abandonment, the tendency having been in all cases toward further installations and more equipment of the modern type. the reasons for this are clear, for where the telephone is used it does not require a highly specialized man as station operator and consequently a much broader field is open to the railroads from which to draw operators. this, we think, is the most far-reaching advantage. the telephone method also is faster. on an ordinary train-dispatching circuit it now requires from . of a second to seconds to call any station. in case a plurality of calls is desired, the dispatcher calls one station after another, getting the answer from one while the next is being called, and so on. by speaking into a telephone many more words may be transmitted in a given time than by morse telegraphy. it is possible to send fifty words a minute by morse, but such speed is exceptional. less than half that is the rule. the gain in high speed, therefore, which is obtained is obvious and it has been found that this is a most important feature on busy divisions. it is true that in the issuance of "orders," the speed, in telephonic train dispatching, is limited to that required to write the words in longhand. but all directions of a collateral character, the receipt of important information, and the instantaneous descriptions of emergency situations can be given and received at a speed limited only by that of human speech. the dispatcher is also brought into a closer personal relation with the station men and trainmen, and this feature of direct personal communication has been found to be of importance in bringing about a higher degree of co-operation and better discipline in the service. telephone dispatching has features peculiar to itself which are important in improving the class of service. one of these is the "answer-back" automatically given to the dispatcher by the waystation bell. this informs the dispatcher whether or not the bell at the station rang, and excuses by the operators that it did not, are eliminated. anyone can answer a telephone call in an emergency. the station operator is frequently agent also, and his duties often take him out of hearing of the telegraph sounder. the selector bell used with the telephone can be heard for a distance of several hundred feet. in addition, it is quite likely that anyone in the neighborhood would recognize that the station was wanted and either notify the operator or answer the call. in cases of emergency the train crews can get into direct communication with the dispatcher immediately, by means of portable telephone sets which are carried on the trains. it is a well-known fact that every minute a main line is blocked by a wreck can be reckoned as great loss to the railroad. it is also possible to install siding telephone sets located either in booths or on poles along the right-of-way. these are in general service today at sidings, crossings, drawbridges, water tanks, and such places, where it may be essential for a train crew to reach the nearest waystation to give or receive information. the advantage of these siding sets is coming more and more to be realized. with the telegraph method of dispatching, a train is ordered to pass another train at a certain siding, let us say. it reaches this point, and to use a railroad expression, "goes into the hole." now, if anything happens to the second train whereby it is delayed, the first train remains tied up at that siding without the possibility of either reaching the dispatcher or being reached by him. with the telephone station at the siding, which requires no operator, this is avoided. if a train finds itself waiting too long, the conductor goes to the siding telephone and talks to the dispatcher, possibly getting orders which will advance him many miles that would otherwise have been lost. it is no longer necessary for a waystation operator to call the dispatcher. when one of these operators wishes to talk to the dispatcher, he merely takes his telephone receiver off the hook, presses a button, and speaks to the dispatcher. with the telephone it is a simple matter to arrange for provision so that the chief dispatcher, the superintendent, or any other official may listen in at will upon a train circuit to observe the character of the service. the fact that this can be done and that the operators know it can be done has a very strong tendency to improve the discipline. the dispatchers are so relieved, by the elimination of the strain of continuous telegraphing, and can handle their work so much more quickly with the telephone, that in many cases it has been found possible to increase the length of their divisions from to per cent. =railroad conditions.= one of the main reasons that delayed the telephone for so many years in its entrance to the dispatching field is that the conditions in this field are like nothing which has yet been met with in commercial telephony. there was no system developed for meeting them, although the elements were at hand. a railroad is divided up into a number of divisions or dispatchers' districts of varying lengths. these lengths are dependent on the density of the traffic over the division. in some cases a dispatcher will handle not more than miles of line. in other cases this district may be miles long. over the length of one of these divisions the telephone circuit extends, and this circuit may have upon it or stations, _all of which may be required to listen upon the line at the same time_. it will be seen from this that the telephone dispatching circuit partakes somewhat of the nature of a long-distance commercial circuit in its length, and it also resembles a rural line in that it has a large number of telephones upon it. regarding three other characteristics, namely, that many of these stations may be required to be in on the circuit simultaneously, that they must all be signaled selectively, and that it must also be possible to talk and signal on the circuit simultaneously, a telephone train-dispatching circuit resembles nothing in the commercial field. these requirements are the ones which have necessitated the development of special equipment. =transmitting orders.= the method of giving orders is the same as that followed with the telegraph, with one important exception. when the dispatcher transmits a train order by telephone, he writes out the order as he speaks it into his transmitter. in this way the speed at which the order is given is regulated so that everyone receiving it can easily get it all down, and a copy of the transmitted order is retained by the dispatcher. all figures and proper names are spelled out. then after an order has been given, it is repeated to the dispatcher by each man receiving it, and he underlines each word as it comes in. this is now done so rapidly that a man can repeat an order more quickly than the dispatcher can underline. the doubt as to the accuracy with which it is possible to transmit information by telephone has been dispelled by this method of procedure, and the safety of telephone dispatching has been fully established. =apparatus.= the apparatus which is employed at waystations may be divided into two groups--the selector equipment and the telephone equipment. the selector is an electro-mechanical device for ringing a bell at a waystation when the dispatcher operates a key corresponding to that station. at first, as in telegraphy, the selector magnets were connected in series in the line, but today all systems bridge the selectors across the telephone circuit in the same way and for the same reasons that it is done in bridging party-line work. there are at the present time three types of selectors in general use, and the mileage operated by means of these is probably considerably over per cent of the total mileage so operated in the country. [illustration: fig. . western electric selector] [illustration: fig. . western electric selector] _the western electric selector._ this selector is the latest and perhaps the simplest. fig. shows it with its glass dust-proof cover on, and fig. shows it with the cover removed. this selector is adapted for operating at high speed, stations being called at the rate of ten per second. the operating mechanism, which is mounted on the front of the selector so as to be readily accessible, works on the central-energy principle--the battery for its operation, as well as for the operation of the bell used in connection with it, both being located at the dispatcher's office. the bell battery may, however, be placed at the waystation if this is desired. the selector consists of two electromagnets which are bridged in series across the telephone circuit and are of very high impedance. it is possible to place as many of these selectors as may be desired across a circuit without seriously affecting the telephonic transmission. direct-current impulses sent out by the dispatcher operate these magnets, one of which is slow and the other quick-acting. the first impulse sent out is a long impulse and pulls up both armatures, thereby causing the pawls above and below the small ratchet wheel, shown in fig. , to engage with this wheel. the remaining impulses operate the quick-acting magnet and step the wheel around the proper number of teeth, but do not affect the slow-acting magnet which remains held up by them. the pawl connected to the slow-acting magnet merely serves to prevent the ratchet wheel from turning back. attached to the ratchet wheel is a contact whose position can be varied in relation to the stationary contact on the left of the selector with which this engages. this contact is set so that when the wheel has been rotated the desired number of teeth, the two contacts will make and the bell be rung. any selector may thus be adjusted for any station, and the selectors are thus interchangeable. when the current is removed from the line at the dispatcher's office, the armatures fall back and everything is restored to normal. an "answer-back" signal is provided with this selector dependent upon the operation of the bell. when the selector at a station operates, the bell normally rings for a few seconds. the dispatcher, however, can hold this ring for any length of time desired. the keys employed at the dispatcher's office for operating selectors are shown in fig. . there is one key for each waystation on the line and the dispatcher calls any station by merely giving the corresponding key a quarter turn to the right. fig. shows the mechanism of one of these keys and the means employed for sending out current impulses over the circuit. the key is adjustable and may be arranged for any station desired by means of the movable cams shown on the rear in fig. , these cams, when occupying different positions, serving to cover different numbers of the teeth of the impulse wheel which operate the impulse contacts. [illustration: fig. . dispatcher's keys] [illustration: fig. . dispatcher's key mechanism] _the gill selector._ the second type of selector in extensive use throughout the country today is known as the gill, after its inventor. it is manufactured for both local-battery and central-energy types, the latter being the latest development of this selector. with the local-battery type, the waystation bell rings until stopped by the dispatcher. with the central-energy type it rings a definite length of time and can be held for a longer period as is the case with the western electric selector. the selector is operated by combinations of direct-current impulses which are sent out over the line by keys in the dispatcher's office. [illustration: fig. . gill selector] the dispatcher has a key cabinet, and calls in the same way as already described, but these keys instead of sending a series of quick impulses, send a succession of impulses with intervals between corresponding to the particular arrangement of teeth in the corresponding waystation selector wheel. each key, therefore, belongs definitely with a certain selector and can be used in connection with no other. a concrete example may make this clearer. the dispatcher may operate key no. . this key starts a clockwork mechanism which impresses at regular intervals, on the telephone line, direct-current impulses, with intervals between as follows: - - - . there is on the line one selector corresponding to this combination and it alone, of all the selectors on the circuit, will step its wheel clear around so that contact is made and the bell is rung. in all the others, the pawls will have slipped out at some point of the revolution and the wheels will have returned to their normal positions. the gill selector is shown in fig. . it contains a double-wound relay which is bridged across the telephone circuit and operates the selector. this relay has a resistance of , ohms and a high impedance, and operates the selector mechanism which is a special modification of the ratchet and pawl principle. the essential features of this selector are the "step-up" selector wheel and a time wheel, normally held at the bottom of an inclined track. the operation of the selector magnet pushes the time wheel up the track and allows it to roll down. if the magnet is operated rapidly, the wheel does not get clear down before being pushed back again. a small pin on the side of the pawl, engaging the selector wheel normally, opposes the selector wheel teeth near their outer points. when the time wheel rolls to the bottom of the track, however, the pawl is allowed to drop to the bottom of the tooth. some of the teeth on the selector wheel are formed so that they will effectually engage with the pawl only when the latter is in normal position, while others will engage only while the pawl is at the bottom position; thus innumerable combinations can be made which will respond to certain combinations of rapid impulses with intervals between. the correct combination of impulses and intervals steps the selector wheel clear around so that a contact is made. the selector wheels at all other stations fail to reach their contact position because at some point or points in their revolution the pawls have slipped out, allowing the selector wheels to return "home." the "answer-back" is provided in this selector by means of a few inductive turns of the bell circuit which are wound on the selector relay. the operation of the bell through these turns induces an alternating current in the selector winding which flows out on the line and is heard as a distinctive buzzing noise by the dispatcher. [illustration: fig. . cummings-wray dispatcher's sender] _the cummings-wray selector._ both of the selectors already described are of a type known as the _individual-call_ selectors, meaning that only one station at a time can be called. if a plurality of calls is desired, the dispatcher calls one station after another. the third type of selector in use today is of a type known as the _multiple-call_, in which the dispatcher can call simultaneously as many stations as he desires. the cummings-wray selector and that of the kellogg switchboard and supply company are of this type and operate on the principle of synchronous clocks. when the dispatcher wishes to put through a call, he throws the keys of all the stations that he desires and then operates a starting key. the bells at all these stations are rung by one operation. the dispatcher's sending equipment of the cummings-wray system is shown in fig. , and the waystation selector in fig. . it is necessary with this system for the clocks at all stations to be wound every eight days. [illustration: fig. . cummings-wray selector] in the dispatcher's master sender the clock-work mechanism operates a contact arm which shows on the face of the sender in fig. . there is one contact for every station on the line. the clock at this office and the clocks at all the waystation offices start together, and it is by this means that the stations are signaled, as will be described later, when the detailed operation of the circuits is taken up. =telephone equipment.= of no less importance than the selective devices is the telephone apparatus. that which is here illustrated is the product of the western electric company, to whom we are indebted for all the illustrations in this chapter. _dispatcher's transmitter._ the dispatcher, in most cases, uses the chest transmitter similar to that employed by switchboard operators in every-day service. he is connected at all times to the telephone circuit, and for this reason equipment easy for him to wear is essential. in very noisy locations he is equipped with a double head receiver. on account of the dispatcher being connected across the line permanently and of his being required to talk a large part of the time, there is a severe drain on the transmitter battery. for this reason storage batteries are generally used. [illustration: fig. . waystation desk telephone] _waystation telephones._ at the waystations various types of telephone equipment may be used. perhaps the most common is the familiar desk stand shown in fig. , which, for railroad service, is arranged with a special hook-switch lever for use with a head receiver. often some of the familiar swinging-arm telephone supports are used, in connection with head receivers, but certain special types developed particularly for railway use are advantageous, because in many cases the operator who handles train orders is located in a tower where he must also attend to the interlocking signals, and for such service it is necessary for him to be able to get away from the telephone and back to it quickly. the western electric telephone arm developed for this use is shown in fig. . in this the transmitter and the receiver are so disposed as to conform approximately to the shape of the operator's head. when the arm is thrown back out of the way it opens the transmitter circuit by means of a commutator in its base. [illustration: fig. . telephone arm] _siding telephones._ two types of sets are employed for siding purposes. the first is an ordinary magneto wall instrument, which embodies the special apparatus and circuit features employed in the standard waystation sets. these are used only where it is possible to locate them indoors or in booths along the line. these sets are permanently connected to the train wire, and since the chances are small that more than one of them will be in use at a time, they are rung by the dispatcher, by means of a regular hand generator, when it is necessary for him to signal a switching. [illustration: fig. . weather-proof telephone set] in certain cases it is not feasible to locate these siding telephone sets indoors, and to meet these conditions an iron weather-proof set is employed, as shown in figs. and . the apparatus in this set is treated with a moisture-proofing compound, and the casing itself is impervious to weather conditions. [illustration: fig. . weather-proof telephone set] _portable train sets._ portable telephone sets are being carried regularly on wrecking trains and their use is coming into more and more general acceptance on freight and passenger trains. fig. shows one of these sets equipped with a five-bar generator for calling the dispatcher. fig. shows a small set without generator for conductors' and inspectors' use on lines where the dispatcher is at all times connected in the circuit. [illustration: fig. . portable telephone set] [illustration: fig. . portable telephone set] these sets are connected to the telephone circuit at any point on the line by means of a light portable pole arranged with terminals at its outer extremity for hooking over the line wires, and with flexible conducting cords leading to the portable set. the use of these sets among officials on their private cars, among construction and bridge gangs working on the line, and among telephone inspectors and repairmen for reporting trouble, is becoming more and more general. =western electric circuits.= as already stated, a telephone train-dispatching circuit may be from to miles in length, and upon this may be as many stations as can be handled by one dispatcher. the largest known number of stations upon an existing circuit of this character is . [illustration: fig. . dispatcher's station--western electric system] _dispatcher's circuit arrangement._ the circuits of the dispatcher's station in the western electric system are shown in fig. , the operation of which is briefly as follows: when the dispatcher wishes to call any particular station, he gives the key corresponding to that station a quarter turn. this sends out a series of rapid direct-current impulses on the telephone line through the contact of a special telegraph relay which is operated by the key in a local circuit. the telegraph relay is equipped with spark-eliminating condensers around its contacts and is of heavy construction throughout in order to carry properly the sending current. _voltage._ the voltage of the sending battery is dependent on the length of the line and the number of stations upon it. it ranges from to volts in most cases. when higher voltages are required in order successfully to operate the circuit, it is generally customary to install a telegraph repeater circuit at the center of the line, in order to keep the voltage within safe limits. one reason for limiting the voltage employed is that the condensers used in the circuit will not stand much higher potentials without danger of burning out. it is also possible to halve the voltage by placing the dispatcher in the center of the line, from which position he may signal in two directions instead of from one end. _simultaneous talking and signaling._ retardation coils and condensers will be noticed in series with the circuit through which the signaling current must pass before going out on the line. these are for the purpose of absorbing the noise which is caused by high-voltage battery, thus enabling the dispatcher to talk and signal simultaneously. the -ohm resistance connected across the circuit through one back contact of the telegraph relay absorbs the discharge of the -microfarad condenser. [illustration: fig. . selector set--western electric system] =waystation circuit.= the complete selector set for the waystations is shown in fig. , and the wiring diagram of its apparatus in fig. . the first impulse sent out by the key in the dispatcher's office is a long direct-current impulse, the first tooth being three or four times as wide as the other teeth. this impulse operates both magnets of the selector and attracts their armatures, which, in turn, cause two pawls to engage with the ratchet wheel, while the remaining quick impulses operate the "stepping-up" pawl and rotate the wheel the requisite number of teeth. retardation coils are placed in series with the selector in order to choke back any lightning discharges which might come in over the line. the selector contact, when operated, closes a bell circuit, and it will be noted that both the selector and the bell are operated from battery current coming over the main line through variable resistances. there are, of course, a number of selectors bridged across the circuit, and the variable resistance at each station is so adjusted as to give each approximately milliamperes, which allows a large factor of safety for line leakage in wet weather. the drop across the coils at milliamperes is volts. if these coils were not employed, it is clear that the selectors nearer the dispatcher would get most of the current and those further away very little. [illustration: fig. . selector set--western electric system] a time-signal contact is also indicated on the selector-circuit diagram of fig. . this is common to all offices and may be operated by a special key in the dispatcher's office, thereby enabling him to send out time signals over the telephone circuit. [illustration: fig. . gill dispatcher's station] =gill circuits.= the circuit arrangement for the dispatcher's outfit of the gill system is shown in fig. . this is similar to that of the western electric system just described. the method of operation also is similar, the mechanical means of accomplishing the selection being the main point of difference. in fig. the wiring of the gill selector at a waystation for local-battery service is shown. the selector contact closes the bell circuit in the station and a few windings of this circuit are located on the selector magnets, as shown. these provide the "answer-back" by inductive means. [illustration: fig. . gill selector--local battery] fig. shows the wiring of the waystation, central-energy gill selector. in this case, the local battery for the operation of the bell is omitted and the bell is rung, as is the case of the western electric selector, by the main sending battery in the dispatcher's office. [illustration: fig. . gill selector--central energy] the sending keys of these two types of circuits differ, in that with the local-battery selector the key contact is open after the selector has operated, and the ringing of the bell must be stopped by the dispatcher pressing a button or calling another station. either of these operations sends out a new current impulse which releases the selector and opens its circuit. with the central-energy selector, however, the contacts of the sending key at the dispatcher's office remain closed after operation for a definite length of time. this is obviously necessary in order that battery may be kept on the line for the operation of the bell. in this case the contacts remain closed during a certain portion of the revolution of the key, and the bell stops ringing when that portion of the revolution is completed. if, however, the dispatcher desires to give any station a longer ring, he may do so by keeping the key contacts closed through an auxiliary strap key as soon as he hears the "answer-back" signal from the called station. =cummings-wray circuits.= the cummings-wray system, as previously stated, is of the multiple-call type, operating with synchronous clocks. instead of operating one key after another in order to call a number of stations, all the keys are operated at once and a starting key sets the mechanism in motion which calls all these stations with one operation. fig. shows the circuit arrangement of this system. [illustration: fig. . cummings-wray system] in order to ring one or more stations, the dispatcher presses the corresponding key or keys and then operates the starting key. this starting key maintains its contact for an appreciable length of time to allow the clock mechanism to get under way and get clear of the releasing magnet clutch. closing the starting key operates the clock-releasing magnet and also operates the two telegraph-line relays. these send out an impulse of battery on the line operating the bridged , -ohm line relays and, in turn, the selector releasing magnets; thus, all the waystation clocks start in unison with the master clock. the second hand arbor of each clock carries an arm, which at each waystation is set at a different angle with the normal position than that at any other station. each of these arms makes contact precisely at the moment the master-clock arm is passing over the contact corresponding to that station. if, now, a given station key is pressed in the master sender, the telegraph-line relays will again operate when the master-clock arm reaches that point, sending out another impulse of battery over the line. the selector contact at the waystation is closed at this moment; therefore, the closing of the relay contact operates the ringing relay through a local circuit, as shown. the ringing relay is immediately locked through its own contact, thus maintaining the bell circuit closed until it is opened by the key and the ringing is stopped. as the master-clock arm passes the last point on the contact dial, the current flows through the restoring relay operating the restoring magnet which releases all the keys. a push button is provided by means of which the keys may be manually released, if desired. this is used in case the dispatcher presses a key by mistake. retardation coils and variable resistances are provided at the waystation just as with the other selector systems which have been described and for the same reasons. the circuits of the operator's telephone equipment shown in fig. , are also bridged across the line. this apparatus is of high impedance and of a special design adapted to railroad service. there may be any number of telephones listening in upon a railroad train wire at the same time, and often a dispatcher calls in five or six at once to give orders. these conditions have necessitated the special circuit arrangement shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. . telephone circuits] the receivers used at the waystations are of high impedance and are normally connected, through the hook switch, directly across the line in series with a condenser. when the operator, at a waystation wishes to talk, however, he presses the key shown. this puts the receiver across the line in series with the retardation coil and in parallel with the secondary of the induction coil. it closes the transmitter battery circuit at the same time through the primary of the induction coil. the retardation coil is for the purpose of preventing excessive side tone, and it also increases the impedance of the receiver circuit, which is a shunt on the induction coil. this latter coil, however, is of a special design which permits just enough current to flow through the receiver to allow the dispatcher to interrupt a waystation operator when he is talking. the key used to close the transmitter battery is operated by hand and is of a non-locking type. in some cases, where the operators are very busy, a foot switch is used in place of this key. the use of such a key or switch in practical operation has been found perfectly satisfactory, and it takes the operators but a short time to become used to it. the circuits of the dispatcher's office are similarly arranged, fig. , being designed especially to facilitate their operation. in other words, as the dispatcher is doing most of the work on the circuit, his receiver is of a low-impedance type, which gives him slightly better transmission than the waystations obtain. the key in his transmitter circuit is of the locking type, so that he does not have to hold it in while talking. this is for the reason that the dispatcher does most of the talking on this circuit. foot switches are also employed in some cases by the dispatchers. =test boards.= it is becoming quite a general practice among the railroads to install more than one telephone circuit along their rights-of-way. in many cases in addition to the train wire, a message circuit is also equipped, and quite frequently a block wire also operated by telephone, parallels these two. it is desirable on these circuits to be able to make simple tests and also to be able to patch one circuit with another in cases of emergency. [illustration: fig. . test board] test boards have been designed for facilitating this work. these consist of simple plug and jack boxes, the general appearance of which is shown in fig. . the circuit arrangement of one of these is shown in fig. . each wire comes into an individual jack as will be noted on one side of the board, and passes through the inside contact of this jack, out through a similar jack on the opposite side. the selector and telephone set at an office are taken off these inside contacts through a key, as shown. the outside contacts of this key are wired across two pairs of cords. now, assume the train wire comes in on jacks _ _ and _ _, and the message wire on jacks _ _ and _ _. in case of an accident to the train wire between two stations, it is desirable to patch this connection with a message wire in order to keep the all-important train wire working. the dispatcher instructs the operator at the last station which he can obtain, to insert plugs _ _ and _ _ in jacks _ _ and _ _, and plugs _ _ and _ _ in jacks _ _ and _ _, at the same time throwing the left-hand key. then, obtaining an operator beyond the break by any available means, he instructs him likewise to insert plugs _ _ and _ _ in jacks _ _ and _ _, and plugs _ _ and _ _ in jacks _ _ and _ _, similarly throwing the left-hand key. by tracing this out, it will be observed that the train wire is patched over the disabled section by means of the message circuit, and that the selector and the telephone equipment are cut over on to the patched connections; in other words, bridged across the patching cords. [illustration: fig. . circuits of test board] it will also be seen that with this board it is possible to open any circuit merely by plugging into a jack. two wires can be short-circuited or a loop made by plugging two cords of corresponding colors into the two jacks. a ground jack is provided for grounding any wire. in this way, a very flexible arrangement of circuits is obtained, and it is possible to make any of the simple tests which are all that are usually required on this type of circuit. =blocking sets.= as was just mentioned, quite frequently in addition to train wires and message circuits, block wires are also operated by telephone. in some cases separate telephone instruments are used for the blocking service, but in others the same man handles all three circuits over the same telephone. the block wire is generally a converted telegraph wire between stations, usually of iron and usually grounded. it seldom ranges in length over six miles. [illustration: fig. . blocking set] where the block wires are operated as individual units with their own instruments, it is unnecessary to have any auxiliary apparatus to be used in connection with them. where, however, they are operated as part of a system and the same telephone is used on these that is used on the train wire and message wire, additional apparatus, called a blocking set, is required. this blocking set, shown in figs. and , was developed especially for this service by the western electric company. as will be noted, a repeating coil at the top and a key on the front of the set are wired in connection with a pair of train wire cords. this repeating coil is for use in connecting a grounded circuit to a metallic circuit, as, for instance, connecting a block wire to the train wire, and is, of course, for the purpose of eliminating noise. below the key are three combined jacks and signals. one block wire comes into each of these and a private line may be brought into the middle one. when the next block rings up, a visual signal is displayed which operates a bell in the office by means of a local circuit. the operator answers by plugging the telephone cord extending from the bottom of the set into the proper jack. this automatically restores the signal and stops the bell. [illustration: fig. . blocking set] below these signals appear four jacks. one is wired across the train wire; one across the message wire; and the other two are bridged across the two pairs of patching cords on each side of the set. the operator answers a call on any circuit by plugging his telephone cord into the proper jack. if a waystation is not kept open in the evening, or the operator leaves it for any reason and locks up, he can connect two blocks together by means of the block-wire cords. these are arranged simply for connecting two grounded circuits together and serve to join two adjacent blocks, thereby eliminating one station. a jack is wired across these cords, so that the waystation operator can listen in on the connection if he so desires. in some cases not only are the telephone circuits brought into the test board, but also two telegraph wires are looped through this board before going to the peg switchboard. this is becoming quite a frequent practice and, in times of great emergency, enables patches to be made to the telegraph wires as well as to the telephone wires. =dispatching on electric railways.= as interurban electric railways are becoming more extended, and as their traffic is becoming heavier, they approximate more closely to steam methods of operation. it is not unusual for an electric railway to dispatch its cars exactly as in the case of a steam road. there is a tendency, however, in this class of work, toward slightly different methods, and these will be briefly outlined. on those electric railways where the traffic is not especially heavy, an ordinary magneto telephone line is frequently employed with standard magneto instruments. in some cases the telephone sets are placed in waiting rooms or booths along the line of the road. in other cases it is not feasible to locate the telephone indoors and then iron weather-proof sets, such as are shown in figs. and , are mounted directly on the poles along the line of railway. with a line of this character there is usually some central point from which orders are issued and the trainmen call this number when arriving at sidings or wherever they may need to do so. another method of installing a telephone system upon electric railways is as follows: instead of instruments being mounted in booths or on poles along the line, portable telephone sets are carried on the cars and jacks are located at regular intervals along the right-of-way on the poles. the crew of the car wishing to get in touch with the central office or the dispatcher, plugs into one of these jacks and uses the portable telephone set. at indoor stations, in offices or buildings belonging to the railroad, the regular magneto sets may be employed, as in the first case outlined. on electric railway systems where the traffic is heavy, the train or car movements may be handled by a dispatcher just as on the steam railroad. there is usually one difference, however. on a steam road, the operators who give the train crews their orders and manipulate the semaphore signals are located at regular intervals in the different waystations. no such operators are usually found on electric railways, except, perhaps, at very important points, and, therefore, it is necessary for the dispatcher to be able to signal cars at any point and to get into communication with the crews of these cars. he does this by means of semaphores operated by telephone selectors over the telephone line. the telephone circuit may be equipped with any number of selectors desired, and the dispatcher can operate any particular one without operating any other one on the circuit. each selector, when operated, closes a pair of contacts. this completes a local circuit which throws the semaphore arm to the "danger" position, at the same time giving the dispatcher a distinctive buzz in his ear, which informs him that the arm has actually moved to this position. he can get this signal only by the operation of the arm. each semaphore is located adjacent to a telephone booth in which is also placed the restoring lever, by means of which the semaphore is set in the "clear" position by the crew of the car which has been signaled. the wall-type telephone set is usually employed for this class of service, but if desired, desk stands or any of the various transmitter arms may be used. it is necessary for the crew of the car which first approaches a semaphore set at "danger," to get out, communicate with the dispatcher, and restore the signal to the "clear" position. the dispatcher can not restore the signal. the signal is set only in order that the train crew may get into telephonic communication with the dispatcher, and in order to do this, it is necessary for them to go into the booth in any case. [footnote a: we wish particularly to acknowledge the courtesy of the western electric company in their generous assistance in the preparation of this chapter.] review questions review questions on the subject of telephony pages -- * * * * * . what are the advantages of a common-battery system? . when is the local battery to be preferred to the common-battery? . enumerate the different kinds of line signals. . make a diagram of the arrangement of a direct line lamp signal. . what is a direct line lamp with ballast? give sketch. . describe a line lamp with relay. . what is a pilot lamp and what are its functions? . sketch three different kinds of batteries applied to cord circuits. . what is a supervisory signal? . make diagram of a complete simple common-battery switchboard circuit. . when will the supervisory signal become operative? . what is the candle-power of incandescent lamps used for line and supervisory signals? . at what voltages do they operate? . what are visual signals? . describe the mechanical signal of the western electric company. . give a short description of the general assembly of the parts of a simple common-battery switchboard. . what is a transfer switchboard? . outline the limitations of a simple switchboard. . describe and sketch a plug-ended transfer line. . why is the plug-seat switch not more widely adopted for use? . make diagram of an order-wire arrangement. . what are the limitations of the transfer system? . what are the fundamental features of the multiple switchboard? . what is a multiple jack? . what is an answering jack? . make a diagram showing the principle of multiple switchboards. . what is the busy signal? . what determines the size of a multiple switchboard? . what is the use of the intermediate distributing frame? . make diagram of the series magneto multiple switchboard and describe its operation. . what are the defects of this system? . give a diagram of the branch terminal magneto multiple switchboard. . give a diagram and a short description of the monarch magneto multiple switchboard. review questions on the subject of telephony pages -- * * * * * . sketch and describe the line circuit of the common-battery multiple switchboard of the bell companies. . make a diagram of the cord circuit of the western electric standard multiple common-battery switchboard. . describe the busy test in this system. . what is the function of the order-wire circuits? . what is jumper wire? . give a short description of the relay mounting in the standard no. relay board of the western electric company. . what is the ultimate capacity of the no. western electric switchboard? . what is the capacity of the no. western electric switchboard? . how does this switchboard no. differ from no. ? . give a diagram of the two-wire line circuit of the kellogg company. . what is the capacity of the condenser of the cord circuit in the foregoing system? . give a complete diagram of the kellogg two-wire board. . describe the busy test in this system. . give diagram of the stromberg-carlson multiple-board circuit. . what is the most important piece of apparatus in a multiple switchboard? . what is the spacing of the multiple jacks in the no. western electric switchboard? . how do the relays of the western electric company differ from those of other companies? . describe the relay construction of the monarch telephone company. . what is meant by inter-office trunking? . what is the present practice in america as to the capacity of multiple hoards? . what is the tendency in europe regarding the capacity of multiple boards? . discuss the preferences in american practice. . state the different methods of trunking between exchanges. . when are two-way trunks employed? . make diagram of the western electric inter-office connection system. . describe the standard four-party line trunk ringing key of the western electric company. . sketch and describe a keyless trunk. . give diagram of the inter-office connection of the kellogg system. . how does this system differ from the western electric in regard to the ringing? . why are the a and b switchboards in large exchanges entirely separated? review questions on the subject of telephony pages -- * * * * * . what is the general object of automatic telephone systems? . what are the common arguments against these systems and how are they met? . give the operations that the calling subscriber has to go through in any one of the successful systems. . during calling what is happening at the central office? . describe the action of the strowger or automatic electric company selecting switch. . what is the function of a line switch? . describe the strowger scheme of trunking and illustrate its action by diagram. . make a diagram of the sub-station apparatus and connections. . make a diagram of the line switch unit. . describe the action of the various guarding features necessary to protect a busy line. . make a simple diagram of the circuits of the first selector. . give the functions and operations of the connector. . give a diagram of connecting circuits. . tell all you can regarding the battery supply to the connected subscriber. . how are subscribers disconnected after they are through talking? . describe a multi-office system. . give a diagram of circuits of the trunk repeater. . make a complete diagram of the connections between a calling and a called subscriber in an automatic system. . what is the rotary connector? . describe the sub-station equipment of the lorimer automatic system. . describe the lorimer central-office apparatus. . give a description of the progress of a call from its institution to the final disconnection in the lorimer system. . what is the automanual system? . give general features of the operation in the automanual system. . describe the automanual system subscribers' apparatus. . give a description of the automanual central-office equipment. review questions on subject of telephony pages -- * * * * * . what kinds of currents are employed? . what types of power plants are used? . describe the sources of current supplied for the operator's transmitter current and ringing current. . make a diagram of the warner pole changer. . make a diagram of pole changers for harmonic ringing. . what is a multi-cyclic generator set? . make a diagram of governor for harmonic ringing generators. . describe the various primary sources of power. . make a diagram of the mercury-arc-rectifier circuits. . what provision against breakdown is made? . tell all you can about the storage battery--its construction and its operation. . what is a pilot cell? . describe the switches, meters, and protective devices used on the power switchboard. . give a diagram showing a typical example of a common-battery manual switchboard equipment and circuits. . give the main points concerning the construction of a central-office building. . what provision should be made for cable runways? . make a sketch of a small central-office floor plan. . describe the western electric main and intermediate frames. give diagrams. . give principal points regarding small office terminal apparatus. . give types of line circuits. . describe the typical equipment of a large manual office. give floor plans. . give floor plan of an automatic office. review questions on the subject of telephony pages -- * * * * * . what is a private-branch exchange? . what does "p. b. x." mean? . what is the function of the private-branch exchange operator? . describe the key type of a small private-branch exchange switchboard. . describe the different methods of supervision of private-branch connections. . describe the automatic equipment of the common-battery type in private-branch exchanges. . how is secrecy of individual lines obtained in a private-exchange equipment? . what is an intercommunicating system? . sketch a magneto intercommunicating system. . sketch and describe a plug type common-battery intercommunicating system. . sketch and describe the action of the push button in the monarch system and in the western electric system. . sketch and describe the monarch intercommunicating system. . what is the office of the junction box in this system? . what is a long-distance message? . what is the function of the repeating coil in the long-distance line? . which is the simplest form of long-distance switch? . what is a phantom circuit? . under what control is the ringing of the subscriber in long-distance calls? . what is meant by ticket passing? . what particular advantage has a common-battery set on long-distance lines? . give a typical load curve for telephone traffic. . why is traffic a study of importance? . state the function of the intermediate distributing frame. . state the different methods of traffic study. . what is the trunking factor? . define _trunking efficiency_. . enumerate some of the elements upon which the quality of service in a manual system depends. . what is team work? . how does the cost of telephone service vary? . what two general methods of charging for telephone service are in use? . describe a calculagraph and how is it used? . how are toll connections timed by the monarch telephone company? . sketch and describe the western electric company line circuit and service meter. review questions on the subject of telephony pages -- * * * * * . describe a phantom circuit with diagram. . explain how two phantoms may be joined by a physical circuit. . which are the better, phantom or physical circuits, and why? . explain how the simplex circuit differs from the phantom telephone circuit. . why are not telegraph wires as serviceable for telephone work as telephone wires are for telegraph work? . give the names of the different parts of a railway composite set and explain method of operating. . state the causes of the introduction of the telephone into the train dispatching field and explain the advantages it has over the telegraph for this work. . in transmitting orders for train dispatching, how are mistakes avoided? . describe the western electric selector and explain its use. . in what way does the gill selector differ from the western electric? . what special feature does the multiple coil selector possess? . what special arrangement is provided for the train dispatcher in noisy locations? . how can a man on a wrecking train get connection with the train dispatcher? . what is the usual limit in length of a telephone train dispatching circuit and what is the largest number of stations at present existing on such a circuit? . what is the voltage of the sending battery for a train dispatcher's circuit and upon what is it dependent? . for what purpose is a repeater circuit used? . how is the noise caused by a high voltage battery absorbed so that the dispatcher may talk and signal simultaneously? . draw a diagram showing the circuit arrangement for the dispatcher's outfit of the gill system. . explain fully the purpose of the retardation coil in connection with a waystation set. . in case of accident to a train wire between two stations, how can the connection be patched if the road is also equipped with a message circuit in addition to the train wire? . why do some railroads have block wires in addition to train wires and message circuits? . if a waystation on a block wire is to be cut out for any length of time, by what method can the two adjacent blocks be connected, eliminating the station between? . what are some of the methods used for dispatching on electric railways where the traffic is not especially heavy? . on an electric road in case a car approaches a semaphore set at "danger," what must the crew of the car do? index _the page numbers of this volume will be found at the bottom of the pages; the numbers at the top refer only to the section._ a automanual system automatic distribution of calls automatic switching equipment building up a connection characteristics of operation operator's equipment setting up a connection speed in handling calls subscriber's apparatus automatic desk stand automatic electric company's telephone system automatic sub-offices connector function of location of operation of first selector operation function of line switch line switch , bridge cut-off circuit operations guarding functions line and trunk contacts locking segment master switch relation of, to connectors structure of summary of operation trunk ratio trunk selection multi-office system party lines release after conversation rotary connector second selector operation selecting switches , release mechanism side switch subdivision of subscribers' lines subscribers' station apparatus operation bell and transmitter springs ground springs impulse springs release springs ringing springs salient points trunking connector action first selector action line switch action second selector action two-wire automatic systems two-wire and three-wire systems underlying feature of trunking system automatic telephone systems arguments against attitude of public complexity expense flexibility subscriber's station equipment automatic vs. manual comparative costs definition methods of operation fundamental idea grouping of subscribers local and inter-office trunks lorimer system magnet vs. power-driven switches automatic telephone systems methods of operation multiple vs. trunking outline of action strowger system testing trunking between groups automatic wall set b blocking sets busy test busy-test faults potential of test thimbles principle c circuits applications composite phantom transmission over transpositions railway composite ringing simplex common-battery multiple switchboard assembly dean multiple board cord circuit line circuit listening key ringing keys test kellogg two-wire multiple board battery feed busy test complete cord and line circuit cord circuit line circuit summary of operation supervisory signals wiring of line circuit multiple switchboard apparatus jacks lamp jacks relays stromberg-carlson multiple board cord circuit supervisory signals test western electric no. relay board capacity range cord circuit functions of distributing frames line circuit modified relay windings operation operator's circuit detail order-wire circuits pilot signals relay mounting testing--called line busy testing--called line idle wiring of line circuit western electric no. board circuits economy operation test common-battery switchboard advantages of operation common battery vs. magneto cord circuit battery supply complete circuit supervisory signals cycle of operations jacks lamps mounting line signals direct-line lamp direct-line lamp with ballast line lamp with relay pilot signals mechanical signals kellogg monarch western electric relays switchboard assembly composite circuits connector cord circuit cord circuit battery supply complete circuit supervisory signals cord-rack connectors cummings-wray selector d dean multiple board dispatchers' keys dispatching on electric railways g gill selector h housing central-office equipment arrangement of apparatus in small manual offices combined main and intermediate frames floor plans for types of line circuits automatic offices typical automatic office central-office building fire hazard provision for cable runways provision for employes size of building strength of building large manual office i intercommunicating systems common-battery systems kellogg plug type kellogg push-button type monarch system western electric system definition limitations for private-branch exchanges simple magneto system j jacks k kellogg mechanical signal kellogg trunk circuits kellogg two-wire multiple board keyboard wiring l lamp mounting lamps line signals direct-line lamp direct-line lamp with ballast line lamp with relay pilot signals line switch long-distance switching definitions center-checking operators' orders by call circuits by telegraph particular party calls switching through local board ticket passing trunking high-voltage toll trunks through ringing two-number calls use of repeating coil waystations lorimer automatic system , central-office apparatus connective division sectional apparatus switches interconnector interconnector selector primary connector rotary switch secondary connector signal transmitter controller operation subscriber's station equipment m magneto multiple switchboard branch-terminal multiple board arrangement of apparatus magnet windings operation field of utility modern magneto multiple board assembly cord circuit test magneto multiple switchboard series-multiple board defects operation measured service local service meter method prepayment method ticket method rates toll service long haul short haul timing toll connections units of charging mechanical signals kellogg monarch western electric mercury-arc rectifier circuits monarch visual signal multi-office exchanges, necessity for multiple switchboard busy test cord circuits diagram showing principle of double connections field of each operator field of utility influence of traffic line signals multiple feature p phantom circuit pilot signals plug-seat switch pole changers for harmonic ringing power plants auxiliary signaling currents currents employed alternating current direct current operator's transmitter supply power plant circuit power switchboard meters protective devices switches primary sources charging from direct-current mains charging dynamos mercury-arc rectifiers rotary converters provision against breakdown capacity of power units duplicate charging machines duplicate primary sources duplicate ringing machines ringing-current supply magneto generators pole changers ringing dynamos storage battery initial charge installation low cells operation overcharge pilot cell regular charge replacing batteries sediment types common-battery systems magneto systems power switchboard private-branch exchanges with automatic offices secrecy battery supply circuits, key-type board definitions desirable features functions of the private-branch exchange operator marking of apparatus private-branch switchboards common-battery type cord type key type magneto type ringing current supervision of private-branch connections r relays rotary connector s selecting switches selector simplex circuits storage battery storage cell stromberg-carlson multiple board strowger automatic system subscribers' board - switchboard assembly t table automanual system time data automatic systems, messages per trunk in calling rates long-distance groups, messages per trunk in manual system, messages per trunk in out-trunking, effect of, on operator's capacity subscribers' waiting time telephone traffic importance of traffic study methods of traffic study observation of service quality of service accuracy and promptness answering time busy and don't answer calls courtesy and form disconnecting time enunciation team work rates of calling representative traffic data calling rates operators' loads toll traffic trunk efficiency trunking factor traffic variations busy hour ratio unit of traffic telephone train dispatching advantages apparatus cummings-wray selector dispatcher's transmitter gill selector portable train sets siding telephones waystation telephones western electric selector blocking sets causes of its introduction cummings-wray circuits on electric railways gill circuits railroad conditions rapid growth test boards transmitting orders waystation circuits western electric circuits telephone train-dispatching circuit cummings-wray gill waystation western electric test boards transfer switchboard field of usefulness handling transfers limitations plug-seat switch transfer lines jack-ended trunk plug-ended trunk trunking in multi-office systems classification one-way trunks two-way trunks kellogg trunk circuits necessity for exchanges western electric trunk circuits w warner pole changer waystation telephones western electric mechanical signal selector trunk circuits transcriber's notes. spelling variants where it wasn't possible to determine the author's intent were left as is. these include: "clockwork" and "clock-work;" "doorkeeper" and "door-keeper;" "interrelation" and "inter-relation;" "multicyclic" and "multi-cyclic;" "redesign" and "re-design," along with derivatives. added closing double quote in steinmetz entry in list of authorities: "theoretical elements of electrical engineering." changed "switch-hook" to "switch hook" on page : "the subscriber's switch hook." page says there is room for banks of multiple jacks, but then says this allows for , multiple jacks in all, rather than , . based on the figure, banks should be banks, which would correct the arithmetic. however, i did not change this. changed "bi-paths" to "by-paths" on page : "circuits or by-paths." changed "appararus" to "apparatus" on page : "the sectional apparatus." changed "two number" to "two-number" on page : "the two-number calls are ticketed." on page , a paragraph begins with "it has been only within the past three few." perhaps the author meant "it has been only within the past three years" or "it has been only within the past few years." but since i didn't know, i left is as is. changed "them ain" to "the main" on page : "on the main line." changed "weatherproof" to "weather-proof" on page : "iron weather-proof sets." changed "interoffice" to "inter-office" three times on page , to match the spelling in the body of the document: "meant by inter-office trunking;" "inter-office connection system;" "of the inter-office connection." changed "break-down" to "breakdown" on page : "provision against breakdown." changed "way-station" to "waystation" twice on page : "with a waystation set;" and "a waystation on a block wire." changed "way stations" to "waystations" on page , in the entry for long-distance switching. each page of the index repeated this text: "note.--for page numbers see foot of pages." they were removed. the iron horse, by r.m. ballantyne. chapter one. treats of the engine-driver's house and household. talk of earthquakes! not all the earthquakes that have rumbled in ecuador or toppled over the spires and dwellings of peru could compare, in the matter of dogged pertinacity, with that earthquake which diurnally and hourly shocked little gertie's dwelling, quivered the white dimity curtains of little gertie's bed and shook little gertie's frame. a graceful, rounded little frame it was; yet strong, and firmly knit--perhaps in consequence of its having been from infancy so constantly and so well shaken together. her neat little body was surmounted by a head which no sculptor in search of an antique model would have chosen. gertie's profile was not grecian; her features were not classic--but they were comely, and rosy, and so sweet that most people wanted to kiss them, and many people did. gertie did not object. probably, being only six, she imagined that this was the ordinary and natural method of salutation. yet it was observable that the child did not reciprocate kisses except in one or two special cases. she had evidently a mind of her own, a fact which was displayed most strikingly, in the passionate manner in which she reciprocated the embraces of john marrot, her father, when that large hairy individual came in of an evening, and, catching her in his long arms, pressed her little body to his damp pilot-cloth-coated breast and her chubby face to his oily, smoke-and-soot begrimed countenance, forgetful for the moment of the remonstrance from his wife that was sure to follow:-- "now then, john, there you go again. you ain't got no more power of subjewin' your feelings than one of your own ingines, w'ich is the schreechin'ist, fizzin'ist, crashin'ist, bustin' things i ever 'ad the misfortune to 'ave to do with. there's a clean frock just put on this mornin' only fit for the wash-tub now?" but john was an easy-going man. he was mild, kind, sedate, undemonstrative by nature, and looked upon slight matrimonial breezes as being good for the health. it was only gertie who could draw him into demonstrations of feeling such as we have described, and, as we have said, she always reciprocated them violently, increasing thereby the wash-tub necessity tenfold. it would have been strange indeed if john marrot could have been much put about by a small matrimonial breeze, seeing that his life was spent in riding on an iron monster with white-hot lungs and boiling bowels which carried him through space day and night at the rate of fifty miles an hour! this, by the way, brings us back to our text--earthquakes. gertie's house--or gertie's father's house, if you prefer it--stood close to the embankment of one of our great arterial railways--which of them, for reasons best known to ourself, we don't intend to tell, but, for the reader's comfort, we shall call it the grand national trunk railway. so close did the house stand to the embankment that timid female passengers were known occasionally to scream as they approached it, under the impression that the train had left the rails and was about to dash into it--an impression which was enhanced and somewhat justified by the circumstance that the house stood with one of its corners; instead of its side, front, or back; towards the line; thereby inducing a sudden sensation of wrongness in the breasts of the twenty thousand passengers who swept past it daily. the extreme edge of its most protruding stone was exactly three yards four inches--by measurement-- from the left rail of the down line. need we say more to account for the perpetual state of earthquakedom, in which that house was involved? but the tremors and shocks to which it was exposed--by night and by day--was not all it had to bear. in certain directions of the wind it was intermittently enveloped in clouds of mingled soot and steam, and, being situated at a curve on the line where signalling became imminently needful, it was exposed to all the varied horrors of the whistle from the sharp screech of interrogation to the successive bursts of exasperation, or the prolonged and deadly yell of intimidation, with all the intermediate modulations--so that, what with the tremors, and shocks, and crashes, and shrieks, and thunderous roar of trains, gertie's father's house maintained an upright front in circumstances that might have been equalled but could not have been surpassed by those of the eddystone lighthouse in the wildest of winter storms, while it excelled that celebrated building in this, that it faced a storm which knew no calm, but raged furiously all the year round. john marrot was an engine-driver on the grand national trunk railway. this is equivalent to saying that he was a steady, sober, trustworthy man. none but men of the best character are nowadays put in so responsible a position. nearly all the drivers on the line were of this kind--some better than others, no doubt, but all good. of course there are exceptions to every rule. as in the best regulated families accidents will happen, so, on the best conducted lines, an occasional black sheep will get among the drivers, but this is the exception that proves the rule. the rule in the grand national trunk railway was--get the best drivers and pay them well. the same may be said of the firemen, whose ambition was ultimately to drive the iron chargers which they fed. besides being all that we have said, john was a big, burly, soft-hearted, hard-headed man, who knew that two and two in ordinary circumstances made four, and who didn't require to be told that his left foot was not his right one. it was generally supposed that john marrot had no nerves, and that his muscles had imbibed some of the iron of which his engine was composed. this was a mistake, though there was some truth in both suppositions. john's family consisted of himself when at home, which, although often, was never for long; his wife--fat and fair, capable of being roused, but, on the whole, a good, sensible, loving woman; his eldest daughter, lucy or loo--nineteen, dark, pretty, and amiable; his youngest daughter, gertrude, _alias_ gertie--six, sunny and serious, at least as serious as was possible for one so young, so innocent, so healthy, and so happy as she; his son bob, aged twelve, who was a lamp-boy at the great station not far off, and of whom it may be briefly said that he was "no better than he should be," and, lastly, the baby--not yet at the walking period of life, with a round head, round body, round eyes, and a round dozen at least--if not more--of hairs standing straight up on the top of his bald pate, suggesting the idea that he must at some period of his life have been singed by a passing locomotive--an event not by any means beyond the bounds of possibility, for it may be written, with more truth of this, than of any other infant, that he had been born and nurtured amid thunder, smoke, and blazes. as might have been expected in the circumstances, he was a powerful baby. we cannot afford space for a full description, but it would be wrong to omit mention of the strength of his lungs. the imitative tendency of children is proverbial. clearly the locomotive was baby marrot's pattern in many things. no infant that ever drew breath equalled this one at a yell. there was absolutely a touch of sublimity in the sound of the duet--frequently heard--when baby chanced to be performing a solo and his father's engine went shrieking past with a running accompaniment! it is a disputed point to this day which of the two beat the other; and it is an admitted fact that nothing else could equal either. there were two other inmates of john marrot's house--not members of the family. one was his fireman, william garvie, who lodged with him, the other a small servant or maid-of-all-work who led a rugged existence, but appeared to enjoy it, although it kept her thin. her name was ann stocks, familiarly known as nanny. we are thus particular in describing the engine-driver's household because, apart from other reasons, a group of human beings who could live, and thrive, and eat, and sleep, and love, and learn, and so forth, in such circumstances is noteworthy. it was quite a treat--believe it, reader--to see little gertie and the baby slumber while the engines were apparently having "a night of it" outside! come with us and behold. it is : p.m. father is crossing country on the limited mail at any pace you choose between fifty and eighty miles an hour, time having been lost at the last station, owing to the unaccountable disappearance of a first-class passenger, and time having to be made up by fair means or otherwise. his mate stands beside him. in the family mansion pretty loo sleeps like a "good angel," as she is, in a small room farthest from the corner next the line, but with her we have nothing to do at present. nanny, also sound asleep, lies in some place of profound obscurity among the coals in the lower regions of the house, laying in that store of health and vigour which will enable her to face the rugged features of the following day. we dismiss her, also, with the hope that she may survive the coal-dust and the lack of oxygen, and turn to the chief room of the house--the kitchen, parlour, dining-room, drawing-room, nursery, and family bedroom all in one. engine-drivers are not always so badly off for space in their domiciles, but circumstances which are not worth mentioning have led john marrot to put up with little. in this apartment, which is wonderfully clean and neat, there are two box-beds and a sort of crib. baby sleeps--as only babies can--in perfect bliss in the crib; gertie slumbers with her upturned sweet little face shaded by the white dimity curtains in one bed; mrs molly marrot snores like a grampus in the other. it is a wide bed, let deep into the wall, as it were, and mrs m's red countenance looms over the counterpane like the setting sun over a winter fog-bank. hark? a rumble in the far distance--ominous and low at first, but rapidly increasing to the tones of distant thunder. it is the night express for the north--going at fifty miles an hour. at such a rate of speed it might go right round the world in twenty-one days! while yet distant the whistle is heard, shrill, threatening, and prolonged. louder and louder; it is nearing the curve now and the earth trembles-- the house trembles too, but gertie's parted lips breathe as softly as before; baby's eyes are as tight and his entire frame as still as when he first fell asleep. mrs marrot, too, maintains the monotony of her snore. round the curve it comes at last, hammer and tongs, thundering like olympus, and yelling like an iron fiend. the earthquake is "on!" the embankment shudders; the house quivers; the doors, windows, cups, saucers, and pans rattle. outside, all the sledge-hammers and anvils in vulcan's smithy are banging an _obbligato_ accompaniment to the hissing of all the serpents that saint patrick drove out of ireland as the express comes up; still gertie's rest is unbroken. she does indeed give a slight smile and turn her head on the other side, as if she had heard a pleasant whisper, but nothing more. baby, too, vents a prolonged sigh before plunging into a profounder depth of repose. mrs marrot gives a deprecatory grunt between snores, but it is merely a complimentary "hallo! 's that you?" sort of question which requires no answer. as the rushing storm goes by a timid and wakeful passenger happens to lower the window and look out. he sees the house. "it's all over?" are his last words as he falls back in his seat and covers his face with his hands. he soon breathes more freely on finding that it is not all over, but fifteen or twenty miles lie between him and the house he expected to annihilate, before his nervous system has quite recovered its tone. this, reader, is a mere sample of the visitations by which that family was perpetually affected, though not afflicted. sometimes the rushing masses were heavy goods trains, which produced less fuss, but more of earthquake. at other times red lights, intimating equally danger and delay, brought trains to a stand close to the house, and kept them hissing and yelling there as if querulously impatient to get on. the uproar reached its culminating point about : , on the night of which we write, when two trains from opposite directions were signalled to wait, which they did precisely opposite john marrot's windows, and there kept up such a riot of sound as feeble language is impotent to convey. to the accustomed ears the whistle and clank of a checked and angry pilot-engine might have been discerned amid the hullabaloo; but to one whose experience in such matters was small, it might have seemed as though six or seven mad engines were sitting up on end, like monster rabbits on a bank, pawing the air and screaming out their hearts in the wild delirium of unlimited power and ungovernable fury. still, although they moved a little, the sleepers did not awake--so potent is the force of habit! however, it did not last long. the red lights removed their ban, the white lights said "come on," the monster rabbits gave a final snort of satisfaction and went away--each with its tail of live-stock, or minerals, or goods, or human beings, trailing behind it. the temporary silence round the house was very intense, as may well be believed--so much so that the heavy foot-fall of a man in the bypath that led to it sounded quite intrusive. he was a tall broad-shouldered man in a large pilot coat, cap and boots, and appeared to walk somewhat lame as he approached the door. he tried the handle. it was locked, of course. "i thought so," he muttered in a low bass voice; "so much for a bad memory." he rapped twice on the door, loudly, with his knuckles and then kicked it with his boot. vain hope! if a burglar with a sledge-hammer had driven the door in, he would have failed to tickle the drum of any ear there. the man evidently was aware of this, for, changing his plan, he went round to a back window on the ground-floor, and opened it at the top with some difficulty. peeping in he gazed for some time intently, and then exclaimed under his breath, "ha! it's open by good luck." gathering a handful of gravel, he threw it into the house with considerable force. the result proved that he had not aimed at random, for the shower entered the open door of nanny's sleeping-cellar and fell smartly on her face. it is well-known that sailors, although capable of slumbering through loud and continuous noises, can be awakened by the slightest touch, so likewise nanny. on receiving the shower of gravel she incontinently buried her head in the blankets, drew an empty coal-scuttle over her shoulders and began to shout thieves! and murder! at the top of her voice. having taken such pains to muffle it, of course no one heard her cries. the man, if a burglar, had evidently a patient philosophical turn of mind, for he calmly waited till the damsel was exhausted, and when she at length peeped out to observe the effect of her heroic efforts at self-preservation he said quietly, "nanny, lass, don't be a fool! it's me; open the door; i've gone an' forgot my latch-key." "oh la! master, it ain't you, is it? it ain't thieves and robbers, is it?" "no, no. open the door like a good girl." "and it ain't an accident, is it?" continued nanny partially dressing in haste. "oh, i knows it's a accident, missus always prophesied as a accident would come to pass some day, which has come true. you're not maimed, master?" "no, no; be quick, girl!" "nor willum ain't maimed, is he? he ain't dead? oh _don't_ say willum is--" "bill garvie's all right," said the engine-driver, as he brushed past the girl and went up-stairs. now, although mrs marrot's ears were totally deaf to locomotives they were alert enough to the sound of her husband's voice. when, therefore, he entered the kitchen, he found her standing on the floor with an ample shawl thrown round her. "nothing wrong?" she inquired anxiously. "nothing, molly, my dear, only i got a slight bruise on the leg in the engine-shed to-day, and i had to go up an' show it to the doctor, d'ye see, before comin' home, which has made me later than usual." "are you _sure_ it's not a back hurt, father?" asked loo, coming in at the moment--also enveloped in a shawl, and looking anxious. "sure? ay, i'm sure enough; it's only a scratch. see here." saying this he removed one of his boots, and pulling up his trousers displayed a bandaged leg. "well, but we can't see through the bandages, you know," said mrs marrot. "let me take them off, father, and i'll replace--" "take 'em off!" exclaimed john, pulling down the leg of his trouser and rising with a laugh. "no, no, loo; why, it's only just bin done up all snug by the doctor, who'd kick up a pretty shindy if he found i had undid it. there's one good will come of it anyhow, i shall have a day or two in the house with you all; for the doctor said i must give it a short rest. so, off to bed again, loo. this is not an hour for a respectable young woman to be wanderin' about in her night-dress. away with you!" "was any one else hurt, father?" said loo. she asked the question anxiously, but there was a slight flush on her cheek and a peculiar smile which betrayed some hidden feeling. "no one else," returned her father. "i tell 'ee it wasn't an accident at all--it was only a engine that brushed up agin me as i was comin' out o' the shed. that's all; so i just came home and left will garvie to look after our engine. there, run away." loo smiled, nodded and disappeared, followed by mrs marrot, who went, like a sensible woman, to see that her alarmed domestic was all right. while she was away john went to the crib and kissed the rosy cheek of his sleeping boy. then he bent over the bed with the white dimity curtains to miss gertie's forehead, for which purpose he had to remove a mass of curly hair with his big brown hand. "bless you, my darling," he said in silent speech, "you came near bein' fatherless this night--nearer than you ever was before." he kissed her again tenderly, and a fervent "thank the lord!" rose from his heart to heaven. in less than half-an-hour after this the engine-driver's family sank into profound repose, serenaded by the music of a mineral train from the black country, which rushed laboriously past their dwelling like an over-weighted thunderbolt. chapter two. the driver visits a little elderly gentlewoman and prepares the iron horse for action. next day john marrot spent the brief period of repose accorded by the doctor to his leg in romping about the house with the baby in his arms. being a large man, accustomed to much elbow-room and rapid motion, and the house being small, john may be said to have been a dangerous character in the family on such occasions. apart from baby, no elephant was ever more sluggish in his motions; but when coupled--professionally speaking--to his own tender infant, john knew no bounds, his wife knew no rest and his baby knew no higher earthly bliss. sometimes it was on his shoulder, sometimes on his head and often on his foot, riding with railway speed to "banbury cross." again it was on its back in the crib or on the bed being tickled into fits of laughter, which bid fair at times to merge into fits of convulsion, to the horror of little gertie, who came in for a large share of that delightful holiday's enjoyment, but whose spirit was frequently harrowed with alarm at the riotous conduct of her invalid father. in his glee the man might have been compared to a locomotive with a bad driver, who was constantly shutting off the steam and clapping on the brakes too soon or too late, thus either falling short of or overshooting his mark. what between the door and the dresser, the fire, the crib, the window, and the furniture, john showed himself a dreadfully bad pilot and was constantly running into or backing out of difficulties. at last towards the afternoon of that day, while performing a furious charge round the room with baby on his head, he overturned the wash-tub, which filled the baby with delirious joy, and gertie with pleasurable alarm. as for mrs marrot, she was too happy to have her husband at home for a whole day to care much about trifles, nevertheless she felt it her duty to reprove him, lest the children should learn a bad lesson. "there now, john, i knew you'd do it at last. you're much too violent, and you shouldn't ought to risk the baby's neck in that way. such a mess! how _can_ you expect me to keep things tidy if you go on so?" john was very penitent. he did not reply at first, but putting baby into the crib--where it instantly drowned with a great yell the shriek of a passing train--he went down on his knees and began to "swab" up the water with a jack-towel. loo ran laughingly from the corner where she had been sewing, and insisted on doing it for him. "you'll hurt your leg, father, if you bend it so, and i'm sure it must be swelled and pained enough already with so much romping." "not a bit, loo," objected john. "it was me as caused the mess, an' justice requires that i should swab it up. there, go sew that sentiment into a sampler an' hang it up over yer bed." but loo would not give in. while they were still engaged in the controversy the door opened, and young bob marrot stood before them with his eyes wide open and his hair straight up on end, as if he had recently seen a ghost. this aspect, however, was no sign of alarm, being his normal condition. "ha! seems to me, somehow, that somebody's bin up to somethin'." "right bob," replied his father, rising from his knees and throwing the jack-towel at him. the lad easily evaded the shot, being well accustomed to elude much more deadly missiles, and, picking up the towel, quietly set to work to perform the duty in dispute. "you're wanted," he said, looking up at his father while he wrung the towel over a tin basin. "eh! where?" "up at the shed." "i'm on sick leave," said john. "can't help that. the : p.m. passenger train must be drove, and there's nobody left but you to drive it. jones is away with a goods train owin' to maxwell having sprained his ankle, and long thompson is down with small-pox, so you'll have to do it. i offered 'em my services, but the manager he said that intelligent lads couldn't be spared for such menial work, and told me to go and fetch you." "maxwell had no business to sprain his ankle," said john marrot. "hows'ever," he added cheerfully, "i've had a rare good holiday, an' the leg's all but right again, so, molly, let's have an early tea; i'll give it a good rest for another half-hour and then be ready for the : p.m-ers. cut off your steam, will you?" this last observation was made to the baby, and was accompanied by a shake and a toss towards the ceiling which caused him to obey instantly, under the impression, no doubt that the fun was to be renewed. being, however, consigned to the care of gertie he again let on the steam and kept it up during the whole time the family were at tea--which meal they enjoyed thoroughly, quite regardless of the storm. he was asleep when his father rose at last and buttoned his heavy coat up to the chin, while mrs marrot stood on tiptoe to arrange more carefully the woollen shawl round his neck. "now, don't stand more than you can help on your hurt leg, john." "certainly not, duckie," said john, stooping to kiss the upturned face; "i'll sit on the rail as much as i can, like a 'merican racoon. by the way," he added, turning suddenly to loo, "you delivered that note from young mr tipps to his mother?" "yes, immediately after i got it from you; and i waited to see if there was an answer, but she said there wasn't. it must have contained bad news, i fear, for she turned pale while she read it." "h'm, well," said john, putting on his cap, "don't know nothin' about what was in it, so it's no bizzness o' mine." with a hearty good-evening to all, and a special embrace to gertie, the engine-driver left his home, accompanied by bob his hopeful son. "mr sharp," said bob, as they walked along, "has bin makin' oncommon partikler inquiries among us about some o' the porters. i raither think they're a bad lot." "not at all," replied his father severely. "they're no more a bad lot than the drivers, or, for the matter of that, than the clerks or the directors, or the lamp-boys. you ought to be gittin' old enough by this time, bob, to know that every lot o' fish in this world, however good, has got a few bad uns among 'em. as a rule railway directors and railway clerks, and railway porters and railway officials of all sorts are good--more or less--the same may be said of banks an' insurances, an' all sorts of things--but, do what ye may, a black sheep or two _will_ git in among 'em, and, of course, the bigger the consarn, the more numerous the black sheep. even the clergy ain't free from that uniwersal law of natur. but what's mr sharp bin inquiring arter?" "ah--wot indeed!" replied bob; "'ow should i know? mr sharp ain't the man to go about the line with a ticket on his back tellin' wot he's arter. by no means. p'lice superintendents ain't usually given to that; but he's arter _somethin'_ partickler." "well, that ain't no bizzness of ours, bob, so we don't need to trouble our heads about it. there's nothin' like mindin' yer own bizzness. same time," added john after a short pause, "that's no reason why, as a sea-farin' friend o' mine used to say, a man shouldn't keep his weather-eye open, d'ye see?" bob intimated that he did see, by winking with the eye that chanced to be next his parent; but further converse between father and son was interrupted at a turn in the road, where they were joined by a stout, broad-shouldered young man, whose green velveteen jacket vest, and trousers bespoke him a railway porter. "evenin', sam," said our driver with a friendly nod; "goin' on night dooty, eh?" "yes, worse luck," replied sam, thrusting his powerful hands into his pockets. "why so, sam, you ain't used to mind night dooty?" "no more i do," said sam testily, "but my missus is took bad, and there's no one to look after her properly--for that old 'ooman we got ain't to be trusted. 'tis a hard thing to have to go on night dooty when a higher dooty bids me stay at home." there was a touch of deep feeling in the tone in which the latter part of sam natly's remark was uttered. his young wife, to whom he had been only a year married, had fallen into bad health, and latterly the doctors had given him little encouragement to hope for her recovery. "sam," said john marrot stopping, "i'll go an' send a friend, as i knows of, to look after yer wife." "a friend?" said sam; "you can't mean any o' your own family, john, for you haven't got time to go back that length now, and--" "well, never mind, i've got time to go where i'm agoin'. you run on to the shed, bob, and tell garvie that i'll be there in fifteen minutes." the engine-driver turned off abruptly, and, increasing his pace to a smart walk, soon stood before the door of one of those uncommonly small neat suburban villas which the irrigating influence of the grand national trunk railway had caused to spring up like mushrooms around the noisy, smoky, bustling town of clatterby--to the unspeakable advantage of that class of gentlefolk who possess extremely limited incomes, but who, nevertheless, prefer fresh air to smoke. "is your missus at 'ome?" he inquired of the stout elderly woman who answered to his modest summons--for although john was wont to clatter and bang through the greater part of his daily and nightly career, he was tender of touch and act when out of his usual professional beat. "yes; do you wish to see her?" "i does, my dear. sorry i 'aven't got a card with me, but if you'll just say that it's john marrot, the engine-driver, i dessay that'll do for a free pass." the elderly woman went off with a smile, but returned quickly with an anxious look, and bade the man follow her. he was ushered into a small and poorly furnished but extremely neat and clean parlour, where sat a thin little old lady in an easy-chair, looking very pale. "ev'nin', ma'am," said john, bowing and looking rougher and bigger than usual in such a small apartment. "you--you--don't bring bad news, i hope!--my son joseph--" "oh no, mrs tipps, not by no means," said marrot, hasting to relieve the timid old lady's feelings, "mr joseph is all right--nothing wotiver wrong with him--nor likely to be, ma'am. leastwise he wos all right w'en i seed 'im last." "and when might that be?" asked the timid old lady with a sigh of relief as she clasped her hands tightly together. "w'y, let me see," said john, touching his forehead, "it was yesterday evenin' w'en i came up with the northern express." "but many accidents might have happened since yesterday evening," said mrs tipps, still in an anxious tone. "that's true, ma'am. all the engines on the grand trunk from the pentland firth to the channel might have bu'sted their bilers since that time--but it ain't likely," replied john, with a bland smile. "and--and what was my son doing when you passed him? did you speak to him?" "speak to him! bless your heart, ma'am," said john, with another benignant smile, "i went past langrye station at sixty mile an hour, so we hadn't much chance to speak to each other. it would have been as much as we could have managed, if we'd tried it, to exchange winks." "dreadful!" exclaimed mrs tipps in a low tone. "is that the usual rate of travelling on your railway?" "oh dear no, ma'am. it's only _my_ express train as goes at that rate. other expresses run between forty and fifty miles, an' or'nary trains average about thirty miles an hour--goods, they go at about twenty, more or less; but they varies a good deal. the train i drives is about the fastest in the kingdom, w'ich is pretty much the same as sayin' it's the fastest in the world, ma'am. sometimes i'm obleeged to go as high as nigh seventy miles an hour to make up time." "the fastest mail-coaches in _my_ young days," said mrs tipps, "used to go at the rate of ten miles an hour, i believe." "pretty much so," said john. "they did manage a mile or two more, i'm told, but that was their average of crawlin' with full steam on." "and _you_ sometimes drive at sixty or seventy miles an hour?" "yes, ma'am." "with people in the carriages?" "cer'nly, ma'am." "how i _wish_ that i had lived a hundred years ago!" sighed poor mrs tipps. "you'd have bin a pretty old girl by this time if you had," thought the engine-driver, but he was too polite to give utterance to the thought. "and what was my son doing when you passed him at that frightful speed-- you could _see_ him, i suppose?" "oh yes, ma'am, i could see him well enough. he was talkin' an' laughin', as far as i could make out, with an uncommon pretty girl." "indeed!" exclaimed mrs tipps, flushing slightly--for she was extremely sensitive,--and evidently much relieved by this information. "well, my good man, what do you wish me to do for you? anything that is in my power to--" "thankee, ma'am, but i don't want you to do nothin' for _me_." "then what have you to say to me?" added the old lady with a little smile that was clearly indicative of a kind little heart. "i've come to take the liberty, ma'am, of askin' you to do one of my mates a favour." "most willingly," said mrs tipps with animation. "i shall never forget that you saved my dear joseph's life by pulling him off the line when one of your dreadful engines was going straight over him. anything that i am capable of doing for you or your friends will be but a poor return for what you have done for me. i have often asked you to allow me to make me some such return, mr marrot, and have been grieved at your constant refusal. i am delighted that you come to me now." "you're very good to say so, ma'am. the fact is that one o' my friends, a porter on the line, named sam natly, has a young wife who is, i fear, far gone wi' consumption; she's worse to-night an' poor sam's obliged to go on night dooty, so he can't look arter her, an' the old 'ooman they've got ain't worth nothin'. so i thought i'd make bold, ma'am, to ask you to send yer servant to git a proper nurse to take charge of her to-night, it would be--" "i'll go myself!" exclaimed mrs tipps, interrupting, and starting up with a degree of alacrity that astonished the engine-driver. "here, write down the address on that piece of paper--you can write, i suppose?" "yes, ma'am," replied john, modestly, as he bent down and wrote the address in a bold flowing hand, "i raither think i _can_ write. i write notes, on a paper i've got to fill up daily, on the engine; an' w'en a man's trained to do that, ma'am, it's my opinion he's fit to write in any circumstances whatsomedever. why, you'd hardly believe it, ma'am, but i do assure you, that i wrote my fust an' last love-letter to my missus on the engine. i was drivin' the lightenin' at the time--that's the name o' my engine, ma'am, an' they calls me jack blazes in consikence--well, i'd bin courtin' molly, off-an'-on, for about three months. she b'longed to pinchley station, you must know, where we used to stop to give her a drink--" "what! to give molly a drink?" "no, ma'am," replied john, with a slight smile, "to give the ingine a drink. well, she met me nigh every day 'xcept sundays at that station, and as we'd a pretty long time there--about five minutes--we used to spend it beside the pump, an' made the most of it. but somehow i took it into my head that molly was playin' fast an' loose with me, an' i was raither cool on her for a time. hows'ever, her father bein' a pointsman, she wos shifted along with him to langrye station--that's where your son is, ma'am--an' as we don't stop there we was obleeged to confine our courtship to a nod an' a wave of a handkerchief. leastwise she shook out a white handkerchief an' i flourished a lump o' cotton-waste. well, one day as we was close upon langrye station--about two miles--i suddenly takes it into my head that i'd bring the thing to a pint, so i sings out to my mate--that was my fireman, ma'am--says i, `look out jim,' an' i draws out my pencil an' bends my legs--you must always bend your legs a little, ma'am, w'en you writes on a locomotive, it makes springs of 'em, so to speak--an' i writes on the back of a blank time-bill, `molly, my dear, no more shilly-shallyin' with _me_. time's up. if you'll be tender, i'll be locomotive. only say the word and we're coupled for life in three weeks. a white handkerchief means yes, a red 'un, no. if red, you'll see a noo driver on the : a.m. express day after to-morrow. john marrot.' i was just in time to pitch the paper crumpled up right into her bosom," continued the driver, wiping his forehead as if the deep anxiety of that eventful period still affected him, "an' let me tell you, ma'am, it requires a deal o' nice calculation to pitch a piece o' crumpled paper true off a locomotive goin' between fifty and sixty miles an hour; but it went all straight--i could see that before we was gone." "and what was the result?" asked the little old lady as earnestly as if that result were still pending. "w'y, the result wos as it should be! my letter was a short 'un, but it turned out to be a powerful brake. brought her up sharp--an' we was coupled in less than six weeks." "amazing phase of human life!" observed mrs tipps, gazing in admiration at the stalwart giant who stood deferentially before her. "well, it _was_ a raither coorious kind o' proposal," said marrot with a smile, "but it worked uncommon well. i've never wanted to uncouple since then." "pardon _me_, mr marrot," said mrs tipps, with little hysterical laugh--knowing that she was about to perpetrate a joke--"may i ask if there are any--any _little_ tenders?" "oh, lots of 'em," replied john, "quite a train of 'em; four livin' an' three gone dead. the last was coupled on only a short time ago. you'll excuse me now, ma'am," he added, pulling out and consulting the ponderous chronometer with which the company supplied him, "i must go now, havin' to take charge o' the : p.m. train,--it ain't my usual train, but i'm obleeged to take it to-night owin' to one of our drivers havin' come by an accident. evenin', ma'am." john bowed, and retired so promptly that poor mrs tipps had no time to make further inquiry into the accident referred to--at the very mention of which her former alarm came back in full force. however, she wisely got the better of her own anxieties by throwing herself into those of others. putting on her bonnet she sallied forth on her errand of mercy. meanwhile john marrot proceeded to the engine-shed to prepare his iron horse for action. here he found that his fireman, will garvie, and his cleaner, had been attending faithfully to their duty. the huge locomotive, which looked all the more gigantic for being under cover, was already quivering with that tremendous energy--that artificial life--which rendered it at once so useful and so powerful a servant of man. its brasses shone with golden lustre, its iron rods and bars, cranks and pistons glittered with silvery sheen, and its heavier parts and body were gay with a new coat of green paint. every nut and screw and lever and joint had been screwed up, and oiled, examined, tested, and otherwise attended to, while the oblong pit over which it stood when in the shed--and into which its ashes were periodically emptied--glowed with the light of its intense furnace. ever and anon a little puff issued from its safety-valve, proving to john marrot that there was life within his fiery steed sufficient to have blown the shed to wreck with all its brother engines, of which there were at the time two or three dozen standing--some disgorging their fire and water after a journey, and preparing to rest for the night; some letting off steam with a fiendish yell unbearably prolonged; others undergoing trifling repairs preparatory to starting next day, and a few, like that of our engine-driver, ready for instant action and snorting with impatience like war-horses "scenting the battle from afar." the begrimed warriors, whose destiny it was to ride these iron chargers, were also variously circumstanced. some in their shirt sleeves busy with hammer and file at benches hard by; others raking out fire-boxes, or oiling machinery; all busy as bees, save the few, who, having completed their preparations, were buttoning up their jackets and awaiting the signal to charge. at last that signal came to john marrot--not in a loud shout of command or a trumpet-blast, but by the silent hand of time, as indicated on his chronometer. "but how," it may be asked, "does john marrot know precisely the hour at which he has to start, the stations he has to stop at, the various little acts of coupling on and dropping off carriages and trucks, and returning with trains or with `empties' within fixed periods so punctually, that he shall not interfere with, run into, or delay, the operations of the hundreds of drivers whose duties are as complex, nice, important, and swift as his own." reader, we reply that john knows it all in consequence of the perfection of _system_ attained in railway management. without this, our trains and rails all over the kingdom would long ago have been smashed up into what irishmen expressively name smithereens. the duty of arranging the details of the system devolves on the superintendents of departments on the line, namely, the passenger, goods, and locomotive superintendents, each of whom reigns independently and supreme in his own department, but of course, like the members of a well-ordered family, they have to consult together in order that their trains may be properly horsed, and the time of running so arranged that there shall be no clashing in their distinct though united interests. when the number of trains and time of running have been fixed, and finally published by the passenger superintendent--who is also sometimes the "out-door superintendent," and who has duties to perform that demand very considerable powers of generalship,--it is the duty of the locomotive superintendent to supply the requisite engines. this officer, besides caring for all the "plant" or rolling-stock, new and old, draws out periodically a schedule, in which is detailed to a nicety every minute act that has to be done by drivers--the hour at which each engine is to leave the shed on each day of the week, the number of each engine, its driver and fireman, and the duties to be performed; and this sheet contains complete _daily_ (nay, almost hourly) directions for passenger, goods, and pilot-engines. in order to secure attention to these regulations, each engineman is fined one shilling for every minute he is behind time in leaving the shed. the difficulty of making these runnings of trains dovetail into each other on lines where the traffic is great and constant, may well be understood to be considerable, particularly when it is remembered that ordinary regular traffic is interfered with constantly by numerous excursion, special, and other irregular trains, in the midst of which, also, time must be provided for the repair and renewal of the line itself, the turning of old rails, laying down of new ones, raising depressed sleepers, renewing broken chairs, etcetera,--all which is constantly going on, and that, too, at parts of the line over which hundreds of trains pass in the course of the twenty-four hours. besides the arrangements for the regular traffic, which are made monthly, a printed sheet detailing the special traffic, repairs of lines, new and altered signals, working arrangements, etcetera, is issued weekly to every member of the staff; particularly to engine-drivers and guards. we chance to possess one of these private sheets, issued by one of our principal railways. let us peep behind the scenes for a moment and observe how such matters are managed. the vacation has come to an end, and the boys of rapscallion college will, on a certain day, pour down on the railway in shoals with money in hand and a confident demand for accommodation. this invading army must be prepared for. ordinary trains are not sufficient for it. delay is dangerous on railways; it must not be permitted; therefore the watchful superintendent writes an order which we find recorded as follows:-- "_wednesday, th april_,--accommodation must be provided on this day in the : and : p.m. up, and : and : p.m. down trains, for the cadets returning to rapscallion college. by the trains named, rapscallion college tickets will be collected at whitewater on the down journey, and at smokingham on the up journey. oldershot to send a man to whitewater to assist in the collection of these tickets." again--a "relief train" has to be utilised. it won't "pay" to run empty trains on the line unnecessarily, therefore the superintendent has his eye on it, and writes:-- "_april_ rd.--an empty train will leave whiteheath for woolhitch at about : p.m., to work up from woolhitch at : p.m., calling at woolhitch dockyard and curlton, and forming the : p.m. up ordinary train from whiteheath. greatgun street to provide engines and guards for this service." this is but a slight specimen of the providing, dovetailing, timing, and guarding that has to be done on all the lines in the kingdom. in the same sheet from which the above is quoted, we find notes, cautions, and intimations as to such various matters as the holding of the levers of facing points when trains are passing through junctions; the attention required of drivers to new signals; the improper use of telegraph bells; the making search for lost "passes;" the more careful loading of goods waggons; the changes in regard to particular trains; the necessity of watchfulness on the part of station-masters, robberies having been committed on the line; the intimation of dates when and places where ballast trains are to be working on the line; the times and, places when and where repairs to line are to take place during the brief intervals between trains of the ordinary traffic; and many other matters, which naturally lead one to the belief that superintendents of railways must possess the eyes of argus, the generalship of wellington, and the patience of job. being carefully hedged in, as we have shown, with strict rules and regulations, backed by fines in case of the slightest inattention, and the certainty of prompt dismissal in case of gross neglect or disobedience, with the possibility of criminal prosecution besides looming in the far distance, our friend, john marrot, knowing his duties well, and feeling perfect confidence in himself and his superiors, consulted his chronometer for the last time, said, "now, then, bill!" and mounted his noble steed. will garvie, who was putting a finishing drop of oil into some part of the machinery, took his station beside his mate and eased off the brake. john let off two sharp whistles (an imperative duty on the part of every driver before starting an engine) and let on the steam. the first was a very soft pulsation--a mere puff--but it was enough to move the ponderous engine as if it had been a cork, though its actual weight with tender was fifty-three tons. another puff, and slowly the iron horse moved out of its stable. there was a gentle, oily, gliding, effect connected with its first movements that might have won the confidence even of timid mrs captain tipps. another puff of greater strength shot the engine forward with a sudden grandeur of action that would certainly have sent that lady's heart into her throat. in a few seconds it reached and passed the place where the siding was connected with the main line, and where a pointsman stood ready to shift the points. here the obedient spirit of the powerful steed was finely displayed. will garvie reversed the action of the engines by a process which, though beautifully simple and easily done, cannot be easily described. john let on a puff of steam, and the engine glided backwards as readily as it had run forward. a few seconds afterwards it moved slowly under the magnificent arch of clatterby station, and its buffers met those of the train it was destined to draw as if with a gentle touch of friendly greeting. at the station all was bustle and noise; but here we must venture to do what no human being could accomplish in reality, compel the : p.m. train to wait there until it shall be our pleasure to give it the signal to start! meanwhile we shall put back the clock an hour or so, ask the reader to return to mrs tipps' residence and observe what transpired there while john marrot was in the shed getting his iron steed ready for action. chapter three. in which the widow holds converse with a captain, makes the acquaintance of a young man, and receives a telegraphic shock, which ends in a railway journey. mrs captain tipps was, as we have said, a thin old lady of an excessively timid temperament. she was also, as we have shown, impulsively kind in disposition. moreover, she was bird-like in aspect and action. we would not have it supposed, however, that her features were sharp. on the contrary, they were neat and rounded and well formed, telling of great beauty in youth, but her little face and mouth were of such a form that one was led irresistibly to expect to hear her chirp; she fluttered rather than walked and twittered rather than talked. altogether she was a charming little old lady, with a pair of bead-like eyes as black as sloes. happy that captain--a sea-captain, by the way, long since dead--round whom she had fluttered in days gone bye, and happy that son joseph round whom, when at home, she fluttered now. but joseph was not often at home at the time we write of. he was an honest soul--a gentle, affectionate man with a handsome face, neat dapper little frame, something like his mother in many ways, yet not unmanly. he was too earnest, simple, unassuming, and unaffected to be that. he was a railway clerk, and had recently been appointed to langrye station, about fifty miles from clatterby, which necessitated his leaving his mother's roof; but mrs tipps consoled herself with the intention of giving up her little villa and going to live at langrye. poverty, after the captain's death, had seized upon the widow, and held her tightly down during the whole of that period when joseph and his only sister netta were being educated. but mrs tipps did her duty bravely by them. she was a practically religious woman, and tried most earnestly to rule her life in accordance with the blessed word of god. she trained up her children "in the way that they should go," in thorough reliance on the promise that "they would not depart from it when they were old." she accepted the command, "owe no man anything but to love one another," as given to herself as well as to the world at large--hence she kept out of debt, and was noted for deeds of kindness wherever she went. but she was pinched during this period--terribly pinched--no one knew how severely save her daughter netta, to whom she had been in the habit of confiding all her joys and sorrows from the time that the child could form any conception of what joy or sorrow meant. but mrs tipps did not weep over her sorrows, neither did she become boisterous over her joys. she was an equable, well-balanced woman in everything except the little matter of her nervous system. netta was a counterpart of her mother. as time went on expenses increased, and living on small means became more difficult, so that mrs tipps was compelled to contemplate leaving the villa, poor and small though it was, and taking a cheaper residence. at this juncture a certain captain lee, an old friend of her late husband--also a sea-captain, and an extremely gruff one--called upon the widow, found out her straitened circumstances, and instantly offered her five hundred pounds, which she politely but firmly refused. "but madam," said the excitable captain on that memorable occasion, "i must insist on your taking it. excuse me, i have my own reasons,--and they are extremely good ones,--for saying that it is my duty to give you this sum and yours to take it. i owe it to your late husband, who more than once laid me under obligations to him." mrs tipps shook her little head and smiled. "you are very kind, captain lee, to put it in that way, and i have no doubt that my dear husband did, as you say, lay you under many obligations because he was always kind to every one, but i cannot i assure you--" "very well," interrupted the captain, wiping his bald head with his pocket-handkerchief angrily, "then the money shall go to some charity-- some--some ridiculous asylum or hospital for teaching logarithms to the hottentots of the cape, or something of that sort. i tell you, madam," he added with increased vehemence, seeing that mrs tipps still shook her head, "i tell you that i _robbed_ your husband of five hundred pounds!" "robbed him!" exclaimed mrs tipps, somewhat shocked. "oh, captain lee, impossible!" "yes i did," replied the captain, crossing his arms and nodding his head firmly, "robbed him. i laid a bet with him to that extent and won it." "that is not usually considered robbery, captain lee," said mrs tipps with a smile. "but that ought to be considered robbery," replied the captain, with a frown. "betting is a mean, shabby, contemptible way of obtaining money for nothing on false pretences. the man who bets says in his heart, `i want my friend's money without the trouble of working for it, therefore i'll offer to bet with him. in so doing i'll risk an equal sum of my own money. that's fair and honourable!' is that logic?" demanded the captain, vehemently, "it is not! in the first place it is mean to want, not to speak of accepting, another man's money without working for it, and it is a false pretence to say that you risk your own money because it is _not_ your own, it is your wife's and your children's money, who are brought to poverty, mayhap, because of your betting tendencies, and it is your baker's and butcher's money, whose bread and meat you devour (as long as they'll let you) without paying for it, because of your betting tendencies, and a proportion of it belongs to your church, which you rob, and to the poor, whom you defraud, because of your betting tendencies; and if you say that when you win the case is altered, i reply, yes, it is altered for the worse, because, instead of bringing all this evil down on your own head you hurl it, not angrily, not desperately, but, worse, with fiendish _indifference_ on the head of your friend and his innocent family. yes, madam, although many men do not think it so, betting _is_ a dishonourable thing, and i'm ashamed of having done it. i repent, mrs tipps, the money burns my fingers, and i _must_ return it." "dear me!" exclaimed the old lady, quite unable to reply at once to such a gush. "but captain lee, did you not say that it is mean to accept money without working for it, and yet you want me to accept five hundred pounds without working for it?" "oh! monstrous sophistry," cried the perplexed man, grasping desperately the few hairs that remained on his polished head, "is there no difference then between presenting or accepting a gift and betting? are there not circumstances also in which poverty is unavoidable and the relief of it honourable as well as delightful? not to mention the courtesies of life, wherein giving and receiving in the right spirit and within reasonable limits, are expressive of good-will and conducive to general harmony. besides, i do not offer a gift. i want to repay a debt; by rights i ought to add compound interest to it for twenty years, which would make it a thousand pounds. now, _do_ accept it, mrs tipps," cried the captain, earnestly. but mrs tipps remained obdurate, and the captain left her, vowing that he would forthwith devote it as the nucleus of a fund to build a collegiate institute in cochin-china for the purpose of teaching icelandic to the japanese. captain lee thought better of it, however, and directed the fund to the purchase of frequent and valuable gifts to little joseph and his sister netta, who had no scruples whatever in accepting them. afterwards, when joseph became a stripling, the captain, being a director in the grand national trunk railway, procured for his protege a situation on the line. to return to our story after this long digression:-- we left mrs tipps in the last chapter putting on her bonnet and shawl, on philanthropic missions intent. she had just opened the door, when a handsome, gentlemanly youth, apparently about one or two and twenty, with a very slight swagger in his gait stepped up to it and, lifting his hat said-- "mrs tipps, i presume? i bring you a letter from clatterby station. another messenger should have brought it, but i undertook the duty partly for the purpose of introducing myself as your son's friend. i-- my name is gurwood." "what!--edwin gurwood, about whom joseph speaks so frequently, and for whom he has been trying to obtain a situation on the railway through our friend captain lee?" exclaimed mrs tipps. "yes," replied the youth, somewhat confused by the earnestness of the old lady's gaze, "but pray read the letter--the telegram--i fear--" he stopped, for mrs tipps had torn open the envelope, and stood gazing at it with terrible anxiety depicted on her face. "there is no cause for immediate fear, i believe," began edwin, but mrs tipps interrupted him by slowly reading the telegram. "from joseph tipps, langrye station, to mrs tipps, eden villa, clatterby. dear mother, netta is not very well--nothing serious, i hope--don't be alarmed--but you'd better come and nurse her. she is comfortably put up in my lodgings." mrs tipps grew deadly pale. young gurwood, knowing what the message was, having seen it taken down while lounging at the station, had judiciously placed himself pretty close to the widow. observing her shudder, he placed his strong arm behind her, and adroitly sinking down on one knee received her on the other, very much after the manner in which, while at school, he had been wont to act the part of second to pugilistic companions. mrs tipps recovered almost immediately, sprang up, and hurried into the house, followed by gurwood. "you'll have time to catch the . train," he said, as mrs tipps fluttered to a cupboard and brought out a black bottle. "thank you. yes, i'll go by that. you shall escort me to it. please ring the bell." the stout elderly female--netta's nurse--answered. "come here, durby," said the widow quickly; "i want you to take this bottle of wine to a poor sick woman. i had intended to have gone myself, but am called away suddenly and shan't be back to-night. you shall hear from me to-morrow. lock up the house and stay with the woman to look after her, if need be--and now, mr gurwood." they were gone beyond recall before mrs durby could recover herself. "i never did see nothink like my poor missus," she muttered, "there _must_ be somethink wrong in the 'ead. but she's a good soul." with this comforting reflection mrs durby proceeded to obey her "missus's" commands. on reaching the station mrs tipps found that she had five minutes to wait, so she thanked gurwood for escorting her, bade him good-bye, and was about to step into a third-class carriage when she observed captain lee close beside her, with his daughter emma, who, we may remark in passing, was a tall, dark, beautiful girl, and the bosom friend of netta tipps. "oh, there is captain lee. how fortunate," exclaimed mrs tipps, "he will take care of me. come, mr gurwood, i will introduce you to him and his daughter." she turned to gurwood, but that youth did not hear her remark, having been forced from her side by a noiseless luggage truck on india-rubber wheels. turning, then, towards the captain she found that he and his daughter had hastily run to recapture a small valise which was being borne off to the luggage van instead of going into the carriage along with them. at the same moment the guard intervened, and the captain and his daughter were lost in the crowd. but edwin gurwood, although he did not hear who they were, had obtained a glance of the couple before they disappeared, and that glance, brief though it was, had taken deadly effect! he had been shot straight to the heart. love at first sight and at railway speed, is but a feeble way of expressing what had occurred. poor edwin gurwood, up to this momentous day woman-proof, felt, on beholding emma, as if the combined powers of locomotive force and electric telegraphy had smitten him to the heart's core, and for one moment he stood rooted to the earth, or-- to speak more appropriately--nailed to the platform. recovering in a moment he made a dash into the crowd and spent the three remaining minutes in a wild search for the lost one! it was a market-day, and the platform of clatterby station was densely crowded. sam natly the porter and his colleagues in office were besieged by all sorts of persons with all sorts of questions, and it said much for the tempers of these harassed men, that, in the midst of their laborious duties, they consented to be stopped with heavy weights on their shoulders, and, while perspiration streamed down their faces, answered with perfect civility questions of the most ridiculous and unanswerable description. "where's my wife?" frantically cried an elderly gentleman, seizing sam by the jacket. "i don't know, sir," replied sam with a benignant smile. "there she is," shouted the elderly gentleman, rushing past and nearly overturning sam. "what a bo-ar it must be to the poatas to b' wearied so by stoopid people," observed a tall, stout, superlative fop with sleepy eyes and long whiskers to another fop in large-check trousers. "ya-as," assented the checked trousers. "take your seats, gentlemen," said a magnificent guard, over six feet high, with a bushy beard. "o-ah!" said the dandies, getting into their compartment. meanwhile, edwin gurwood had discovered emma. he saw her enter a first-class carriage. he saw her smile ineffably to her father. he heard the guard cry, "take your seats; take your seats," and knew that she was about to be torn from him perhaps for ever. he felt that it was a last look, because, how could he hope in a populous city to meet with her again? perhaps she did not even belong to that part of the country at all, and was only passing through. he did not even know her name! what _was_ he to do? he resolved to travel with her, but it instantly occurred to him that he had no ticket. he made a stride or two in the direction of the ticket office, but paused, remembering that he knew not her destination, and that therefore he could not demand a ticket for any place in particular. doors began to slam, and john marrot's iron horse let off a little impatient steam. just then the "late passenger" arrived. there is always a late passenger at every train. on this occasion the late passenger was a short-sighted elderly gentleman in a brown top-coat and spectacles. he was accompanied by a friend, who assisted him to push through the crowd of people who had come to see their friends away, or were loitering about for pastime. the late passenger carried a bundle of wraps; the boots of his hotel followed with his portmanteau. "all right sir; plenty of time," observed sam natly, coming up and receiving the portmanteau from boots. "which class, sir?" "eh--oh--third; no, stay, second," cried the short-sighted gentleman, endeavouring vainly to open his purse to pay boots. "here, hold my wraps, fred." his friend fred chanced at that moment to have been thrust aside by a fat female in frantic haste and edwin gurwood, occupying the exact spot he had vacated, had the bundle thrust into his hand. he retained it mechanically, in utter abstraction of mind. the bell rang, and the magnificent guard, whose very whiskers curled with an air of calm serenity, said, "now then, take your seats; make haste." edwin grew desperate. emma smiled bewitchingly to a doting female friend who had nodded and smiled bewitchingly to emma for the last five minutes, under the impression that the train was just going to start, and who earnestly wished that it _would_ start, and save her from the necessity of nodding or smiling any longer. "am i to lose sight of her for ever?" muttered gurwood between his teeth. the magnificent guard sounded his whistle and held up his hand. edwin sprang forward, pulled open the carriage door, leaped in and sat down opposite emma lee! the iron horse gave two sharp responsive whistles, and sent forth one mighty puff. the train moved, but not with a jerk; it is only clumsy drivers who jerk trains; sometimes pulling them up too soon, and having to make a needless plunge forward again, or overrunning their stopping points and having to check abruptly, so as to cause in timorous minds the impression that an accident has happened. in fact much more of one's comfort than is generally known depends upon one's driver being a good one. john marrot was known to the regular travellers on the line as a first-rate driver, and some of them even took an interest in ascertaining that he was on the engine when they were about to go on a journey. it may be truly said of john that he never "started" his engine at all. he merely as it were insinuated the idea of motion to his iron steed, and so glided softly away. just as the train moved, the late passenger thrust head and shoulders out of the window, waved his arms, glared abroad, and shouted, or rather spluttered-- "my b-b-bundle!--wraps!--rug!--lost!" a smart burly man, with acute features, stepped on the footboard of the carriage, and, moving with the train, asked what sort of rug it was. "eh! a b-b-blue one, wi-wi--" "with," interrupted the man, "black outside and noo straps?" "ye-ye-yes--yes!" "all right, sir, you shall have it at the next station," said the acute-faced man, stepping on the platform and allowing the train to pass. as the guard's van came up he leaped after the magnificent guard into his private apartment and shut the door. "hallo! davy blunt, somethin' up?" asked the guard. "yes, joe turner, there _is_ somethin' up," replied the acute man, leaning against the brake-wheel. "you saw that tall good-lookin' feller wi' the eyeglass and light whiskers?" "i did. seemed to me as if his wits had gone on wi' the last train, an' he didn't know how to overtake 'em." "i don't know about his wits," said blunt, "but it seems to me that he's gone on in _this_ train with somebody else's luggage." the guard whistled--not professionally, but orally. "you don't say so?" the acute man nodded, and, leaning his elbows on the window-sill, gazed at the prospect contemplatively. in a few minutes the : p.m. train was flying across country at the rate of thirty-five or forty miles an hour. chapter four. a double dilemma and its consequences. meanwhile, the "tall good-looking fellow with the eyeglass and light whiskers" sat quaking opposite emma lee. the extreme absurdity, not to say danger, of his position as a traveller to nowhere without a ticket, flashed upon him when too late, and he would have cheerfully given fifty pounds, had he possessed such a sum, if the boards under his feet would have opened and let him drop between the rails. in fact he felt so confused and guilty that--albeit not naturally a shy youth--he did not dare to look at emma for some time after starting, but sat with downcast eyes, revolving in his mind how he was to get out of the dilemma; but the more he revolved the matter the more hopeless did his case appear. at length he ventured to look at emma, and their eyes encountered. of course gurwood looked pointedly out at the window and became fascinated by the landscape; and of course emma, looked out at the _other_ window, and became equally interested in the landscape. feeling very unhappy; edwin soon after that took out a newspaper and tried to read, but failed so completely that he gave it up in despair and laid the paper on the seat beside him. just then a happy thought flashed into his mind. he would go on to langrye station, get out there, and make a confidant of his friend joseph tipps, who, of course, could easily get him out of his difficulty. he now felt as if a mighty load were lifted off his heart, and, his natural courage returning, he put up his eyeglass, which had been forgotten during the period of his humiliation, and gazed at the prospect with increasing interest--now through the right window, and then through the left--taking occasion each time to glance with still greater interest at emma lee's beautiful countenance. the captain, whose disposition was sociable, and who had chatted a good deal with his daughter while their _vis-a-vis_ was in his agony, soon took occasion to remark that the scenery was very fine. edwin, gazing at the black walls of a tunnel into which they plunged, and thinking of emma's face, replied that it was--extremely. emerging from the tunnel, and observing the least possible approach to a smile on. emma's lips, edwin remarked to the captain that railway travelling presented rather abrupt changes and contrasts in scenery. the captain laughingly agreed with this, and so, from one thing to another, they went on until the two got into a lively conversation--captain lee thinking his travelling companion an extremely agreeable young fellow, and edwin esteeming the captain one of the jolliest old boys he had ever met! these are the very words he used, long after, in commenting on this meeting to his friend joseph tipps. during a pause in the conversation, emma asked her father to whom a certain villa they were passing belonged. "i don't know," replied the captain; "stay, let me see, i ought to know most of the places hereabouts--no, i can't remember." "i rather think it belongs to a colonel jones," said gurwood, for the first time venturing to address emma directly. "a friend of mine who is connected with this railway knows him, and has often spoken to me about him. the colonel has led an extremely adventurous life, i believe." "indeed!" there was not much apparently in that little word, but there must have been something mysterious in it, for it caused edwin's heart to leap as it had never leapt before. on the strength of it he began to relate some of colonel jones's adventures, addressing himself now partly to the captain and partly to emma. he had a happy knack of telling a story, and had thoroughly interested his hearers when the train slowed and stopped, but as this was not the station at which he meant to get out-- langrye being the next--he took no notice of the stoppage. neither did he pay any regard to a question asked by the acute man, whose face appeared at the window as soon as the train stopped. "is that your bundle, sir?" repeated mr blunt a little louder. "eh? yes, yes--all right," replied edwin, annoyed at the interruption, and thinking only of emma lee, to whom he turned, and went on--"well, when colonel jones had scaled the first wall--" "come, sir," said blunt, entering the carriage, and laying his hand on edwin's shoulder, "it's _not_ all right. this is another man's property." the youth turned round indignantly, and, with a flushed countenance, said, "what do you mean?" "i mean that you are travelling with another man's property," said blunt, quietly pointing to the strapped rug. "_that_ is not my property," said edwin, looking at it with a perplexed air, "i never said it was." "didn't you though?" exclaimed blunt, with an appealing look to the captain. "didn't you say, when i asked you, `yes, it's all right.' moreover, young man, if it's not yours, why did you bring it into the carriage with you?" "_i_ did not bring it into the carriage," said edwin, firmly, and with increasing indignation. "i came down to this train with a lady, who is now in it, and who can vouch for it that i brought no luggage of any kind with me. i--" at this moment the elderly gentleman with brown top-coat and spectacles bustled up to the carriage, recognised his rug, and claimed it, with a good deal of fuss and noise. "where are you travelling to?" demanded blunt, with a touch of sarcasm in his tone. poor gurwood's countenance fell. he became somewhat pale, and said, in a much less resolute voice, "you have no right to ask that question; but since you suspect me, i may tell you that i am going to langrye." "show your ticket," said the guard, looking in at that moment. a glance showed the unhappy youth that captain lee was regarding him with surprise and emma with intense pity. desperation gave him courage. he turned abruptly to the captain, and said-- "i regret deeply, sir, that we part with such a foul suspicion hanging over me. come," he added sternly to blunt, "i will go with you, and shall soon prove myself innocent." he leaped to the platform, closely accompanied by blunt. "where do you intend to take me?" he asked, turning to his guardian, whom he now knew to be a detective. "here, step this way," said blunt, leading his prisoner towards the rear of the train. "such a nice-looking young man, too, who'd 'ave thought it!" whispered one of the many heads that were thrust out at the carriage-windows to look at him as he passed. "get in here," said blunt, holding open the door of an empty second-class compartment of the same train; "we shan't want a ticket for this part of the journey." "but the lady i mentioned," said poor edwin, "she can--" "you can see her at langrye, young man; come, get in," said blunt, sternly, "the train's just starting." edwin's blood boiled. he turned to smite the acute-visaged man to the earth, but encountering the serene gaze of the magnificent guard who stood close beside him, he changed his mind and sprang into the carriage. blunt followed, the door was banged and locked, the signal was given and the train moved on. "why do you take me to langrye instead of back to town?" asked edwin, after proceeding some distance in silence. "because we have an hour to wait for the up train, and it's pleasanter waiting there than here," replied blunt; "besides, i have business at langrye; i want to see one of my friends there who is looking after light-fingered gentry." as this was said significantly edwin did not deign a reply, but, leaning back in a corner, gazed out at the window and brooded over his unhappy fate. truly he had something to brood over. besides being in the unpleasant position which we have described, he had quite recently lost his only relative, a "rich uncle," as he was called, who had brought edwin up and had led him to believe that he should be his heir. it was found, however, on the examination of the old gentleman's affairs, that his fortune was a myth, and that his house, furniture, and personal effects would have to be sold in order to pay his debts. when all was settled, edwin gurwood found himself cast upon his own resources with good health, a kind but wayward disposition, a strong handsome frame, a middling education, and between three and four hundred pounds in his pocket. he soon found that this amount of capital melted with alarming rapidity under the influence of a good appetite and expensive tastes, so he resolved at once to commence work of some kind. but what was he to turn to? his uncle had allowed him to do as he pleased. naturally it pleased the energetic and enthusiastic boy to learn very little of anything useful, to read an immense amount of light literature, and to indulge in much open-air exercise. bitterly did he now feel, poor fellow, that this course, although somewhat pleasing at the time, did not fit him to use and enjoy the more advanced period of life. he had disliked and refused to sit still even for an hour at a time in boyhood; it now began to dawn upon him that he was doomed for life to the greatest of all his horrors, the top of a three-legged stool! he had hated writing and figures, and now visions of ledgers, cash-books, invoice-books and similar literature with endless arithmetical calculations began to float before his mental vision. with intense regret he reflected that if he had only used reasonably well the brief period of life which as yet lay behind him, he might by that time have been done with initial drudgery and have been entering on a brilliant career in one of the learned professions. as to the army and navy, he was too old to get into either, even if he had possessed interest, which he did not. sternly did he reproach his departed uncle when he brooded over his wrongs, and soliloquised thus:--"you ought to have known that i was a fool, that i could not be expected to know the fact, or to guide myself aright in opposition to and despite of my own folly, and you ought to have forced me to study when i declined to be led--bah! it's too late to say all this now. come, if there is any manhood in me worthy of the name, let me set to work at once and make the most of what is left to me!" edwin reflected with complacency on the fact that one part of what was left to him was a tall strong frame and broad shoulders, but his judgment told him that though these were blessings not to be despised, and for which he had every reason to be thankful, he ought not to plume himself too much on them, seeing that he shared them in common with numerous prize-fighters and burglars, besides which they could not prove of very much value professionally unless he took to mining or coal-heaving. he also reflected sadly on the fact that beyond the three r's, a little latin and french, and a smattering of literary knowledge, he was little better than a red indian. being, as we have said, a resolute fellow, he determined to commence a course of study without delay, but soon found that the necessity of endeavouring to obtain a situation and of economising his slender fortune interfered sadly with his efforts. however, he persevered. in the time of his prosperity, young gurwood had made many friends, but a touch of pride had induced him to turn aside from these--although many of them would undoubtedly have been glad to aid him in his aims--to quit the house of his childhood and betake himself to the flourishing town of clatterby, where he knew nobody except one soft amiable little school-fellow, whom in boyish days he had always deemed a poor, miserable little creature, but for whom nevertheless he entertained a strong affection. we need scarcely say that this was joseph tipps, the clerk at langrye station. chapter five. an accident and its consequences. locomotives and telegraphy are mere snails compared to thought. let us therefore use our advantage, reader, stride in advance of the : p.m. train (which by the way has now become a : p.m. train), and see what little joseph tipps is doing. there he stands--five feet four in his highest-heeled boots--as sterling and warm-hearted a little man as ever breathed. he was writing at a little desk close to a large window, which, owing to the station being a temporary one and its roof low, was flimsy, and came nearer to the ground than most windows do. mr tipps wrote somewhat nervously. he inherited his mother's weakness in this respect; and, besides, his nerves had been a little shaken, by the sudden illness, with which his sister had been seized that day, at his lodgings. outside on the platform a few people lounged, waiting the arrival of the expected train. among them was one whose bulky frame and firm strongly-lined countenance spoke of much power to dare and do. he was considerably above the middle height and somewhere about middle age. his costume was of that quiet unobtrusive kind which seems to court retirement, and the sharp glance of his eyes seemed to possess something of the gimblet in their penetrating power. this was no less a personage than mr sharp, the inspector of police on the grand national trunk railway. mr inspector sharp had evidently an eye for the beautiful, for he stood at the farther extremity of the platform gazing in rapt attention at the sun, which just then was setting in a flood of golden light. but mr sharp had also a peculiar faculty for observing several things at once. indeed, some of his friends, referring to this, were wont to remark that he was a perfect argus, with eyes in his elbows and calves and back of his head. it would seem, indeed, that this, or something like it, must really have been the case, for he not only observed and enjoyed the sunset but also paid particular attention to the conversation of two men who stood not far from him, and at the same time was cognisant of the fact that behind him, a couple of hundred yards or more up the line, a goods engine was engaged in shunting trucks. this process of shunting, we may explain for the benefit of those who don't know, consists in detaching trucks from trains of goods and shoving them into sidings, so that they may be out of the way, until their time comes to be attached to other trains, which will convey them to their proper destination, or to have their contents, if need be, unloaded and distributed among other trucks. shunting is sometimes a tedious process, involving much hauling, pushing, puffing, and whistling, on the part of the engine, and uncoupling of trucks and shifting of points on the part of pointsmen and porters. there is considerable danger, too, in the process,--or rather there _was_ danger before the introduction of the "block system," which now, when it is adopted, renders accidents almost impossible,--of which system more shall be said hereafter. the danger lies in this, that shunting has frequently to be done during intervals between the passing of passenger-trains, and, on lines where passenger and goods traffic is very great, these intervals are sometimes extremely brief. but, strange to say, this danger is the mother of safety, for the difficulty of conducting extensive traffic is so great, that a combination of all but perfect systems of signalling, telegraphing, and organisation is absolutely needful to prevent constant mishap. hence the marvellous result that, in the midst of danger, we are in safety, and travelling by railway is really less dangerous than travelling by stage-coach used to be in days of old. yes, timid reader, we assure you that if you travel daily by rail your chances of coming to grief are very much fewer than if you were to travel daily by mail coach. facts and figures prove this beyond all doubt, so that we are entitled to take the comfort of it. the marvel is, not that loss of life is so great, but that it is so small. do you doubt it, reader? behold the facts and figures--wonder, be thankful and doubt no more! a "blue book" (captain tyler's general report to the board of trade on railway accidents during the year ) tells us that the number of passengers killed on railways last year was ninety. the number of passenger journeys performed was millions, which gives, in round numbers, one passenger killed for every three and a half millions that travelled. in the best mail and stage-coaching days the yearly number of travellers was about two millions. the present railway death-rate applied to this number amounts to a little more than one-half of a unit! will any one out of bedlam have the audacity to say that in coaching days only half a passenger was killed each year? we leave facts to speak for themselves, and common-sense to judge whether men were safer then than they are now. but to return. when mr sharp was looking at the distant waggons that were being shunted he observed that the engine which conducted the operation was moved about with so much unnecessary fuss and jerking that he concluded it must be worked by a new, or at all events a bad, driver. he shook his head, therefore, pulled out his watch, and muttered to himself that it seemed to him far too near the time of the arrival of a train to make it safe to do such work. the calculations, however, had been made correctly, and the train of trucks would have been well out of the way, if the driver had been a smarter man. even as things stood, however, there should have been no danger, because the distant signal was turned to danger, which thus said to any approaching train, "stop! for your life." but here occurred one of these mistakes, or pieces of carelessness, or thoughtlessness, to which weak and sinful human nature is, and we suppose always will be, liable. perhaps the signalman thought the goods train had completed its operation, or fancied that the express was not so near as it proved to be, or he got confused--we cannot tell; there is no accounting for such things, but whatever the cause, he turned off the danger-signal half a minute too soon, and set the line free. suddenly the down train came tearing round the curve. it was at reduced speed certainly, but not sufficiently reduced to avoid a collision with the trucks on a part of the line where no trucks should be. our friend john marrot was on the look-out of course, and so was his mate. they saw the trucks at once. like lightning john shut off the steam and at the same instant touched his whistle several sharp shrieks, which was the alarm to the guard to turn on _his_ brakes. no men could have been more prompt or cool. joe turner and will garvie had on full brake-power in a second or two. at the same time john marrot instantly reversing the engine, let on full steam--but all in vain. fire flew in showers from the shrieking wheels--the friction on the rails must have been tremendous, nevertheless the engine dashed into the goods train like a thunderbolt with a stunning crash and a noise that is quite indescribable. the police superintendent, who was all but run over, stood for a few seconds aghast at the sight and at the action of the engine. not satisfied with sending one of its own carriages into splinters, the iron horse made three terrific plunges or efforts to advance, and at each plunge a heavy truck full of goods was, as it were, pawed under its wheels and driven out behind, under the tender, in the form of a mass of matchwood--all the goods, hard and soft, as well as the heavy frame of the truck itself being minced up together in a manner that defies description. it seemed as though the monster had been suddenly endued with intelligence, and was seeking to vent its horrid rage on the thing that had dared to check its pace. three loaded trucks it crushed down, over-ran, and scattered wide in this way, in three successive plunges, and then, rushing on a few yards among chaotic _debris_, turned slowly on its side, and hurled the driver and fireman over the embankment. the shock received by the people at the station was tremendous. poor tipps, standing at his desk, was struck--nervously--as if by electricity. he made one wild involuntary bolt right through the window, as if it had been made of tissue paper, and did not cease to run until he found himself panting in the middle of a turnip-field that lay at the back of the station. turning round, ashamed of himself, he ran back faster than he had run away, and leaping recklessly among the _debris_, began to pull broken and jagged timber about, under the impression that he was rescuing fellow-creatures from destruction! strange to say no one was killed on that occasion--no one was even severely hurt, except the driver. but of course this was not known at first and the people who were standing about hurried, with terrible forebodings, to lend assistance to the passengers. mr sharp seemed to have been smitten with feelings somewhat similar to those of tipps, for, without knowing very well how or why, he suddenly found himself standing up to the armpits in _debris_, heaving might and main at masses of timber. "hallo! lift away this beam, will you?" shouted a half-smothered voice close beside him. it came from beneath the carriage that we have described as having been broken to splinters. sharp was a man of action. he hailed a porter near him and began with energy and power to tear up and hurl aside the boards. presently on raising part of the broken framework of the carriage a man struggled to his feet and, wiping away the blood that flowed from a wound in his forehead, revealed the countenance of edwin gurwood to the astonished tipps. "what! edwin!" he exclaimed. "ay--don't stand there, man. your mother is in the train." poor tipps could not speak--he could only gasp the word, "where?" "in a third-class, behind--there, it is safe, i see." his friend at once leaped towards the vehicle pointed out, but edwin did not follow, he glanced wildly round in search of another carriage. "you are hurt--mr gurwood, if i mistake not,--lean on me," said mr sharp. "it's nothing--only a scratch. ha! that's the carriage, follow me," cried edwin, struggling towards a first-class carriage, which appeared considerably damaged, though it had not left the rails. he wrenched open the door, and, springing in, found captain lee striving in vain to lift his daughter, who had fainted. edwin stooped, raised her in his arms, and, kicking open the door on the opposite side, leaped down, followed by the captain. they quickly made their way to the station, where they found most of the passengers, hurt and unhurt, already assembled, with two doctors, who chanced to be in the train, attending to them. edwin laid his light burden tenderly on a couch and one of the doctors immediately attended to her. while he was applying restoratives mr blunt touched edwin on the elbow and requested him to follow him. with a feeling of sudden anger gurwood turned round, but before he could speak his eye fell on mrs tipps, who sat on a bench leaning on her son's breast, and looking deadly pale but quite composed. "my dear mrs tipps," exclaimed the youth, stepping hastily forward, "i hope--i trust--" "oh, edwin--thank you, my dear fellow," cried joseph, grasping his hand and shaking it. "she is not hurt, thank god--not even a scratch--only a little shaken. fetch a glass of water, you'll find one in the booking-office." gurwood ran out to fetch it. as he was returning he met captain lee leading his daughter out of the waiting-room. "i sincerely hope that your daughter is not hurt," he said, in earnest tones. "perhaps a little water might--" "no, thank you," said the captain somewhat stiffly. "the carriage is waiting, sir," said a servant in livery, coming up at the moment and touching his hat. emma looked at edwin for a second, and, with a slight but perplexed smile of acknowledgment, passed on. next moment the carriage drove away, and she was gone. edwin at the same time became aware of the fact that the pertinacious blunt was at his side. walking quickly into the waiting-room he presented the glass of water to mrs tipps, but to his surprise that eccentric lady rose hastily and said,--"thank you, mr gurwood, many thanks, but i am better. come, joseph--let us hasten to our darling netta. have you sent for a fly?" "there is one waiting, mother--take my arm. many, many thanks for your kindness in coming with her, gurwood," said tipps. "i can't ask you to come with me just now, i--" the rest of his speech was lost in consequence of the impatient old lady dragging her son away, but what had been heard of it was sufficient to fill mr blunt with surprise and perplexity. "well, blunt," said mr superintendent sharp, coming up at that moment, "what has brought you here?" the detective related his story privately to his superior, and remarked that he began to fear there must be some mistake. "yes, there is a mistake of some sort," said sharp, with a laugh, "for i've met him frequently at clatterby station, and know him to be a friend of mr tipps; but you have done your duty, blunt, so you can now leave the gentleman to me," saying which he went up to edwin and entered into an under-toned conversation with him, during which it might have been observed that edwin looked a little confused at times, and mr sharp seemed not a little amused. "well, it's all right," he said at last, "we have telegraphed for a special train to take on the passengers who wish to proceed, and you can go back, if you choose, in the up train, which is about due. it will be able to get past in the course of half-an-hour. fortunately the rails of the up-line are not damaged and the wreck can soon be cleared." just then the dandy with the sleepy eyes and long whiskers sauntered up to the porter on duty, with an unconcerned and lazy air. he had received no further injury than a shaking, and therefore felt that he could afford to affect a cool and not-easy-to-be-ruffled demeanour. "aw--po-taw," said he, twirling his watch-key, "w'en d'you expect anotha twain to take us on?" "don't know, sir, probably half-an-hour." "aw! dooced awkwad. my fwend has got the bwidge of his nose damaged, besides some sort of internal injuway, and won't be able to attend to business to-night, i fear--dooced awkwad." "d'you hear that?" whispered sharp to gurwood, as the "fwend" in question--he with the checked trousers--sauntered past holding a handkerchief to his nose. "i know by the way in which that was said that there will be something more heard some day hence of our fop in checks. just come and stand with me in the doorway of the waiting-room, and listen to what some of the other passengers are saying." "very hard," observed a middle-aged man with a sour countenance, who did not present the appearance of one who had sustained any injury at all, "very hard this. i shall miss meeting with a friend, and perhaps lose doin' a good stroke of business to-night." "be thankful you haven't lost your life," said will garvie, who supported the head of his injured mate. "mayhap i _have_ lost my life, young man," replied the other sharply. "internal injuries from accidents often prove fatal, and don't always show at first. i've had a severe shake." here the sour-faced man shook himself slightly, partly to illustrate and partly to prove his point. "you're quite right, sur," remarked an irishman, who had a bandage tied round his head, but who did not appear to be much, if at all, the worse of the accident. "it's a disgrace intirely that the railways should be allowed to trait us in this fashion. if they'd only go to the trouble an' expense of havin' proper signals on lines, there would be nothing o' this kind. and if government would make a law to have an arm-chair fitted up in front of every locomotive and a director made to travel with sich train, we'd hear of fewer accidents. but it's meself 'll come down on 'em for heavy damages for this." he pointed to his bandaged head, and nodded with a significant glance at the company. a gentleman in a blue travelling-cap, who had hitherto said nothing, and who turned out to have received severer injuries than any other passenger, here looked up impatiently, and said-- "it appears to me that there is a great deal of unjust and foolish talk against railway companies, as if they, any more than other companies, could avoid accidents. the system of signalling on a great part of this line is the best that has been discovered up to this date, and it is being applied to the whole line as fast as circumstances will warrant; but you can't expect to attain perfection in a day. what would you have? how can you expect to travel at the rate you do, and yet be as safe as if you were in one of the old mail-coaches?" "right, sir; you're right," cried john marrot energetically, raising himself a little from the bench on which he lay, "right in sayin' we shouldn't ought to expect parfection, but wrong in supposin' the old mail-coaches was safer. w'y, railways is safer. they won't stand no comparison. here 'ave i bin drivin' on this 'ere line for the last eight year an' only to come to grief three times, an' killed no more than two people. there ain't a old coach goin', or gone, as could say as much. an' w'en you come to consider that in them eight years i've bin goin' more than two-thirds o' the time at an average o' forty mile an hour--off an' on--all night a'most as well as all day, an' run thousands and thousands o' miles, besides carryin' millions of passengers, more or less, it do seem most rediklous to go for to say that coaches was safer than railways--the revarse bein' the truth. turn me round a bit, bill; so, that'll do. it's the bad leg i come down on, else i shouldn't have bin so hard-up. yes, sir, as you truly remark, railway companies ain't fairly dealt with, by no means." at this point the attention of the passengers was attracted by a remarkably fat woman, who had hitherto lain quietly on a couch breathing in a somewhat stertorous manner. one of the medical men had been so successful in his attention to her as to bring her to a state of consciousness. indeed she had been more or less in this condition for some time past, but feeling rather comfortable than otherwise, and dreamy, she had lain still and enjoyed herself. being roused, however, to a state of activity by means of smelling-salts, and hearing the doctor remark that, except a shaking, she appeared to have sustained no injury, this stout woman deemed it prudent to go off into hysterics, and began by uttering a yell that would have put to shame a comanchee indian, and did more damage, perhaps, to the nerves of her sensitive hearers than the accident itself. she followed it up by drumming heavily on the couch with her heels. singularly enough her yell was replied to by the whistle of the up train, that had been due for some time past. she retorted by a renewed shriek, and became frantic in her assurances that no power yet discovered--whether mechanical, moral, or otherwise--could or would, ever persuade her to set foot again in a railway train! it was of no use to assure her that no one meant to exert such a power, even if he possessed it; that she was free to go where she pleased, and whenever she felt inclined. the more that stout woman was implored to compose herself, the more she discomposed herself, and everybody else; and the more she was besought to be calm, the more, a great deal, did she fill the waiting-room with hysterical shrieks and fiendish laughter, until at last every one was glad to go out of the place and get into the train that was waiting to take them back to clatterby. then the stout woman became suddenly calm, and declared to a porter--who must have had a heart of stone, so indifferent was he to her woes--that she would be, "glad to proceed to the nearest 'otel if 'e would be good enough to fetch her a fly." "h'm!" said mr sharp, as he and young gurwood entered a carriage together, after having seen john marrot placed on a pile of rugs on the floor of a first-class carriage; "there's been work brewin' up for me to-night." "how? what do you mean?" asked edwin. "i mean that, from various indications which i observed this evening, we are likely to have some little correspondence with the passengers of the : p.m. train. however, we're used to it; perhaps we'll get not to mind it in course of time. we do all that we can to accommodate the public--fit up our carriages and stations in the best style compatible with giving our shareholders a small dividend--carry them to and fro over the land at little short of lightning speed, every day and all day and night too, for extremely moderate fares, and with excessive safety and exceeding comfort; enable them to live in the country and do business in the city, as well as afford facilities for visiting the very ends of the earth in a few days; not to mention other innumerable blessings to which we run them, or which we run _to_ them, and yet no sooner does a rare accident occur (as it _will_ occur in every human institution, though it occurs less on railways than in most other institutions) than down comes this ungrateful public upon us with indignant cries of `disgraceful!' and, in many cases, unreasonable demands for compensation." "such is life," said gurwood with a smile. "on the rail," added mr superintendent sharp with a sigh, as the whistle sounded and the train moved slowly out of the station. chapter six. history of the iron horse. having gone thus far in our tale, permit us, good reader, to turn aside for a little to make a somewhat closer inspection of the iron horse and his belongings. railways existed long before the iron horse was born. they sprang into being two centuries ago in the form of tramways, which at first were nothing more or less than planks or rails of timber laid down between the newcastle-on-tyne collieries and the river, for the purpose of forming a better "way" over which to run the coal-trucks. from simple timber-rails men soon advanced to planks having a strip of iron nailed on their surface to prevent too rapid tear and wear, but it was not till the year that cast-iron rails were introduced. in order to prevent the trucks from slipping off the line the rails were cast with an upright flange or guide at one side, and were laid on wooden or stone sleepers. this form of rail being found inconvenient, the flange was transferred from the rails to the wheels, and this arrangement, under various modifications has been ever since retained. these "innocent" railroads--as they have been sometimes and most appropriately named, seeing that they were guiltless alike of blood and high speed--were drawn by horses, and confined at first to the conveyance of coals. modest though their pretensions were, however, they were found to be an immense improvement on the ordinary roads, insomuch that ten horses were found to be capable of working the traffic on railroads, which it required horses to perform on a common road. these iron roads, therefore, began to multiply, and about the beginning of the present century they were largely employed in the coal-fields and mineral districts of the kingdom. about the same time thoughtful men, seeing the immense advantage of such ways, began to suggest the formation of railways, or tramways, to run along the side of our turnpike-roads--a mode of conveyance, by the way, in regard to towns, which thoughtful men are still, ever at the present day of supposed enlightenment, endeavouring to urge upon an unbelieving public--a mode of conveyance which we feel very confident will entirely supersede our cumbrous and antiquated "'bus" in a very short time. what, we ask, in the name of science and art and common-sense, is to prevent a tramway being laid from kensington to the bank, "or elsewhere," which shall be traversed by a succession of roomy carriages following each other every five minutes; which tramway might be crossed and recrossed and run upon, or, in other words, used by all the other vehicles of london except when the rightful carriages were in the way? nothing prevents, save that same unbelief which has obstructed the development of every good thing from the time that noah built the ark! but we feel assured that the thing shall be, and those who read this book may perhaps live to see it! but to return. among these thoughtful and far-seeing men was one dr james anderson, who in proposed the formation of railways by the roadsides, and he was so correct in his views that the plans which he suggested of keeping the level, by going round the base of hills, or forming viaducts, or cutting tunnels, is precisely the method practised by engineers of the present day. two years later a mr edgeworth announced that he had long before, "formed the project of laying iron railways for baggage waggons on the great roads of england," and, in order to prevent tear and wear, he proposed, instead of conveying heavy loads in one huge waggon, to have a train of small waggons. with the modesty of true genius, which never over-estimates or forms wildly sanguine expectations, he thought that each waggon might perhaps carry one ton and a half! edgeworth also suggested that _passengers_ might travel by such a mode of conveyance. bold man! what a goose many people of his day must have thought him. if they had been alive now, what geese they might have thought themselves. the society of arts, however, were in advance of their time. they rewarded edgeworth with their gold medal. this man seems to have been a transcendent genius, because he not only devised and made (on a small scale) iron railways, but proposed to take ordinary vehicles, such as mail-coaches and private carriages, on his trucks, and convey them along his line at the rate of six or eight miles an hour with one horse. he also propounded the idea of the employment of stationary steam-engines (locomotives not having been dreamed of) to drag the trains up steep inclines. another semi-prophetic man of these days was thomas gray, of leeds, who in published a work on what he styled a "general iron railway, or land steam conveyance, to supersede the necessity of horses in all public vehicles, showing its vast superiority in every respect over the present pitiful methods of conveyance by turnpike-roads and canals." gray, whose mind appears to have been unusually comprehensive, proposed a system of railway communication between all the important cities and towns in the kingdom, and pointed out the immense advantage that would be gained to commerce by such a ready and rapid means of conveying fish, vegetables, and other perishable articles from place to place. he also showed that two post deliveries in the day would become possible, and that fire insurance companies would be able to promote their interests by keeping railway fire-engines, ready to be transported to scenes of conflagration without delay. but gray was not esteemed a prophet. his suggestions were not adopted nor his plans acted on, though unquestionably his wisdom and energy gave an impulse to railway development, of which we are reaping the benefit to-day. his labours were not in vain. horse railways soon began to multiply over the country. the first authorised by act of parliament was the surrey railway in . twenty years later twenty lines of railway were in operation. about this time, too, another man of note and of great scientific and mechanical sagacity lent his powerful aid to advance the interests of the railway cause. this was charles maclaren, of edinburgh, editor of the _scotsman_ newspaper for nearly thirty years. he had long foreseen, and boldly asserted his belief in, the certain success of steam locomotion by rail, at a time when opinions such as his were scouted as wild delusive dreams. but he did more, he brought his able pen to bear on the subject, and in december published a series of articles in the _scotsman_ on the subject of railways, which were not only extensively quoted and republished in this country and in america, but were deemed worthy of being translated into french and german, and so disseminated over europe. mr maclaren was thus among the foremost of those who gave a telling impulse to the cause at that critical period when the iron horse was about to be put on the rail--the right horse in the right place--for it was not many years afterwards that that auspicious event took place. mr maclaren not only advocated generally the adoption of railways, but logically demonstrated the wonderful powers and capacities of the steam locomotive, arguing, from the experiments on friction made more than half a century before by vince and colomb, that by the use of steam-power on railroads a much more rapid and cheaper transit of persons as well as merchandise might be confidently anticipated. he leaped far ahead of many of even the most hopeful advocates of the cause, and with almost prophetic foresight wrote, "there is scarcely any limit to the rapidity of movement these iron pathways will enable us to command." and again,--"we have spoken of vehicles travelling at twenty miles an hour; but we see no reason for thinking that, in the progress of improvement, a much higher velocity might not be found practicable; and in twenty years hence a shopkeeper or mechanic, on the most ordinary occasion, may probably travel with a speed that would leave the fleetest courser behind." wonderful words these! at a first glance we may not deem them so, being so familiar with the ideas which they convey, but our estimate of them will be more just if we reflect that when they were penned railways had scarcely sprung into being, steam locomotives had only just been born, and not only men in general, but even many learned, scientific and practical men regarded the statement of all such opinions as being little short of insanity. nevertheless, many deep-thinking men thought differently, and one contemporary, reviewing this subject in after years, said of mr maclaren's papers, that, "they prepared the way for the success of railway projectors." we have said that the steam locomotive--the material transformer of the world--our iron horse, had just been born. it was not however born on the rails, but on the common road, and a tremendous baby-giant it was, tearing up its cradle in such furious fashion that men were terrified by it, and tried their best to condemn it to inactivity, just as a weak and foolish father might lock up his unruly boy and restrain him perforce, instead of training him wisely in the way in which he should go. but the progenitors of the iron horse were, like their herculean child, men of mettle. they fought a gallant fight for their darling's freedom, and came off victorious! of course, many men and many nations were anxious to father this magnificent infant, and to this day it is impossible to say precisely who originated him. he is said by some to have sprung from the brains of englishmen, others assert that brains in france and switzerland begat him, and we believe that brother jonathan exercised his prolific brain on him, before the actual time of his birth. the first name on record in connexion with this infant hercules is that of dr robison, who communicated his ideas to watt in . the latter thereupon made a model locomotive, but entertained doubts as to its safety. oliver evans, of philadelphia, patented a "steam waggon" in . william murdoch, the friend and assistant of watt, made a model in which drew a small waggon round a room in his house in cornwall. in the same year symington exhibited a model locomotive in edinburgh, and in he worked a steam-engine on a turnpike-road in lanarkshire. richard trevethick, who had seen murdoch's model, made and patented a locomotive in . it drew on a tramway a load of ten tons at the rate of five miles an hour. trevethick also made a carriage to run on common roads, and altogether did good service in the cause. blenkinsop, of middleton colliery, near leeds, made locomotives in which hauled coals up steep ascents by means of a toothed rail, with a toothed propelling wheel working into it. this unnatural infant, however, turned out to be not the true child. it was found that such a powerful creature did not require teeth at all, that he could "bite" quite well enough by means of his weight alone,--so the teeth were plucked out and never allowed to grow again. after this, in , came brunton of butterley, with a curious contrivance in the form of legs and feet, which were attached to the rear of his engine and propelled it by a sort of walking motion. it did not walk well, however, and very soon walked off the field of competition altogether. at last, in the fulness of time there came upon the scene the great railway king, george stephenson, who, if he cannot be said to have begotten the infant, at all events brought him up and effectually completed his training. george stephenson was one of our most celebrated engineers, and the "father of the railway system." he may truly be said to have been one of mankind's greatest benefactors. he was a self-taught man, was born near newcastle in , began life as a pit-engine boy with wages at two-pence a day, and ultimately rose to fame and fortune as an engineer. in he made a locomotive for the killingworth colliery railway. it drew thirty tons at the rate of four miles an hour, and was regarded as a great success. in an engine of the same kind was used on the stockton and darlington railway, of which stephenson had been made engineer. but the great crowning effort of stephenson, and the grand impulse to the railway cause, which carried it steadily and swiftly on to its present amazing degree of prosperity, did not occur till the year . previous to that date the manchester and liverpool railway was being constructed, and so little was known as to the capabilities of railways and the best mode of working them, that the directors and engineers had some difficulty in deciding whether the line should be worked by fixed engines or by locomotives. it was ultimately decided that the latter should be used, and a premium of pounds was offered for the best locomotive that could be produced, in accordance with certain conditions. these were--that the chimney should emit no smoke--that the engine should be on springs--that it should not weigh more than six tons, or four-and-a-half tons if it had only four wheels--that it should be able to draw a load of twenty tons at the rate of ten miles an hour, with a pressure of fifty pounds to the square inch in the boiler, and should not cost more than pounds. the iron horse was now at last about to assume its right position. it was no longer an infant, but a powerful stripling--though still far from its full growth; as far as six tons is from sixty! four iron steeds were entered to compete for the prize. it was in october that this celebrated trial came off, and great was the interest manifested on the occasion, for not only did the public entertain doubts as to the capabilities of locomotives, but very few even of the engineers of the country would admit the possibility of a locomotive engine attaining a speed greater than ten miles an hour! first came the "novelty" of braithwaite and ericson; then the "sans pareil" of hawkworth; the "perseverance" of burstall; and, lastly, the "rocket" of stephenson. of the first three we shall merely say that the "novelty," being weak in the wheels, broke down; the "sans pareil" burst one of her cylinders; and the "perseverance" turned out to be too heavy to comply with the conditions of the trial. the "rocket" advanced, and was harnessed to a train of waggons weighing thirteen tons; the fire was lighted, and the steam got up. the valves lifted at the stipulated fifty pounds pressure, and away it went with its load at an average speed of fifteen, and a maximum speed of twenty-nine miles an hour! thus triumphantly the "rocket" won the prize of pounds, and the iron horse was fairly and finally married to the iron road. one of the important elements of stephenson's success lay in the introduction of numerous tubes into his boiler, through which the fire, and heat passed, and thus presented a vast amount of heating surface to the water. another point was his allowing the waste steam to pass through the chimney, thus increasing the draught and intensifying the combustion; for heat is the life of the locomotive, and without much of this, high rates of speed could not be attained. the difference between the first locomotive and those now in use is very great--as may be seen any day in london, by any one who chooses to visit one of our great railway stations, and go thence to the kensington museum, where the "rocket" is now enshrined--a memorial of stephenson's wisdom, and of the beginning of our magnificent railway system. yet though the difference be great it is wonderful how complete the "rocket" was, all things considered. the modern improvements made on locomotives consist chiefly in clothing the boiler with wood, felt, and other non-conductors to increase the life-giving heat; in heating the feed-water, coupling the driving-wheels, working the cylinders horizontally, economising steam by cutting off the supply at any part of the stroke that may be required, and economising fuel by using raw coal instead of coke, and consuming the smoke, besides many other minor contrivances, but all the great principles affecting the locomotive were applied by george stephenson, and illustrated in the "rocket." it is no wonder that the first iron horse was clumsy in appearance and somewhat grotesque, owing to the complication of rods, cranks, and other machinery, which was all exposed to view. it required years of experience to enable our engineers to construct the grand, massive, simple chargers which now run off with our monster-trains as if they were feathers. when the iron horse was first made, men were naturally in haste to ascertain his power and paces. he was trotted out, so to speak, in his skeleton, with his heart and lungs and muscles exposed to view in complex hideosity! now-a-days he never appears without his skin well-groomed and made gay with paint and polished brass and steel. we have said that the "rocket" drew thirteen tons at nearly thirty miles an hour. our best engines can now draw hundreds of tons, and they can run at the rate of above sixty miles an hour at maximum speed. the more ordinary speed, however, for passenger-trains is from thirty to forty-five miles an hour. the weight of the "rocket" was six tons. that of some of our largest engines with tenders is from forty to above fifty tons. from the time of the opening of the old manchester and liverpool railway in to the present day--a period of little more than forty years-- railway construction has gone forward throughout the land--and we may add the world--with truly railway speed, insomuch that england has become covered from end to end with an absolute network of iron roads, and the benefit to our country has been inconceivably great. it would require a large volume to treat of these and correlative subjects, as they deserve. two hundred years ago the course of post between london and edinburgh was one month; before an answer could be received two months had to elapse! about a hundred years later there was one stage-coach between the two cities, which did the distance in a fortnight, rendering communication and reply possible once in each month. in those days roads were uncommonly bad. one writer tells us that, while travelling in lancashire, a county now traversed by railways in all directions, he found one of the principal roads so bad that there were ruts in it, which he measured, four feet deep, and that the only mending it received was the tumbling of stones into these holes to fill them up. the extremely limited goods traffic of the country was conducted by the slow means of carts and waggons. enterprising men, however, then as now, were pushing the world forward, though they were by no means so numerous then as now. in it took a week to travel between london and exeter, and cost from forty to forty-five shillings. about the same period a six-horse coach took six days to perform the journey between edinburgh and glasgow and back. to accomplish fifty miles or thereabouts in two days with a six-horse stage-coach, was considered good work and high speed about the beginning of last century. near the middle of it ( ) travelling by night was for the first time introduced, and soon after that a coach was started with a wicker-basket slung behind for outside passengers! some years afterwards an enterprising individual started a "flying coach" drawn by eight horses, which travelled between london and dover in a day--the fare being one guinea. even at the beginning of the present century four miles an hour was deemed a very fair rate of travelling for a stage-coach. with the improvement of roads by the famous macadam in , began improved travelling and increased speed. the process was rapid. mail-coaches began to overrun the country in all directions at the then remarkable pace of from eight to ten miles an hour,--and, let us remark in passing, there was a whirl and dash about these stage-coaches which railway trains, with all their velocity can never hope to attain to, except when they dash into each other! man is but a weak creature in some senses. facts are scarcely facts to him unless they touch his eye or ear. the smooth run of a train at twenty or even thirty miles an hour, with its gradual start and gentle pull up, has but a slight effect on him now compared with the splendid swing of the well-appointed mail coach of old as it swept round the bend of a road, and, with red-coated driver and guard, cracking whip, flying dust and stones, and reeking foam-flecked horses, dashed into town and pulled up, while at nearly full speed, amid all the glorious crash and turmoil of arrival! no doubt the passing of an express train within a yard of your nose is something peculiarly awful, and if you ever get permission to ride on the engine of an express, the _real_ truth regarding speed, weight, momentum, will make a profound impression on you, but in ordinary circumstances the arrival of a train cannot for a moment compare with the dash, the animal spirit, the enthusiasm, the romance of the mail coach of days gone by. about the time that the day of slow speed was drawing to a close ( ) licenses were granted to stage-coaches, of which went to and from london, besides mail-coaches. and it has been estimated that the number of passengers carried in the year about that time was two millions. in regard to the merchandise traffic of the kingdom, we cannot give statistics, but we ask the reader to bear in mind that it was all conducted by means of heavy waggons and slow-going canal barges. now, let us contrast this state of things with the condition and influence of railways up to the present time. as we have said, the iron horse began his career in on the liverpool and manchester line-- long since become part of the london and north-western railway--at that time thirty-one miles long. eight years later, liverpool, manchester, and birmingham were completely connected with london by railway. then, as success attended the scheme, new lines were undertaken and opened at a still more rapid rate until, in --despite the depression caused for a time by over-speculating--there were nearly miles of railway open for traffic. in there were above miles open; in , above , . in the railways of the kingdom employed upwards of locomotives, , passenger carriages, and , goods and mineral waggons. in that one year about five million passengers and goods trains ran millions of miles--a distance that would encircle the earth times--the earth being , miles in circumference. in the gross receipts of railways was about forty millions of pounds sterling. at the present date ( ) above , miles of railway are open in the united kingdom. this mileage is divided amongst about companies, but a considerable number of these have been incorporated with the larger companies, such as the london and north west, the great western, etcetera. all the lines carried in one year ( ) somewhere about millions of passengers--in other words, that number of passenger journeys were performed on them. the mail and stage-coaches in their best days only conveyed, as we have said, two millions! see note at end of chapter. it is almost overwhelming to consider what a vast change in the condition and habits of the people of this country is implied in these figures. forty years ago none travelled but the comparatively rich, and that only to an extent equal to about two-thirds of the present population of london. now-a-days the poorest artisan can, and does, afford to travel, and the number of journeys performed each year on all our british railways is equal to more than the entire population of europe! which, in stewart's "modern geography," is set down at millions. from this of course it follows, that as many thousands of men, women, and children never travel at all, many others must have undertaken numerous journeys in that year. the facilities afforded by railways are altogether innumerable. if so disposed you may sup one night in the south of england and the next night in the north of scotland. thousands of families dwell in the country, while the heads thereof go to their business in town by rail every morning and return home every evening. huntsmen, booted and spurred, are whirled off, horses and all, to distant fields, whence, after "crossing country" all day, they return to the railway and are whirled back to town in time for dinner. navvys and artisans are conveyed to their work at a penny a mile, and monster-trains carry thousands of excursionists to scenes of rural delight that our fathers never dreamed of in their wildest flights of fancy. one of the most remarkable and interesting facts in connexion with all this is, that although mail-coaches have been beaten off the field, there are actually more horses employed in this country now than there were in , while canals are doing more business than they ever did, and are making higher profits too. in the carriage of cattle by railway amounted to between fourteen or fifteen million head of all kinds. the consumption of coal, in the same year, by our railways amounted to four million tons, and the quantity of that and other minerals carried by rail continually is enormous. the benefit derived by the post-office also from our railways is incalculable. we cannot afford space to enter into details, but it may be truly said that but for railways the post-office savings bank system could not have existed; and of course, also, our frequent deliveries of letters and rapid as well as cheap communication with all parts of the kingdom would have been impossible. the railway service of the post-office is over , miles a day, and the gross sum paid by the post-office to railways in one year was , pounds. these are but a few of the amazing statistics connected with our railway system, which, if fully enlarged upon, would fill a bulky volume. if our readers desire more there are several most interesting and instructive works on the subject, which are well worthy of perusal. see note at the end of the chapter. before closing this perhaps too statistical chapter, we shall say a few words as to the construction of a railway. no one who has not looked pretty closely into the subject can form any adequate conception of the difficulties that beset an engineer-in-chief in the formation of a line of railway. we will suppose that all the parliamentary battles have been fought, opposition overcome, the heavy expenses connected therewith paid, and the work begun. the engineer has walked again and again over the country through which the railway is to be carried and selected the best route, his assistants having meanwhile taken for him "flying levels" and "cross levels." too frequently prejudice, ignorance, and selfishness interpose to prevent the best route being taken, and immense sums that might have been saved are spent in constructing the line on the next best route. as soon as the course of a line is fixed, accurate surveys are made by the assistant engineers, copies of which are placed, according to act of parliament, with the various clerks of the peace of the counties, through which the line is to pass, with the commissioners of railways and others, besides which there has to be prepared for each parish its proportion, and for each landholder a section showing the greatest depth of cutting or embankment in any of his fields. as soon as all this has been done, and the act of parliament authorising the line obtained, an accurate plan and section of the whole line is made, from which the engineer ascertains and lays down its gradients, in other words its ascents and descents, determines the number and size of the bridges and viaducts to be made, calculates the quantity of embankments required to fill up hollows, and the number of cuttings to level obstructions, in which latter calculations he estimates that the cutting down of elevations will be made subservient as far as may be, to the elevation of depressions. all this involves very nice and exact calculation as to quantity of material, masonry, etcetera, and the sinking of "trial shafts" to ascertain the nature of the various strata to be excavated or tunnelled. then the cost of all the works has to be estimated in detail, apportioned into lengths and advertised for execution by contract. to each section of the line thus apportioned-- forty or fifty miles--an experienced engineer is appointed, having under him "sub-assistants," who superintend from ten to fifteen miles each, and these again are assisted by "inspectors" of masonry, mining, earth-work and permanent way, to each of whom a district is assigned. these managing and guiding men having been appointed, the physical workers are then called into action, in the form of bands of navvies. as the steam and mechanism of the locomotive are useless except in regulated combination, so brain and muscle can achieve nothing without wise and harmonious union. if boys and men would reflect more deeply on this great truth, pride, boasting, and the false separation of classes would be less rife. we say _false_, because there is a separation of classes which is natural and unavoidable. no one ever complains of _that_. if ill-advised or angry navvies were to refuse to work, what could directors and engineers do? if, on the other hand, ill-advised or angry directors and engineers refused to pay, what could navvies do? antagonism is an unhealthy condition of things. there is far too much of it between employers and employed in this world. "agree with thine adversary quickly" is a command which applies to bodies of men quite as much as to individuals, and the word is "agree," not coerce or force. if we cannot agree, let us agree to differ; or, if that won't do in our peculiar circumstances, then let us agree to separate. fighting, save in self-defence, is only fit for fools. but to return. when bone and muscle have been for the time welded to brain, then the work of construction goes on "full swing." difficulties and obstructions are overcome in a way that appears to the unskilled eye nothing less than miraculous. but the work is often hindered and rendered greatly more expensive by the sudden appearance of evils against which no amount of human wisdom or foresight could have guarded. the kilsby tunnel of the london and north west railway is a case in point. when that tunnel was proposed, it was arranged that it should be about yards long, and feet below the surface, with two great ventilating shafts feet in diameter. it was a gigantic work. the engineer examined the ground in the usual way, with much care, and then advertised for "tenders." the various competing contractors also examined the ground minutely, and the offer of one of them to work it for , pounds was accepted. forthwith the contractor went to work, and all went well and busily for some time, until it was suddenly discovered that a hidden quicksand extended yards into the tunnel, which the trial shafts had just passed without touching. this was a more tremendous blow to the contractor than most readers may at first thought suppose, for he believed that to solidify a quicksand was impossible. the effect on him was so great that he was mentally prostrated, and although the company generously and justly relieved him from his engagement, the reprieve came too late, for he died. it then came to be a question whether or not the tunnel should be abandoned. many advised that it should. at this juncture mr robert stephenson, son of the great george, came forward and undertook the work. he placed his chief dependence on the steam-engine to keep the water down while the work was in progress. at first he was successful, but one day, while the men were busy laying their bricks in cement one of them drove into the roof, and a deluge of water burst in on them, and although they tried to continue their work on a raft the water prevailed and at last drove them out. they escaped with difficulty up one of the air-shafts. the water having put an effectual stop to the work, the directors felt disposed to give it up, but stephenson begged for a fortnight more. it was granted. by means of thirteen steam-engines, the amazing quantity of gallons of water per _minute_ was pumped out of the quicksand night and day for eight months. with the aid of men and horses the work was finally completed, having occupied altogether thirty months from the laying of the first brick. two very singular accidents occurred during the course of the construction of this tunnel. on one occasion a man who had been working in it was being hauled up one of the shafts, when his coat caught in an angular crevice of the partition, that separated the pumps from the passage for the men, and became so firmly jammed that he was compelled to let go the rope, and was left there dangling in the air, about a hundred feet from the bottom, until his horrified comrades went down and rescued him by cutting away the piece of his coat. this piece of cloth was long preserved in the engineer's office as a memorial of the event! on another occasion some men were at work on a platform, half-way down the shaft, executing some repairs, when a huge navvy, named jack pierson, fell from the surface, went right through the platform, as if it had been made of paper, and fell to the bottom. fortunately there was water to receive him there, else he had been killed on the spot. the men, whom of course he had narrowly missed in his fall, began to shout for a rope to those above, and they hallooed their advice down the shaft in reply. in the midst of the confusion jack pierson himself calmly advised them to make less noise and pull him out, which they very soon did, and the poor man was carried home and put to bed. he lay there for many weeks unable to move, but ultimately recovered. what we have said of the kilsby tunnel gives a slight glimpse of some of the expenses, difficulties, and dangers that occasionally attend the construction of a railway. of course these difficulties and expenses vary according to the nature of the ground. in some places the gradients are slight, bridges few, and cuttings, etcetera, insignificant; but in other places the reverse is emphatically the case, and costly laborious works have to be undertaken. one such work, which occurred at the very opening of our railway system in , was the bridging of the chat moss, on the liverpool and manchester line. george stephenson, the constructer of the "rocket," was also the hero of the chat moss. this moss was a great swamp or bog, four miles in extent, which was so soft that it could not be walked on with safety, and in some places an iron rod laid on the surface would sink by its own weight. like many other difficulties in this world, the solidification of the chat moss was said to be impossible, but the great engineer scarce admitted the propriety of allowing the word "impossible" to cumber our dictionaries. he began the work at once by forming an embankment twenty feet high, which he carried some distance across the treacherous soil, when the whole affair sank down one day and disappeared! undismayed, stephenson began again, and went on steadily depositing thousands on thousands of tons of earth, which were greedily swallowed up, until at last a solid foundation was obtained over the greater part of the bog. but there was a particularly soft part of it, known by the name of the "flow moss," which was insatiable. over this hurdles interwoven with heath were spread, and on these earth and gravel were laid down. when this road showed a tendency to sink below the level, stephenson loaded the moss beyond the track to balance it; when water oozed through, he invented a new kind of drain-pipe formed of old tallow casks, headed into each other, and ballasted to keep them down, and at last the feat was accomplished--the railway was run over the wet quaking moss on firm dry land. it was in the formation of this, the true beginning of railways, that the british "navvy" was called into being. to perform the laborious work, stephenson employed the men called "inland navigators," in other words, the canal excavators. this body of strong "navigators" or "navvies" formed the nucleus, which gathered recruits from all parts of the kingdom. as the work of railway making, which thenceforward grew fast and furious, was unusually severe, only men who were unusually powerful were suited for the navvy ranks, so that they became a distinct class of gigantic men, whose capacity for bread and beef was in accordance with their muscular development and power to toil. splendid fellows they were, and are; somewhat rugged and untamed, no doubt, with a tendency to fight occasionally, and a great deal of genuine kindness and simplicity. that they are capable of being imbued with refined feeling, noble sentiment, and love to god, has been shown by the publications of miss marsh, which detail that lady's interesting and earnest labours to bring the unbelievers among these men to our saviour. another celebrated piece of railway engineering is the _britannia bridge_ over the menai straits, which separates caernarvonshire from the island of anglesey. this was the first bridge ever built on the tubular principle. the importance of crossing the strait was very great, as it lay in the direct route to holyhead and ireland. telford, the engineer, daringly resolved to span the strait with a suspension bridge feet above the water. he began it in , and on the last day of january the london mail coach passed over the estuary. the bridge remains to this day a vast and beautiful monument of engineering skill. but when railways began to play, something more ponderous and powerful became necessary. a bridge with arches was talked of, but this was considered likely to be obstructive to the navigation of the strait, therefore another plan was demanded. at this juncture robert stephenson came forward with a plan. pounding his opinion on the known fact that hollow columns are stronger than solid ones; that hollow beams are better than solid beams, he leaped to the bold conclusion that a hollow iron beam, or tube, could be made large enough to allow a train to pass through it! as usual there sprang up a host of cold-waterers, but thanks to british enterprise, which can dare anything, there were found enough of men willing to promote the scheme. it was no sooner resolved on than begun. massive abutments of stone were raised on each shore to the height of feet above high-water. the width of the strait between these abutments is nearly yards. midway across is the britannia rock, just visible at half tide. the engineer resolved to found one of his towers on that rock. it was done; but the distance being too great for a single span of tube, two other towers were added. the centre towel rises feet higher than the abutments, thus giving to the tube a very slight arch, which, however, is barely perceptible. the tubes were rectangular, with double top and bottom made of plates of wrought-iron, from three-eighths to three-quarters of an inch thick, and varying in length according to their position--the whole when put together forming a single tube about yards long. the two centre ones were the largest and most difficult to manage, each having to be built on shore, floated off on barges, and lifted by hydraulic power a height of about feet. some idea of what this implied may be gathered from the following fact. each tube weighed tons--the weight of a goodly-sized ocean steamer! a perfect army of men worked at the building of the tubes; cutting, punching, fitting, riveting, etcetera, and as the place became the temporary abode of so many artificers and labourers, with their wives and children, a village sprang up around them, with shops, a school, and a surgery. two fire-engines and large tanks of water were kept in constant readiness in case of fire, and for many months rivet-making machines, punching machines, shearing machines, etcetera, were in full work. there were two million rivets used altogether, and the quantity of three-quarter-inch iron rod used in making them measured miles. the total weight of iron used was nearly , tons. the bridge was strengthened by eighty-three miles of angle iron. for many months the outlay in wages alone was pounds a week, and the cost for the whole of the works more than , pounds. a curious fact connected with this enormous mass of iron is, that arrangements had to be made to permit of shrinkage and expansion. the tubes were placed on a series of rollers and iron balls, and it was afterwards found that in the hottest part of summer they were twelve inches longer than in winter--a difference which, if not provided for, would have caused the destruction of the towers by a constant and irresistible pull and thrust! the menai bridge was begun in and opened for traffic in march . space would fail us were we to attempt even a slight sketch of the great engineering works that railways have called into being. we can merely point to such achievements as the high-level bridges at newcastle-on-tyne, berwick-on-tweed, and at saltash, over the tamar. there are viaducts of great height, length, and beauty in all parts of the kingdom; there are terminal stations so vast and magnificent as to remind one of the structures of eastern splendour described in the _arabian nights entertainments_; and there are hundreds of miles of tunnelling at the present time in the united kingdom. the metropolitan railway is the most important and singular of these tunnels--for it is entitled to be regarded as a gigantic tunnel--which burrows under the streets of london. this stupendous work was undertaken in order to relieve the traffic in the streets of london. the frequent blocks that used to occur not many years ago in the main thoroughfares of the metropolis, had rendered relief absolutely necessary. when the increase of railways began to pour human beings and goods from all parts of the kingdom into london in a continuous and ever-increasing stream, it became obvious that some new mode of conveyance must be opened up. after much deliberation as to the best method, it was finally resolved that an underground railway should be made, encircling the metropolis, so that travellers arriving from all points of the compass might find a ready and sufficient means of conveyance into the central parts of the city. there was opposition to the scheme, of course; but, through the persevering energy of the solicitor to the undertaking and others, the work was at length begun, and the line opened for traffic in january . its extraordinary success soon proved the wisdom of its promoters. at first it was thought that the chief revenues would be derived from the conveyance of goods from the west to the eastern districts of london, but its enormous passenger traffic eventually became the chief cause of its great prosperity. in the very first year of its opening the number of passengers who travelled by it between farringdon street and bishop's road, paddington, amounted to nearly nine and a half millions of individuals, which is more than three times the entire population of london--also, let us add, more than three times the entire population of scotland! the number of trains which are constantly following each other in quick succession (at times every two or three minutes) on this magnificent railway has rendered a most perfect system of signalling necessary, as well as a working staff of superior intelligence and activity. the drivers are all picked men, and indeed it is obvious to every one who travels by it that the porters, and guards, and all employed on the line are unusually smart men. the engineering difficulties connected with the metropolitan railway were very great as may easily be believed, seeing that it had to be formed under streets whose foundations were unavoidably shaken, and amongst an infinite ramification of gas and water-pipes and sewers whose separate action had to be maintained intact while the process of construction was going on. some of the stations are most ingeniously lighted from the streets above by bright reflecting tile-work, while others, too deep for such a method, or too much overtopped with buildings to admit of it, are lit perpetually with gas. the whole of the works are a singular instance of engineering skill, reflecting great credit on mr fowler, the engineer-in-chief. despite its great length of tunnelling the line is perfectly dry throughout. at first fears were entertained that human beings could not with safety travel through such tunnels as were here formed, but experience has proved those fears, like many others, to have been groundless, and a very thorough analysis of the atmosphere of the line in all circumstances, and by the most competent men of the day, has demonstrated that the air of the metropolitan railway is not injurious to health. the excellent general health of the employes also affords additional and conclusive testimony to this fact even although it is unquestionably true that there is at times a somewhat sulphurous smell there. this thorough ventilation, of course, could only have been achieved by ingenious arrangements and a peculiar construction of the engines, whereby the waste steam and fumes of the furnaces should be prevented from emitting their foul and sulphurous odours. the carriages are brilliantly lighted with gas, contained in long india-rubber bags on their roofs, and the motion of the trains is much gentler than that of ordinary railways, although they travel at the rate of from fifteen to twenty miles an hour, including stoppages,--a rate, be it observed, which could not have been ventured on at all but for the thorough and effective system of telegraphic and semaphore signalling employed, to indicate from station to station the exact state of the line--as to trains--at all times. on the whole the metropolitan railway has proved one of the most useful and successful undertakings of modern times. see note at the end of the chapter. in reference to foreign railways, we have only space to say that there are works as grand, and as worthy of note, as any of which we can boast; and it is with much regret that we feel constrained to do no more than point to such magnificent undertakings as the _mont cenis_ railway, which ascends and tunnels through the alps; and that stupendous line, the union pacific railroad, miles in length, formed by the daring and enterprising americans, by means of which the prairies and the rocky mountains are made of no account and new york is brought within seven days of san francisco! the engineering works on the sommering railway, between vienna and trieste; the mighty victoria tubular bridge at montreal; the railway bridge over niagara; the difficulties encountered and overcome in india; the bold achievements of railway engineers amid the dizzy heights and solitudes of the andes--all these subjects must be passed over in silence, else our readers will, we fear, come to the conclusion that we have lost command of the iron horse altogether, allowed him to take the bit in his teeth and fairly run away. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ note . many readers may find it difficult to form an adequate conception of such a vast number as millions. it may help one to some idea of it to know that, if a man were to devote himself to count it, one by one,--sitting down after breakfast counting at the rate of one every moment, and working without intermission for eight hours every day, excepting sundays,--he would not conclude his task until the thirty-fifth year. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ note . we would refer them particularly to messrs. w. and r. chambers' comprehensive and popularly written work on "railways, steamer, and telegraphs;" money's "rambles on railways," which bristles with figures and swarms with anecdote; "stokers and pokers," by sir francis head, a capital and very full work, though somewhat old; w.b. adams' "roads and rails," and bremrer's "industries of scotland." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ note . we had intended to devote much larger space to this most interesting line, but the nature of our book forbids it. we quit the subject regretfully; referring the reader, who may desire to know more, to an able notice of the metropolitan railway in "the shops and companies of london," edited by henry mayhew. chapter seven. little gertie comes out in a new light, and bob receives good news. poor little earnest curly-haired gertie had been so thoroughly reared in the midst of crashing sounds and dire alarms without any mischance resulting, that she had come to feel at last as if the idea of danger or disaster were a mere fiction. it was therefore a new and terrible shock which she received, when she saw her father carried to his cottage by four railway porters and tenderly laid in his bed; and it went to her heart with an unaccountable thrill when she heard her father's usually loud hearty voice say, in soft, womanly tones, "thank 'ee, lads; thank 'ee. i'll be all right soon, please god. good-night and thank 'ee kindly." "good-night--good-night, jack," they replied in various tones of cheeriness; for these hard-muscled men had soft hearts, and although they entertained fears for their friend, they were anxious, by the hearty tones of their voices, to keep up his spirits. "you mustn't take on like that, missis," whispered one of them as they were leaving the cottage door; "the doctor said for sartin that there warn't no bones broken, and 'e didn't think there was nothink internal." "it ain't that i'm afear'd of," whimpered poor mrs marrot, "but it does go to my 'art so, to 'ear my john speak in that voice. i never 'ear'd him do it except once before, when he was very low with fever, an' thought himself a-dyin'." "but 'e ain't agoin' to die _this_ time," returned the kindly porter; "so cheer up, missis. good-night." mrs marrot returned to the room where her husband lay, evidently suffering severe pain, for he was very pale and his lips were compressed. he was anxious not to alarm gertie and loo who stood at the bedside. the former could not speak, and the blood had so completely fled from her face and her small tightly-clasped hands that she resembled a creature of wax. "can i do nothing to relieve the pain, dear father?" said loo, as she wiped the perspiration from his brow. "nothin', nothin', dear lass," said john, with some of his wonted heartiness, "except git me a cup o' tea. mayhap that'll do me good; but the doctor'll be here soon, and he'll put me all to rights in no time." the idea of a cup of tea was a deep device on the part of john, who meant thereby to give loo some active work to do and thus take her attention off himself. "and don't you be uneasy, molly," he added, turning to his wife, "it ain't a bad hurt, i'm told, an' it ain't hard for a man to suffer a bit o' pain now an' agin when it's the lord's will. come, that's the doctor's knock. don't keep him waitin'. i knew he'd be here soon, 'cause mr able said he'd send him without delay." a prolonged and somewhat painful examination of john's injuries ensued, during which time little gertie, with clasped hands, parted lips, and eager eyes, watched the doctor's countenance intently. after it was over, the doctor turned to mrs marrot, and said-- "i'm happy to tell you, that your husband's injuries, although severe and painful, are not serious. no bones are broken, but he has been severely bruised, and will require careful nursing for some time--and," he added, turning with a smile to the patient, "no more rushing about the country at sixty miles an hour for several weeks to come." little gertie began to breathe freely again. her hands unclasped, and the colour came slowly back, as she crept quietly to the bedside, and, taking her father's large horny hand, laid her cheek softly upon it. "are you easier _now_, daddy?" she asked. "ay, much easier, god bless you, gertie. the doctor has made things much more comfortable. they've got a wonderful knack o' puttin' things right--these doctors have. w'y, it minds me o' my ingine after a longish run; she looks dirty an' all out o' sorts; but w'en i gits her into the shed, and gives her an overhaul, you'd scarce know 'er again." at this moment baby marrot who had been sleeping when his father was brought in, became suddenly conscious of internal vacuity, and forthwith set up a lusty howl, whereupon mrs marrot pounced upon and throttled him--to some extent. "don't stop him, molly, my dear; you--" the remainder of the sentence was drowned by the night express which rushed past, joining baby marrot in a yell, as the latter freed his throat from his mother's grip. "don't stop him, molly," repeated john; "you don't suppose that after drivin' a locomotive for eight years i'm agoin' to be disturbed by the small pipe of our own youngster. let him yell, molly; it does him good, and it don't do me no harm." it was now arranged that gertie was to be head nurse on this trying occasion--not that the appointment was considered appropriate, but it was unavoidable, seeing that gertie wanted it intensely, and her father was pleased to have it so. gertie had never before been called upon to do anything in the nursing way more serious than to look after baby when he had eaten too much or scalded himself--nevertheless, the way in which she went about her nursing would have done credit to an hospital training. she evidently possessed a natural aptitude for the work, and went about it with a sense of the importance of the trust that was quite charming. she was at that tender age when such work becomes barely possible, and the performance of it seems quite miraculous! her father gazed at her in bewilderment while she went about gravely smoothing his pillow and tucking in corners of blankets, and bringing cups, and tumblers, and spoons, and handkerchiefs, and sundry other articles, to a chair at his bedside, so as to be within reach of his hand. molly and loo, besides being highly interested, were intensely amused. it is a matter of dispute even to this day whether baby did not perceive the marvellous aptitude of gertie, for he continued for a prolonged period to gaze at her as if in solemn wonder. mrs marrot declared baby's gaze to be one of admiration, but john held that it was owing to the state of exhaustion that resulted from an unusually long fit of yelling. while he stared thus, gertie, having completed a number of little operations and put the finishing touches or _pats_ to them, became suddenly aware that every one was laughing quietly. "what is it?" she asked, relaxing the severity of her brow and brightening up. they all laughed still more at this, and gertie, looking round for an explanation, encountered baby's glaring eyes, whereupon, supposing that she had found out the cause, she laughed too. but she quickly dismissed her levity and recurred to her work with renewed diligence. it was well for the engine-driver that he had been trained in a rough school, for his powers of endurance were severely tested that night, by the attentions of his numerous friends who called to inquire for him, and in some cases insisted on seeing him. among others came one of the directors of the company, who, seeing how matters stood, with much consideration said that he would not sit down, but had merely looked in for a moment, to tell john marrot that an appointment had been found for his son robert in the "works," and that if he would send him over in the morning he would be introduced to the locomotive superintendent and initiated into the details of his new sphere of action. this was very gratifying to the engine-driver of course, but much more so to bob himself, whose highest earthly ambition was to become, as he styled it, an engineer. when that aspiring youth came home that night after cleaning his lamps, he wiped his oily hands on a bundle of waste, and sat down beside his sire to inquire considerately into his state of body, and to give him, as he expressed it, the noos of the line. "you see, daddy," he said, "the doctor tells me you're to be kep' quiet, an' not allowed to talk, so in course you've got nothin' to do but lie still an' listen while i give 'ee the noos. so 'ere goes. an' don't you sit too near baby, mother, else you'll wake 'im up, an' we'll have a yell as'll put talkin' out o' the question. well then--" "bob," said loo, interrupting her brother as she sat down opposite, and began to mend one of baby's pinafores--which by the way was already so mended and patched as to have lost much of its original form and appearance--"bob, mr able has been here, and--" "who's mr able?" demanded bob. "one of the directors,--don't you know?" "how should i know?" retorted bob; "you don't suppose that the d'rectors is all my partikler friends, do you? there's only two or three of 'em as has the honer of my acquaintance." "well," resumed loo with a laugh, "you ought to consider mr able one of your particular friends at all events, for he has been here this evening making kind inquiries after father, and telling him that he has got you appointed to the works that you've been so long hankering--" "what!" interrupted bob in great excitement; "you don't mean that, loo?" "yes, i do." "to the great clatterby works, where the big hammer is?" "well, i suppose it is to these works," said loo. "ay, bob, to the clatterby works, lad; so you're a made man if you only behave yourself and do your dooty," said john marrot in reply to his son's look of inquiry. in the strength of his satisfaction the boy rose, and, taking loo round the neck, kissed her pretty mouth heartily, after which he bestowed the same favour on his mother and little gertie, and looked as if he meant to do it to baby too, but he thought better of it. "why, mother," he said, resuming his seat at the bedside, "these are the works where they've got the big hammers--so big, mother; oh! you've no notion how big they are, and heavy. why, one of 'em is full five tons in weight--think o' that! equal to five carts of coals, mother, all rolled into one." "nonsense!" said mrs marrot. "but it's _true_," said bob, earnestly. "nonsense!" repeated mrs marrot; "w'y, what would be the use of a hammer as no one could lift?" "steam lifts it, mother," said bob, "as easy--yes, as easy as you lift the rollin' pin." the unbelieving woman still shook her head, smiled, and said, "nonsense!" "moreover," continued bob, waxing enthusiastic on his favourite topic, "i'm told, for i haven't seen 'em yet, that they've got a pair o' scissors there as can cut cold iron as easy as you can cut paper--they could cut through," said bob, pausing and looking round, "they could cut through the poker and tongs and shovel, all at one go, as easy as if they was straws." "gammon!" said mrs marrot. "isn't it a fact, daddy?" cried bob. "quite true, molly, my dear. i must take you over to see the works some day and convince you," said john with a faint smile. "but what's the news you were goin' to give us, bob?" he added. "the noos?--ah; that _good_ noos drove it all out o' my 'ead. well, as i wos agoin' to say, there's a great to-do down at the shed, 'cause it's said that an awful lot o' thefts has bin goin' on of late at bingly station, and it's bin reported that some of the drivers or firemen are consarned in it. an' d'ee know, father," continued bob, suddenly becoming grave and very earnest, "i heard one o' the men say that will garvie is suspected." there was a momentary deep silence, as if every one had received a shock; then mrs marrot exclaimed "what say 'ee, boy?" at the same time her husband demanded sternly, "who said that?" "i don't know, father. i was passing through the shed at the time and didn't see who spoke, i only heerd 'im." "father," said leo, over whose face a deep crimson flush had spread, "_surely_ you don't for a moment believe it?" "believe it," replied john, "believe that my mate, will garvie, is a thief? i'd as soon believe that my molly was a murderer!" the energetic driver here struck his fist so violently on the bed as to cause his wounded side an acute twinge of pain. it had scarcely passed away when the door opened and will garvie himself entered. "well, jack," he said, going up to his friend's couch and taking his hand, "how d'you feel now--better?" the frank open countenance of the young man--albeit begrimed with smoke, and his clear laughing blue eyes, were such a flat contradiction to the charge which had been made against him that john looked up in his face and laughed. "well, you _must_ be better, if that's the way you answer me!" "oh, i'm all right," said john, quietly; "leastwise i'm on the rails agin, an' only shunted on to a sidin' to be overhauled and repaired a bit. you've heard the noos, i fancy?" "what of bob's appointment?" said will, glancing at loo; for he knew that anything that was for bob's advantage gave her intense delight, and he liked to watch her countenance in such circumstances--"of course i've heard of that. moreover, i've bin to the locomotive superintendent and got leave to go over with him to-morrow and show him through the works, along with any of his family that might want to go. i made a special request for this, thinkin' that mayhap--" he looked pointedly at loo, and loo looked pointedly at the pinafore which suddenly claimed her undivided attention. bob, before will could finish his sentence, broke in with-- "now, _ain't_ that a su'cumstance? w'y, we was just talkin' of havin' mother over to see the works, an' lettin' her be convinced by her own eyes that there is a hammer there of five ton weight, drove by steam, an' a pair o' scissors as can cut cold iron an inch thick. you'll go mother, won't you?" "well, i dessay it would be amoosin'; yes, i'll go, bob, if father's better." accordingly, much to will garvie's disappointment it was arranged that mrs marrot was to accompany him and bob to the great railway "works" on the following day. chapter eight. mrs. marrot and bob visit the great clatterby "works." we cannot presume to say what sort of a smiddy vulcan's was, but we feel strongly inclined to think that if that gentleman were to visit the works of the grand national trunk railway, which are about the finest of the kind in the kingdom, he would deem his own old shop a very insignificant affair! the stupendous nature of the operations performed there; the colossal grandeur of the machinery employed; the appalling power of the forces called into action; the startling _chiaro scuro_ of the furnaces; the herculean activity of the "hands;" the dread pyrotechnic displays; the constant din and clangour--pshaw! the thing is beyond conception. "why then," you will say, "attempt description?" because, reader, of two evils we always choose the less. description is better than nothing. if you cannot go and see and hear for yourself, there is nothing left for you but to fall back on description. but of all the sights to be seen there, the most interesting, perhaps, and the most amusing, was the visage of worthy mrs marrot as she followed will garvie and her son, and gazed in rapt amazement at the operations, and listened to the sounds, sometimes looking all round with a half-imbecile expression at the rattling machinery, at other times fixing her eyes intently down on one piece of mechanism in the vain hope of penetrating its secrets to the core. bob was not much less amazed than his mother, but he had his sharp wits about him, and was keenly alive to the delight of witnessing his mother's astonishment. the works covered several acres of ground, and consisted of a group of huge buildings which were divided into different departments, and in these the railway company manufactured almost every article used on the line--from a locomotive engine to a screw-nail. here, as we have said, above men and boys were at work, and all sorts of trades were represented. there were draughtsmen to make designs, and, from these, detailed working drawings. smiths to forge all the wrought-iron-work, with hammermen as assistants. pattern-makers to make wooden patterns for castings. moulders, including loam, dry-sand and green-sand moulders and brass-founders. dressers to dress the rough edges off the castings when brought from the foundry. turners in iron and brass. planers and nibblers, and slotters and drillers. joiners and sawyers, and coach-builders and painters. fitters and erecters, to do the rougher and heavier part of fitting the engines together. boiler-makers, including platers or fitters, caulkers and riveters. finishers to do the finer part of fitting--details and polishing. in short almost every trade in the kingdom concentrated in one grand whole and working harmoniously, like a vast complex machine, towards one common end--the supply of railway rolling-stock, or "plant" to the line. all these were busy as bees, for they were engaged on the equitable system of "piece-work,"--which means that each man or boy was paid for each piece of work done, instead of being paid by time, which of course induced each to work as hard as he could in order to make much as possible--a system which suited both masters and men. of course there are some sorts of employment where it would be unjust to pay men by the amount of work done--as, for instance, in some parts of tin-mines, where a fathom of rock rich in tin is as difficult to excavate as a fathom of rock which is poor in tin--but in work such as we are describing the piece-work system suits best. like a wise general, will garvie began with the department in which the less astonishing operations were being performed. this was the timber and sawing department. here hard wood, in all sizes and forms, was being licked into shape by machinery in a way and with an amount of facility that was eminently calculated to astonish those whose ideas on such matters had been founded on the observation of the laborious work of human carpenters. the very first thing that struck bob marrot was that the tools were so heavy, thick, and strong that the biggest carpenter he had ever seen would not have been able to use them. bob's idea of a saw had hitherto been a long sheet of steel with small teeth, that could be easily bent like a hoop--an implement that went slowly through a plank, and that had often caused his arm to ache in being made to advance a few inches; but here he saw circular steel-discs with fangs more than an inch long, which became invisible when in a state of revolution. "what _is_ that?" said mrs marrot concentrating herself on one of these implements, after having indulged in a stare of bewildered curiosity round the long shed. "that's a circular saw," replied will garvie; "one of the large ones,-- about four feet in diameter." "a saw!" exclaimed mrs marrot, in surprise. "w'y, will, it's round. how can a round thing saw? an' it han't got no 'andle! how could any man lay 'old of it to saw?" "the carpenter here don't require no handles," replied will. "he's a queer fellow is the carpenter of this shop, as well as powerful. he works away from morning till night with the power of more than a hundred horses, an' does exactly what he's bid without ever making any mistakes or axin' any questions. he's a steam-carpenter, missis, but indeed he's a jack-of-all-trades, and carries 'em on all at the same time. see, they're goin' to set him to work now--watch and you shall see." as he spoke, two men approached the circular saw bearing a thick log of oak. one of them fitted it in position, on rollers, with its edge towards the saw; then he seized a handle, by means of which he connected the steam-carpenter with the saw, which instantly revolved so fast that the teeth became invisible; at the same time the plank advanced rapidly and met the saw. instantly there was a loud hissing yet ringing sound, accompanied by a shower of sawdust, and, long before mrs marrot had recovered from her surprise, the log was cut into two thick substantial planks. after two or three more had been cut up in this way in as many minutes, will garvie said-- "now, let's see what they do with these planks. come here." he led them to a place close beside the saw, where there was a strong iron machine, to one part of which was attached a very large chisel--it might have been equal to two or three dozen of the largest ordinary chisels rolled into one. this machine was in motion, but apparently it had been made for a very useless purpose, for it was going vigorously up and down at the time cutting the atmosphere! "it's like a lot of people as i knows of," observed mrs marrot, "very busy about nothin'." "it'll have somethin' to do soon, mother," said bob, who was already beginning to think himself very knowing. bob was right. one of the oak-planks had been measured and marked for mortice-holes in various ways according to pattern, and was now handed over to the guardian of the machine, who, having had it placed on rollers, pushed it under the chisel and touched a handle. down came the implement, and cut into the solid wood as if it had been mere putty. a dozen cuts or so in one direction, then round it went--for this chisel could be turned with its face in either direction without stopping it for the purpose--another dozen cuts were made, and an oblong hole of three or four inches long by two broad and three deep was made in the plank in a few seconds. even mrs marrot had sufficient knowledge of the arts to perceive that this operation would have cost a human carpenter a very much greater amount of time and labour, and that therefore there must have been a considerable saving of expense. had she been aware of the fact that hundreds of such planks were cut, marked, morticed, and turned out of hands every week all the year round, and every year continuously, she would have had a still more exalted conception of the saving of time, labour, and expense thus effected. the guardian of the chisel having in a few minutes cut the requisite half dozen or so of holes, guided the plank on rollers towards a pile, where it was laid, to be afterwards carried off to the carriage-builders, who would fit it as one side of a carriage-frame to its appropriate fellow-planks, which had all been prepared in the same way. not far from this machine the visitors were shown another, in which several circular saws of smaller dimensions than the first were at work in concert, and laid at different angles to each other, so that when a plank was given into their clutches it received cuts and slices in certain parts during its passage through the machine, and came out much modified and improved in form--all that the attendants had to do merely being to fit the planks in their places and guide them safely through the ordeal. elsewhere mrs marrot and bob beheld a frame--full of gigantic saws cut a large log into half a dozen planks, all in one sweep, in a few minutes--work which would have drawn the sweat from the brows of two saw-pit men for several hours. one thing that attracted the attention of bob very strongly was the simple process of hole-boring. of course, in forming the massive frames of railway carriages, it becomes necessary to bore numerous holes for large nails or bolts. often had bob, at a neighbouring seaport, watched the heavy work and the slow progress of ship-carpenters as they pierced the planks of ships with augers; but here he beheld what he called, "augers and drills gone mad!"--augers small and great whirling furiously, or, as bob put it, "like all possessed." some acting singly, others acting together in rows of five or six; and these excited things were perpetually whirling, whether at work or not, ready for service at a moment's notice. while bob was gazing at one huge drill--probably an inch and a half broad, if not more--a man came up to it with a plank, on the surface of which were several dots at various distances. he put the plank under the drill, brought it down on a dot, whizz went the drill, and straightway there was a huge round hole right through almost before bob had time to wink,--and bob was a practised hand at winking. several holes were bored in this way, and then the plank was carried to another machine, where six lesser holes were drilled at one and the same time by six furious little augers; and thus the planks passed on from one machine to another until finished, undergoing, in the course of a few minutes, treatment that would have cost them hours of torture had they been manipulated by human hands, in addition to which the work was most beautifully, and perfectly, and regularly done. many other operations did the visitors behold in this department--all more or less interesting and, to them, surprising--so that mrs marrot was induced at last to exclaim-- "w'y, willum, it seems to me that if you go on improvin' things at this rate there won't be no use in a short time for 'uman 'ands at all. we'll just 'ave to sit still an' let machinery do our work for us, an' all the trades-people will be throwd out of employment." "how can you say that, missis," said will garvie, "you bein' old enough to remember the time w'en there wasn't five joiners' shops in clatterby, with p'rhaps fifty men and boys employed, and now there's hundreds of joiners, and other shops of all kinds in the town, besides these here railway works which, as you know, keeps about hands goin' all the year round?" "that's so, willum," assented mrs marrot in a meditative tone. thus meditating, she was conducted into the smiths' department. here about forges and men were at work. any one of these forges would have been a respectable "smiddy" in a country village. they stood as close to each other as the space would allow,--so close that their showers of sparks intermingled, and kept the whole shed more or less in the condition of a chronic eruption of fireworks. to bob's young mind it conveyed the idea of a perpetual keeping of the queen's birthday. to his mother it was suggestive of singed garments and sudden loss of sight. the poor woman was much distressed in this department at first, but when she found, after five minutes or so, that her garments were unscathed, and her sight still unimpaired, she became reconciled to it. in this place of busy vulcans--each of whom was the beau-ideal of "the village blacksmith," all the _smaller_ work of the railway was done. as a specimen of this smaller work, will garvie drew mrs marrot's attention to the fact that two vulcans were engaged in twisting red-hot iron bolts an inch and a half thick into the form of hooks with as much apparent ease as if they had been hair-pins. these, he said, were hooks for couplings, the hooks by which railway carriages were attached together, and on the strength and unyielding rigidity of which the lives of hundreds of travellers might depend. the bending of them was accomplished by means of a powerful lever. it would be an endless business to detail all that was done in this workshop. every piece of comparatively small iron-work used in the construction of railway engines, carriages, vans, and trucks, from a door-hinge to a coupling-chain, was forged in that smithy. passing onward, they came to a workshop where iron castings of all kinds were being made; cylinders, fire-boxes, etcetera,--and a savage-looking place it was, with numerous holes and pits of various shapes and depths in the black earthy floor, which were the moulds ready, or in preparation, for the reception of the molten metal. still farther on they passed through a workroom where every species of brass-work was being made. and here bob marrot was amazed to find that the workmen turned brass on turning-lathes with as much facility as if it had been wood. some of the pieces of brazen mechanism were very beautiful and delicate-- especially one piece, a stop-cock for letting water into a boiler, the various and complex parts of which, when contrasted with the huge workmanship of the other departments, resembled fine watch-work. as they passed on, bob observed a particularly small boy, in whom he involuntarily took a great and sudden interest--he looked so small, so thin, so intelligent, and, withal, so busy. "ah, you may well look at him," said will garvie, observing bob's gaze. "that boy is one of the best workers of his age in the shop." "what is 'e doin'?" inquired bob. "he's preparin' nuts for screws," replied will, "and gets one penny for every hundred. most boys can do from twelve to fourteen hundred a day, so, you see, they can earn from six to seven shillin's a week; but that little feller--they call him tomtit dorkin--earns a good deal more, i believe, and he has much need to, for he has got an old granny to support. that's the work that you are soon to be set to, lad." "is it?" said bob, quite pleased at the notion of being engaged in the same employment with tomtit; "i'm glad to 'ear it. you see, mother, when you gits to be old an' 'elpless, you'll not need to mind, 'cause _i'll_ support you." the next place they visited was the great point of attraction to bob. it was the forge where the heavy work was done, and where the celebrated hammer and terrific pair of scissors performed their stupendous work. at the time the visitors entered this department the various hammers chanced to be at rest, nevertheless even mrs marrot's comparatively ignorant mind was impressed by the colossal size and solidity of the iron engines that surrounded her. the roof of the shed in which they stood had been made unusually high in order to contain them. "well, i s'pose the big 'ammer that bob says is as 'eavy as five carts of coals must be 'ereabouts?" observed mrs marrot looking round. "yes, there it is," said will, pointing in front of him. "w'ere? i don't see no 'ammer." "why there, that big thing just before you," he said, pointing to a machine of iron, shaped something like the letter v turned upside down, with its two limbs on the earth, its stem lost in the obscurity of the root and having a sort of tongue between the two limbs, which tongue was a great square block of solid iron, apparently about five feet high and about three feet broad and deep. this tongue, will garvie assured his companion, was the hammer. "no, no, willum," said mrs marrot, with a smile, "you mustn't expect me for to believe that. i _may_ believe that the moon is made of green cheese, but i won't believe that that's a 'ammer." "no: but _is_ it, bill?" asked bob, whose eyes gleamed with suppressed excitement. "indeed it is; you shall see presently." several stalwart workmen, with bare brawny arms, who were lounging before the closed mouth of a furnace, regarded the visitors with some amusement. one of these came forward and said-- "you'd better stand a little way back, ma'am." mrs marrot obediently retreated to a safe distance. then the stalwart men threw open the furnace door. mrs marrot exclaimed, almost shrieked, with surprise at the intense light which gushed forth, casting even the modified daylight of the place into the shade. the proceedings of the stalwart men thereafter were in mrs marrot's eyes absolutely appalling--almost overpowering,--but mrs m was tough both in mind and body. she stood her ground. several of the men seized something inside the furnace with huge pincers, tongs, forceps--whatever you choose to call them--and drew partly out an immense rudely shaped bar or _log_ of glowing irons thicker than a man's thigh. at the same time a great chain was put underneath it, and a crane of huge proportions thereafter sustained the weight of the glowing metal. by means of this crane it was drawn out of the furnace and swung round until its glowing head or end came close to the tongue before mentioned. then some of the stalwart men grasped several iron handles, which were affixed to the cool end of the bar, and prepared themselves to act. a signal was given to a man who had not hitherto been noticed, he was so small in comparison with the machine on which he stood--perhaps it would be better to say to which he stuck, because he was perched on a little platform about seven or eight feet from the ground, which was reached by an iron ladder, and looked down on the men who manipulated the iron bar below. on receiving the signal, this man moved a small lever. it cost him no effort whatever, nevertheless it raised the iron tongue about six feet in the air, revealing the fact that it had been resting on another square block of iron embedded in the earth. this latter was the anvil. on the anvil the end of the white-hot bar was immediately laid. another signal was given, and down came the "five-carts-of-coals weight" with a thud that shook the very earth, caused the bar partially to flatten as if it had been a bit of putty, and sent a brilliant shower of sparks over the whole place. mrs marrot clapped both hands on her face, and capped the event with a scream. as for bob, he fairly shouted with delight. blow after blow was given by this engine, and as each blow fell the stalwart men heaved on the iron handles and turned the bar this way and that way, until it was pounded nearly square. by this time mrs marrot had recovered so far as to separate her fingers a little, and venture to peep from behind that protecting screen. by degrees the unwieldy mass of misshapen metal was pounded into a cylindrical form, and will garvie informed his friends that this was the beginning of the driving-axle of a locomotive. pointing to several of those which had been already forged, each having two enormous iron projections on it which were afterwards to become the cranks, he said-- "you'll see how these are finished, in another department." but mrs marrot and bob paid no attention to him. they were fascinated by the doings of the big hammer, and especially by the cool quiet way in which the man with the lever caused it to obey his will. when he moved the lever up or down a little, up or down went the hammer a little; when he moved it a good deal the hammer moved a good deal; when he was gentle, the hammer was gentle; when he gave a violent push, the hammer came down with a crash that shook the whole place. he could cause it to plunge like lightning to within a hair's-breadth of the anvil and check it instantaneously so that it should not touch. he could make it pat the red metal lovingly, or pound it with the violence of a fiend. indeed, so quick and sympathetic were all the movements of that steam-hammer that it seemed as though it were gifted with intelligence, and were nervously solicitous to act in prompt obedience to its master's will. there were eleven steam-hammers of various sizes in this building, with a staff of men to attend to them, half of which staff worked during the day, and half during the night--besides seven smaller steam-hammers in the smiths' shops and other departments. with difficulty will garvie tore his friends away from the big hammer; but he could not again chain their attention to anything else, until he came to the pair of scissors that cut iron. with this instrument mrs marrot at first expressed herself disappointed. it was not like a pair of scissors at all, she said, and in this she was correct, for the square clumsy-looking blunt-like mass of iron, about five feet high and broad, which composed a large portion of it, was indeed very unlike a pair of scissors. "why, mother," exclaimed bob, "you didn't surely expect to see two large holes in it for a giant's thumb and fingers, did you?" "well, but," said mrs marrot, "it ain't got no blades that i can see." "i'll let 'ee see 'em, missis, in a minute," said a workman who came up at that moment with a plate of iron more than a quarter of an inch thick. "turn it on, johnny." a small boy turned on the steam, the machine moved, and will garvie pointed out to mrs marrot the fact that two sharp edges of steel in a certain part of it crossed each other exactly in the manner of a pair of scissors. "well," remarked mrs m, after contemplating it for some time, "it don't look very like scissors, but i'm free to confess that them two bits of iron _do_ act much in the same way." "and with the same result, missus," observed the machine-man, putting the plate between the clippers, which, closing quietly, snipped off about a foot of iron as if it had been paper. there was, however, a crunching sound which indicated great power, and drew from mrs marrot an exclamation of surprise not altogether unmingled with alarm. the man then seized a bit of iron about as thick as his own wrist--full an inch and a half in diameter--which the scissors cut up into lengths of eighteen inches or so as easily as if it had been a bar of lead or wood. "didn't i say it could cut through the poker, mother?" cried bob with a look of triumph. "the poker, boy! it could cut poker, tongs, shovel, and fender, all at once!" replied mrs marrot--"well, i never! can it do anything else?" in reply to this the man took up several pieces of hard steel, which it snipped through as easily as it had cut the iron. but if mrs marrot's surprise at the scissors was great, not less great was it at the punching machine, which punched little buttons the size of a sixpence out of cold iron full half-an-inch thick. this vicious implement not only punched holes all round boiler-plates so as to permit of their being riveted together, but it cut patterns out of thick iron plates by punching rows of such holes so close to each other that they formed one long cutting, straight or crooked, as might be required. in short, the punching machine acted the part of a saw, and cut the iron plates in any shape that was desired. here also they saw the testing of engine springs--those springs which to most people appear to have no spring in them whatever--so very powerful are they. one of these was laid on an iron table, with its two ends resting against an iron plate. a man approached and measured it exactly. then a hydraulic ram was applied; and there was something quite impressive in the easy quiet way, in which the ram shoved a spring, which the weight of a locomotive can scarcely affect, _quite_ _flat_ against the iron plate, and held it there a moment or two! being released, the spring resumed its proper form. it was then re-measured; found not to have expanded a hair's-breadth, and, therefore,--as will garvie took care to explain,-- was passed as a sound well-tempered spring; whereat bob remarked that it would need to be a good-tempered spring, to suffer such treatment without grumbling. it seemed to mrs marrot now as if her capacity for surprise had reached its limit; but she little knew the wealth of capacity for creating surprise that lay in these amazing "works" of the grand national trunk railway. the next place she was ushered into was a vast apartment where iron in every shape, size, and form was being planed and turned and cut. the ceiling of the building, or rather the place where a ceiling ought in ordinary circumstances to have been, was alive with moving bands and whirling wheels. the first thing she was called on to contemplate was the turning of the tyre or rim of one of the driving-wheels of a locomotive. often had mrs marrot heard her husband talk of tyres and driving-wheels, and many a time had she seen these wheels whirling, half-concealed, in their appropriate places, but never till that day had she seen the iron hoop, eight feet in diameter, elevated in bare simplicity on a turning-lathe, where its size impressed her so much that she declared, "she never _could_ 'ave imagined engine-wheels was so big," and asked, "'ow did they ever manage to get 'em lifted up to w'ere they was?" to which an overseer kindly replied by pointing out a neat little crane fitted on a tail, which, when required, ran along the apartment like a strong obedient little domestic servant, lifting wheels, etcetera, that a man could scarcely move, and placing them wherever they were wanted. mrs marrot was then directed to observe the rim of the wheel, where she saw a small chisel cutting iron curls off it just as easily, to all appearance, as a turner cuts shavings off wood--and these iron curls were not delicate; they were thick, solid, unpliant ringlets, that would have formed a suitable decoration for the fair brow of a locomotive, or, perhaps, a chignon--supposing that any locomotive could have been prevailed on to adopt such a wild monstrosity! this same species of chisel, applied in different ways, reduced masses of iron in size, planed down flat surfaces, enlarged holes, made cylinders "true" and smooth inside, besides doing a variety of other things. after seeing the large tyre turned, mrs marrot could not be induced to pay much regard to the various carriage and truck wheels which were being treated in a similar manner in that department, but she was induced to open her ears, and her eyes too, when the overseer informed her that the "works" turned out complete no fewer than one hundred and thirty pairs of locomotive, carriage, and waggon wheels a week. "how many did you say?" she asked. "a hundred and thirty pair of wheels in the week," repeated the overseer. "every week?" asked mrs marrot. "yes; every week. sometimes more, sometimes less; but altogether, pretty well on for pairs of wheels every year." "w'y, what _do_ you make of 'em all?" "oh, we make good use of 'em," replied the overseer, laughing. "we wear them out so fast that it keeps us working at that rate to meet our necessities. but that," he continued, "is only a small part of what we do. we turn out of the works first-class carriages besides many seconds and thirds, and about trucks every year; besides three engines, new and complete, every fortnight." "three noo engines every fortnight!" echoed mrs marrot; "how many's that in the year, bob?" "seventy-eight," replied bob, promptly. bob was a swift mental calculator, and rather proud of it. "where ever do they all go to?" murmured mrs marrot. "why," replied will garvie, "they go to all the stations on the line, of course; some of 'em go to smash at once in cases of accidents, and all of 'em goes to destruction, more or less, in about fifteen or twenty years. we reckon that to be the life of a locomotive. see, there's a drivin' axle, such as you saw forged by the big hammer, being turned now, and cut to shape and size by the same sort of machine that you saw cuttin' the tyres." they passed on, after looking at the axle for a few minutes, until they came to a part of the building where rails were being forged. this also, although not done by hammer, was a striking process. the place was so hot owing to the quantity of uncooled metal on the floor, that it was not possible to remain long; they therefore took a rapid survey. in one place several men were in the act of conveying to the steam-hammer a mass of shapeless white-hot iron, which had just been plucked from a furnace with a pair of grippers. they put it below the hammer for a few minutes, which soon reduced it to a clumsy bar; then they carried it to a pair of iron rollers driven by steam. the end of the bar being presented to these, it was gripped, dragged in between them, and passed out at the other side, flat and very much lengthened, as well as thinned. having been further reduced by this process, it was finally passed through a pair of rollers, which gave it shape, and sent it out a complete rail, ready to be laid down on the line. here garvie took occasion to explain that steel rails, although very expensive, were now being extensively used in preference to iron rails, because they lasted much longer. "for instance," he said, "steel costs about pounds a ton and iron only costs about pounds; but then, d'ye see, steel rails will last two years and more, whereas iron rails get wore out, and have to be renewed every six weeks in places where there's much traffic." "now, i can't stand no more o' this," said mrs marrot, down whose face the perspiration was streaming; "i'm a'most roasted alive, an' don't understand your explanations one bit, willum, so come along." "oh, mother, _do_ hold on a moment," pleaded bob, whose mechanical soul was in a species of paradise. "you'd better come, bob," interposed garvie, "else we won't have time to see the department where the engines are fitted." this was sufficient for bob, who willingly followed. the fitting shed at that time contained several engines in various stages of advancement. in one place men were engaged in fitting together the iron framework or foundation of a locomotive, with screws, and bolts, and nuts, and rivets. others were employed near them, on an engine more advanced, in putting on the wheels and placing the boilers and fire-boxes, while another gang were busy covering the boiler of a third engine with a coating of wood and felt, literally for the purpose of keeping it warm, or preventing its heat from escaping. farther on, three beautiful new engines, that had just been made and stood ready for action, were receiving a few finishing touches from the painters. fresh, spotless, and glittering, these were to make their _debut_ on the morrow, and commence their comparatively brief career of furious activity--gay things, doomed emphatically to a fast life! beyond these young creatures lay a number of aged and crippled engines, all more or less disabled and sent there for repair; one to have a burst steam-pipe removed and replaced, another to have a wheel, or a fire-box or a cylinder changed; and one, that looked as if it had recently "run a-muck" against all the other engines on the line, stood sulkily grim in a corner, evidently awaiting its sentence of condemnation,--the usual fate of such engines being to be torn, bored, battered, chiselled, clipt, and otherwise cut to pieces, and cast into the furnaces. while gazing round this apartment, mrs marrot's eyes suddenly became transfixed. "wot's the matter _now_?" demanded bob, in some alarm. "i _do_ believe--w'y--there's a locomotive _in the air_!" said mrs marrot in an undertone. "so it is!" exclaimed bob. and, reader, so it was. in that shed they had a crane which rested on a framework overhead, and ran on wheels over the entire shop. it was capable of lifting above fifty tons' weight and as a large locomotive, ponderous though it be, is not much over twenty tons, of course this giant crane made short work of such. when the men have occasion to remove a wheel from the iron horse, not being able to make it lift up its leg, so to speak, to have it taken off, they bring it under the crane, swing it up as a little boy might swing a toy-cart, and operate on it at their leisure. mrs marrot felt an unpleasant sensation on beholding this. as the wife of an engine-driver, she had long felt the deepest respect, almost amounting to reverence, for locomotives, in regard to the weight, speed, and irresistible power of which she had always entertained the most exalted ideas. to see one of the race--and that too, of the largest size--treated in this humiliating fashion was too much for her, she declared that she had seen enough of the "works," and wouldn't on any account remain another minute! "but you won't go without seein' the carriage and truck department, surely?" said bob. "well, i'll just take a look to please _you_," said the amiable woman. accordingly, to the truck and van department they went, and there bob, whose mind was sharp as a needle, saw a good many pieces of mechanism, which formerly he had only seen in a transition state, now applied to their ultimate uses. the chiselled, sawn, and drilled planks seen in the first department, were here being fitted and bolted together in the form of trucks, while the uses of many strange pieces of iron, which had puzzled him in the blacksmiths' department, became obvious when fitted to their appropriate woodwork. here, also, he saw the internal machinery of railway carriages laid bare, especially the position and shape of the springs that give elasticity to the buffers, which, he observed, were just the same in shape as ordinary carriage springs, placed so that the ends of the buffer-rods pressed against them. but all this afforded no gratification to mrs marrot, whose sensitive mind dwelt uneasily on the humiliated locomotive, until she suddenly came on a row of new first-class carriages, where a number of people were employed stuffing cushions. "well, i declare," she exclaimed, "if here ain't cushion-stuffing going on! i expect we shall come to coat-and-shift-making for porters and guards, next!" "no, we haven't got quite that length yet," laughed will garvie; "but if you look along you'll see gilding, and glazing, and painting going on, at that first-class carriage. still farther along, in the direction we're going, is the infirmary." "the infirmary, willum!" "ay, the place where old and damaged trucks and carriages are sent for repair. they're all in a bad way, you see,--much in need o' the doctor's sar'vices." this was true. looking at some of these unfortunates, with crushed-in planks, twisted buffers and general dismemberment, it seemed a wonder that they had been able to perform their last journey, or crawl to the hospital. some of the trucks especially might have been almost said to look diseased, they were so dirty, while at the corners, where address cards were wont to be affixed, they appeared to have broken out in a sort of small-pox irruption of iron tackets. at last mrs marrot left the "works," declaring that her brain was "whirling worser than was the wheels and machinery they had just left," while bob asseverated stoutly that his appetite for the stupendous had only been whetted. in this frame of mind the former went home to nurse her husband, and the latter was handed over to his future master, the locomotive superintendent of the line. reader, it is worth your while to visit such works, to learn what can be done by the men whom you are accustomed to see, only while trooping home at meal hours, with dirty garments and begrimed hands and faces--to see the grandeur as well as the delicacy of their operations, while thus labouring amongst din and dust and fire, to provide _you_ with safe and luxurious locomotion. we cannot indeed, introduce you to the particular "works" we have described; but if you would see something similar, hie thee to the works of our great arterial railways,--to those of the london and north-western, at crewe; the great western, at swindon; the south-eastern, at ashford; the great northern, at doncaster; the north british, at cowlairs; the caledonian, at glasgow, or any of the many others that exist throughout the kingdom, for in each and all you will see, with more or less modification, exactly the same amazing sights that were witnessed by worthy mrs marrot and her hopeful son bob, on that never-to-be-forgotten day, when they visited the pre-eminently great clatterby "works" of the grand national trunk railway. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ note. the foregoing description is founded on visits paid to the locomotive works of the great western, at swindon, and those of the north british, near glasgow--to the general managers and superintendents of both which railways we are indebted for much valuable information.-- r.m. ballantyne. chapter nine. concerning domestic economy and difficulties--surprises and explanations. how to "make the two ends meet," is a question that has engaged the attention and taxed the brains of hundreds and thousands of human beings from time immemorial, and which will doubtless afford them free scope for exercise to the end of time. this condition of things would appear to arise from a misconception on the part of those who are thus exercised as to the necessities of life. they seem to imagine, as a rule, that if their income should happen to be, say three hundred pounds a year, it is absolutely impossible by any effort of ingenuity for them to live on less than two hundred and ninety-nine pounds nineteen shillings and eleven-pence three farthing. they therefore attempt to regulate their expenditure accordingly, and rather plume themselves than otherwise on the fact that they are firmly resolved to save and lay bye the farthing. they fail in this attempt as a matter of course, and hence the difficulty of making the two ends meet. if these unfortunates had been bred to the profession of engineering or "contracting," they would have known that it is what we may style a law of human nature to under-estimate probable expenses. so thoroughly is this understood by the men of the professions above referred to, that, after they have formed an estimate,--set down every imaginable expense, and racked their brains in order to make sure that they have provided for every conceivable and inconceivable item, they coolly add to the amount a pretty large sum as a "margin" to cover unexpected and unthought-of contingencies. but anything of this sort never seems to enter into the calculations of the people who are so much tormented with those obstinate "two ends" that won't meet. there is one sure and easy mode of escape for them, but they invariably hold that mode to be ridiculous, until in dire extremity they are forced to adopt it. this is simply to make one's calculations for living _considerably within_ one's income! we make no apology for going into the minutiae of this remarkable phase of human existence, because it is necessary, in order to the correct appreciation of the circumstances and feelings of good little mrs tipps, when, several weeks after the accident described in a previous chapter, she sat down in her little parlour to reconsider the subject of her annual expenditure. netta sat beside her looking somewhat pale, for she had not quite recovered from the effects of her recent illness. "my darling," said mrs tipps, "how _can_ you charge me with having made an error somewhere? have i not got it all down here on black and white, as your dear father used to say? this is the identical paper on which i made my calculations last year, and i have gone over them all and found them perfectly correct. look there." mrs tipps held up in triumph, as if it were an incontestable evidence of the rectitude of her calculations, a sheet of note-paper so blotted and bespattered with figures, that it would have depressed the heart even of an accountant, because, besides the strong probability that it was intrinsically wrong, it was altogether illegible. "dear mamma," remonstrated netta, with a twinkle of her eye, "i do not call in question the correctness of your calculations, but i suggest that there may perhaps be an error of some sort somewhere. at all events the result would seem to indicate--to imply--that--that everything was not _quite_ right, you know." "quite true, darling," replied mrs tipps, who was a candid though obtuse soul; "the result is unsatisfactory, eminently so; yet i cannot charge myself with careless omissions. see--here it is; on one side are my receipts. your dear father always impressed it _so_ earnestly on me that i should keep the receipts of money on one side of the accounts, and the payments on the other. i never could remember, by the way, on which side to put the receipts, and on which the payments, until he hit on the idea of making me contradict myself, and then i should be sure to keep right. he used to say (how well i remember it), `now, darling, this is the way: whenever you receive a sum of money to enter in your cash-book, always say to yourself, what side shall i put it on? if your mind suggests on the right, at once say no--because that would be wrong--right being _wrong_ in _this_ case,' and he did use to laugh so over that little pleasantry." mrs tipps' gravity deepened as she recalled these interesting lessons in book-keeping. "yes," she continued, with a sigh, "and then he would go on to say, that `if it was wrong to go to the right, of course it must be right to go the other way.' at first i used to be a good deal puzzled, and said, `but suppose my mind, when i receive a sum of money, should suggest putting it on the _left_, am i to contradict myself _then_?' `oh no!' he would say, with another laugh, `in that case you will remember that your mind is to be _left_ alone to carry out its suggestion.' i got to understand it at last, after several years of training, but i never _could_ quite approve of it for it causes so much waste of paper. just look here!" she said, holding up a little account-book, "here are all the right pages quite filled up, while all the left pages are blank. it takes only four lines to enter my receipts, because you know i receive my money only once a quarter. well, that brings me back to the point. here are all the receipts on one side; my whole income, deducting income-tax--which, by the way, i cannot help regarding as a very unjust tax--amounts to two hundred and fifty pounds seventeen shillings and two-pence. then here you have my paper of calculations--everything set down--rent, taxes, water rates, food, clothing, coals, gas, candles, sundries (sundries, my darling, including such small articles as soap, starch, etcetera); nothing omitted, even the cat's food provided for, the whole mounting to two hundred and forty-five pounds. you see i was so anxious to keep within my income, that i resolved to leave five pounds seventeen shillings and two-pence for contingencies. but how does the case actually stand?" here poor mrs tipps pointed indignantly to her account-book, and to a pile of papers that lay before her, as if they were the guilty cause of all her troubles. "how does it stand? the whole two hundred and fifty pounds seventeen shillings spent--only the two-pence left--and accounts to tradesmen, amounting to fifty pounds, remaining unpaid!" "and have we _nothing_ left to pay them?" asked netta, in some anxiety. "nothing, my love," replied mrs tipps, with a perplexed look, "except," she added, after a moment's thought, "the tuppence!" the poor lady whimpered as she said this, seeing which netta burst into tears; whereupon her mother sprang up, scattered the accounts right and left, and blaming herself for having spoken on these disagreeable subjects at all, threw her arms round netta's neck and hugged her. "don't think me foolish, mamma," said netta, drying her eyes in a moment; "really it almost makes me laugh to think that _i_ should ever come to cry so easily; but you know illness does weaken one so, that sometimes, in spite of myself, i feel inclined to cry. but don't mind me; there, it's past now. let us resume our business talk." "indeed i will not," protested mrs tipps. "then i will call nurse, and go into the subject with her," said netta. "don't be foolish, dear." "well, then, go on with it, mamma. tell me, now, is there nothing that we could sell?" "nothing. to be sure there is my gold watch, but that would not fetch more than a few pounds; and my wedding-ring, which i would sooner die than part with." netta glanced, as she spoke, at an unusually superb diamond ring, of eastern manufacture, which adorned her own delicate hand. it was her father's last gift to her a few days before he died. "what are you thinking of, darling?" inquired mrs tipps. "of many things," replied netta slowly. "it is not easy to tell you exactly what--" here she was saved the necessity of further explanation by the entrance of joseph tipps, who, after kissing his mother and sister heartily, threw his hat and gloves into a corner, and, rubbing his hands together as he sat down, inquired if edwin gurwood had been there. "no, we have neither seen nor heard of him," said netta. "then you shall have him to luncheon in half-an-hour, or so," said joseph, consulting his watch. "i got leave of absence to-day, and intend to spend part of my holiday in introducing him to captain lee, who has promised to get him a situation in the head office. you've no idea what a fine hearty fellow he is," continued tipps enthusiastically, "so full of humour and good sense. but what have you been discussing? not accounts, surely! why, mother, what's the use of boring your brains with such things? let me have 'em, i'll go over them for you. what d'you want done? the additions checked, eh?" on learning that it was not the accounts so much as the discrepancy between the estimate and the actual expenditure that puzzled his mother, tipps seized her book, and, turning over the leaves, said, "here, let me see, i'll soon find it out--ah, well, rent yes; taxes, h'm; wine to mrs natly, you put that, in your estimate, under the head of food, i suppose?" "n-no, i think not." "under physic, then?" "no, not under that. i have no head for that." "what! no head for physic? if you'd said you had no stomach for it i could have understood you; but--well--what _did_ you put it under; sundries, eh?" "i'm afraid, joseph, that i have not taken note of that in my extract-- your dear father used to call the thing he did with his cash-book at the end of the year an extract--i think i've omitted that." "just so," said tipps, jotting down with a pencil on the back of a letter. "i'll soon account to you for the discrepancy. here are six bottles of wine to mrs natly, the railway porter's wife, at three-and-six--one pound one--not provided for in your estimate. any more physic, i wonder? h'm, subscription for coals to the poor. half-a-guinea--no head for charities in your estimate, i suppose?" "of course," pleaded mrs tipps, "in making an estimate, i was thinking only of my own expenses, you know--not of charities and such-like things; but when poor people come, you know, what _is_ one to do?" "we'll not discuss that just now, mother. hallo! `ten guineas doctor's fee!' of course you have not that in the estimate, seeing that you did not know netta was going to be ill. what's this?--`five pounds for twenty wax dolls--naked--(to be dressed by ---)'" "really, joseph, the book is too private to be read aloud," said mrs tipps, snatching it out of her son's hand. "these dolls were for a bazaar in aid of the funds of a blind asylum, and i dressed them all myself last winter." "well, well, mother," said tipps, laughing, "i don't want to pry into such secrets; but here, you see, we have seventeen pounds odd of the discrepancy discovered already, and i've no doubt that the remainder could soon be fished up." "yes," sighed mrs tipps, sadly, "i see it now. as the poet truly says,--`evil is wrought by want of thought as well as want of heart.' i have been assisting the poor at the expense of my trades-people." "mother," exclaimed tipps, indignantly, "you have been doing nothing of the sort. don't imagine that i could for a moment insinuate such a thing. you have only made a little mistake in your calculations, and all that you have got to do is to _put down a larger sum for contingencies_ next time. what nonsense you talk about your trades-people! every one of them shall be paid to the last farthing--" here tipps was interrupted by the entrance of edwin gurwood, who at once began with much interest to inquire into the health of mrs tipps, and hoped that she had not suffered in any way from her recent accident. mrs tipps replied she was thankful to say that she had not suffered in any way, beyond being a little shaken and dreadfully alarmed. "but railways have suffered," said tipps, laughing, "for mother is so strongly set against them now that she would not enter one for a thousand pounds." "they have suffered in worse ways than that," said gurwood, "if all that i hear be true, for that accident has produced a number of serious compensation cases." hereupon gurwood and his friend plunged into an animated conversation about railway accidents and their consequences, to the intense interest and horror of mrs tipps. meanwhile netta left the room, and went to her old nurse's apartment. "nurse," she said, hurriedly, "when did you say you proposed paying your brother in london a visit--about this time, was it not?" "yes, dear," said old mrs durby, taking off her tortoise-shell spectacles and laying down her work, "i thought of going next week, if it is quite convenient." "it _is_ quite convenient, nurse," continued netta, in a somewhat flurried manner; "it would be still more convenient if you could go to-morrow or next day." "deary me--what's wrong?" inquired mrs durby, in some surprise. "listen, i have not time to explain much," said netta, earnestly, sitting down beside her faithful nurse and putting her hand on her shoulder. "we have got into difficulties, nurse--temporary difficulties, i hope--but they must be got over somehow. now, i want you to take this diamond ring to london with you--pawn it for as much as you can get, and bring me the money." "me pawn it, my dear! i never pawned a thing in my life, and don't know how to go about it." "but your brother knows how to do it," suggested netta. "now, you won't refuse me this favour, dear nurse? i know it is an unpleasant business, but what else can be done? the ring is my own; besides, i hope to be able to redeem it soon. i know no more about pawning than yourself, but i do know that a considerable time must elapse before the ring shall be lost to me. and, you know, our bills _must_ be paid." good mrs durby did not require much persuasion. she consented to set off as soon as possible, if she should obtain permission from mrs tipps, who was aware that she had intended to visit her brother about that time. she received the precious ring, which, for security, was put into a pill-box; this was introduced into an empty match-box, which netta wrapped in a sheet of note-paper and put mrs durby's name on it. for further security mrs durby enlarged the parcel by thrusting the match-box into an old slipper, the heel of which she doubled over the toe, and then wrapped the whole in several sheets of brown paper until the parcel assumed somewhat the shape and size of her own head. it was also fastened with strong cords, but mrs durby's powers of making a parcel were so poor that she left several uncouth corners and ragged ends of paper sticking out here and there. she wrote on it in pencil the simple name--durby. meanwhile joseph and his friend, having finished luncheon, prepared to set out on their visit to captain lee. as they quitted the house, tipps ran back to the door and called his sister out of the parlour. "i say, netta, what about this fifty pounds that mother was talking of?" he said. "do you mean to say that you are really short of that sum, and in debt?" "we are, but i see a way out of the difficulty. don't distress yourself, joe; we shall have everything squared up, as you call it in a few days." "are you _quite_ sure of that?" asked tipps, with a doubting look. "you know i have got an uncommonly cheap lodging, and a remarkably economical landlady, who manages so splendidly that i feed on a mere trifle a week. seventy-five pounds a year, you know, is more than i know what to do with. i can live on thirty-five or so, and the other forty is--" "we don't require it joe," said netta, laughing. "there, go away, you are giving me cold by keeping me in the passage, and your friend is getting impatient." she pushed him out, nodded, and shut the door. tipps hastened after his friend, apologised for the delay, and, stepping out smartly, they were soon ushered into captain lee's drawing-room. the captain was writing. emma was seated near the window sewing. "ha! tipps, my fine fellow, glad to see you; why, i was just thinking of you," said the captain, extending his hand. "i have called," began tipps, bowing to emma and shaking the captain's hand, "to introduce my--my--eh!--ah, my--what's the matter?" there was some reason for these exclamations, for captain lee stood gazing in mute amazement at young gurwood, while the latter returned the compliment with his eyebrows raised to the roots of his hair. the similarity of their expressions did not, however, last long, for edwin became gradually confused, while the captain grew red and choleric-looking. "so," said the latter at length, in a very stern voice, "_this_ is your friend, mr tipps?" "sir," exclaimed edwin, flushing crimson, "you ought not to condemn any one unheard." "_i_ do not condemn you, sir," retorted the captain. "by word, no, but by look and tone and gesture you do." "captain lee," exclaimed tipps, who had stood perfectly aghast with amazement at this scene, "what _do_ you mean?--surely." "i mean," said the captain, "that this youth was taken up by one of our own detectives as a thief, some weeks ago, and was found travelling in a first-class carriage without a ticket." young gurwood, who had by this time recovered his self-possession, turned to his friend and said,--"explain this matter, tipps, you know all about it. the only point that can puzzle you is, that i did not know the name of captain lee when i travelled with him, and therefore did not connect him with the gentleman to whom you said you meant to introduce me." tipps drew a long breath. "oh," said he, "i see it all now. why, captain lee, my friend is _perfectly_ innocent. it was quite a mistake, i assure you; and the best proof of it is that he is a personal friend of our police superintendent, who was on the spot at the time the accident occurred, but we were all thrown into such confusion at the time, that i don't wonder things were not cleared up." tipps hereupon went into a detailed account of the matter as far as he knew it, at first to the surprise and then to the amusement of captain lee. fortunately for gurwood, who would have found it difficult to explain the circumstance of his travelling without a ticket, the captain was as prompt to acknowledge his erroneous impression as he had been to condemn. instead of listening to tipps, he stopped him by suddenly grasping gurwood's hand, and thanking him heartily for the prompt and able assistance he had rendered in rescuing his daughter from her perilous position on the day of the accident. of course edwin would not admit that "rescue" was the proper term to apply to his action, and refused to admit that miss lee was in the slightest degree indebted to him, at the same time assuring her and her father that it had afforded him the highest possible pleasure to have been of the slightest service to them. the end of it was that they all became extremely good friends, and the captain in particular became quite jocular in reference to mistakes in general and stealing in particular, until tipps, pulling out his watch, declared that procrastination was the thief of time, and that as he happened to have business to transact with the police superintendent in reference to the very accident which had caused them all so much trouble, he must unwillingly bid them adieu. "stay, tipps," exclaimed the captain, rising, "i shall accompany you to the station, and introduce our friend gurwood to the scene of his future labours, where," continued the captain, turning with a hearty air and patronising smile to edwin, "i hope you will lay the foundation of a career which will end in a manager's or secretary's situation, or some important post of that sort. good-bye, emma i'll not be back till dinner-time." emma bowed to the young men, and said good-bye to her father with a smile so ineffably captivating, that edwin resolved then and there to lay the foundation of a career which would end in a wife with nut-brown hair and large lustrous eyes. poor edwin! he was not the first man whose wayward spirit had been chained, his impulses directed to good ends and aims, and his destiny fixed, by the smile of an innocent, loving, pretty girl. assuredly, also, he was not the last! chapter ten. sharp practice. standing with his back to the fireplace, his legs slightly apart, his hands in his pockets, and his eyes fixed on the ceiling, mr sharp, police superintendent of the grand national trunk railway, communed with himself and dived into the future. mr sharp's powers of diving were almost miraculous. he had an unusually keen eye for the past and the present, but in regard to the future his powers were all but prophetic. he possessed a rare capacity for following up clues; investigating cases; detecting falsehoods, not only of the lip, but of the eye and complexion; and, in a word, was able to extract golden information out of the most unpromising circumstances. he was also all but ubiquitous. now tracking a suspicion to its source on his own line in one of the midland counties; anon comparing notes with a brother superintendent at the terminus of the great western, or great northern, or south-eastern in london. sometimes called away to give evidence in a county court; at other times taking a look in at his own home to kiss his wife or dandle his child before dashing off per express to follow up a clue to john o'groats or the land's end. here, and there, and everywhere--calm, self-possessed, and self-contained, making notes in trains, writing reports in his office, making discoveries and convictions, and sometimes making prisoners with his own hands by night and day, with no fixed hours for work, or rest, or meals, and no certainty in anything concerning him, save in the uncertainty of his movements, mr sharp with his myrmidons was the terror of evil doers, and, we may truly add, the safeguard of the public. little did that ungrateful public know all it owed to the untiring watchfulness and activity of mr sharp and his men. if he and his compeers were to be dismissed from our lines for a single week, the descent of a host of thieves and scoundrels to commit wide-spread plunder would teach the public somewhat severely how much they owe to the efficient management of this department of railway business, and how well, constantly and vigilantly--though unobtrusively--their interests are cared for. but to return. mr sharp, as we have said stood communing with himself and diving into the future. apparently his thoughts afforded him some amusement, for his eyes twinkled slightly, and there was a faintly humorous twist about the corners of his mouth. david blunt sat at a desk near him, writing diligently. against the wall over his head hung a row of truncheons. besides the desk, a bench, two or three wooden chairs, and a chest, there was little furniture in the room. blunt's busy pen at length ceased to move, and sharp looked at him. "well, blunt," he said, "i see nothing for it but to make a railway porter of you." "by all means, sir," said blunt, with a smile, laying down his pen. "gorton station," continued sharp, "has become a very nest of thieves. it is not creditable that such a state of things should exist for a week on our line. they have managed things very cleverly as yet. five or six bales of cloth have disappeared in the course of as many days, besides several loaves of sugar and half-a-dozen cheeses. i am pretty sure who the culprits are, but can't manage to bring it home to them, so, as i have said, we must convert you into a porter. you have only been once engaged on this part of the line--that was at the accident when you were so hard on poor mr gurwood, so that none of the gorton people will know you. i have arranged matters with our passenger superintendent. it seems that macdonell, the station-master at gorton, has been complaining that he is short-handed and wants another porter. that just suits us, so we have resolved to give you that responsible situation. you will get a porter's uniform from--" at this point mr sharp was interrupted by the door opening violently, and a detective in plain clothes entering with a stout young man in his grasp. "who have we here?" asked mr sharp. "man travelling without a ticket sir," replied the detective, whose calm demeanour was in marked contrast to the excitement of his prisoner. "ha! come here; what have you to say for yourself?" demanded the superintendent of the man. hereupon the man began a violent exculpation of himself, which entailed nearly half-an-hour of vigorous cross-questioning, and resulted in his giving a half-satisfactory account of himself, some trustworthy references to people in town, and being set free. this case having been disposed of, mr sharp resumed his conversation with blunt. "having been changed, then, into a railway porter, blunt, you will proceed to gorton to discharge your duties there, and while doing so you will make uncommonly good use of your eyes, ears, and opportunities." mr sharp smiled and blunt chuckled, and at the same time joseph tipps entered the room. "good-evening, mr sharp," he said. "well, anything more about these gorton robberies?" "nothing more yet, mr tipps, but we expect something more soon, for a new porter is about to be sent to the station." tipps, who was a very simple matter-of-fact man in some ways, looked puzzled. "why, how will the sending of a new porter to the station throw light on the matter?" "you shall know in the course of time, mr tipps," replied the superintendent. "we have wonderful ways of finding out things here." "indeed you have," said tipps; "and, by the way, that reminds me that they have some wonderful ways of finding out things on the continent as well as here. i have just heard of a clever thing done by a german professor. it seems that on one of the lines--i forget which--a large box full of silver-plate was despatched. it had a long way to go, and before reaching its destination the plate was stolen, and the box filled up with sand. on this being discovered, of course every sort of investigation was set on foot, but without success. at last the thing came to the ears of a professor of chemistry--or the police went to him, i don't know which--and it occurred to him that he might get a clue to the thieves by means of the sand in the box. you see the great difficulty the police had, was to ascertain at which of the innumerable stations on the long line, it was likely that the theft had taken place. the professor ordered samples of the sand at all the stations on the line to be sent to him. these he analysed and examined with the microscope, and found that one of the samples was precisely similar in all respects to the sand in the box. the attention of the police was at once concentrated on the station from which that sand had been gathered, and in a short time the guilty parties were discovered and the theft brought home to them. now, wasn't that clever?" "very good, very good, indeed," said mr sharp, approvingly, "and rather peculiar. i had a somewhat peculiar case myself last week. you know some time ago there was a quantity of cloth stolen on this line, for which, by the way, we had to pay full compensation. well, i could not get any clue to the thieves, but at last i thought of a plan. i got some patterns of the cloth from the party that lost it, and sent one of these to every station on the line where it was likely to have been stolen. just the other day i got a telegram from croon station stating that a man had been seen going about in a new suit exactly the same as the pattern. off i went immediately, pounced on the man, taxed him with the theft, and found the remainder of the cloth in his house." "capital," exclaimed tipps, "that was smartly managed. and, by the way, wasn't there something about a case of stealing muffs and boas lately?" "yes, and we got hold of that thief too, the day before yesterday," replied mr sharp. "i felt sure, from the way in which the theft was committed, that it must be one of our own men, and so it turned out. he had cut open a bale and taken out several muffs and boas of first-rate sable. one set of 'em he gave to his sweetheart, who was seen wearing them in church on sunday. i just went to her and said i was going to put a question to her, and warned her to speak the truth, as it would be worse for all parties concerned if she attempted to deceive me. i then asked her if she had got the muff and boa from jim croydon, the porter. she blushed scarlet, and admitted it at once, but said, poor thing, that she had no idea they had been stolen, and i believe her. this case occurred just after i had watched the milk-truck the other night for three hours, and found that the thief who had been helping himself to it every morning for some weeks past was the watchman at the station." "i fear there are a great many bad fellows amongst us," said tipps, shaking his head. "you are quite mistaken," replied the superintendent. "there _were_ a good many bad fellows, but i flatter myself that there are very few _now_ in proportion to the number of men on the line. we are constantly winnowing them out, purifying the ore, as it were, so that we are gradually getting rid of all the dross, and leaving nothing but sterling metal on the line. why, mr tipps, you surely don't expect that railways are to be exempted from black sheep any more than other large companies. just look at the army and navy, and see what a lot of rascals have to be punished and drummed out of the service every now and then. same everywhere. why, when i consider that we employ over twenty thousand men and boys, and that these men and boys are tempted, more almost than any other class of people, by goods lying about constantly in large quantities in the open air, and in all sorts of lonely and out-of-the-way places, my surprise is that our bad men are so few. no doubt we shall always have one or two prowling about, and may occasionally alight on a nest of 'em, but we shall manage to keep 'em down--to winnow them out faster, perhaps, than they come in. i am just going about some little pieces of business of that sort now," added mr sharp; putting on his hat. "did you wish to speak with me about anything in particular, mr tipps?" "yes; i wished to ask you if that fat woman, mrs ---, what's her name?" "you mean mrs podge, i suppose?" suggested sharp; "she who kicked her heels so vigorously at langrye after the accident." "ah! mrs podge--yes. does she persist in her ridiculous claim for damages?" "she does, having been urged to do so by some meddling friend; for i'm quite sure that she would never have thought of doing so herself, seeing that she received no damage at all beyond a fright. i'm going to pay her a visit to-day in reference to that very thing." "that's all right; then i won't detain you longer. good-bye, mr sharp," said tipps, putting on his hat and quitting the office. not long afterwards, mr sharp knocked at the door of a small house in one of the suburbs of clatterby, and was ushered into the presence of mrs podge. that amiable lady was seated by the fire knitting a stocking. "good afternoon, mrs podge," said mr sharp, bowing and speaking in his blandest tones. "i hope i see you quite well?" mrs podge, charmed with the stranger's urbanity, wished him good afternoon, admitted that she was quite well, and begged him to be seated. "thank you, mrs podge," said mr sharp, complying. "i have taken the liberty of calling in regard to a small matter of business--but pardon me," he added, rising and shutting the door, "i inadvertently left the door open, which is quite inexcusable in me, considering your delicate state of health. i trust that--" "my delicate state of health!" exclaimed mrs podge, who was as fat as a prize pig, and rather piqued herself on her good looks and vigour of body. "yes," continued mr sharp, in a commiserating tone; "i have understood, that since the accident on the railway your--" "oh, as to that," laughed mrs podge, "i'm not much the worse of--but, sir," she said, becoming suddenly grave, "you said you had called on business?" "i did. my business is to ask," said mr sharp, with a very earnest glance of his penetrating eyes, "on what ground you claim compensation from the grand national trunk railway?" instantly mrs podge's colour changed. she became languid, and sighed. "oh, sir--damages--yes--my nerves! i did not indeed suffer much damage in the way of cuts or bruises, though there _was_ a good piece of skin torn off my elbow, which i could show you if it were proper to--but my nerves received a _terrible_ shock. they have not yet recovered. indeed, your abrupt way of putting it has quite--thrown a--" as mrs podge exhibited some symptoms of a hysterical nature at this point mr sharp assumed a very severe expression of countenance, and said-- "now, mrs podge, do you really think it fair or just, to claim damages from a company, from whom you have absolutely received _no_ damage?" "but sir," said mrs podge, recovering, "my nerves _did_ receive damage." "i do not doubt it mrs podge, but we cannot compensate you for that. if you had been laid up, money could have repaid you for lost time, or, if your goods had been damaged, it might have compensated for that but money cannot restore shocked nerves. did you require medical attendance?" "n-no!" said mrs podge, reddening. "a friend did indeed insist on my seeing a doctor, to whom, at his suggestion, i gave a fee of five shillings, but to say truth i did not require him." "ha! was it the same friend who advised you to claim compensation?" "ye-es!" replied mrs podge, a little confused. "well, mrs podge, from your own admission i rather think that there seems something like a fraudulent attempt to obtain money here. i do not for a moment hint that you are guilty of a fraudulent _intention_, but you must know, ma'am, that the law takes no notice of intentions-- only of facts." "but _have_ i not a right to expect compensation for the shock to my nervous system?" pleaded mrs podge, still unwilling to give in. "certainly not, ma'am, if the shock did not interfere with your ordinary course of life or cause you pecuniary loss. and does it not seem hard on railways, if you can view the subject candidly, to be so severely punished for accidents which are in many eases absolutely unavoidable? perfection is not to be attained in a moment. we are rapidly decreasing our risks and increasing our safeguards. we do our best for the safety and accommodation of the public, and as directors and officials travel by our trains as frequently as do the public, concern for our own lives insures that we work the line in good faith. why, ma'am, i was myself near the train at the time of the accident at langrye, and _my_ nerves were considerably shaken. moreover, there was a director with his daughter in the train, both of whom were severely shaken, but they do not dream of claiming damages on that account. if you could have shown, mrs podge, that you had suffered loss of any kind, we should have _offered_ you compensation promptly, but as things stand--" "well, well," exclaimed mrs podge, testily. "i suppose i must give it up, but i don't see why railway companies should be allowed to shock my nerves and then refuse to give me any compensation!" "but we do not absolutely refuse _all_ compensation," said mr sharp, drawing out his purse; "if a sovereign will pay the five shilling fee of your doctor, and any other little expenses that you may have incurred, you are welcome to it." mrs podge extended her hand, mr sharp dropped the piece of gold into it, and then, wishing her good afternoon, quitted the house. the superintendent of police meditated, as he walked smartly away from mrs podge, on the wonderful differences that were to be met with in mankind, as to the matter of acquisitiveness, and his mind reverted to a visit he had paid some time before, to another of the passengers in the train to which the accident occurred. this was the commercial traveller who had one of his legs rather severely injured. he willingly showed his injured limb to our superintendent, when asked to do so, but positively declined to accept of any compensation whatever, although it was offered, and appeared to think himself handsomely treated when a few free passes were sent to him by the manager. contrasting mrs podge unfavourably with this rare variety of the injured human race, mr sharp continued his walk until he reached a part of the line, not far from the station, where a large number of vans and waggons were shunted on to sidings,--some empty, others loaded,--waiting to be made up into trains and forwarded to their several destinations. chapter eleven. sharp practice--continued. mr sharp had several peculiarities, which, at first sight, might have puzzled a stranger. he was peculiar in his choice of routes by which to reach a given spot appearing frequently to prefer devious, difficult, and unfrequented paths to straight and easy roads. in the time of his visits to various places, too, he was peculiarly irregular, and seemed rather to enjoy taking people by surprise. on the present occasion his chief peculiarity appeared to be a desire to approach the station by a round-about road. in carrying out his plans he went round the corner of a house, from which point of view he observed a goods train standing near a goods-shed with an engine attached. in order to reach it he had the choice of two routes. one of these was through a little wicket-gate, near to which a night-watchman was stationed--for the shades of evening were by that time descending on the scene, the other was through a back yard, round by a narrow lane and over a paling, which it required more than an average measure of strength and agility to leap. mr sharp chose the latter route. what were palings and narrow lanes and insecure footing in deepening gloom to him! why, he rejoiced in such conditions! he didn't like easy work. he abhorred a bed of roses--not that he had ever tried one, although it is probable that he had often enjoyed a couch of grass, straw, or nettles. rugged circumstances were his glory. it was as needful for him to encounter such--in his winnowing processes--as it is for the harrow to encounter stones in preparing the cultivated field. moving quietly but swiftly round by the route before mentioned mr sharp came suddenly on the night-watchman. "good-evening, jim." "evenin', sir." "keep your eyes open to-night, jim. we _must_ find out who it is that has taken such a fancy to apples of late." "i will, sir; i'll keep a sharp look-out." it was jim's duty to watch that locality of the line, where large quantities of goods of all descriptions were unavoidably left to wait for a few hours on sidings. such watchmen are numerous on all lines; and very necessary, as well as valuable, men most of them are--fellows who hold the idea of going to rest at regular hours in quiet contempt; men who sleep at any time of the night or day that chances to be most convenient, and who think no more of a hand-to-hand scuffle with a big thief or a burglar than they do of eating supper. nevertheless, like every other class of men in this wicked world, there are black sheep amongst them too. "is that train going up to the station just now, jim?" asked mr sharp, pointing to the engine, whose gentle simmering told of latent energy ready for immediate use. "i believe so, sir." "i'll go up with her. good-night." mr sharp crossed the line, and going towards the engine found that the driver and fireman were not upon it. he knew, however, that they could not be far off--probably looking after something connected with their train--and that they would be back immediately; he climbed up to the foot-plate and sat down on the rail. he there became reflective, and recalled, with some degree of amusement as well as satisfaction, some of the more recent incidents of his vocation. he smiled as he remembered how, not very far from where he sat, he had on a cloudy evening got into a horse-box, and boring a hole in it with a gimlet, applied his eye thereto,--his satellite david blunt doing the same in another end of the same horse-box, and how, having thus obtained a clear view of a truck in which several casks of wine were placed, he beheld one of the servants on the line in company with one of his friends who was _not_ a servant on the line, coolly bore a hole in one of the wine casks and insert a straw, and, by that means, obtain a prolonged and evidently satisfactory draught--which accounted at once for the fact that wine had been leaking in that locality for some time past, and that the said servant had been seen more than once in a condition that was deemed suspicious. mr sharp also reflected complacently--and he had time to reflect, for the driver and fireman were rather long of coming--on another case in which the thieves were so wary that for a long time he could make nothing of them, although their depredations were confined to a train that passed along the line at a certain hour, but at last were caught in consequence of his hitting on a plan of having a van specially prepared for himself. he smiled again--almost laughed when he thought of this van--how it was regularly locked and labelled on a quiet siding; how a plank was loosened in the bottom of it, by which means he got into it, and was then shunted out, and attached to the train, so that neither guard, nor driver, nor fireman, had any idea of what was inside; how he thereafter bored several small gimlet holes in the various sides of the van and kept a sharp look-out from station to station as they went along; how at last he came to the particular place--not a station, but a place where a short pause was made--where the wary thieves were; how he saw them--two stout fellows--approach in the gloom of evening and begin their wicked work of cutting tarpaulings and abstracting goods; how he thereupon lifted his plank and dropped out on the line, and how he powerfully astonished them by laying his hands on their collars and taking them both in the very act! at last mr sharp's entertaining reflections were interrupted by the approach of the driver of the engine, who carried a top-coat over his left arm. as he drew near and observed who stood upon his engine, the man gave an involuntary and scarcely perceptible start. there must have been something peculiarly savage and ungenerous in the breast of mr sharp, one would have thought, to induce him to suspect a man whose character was blameless. but he did suspect that man on the faith of that almost imperceptible touch of discomposure, and his suspicion did not dissipate although the man came boldly and respectfully forward. "ho-ho!" thought mr sharp, "there is more chaff here to be winnowed than i had bargained for." his only remark, however, was-- "good-evening; i suppose you start for the station in a few minutes?" "yes, sir," said the man, moving towards the rear of the tender. "you'd better get up at once, then," said mr sharp, descending quickly--"what have you got there, my good man?" "my top-coat sir," said the driver, with a confused look. "ah, let us see--eh! what's all this? a salmon! a brace of grouse! and a pair of rabbits! well, you seem to have provided a good supper for to-night. there don't appear to be very stringent game-laws where you come from!" the man was so taken aback that he could not reply. as the fireman came out of the neighbouring goods-shed at that moment, mr sharp ordered the driver to mount to his place, and then waiting beside the engine received the fireman with an amiable "good-night." this man also had a top-coat over his arm, betrayed the same uneasiness on observing mr sharp, went though precisely the same examination, and was found to have made an identically similar provision for his supper. almost immediately after him the guard issued from the shed, also burdened with a top-coat! mr sharp muttered something about, "birds of a feather," and was about to advance to meet the guard when that individual's eyes fell on him. he turned back at once, not in a hurry, but quietly as though he had forgotten something. the superintendent sprang through the open door, but was too late. the guard had managed to drop his booty. thereupon mr sharp returned to the engine, ordered the steam to be turned on, and the driver drove himself and his friends to the station and to condign punishment. having disposed of this little incidental case, mr sharp--after hearing and commenting upon several matters related to him by the members of his corps, and having ordered david blunt to await him in the office as he had a job for him that night,--returned towards the locality which he had so recently quitted. in doing this he took advantage of another goods train, from which he dropped at a certain hole-and-corner spot, while it was slowly passing the goods-shed before mentioned. from this spot he took an observation and saw the pipe of jim, the night-watchman, glowing in the dark distance like a star of the first magnitude. "ha!" thought mr sharp, "smoking! you'll have to clear your eyes of smoke if you hope to catch thieves to-night, my fine fellow; but i shall try to render you some able assistance." so thinking, he moved quietly about among the vans and trucks, stooping and climbing as occasion required, and doing it all so noiselessly that, had the night permitted him to be visible at all, he might have been mistaken for a stout shadow or a ghost. he went about somewhat like a retriever snuffing the air for game. at last he reached a truck, not very far from the place where jim paced slowly to and fro, watching, no doubt, for thieves. little did he think how near he was to a thief at that moment! the truck beside which mr sharp stood sent forth a delicious odour of american apples. the superintendent of police smelt them. worse than that--he undid a corner of the thick covering of the track, raised it and smelt again--he put in a hand. evidently his powers of resistance to temptation were small, for both hands went in--he stooped his head, and then, slowly but surely, his whole body went in under the cover and disappeared. infatuated superintendent! while he lay there gorging himself, no doubt with the dainty fruit, _honest_ jim paced slowly to and fro until, a very dark and quiet hour of the night having arrived, he deemed it time to act, put out his pipe, and moved with stealthy tread towards the apple-truck. there were no thieves about as far as he could see. he was placed there for the express purpose of catching thieves. ridiculous waste of time and energy--he would _make_ a thief! he would become one; he would detect and catch himself; repay himself with apples for his trouble, and enjoy himself consumedly! noble idea! no sooner thought than carried into effect. he drew out a large clasp-knife, which opened and locked with a click, and cut a tremendous slash about two feet long in the cover of the truck--passing, in so doing, within an inch of the demoralised superintendent's nose. thieves, you see, are not particular, unless, indeed, we may regard them as particularly indifferent to the injuries they inflict on their fellow-men--but, what did we say? their fellow-men?--a railway is not a fellow-man. surely jim's sin in robbing a railway must be regarded as a venial one. _honest_ men do that every day and appear to think nothing of it! nobody appears to think anything of it. a railway would seem to be the one great unpardonable outlaw of the land, which does good to nobody, and is deemed fair game by everybody who can catch it--napping. but it is not easily caught napping. neither was mr superintendent sharp. jim's hand came through the hole in the covering and entered some sort of receptacle, which must have been broken open by somebody, for the hand was quickly withdrawn with three apples in it. again it entered. mr sharp might have kissed it easily, but he was a man of considerable self-restraint--at least when others were concerned. he thought it advisable that there should be some of the stolen goods found in jim's pockets! he did not touch the hand, therefore, while it was drawn back with other three apples in it. you see it was a large hand, and could hold three at a time. a third time it entered and grasped more of the forbidden fruit. "there's luck in odd numbers," thought mr sharp, as he seized the wrist with both of his iron hands, and held it fast. the appalling yell which jim uttered was due more to superstitious dread than physical fear, for, on discovering that the voice which accompanied the grip was that of mr sharp, he struggled powerfully to get free. after the first violent effort was over, mr sharp suddenly slid one hand along jim's arm, caught him by the collar, and, launching himself through the hole which had been cut so conveniently large, plunged into jim's bosom and crushed him to the earth. this was quite sufficient for jim, who got up meekly when permitted, and pleaded for mercy. mr sharp told him that mercy was a commodity in which he did not deal, that it was the special perquisite of judges, from whom he might steal it if they would not give or sell it to him, and, bidding him come along quietly, led him to the station, and locked him up for the night. not satisfied with what he had already accomplished, mr sharp then returned to his office, where he found the faithful blunt awaiting him, to whom he related briefly what he had done. "now," said he, in conclusion, "if we can only manage to clear up that case of the beer-cask, we shall have done a good stroke of business to-day. have you found out anything in regard to it?" the case to which mr sharp referred was that of a cask of beer which had been stolen from the line at a station not three miles distant from clatterby. "yes, sir," said david blunt with a satisfied smile, "i have found out enough to lead to the detection of the thief." "indeed, who d'ye think it is?" "one of the men at the station, sir. there have been two about it but the other is a stranger. you see, sir," continued blunt, with an earnest look, and in a business tone of voice, "when you sent me down to investigate the case i went d'rect to the station-master there and heard all he had to say about it--which wasn't much;--then off i goes to where the truck was standin', from which the cask had bin taken and pottered about there for some time. at last i tried on the red indian dodge-- followed up tracks and signs, till at last i came upon a mark as if somethin' had bin rolled along the bank, and soon traced it to a gap broken through a hedge into a field. i followed it up in the field, and in a short time came on the cask itself. of course i made a careful examination of the locality, and found very distinct foot-prints, particularly one of 'em on a piece of clay as sharp as if it had been struck in wax. while thus engaged i found a shoe--" "ha!" exclaimed mr sharp. "and here it is," said blunt taking the shoe from under his chair and laying it on the table. the superintendent took it up, examined it and then replaced it on the table with a nod, saying, "proceed." "well, sir, of course i looked well for the other shoe, but didn't find it; so i came away with what i had got, takin' care to place a lump of a stone over the foot-print in the clay, so as to guard but not touch it,--for it wasn't the print of _this_ shoe, sir, though somewhat like it." "ha!" exclaimed mr sharp again. after revolving the matter in his mind for some minutes, and consulting with his satellite, mr sharp resolved to go down at once to the place and watch the beer-cask. "it is not very late yet," he said, "and these thirsty boys will be sure to want a drop of beer to their supper to-night. what makes you so sure that bill jones is the thief?" "because," answered blunt, "i observed that he was the only man at the station that had on a pair of new shoes!" "well, come along," said sharp, smiling grimly, "we shall find out before long." they soon reached the scene of the robbery, and were able to examine the place by the light of the moon, which had just managed to pierce the thick veil of clouds that had covered it during the earlier part of that night. then they retired to a shady cavern, or hole, or hollow at the foot of the embankment, near to the gap in the hedge, and there they prepared to pass the night, with a heap of mingled clods and stones for their couch, and an overhanging bank of nettles for their canopy. it was a long weary watch that began. there these patient men sat, hour after hour, gazing at the moon and stars till they almost fell asleep, and then entering into animated, though softly uttered, conversation until they roused themselves up. it was strange converse too, about struggles and fights with criminals and the detection of crime. but it was not _all_ on such subjects. no, they forsook the professional path occasionally and strayed, as pleasantly as other men do, into the flowery lanes of social life--talking of friends, and wives, and children, and home, with as much pathos and tenderness as if their errand that night had been to succour some comrade in distress, instead of to watch like wolves, and pounce on unawares, and half throttle if need be, and bear off to punishment, an erring fellow-mortal. but no fellow-mortal came that night to be thus pounced on, throttled, and borne off. when it became obvious that there was no use in remaining longer, mr sharp and his satellite returned to the office, and the former bade the latter go home for the night. the satellite, thus set free, went home and set immediately--in his bed. the luminary himself postponed his setting for a time, put the thief's shoe in his pocket and went straight to the residence of bill jones, which he reached shortly after the grey dawn had appeared. here he found bill in bed; but being peremptory in his demand for admission, bill arose and let him in. "you look rather pale this morning, bill?" "bin at work late, sir," said bill uneasily, observing that the superintendent was casting an earnest glance all round his room. jones was a bachelor, so there wasn't much of any kind to look at in the room. "you've been treating yourself to a new pair of shoes, i see, jones, what have you done with the old ones?" "i--they're worn-out, sir--i--" "yes, i see--ah! here is _one_ of them," said mr sharp, drawing an old shoe out of a corner; "you don't require to look for the other, i've got it here," he added, drawing its fellow from his pocket. jones stood aghast. "look here, jones," said mr sharp, gazing sternly into the culprit's face, "you needn't trouble yourself to deny the theft. i haven't yet looked at the sole of _this_ shoe, but i'll engage to tell how many tackets are in it. we have discovered a little lump of clay down near the station, with a perfect impression of a sole having fifteen tackets therein,--three being wanting on the right, side, two on the left, and one at the toe--now, let us see," he said, turning it up, "am i not a good prophet eh?" bill gave in at once! he not only made "a clean breast of it," but also gave information that led to the capture of his accomplice before that day's sun went down, and before mr sharp allowed himself to go to bed. thus did our superintendent winnow the chaff from the wheat continually. now, dear reader, do not say, "from all this it would appear that railway servants must be a bad lot of men!" it would be a thousand pities to fail into such an error, when we are labouring to prove to you the very reverse, namely, that the bad ones being continually and well "looked after," none but the good are left. our aim necessarily involves that we should dilate much on evil, so that the evil unavoidably bulks large in your eyes; but if we were capable of laying before you all the good that is done, felt and said by the thousands of our true-hearted men-of-the-line, the evil that is mingled with them would shrink into comparative insignificance. the truth is, that in writing these details we desire to reassure ourself, as well as to comfort you, o timid railway traveller, by asserting and illustrating the unquestionable fact, that if our dangers on the line are numerous and great, our safeguards at all points are far more numerous and much greater. chapter twelve. loo's garden. the plans of nurses, not less than those of mice and men, are apt to get into disorder. mrs durby having packed up the diamond ring in the careful manner which we have described in a previous chapter, essayed to get ready for her important journey to london on pawning purposes intent, but she found that there were so many little preparations to make, both in regard to her own toilette and to the arrangements of mrs tipps' establishment, in prospect of its being left without its first mate for a time, that a considerable period elapsed before she got her anchor tripped and herself ready to set sail with the first fair wind. worthy mrs durby, we may observe, was fond of quoting the late captain's phraseology. she was an affectionate creature, and liked to recall his memory in this somewhat peculiar fashion. in anticipation of this journey, netta went one evening, in company with emma lee, to pay mrs john marrot a friendly visit, ostensibly for the purpose of inquiring after the health of baby marrot, who, having recently fallen down-stairs, swallowed a brass button and eaten an unknown quantity of shoe-blacking, had been somewhat ailing. the real object of the visit however, was to ask mrs marrot to beg of her husband to take a special interest in mrs durby on her journey, as that excellent nurse had made up her mind to go by the train which he drove, feeling assured that if safety by rail was attainable at all, it must be by having a friend at court--a good and true man at the helm, so to speak. "but la, miss!" said mrs marrot, sitting on the bed and patting the baby, whose ruling passion, mischief, could not be disguised even in distress, seeing that it gleamed from his glassy eyes and issued in intermittent yells from his fevered throat, "if your nurse is of a narvish temperment she'd better not go with my john, 'cause _he_ usually drives the flyin' dutchman." "indeed!" said netta, with a puzzled smile; "and pray, what is the flyin' dutchman?" a yell and a glare from baby interrupted the reply. at the same instant the : p.m. express flew past with a roar, which was intensified by the whistle into a shriek as it neared the station. the house trembled as usual. netta, not unnaturally, shuddered. "don't be alarmed, miss, it's only the express." "do expresses often pass your cottage in that way?" asked netta, with a touch of pity. "bless you, yes, miss; they're always passin' day and night continooly; but we don't think nothink of it. we've got used to it now." "does it not disturb you at night?" asked emma lee in some surprise. "no, miss, it don't--not in the least. no doubt it sometimes _do_ influence our dreams, if i may say so. as my son bob says--he's a humorous boy is my bob, miss--he says, says he, the trains can't awaken _us_, but they _do_ awaken noo trains of ideas, especially w'en they stops right opposite the winder an' blows off steam, or whistles like mad for five minutes at a time. i sometimes think that bob is right, an' that's w'y baby have took to yellin' an' mischief with such a 'igh 'and. they do say that a man is knowd by the company he keeps, and i'm sure it's no wonder that baby should screech an' smash as he do, considerin' the example set 'im day an' night by them ingines." here another yell from baby gave, as it were, assent to these opinions. "but, as i was sayin'," continued mrs marrot, "the flyin' dutchman is the name that my 'usband's train goes by, 'cause it is the fastest train in the kingdom--so they say. it goes at the rate of over sixty miles an hour, an' ain't just quite the train for people as is narvish--though my 'usband do say it ain't more dangerous than other trains--not s'much so, indeed, wich i believe myself, for there ain't nothink 'appened to my john all the eight years he have drove it." "is sixty miles an hour _very_ much faster than the rate of ordinary trains?" asked emma. "w'y, yes, miss. or'nary trains they run between twenty and forty miles an hour, though sometimes in goin' down inclines they git up to fifty; but my 'usband _averages_ sixty miles an hour, an' on some parts o' the line 'e gits up the speed to sixty-five an' siventy. for my own part i'm quite hignorant of these things. to my mind all the ingines seem to go bangin' an' rushin' an' yellin' about pretty much in the same furious way; but i've often 'eard my 'usband explain it all, an' _he_ knows all about it miss, just as if it wor a, b, c." having discussed such matters a little longer, and entered with genuine sympathy into the physical and mental condition of baby, netta finally arranged that her old nurse should go by the flying dutchman, seeing that she would be unable to distinguish the difference of speed between one train and another, while her mind would be at rest, if she knew herself to be under the care of a man, in whom she could trust. "well, miss, i dessay it won't much matter," said mrs marrot, endeavouring to soothe the baby, in whom the button or the blacking appeared to be creating dire havoc; "but of course my 'usband can't attend to 'er 'isself, not bein' allowed to attend to nothink but 'is ingine. but he'll put 'er in charge of the guard, who is a very 'andsome man, and uncommon polite to ladies. stay, i'll speak to willum garvie about it now," said mrs marrot, rising; "he's in the garding be'ind." "pray don't call him in," said netta, rising quickly; "we will go down to him. i should like much to see your garden." "you'll find my loo there, too," said mrs marrot with a motherly smile, as she opened the door to let her visitors out. "you'll excuse me not goin' hout. i dursn't leave that baby for a minute. he'd be over the-- there he--" the sentence was cut short by a yell, followed by a heavy bump, and the door shut with a bang, which sent emma and her friend round the corner of the house in a highly amused frame of mind. john marrot's garden was a small one--so small that the break-van of his own "flyin' dutchman" could have contained it easily--but it was not too small to present a luxuriance, fertility, and brilliance of colour that was absolutely magnificent! surrounded as that garden was by "ballast" from the embankment, broken wheels and rail, bricks and stones, and other miscellaneous refuse and _debris_ of the line, it could only be compared to an oasis in the desert, or a bright gem on a rugged warrior's breast. this garden owed its origin to lucy marrot's love for flowers, and it owed much of its magnificence to will garvie's love for lucy; for that amiable fireman spent much of his small wage in purchasing seed and other things for the improvement of that garden, and spent the very few hours of his life, not claimed by the inexorable iron horse, in assisting to cultivate the same. we use the word `assisting' advisedly, because loo would not hear of his taking this sort of work out of her hands. she was far too fond of it to permit that, but she had no objection whatever to his assistance. there never was, so will and loo thought, anything like the love which these two bore to each other. extremes meet, undoubtedly. their love was so intensely matter of fact and earnest that it rose high above the region of romance, in which lower region so many of our race do delight to coo and sigh. there was no nonsense about it. will garvie, who was naturally bold--no wonder, considering his meteor-like style of life-- saw all the flowers in the garden as well as any other man, and admired them more than most men, but he said gravely that he wouldn't give the end of a cracked boiler-tube for the whole garden, if she were not in the midst of it. at which loo laughed heartily, and blushed with pleasure, and made no other reply. it was quite delightful to observe the earnestness with which these two devoted themselves to the training of honeysuckle and jessamine over a trellis-work porch in that preposterously small garden, in which there was such a wealth of sweet peas, and roses, and marigolds, and mignonette, and scarlet geraniums, and delicately-coloured heliotropes, that it seemed as though they were making love in the midst of a glowing furnace. gertie was there too, like a small female cupid nestling among the flowers. "a miniature paradise," whispered emma, with twinkling eyes, as they approached the unconscious pair. "yes, with adam and eve training the flowers," responded netta quite earnestly. adam making love in the fustian costume of the fireman of the "flying dutchman" was an idea which must have struck emma in some fashion, for she found it difficult to command her features when introduced to the inhabitants of that little eden by her friend. "i have called to tell mrs marrot," said netta, "that my old nurse, mrs durby, is going to london soon, and that i wished your father to take a sort of charge of her, more for the sake of making her feel at ease than anything else." "i'm quite sure he will be delighted to do that," said loo; "won't he, will?" "why, yes," replied the fireman, "your father is not the man to see a woman in distress and stand by. he'll give her in charge of the guard, for you see, ma'am, he's not allowed to leave his engine." will addressed the latter part of his remarks to netta. "that is just what mrs marrot said, and that will do equally well. would _you_ like to travel on the railway, gertie?" said netta, observing that the child was gazing up in her face with large earnest eyes. "no," answered gertie, with decision. "no; why not?" "because it takes father too often away, and once it nearly killed him," said gertie. "ah, that was the time that my own dear mother received such a shock, i suppose?" "no, ma'am," said will garvie, "gertie is thinkin' of another time, when jack marrot was drivin' an excursion train--not three years gone by, and he ran into a lot of empty trucks that had broke loose from a train in advance. they turned the engine off the rails, and it ran down an embankment into a ploughed field, where it turned right over on the top of jack. fortunately he fell between the funnel and the steam-dome, which was the means of savin' his life; but he got a bad shake, and was off duty some six or eight weeks. the fireman escaped without a scratch, and, as the coupling of the leading carriage broke, the train didn't leave the metals, and no serious damage was done to any one else. i think our gertie," continued will, laying his big strong hand gently on the child's head, "seems to have taken an ill-will to railways since then." "i'm not surprised to hear it," observed emma lee, as she bent down and kissed gertie's forehead. "i have once been in a railway accident myself, and i share your dislike; but i fear that we couldn't get on well without them now, so you and i must be content to tolerate them, gertie." "i s'pose so," was gertie's quiet response, delivered, much to the amusement of her audience, with the gravity and the air of a grown woman. "well, good-evening, gertie, good-evening," said netta, turning to garvie; "then i may tell my nurse that the engine-driver of the express will take care of her." "yes, ma'am, you may; for the matter o' that, the fireman of the express will keep an eye on her too," said the gallant william, touching his cap as the two friends left that bright oasis in the desert and returned to eden villa. chapter thirteen. treats of railway literature, sleepy porters, crowded platforms, foolish passengers, dark plotters, lively shawls, and other matters. john marrot was remarkably fond of his iron horse. no dragoon or hussar that we ever read of paid half so much attention to his charger. he not only rubbed it down, and fed and watered it at stated intervals, but, when not otherwise engaged, or when awaiting the signal to start a train, he was sure to be found with a piece of waste rubbing off a speck of dust here or a drop of superfluous oil there, or giving an extra polish to the bright brasses, or a finishing touch to a handle or lever in quite a tender way. it was evidently a labour of love! on the day which mrs durby had fixed for her journey to london, john and his fireman went to the shed as usual one hour before the time of starting, being required to do so by the "rules and regulations" of the company, for the purpose of overhauling the iron horse. and, by the way, a wonderful and suggestive volume was this book of "rules and regulations for the guidance of the officers and servants of the grand national trunk railway." it was a printed volume of above two hundred pages, containing minute directions in regard to every department and every detail of the service. it was "printed for private circulation;" but we venture to say that, if the public saw it, their respect for railway servants and railway difficulties and management would be greatly increased, the more so that one of the first "rules" enjoined was, that _each_ servant should be held responsible for having a knowledge of all the rules--those relating to other departments as well as to his own. and it may not be out of place, certainly it will not be uninteresting, to mention here that one of the rules, rendered prominent by large black capitals, enjoined that "the public safety must be the first and chief care of every officer and servant of the company." we have reason to believe that all the railways in the kingdom give this rule equal prominence in spirit--probably also in type. in this little volume it was likewise interesting to note, that civility to the public was strictly enjoined; and sure we are that every railway traveller will agree with us in the opinion that railway agents, guards, and porters, all, in short with whom the public come in contact, obey this rule heartily, in the spirit and in the letter. the particular rules in the book which affected our engine-driver were uncommonly stringent, and very properly so, seeing that the lives of so many persons depended on the constancy of his coolness, courage, and vigilance. john marrot, like all the engine-drivers on the line, was a picked man. in virtue of his superior character and abilities he received wages to the extent of pounds, shillings per week. among other things, he was enjoined by his "rules and regulations," very strictly, to give a loud whistle before starting, to start his train slowly and without a jerk, and to take his orders to start only from the guard; also, to approach stations or stopping places cautiously, and with the train well under control, and to be guided in the matter of shutting off steam, by such considerations as the number of vehicles in the train, and the state of the weather and rails, so as to avoid violent application of the brakes. moreover, he was bound to do his best to keep to his exact time, and to account for any loss thereof by entering the cause of delay on his report-ticket. he was also earnestly enjoined to use every effort which might conduce to the safety of the public, and was authorised to refuse to proceed with any carriage or waggon which, from hot axles or otherwise, was in his opinion unfit to run. these are but a few specimens culled from a multitude of rules bearing on the minutest details of his duty as to driving, shunting, signalling, junction and level crossing, etcetera, with all of which he had to become not merely acquainted, but so intimately familiar that his mind could grasp them collectively, relatively, or individually at any moment, so as to act instantaneously, yet coolly, while going like a giant bomb-shell through the air--with human lives in the balance to add weight to his responsibilities. if any man in the world needed a cool clear head and a quick steady hand, with ample nightly as well as sabbath rest, that man was john marrot, the engine-driver. when we think of the constant pressure of responsibility that lay on him, and the numbers in the kingdom of the class to which he belonged, it seems to us almost a standing miracle that railways are so safe and accidents so very rare. while our engine-driver was harnessing his iron steed, another of the railway servants, having eaten his dinner, felt himself rather sleepy, and resolved to have a short nap. it was our friend sam natly, the porter, who came to this unwise as well as unfair resolution. yet although we are bound to condemn sam, we are entitled to palliate his offence and constrained to pity him, for his period of duty during the past week had been fifteen hours a day. "shameful!" exclaims some philanthropist. true, but who is to take home the shame? not the officers of the company, who cannot do more than their best with the materials laid to their hands; not the directors, who cannot create profits beyond the capacity of their line--although justice requires us to admit that they might reduce expenses, by squabbling less with other companies, and ceasing unfair, because ruinous as well as ungenerous, competition. clearly the bulk of the shame lies with the shareholders, who encourage opposition for the sake of increasing their own dividends at the expense of their neighbours, and who insist on economy in directions which render the line inefficient--to the endangering of their own lives as well as those of the public. economy in the matter of railway servants--in other words, their reduction in numbers--necessitates increase of working hours, which, beyond a certain point, implies inefficiency and danger. but the general public are not free from a modicum of this shame, and have to thank themselves if they are maimed and killed, because they descend on railways for compensation with a ruthless hand; (shame to government here, for allowing it!) and still further, impoverish their already over-taxed coffers. compensation for injury is just, but compensation as it is, and has been claimed and awarded, is ridiculously unfair, as well as outrageously unwise. fortunately sam natly's wicked resolve to indulge in undutiful slumber did not result in evil on this occasion, although it did result in something rather surprising. it might have been far otherwise had sam been a pointsman! in order to enjoy fully the half-hour which he meant to snatch from duty, sam entered a first-class carriage which stood on a siding, and, creeping under a seat, laid himself out at full length, pillowing his head on his arm. tired men don't require feather-beds. he was sound asleep in two minutes. it so happened that, three-quarters of an hour afterwards, an extra first-class carriage was wanted to add to the train which john marrot was to "horse" on its arrival at clatterby. the carriage in which sam lay was selected for the purpose, drawn out, and attached to the train. tired men are not easily awakened. sam knew nothing of this change in his sleeping apartment. meanwhile clatterby station became alive with travellers. the train drew up to the platform. some passengers got out; others got in. the engine which brought it there, being in need of rest, coal, and water, moved off to the shed. john marrot with his lieutenant, garvie, moved to the front on his iron horse, looking as calm and sedate in his conscious power as his horse looked heavy and unyielding in its stolidity. never did two creatures more thoroughly belie themselves by their looks. the latent power of the iron horse could have shot it forth like an arrow from a bow, or have blown the whole station to atoms. the smouldering fires in john's manly breast could have raised him from a begrimed, somewhat sluggish, driver to a brilliant hero. some of the characters who have already been introduced at clatterby station were there on this occasion also. mr sharp was there, looking meditative as usual, and sauntering as though he had nothing particular to do. our tall superlative fop with the sleepy eyes and long whiskers was also there with his friend of the checked trousers. mr sharp felt a strong desire to pommel these fops, because he had found them very difficult to deal with in regard to compensation, the fop with the checked trousers having claimed, and finally obtained, an unreasonably large sum for the trifling injury done to his eye on the occasion of the accident at langrye station. mr sharp could not however, gratify his desire. on the contrary, when the checked trousers remarked in passing that it was "vewy disagweeable weather," he felt constrained to admit, civilly enough, that it was. the two fops had a friend with them who was not a fop, but a plain, practical-looking man, with a forbidding countenance, and a large, tall, powerful frame. these three retired a little apart from the bustle of the station, and whispered together in earnest tones. their names were the reverse of romantic, for the fop with the checked trousers was addressed as smith, he with the long whiskers as jenkins, and the large man as thomson. "are you sure he is to go by this train?" asked thomson, somewhat gruffly. "quite sure. there can be no mistake about it," replied jenkins, from whose speech, strange to say, the lisp and drawl had suddenly disappeared. "and how are you sure of knowing him, if, as you say, you have never seen him?" asked thomson. "by the bag, of course," answered smith, whose drawl had also disappeared unaccountably; "we have got a minute description of the money-bag which he has had made peculiarly commonplace and shabby on purpose. it is black leather but very strong, with an unusually thick flat handle." "he's very late," observed thomson, moving uneasily, and glancing at the clock as the moment of departure drew near. mr sharp observed the consulting party, and sauntered idly towards them, but they were about as sharp as himself, in practice if not in name. the lisps and drawls returned as if by magic, and the turf became the subject of interest about which they were consulting. just then a shriek was heard to issue from a female throat, and a stout elderly woman was observed in the act of dashing wildly across the line in the midst of moving engines, trucks and vans. even in these unwonted circumstances no one who knew her could have mistaken mrs durby's ponderous person for a moment. she had come upon the station at the wrong side, and, in defiance of all printed regulations to the contrary--none of which she could read, being short-sighted--she had made a bold venture to gain her desired position by the most direct route. this involved crossing a part of the line where there were several sidings and branch lines, on which a good deal of pushing of trucks and carriages to and fro--that is "shunting"--was going on. like a reckless warrior, who by a bold and sudden push sometimes gains single-handed the centre of an enemy's position before he is discovered and assailed on every side, straight forward mrs durby ran into the very midst of a brisk traffic, before any one discovered her. suddenly a passenger-train came up with the usual caution in such circumstances, nevertheless at a smart rattling pace, for "usual caution" does not take into account or provide for the apparition of stout elderly females on the line. the driver of the passenger engine saw her, shut off steam, shouted, applied the brakes and whistled furiously. we have already hinted that the weather was not fine. mrs durby's umbrella being up, hid the approaching train. as for screaming steam-whistles, the worthy woman had come to regard intermittent whistling as a normal condition of railways, which, like the crying of cross babies, meant little or nothing, and had only to be endured. she paid no attention to the alarm. in despair the driver reversed his engine; fire flew from the wheels, and the engine was brought to a stand, but not until the buffers were within three feet of the nurse's shoulder. at that moment she became aware of her danger, uttered a shriek, as we have said, that would have done credit to the whistle of a small engine, and, bending her head with her umbrella before her, rushed frantically away on another line of rails. she did not observe, poor soul, that a goods train was coming straight down that line towards her,--partly because her mental vision was turned in terror to the rear, and partly because the umbrella obscured all in advance. in vain the driver of the goods engine repeated the warnings and actions of the passenger engine. his had more speed on and was heavier; besides, mrs durby charged it at the rate of full five miles an hour, with the umbrella steadily in front, and a brown paper parcel swinging wildly on her arm, as if her sole desire on earth was to meet that goods engine in single combat and beat out its brains at the first blow. certain it is that mrs durby's career would have been cut short then and there, if tall joe turner, the guard, had not been standing at the tail of his own train and observed her danger. in the twinkling of an eye he dropped his slow dignified air, leaped like a panther in front of the goods engine, caught mrs durby with both hands--any how--and hurled her and himself off the line,--not a moment too soon, for the buffer of the engine touched his shoulder as they fell together to the ground. a lusty cheer was given by those on the platform who witnessed this bold rescue, and more than one sympathetic hand grasped the massive fist of joe turner as he assisted mrs durby to a carriage. "why," exclaimed will garvie, hurrying forward at that moment, "it's mrs durby, the woman we promised to take care of! you'll look after her, joe?" "all right," said the guard, as will hurried back to his engine; "this way, ma'am. got your ticket?" "n-no!" gasped the poor nurse, leaning heavily on her protector's arm. "here, dick," cried joe, hailing a porter, "run to the booking-office and get her a ticket for london, first-class; she's got a bad shake, poor thing. no doubt the company will stand the difference; if not, we'll make it up amongst us." hereupon a benevolent old gentleman drew out his purse, and insisted on paying the whole of the fare himself, a point which no one seemed inclined to dispute, and mrs durby was carefully placed by joe in a carriage by herself. there were two gentlemen--also known to the reader--who arrived just in time to witness this incident: the one was captain lee, the other edwin gurwood. they both carried bags and rugs, and were evidently going by that train. the captain, who happened to have a bad cold at the time, was muffled up to the eyes in a white worsted comforter, and had a fur travelling-cap pulled well down on his forehead, so that little of him, save the point of his nose, was visible. the moment that the two fops caught sight of captain lee, they whispered to thomson-- "that's our man." "sure?" demanded thomson. "quite," replied smith. "that's about the size and make of the man as described to me. of course they could not tell what sort of travelling gear he would appear in, but there's no mistaking the bag--old, stout leather, with flat handle-strap." "all right," said thomson; "but who's the young fellow with him?" "don't know," replied smith; "yet i think i've seen his face before. stay, jenkins, wasn't he in the accident at langrye station?" "perhaps he was; but it's of no consequence to us." "it will be of consequence to us if he goes with the old gentleman," retorted smith, "for he's a stout fellow, and wouldn't be easy to manage." "_i'll_ manage him, no fear," said thomson, looking at the unconscious edwin with a dark sinister smile. "what if they get into a carriage that's already nearly full?" suggested the dubious smith. "they won't do that," replied jenkins with a laugh. "it seems to be against the laws of human nature to do that. as long as there are empty carriages in a train, so long will men and women pass every carriage that has a soul in it, until they find an empty one for themselves. we have nothing to do but follow them, and, when they have pitched on a carriage, get in after them, and fill it up, so we shall have it all to ourselves." "come along, then; it's time to stop talking and to act," said thomson, testily, as he moved towards the carriages. that even the wisest of men (in his own conceit) may make mistakes now and then is a fact which was beautifully illustrated on this occasion. we may here let the reader into the secret of jenkins, smith, and thomson. they were men who lived by their wits. they had ascertained that a partner of a certain house that dealt in jewellery meant to return to london by that particular train, with a quantity of valuables that were worth running some risk for. on the journey there was one stoppage quite close to london. the run immediately before that was a clear one of seventy-five miles without a halt, at full express speed, which would afford them ample opportunity for their purpose, while the slowing of the train on approaching the stopping place would give them opportunity and time to leap out and make off with their booty. they had been told that their intended victim was a stout resolute man, but that would avail nothing against numbers. having obtained all requisite information they had proceeded thus far with their villainous design, apparently with success. but at this point a hitch occurred, though they knew it not. they had not taken sufficiently into account the fact that black leather bags may be both stout and peculiar, and in some degree similar without being identical. hence smith and jenkins in their self-confidence had settled, as we have seen, that captain lee was "their man," whereas their man was comfortably seated in another carriage, and by his side the coveted bag, which was similar in some points to that of the captain, but different in size and in several small details. following the wrong scent, therefore, with wonted pertinacity, the three men sauntered behind captain lee and edwin, who, true to the "laws" with which jenkins had credited human nature, passed one carriage after another until they found an empty one. "here is one, gurwood," said the captain. he was about to step into it, when he observed mrs durby sitting in the next compartment. "hallo! nurse," he exclaimed, getting in and sitting down opposite to her; "why, surely it wasn't you, was it, that had such a narrow escape?" "indeed it was, capting lee," replied mrs durby in a half whimper, for albeit a woman of strong character, she was not proof against such rough treatment as she had experienced that day. "not hurt, i trust?" asked the captain sympathetically. "oh dear no, sir; only shook a bit." "are you alone?" asked edwin, seating himself beside his friend. "yes, sir; but la, sir, i don't think nothink of travellin' alone. i'm used to it, sir." as she said this the guard's voice was heard desiring passengers to take their seats, and the three men, who had grouped themselves close round the door, thus diverging one or two passengers into the next compartment, entered, and sat down. at the same moment mr sharp's earnest countenance appeared at the window. he made a few remarks to captain lee and edwin gurwood, and took occasion to regard the three adventurers with much attention. they evidently understood him, for they received his glances with bland smiles. it was quite touching to note mr sharp's anxiety to lay hold of these men. he chanced to know nothing about them, save in connexion with the langrye accident, but his long experience in business had given him a delicate power of perception in judging of character, which was not often at fault. he, as it were, smelt the presence of fair game, although he could not manage to lay immediate hold of it, just as that celebrated giant did, who, once upon a time, went about his castle giving utterance to well-known words-- "fee, fo, fa, fum, i smell the smell of an englishman." "joe," he whispered, as the guard came up to lock the door, "just keep an eye on these three fellows, will you? i'd lay my life on it that they're up to mischief to-day." joe looked knowing, and nodded. "show your tickets, please," he said, touching his cap to his director and edwin. the tickets were produced--all right. mrs durby, in getting out hers, although, of course, having got it for her, joe did not require to see it, dropped her precious brown paper parcel. picking it up again hastily she pressed it to her bosom with such evident anxiety, that men much less sharp-witted than our trio, would have been led to suspect that it contained something valuable. but they aimed at higher booty just then, and apparently did not notice the incident. a rapid banging of doors had now set in--a sure precursor of the starting whistle. before it was quite completed, the inevitable late passenger appeared in the distance. this time it was a lady, middle-aged and stout, and short of wind, but with an iron will, as was clearly evinced by the energy with which she raced along the platform, carrying a large bundle of shawls in one arm, and a travelling-bag in the other, which she waved continuously as she shouted, "stop! stop! stop the trai-i-i-in! i'm coming!" the guard, with the whistle already half-way to his lips, paused and glanced at his watch. there was a fraction of a moment left. he stepped to a carriage and threw open a door. "make haste, ma'am; make haste, please," was said in urgent, though respectful tones. the late passenger plunged in--she might, as far as appearances went, be said to have taken a header into the carriage--and the door was shut. the guard's whistle sounded. the engine-driver's whistle gave prompt reply, and next instant the train moved. no one could conceive of such a thing as a train _starting_ when john marrot drove! as the carriages glided by, mr sharp cast a passing glance on the late passenger. he observed that her bundle of shawls moved of its own accord, and, for one whole minute after the train had left, he stood motionless, meditating on that curious phenomenon. he had often heard of table-turning, but never until now had he seen inanimate matter move of its own accord. can we feel surprised that he was both astonished and perplexed? proceeding to the booking-office he held a brief conversation with the clerks there; then he sauntered into the telegraph-office and delivered a message, after which he left the station with a quiet smile on his sedate countenance. chapter fourteen. which is too full of varied matter to be briefly described. meanwhile let us fly through space with greater than railway speed and overtake the "flying dutchman." it has got up full speed by this time. about one mile a minute--sixty miles an hour! sometimes it goes a little faster, sometimes a little slower, according to the nature of the ground; for a railway is by no means a level-way, the ascents and descents being occasionally very steep. those who travel in the carriages form but a faint conception of the pace. to realise it to the full you must stand on the engine with john marrot and will garvie. houses, fields, trees, cattle, human beings, go by in wild confusion--they appear only to vanish. wind is not felt in the carriages. on the _lightning_ you are in a gale. it reminds one of a storm at sea. the noise, too, is terrific. we once had the good fortune to ride on the engine of the "flying dutchman," and on that occasion had resolved to converse with the driver, and tried it. as well might we have tried to converse amid the rattling of ten thousand tin kettles! john marrot put his mouth to our ear and _roared_. we heard him faintly. we tried to shout to _him_; he shook his head, put his hand to his ear, and his ear to our mouth. "does--it--not--injure--your--hearing?" "no--sir--not--at--all. it's--worst--on--our--legs." we subsided into silence and wonderment. we had also resolved to take notes, and tried it. egyptian hieroglyphics are not more comprehensible than the notes we took. we made a discovery, however, near the end of the journey--namely, that by bending the knees, and keeping so, writing became much more possible--or much less impossible! we learnt this from john, who had to fill up in pencil a sort of statement or report-ticket on the engine. it was interesting and curious to note the fact that of the sentences thus written, one word was pencilled in the grounds of the earl of edderline, the next opposite the mansion of lord soberly, the third in the midst of langly moor, the fourth while crashing through the village of efferby, and a full stop was added at the mouth of the great ghostly tunnel. think of that, ye teachers of "penmanship in twelve lessons," and hide your diminished heads. john marrot's engine, of which we have said much, and of which we mean to say still more, was not only a stupendous, but a complex creation. its body consisted of above , pieces, all of which were almost as delicately fashioned, and put together with as much care, as watch-work. it was a confirmed teetotaller, too. the morning draught which john had given it before starting, to enable it to run its seventy-seven miles, was gallons of cold water. he also gave it a good feed to begin with, and laid in for its sustenance on the trip one ton of coals. its power to act vigorously may be gathered from the fact that one morning, some years before, john had got the fire up with unwonted rapidity, and no sooner had the minimum of steam necessary to move it been created, than it quietly advanced and passed out of its shed through a brick wall fourteen inches thick with as much ease as it would have gone through a sheet of brown paper. this being its power when starting at what we may regard as a quiet walk, some conception may be formed of its capacity when flying down an incline at sixty-five miles an hour with a heavy train of carriages at its back. in such circumstances it would go through an ordinary house, train and all, as a rifle-bullet would go through a cheese. it was an eight-wheeled engine, and the driving-wheels were eight feet in diameter. the cylinder was eighteen inches, with a piston of two feet stroke, and the total weight of engine and tender was fifty-three tons. the cost of this iron horse with its tender was about pounds. having fairly started, john took his stand opposite his circular window in the protecting screen or weather-board and kept a sharp look-out ahead. will garvie kept an eye chiefly on the rear to note that all was well in that direction. and much cause was there for caution! to rush through space at such a rate, even on a straight line and in clear weather, was trying enough, but when it is remembered that the day was wet, and that their course lay through sundry deep cuttings and tunnels, and round several curves where it was not possible to foresee obstruction, the necessity for caution will be more apparent. all went well, however, as usual. after clearing the first thirty-six miles john marrot consulted his watch, and observed to will that they had done it in thirty-eight and a half minutes. he then "put on a spurt," and went for some time at a higher rate of speed. observing that something at the head of the engine required looking after, will garvie went out along the side of it, and while doing this piece of work his hair and jacket were blown straight back by the breeze which the engine had created for itself. he resembled, in fact, a sailor going out to work on the sails in a stiff breeze. this artificial breeze, sweeping round the sides of the screen, caused an eddy which sent up a cloud of coal-dust, but neither john nor his mate appeared to care for this. their eyes were evidently coal-proof. presently they approached a canal over which they rushed, and, for one moment, glanced down on the antipodal mode of locomotion--a boat going three miles an hour with its steersman half asleep and smoking at the helm! next moment they were passing under a bridge; the next over a town, and then rushed through a station, and it was interesting to note as they did so, that the people on the platform shrank back and looked half-terrified, although they were in no danger whatever, while those in the train--who might at any moment have been hurled into eternity-- looked calm and serene, evidently untroubled by thoughts of danger; so difficult is it for man to realise his true condition in such circumstances. just beyond the station a dog was observed to have strayed on the line, and ran barking before the engine. it was overtaken and passed in a few seconds, and will looked over the side but saw nothing of it. as no yell was heard, it is probable that the poor thing escaped. soon after that, two navvies were observed walking coolly and slowly on the line in front of the engine. john frowned and laid his hand on the whistle, but before it could sound, the reckless men had heard the train, looked round with horrified faces, sprang like jumping-jacks off the line, right and left, and were gone! soon after this, on approaching the distant signal of one of the stations, they observed that the arms were extended, indicating that the line was "blocked"--that is, that another train being in advance they must check speed or perhaps stop. this was a species of insult to the "flying dutchman," whose way ought to have been kept perfectly clear, for even a check of speed would inevitably cause the loss of several minutes. with an indignant grumble john marrot cut off steam, but immediately the signals were lowered and he was allowed to go on. again, in a few minutes, another signal checked him. "they've let a train on before us," growled john, sternly, "and p'raps we may be checked all the way to london--but some one shall hear of this, an' have to account for it." john was wrong to some extent. while he yet spoke the signal to go on was given, and a few minutes later the "flying dutchman" flashed past the obstructing train, which had been shunted on to a siding, and from its windows hundreds of passengers were gazing at the express which passed them like a meteor--perhaps they were congratulating themselves, as well they might, for, but for the "block system," their danger would have been tremendous; almost equal to that of a man endeavouring to run away from a cannon-shot. this may be somewhat better understood when we explain that the "flying dutchman" could not have been stopped in a shorter space than one mile and a half. at length the iron horse came suddenly on an obstruction which filled its driver with deep anxiety and alarm. daily had john driven that train, but never before had he met with a similar danger. at a level crossing, less than a mile in advance of him, he observed a horse and a loaded cart standing right across the line. either the horse was a run-away, or the driver had left it for a little and it had strayed. whatever the cause of its being there john's alert mind saw at once that a collision was inevitable. he shut off steam, and was about to whistle for the guard to apply the brakes, while will garvie, who also saw the danger, was already turning on the brakes of the tender. john reflected that it would be impossible to come to a stand within the space that lay between him and the cart and that a partial concussion would be almost certain to throw his engine off the rails. less than a minute remained to him. "let her go, mate," he shouted quickly. will garvie obeyed at once. john put on full steam, the "flying dutchman" leaped forward with increased velocity. then followed a slight shock, and; next moment, the cart and horse were smashed to atoms--all but annihilated! it was a great risk that had been run; but of two evils john marrot had chosen the less and came off in triumph with only a slight damage to his buffers. let us now quit the engine for a little, and, retracing our steps in regard to time, visit some of the carriages behind it. when the "late passenger" recovered her breath and equanimity, and found herself fairly on her journey, she unfolded her bundle of shawls and disclosed a fat glossy lap-dog, which seemed to enjoy its return to fresh air and daylight, and acknowledged, with sundry wags of its tail and blinks of its eyes the complimentary assurance that it was the "dearest, sweetest, p'ittiest 'ittle darling that ever was born," and that, "it wouldn't be allowed to pay a nasty fare to a mean railway company that let all kinds of ugly parrots and cats and babies travel free!" a timid little lady, the only other occupant of the carriage, ventured to suggest that the dog travelling free was against the rules of the company. "i am quite aware of that," said the late passenger somewhat sharply, "but if people choose to make unjust and oppressive rules i don't mean to submit to them. just think of a parrot, a horrid shrieking creature that every one acknowledges to be a nuisance, being allowed to travel free, or a baby, which is enough to drive one distracted when it squalls, as it always does in a railway carriage, while my sweet little pet that annoys nobody must be paid for, forsooth!" "it does indeed seem unreasonable," responded the timid little old lady; "but don't you think that the company has a perfect right to make whatever rules it pleases, and that we are bound to obey them when we make use of their line?" "no, i don't!" said the late passenger tartly. the timid little lady thought it advisable to change the subject and did so by remarking that the dog was a very pretty creature. upon which the late passenger thawed at once, admitted that it _was_ a _very_ pretty creature, and asserted in addition that it was a "perfect darling." their conversation became miscellaneous and general after this point, and not worth reporting, therefore we shall get out at the window and pass along the foot-boards to the carriage occupied by mrs durby and her friends. immediately after the train had started, as before described, captain lee entered into an animated conversation with the nurse as to the health of the tipps family. edwin, who was much interested in them, listened and put in a word now and then, but neither he nor the captain, after the first glance, paid any attention to the other occupants of the carnage. meanwhile thomson, jenkins and company spent a short time in taking a quiet observation of the state of affairs. the former had placed himself opposite to edwin and eyed him over critically as a wrestler might eye his opponent; jenkins had seated himself opposite the captain, who had been apportioned to him in the coming conflict, and smith, who, although a stout enough fellow, was the smallest of the three, kept his eye on the coveted bag, and held himself in readiness to act as might be advisable. the scoundrels were not long in taking action. as soon as they were quite clear of the suburbs of clatterby, jenkins suddenly hit captain lee a tremendous blow on the head, which was meant to fell him at once; but the captain's head was harder than he had expected it to be; he instantly grappled with jenkins. edwin's amazement did not prevent his prompt action; but at the moment he sprang to the rescue, he received a blow from thomson, who leaped on him, and seized him by the throat with a vice-like gripe. at the same moment smith also sprang upon him. thomson soon found that he had miscalculated young gurwood's strength. strong though his grasp was, edwin's was stronger. almost as quick as thought he threw his left arm round thomson's waist, grasped his hair with his right hand, and almost broke his back. there is no question that he would have overcome him in a few seconds if smith had not hampered him. as it was, he disengaged his right arm for a moment and, hitting a familiar and oft-tried blow straight out from the shoulder planted his knuckles just above the bridge of smith's nose. he fell as if he had been shot but the momentary relief thus afforded to thomson enabled that scoundrel to get into a better position for continuing the struggle. meanwhile jenkins, although bravely and stoutly opposed by the veteran lee, quickly rendered his adversary insensible, and at once sprang upon edwin, and turned the scale in favour of his comrade, who at the moment was struggling in the youth's grasp with savage though unavailing ferocity. at the same time smith, who had only been stunned, recovered, and seizing edwin by the legs endeavoured to throw him down, so that it went hard with our young hero after that despite his activity, strength and courage. during this scene, which was enacted in a very few minutes, poor mrs durby sat drawn up into the remotest corner of the carriage, her face transfixed with horror, and a terrific yell bursting occasionally from her white lips. but neither the sound of her cries nor the noise of the deadly struggle could overtop the clatter of the express train. those in the next compartment did indeed hear a little of it but they were powerless to render assistance, and there was at that time no means of communicating with the guard or driver. poor edwin thought of captain lee, who lay bleeding on the floor, and of emma, and the power of thought was so potential that in his great wrath he almost lifted the three men in the air; but they clung to him like leeches, and it is certain that they would have finally overcome him, had he not in one of his frantic struggles thrust his foot below one of the seats and kicked the still slumbering sam natly on the nose! that over-wrought but erring porter immediately awoke to the consciousness of being oppressed with a sense of guilt and of being in a very strange and awkward position. quickly perceiving, however, by the wild motion of the feet and an occasional scream from mrs durby, that something serious was going on, he peeped out, saw at a glance how matters stood, got to his feet in a moment, and dealt jenkins such a blow on the back of the head that he dropped like a stone. to deal smith two similar blows, with like result, was the work of two seconds. thus freed, edwin rose like a giant, crushed thomson down into a seat, and twisted his neckcloth until his eyes began to glaze and his lips to turn blue. sam natly was a man of cool self-possession. seeing that edwin was more than a match for his adversary, he left him, and proceeded to attend to the captain, who showed symptoms of revival; but happening to glance again at edwin, and observing the condition of thomson, sam turned and put his hand on the youth's arm. "i think, sir," he said quietly, "it would be as well to leave enough of him to be hanged. besides, it might be raither awkward, sir, to do jack ketch's dooty without the benefit of judge, jury, witnesses, or clergy." edwin released his hold at once, and thomson raised himself in the seat, clenching his teeth and fists as he did so. he was one of those savage creatures who, when roused, appear to go mad, and become utterly regardless of consequences. while sam was engaged in e temporising handcuffs for jenkins and smith out of a necktie and a pocket-handkerchief, thomson sat perfectly still, but breathed very hard. he was only resting a little to recover strength, for in a moment, without a sound or warning of any kind, he hit edwin with all his force on the temple. fortunately the youth saw the coming blow in time to partially give way to it, and in another moment the struggle was renewed, but terminated almost as quickly, for edwin gave thomson a blow that stunned him and kept him quiet for the next quarter of an hour. during this period edwin examined captain lee's hurts, which turned out to be less severe than might have been expected. he also assisted sam to secure thomson's wrists with a handkerchief, and then devoted some time to soothing the agitated spirits of poor mrs durby, whose luckless shins had not escaped quite scatheless during the _melee_. "oh, sir," sobbed mrs durby, glancing with horror at the dishevelled and blood-stained prisoners, "i always thought railways was bad things, but i never, no i never, imagined they was as bad as this." "but, my good woman," said edwin, unable to restrain a smile, "railways are not all, nor always, as bad as this. we very seldom hear of such a villainous deed as has been attempted to-day; thanks to the energy and efficiency of their police establishments." "quite true, gurward, quite true," said captain lee, glancing sternly at the prisoners, and stanching a cut in his forehead with a handkerchief as he spoke; "our police arrangements are improving daily, as scoundrels shall find to their cost." jenkins and smith did not raise their eyes, and thomson continued to frown steadily out at the window without moving a muscle. "i'm sure i don't know nothink about your p'lice, an' what's more, i don't care," said mrs durby; "all that i know is that railways is dreadful things, and if i was the queen, which i'm not, i'd have 'em all put down by acts of parlingment, so i would. but never, never, never,-- as long as i'm able to manidge my own--ah!" mrs durby terminated here with one of her own appalling shrieks, for it was at this precise moment that john marrot happened, as already described, to have occasion to knock a cart and horse to atoms. the shock, as we have said, was very slight, nevertheless it was sufficient to overturn the poor nurse's nervous system, which had already been wrought up to a high pitch of tension. "that's _somethin'_ gone, sir," said sam, touching his cap to captain lee. "what is it, edwin?" inquired the captain as the youth let down the window and looked out. "i can see nothing," said edwin, "except that the guard and fireman are both looking back as if they wanted to see something on the line. we are beginning to slow, however, being not far from the station now." about a mile and three-quarters from the station, in the suburbs of london, where the tickets were to be collected, john marrot stopped the pulse of his iron horse, for so terrific was his speed that he was able to run the greater part of that distance by means of the momentum already acquired. by degrees the mighty engine began to "slow." trees and houses instead of rushing madly past began to run hastily by, and then to glide behind at a rate that was more in keeping with the dignity of their nature. from sixty miles an hour the train passed by a rapid transition to ordinary express speed, then to ordinary speed, then to twenty miles an hour. then thomson felt that his opportunity had come. he suddenly wrenched his wrists from their fastening, leaped head foremost out of the window, fell on the embankment in a heap, and rolled to the bottom, where he lay extended on his back as if dead. thus much mrs durby saw in one horrified glance and then fainted dead away, in which condition she remained, to the great anxiety and distress of captain lee, until the "flying dutchman," after doing seventy-eight miles in one hour and a half, glided as softly up to the platform of the station in the great metropolis as if it were a modest young train which had yet to win its spurs, instead of being a tried veteran which had done its best for many years past to annihilate space and time. but, after all, it resembled all other tried veterans in this respect. generally speaking, engine-drivers are little--far too little--thought of after a journey is over. mankind is not prone to be wise or discriminating, in giving credit to whom credit is due. we "remember" waiters after having eaten a good dinner, but who, in any sense of the word, "remembers" the cook? so in like manner we think of railway porters and guards at the end of our journeys, and talk of their civility mayhap, but who thinks or talks of the driver and fireman as they lean on the rails of their iron horse, wet and weary perchance-- smoke and dust and soot begrimed for certain--and calmly watch the departure of the multitudes whom they have, by the exercise of consummate coolness, skill, and courage, brought through dangers and hairbreadth escapes that they neither knew nor dreamed of? on this particular occasion, however, the tables were turned for once. the gentlemen in the train hurried to the guard to ask what had caused the slight shock which they had felt. joe turner had been called aside for a moment by a clerk, so they went direct to john marrot himself, who modestly related what had happened in a half apologetic tone, for he did not feel quite sure that he had done the best in the circumstances. his admiring audience had no doubt on the point, however. "you're a brick, john!" exclaimed an enthusiastic commercial traveller. "that's true," said another. "if we had more men like him, there would be fewer accidents." "let's give him something," whispered a third. the suggestion was eagerly acted on. a subscription was made on the spot, and in three minutes the sum of about ten pounds was thrust into john's huge dirty hand by the enthusiastic commercial traveller. but john firmly refused to take it. "what's to be done with it, then?" demanded the traveller, "_i_ can't keep it, you know, and i'm not going to sit down here and spend half-an-hour in returning the money. if you don't take it john, i must fling it under the engine or into the furnace." "well," said the driver, after a moment's consideration, while he closed his hand on the money and thrust it into his breeches pocket, "i'll take it. it will help to replace the cart we smashed, if i can find the owner." while this was going on near the engine, the robbers were being removed from their carriage to receive the due reward of their deeds. three tall and strong-boned men had been on the platform for some time awaiting the arrival of the "flying dutchman." swift though john marrot's iron horse was, a swifter messenger had passed on the line before him. the electric spark--and a fast volatile, free-and-easy, yet faithful spark it is--had been commissioned to do a little service that day. half-an-hour after the train had left clatterby a detective, wholly unconnected with our friend sharp, had called and sent a message to london to have thomson, jenkins, and smith apprehended, in consequence of their connexion with a case of fraud which had been traced to them. the three tall strong-boned men were there in virtue of this telegram. but, accustomed though these men were to surprising incidents, they had scarcely expected to find that the three culprits had added another to their many crimes, and that one of them had leaped out of the train and out of their clutches--in all probability out of the world altogether! two of the strong men went off immediately in search of him, or his remains, while the other put proper manacles on jenkins and smith and carried them off in a cab. meanwhile joe turner saw that all the other passengers were got carefully out of the train. he was particularly polite in his attentions, however, to the "late passenger!" "you have forgot, ma'am," he said politely, "to give up your dog-ticket." "dog-ticket!" exclaimed the lady, blushing; "what do you mean? i have no dog-ticket." "not for the little poodle dog, ma'am, that you carry under your shawl?" the lady blushed still deeper as she admitted that she had no ticket for the dog, but said that she was quite willing to pay for it. this having been done, her curiosity got the better of her shame at having been "caught," and she asked-- "how did you know i had a dog with me, guard?" "ah, ma'am," replied joe with a smile, "we've got a remarkably sharp-sighted police force on our line, besides the telegraph. we find the telegraph very useful, i assure you, at times. the gentlemen who were removed in handcuffs a few minutes ago were _also_ stopped in their little game by the telegraph, ma'am." the guard turned away to attend to some one else, and the late passenger, blushing a still deeper scarlet to find that she was classed with criminals, hurried away to reflect, it is to be hoped, on the fact that dishonesty has no variety in character--only in degree. when the guard left the late passenger, he found that his assistance was required to get mrs durby and her belongings out of the railway carriage and into a cab. the poor nurse was in a pitiable state of mind. a railway journey had always been to her a thing of horror. the reader may therefore form some conception of what it was to her to have been thus suddenly called away from quiet suburban life to undertake not only a railway journey, but to be shut up with a gang of would-be murderers and encounter a sort of accident in addition! by the time she had reached london she had become quite incapable of connected thought. even the precious parcel, which at first had been an object of the deepest solicitude, was forgotten; and although she had hugged it to her breast not two minutes before, she suffered it to drop under the seat as she was led from the train to the cab. "drive to the clarendon," said captain lee, as he and gurwood followed the nurse into the cab; "we will take care of her," he added to edwin, "till she is better able to take care of herself." mrs durby gave vent to a hysterical sob of gratitude. arrived at the clarendon they alighted, the captain paid the fare, and the cab was dismissed. just at that moment mrs durby became a temporary maniac. she shrieked, "oh! my parcel!" and rushed towards the door. the captain and waiter restrained her. "it's in the cab!" she yelled with a fervour there was no resisting. edwin, comprehending the case, dashed down the steps and followed the cab; but he might as well have followed the proverbial needle in the haystack. hundreds of cabs, carts, busses, and waggons were passing the clarendon. he assaulted and stopped four wrong cabs, endured a deal of chaff, and finally returned to the hotel discomfited. thus suddenly was mrs durby bereft of her treasure and thrown into abject despair. while in this condition she partially unbosomed herself to captain lee, and, contrary to strict orders, revealed all she knew about the embarrassments of mrs tipps, carefully concealing, however, the nature of the contents of her lost parcel, and the real object of her journey to london. one more paragraph in regard to this eventful trip of the "flying dutchman" ere we have done with the subject. having finished his journey, john marrot took his iron steed to the stable. usually his day's work terminated at clatterby; but, owing to the horse being in need of extra rest he had to stop in london that night. and no wonder that the _lightning_ was sometimes fatigued, for even an ordinary express engine on the grand national trunk railway was wont to run over miles of ground in a day, at the rate of about forty-five miles an hour, and with a dead weight of tons, more or less, at her tail. this she did regularly, with two "shed-days," or days of rest, in the week for cleansing and slight repairs. such an engine was considered to do good service if it ran days in the year. but the engine of the "flying dutchman" was more highly favoured than other engines--probably on the ground of the principle taught by the proverb, "it is the pace that kills." its regular run was , miles in the day, and assuredly it stood in need of repose and refreshment quite as much as ordinary horses do. its joints had become relaxed with severe labour, its bolts had been loosened, its rubbing surfaces, despite the oil poured so liberally on them by will garvie, had become heated. some of them, unequally expanded, strained and twisted; its grate-bars and fire-box had become choked with "clinkers," and its tubes charged with coke. john therefore ran it into the huge shed or stable prepared for the reception of twenty-four iron horses, and handed it over to a set of cleaners or grooms. these immediately set to work; they cleaned out its fire-box, scraped its grate-bars, tightened all its bolts and rivets, greased the moving parts, and thoroughly cleansed it, outside and in. thus washed, cooled down, and purified, it was left to repose for five or six hours preparatory to a renewal of its giant energies on the following day. although we have somewhat exalted our pet locomotive of the "flying dutchman," justice requires us to state that goods engines are more gigantic and powerful, though they are not required to run so fast. these engines are the heavy dray-horses of the line, express engines being the racers. the latter can carry a _light_ _load_ of some seventy or ninety tons on a good roadway at the rate of fifty miles an hour or upwards. goods engines of the most powerful class, on the other hand, run at a much slower pace, but they drag with ease a load of from to tons, with which they can ascend steep gradients. but whether light or heavy, strong or weak, all of them are subject to the same laws. though powerfully, they are delicately framed, and like man himself, appear to be incapable of perfect action without obtaining at the least one day of rest in the week. chapter fifteen. treats of mrs. durby's lost parcel in particular, and of lost-luggage in general. we need scarcely say that edwin gurwood took a good deal of trouble to find poor mrs durby's lost parcel. had he known what its contents were he might perhaps have done more. as she positively asserted that she had carried it into the cab with her and had not left it in the train, immediate application was not made at the station for it, but edwin drove her in a cab to scotland yard, and there introduced her to the police officials whose duty it is to take charge of articles left in cabs. here she was asked to describe the appearance of her parcel, which she did, by saying that it was a roundish one in brown paper, fastened with a piece of string, and having the name of durby written on it in pencil, without any address. not feeling quite sure however of the fidelity of the nurse's memory, edwin then went to the station and made inquiries there, but on application to the lost-luggage office no such parcel had been deposited there. the reader may perhaps be surprised at this, as it is well-known that every train is searched by the porters on its arrival at a terminus, and all forgotten articles are conveyed at once to the lost-luggage office. in the ordinary course of things mrs durby's parcel would have been found and restored to her on application, but it happened that a careless porter searched the "flying dutchman" that day, and had failed to observe the parcel which lay in a dark corner under the seat. when the carriage therefore was shunted the parcel was left to repose in it all night as well as all next day, which happened to be sunday. the parcel had a longish excursion on its own account after that. the carriage in which it lay happened to be a "through one," and belonged to another company, to whose line it was accordingly forwarded on the following monday. it reached a remote station in the west of england that night and there the parcel was discovered. it lay all night there, and next day was forwarded to the lost-luggage office of that line. here it was examined; the various pieces of paper were unrolled one by one and the doubled-up slipper was discovered; this was examined, and the little parcel found; the name of durby having been noted and commented on, the covering of note-paper was removed, and the match-box revealed, from the inside of which was produced the pill-box, which, when opened, disclosed to the astonished gaze of the officials an antique gold ring set with diamonds! as the name "mrs durby" written in pencil did not furnish a clue to the owner, the ring was given into the charge of the custodier of the lost-luggage office, and a description of it with a note of all particulars regarding it, was forwarded to the clearing-house in london. the lost-luggage office, we may remark in passing, was a wonderful place--a place in which a moralist might find much material for mental mastication. here, on an extensive series of shelves, were deposited in large quantities the evidences of man's defective memory; the sad proofs of human fallibility. there were caps and comforters and travelling-bags in great abundance. there were shawls and rugs, and umbrellas and parasols, and sticks and hat-boxes in such numbers as to suggest the idea that hundreds of travellers, smitten with irresistible feelings of gratitude, had left these articles as a trifling testimony of respect to the railway company. there were carpet-bags here not only in large numbers but in great variety of form and size. smelling-bottles, pocket-handkerchiefs, flasks, pocket-books, gun-cases, portmanteaux, books, cigar cases, etcetera, enough to have stocked a gigantic curiosity shop, and there were several articles which one could not account for having been forgotten on any other supposition than that the owners were travelling maniacs. one gentleman had left behind him a pair of leathern hunting-breeches, a soldier had forgotten his knapsack, a cripple his crutches! a scotchman his bagpipes; but the most amazing case of all was a church door! we do not jest, reader. it is a fact that such an article was forgotten, or left or lost, on a railway, and, more amazing still, it was never claimed, but after having been advertised, and having lain in the lost goods office the appointed time, it was sold by auction with other things. many of the articles were powerfully suggestive of definite ideas. one could not look upon those delicate kid gloves without thinking of the young bride, whose agitated soul was incapable of extending a thought to such trifles. that mrs gamp-like umbrella raised to mental vision, as if by magic, the despair of the stout elderly female who, arriving unexpectedly and all unprepared at her journey's end, sought to collect her scattered thoughts and belongings and launch herself out on the platform, in the firm belief that a minute's delay would insure her being carried to unknown regions far beyond her destination, and it was impossible to look at that fur travelling-cap with ear-pieces cocked knowingly on a sable muff, without thinking of the bland bald-headed old gentleman who had worn it during a night journey, and had pulled it in all ways about his head and over his eyes, and had crushed it into the cushions of his carriage in a vain endeavour to sleep, and had let it fall off and temporarily lost it and trod upon it and unintentionally sat upon it, and had finally, in the great hurry of waking suddenly on arrival, and in the intense joy of meeting with his blooming girls, flung it off, seized his hat and bag and rug, left the carriage in a whirlwind of greeting, forgot it altogether, and so lost it for ever. "nay, not lost," we hear some one saying; "he would surely call at the lost-luggage office on discovering his loss and regain his property." probably he might, but certainly he would only act like many hundreds of travellers if he were to leave his property there and never call for it at all. true, much that finds its way to the lost-luggage office is reclaimed and restored, but it is a fact that the quantity never reclaimed is so large on almost any railway that it forms sufficient to warrant an annual sale by auction which realises some hundreds of pounds. one year's sale of lost-luggage on the grand national trunk railway amounted to pounds! and this was not more than an average year's sale. every possible effort is of course made to restore lost-luggage before such a sale takes place. in the first place, everything bearing a name and address is returned at once to the owner, but of course there are multitudes of small articles which have neither name nor address. such of these as are locked or tied up are suffered to remain for a short time in an office, where they may be readily reclaimed; but if not claimed soon they are opened, and if addresses are found inside are sent to their owners. in the event of no addresses being found they are retained for a year, then advertised for sale by public auction, and the proceeds go to reduce that large sum--perhaps , poundss or more-- which the company has to pay annually as compensation for lost and damaged goods. on one railway where the lost-luggage was allowed to lie a considerable time before being examined a singular case occurred. a hat-box was opened and found to contain bank of england notes to the amount of pounds, with two letters, which led to its being restored to its owner after having lain for more than a year. the owner had been so positive that he had left the hat-box at a hotel that he had made no inquiry for it at the railway office. a sale-catalogue of left and unclaimed property on one of our chief railways, which now lies before us, presents some curious "lots." here are some of them: walking-sticks, silk umbrellas, and there are eleven similar lots, besides innumerable parasols-- muffs and boas--a crate containing billycocks and hats-- looking-glasses-- packets of cloth buttons-- frying-pans and ploughshares-- butter machines-- gas-meters, shovels, and a pair of spectacles--a box of sanitary powder and a -horse power horizontal steam-engine! how some of these things, especially the last, could come to be lost at all, is a mystery which we have been quite unable to fathom. of these lots the catalogue contains , and the sale was to occupy two days. after having failed to obtain any information as to the missing brown paper parcel, mrs durby felt so overwhelmed with distress and shame that she took the whole matter into serious consideration, and, resolving to forego her visit to her brother, returned straight to clatterby, where, in a burst of tears, she related her misadventures to netta. it need scarcely be said that netta did not blame her old and faithful nurse. her disposition was of that mild sympathetic nature which induces one,--when an accident occurs, such as the breaking of a valuable piece of china,--to hasten to excuse rather than to abuse the unhappy breaker, who, in nine cases out of ten, is far more severely punished by his or her own conscience than the sin deserves! instead, therefore, of blaming the nurse, netta soothed her; said that it did not matter _much_; that the ring was valuable to her only as a gift from her father; that no doubt some other means of paying their debts would soon be devised; that it would have been an absolute miracle, if nurse had retained her self-possession, in the terrible circumstances, in which she had been placed, and in fact tried so earnestly and touchingly to comfort her, that she unintentionally heaped coals of intensest fire on the poor woman's head, and caused mrs durby not only to blame herself more than ever, but to throw her arms round netta's neck, and all but fall down on her knees and worship her. thereafter the subject was dismissed, and in a short time almost forgotten. chapter sixteen. describes engineering difficulties, a perplexing case, and a harmonious meeting. captain lee's object in visiting london was twofold. he went there primarily to attend the half-yearly general meeting of the grand national trunk railway, and secondarily, to accompany his friend edwin gurwood to the railway clearing-house, in which establishment he had been fortunate enough to secure for him a situation. the various circumstances which contributed to the bringing about of an intimacy between captain lee and young gurwood are partly known to the reader. it was natural that the captain should feel some sort of regard for one who had twice shown himself so ready to spring to his assistance in the hour of danger; but that which weighed still more strongly with the old sailor--who had been a strict disciplinarian and loved a zealous man--was the energy, with which edwin threw himself into the work of the department of the railway, in which he had first been placed. perhaps if the captain had known the motives and the hopes which actuated the youth he might have regarded him with very different feelings! we know not--and it matters little now. as a clerk in the engineers' office, edwin had, in a few weeks, evinced so much talent and aptitude for the work as to fill his patron's heart with delight. he possessed that valuable quality which induces a man-- in scripture language--to look not only on his own things but on the things of others. he was not satisfied with doing his own work thoroughly, but became so inquisitive as to the work of his companions in the office that he acquired in a short time as much knowledge as some of these companions had acquired in several years. the engineer's department of a railway is one which involves some of the most important operations connected with the line. but indeed the same may be said of all the departments--passenger, goods, locomotive, and police, each of which is independent, yet connected. they are separate wheels, as it were, which work harmoniously together in one grand system, and the gentlemen at the head of these departments must be men of experience; of acknowledged talent and power, each supreme in his own department, but all subject to the general manager. the engineer-in-chief, who was edwin gurwood's superior, had charge of the entire railway, which was something over one thousand miles in extent. this vast line was divided into four divisions--namely, the northern, southern, western, and eastern; each division being under the superintendence of a resident engineer, who was, of course, subject to the engineer-in-chief. each division was about miles long, and was subdivided into districts varying from thirty to seventy miles. these were under the charge of inspectors, whose duty it was to travel constantly over their lengths--almost daily--partly on foot and partly by train, to see that the line was kept in perfect working order. the travelling inspectors had under them a large body of "surface-men" or "plate-layers," men whose duty it was to perform the actual work of keeping the line in order. they worked in squads of four or five--each squad having a foreman or gaffer, who was held responsible for the particular small portion of the line that he and his squad had to attend to. the average number of surface-men was about two to the mile--so that the entire staff of these men on the line numbered over two thousand. their business was to go over the entire line twice a day, drive tight the wooden "keys" which held the rails in their chairs, lift and re-lay broken or worn-out rails and chairs, raise or depress sleepers wherever these required alteration, so as to make the line level, and, generally, to keep in thorough repair the "permanent way." again, each of the four divisions had an inspector of signals and an inspector of buildings, the former being responsible for the perfect working order of all signals, and the latter, who had a few masons, joiners, slaters, blacksmiths, and others under him, having charge of all the stations, sheds, and other buildings on the line. every month each division engineer sent in to the head office a statement of material used, and of work done; also a requisition for material required for future use. from all this it can easily be understood that edwin had a fair opportunity of finding scope for his talents; and he had indeed already begun to attract notice as an able, energetic fellow, when captain lee, as we have said, procured for him an appointment in the clearing-house. on the occasion of the change being made, he invited his young friend to spend a few days at his residence in clatterby, and thereafter, as we have seen, they travelled together to london. it need scarcely be said that edwin did not neglect this golden opportunity to try to win the heart of emma. whether he had succeeded or not he could not tell, but he unquestionably received a strong additional impulse in his good resolves--to achieve for himself a position and a wife! "gurwood," said captain lee, after mrs durby had taken her departure, "i want you to aid me in a little difficulty i have about our mutual friend, mrs tipps. she is ridiculously determined not to accept of assistance from me, and i find from that excellent nurse that they are actually up to the lips in poverty--in fact, on the point of going down. i think from what she said, or, rather from what she didn't say, but hinted, that her errand to london had something to do with their poverty, but i can't make it out. now, i have made up my mind to help them whether they will or no, and the question i wish to lay before you is,--how is the thing to be done? come, you have had some experience of engineering, and ought to be able to cope with difficulties." "true," replied edwin, with a smile, "but to bend a woman's will surpasses any man's powers of engineering!" "come, sir," said the captain, "that is a most ungallant speech from one so young. you deserve to die an old bachelor. however, i ask you not to exercise your skill in bending a woman's will, but in bridging over this difficulty--this chat moss, to speak professionally." "could you not procure for my friend, joseph tipps, a more lucrative appointment?" said edwin eagerly, as the idea flashed upon him. the captain shook his head. "won't do, sir; i have thought of that; but, in the first place, i have not such an appointment to give him at present; in the second place, if i had, he could not draw his salary in advance, and money is wanted immediately; and, in the third place, he would not if he had it be able to spare enough out of any ordinary clerk's salary, because the debts due by mrs tipps amount to fifty pounds--so mrs durby said." "it is indeed perplexing," said edwin. "would it not be a good plan to send them a cheque anonymously?" again the captain shook his head. "wouldn't do. the old lady would guess who sent it at once. come, i will leave it to you to devise a plan. never could form a plan all my life, and have no time just now, as i'm going off to the meeting in ten minutes. i constitute you my agent in this matter, gurwood. you know all the circumstances of the case, and also about my bet of five hundred pounds with the late captain tipps. your fee, if you succeed, shall be my unending gratitude. there, i give you _carte-blanche_ to do as you please--only see that you don't fail." saying this, the captain put on his hat and went out, leaving edwin much amused and not a little perplexed. he was not the man, however, to let difficulties stand in his way unassailed. he gave the subject half-an-hour's consideration, after which he formed a plan and immediately went out to put it into execution. meanwhile captain lee went to the head offices of the grand national trunk railway, and entered the large room, where the directors and shareholders of the company were already assembled in considerable numbers to hold a half-yearly general meeting. it was quite a treat to see the cordial way in which the captain was received by such of his brother directors as sat near him, and, when he had wiped his bald head and put on his spectacles, and calmly looked round the hall, his bland visage appeared to act the part of a reflector, for, wherever his eyes were turned, there sunshine appeared to glow. in fact several of the highly sympathetic people present--of whom there are always a few in every mixed meeting--unconsciously smiled and nodded as his eye passed over their locality, even although they were personal strangers to him. very various are the feelings which actuate the directors and shareholders of different railways at these half-yearly gatherings. doubtless some directors go to the place of meeting with the feelings of men who go to execution, and the shareholders go with the feelings of executioners, if not worse; while other directors and shareholders unquestionably go to hold something like a feast of reason and a flow of soul. the half-yearly meeting we write of was imbued with the latter spirit. wisdom and conscientious care had steered the ship and swayed the councils of the grand national trunk railway, so that things were in what the captain called a highly flourishing condition. one consequence was, that the directors wore no defensive armour, and the shareholders came to the ground without offensive weapons. sir cummit strong having taken the chair, the secretary read the advertisement convening the meeting. the chairman, who was a tall, broad-browed, and large-mouthed man, just such an one as might be expected to become a railway king, then rose, and, after making a few preliminary observations in reference to the report, which was assumed to have been read, moved, "that the said report and statement of accounts be received and adopted." "he-ar, he-ar!" exclaimed a big vulgar man, with an oily fat face and a strong voice, who was a confirmed toady. "i am quite sure," the chairman continued, "that i have the sympathy of all in this meeting when i say that the half-year which has just come to a close has been one of almost unmixed success--" "he-ar, he-ar!" from the toady. "and," continued the chairman, with pointed emphasis, and a glance at the toady, which was meant to indicate that he had put in his oar too soon, but which the toady construed into a look of gratitude--"_and_ of very great satisfaction to those whom you have appointed to the conducting of your affairs." "he-ar, he-ar!" captain lee, who sat immediately behind the toady and felt his fingers and toes tingling, lost a good deal of what followed, in consequence of falling into a speculative reverie, as to what might be the legal consequences, if he were to put his own hat on the toady's head, and crush it down over his eyes and mouth. "gentlemen," continued the chairman, "there are three points on which we have reason to congratulate ourselves to-day, namely, the safety, the efficiency, and the economy with which our railway has been worked. as regards the first, i find that ten millions of journeys have been performed on our line during the half-year with hardly a detention, with very few late trains, at high speeds, and with only one accident, which was a comparatively slight one, and was unattended with loss of life or serious damage to any one." "he-ar, he-ar!" from the toady. at this point a wag in the distance got up and suggested, in a very weak voice, that if the toady would say, "he-ar, he-ar!" less frequently, perhaps they would "he-ar" much better--a suggestion which was received with a burst of laughter and a round of applause. it effectually quelled the toady and rendered him innocuous for a considerable time. "now," resumed the chairman, "some people appear to think that it is an easy thing to work a railway in safety, but i can assure you that such is not the case. intelligence, care, foresight, and the strictest discipline, are necessary to secure this result; and, remember, we have not the advantage of anything so powerful as military discipline to help us. we have nothing to appeal to save the hopes and fears of our staff; and we feel it to be our great difficulty, as it is our principal duty, to be most careful in the selection of the thousands of men who, in their various positions and vocations, have to be employed in the conduct of your enterprise. "i know well," continued sir cummit strong, "how men shudder when statistics are mentioned in their ears! nevertheless, i shall venture to give you a few statistics that will, i am quite sure, prove interesting--all the more so that the figures which i quote apply to several other railways--and, therefore, will serve to give those of you who may chance to be unlearned on railway matters, some idea of the vast influence which railways have on our land. "we run on this railway (i use round numbers) about trains a day. in addition to which we have spare engines and empty trains, which perhaps ought to be added to the number given. now, just consider for a moment the operations which have to be performed daily in the ordinary working and running of your passenger traffic. these trains stop about times in the twenty-four hours, and of course they start the same number of times. the empty trains and engines have also to stop and start. we have on the line upwards of signals, including the telegraphic signals and auxiliaries. those signals have to be raised and lowered , times in the twenty-four hours. there are on our line pairs of points, which have to be opened and shut, to be cleaned, oiled, and attended to, above times in the day. in addition to all this there are the operations of shunting, carriage-examining, greasing, and other things in connexion with trains which involve operations amounting to nearly in number. so that-- apart from repairs to the line and to vehicles--there are above , individual operations which have to be performed every twenty-four hours in the conduct of this enormous passenger traffic. "all this information i have obtained from our able and excellent passenger-superintendent, than whom there is not a more important officer in the company's service, unless, indeed," (here the chairman turned with a smile and a slight bow to the gentlemen who sat on his right hand) "i may except the general manager and secretary. "well, now, gentlemen, i put it to you, is it surprising that the men who have to perform these , operations in the day--amounting to the vast total of ten millions of operations in the year--is it surprising, i say, that these men should now and then fall into some error of judgment, or make some mistake, or even be guilty of some negligence? is it not, on the contrary, most surprising that accidents are not far more numerous; and does it not seem almost miraculous that where duties are so severe, the demands made by the public so great-- speed, punctuality, numberless trains by day and night--there should be only one accident to report this half-year, while last half-year there were no accidents at all? and does it not seem hard that the public should insist that we shall be absolutely infallible, and, when the slightest mistake occurs, should haul us into court and punish us with demands for compensation for accidents which no human ingenuity or foresight could prevent? "before leaving this subject allow me to direct your attention to the fogs which occurred this half-year. there were thirty days in which during a part, if not the whole, of the twenty-four hours we had out our fog-signal men; that is to say, an additional staff of men, each with his flag and detonating signals, placed within sight, or within sound of one another, to assist the ordinary signalmen in the safe conduct of the traffic. during these fogs the omnibuses had to be withdrawn from the roads, the steamers had to be moored on the river, and the traffic on the streets was almost at a standstill, nevertheless we carried through the fog, in and out of london, above one million six hundred thousand passengers _without_ _accident_!" the "hear, hear," which burst from the audience at this point might have satisfied even the toady himself! "and yet," continued the chairman, with emphasis, "if a single mishap had occurred owing to the mistake of any of our half-blinded men, we should probably have been let in for compensation to the extent perhaps of , pounds! is this fair? if it be so, then one may be tempted to ask why does not the same `sauce' suit shipowners, many of whom are notorious for sending to sea unseaworthy craft, and who consign above one thousand human beings to an untimely grave _every_ _year_ without being punished in any way or being asked for a farthing of compensation? "i have already said so much on this point gentlemen, that i shall make but a few remarks on the other two subjects. well, then, as to efficiency. our carrying ten millions of passengers in safety and comfort is one proof of that--and, i may remark in passing, that our receipts for the conveyance of these ten millions amounts to nearly half a million of money. another proof of our efficiency lies in the fact that all the compensation we have had to pay for loss or detention of luggage has been only pounds. then as to goods. for merchandise carried we have received about , pounds, and the total compensation for the half-year amounts to only about pounds. surely i may say with truth that such facts speak to the regularity and efficiency of your service. "if the public only knew the anxiety and care with which its interests are looked after both by night and by day by our excellent passenger and goods-managers they would perhaps present each of these gentlemen with a testimonial piece of plate, and would for evermore lay aside that wicked and ungrateful idea that railway companies are `fair game,' to be plundered by every one who receives, or fancies he has received, the slightest possible amount of damage to limb or property. railway companies are not perfect any more than other companies. there are certain faults, it may be, and weak points, which all of us deplore, and which are being remedied as fast as experience and the progress of human knowledge will admit, but i hold, gentlemen, that the management of railway companies is above the average management of many other companies. we have much more work--more dangerous work--to do than other companies, and we do it with much less proportional loss to life, limb, and property." "he-ar, he-ar!" burst from the toady in spite of his recent rebuke; but as it was drowned in a round of hearty applause no one was the wiser or the worse of his note of approval. "when i think," continued the chairman, "of the condition this country was in before the days of railways--which probably most of those present remember--the ingratitude of the public seems to me utterly unaccountable. i can only understand it on the supposition that they have somehow obtained false notions as to the great value of railways and the great blessing they are to the community. "why, our goods-manager informs me that there is a certain noble lord, whom of course i may not name in public, who has a farm at a considerable distance out of town. he has a fancy that the milk and cream produced on his own farm is better than metropolitan milk and cream--(laughter). he therefore resolves to have fresh milk and cream sent in from his farm every morning, and asks us to carry it for him. we agree; but he further insists that the milk and cream shall be delivered at his residence punctually at nine a.m. to this we also agree, because the thing can be done; yet it is sharp practice, for it is only by the train arriving at its time, punctually to a minute, and by our horse and van being in readiness to start the instant it is loaded, that the thing can be accomplished. now, gentlemen, it is owing to the extreme care and vigorous superintendence of our goods--i had almost said our good-manager that that noble lord has never missed his milk or cream one morning during the last six months. and the same punctuality attends the milk-delivery of `brown, jones, and robinson,' for railways, as a rule, are no respecters of persons. should not this, i ask, infuse a little of the milk of human kindness into the public heart in reference to railways? "then, consider other advantages. in days not long gone by a few coaches carried a few hundreds of the more daring among our population over the land at a high cost and at the truly awful rate of ten miles an hour. in some cases the break-neck speed of twelve was attained. most people preferred to remain at home rather than encounter the fatigues, risks, and expense of travelling. what are the facts now? above three hundred millions of separate journeys are undertaken by rail in the united kingdom in one year. our sportsmen can breakfast in london on the th of august, sup the same night in scotland, and be out on the moors on the morning of the th. on any afternoon any lady in england may be charmed with sir walter scott's `lady of the lake,' and, if so minded, she may be a lady on the veritable lake itself before next evening! our navvies now travel for next to nothing in luxurious ease at thirty miles an hour, and our very beggars scorn to walk when they can travel at one penny a mile. but all this is nothing compared with our enormous increase of goods traffic throughout the kingdom. i have not time, nor is this the place, to enlarge on such a subject, but a pretty good commentary on it exists in the simple fact that on your line alone, which is not, as you know, the largest of the railways of this land, the receipts for goods, minerals, and live-stock carried amounted to , pounds in the last half-year, as you will see from the report. "there is one point to which i would now direct your attention--namely, the great facilities which we give to residential and season-ticket holders. i think it a wise and just course to afford the public such facilities, because it tends to produce a permanent source of traffic by tempting men, who would otherwise be content to live within walking or 'bus distance of their offices, to go down into the country and build villas there, and if you extend that sort of arrangement largely, you cause villages at last to grow into towns, and towns to spread out with population and with manufactures. i regard our course of action in regard to season-tickets, therefore, as a sowing of the seed of permanent and enduring income. the receipts from this source alone, i am happy to say, amounts to , pounds." captain lee's spirit had, at the bare mention of season-tickets, gone careering down the line to clatterby, in the beautiful suburbs of which he had the most charming little villa imaginable, but he was abruptly recalled by a "he-ar, he-ar," from the toady, who was gradually becoming himself again, and a round of applause from the audience, in which, having an amiable tendency to follow suit, he joined. after this the chairman expatiated at some length on the economical working of the line and on various other subjects of great importance to the shareholders, but of little interest to the general reader; we will therefore pass them all by and terminate our report of this meeting with the chairman's concluding remark, which was, that, out of the free revenue, after deduction of the dividends payable on guaranteed and preference stocks and other fixed charges, the directors recommended the payment of a dividend on the ordinary stock of six and a half per cent. it need scarcely be said that this latter statement was received with hearty applause and with an irrepressible "he-ar, he-ar!" from the toady, which was not only tolerated by the meeting, but echoed by the wag in the distance, who, though his words that day had been few, had done the shareholders good service nevertheless, inasmuch as he had quelled, to some extent the propensities of a self-sufficient "bore." lest the reader should regard us as a statistical bore, we shall bring this chapter to a close. chapter seventeen. gertie is mysteriously cared for--sam natly dines under difficulties in connexion with the block system. one day, not long after the half-yearly meeting described in the last chapter, mrs marrot--being at the time engaged with the baby--received a visit from an elderly gentleman, who introduced himself as a lawyer, and said that he had been sent by a client to make a proposal to her-- "of course," he said, with a bland smile, "i do not refer to a matrimonial proposal." mrs marrot felt and looked surprised, but waited for more in silence. "to come to the point at once," continued the elderly gentleman, "my client, who is rather eccentric, has taken a great fancy, it seems, to your little daughter gertrude--gertie he calls her--and is desirous of giving her a good education, if you have no objection." mrs marrot, being under the impression that this would involve gertie's being taken away from her, and being put to a boarding-school, at once looked her objections so plainly, that her visitor hastened to explain that his client did not wish gertie to quit her parents' house, but merely to go for a few hours each day to the residence of a teacher in the neighbourhood--a governess--whom he should provide. this altered the case so much that mrs marrot expressed herself quite ready to allow gertie to undergo _that_ amount of education, and hoped it would do her good, though, for her part she did not believe in education herself, seeing that she had got on in life perfectly well without it. she also expressed some curiosity to know who was so good as to take such an interest in her child. "that, my good woman, i cannot tell, for two reasons; first because my client has enjoined me to give no information whatever about him; and, secondly, because i do not myself know his name, his business with me having been transacted through a young friend of mine, who is also a friend of his. all i can say is, that his intentions towards your child are purely philanthropic, and the teacher whom he shall select will not be appointed, unless you approve. that teacher, i may tell you, is miss tipps." "what! miss netta teach my gertie?" exclaimed mrs marrot in great surprise--"never!" "my good woman," said the lawyer with a perplexed look, "what is your objection to miss tipps?" "objection? i've no objection to miss netta, but she will have some objection to me and gertie." "i thought," said the lawyer, "that miss tipps had already taught your child, to some extent, gratuitously." "so she has, god bless her; but that was in the sunday-school, where she teaches a number of poor people's children for the sake of our dear lord--but that is a very different thing from giving or'nary schoolin' to my gertie." "that may be," rejoined the lawyer; "but you are aware that miss tipps already teaches in order to increase her mother's small income, and she will probably be glad to get another pupil. we mean to pay her well for the service, and i suppose that if _she_ has no objection _you_ will have none." "cer'nly not!" replied mrs marrot with much emphasis. whenever mrs marrot said anything with unusual emphasis, baby marrot entertained the unalterable conviction that he was being scolded; no sooner, therefore, did he observe the well-known look, and hear the familiar tones, than he opened wide his mouth and howled with injured feeling. at the same moment a train rushed past like an average earthquake, and in the midst of this the man of law rose, and saying that he would communicate with mrs marrot soon, took his leave. next evening mrs tipps was seated at tea with netta, planning with anxious care how to make the two ends meet, but, apparently, without much success. "it is dreadful, netta," said mrs tipps; "i was never before brought to this condition." "it _is_ very dreadful," responded netta, "but that renders it all the more imperative that we should take some decided step towards the payment of our debts." "yes, the liquidation of our debts," said mrs tipps, nodding slowly; "that was the term your dear father was wont to use." "you know, mamma, at the worst we can sell our furniture--or part of it--and pay them off, and then, with a system of rigid economy--" a postman's knock cut short the sentence, and in a few seconds mrs durby--careworn and subdued--presented a letter to her mistress and retired. "my--my dear!" exclaimed mrs tipps, "th-this is positively miraculous. here is a cheque for fifty pounds, and--but read for yourself." netta seized the letter and read it aloud. it ran thus:-- "clarendon hotel, london. "dear madam,--there is a little girl living in your neighbourhood, in whose father i have a deep interest. i am particularly anxious to give this child, gertrude marrot by name, a good plain education. understanding that your daughter has had considerable experience in teaching the young, and is, or has been, engaged in tuition, i venture to propose that she should undertake the training of this child, who will attend at your daughter's residence for that purpose at any hours you may deem most suitable. in the belief that your daughter will have no objection to accept of this trust i enclose a cheque for pounds-- the first year's salary--in advance. i am, dear madam, your very obedient servant, "samuel tough." although the above can scarcely be considered a brilliant achievement of edwin gurwood, it nevertheless accomplished its purpose; for the letter was, in all respects, so very unlike captain lee, that neither mrs tipps nor her daughter suspected him for an instant. on the contrary, they took it in good faith. netta wrote a reply by return of post agreeing to the proposal, and on the day following began her pleasant task, to the inexpressible delight of gertie, who would joyfully, on any terms whatever, have been netta's slave--not to mention pupil. a considerable time after this happy arrangement had been made, mrs durby, in a moment of confidential weakness, related to little gertie the circumstances attending the loss of the diamond ring. gertie, on returning home, communicated the matter to loo, and gave it as her opinion that it was a pity such a valuable ring had been lost. "couldn't father find out about it somehow?" she asked with a hopeful look--hopeful because she believed her father capable of doing anything he chose to set his mind to. "perhaps he could, but he won't be home to-night," replied loo, thoughtfully. "i think sam natly could tell us how to find it. suppose i go and ask him," said gertie. loo laughed, and said she thought sam couldn't help them much. the child was, however, a resolute little thing, and, having taken up the idea, determined to go and see sam forthwith, as he was on duty not far from john marrot's cottage. sam had recently been advanced from the position of a porter, to the responsible office of a signalman. the great sin he had committed in going to sleep in a first-class carriage, when unable to keep his eyes open, had been forgiven, partly because it was his first offence, partly because of the good and opportune service he had rendered on the day of the attempted robbery, and partly on account of his being one of the steadiest and most intelligent men on the line. sam's wife, under the care of mrs tipps and mrs durby, had made a marvellous recovery, and sam's gratitude knew no bounds. mrs tipps happened to refer to him one day when conversing with captain lee, and the latter was much pleased to discover that the man in whom mrs tipps felt so much interest, was the same man who had come to his help in the hour of his extremity. he therefore made inquiry about him of the station-master at clatterby. that gentleman said that sam was a first-rate man, a stout, hard-working, modest fellow, besides being remarkably intelligent, and clear-headed and cool, especially in the midst of danger, as had been exemplified more than once in cases of accident at the station, in addition to which sam was a confirmed abstainer from strong drink. all these facts were remembered, and when the block system of signalling was introduced on that part of the line sam was made a signalman. the scene of his new labours was an elevated box at the side of the line, not far from gertie's home. as this box was rather curious we shall describe it. it was a huge square sentry-box, with three of its sides composed of windows; these commanded a view of the line in all directions. on the fourth side of the box hung a time-piece and a framed copy of signal regulations. there was a diminutive stove in one corner, and a chest in another. in front of the box facing the clock were two telegraphic instruments, and a row of eight or ten long iron levers, which very much resembled a row of muskets in a rack. these levers were formidable instruments in aspect and in fact, for they not only cost sam a pretty strong effort to move them, but they moved points and signals, on the correct and prompt movements of which depended the safety of the line, and the lives of human beings. just before little gertie reached the station, sam happened to be engaged in attempting to take his dinner. we use the word _attempting_ advisedly, because our signalman had not the ghost of a chance to sit down, as ordinary mortals do, and take his dinner with any degree of certainty. he took it as it were, disjointedly in the midst of alarms. that the reader may understand why, we must observe that the "block system" of signalling, which had recently been introduced on part of the line, necessitated constant attention, and a series of acts, which gave the signalman no rest, during certain periods of his watch, for more than two minutes at a time, if so long. the block system is the method of protecting trains by "blocking" the line; that is, forbidding the advance of trains until the line is clear, thus securing an interval of _space_ between trains, instead of the older and more common method of an interval of _time_. the chief objection to the latter system is this, that one accident is apt to cause another. suppose a train despatched from a station; an interval of say quarter of an hour allowed and then another sent off. if the first train should break down, there is some chance of the second train overtaking and running into it. with the block system this is impossible. for instance, a train starts from any station, say a, and has to run past stations b and c. the instant it starts the signalman at a rings a telegraph bell to attract b's attention, at the same time he indicates on another telegraphic instrument "train on line," locks his instruments in that position, and puts up the "stop" signal, or, blocks the line. b replies, acknowledging the signal, and telegraphs to c to be ready. the moment the train passes b's station, he telegraphs to c, "train on line," and blocks that part of the line with the semaphore, "stop", as a had done, he also telegraphs back to a, "line clear," whereupon a lets a second train on, if one is ready. very soon c sends "line clear" to b, whereupon b is prepared to let on that second train, when it comes up, and so on _ad infinitum_. the signals, right and left are invariably repeated, so that there is no chance of mistake though the failure of the telegraph instruments, because if any of these should fail, the want of a reply would at once induce a telegram through the "speaking" instrument with which each station is furnished, and which is similar to the telegraph instruments used at most railway stations, and the line would remain "blocked" until a satisfactory answer set it free. the working of the semaphore signals, which are familiar to most people as tall posts with projecting moveable arms, is accomplished by the mechanical action of the "levers" before mentioned. there are two "distant" signals and one "home" signal to be worked by each man. besides these there are levers for working the various "points" around the station which lead to sidings, and when these levers are in action, i.e. placed for the shunting of a goods train, they self-lock the levers that "block" the line, so that while this operation of shunting (which just means shoving a train to one side out of the way) is going on, the signalman could not make the mistake of letting a train pass the distant signal--the thing is rendered impossible. from this it will be seen that the signalman has entire control of the line, and if we consider that shunting of waggons, carriages, and trains is a pretty constant and lively operation at some stations, we can easily conceive that the office of signalman can only be filled by a very able and trustworthy man. as we have said, just before gertie's arrival sam natly chanced to be attempting to dine. the telegraph needles pointed to "line clear" on both sides of him. dinner consisted of a sort of irish stew cooked in a little square iron pan that fitted into the small stove. being a placid, good-humoured man, not easily thrown off his balance either mentally or physically, sam smiled slightly to himself as he put the first bit of meat into his mouth. he thought of his wife, wished that she was there to assist in the eating of it and shut his lips on the savoury morsel. a piece of potato was arrested by the sharp telegraph bell--one beat--of warning. the potato followed the meat as he was in the act of rising. sam touched his telegraphic bell in reply to his signal-friend on the right, and "train on line" was marked by a telegraphic needle pointing to these words. as the train was yet a great way off, at least as to distance, he sat down again and disposed of bit number two. number three followed, and he had made some approach to engulfing number four when a shrill whistle struck his ear. up he sprang, glanced at the time-piece, wiped his mouth, and went to the levers. he touched his bell--a single note of warning to his signal-friend on the left and received a reply, one beat, meaning "ready." the train appeared, came up like a rocket and went past like a thunderbolt. when sam saw its red tail-light, and thus knew that all the train was there,--that none of the tail carriages or trucks had broken loose and been left behind,--he gave a mighty pull to one of the levers, which turned up the arms of his distant signal, and thus blocked the line to all other trains. the needle was now "pegged down" or fixed at "train on line," so that there could be no mistake about it, and no trusting to memory. having accomplished this, he went to a large book which lay open on a desk in a corner, glanced at the time-piece, recorded the passage of the train--a passenger one, and once more sat down to dinner. the distance between his station and the next to the left was somewhat greater than that on the right, so that at least three mouthfuls in succession, of the irish stew, were disposed of before the wicked little bell summoned him again. he rose as before with alacrity, rung his bell in reply, and unstopped his needle. the friend on his left at once pointed it to "line clear," whereupon sam again went to his levers, and lowered the obstructing arms on his right. having thus a clear line on right and left, he sat down for the third time to dinner, with a clear head and a clear conscience. but he was interrupted sooner than before, indeed he had barely got one mouthful deposited when he was rung up by the friend on his right, with _two_ beats of the bell, to pass a heavy goods train, which, with something like the impatience of stout people in crossing dangerous roads, was anxious to get on and out of the way as fast as possible, for it knew that a `limited mail' was tearing after it, at a fearfully unlimited pace. sam knew this too--indeed he knew, and was bound to know, every train that had to pass that station, up and down, during his period of duty. he therefore replied, sat down, had a bite or two, and sprang up when the whistle of the train was audible. there was longer delay this time, for the goods train had to stop, and be shunted, at this station. moreover, another goods train that had quietly, but impatiently, been biding its time in a siding, thought it would try to take advantage of this opportunity, and gave an impatient whistle. sam opened one of his sliding windows and looked out. "couldn't you let me shunt over a truck t'other side _now_, sam?" asked its driver remonstratively. sam glanced at his time-piece with an earnest thoughtful look, and said-- "well, yes; but look sharp." he had already pulled the lever of the home signal, and now, with two mighty pulls, blocked both up and down lines with the distant signals. at the same time he pulled other levers, and shifted the "points," so as to let the plethoric goods train just arrived, and the goods train in waiting, perform their respective evolutions. it required nearly all sam's strength to "pull over" several of those levers, because, besides being somewhat heavy to work, even at their best, several of them had got slightly out of order--wanted oiling, perhaps. it was quite evident to the meanest capacity that there was room for improvement in this department of the grand national trunk railway. in performing this last operation sam locked all the semaphores, and so rendered his part of the line absolutely impregnable. there was so much vigorous action and whistling here, and such puffing and backing and pushing on the part of the engines, that a superficial observer might have supposed there was a great deal of movement and confusion to no purpose, but we need scarcely say that such was not the case. several trucks of goods were dropped by both trains, to be carried on by other trains, and several trucks that had been left by other trains, were taken up, and thus in a few minutes a part of the enormous traffic of the line was assorted. sam had judged his time well. he had got a good piece of work advanced, and both trains well out of the way, just before the bell again intimated the approach of the limited mail. he replied, set the line free, booked the passage of the goods train, and sat down once more to dinner, just as the door of his box opened and the pretty face of gertie peeped in. we are not sure that such a visit would be permitted in these days of stringent "rules;" at that time they may not have been very particular as to visitors, or perhaps gertie, being one of themselves, as it were, was privileged. be this as it may, there she was with a laughing face. "may i come in, sam?" "may a cherub from the skies come in--yes," replied sam, rising and lifting gertie in his strong arms until he could print a kiss on her forehead without stooping. "all well at home, gertie?" "very well, thank you. we expect father home to tea." "i know that," said sam, sitting down at his small table and attempting dinner once again. "how do you know that?" asked gertie in surprise. "'cause i've got to pass him up wi' the express in half-an-hour," replied sam, with his mouth full, "and, of course, he don't prefer takin' tea on the _lightenin'_ with his mate bill garvie, w'en he's got a chance o' takin' it wi' his wife and a little angel, like you." "i wish you'd not talk nonsense, sam," remonstrated gertie with a serious look. "that ain't nonsense," said sam, stoutly. "yes, it is," said gertie; "you know angels are good." "well, and ain't you good?" demanded the signalman, filling his mouth with a potato. "mother says i am, and i feel as if i was," replied gertie with much simplicity, "but you know angels are _very_ _very_ good, and, of _course_, i'm not near so good as them." "you are," said sam, with an obstinate snap at a piece of meat; "you're better than any of 'em. you only want wings to be complete." gertie laughed, and then remarked that sam dined late, to which sam replied that he did, that he preferred it, and that he didn't see why gentlefolk should have that sort of fun all to themselves. "what's that?" exclaimed gertie, as sam dropped his knife and fork, rang his electric bell, and laid hold of a lever. "the limited mail, my dear," said sam, as the train rushed by. "oh, how it shakes the house! i wonder it don't fall," exclaimed the child. "it's made to be well shaken, like a bottle o' bad physic," replied sam, as he went through the various processes already described, before sitting down to finish his oft-interrupted meal. "do you always take your dinner in that uncomfortable way?" asked gertie, sitting down on the chest and looking earnestly into the manly countenance of her friend. "mostly," said sam, at last finishing off with a draught of pure water, and smacking his lips. "sometimes it's all i can do to get it eaten--other times i'm not so hard pressed, but it's never got over without interruption, more or less." "are breakfast and tea as bad?" "not quite," replied sam with a laugh; "about breakfast time the traffic ain't quite so fast and furious, and i takes tea at home." "how long are you here at a time?" asked the inquisitive gertie. "twelve hours, my dear, and no time allowed for meals." "surely you must be very tired?" "sometimes, but they talk of shortening the hours soon. there's a want of signalmen just now, that's how it is. but what good fortune has sent _you_ here this evenin', gertie?" "i want to ask you about a ring, sam." "a ring! what! you ain't goin' to get married already, are you?" gertie replied by bursting into a hearty fit of laughter; when she had sufficiently recovered her gravity, she revealed her troubles to the sympathising signalman. "well, it _is_ a perplexin' business. what was the old woman doin' wi' such a ring tied up in such a queer way?" "i don't know," said gertie. "well, it ain't no business of mine, but we must try to git hold of it somehow. i'll be off dooty at six, and your dad'll be passin' in a few minutes. after i'm free, i'll go up to the shed and have a palaver with 'im. there he is." as he spoke the bell was rung by his signal-friend on the left replied to in the usual way, and in a few minutes the chimney of the _lightning_ was seen over the top of the embankment that hid a bend of the up-line from view. "put your head out here at this window, and be ready to wave your hand, gertie," said sam, placing the child. the "flying dutchman" came on in its wonted wild fashion, and for a few seconds gertie saw her father's bronzed and stern face as he looked straight ahead with his hand on the regulator. john marrot cast one professional glance up, and gave a professional wave of his right hand to the signalman. at that instant his whole visage lighted up as if a beam of sunshine had suffused it, and his white teeth, uncovered by a smile, gleamed as he flew past and looked back. gertie waved frantically with her kerchief, which flew from her hand and for some distance followed the train. in another moment the "flying dutchman" was a speck in the distance--its terrific crash suddenly reduced by distance to a low rumble. "evenin', jack," said sam, as his successor or comrade on the "night-shift" entered the box, "come along now, gertie. we'll go and see your father. he'll be up at the station in no time, and won't take long to run back to the shed." so saying, sam natly assisted gertie down the long iron ladder, by which his nest was reached, and walked with her to the engine-shed, which they soon reached. they had not waited long before john marrot's iron horse came panting slowly into its accustomed stable. as there were at least twelve iron horses there in all stages of being-put-to-bedism, and some, like naughty boys, were blowing off their steam with absolutely appalling noise, it was next to impossible for gertie and sam to make known their difficulty to john. they therefore waited until he had seen his satellites in proper attendance upon his charger, and then left the shed along with him. when the case was made known to john, he at once said, "why didn't they apply to the clearin' house, i wonder?" "ah, why not?" said sam. "nurse doesn't know about that place, i think," suggested gertie. "very likely not; but if she'd only gone an' seen any one as know'd anything about the line, she'd have found it out. however, the parcel's pretty sure to be somewhere, so i'll set some inquiries a-foot w'en i goes up to town to-morrow. good-night, sam." "good-night, john," answered the signalman, as he turned off in the direction of his own dwelling, while the engine-driver and his little daughter pursued the footpath that led to their cottage. sam natly's residence was a very small one, for house-rent was high in that neighbourhood. there were only two rooms in it, but these two bore evidence of being tended by a thrifty housewife; and, truly, when sam's delicate, but partially recovered, wife met him at the door that night, and gave him a hearty kiss of welcome, no one with an atom of good taste could have avoided admitting that she was a remarkably pretty, as well as thrifty, little woman. "you're late to-night, sam," said little mrs natly. "yes, i've had to go to the shed to see john marrot about a diamond ring." "a diamond ring!" exclaimed his wife. "yes, a diamond ring." hereupon sam related all he knew about the matter, and you may be sure the subject was quite sufficient to furnish ground for a very lively and speculative conversation, during the preparation and consumption of as nice a little hot supper, as any hard-worked signalman could desire. "you're tired, sam," said his little wife anxiously. "well, i am a bit. it's no wonder, for it's a pretty hard job to work them levers for twelve hours at a stretch without an interval, even for meals, but i'm gittin' used to it--like the eels to bein' skinned." "it's a great shame of the company," cried mrs natly with indignation. "come, come," cried sam, "no treason! it ain't such a shame as it looks. you see the company have just bin introducin' a noo system of signallin', an' they ha'n't got enough of men who understand the thing to work it, d'ye see; so of course we've got to work double tides, as the jack-tars say. if they _continue_ to keep us at it like that i'll say it's a shame too, but we must give 'em time to git things into workin' order. besides, they're hard-up just now. there's a deal o' money throw'd away by companies fightin' an' opposin' one another-- cuttin' their own throats, i calls it--and they're awful hard used by the public in the way o' compensation too. it's nothin' short o' plunder and robbery. if the public would claim moderately, and juries would judge fairly, an' directors would fight less, shareholders would git higher dividends, the public would be better served, and railway servants would be less worked and better paid." "i don't care two straws, sam," said little mrs natly with great firmness, "not two straws for their fightin's, an' joories, and davydens--all i know is that they've no right whatever to kill my 'usband, and it's a great shame!" with this noble sentiment the earnest little woman concluded the evening's conversation, and allowed her wearied partner to retire to rest. chapter eighteen. a soiree wildly interrupted, and followed up by surprising revelations. one afternoon captain lee and emma called on mrs tipps, and found her engaged in earnest conversation with netta. the captain, who was always in a boiling-over condition, and never felt quite happy except when in the act of planning or carrying out some scheme for the increase of general happiness, soon discovered that netta was discussing the details of a little treat which she meant to give to the boys and girls of a sunday-school which she and her mother superintended. with all his penetration he did not, however, find out that the matter which called most for consideration was the financial part of the scheme--in other words, how to accomplish the end desired with extremely limited means. he solved the question for them, however, by asserting that he intended to give all the scholars of all the sunday-schools in the neighbourhood a treat, and of course meant to include netta's school among the rest-- unless, of course, she possessed so much exclusive pride as to refuse to join him. there was no resisting captain lee. as well might a red-skin attempt to stop niagara. when once he had made up his mind to "go in" for something, no mortal power could stop him. he might indeed be _turned_. another object of interest, worthy of pursuit and judiciously put before him, might perhaps induce him to abandon a previous scheme; but once his steam was up, as john marrot used to say, you could not get him to blow it off into the air. he was unlike the iron horse in that respect, although somewhat like him in the rigour of his action. accordingly the thing was fixed. invitations were sent out to all the schools and to all who took an interest in them, and the place fixed on was a field at the back of mrs tipps's villa. the day came, and with it the children in their best array. the weather was all that could be wished--a bright sun and a clear sky,--so that the huge tent provided in case of rain, was found to be only required to shade the provisions from the sun. besides the children there were the teachers--many of them little more than children as to years, but with a happy earnestness of countenance and manner which told of another element in their breasts that evidently deepened and intensified their joy. there were several visitors and friends of captain lee and mrs tipps. emma was there, of course, the busiest of the busy in making arrangements for the feast which consisted chiefly of fruit, buns, and milk. netta and she managed that department together. of course little gertie was there and her sister loo, from which we may conclude that will garvie was there in spirit, not only because that would have been natural, but because he had expressly told loo the day before that he meant to be present in that attenuated condition. bodily, poor fellow, he was on the foot-plate of the _lightning_, which is as much as to say that he was everywhere by turns, and nowhere long. mrs marrot was there too, and baby, with nanny stocks as his guardian. miss stocks's chief employment during the evening appeared to be to forget herself in the excess of her delight, and run baby's head against all sorts of things and persons. perhaps it was as well she did so, because it tended to repress his energy. she acted the part of regulator and safety-valve to that small human engine, by controlling his actions and permitting him good-naturedly to let off much of his superfluous steam on herself. indeed she was a species of strong buffer in this respect, receiving and neutralising many a severe blow from his irrepressible feet and fists. bob marrot was also there with his bosom friend tomtit dorkin, whose sole occupation in life up to that time had been to put screws on nuts; this must have been "nuts" to him, as the yankees have it, because, being a diligent little fellow, he managed to screw himself through life at the clatterby works to the tune of twelve shillings a week. joseph tipps, having got leave of absence for an evening, was also there,--modest amiable, active and self-abnegating. so was mrs natly, who, in consideration of her delicate health, was taken great care of, and very much made of, by mrs tipps and her family-- conspicuously by mrs durby, who had become very fond of her since the night she nursed her. indeed there is little doubt that mrs durby and the bottle of wine were the turning-point of mrs natly's illness, and that but for them, poor sam would have been a widower by that time. mr able, the director, was also there, bland and beaming, with a brother director who was anything but bland or beaming, being possessed of a grave, massive, strongly marked and stern countenance; but nevertheless, owning a similar spirit and a heart which beat high with philanthropic desires and designs--though few who came in contact with him, except his intimate friends, would believe it. there were also present an elderly clergyman and a young curate--both good, earnest men, but each very different in many respects from the other. the elder clergyman had a genial, hearty countenance and manner, and he dressed very much like other gentlemen. the young curate might have breakfasted on his poker, to judge from the stiffness of his back, and appeared to be afraid of suffering from cold in the knees and chest, to judge from the length of his surtout and the height of his plain buttonless vest. when all were assembled on the green and the viands spread, the elder clergyman gave out a hymn; and the curate, who had a capital voice, led off, but he was speedily drowned by the gush of song that rose from the children's lips. it was a lively hymn, and they evidently rejoiced to sing it. then the elder clergyman made the children a short speech. it was amazingly brief, insomuch that it quite took the little ones by surprise--so short was it, indeed and so much to the point, that we will venture to set it down here. "dear children," he said, in a loud voice that silenced every chattering tongue, "we have met here to enjoy ourselves. there is but one of your sunday lessons which i will remind you of to-day. it is this,--`whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of god.' before beginning, then, let us ask god's blessing." thereupon he asked a blessing, which was also so brief, that, but for the all-prevailing name of jesus, with which he closed it, some of those who heard him would scarce have deemed it a prayer at all. yet this elderly clergyman was not always brief. he was not brief, for instance, in his private prayers for himself, his friends, and his flock. brevity did not mark his proceedings when engaged in preparing for the sabbath services. he was not brief when, in his study, he pleaded with some awakened but unbelieving soul to cast itself unreservedly on the finished work of our saviour. he was a man who carried his tact and common-sense into his religious duties; who hated formalism, regarding it as one of the great stumbling-blocks in the progress of christianity, and who endeavoured at all times to suit his words and actions to the circumstances of the occasion. the children regarded him with a degree of affection that was all but irrepressible, and which induced them, at his earnest request, to sit still for a considerable time while his young brother gave them "a _short_ address." he was almost emphatic on the word _short_, but the young curate did not appear to take the hint, or to understand the meaning of that word either in regard to discourses or surtouts. he asserted himself in his surtouts and vests, without of course having a shadow of reason for so doing, save that some other young curates asserted themselves in the same way; and he asserted himself then and there in a tone of voice called "sermonising," to which foolish young men are sometimes addicted, and which, by the way, being a false, and therefore irreligious tone, is another great stumbling-block in the way of christianity. and, curiously enough, this young curate was really an earnest, though mistaken and intensely bigoted young man. we call him bigoted, not because he held his own opinions, but because he held by his little formalities with as much apparent fervour as he held by the grand doctrines of his religion, although for the latter he had the authority of the word, while for the former he had merely the authority of man. his discourse was a good one, and if delivered in a natural voice and at a suitable time, might have made a good impression. as it was, it produced pity and regret in his elder brother, exasperation in captain lee, profound melancholy in joseph tipps, great admiration in miss stocks and the baby, and unutterable _ennui_ in the children. fortunately for the success of the day, in the middle of it, he took occasion to make some reference, with allegorical intentions, to the lower animals, and pointed to a pig which lay basking in the sunshine at no great distance, an unconcerned spectator of the scene. a rather obtuse, fat-faced boy, was suddenly smitten with the belief that this was intended as a joke, and dutifully clapped his hands. the effect was electrical--an irresistible cheer and clapping of hands ensued. it was of no use to attempt to check it. the more this was tried the more did the children seem to think they were invited to a continuance of their ovation to the young curate, who finally retired amid the hearty though unexpressed congratulations of the company. by good fortune, the arrival of several more friends diverted attention from this incident; and, immediately after, captain lee set the children to engage in various games, among which the favourite was blindman's-buff. one of the new arrivals was edwin gurwood, who had come, he said, to introduce a gentleman--dr noble--to mrs tipps. "oh, the hypocrite!" thought mrs tipps; "he has come to see emma lee, and he knows it." of course he knew it, and he knew that mrs tipps knew it, and he knew that mrs tipps knew that he knew it, yet neither he nor mrs tipps showed the slightest symptom of all that knowledge. the latter bowed to dr noble, and was expressing her happiness in making his acquaintance, when a rush of laughing children almost overturned her, and hurled dr noble aside. they were immediately separated in the crowd, and, strange to say, edwin at once found himself standing beside emma lee, who, by some curious coincidence, had just parted from netta, so that they found themselves comparatively alone. what they said to each other in these circumstances it does not become us to divulge. while all parties were enjoying themselves to the full, including the young curate, whose discomfiture was softened by the kind attentions of mrs tipps and her daughter, an incident occurred which filled them with surprise and consternation. dr noble was standing at the time near the large tent looking at the games, and nanny stocks was not far from him choking the baby with alternate sweetmeats and kisses, to the horror of joseph tipps, who fully expected to witness a case of croup or some such infantine disease in a few minutes, when suddenly a tall man with torn clothes, dishevelled hair and bloodshot eyes, sprang forward and confronted dr noble. "ha!" he exclaimed with a wild laugh, "have i found you at last, mine enemy?" dr noble looked at him with much surprise, but did not reply. he appeared to be paralysed. "i have sought you," continued the man, trembling with ill-suppressed passion, "over land and sea, and now i've found you. you've got the casket--you know you have; you took it from my wife the night she died; you shall give it up now, or you die!" he spluttered rather than spoke the last words between his teeth, as he made a spring at the doctor. edwin gurwood had seen the man approach, and at once to his amazement recognising the features of thomson, his old opponent in the train, he ran towards him, but was not near enough to prevent his first wild attack. fortunately for dr noble this was thwarted by no less a personage than joseph tipps, who, seeing what was intended, sprang promptly forward, and, seizing the man by the legs adroitly threw him down. with a yell that sent a chill of horror to all the young hearts round, the madman, for such he plainly was, leaped up, but before he could renew his attack he was in the powerful grasp of his old enemy, edwin gurwood. a terrific struggle ensued, for both men, as we have said before, were unusually powerful; but on this occasion madness more than counterbalanced edwin's superior strength. for some time they wrestled so fiercely that none of the other gentlemen could interfere with effect. they dashed down the large tent and went crashing through the _debris_ of the feast until at length thomson made a sudden twist freed himself from edwin's grasp, leaving a shred of his coat in his hands, and, flying across the field, leaped at a single bound the wall that encompassed it. he was closely followed by edwin and by a constable of the district, who happened to arrive upon the scene, but the fugitive left them far behind, and was soon out of sight. this incident put an end to the evening's enjoyment but as the greater part of it had already passed delightfully before thomson came on the ground to mar the sport, the children returned home much pleased with themselves and everybody else, despite the concluding scene. meanwhile mrs tipps invited her friends who had assembled there to take tea in eden villa, and here dr noble was eagerly questioned as to his knowledge of his late assailant, but he either could not or would not throw light on the subject. some of the guests left early and some late, but to mrs tipps's surprise the doctor remained till the last of them had said good-night, after which, to her still greater surprise, he drew his chair close to the table, and, looking at her and netta with much earnestness, said-- "probably you are surprised, ladies, that i, a stranger, have remained so long to-night. the truth is, i had come here to have some conversation on private and very important matters, but finding you so lively, and, i must add, so pleasantly engaged, i deemed it expedient to defer my conversation until you should be more at leisure." he paused as if to collect his thoughts, and the ladies glanced at each other uneasily, and in some surprise, but made no reply. in truth, remembering the scene they had just witnessed, they began to suspect that another style of madman had thought fit to pay them a visit. he resumed, however, with every appearance of sanity-- "how the madman who assaulted me this evening found me out i know not. i was not aware until this day that he had been tracking me, but, judging from what he said, and from what i know about him, i now see that he must have been doing so for some years. here is the explanation, and, let me add, it intimately concerns yourselves." mrs tipps and netta became more interested as dr noble proceeded. "you must know," he said, "that when in india some years ago i made several coasting voyages with a certain sea-captain as surgeon of his ship, at periods when my health required recruiting. i received from that gentleman every attention and kindness that the heart of a good man could suggest. on one of these voyages we had a native prince on board. he was voyaging, like myself, for the benefit of his health, but his case was a bad one. he grew rapidly worse, and before the end of the voyage he died. during his illness the captain nursed him as if he had been his own child; all the more tenderly that he thought him to be one of those unfortunate princes who, owing to political changes, had been ruined, and had lost all his wealth along with his station. it was quite touching, i assure you, madam, to listen to the earnest tones of that captain's voice as he read passages from the word of god to the dying prince, and sought to convince him that jesus christ, who became poor for our sakes, could bestow spiritual wealth that neither the world, nor life, nor death could take away. the prince spoke very little, but he listened most intently. just before he died he sent a sailor lad who attended on him, for the captain, and, taking a small box from beneath his pillow, gave it to him, saying briefly,--`here, take it, you have been my best friend, i shall need it no more.' "after he was dead the box was opened, and found to contain a most superb set of diamonds--a necklace, brooch, ear-rings, bracelets, and a ring, besides a quantity of gold pieces, the whole being worth several thousands of pounds. "as the prince had often said that all his kindred were dead, the captain had no conscientious scruples in retaining the gift. he locked it away in his cabin. when the voyage was finished--at calcutta--the men were paid off. the captain then be-thought him of placing his treasure in some place of security in the city. he went to his chest and took out the box--it was light--he opened it hastily--the contents were gone! nothing was left to him of that splendid gift save the ring, which he had placed on his finger soon after receiving it, and had worn ever since. "from some circumstances that recurred to our memories, we both suspected the young man who had been in attendance on the prince, but, although we caused the most diligent search to be made, we failed to find him. my friend and i parted soon after. i was sent up to the hills, and never saw or heard of him again. "several years after that i happened to be residing in calcutta, and was called one night to see the wife of an englishman who was thought to be dying. i found her very ill--near her end. she seemed to be anxious to communicate something to me, but appeared to be afraid of her husband. i thought, on looking at him attentively, that i had seen him before, and said so. he seemed to be annoyed, and denied ever having met with me. i treated the matter lightly, but took occasion to send him out for some physic, and, while he was away, encouraged the woman to unburden her mind. she was not slow to do so. `oh, sir,' she said, `i want to communicate a secret, but dared not while my husband was by. long ago, before i knew him, my husband stole a box of diamonds from a captain tipps--'" "my husband!" exclaimed the widow. "you shall hear," said dr noble. "`i often heard him tell the story, and boast of it,' continued the sick woman, quietly, `and i resolved to obtain possession of the box, and have it returned, if possible, to the rightful owner. so i carried out my purpose--no matter how--and led him to suppose that the treasure had been stolen; but i have often fancied he did not believe me. this captain tipps was a friend of yours, sir. i know it, because my husband has told me. he remembers you, although you don't remember him. i wish you to return the box to captain tipps, sir, if he is yet alive. it lies--' here she drew me close to her, and whispered in my ear the exact spot, under a tree, where the jewels were hid. "`you'll be sure to remember the place?' she asked, anxiously. "`remember what place?' demanded her husband, sternly, as he returned with the medicine. "no answer was given. the woman fell back on hearing his voice, but, although she lived for nearly an hour, never spoke again. "the man turned on me, and asked again what place she had been speaking of. i said that it was idle to repeat what might prove to be only the ravings of a dying woman. he seized a bludgeon, and, raising it in a threatening manner, said, `i know you, dr noble; you shall tell me what i want to know, else you shall not quit this room alive.' "`i know you, too, thomson,' said i, drawing a small sword from a stick which i always carried. `if you proceed to violence, it remains to be seen who shall quit this room alive.' "i opened the door and walked quietly out, leaving him glaring like a tiger after me. "going to the place described, i found the diamonds; and from that day to this i have not ceased to try to discover my old friend, but have not yet succeeded. knowing that he might be dead, i have made inquiry of every one possessing your name, mrs tipps, in the hope of discovering his widow or children; and, although your name _is_ an uncommon one, madam, you would be surprised if you knew how many i have ferreted out in the course of years. unfortunately, my friend never mentioned his family, or the place of his residence in england, so i have had no clue to guide me save one. i have even found two widows of the name of tipps besides yourself, and one of these said that her husband was a sailor captain, but her description of him was not that of my friend. the other said her husband had been a lawyer, so of course _he_ could not be the man of whom i was in search." "but, sir," said mrs tipps, in some perplexity, "if you are to depend on description, i fear that you will never attain your end, for every one knows that descriptions given of the same person by different people never quite agree." "that is true, madam; and the description given to me this evening of your late husband is a case in point; for, although it agrees in many things--in most things--there is some discrepancy. did your husband never give you the slightest hint about a set of diamonds that he had once lost?" "never; but i can account for that by the fact, that he never alluded to anything that had at any time given him pain or displeasure, if he could avoid it." "there is but the one clue, then, that i spoke of, namely, the ring that belonged to the set of diamonds. did your husband ever possess--" "the ring!" exclaimed mrs tipps and netta in the same breath. "yes, he had a diamond ring--" they stopped abruptly, and looked at each other in distress, for they remembered that the ring had been lost. "pray, what sort of ring is it? describe it to me," said dr noble. netta carefully described it and, as she did so, the visitor's countenance brightened. "that's it; that's it exactly; that _must_ be it for i remember it well, and it corresponds in all respects with--my dear ladies, let me see the ring without delay." "alas! sir," said mrs tipps, sadly, "the ring is lost!" a look of blank dismay clouded poor dr noble's visage as he heard these words, but he quickly questioned the ladies as to the loss, and became more hopeful on bearing the details. "come," he said at last, as he rose to take leave, "things don't look quite so bad as they did at first. from all i have heard i am convinced that my friend's widow and daughter are before me--a sight of the ring would put the question beyond all doubt. we must therefore set to work at once and bend all our energies to the one great point of recovering the lost ring." chapter nineteen. a run-away locomotive. being, as we have had occasion to remark before, a communicative and confiding little woman, netta tipps told the secret of the ring in strict confidence to her old nurse. mrs durby, in a weak moment as on a former occasion, related the history of it to gertie, who of course told loo. she naturally mentioned it to her lover, will garvie, and he conveyed the information to john marrot. thus far, but no further, the thing went, for john felt that there might be danger in spreading the matter, and laid a strict injunction on all who knew of it to keep silence for a time. while at the station the day following, just after having brought in the "flying dutchman," he was accosted by the superintendent of police, who chanced to be lounging there with, apparently, nothing to do. never was there a man who was more frequently called on to belie his true character. it was a part of mr sharp's duty to look lazy at times, and even stupid, so as to throw suspicious men off their guard. "a fine day, john," he said, lounging up to the engine where john was leaning on the rail, contemplating the departure of the passengers whose lives had been in his hands for the last hour and a half, while will garvie was oiling some of the joints of the iron horse. john admitted that it was a fine day, and asked what was the noos. "nothing particular doing just now," said mr sharp. "you've heard, i suppose, of the mad fellow who caused such a confusion among miss tipps's sunday-school children last night?" "oh yes, i heard o' that." "and did you hear that he turns out to be the man who jumped out of your train on the day of the attempted robbery?" "yes, i've heard o' that too. they haven't got him yet, i believe?" "no, not yet; but i think we shall have him soon," said mr sharp with a knowing glance; "i've heard rumours that lead me to think it would not be very surprising if we were to see him hanging about this station to-day or to-morrow. i've got a sort of decoy-duck to attract him," continued mr sharp, chuckling, "in the shape of a retired east india doctor, who agrees to hang about on the condition that we keep a sharp eye on him and guard him well from any sudden attack." "you don't mean _that_?" said the engine-driver in an earnest undertone. instead of replying, the superintendent suddenly left him and sauntered leisurely along the platform, with his eyes cast down and softly humming a popular air. the act was so brusque and unlike mr sharp's naturally polite character that john knew at once, as he said, that "something was up," and looked earnestly along the platform, where he saw thomson himself walking smartly about as if in search of some one. he carried a heavy-headed stick in his hand and looked excited; but not much more so than an anxious or late passenger might be. mr sharp went straight towards the madman--still sauntering with his head down, however; and john marrot could see that another man, whom he knew to be a detective, was walking round by the side of the platform, with the evident intention of taking him in rear. the moment thomson set eyes on the superintendent he recognised him, and apparently divined his object in approaching, for he started, clenched his teeth, and grasped his stick. mr sharp instantly abandoned all attempt at concealment and ran straight at him. thomson, probably deeming discretion the better part of valour, turned and fled. he almost ran into the arms of the detective, who now made sure of him, but he doubled like a hare and sprang off the platform on to the rails. here one or two of the men who were engaged in washing or otherwise looking after empty carriages, seeing what was going on, at once sought to intercept the madman, but he evaded two or three, knocked down another, and, finding himself alongside of a detached engine which stood there with steam up ready to be coupled to its train, he leaped upon it, felled the driver who was outside the rail, oiling some of the machinery, seized the handle of the regulator and turned on full steam. the driving-wheels revolved at first with such tremendous rapidity that they failed to "bite" and merely slipped on the rails. thomson was engineer enough to understand why, and at once cut off part of the steam. next moment he shot out of the station, and, again letting on full steam, rushed along the line like an arrow! it chanced that the passenger-superintendent was on the platform at the time. that gentleman had everything connected with the traffic by heart. he saw that the points had been so set as to turn the run-away engine on to the down line, and in his mind's eye saw a monster excursion train, which had started just a few minutes before, labouring slowly forward, which the light engine would soon overtake. a collision in a few minutes would be certain. in peculiar circumstances men are bound to break through all rules and regulations, and act in a peculiar way. without a moment's hesitation he ran to john marrot and said in an earnest hurried voice-- "give chase, john! cross over to the up-line, but don't go too far." "all right, sir," said john, laying his hand on the regulator. even while the superintendent was speaking will garvie's swift mind had appreciated the idea. he had leaped down and uncoupled the _lightning_ from its train. john touched the whistle, let on steam and off they went crossed to the up-line (which was the wrong line of rails for any engine to run in _that_ direction), and away he went at forty, fifty, seventy miles an hour! john knew well that he was flying towards a passenger-train, which was running towards him at probably thirty-five or forty miles an hour. he was aware of its whereabouts at that time, for he consulted his watch and had the time-table by heart. a collision with it would involve the accumulated momentum of more than a hundred miles an hour! the time was short, but it was sufficient; he therefore urged will to coal the furnace until it glowed with fervent heat and opened the steam valve to the uttermost. never since john marrot had driven it had the _lightning_ so nearly resembled its namesake. the pace was increased to seventy-five and eighty miles an hour. it was awful. objects flew past with flashing speed. the clatter of the engine was deafening. a stern chase is proverbially a long one; but in this case, at such a speed, it was short. in less than fifteen minutes john came in view of the fugitive--also going at full speed, but, not being so powerful an engine and not being properly managed as to the fire, it did not go so fast; its pace might have been forty or forty-five miles an hour. "will," shouted john in the ear of his stalwart fireman, "you'll have to be sharp about it. it won't do, lad, to jump into the arms of a madman with a fire-shovel in his hand. w'en i takes a shot at 'im with a lump of coal, then's yer chance--go in an' win, lad--and, whatever--ye do, keep cool." will did not open his compressed lips, but nodded his head in reply. "you'll have to do it all alone, bill; i can't leave the engine," shouted john. he looked anxiously into his mate's face, and felt relieved to observe a little smile curl slightly the corners of his mouth. another moment and the _lightning_ was up with the tender of the run-away, and john cut off steam for a brief space to equalise the speed. thomson at that instant observed for the first time that he was pursued. he looked back with a horrible glare, and then, uttering a fierce cheer or yell, tugged at the steam handle to increase the speed, but it was open to the utmost. he attempted to heap coals on the fire, but being inexpert, failed to increase the heat. another second and they were abreast john marrot opened the whistle and let it blow continuously, for he was by that time drawing fearfully near to the train that he knew was approaching. seeing that escape was impossible, thomson would have thrown the engine off the rails if that had been possible, but, as it was not, he brandished the fire-shovel and stood at the opening between the engine and tender, with an expression of fiendish rage on his countenance that words cannot describe. "now, bill, look out!" said john. will stood like a tiger ready to spring. john beside him, with a huge mass of coal in one hand concealed behind his back. there was a space of little more than two feet between the engines. to leap that in the face of a madman seemed impossible. suddenly john marrot hurled the mass of coal with all his might. his aim was to hit thomson on the head, but it struck low, hitting him on the chest, and driving him down on the foot-plate. at the same instant will garvie bounded across and shut off the steam in an instant. he turned then to the brake-wheel, but, before he could apply it, thomson had risen and grappled with him. still, as the two strong men swayed to and fro in a deadly conflict, will's hand, that chanced at the moment to be nearest the brake-wheel, was seen ever and anon to give it a slight turn. thus much john marrot observed when he saw a puff of white steam on the horizon far ahead of him. to reverse the engine and turn full steam on was the work of two seconds. fire flew in showers from the wheels, and the engine trembled with the violent friction, nevertheless it still ran on for a considerable way, and the approaching train was within a comparatively short distance of him before he had got the _lightning_ to run backwards. it was not until he had got up speed to nigh forty miles an hour that he felt safe, looked back with a grim smile and breathed freely. of course the driver of the passenger-train, seeing an engine on the wrong line ahead, had also reversed at full speed and thus prevented a collision, which would inevitably have been very disastrous. john now ran back to the crossing, and, getting once more on the down line, again reversed his engine and ran cautiously back in the direction of the run-away locomotive. he soon came in sight of it, reversed again, and went at such a pace as allowed it to overtake him gradually. he saw that the steam was still cut off, and that it had advanced that length in consequence of being on an incline, but was somewhat alarmed to receive no signal from his mate. the moment the buffers of the _lightning_ touched those of the other engine's tender he applied the brakes and brought both engines to a stand. then, leaping off, he ran to see how it had fared with will garvie. the scene that met his eyes was a very ghastly one. on the floor-plate lay the two men, insensible and covered with blood and coal-dust. each grasped the other by the throat but will had gained an advantage from having no neckcloth on, while his own strong hand was twisted into that of his adversary so firmly, that the madman's eyes were almost starting out of their sockets. john marrot at once cut the 'kerchief with his clasp-knife, and then, feeling that there was urgent need for haste, left them lying there, ran back to his own engine, coupled it to the other, turned on full steam, and, in a short space of time, ran into clatterby station. here the men were at once removed to the waiting-room, and a doctor--who chanced to be dr noble--was called in. it was found that although much bruised and cut as well as exhausted by their conflict, neither will nor thomson were seriously injured. after a few restoratives had been applied, the former was conveyed home in a cab, while the latter, under the charge of mr sharp and one of his men, was carried off and safely lodged in an asylum. chapter twenty. a nest "harried." having thus seen one criminal disposed of, mr sharp returned to his office to take measures for the arrest of a few more of the same class. since we last met with our superintendent, he had not led an idle life by any means. a brief reference to some of his recent doings will be an appropriate introduction to the little entertainment which he had provided for himself and his men on that particular evening. one day he had been informed that wine and spirits had been disappearing unaccountably at a particular station. he visited the place with one of his men, spent the night under a tarpaulin in a goods-shed, and found that one of the plate-layers was in the habit of drawing off spirits with a syphon. the guilty man was handed over to justice, and honest men, who had felt uneasy lest they should be suspected, were relieved. on another occasion he was sent to investigate a claim made by a man who was in the accident at langrye station. this man, who was an auctioneer, had not been hurt at all--only a little skin taken off his nose,--but our fop with the check trousers advised him to make a job of it, and said that he himself and his friend had intended to make a claim, only they had another and more important game in hand, which rendered it advisable for them to keep quiet. this was just before the attack made on mr lee in the train between clatterby and london. the auctioneer had not thought of such a way of raising money, but jumped readily at the idea; went to glasgow and dundee, where he consulted doctors--showed them his broken nose, coughed harshly in their ears, complained of nervous affections, pains in the back, loins, and head, and, pricking his gums slightly, spit blood for their edification; spoke of internal injuries, and shook his head lugubriously. doctors, unlike lawyers, are not constantly on the watch for impostors. the man's peeled and swelled nose was an obvious fact; his other ailments might, or might not, be serious, so they prescribed, condoled with him, charged him nothing, and dismissed him with a hope of speedy cure. thereafter the auctioneer went down the clyde to recruit his injured health, and did a little in the way of business, just to keep up his spirits, poor fellow! after that he visited aberdeen for similar purposes, and then sent in a claim of pounds damages against the grand national trunk railway. mr sharp's first proceeding was to visit the doctors to whom the auctioneer had applied, then he visited the various watering-places whither the man had gone to recruit and ascertained every particular regarding his proceedings. finally, he went to the north of scotland to see the interesting invalid himself. he saw and heard him, first, in an auction-room, where he went through a hard day's work even for a healthy man; then he visited him in his hotel and found him, the picture of ruddy health, drinking whisky punch. on stating that he was an agent of the railway company, and had called to have some conversation regarding his claim, some of the auctioneer's ruddy colour fled, but being a bold man, he assumed a candid air and willingly answered all questions; admitted that he was better, but said that he had lost much time; had for a long period been unable to attend to his professional duties, and still suffered much from internal injuries. mr sharp expressed sympathy with him; said that the case, as he put it, was indeed a hard one, and begged of him to put his statement of it down on paper. the auctioneer complied, and thought mr sharp a rather benignant railway official. when he had signed his name to the paper, his visitor took it up and said, "now, mr blank, this is all lies from beginning to end. i have traced your history step by step, down to the present time, visited all the places you have been to, conversed with the waiters of the hotels where you put up, have heard you to-day go through as good a day's work as any strong man could desire to do, and have seen you finish up, with a stiff glass of whisky toddy, which i am very sorry to have interrupted. now, sir, this is very like an effort to obtain money under false pretences, and, if you don't know what that leads to, you are in a very fair way to find out. the company which i have the honour to represent, however, is generous. we know that you were in the langrye accident, for i saw you there, and in consideration of the injury to your nerves and the damage to your proboscis, we are willing to give you a five-pound note as a sort of sticking-plaster at once to your nose and your feelings. if you accept that, good; if not you shall take the consequences of _this_!" the superintendent here held up the written statement playfully, and placed it in his pocket-book. the auctioneer was a wise, if not an honest, man. he thankfully accepted the five pounds, and invited mr sharp to join him in a tumbler, which, however, the superintendent politely declined. but this was a small matter compared with another case which mr sharp had just been engaged investigating. it was as follows:-- one afternoon a slight accident occurred on the line by which several passengers received trifling injuries. at the time only two people made claim for compensation, one for a few shillings, the other for a few pounds. these cases were at once investigated and settled, and it was thought that there the matter ended. six months afterwards, however, the company received a letter from the solicitors of a gentleman whose hat it was said, had been driven down on the bridge of his nose, and had abraded the skin; the slight wound had turned into an ulcer, which ultimately assumed the form of permanent cancer. in consequence of this the gentleman had consulted one doctor in paris and another in rome, and had been obliged to undergo an operation--for all of which he claimed compensation to the extent of pounds. the company being quite unable to tell whether this gentleman was in the accident referred to or not, an investigation was set on foot, in which mr sharp bore his part. at great expense official persons were sent to paris and to rome to see the doctors said to have been consulted, and in the end--nearly two years after the accident--the company was found liable for the pounds! while we are on this subject of compensation, it may not be uninteresting to relate a few curious cases, which will give some idea of the manner in which railway companies are squeezed for damages-- sometimes unjustly, and too often fraudulently. on one occasion, a man who said he had been in an accident on one of our large railways, claimed pounds. in this case the company was fortunately able to prove a conspiracy to defraud, and thus escaped; but in many instances the companies are defeated in fraudulent claims, and there is no redress. the feelings of the juries who try the cases are worked on; patients are brought into court exhibiting every symptom of hopeless malady, but these same patients not unfrequently possess quite miraculous powers of swift recovery, from what had been styled "incurable damage." one man received pounds on the supposition that he had been permanently disabled, and within a short period he was attending to his business as well as ever. a youth with a salary of pounds a year claimed and got pounds on the ground of incurable injury--in other words he was pensioned for life to the extent of pounds a year--and, a year afterwards, it was ascertained that he was "dancing at balls," and had joined his father in business as if there was nothing the matter with him. a barmaid who, it was said, received "injuries to the spine of a permanent character," was paid a sum of pounds as--we were about to write--compensation, but _consolation_ would be the more appropriate term, seeing that she had little or nothing to be compensated for, as she was found capable of "dancing at the licensed victuallers' ball" soon after the accident and eventually she married! to oblige railways to compensate for loss of time, or property, or health, _to a limited extent_, seems reasonable, but to compel them to pension off people who have suffered little or nothing, with snug little annuities of pounds or pounds, does really seem to be a little too hard; at least so it appears to be in the eyes of one who happens to have no interest whatever in railways, save that general interest in their immense value to the land, and their inestimable comforts in the matter of locomotion. the whole subject of compensation stands at present on a false footing. for the comfort of those who wish well to railways, and love justice, we may add in conclusion, that proposals as to modifications have already been mooted and brought before government, so that in all probability, ere long, impostors will receive a snubbing, and shareholders will receive increased dividends! but let us return to mr sharp. having, as we have said, gone to his office, he found his faithful servant blunt there. "why, blunt," he said, sitting down at the table and tearing open a few letters that awaited him, "what a good-looking _porter_ you make!" "so my wife says, sir," replied blunt with a perfectly grave face, but with a twinkle in his eye. "she must be a discriminating woman, blunt. well, what news have you to-night? you seemed to think you had found out the thieves at gorton station the last time we met." "so i have, sir, and there are more implicated than we had expected. the place is a perfect nest of them." "not an uncommon state of things," observed mr sharp, "for it is well-known that one black sheep spoils a flock. we must weed them all out, blunt, and get our garden into as tidy a condition as possible; it is beginning to do us credit already, but that gorton station has remained too long in a bad state; we must harrow it up a little. well, let's hear what you have found out. they never suspected you, i suppose?" "never had the least suspicion," replied blunt with a slight approach to a smile. "i've lived with 'em, now, for a considerable time, and the general opinion of 'em about me is that i'm a decent enough fellow, but too slow and stupid to be trusted, so they have not, up to this time, thought me worthy of being made a confidant. however, that didn't matter much, 'cause i managed to get round one o' their wives at last, and she let out the whole affair--in strict confidence, of course, and as a dead secret! "in fact i have just come from a long and interesting conversation with her. she told me that all the men at the station, with one or two exceptions, were engaged in it, and showed me two of the missing bales of cloth--the cloth, you remember, sir, of which there was such a large quantity stolen four weeks ago, and for which the company has had to pay. i find that the chief signalman, davis, is as bad as the rest. it was his wife that gave me the information in a moment of over-confidence." "indeed!" exclaimed sharp, in some surprise; "and what of sam natly and garvie?" "they're both of 'em innocent, sir," said blunt. "i did suspect 'em at one time, but i have seen and heard enough to convince me that they have no hand in the business. natly has been goin' about the station a good deal of late, because the wife of one of the men is a friend of his wife, and used to go up to nurse her sometimes when she was ill. as to garvie, of course he knows as well as everybody else that some of the men there must be thieves, else goods would not disappear from that station as they do, but _his_ frequent visits there are for the purpose of reclaiming davis, who, it seems, is an old playmate of his." "reclaiming davis!" exclaimed sharp. "yes, an' it's my opinion that it'll take a cleverer fellow than him to reclaim davis, for he's one of the worst of the lot; but garvie is real earnest. i chanced to get behind a hedge one day when they were together, and overheard 'em talkin' about these robberies and other matters, and you would have thought, sir, that the fireman was a regular divine. he could quote scripture quite in a stunnin' way, sir; an' _did_ seem badly cut up when his friend told him that it was of no use talkin', for it was too late for _him_ to mend." "has garvie, then, been aware all this time that davis is one of the thieves, and kept it secret?" asked sharp. "no, sir," replied blunt. "davis denied that he had any hand in the robberies when garvie asked him. it was about drink that he was pleadin' with him so hard. you know we have suspected him of that too, of late; but from what i heard he must be a regular toper. garvie was tryin' to persuade him to become a total abstainer. says he to him, `you know, davis, that whatever may be true as to the general question of abstaining from strong drink, _your_ only chance of bein' delivered lies in total abstinence, because the thing has become a _disease_. i know and believe that christianity would save you from the power of drink, but, depend upon it, that it would do so in the way of inducin' you of your own free will to "touch not, taste not, handle not, that which" _you_ "will perish by the using."' seems to me as if there was something in that, sir?" said blunt, inquiringly. sharp nodded assent. "then garvie does not suspect him of being connected with the robberies?" he asked. "no," replied blunt; "but he's a deep file is davis, and could throw a sharper man than garvie off the scent." after a little further conversation on the subject mr sharp dismissed the pretended porter to his station, and called upon the superintendent of the police force of clatterby, from whom he received an addition to his force of men. that night he led his men to gorton station, and when he thought a suitable hour had arrived, he caused them to surround the block of buildings in which the men of the station resided. then, placing blunt and two or three men in front of davis's house, he went up to the door alone and knocked. mrs davis opened it. she gave the least possible start on observing by the light of her lobby lamp who her visitor was--for she knew him well. mr sharp took note of the start! "good-evening, mrs davis," he said. "good-evening, sir; this is an unexpected pleasure, mr sharp." "most of my visits are unexpected, mrs davis, but it is only my friends who count them a pleasure. is your husband within?" "he is, sir; pray, walk this way; i'm sure he will be delighted to see you. can you stay to supper with us? we are just going to have it." "no, thank you, mrs davis, i'm out on duty to-night," said sharp, entering the parlour, where davis was engaged in reading the newspaper. "good-evening, mr davis." davis rose with a start. mr sharp took note of that also. "good-evening, mr sharp," he said; "sit down, sir; sit down." "thank you, i can't sit down. i'm on duty just now. the fact is, mr davis, that i am come to make a search among your men, for we have obtained reliable information as to who are the thieves at this station. as, no doubt, _some_ of the men are honest, and might feel hurt at having their houses searched, i have thought that the best way to prevent any unpleasant feeling is to begin at the top of the free and go downwards. they can't say that i have made fish of one and flesh of another, if i begin, as a mere matter of form, mr davis, with yourself." "oh, certainly--certainly, mr sharp, by all means," replied davis. he spoke with an air of candour, but it was quite evident that he was ill at ease. calling in one of his men, mr sharp began a rigorous search of the house forthwith. mr davis suggested that he would go out and see that the men were in their residences; but mr sharp said that there was no occasion for that, and that he would be obliged by his remaining and assisting in the search of his own house. every hole and corner of the ground-floor was examined without any discovery being made. mrs davis, observing that her visitors were particular in collecting every shred of cloth that came in their way, suddenly asked if it was cloth they were in search of. mr sharp thought the question and the tone in which it was put told of a guilty conscience, but he replied that he was in search of many things--cloth included. immediately after, and while they were busy with a dark closet, mrs davis slipped quietly out of the room. mr sharp was stooping at the time with his back towards her, but the two back buttons of his coat must have been eyes, for he observed the movement and at once followed her, having previously ordered mr davis to move a heavy chest of drawers, in order to keep him employed. taking off his shoes he went up-stairs rapidly, and seeing an open door, peeped in. there he saw a sight that would have surprised any man except a superintendent of police. mrs davis was engaged in throwing bales of cloth over the window with the energy of a coal-heaver and the haste of one whose house is on fire! the poor woman was not robust, yet the easy way in which she handled those bales was quite marvellous. being a cool and patient man, sharp allowed her to toss over five bales before interrupting her. when she was moving across the room with the sixth and last he entered. she stopped, turned pale, and dropped the bale of cloth. "you seem to be very busy to-night mrs davis" he observed, inquiringly; "can i assist you?" "oh, mr sharp!" exclaimed mrs davis, covering her face with her hands. she could say no more. mr sharp took her gently by the arm and led her down-stairs. they reached the room below just in time to see blunt enter, holding the ejected bales with both arms to his bosom. blunt had happened to take his stand just underneath the window of mrs davis's bedroom, and when that energetic woman tossed the bales out she pitched them straight into blunt's willing arms. the accommodating man waited until he had received all that appeared likely to be delivered to him, and then with a quiet chuckle bore them, as we have seen, into davis's parlour. "this is a bad business, davis," said sharp, as he slipped a pair of manacles on his prisoner. davis made no reply. he was very pale, but looked defiant. mrs davis sat down on a chair and sobbed. leaving them in charge of blunt, mr sharp then paid a visit to all the men of the place, and ere long succeeded in capturing all who had been engaged in the recent robberies, with the various proofs of their guilt--in the shape of cloth, loaves of sugar, fruit, boxes of tea, etcetera, in their apartments. it had cost mr sharp and his men many weary hours of waiting and investigation, but their perseverance was at length well rewarded, for the "nest" was thoroughly "harried;" the men were dismissed and variously punished, and that portion of the grand national trunk railway was, for the time, most effectually purified. chapter twenty one. the diamond ring and the railway clearing-house. let us turn now, for a brief space, to edwin gurwood. he is seated before a desk in one of the rooms of that large building in seymour street, euston square, london, where a perfect army of clerks--about a thousand--clear up many of the mysteries, and overcome a number of the difficulties, incident to the railway traffic of the kingdom. at the particular time we write of, edwin was frowning very hard at a business-book and thinking of emma lee. the cause of his frown, no doubt, was owing to the conflict between duty and inclination that happened to rage in his bosom just then. his time belonged to the railways of the united kingdom; to emma belonged his heart. the latter was absent without leave, and the mind, thus basely forsaken, became distracted, and refused to make good use of time. that day edwin met with a coincidence, he made what he believed to be a discovery, and almost at the same moment received an inquiry as to the subject of that discovery. while endeavouring, without much success, to fix his attention on a case of lost-luggage which it was his duty to investigate, and frowning as we have said, at the business-book, his eye was suddenly arrested by the name of "durby." "durby!" he muttered. "surely that name is familiar? durby! why, yes-- that's the name of tipps's old nurse." reading on, he found that the name of durby was connected with a diamond ring. "well, now, that _is_ strange!" he muttered to himself. "at the first glance i thought that this must be the brown paper parcel that i made inquiry about at the station of the grand national trunk railway long ago, but the diamond ring puts that out of the question. no nurse, in her senses, would travel with a diamond ring tied up in a brown paper parcel the size of her head." we may remind the reader here that, when the brown paper parcel was found and carried to the lost-luggage office of one of our western railways, a note of its valuable contents was sent to the clearing-house in london. this was recorded in a book. as all inquiries after lost property, wheresoever made throughout the kingdom, are also forwarded to the clearing-house, it follows that the notes of losses and notes of inquiries meet, and thus the lost and the losers are brought together and re-united with a facility that would be impracticable without such a central agency. in the case of our diamond ring, however, no proper inquiry had been made, consequently there was only the loss recorded on the books of the clearing-house. while edwin was pondering this matter, a note was put into his hands by a junior clerk. it contained an inquiry after a diamond ring which had been wrapped up in a large brown paper parcel, with the name durby written on it in pencil, and was lost many months before between clatterby and london. the note further set forth, that the ring was the property of mrs tipps of eden villa, and enclosed from that lady a minute description of the ring. it was signed james noble, m.d. "wonderful!" exclaimed edwin. "the most singular coincidence i ever experienced." having thus delivered himself, he took the necessary steps to have the ring sent to london, and obtained leave (being an intimate friend of the tipps family) to run down by train and deliver it. while he is away on this errand, we will take the opportunity of mounting his stool and jotting down a few particulars about the clearing-house, which are worth knowing, for that establishment is not only an invaluable means of effecting such happy re-unions of the lost and the losers, as we have referred to, but is, in many other ways, one of the most important institutions in the kingdom. the railway clearing-house is so named, we presume, because it clears up railway accounts that would, but for its intervention, become inextricably confused, and because it enables all the different lines in the country to interchange facilities for through-booking traffic, and clears up their respective accounts in reference to the same. something of the use and value of the clearing-house may be shown at a glance, by explaining that, before the great schemes of amalgamation which have now been carried out, each railway company booked passengers and goods only as far as its own rails went, and at this point fresh tickets had to be taken out and carriages changed, with all the disagreeable accompaniments and delays of shifting luggage, etcetera. before through-booking was introduced, a traveller between london and inverness was compelled to renew his ticket and change luggage four times; between darlington and cardiff six times. in some journeys no fewer than nine or ten changes were necessary! this, as traffic increased, of course became intolerable, and it is quite certain that the present extent of passenger and goods traffic could never have been attained if the old system had continued. it was felt to be absolutely necessary that not only passengers, but carriages and goods, must be passed over as many lines as possible, at straight "through" to their destinations, with no needless delays, and without "breaking bulk." but how was this to be accomplished? there were difficulties in the way of through-booking which do not appear at first sight. when, for instance, a traveller goes from london to edinburgh by the east coast route, he passes over three different railways of unequal length, or mileage. the great northern furnishes his ticket, and gives him station accommodation besides providing his carriage, while the north-eastern and north british permit him to run over their lines; and the latter also furnishes station accommodation, and collects his ticket. to ascertain precisely how much of that traveller's fare is due to each company involves a careful and nice calculation. besides this, the _whole_ fare is paid to the great northern, and it would be unjust to expect that that company should be saddled with the trouble of making the calculation, and the expense of remitting its share to each of the other companies. so, too, with goods--one company furnishing the waggon and tarpaulin, besides undertaking the trouble of loading and furnishing station-accommodation and the use of its line, while, it may be, several other companies give the use of their lines only, and that to a variable extent. in addition to all this, the company providing its carriages or waggons is entitled to "demurrage" for every day beyond a certain time that these are detained by the companies to which they do not belong. now, if all this be unavoidable even in the case of a single fare, or a small parcel, it must be self-evident that in lines where the interchange of through-traffic is great and constant, it would have been all but impossible for the railway companies to manage their business, and the system would have given rise to endless disputes. in order to settle accounts of this description, it was soon seen to be absolutely necessary that some sort of arrangement must be come to, and, accordingly, the idea of a central office was conceived, and a system established without delay, which, for minute detail and comprehensive grasp, is unrivalled by any other institution. at first only a few of the railway companies united in establishing the clearing-house in , but by degrees, as its immense value became known, other companies joined, and it now embraces all the leading companies in the kingdom. it is said to be not inferior to the war office, colonial office, and admiralty in regard to the amount of work it gets through in a year! its accounts amount to some twelve millions sterling, yet they always must, and do, balance to a fraction of a farthing. there must never be a surplus, and never a deficiency, in its funds, for it can make no profits, being simply a thoroughly honest and disinterested and perfectly correct go-between, which adjusts the mutual obligations of railways in a quick and economical manner. its accounts are balanced every month, and every pound, shilling, and penny can be accounted for. it annually receives and dispenses a revenue greater than that of many european kingdoms. in its gross receipts were only , pounds. in they had risen to above eleven millions. each line connected with the clearing-house has a representative on the committee to look after its interests, and bears its proportion of the expenses of the establishment. before showing the manner in which the work is performed for the railway companies, it may be well to premise that one great good which the clearing-house system does to the public, is to enable them to travel everywhere with as much facility as if there were only one railway and one company in the kingdom. to avoid going too much into detail, we may say, briefly, that in regard to goods, statements of through-traffic _despatched_ are sent daily from thousands of stations to the clearing-house, also separate statements of through-traffic _received_. these are compared. of those that are found to agree, each company is debited or credited, as the case may be, with the proportion due to or by it. where discrepancies occur, correspondence ensues until the thing is cleared up, and then the distribution to the accounts of the several companies takes place. as discrepancies are numerous and constant, correspondence is necessarily great. so minutely correct and particular are they at the clearing-house, that a shilling is sometimes divided between four companies. even a penny is deemed worthy of being debited to one company and credited to another! as it is with goods, so is it with passengers. through-tickets are sent from all the stations to the clearing-house, where they are examined and compared with the returns of the tickets issued, and then sent back to their respective companies. as these tickets amount to many thousands a day, some idea may be formed of the amount of labour bestowed on the examination of them. the proportions of each ticket due to each company are then credited, and statements of the same made out and forwarded to the several companies daily. from the two sets of returns forwarded to the clearing-house, statements of the debit and credit balances are made out weekly. parcels are treated much in the same way as the goods. "mileage" is a branch of the service which requires a separate staff of men. there are hundreds of thousands of waggons, loaded and empty, constantly running to and fro, day and night, on various lines, to which they do not belong. each individual waggon must be traced and accounted for to the clearing-house, from its start to its arrival and back again; and not only waggons, but even the individual tarpaulins that cover them are watched and noted in this way, in order that the various companies over whose lines they pass may get their due, and that the companies owning them may get their demurrage if they be improperly detained on the way. for this purpose, at every point where separate railways join, there are stationed men in the pay of the clearing-house, whose duty it is to take the numbers of all passenger carriages and goods, waggons and tarpaulins, and make a _daily_ statement of the same to the clearing-house. as daily returns of all "foreign" carriages arriving and departing from all clearing-house stations are forwarded to the same office, they are thus in a position to check the traffic, detect discrepancies, and finally make the proper entries as to mileage and demurrage in the accounts of the respective companies. frequently the charge of one-tenth of a penny per mile for a tarpaulin is divided among several companies in various proportions. for a waggon or carriage from edinburgh to london, mileage and demurrage accounts are sent out by the clearing-house to four companies. formerly, before demurrage was introduced, carriages were frequently detained on lines to which they did not belong, for weeks, and even months, until sometimes they were lost sight of altogether! once a month the balances are struck, and the various railways, instead of having to pay enormous sums to each other, obtain settlement by means of comparatively small balances. for example, the london and north-western railway sends its through passengers over the caledonian line. the mileage charged for its "foreign" carriages is three farthings per mile. small though that sum is, it amounts at the end of a month perhaps to pounds. this little bill is sent to the clearing-house by the caledonian against the london and north-western. but during the same period the latter company has been running up a somewhat similar bill against the former company. both accounts are sent in to the clearing-house. they amount together to perhaps some fifteen or twenty thousand pounds, yet when one is set off against the other a ten or twenty pound note may be all that is required to change hands in order to balance the accounts. the total mileage of lines under the jurisdiction of the clearing-house, and over which it exercises complete surveillance on every train that passes up or down night or day, as far as regulating the various interests of the companies is concerned, amounts to more than , . the _times_, at the conclusion of a very interesting article on this subject, says,--"our whole railway system would be as nothing without the clearing-house, which affords another illustration of the great truth that the british railway public is the best served railway public in the world, and, on the whole, the least grateful." we hope and incline to believe that in the latter remark, the great thunderer is wrong, and that it is only a small, narrow-minded, and ignorant section of the public which is ungrateful. disputed claims between railways are referred to the arbitration of the committee of the clearing-house, from whose decision there is no appeal. the trouble taken in connexion with the lost-luggage department is very great; written communications being sent to almost innumerable stations on various lines of rails for every inquiry that is made to the house after lost-luggage. it is a striking commentary at once on the vast extent of traffic in the kingdom, and the great value in one important direction of this establishment, the fact that, in one year, the number of articles accounted for to the clearing-house by stations as left by passengers, either on the platforms or in carriages, amounted to , trunks, bags and parcels, and of these nearly ninety-five in every hundred were restored, through the clearing-house, to their owners. it is probable that the property thus restored would amount to half a million of money. this reminds us that we left edwin gurwood on his way to restore mrs tipps her lost ring, and that, therefore, it is our duty to resume the thread of our story, with, of course, a humble apology to the patient reader for having again given way to our irresistible tendency to digress! chapter twenty two. mrs. tipps goes on a journey, and meets a gentleman who, with much assurance, comments freely on insurance. on a particular holiday, it was advertised that a great excursion train would start from the clatterby station at a certain hour. at the appointed time the long line of carriages was pushed up to the platform by our friend john marrot, who was appointed that day to drive the train. "bill," remarked john to his mate, "it'll be a biggish train. there's an uncommon lot o' people on the platform." "they're pretty thick," replied will garvie, wiping his countenance with a piece of waste, which, while it removed the perspiration, left behind a good deal of oil, and streaked his nose with coal-dust. but will was not particular! the excursionists were indeed unusually numerous. it chanced to be a fine day, and the platform was densely crowded with human beings, many of whom moved, when movement was possible, in groups, showing that there were various sections that had a common aim and interest, and meant to keep together as much as possible. there were men there who had evidently made up their minds to a thoroughly enjoyable day, and women whose aspect was careworn but cheerful, to whom a holiday was probably a memorable event in the year. of young people there was of course a considerable sprinkling, and amongst the crowd could be seen a number of individuals whose amused expression of countenance and general aspect bespoke them ordinary travellers, who meant to avail themselves of a "cheap train." all classes and conditions of men, women, and children were hustling each other in a state of great excitement; but the preponderating class was that which is familiarly though not very respectfully styled "the masses." mrs marrot was there too--much against her will--and little gertie. a sister of the former, who lived about twenty miles from clatterby, had, a short time before, made her husband a present of a fine fat pugilistic boy, and mrs m felt constrained to pay her a visit. john was on the look-out for his wife and child, so was will garvie. the former waved a piece of cotton-waste to her when she arrived; she caught sight of him and gave him a cheerful nod in reply; and an unexpressed blessing on his weather-beaten face arose in her heart as garvie pushed through the crowd and conducted her and gertie to a carriage. timid little mrs tipps was also there. it is probable that no power on earth, save that of physical force, could have induced mrs tipps to enter an excursion train, for which above all other sorts of trains she entertained a species of solemn horror. but the excitement consequent on the unexpected recovery of the diamond ring, and the still more unexpected accession of wealth consequent thereon, had induced her to smother her dislike to railways for a time, and avail herself of their services in order to run down to a town about twenty miles off for the purpose of telling the good news to netta, who chanced to be on a short visit to a friend there at the time. when mrs tipps reached the station, her ignorance of railway matters, and the confused mental state which was her normal condition, prevented her from observing that the train was an excursion one. she therefore took out a first-class ticket and also an insurance ticket for pounds, for which latter she paid sixpence! her ignorance and perturbation also prevented her from observing that this rate of insurance was considerably higher than she was accustomed to pay, owing to the fact of the train being an excursion one. if she had been going by an ordinary train, she could have insured pounds, first-class, for pence; half that sum, second-class, for pence; and pounds, third-class, for the ridiculously small sum of one penny! good mrs tipps held the opinion so firmly that accident was the usual, and all but inevitable, accompaniment of railway travelling, that she invariably insured her life when compelled to undertake a journey. it was of no avail that her son joseph pointed out to her that accidents were in reality few and far between, and that they bore an excessively small proportion to the numbers of journeys undertaken annually; mrs tipps was not to be moved. in regard to that subject she had, to use one of her late husband's phrases, "nailed her colours to the mast," and could not haul them down even though she would. she therefore, when about to undertake a journey, invariably took out an insurance ticket, as we have said,--and this, solely with a views to netta's future benefit. we would not have it supposed that we object, here, to the principle of insuring against accident. on the contrary, we consider that principle to be a wise one, and, in some cases, one that becomes almost a duty. when mrs tipps discovered that mrs marrot and gertie were going by the same train, she was so much delighted at the unlooked-for companionship that she at once entered the third-class, where they sat, and began to make herself comfortable beside them, but presently recollecting that she had a first-class ticket she started up and insisted on mrs marrot and gertie going first-class along with her, saying that she would pay the difference. mrs marrot remonstrated, but mrs tipps, strong in her natural liberality of spirit which had been rather wildly set free by her recent good fortune, would not be denied. "you must come with me, mrs marrot," she said. "i'm so frightened in railways, you have no idea what a relief it is to me to have any one near me whom i know. i will change your tickets; let me have them, quick; we have no time to lose--there--now, wait till i return. oh! i forgot your insurance tickets." "w'y, bless you, ma'am, we never insures." "you never insure!" exclaimed mrs tipps in amazement; "and it only costs you threepence for one thousand pounds." "well, i don't know nothink as to that--" said mrs marrot. before she could finish the sentence mrs tipps was gone. she returned in breathless haste, beckoned mrs marrot and gertie to follow her, and was finally hurried with them into a first-class carriage just as the train began to move. their only other companion in the carriage was a stout little old gentleman with a bright complexion, speaking eyes, and a countenance in which benevolence appeared to struggle with enthusiasm for the mastery. he was obviously one of those men who delight in conversation, and he quickly took an opportunity of engaging in it. observing that mrs tipps presented an insurance ticket to each of her companions, he said-- "i am glad to see, madam, that you are so prudent as to insure the lives of your friends." "i always insure my own life," replied mrs tipps with a little smile, "and feel it incumbent on me at least to advise my friends to do the same." "quite right, quite right, madam," replied the enthusiastic little man, applying his handkerchief to his bald pate with such energy that it shone like a billiard ball, "quite right, madam. i only wish that the public at large were equally alive to the great value of insurance against accident. w'y, ma'am, it's a duty, a positive duty," (here he addressed himself to mrs marrot) "to insure one's life against accident." "oh la! sir, is it?" said mrs marrot, quite earnestly. "yes, it is. why, look here--this is your child?" he laid his hand gently on gertie's head. "yes, sir, she is." "well, my good woman, suppose that you are a widow and are killed," (mrs marrot looked as if she would rather not suppose anything of the sort), "what i ask, what becomes of your child?--left a beggar; an absolute beggar!" he looked quite triumphantly at mrs tipps and her companions, and waited a few seconds as if to allow the idea to exert its full force on them. "but, sir," observed mrs marrot meekly, "supposin' that there do be an accident," (she shivered a little), "that ticket won't prevent me bein' killed, you know?" "no, ma'am, no; but it will prevent your sweet daughter from being left a beggar--that is, on the supposition that you are a widow." "w'ich i ain't sir, i'm happy to say," remarked mrs marrot; "but, sir, supposin' we was both of us killed--" she paused abruptly as if she had committed a sin in merely giving utterance to the idea. "why, then, your other children would get the pounds--or your heirs, whoever they may be. it's a splendid system that, of insurance against accident. just look at _me_, now." he spread out his hands and displayed himself, looking from one to the other as if he were holding up to admiration something rare and beautiful. "just look at _me_. i'm off on a tour of three months through england, scotland, and ireland-- not for my health, madam, as you may see--but for scientific purposes. well, what do i do? i go to the railway passengers assurance company's office, cornhill, london, (i like to be particular, you see, as becomes one who professes to be an amateur student of the exact sciences), and i take out what they call a short term policy of insurance against accidents of all kinds for a thousand pounds-- pounds, observe--for which i pay the paltry sum of shillings-- pound, shillings. well, what then? away i go, leaving behind me, with perfect indifference, a wife and two little boys. remarkable little boys, madam, i assure you. perfect marvels of health and intelligence, both of 'em--two little boys, madam, which have not been equalled since cain and abel were born. every one says so, with the exception of a few of the cynical and jaundiced among men and women. and, pray, why am i so indifferent? just because they are provided for. they have a moderately good income secured to them as it is, and the pounds which i have insured on my life will render it a competence in the event of my being killed. it will add pounds a year to their income, which happens to be the turning-point of comfort. and what of myself? why, with a perfectly easy conscience, i may go and do what i please. if i get drowned in loch katrine--what matter? if i break my neck in the gap of dunloe--what matter? if i get lost and frozen on the steeps of ben nevis or goatfell--what matter? if i am crushed to death in a railway accident, or get entangled in machinery and am torn to atoms--still i say, what matter? pounds must _at_ _once_ be paid down to my widow and children, and all because of the pitiful sum of shillings. "but suppose," continued the enthusiastic man, deepening his tone as he became more earnest, "suppose that i am _not_ killed, but only severely injured and mangled so as to be utterly unfit to attend to my worldly affairs--what then?" mrs tipps shuddered to think of "what then." "why," continued the enthusiastic gentleman, "i shall in that case be allowed from the company pounds a week, until recovered, or, in the event of my sinking under my injuries within three months after the accident, the whole sum of pounds will be paid to my family." mrs tipps smiled and nodded her head approvingly, but mrs marrot still looked dubious. "but, sir," she said, "supposin' you don't get either hurt or killed?" "why then," replied the elderly gentleman, "i'm all right of course, and only shillings out of pocket, which, you must admit, is but a trifling addition to the expenses of a three months' tour. besides, have i not had three months of an easy mind, and of utter regardlessness as to my life and limbs? have not my wife and boys had three months of easy minds and indifference to my life and limbs also! is not all that cheaply purchased at shillings? while the sum itself, i have the satisfaction of knowing, goes to increase the funds of that excellent company which enables you and me and thousands of others to become so easy-minded and reckless, and which, at the same time, pays its fortunate shareholders a handsome dividend." "really, sir," said mrs tipps, laughing, "you talk so enthusiastically of this insurance company that i almost suspect you to be a director of it." "madam," replied the elderly gentleman with some severity, "if i _were_ a director of it, which i grieve to say i am not, i should only be doing my simple duty to it and to you in thus urging it on your attention. but i am altogether uninterested in it, except as a philanthropist. i see and feel that it does good to myself and to my fellow-men, _therefore_ i wish my fellow-men to appreciate it more highly than they do, for it not only insures against accident by railway, but against all kinds of accidents; while its arrangements are made to suit the convenience of the public in every possible way." "why, madam," he continued, kindling up again and polishing his head violently, "only think, for the small sum of pounds paid annually, it insures that you shall have paid to your family, if you chance to be killed, the sum of pounds, or, if not killed, pounds a week while you are totally laid up, and pound, shillings a week while you are only partially disabled. and yet, would you believe it, many persons who see the value of this, and begin the wise course of insurance, go on for only a few years and then foolishly give it up--disappointed, i presume, that no accident has happened to them! see, here is one of their pamphlets!" he pulled a paper out of his pocket energetically, and put on a pair of gold spectacles, _through_ which he looked when consulting the pamphlet, and _over_ which he glanced when observing the effect of what he read on mrs tipps. "what do i find--eh? ha--yes--here it is--a cornish auctioneer pushed back a window shutter--these are the very words, madam--what more he did to that shutter, or what it did to him, is not told, but he must have come by _some_ damage, because he received pounds. a london clerk got his eye injured by a hair-pin in his daughter's hair--how suggestive that is, madam! what a picture it calls up of a wearied toil-worn man fondling his child of an evening--pressing his cheek to her fair head-- and what a commentary it is (he became very stern here) on the use of such barbarous implements as hair-pins! i am not punning, madam; i am much too serious to pun; i should have used the word savage instead of barbarous. "now, what was the result? this company gave that clerk compensation to the extent of pounds. again, a medical practitioner fell through the floor of a room. it must have been a bad, as it certainly was a strange, fall--probably he was heavy and the floor decayed--at all events that fall procured him pounds. a cardiff agent was bathing his feet--why, we are not told, but imagination is not slow to comprehend the reason, when the severity of our climate is taken into account; he broke the foot-pan--a much less comprehensible thing--and the breaking of that foot-pan did him damage, for which he was compensated with pounds, shillings. again, a merchant of birkenhead was paid pounds for playing with his children!" "dear me, sir!" exclaimed mrs marrot in surprise, "surely--" "of course, my good woman," said the elderly gentleman, "you are to understand that he came by some damage while doing so, but i give you the exact words of the pamphlet. it were desirable that a _little_ more information had been given just to gratify our curiosity. now, these that i have read are under the head of `accidents at home.' under other `heads,' we find a farmer suffocated by the falling in of a sand-pit, for which his representatives received pounds. another thousand is paid to the heirs of a poor dyer who fell into a vat of boiling liquor; while, in regard to smaller matters, a warehouseman, whose finger caught in the cog-wheel of a crane, received pounds. and, again, here is pounds to a gentleman killed in a railway accident, and pounds to a poor woman. the latter had insured for a single trip in an excursion train at a charge of two-pence, while the former had a policy of insurance extending over a considerable period, for which he probably paid twenty or thirty shillings. these are but samples, madam, of the good service rendered to sorrowing humanity by this assurance company, which, you must observe, makes no pretensions to philanthropic aims, but is based simply on business principles. and i find that the total amount of compensation paid in this manner daring one year by this company amounts to about , pounds." as mrs marrot yawned at this point and mrs tipps appeared somewhat mystified, the enthusiastic gentleman smiled, put away his pamphlet, and wisely changed the subject. he commented on the extreme beauty of the weather, and how fortunate this state of things was for the people who went to the country for a day's enjoyment. thus pleasantly he whiled away the time, and ingratiated himself with gertie, until they arrived at the station where mrs tipps and mrs marrot had to get out, and where many of the excursionists got out along with them. while the former went their several ways, arranging to meet in the evening and return together by the same train, the latter scattered themselves over the neighbouring common and green fields, and, sitting down under the hedgerows among the wild-flowers, pic-nicked in the sunshine, or wandered about the lanes, enjoying the song of birds and scent of flowers, and wishing, perchance, that their lot had been cast among the green pastures of the country, rather than amid the din and smoke and turmoil of the town. chapter twenty three. details a terrible accident. in due time that holiday came to a close, and the excursionists returned to the station where their train awaited them. among the rest came mrs tipps and mrs marrot, but they did not arrive together, and therefore, much to their annoyance, failed to get into the same carriage. the weather, which up to that time had kept fine, began to lower, and, just as the train started, a smart thunder-shower fell, but, being under cover, the holiday-makers heeded it not. upon the whole they were an orderly band of excursionists. some of the separate groups were teetotallers, and only one or two showed symptoms of having sought to increase their hilarity by the use of stimulants. when the shower began, john marrot and his mate put on their pilot-cloth coats, for the screen that formed their only protection from the weather was a thin flat one, without roof or sides, forming only a partial protection from wind and rain. night had begun to descend before the train left the station, and as the lowering clouds overspread the sky, the gloom rapidly increased until it became quite dark. "we are going to have a bad night of it," observed john marrot as his mate examined the water-gauge. "looks like it," was garvie's curt reply. the clatter of the engine and howling of the wind, which had by that time risen to a gale, rendered conversation difficult; the two men therefore confined themselves to the few occasional words that were requisite for the proper discharge of their duties. it was not a night on which the thoughts of an engine-driver were likely to wander much. to drive an excursion train in a dark night through a populous country over a line which was crowded with traffic, while the rain beat violently on the little round windows in the screen, obscuring them and rendering it difficult to keep a good look-out was extremely anxious work, which claimed the closest and most undivided attention. nevertheless, the thoughts of john marrot did wander a little that night to the carriage behind him in which were his wife and child, but this wandering of thought caused him to redouble rather than to relax his vigilance and caution. will garvie consulted the water-gauge for a moment and then opened the iron door of the furnace in order to throw in more coal. the effect would have stirred the heart of rembrandt. the instantaneous blinding glare of the intense fire shot through the surrounding darkness, lighting up the two men and the tender as if all were made of red-hot metal; flooding the smoke and steam-clouds overhead with round masses and curling lines of more subdued light, and sending sharp gleams through the murky atmosphere into dark space beyond, where the ghostly landscape appeared to rush wildly by. now it chanced that at the part of the line they had reached, a mineral train which preceded them had been thrown off the rails by a bale of goods which had fallen from a previous goods train. carelessness on the part of those who had loaded the truck, from which the bale had fallen, led to this accident. the driver and fireman of the mineral train were rather severely hurt, and the guard was much shaken as well as excited, so that they neglected to take the proper precaution of sending back one of their number to stop the train that followed them. this would have been a matter of little consequence had the line been worked on the block system, because, in that case, the danger-signal would have been kept up, and would have prevented the excursion train from entering on that portion of the line until it was signalled "clear;" but the block system had been only partially introduced on the line. a sufficient interval of _time_ had been allowed after the mineral train had passed the last station, and then, as we have seen, the excursion train was permitted to proceed. thus it came to pass that at a part of the line where there was a slight curve and a deep cutting, john marrot looking anxiously through his circular window, saw the red tail-light of the mineral train. instantly he cried, "clap on the brakes, bill!" almost at the same moment he reversed the engine and opened the whistle to alarm the guard, who applied his brakes in violent haste. but it was too late. the speed could not be checked in time. the rails were slippery, owing to rain. almost at full speed they dashed into the mineral train with a noise like thunder. the result was appalling. the engine was smashed and twisted in a manner that is quite indescribable, and the tender was turned completely over, while the driver and fireman were shot as if from a cannon's mouth, high into the air. the first two carriages of the passenger-train, and the last van of the mineral, were completely wrecked; and over these the remaining carriages of the passenger-train were piled until they reached an incredible height. the guard's van was raised high in the air, with its ends resting on a third-class carriage, which at one end was completely smashed in by the van. at the time of the concussion--just after the terrible crash--there was a brief, strange, unearthly silence. all was still for a few seconds, and passengers who were uninjured gazed at each other in mute and horrified amazement. but death in that moment had passed upon many, while others were fearfully mangled. the silence was almost immediately broken by the cries and groans of the wounded. some had been forcibly thrown out of the carriages, others had their legs and arms broken, and some were jammed into fixed positions from which death alone relieved them. the scenes that followed were heart-rending. those who were uninjured, or only slightly hurt, lent willing aid to extricate their less fortunate fellow-travellers, but the howling of the wind, the deluging rain, and the darkness of the night, retarded their efforts, and in many cases rendered them unavailing. john marrot, who, as we have said, was shot high into the air, fell by good fortune into a large bush. he was stunned at first, but otherwise uninjured. on regaining consciousness, the first thoughts that flashed across him were his wife and child. rising in haste he made his way towards the engine, which was conspicuous not only by its own fire, but by reason of several other fires which had been kindled in various places to throw light on the scene. in the wreck and confusion, it was difficult to find out the carriage, in which mrs marrot had travelled, and the people about were too much excited to give very coherent answers to questions. john, therefore, made his way to a knot of people who appeared to be tearing up the _debris_ at a particular spot. he found joe turner, the guard, there, with his head bandaged and his face covered with blood. "i've bin lookin' for 'ee everywhere, john," said joe. "she's _there_!" he added, pointing to a mass of broken timbers which belonged to a carriage, on the top of which the guard's van had been thrown, crushing it almost flat. john did not require to ask the meaning of his words. the guard's look was sufficiently significant. he said not a word, but the deadly pallor of his countenance showed how much he felt. springing at once on the broken carriage, and seizing an axe from the hand of a man who appeared exhausted by his efforts, he began to cut through the planking so as to get at the interior. at intervals a half-stifled voice was heard crying piteously for "john." "keep up heart, lass!" said john, in his deep, strong voice. "i'll get thee out before long--god helping me." those who stood by lent their best aid, but anxious though they were about the fate of those who lay buried beneath that pile of rubbish, they could not help casting an occasional look of wonder, amounting almost to awe, on the tall form of the engine-driver, as he cut through and tore up the planks and beams with a power that seemed little short of miraculous. presently he stopped and listened intently for a moment, while the perspiration rolled in big drops from his brow. "dost hear me, mary?" he asked in a deeply anxious tone. if any reply were uttered it was drowned by the howling of the wind and the noise of the workmen. again he repeated the question in an agonising cry. his wife did not reply, but gertie's sweet little voice was heard saying faintly-- "i think mother is dead. oh, take us out, dear father, take us out,-- quick!" again john marrot bowed himself to the task, and exerting his colossal strength to the utmost, continued to tear up and cast aside the broken planks and beams. the people around him, now thoroughly aroused to the importance of haste, worked with all their might, and, ere long, they reached the floor of the carriage, where they found mother and child jammed into a corner and arched over by a huge mass of broken timber. it was this mass that saved them, for the rest of the carriage had been literally crushed into splinters. close beside them was discovered the headless trunk of a young man, and the dead body of a girl who had been his companion that day. gertie was the first taken out. her tender little frame seemed to have yielded to the pressure and thus escaped, for, excepting a scratch or two, she was uninjured. john marrot did not pause to indulge in any expression of feeling. he sternly handed her to the bystanders, and went on powerfully but carefully removing the broken timbers and planks, until he succeeded in releasing his wife. then he raised her in his arms, staggered with her to the neighbouring bank and laid her down. poor mrs marrot was crushed and bruised terribly. her clothes were torn, and her face was so covered with blood and dust as to be quite unrecognisable at first. john said not a word, but went down on his knees and began carefully to wipe away the blood from her features, in which act he was assisted by the drenching rain. sad though his case was, there was no one left to help him. the cries of the unfortunate sufferers still unextricated, drew every one else away the moment the poor woman had been released. ere long the whole scene of the catastrophe was brilliantly illuminated by the numerous fires which were kindled out of the _debris_, to serve as torches to those who laboured might and main for the deliverance of the injured. troops of people from the surrounding district quickly made their appearance on the scene, and while some of these lent effective aid in the work of rescue, others brought blankets, water, and spirits, to cover and comfort those who stood so much in need of help. as the wounded were got out, and laid upon the banks of the line, several surgeons busied themselves in examining and binding their wounds, and the spot bore some resemblance to a battle-field after the tide of war had passed over it. seventeen dead and one hundred and fifty injured already lay upon the wet ground, while many of the living, who went about with blanched, solemn faces, yet with earnest helpful energy, were bruised and cut badly enough to have warranted their retiring from the spot, and having their own cases considered. meanwhile a telegram had been sent to clatterby, and, in a short time, a special train arrived with several of the chief men of the line, and a gang of a hundred surface-men to clear away the wreck and remove the dead and injured. many of those unhurt had made singularly narrow escapes. one man was seated in a third-class carriage when the concussion took place. the side of the carriage fell out, and he slid down on the rails just as the other carriages and vans piled up on the place he had left, killing or wounding all his fellow-travellers. beneath the rubbish next the tender, a mother and child were buried and several others. all were dead save the mother and child when the men began to dig them out and before they succeeded in their labours the mother had died also, but the child survived. in another carriage, or rather under it, a lad was seen lying with a woman's head crushed down on his breast and an infant beside her. they had to saw the carriage asunder before these could be extricated. the woman died almost immediately on being released, but the lad and infant were uninjured. elsewhere a young girl, who had attracted attention by the sweet expression of her face, had been strangled, and her face rendered perfectly black. in another case the surface-men attempted to extricate a woman, by sawing the broken carriage, under which she lay, but the more they sawed the more did the splinters appear to cling round her, and when at last they got her out she was dead, while another passenger in the same carnage escaped without a scratch. we would not prolong a painful description which may, perhaps, be thought too long already--yet within certain limits it is right that men should know what their fellows suffer. after all the passengers had been removed to the special train--the dead into vans and horse-boxes and the living into carriages--the surface-men set to work to clear the line. poor mrs tipps was among the rescued, and, along with the others, was sent on to the clatterby station by the special train. while the people were being placed in this train, john marrot observed edwin gurwood in the crowd. he chanced to be at clatterby when the telegram of the accident arrived, and ran down in the special train to render assistance. "i'm glad to see you, sir," he said in a low, earnest voice. "my mate, bill garvie, must be badly hurt, for he's nowhere to be found. he must be under the wreck somewheres. i wouldn't leave the spot till i found him in or'nary circumstances; but my mary--" he stopped abruptly. "i hope mrs marrot is not hurt?" said edwin anxiously. john could not reply at first. he shook his head and pointed to a carriage near at hand. "she's there, sir, with gertie." "gertie!" exclaimed edwin. "ay, poor thing, gertie is all right, thank the good lord for that; but--" again he stopped, then with an effort continued-- "i couldn't quit _them_, you know, till i've got 'em safe home. but my mind will be easy, mr gurwood, if you'll look after bill. we was both throw'd a good way from the ingine, but i couldn't rightly say where. you'll not refuse--" "my dear marrot," said edwin, interrupting him, and grasping his hand, "you may rely on me. i shall not leave the ground until he is found and cared for." "thank 'ee, sir, thank 'ee," said john, in something of his wonted hearty tone, as he returned edwin's squeeze of the hand, and hastened to the train, which was just ready to start. edwin went at once to the spot where the surface-men were toiling at the wreck in the fitful light of the fires, which flared wildly in the storm and, as they had by that time gathered intense heat, bid defiance to the rain. there were several passengers, who had just been extricated, lying on the ground, some motionless, as if dead, others talking incoherently. these he looked at in passing, but garvie was not among them. leaving them under the care of the surgeons, who did all that was possible in the circumstances for their relief, he ran and joined the surface-men in removing the broken timbers of a carriage, from beneath which groans were heard. with some difficulty a woman was extricated and laid tenderly on the bank. just then edwin observed a guard, with whom he was acquainted, and asked him if the fireman had yet been found. "not yet sir, i believe," said the man. "they say that he and the driver were flung to one side of the line." edwin went towards the engine, and, judging the probable direction and distance to which a man might be thrown in such an accident, went to a certain spot and sought carefully around it in all directions. for some time he sought in vain, and was on the point of giving up in despair, when he observed a cap lying on the ground. going up to it, he saw the form of a man half-concealed by a mass of rubbish. he stooped, and, raising the head a little, tried to make out the features, but the light of the fires did not penetrate to the spot. he laid him gently down again, and was about to hasten away for assistance when the man groaned and said faintly, "is that you, jack?" "no, my poor fellow," said edwin, stooping down. "are you badly hurt? i am just going to fetch help to--" "mr gurwood," said the man, interrupting, "you don't seem to know me! i'm garvie, the fireman. where am i? surely there is something wrong with my left arm. oh! i remember now. is jack safe? and the missis and gertie? are they--" "don't exert yourself," interrupted edwin, as will attempted to rise. "you must keep quiet until i fetch a doctor. perhaps you're not much hurt, but it is well to be careful. will you promise me to be still?" "all right sir," said will, promptly. edwin hastened for assistance, and in a short time the fireman was carried to a place of comparative shelter and his wounds examined. almost immediately after the examination edwin knelt at his side, and signed to those around him to retire. "garvie," he said, in a low kind voice, "i'm sorry to tell you that the doctors say you must lose your left arm." will looked intently in edwin's face. "is there _no_ chance of savin' it?" he asked earnestly; "it might never be much to speak of, sir, but i'd rather run some risk than lose it." edwin shook his head. "no," he said sadly, "they tell me amputation must be immediate, else your life may be sacrificed. i said i would like to break it to you, but it is necessary, my poor fellow, that you should make up your mind at once." "god's will be done," said will in a low voice; "i'm ready, sir." the circumstances did not admit of delay. in a few minutes the fireman's left arm was amputated above the elbow, the stump dressed, and himself laid in as sheltered a position as possible to await the return of the train that was to convey the dead and wounded, more recently extricated, to clatterby. when that train arrived at the station it was touching to witness the pale anxious faces that crowded the platform as the doors were opened and the dead and sufferers carried out; and to hear the cries of agony when the dead were recognised, and the cries of grief, strangely, almost unnaturally, mingled with joy, when some who were supposed to have been killed were carried out alive. some were seen almost fondling the dead with a mixture of tender love and abject despair. others bent over them with a strange stare of apparent insensibility, or looked round on the pitying bystanders inquiringly, as if they would say, "surely, surely, this _cannot_ be true." the sensibilities of some were stunned, so that they moved calmly about and gave directions in a quiet solemn voice, as if the great agony of grief were long past, though it was painfully evident that it had not yet begun, because the truth had not yet been realised. among those who were calm and collected, though heart-stricken and deadly pale, was loo marrot. she had been sent to the station by her father to await the arrival of the train, with orders to bring will garvie home. when will was carried out and laid on the platform alive, an irresistible gush of feeling overpowered her. she did not give way to noisy demonstration, as too many did, but knelt hastily down, raised his head on her knee, and kissed his face passionately. "bless you, my darling," said will, in a low thrilling voice, in which intense feeling struggled with the desire to make light of his misfortune; "god has sent a cordial that the doctors haven't got to give." "o william!" exclaimed loo, removing the hair from his forehead--but loo could say no more. "tell me, darling," said garvie, in an anxious tone, "is father safe, and mother, and gertie?" "father is safe, thank god," replied loo, with a choking voice, "and gertie also, but mother--" "she is not dead?" exclaimed the fireman. "no, not dead, but very _very_ much hurt. the doctors fear she may not survive it, will." no more was said, for at that moment four porters came up with a stretcher and placed garvie gently upon it. loo covered him with her shawl, a piece of tarpaulin was thrown over all, and thus he was slowly borne away to john marrot's home. chapter twenty four. results of the accident. years passed away--as years inevitably must--and many important changes took place in the circumstances and the management of the grand national trunk railway, but the results of that terrible accident did not quickly pass away. as we have said, it cost will garvie an arm, and nearly cost mrs marrot her life. we have much pleasure, however, in recording, that it did not make the full charge in this matter. a small, a very small modicum of life was left in that estimable woman, and on the strength of that, with her wonted vigour of character and invincibility of purpose, she set to work to draw out, as it were, a new lease of life. she succeeded to admiration, so much so, in fact, that but for one or two scars on her countenance, no one could have known that she had come by an accident at all. bob marrot was wont to say of her, in after years, that, "if it had bin his mother who had lost an arm instead of will garvie, he was convinced that her firmness, amountin' a'most to obstinacy, of purpose, would have enabled her to grow on a noo arm as good as the old 'un, if not better." we need scarcely add that bob was an irreverent scamp! poor will garvie! his was a sad loss, yet, strange to say, he rejoiced over it. "w'y, you see," he used to say to bob marrot--bob and he being great and confidential friends--"you see, bob, if it hadn't bin for that accident, i never would have bin laid up and brought so low--so very nigh to the grave--and i would never have know'd what it was to be nursed by your sister too; and so my eyes might have never bin opened to half her goodness an' tenderness, d'ye see? no, bob, i don't grudge havin' had my eyes opened by the loss of an arm; it was done cheap at the price. of course i know loo pretty well by this time, for a few years of married life is apt to clear a good deal of dust out of one's eyes, but i do assure you, bob, that i never _could_ have know'd her properly but for that accident, which was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me; an' then, don't 'ee see, i'm just as able to work these there points with one arm as with two." to which bob would reply,--"you're a queer fish, bill; howsever, every man's got a right to his own opinions." will garvie was a pointsman now. on recovering from his prolonged illness, during which he had been supported out of the provident fund of the railway--to which he and all the other men on the line contributed-- he was put to light work at first at the station of clatterby. by degrees his strength returned, and he displayed so much intelligence, and such calmness of nerve and coolness of courage, that he was made a pointsman at the station, and had a sentry-box sort of erection, with windows all round it, apportioned to his daily use. there he was continually employed in shifting the points for the shunting of trains, none of which dared to move, despite their mighty power and impatience, until will garvie gave them leave. to john marrot, the accident although not severe at first, had proved more damaging in the long-run. no bones had been broken, or limbs lost, but john had received a shake so bad that he did not resume his duties with the same vigour as heretofore. he continued to stick to his post, however, for several years, and, before giving it up, had the pleasure of training his son bob in the situation which garvie had been obliged to resign. bob's heart you see, had been all along set on driving the _lightning_; he therefore gladly left the "works" when old enough,--and when the opportunity offered,--to fill the preliminary post of fireman. during this period edwin gurwood rose to a responsible and sufficiently lucrative situation in the clearing-house. at the same time he employed much of his leisure in cultivating the art of painting, of which he was passionately fond. at first he painted for pleasure, but he soon found, on exhibiting one or two of his works, that picture-dealers were willing to purchase from him. he therefore began to paint for profit, and succeeded so well that he began to save and lay by money, with a view to that wife with the nut-brown hair and the large lustrous eyes, who haunted his dreams by night and became his guiding-star by day. seeing him thus wholly immersed in the acquisition of money, and not knowing his motive, his faithful little friend joe tipps one day amazed, and half-offended him, by reminding him that he had a soul to be cared for as well as a body. the arrow was tenderly shot, and with a trembling hand, but joe prayed that it might be sent home, and it was. from that date edwin could not rest. he reviewed his life. he reflected that everything he possessed, or hoped for, came to him, or was to come, from god; yet as far as he could make out he saw no evidence of the existence of religion in himself save in the one fact that he went regularly to church on sundays. he resolved to turn over a new leaf. tried--and failed. he was perplexed, for he had tried honestly. "tipps," he said, one day, "you are the only man i ever could make a confidant of. to say truth i'm not given to being very communicative as to personal matters at any time, but i _must_ tell you that the remark you made about my soul the other day has stuck to me, and i have tried to lead a christian life, but without much success." "perhaps," said tipps, timidly, "it is because you have not yet become a christian." "my _dear_ fellow!" exclaimed edwin, "is not leading a christian life becoming a christian?" "don't you think," said tipps, in an apologetic tone, "that leading a christian life is rather the result of having become a christian? it seems to me that you have been taking the plan of putting yourself and your doings first, and our saviour last." we need not prolong a conversation referring to the "old, old story," which ran very much in the usual groove. suffice it to say that edwin at last carefully consulted the bible as to the plan of redemption; and, in believing, found that rest of spirit which he had failed to work out. thenceforward he had a higher motive for labouring at his daily toil, yet the old motive did not lose but rather gained in power by the change--whereby he realised the truth that, "godliness is profitable for the life that now is as well as that which is to come." at last the painting became so successful that edwin resolved to trust to it alone--said good-bye to the clearing-house with regret--for he left many a pleasant companion and several intimate friends behind him-- and went to clatterby, in the suburbs of which he took and furnished a small villa. then it was that he came to the conclusion that the time had arrived to make a pointed appeal to the nut-brown hair and lustrous eyes. he went off and called at captain lee's house accordingly. the captain was out--miss lee was at home. edwin entered the house, but he left all his native courage and self-possession on the doorstep outside! being ushered into the drawing-room he found emma reading. from that moment--to his own surprise, and according to his own statement--he became an ass! the metamorphosis was complete. ovid, had he been alive, would have rejoiced in it! he blushed more than a poor boy caught in his first grievous offence. the very straightforwardness of his character helped to make him worse. he felt, in all its importance, the momentous character of the step he was about to take, and he felt in all its strength the love with which his heart was full, and the inestimable value of the prize at which he aimed. no wonder that he was overwhelmed. the reader will observe that we have not attempted to dilate in this book on the value of that prize. emma, like many other good people, is only incidental to our subject. we have been obliged to leave her to the reader's imagination. after all, what better could we have done? imagination is more powerful in this matter than description. neither one nor other could, we felt, approach the reality, therefore imagination was best. "emma!" he said, sitting down on the sofa beside her, and seizing her hand in both of his. "mr gurwood!" she exclaimed in some alarm. beginning, from the mere force of habit, some half-delirious reference to the weather, edwin suddenly stopped, passed his fingers wildly through his hair, and again said, with deep earnestness,--"emma." emma looked down, blushed, and said nothing. "emma," he said again, "my good angel, my guiding-star--by night and by day--for years i have--" at that moment captain lee entered the room. edwin leaped up and stood erect. emma buried her face in the sofa cushions. "edwin--mr gurwood!" exclaimed captain lee. this was the beginning of a conversation which terminated eventually in the transference of the nut-brown hair and lustrous eyes to the artist's villa in clatterby. as there was a good garden round the villa, and the wife with nut-brown hair was uncommonly fond of flowers, edwin looked out for a gardener. it was at this identical time that john marrot resolved to resign his situation as engine-driver on the grand national trunk railway. edwin, knowing that he had imbibed a considerable amount of knowledge of gardening from loo, at once offered to employ him as his gardener; john gladly closed with the offer, and thus it came about that he and his wife removed to the villa and left their old railway-ridden cottage in possession of will and loo--or, to be more correct, mr and mrs garvie, and all the young garvies. but what of timid mrs tipps? the great accident did little for her beyond shaking her nervous system, and confirming her in the belief that railways were unutterably detestable; that she was not quite sure whether or not they were sinful; that, come what might, she never would enter one again; and that she felt convinced she had been born a hundred years too late, in which latter opinion most of her friends agreed with her, although they were glad, considering her loveable disposition, that the mistake had occurred. netta did not take quite such an extreme view, and joseph laughed at and quizzed them both, in an amiable sort of fashion, on their views. among all the sufferers by that accident few suffered so severely--with the exception: of course, of those who lost their lives--as the grand national trunk railway itself. in the course of the trials that followed, it was clearly shown that the company had run the train much more with the view of gratifying the public than of enriching their coffers, from the fact that the utmost possible sum which they could hope to draw by it was pounds, for which sum they had carried passengers upwards of twenty miles. the accident took place in consequence of circumstances over which the company had no control, and the results were--that twenty persons were killed and about two hundred wounded! that one hundred and sixty claims were made for compensation-- one hundred and forty of which, being deemed exorbitant or fraudulent, were defended in court; and that, eventually, the company had to pay from seventy to eighty thousand pounds! out of which the highest sum paid to one individual was pounds! the risks that are thus run by railway companies will be seen to be excessive, especially when it is considered that excursion trains afford but slight remuneration, while many of them convey enormous numbers of passengers. on the occasion of the first excursion from oxford to london, in , fifty-two of the broad-gauge carriages of the great western were employed, and the excursionists numbered upwards of three thousand five hundred--a very town on wheels! truly the risks of railway companies are great, and their punishments severe. chapter twenty five. the last. a certain christmas-day approached. on the morning of the day preceding, will garvie--looking as broad and sturdy as ever; a perfect man, but for the empty sleeve--stood at his post near his sentry-box. his duties that day were severe. at that season of the year there is a great increase of traffic on all railways, and you may be sure that the grand national trunk railway had its full share. on ordinary occasions about three hundred trains passed will garvie's box, out and in, during the twelve hours, but that day there had been nearly double the number of passengers, and a considerable increase in the number of trains that conveyed them, while goods trains had also increased greatly in bulk and in numbers. garvie's box abutted on a bridge, and stood in the very midst of a labyrinth of intricate crossing lines, over which trains and pilot-engines were constantly rushing and hissing, backing and whistling viciously, and in the midst of which, will moved at the continual risk of his life, as cool as a cucumber (so bob garvie expressed it), and as safe as the bank. although thus situated in the midst of smoke, noise, dust, iron, and steam, will garvie managed to indulge his love for flowers. he had a garden on the line--between the very rails! it was not large, to be sure, only about six feet by two--but it was large enough for his limited desires. the garden was in a wooden trough in front of his sentry-box. it contained mignonette, roses, and heart's-ease among other things, and every time that will passed out of or into his box in performing the duties connected with the station, he took a look at the flowers and thought of loo and the innumerable boys, girls, and babies at home. we need not say that this garden was beautifully kept. whatever will did he did well--probably because he tended well the garden of his own soul. while he was standing outside his box during one of the brief intervals between trains, an extremely beautiful girl came on the platform and called across the rails to him. "hallo! gertie--what brings _you_ here?" he asked, with a look of glad surprise. "to see _you_," replied gertie, with a smile that was nothing short of bewitching. "how i wish you were a flower, that i might plant you in my garden," said the gallant william, as he crossed the rails and reached up to shake gertie's hand. "what a greedy man you are!" said gertie. "isn't loo enough for you?" "quite enough," replied will, "i might almost say more than enough at times; but come, lass, this ain't the place for a palaver. you came to speak with me as well as to see me, no doubt." "yes, will, i came with a message from mrs tipps. you know that the railway men are going to present father with a testimonial to-night; well, mrs tipps thinks that her drawing-room won't be large enough, so she sent me to ask you to let the men know that it is to be presented in the schoolroom, where the volunteer rifle band is to perform and make a sort of concert of it." "indeed!" said will. "yes; and mrs tipps says that captain lee is going to give them what she calls a cold collation, and brother bob calls a blow-out." "you don't say so!" exclaimed will. "yes, i do; won't it be delightful?" said gertie. "splendid," replied will, "i'll be sure to be up in good time. but, i say, gertie, is young dorkin to be there?" gertie blushed, but was spared the necessity of a reply in consequence of a deafening whistle which called will garvie to his points. next moment, a passenger-train intervened, and cut her off from further communication. according to promise, will was at the schoolroom in good time that evening, with some thirty or forty of his comrades. loo was there too, blooming and matronly, with a troop of boys and girls, who seemed to constitute themselves a body-guard round john marrot and his wife, who were both ignorant at that time of the honour that was about to be done them. john was as grave, sturdy, and amiable as ever, the only alteration in his appearance being the increased number of silver locks that mingled with his black hair. time had done little to mrs marrot, beyond increasing her bulk and the rosiness of her countenance. it would be tedious to comment on all our old friends who assembled in the schoolroom on that memorable occasion. we can only mention the names of captain lee (_alias_ samuel tough), and mr abel, and mrs tipps, and dr noble, and mr sharp, and david blunt, and joe turner, and mrs durby, with all of whom time seemed to have dealt as leniently as with john marrot and his wife. sam natly was also there, with his invalid wife restored to robust health, and supported on either side by a blooming boy and girl. and edwin gurwood was there with his wife and son and three daughters; and so was joseph tipps, looking as if the world prospered with him, as, indeed, was the case. and, of course, netta tipps was there, and the young curate, who, by the way, was much stouter and not nearly so stiff as when we first met him. he was particularly attentive to netta, and called her "my dear," in a cool free-and-easy way, that would not have been tolerated for a moment, but for the fact that they had been married for the last three months. bob marrot was there also--as strapping a young blade as one could wish to see, with a modest yet fearless look in his eye, that was quite in keeping with his occupation as driver of the "flying dutchman." there was there, also, a tall, slim, good-looking youth, who seemed to be on very intimate terms with bob marrot. he was well-known as one of the most rising men at the clatterby works, who bade fair to become an overseer ere long. bob called him tomtit, but the men of the line styled him mister dorkin. he had brought with him an extremely wrinkled, dried-up old woman, who appeared to have suffered much, and to have been dragged out of the lowest depths of poverty. to judge from appearances she had been placed in a position of great comfort. such was in truth the case, and the fine young fellow who had dragged her out and up was that same mister dorkin, who may be said to have been all but stone-blind that evening, because, from first to last, he saw but one individual there, and that individual was gertie. he was almost deaf too, because he heard only one voice--and that voice was gertie's. and nanny stocks was there, with "the baby," but _not_ the baby marrot! _that_ baby--now a stout well-grown lad--was seated beside his mother, paying her all sorts of delicate attentions, such as picking up her handkerchief when she dropped it, pushing her bonnet on her head when, in her agitation, it fell back on her neck, and beating her firmly on the back when she choked, as she frequently did that evening from sheer delight. no doubt in this last operation he felt that he was paying off old scores, for many a severe beating on the back had mrs marrot given him in the stormy days of his babyhood. the baby of whom nanny stocks was now the guardian was baby gurwood, and a strong resemblance it bore to the old baby in the matters of health, strength, fatness, and self-will. miss stocks was one of those human evergreens which years appear to make no impression on at all. from her shoe-latchet to her topmost hair-pin she was unalterably the same as she had been in days gone by. she treated the new baby, too, as she had treated the old--choked it with sweetmeats and kisses, and acted the part of buffer to its feet and fists. it would take a volume to give the full details of all that was said and done, and played and sung, on that christmas-eve. we can only touch on these things. the brass band of the volunteers surpassed itself. the songs--volunteered or called for--were as good as songs usually are on festive occasions, a few of them being first-rate, especially one which was sung by a huge engine-driver, with shoulders about a yard broad, and a beard like the inverted shako of a guardsman. it ran thus-- song of the engine-driver. oh--down by the river and close by the lake we skim like the swallow and cut though the brake; over the mountain and round by the lea, though the black tunnel and down to the sea. clatter and bang by the wild riven shore, we mingle our shriek with the ocean's roar. we strain and we struggle, we rush and we fly-- we're a terrible pair, my steed and i. _chorus_--whistle and puff the whole day round, over the hills and underground. rattling fast and rattling free-- oh! a life on the line is the life for me. with our hearts a-blazing in every chink, with coals for food and water to drink, we plunge up the mountain and traverse the moor, and startle the grouse in our daily tour. we yell at the deer in their lonely glen, shoot past the village and circle the ben, we flash through the city on viaducts high, as straight as an arrow, my steed and i. _chorus_--whistle and puff, etcetera. the norseman of old, when quaffing his mead, delighted to boast of his "ocean steed;" the british tar, in his foaming beer, drinks to his ship as his mistress dear. the war-horse good is the trooper's theme-- but what are all these to the horse of steam? such a riotous, rollicking roadster is he-- oh!--the iron horse is the steed for me! _chorus_--whistle and puff, etcetera. the collation also, or, according to bob marrot, the "blow-out," was superb. joseph tipps declared it to be eminently satisfactory, and the men of the line evidently held the same opinion, if we may judge from the fact that they consumed it all, and left not a scrap behind. the speeches, also, were excellent. of course the great one of the evening was the best being, delivered by mr abel, who not unnaturally made a remarkably able oration. when that gentleman rose with a beautiful silver model of a locomotive in his hand, which he had been deputed by the men of the line to present as a mark of their regard, admiration, and esteem, to john marrot, he took the worthy ex-engine-driver very much by surprise, and caused mrs marrot to be seized with such a fit of choking that the baby (not the new one, but the old) found it as hard work to beat her out of it, as she had formerly found it to beat _him_ out of a fit of wickedness. when she had been restored, mr abel launched off into a glowing oration, in the course of which he referred to john marrot's long services, to his faithful and unwearied attention to his arduous duties, and to the numerous instances wherein he had shown personal courage and daring, amounting almost to heroism, in saving the lives of comrades in danger, and in preventing accidents on the line by coolness and presence of mind. "in conclusion," said mr abel, winding up, "let me remark that the gift which is now presented might have been of a more useful character, but could not have been more appropriate; because the wish of those who desire to testify their regard for you this evening, mr marrot, is not to give you an intrinsically valuable or useful present, but to present you with a characteristic ornament which may grace your dwelling while you live, and descend, after you are gone, to your children's children (here he glanced at loo and her troop), to bear witness to them that you nobly did your duty in driving that great iron horse, whereof this little silver pony is a model and a memorial. to perform one's duty well in this life is the highest ambition that any man can have in regard to temporal things. nelson, our greatest naval hero, aimed at it, and, on the glorious day of trafalgar, signalled that england expected every man to do it. wellington, our greatest soldier, made _duty_ his guiding-star. the effectual and earnest performance of duty stamps with a nobility which is not confined to great men--a nobility which kings can neither give nor take away--a nobility which is very, _very_ difficult to attain unto, but which is open alike to the prince and the peasant, and must be wrought hard for and won--or lost with shame,--for, as the poet happily puts it-- "`honour and shame from no condition rise; act well your part,--there all the honour lies.' "for myself i can only say that john marrot has won this nobility, and i couple his name with a sentiment with which all here, i doubt not, will heartily sympathise.--prosperity to the men of the line, and success to the iron horse!" reader, we can do no better than echo that sentiment, and wish you a kind farewell. the end. [a transcriber's note follows the text.] the british state telegraphs [illustration: macmillan company logo] the british state telegraphs a study of the problem of a large body of civil servants in a democracy by hugo richard meyer sometime assistant professor of political economy in the university of chicago, author of "government regulation of railway rates;" "municipal ownership in great britain" new york the macmillan company london: macmillan & co., ltd. _all right reserved_ copyright, by the macmillan company set up and electrotyped. published october the mason-henry press syracuse, new york to my brother preface in order to keep within reasonable limits the size of this volume, the author has been obliged to reserve for a separate volume the story of the telephone in great britain. the series of books promised in the preface to the author's _municipal ownership in great britain_ will, therefore, number not four, but five. contents chapter i introduction scope of the inquiry. chapter ii the argument for the nationalization of the telegraphs the indictment of the telegraph companies. the argument from foreign experience. the promise of reduced tariffs and increased facilities. the alleged financial success of foreign state telegraphs: belgium, switzerland and france. the argument from english company experience. chapter iii the alleged break-down of laissez-faire early history of telegraphy in great britain. the adequacy of private enterprise. mr. scudamore's loose use of statistics. mr. scudamore's test of adequacy of facilities. telegraphic charges and growth of traffic in great britain. the alleged wastefulness of competition. the telegraph companies' proposal. chapter iv the purchase of the telegraphs upon inadequate consideration the disraeli ministry estimates at $ , , to $ , , the cost of nationalization. political expediency responsible for government's inadequate investigation. the government raises its estimate to $ , , ; adding that it could afford to pay $ , , to $ , , . mr. goschen, m. p., and mr. leeman, m. p., warn the house of commons against the government's estimates, which had been prepared by mr. scudamore. the gladstone ministry, relying on mr. scudamore, estimates at $ , , the "reversionary rights" of the railway companies, for which rights the state ultimately paid $ , , to $ , , . chapter v none of mr. scudamore's financial forecasts were realized the completion of the telegraph system costs $ , , ; mr. scudamore's successive estimates had been respectively $ , , and $ , , . mr. scudamore's brilliant forecast of the increase of traffic under public ownership. mr. scudamore's appalling blunder in predicting that the state telegraphs would be self-supporting. operating expenses on the average exceed . % of the gross earnings, in contrast to mr. scudamore's estimate of % to %. the annual telegraph deficits aggregate . % of the capital invested in the plant. the financial failure of the state telegraphs is not due to the large price paid to the telegraph companies and railway companies. the disillusionment of an eminent advocate of nationalization, mr. w. stanley jevons. chapter vi the party leaders ignore their fear of an organized civil service mr. disraeli, chancellor of the exchequer, opposes the enfranchisement of the civil servants. mr. gladstone, leader of the opposition, assents to enfranchisement, but expresses grave apprehensions of evil results. chapter vii the house of commons is responsible for the financial failure of the state telegraphs sir s. northcote, chancellor of the exchequer in mr. disraeli's ministry of to , is disillusioned. the state telegraphs become self-supporting in - . the house of commons, under the leadership of dr. cameron, m. p., for glasgow, overrides the ministry and cuts the tariff almost in two. in - the state telegraphs would again have become self-supporting, had not the house of commons, under pressure from the civil service unions, increased wages and salaries. the necessity of making money is the only effective incentive to sound management. chapter viii the state telegraphs subsidize the newspaper press why the newspaper press demanded nationalization. mr. scudamore gives the newspaper press a tariff which he deems unprofitable. estimates of the loss involved in transmitting press messages, made by responsible persons in the period from to . the state telegraphs subsidize betting on horse races. chapter ix the post office employees press the house of commons for increases of wages and salaries british government's policy as to wages and salaries for routine work, as distinguished from work requiring a high order of intelligence. the fawcett revision of wages, . lord frederick cavendish, financial secretary to the treasury, on pressure exerted on members of parliament by the telegraph employees. sir s. a. blackwood, permanent secretary to the post office, on the fawcett revision of . evidence as to civil servants' pressure on members of parliament presented to the royal commission on civil establishments, . the raikes revision of - ; based largely on the report of the committee on the indoor staff, which committee had recommended increases in order "to end agitation." the earl compton, m. p., champions the cause of the postal employees in ; and moves for a select committee in . sir james fergusson, postmaster general in the salisbury ministry, issues an order against post office servants "endeavoring to extract promises from any candidate for election to the house of commons with reference to their pay or duties." the gladstone ministry rescinds sir james fergusson's order. mr. macdonald's motion, in , for a house of commons select committee. mr. kearley's motion, in . the government compromises, and appoints the so-called tweedmouth inter-departmental committee. chapter x the tweedmouth committee report the government accepts all recommendations made by the committee. sir albert k. rollit, one of the principal champions in the house of commons of the postal employees, immediately follows with a motion "intended to reflect upon the report of the tweedmouth committee." mr. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury, intimates that it may become necessary to disfranchise the civil servants. the treasury accepts the recommendations of the so-called norfolk-hanbury committee. the average of expenses on account of wages and salaries rises from . cents per telegram in - , to . cents in - , concomitantly with an increase in the number of telegrams from , , to , , . chapter xi the post office employees continue to press the house of commons for increases of wages and salaries the post office employees demand "a new judgment on the old facts." mr. s. woods' motion, in february, . mr. steadman's motions in february and june, . mr. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury, points out that the postal employees are demanding a house of commons select committee because under such a committee "the agitation and pressure, now distributed over the whole house, would be focussed and concentrated upon the select committee." mr. steadman's motion, in april, . mr. bayley's motion, in june, . mr. balfour, prime minister, confesses that the debate has filled him "with considerable anxiety as to the future of the public service if pressure of the kind which has been put upon the government to-night is persisted in by the house." captain norton's motion, in april, . the government compromises by appointing the bradford committee of business men. mr. austen chamberlain, postmaster general, states that members from both sides of the house "seek from him, in his position as postmaster general, protection for them in the discharge of their public duties against the pressure sought to be put upon them by employees of the post office." he adds: "even if the machinery by which our select committees are appointed were such as would enable us to secure a select committee composed of thoroughly impartial men who had committed themselves by no expression of opinion, i still think that it would not be fair to pick out fifteen members of this house and make them marked men for the purpose of such pressure as is now distributed more or less over the whole assembly." chapter xii the bradford committee report the bradford committee ignores its reference. it recommends measures that would cost $ , , a year, in the hope of satisfying the postal employees, who had asked for $ , , a year. lord stanley, postmaster general, rejects the bradford committee's report; but grants increases in wages aggregating $ , , a year. chapter xiii the house of commons select committee on post office servants, the post office civil servants' unions demand the adoption of the bradford committee report. lord stanley, postmaster general, applies the words "blackmail" and "blood-sucking" to the postal employees' methods. captain norton moves for a house of commons select committee. mr. austen chamberlain, chancellor of the exchequer, in vain asks the opposition party's support for a select committee to which shall be referred the question of the feasibility of establishing a permanent, non-political commission which shall establish general principles for settling disputes between the civil servants and the government of the day. captain norton's motion is lost, nine ministerial supporters voting for it, and only two opposition members voting against it. mr. j. henniker heaton's appeal to the british public for "an end to political patronage." the post office employees, in the campaign preceding the general election of january, , induce nearly of the parliamentary candidates who succeeded in being elected, to pledge themselves to vote for a house of commons select committee on post office wages. immediately upon the opening of parliament, the sir h. campbell-bannerman liberal ministry gives the post office employees a house of commons select committee. chapter xiv the house of commons, under pressure from the civil service unions, curtails the executive's power to dismiss incompetent and redundant employees the old practice of intervention by members of parliament on behalf of individual civil servants with political influence has given way to the new practice of intervention on behalf of the individual civil servant because he is a member of a civil service union. the new practice is the more insidious and dangerous one, for it means class bribery. the doctrine that entrance upon the state's service means "something very nearly approaching to a freehold provision for life." official testimony of various prominent civil servants, especially of mr. (now lord) welby, permanent secretary to the treasury from to ; and mr. t. h. farrer, permanent secretary to board of trade from to . the costly practice of giving pensions no solution of the problem of getting rid of unsatisfactory public servants. chapter xv the house of commons, under pressure from the civil service unions, curtails the executive's power to promote employees according to merit the civil service unions oppose promotion by merit, and demand promotion by seniority. testimony presented before: select committee on civil services expenditure, ; select committee on post office, ; royal commission to inquire into the civil establishments, ; from statement made in house of commons, in , by mr. raikes, postmaster general; and before the so-called tweedmouth committee, . instances of intervention by members of house of commons on behalf of civil servants who have not been promoted, or are afraid they shall not be promoted. chapter xvi members of the house of commons intervene on behalf of public servants who have been disciplined evidence presented before: the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments, ; and the tweedmouth committee, . instances of intervention by members of parliament. mr. austen chamberlain, financial secretary to the treasury, in april, , states that at a low estimate one-third of the time of the highest officials in the post office is occupied with petty questions of discipline and administrative detail, because of the intervention of members of parliament. he adds that it is "absolutely deplorable" that time and energy that should be given to the consideration of large questions must be given to matters that "in any private business would be dealt with by the officer on the spot." sir john eldon gorst's testimony before the committee on national expenditure, . chapter xvii the spirit of the civil service the doctrine of an "implied contract" between the state and each civil servant, to the effect that the state may make no change in the manner of administering its great trading departments without compensating every civil servant however remotely or indirectly affected. the hours of work may not be increased without compensating every one affected. administrative "mistakes" may not be corrected without compensating the past beneficiaries of such mistakes. violation of the order that promotion must not be mechanical, or by seniority alone, may not be corrected without compensating those civil servants who would have been benefitted by the continued violation of the aforesaid order. the state may not demand increased efficiency of its servants without compensating every one affected. persons filling positions for which there is no further need, must be compensated. each civil servant has a "vested right" to the maintenance of such rate of promotion as obtains when he enters the service, irrespective of the volume of business or of any diminution in the number of higher posts consequent upon administrative reforms. the telegraph clerks demand that their chances of promotion be made as good as those of the postal clerks proper, but they refuse to avail themselves of the opportunity to pass over to the postal side proper of the service, on the ground that the postal duties proper are more irksome than the telegraph duties. members of parliament support recalcitrant telegraph clerks whom the government is attempting to force to learn to perform postal duties, in order that it may reap advantage from having combined the postal service and the telegraphs in . special allowances may not be discontinued; and vacations may not be shortened, without safeguarding all "vested interests." further illustrations of the hopelessly unbusinesslike spirit of the rank and file of the public servants. chapter xviii the house of commons stands for extravagance authoritative character of the evidence tendered by the several secretaries of the treasury. testimony, in , of lord welby, who had been in the treasury from to . testimony of sir george h. murray, permanent secretary to the post office and sometime private secretary to the late prime minister, mr. gladstone. testimony of sir ralph h. knox, in the war office since . testimony of sir edward hamilton, assistant secretary to the treasury since . testimony of mr. r. chalmers, a principal clerk in the treasury; and of sir john eldon gorst. mr. gladstone's tribute to joseph hume, the first and last member of the house of commons competent to criticize effectively the details of expenditure of the state. evidence presented before the select committee on civil services expenditure, . chapter xix conclusion index the british state telegraphs chapter i introduction scope of the inquiry the story of the british state telegraphs divides itself into two parts: the purchase of the telegraphs, in , from the companies that had established the industry of telegraphy; and the subsequent conduct of the business of telegraphy by the government. the first part is covered by chapters ii to vi; the second part by the remaining chapters. both parts contain a record of fact and experience that should be of service to the american public at the present moment, when there is before them the proposal to embark upon the policy of the municipal ownership and operation of the so-called municipal public service industries. the second part, however, will interest a wider body of readers than the first part; for it deals with a question that is of profound interest and importance at all times--the problem of a large body of civil servants in a democracy. chapters ii to vi tell of the demand of the british chambers of commerce, under the leadership of the chamber of commerce of edinburgh, for lower charges on telegraphic messages; the appointment by the government of mr. scudamore, second secretary of the post office, to report upon the relative merits of private telegraphs and state telegraphs; the character of the report submitted by mr. scudamore; and the reasons why that report--upon which rested the whole argument for nationalization--was not adequately considered either by the select committee of the house of commons, to whom the bill for the purchase of the telegraphs was referred, or by the house of commons itself. the principal reason was that the agitation carried on by the chambers of commerce and the newspaper press[ ] proved so successful that both political parties committed themselves to nationalization before mr. scudamore's report had been submitted to searching criticism. under the circumstances, the disraeli ministry was unwilling to go into the general election of without having made substantial progress toward the nationalization of the telegraphs. in order to remove opposition to its bill in the house of commons, the disraeli ministry conceded practically everything asked by the telegraph companies, the railway companies and the newspaper press.[ ] the result was that the government paid a high price absolutely for the telegraphs. whether the price was too high, relatively speaking, is difficult to say. in the first place, the price paid--about $ , , --was well within the sum which the government had said it could afford to pay, to wit, $ , , to $ , , . in the second place, the government acquired an industry "ready-made," with an established staff of highly trained men educated in the school of competition--the only school that thus far has proved itself capable of bringing out the highest efficiency that is in men. in the second place, the government acquired the sole right to transmit messages by electricity--a right which subsequent events have proved to cover all future inventions, such as the transmission of messages by means of the telephone and of wireless telegraphy. finally, in spite of the wastefulness that characterized the government's operation of the telegraphs from the day the telegraphs were taken over, the telegraph department in the year - became able to earn more than the interest upon the large capital invested in the telegraphs. but from that year on the government not only became more and more wasteful, but also lost control over the charges made to the public for the transmission of messages. it is instructive to note, in this latter connection, that the control over the rates to be charged to the public was taken out of the hands of the government by dr. cameron, who represented in the house of commons the people of glasgow, and that another scotch city, edinburgh, had initiated and maintained the campaign for the nationalization of the telegraphs. one of the most extraordinary of the astounding incidents of the campaign and negotiations that resulted in the purchase of the telegraphs, was the fact that in the debates in the house of commons was not even raised the question of the possibility of complications and dangers arising out of the multiplication of the civil servants. that fact is the more remarkable, since the leaders of both political parties at the time apprehended so much danger from the existing civil servants that they refused to take active steps to enfranchise the civil servants employed in the so-called revenue departments--the customs, inland revenue and post office departments--who had been disfranchised since the close of the eighteenth century. the bill of , which gave the franchise to the civil servants in question, was a private bill, introduced by mr. monk, a private member of the house of commons; and it was carried against the protest of the disraeli ministry, and without the active support of the leading men in the opposition. in the debates upon mr. monk's bill, mr. gladstone, sitting in opposition, said he was not afraid that either political party ever would try to use the votes of the civil servants for the purpose of promoting its political fortunes, "but he owned that he had some apprehension of what might be called class influence in the house of commons, which in his opinion was the great reproach of the reformed parliament, as he believed history would record. whether they were going to emerge into a new state of things in which class influence would be weaker, he knew not; but that class influence had been in many things evil and a scandal to them, especially for the last fifteen or twenty years [since the reform of parliament]; and he was fearful of its increase in consequence of the possession of the franchise, through the power which men who, as members of a regular service, were already organized, might bring to bear on members of parliament." chapters vii and following show that mr. gladstone's apprehensions were well-founded; that the civil servants have become a class by themselves, with interests so widely divergent from the interests of the rest of the community that they do not distribute their allegiance between the two great political parties on the merits of the respective policies of those parties, as do an equal number of voters taken at random. the civil servants have organized themselves in great civil service unions, for the purpose of promoting their class interests by bringing pressure to bear upon the house of commons. at the parliamentary elections they tend to vote solidly for the candidate who promises them most. in one constituency they will vote for the liberal candidate, in another for the conservative candidate. thus far neither party appears to have made an open or definite alliance with the civil servants. but in the recent years in which the conservative party was in power, and year after year denied--"on principle" of public policy--certain requests of the civil servants, the rank and file, as well as some of the minor leaders of the liberal, or opposition party, evinced a strong tendency to vote rather solidly in the house of commons in support of those demands of the civil servants.[ ] at the same time the chiefs of the liberal, or opposition party, refrained from the debate as well as from the vote. it may be that the opposition party discipline was not strong enough to enable the opposition chiefs to prevent the votes on the momentous issue raised in the house of commons by the civil servants from becoming for all practical purposes party votes; or, it may be that the liberal party leaders did not deem it expedient to seek to control the voting of their followers. be that as it may, the fact remains that the conservative ministry that was in power, repeatedly called in vain upon the house of commons to take out of the field of party politics the issue raised by the civil servants in the period from to . the conservative ministry year after year denied the request of the post office employees for a house of commons select committee on the pay and position of the post office employees. on the other hand, the support of that request came steadily from the liberal opposition. in the general election of january, , the post office employees threw their weight overwhelmingly on the side of the liberal party; and immediately after the opening of the new parliament, the newly established liberal government announced that it would give the post office employees the house of commons select committee which the late conservative ministry had "on principle" of public policy refused to grant. shortly after the general election of january, , the president of the postal telegraph clerks' association, a powerful political organization, stated that nearly of the members of the house of commons had pledged themselves, in the course of the campaign, to vote for a house of commons select committee. at about the same time, lord balcarres, a conservative whip in the late balfour ministry, speaking of the members who entered parliament for the first time in , said "he thought he was fairly accurate when he said that they had given pretty specific pledges upon this matter [of a select committee] to those who had sent them to the house." sir acland-hood, chief whip in the late balfour ministry, added: "... nearly the whole of the supporters of the then [ ] government voted against the appointment of the select committee [in july, ]. no doubt many of them suffered for it at the general election; they either lost their seats or had their majorities reduced in consequence of the vote." and the new prime minister, sir h. campbell-bannerman, spoke of the "retroactive effect of old promises extracted in moments of agony from candidates at the general election." and finally, at the annual conference of the postal telegraph clerks' association, held in march, , mr. r. s. davis, the representative of the metropolitan london telegraph clerks, said: "the new postmaster general had made concessions which had almost taken them [the postal clerks] off their feet by the rapidity with which one had succeeded another and the manner in which they were granted." * * * * * chapters xiv to xvii describe the efforts made by the civil servants to secure exemption from the ordinary vicissitudes of life, as well as exemption from the necessity of submitting to those standards of efficiency and those rules of discipline which prevail in private employment. they show the hopelessly unbusinesslike spirit of the rank and file of the public servants, a spirit fostered by the practice of members of the house of commons intervening, from the floor of the house as well as behind the scenes, on behalf of public servants who have not been promoted, have been disciplined or dismissed, or, have failed to persuade the executive officers to observe one or more of the peculiar claims of "implied contract" and "vested right" which make the british public service so attractive to those men whose object in life is not to secure full and untrammeled scope for their abilities and ambitions, but a haven of refuge from the ordinary vicissitudes of life. members of the house of commons intervene, in the manner indicated, in mere matters of detail of administration, because they have not the courage to refuse to obey the behests of the political leaders of the civil service unions; they do not so interfere from the mere desire to promote their political fortunes by championing the interests of a class. they recognize the fact that the art of government is the art of log-rolling, of effecting the best compromise possible, under the given conditions of political intelligence and public spirit, between the interests of a class and the interests of the country as a whole. their views were forcibly expressed, on a recent occasion, by captain norton, who long has been one of the most aggressive champions in the house of commons, of the civil servants, and who, at present, is a junior lord of the treasury, in the sir h. campbell-bannerman liberal ministry. said captain norton: "as regarded what had been said about undue influence [being exercised by the civil servants], his contention was that so long as the postal officials ... were allowed to maintain a vote, they had precisely the same rights as all other voters in the country to exercise their fullest influence in the defense of their rights, privileges and interests. he might mention that all classes of all communities, of all professions, all trades, all combinations of individuals, such as anti-vaccinationists and so forth, had invariably used their utmost pressure in defense of their interests and views upon members of the house...." the problem of government in every country--irrespectively of the form which the political institutions may take in any given country--is to avoid class legislation, and to make it impossible for any one class to exploit the others. some of us--who are old-fashioned and at present in the minority--believe that the solution of that problem is to be found only in the upbuilding of the character and the intelligence of the individual citizen. others believe that it is to be found largely, if not mainly, in extending the functions of the state and the city. to the writer, the experience of great britain under the experiment of the extension of the functions of the state and the city, seems to teach once more the essential soundness of the doctrine that the nation that seeks refuge from the ills that appear under the policy of _laissez-faire_, seeks refuge from such ills in the apparently easy, and therefore tempting, device of merely changing the form of its political institutions and political ideals, will but change the form of the ills from which it suffers. footnotes: [ ] the reason for the opposition of the newspaper press to the telegraph companies is discussed in chapter viii. [ ] the concession made to the newspaper press is described in chapter viii. [ ] the efforts of the civil servants culminated in the debate and vote of july , . upon that occasion there voted for the demands of the civil servants eighteen liberalists who, in - , became members of the sir h. campbell-bannerman liberal ministry. two of them, mr. herbert gladstone and mr. lloyd george, became members of the cabinet, or inner circle of the ministry. chapter ii the argument for the nationalization of the telegraphs the indictment of the telegraph companies. the argument from foreign experience. the promise of reduced tariffs and increased facilities. the alleged financial success of foreign state telegraphs: belgium, switzerland and france. the argument from british company experience. in the chambers of commerce of great britain, under the leadership of the chamber of commerce of edinburgh, began an agitation for the purchase by the government of the properties of the several british telegraph companies. in , the telegraph companies, acting in unison, withdrew the reduced rate of twenty-four cents for twenty words, address free, that had been in force, since , between certain large cities. that action, which will be described further on, caused the chambers of commerce to increase the agitation for state purchase. in september, , lord stanley of alderley, postmaster general, commissioned mr. f. i. scudamore, second secretary of the post office, "to inquire and report whether, in his opinion, the electric telegraph service might be beneficially worked by the post office--whether, if so worked, it would possess any advantages over a system worked by private companies--and whether it would entail any very large expenditure on the post office department beyond the purchase of existing rights." in july, , mr. scudamore reported, recommending the purchase of the telegraphs. in february, , he submitted a supplementary report; and in and , he acted as the chief witness for the government before the parliamentary committees appointed to report on the government's bills proposing to authorize the state to acquire and operate the telegraphs.[ ] the extent to which the government, throughout the considerations and negotiations which finally ended in the nationalization of the telegraphs, relied almost exclusively upon evidence supplied by mr. scudamore, is indicated in the statement made by the chancellor of the exchequer, mr. g. w. hunt, on july , , that mr. scudamore "might be said to be the author of the bill to acquire the telegraphs."[ ] [sidenote: _indictment of the telegraph companies_] mr. scudamore reported that the chambers of commerce, and the various writers in the periodical and newspaper press who had supported the proposal of state purchase, had concurred in the following general propositions: "that the charges made by the telegraph companies were too high, and tended to check the growth of telegraphic correspondence; that there were frequent delays of messages; that many important districts were unprovided with telegraphic facilities; that in many places the telegraph office was inconveniently remote from the centre of business, and was open for too small a portion of the day; that little or no improvement could be expected so long as the working of the telegraphs was conducted by commercial companies striving chiefly to earn a dividend and engaged in wasteful competition with each other; and, finally, that the growth of telegraphic correspondence had been greatly stimulated in belgium and switzerland by the annexation of the telegraphs to the post offices of those countries, and the consequent adoption of a low scale of charges; and that in great britain like results would follow the adoption of like means, and that from the annexation of the british telegraphs to the british post office there would accrue great advantage to the public, and ultimately a large revenue to the state." subsequently, before the select committees of parliament, mr. scudamore maintained that in the hands of the state the telegraphs would pay from the start. mr. scudamore continued his report with the statement that he had satisfied himself that in great britain the telegraph was not in such general use as upon the continent; that "the class who used the telegraphs most freely were stock brokers, mining agents, ship brokers, colonial brokers, racing and betting men, fruit merchants and others engaged in business of a speculative character, or who deal in articles of a perishable nature. even general merchants used the telegraphs comparatively little, compared with those engaged in the more speculative branches of commerce." he added that from to the annual increase in the number of telegraphic messages had ranged pretty evenly from per cent. to per cent., indicating merely a gradual increase in the telegraphic correspondence of those classes who had been the first to use the telegraphs. he said there had been none of those "sudden and prodigious jumps" that had occurred on the continent after each reduction in the charges for telegraphic messages, or after each extension of the telegraph system to the smaller towns. mr. scudamore held that it was a serious indictment of the manner in which the telegraph companies had discharged their duties to the public, that the small tradesman had not learned to order goods by telegraph, and had not thereby enabled himself to get along with a smaller stock of goods kept constantly on hand; that the fishing villages on the remote coasts of scotland that had no railways, had no telegraphs; that the public did not send "millions of messages" of this kind: "i shall not be home to dinner;" "i will bring down some fish;" "you can meet me at four;" and that the wife and children, away from their home in the country village, did not telegraph to the husband and father: "send me a money order." mr. scudamore's notions of the uses to which the telegraphs ought to be put were shared by the chancellor of the exchequer, mr. hunt, who looked forward to the day when "persons who have a difficulty in writing letters will have less difficulty in going to a telegraph office and sending a message to a friend than writing a letter."[ ] [sidenote: _argument from foreign experience_] mr. scudamore supported his position with the subjoined reports from countries in which the state operated the telegraphs. the danish government had reported that the telegraph was used by merchants generally and for social and domestic purposes. prussia had reported that in the early days, when the charges had been high, the use of the telegraph had been confined almost exclusively to bankers, brokers, large commercial houses and newspaper correspondents, but that with each reduction in the charges, or extension of the telegraphs to small towns, the number of those who regularly sent out and received messages had increased considerably. switzerland had reported that messages relating to personal business and family affairs formed as important a part of the whole traffic as the messages of banking interests and other trading interests. france had reported that per cent. of the messages related to personal business and family affairs; and belgium had reported that nearly per cent. of the messages related to personal business and family affairs. to indicate the manner in which the use of the telegraph increased with reductions in the charges made, mr. scudamore reported that in belgium, in , a reduction of per cent. in the charge had been followed by an increase of per cent. in the number of telegrams; and that, in , a reduction of per cent. in the charges had been followed by an increase of per cent. in the traffic. in france, in , a reduction of per cent. in the charge, had led to an increase of per cent. in the number of messages. in switzerland, in , a reduction of per cent. in the charge had been followed, in the next three months, by an increase in business of per cent. in prussia, in , a reduction of the charge by per cent. had, in the first month, increased the number of messages by per cent. the increase in business always had followed immediately, said mr. scudamore, showing that new classes of people took up the use of the telegraphs. finally, mr. scudamore stated that in , the proportion borne by the total of telegrams sent to the aggregate of letters sent, had been: in belgium, one telegram for every letters; in switzerland, one telegram for every letters; and in the united kingdom, one telegram for every letters. the relative failure of the people of the united kingdom to use the telegraph freely, mr. scudamore ascribed to the high charges made by the telegraph companies, and to the restricted facilities offered by the companies. in , the british companies were charging cents for a twenty-word message, over distances not exceeding miles; cents for distances between and miles; and cents for distances exceeding miles. for messages passing between great britain and ireland, the charge ranged from $ . to $ . . in all cases the addresses of the sender and of the sendee were carried free. [sidenote: _promise of lower charges and better service_] the government proposed to make a uniform charge of cents for twenty words, irrespective of distance. mr. scudamore stated that he fully expected that in two or three years the government would reduce its charge to cents. the only reason why the government did not propose to adopt immediately the last mentioned rate, was the desire not to overcrowd the telegraphs at the start before there had been the chance to learn with what volume of traffic the existing plant and staff could cope.[ ] in there was in the united kingdom one telegraph office for every , people. the government promised to inaugurate the nationalization of the telegraphs by giving one office for every , people.[ ] in the shortest time possible, the government would open a telegraph office at every money order issuing post office. at that time the practice was to establish a money order office wherever there was the prospect of two money orders being issued a day; and in some instances such offices were established on the prospect of one order a day. the contention that the public interest demanded a great increase in the number of telegraph offices, mr. scudamore supported by citing the number of offices in belgium and france. in the former country there were upward of telegraph offices which despatched less than one telegram a day. in fact, some offices despatched less than one a month. the belgium government, in figuring the cost of the telegraph department, charged that department nothing whatever for office rent, or for fire, light and office fittings; nor did it charge the smaller offices anything for the time given by the state railway employees and the postal employees to the telegraph department. in france there were telegraph offices that took in less than $ a year; offices that took in from $ to $ ; and offices that took in from $ to $ . mr. scudamore over and again assured the parliamentary select committee of that the telegraphs in the hands of the state would be self-supporting from the start, and that ultimately they would be a considerable source of revenue. but he supported his indictment of the telegraph companies of the united kingdom by drawing upon the experience of the state telegraphs of belgium, switzerland, and france, under very low rates on inland telegrams, as distinguished from telegrams in transit, or telegrams to and from foreign countries. in taking that course, mr. scudamore ignored the fact that the inland rates in question were not remunerative. [sidenote: _belgium's experience_] the belgium state telegraphs had been opened in . in the years to , they had earned, upon an average, . per cent. a year upon their cost. in the period to , they had earned, upon an average, . per cent. in to , the annual earnings fell to an average of . per cent.; and in to , they reached an average of . per cent. only. the reasons for that rapid and steady decline of the net earnings were: the opening of relatively unprofitable lines and offices; increases in wages which the government could not withhold; a slackening in the rate of growth of the profits on the so-called foreign messages and transit messages; and a rapid increase in the losses upon the inland messages, which were carried at low rates for the purpose of stimulating traffic. at an early date the belgium government concluded that the first three of the four factors just enumerated were beyond the control of the state, and therefore permanent. it resolved, therefore, to attempt to neutralize them by developing the inland traffic to such proportions that it should become a source of profit, that traffic having been, up to that time, a source of loss. accordingly, on january st, , the government lowered the charge on inland messages from cents for words, addresses included, to cents. as that reduction did not prove sufficiently effective, the charge on inland messages was reduced, on december st, , to cents for words. under that reduction the loss incurred upon the inland messages rose from an annual average of $ , in to , to an annual average of $ , in to ; and the average annual return upon the capital invested fell to . per cent. this evidence was before mr. scudamore when he argued from the experience of belgium in favor of a uniform rate, irrespective of distance, of cents for words, not counting the addresses. mr. scudamore shared the opinion of the belgium government that the rate of cents would so stimulate the traffic as to become very profitable. as a matter of fact, things went from bad to worse in belgium, and for many years the belgian state telegraphs failed to earn operating expenses.[ ] by way of explanation it should be added that the so-called transit messages and foreign messages were profitable for two reasons. in the first place, the belgian government kept high the rates on those messages. in the second place, those messages are carried much more cheaply than inland messages. the transit messages, say from germany to england, have only to be retransmitted; they are not received across the counter, nor are they delivered across the counter and by messenger. the foreign messages are burdened with only one of the two foregoing relatively costly operations. in the belgian government stated that, if the cost to the telegraph department of a given number of words transmitted as a message in transit be represented by two, the corresponding cost of the same number of words received and transmitted as a foreign message would be represented by three, while the cost of the same number of words received and transmitted as an inland message would be represented by five. [sidenote: _swiss experience_] the swiss state telegraphs, the experience of which mr. scudamore also cited in support of his report, were opened in ; and in the period from to they earned, on an average, per cent. upon their cost. throughout that period the average receipts per inland messages were cents, and the average receipts per foreign message were cents. in the year the average receipts per message were cents for inland messages, and cents for foreign and transit messages, which constituted per cent. of the traffic. in the following year, , the average receipts upon the inland traffic remained unchanged; while those upon the foreign and transit traffic, per cent. of the total traffic, fell to cents. this reduction of per cent. in the average receipts upon the foreign and transit traffic, caused a decline of per cent. in the total net receipts, and reduced the earnings upon the capital from . per cent. in , to . per cent. in . thus far the receipts from the inland messages had not covered the operating expenses incurred on account of those messages. the profits, which had been very large, had come from the foreign messages and messages in transit.[ ] the government, alarmed at the decline in profits resulting from the fall in the average receipts per message in the foreign and transit traffic, resolved upon a special effort to stimulate the growth of the inland traffic. accordingly, on january st, , it lowered the rates on inland messages of words, address counted, from cents to cents. the inland traffic immediately doubled; but the cost of handling it more than doubled. the increase in the traffic necessitated the stringing of additional wires, and the employment of more instruments, linemen, telegraphers and office clerks. at the same time the government was obliged to concede all round increases of wages and salaries, in consequence of the general increase in the cost of living which accompanied the world-wide revival of trade ushered in by the discovery of gold in california and australia, the introduction of steamships upon the high seas, and the building of railways in all parts of the world. the inland messages increased by leaps and bounds from , in to , , in ; and still the receipts from them did not cover the operating expenses. in and , for example, those expenses averaged cents per message. accordingly, in , the government adopted a new scale of charges on inland messages, to wit: an initial charge of cents per message, to which was added . cent for every word transmitted. the government assumed that the average length of the inland messages would be words; and that the average receipts per message would be cents. it hoped soon to reduce the average cost per message below cents, and hoped thus to make the inland traffic remunerative. but those expectations never were realized; and to this day the inland messages have been carried at a loss.[ ] [sidenote: _french experience_] in , the french state telegraphs reduced the rate for messages of words, counting the address, to cents for intradepartmental[ ] messages, and to cents for interdepartmental messages. in the average receipts per message were: cents on the inland traffic; $ . on the foreign traffic; and . cents on the traffic as a whole. with these average receipts per message, the earnings were $ , , ; while the operating expenses were $ , , . in other words, the state telegraphs lost $ , on the working, besides failing to earn any interest on the capital invested in them, $ , , . in making the foregoing statement, no allowance is made for the value of the messages sent "on public service," messages for which the state would have been obliged to pay, had the telegraphs been owned or operated by companies. no such allowance can be made, because the several official french statements submitted by mr. scudamore as to the number of messages sent "on public service" applied to the years and , years for which the operating expenses were not given. furthermore, the messages sent on public service in and were so numerous as to indicate so loose a construction of the term "on public service" as to make the returns worthless for the purpose of determining the commercial value of the saving resulting to the state from the public ownership of the telegraphs. for , the number of messages "on public service" was returned as , , the equivalent of per cent. of the number of messages sent by the public. for , the number was returned as , , the equivalent of . per cent. of the messages sent by the public. that those figures represented an unreasonable resource to the telegraph for the transaction of the state's business, is proved by the fact that in the united kingdom, in the period to , the value of the messages sent "on public service" was equivalent to less than per cent. of the sums paid by the public for the transmission of telegraphic messages. on the basis of any reasonable use of the telegraphs "on public service," the financial results of the french state telegraphs would not have been altered materially. the deficit, in , on account of operating expenses, $ , , was sufficient to permit of the sending of , messages "on public service," the equivalent of per cent. of the messages sent by the public. it would be unreasonable to assume that the state could have need of such recourse to the telegraphs. [sidenote: _summary of foreign experience_] to sum up the evidence from belgium, switzerland, and france, submitted by mr. scudamore in to : this evidence was that rates of cents and cents for words, applied to inland messages, developed an enormous inland traffic, but that that traffic was unremunerative. so long as the rates on foreign messages and transit messages had remained very much higher than the rates on inland messages, the belgian and swiss state telegraphs had paid handsomely. but as soon as the latter rates had approached the level of the former rates, the net revenue had tumbled headlong; and there was, in and , no certainty that it would not disappear entirely, or be reduced to such proportions as no longer to afford an adequate return upon the capital invested in the telegraphs. in the case of france, no evidence was presented that the state telegraphs ever had paid their way, though the prices obtained for the transmission of foreign messages and transit messages were between three and four times the returns obtained from the transmission of inland messages. [sidenote: _english companies' experience_] while the evidence from belgium, switzerland and france, presented by mr. scudamore, did not support the proposition of a low uniform rate, irrespective of distance, the evidence furnished by the experience of the telegraph companies of the united kingdom pointed strongly to the conclusion that a uniform rate, irrespective of distance, of cents for words, addresses not counted, was not remunerative in the then state of efficiency of the telegraph. in this connection it must be borne in mind that at this time messages had to be retransmitted at intervals of or miles; and that, while the maximum distance a message could travel was only miles in belgium, and miles in switzerland, it was miles in the united kingdom. in the telegraph business of the united kingdom was in the hands of two companies which had been organized in and respectively: the electric and international telegraph company, and the british and irish magnetic telegraph company. in that year, , a new company, the united kingdom electric telegraph company, invaded the field with a uniform tariff, irrespective of distance, of cents for words, addresses free. the established companies had been charging cents for distances up to miles; cents for distances up to miles; cents for distances up to miles; cents for distances up to miles; cents for distances up to miles; and $ . for distances up to miles.[ ] the united kingdom company began operations in with a trunk line between london, birmingham, manchester, liverpool and intermediate and neighboring towns. shortly afterward it opened a second trunk line from london to northampton, leicester, nottingham, sheffield, barnsley, wakefield, leeds and hull; and across through bradford, halifax, rochdale, and huddersfield to manchester and liverpool. subsequently the company extended its line to edinburgh and glasgow, thus lengthening to upward of miles, the distance over which messages were transmitted for cents.[ ] in july , the board of directors reported as follows to the stockholders: "the directors much regret to state that, notwithstanding their earnest efforts to develop telegraphic communication so as to render the shilling [ cent] rate remunerative, the company has been unable to earn a dividend. the system of the company consists of trunk lines almost exclusively embracing nearly all the main centres of business, telegraphically speaking, of the country. seeing that the company was working under the greatest possible advantages, and that upward of four years had elapsed since the formation of the company without the payment of any dividend to the proprietary, the directors conceived that they would not be justified in continuing the shilling [ cent] system, and arrangements were therefore agreed to for its alteration. the directors waited until the last moment before reluctantly adopting this step, but having sought publicity in every way, having persistently canvassed in every department of business, and having endeavored by personal solicitations of numerous active agents to attract trade, they at last saw themselves compelled to agree to a measure that was greatly antagonistic to their personal wishes, but absolutely essential for the well-being of the company, and requisite, as they believe, for the permanent interests of the telegraphing community." in , the united kingdom telegraph company joined with its competitors, the electric and international telegraph company, and the british and irish magnetic telegraph company, in the following rates for words, addresses free: cents for distances up to miles; cents for distances between and miles; and cents for distances beyond miles. in july, , the directors of the united kingdom telegraph company reported that in the last half-year "the company earned an amount of profit equal to per cent. dividend over the whole of its share capital." when the united kingdom company had entered the field, in , with the cent rate, the old established companies, the electric and international and the british and irish magnetic, had been compelled to adopt the cent rate between all points reached by the united kingdom company. in february, , the directors of the electric and international company reported that the cent circuit between london, liverpool, manchester and birmingham still was unremunerative. the company was losing money on every message transmitted, though the cent rate had increased business to such an extent that the company had been obliged to add two wires to the circuit in question. since the business done by means of the additional wires did not pay, the directors had charged the cost of those wires to operating expenses, not to capital account. the company did not care for the business, but could not refuse to take it. in july, , the directors reported: "after a trial of four years, the experiment of a uniform shilling rate [on certain circuits] irrespective of distance, has not justified itself." the half yearly reports of the british and irish magnetic company from to reported that "for any but very short distances," the cent tariff was "utterly unremunerative." the effect of the rate was to absorb in unavoidable additional expenses a very large portion of the increase in revenue coming from the increase in business. in the london district telegraph company was organized for the purpose of transmitting telegraph messages between points in metropolitan london. in the company had stations and . miles of line; and it carried , messages. in it had offices and miles of line, and it carried , messages. in the company reached its highest point, carrying , messages. the company at that time had miles of line and offices. the london district telegraph company began with a tariff of cents for words, and cents for a message of words with a reply message of words. it soon changed its tariff to cents for words, experience having shown that words was an insufficient allowance.[ ] subsequently the company added porterage charges for delivery beyond a certain distance. in , the company raised its tariff to cents. the company never earned operating expenses; and in november, , its shares, upon which $ had been paid in, fluctuated between $ . and $ . .[ ] mr. robert grimston, chairman of the electric and international telegraph company, in commented as follows upon the experience of the london district telegraph company. "a very strong argument against the popular fancy that the introduction of a low rate of charge in towns and country districts would induce the shopkeepers and the lower classes to use the telegraph is furnished by the example of the london district telegraph company. a better or a wider field than the metropolitan for an illustration of this theory could not surely be furnished. the facts, however, being, that after several years of struggling existence, the tariff being first fixed at cents, and then at cents, the company has never paid its way." footnotes: [ ] _a report to the postmaster general upon certain proposals which have been made for transferring to the post office the control and management of the electric telegraphs throughout the united kingdom, july, _; _supplementary report to the postmaster general upon the proposal for transferring to the post office the control and management of the electric telegraphs, february, _; _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill, _; and _report from the select committee on the telegraphic bill, _. unless otherwise stated, all the material statements made in this chapter are taken from the foregoing official documents. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , . [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill, _; q. and . [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill, _; q. ; and _report from the select committee on the telegraphic bill, _; q. . [ ] _report from the select committee on the telegraphic bill, _; q. ; and _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill, _; q. . [ ] _supplementary report to the postmaster general upon the proposal for transferring to the post office the control and management of the electric telegraphs_, ; and sir james anderson, in _journal of the statistical society_, september, . belgian state telegraphs ====+====================+====================+==================== | inland messages | foreign messages |messages in transit ----+-----+--------+-----+-----+--------+-----+-----+--------+----- | cost|receipts| loss| cost|receipts| gain| cost|receipts| gain | per| per| per| per| per| per| per| per| per | mes-| mes-| mes-| mes-| mes-| mes-| mes-| mes-| mes- | sage| sage| sage| sage| sage| sage| sage| sage| sage ====+=====+========+=====+=====+========+=====+=====+========+===== cents ====+=====+========+=====+=====+========+=====+=====+========+===== | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . ====+=====+========+=====+=====+========+=====+=====+========+===== [ ] _archiv für post und telegraphie_, , p. . [ ] _archiv für post und telegraphie_, , p. . [ ] for administrative purposes france is divided into so-called "departments." [ ] _journal of the statistical society_, march, . the tariff of the electric and international co., for words (addresses not counted after ), was as follows: in , and for some years after, the charge was cents a mile for the first miles; cent a mile for the second miles; and cents for each mile beyond miles. in the maximum charge for words was reduced to $ . ; early in it was reduced to $ . ; and in november, , it was reduced to cents for miles, and $ . for distances beyond miles. --------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+ | | | | -------+------+-------+------+-------+------+-------+------+ miles | $ | miles | $ | miles | $ | miles | $ | -------+------+-------+------+-------+------+-------+------+ | . | | . | | . | | | | . | | . | | | | | | . | | . | | . | | . | and| . | | . | | . | to | | beyond| | | . | and| | | . | | | and| . | beyond| . | and| . | | | beyond| | | | beyond| | -------+------+-------+------+-------+------+-------+------+ -----------------------------------+--------+--------------+ | | | -----------------------------------+--------+--------------+ | $ | $ | to ireland, by marine cable | . | . to . | ===================================+========+==============+ in february, , two years after the uniform rate of cents, irrespective of distance, had been put in force by the government, the telegraph department made a careful examination of , messages sent from the large cities to all parts of the united kingdom. the average charge per message was found to be cents; under the rates enforced by the telegraph companies in , the average charge would have been cents.--_report of the postmaster general_ for . [ ] the united kingdom telegraph co. ========+=============+=============+=========+===========+ | | |number of| number of | |miles of line|miles of wire| offices | messages | --------+-------------+-------------+---------+-----------+ | | | | , | | | | | , | | | | | , | | | | | , | | | | | , | ========+=============+=============+=========+===========+ [ ] _journal of statistical society_, march, . [ ] _miscellaneous statistics for the united kingdom_, , , and - ; _parliamentary paper_ no. , session of - ; and _journal of the statistical society_, march, . london district telegraph co. =======+========+========+=========+========== |miles of|miles of|number of|number of | line | wire | offices | messages -------+--------+--------+---------+---------- | | | | , | | | | , | | | | , | | | | , | | | | , | | | | , | | | | , | | | | , | | | | =======+========+========+=========+========== chapter iii the alleged break-down of _laissez-faire_ early history of telegraphy in great britain. the adequacy of private enterprise. mr. scudamore's loose use of statistics. mr. scudamore's test of adequacy of facilities. telegraphic charges and growth of traffic in great britain. the alleged wastefulness of competition. the telegraph companies' proposal. upon the foregoing evidence, taken from the experience of the state telegraphs of belgium, switzerland, and france, and from the experience of the telegraph companies of the united kingdom, mr. scudamore reached the conclusion that in telegraphy, in the united kingdom, private enterprise had broken down. he stated his conclusion in these words: "it is clearly shown, i think, ... that the cardinal distinction between the telegraph system of the united kingdom and the systems of belgium and switzerland is this: that the latter have been framed and maintained solely with a view to the accommodation of the public, whilst the former has been devised and maintained mainly with a view to the interests of shareholders, and only indirectly for the benefit of the public." these words were intended to convey, and they did convey, the meaning that the policy of _laissez-faire_ had broken down. that policy rests on the assumption that in the long run, and upon the whole, the public interest is conserved and promoted by the activities of the individual citizens who are seeking to promote their personal fortunes--by the activities of "the mere speculator and dividend seeker"--to employ the phrase that came into common use in to , and ever since, has been made to do yeoman service. let us test by the evidence--of which a large part is to be found tucked away in the appendices to mr. scudamore's reports--this conclusion that in telegraphy, in the united kingdom, private enterprise had broken down, and the policy of _laissez-faire_ had been discredited. the first thing to note in this connection is, that in the case of telegraphy, as in the case of so many other british industries, public ownership has been a parasite. it has been unwilling to assume the risk and burden of establishing the industry, and has contented itself with purchasing "ready-made" the industry after it had been developed by private enterprise. when mr. ronalds attempted to interest the british government in telegraphy, he was told "that the telegraph was of no use in times of peace, and that the semaphore in time of war answered all the required purposes."[ ] in , british individuals and companies began to stake their money upon the telegraph in great britain; and in they even carried the telegraph industry to continental europe, notably to belgium. in and , the governments of france, belgium and switzerland, profiting by the losses suffered, and the technical advances made, by british individuals and companies, appropriated, so far as their countries were concerned, the new industry. [sidenote: _history of british telegraphy_] the electric and international telegraph company was formed in , out of the reorganization of properties, that in had embarked in telegraphy in england, and in had carried the telegraph industry to belgium.[ ] at this time the use of the telegraph was confined almost exclusively to railway purposes, such as train signalling. the possibility of use for commercial purposes was so little appreciated by the public, that the electric and international company, after purchasing, in , messrs. cooke and wheatstone's inventions, was looked upon as a complete commercial failure. the shares of the company for several years were almost valueless; the chief source of revenue then being contracts obtained from railway companies for the construction and maintenance of railway telegraphs. between and great improvements were made in telegraphy, and the public gradually learned to use the telegraph. in the electric and international declared its first dividend, mainly the result of the contracts with the railway companies. in november, , a cable was laid between dover and calais; for the first time the prices of the stock exchange securities in paris were known the same day within business hours on the london stock exchange; and the financial and trading interests became convinced of the value of the telegraph.[ ] the electric and international company began in with a capital, paid in, of $ , , which had been increased, by the close of , to $ , , . the company grew steadily, and in it had , miles of line, and , miles of wire. in march, , when the company had a record of five years for dividends ranging from to . per cent. on the capital paid in, the stock of the company was selling at , which showed that the investing public deemed the returns inadequate, considering the risks attaching to the business. in january, , when the company had a record of three years as a per cent. company, the stock still stood under par--at . . in the company paid per cent., in it paid per cent., and in to it paid per cent.[ ] the british and irish magnetic telegraph company was formed in by amalgamation of the magnetic telegraph company, organized in , and the british telegraph company, organized in . in march, , the magnetic had a paid up capital of $ , , , which was worth cents on the dollar; and the british company had a paid up capital of $ , , , which was worth . cents on the dollar. in january, , the amalgamated company was paying . per cent., and its shares were worth . . in the british and irish raised the dividend to per cent.; in to per cent., and in to . per cent. in the stock sold at to ; and in at to . in the company had , miles of line, and , miles of wire. the united kingdom telegraph company was organized in , and began operations in . in november, , its shares were worth from cents to cents on the dollar. at that time the company had , miles of line, and about , miles of wire. the london district telegraph company, which subsequently became the london and provincial, began business in with offices in metropolitan london. in it increased the number of its offices to ; and at the time of its sale to the state, it had offices. the company never earned operating expenses. it began by charging cents for words; later on it charged cents for words; and in it raised its charge to cents. very little new capital was invested by the telegraph companies after , because of "the very natural reluctance of the companies to extend the systems under their control so long as the proposal of the acquisition of those systems by the state was under consideration," to use the words of mr. scudamore. [sidenote: _adequate results of private enterprise_] the foregoing facts show that private enterprise was ready throughout the period beginning with to incur considerable risks in establishing the new industry of telegraphy, and in giving to the public facilities for the use of that industry. private enterprise did not at any time adopt the policy of exploiting the public by confining itself to operations involving little or no risk, while paying well. it is true that once a company had reached the position of paying , , , , or more, per cent., it tried to maintain that position, and refrained from making extensions at such a rate as to cause a decrease in the dividend. but that fact does not warrant the charge that the companies neglected their duty to the public. until the threat of purchase by the state arrested extensions, and the dividends rose unusually rapidly, the earnings of the companies were moderate; and finally, though the companies tried to maintain whatever rate of dividend had once been attained, the investing public never believed that even the electric and international would maintain indefinitely the per cent. rate. that is shown by the fact that until the public began to speculate on the strength of the prospect of the state paying a big price for the property of the electric and international, the stock of that company never sold for more than years' purchase.[ ] had the public believed that the per cent. dividend would be maintained indefinitely, the stock would have risen to years' purchase, the price of the best railway shares. * * * * * [sidenote: _mr. scudamore's statistics_] in order to show that the people of the united kingdom suffered from a lack of telegraphic facilities, when compared with the people of belgium and switzerland, mr. scudamore stated in his reports of and , that there were: in belgium, . miles of telegraph line to every square miles; in switzerland, . ; and in the united kingdom, . . he stated, also, that there were in belgium . telegraph offices to every , people; in switzerland, . ; and in the united kingdom, . . mr. scudamore obtained the figures with regard to the united kingdom from the board of trade returns.[ ] for to , those returns were very incomplete; but in they became very full. mr. scudamore's reports of and were not ordered, by the house of commons, to be printed, until april, , when the completed board of trade returns were available. but neither in the reports as laid before parliament, nor in the testimony given before the select committee of parliament in , did mr. scudamore draw attention to the fact that the statement that the united kingdom had only . miles of telegraph line to every square miles of area, and . telegraph offices to every , people, was based on incomplete returns. the board of trade return for stated that the lancashire and yorkshire railway company had miles of telegraph lines and that various other companies not enumerated in , had, in , , miles of line. if it be assumed that in the period from to the lancashire and the other railway companies not enumerated in , increased their net at the same rate as did the three railway companies that were enumerated in , namely, per cent., there must have been, in , not less than , miles of telegraph line of which mr. scudamore took no account in fixing the total mileage at , miles. if it be further assumed that one-third of the , miles in question paralleled telegraph lines of the telegraph companies, there were left out of account in by mr. scudamore , miles of telegraph line, the equivalent of . miles per square miles of area. on the foregoing assumptions the mileage that should have been assigned to the united kingdom in was not . , but . . considerations similar to the foregoing ones, when applied to mr. scudamore's statement that there were, in , , telegraph stations, show that there probably were , telegraph stations in , a full allowance being made for duplication. the last named figure would have been equivalent to . telegraph offices for every , people as against . reported by mr. scudamore. the foregoing corrections probably err in the direction of understating the telegraph facilities existent in the united kingdom in . these corrected results show that in the matter of telegraph line per square miles of area, the united kingdom was abreast of switzerland in , though considerably behind belgium; and that, in the matter of telegraph offices per , people, it was almost abreast of switzerland, and considerably in advance of belgium. in this connection it is helpful to note that in , after the british government had spent about $ , , in rearranging and extending the telegraph lines, as against mr. scudamore's estimate of that $ , , would suffice for all rearrangements and extensions, the number of miles of telegraph line per square miles of area was, in the united kingdom, and . in belgium.[ ] [sidenote: _mr. scudamore's standards of service_] mr. scudamore submitted several other arguments in support of the statement that private enterprise had failed to provide the public with sufficient telegraphic facilities. he submitted a list of english and welsh towns, ranging in population from , to , , and stated in each case whether or not the town was a telegraph station; and if it was one, whether the telegraph office was, or was not, within the town limits. mr. scudamore summarized the facts elucidated, with the statement that per cent. of the towns were well served; that per cent. were indifferently served; that per cent. were badly served; that per cent. were not served at all; and that the towns not served at all had an aggregate population of more than , .[ ] mr. scudamore did not define his standards of good service, indifferent service, bad service, and absence of service; but examination of his data shows that his standards were so rigorous that the state of affairs revealed in his summary was by no means so bad as might appear at first sight. mr. scudamore took as the standard of good service, the presence of a telegraph office within the town limits. he characterized as indifferent the service of towns in which the telegraph office was within one-quarter of a mile of the post office, though outside of the town limits; as well as the service of towns in which the telegraph office was within one-half a mile of the post office, though outside of the town limits. he called the service bad in the case of towns in which the telegraph office was within three-quarters of a mile of the post office; as well as in the case of towns in which the telegraph office was one mile from the post office. he said there was no service whenever the distance of the telegraph office from the post office exceeded one mile. in this connection it should be added that the telegraph lines followed the railway; and that in consequence of the prejudice against railway companies in the early days, very many cities and towns refused to allow the railway to enter the city or town limits. mr. scudamore's data showed that there had been in not less than towns in which the distance between the post office and the nearest telegraph office exceeded one mile. in a foot-note, in the appendix, mr. scudamore stated that in , not less than of the towns had been given a railway telegraph office; but no mention of that fact did he make in the main body of the report, the only part of the document likely to be read even by the comparatively small number of the members of parliament who took the trouble to read the document at all. as for the writers of the newspaper press, and the general public, they accepted without exception the statement that in not less than per cent. of the towns in question, with an aggregate population of over , , had no telegraphic service. as a matter of fact the statement applied only to . per cent. of the towns, with an aggregate population of , ;[ ] and many of the towns that still were without service in would not have been in that condition, had not the agitation for the nationalization of the telegraphs arrested the investment of capital in telegraphs in the years to . distance of the telegraph station number of range of aggregate from the post towns population population office, miles . , to , , . , to , , . , to , , . , to , , . , to , , . , to , , . , , . , to , , . , , . , , . , , . , to , , . , to , , . , , . , to , , . , , . , to , , . , to , , . , , . , to , , . , , . , , . , , ? , , , mr. scudamore also submitted a table giving the total number of places with money order issuing post offices in england and wales, scotland and ireland; and stated what number of those places had respectively perfect telegraph accommodation, imperfect telegraphic accommodation, and no telegraphic accommodation.[ ] mr. scudamore contended that the public interest demanded that each one of those places should have at least one telegraph office, that office to be located as near the centre of population as was the post office. he submitted no argument in support of that proposition. but parliament and the public accepted the proposition with avidity, since mr. scudamore promised that the extension required to give such a service would not cost more than $ , , , about / or / of the total sum invested by the several telegraph companies. mr. scudamore also promised that, after the service had been thus extended, the total operating expenses of the state telegraphs would be less than per cent. of the gross receipts; that the state telegraphs would at least pay their way, and that they probably would yield a handsome profit. but when mr. scudamore came to extend the state telegraphs, he spent upon extensions, not $ , , , but about $ , , , and when the state came to operate the telegraphs, the operating expenses quickly ran up to per cent. of the gross receipts in three years, to . these errors of mr. scudamore justify the statement that he made no case whatever against the system of _laissez-faire_, or private ownership, on the ground of the extent of the facilities offered to the public, under the system of private ownership. for obviously it was one thing to condemn the telegraph companies for not building certain extensions, those extensions being estimated to cost only $ , , , and a different thing altogether to condemn the telegraph companies for refusing to build out of hand extensions that would cost $ , , and would be relatively unremunerative, if not absolutely unprofitable. [sidenote: _tariffs and growth of traffic_] it remains to consider whether the facts as to the charges made by the telegraph companies for the transmission of messages, and the facts as to the rate of increase in the number of messages transmitted, supported mr. scudamore's contention that the system of private ownership of the telegraphs had failed to conserve and promote the public interest. in , the electric and international telegraph company carried , messages, receiving on an average $ . per message. in , the year in which the scotch chambers of commerce began the agitation for nationalization, the company carried , messages, receiving on an average $ . per message. in , the year in which the telegraph companies abolished the rate of cents, irrespective of distance, that had been in force between the leading cities, and the chambers of commerce increased the agitation for purchase by the state, the electric and international carried , , messages, receiving on an average $ . a message. in the period from to , the messages carried by the company increased on an average by . per cent. a year; the average receipts per message decreased on an average by . per cent. a year; and the gross receipts of the company increased on an average by . per cent. a year. in the period to , the messages carried annually by the british and irish magnetic company grew from , to , , , an average annual growth of . per cent. at the same time the average receipts per message fell from $ . in , to $ . in . in the period from to , the number of messages carried annually by all of the telegraph companies of the united kingdom increased from , , , to , , , an average annual increase of . per cent. in the same period, from to , the telegrams sent in switzerland increased on an average by . per cent. each year; those sent in belgium increased on an average by . per cent.; and those sent in france increased on an average by . per cent. when one takes into consideration that in belgium, in , only per cent. of the messages transmitted related to stock exchange and commercial business, and that in france in the same year only per cent. of the messages sent related to industrial, commercial, and stock exchange transactions, there is nothing in the comparison between the rate of growth in the united kingdom on the one hand, and in the countries of continental europe on the other hand, to indicate that the use of the telegraphs for the purposes of trade and industry was held back in the united kingdom by excessive charges or by lack of telegraphic facilities. so far as the united kingdom lagged behind, it did so because the public had not learned to use the telegraphs freely for the transmission of personal and family news. and when, in , under state owned telegraphs, the public of the united kingdom had learned to use the telegraphs as freely as the public of continental europe used them, mr. w. stanley jevons, the eminent british political economist, in the course of a review of the price paid for this free use of the telegraphs, said: "a large part of the increased traffic on the government wires consists of complimentary messages, or other trifling matters, which we can have no sufficient motive for promoting. men have been known to telegraph for a clean pocket handkerchief"--mr. jevons, in to , had been an ardent advocate of nationalizing the telegraphs.[ ] * * * * * mr. scudamore in to caused many people to believe that the united kingdom was woefully behind the continental countries in the use of the telegraphs. he did so by publishing a table which showed that in there had been sent: in belgium, telegram to every letters carried by the post office; in switzerland, telegram to every letters; and in the united kingdom, telegram to every letters. that table, however, really proved nothing; for in , there were carried: in belgium, letters for every inhabitant; in switzerland, letters; and in the united kingdom, letters. had the people of belgium and switzerland written as many letters proportionately as the people of the united kingdom, the table prepared by mr. scudamore would have read: belgium, telegram for every letters; switzerland, telegram for every letters; and the united kingdom, telegram for every letters. mr. scudamore could, however, have prepared a table showing that the people of switzerland and belgium used the telegraph more freely than did the people of the united kingdom, but not so much more freely as to call for so drastic a remedy in the united kingdom as the nationalization of the telegraphs. the table in question would have shown that in , there was transmitted: in switzerland, telegram to every . inhabitants; in belgium, telegram to every . inhabitants; and in the united kingdom, telegram to every . inhabitants. the table in question would also have indicated the necessity of care in the use of the several kinds of statistics just put before the reader. the table placed switzerland in advance of belgium, while the other sets of statistics had placed belgium in advance of switzerland. * * * * * [sidenote: _alleged wastefulness of competition_] mr. scudamore's concluding argument was that little or no relief from the evils from which the public was suffering could be expected "so long as the working of the telegraphs was conducted by commercial companies striving chiefly to earn a dividend, and engaged in wasteful competition." in support of the charge of wasteful competition he stated "that many large districts are provided with duplicate and triplicate lines, worked by different companies, but taking much the same course and serving precisely the same places; and that these duplicate or triplicate lines and duplicate or triplicate offices only divide the business without materially increasing the accommodation of the districts or towns which they serve." but when mr. scudamore sought to substantiate this charge of waste arising out of competition, he could do no more than state that not less than , miles of line in a total of , miles were redundant, and that perhaps to offices in a total of , offices were redundant. * * * * * the evidence presented by mr. scudamore failed to reveal a situation that called for so drastic a remedy as the nationalization of the telegraphs. it revealed no evils or shortcomings that it was unreasonable to expect would be sufficiently mitigated, if not entirely removed, by the measures proposed by the telegraph companies. mr. robert grimston, chairman of the electric and international telegraph company, stated that the telegraph companies long since would have asked parliament to permit them to consolidate, had there been the least likelihood of parliament granting the request. consolidation would have made the resulting amalgamated company so strong that the company would have been justified in adopting a bolder policy in the matter of extending the telegraph lines to places remote from the railways. no single company could afford to assume too large a burden of lines that would begin as "suckers" rather than "feeders." a company with a large burden of that kind would be in a precarious position, because any of the other existing companies, or some new company, might take advantage of the situation and cut heavily into that part of the company's business that was carried on between the large cities and was bearing the burden of the non-paying extensions. but if the existing companies were to consolidate, the resulting company would become so strong that it need not fear such competition from any company newly to be organized. that there was much strength in that argument appears from the fact that, in , mr. scudamore as well as the government adopted it in support of the request that the state be given the monopoly of the business of transmitting messages by electricity. mr. scudamore argued that since the state was going to assume the burden of building and operating a large number of unprofitable, or relatively unprofitable, extensions, it should not be exposed to the possibility of competition from companies organized for the purpose of tapping the profitable traffic between the large cities, "the very cream of the business." mr. scudamore added that he had been told that a company was on the verge of being organized for the purpose of competing for the business between the large towns as soon as the properties of the existing companies should have been transferred to the state.[ ] [sidenote: _the companies' proposal_] the telegraph companies proposed to give the public substantial safeguards against the possibility of being exploited by the proposed amalgamated company. they proposed that parliament should fix maximum charges for the transmission of messages, in conjunction with a limit on dividends that might be exceeded only on condition that the existing charges on messages be reduced by a stated amount every time that the dividend be raised a stated amount beyond the limit fixed. the companies proposed also that shares to be issued in the future should be sold at public auction, and that any premiums realized from such sales should be invested in the plant with the condition that they should not be entitled to any dividend. provisions such as these, at the time, were in force in the case of certain gas companies and water companies. they have for years past been incorporated in all gas company charters; and they have worked well. there was no reason, in to , why the proposals of the telegraph companies should not be accepted; that is, no reason from the view-point of the man who hesitated to exchange the evils and shortcomings incident to private ownership for the evils and shortcomings incident to public ownership. footnotes: [ ] _the edinburgh review_, july, . [ ] _annales télégraphiques_, , p. . the company obtained a concession covering the whole of belgium. in september, , it opened a line between brussels and antwerpen. the tariff charged was low, but the line was so unprofitable that, in , the company declined to build from brussels to quiévrain, where connection was to be made with a proposed french telegraph line. [ ] _journal of statistical society_, march, . [ ] _statistical journal_, september, , and current issues of _the economist_ (london). [ ] _journal of the statistical society_, september, . [ ] _miscellaneous statistics for the united kingdom_, - , and _parliamentary paper_, no. , session - . length of electric telegraphs belonging to railway companies and telegraph companies respectively. in placing the total mileage of telegraph line at , , in , mr. scudamore excluded the mileage of the london, chatham, and dover railway company. ===============================+========+========+========+========+ railway companies: | | | | | -------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ lancashire & yorkshire | not | stated | | | london, brighton & south coast | | | | | london, chatham & dover | | | | | south eastern railway | | | | | other railway companies | not | stated | ... | , | +--------+--------+--------+--------+ total returned | | | , | , | -------------------------------+ | | | | electric telegraph companies: | | | | | | | | | | electric & international | , | , | , | , | british & irish magnetic | , | , | , | , | the united kingdom | , | , | , | , | the london district | | | | | so. western of ireland | not | stated | ... | | +--------+--------+--------+--------+ total of companies | , | , | , | , | +--------+--------+--------+--------+ grand total returned | , | , | , | , | ===============================+========+========+========+========+ [ ] in the _fortnightly review_, december, , mr. w. s. jevons, the eminent british statistician and economist, stated that the telegraph mileage was , miles. this statement is accepted in the absence of any official information. from to neither the _reports of the postmaster general_, nor the _statistical abstracts_, nor the _board of trade returns_ stated the mileage of telegraph lines; only the total mileage of telegraph wires was published. [ ] mr. scudamore's percentage figures, in some instances, were only roughly correct. [ ] see table on page . [ ] england and wales scotland ireland number of places having post offices that issued money orders , number of such places having: perfect telegraph accommodation imperfect accommodation no accommodation [ ] _the fortnightly review_, december, ; and _transactions of the manchester statistical society_, - . [ ] _report from the select committee on the telegraphic bill_, : q. to . in , mr. scudamore and the government had said that the state ought not to be given the monopoly of the telegraph business. _special report from the select committee on the telegraphs bill_, ; q. and following, and , and , and following. chapter iv the purchase of the telegraphs upon inadequate consideration the disraeli ministry estimated at $ , , to $ , , the cost of nationalization. political expediency responsible for government's inadequate investigation. the government raises its estimate to $ , , ; adding that it could afford to pay $ , , to $ , , . mr. goschen, m. p., and mr. leeman, m. p., warn the house of commons against the government's estimates, which had been prepared by mr. scudamore. the gladstone ministry, relying on mr. scudamore, estimates at $ , , the "reversionary rights" of the railway companies, for which rights the state ultimately paid $ , , to $ , , . on april , , the disraeli government brought into parliament a "bill to enable the postmaster general to acquire, work, and maintain electric telegraphs in the united kingdom."[ ] at this time the government still was ignorant of the precise relations existing between the telegraph companies and the railways; and it did not foresee that the purchase of the assets of the telegraph companies would lead to the purchase of the reversionary rights of the railways in the telegraphs, the telegraphs having been, for the most part, erected on the lands of the railways, under leases of way-leaves that still had to run, on an average, . years. at this time, therefore, the government contemplated only the purchase of the electric and international company, the british and irish company, the united kingdom company, and the london and provincial, the successor of the london district telegraph company. [sidenote: _purchase price estimated at $ , , to $ , , _] in the course of the debate upon the order for the second reading of the bill, the chancellor of the exchequer, mr. g. w. hunt, said that "if the house would excuse him, he would rather not enter fully into details with respect to the purchase at present. but he would say that, speaking roughly, it would take something near $ , , , or, at all events, between $ , , and $ , , for the purchase and the necessary extensions of the lines." he added that if the purchase should be made, the telegraphs would yield a net revenue of $ , , a year; and that sum would suffice to pay the interest on the debt to be contracted, and to clear off that debt in twenty-nine years.[ ] parliament was to be prorogued in august; and a general election was to follow prorogation. the government naturally was anxious to avoid having to go into the general election without having achieved the nationalization of the telegraphs; particularly, since the opposition party also had committed itself to state purchase. then again, the government believed that the value of the telegraphs was increasing so rapidly that the state would lose money by any postponement of the act of purchase. for these reasons the government entered into negotiations with the various interests that evinced a disposition to oppose in parliament the government's bill, until finally all opposition was removed. [sidenote: _politics forces government's hand_] the bill, as introduced, proposed that the state pay the four telegraph companies enumerated, the money actually invested by them--about $ , , --together with an allowance for the prospective increase of the earnings of the companies, and an additional allowance for compulsory sale. the last two items were to be fixed by an arbitrator who was to be appointed by the board of trade. the companies flatly rejected this offer, pointing, by way of precedent, to the act of , which fixed the terms to be given to the railways, should the state at any time resolve upon the compulsory purchase of the railways. the act in question prescribed: "twenty-five years' purchase of the average annual divisible profits for three years before such purchase, provided these profits shall equal or exceed per cent. on the capital; and, if not, the railway company shall be at liberty to claim any further sum for anticipated profits, to be fixed by arbitration." the government next offered the companies the highest market price reached by the stock of the companies on the london stock exchange up to may , , plus an allowance for prospective profits, to be fixed by arbitration. the companies rejected that offer, but accepted the next one, namely, twenty years' purchase of the profits of the year that was to end with june , .[ ] mr. w. h. smith, one of the most highly esteemed members of the house of commons, who was himself a director in the electric and international, subsequently spoke as follows of these negotiations: "in the telegraph companies were by no means desirous to part with their property, but the question whether the government should be in possession of the telegraphs having been forced on their consideration, the three principal companies very reluctantly came to an arrangement with the government of the day. he did not wish to express any opinion on the bargain which had been made, and would only say for himself and those with whom he was associated, that they very deeply regretted to be obliged to part with property which had been profitable, and which they had great pleasure in managing."[ ] mr. smith added that the net earnings of the electric and international had increased from $ , in , to $ , in ; and that the average annual increase per cent. had been . per cent. the state of the public mind at the time when the government introduced its bill, was indicated in the issue of april , , of _the economist_, the leading financial newspaper of great britain. said the journal in question: "even if the companies resist, they will not be very powerful opponents--firstly, because the leaders of both parties have already sanctioned the scheme; and, secondly, because the companies are exceptionally unpopular. there is, probably, no interest in the kingdom which is so cordially disliked by the press, which, when united, is stronger than any interest, and which has suffered for years under the shortcomings of the private companies. the real discussion in parliament, should there be any, will turn upon a very different point, and it will be not a little interesting to observe how far the current of opinion on the subject of state interference with private enterprise, has really ebbed within the last few years. twelve or fourteen years ago it would have been useless for any chancellor of the exchequer to propose such an operation.... it was [at that time] believed on all sides that state interference was wrong, because it shut out the private speculators from the natural reward of their energy and labor." before the select committee of the house of commons to which was referred the government's bill, mr. scudamore argued that if parliament could not make a reasonable bargain with the telegraph companies, it could authorize the post office to build a system of telegraphs. but that measure ought to be adopted only as a last resource. it was of paramount importance to avoid shaking the confidence of the investors that private enterprise would be allowed to reap the full benefits of its enterprise, and that it would be exposed to nothing more than the ordinary vicissitudes of trade. that the possibility of competition by the state, by means of money taken from the people by taxation, never had been included within the ordinary vicissitudes of trade. coming to the question of paying twenty years' purchase of the profits of the year - , mr. scudamore said: "the telegraphs are so much more valuable a property than we originally believed, that if you do not buy them this year, you unquestionably will have to pay $ , , more for them next year.... their [average] annual growth of profit is certainly not less than ten per cent. at present. if you wait till next year and only give them nineteen years' purchase, you will give them more than you will now give. if you wait two years, and give them eighteen years' purchase, you will still give them more than you will now give, assuming the annual growth of profit to be the same. if you wait four years, and give them sixteen years' purchase, you will again give them more, and in addition you will have lost the benefit accruing in the four years, which would have gone into their pockets instead of coming into the pockets of the nation."[ ] [sidenote: _purchase price estimated at $ , , _] in the house of commons, the chancellor of the exchequer, mr. g. w. hunt, said: "the terms agreed upon, although very liberal, were not more liberal than they should be under the circumstances, and did not offer more than an arbitrator would have given. the companies had agreed to sell at twenty years' purchase of present net profits, although those profits were increasing at the rate of per cent. a year. he was satisfied the more the house looked into the matter, the more they would be satisfied with the bargain made."[ ] the chancellor of the exchequer continued with the statement that mr. scudamore estimated that the postmaster general would obtain from the telegraphs a net revenue of $ , , at the minimum, and $ , , at the maximum. the mean of those estimates was $ , , , which sum would pay the interest and sinking fund payments-- . per cent. in all--on $ , , . the government, therefore, could afford to pay $ , , for the telegraphs. indeed, on the basis of the maximum estimate of net revenue, it could pay $ , , . but mr. scudamore confidently fixed at $ , , at the maximum, the price that the government would have to pay. mr. scudamore's estimates of net revenue "would stand any amount of examination by the house, as they had stood very careful scrutiny by the select committee, and for the government to carry out the scheme would not only prove safe but profitable." by this time the government had learned that it would be necessary to purchase the reversionary rights of the railway companies in the business of the telegraph companies. the government had agreed with the railway companies upon the terms under which it was to be left to arbitration how much should be paid for those reversionary rights. the chancellor of the exchequer stated that he was unwilling to divulge the government's estimates of what sums would be awarded under the arbitration; for, if he did divulge them, they might be used against the government before the arbitrators. "but mr. scudamore, whose ability with regard not only to this matter, but also to other matters, had been of great service to the government, had given considerable attention to the matter, and mr. scudamore believed that $ , , would be the outside figure" to be paid to the telegraph companies and the railway companies. the chancellor of the exchequer added that mr. scudamore's "calculations had been submitted to and approved by mr. foster, the principal finance officer of the treasury." in passing, it may be stated that mr. foster had stated before the select committee of the house of commons that he had given only "two or three days" to the consideration of the extremely difficult question of the value that the arbitrators would be likely to put upon the railway companies' reversionary rights.[ ] [sidenote: _parliament warned against government's estimates_] mr. goschen, of the banking firm of frühling and goschen, who had been a member of the select committee, and had taken an active part in its proceedings, replied that "the inquiry [by the committee] had been carried on under great disadvantages. an opposition, organized by private interests [the telegraph companies and the railway companies], had been changed into an organization of warm supporters of the bill pending the inquiry. before the committee there appeared counsel representing the promoters [_i. e._, the government], and, at first, counsel representing the original opposition to the bill [_i. e._ the telegraph and railway companies]; but in consequence of the change in the views of the opposition, who during the proceedings became friendly to the bill, there was no counsel present to cross-examine the witnesses. consequently, in the interests of the public, and in order that all the facts might be brought to light, members of the committee [chiefly mr. goschen and mr. leeman] had to discharge the duty of cross-examining the witnesses. the same causes led to the result that the witnesses produced were all on one side." ...[ ] mr. goschen emphasized the fact that upon the expiring of the telegraph companies' leases of rights of way over the railways, the reversionary rights of the railways would come into play, and that the government, after having paid twenty years' purchase to the telegraph companies, "would probably have to pay half as much again to the railways." "the railways had felt the strength of their position so much, that they had pointed out to the committee that they would not only be entitled to an increase in the rate which they now received [as rent from the telegraph companies] as soon as the leases expired, but they would also be entitled to an indemnification [from the state] for the loss they would sustain in not being allowed [in consequence of the nationalization of the telegraphs] to put the screw on the telegraph companies." mr. goschen said "he felt very strongly on this point because he was convinced that it was impossible to find an instance of any private enterprise which, while it returned a profit of per cent. to its shareholders, enjoyed a monopoly for any great length of time." if the government purchased the assets of the telegraph companies, the railway companies would succeed in compelling the state to share with them the great profits to be obtained from the business of telegraphy. they would do so by compelling the government to pay a big sum for their reversionary rights in the telegraph companies, as the price for abstaining from building up a telegraph business of their own, upon the expiry of the telegraph companies' leases. no business that yielded a return of per cent. could be worth twenty years' purchase, for such returns were very insecure, because of the certainty that competition would arise from persons who would be content with ten per cent., or less.[ ] mr. leeman, who had sat on the select committee, and had, with mr. goschen, done all of the cross-examining directed to bring out the points that told against the government's proposal, followed mr. goschen in the debate. he began by stating that he spoke with "twenty years' experience as a railway man;" and he directed his argument especially against the terms of the agreements made by the government to purchase the reversionary rights of the railways in the telegraph companies' businesses. "mr. scudamore, who was what he had already been described to be--a most able man--had not known, up to the time of the second reading of the bill [june , ], what were the existing arrangements between the telegraph companies and the railway companies; and, subsequently, while still without the requisite knowledge on that point,[ ] he went and agreed on the part of the government to buy the interest of the telegraph companies at years' purchase of their profits. in addition it was to be remembered that the railway companies had reversionary interests which would come into operation after comparatively short time for which their arrangements with the telegraph companies were to continue. in july, , mr. scudamore estimated the necessary outlay on the part of the government at $ , , . in february, , another officer of the government raised the estimate to $ , , ; but it was not until the bill came before the committee [july, ], that mr. scudamore said that $ , , would be required.... he [mr. leeman] undertook to say that mr. scudamore was as wide of the mark in his estimate of $ , , , as he had been in his estimate of $ , , . at the expiration of their agreements with the telegraph companies, several [all] of the railway companies would have it in their power to compete with the post office in the transmission of telegraphic messages. no doubt this fact would be brought under the notice of the arbitrators when the value of their reversion was being considered, and at what price would the arbitrators value this reversionary power of competition? had mr. scudamore made any estimate on the subject? owing to the position in which mr. scudamore had placed the government, the railway companies had demanded and had been promised terms in respect of their reversions, which he, as a railway man, now said it was the duty of any government to have resisted." ...[ ] [sidenote: _railway companies' reversionary rights_] for the better understanding of this question of reversions, it must be stated that the telegraph companies, for the most part, had erected their poles and wires on the permanent way of the railway companies, under leases of way-leaves, which, in , still had . years to run, on the average.[ ] as the leases should expire, the railway companies would have an opportunity to try to obtain better terms, or to order the companies to remove their plant, and then to erect their own plant, and themselves engage in the telegraph business. but the railway companies were handicapped by the fact that the leases did not expire together, and that it would be difficult to build up a new telegraph system piecemeal out of the parts of line that would become free in the next three years to twenty-nine years. there was, therefore, much room for difference of opinion on the question how far the railway companies would be able "to put the screw" on the telegraph companies upon the successive expirations of leases. the stock exchange doubtless took the contingency into consideration, that being one reason why the electric and international shares did not rise above fourteen years' purchase of the annual dividends. mr. scudamore, before the select committee, expressed the opinion that the railway companies could force the telegraph companies "to give them somewhat better terms; that would be the extreme result of any negotiations between the telegraph companies and the railway companies." to mr. foster, principal officer of the finance division of the treasury, whom the government called to support mr. scudamore's evidence, mr. leeman put the question: "looking at it as a financial question, do you suppose all the railways in the country, having power to work their telegraphs at the end of ten years, but for this bill, will not put in a claim for a very large sum in respect of that reversion?" the witness replied: "i do not think it would be of very great value in the first place, and in the next place it would be a value deferred for ten years, which would very much diminish it." to the further query: "you do not take the view that we shall have to pay the railway companies and also the telegraph companies for the same thing," he replied in the negative.[ ] shortly after the government's bill had been referred to the select committee, the government made the railway companies this proposition, which was accepted. the government was to acquire perpetual and exclusive way-leaves for telegraph lines over the railways, and the price to be paid therefor was to be left to arbitration. the railway companies were to have the choice of presenting their claims either under the head of payment for the cession of perpetual and exclusive way-leaves to the government; or, under the head of compensation for the loss of right to grant way-leaves to any one other than the government, as well as for the loss of right themselves to transmit messages, except on their own railway business. the government was of the opinion that the sums to be paid to the railways under this agreement would not be large enough to raise above $ , , , the total sum to be paid to the telegraph companies and the railways. parliament enacted the bill of authorizing the government to purchase the property of the telegraph companies and the rights of the railways; but it provided that the resulting act of should not take effect, unless, in the session of , parliament should put at the disposal of the postmaster general such monies as were required to carry out the provisions of the act of . the government immediately appointed a committee to ascertain the profits earned by the telegraph companies in the year that had ended with june, . the committee, which consisted of the receiver and accountant general of the post office, and other gentlemen selected from the post office for their general ability, but especially for their knowledge of accounts, in june and july, , reported that the aggregate of the sums to be paid to the six telegraph companies was $ , , ,[ ] the companies having put in claims aggregating $ , , . while the bill had been before the select committee, the government had agreed to purchase the properties of reuters telegram company (norderney cable), as well as of the universal private company. the price paid for those properties absorbed the margin on which mr. scudamore and the government had counted for the purchase of the reversionary rights of the railways. in the meantime, the disraeli ministry, which had carried the measure of , had been replaced, on december , , by the gladstone ministry. on july , , the marquis of hartington, postmaster general, laid before parliament a bill authorizing the post office department to spend $ , , for the purpose of carrying out the act of . the marquis of hartington said that $ , , would be required for the purchase of the assets of the telegraph companies; that $ , , would cover the claims of the railways, which had not yet been adjusted; and that $ , , would suffice to rearrange the telegraph lines and to make such extensions as would be required to give government telegraph offices to , places, towns, and cities, the present number of places having telegraph offices being , . the marquis of hartington stated that parliament "was quite competent to repudiate the bargain of , if they thought it a bad one.... having given the subject his best consideration, he must say, without expressing any opinion as to the terms of the bargain, that if they were to begin afresh, he did not think they could get the property on better terms." he added that the "government would take over the telegraphs of the companies on january , , on the basis of paying twenty times the profits of the year - . but that in consequence of the increase of the business since - , the $ , , which the state would pay the telegraph companies, would represent, not twenty years' purchase of the profits in , but considerably under seventeen years' purchase of those profits. the trade of the electric and international had been found to be growing at the rate of per cent. a year; that of the british and irish at the rate of per cent."[ ] the chancellor of the exchequer, mr. robert lowe, was by no means so sanguine. he spoke of the "immense price" which the government was asked to pay, "a price of which he, at all events, washed his hands altogether. the right honorable gentlemen opposite [mr. hunt, chancellor of the exchequer in ], had accused them of appropriating the honor of this measure. he had not the slightest desire to contest the point with the right honorable gentleman, who was welcome to it all. the matter was found by the present government in so complicated a state that it was impossible for them to recede; but unless the house was prepared to grant that [_i. e._ a government monopoly] without which they believed it would be impossible to carry on the business effectively, it would be better that they should reject the bill altogether."[ ] mr. torrens moved an amendment adverse to the bill, but his motion was defeated by a vote of to . before the vote was taken, mr. w. fowler, of the firm of alexander & company, lombard street, speaking of the reversionary rights of the railway companies, had said: "therefore, for what the house knew, there might be contingent liabilities for hundreds of thousands or millions of pounds sterling more."[ ] the measure became a law in august, ; and on february , , the telegraphs of the united kingdom were transferred to the post office department. in the course of the year , the government bought the properties of the jersey and guernsey company and of the isle of man company. those purchases, together with a large number of minor purchases made in , but not previously mentioned, raised the total sum paid to the telegraph companies to $ , , . [sidenote: _reversionary rights estimated at $ , , cost $ , , _] not until were the last of the claims of the railway companies adjusted. the writer has not succeeded in finding a specific official statement of the aggregate sum paid to the railway companies for their reversionary rights and for the grant to the post office of perpetual and exclusive way-leaves over their properties, but he infers that that sum was $ , , or $ , , . that inference is based on testimony given in by mr. c. h. b. patey,[ ] third secretary to the post office, and on information given by the postmaster general in .[ ] it will be recalled, that in , the marquis of hartington, postmaster general, had told the house of commons that the payments for the rights in question would not exceed $ , , . the postmaster general doubtless spoke on the strength of assurances given by mr. scudamore. it will be remembered also that mr. leeman, in , had warned the house in strong terms that mr. scudamore's estimates were not to be trusted. finally, it will be remembered that in , mr. w. fowler, a financier of high standing, had warned the house of commons that "there might be contingent liabilities of thousands or millions of pounds sterling more." footnotes: [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. , the chancellor of the exchequer. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. , . [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, . mr. scudamore: q. , and following, , to , , , and , to , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. . [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, ; q. , and following, , and following, and , to , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , and following. [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, ; mr. foster, q. , , _et passim_. [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, . mr. leeman cross-questions mr. scudamore. , . "did you agree with the telegraph companies till after this bill was sent to the select committee?"--"no." , . "at the time this bill was sent to this committee you had petitions against you, had you not, from or different interests?"--"yes; quite that." , . "since that time, have you, with the exception of the interest which mr. merewether now represents [universal private telegraph co.], bought up every interest, or contracted to buy up every interest, which was represented by those petitioners?"--"yes, subject to arbitration and the approval of the committee." , . "they had largely, upon the face of their petitions, controverted the views you have been expressing to this committee?"--"they had endeavored to do so." , . "they had in fact?"--"they had endeavored to put forward a case against me. i do not say it was a good case." , . "in direct opposition to the information you have been supplying to the committee?"--"undoubtedly." , . "the electric and international telegraph company was the company most largely interested, was it not?"--"yes." , . "that company had put forth its views controverting in detail what you have been stating to the committee in the course of your examination?"--"attempting to controvert it." , . "by your arrangements, since the time at which this bill was submitted to this select committee to inquire into, you have in truth shut the mouths of all these parties?"--"they are perfectly welcome to speak; i am not shutting their mouths." , . "do you propose to call them?"--"no, but they are here to be called." , . "you do not propose to call them. this is the fact, is it not, that this bill was sent to the select committee, with special instructions to make inquiries into various matters raised by petitions from to different interests, and you have, since that time, subsidized every interest that could give any information to this committee; is not that the fact?"--"not quite." [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , and following. [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, . mr. leeman examines mr. scudamore. question , . "when the bill was read a second time in the house of commons, had you knowledge of the contents of the terms of the agreement between the telegraph companies and the railway companies, which enabled you to form any judgment financially as to what you might ultimately have to pay in respect of the railway companies?"--"no, i had not." [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , and following. [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, ; appendix, no. . leases to expire in: number of miles of telegraph line to years , " " , " " , " " , average unexpired length of all leases: . years. [ ] special _report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, ; q. , , , , and , . [ ] _parliamentary paper_, no. , session . =======================================+===============+============== |sums to be paid|capitalization ---------------------------------------+---------------+-------------- electric and international co | , , | , , british and irish magnetic co | , , | , , united kingdom co | , , | , , [a]london and provincial co | , | , reuter's telegram co. (norderney cable)| , , | , , universal private co | , | ? =======================================+===============+============== [a] this company was paid the highest market value of its shares on the stock exchange in the first week of june, , plus an allowance for prospective profits. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , and following, and july , p. and following. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. . [ ] _report from the select committee on revenue department estimates_, ; q. , . [ ] _report of the postmaster general_, , p. . chapter v none of mr. scudamore's financial forecasts were realized the completion of the telegraph system cost $ , , ; mr. scudamore's successive estimates had been respectively $ , , and $ , , . mr. scudamore's brilliant forecast of the increase of traffic under public ownership. mr. scudamore's appalling blunder in predicting that the state telegraphs would be self-supporting. operating expenses on the average exceed . % of the gross earnings, in contrast to mr. scudamore's estimate of % to %. the annual telegraph deficits aggregate . % of the capital invested in the plant. the financial failure of the state telegraphs is not due to the large price paid to the telegraph companies and railway companies. the disillusionment of an eminent advocate of nationalization, mr. w. stanley jevons. [sidenote: _estimated expenditure_ versus _actual expenditure_] as soon as the telegraphs had been transferred to the government, the post office department set to work to rearrange the wires wherever competition had caused duplication or triplication; to extend the wires into the centre of each town or place "imperfectly" served; to build lines to all places with money order issuing post offices that had no telegraphic service; to enlarge the local telegraph system of metropolitan london from telegraph offices in , to offices at the close of ; to give cities like birmingham, leeds, edinburgh, glasgow and manchester, from to telegraph offices each;[ ] to provide additional wires to meet the anticipated growth of traffic; and to release some , or , miles of wire for the exclusive use of the railway companies in the conduct of transportation. for these several purposes the post office department, in the course of the three years ending with september, , erected , miles of posts, and , miles of wire; strengthened , miles of line; laid miles of underground pipes and miles of pneumatic pipes; and laid miles of submarine cable. by september, , the post office department had spent upon the rearrangement and extension of the telegraphs, the sum of $ , , .[ ] something over $ , , [ ] of that sum represented the cost of repairing the depreciation suffered by the plant in the years and , a depreciation for which full allowance had been made in fixing the purchase price. the balance, $ , , , represented new capital outlay. in mr. scudamore had stated before the select committee of the house of commons that it would cost $ , , to rearrange the telegraphs and give perfect telegraphic service to , places.[ ] in , the postmaster general, the marquis of hartington, had told the house of commons that $ , , would cover the cost of rearranging the telegraphs and giving perfect accommodation to , places.[ ] in april, , on the other hand, mr. w. stanley jevons, an eminent economist, had estimated at $ , , the cost of "the improvement of the present telegraphs, and their extension to many villages which do not at present possess a telegraph station."[ ] mr. scudamore's estimate of the cost of extending the telegraphs to places that had no telegraphic accommodation, was based on the assumption that each such extension would require, on the average, the erection of three-quarters of a mile of telegraph line. but when the post office department came to build to "new" places, it found that "the opening of upward of , additional telegraph offices necessitated the erection of not less than , miles of telegraph line."[ ] the results have shown that mr. scudamore's other estimates of the cost of rearranging and extending the telegraphs, presented by himself in , and by the postmaster general, the marquis of hartington, in , were equally wide of the mark. numerous _committees on the public accounts_ sitting in the years to , together with the _committee on post office telegraph department_, , attempted to inquire into the enormous discrepancy between the estimated cost and the actual cost of rearranging and extending the telegraphs. but none of those attempts were rewarded with any success whatever.[ ] the representatives of the post office and of the treasury always attributed the discrepancy "to the purchase of undertakings which were not contemplated at the time when the original measures were submitted to the house, and to unforeseen expenses for extensions." but the state, as a matter of fact, made no purchases beyond those contemplated in --excepting the purchase of the jersey and guernsey cable for $ , , and the purchase of the isle of man cable for $ , . as for unforeseen extensions, in , the marquis of hartington had counted on carrying the telegraphs to , places, and in there were but , postal telegraph offices, counting the offices in london, and the numerous offices in the several large principal cities.[ ] * * * * * mr. scudamore, aided by the state of public opinion created by the agitation of the british chambers of commerce under the leadership of the chamber of commerce of edinburgh, carried away the disraeli ministry and the gladstone ministry. even more powerful than mr. scudamore's argument from the extensive use made of the telegraphs on the continent of europe, was mr. scudamore's promise that the state telegraphs should begin by paying a profit sufficient to cover the interest on $ , , at the lowest estimate, and $ , , at the highest estimate; and that the profit should increase with the advancing years. [sidenote: _penny postage precedent_] before examining the evidence upon which mr. scudamore predicted such large profits, it will be well to consider briefly the nature of the evidence afforded to mr. scudamore by sir rowland hill's epoch-making "invention of penny postage." this is the more necessary, since mr. scudamore himself cited the success of penny postage in support of his proposal for a uniform rate of cents for telegraph messages. upon the introduction of the penny postage, the letters carried by the post office of the united kingdom jumped from , , in to , , in , and to , , in . but the net revenue obtained by the post office department from the carriage of letters fell from $ , , in to $ , , in . though the net revenue increased each year beginning with , not until did it again reach the point at which it had been in . in , the number of letters carried was , , --almost four times the number carried in , and eight times the number carried in .[ ] in short, the evidence from the penny postage was, that care must be used in arguing from an increase of business to an increase of net revenue; and that the prospect of a great increase in business did not necessarily justify the incurrence of indefinitely large charges on account of interest on capital invested. [sidenote: _mr. scudamore's revenue forecasts_] mr. scudamore began by assuming that the post office would take charge of the telegraphs on july , ; and that by that time the telegraph companies would have developed a business of , , messages a year. on the basis of the traffic of , and under the companies' charges, per cent. of the business would consist of messages carried miles or less, which would be charged cents each; per cent. would be messages carried from to miles, being charged cents each; per cent. would be messages carried beyond miles, which would be charged cents; and, finally, per cent. would consist of messages to and from ireland, which would be charged from cents to cents. the adoption of the uniform rate of cents, irrespective of distance, would reduce by per cent. the charge on the messages sent from to miles, and would increase those messages by per cent.; it would reduce by per cent. the charge on the messages carried more than miles, and would increase those messages by per cent.; and, finally, it would increase by per cent. the number of messages between great britain and ireland. the introduction of the uniform cent rate, therefore, would increase the total number of messages from , , to , , . that last number would be further increased by per cent. in consequence of the general increase of facilities, and a material reduction in the charges made for the delivery of messages to points outside of the free delivery areas. thus the total number of messages that the post office telegraphs would carry in the first year would be , , , or, say, in round numbers, , , . since the average message would be somewhat over words in length, one might count on average receipts per message of cents; so that the , , messages in question would bring the post office a gross revenue of $ , , . mr. scudamore next proceeded to estimate what it would cost to earn the $ , , just mentioned. he began with the total working expenses, in , of the four leading companies, namely $ , , . he stated that the companies had said that if permitted to consolidate, they could reduce expenses by $ , a year. but if the post office were to take over the telegraphs, it would reduce the expenses by more than the last mentioned sum, for it could use the existing post office buildings, the existing staff, and so forth. deducting numerous other items representing expenses that the companies had incurred on account of the operation of foreign cables and the conduct of other forms of business that the post office would discontinue, mr. scudamore reached the conclusion that the post office, in , could have operated at a total cost of $ , , the plants of the four telegraph companies. mr. scudamore added per cent. to the last mentioned sum, in order to cover the cost of maintaining and operating the extensions that the state proposed to make at a cost of $ , , . he took per cent. because $ , , was / or / of the capital invested in the plants of the telegraph companies. that raised to $ , , mr. scudamore's estimate of the cost of operating the telegraphs on the supposition of a business of , , messages. mr. scudamore then allowed per cent. or $ , , for the assumed increase in the number of messages from , , to , , . he said the post office might safely assume that it could increase its business by per cent. at an increase of per cent. in the operating expenses, since the electric and international telegraph company recently had increased its business by per cent. at an increase of per cent. in the operating expenses. mr. scudamore's conclusion was that the post office could carry , , messages, yielding an income of $ , , , at a cost of $ , , , thus obtaining a net revenue of $ , , . to that sum must be added the net revenue to be obtained from the carriage of messages for the newspaper press, $ , ; and $ , to be obtained from the rental of the state's cables to the several foreign cable companies. thus mr. scudamore counted on a maximum net revenue of $ , , . by similar reasoning, under the supposition that the total number of messages should not exceed , , , mr. scudamore arrived at a minimum estimated net revenue of $ , , . taking the average of the two foregoing estimates, he said the government "might with almost entire certainty rely upon a net revenue within a range of from $ , , to $ , , , the mean of which was $ , , ." that was for the first year; in the subsequent years the net revenue would increase rapidly. he said: "it is the experience of all people who have worked a large business of this kind that the cost does not by any means increase in proportion to the increase of business; you can always do a greater amount of business at a less proportionate cost than you can do a smaller amount." mr. goschen repeatedly asked mr. scudamore whether he would stand by his estimates, and whether he deemed them moderate, adding that the select committee was taking the matter almost exclusively on his [mr. scudamore's] evidence. mr. goschen always received the strongest assurances that the committee might rely on the estimates submitted.[ ] mr. scudamore's predictions as to the growth of traffic that might be expected from the great increase in the facilities for telegraphing, and from the reduction of the charges by fully one-half, turned out to be brilliant indeed. they were fully realized. the number of messages increased from about , , in , to , , in - , to , , in - , and to , , in - .[ ] but mr. scudamore's predictions as to the net revenue to be obtained from the state telegraphs turned out to be appalling blunders. in only thirteen out of thirty-six years, from - to - , did the net revenue reach mr. scudamore's minimum estimate; in only two of those thirteen years did it reach the maximum estimate; and in only seven of the thirteen years did it reach the average estimate. in the period - to - , the operating expenses aggregated $ , , , while the gross receipts aggregated $ , , . in the latter sum are included $ , , , the proceeds of the royalties paid the government by the british national telephone company for the privilege of conducting the telephone business in competition with the state telegraphs.[ ] if that sum be excluded from the postal telegraph gross revenues, as not having been earned by the telegraphs, it will be found that in the period, - to - , the operating expenses exceeded the gross revenue by $ , , . [sidenote: _operating expenses under-estimated by one-half_] mr. scudamore, in , predicted that the operating expenses would be per cent. to per cent. of the gross revenue, in the first year of the working of the telegraphs by the post office; and that they would continue to be correspondingly low. in , a committee appointed by the treasury reported that in consequence of the great extension of facilities effected since , "it would be difficult for the government to work the telegraph service as cheaply as did the companies, but a reasonable expectation might be entertained that the expenses might be kept within per cent. or per cent. of the gross revenue. that would leave a margin sufficient to pay the interest on the debt incurred in purchasing the telegraphs."[ ] as a matter of fact, the operating expenses only once have come within the limits fixed by the committee of ; and at the close of - , they had averaged . per cent.[ ] here again, the telephone royalties are included in the gross receipts. on march , , the capital invested in the telegraphs was $ , , .[ ] to raise that capital, the government had sold $ , , three per cent. bonds at an average price of about . ;[ ] and for the rest, the government had drawn upon the current revenue raised by taxation. [sidenote: _aggregate telegraph deficit_] the net revenue earned by the telegraphs covered the interest on the bonds outstanding, in - , and in the years - to - . on march , , the sums annually paid by the government by way of interest that had not been earned by the telegraphs, had aggregated $ , , , or . per cent. of the capital invested in the telegraphs.[ ] upon the sums invested since , aggregating $ , , , the government has received no interest. [sidenote: _parliament responsible for deficits_] the statement is commonly made, and widely accepted, that the financial failure of the state telegraphs is due to the excessive price paid for the plant. but that statement overlooks two facts: that since - the telegraphs have not earned operating expenses; and that in - the telegraphs became abundantly able to earn the interest even upon their immoderate capitalization.[ ] the statement in question also overlooks the fact that the telegraphs easily could have maintained the position reached in - , had not the house of commons taken the reins out of the hands of the successive governments of the day. the house of commons after fixed the wages and salaries to be paid the government telegraph employees in accordance with the political pressure those employees were able to bring, not in accordance with the market value of the services rendered by the employees. the house of commons also reduced the tariff on telegrams from cents for words, to cents for words. it took that course against the protests of the government of the day, and cut deep into the margin of profit of the telegraph department. the fact that the house of commons after - took the reins out of the hands of the successive governments of the day, in no way diminished mr. scudamore's responsibility for the appalling errors into which he fell when he forecast the financial outcome of the nationalization of the telegraphs. mr. leeman, of the parliamentary select committee of , expressly asked mr. scudamore: "you do not think there is any fear of the cost being increased by the salaries being much increased under the management of the post office?" mr. scudamore without hesitation replied in the negative, though he had just stated that in the post office and in all government departments the pay of the lower grades of employees was somewhat higher than it was in commercial and industrial life.[ ] moreover, mr. scudamore, as one of the two chief executive officers of the post office, must have been aware that the government was neither perfectly free to promote men according to their merit, and irrespective of length of service, nor free to discharge men who were comparatively inefficient and lax in the discharge of their duties. he must have known that those disabilities made it impossible for the post office to work as cheaply as private enterprise worked. as for the house of commons forcing on the government the cent rate for messages of words, that action was due largely to the expectations raised by mr. scudamore himself in and , that the nationalization of the telegraphs would soon give the public a twelve cent rate. * * * * * [sidenote: _mr. w. s. jevons' disillusionment_] mr. w. stanley jevons, the eminent statistician and economist, who, in to , had warmly supported the proposal to nationalize the telegraphs, in pointed out that while the postal telegraph traffic had increased per cent. in the period to , the operating expenses had increased per cent. he said: "the case is all the more hopeless, since the introduction of the wonderful invention of duplex telegraphy has doubled at a stroke, and with very little cost, the carrying power of many of the wires."[ ] in each wire afforded one channel for communication; in it afforded two channels under the duplex system, four channels under the quadruplex system, and six channels under the multiplex system. in the maximum speed per minute was to words. in the fixed standard of speed for certain circuits was words, while a speed of words was possible of attainment. the "repeaters" used for strengthening the current on long circuits also were greatly improved after .[ ] footnotes: [ ] _report by mr. scudamore on the reorganization of the telegraph system of the united kingdom_, january, . number of telegraph offices before and after the transfer of the telegraphs to the state: +================+========+========+ | | | | +----------------+--------+--------+ |london | | | +----------------+--------+--------+ |birmingham | | | +----------------+--------+--------+ |edinburgh | | | +----------------+--------+--------+ |leeds | | | +----------------+--------+--------+ |glasgow | | | +----------------+--------+--------+ |manchester | | | +================+========+========+ this table does not indicate fully the expense incurred by the state in providing local telegraph systems. under the companies the offices were all concentrated in the heart of the city; under the post office administration the offices were spread throughout the city and suburbs. [ ] _first report from the committee on public accounts_, ; appendix, p. ; and _report from the committee on public accounts_, ; appendix, p. and following. [ ] _report by mr. scudamore on the reorganization of the telegraph system of the united kingdom_, january, , p. . [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, ; q. , and , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , . [ ] _transactions of the manchester statistical society_, session - . [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, ; q. , and ; and _first report from the committee on public accounts_, ; appendix, p. . [ ] _report from the select committee on post office (telegraph department)_, , p. xi. "the committee have not received any full and satisfactory explanation of these great differences between the estimated expenditure of and the actual expenditure incurred up to ." [ ] _miscellaneous statistics of the united kingdom_, current issues from to . telegraph stations open to the public: ===================+======+======+======+=======+=======+=======+======= | | | | | | | -------------------+------+------+------+-------+-------+-------+------- telegraph companies| , [a] | | | | | post office | | | | | | | telegraphs | | , | , | , | , | , | , railway stations[b]| , | , | , | , | , | , | , |------+------+------+-------+-------+-------+------- | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | | | | | | | miles of line | , | ? | , [c] ? | , [d] ? [e] , miles of wire | , | , | , | , | , | , | , ===================+======+======+======+=======+=======+=======+======= [a] in , places. [b] for the benefit of the traveling public, and of persons residing in the immediate vicinity of railway stations, the post office made arrangements whereby the railway companies received messages from the public for transmission to the postal telegraphs, and received messages from the postal telegraphs for delivery to the public. [c] _report of the postmaster general_, , p. . [d] _the fortnightly review_, december, , w. s. jevons. [e] _report of the postmaster general_, , p. . [ ] the penny postage was introduced on december , . ==========+===============+==============+=========== |letters carried| gross revenue|net revenue[a] | | $ | $ ----------+---------------+--------------+----------- | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , | , , ==========+===============+==============+=========== [a] the british post office does not charge itself with interest upon the capital invested in the postal business; it charges itself only with interest upon the capital borrowed on account of the telegraphic business. [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, ; appendix, pp. and ; and q. , and following, and , and following. compare: _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , and following, the marquis of hartington, postmaster general. [ ] number of messages. , , (estimated) - , , - , , - , , - , , - , , - , , - , , - , , - , , in mr. scudamore revised his estimate of the number of messages in - , reducing it to , , . _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , , the marquis of hartington, postmaster general. [ ] garcke: _manual of electrical undertakings_. the current issues report the amount of these royalties. _the report of the postmaster general_, , p. , and _parliamentary paper_, no. , session of , state that these royalties are included in the gross revenue of the telegraphs. [ ] _report of a committee appointed by the treasury to investigate the causes of the increased cost of the telegraphic service since the acquisition of the telegraphs by the state_, , p. . [ ] _parliamentary paper_, no. , session of . proportion borne by operating expenses to gross revenue, after excluding from operating expenses all expenses properly chargeable to capital account. the capital account of the telegraphs having been closed in september, , the post office, since that date, has charged to operating expenses all expenditures on account of extensions, the purchase of sites, and the erection of buildings. average percentage of operating expenses range - . - . - to - . . to . - to - . . to . - to - . . to . - to - . . to . - to - . . to . _parliamentary paper_, no. , session of . lord john manners, postmaster general: "in the first two years after the transfer the expenditure was kept down, because no charge was raised for maintenance, as it took the form of renewal of the plant of the late companies, which, between and , had, in some instances, been allowed to fall into decay, and was therefore considered properly chargeable against capital." [ ] that sum was made up as follows: telegraph companies $ , , railway companies , , extensions: to , , extensions: to , , ----------- $ , , [ ] _parliamentary paper_, no. , session of . [ ] the subjoined table gives, for successive periods, the average capital sums upon which the net revenue earned by the telegraphs would have paid the interest; and also the average sums actually invested in the telegraphs in those periods. the first column of the table is constructed on the assumption that the interest paid by the state for borrowed money was . per cent. from - to - ; per cent. from - to - ; and . per cent. from - to - . the ten million dollars paid to the railway companies some time between and are not included in the sum put down for the average capital investment in - to - , since it has been impossible to assign that payment to specific years. the results of the year - should be ignored, since the cost of the maintenance of the telegraphs was charged to capital account in the year in question. the net revenue the average sufficed to pay capital actually interest on: invested was: $ $ - , , , , - to - , , , , - to - , , , , - to - , , , , - to - , , , , - to - , , , , - to - nil , , [ ] the net revenue sufficed to pay the interest on: $ - , , - , , - , , - , , - , , - , , [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _the fortnightly review_, december, . [ ] _report of the postmaster general_ for ; historical outline of the telegraph service since . chapter vi the party leaders ignore their fear of an organized civil service mr. disraeli, chancellor of the exchequer, opposes the enfranchisement of the civil servants. mr. gladstone, leader of the opposition, assents to enfranchisement, but expresses grave apprehensions of evil results. one of the most extraordinary of the numerous astounding episodes in connection with the nationalization of the telegraphs was the fact that in the debates in the house of commons was not even raised the question of possible danger arising from increasing enormously the number of civil servants. that is the more astounding, since, in and , prominent men in both political parties had grave misgivings as to the future relations between the state and its employees, even though those employees who were in the customs department, the inland revenue department, and the post office were at the time disfranchised. [sidenote: _mr. disraeli on civil servants_] in july, , while the house of commons was passing the "representation of the people bill," sir harry verney, a private member, moved the addition of a clause to enable public officers connected with the collection of the revenue to vote at elections.[ ] the chancellor of the exchequer, mr. disraeli, asked the house not to accept the amendment. he said: "he wished also to recall to the recollection of the committee a treasury minute which had been placed on the table, in which minute the government had drawn attention to the impropriety and impolicy of officers in those branches of the public service to which the honorable baronet [sir harry verney] had referred, exercising their influence over members of parliament, in order to urge upon the government an increase of their salaries. even at the present time an influence was exerted which must be viewed with great jealousy, and every government, however constituted, would find it necessary to use its utmost influence in restricting overtures of that description. but what would be the position of affairs if these persons--so numerous a body--were invested with the franchise. from the experience of what was passing in this city--and he wished merely to intimate, and not to dwell upon the circumstance--he was led to believe the result would be that there would be an organization illegitimately to increase the remuneration they received for their services--a remuneration which, in his opinion, was based upon a just estimate. he did not deny that the class referred to by the honorable baronet were entirely worthy of public confidence, but the conferring the franchise upon them would place them in a new position, and would introduce into public life new influences which would not be of a beneficial character. he trusted therefore that the committee would not sanction the proposal of the honorable baronet." the amendment was lost; and in the following year, , mr. monk, a private member, carried against the government of the day, a bill to enfranchise the revenue officers.[ ] [sidenote: _the chancellor of the exchequer on civil servants_] the chancellor of the exchequer, mr. g. w. hunt, said he felt bound to move that the bill be committed this day three months--_i. e._, be rejected. he said it was an anomaly in the laws that the dockyard laborers were not disfranchised. "if the matter were inquired into calmly and dispassionately, he was not at all sure that a good case might not be made out for affixing to them the same disability that is now attached to the revenue officers. the fact did not at all tend to the purity or the impartiality of electors in places where many of these men were employed, and strenuous efforts were made by members representing them to increase the privileges of the dockyard men and the number of persons employed, which did not tend to economy or the proper husbanding of the national resources. continual applications were made by these gentlemen [the employees in the revenue departments] respecting their position and salaries, and these applications had of late years taken a very peculiar form, being not merely made through the heads of departments, or by simple memorial to the treasury, but in the form of resolutions at public meetings held by them, and communications to members of parliament by delegates appointed to represent their interests. he put it to the house, whether, in the circumstances supposed, the influence possessed by them would not be very considerably increased, and whether the government of the day would not have far greater difficulty in administering these departments with respect to the position and salaries of the officers concerned, if the measure were carried."[ ] [sidenote: _mr. gladstone's warning_] mr. gladstone said: "the suggestion he would make would be that parliament should give the vote, and, at the same time, leave it in the discretion of the government of the day to inhibit any of these officers from taking any part in politics beyond giving their simple vote.... again, before they proceeded to lay down the principle of general enfranchisement, one thing to be considered was the very peculiar relations between the revenue officers and the members of that house. there it was necessary to speak plainly. he was not afraid of government influence in that matter, nor of an influence in favor of one political party or another; but he owned that he had some apprehension of what might be called class influence in that house, which in his opinion was the great reproach of the reformed parliament, as he believed history would record. whether they were going to emerge into a new state of things in which class influence would be weaker he knew not; but that class influence had been in many things evil and a scandal to them, especially for the last fifteen or twenty years; and he was fearful of its increase in consequence of the possession of the franchise, through the power which men who, as members of a regular service, were already organized, might bring to bear on members of parliament. what, he asked, was the civil service of this country? it was a service in which there was a great deal of complaint of inadequate pay, of slow promotion, and all the rest of it. but, at the same time, it was a service which there was an extraordinary desire to get into. and whose privilege was it to regulate that desire? that of the members of that house...." footnotes: [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , and following. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. , and following; june , p. , and following; and june , , , p. and following. compare also: _parliamentary paper_, no. , session - : _copy of report to the treasury by the commissioners of customs and inland revenue upon the revenue officers' disabilities bill_. [ ] the measure was carried against the government by a vote of to . chapter vii the house of commons is responsible for the financial failure of the state telegraphs sir s. northcote, chancellor of the exchequer in mr. disraeli's ministry of to , is disillusioned. the state telegraphs become self-supporting in - . the house of commons, under the leadership of dr. cameron, m. p. for glasgow, overrides the ministry and cuts the tariff almost in two. in - the state telegraphs would again have become self-supporting, had not the house of commons, under pressure from the civil service unions, increased wages and salaries. the necessity of making money is the only effective incentive to sound management. the consideration of the reasons for the financial failure of the state telegraphs may begin with the discussion of the effect of the building of unremunerative extensions. in the treasury department forced the post office department to abandon the doctrine that every place with a money order issuing post office was of right entitled to a telegraph office. the treasury in that year adopted the policy of demanding a guarantee from private individuals whenever it did not care to assume the risk of a telegraph office failing to be self-supporting.[ ] the new policy, of course, applied only to places not yet provided with telegraphic service, for the withdrawal of an established service would have led "to an immense amount of public inconvenience and agitation that the government would have been unable to resist."[ ] [sidenote: _sir s. northcote's disillusionment_] in speaking of the policy of requiring guarantees in order to check the pressure brought by the house of commons for additional telegraphic services, the chancellor of the exchequer, sir stafford northcote, in , said: "the government cannot give the answer that private companies could, and i am sure did, give. this is a point worthy of consideration, not so much in regard to the telegraph service itself, in which we are now fairly embarked, and of which we must make the best we can, as in reference to suggestions of acquisitions of other forms of property, and the conduct of other kinds of business, in which i hope the house will never be led to embark without very carefully weighing the results of this remarkable experiment."[ ] the guarantee in question, which had to be given by private individuals, covered: the annual working expenses; interest on the capital investment; sinking fund payments which should repay in seven years the capital invested; and a margin for certain contingencies.[ ] in august, , was abolished the provision requiring a guarantee of the repayment of the capital in seven years.[ ] at the same time, the local governments were authorized to give the guarantee that continued to be required.[ ] in , upon the occasion of her late majesty's diamond jubilee, the treasury authorized the post office to assume one-half of the burden of non-paying telegraphic services; and since may , , the post office assumes two-thirds of that burden.[ ] the guarantees demanded after proved an effective check upon log-rolling. for example, in , catrine, in ayrshire, with a population of , , still was without telegraph service, while tarbolton, in ayrshire, population , had acquired such service previous to .[ ] in the period from to the number of postal telegraph offices increased only from , to , . before leaving this subject, it is necessary to warn the reader against misleading tables published in several official documents, and purporting to show that non-paying offices rapidly became self-supporting.[ ] those tables are constructed on the basis of including in the cost of telegraph offices only the allowance to the local postmaster for telegraph work, and the cost of maintaining the instruments in the office, and of excluding the cost of maintaining the wire, the cost of additional force required at the central station in london and at the district centres because of the large number of outlying branches, as well as the interest on the capital invested. those omissions led the treasury committee of to say: "we fear the full cost of working these numerous and unremunerative offices is not realized [appreciated]." in , mr. c. h. b. patey, third secretary to the post office, was asked by a select committee of parliament: "where you have established telegraph offices at money order offices under guarantee from individuals interested, do you find that eventually these offices pay?" he replied: "no; in exceedingly few instances do they pay. the guarantee has continued, and after seven years we have got a fresh guarantee in order to continue the office."[ ] mr. patey's testimony is corroborated by the continued, and successful, agitation of the house of commons for the reduction of the guarantee demanded by the treasury. the second reason for the financial failure of the state telegraphs is, that while the precipitate reductions made in the rates charged to the public led to a great increase in the number of messages transmitted, that very increase of business was accompanied by such augmented operating expenses, that some years elapsed before the reduced average margin of profit per message carried sufficed to pay the interest on the immoderate capitalization of the state telegraphs. the increase in the operating expenses was in part inevitable; in part it was due to the waste inherent in all business operations conducted by executive officers who hold office, either at the pleasure of legislative bodies elected by manhood suffrage, or at the pleasure of large bodies of voters. in , mr. c. h. b. patey, principal clerk in the post office department, stated that the average of the operating expenses per telegraphic message transmitted was cents to cents.[ ] at that time, with a traffic of , , messages a year, and average receipts per message of cents, the net revenue of the telegraphs was $ , , , while the interest on the bonds outstanding was $ , , . in - , with a traffic of , , messages, average receipts per message of cents, the telegraphs yielded a net revenue of $ , , , while the interest on the bonds outstanding was $ , , . and in - , with a traffic of , , messages, the net revenue rose to $ , , , while the interest on the bonds outstanding remained at $ , , . a large part of that improvement was due to a diminution in the waste with which the telegraphs had been conducted in to . the nature and the extent of that waste are indicated in the fact that the number of clerks, telegraphists, and subordinate engineers was reduced from , in , to , in ,[ ] at the same time that the number of telegraph offices was increased from , to , , and the number of messages was increased from , , to , , . [sidenote: _the telegraphs become self-supporting_] in - , the telegraphs earned . per cent. on $ , , ,[ ] which was $ , , in excess of the total capital invested in them. under conditions which shall be described on a subsequent page, the government, "very much at the instance of the house of commons,"[ ] raised wages and salaries, so that, in the period from - to - , the expenses on account of salaries and wages increased $ , , , while the gross receipts increased only $ , . in - , the net revenue sufficed to pay the interest at . per cent. on $ , , only. in the meantime, on march , , the house of commons had carried against the government of the day, the resolution of dr. cameron, member of parliament from glasgow: "that the time has arrived when the minimum charge for inland postal telegrams should be reduced to cents."[ ] dr. cameron said: "he brought forward the motion--and he did so last year[ ]--because he was absolutely opposed to the taxation of telegrams [_i. e._, to raising more revenue from the telegraphs than was requisite to paying the interest on the bonds outstanding]; and he believed that taxation could be levied in no other manner that would be so prejudicial to the commerce, intercourse, and convenience of the country. at the present moment there was practically no taxation of telegrams, or, at all events, the principle of the taxation of telegrams had not been affirmed. the surplus revenue [above the interest on the debt outstanding] earned up to the present time had been so small that it was impossible by sacrificing it to confer any substantial advantage upon the public. but the telegraph revenue was increasing; and it appeared to him that they had now arrived at a point where a remission of taxation must be made in the shape of extra facilities [_i. e._, reduced charges] for the public, or the vicious principle of the taxation of telegrams for the purpose of revenue must be affirmed. they had, it might be contended, not yet exactly arrived at that point, but they were remarkably near it; and his object in bringing forward the motion from year to year had been to afford the government no excuse for allowing the point to be passed, but to bring up the subject every year; and the moment it was admitted that a change could be made without loss to the taxpayers he should ask the house to indicate its opinions that the change might be made.... he maintained that the principle of taxing telegrams was most erroneous. it was one of the worst taxes on knowledge[ ]--a tax on economy, on time, and on the production of wealth. instead of maintaining a price which was prohibitory not only to the working classes but also to the middle classes, they ought to take every means to encourage telegraphy. they ought to educate the rising generation to it; and he would suggest to the government that the composing of telegrams would form a useful part of the education in our board schools." the chancellor of the exchequer, mr. childers, "hoped the house would not agree to the motion" even if it were ready to accept dr. cameron's estimate that the immediate reduction in the net revenue would not exceed $ , . "he had heard with surprise in the course of the debate some of the statements which had been made in regard to the unimportance of large items of expenditure [and of revenue]; and he was all the more surprised when he remembered the great anxiety which had been expressed during the present session in regard to the public expenditure, and the care which ought to be taken over it."[ ] dr. cameron, in the course of his speech in , quoted a statement recently made by mr. fawcett, postmaster general, to the effect that there was an average of , telegrams a day for , offices, or telegrams per office. the representative from glasgow added: "the state of things which they now had, therefore amounted to this--that from each telegraph office was sent a number of messages which afforded a little over half an hour's work per day for the operator. it would, therefore, at once be seen that there was ample room for increased business, without any increase of expenditure."[ ] the foregoing argument overlooked the fact that the wires between the large cities were being worked to something like their full capacity; and that the low average of messages per office was due solely to the existence of hundreds of offices in small places that had very little traffic. and shortly after the house of commons had passed dr. cameron's resolution, in , against the protest of the government, the treasury authorized the post office to spend $ , , in putting up , miles of additional wires, and in otherwise preparing for the great increase in business that would arise between the larger towns in consequence of the reduction of the tariff.[ ] and by july , , three months before the date set for putting into force the reduced rate, the post office had engaged , additional telegraphists and learners,[ ] to assist in doing the business which dr. cameron in , had said could be done "without any great increase of expenditure." [sidenote: _tariff is cut almost in two_] on march , , mr. shaw-lefevre, postmaster general, brought in a bill to give effect to dr. cameron's resolution of march , .[ ] the measure provided for a rate of cents for not exceeding words, address to be counted, and one cent for each additional word. the postmaster general began by reminding the house of commons that dr. cameron's resolution had been carried against the government, and by a considerable majority. that the post office has spent $ , , in preparing for the increase of business anticipated from the cent tariff. that the loss of net revenue was estimated at $ , for the first year; and that it would take four years to recover that loss. that since dr. cameron's resolution had been passed, the financial position of the telegraph department had grown "decidedly worse," the net revenue having fallen from $ , , to $ , , , the latter sum yielding barely . per cent. on the capital invested in the telegraphs, $ , , . mr. shaw-lefevre said the decrease in the net revenue had been due "to the very considerable additions to the salaries of the telegraphists and other officers made two or three years ago very much at the instance of honorable members of the house, and which mr. fawcett [the then postmaster general] considered to be absolutely necessary," and also to increased cost of maintenance[ ] arising from the necessity of replacing worn-out plant. the postmaster general also drew attention to the fact that a new and dangerous factor had appeared: the competition of the telephone.[ ] the bill became law; and the cent tariff went into effect on october , , the close of the first half of the fiscal year - . the number of messages jumped from , , to , , , while the net revenue dropped from $ , , to $ , . in the next three years, - to - , the number of messages increased to , , , and the net revenue rose to $ , , , or within $ , of the interest on the capital invested, $ , , . in the following year, - , the messages continued to increase at the rate at which they had increased in the three preceding years, and the net revenue would once more have sufficed to pay the interest on the capital invested, had the operating expenses not been swollen by increases in wages and salaries granted under pressure brought by the telegraph employees upon the house of commons. the raising of salaries and wages continued through the subsequent years; and in the thirteen years - to - , the state telegraphs have earned the operating expenses in five years only.[ ] in , the _select committee on revenue departments estimates_ reported as follows: "your committee are of the opinion that the reasons urged against treating the post office as a commercial business are not applicable in anything like the same degree to the telegraph department; and that the increasing annual deficit in the accounts of the latter cannot be viewed otherwise than with grave concern. looking to the increasing costliness of the service as a whole, and to the constant pressure upon it of demands for increased and unprofitable expenditure, your committee deem it their duty to call attention to the fact that the department of the postmaster general, in all its branches, is a vast government business, which is most likely to continue to be conducted satisfactorily, if it should also continue to be conducted with a view to profit [beyond the payment of interest on the debt outstanding], as one of the revenue yielding departments of the state. excessive expenditure appears to your committee to be sooner or later inevitable in a great government business which is not administered with a view to an ultimate profit to the state." =========+============+============++=========+============+=========== year | number of |net revenue,|| year | number of |net revenue | messages | $ || | messages | $ ---------+------------+------------++---------+------------+----------- - | , , | , , || - | , , | - , - | , , | , || - | , , | , - | , , | , || - | , , | , - | , , | , || - | , , | , - | , , | , , || - | , , | - , - | , , | , , || - | , , | - , - | , , | , , || - | , , | - , , - | , , | , || - | , , | - , - | , , | , || - | , , | - , =========+============+============++=========+============+=========== the minus sign denotes an excess of operating expenses over receipts. had the house of commons permitted the successive governments of the day to act upon the doctrine contained in the foregoing quotation, the state telegraphs would have been self-supporting ever since the year - . they would have paid the full interest upon the whole capital invested in them; in spite of the high prices paid to the telegraph companies and the railway companies for the sale of those companies' plants and rights. footnotes: [ ] _report from the select committee on revenue estimates_, ; q. , , mr. c. h. b. patey, third secretary to the post office. [ ] _report from the select committee on revenue estimates_, ; q. , sir s. a. blackwood, secretary to the post office. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. , , the marquis of salisbury, prime minister. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. , , mr. a. morley, postmaster general. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, may , , p. , sir james fergusson, postmaster general. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. , mr. austen chamberlain, postmaster general; and may , , p. , , mr. sydney buxton, postmaster general. [ ] _report from the select committee on post office_ (_telegraph department_), , mr. c. h. b. patey, principal clerk in the post office; q. , and following, and , . [ ] _report of a committee appointed by the treasury to investigate the causes of the increased cost of the telegraph service since the acquisition of the telegraphs by the state_, , p. ; and _parliamentary paper_, no. , session of , p. . non-paying telegraph offices ========+========+===========+========+=======+======= | |the rest of| | | | london | england |scotland|ireland| total | | and wales | | | --------+--------+-----------+--------+-------+------- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ========+========+===========+========+=======+======= [ ] _report from the select committee on revenue departments estimates_, ; q. , . [ ] _report from the select committee on post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; q. , , , and , . average operating expenses per telegram: cents at office where handed in for receipt at transmitting office for forwarding from transmitting office for receipt at delivery office for delivery to addressee stationery forms used rent of offices, way-leaves, and maintenance of wires and instruments to -------- to [ ] _miscellaneous statistics of the united kingdom_, current issues. [ ] the net revenue messages paid . per cent. interest on: $ - , , , , - , , , , - , , , , - , , , , - , , , , - , , , , [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. , and following, mr. shaw-lefevre, postmaster general, - . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. and following. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. , dr. cameron moves the resolution: "that the working of the postal telegraph service, with a view to the realization of profit, involves a tax upon the use of telegrams; that any such tax is inexpedient, and that the profits derived from the service is now such that the charges for inland telegrams should be reduced." [ ] ever since the nationalization of the telegraphs the newspaper press messages had been carried at special rates which did not cover operating expenses. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. , and following. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. . [ ] _treasury minute_, june , , _with regard to reduction of the minimum charge for post office telegrams_; and _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. , the chancellor of the exchequer; and april , p. , and august , p. , mr. fawcett, postmaster general. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , , lord john manners, postmaster general. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. , and following. [ ] the increase in salaries and wages in - to - was $ , , , and the increase in the cost of maintenance was $ , . [ ] compare also _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. , , mr. shaw-lefevre. [ ] see table on page . chapter viii the state telegraphs subsidize the newspaper press why the newspaper press demanded nationalization. mr. scudamore gives the newspaper press a tariff which he deems unprofitable. estimates of the loss involved in transmitting press messages, made by responsible persons in the period from to . the state telegraphs subsidize betting on horse races. before proceeding with the further discussion of the intervention of the house of commons in the details of the administration of the state telegraphs, it is necessary to review briefly the tariff on messages for the newspaper press. before the telegraphs had been acquired by the state, the telegraph companies maintained a press bureau which supplied the newspapers with reports of the debates in parliament, foreign news, general news, a certain amount of london financial and commercial intelligence, and the more important sporting news. while parliament was in session, the messages in question averaged about , words a day; during the remainder of the year they averaged about , words daily. the annual subscription charges for the aforesaid services ranged from $ to $ , . before the select committee of , the representatives of the newspapers asserted that those subscription charges yielded the telegraph companies, on an average, cents per words. they further asserted that the telegraph companies ascribed . per cent. of the cost of the press bureau to the transmission of the news; and . per cent. to the collecting and editing of the news.[ ] but neither the representatives of the press, nor the select committee itself, called any representatives of the telegraph companies to testify upon these latter points. the subscribers to the companies' press bureau service also were allowed to send messages at one-half the rate charged to the general public; and in case the same newspaper message was sent to several newspapers in the same town, the charge for each address after the first one was per cent. of the sum charged the first addressee. by coöperation, therefore, the newspapers in the larger towns were able to obtain considerable reductions from the initial charge, which, as already stated, was per cent. of the tariff charged the general public.[ ] apparently, however, little use was made of these privileges. in , for instance, the subscriptions to the press bureau aggregated $ , , whereas the sums paid for messages to individual newspapers aggregated only $ , .[ ] [sidenote: _the newspapers' grievance_] the newspaper proprietors admitted that the charges for the press bureau service were entirely reasonable; but they desired to organize their own press bureaux on the ground that they were the better judges of what news the public wanted. since the telegraph companies would not give up their press bureau, the newspaper proprietors joined in the agitation for the nationalization of the telegraphs.[ ] as soon as the government began to negotiate with the telegraph companies for the purchase of their plants, the newspaper proprietors organized a committee to protect their interests and to represent them before the select committee to which had been referred the electric telegraphs bill of . that bill had said that the tariff was to be uniform, irrespective of distance, and was not to exceed cents for words, address not to be counted. it had said nothing on the subject of the tariff to be charged to the newspaper press. on may , , mr. scudamore had written the committee of the newspaper proprietors: "as a matter of course the post office would not undertake to collect news any more than it would undertake to write letters for the public, but the news being collected, it could, and i submit, ought, to transmit it at rates at least as low as those now charged, and which though they are unquestionably low, are still believed to yield the companies a considerable profit.... it seems to me, indeed, that the transmission of news to the press throughout the united kingdom should be regarded as a matter of national importance and that the charge of such transmission should include no greater margin of profit than would suffice to make the service fairly self-supporting."[ ] thereupon the newspaper proprietors demanded: "that the maximum rate for the transmission of telegraphic messages [for newspapers] should not exceed that which is now paid by each individual proprietor [as a subscriber to the companies' press bureau], which is, for transmission, exclusive of the cost of collection, cents per words."[ ] this demand assumed that the companies' charge of cents per words was remunerative; that it was made up of two separable parts: a charge for transmission, and a charge for collecting and editing; and that the charge ascribed to transmission still would remain remunerative even after the charge ascribed to collecting and editing had been withdrawn. upon none of these several points were the officers of the telegraph companies asked to testify, the statements of the newspaper proprietors being allowed to stand unsupported. [sidenote: _mr. scudamore yields to the newspapers_] in order to insure the payment of an average sum of cents or cents per words, the newspaper proprietors proposed that messages be transmitted for the newspapers "at rates not exceeding cents for every words transmitted at night, and at rates not exceeding cents for every words transmitted by day, to a single address, with an additional charge of cents for every words, or for every words, as the case may be, of the same telegram so transmitted to every additional address." by way of compromise, mr. scudamore proposed a charge of cents for words or words for each separate town to which each message might be sent, and the limitation of the cent copy rate to copies delivered by hand in the same town. mr. scudamore, however, withdrew that proposal, and accepted the proposition of the newspaper proprietors, which became the law. it is needless to add that the opposition of the newspaper press to the bill of would have delayed the passage of that bill even more than any opposition on the part of the telegraph companies and railway companies could have done. indeed, it is probable, that the newspaper press could have defeated the bill. in the treasury appointed a "_committee to investigate the causes of the increased cost of the telegraphic service since the acquisition of the telegraphs by the state_." that committee consisted of three prominent officers taken from the post office department and other departments of state. upon the newspaper tariff fixed by the act of , the committee reported: "the consequences of such a system must be obvious to every one. even at ordinary times the wires are always largely occupied with press work, and at extraordinary times they are absolutely flooded with this most unremunerative traffic, which not only fills the wires unduly to the exclusion of better paying matter, but necessitates a much larger staff than would be necessary with a more reasonable system [of charges].[ ] after very careful consideration of these points, mr. weaver [one of the members of the committee, and the former secretary of the electric and international telegraph company], has no hesitation in expressing his opinion that the principle of the stipulations of the tariff authorized by the telegraph act, , both as regards messages transmitted for the public, and those forwarded for the press, is essentially unsound, and has been the main cause of the large percentage of expenditure as compared with the gross revenue. in order to provide for the prompt and efficient transmission of the vast amount of matter produced by such a system, a considerable extension of plant was necessary, involving a large original cost, besides a regular yearly outlay for maintenance and renewal, and not only so, but a large and constantly increasing staff had to be provided to work lines, which, if taken separately, would not be found to produce anything approaching to the cost entailed for erecting, working, and maintaining them. it will be obvious, therefore, that, unless a retrograde step be taken in order to amend the principles upon which the stipulations of the tariff are made up, it would be unreasonable to expect that the revenue derived for telegraph messages under the present system can ever be made to cover the expenses of working, the interest upon capital, and the ultimate extinction of the debt."[ ] in may, , mr. c. h. b. patey, principal clerk in the post office department, testified that the post office was losing $ , a year by transmitting , , words for the newspaper press at an average price of cents per words. mr. patey said , , words were being carried at the rate of cents per words, or for $ , in the aggregate; and , , were being transmitted at the rate of cents per words, or, for $ , in the aggregate.[ ] mr. patey submitted no calculations in support of his statement that there had been a loss of $ , on newspaper messages yielding $ , . but he cited two illustrations from hull and the nottingham-sheffield-leeds-bradford group of towns. he stated that the post office received $ , a year for messages transmitted to six newspapers in hull, and spent $ , on the transmission of those messages. he added that the service supplied to nineteen towns included in the nottingham-sheffield-leeds-bradford group of towns yielded $ , , and cost the post office $ , .[ ] in , the postmaster general, through mr. s. a. blackwood, financial secretary to the post office,[ ] asked the select committee on the post office (telegraph department) to recommend to parliament that the tariff on newspaper press messages be made " cents for words or words for each separate town to which each message may be sent, and that the cent copy rate be limited to copies delivered by hand in the same town." that, it will be remembered, was the proposal made and withdrawn in by mr. scudamore. the select committee recommended that the amount of the loss on the newspaper press messages be clearly ascertained, and that the copy rates be raised sufficiently to cover that loss. but parliament failed to act on the recommendation. mr. patey had supported mr. blackwood's request with the statement, based upon inquiry of postmasters throughout the united kingdom, that "in a very large number of towns only a small part of the telegraphic news transmitted was inserted in the newspapers. in many cases, on inquiry of the proprietors, it was stated that it was not inserted inasmuch as it was not of interest to the readers. in other cases, because the amount of local news was more than would admit of the special telegraphic news being inserted." mr. patey also had quoted from a recent issue of the _glasgow herald_ the statement, that "there was not a leading provincial paper in the kingdom, the sub-editorial room of which was not littered in the small hours of the morning ankle deep with rejected telegraph flimsy;" and from a recent issue of the _freeman's journal_: "the fact is, that the post office, and the better class of papers as well, are both over-pressed with these cheap duplicate telegrams. we suppose we pay for about ten times as many as we print. though we get them, and pay for them, so as to insure having the best news from every quarter, we regard them rather as a nuisance, and would be glad to have them reduced in quantity." and finally, mr. patey had argued that the newspaper press was able to pay much more than it did pay, "inasmuch as there had been a tendency on the part of the papers generally, not confined only to the large papers," to get their news by special messages prepared by their own agents and not sent in duplicate to any extent.[ ] before the _select committee on the revenue departments estimates_, , mr. c. h. b. patey, third secretary to the post office, stated: "we believe that the tariff under which the press messages are sent in this country causes a loss amounting to nearly $ , , a year."[ ] in august, , in the house of commons, mr. cochrane-baillie asked the postmaster general "whether in view of the _report of the committee on the revenue departments estimates_, he could state that the government would bring in further legislation to relieve the country from the loss incurred by the present arrangement in connection with press telegrams?" the postmaster general replied that "he was quite in accord with the committee on revenue departments but he feared it would be difficult to effect any change, since the newspaper press tariff was fixed by the act of , and had been in force for upward of eighteen years."[ ] [sidenote: _annual loss on newspaper messages estimated at $ , , _] in november, , mr. arnold morley, postmaster general, stated in the house of commons that "the best estimate that can be formed by the officials at the post office points to the loss on the newspaper press telegrams being at least $ , , a year; and it probably is still more."[ ] in april, , mr. arnold morley, postmaster general, repeated the foregoing statement, and "maintained it in spite of various statements to the contrary in the newspapers." he added: "and i should be quite willing to arrange for an impartial investigation such as is suggested by the right honorable gentleman, if i were to receive satisfactory assurances that the press would abide by the result of an inquiry, and would undertake not to oppose the passage of the necessary legislation for a corresponding revision in the charges, if it should be shown that they are insufficient to provide for the cost of the service."[ ] the assurances were not forthcoming; and the newspaper press tariff remained unchanged. in april, , mr. r. w. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury, and representative in the house of commons of the postmaster general, a member of the house of lords, said: "the penny postage realizes an enormous revenue and brings in a profit, but every other part of the post office work is carried on at a loss. the whole profit is on the penny letter."[ ] * * * * * [sidenote: _betting on horse races subsidized_] the telegraph act of provided that newspaper rates should be given to "the proprietor or occupier of any news room, club, or exchange room."[ ] the clubs or exchange rooms in question are largely what we should term "pool-rooms," places maintained for the purpose of affording the public facilities for betting on horse races.[ ] in mr. saunders, proprietor of the central news press association, testified that his association would send in the course of a day to the same list of addressees the results of a number of races. the words in the several messages might not aggregate words, and thus his association would be charged for the transmission of one message only. in that way a number of messages would be transmitted "gratuitously." mr. saunders added that, in , the post office had transmitted gratuitously for his association , sporting messages. mr. patey, third clerk in the post office, added that while the post office received cents for transmitting from to sporting messages, it had to make to separate deliveries, by messenger boy, on account of those messages which were counted as one; and that each such delivery cost the post office on an average two cents. thus, on a recent date, the post office had delivered the results of the lichfield races to addressees by means of , separate deliveries, and had received for the service, on an average, one-half a cent per separate message.[ ] in january, , the post office discontinued the "continuous counting" of sporting messages.[ ] it took the department six years to summon the courage to make this change whereby was effected some diminution of the burden cast upon the general body of taxpayers for the benefit of the sporting element among the voters of the united kingdom. it would seem, however, that the practice of "continuous counting" had been resumed at some subsequent date. for, in march, , in reply to a question from mr. sloan, m. p., the postmaster general, mr. sydney buxton, said: "clubs are, under section of the telegraph act of , entitled to the benefit of the very low telegraph rates accorded to press messages; and i have no power to discriminate against a legitimate club because it is used for betting purposes. i propose to consider whether the section ought not to be amended in certain respects."[ ] on december , , the post office discontinued entirely the practice--voluntarily assumed--of transmitting sporting messages to so-called hotels, in reality saloons. the waste of the public funds that the post office had incurred in response to pressure from the publicans, is illustrated in mr. patey's statement that the post office had received from a certain liverpool hotel $ . a week for messages which had entailed a weekly expenditure of $ . for messenger service alone. footnotes: [ ] _report from the select committee on the post office_ (_telegraph department_), , j. e. taylor, proprietor of the _manchester guardian_; q. , to , , and , ; and c. h. b. patey, principal clerk in the post office department; q. , and following, , , , , and , ; and _report by mr. scudamore on the re-organization of the telegraph system of the united kingdom_, , pp. and . [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, ; dr. cameron, editor and manager of the _north british daily mail_; q. , and following. [ ] _report from the select committee on the post office_ (_telegraph department_), , c. h. b. patey, principal clerk in the post office department; q. , and , . [ ] _special report from the select committee on the electric telegraphs bill_, ; j. e. taylor, proprietor of the _manchester guardian_; wm. saunders, proprietor of the _western morning news_; dr. cameron, proprietor of the _north british daily mail_; and f. d. finlay, proprietor of the _northern whig_. [ ] _report from the select committee on the post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; j. e. taylor, proprietor of the _manchester guardian_; q. , to , . [ ] _report from the select committee on the post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; g. harper, editor _huddersfield chronicle_, and representative of the provincial newspaper society, which embraced about newspapers. [ ] compare: _report by mr. scudamore on the re-organization of the telegraph system of the united kingdom_, , pp. and . daily number of words transmitted for the newspapers: parliament parliament in session not in session , , , , [ ] _report from the select committee on the post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; j. e. taylor, proprietor of the _manchester guardian_; q. , and , ; and g. harper, editor _huddersfield daily chronicle_, and representative of the provincial newspaper society; q. , to , . [ ] _report from the select committee on the post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; q. , to , , , , , , , , and , to , ; and jno. lovell, manager of the press association; q. , to , . [ ] _report from the select committee on the post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; q. , to , . [ ] _report from the select committee on the post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; q. , . [ ] _report from the select committee on the post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; q. , and following, , , , , , , and , . receipts from messages sent to individual newspapers, and not duplicated to any extent: $ , , , , , , [ ] questions , and , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, november , , p. , . compare also june , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. . [ ] _report from the select committee on the post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; q. , to , , , , , to , , and , to , . [ ] _report by mr. scudamore on the re-organization of the telegraph system of the united kingdom_, , pp. and ; and _report from the select committee on revenue departments estimates_, ; mr. c. h. b. patey, third secretary to the post office, in appendix no. . =======+=======+========+============+===========+============= | | news- | newsrooms | messages | words | towns | papers | and clubs | delivered | delivered | | |(pool-rooms)| | -------+-------+--------+------------+-----------+------------- | | | | ? | ? | | | | ? | , , | | | | , , | , , | | | | , , | , , | | | | , , | , , =======+=======+========+============+===========+============= [ ] _report from the select committee on the post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; q. , to , , , , , and , . [ ] _parliamentary paper_, no. , session of ; copy _of the regulations relating to press telegraph messages issued by the postmaster general_ in . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. . chapter ix the post office employees press the house of commons for increases of wages and salaries british government's policy as to wages and salaries for routine work, as distinguished from work requiring a high order of intelligence. the fawcett revision of wages, . lord frederick cavendish, financial secretary to the treasury, on pressure exerted on members of parliament by the telegraph employees. sir s. a. blackwood, permanent secretary to the post office, on the fawcett revision of . evidence as to civil servants' pressure on members of parliament presented to the royal commission on civil establishments, . the raikes revision of - ; based largely on the report of the committee on the indoor staff, which committee had recommended increases in order "to end agitation." the earl compton, m. p., champions the cause of the postal employees in ; and moves for a select committee in . sir james fergusson, postmaster general in the salisbury ministry, issues an order against post office servants "endeavoring to extract promises from any candidate for election to the house of commons with reference to their pay or duties." the gladstone ministry rescinds sir james fergusson's order. mr. macdonald's motion, in , for a house of commons select committee. mr. kearley's motion, in . the government compromises, and appoints the so-called tweedmouth inter-departmental committee. at the time of the transfer of the telegraphs to the state, february, , the average weekly wages paid by the telegraph companies to the telegraphists in the seven largest cities of the united kingdom, was $ . for the male staff, and $ . for the female staff. that average for the male staff includes the salaries of the supervisors; if the latter be excluded, the average for the rank and file of the male employees will fall to $ . .[ ] in , two years after the transfer, the average wage of the male telegraphists in the offices of metropolitan london was $ . , while the average wage of the female clerks was $ . . for the united kingdom exclusive of london, the average wage of the telegraphists was $ . for the male employees, and $ . for the female employees.[ ] the latter averages record a larger increase of wages in the period to , than would appear at first blush upon comparison with the average of , namely: $ . for men telegraphists and $ . for women telegraphists. for while the figures for record the averages for the whole united kingdom exclusive of london, those for record the averages of the seven largest cities only. the increases in wages and salaries in the years to were due mainly to the all round rise in wages and salaries that occurred in the united kingdom in the period from to . in the case of the telegraphists the rise in wages was postponed until to , for the reason that the telegraph companies, as much as possible, adhered to the past scale of wages and salaries on account of the pending transfer of their properties to the state.[ ] the companies were able to pursue the policy in question by refraining from increasing their forces materially, working their old staff over-time. in part, however, the increase in the wages of the telegraphists after the transfer of the telegraphs to the post office was due to the fact that the government was obliged to pay the employees in the telegraph department something more than the rates of wages prevailing in the open market. for, previous to the acquisition of the telegraphs, the government had established the policy of paying its employees more than the open market rate for work requiring only fidelity and diligence in the performances of routine duty, as distinguished from work requiring a high order of intelligence and discretion. shortly after the post office had acquired the telegraphs, it was compelled to extend the aforesaid policy to the new body of state employees. as a matter of everyday politics, it proved impossible for the government to discriminate between the several classes of public servants, paying one part of them "fancy" wages, and the rest of them wages determined by demand and supply.[ ] an episode from the reorganization of the civil service in , in accordance with the recommendation of the so-called playfair commission, affords insight into the british practice of paying the public servants something more than the market rate of wages and salaries. the playfair commission had recommended that the pay of the lower division of government clerks begin with $ , and rise by annual increments to $ , , for seven hours' work a day. thereupon the government had fixed the rate at $ , to rise by annual increments to $ , . the playfair commission had stated that if it had been guided by the "voluminous" evidence which it had taken, it would have fixed at $ , the maximum to which should rise the salaries of the lower division clerks. but it had desired to attract "the elite" of the classes that the government could draw from, and therefore it had fixed the maximum at $ , .[ ] * * * * * [sidenote: _fawcett revision of wages, _] in august, , the house of commons accepted the proposal of mr. fawcett, postmaster general, to increase the pay of the telegraph operators, to count seven hours of night attendance a day's work, and to grant various other minor concessions.[ ] those several changes raised the average sum spent for salaries and wages in the transmission of a telegraphic message, from . cents in - , to . cents in - .[ ] mr. fawcett stated in the house of commons that inquiry of "leading employees of labor, such as bankers, railway companies, manufacturers, and others" had led him to conclude that the telegraph operators were underpaid. he also mentioned the fact that while he was considering the arguments that the telegraphists had made before him in support of the proposition that their pay was inadequate, "outside influence" was brought to bear repeatedly upon the telegraphists, and that the aforesaid outside influence "went so far as to recommend the employees to resort to the last extremity of a strike."[ ] mr. maciver replied that "he wished to say a word with regard to the imputation contained in the statement of the right honorable gentleman, that he [mr. maciver] had exercised outside influence upon the telegraphists. in common with other members of the house, he had heard[ ] the complaints of the telegraphists, and had thought it his duty to bring complaints before the house and the right honorable gentleman, the postmaster general, so that, if he had erred, he had erred in common with many others." [sidenote: _the treasury on civil service pressure_] in the course of the debate in the house of commons, lord frederick cavendish, financial secretary to the treasury, said: "with respect to the telegraph clerks, since they had received the franchise, they had used it to apply pressure to members of parliament for the furtherance of their own objects.... if, instead of the executive being responsible, members of the house were to conduct the administration of the departments, there would be an end of all responsibility whatever. in the same way, if the treasury was not to have control over expenditure, and members of the house were to become promoters of it, the system [of administering the national finances] which had worked so admirably in the past would be at an end.... with regard to the position of the telegraphists in the government service as compared with their former position under private companies, what had taken place would be a warning to the government to be careful against unduly extending the sphere of their operations by entering every day upon some new field, and placing themselves at a disadvantage by undertaking the work of private persons. he pointed out that the government service was always more highly paid than that of the companies and private persons, and in the particular case of the telegraph clerks [operators] the men themselves received higher pay than they had before."[ ] before the postmaster general had introduced into parliament his scheme for improving the positions of the telegraphists, sorting clerks and postmen,[ ] lord frederick cavendish, in his position as financial secretary of the treasury,[ ] had written the postmaster general as follows: ... "admitting, as my lords [of the treasury] do, that when discontent is shown to prevail extensively in any branch of the public service, it calls for attention and inquiry, and, so far as it is proved to be well founded, for redress, they are not prepared to acquiesce in any organized agitation which openly seeks to bring its extensive voting power to bear on the house of commons against the executive government responsible for conducting in detail the administration of the country. the persons who are affected by the change now proposed are, as you observe, no fewer than , , and the entire postal service numbers nearly five times as many. other branches of the civil service employed and voting in various parts of the united kingdom, are at least as numerous in the aggregate as the servants of the post office. all this vast number of persons, not living like soldiers and sailors outside ordinary civil life are individually and collectively interested in using their votes to increase, in their own favor, the public expenditure, which the rest of the community, who have to gain their living in the unrestricted competition of the open market, must provide by taxation, if it is provided at all. my lords therefore reserve to themselves the power of directing that the execution of the terms agreed to in the preceding part of the letter be suspended in any post office of which the members are henceforth known to be taking part in extra-official agitation. they understand that you are inquiring whether the law, as declared in the existing post office acts, does not afford to the public similar protection in respect of postal communication, including telegraphs, as is afforded by the act and victoria, c. , s. , to municipal authorities and other contractors, against breaches of contracts of service in respect of gas or water, the wilful interruption to the use of which [by means of a strike] is hardly of more serious import to the local community than is that of postal communications to the national community. if the existing post office acts do not meet this case, it will be for my lords to consider whether the circumstances continue to be such as to make it their duty to propose to parliament an extension to the post office of provisions similar to those cited above from the act and victoria, c. , s. ."[ ] in june, , mr. fawcett, postmaster general, said in the house of commons: "the house would remember how, last session, he was pressed by honorable members on both sides of the house to increase the pay of the telegraph employees ... in spite of all that was done for the telegraph employees, he noticed that they were constantly saying that what they received was worse than nothing. all he could say was that if $ , [ ] a year out of public funds was worse than nothing, he, for one, deeply regretted that that sacrifice of public money was ever made."[ ] in march, , mr. fawcett, postmaster general, said: "the salaries of the telegraph employees have--i will not say by the pressure of the house, but certainly with the approval of the house--been increased [in ]. i do not regret that increase; i think the extra pay they receive was due to them, and if i had not thought so, no number of memorials would have induced me to recommend the treasury to make such a large sacrifice of revenue."[ ] in april, , mr. fawcett, postmaster general, said: "$ , a year has been spent [of late] in improving the position of the telegraphists and letter sorters, and i say there never was an expenditure of public money which was more justifiable than that. if we had yielded to mere popular demands and thrown away the money we should deserve the severest censure; but i believe that if an increase of wages had not been conceded, it would have been impossible to carry on the administration of the department; and i think there is no economy so unwise as refusing to increase remuneration when you are convinced that the circumstances of the case demand the increase."[ ] in july, , the following questions and answers passed between the chairman of the select committee on revenue departments estimates, and sir s. a. blackwood, secretary to the post office. "with respect to the increase of salaries at the time when mr. fawcett was postmaster general, i presume that those recommendations of his were founded upon recommendations addressed to him by the [permanent officers of the] department?" "i can hardly say that they were. mr. fawcett held very strong views himself as to the propriety of making an increase to the pay of the lower ranks of the department, and he carried out that arrangement." "but the department, i take for granted, was not excluded from expressing an opinion upon the subject?" "certainly not. i became secretary at the time [ ] when mr. fawcett became postmaster general.[ ] i never should have initiated such a movement, but i saw great force in many of the reasons which mr. fawcett urged in favor of such an increase; and, at any rate, the department, as represented by me, saw no reason to raise a serious opposition, if it were at liberty to do so, to the postmaster general's views and determinations."[ ] before the tweedmouth committee, , mr. e. b. l. hill, "practically commander-in-chief of the provincial postmen," testified as follows upon that part of the fawcett revision of that applied to the postal service proper. he said that previous to all the revisions of the wages of the postmen had been made on the basis of demand and supply; but that the fawcett revision had departed from that policy.[ ] * * * * * [sidenote: _evidence, in , as to civil service pressure_] the royal commission on civil establishments, , took up at some length, the question of the pressure brought by the civil servants upon the house of commons for increases of wages and salaries. before that commission, sir reginald e. welby, who had entered the treasury in , had become assistant financial secretary in , and had been made permanent secretary to the treasury in , testified that many members of the house of commons had recently attended meetings of the civil servants for the purpose of endorsing the claims of the civil servants for increases of pay; and that they had taken that action without having made a close examination of the grounds upon which the civil servants had put forward their claims. he added: "it is utterly impossible for us [the treasury] to ignore these symptoms that make it very difficult to keep within reasonable bounds the remuneration of such a body." thereupon one of the members of the royal commission said to sir r. welby: ... "but are you not aware that there is a general feeling throughout the country among the people who are employed by private individuals and public bodies [other than the state], that government servants receive higher pay than they do, and that when these persons are called upon to exercise the franchise they bring pressure to bear upon their members just the other way [_i. e._, against the increase of government wages and salaries]?" sir r. welby replied: "of course, i have no means of testing that. i am very glad to hear that parliamentary influence is not all in one direction. we do not see the proof of it at the treasury."[ ] sir algernon e. west, chairman inland revenue commissioners,[ ] said he wished for a greater spirit of economy, "not in the offices so much as outside." thereupon the chairman of the royal commission said: "i do not quite understand what you mean by outside." sir algernon e. west replied: "i say it with all possible deference, particularly parliament." to the further query: "has there been on the part of members of parliament, an increase of intervention on behalf either of the individual officers of the inland revenue or on behalf of classes of the inland revenue since the enfranchisement in ?" sir a. west replied: "a large increase on behalf of classes, not of individuals.... i should like to add ... that i think last year the lower division clerks succeeded in getting two hundred members of parliament to attend a meeting which was held to protest against their grievances."[ ] sir lyon playfair, who had been chairman of the royal commission on the civil service, to , and the author of the playfair reorganization of the civil service, , testified as follows before the royal commission of . "unfortunately members of parliament yield to pressure a great deal too much in that direction, and they are certainly pressing the exchequer to increase the wages and salaries of the employees of the crown.... in a private establishment a man looks after his own interests, and if a person came to him and said: 'now you must increase the salaries of these men by $ or $ all round,' he would say: 'you are an impertinent man, you have no business to interfere,' but you cannot say that to members of parliament, and there is continual pressure from members of parliament to augment the salaries of the civil servants."[ ] * * * * * [sidenote: _raikes revision of - _] with the increase of the number of telegraphic messages transmitted, from , , in - , to , , in - , the average sum spent on wages and salaries per message transmitted, fell from . cents in - , to . cents in - . in the following year, - , mr. raikes, postmaster general, inaugurated an extensive scheme of increases in wages, reductions in the hours of work, and other "improvements in the condition" of the telegraph employees, that again raised to . cents per message in - , the average sum spent on wages and salaries. mr. raikes, postmaster general, raised the wages of the supervising staff, as well as the wages of the rank and file;[ ] he granted payment at one and one-quarter rates for over time, granted payment at double rates for all work done on sunday, gave extra pay for work done on bank holidays, and increased from half pay to full pay the sick-leave allowance. the annual cost of those concessions mr. raikes estimated at $ , a year. the cost of the concessions granted at the same time to the employees in the postal branch of the post office department, he estimated at $ , a year.[ ] mr. raikes' schemes were based largely upon the _report of committee of the indoor staff_. that report has not been published; but in , mr. lewin hill, assistant secretary general post office, london, stated before the so-called tweedmouth committee,[ ] that the majority of the committee on the indoor staff had signed the report because they believed that if the concessions recommended in the report were granted, "that would be the end of all agitation." mr. hill added: "i remember myself saying [to the committee] whatever else happens, that will not happen. do not delude yourselves with the notion that the men will cease to ask." he continued: "mr. raikes' improvements were received with the greatest gratitude, and there were any number of letters of thanks from the staff; but the ink was scarcely dry when the demands began again, and they have been going on ever since, and will go on.... there is, unfortunately, a growing habit among the main body of post office servants to use their voting power at elections to get higher pay for themselves, and it is well known that in constituencies in which political parties are at all evenly balanced, the post office servants can turn the election." [sidenote: _earl compton demands a select committee_] the committee on the indoor staff appointed by mr. raikes in march, , had not had the approval of the rank and file of the civil servants, nor had it had the approval of the representatives of the civil servants in the house of commons, on the ground that it consisted of government officials, who were not responsible directly to the voters. therefore one of the leading representatives in the house of commons of the post office employees, earl compton,[ ] on april , , had moved: "that, in the opinion of the house, the present position of the telegraphists in london and elsewhere is unsatisfactory, and their just grievances require redress."[ ] in the course of his argument, earl compton said: "perhaps the right honorable gentleman [the postmaster general] has been cramped [in the administration of his department] by what is called officialism. in that case, if the present motion is passed, the right honorable gentleman's hands will be strengthened [against his permanent officials], and he will be able to redress the grievances which have been brought under his attention." baron f. de rothschild followed earl compton, with the statement: "the postmaster general may well say it is no business of ours to interfere between the civil servants and himself, but here i would venture to ask him whether the civil servants are not quite as much our [_i. e._, the public's] servants as they are those of the postmaster general?" baron de rothschild went on to say that through an error made in the course of the transmission of a telegram his betting agent had placed his money on the wrong horse, causing him to lose a considerable sum of money. such mistakes would not occur if the telegraphists were better paid. sir a. borthwick regretted "the increasing tendency to invoke the direct interposition of parliament between the executive government and the civil service." the postmaster general concluded his statement with the words: "i hope that after the statement which i have been able to make, the house will recognize the claim of every government that the house shall not interfere with matters of departmental administration, except where it thinks fit to censure the minister in charge. so long as a minister occupies his position at the head of a department, he ought to be allowed to occupy it in his own way. i venture to hope that the house will leave questions of this sort in the hands of those who are directly and primarily responsible for them, in the belief that grievances of the servants of any department are not likely to lack careful consideration, and, i believe, just and fair treatment." a few months later, the postmaster general made this statement in the house of commons: "i wish to correct one misapprehension. it is supposed that the position of the government is that only the market value should be paid for labor of this sort [the nonestablished post office servants]. those who sat in the committee [of supply] will remember that i laid down a different doctrine the other day. my own view is, that while the market value must be the governing consideration, because we are not dealing with our own money, but with the money of the taxpayers, the taxpayers would wish that, in applying that standard to those in the public service, we should always bear in mind that a great government should treat its employees liberally."[ ] * * * * * earl compton failed to carry his motion in ; and in the following year he made another unsuccessful attempt, moving: "that, in the opinion of this house, it is desirable that a select committee be appointed to inquire into the administration of the post office."[ ] mr. ambrose, speaking against the motion, said: "questions between capital and labor and between the government and its employees should not be influenced by motions in the house. we are all subjected as members of this house to all manner of whips from employees of the civil service and the post office, and i know that when the _status_ of the civil service clerks was being settled some time ago, there was, among members generally, a feeling of disgust at the telegrams and letters being received almost very minute from people seeking to influence our votes on some particular question of interest to them." mr. raikes, postmaster general, enumerated in detail the concessions made to the telegraphists and letter sorters in and , at a cost of $ , , a year, and added: "and to all this, not one single reference has escaped those who have spoken." he concluded with the words: "it would never do if, in order to encourage the vaporings of three or four of those gutter journals which disfigure the metropolitan press, members of this house were to make the grave mistake of throwing discredit upon a body of men like the permanent officials [executive officers] of the post office, of whom any country might be proud, with whom, i believe, any minister would be delighted to work, and of diminishing the authority in his own department of a minister, who, whatever may be his personal deficiencies, at heart believes that he has done nothing to forfeit the confidence of this house." a few months later, when the house was considering the estimates of the post office department, the postmaster general said: "economists [advocates of economy] of former days would have been interested and surprised by the general tenor of the debate to which we have just listened. the great point used to be, as i understand, to show a large balance of revenue to the state [from the post office], and to make a defense against charges of extravagance in the past. but we have now arrived at a time when the opposite course is to be taken, and the only chance a minister has of enjoying the confidence of this house is to point to a diminished balance of revenue and to a greater expenditure on the part of the department." ... in - our telegraph expenditure will increase by $ , , , while our revenue will increase by $ , , ; "the reason is to be found in the very comprehensive measures framed in the course of the last year for the improvement of the position of the staff."[ ] [sidenote: _civil servants circularize members of parliament_] mr. raikes died in august, ; and in june, , sir james fergusson, his successor, asked the house of commons to permit him to call attention to a circular addressed to candidates at the [impending] general election, and also sent to members of the [present] house. the circular had been issued by "the provincial postal telegraph male clerks" to "candidates at the general election," and contained the following statement: "we have, in addition, to ask you whether you will, if elected, vote for the appointment of a parliamentary committee to inquire into the working of the telegraph service, as we believe such an investigation would be of great utility, and could not but tend to the improvement of the service, the state of which is causing great public dissatisfaction, as will be seen from the subjoined newspaper extracts. in conclusion, we beg to state that we await your reply to these few questions of vital importance with considerable anxiety, and trust that you will give them your careful consideration." sir james fergusson added that another branch of the post office servants was issuing similar circulars.[ ] he said, "i think that there would be an end to the discipline which should characterize members of the public service if encouragement were given to such attempts to bring pressure to bear on members of the house and candidates on the eve of a general election.... i have to say that the leading members of the opposition, including the right honorable member for midlothian [mr. w. e. gladstone], and the right honorable member for derby [sir wm. harcourt], fully concur in the observations i have made."[ ] a few days later, the postmaster general issued the following notice: "the postmaster general at the same time warns post office servants that it would be improper for them, in combination or individually, to endeavor to extract promises from any candidate for election to the house of commons with reference to their pay or duties." in the house of commons sir james fergusson defended this notice in these words: "i in no way deny the right of members of the public service to appeal to members of this house to get their case represented here, but there is all the difference between members being asked to represent a _prima facie_ case, and candidates being asked to pledge themselves upon an ex-parte statement to support a revision [of wages and salaries] or a commission of inquiry--in fact, to prejudge the case. to ask for such a promise as a condition of giving a vote does seem to me inconsistent with the duties of a public servant, and to go beyond his constitutional privileges. in that view the warning has been issued. by what law or right has this been done, the honorable member asks? by the right and duty which belongs to the head of a department to preserve proper discipline."[ ] in august, , the salisbury government was succeeded by the gladstone government, and mr. arnold morley became postmaster general. on august , , mr. w. e. gladstone, first lord of the treasury, in reply to a question from mr. macdonald, said: "questions may be raised, on which i have no judgment to give on the part of the government, as to how far, for example, it is desirable for the public functionaries to make use of their position as voters for the purpose of obtaining from candidates promises or engagements tending directly to the advantage of public servants in respect of pay and promotion. these are matters which we deem not undeserving of consideration; but still they do not form the subject of any decision on the part of her majesty's government in the nature of a restraint."[ ] in accordance with the policy thus announced, the gladstone ministry rescinded sir james fergusson's order of june , .[ ] [sidenote: _mr. macdonald demands a select committee_] in september, , while the house was in committee of supply, mr. macdonald[ ] moved "a reduction of $ in respect of the salary of the postmaster general", in order to bring before the committee the demand of the post office employees for "an independent inquiry by a parliamentary committee." he stated "that in the present postmaster general [mr. arnold morley] voted in favor of an inquiry such as that for which he [mr. macdonald] now asked, and he wished to know whether anything had occurred to cause the right honorable gentleman to change his view since that time."[ ] the postmaster general, mr. morley, replied: "he was asked how he could account for his vote in when he had supported the motion of the noble earl, the member for barnsley [earl compton]? he accounted for it on two grounds: he had supported the proposal, which was an unprecedented one, because there was an unprecedented condition of discontent prevailing throughout the postal and telegraph service--or, he confessed, he was under that impression at the time. the condition of things in various branches of the service was serious. there had been an _émeute_ in the savings bank department, and whether with reason or without reason, the whole of the services were discontented with their position. the condition of things at present, however, did not bear out the idea that there was anything like general discontent prevailing. he accounted for his action on another ground. since large concessions had been made, with enormous additional expense to the country, and that made the state of things very different to what it was when he supported the noble earl's motion." earl compton said: "he had several times in past years stood up and spoken for the telegraph clerks, and as the amendment before the committee related practically to them, it would be dishonest and mean on his part, if, having taken a strong course [while sitting] in opposition, he did not take the same course now his friends were in power." mr. macdonald's motion was lost. [sidenote: _mr. kearley demands a select committee_] in may, , mr. kearley[ ] moved: "that in the opinion of this house, it is highly desirable that the terms and conditions of employment in the post office should be made the subject of competent and immediate inquiry, with a view to the removal of any reasonable cause of complaint which may be found to exist."[ ] the motion was seconded by sir albert k. rollit.[ ] mr. kearley stated at the outset, that his remarks would be directed to the advisability of granting some inquiry. he was not in a position to assert that any particular alleged grievance really existed as stated by the employees; but there could be no doubt that there was general discontent. mr. kearley next stated that the most serious grievance alleged by the post office employees was inadequacy of pay arising from stagnation of promotion. it was true that at the time the blocking extended only to the more highly paid portions of the rank and file, but it must soon extend to the general body of employees unless relief were afforded. in , and in , parliament had sanctioned respectively the fawcett revision of wages, and the raikes revision, for the purpose of correcting inadequacies of pay arising from stagnation of promotion. the employees now demanded the abolition of the classes into which were divided the various grades of the rank and file of the post office employees; they demanded assured promotion to a definite maximum wage or salary. that demand rested on the assumption that the employees had a vested right to the rate of promotion that had obtained under the extraordinary increase of telegraphic business that had followed the transfer of the telegraphs to the state in , and had followed the adoption of the cent tariff in october, .[ ] mr. kearley supported his argument by reference to the telegraphists, who enter the service between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, as second class telegraphists, and in the course of fourteen years rise by annual increments from the wage of $ a week to $ a week. at the latter wage they remain, unless they are promoted to be first class telegraphists, whose wages rise by annual increments, from $ a week to $ a week--payment for over-time, and so forth, being excluded in all cases. mr. kearley argued that promotion from the second class to the first class was blocked, stating that in birmingham, in the last - / years, only men in had been promoted from second class telegraphists to first class telegraphists; and that in belfast and edinburgh the annual rate of promotion had been respectively . per cent. and per cent. those instances, said the speaker, were typical of the larger cities; the conditions in the smaller cities and in the towns being still worse. mr. arnold morley, postmaster general, replied to this part of mr. kearley's argument with the statement that there were in london and in the provinces , second class male telegraphists, and that out of that number only were both eligible for promotion and in receipt of the maximum wage of the second class, namely $ a week. he added that the average wage of the men telegraphists who had been promoted from the second class to the first in had been $ . . that meant that, on an average, the men in question had been promoted three years before they had reached the maximum wage of the second class. the postmaster general characterized as "extraordinarily misleading" the source from which mr. kearley had taken his statements of fact, namely, a table in a pamphlet issued by the telegraphists in support of their contention that promotion was blocked. the compilers of the table had left out promotions "due to causes other than what were termed ordinary causes, namely promotions due to appointments to postmasterships and chief clerkships, to transfers from provincial offices to the central office in london, and to reductions of officers on account of misconduct." thus at birmingham there had been, not promotions, but ; at liverpool, not , but ; at belfast, not , but ; at newcastle, not , but ; at bristol, not , but ; at southampton, not , but . the second alleged grievance brought forward by mr. kearley related to the so-called auxiliary staff, which consisted of men who supplemented their earnings in private employment by working for the post office in the mail branch. it was stated that the post office was paying the auxiliary staff from $ . to $ . a week, whereas it should pay at least $ . a week. the third grievance related to the so-called split duties, which involved in the course of the hours of the day more than one attendance at the office. the abolition of those duties was demanded. the fourth grievance was that some of the younger employees were obliged to take their annual three weeks' vacation [on full pay] in the months of november to february. sir albert rollit,[ ] in seconding the motion, termed "reasonable" the demand of the telegraphists that the wages of the london telegraphists should rise automatically to $ , a year; and those of the provincial telegraphists to $ , a year. at the time the maximum wage attainable in london was $ , while the maximum attainable in the provinces was $ . sir albert rollit added that the recent order of the post office that first class telegraphists must pass certain technical examinations or forego further promotion and further increments in pay, "amounted almost to tyranny," and he further reflected that "where law ended, tyranny began." sir albert rollit, an eminent merchant and capitalist, contended that when the existing body of telegraphists had entered the service, no knowledge of the technics of telegraphy had been required, and that therefore it would be a breach of contract to require the present staff to acquire such knowledge unless it were specifically paid for going to the trouble of acquiring such knowledge. that contention of sir albert rollit was but one of many instances of the extraordinary doctrine of "vested rights" developed by the british civil service, and recognized by the british government, namely, that the state may make no changes in the terms and conditions of employment, unless it shall indemnify by money payments the persons affected by the changes. if the state shall be unwilling to make such indemnification, the changes in the terms and conditions of employment must be made to apply only to persons who shall enter the service in the future; they may not be made to apply to those already in the service. this doctrine is supported in the house of commons by eminent merchants, manufacturers and capitalists. sir albert k. rollit, for instance, is a steamship owner at hull, newcastle and london; a director of the national telephone company, and he has held for six years and five years respectively the positions of president of the associated chambers of commerce of the united kingdom and president of the london chamber of commerce. when sir albert rollit argued that the government had broken faith with the telegraphers, those public servants, acting under instructions from their leaders, were neglecting to avail themselves of their opportunities to learn the elementary scientific principles underlying telegraphy, and were even repudiating the obligation to acquire knowledge of those principles. the state of affairs was such that the engineer-in-chief of the telegraphs, mr. w. h. preece, began to fear that before long he would be unable to fill the positions requiring an elementary knowledge of the technics of telegraphy.[ ] mr. arnold morley, postmaster general, began his reply to mr. kearley's motion with the statement that "he understood the mover of the motion spoke on behalf of those in the post office service who had taken an active part in the promoting what he might call an agitation, and that his [mr. kearley's] position was that, in the condition of feeling in the service, some steps ought to be taken which would enable the real facts to be brought not only before the public, but before parliament." ... he [mr. morley] had made a careful examination of most of the alleged grievances during the three years he had been at the post office, and though he had satisfied himself that in the main they were not well founded, he recognized that a very strong feeling existed not only among a portion of the staff, but also among the public, and among members of the house. [sidenote: _the civil servants' campaign of education_] the feeling in question the postmaster general attributed largely to the manner in which the case of the telegraphists had been presented by the telegraphists in the house of commons, and in the newspaper press. he spoke of the "extraordinarily misleading" table of promotions published by the telegraphists. he then went on to state that recently the postmaster at bristol had reorganized the local telegraph office. by reducing the amount of over-time work, and by abolishing four junior offices, he had effected a saving of $ , to $ , a year. thereupon a local newspaper had come out with the heading: "a premium on sweating;" and had made the statement, which was not true, that the local postmaster had received a premium of $ for effecting a saving of $ , at the expense of the staff.[ ] mr. morley continued with the statement that in june, , a deputation from the london trades council had complained to the postmaster general that skilled electric light men were often employed by the post office at laborer's wages at its factory at holloway, citing the case of one turner. upon inquiry the postmaster general had learned that turner had been employed as a wireman, had been "discharged from slackness of work," and, upon his own request in writing, had been taken back "out of kindness" as a laborer. the same deputation had mentioned the case of one harrison, alleged to be earning on piece work, at the holloway factory, $ . , $ . , and $ . a week. on inquiry the postmaster had ascertained that harrison was able to earn $ a week and more, but that "for the purpose of agitation, he had deliberately lowered the amount of his wages by abstaining from doing full work." after the postmaster general had informed the london trades council of the facts of the case, that body had passed resolutions denouncing the postal authorities at the holloway factories. again, mr. churchfield, secretary of the postmen's federation, in an interview with the representative of a london newspaper had stated that the shortest time worked by the men on split duties was - / hours, while the longest was hours [in the course of one day and night]. a duty of seven hours lasting from p. m. to p. m., and from p. m. to a. m., mr. churchfield had called a continuous duty of twenty-two hours, lasting from p. m. to p. m. the public also was "grossly misled" as to the condition of the auxiliary postmen. for example, one mears was alleged to earn, after years' service, only $ a week. inquiry showed that mears worked in a warehouse during the day, and received from the post office $ a week for duties performed between the hours of p. m. and p. m. other cases had been reported, but in not one instance had the figures been correct. one man in receipt of $ . a week, had been put down at $ . . the london auxiliary postmen received from cents to cents an hour; they were mainly small tradesmen, shop assistants, and private watchmen. in the country, the auxiliary postmen received from cents to cents an hour. the postmaster general continued with the statement that the increases in wages and the concessions granted by mr. fawcett and mr. raikes had augmented the combined expenditures of the postal branch and telegraph branch by $ , , a year.[ ] "in , the wages formed . per cent. of the gross expenditure, whereas now they formed . per cent.... he did not think that he need add to those figures, except to say that in addition to salaries there were a large number of allowances for special duties. in the circulation office in london were , sorters, of whom had each an allowance of $ . a week, while a very large number had allowances of $ . , $ . and $ . , of which never a word was said when complaints were made about salaries." the demands made by the telegraphists would increase the state's expenditures by $ , , a year, "taking into account the consequential advances which other classes in the public service, treated on the same footing, would naturally receive." similarly, the letter sorters made an application involving a direct increase of $ , , and an indirect increase of another $ , , . mr. morley next recited some statistics to show, "first of all, the desire among people outside to come into the post office service, and secondly, the disinclination of those inside to go out." the post office recently had called for male letter sorters, and had received , applications. a call for "telegraph learners," had brought out , candidates. in london, in , there had been no resignations among , first class sorters, and resignations among , second class sorters. out of , london postmen, had resigned in ; and in the years ending with , a total of , telegraphists had furnished resignations, including the resignations of women who left the service in order to marry.[ ] "he could not help thinking that when the working men got to know to the full extent the terms and prospects of postal service, the sympathy which they had so freely bestowed on post office employees would be largely withdrawn." [sidenote: _the government compromises with the civil servants_] mr. morley, postmaster general, summed up with the statement that "he should be the last to deny that change and amelioration might be required in certain respects, but, having examined all the cases, he believed the men of the postal service, the telegraph staff as well as the postal staff, were better treated than people from the same class in private employment. but that opinion was not altogether shared by the public, or by certain members of the house of commons, and therefore the government was prepared to appoint a strong committee, composed of men who would have special and practical knowledge and experience of administration, and who would, he hoped, be assisted by a member of the labor department of the board of trade.... there must be upon the committee one official of the post office in order to assist the committee, but apart from that one appointment, he proposed that the committee should be appointed from executive officers of the government not connected with the post office." sir james fergusson, who had preceded mr. morley as postmaster general, said: "he could not shut his eyes to the fact that there was no difficulty whatever in finding candidates for employment in the post office. in fact, it was impossible to meet the wishes of many of those who desired to enter the department. in those circumstances he thought it could hardly be contended seriously that the remuneration offered was grossly inadequate, or that the conditions of service were unduly onerous." the house of commons accepted the compromise offered by the government. lord tweedmouth, lord privy seal and a member of the cabinet, was made chairman of the committee, which consisted, in addition, of sir f. mowatt, permanent secretary of the treasury; sir a. godley, under secretary of state for india; mr. spencer walpole, permanent secretary to the post office; and mr. llewellyn smith, of the labor department of the board of trade.[ ] footnotes: [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , ; mr. lewin hill, assistant secretary, general post office, london. [ ] _return to an order of the honorable, the house of commons_, dated march th, . [ ] _parliamentary paper_, no. , session of , lord john manners, postmaster general; and _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, , mr. l. hill, assistant secretary, general post office, london; appendix, pp. , and , . [ ] _report of a committee appointed by the treasury to investigate the causes of the increased cost of the telegraph service since the acquisition of the telegraphs by the state_, , p. ; _first report of the civil service inquiry commission_, , p. ; and _report from the select committee on post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; mr. e. graves, divisional engineer; q. , and following. [ ] _second report of the royal commission on civil establishments_, ; sir lyon playfair; q. , to , ; sir reginald e. welby, permanent secretary to the treasury, , to , ; and appendix, p. and following. [ ] _parliamentary paper_, no. , session of . [ ] _report from the select committee on revenue departments estimates_, ; appendix no. , mr. c. h. b. patey, third secretary to the post office. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. . [ ] that is, he had given the telegraphists an interview. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. . [ ] _the narrative ignores the parts of the scheme affecting the_ letter carriers and letter sorters. [ ] for an account of the organization and the duties of the treasury, as well as of the position and the duties of the financial secretary to the treasury, see chapter xvii. [ ] _parliamentary paper_, no. , session of . [ ] in consequence of the fact that wages and salaries rise by annual increments from the minimum to the maximum, some years must elapse before the full effect of the increase in pay granted in would be felt. it was assumed that in the first year the total increase in expenditure would be $ , , and that ultimately it would be $ , . in that connection it was common to speak of a mean increase of $ , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. and . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. . [ ] from to sir s. a. blackwood had been financial secretary to the post office. [ ] _report from the select committee on revenue departments estimates_; q. and . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _second report of the royal commission on civil establishments_, ; q. , - , , to , , and , to , . [ ] _who's who_, , west, sir algernon e.; was a clerk in the admiralty: assistant secretary to sir c. wood and duke of somerset; secretary to sir c. wood at india office, and to mr. gladstone when prime minister; chairman of board of inland revenue. [ ] _second report of the royal commission on civil establishments_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _second report of the royal commission on civil establishments_, ; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, , mr. lewin hill, assistant secretary, general post office, london; q. , and , . the subjoined table shows the changes made in the wages of the second class provincial telegraphists, who enter the service as boys and girls, from fourteen years upward, and are taught telegraphy at the cost of the department. ========================+=================+================ | wage under the | wage under the age of the telegraphist | fawcett scheme | raikes scheme years | $ | $ ------------------------+-----------------+---------------- | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . ========================+=================+================ [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. , and following; april , , p. ; and august , , p. , and following. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , . [ ] _who's who_, , compton, family name of marquis of northampton. northampton, th marquis of, wm. geo. spencer scott compton; was in diplomatic service; private secretary to lord lieutenant of ireland (earl cowper), to ; member of parliament (g. l.) to ; owns about , acres. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. and following. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. and following. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. , and following. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, february , , p. , . s. woods quotes as follows from the circular issued by the fawcett association in june, : "will you, in the event of being elected a member of parliament, support a motion for the appointment of a parliamentary committee of inquiry into the post office service, such as was advocated by earl compton, and largely supported during the recent session of the house of commons?" [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. , and following. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. , and following. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, may , , p. , , sir a. k. rollit, one of the most aggressive champions of the demands of the civil servants. [ ] _who's who_, . macdonald, j. a. m.; member of parliament for bow and bromley, to ; member of the london school board for marylebone since ; education: edinburgh and glasgow universities. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, september , , p. , and following. [ ] _who's who_, , kearley, h. e., j. p., d. l., member of parliament (g. l.), devenport, since . director of kearley and tonge, l't'd., tea importers and merchants; owns , acres. in mr. kearley became political secretary of the board of trade in the campbell-bannerman ministry. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, may , , p. , and following. [ ] _who's who_, , rollit, sir albert kaye, j. p., ll. d., d. c. l., d. l., member of parliament, south islington, since . partner in bailey and leatham, steamship owners at hull, newcastle and london; director of national telephone co.; mayor of hull, to ; president associated chambers of commerce of the united kingdom, to ; president london chamber of commerce, to ; chairman inspection committee trustee savings bank since ; president of association of municipal corporations. [ ] in - to - the number of telegrams transmitted had remained practically stationary. number of telegrams - , , - , , - , , - , , - , , [ ] _who's who_, , rollit, sir albert kaye, j. p., ll. d., d. c. l., d. l., m. p., south islington, since . partner in bailey and leetham, steamship owners at hull, newcastle and london; director of national telephone co.; mayor of hull, to ; president associated chambers of commerce of the united kingdom, to ; president london chamber of commerce, to ; chairman inspection committee trustee savings bank since ; president of association of municipal corporations. [ ] _report of bradford committee on post office wages_, ; q. , ; mr. e. trenam, controller london central telegraph office; and q. , , mr. w. g. kirkwood, a principal clerk in secretary's department, general post office. [ ] compare also, _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. , . mr. cunninghame-grahame: "i beg to ask the postmaster general whether it is the custom of the post office to give bonuses to inspectors or other officials for cutting down working expenses, and whether continual complaints are being made of the arbitrary stoppage of payment for over-time?" "no," was answered to both questions. [ ] in april, , mr. lewin hill, assistant secretary to general post office, stated that on the basis of the staff of , the fawcett and raikes schemes were costing the post office department $ , , a year in increased expenditure. the postmaster general's statement of an increase of $ , , in the expenditure had been made on the basis of the members actually employed in and respectively. _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and , . [ ] compare _report of inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; mr. lewin hill, assistant secretary to general post office; q. , . on april , , there were employed at of the largest post offices in the united kingdom, , first class and second class male letter sorters. in the next years there resigned, in all, sorters. twelve of that number resigned in order to avoid dismissal. on april , , there were employed at of the largest telegraph offices, , first class and second class male telegraphists. in the next years there were resignations. of the men who resigned, avoided dismissal, left because of ill health, went to south africa, obtained superior appointments in the civil service, by open competition, enlisted with the royal engineers, entered the service of an electric light company, became a bank clerk, became commercial travelers, went to sea, emigrated to the united states, and entered the service of the british cable companies, which pay higher salaries than the post office, but work their men much harder and demand greater efficiency than does the post office. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, , is the official title of the committee's report. chapter x the tweedmouth committee report the government accepts all recommendations made by the committee. sir albert k. rollit, one of the principal champions in the house of commons of the postal employees, immediately follows with a motion "intended to reflect upon the report of the tweedmouth committee." mr. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury, intimates that it may become necessary to disfranchise the civil servants. the treasury accepts the recommendations of the so-called norfolk-hanbury committee. the average of expenses on account of wages and salaries rises from . cents per telegram in - , to . cents in - , concomitantly with an increase in the number of telegrams from , , to , , . in the preceding chapter the narrative was brought down to the appointment in , of the so-called tweedmouth committee.[ ] that committee consisted of lord tweedmouth, lord privy seal and a member of the cabinet; sir f. mowatt, permanent secretary of the treasury; sir a. godley, under secretary of state for india; mr. spence walpole, permanent secretary of the post office; and mr. llewellyn smith, of the labor department of the board of trade. in the "terms of reference to the committee on post office establishments," the postmaster general included this paragraph: "in conducting this inquiry, i can have no doubt you will recollect that the post office is a great revenue department; and that, in the words of the _select committee on revenue departments estimates_ in , it 'is most likely to continue to be conducted satisfactorily, if it should also continue to be conducted with a view to profit, as one of the revenue yielding departments of the state.'"[ ] [sidenote: _no service like the public service_] before the tweedmouth committee mr. lewin hill, who, as assistant secretary general post office, was the executive officer who had general charge of all the postal and telegraph employees outside of london, testified as follows: "my own view is that the time has come for telling the postmen, in common with the members of the rest of the manipulative staff [the telegraphists] in answer to their demand for a general rise of wages, that the post office department is satisfied that the wages already paid are in excess of the market value of their services; that this being so, no general addition to pay will be given, and that if the staff are dissatisfied, and can do better for themselves outside the post office, they are, as they know, at perfect liberty to seek employment elsewhere." the chairman, lord tweedmouth, asked mr. hill: "do you think there is any other particular class of employment which is comparable with that of the postmen [and telegraphists]?" mr. hill replied: "i thought of railway servants, whose work in many ways resembles the work of our employees. if they have not the same permanence [of tenure] as our own people have, they have continuous employment so long as they are efficient, but our people have continuous employment whether they are efficient or not.... in that respect all of us in the postal service stand in a unique position, from top to bottom our men are certain as long as they conduct themselves reasonably well to retain their maximum pay down to the last day they remain in the service, and whatever their class may be, whether postmen, or sorting clerks, or telegraphists, or officers of higher grade, they continue, failing misconduct, to rise to the maximum pay of their class, quite regardless of whether they are worth the higher pay that they get from year to year." the only concession that mr. hill was willing to recommend was, that in the larger towns the time required for postmen and telegraphists to rise from the minimum scale of pay to the maximum be reduced from years to years.[ ] mr. j. c. badcock, controller of the metropolitan postal service other than the service in the london central post office, and mr. h. c. fischer, controller of the london central post office, joined in mr. lewin hill's recommendation. mr. fischer added that the london telegraphists should be given better chances of passing from the second class to the first class than they had enjoyed in the last three or four years,[ ] and that the pay of the london senior telegraphists, who were a kind of assistants to the assistant superintendents, ought to be raised above the existing scale of $ . mr. c. h. kerry, postmaster at stoke-on-trent, stated that if the post office department "was willing to act, not only the part of the model employer, but of an exceptionally liberal employer; and it was thought after all that had been done for the staff so recently, that still a little further should be done," the department might reduce from years to years the period that it took the rank and file to pass from the minimum salary of their class to the maximum salary. but there was no necessity of doing anything for any one, "on a general consideration of the pay given elsewhere to persons performing duties requiring about the same amount of intelligence." there was "absolutely no justification" for increasing the existing maximum of pay. mr. kerry had entered the post office telegraph service in , after having served with the electric and international company from to . he said: "the speed at which the telegraphists had to work present, that is the speed per man,[ ] because the telegraph companies kept only enough force for the minimum work, and when the work increased you had to catch that up by increased effort.... as a previous witness said, one of the laws of the service is that there must be no delay, but i think there is a well understood law, also, that there must be no confusion, and the arrangements made are now such that the maximum of work, as a rule, can be dealt with without undue pressure.... from to , i was constantly in the telegraph branch and witnessing from day to day, and almost from hour to hour, the work which the telegraphists performed." ...[ ] this testimony from mr. kerry must be borne in mind when reading the complaints of the post office telegraphists that the salaries paid by the eastern telegraph [cable] company rise to $ , a year, whereas the salaries of first class telegraphists in london rise only to $ . the employees of the eastern telegraph company have to work under so much greater pressure than the state telegraphists, that mr. fischer, controller of the london central telegraph office, was able to state: "i have never known a telegraphist in the first class to leave our service for that of any of the [cable] companies. the cable companies draw very few men from us, and those drawn away as a rule, are young men in the second class who are receiving about $ or $ , and are attracted by the prospect of an immediate increase of some $ upon entrance into the service of the cable companies."[ ] * * * * * [sidenote: _the tweedmouth committee's recommendations_] those telegraph offices which are not sufficiently important to justify the employment of telegraphists of the first class, are divided into four groups: b, c, d and e. the tweedmouth committee recommended that the maximum salary of the telegraphists in the offices of group e be raised from $ a week to $ . : in offices of group d from $ . to $ ; in offices of group c from $ . to $ ; and in offices of group b from $ to $ . it recommended furthermore that all provincial telegraphists should rise automatically and without regard to efficiency, to a salary of not less than $ a week. beyond $ they should not go, unless fully competent. the committee added that it placed "the efficiency bar at the high figure of $ a week,[ ] for the special reason that it may be rigorously enforced, and that all inducements to treat it as a matter of form, liable to be abrogated for the reason of compassion, may be removed." as for the telegraphists employed in metropolitan london, the tweedmouth committee recommended that all telegraphists should rise at least to "the efficiency bar" of $ a year; and that those who could pass the efficiency bar, should rise automatically to $ , the maximum salary of first class telegraphists. in the past, telegraphists in london had been promoted from the second class to the first class, only upon the occurrence of vacancies. in this case, also, the committee added to its recommendation the words: "this efficiency bar has been placed at the high figure of $ for the special reason that it may be rigorously enforced, and that all inducements to treat it as a matter of form, liable to be abrogated for reasons of compassion, may be removed."[ ] these recommendations the tweedmouth committee made in order to meet the complaints advanced by the post office employees that the falling off in the rate of increase of the business of the telegraph branch had caused a slackening in the flow of promotion. the remaining recommendations of the tweedmouth committee it is not necessary to enumerate; suffice it to say, that the postmaster general, the duke of norfolk, advised the government to accept all of the committee's recommendations, with the statement that, on the basis of the staff of , the cost of carrying out the recommendations would begin with $ , a year, and would rise ultimately to $ , , . that estimate related to both branches of the post office, the postal branch and the telegraph; no separate estimates were made for the several branches. [sidenote: _the government accepts the committee's recommendations_] the lords commissioners of her majesty's treasury accepted the postmaster general's recommendations, and directed the financial secretary of the treasury, mr. r. w. hanbury, to write as follows to the postmaster general. "it has, of course, been necessary for my lords to consider very carefully proposals involving so large an increase of expenditure in a single department at one time, and they have duly weighed the reasons which the committee adduces in support of its conclusions. while many of the proposals appear to be abundantly justified by the considerations put forward, there are others which my lords would have hesitated to accept on any authority less entitled to respect than that by which they are supported. but, my lords readily acknowledge the exceptional competence of the committee to pronounce a judgment on the question which came before it, and the great care with which the inquiry has been conducted. they also note that the conclusions represent the unanimous opinion of the committee, and that they are, in all cases, endorsed by your grace. they have therefore decided, in view of the weight of authority by which your recommendations are supported, to accept them as they stand, and they authorize you to give effect to them as from the first of april next. they have adopted this course from a strong desire to do full justice to one of the largest and most important services of the state, and because they feel that the settlement now effected must be accepted as permanently satisfying all reasonable claims on the part of the classes included in its terms. the only condition which my lords desire to attach to their acceptance of your proposals is that the annual increments of pay should, in all cases, be dependent on the certificate of a superior officer, that the conduct of the recipient during the preceding year has been satisfactory." * * * * * [sidenote: _sir a. k. rollit demands a committee of business men_] the recommendations of the tweedmouth committee went into effect on april , . on july , , while the house of commons was in committee of supply, sir albert k. rollit moved the reduction of the salary of the postmaster general by $ , .[ ] sir albert rollit said: "the amendment was intended to reflect upon the report of the tweedmouth committee, rather than upon either the government or the post office department, for he thought more might be done to remedy the abuses which were known [shown?] to exist in the course of the report itself. to speak of the post office as a revenue earning machine was, in his opinion, not a full or adequate description. he shared to the full the opinion that its first object was to give facilities to the public rather than merely to earn profits, and also to do justice to its employees.... there were grievances which had not been redressed by the report, and the house had a great deal more to do in that direction. it was no answer to say that the treasury had appropriated a large sum of $ , for that very purpose, for after all, what did the appropriation amount to? it only amounted to a rectification of the inadequacies of the past. it was not in london alone, but throughout the united kingdom, that something like chronic discontent existed. the complaints were loud and widespread. he did not at all agree as to the propriety of the course intimated [by the telegraphists] by way of notice to the postmaster general, that if the grievances were not redressed, over-time work at night would be suspended [_i. e._ the telegraphists would refuse to work over-time in order to compel the government to redress their grievances]. that was an extreme remedy in cases where the public convenience and service were concerned; but, after all, every man's labor was his own right, and if there were no disposition to remedy present grievances, even that extreme way of trying to bring about a remedy might possibly have to be resorted to. the treasury was, of course, a barrier to a good deal. he did not say the heads of a department did not value as much as he might do pecuniarily the services of those who contributed to the joint effect which he and they made for the public advantage, and if we had a splendid civil service in this country, he thought it had one great defect, and that was too glaring disproportion between the salaries of the highest officials and those of the lower, and this proportion might well be redressed." sir albert rollit said he could not enumerate all the grievances, he would have to confine himself to the enumeration of the worst ones. he began by endorsing the contention of the telegraphists that everybody should rise automatically to a salary of $ , a year. the establishment of the "efficiency bars" he said, "was really a violation of the contract with the telegraph operators, and was a grave and gross injustice to them." he maintained, also, that the committee's recommendation that the payment for sunday labor be reduced from double rates to a rate and a half was "a material alteration of the contract under which servants entered the department." he supported the contention of the state employees that it was a grievance that some of the employees had to take their annual vacation in the winter months. "the postmen had asked that the christmas boxes [contributions from the public] be abolished, $ a year being added to the wages as a compromise. evidence had been given that $ . a year was the real value of the christmas boxes, but the committee said there should be no solicitation for christmas boxes, and no compensation for their loss." "he hoped that a statement of grievances, which were provoking the strongest possible feeling, with disadvantage to the efficiency of the post office, would be listened to. he was extremely glad to recognize that the postmaster general had been willing to receive two deputations--one on june , which had not yet been replied to, and one yesterday. but he would urge upon the department and the government that the real remedy for this strong and wide discontent was the appointment of an independent committee, because the decision of such a tribunal composed not of officials, but of practical business men, who would perhaps have more sympathy with men in the lower grades of the service, would be loyally accepted, and thus the public would be advantaged and contentment restored to a service which was of great value to the country." ["hear, hear."] mr. r. w. hanbury, who, as financial secretary to the treasury, represented in the house of commons the postmaster general, the duke of norfolk, replied: "that throughout the discussion some facts had been more or less left out of sight. honorable members ought to recollect, in the first place, that the tweedmouth committee gave universal satisfaction when it was appointed. it was then agreed that it was the right kind of committee; and that the right kind of men were appointed to serve upon it. there was no preponderance of treasury opinion upon the committee. in fact, the only treasury official sitting upon it was sir francis mowatt. there was on it a high representative of the post office, and the officials of a department were not as a rule anxious to cut down the salaries of their subordinates. their tendency would rather be to recommend an increase in salaries. there was also on the committee a representative of the labor department of the board of trade, who was particularly well qualified to give an opinion as to the proportion which the wages of the postal and telegraph employees bore to the wages of persons doing corresponding work outside the post office. therefore the committee was a very efficient body, and through its recommendations the salaries of the officials had already been increased by $ , a year, and the increase would amount to something like $ , , a year in the next few years. the treasury had accepted every recommendation of the committee, whose suggestions had been adopted wholesale. there was no ground for complaint, therefore, in that direction." [sidenote: _disfranchisement of civil servants suggested_] "another fact which members ought not to overlook was the political pressure which was far too frequently exercised by civil servants upon those who also represented them." ["hear, hear."] "that was a great and growing danger. it was chiefly in london that this pressure was brought to bear.... he would give an instance of the way in which these civil servants spoke of the expediency of political pressure. at one of the great meetings which had been held, a speaker said there were , postmen in london, and that he hoped every one would have his name upon the register [of voters], so that at election times they could exercise their influence upon candidates and advocate the cause of higher wages. he was of the opinion that political pressure ought not to be brought to bear in that way." ["hear, hear."] "ordinary workmen could not exercise the same power, but civil servants could, and, whether their agitation succeeded or not, their position was secure, so that it was a case of 'heads, i win; tails, i don't lose'.... before the royal commission [of ], which had inquired into the civil service establishments, evidence was given with regard to the way in which pressure was brought to bear in certain constituencies upon members, and he thought that the almost unanimous feeling of the commission was that, if this state of things continued, it would be necessary to disfranchise the civil service." ["hear, hear."][ ] sir albert rollit replied: "they had to acknowledge a very sympathetic speech from the secretary to the treasury. perhaps if some honorable members went to the treasury in regard to this matter, accompanied by one person who might represent practically the views which were entertained by those concerned, the matter might be further gone into. he begged leave to withdraw his amendment." the secretary to the treasury replied: "there was no objection on the part of the treasury to hearing communications from members of parliament on the subject, but with regard to officials of the post office coming to the treasury, he should not like to give any pledge without first consulting with the postmaster general." [sidenote: _the norfolk-hanbury committee_] shortly afterward the postmaster general, the duke of norfolk, and the financial secretary to the treasury, mr. hanbury, constituted themselves a committee to investigate the grievances that the tweedmouth committee had left unredressed. all members of the house of commons were invited to attend the meetings of the norfolk-hanbury committee, and to take part in examining the witnesses. sir albert rollit presented the case of the post office employees. the norfolk-hanbury committee recommended further concessions involving an additional outlay of $ , a year; and the treasury accepted the recommendations. the report of the postmaster general for the year - stated that the concessions granted would entail a total increase of expenditure of $ , , a year. the duke of norfolk concluded his reference to the foregoing episodes with the words: "since that time i have declined, and i shall continue to decline, to allow decisions which have been considered by the tweedmouth committee, and which have been revised by mr. hanbury and myself, to be reopened. it is my belief that those decisions have been liberal, but whether they are liberal or not, it is for the interest of all parties that it should be understood that they are final." in april, , mr. r. w. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury, stated the concessions granted by the tweedmouth and norfolk-hanbury committees were costing $ , , a year. in april, , mr. austen chamberlain, financial secretary to the treasury, said they were costing $ , , a year; and in april, , he stated that they were costing $ , , a year.[ ] those figures related to the combined postal and telegraph service. so far as the latter service alone is concerned, the average expenses on account of wages and salaries rose steadily from . cents per telegram in - , to . cents in - , under an increase in the number of messages from , , in - , to , , in - . in - , the average in question rose to . cents, partly in consequence of the increases in wages made in response to the demands of the civil servants, partly in consequence of the drop in the number of telegrams to , , --as a result of the growing competition from the telephone. in - the receipts of the telegraph department proper exceeded the operating expenses by $ , ; in - , the operating expenses exceeded the receipts by $ , ; in - the deficit rose to $ , , , and in - it was $ , . in - , the gross revenue exceeded the operating expenses by $ , .[ ] footnotes: [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, , is the official title of the committee's report. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, , p. . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and following, , , , , , , , to , , , to , , , and , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , to , , , to , , , to , and , to , . [ ] mr. kerry probably meant that the employees of the companies worked under greater pressure. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and following, and , to , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and , . [ ] compare: _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, , p. xvi. in the salaries of the lower division clerks of the civil service ranged from $ to $ , . the royal commission recommended that in the future the salaries in question should range from $ to $ , , with an efficiency bar at $ at the end of seven years' service, and a second efficiency bar at $ at the end of nineteen years' service. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, , pp. , and , ; and q. , and following, , to , , , to , , and , to , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. and following. [ ] compare also _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. , mr. r. w. hanbury: "he had sat for some years as a member of the royal commission upon civil service establishments, and the members of that commission had been greatly struck by the enormous pressure that civil servants in particular constituencies were able to bring to bear upon candidates, and in his view the house ought not to adopt any line of action that would encourage that pressure being brought into operation. so great, indeed, had been the abuses that it had even been suggested that civil servants ought to be disfranchised altogether.... another great danger that had to be provided against was that in certain london constituencies, and in some of the large towns, it was quite possible that the civil servants might, by combining together, succeed in turning the balance at an election in the event of one of the candidates refusing to pledge himself with regard to raising the scale of wage, or an increase in the amount of pensions, or similar advantages which the civil servants might desire to obtain." [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. ; april , , p. , ; and april , , p. , . [ ] _report of the postmaster general_, . chapter xi the post office employees continue to press the house of commons for increases of wages and salaries the post office employees demand "a new judgment on the old facts." mr. s. woods' motion, in february, . mr. steadman's motions in february and june, . mr. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury, points out that the postal employees are demanding a house of commons select committee because under such a committee "the agitation and pressure, now distributed over the whole house, would be focussed and concentrated upon the unfortunate members of the select committee." mr. steadman's motion, in april, . mr. bayley's motion, in june, . mr. balfour, prime minister, confesses that the debate has filled him "with considerable anxiety as to the future of the public service if pressure of the kind which has been put upon the government to-night is persisted in by the house." captain norton's motion, in april, . the government compromises by appointing the bradford committee of business men. mr. austen chamberlain, postmaster general, states that members from both sides of the house "seek from him, in his position as postmaster general, protection for them in the discharge of their public duties against the pressure sought to be put upon them by employees of the post office." he adds: "even if the machinery by which our select committees are appointed were such as would enable us to secure a select committee composed of thoroughly impartial men who had committed themselves by no expression of opinion, i still think that it would not be fair to pick out fifteen members of this house and make them marked men for the purpose of such pressure as is now distributed more or less over the whole assembly." [sidenote: _civil servants demand right to agitate_] on february , , in the house of commons, mr. s. woods[ ] moved: "and we humbly represent to your majesty that your servants in the post office are not permitted to exercise the franchise, generally allowed to other departments in the state; nor to serve on electoral committees; nor to take part in political agitation; and are otherwise deprived of the privileges of citizenship in defiance of the letter and spirit of the law; that the officials of the post office refuse to recognize the postmen's trade union; their officials are illegally and unjustly dismissed for circularizing parliamentary candidates; and we humbly beg your majesty to instruct the postmaster general to remedy these grievances."[ ] sir james fergusson, a former postmaster general, said mr. woods' motion had been brought "by the direction of the central committee of the postal union, or some such party." he continued with the statement that the motion was the outcome of the agitation carried on since he, sir james fergusson, had dismissed from the post office service messrs. clery and cheeseman, the ringleaders of a political campaign carried on in violation of sir james fergusson's order of june , . he said the employees in the revenue departments had been disfranchised in by the marquis of rockingham, prime minister, but that the franchise had been restored to them in . that in that year both mr. disraeli and mr. gladstone had approved the policy of enfranchising the employees of the revenue departments, subject to the limitation that the ministerial heads of the departments were to have the power to determine the limits within which the employees were to take an active part in politics. that an attempt had been made in to remove that limitation, but that the house had supported the government of the day in resisting the attempt.[ ] [sidenote: _house of commons is civil servants' court of appeal_] mr. r. w. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury, and representative in the house of commons of the postmaster general, the duke of norfolk, said, in the course of his reply to mr. woods: "we must recognize the fact that in this house of commons, public servants have a court of appeal such as exists with regard to no private employee whatever. it is a court of appeal which not only exists with regard to the grievances of classes, and even of individuals, but it is a court of appeal which applies even to the wages and duties of classes and individuals, and its functions in that respect are only limited by the common sense of members, who should exercise caution in bringing forward cases of individuals, because, if political influence is brought to bear in favor of one individual, the chances are that injury is done to some other individual.... i think it is only reasonable to expect that, as both [political] parties in the state have dropped party politics with regard to their employees, the employees should in turn recognize that fact, and drop party politics with regard to their employers." mr. hanbury enforced this point by stating that, upon the request of the civil servants themselves, lord rockingham, prime minister, in had disfranchised the civil servants in the revenue departments. at that time the party in power, through the public service, controlled seats in parliament. lord north, who had been in power twelve years, had sent out notices to certain constituencies where the civil servants were able to turn the scale, saying, that unless the civil servants supported the government, it would go hard with them. thereupon the opposition had sent out counter notices, and thus had put the civil service in an awkward position. the result had been that the civil servants themselves had requested lord rockingham to disfranchise them. mr. hanbury continued with the statement that, in , sir james fergusson had dismissed mr. clery for ignoring his order forbidding civil servants to "circularize" parliamentary candidates. thereupon mr. clery, at newcastle-on-tyne, had said to a political meeting of postmen: "they must approach the house of commons on its weak side; they must influence members through their susceptibilities as opportunity presents itself when candidates appeal to their respective constituencies. a man is never more amenable to reason than when making a request." mr. hanbury continued: "what private employee is able to say: 'i am the permanent servant of my employer; i have a share in declaring who that employer shall be; i will attack him on his weak side when he comes up for re-election, and then i will use my power? i will bring organized pressure to bear throughout the constituencies, and i will make this bargain: that if he will not vote for an increase in my pay, or diminish my duties, then i will not give him my vote.' we have done away with personal and individual bribery, but there is still a worse form of bribery, and that is when a man asks a candidate to buy his vote out of the public purse. there are three great things which distinguish our permanent public service. there is, in the first place, the remarkable loyalty with which they serve both parties in the state. then there is the permanency of their employment. again, a great feature of that service is that no longer is it a question of favoritism, but promotion by merit is the rule. those three great features have been slowly built upon this foundation--the elimination altogether of the element of political partisanship from the service. i hope nothing will be done to break down those foundations, on which alone the public service can rest--a service which, for its efficiency, its loyalty, and its high sense of public duty, i do not think is surpassed. i doubt whether it is equalled or even approached." mr. woods' motion was lost by a vote of to . it was supported almost exclusively by the opposition, only three government supporters voting for it.[ ] [sidenote: _mr. steadman demands a select committee_] in the house of commons, on february , , mr. steadman[ ] moved: "and we humbly represent to your majesty that, in view of the great discontent existing among employees of the postal and telegraph services, immediate inquiry should be made into the causes of complaint."[ ] mr. steadman had been elected to the house of commons by a majority of twenty votes. [sidenote: _parliament not competent to judge_] mr. r. w. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury, replied that no new facts had been brought to light since the tweedmouth committee and the norfolk-hanbury committee had made concessions entailing an annual expenditure of $ , , a year. the post office servants were demanding "a new judgment on the old facts." he continued: "i confess, i am not quite sure that we did not go too far [in ], because by increasing these salaries we are bringing into this service an entirely new social class; you are bringing in men who perhaps are socially a little above their work, and these men naturally have a standard of living and requirements which are not essential to men doing this kind of work. if we are going to raise the salaries more and more, you will get a higher social class into the service, and there will be no limit to the demands made upon us." mr. hanbury continued: "you have got to trust the heads of the departments, or get new heads; it is quite impossible for the house of commons to go into all these technicalities, and i know no department where the work is more technical and more complicated than the post office. the treasury work is supposed to be hard to learn [by the members of the house of commons working for promotion to the ministry], but the technicalities of the post office is about the most difficult job i ever had, and i do not think a select committee would be really able to get to the bottom of this matter. but, after all, we must recollect another fact, and it is this: that the civil service is a great deal too much inclined to attempt to put pressure upon members of parliament. that is a very bad system, upon which we ought to put our foot. it is bad enough when it is brought to bear upon the house as a whole, but what would happen with a select committee of this house? you would have the resentment of the civil service focussed and concentrated upon the unfortunate members of the committee, and i do not think it would act more independently or more impartially than those two bodies which have sat already." mr. steadman's motion was lost by a vote of to . eighty-six members of the opposition and two government supporters voted for the motion.[ ] * * * * * [sidenote: _civil servants have "friends" in the commons_] on june , , mr. steadman moved the reduction of the postmaster general's salary by $ , by way of asking the house of commons to instruct the government to appoint a select committee of the house of commons to investigate the grievances of the post office employees.[ ] he said: "it stands to reason that a departmental committee [tweedmouth committee] composed of officials, which contained only one impartial member--a member of the house of lords--could not be satisfactory to the , male and female employees in the post office service.... every department of the post office service now has its organization. all these organizations right through the departments have their coaches and organizers; true, they are not yet directly represented here in this house, but they have friends here who are prepared to take up their quarrels." captain norton[ ] seconded the motion. he spoke of the fact that any telegraphist could obtain $ a year extra pay by making himself competent to discharge the duties of a letter sorter, and another $ by passing an examination on the technical questions of telegraphy. he asserted that it was a grievance that the men had to acquire, in their leisure hours, the additional proficiency in question; and that only per cent. of the men were able to pass the examinations on the technical questions involved in telegraphy. mr. maddison[ ] supported mr. steadman's motion with the words: "for my part, i have always had some hesitation in taking up the cases of men employed by the state, because undoubtedly there is a sort of notion that, because they are employed by the state, they can make such demands as they like, because they are paid out of a very full treasury. i know that every half penny of that money comes out of the general taxation of the country, and i agree that we are here as the guardians of the public purse. the right honorable gentleman has never denied that we are here as the guardians of these men's interest, and it has not been shown that the public interest is of greater importance than the interest of these men, who do so much for the prosperity of the country.... in this case we want a non-official committee, although i confess that i do not think such an inquiry will put an end to disputes in the future." mr. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury, said that if the government yielded to the demand for a house of commons committee in this case, there would be a house of commons committee sitting practically every session of parliament. the points now under discussion had been under agitation for four, five, or six years. before the tweedmouth committee entered upon its duties, and before the norfolk-hanbury conference with members of the house of commons, the government had a distinct understanding with members of the house that the decisions come to should be accepted. mr. hanbury continued: "it is somewhat difficult, no doubt, to draw a comparison between what the post office pays and what is paid by private firms. but i will give one comparison, at any rate, and i think it is the only one possible. a few years ago we took over from the national telephone company the employees, principally women, who were engaged on the [long-distance] trunk wires, and i venture to say that, counting in the pensions we pay, these people are receiving from per cent. to per cent. larger salaries than when they were in the employment of the company. honorable members who draw comparisons between servants of the state and others, are too apt to forget the great facilities post office servants get, such as constant employment, large pensions, good holidays, for which they are paid, and large sick-pay and sick-leave. if these are added together, it will be found that the post office is paying wages considerably above the level of those paid by outside employers. i should like to say one further word with regard to this application for a committee of this house. why should we have it at all? let me speak with perfect frankness about this thing. we have already had two committees; we have also had a great deal of pressure brought to bear upon members; that pressure is becoming almost intolerable. the honorable member for newington posed as the just judge and said: 'i am weary of all this agitation; let us try to put an end to it.' well i am not weary of the agitation; so long as i am satisfied, as i am now, that everything has been done that ought to be done for the men, i will not yield to agitation. i say at once that i do myself believe that, considering everything, and that full inquiry has already been held, the only advantage these men could derive from a house of commons committee would be that the agitation and pressure, now distributed over the whole house, would be focussed and concentrated upon the select committee. i, for one, am not prepared to grant a committee of that kind." mr. steadman's motion was lost by a vote of to ; ninety-seven members of the opposition and nine government supporters voting for the motion.[ ] * * * * * [sidenote: _mr. steadman's third demand for a select committee_] on april , , mr. steadman moved the reduction of the postmaster general's salary by $ , .[ ] he said: "i rise for the purpose of advocating the claims of the , persons employed in the post office for a fair and impartial committee of inquiry to be elected by this house to look into their grievances." the contention that there were grievances, mr. steadman supported with the following arguments. from to , the civil service commissioners, in issuing notices that they would hold competitive examinations for intending entrants into the telegraph service, had stated that in london telegraphists had "a prospect of obtaining [ultimately] $ a year." that, argued mr. steadman, was a contract between the government and the telegraphists who entered the london service between and , that every such telegraphist should rise to $ . the government therefore had committed a breach of contract when, in , it had announced that good character and good skill as an operator would not secure a telegraphist promotion to the senior class, in which the salary rose from $ a year to $ . to be eligible for promotion to the senior class, a man must be not only an excellent telegraphist, but must, in addition, possess such executive ability as would enable him to act as an overseer, or as assistant to the assistant superintendent. mr. steadman continued: "now i come to the question of the postmen. goodness knows where all that $ , , a year has gone to. you cannot get away from the fact that the postman to-day in london commences [at the age of years to years] with a minimum wage of $ . a week.... fancy that, mr. chairman, a man commencing on $ . a week, and employed by the state in a department that has a clean profit of between $ , , and $ , , ." mr. steadman next contended that a good conduct stripe--worth $ a year--should be given every three years; that the present period of five years was too long. moreover, the department was altogether too rigorous in withholding good conduct stripes for breaches of discipline. mr. steadman cited the following instances to prove the necessity of an inquiry by members of the house of commons into the discipline enforced by the department. a man who had served nine years as an auxiliary postman had been arrested on the charge of stealing a postal money order. though found not guilty by the court, he had been dismissed, without a certificate of good character. postman taylor, of stirling, after suffering an accident, was unable to cover his route in the time fixed by the post office. thereupon the local postmaster had asked taylor to retire on a pension. "the latest information that i have in regard to that case is that the man who is now doing taylor's duties, in order to get through his round in the time allotted, has his son to help him." again, the annual increment had been withheld from one lacon, a telegraphist at birmingham, and the local secretary of the postal telegraph clerks' association. the secretary to the treasury, mr. hanbury, had told mr. steadman that the superintendent at birmingham reported that lacon's increment had been withheld because lacon had been insubordinate while on duty. lacon had told mr. steadman that he had been disciplined because of his connection with the union. mr. steadman added: "i will not for one moment attempt to stand up in the house and attack permanent officials who are not able to defend themselves; it would be unmanly for me to do so. but i do say that i have as much right to believe the statement of lacon, as the right honorable gentleman [the secretary to the treasury] has to believe the statement of the birmingham superintendent. there is only one way of proving these cases, and that is for a committee of impartial members of this house to be appointed before which the permanent official can state his case and the men theirs. if that is done, the members, if their minds are unbiased, will very soon be able to judge as to who is telling the truth." [sidenote: _commons reminded of civil servants' votes_] sir albert rollit seconded mr. steadman's motion, saying: "and we ought not to overlook the fact, that, rightly or wrongly, these men now have votes, and if they cannot obtain redress for their grievances here in the house of commons, they will try to obtain it from our masters, the electorate." mr. r. w. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury, and representative in the house of commons of the postmaster general, the duke of norfolk, "on principle" opposed the request for a select committee. "well, i say that the house of commons is the last body which ought to interfere in these questions of the payment of our public servants. it is the last body which ought to be appealed to as regularly as it is by civil servants to raise their salaries, because that, after all, is the real object of this proposed committee. already i think the pressure brought to bear on individual members, and especially on members who have a large number of civil servants in their constituencies, has become perfectly intolerable, and civil servants may depend upon it that it is the general opinion in this house, although they may have their cause advocated by members upon whom they may be able to bring particular pressure, because large numbers of them happen to live in the constituencies of those members; i repeat that they may depend upon it that in the opinion of the great body of the members of this house they are taking a highly irregular course, and are in no way making their position more favorable in the minds of the great majority of members. nothing will induce me personally to agree to any committee such as has been suggested. and while i object on principle, i object also because absolutely no necessity has been shown for the committee.... the duke of norfolk and i, because we were so desirous that no case of the slightest grievance should be left untouched, inquired into every grievance which was said to have been left unredressed by the tweedmouth committee.... every member of the house had a right to attend our [norfolk-hanbury committee] meetings, and to cross-examine the witnesses.... it is the intention of the post office and of the treasury to carry out the recommendations of the tweedmouth committee to the very fullest extent, and if the honorable member [mr. steadman] is able to show me any case whatever in which that has not been done, even in the case of an individual postman, or sorter, or telegraphist, i will go into it myself, and i will do more: i will promise that the grievance shall be redressed." mr. steadman's motion was lost by a vote of to . it was supported by forty-one members of the opposition and by four supporters of the government.[ ] * * * * * on june , , while the house of commons was in committee of supply, mr. thomas bayley[ ] asked for a select committee of the house of commons to investigate the grievance of the post office servants.[ ] he said: "this house shows a want of moral courage by throwing the responsibility for redressing the grievance of the post office servants on the other house [lord tweedmouth] or the permanent officials of any department whatsoever." mr. bayley had begun his political career as a town councillor in nottingham. [sidenote: _the prime minister's anxiety_] after many members had supported the request for a select committee, the prime minister, mr. a. j. balfour, said: "i have listened with great interest to this debate, and, i confess frankly, with considerable anxiety as to the future of the public service if pressure of the kind which has been put upon the government to-night is persisted in by this house. this house is omnipotent. it can make and unmake governments. it can decide what, when, and how public money is to be spent. but with that omnipotence i would venture to urge upon members their great responsibility with a subject like this. everyone knows that a great organized body like the post office service has in its power to put great pressure upon members, but i earnestly urge upon honorable gentlemen that unless we take our courage in both hands, and say that, although most desirous that all legitimate grievances shall be dealt with, we cannot permit the government as a great employer of labor to have this kind of pressure put upon it, i think the future of the public service is in peril. i assure the committee that i speak with a great sense of responsibility. in this very case the post office employees have brought forward their grievances year after year. two commissions have been appointed, and no one ever ventured to impugn the ability or impartiality of the members of those commissions. these commissions made the fullest examination into the case put before them, and reported at length, and as a consequence of that report the british taxpayers are now paying $ , , more of money than they paid before.... in none of the speeches has any specific complaint been brought forward, or any point urged which suggests the necessity for further inquiry, but only the statement that there is a feeling of uneasiness, and a desire for further examination, and that when such a desire is expressed, the house should listen to it. we cannot keep the civil service in a sound and healthy condition if we are going to examine into it by a committee every five years. if the house of commons were to yield to the very natural temptation of granting a committee such as had been asked for, though we might escape an inconvenient division, we should be unworthy, in my opinion, of bearing any longer the great responsibility of being the enormous employer of labor that we are. we should not be carrying out our duty to the public, and, worst of all, we should aim a blow at the civil service, which is the boast of this country and the envy of the civilized world, because we should become the parliamentary creatures of every organized body of public servants who chose to use the great power which the constitution gives, for ends which i am sure they believe to be right, but which this house could not yield to in the manner now suggested without derogating from the high functions and spirit of pure impartiality which the house must maintain if members are to do their duty by their constituents." mr. bayley's motion was lost by a vote of to ; it being supported by ninety-one members of the opposition and nine government supporters.[ ] * * * * * [sidenote: _captain norton demands a select committee_] on april , , while the house of commons was in committee of supply, captain norton[ ] moved the reduction by $ of the item: salaries and working expenses of the post office telegraph service: $ , , .[ ] he said: "the case briefly was this, that the government had been guilty of a distinct breach of faith in connection with a certain number of worthy government officials. he knew that to make this statement of breach of faith was what must be called a strong order, but he was prepared to prove that he was not exaggerating in the smallest degree." he went on to state that the telegraphists who entered the service in london in to , when the civil service commissioners had advertised that entrants had "a prospect of obtaining $ ," had a contract with the government that the possession of "ordinary manipulative ability, with regular attendance and good conduct" would insure advancement to a position paying $ . the government had broken that contract by prescribing, in , that men "must be equal to supervising duties" in order to be promoted to the positions carrying $ . sir albert rollit[ ] supported captain norton with the words: "for a long time past there had been a very strong and general feeling in the service that many of the men had been the victims of something amounting almost to an imposition, however unintentional, on the part of a public department. strong terms had been used in the course of the debate, but he should endeavor to deal with the matter on the basis of what he believed to have been a contract between those employees and the post office. it was not difficult to show that that implied--or, he might even say, express--contract had induced many to enter the service, only to find that the contract was afterward departed from by one of the contracting parties, the state." mr. keir hardie supported captain norton's motion with the argument that the concessions made by the tweedmouth committee had imposed no additional burdens upon the taxpayers, for that committee merely had allocated a small portion of the extra profit made by the post office to the post office servants who made that profit. mr. keir hardie at one time has held the office of chairman of the independent labor party,[ ] an organization that brings to bear upon the british municipal governments a pressure similar to that here shown to be brought upon the house of commons. [sidenote: _members of parliament coerced_] mr. gibson bowles said: "he was aware that many honorable members who brought forward the position of servants of the state, did so against their own desires, because of the almost irresistible pressure placed upon them by the servants of the state, who were at the same time electors.... he supported the secretary to the treasury in resisting this particular amendment, because it was one of many which tended to illustrate a form of tyranny that was becoming unbearable, and which tended seriously to injure the character of this house as making its members the advocates of classes, sections, and little communities, instead of being trustees not for them alone, but for the whole community." mr. austen chamberlain, financial secretary to the treasury, and representative in the house of commons of the postmaster general, the marquis of londonderry, said he "supposed it would not be unfair to say that an officer joining the british army had a prospect of becoming a field marshal." as to the telegraphists, "all that the government ever had held out to them was a prospect of a certain number of them attaining something beyond the ordinary maximum" of $ , to which any man could rise by the display of ordinary manipulative ability and the observance of good conduct. under mr. fawcett, in to , one telegraphist out of every . telegraphists had risen beyond $ . in the proportion in question had been exactly the same. in , the proportion was one in six, or, "practically the same." mr. austen chamberlain continued: "when i consider the great concessions that were made [by the tweedmouth committee], and the great burden that was placed upon the taxpayers, the care that was given to that inquiry, and the opportunity that was afforded to every one to have their grievances heard, i cannot pretend to think that a case has been made out for trying, not fresh matters, but for retrying the same matters and changing the tribunal, merely because all its decisions [_i. e._, some of its decisions] were not agreeable to one of the parties concerned. i hope the house will not do anything so fatal to the efficiency and the organization of our civil service, as to allow any large body of civil servants to think that they have only to be importunate enough to secure in this house repeated inquiries into their grievances, no matter what previous care has been given to their consideration. i trust this house will have confidence in the desire of the postmaster general to deal fairly with all his employees, and believe me when i say that there is nothing easier for us to do than to give way; and that it is only because we believe it to be our duty to the taxpayers that we find it necessary to refuse these recurring and increasing demands." captain norton's motion was lost by a vote of to . it was supported by one hundred and twenty-three opposition members, and by seven government supporters.[ ] a few hours later, mr. thomas bayley[ ] moved a reduction of $ on the salary of the postmaster general, in order to call attention to the grievances of the officials of the post office.[ ] he said there should be a court of appeal for the civil servants, and that court should be the house of commons alone; whenever a dispute arose between the government of the day and its servants, the house should constitute itself the court of appeal. mr. bayley added: "it had been distinctly laid down that it was no part of the duty of the post office to make a profit, but it should be worked for the future convenience of the public and not reduced to the level of a mere profit making machine. it was this desire on the part of the post office officials to make profit which lay at the root of all the troubles which the house had been discussing in the debate that evening." mr. austen chamberlain, financial secretary to the treasury, and representative, in the house of commons, of the postmaster general, replied: "i refuse to resign one particle of my responsibility, or to accept the suggestion that the government should wash their hands of their responsibility, and throw the subject, as an open question, before the house of commons, and ask a committee of this house, without aid or guidance from responsible ministers, to judge upon the multitude of conflicting interests and details incident to the administration of so great a service as the post office. i, for one, will not be party to putting off that responsibility on to the house of commons.... but we consider that it would be a grave dereliction of duty on our part to throw this great service into the turmoil and confusion of a parliamentary inquiry, with the knowledge that such an inquiry would not be final--honorable gentlemen who have supported this amendment have declared that to talk about finality in this matter is absurd--with the knowledge that what is done to-day for the post office, must be done to-morrow for every other department employing a large number of government servants, until elections to this house will depend more and more on the willingness of members to purchase the support of those who are in public employment by promises of concessions at the public expense, instead of securing their support, like that of other citizens, on public grounds and national interests." * * * * * [sidenote: _the government's compromise_] on april , , while the house was in committee of supply, mr. austen chamberlain, postmaster general, prefaced the discussion by the committee of the post office vote, with the following statement:[ ].... "the demand is that a select committee of this house should be appointed to examine into the grievances of the post office staff. i have made it my business since i have been at the post office to see that every memorial from the staff dealing with their grievances, addressed to me, should come before me personally.... even though i have felt that many of the matters thus brought to my notice were very small details of administration. i am determined that an official [employee] of the post office, going to the head of his service, should receive as fair and careful consideration of his appeal, if he applies to me direct, as if he sought parliamentary influence to urge his claim. and i venture to think that nothing has occurred during the time that i have been responsible which can justify any servant of the post office in saying that he is unable, except by parliamentary influence, or by parliamentary exposure, to obtain the attention of the head of the department. the other day at the request of several members on both sides of the house, i met the members themselves, and consented that if they wished, they should be accompanied by members of the post office staff, who should make before them, and in my presence, a statement of the grounds on which they asked for this inquiry by a select committee, in order that then and there i might discuss it with my honorable friends. the vote comes on to-night, and i intend to take this opportunity of making a few observations on the grounds for this parliamentary inquiry as put forth by the staff. there are three main grounds alleged by the spokesman for the staff for a parliamentary inquiry--wages, sanitation [_i. e._, the sanitary condition of certain offices], and meal reliefs, or the time allowed out of working hours for taking refreshment. if a person does eight hours' continuous work he is allowed half an hour out of that time for a meal, reducing his actual working hours to seven and a half hours.... i only wish to draw the attention of the committee to what was described to me as a typical grievance by the spokesman of a deputation which waited on me shortly before christmas. certain men are on duty from a. m. to p. m., and from p. m. to p. m., and complain because they are not allowed minutes for tea. in the judgment of any impartial person, was that a reasonable grievance?... i myself have come to the conclusion, ... that while a great number of the complaints made have no foundation in justice, and that a great number of the men who think themselves aggrieved would find it difficult to get, elsewhere than in the public service, such good employment as they have now, there are other cases which are open to improvement and for which further inquiry is needed to fix exactly what should be done. the government is unalterably opposed to a select committee of the house of commons for the decision of this question. honorable members know, and it is no use blinking it, the kind of pressure which is brought to bear, or is attempted to be brought to bear, upon members in all parts of the house by the public servants, servants of the post office, i am afraid, especially, though not entirely [exclusively], at election times. i have had members come to me, not from one side of the house alone, to seek from me, in my position as postmaster general, protection for them in the discharge of their public duties against the pressure sought to be put upon them by the employees of the post office. even if the machinery by which our select committees are appointed were such as would enable us to secure a select committee composed of thoroughly impartial men who had committed themselves by no expression of opinion, i still think that it would not be fair to pick out fifteen members of this house and make them marked men for the purposes of such pressure as is now distributed more or less over the whole assembly. but if i am opposed to the appointment of a house of commons committee for fixing wages in the post office, i am still more opposed to thrusting upon it, or, indeed, on any committee, the duty of regulating in all its details the daily administration and work of the post office. the wages paid are not in all respects satisfactory, some are too low, others are too high. advice from men of practical and business experience would help me, the minister in this matter. therefore, i propose to take such advice--of men as free from any kind of political and electoral pressure, as they should be free from any departmental influence. i should suggest a body of five to report for my advice and information on the wages paid in the post office department to the four great classes of employees, the letter sorters and the telegraphists in london, and the letter sorters and the telegraphists in the provinces." after reiterating that he proposed to get the advice of business men only on the question of the scale of wages paid in the post office department, and that he in no way proposed to surrender to any committee of any sort the general duties of the postmaster general, mr. austen chamberlain closed with the words: "i ask the committee [of supply] to give me all the confidence it can, and when it is unable to give me that confidence, i say that that is no reason for granting a select committee to do my work, but only a reason for transferring the office of postmaster general to someone who is more competent." mr. thomas bayley replied that "he was not willing to give up the rights and privileges of the house of commons, whose duty it was to remedy the grievances of the public service.... and although he had been assured by those whom he represented [_i. e._, post office servants] that the post office officials would loyally abide by the decision of a committee of the house of commons, the right honorable gentleman [the postmaster general] could not expect the same loyalty with regard to the decision of the committee he proposed to appoint." sir albert rollit said: "the tweedmouth committee was a one-sided tribunal; the officials were represented on it, but the men not at all...." captain norton replied: "the right honorable gentleman had also referred to the question of members on both sides of the house coming to him for protection. that was very startling, because the reason they were there at all was that they might represent every section of their constituents,[ ] ... but presuming the post office servants were organized, he submitted they were within their rights to appeal to their members.... if the postal officials were such terrible tyrants he hoped they would take note that they could never hope for fair play from the present government. the right honorable gentleman had appointed a packed jury of five individuals to deal with a fraction of the question.... in other words, he was going to take shelter behind this bogus committee.... he was going to appoint five members, possibly sweaters, to determine the rate of wages.... it would be astounding if the postal officials accepted any such bogus arbitration. if it was to be a board of arbitration, why should not they have five postal servants added to the five employers of labor?" captain norton is a junior lord of the treasury in the present sir henry campbell-bannerman ministry. * * * * * on may , , the national joint committee of the postal association unanimously resolved: "that this national joint committee views with extreme dissatisfaction the appointment of a court of inquiry which is not composed of members of parliament, but is an altogether irresponsible body, and protests against the scope of the inquiry being limited to a single grievance and to a minority of the staff. it pledges itself to continue to use every legitimate endeavor to obtain an impartial parliamentary committee of inquiry into the causes of discontent in the postal and telegraph service."[ ] in august, , the postmaster general appointed a "committee to inquire into the adequacy of the wages paid to certain classes of the postal servants." the committee consisted of: sir edward bradford, until lately chief commissioner of the metropolitan police; mr. charles booth, a liverpool merchant, and the author of "the life and labor of the people in london;" mr. samuel fay, general manager of the great central railway; mr. thomas brodrick, secretary of the co-operative wholesale society, manchester; and mr. r. burbridge, managing director of harrod's stores.[ ] footnotes: [ ] _who's who_, , woods, sam'l., m. p. for s. w. lancashire, to ; m. p. (r.) for walthamstow, essex, to ; president of lancashire miners' federation; vice-president of miners' federation of great britain; secretary of trade union congress since . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, february , , p. , and following. [ ] compare also _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. and following, and june , , p. and following. _parliamentary papers_, , vol. iv: a bill to relieve revenue officers from remaining electoral disabilities; and and victoriæ, c. : an act to relieve revenue officers from remaining electoral disabilities. [ ] ayes noes conservatives } government liberal unionists } supporters liberals } the nationalists } opposition various factions -- --- [ ] _who's who_, , steadman, w. c., m. p. (r.) stepney, tower hamlets, to --returned by a majority of twenty, defeated ; stood for parliament, mid-kent, defeated, ; hammersmith, defeated, . is secretary barge builders' trade union. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, february , ; p. , and following. [ ] ayes noes conservatives } government liberal unionists } supporters liberals } the nationalists } opposition various factions -- --- [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. and following. [ ] _who's who_, , norton, c. w., m. p. (l.) w. newington, london, since . late captain th royal irish lancers, ... some years in india; selected to report upon italian cavalry, ; brigade-major of cavalry, aldershot, - . in captain norton was made a junior lord of the treasury in the campbell-bannerman liberal government. [ ] _who's who_, , maddison, f., m. p., sheffield, brightside division, to . three years chairman of the hull branch of typographical association; first labor member of the hull corporation; offered post of labor correspondent to the board of trade in ; editor of the _railway review_, official organ of the amalgamated society of railway servants (resigned, ); ex-president of the labor association for promoting co-operative production. [ ] ayes noes conservatives } government liberal unionists } supporters liberals } the nationalists } opposition various factions --- --- [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. and following. [ ] ayes noes conservatives } government liberal unionists } supporters liberals } the nationalists } opposition various factions --- --- [ ] _who's who_, , bayley, thos., j. p., m. p. (l) chesterfield division, derbyshire, since . many years on nottingham town council; alderman, nottingham county council; contested barkston ash division of yorkshire, ; chesterfield, . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. , and following. [ ] ayes noes conservatives } government liberal unionists } supporters liberals } the nationalists } opposition various factions --- --- [ ] _who's who_, , norton, c. w., m. p. (l.) west newington (london), since ; late captain th royal irish lancers; selected to report upon italian cavalry, ; brigade-major of cavalry, aldershot, - . in captain norton was made a junior lord of the treasury in the campbell-bannerman liberal government. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. and following. [ ] _who's who_, . rollit, sir albert kaye, j. p., ll. d., d. c. l., d. l., m. p., islington, since . partner in bailey and leetham, steamship owners; director of national telephone co.; mayor of hull to ; president of associated chambers of commerce of the united kingdom, to ; president london chambers of commerce to ; chairman inspection committee, trustee savings bank since ; president municipal corporations' association. [ ] _who's who_, . [ ] ayes noes conservatives } government liberal unionists } supporters liberals } the nationalists } opposition various factions --- --- [ ] _who's who_, , bayley, thos., j. p., m. p. (l.), chesterfield division derbyshire since ; many years on nottingham town council. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. and following. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. , and following, and may , p. and following. [ ] according to _the times_, may , , captain norton said: "the right honorable gentleman had told a startling story of how members on both sides of the house had appealed to him to protect them from the postal servants. members of the house represented all sections in their constituencies and surely postal servants as voters had the right to approach their representatives, and apply the same kind of pressure that other organized bodies applied." [ ] _the times_, may , . [ ] _the times_, august , . chapter xii the bradford committee report the bradford committee ignores its reference. it recommends measures that would cost $ , , a year, in the hope of satisfying the postal employees, who had asked for $ , , a year. lord stanley, postmaster general, rejects the bradford committee's report; but grants increases in wages and salaries aggregating $ , , a year. in the preceding chapter it was stated that the government in august, , appointed sir edward bradford, mr. charles booth, mr. thomas brodrick, mr. r. burbidge, and mr. samuel fay a committee "to inquire into the scales of pay received by the undermentioned classes of established post office servants, and to report whether, having regard to the conditions of their employment and to the rates current in other occupations, the remuneration of (a) postmen, (b) sorters (london), (c) telegraphists (london), (d) sorting clerks and telegraphists (provincial) is adequate." no further question was submitted to the committee. the committee, in may, , reported: "we have not seen our way to obtain any specific evidence as to the comparative rates of wages current in other occupations. so far as regards this portion of the reference to us,[ ] we came to the conclusion that no really useful purpose would be served by asking employers of labor to furnish precise details of the wages paid by them. certain official information is already available, being obtained and published from time to time by the board of trade. this information, supplemented by our own experience, affords more reliable data than any particulars we could hope to obtain in the way of evidence within the limits of an inquiry of reasonable duration." [sidenote: _business methods not applicable in state service_] "moreover, it is difficult to make any valid comparison between a national postal service and any form of private industrial employment, the entire conditions being necessarily so different; payment by results and promotion or dismissal according to the will of the employer being inapplicable if not impossible under the state."[ ] the committee's report covers nineteen pages, but only these two paragraphs are in answer to the reference given to the committee. in them the committee reports its failure; and with that report of failure the committee should have contented itself, under all of the rules of procedure governing committees and commissions appointed by the british government. but the committee ignored the established rules of procedure, roamed about at will, and reopened many of the questions settled by the tweedmouth committee, which had sat two years, and had taken upward of a thousand closely printed folio pages of evidence. the bradford committee did this in violation of the established usage of the country, as well as in spite of the fact that mr. austen chamberlain, postmaster general, had closed the speech in which he announced his resolve to appoint the committee, with the words that he wanted advice on the question of comparative wages only and that he refused to transfer to "any committee the duty of regulating in all its details the daily administration and work of the post office." upon the report of the committee, _the economist_[ ] (london) commented as follows: "this committee was asked to compare the wages of post office servants with those paid for corresponding work outside. their answer was, in effect, that no such comparison could be instituted. why, when postal servants are taken from various ascertained classes [of society], it should be impossible to compare their pay with that ordinarily received by the same classes in other employments is not obvious. what is obvious is that the committee either mistook the inquiry entrusted to them, or did not choose to enter upon it." _the times_[ ] said: "the reference here is explicit, ... the specific question they were asked was the question to which, as our correspondent says, the taxpayer really wants an answer--namely, are postal servants fairly paid ...? this question the committee has neither answered nor attempted to answer. passing by the terms of reference altogether, the report declares that 'it is difficult'.... but, as an answer to the specific question addressed to the committee; it is, in our judgment, in the literal sense of the word, impertinent. however, having rejected the criterion propounded to them by the postmaster general, the committee proposed to apply a criterion of their own...." the committee made some general statements as to the rates of wages that should prevail in the public service. they were: "we think that postal employees are justified in resting their claims to remuneration on the responsible and exacting[ ] character of the duties performed and on the social position they fill as servants of the state. the state, for its part, does right in taking an independent course guided by principles of its own, irrespective of what others may do; neither following an example nor pretending to set one. it must always be remembered that in the working of a monopoly by the state, the interest of the public as a whole is the paramount consideration, and every economy consistent with efficiency must be adopted. the terms offered by the state should, however, be such as to secure men and women of the requisite character and capacity and ought to be such as will insure the response of hearty service." if one seeks to find in the foregoing statements an answer to the very matter-of-fact question whether the postal servants' wages are too high or too low, compared with wages in outside employment, he will have to conclude, with _alice in wonderland_, that "it seems very pretty, but it's rather hard to understand; somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas, only i don't know exactly what they are." the committee concluded with the statement that the adequacy of the wages obtaining among the postal employees could be tested by the numbers and character of those who offered themselves; by the capacity they showed on trial; and finally, by their contentment. it found that there was no lack of suitable candidates; that there was no complaint as to their capacity; but that there was widespread discontent. it added that the tweedmouth and norfolk-hanbury settlements did not give satisfaction at the time; and that that dissatisfaction had been "aggravated by the general rise in wages and prices and in the standard of life which took place to some extent even during the two years occupied by the tweedmouth inquiry ( and ) and had continued since, culminating, however, in , since when there has been some slight reaction. the same period has seen a great development of postal and telegraph business, causing greater pressure of work. this has been combined with lower charges to the public and a considerable increase in postal revenue. we therefore consider there is a just claim for revision." taking these statements in their order, one finds, first of all, that the committee took no evidence on the question how post office wages had compared with wages in outside employment previous to the rise in wages and prices in the period from to , nor on the question of the rise in wages in the post office service in to , compared with the rise in wages in outside employment and in prices in to . the first statement of the committee, therefore, was supported by no evidence, it was a mere assertion. the second statement, namely, that the growth of the postal and telegraph business had caused greater pressure of work, also was not supported by evidence. on the other hand, it was absolutely essential that such a statement should be supported by evidence, because it is a fact that in both branches of the postal service the policy obtains of having so large a body of employees "that the maximum of work, as a rule, can be dealt with without undue pressure."[ ] as to the post office having lowered its charges to the public in the period from to , it is to be said, first, that it does not follow therefrom that wages should be raised; and second, that the penny rate on domestic letters was not lowered, and that the carriage of penny letters is the only work upon which the post office makes a profit.[ ] finally, as to the statement that there had been, in to , "a considerable increase in postal revenue," the facts are, first, that the net revenue of the post office as a whole increased from $ , , in , to $ , , in , and to $ , , in ; but that in the subsequent years, to , it did not again reach the high-water mark of , and averaged $ , , . second, that in the period, from to , the telegraph branch did not earn operating expenses, the expenses on account of wages and salaries having risen from . cents per telegram in , to . cents in . that is a matter of importance, for the recommendations of the committee extended to the telegraph branch as well as to the postal branch proper. again, the committee had stated that "in the working of a monopoly by the state, the interest of the public as a whole is the paramount consideration, and every economy consistent with efficiency must be adopted." in the years ending with , the proportion of the post office's gross revenue available for defraying the general expenses of the state had declined steadily from per cent. to per cent.[ ] still, again, in the year , the expenses of the post office had been increased by $ , , through the tweedmouth and norfolk-hanbury settlements.[ ] in the face of those facts, the bradford committee made recommendations that lord stanley, postmaster general, said would cost $ , , a year.[ ] the bradford committee sought to justify its recommendations with the simple statement that there was "widespread discontent" among the postal employees. the postal employees themselves had made demands before the committee that would have called for the expenditure of an additional $ , , a year. their attitude to the committee's amiable proposal to conciliate them by giving them $ , , a year, is shown in the subjoined extract from the official organ of the telegraph staff. "it is perfectly plain, ... that the recommendations of the committee, well-meaning as we frankly admit them to be, cannot be accepted as a full settlement of the case of the post office workers, or as one carrying with it the character of finality. they can only be accepted as an instalment of a long overdue account; and postal telegraphists, even if they have to fight alone for their own hand in the future as they did for many long years in the past, will combine for the payment of the balance."[ ] that a body of five men, of whom four were respectively a liverpool merchant and ship owner, a general manager of a railway, a manager of a large wholesale coöperative society, and a manager of a large department store, could make a report such as the foregoing one, affords a melancholy illustration of the fact that no matter how far popular governments may go in assuming the conduct of great business enterprises, they never will succeed in creating a public opinion that will sustain them in their efforts to conduct their business ventures on the commonly accepted principles of the business world. * * * * * in the house of commons, lord stanley, the postmaster general, said: "as to the committee's report, it did not comply with the reference, because no comparison was made with the rates of pay in other occupations ... but they conclude that as there was discontent there ought to be an increase of wages. that was a direct premium on discontent, a direct encouragement to the employees to say among themselves that if they were to be discontented and to agitate, they would get more in the future. the committee, on the other hand, went outside the reference, because they proposed a complete reorganization of the post office, including overseers, who were not referred to in the reference. on this particular subject they took no evidence.... since the employees of the post office had said in a circular: 'we wish to make it perfectly clear that we do not regard the committee as in any sense an arbitration board,' that was rather against the argument that the report ought to be accepted as an arbitration award. he did not complain of the ordinary circulars of the employees [sent to members of parliament], but he did object to one circular [sent to every member of the house of commons], at the bottom of which was a paragraph, which could be torn off, for members to sign [and mail to the postmaster general], informing him [the postmaster general] that he ought to do this or that.[ ] that [circular] he [lord stanley] would not receive.... coming to the main question, he thought it was obvious that it was impossible for either side when in power to go on for long being swayed in all these questions of increases of wages by any pressure, political or otherwise, that might be put upon them. [cheers.] the post office was not the only party concerned. there was not a class employed by the government, who, if it saw another class getting an increase of wages by agitation, would not try the same method. he supported cordially the suggestion which had been made in the debate that all questions of pay of employees of the government should not be referred to the house, but referred to some judicial body on whom no outside influence could be brought to bear, who would look at the matter in dispute as between employer and employee with the object of giving to the employee the wages which in the open market a good employer would give, while at the same time protecting the master--in this case the state--from any outside influence."[ ] in conclusion, lord stanley made the statement that the adoption of the committee's report would cost "well over $ , , a year." sir albert rollit acted as the spokesman of the postal employees. he is a solicitor in mincing lane and at hull; a steamship owner at hull, newcastle and london; and a director in the national telephone company, which pays its employees materially less than the post office pays the employees of the post office telephone system.[ ] he has been president of the associated chambers of commerce of the united kingdom, as well as of the london and hull chambers of commerce. he was mayor of hull from to ; and for several years past he has been the president of the association of municipal corporations. sir albert k. rollit was not re-elected to parliament in the general election of january, ; and in the following march, the postal telegraph clerks' association passed a resolution "expressing appreciation of the services rendered to the postal movement in and out of parliament by sir albert k. rollit, and regret that they were no longer able to command his championship in the house of commons."[ ] after the balfour government had rejected the report of the bradford committee, in the interest of the taxpayers, lord stanley, postmaster general, instituted "a careful comparison between post office wages and those current in other employments; and, as the result of the comparison, he felt justified in recommending to the lords commissioners of his majesty's treasury certain improvements of pay" aggregating $ , , a year.[ ] the improvements of pay were granted to sorters, telegraphists, sorting clerks and telegraphists, postmen, assistant and auxiliary postmen, and various smaller classes throughout the united kingdom. footnotes: [ ] there was no reference but that one. [ ] _report and appendices of the committee appointed to inquire into post office wages_, . [ ] september , . [ ] september , . [ ] _report of the bradford committee on post office wages_, , p. . dr. a. h. wilson, chief medical officer of the post office, testified: "when cases of breakdown have been brought to my notice i have invariably found the primary origin of the illness to have been due to causes outside post office life. these causes are generally drink, financial worry, domestic troubles, etc." [ ] compare chapter xi, testimony of mr. kerry. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , pp. and ; mr. r. w. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, may , p. ; mr. austen chamberlain, postmaster general. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. , ; mr. austen chamberlain, postmaster general. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , ; lord stanley. [ ] _the times_, september , : correspondence. [ ] _the times_, september , , denominated this episode "a melancholy and even ominous illustration of the process of democratic degeneration." in the same issue mr. s. w. belderson writes that members of the house signed the paragraph in question. [ ] _the times_, august , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , ; mr. s. walpole, permanent secretary of the post office. [ ] _the times_, march , ; and _who's who_, . [ ] _fifty-first report of the postmaster general_, . chapter xiii the house of commons select committee on post office servants, the post office civil servants' unions demand the adoption of the bradford committee report. lord stanley, postmaster general, applies the words "blackmail" and "blood-sucking" to the postal employees' methods. captain norton moves for a house of commons select committee. mr. austen chamberlain, chancellor of the exchequer, in vain asks the opposition party's support for a select committee to which shall be referred the question of the feasibility of establishing a permanent, non-political commission which shall establish general principles for settling disputes between the civil servants and the government of the day. captain norton's motion is lost, nine ministerial supporters voting for it, and only two opposition members voting against it. mr. j. henniker heaton's appeal to the british public for "an end to political patronage." the post office employees, in the campaign preceding the general election of january, , induce nearly of the parliamentary candidates who succeeded in being elected, to pledge themselves to vote for a house of commons select committee on post office wages. immediately upon the opening of parliament, the sir h. campbell-bannerman liberal ministry gives the post office employees a house of commons select committee. on september , , the postal telegraph clerks' association unanimously resolved: "that this conference expresses its indignation that the postmaster general, having appointed a committee of his own choosing to inquire into the post office wages ... now, for no good reason, has rejected the report. this conference, therefore, calls upon the postmaster general to adopt immediately, as dated from may , , the whole of the ameliorative recommendations contained in the bradford committee's report; but the postal telegraph clerks' association reserves to itself the right to object to, and protest against, any recommendations which may be considered by this association to be of a restrictive and retrograde character."[ ] [sidenote: _a merchant in politics_] in the evening of the same day a mass meeting was addressed by mr. w. w. rutherford, m. p., the head of the firm of miller, peel, hughes and rutherford, liverpool. mr. rutherford had been lord mayor of liverpool in . he said: "he ventured to think that the great postal and telegraph service was suffering because its position and its grievances had not been made thoroughly intelligible to the general public.... that was not a matter touching a few hundreds of people in a hole and corner of the country, but was one of extreme importance affecting no less than , people.... the real foes of the employees were the highly paid officials at the head of the department, who were quite content to draw their salaries and show that the government was making four or five million pounds sterling[ ] out of the public and the postal service." mr. rutherford's speech recalls to mind the fact that the australian cousins of the british civil servants have learned to deal with their "foes" by compelling the popular branches of the australian parliaments to reduce the salaries of offensive officials, or to drive them out of the service by means of "fishing" parliamentary committees, appointed to report on--and to condemn--the offending officials. on august , , the london branch of the postal telegraph clerks' association held a meeting, at which mr. c. h. garland,[ ] the secretary, spoke of mr. thomas bayley, m. p., as one who "had rendered valuable service to their cause in the house of commons." the presiding officer, mr. r. h. davis, said: "in burking the recommendations of the committee they could not help feeling that the post office authorities had been guilty of a breach of faith. were they going to take the rebuff lying down? the london committee were determined to fight the matter harder than ever. by the time parliament assembled next year, they would have an effective organization at their disposal, and the enemy would feel their pressure very considerably."[ ] the special conference of the postal telegraph clerks' association held on september , , resolved to hold mass meetings in all the district centres between then and next february [opening of parliament] to protest against the action of the postmaster general. the series to conclude with a "monster" demonstration in london immediately before the opening of parliament.[ ] * * * * * on july , , while the house of commons was in committee of supply, and was considering the vote upon the post office, there was a long and instructive debate upon the report of the bradford committee.[ ] lord stanley, postmaster general, opened the debate with a quotation from _the post_,[ ] the post office employees' organ. the statement quoted read: "not only do we object to the composition of the [bradford] committee, but we take the strongest exception to its terms of reference. the inquiry as to whether our wages are adequate or otherwise becomes a farce if their adequacy is to be judged by the standard of wages of the open labor market. no such comparison would be reasonable or fair. there is no other employer who fixes his own prices or makes an annual profit of $ , , . there is no other class of work which can be compared to the post office work, neither any other employee who can be compared with the post office servants.... surely mr. chamberlain does not think we should regard such an inquiry as final. if he does, the sooner his mind is disabused the better." lord stanley next discussed the manner in which the bradford committee had made recommendations which were based on no evidence whatever. for instance, in order to improve the chances of promotion, the committee had recommended the creation of additional higher posts--"for which there was no work." in one department of the post office that recommendation would mean the increase in the number of overseers from to . lord stanley next made lengthy comparisons between the wages received by letter sorters and telegraphists on the one hand, and employees of equal intelligence and attainments in the service of private companies on the other hand. he showed that in london the maximum wage of the sorters and telegraphists was equal to the salary of the "non-college-trained certified teacher," and that in such provincial cities as hull, swansea and exeter it was larger. "the only comparison which was not entirely upon his [the postmaster general's] side was that with the clerks in the cable companies, who were paid more than the post office cable room operators. but the work of the cable companies' operators was more arduous, and there was liability to be sent abroad at any moment. but he had granted the post office cable room operators an increase of pay." he added that the ultimate aggregate cost of the increases in pay made since the publication of the bradford committee's report would be $ , a year.[ ] [sidenote: _the postmaster general applies the terms "blackmail" and "blood-sucking"_] lord stanley, postmaster general, concluded as follows: "but he would ask the house just to consider what was going to be the end of all these demands. this was really a question worthy of consideration on both sides of the house. what were the demands on the public purse for this particular office? it would be within the recollection of the committee of supply that at a deputation to his right honorable friend and himself, one of the men stated that he thought the whole of the $ , , profit, as he regarded it, made by the post office employees, ought to be devoted to the payment of those employees ... that man made a deliberate statement, not on his own account, but as representing a particular section or organization in the department. it was repudiated by others present".... lord stanley next stated that the demands made by the post office employees before the bradford committee would have called for $ , , a year. he continued: "honorable members knew better than he how they were being bombarded with applications from post office employees and other classes of civil servants for increases of wages. this had taken a form which was not illegal, but which he could not help thinking was an abuse of their rights, to wit, the form of a political threat. they had circulated an appeal in which they expressed very clearly and very frankly their intention, and it was one of which the committee would have to take note now, or it would be much worse in the future. they said: 'two-thirds at least of one political party are in great fear of losing their seats. the swing of the pendulum is against them, and any member who receives or such letters will under present circumstances have to consider very seriously whether on this question he can afford to go into the wrong lobby. this is taking advantage of the political situation.' it was indeed, but it was abusing, as it seemed to him, their rights as voters. it was nothing more nor less than blackmail. it was nothing more nor less than asking members to purchase votes for themselves at the general election[ ] at the expense of the public exchequer. both sides would have to make up their minds that some means should be devised by which there should not be this continual blood-sucking on the part of the public servants." [sidenote: _a permanent non-political tribunal suggested_] "how it was to be done, was not for him to say, but he had suggested, and he still thought that there would have to be some organization outside party politics altogether, and unconnected with and unmoved by parliament and political considerations, to whom such questions should be referred and by whom an impartial opinion should be given.... he wanted now rather to anticipate a request that would probably be made by honorable members opposite--that he should appoint a parliamentary committee. to that request he would have to give a negative reply, and he would say why. first, too great political pressure would be brought to bear on the committee; second, the whole case of the post office employees was before the house in the evidence taken by the bradford committee, and everybody could make up his mind as well as he would be able to if appointed to a select committee. third, he would not throw the responsibility on to a committee; it was his place to bear it himself." on july , lord stanley, postmaster general, stated that he would neither withdraw nor modify the epithets "blackmail" and "blood-sucking" which he had used. he stated that those epithets applied "only to those who by speeches, letters or circulars, attempt unduly to influence the votes of honorable members with regard to the questions affecting post office wages, and to those who associate themselves with such action."[ ] [sidenote: _captain norton on civil service agitation_] after the postmaster general had spoken, captain norton moved a reduction of the post office vote, for the purpose of drawing attention to the grievances of long standing of the post office employees. he said: "as regarded what had been said about undue influence, his contention was that so long as the postal officials, or should he say the members of the civil service, and for that matter the members of the fighting services were allowed to maintain a vote, they had precisely the same rights as all other voters in the country to exercise their fullest influence in the defense of their rights, privileges and interests. he might mention that all classes of all communities, all professions, all trades, all combinations of individuals, such as anti-vaccinationists and so forth, had invariably used their utmost pressure in defense of their interests and views upon members of the house...."[ ] sir albert k. rollit supported captain norton's motion. [sidenote: _chancellor of the exchequer asks for non-party vote_] the chancellor of the exchequer, mr. austen chamberlain, spoke as follows: "the question at issue was not one between the two political parties. it was above parties. it was whether there was to be good economical government in the country at all, or whether the civil servants in the employment of the crown could make such use of their votes, as citizens, for the purely selfish purpose of forcing the public to pay more for their services and so increase the expenditure of a great department of state. he did not know how long they could go on in the position they had now reached, under which pressure was brought to bear on honorable members of all parties by their constituents. he was certain that if any scheme could be devised ... so that they might take this question altogether out of the region of political life--not merely out of party life, but out of parliamentary life--it would be a great advantage. it would tend to preserve the civil service free from that political influence and independent of the changing fortunes of party which had been their great boast and security in the past. if there were a general feeling in the house that an object of that kind was one on which all parties might well coöperate, then his majesty's government, while maintaining as resolutely as they had in past years their objection to referring these specific grievances to a select committee appointed in the ordinary way for that particular purpose, would be prepared to assent to the appointment of a committee of this house to consider the state of affairs which had arisen; to see if they could devise some remedy for it; to lay down the principles by which they should be governed in these matters; and to advise whether it would be possible to establish some permanent body or commission, outside the sphere of electoral pressure and above and beyond any of our party conflicts, which might advise the government in applying those principles to particular cases. such a committee could, of course, only be successfully conceded with the good will of all parties in the house, and if the whole house were animated by a desire, if possible, to set this question at rest. with that good-will, he thought, it might serve a useful purpose. the object to be attained was of such vast importance that he, for one, would not refuse any method by which they might hope successfully to compass it and to maintain the civil service in that high position of which, with its great traditions, they had such just cause to be proud and such good reason to be grateful for."[ ] captain norton's motion was lost by a vote of to . the house divided on party lines, only two members of the opposition voting with the government, and only nine supporters of the government voting with the opposition.[ ] of the members of the opposition who voted in support of captain norton's motion, two shortly afterward became members of the cabinet in sir henry campbell-bannerman's liberal ministry, and fifteen others became members of the ministry, but not of the cabinet, or inner circle.[ ] captain norton himself became one of the four junior lords of the treasury. the latter functionaries "are expected to gather the greatest number of their own party into every division [of the house of commons], and by persuasion, promises, explanation, and every available expedient, to bring their men from all quarters to the aid of the government upon any emergency. it is also their business to conciliate the discontented and doubtful among the ministerial supporters, and to keep every one, as far as possible, in good humor."[ ] * * * * * in _the nineteenth century and after_, for april, , mr. j. h. heaton, in an article entitled: _wanted! an end to political patronage_, discussed at length some of the after effects of the memorable debate of july , . mr. heaton had been returned to parliament from canterbury in , , , , and ; the last four occasions as an unopposed candidate. he had carried the imperial penny postage scheme in ; he had introduced telegraph money orders in england; the parcel post to france, etc.; and the freedom of the city of london in a gold casket had been conferred on him in . [sidenote: _a prime minister on the civil service_] mr. heaton opened his article with the statement: "many years ago a great prime minister wrote to me as follows: 'there can be no doubt that the organized attempts of servants of the state to use their political influence at the cost of the taxpayer is likely to become a serious danger. i agree with you in thinking that it can only be effectually met by agreement between the two sides of the house.'" mr. heaton continued: "the civil servants of the crown are, taken as a whole, an admirable and efficient body of workers, of whom england is justifiably proud, and whom--as was held, i think, by the late mr. gladstone--she rewards on a generous scale.... it is the more to be regretted that large classes of them should have fallen into the hands of agitators, who incite to the systematic intimidation of members of parliament with a view to the extortion of larger and larger votes [appropriations] for salaries. this evil is rapidly becoming formidable.... any official raising the cry of 'higher wages' is sure of popularity among his fellows, who instantly regard him as a born leader. the pleasant prospect of an increase of income without working for it is a bait that never fails to appeal most strongly to the least energetic and deserving. a postman or dockyard hand finds that he can win promotion and increased pay only by strenuous hard work, just as if he were a mere artisan or shop assistant. but the agitators point out that he can attain an equivalent result by bullying the local m. p., and so he joins the league or union formed for the purpose." [sidenote: _sir william harcourt on post office employees_] "where is this to stop? the late sir w. harcourt[ ] wrote (to me) that the demands of the postal employees reached a depth, or abyss, which no plummet would fathom. we know now that they claim the postal surplus, which amounts to nearly five millions [sterling].... there are , of them, and of these probably , have votes. adding these to the dockyard, arsenal, and stores factory hands, and other government employees, we have a political force that may turn the scale at a general election. candidates are tempted to bid against one another with the taxpayer's money. 'let us be charitable!' said sydney smith, and put his hand into a bystander's pocket. our legislators were proof against the hectoring of the tudors, the violence of the stuarts, and the blandishments of the georges; surely they will never yield to the menaces of demagogues." [sidenote: _thirty m. p.'s threatened with loss of seat_] "at this point i would like to state briefly my own experience.... last year great pressure was brought to bear in the house of commons on members of parliament, and, with thirty other members, i was threatened with the loss of my seat unless i voted to meet the demands of the postal servants. it was further intimated to me that the postal servants' vote, , strong, would turn out any government. a few minutes afterwards it fell to my lot to address the house on the question of increase of postmen's wages.... i ended my speech by declaring that civil servants who threatened members of parliament for refusing to vote them increased salaries ought to be disfranchised. result--a meeting called in my constituency, my opponent placed in the chair, and a vote of censure passed on me. the london postmen came to canterbury and addressed my constituents at the meeting. it is not surprising, therefore, that at the recent election my agents informed me that postmen voted solid against me.[ ] i do not blame the postmen; they were perfectly justified in using their power; but if i had not had at my back one of the most intelligent bodies of electors in the united kingdom, i should have been defeated through the postmen's action. "it was some consolation to me to receive in the house of commons, after my speech, hearty, though private, congratulations from hard-working, earnest workingmen representatives, who expressed their entire approval of what they were pleased to call my courage. but something ought to be done to prevent a recurrence of such a scandal." in view of mr. heaton's closing remarks, it is interesting to note that four of the eight[ ] labor members voted, and that all of them favored the appointment of a house of commons select committee. * * * * * [sidenote: _post office employees and the general election of _] in the campaign preceding the general election of january, , the several associations of postal and telegraph employees addressed letters to the candidates for parliament, asking those candidates whether they would "support the claims of the postal and telegraph employees and vote for the appointment of a select committee of the house of commons for the purpose of inquiring into their conditions of pay and service; and stating that on their part the workers pledged themselves to accept as final the decision of such a tribunal." at the annual conference of the postal telegraph clerks' association, held in march, , the president of the association said that nearly of the members of the house of commons[ ] had pledged themselves to support a motion for a parliamentary inquiry into the position of the post office employees.[ ] in the third sitting of the new parliament, held on february , the postmaster general, mr. sydney buxton, announced that the government had decided to appoint a select committee of the house of commons.[ ] and on march , the postmaster general introduced a motion for a committee of seven to be nominated by the committee of selection. in response to the wishes of the house, the postmaster general subsequently changed his motion to one calling for a committee of nine, to be appointed by the whips of the several parties in the house.[ ] [sidenote: _the prime minister on election pledges_] the motion was carried without debate upon the question whether a committee should be appointed. in the course of the debate whether the committee should be appointed by the committee of selection, or by the party whips, lord balcarres, who had been a junior lord of the treasury in the balfour government, used these words: "as regards those honorable gentlemen who had entered parliament for the first time,[ ] he thought he was fairly accurate when he said that they had given pretty specific pledges upon the matter [of the appointment of a select committee] to those who had sent them to the house." sir a. acland-hood, who had been chief whip and patronage secretary to the treasury in the late balfour government, said: "there was a debate and a division [upon this question, last year,] and nearly the whole of the supporters of the government voted against the appointment of the committee. no doubt many of them suffered for it at the general election; they either lost their seats or had their majorities reduced in consequence of the vote." and, finally, sir henry campbell-bannerman, the new prime minister, expressed himself as follows in the course of an argument in favor of a committee appointed by the committee of selection rather than by the house itself through the agency of the party whips. the prime minister said: "there was a great deal of force in what the right honorable gentleman [sir a. acland-hood] had said as to the fears that were entertained in many quarters of the effect on the committee if appointed under pressure and insistence, and the retroactive effect of old promises extracted in moments of agony from candidates at the general election."[ ] the select committee on post office servants consists of: liberals, messrs. barker, edwards, hobhouse and sutherland; conservatives, the honorable claude hay and sir clement hill; liberal and labor members, messrs. john ward and g. j. wardle; and nationalist, mr. p. a. meechan.[ ] the reference to the committee is: "to inquire into the wages and position of the principal classes of post office servants, and also of the unestablished postmasters. to examine, so far as may be necessary for the purpose of their report, the conditions of employment of these classes. to report, whether, having regard to the conditions and prospects of their employment, and, as far as may be, to the standard rate of wages and the position of other classes of workers, the remuneration they receive is adequate or otherwise." in the spring of , the committee reported that it had not had time to perform its task, and asked for reappointment. the evidence thus far taken by the committee had not been published at the date of this writing, march , . * * * * * [sidenote: _lord stanley congratulated_] lord stanley was one of the many conservative candidates defeated in the general election of january, . when his defeat became known, hundreds of telegrams were showered upon him by postal and telegraph employees located in all parts of the united kingdom. the telegram sent by liverpool postal and telegraph employees was typical of the lot. it congratulated lord stanley upon his retirement to private life, and assured him that the senders at all times would do all in their power to make the retirement a permanent one. footnotes: [ ] _the times_, september , . [ ] the apparent net profits of the post office department average about $ , , a year. those profits are subject to the correction that the post office does not charge itself with interest and depreciation upon its capital investment, which cannot be ascertained, but must be very large. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. . mr. mccartan asks the postmaster general "on what grounds messrs. c. hughes and c. h. garland were recently punished." ... the intervention was repeated on march , p. . [ ] _the times_, august , . [ ] _the times_, september , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , and following. [ ] august , . [ ] in his annual _report_, dated july , , lord stanley stated that the ultimate cost would be $ , , a year. [ ] to be held in january, . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , . [ ] ayes noes conservatives } government liberal unionists } supporters liberals } the nationalists } opposition various factions --- --- [ ] name office mr. herbert gladstone home secretary mr. lloyd george president of board of trade mr. thos. lough parliamentary sec'y of board of education mr. r. mckenna financial secretary to treasury mr. j. a. pease junior lord of treasury mr. j. herbert lewis junior lord of treasury captain cecil norton junior lord of treasury mr. f. freman-thomas junior lord of treasury mr. j. m. fuller junior lord of treasury mr. r. k. causton paymaster general mr. geo. lambert civil lord of admiralty mr. edward robertson secretary to admiralty mr. herbert samuel under home secretary mr. j. e. ellis under secretary for india mr. h. e. kearley secretary of board of trade sir jno. l. walton attorney-general mr. thos. shaw lord advocate [ ] a. todd: _on parliamentary government in england_. [ ] chancellor of the exchequer, and - . [ ] at the election of mr. heaton received , votes, while his opponent received , . [ ] _the house of commons poll book_, - , issued by the liberal publication department. [ ] composition of the house: liberal and labor members, ; conservatives, ; liberal unionists, ; and nationalists, . [ ] _the times_, march , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates._ [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. and following. [ ] in number. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. . chapter xiv the house of commons, under pressure from the civil service unions, curtails the executive's power to dismiss incompetent and redundant employees the old practice of intervention by members of parliament on behalf of individual civil servants with political influence has given way to the new practice of intervention on behalf of the individual civil servant because he is a member of a civil service union. the new practice is the more insidious and dangerous one, for it means class bribery. the doctrine that entrance upon the state's service means "something very nearly approaching to a freehold provision for life." official testimony of various prominent civil servants, especially of mr. (now lord) welby, permanent secretary to the treasury from to ; and mr. t. h. farrer, permanent secretary to board of trade from to . the costly practice of giving pensions no solution of the problem of getting rid of unsatisfactory public servants. the difficulty of dismissing incompetent persons extends even to probationers. the cost of "reorganizing" incompetent persons out of the public service. [sidenote: _personal bribery replaced by class bribery_] the intervention of the house of commons in the details of the administration of the post office department and the other state departments, is by no means confined to the raising of salaries and wages. it extends to practically every kind of question that arises out of the conflicts of the interests of the state servants and the interests of the public treasury. the intervention is due to the organized action of the "civil service unions;" and it is exercised primarily on behalf of classes of employees, but not exclusively. the latter day spirit of the civil service unions is to make the cause of the individual the cause of the class, and that brings about much intervention through the house of commons, by the organized civil service, on behalf of individual state servants. the ancient form of intervention on behalf of the individual who had claims that were based on personal influence or family influence, on family ties, or on friendship, has been abolished. in its place has been developed intervention on behalf of the individual, prompted by the fact that the individual in question is a member of a civil service union that seeks to enforce certain ideals as to the terms and conditions that shall prevail in the public service. of the two forms of intervention, the latter is the more pernicious and demoralizing, partly because it is--or will become--more pervasive, partly because it rests on class bribery and class corruption, as distinguished from the individual bribery and the individual corruption upon which rested the old form of intervention. of those two forms of corruption, the bribery of classes is the more difficult to eradicate. [sidenote: _state employment means life employment_] one of the most important results of this intervention on behalf of individuals has been the establishment of the doctrine that once a man has landed in the employ of the state, he has "something very nearly approaching to a freehold of provision for life," to employ the words of the chairman of the select committee on the civil services expenditure, .[ ] before that committee, sir wm. h. stephenson, chairman of the inland revenue commissioners, said: "... if a man was reported to be hopelessly inefficient, i should dismiss him; but even then you must act with a great deal of forbearance. for the simple reason that you are amenable to many opinions beside your own. you cannot act absolutely upon your own judgment without being liable to be compelled to give your reasons for that judgment; and these reasons, though perfectly clear in your own mind, may not always be easy to give to the satisfaction of another man.... i am afraid we should have a very bad time of it out of doors if we exercised a little more freedom in dismissing incompetent clerks and promoting deserving ones; i judge very much by what i see; as it is, there is a great disposition, i think, to exclaim against anything like an act of tyranny, and the exercise of such freedom would be called tyranny.... i have no doubt that if a public department had the power of absolute dismissal, it would have a considerable effect in increasing efficiency; but what i say is, that you cannot give them that power in the same way that it is held by a man in private employment. you have too many critics; you have the public newspaper press; you have members of the house of commons who are personally interested in these people; and you would be surprised, i am sure, if you knew the numerous instances in which, for the smallest thing [inflictions of punishment], applications are made, pressing that this man is an excellent man, a good brother, a kind father, and all that kind of thing which influences men individually, but which cannot [does, but should not] influence the judgment of the heads of a public office." sir william h. stephenson was asked: "do you not think that it might be made a rule in your office, as in the customs, that any interference through a member of parliament should lead to dismissal?" he replied: "yes; but you must prove that a man knows it. you cannot dismiss a man if some injudicious friend takes up his case; and if a man has a friend, it is always an injudicious one under these circumstances."[ ] before this same committee of , mr. stanfeld, m. p., third lord of the treasury, who, in to had been financial secretary to the treasury, said: ... "the great difference between the public establishment and the private establishment is this: that practically speaking, in a public establishment, you have a large proportion of established clerks who can do no more than a moderate amount of service.... because you have not the faculty which men in private business have, without any particular fault, of saying to a man: 'on the whole, you do not suit me, and i mean to get somebody else.' when you get a clerk on a public establishment, he remains on that establishment with very rare exceptions, and you have to make the best of your bargain; the result naturally is that, with the exception of men of ability and energy, you have not so much stimulus for their effort as you have in private employment, and you have not by any means the same power of dealing with them." ...[ ] in , before the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments, this question of the great difficulty of getting rid of incompetent or undesirable men, was threshed out at great length. sir charles ducane, chairman of the commissioners of customs, said: "but it is an invidious thing, i do not mean to say as regards myself, but invidious rather as regards the [political] head of a department [the minister], to come and make complaints against men whom one cannot perhaps accuse of any overt act of negligence or carelessness, but who are merely rather below the level of ordinary efficiency.... i think it would be a most desirable thing that we should have the power of getting rid of incapable and inefficient men who have yet managed to keep themselves out of any positive scrape or offence, for which they would be charged before a member of the board of commissioners of customs."[ ] to sir s. a. blackwood, secretary to the post office since , the chairman of the royal commission put the question: "do you think it is a real evil in the public service that there should not be the same power to remove inefficient men as exists outside the public service, of course i mean within certain limits, because the public service must be different from private service, but in your experience, have you found it to be a real evil in the way of efficiency as well as of wise economy to be obliged to keep men whom you would be glad to get rid of if you could have sent them away with something in their pocket, [_i. e._, a pension]?" the answer was: "yes, it is a serious objection." sir s. a. blackwood even asserted that the act of , giving the treasury discretionary power to pension men unable to discharge efficiently the duties of their office,[ ] would not help much. "we should always be asking an officer to relinquish his full pay, and to retire upon a lesser pension than he would be entitled to if he served his full time, and there is always a disinclination on the part of heads of departments to do that."[ ] sir reginald e. welby, who had entered the treasury service in , and had been made permanent secretary in , said there was full power to dismiss idle or incompetent persons without granting pensions or allowances of any sort. thereupon, mr. f. mitford, one of the members of the royal commission, asked: "is not really the sole difficulty that public departments have to contend with in exercising that full power, the fact that parliament is behind them, and a member of parliament always asks questions [in the house] and brings interest [pressure] to bear upon the head of the department, which practically annuls that power? the difficulty lies not with the public officer, but practically with the difficulties that are thrown in his way outside his department by individual members of parliament?" the permanent secretary of the treasury answered: "there is always before the heads of departments the fact that pressure may be brought to bear by members of parliament, and it requires, therefore, that a case must be very strong, that it must be a very good case before you would dismiss. probably you would be much more long-suffering in a government department, than you would be in a private establishment." sir reginald welby just previously had said: "i have known men dismissed from the treasury.... perhaps i had better say, i have heard of men being dismissed from the treasury for simple idleness, but it was before my time." thereupon the chairman had queried: "it is the fact, speaking generally, is it not, that mere idleness and mere incompetence, without very gross negligence of duty or gross misbehavior, does not bring about dismissal from the service, either in the treasury or anywhere else that you are aware of?" the reply was: "i would rather put it in this way: i think that government offices are very long-suffering in that matter. if the man was reported as distinctly very idle and not doing his work he would be warned, and i think if it was repeated after that (i am speaking of any fairly managed government department), he would be dismissed. but i think that a government department is, for one reason or another, more long-suffering than a private establishment would be.... while i am admitting the possibility of there being bad officers, i should like to add that both in the upper and lower division clerks, we have got, on the whole, a very satisfactory set of men under the present regulations of the treasury, and that they do their work well. i am happy to say that very few cases of complaint come before me." [sidenote: _the house of commons is master_] mr. lawson, a member of the royal commission, asked sir reginald welby: "but you would hardly plead the interference of members of parliament as a justification for not getting rid of an unworthy servant, would you?" sir reginald welby replied: "it is not a good reason, but as a matter of fact it is powerful. the house of commons are our masters."[ ] sir t. h. farrer, who had been permanent secretary of the board of trade from to , and had been a member of the so-called playfair commission, of , on the civil service, was asked by mr. r. w. hanbury, a member of the royal commission of , whether the failure to dismiss incompetent men could not be attributed to "soft heartedness" on the part of heads of departments? sir t. h. farrer replied: "yes, that is another aspect of the case, and it is no doubt theoretically perfectly true; but i think it overlooks what is the real difficulty of getting rid of useless men. there is a certain difficulty in the soft heartedness of heads of departments and of ministers. but there is a very much greater difficulty in the pressure which is put upon them by members of the house of commons. that is the real difficulty; the real difficulty of the public service is getting rid of bad men; and the real difficulty of getting rid of bad men is that no minister will face the pressure which is put upon him from outside.... i have had much personal experience of the matter; i have been plagued all my life at the board of trade with inefficient men that i wanted to get rid of, but have been unable to do so.... parliamentary pressure is the main difficulty.... members are economical in general [protestations]; but in particular cases they think more of their constituents than of the public service. no doubt with a little thinking i could recall a very great number of instances, but two or three occur to me." [sidenote: _you may dismiss but you must not_] "not very many years ago there was a clerk of whom perpetual complaints were made to me. he was in a hard-worked department, and the heads of it told me repeatedly: 'we can do nothing with him.' at last we got it arranged that he should go [with a large pension, on the theory that his office was abolished, because no longer required]. my back was turned--i was away on a holiday--and when i came back, i found that parliamentary pressure, by which i mean applications from members, had been put on, and in spite of us all, the man was back in the place to the detriment of our credit. let me mention another case. i was engaged upon a reorganization of the department under one of the strongest men [ministers] i have ever served. what the president of the board of trade said to me, in effect was: 'we must have new blood; we are getting crowded up with effete men; i will back you in anything you do, only you must undertake not to get me into a difficulty in the house of commons. i cannot afford it; the government cannot afford time for it; they cannot afford strength to fight battles of that kind.' we set to work about the reorganization with our hands tied, and we were obliged to say to these men: 'well, if you stay here, we will make it very uncomfortable for you; we will put you in the very worst places in the office,' the treasury offered good terms of retirement [pensions], and in that way, after a good deal of fighting, we got rid of most of them.... we had to give them very high terms [that is, very liberal pensions]. i may mention a case which happened even since then. i refer to the official receivers in bankruptcy. they were men who were appointed only a few years ago, under the most stringent conditions imposed by the treasury and the board of trade, and without the slightest reference to personal considerations or to politics. they were told that they were appointed on trial, that they might be removed at any moment if the board of trade desired it for the good of the service. fortunately, most of them have turned out extremely well. one, perhaps more, turned out bad, but one certainly turned out very bad. perpetual complaints were made to me by the head of that department that he could do nothing with this man, and that the business was being badly conducted. after a good deal of trouble, after i left, it was determined to remove this man. the members of parliament for the county, as i am told, came and put pressure upon the president of the board of trade [the minister], till he was obliged to say: 'i cannot remove him; he must stay.'" [sidenote: _pension system no remedy_] to the foregoing testimony from the permanent secretary of the board of trade, the chairman of the royal commission replied: "i gather from what you say, that, supposing it was possible, under this new system of pensions and allowances, to give a man who was sent away from the service the money which he had himself contributed toward his ultimate pension, either with or without the addition of a government grant, you do not think that would get over the difficulty in getting rid of incompetent men?" sir t. h. farrer replied: "no, i do not think it would, unless the house of commons passes a self-denying ordinance, and refuses to interfere with the ministers in the management of their departments."[ ] later in the examination, lord lingen, who had been permanent secretary of the treasury from to , said to sir t. h. farrer: "you have given a good deal of evidence as to the difficulties which the relation of the public departments to parliament creates. i think we might hold there is nothing in private service analogous to what you may call the triennial change of government, that [when] everybody who has been passed over [not promoted], who thinks he has any grievance, considers that he has a fresh chance on a change of ministry?" the secretary of the board of trade replied: "yes, i remember distinctly one particular case in which on every change of government a fresh appeal was made to the new ministers on behalf of men who had been retired for good reasons." lord lingen continued: "it revived questions which had been supposed to be settled?" "yes, it does, not infrequently." on august , , in the house of commons, the postmaster general, mr. raikes, in speaking of a post office employee who had been disciplined, said: "the case is one to which i have given a great deal of personal attention; indeed, i may say that in cases of dismissal or punishment i have always endeavored to satisfy myself thoroughly as to the facts, and to mitigate, if i can, the effect of the regulations of the department." on that same day the postmaster general stated--in reply to mr. conybeare,[ ] who was intervening on behalf of one cornwell, dismissed from the postal service--that cornwell had been dismissed for the second time. after the first dismissal, the postmaster general himself had reinstated cornwell. the second dismissal had been necessary "in the interest of the service at large, but especially in that of the other men employed on the same duty, his case should be dealt with in an exemplary manner."[ ] in march, , the chairman of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments, asked mr. lewin hill, assistant secretary general post office: "do you think there is any other particular class of employment which is comparable with that of the postmen?" mr. hill replied: "i thought of railway servants, whose work in many ways resembles the work of our employees. if they have not the same permanence as our people have, they have continuous employment so long as they are efficient, but our people have continuous employment whether they are efficient or not."[ ] several months later, mr. hill testified as follows before this same committee: "our inquiries have proved that the telegraph staff at liverpool is excessive, and it has been decided, on vacancies [occurring], to abolish the ten appointments."[ ] the meaning of this statement is, that if a mistake is made, and too many men are appointed to a certain office; or, if the business of an office falls off, the government cannot correct the redundancy of employees by dismissing, or by transferring to some other office, the redundant employees. it must wait until promotion, retirement on account of old age, or death shall remove the redundant employees. before this same committee, mr. j. c. badcock, controller london postal service, testified that in theory there were no first class letter sorters in the foreign newspaper department of the london post office, since there had been, since , no work that called for first class newspaper sorters. but as a matter of fact there were thirty-seven "redundant first class sorters, who, upon resignation, or pensioning, or death, would be replaced by second class sorters."[ ] in , sir edgar vincent,[ ] a member of the select committee on national expenditure, , asked lord welby, who had been permanent secretary to the treasury from to : "it is, i presume, extremely difficult for the minister at the head of a department to dismiss, or place on the retired list incompetent officers?" lord welby replied: "it is very difficult. of course there are different degrees of incompetency. it is not so difficult in the case of a notoriously incompetent officer, but there are many people, as the honorable member is aware, against whom nothing whatever can be said, who are still the very reverse of competent." sir edgar vincent continued: "can you suggest any means of substituting for a minister whom it is almost impossible to expect to perform the duty, some authority who should revise establishments and exclude the bad bargains?" lord welby, of course, replied that the remedy suggested would be inconsistent with the principles of parliamentary government,[ ] in that it would substitute for the minister, who holds office at the pleasure of the house of commons, some permanent officer or officers appointed by the ministry. * * * * * [sidenote: _difficult to dismiss probationers_] oftentimes the difficulty experienced in dismissing unsatisfactory public servants, extends even to persons appointed on probation. in april, , the chancellor of the exchequer, in the course of the financial statement, said: "we now appoint young men upon probation, and the understanding of that probationary employment is that if the person is found after six months or a year to be unfit, he is told that he must look elsewhere. this is a very invidious duty for the head of an office to perform, and it is very often not performed."[ ] in , mr. harvey, a member of the royal commission on the civil establishments, said: "the tendency in a government office is for the man to regard his probationary period as practically a '_nominis umbra_' [the mere shadow of a name], nothing else."[ ] the chairman of the royal commission of asked sir reginald welby, the permanent secretary to the treasury: "is there anything like a real probation in any one of the divisions of the clerks at the treasury, so that you can find out [whether they are likely to prove competent]?" "yes, i think so. the principal clerk of the division to which the probationer is attached makes a report at the end of six months; and i have known a principal clerk to make a doubtful report. in that case, if i remember rightly, the term of probation was extended."[ ] the boys employed by the post office department for the delivery of telegrams, are, in a way, on continuous probation. if they serve satisfactorily, they are, at the age of , taken in training for the position of postmen. in , mr. lewin hill, assistant secretary general post office, said: ... "in london, in the past, the weeding out of messenger boys at years has not been carried out so far, i think, owing to the paternal feelings of the department. every effort seems to have been made to keep in the service anybody who could possibly scrape through. but the country postmasters were, as a rule, careful to weed out unsatisfactory lads." he continued: ... "we could have got better postmen [in london], if we had had a free hand."[ ] * * * * * in the opposition made in parliament to the system of pensions, led to the appointment of a committee to inquire into the operation of the superannuation act, . that committee stated as follows the argument "from the public point of view" in favor of pensions. "though it is strictly the duty of heads of departments to remove from the public service all those who have become unfit to discharge their duties, yet experience shows that this duty cannot be enforced. it is felt to be hard--and even unjust--and inefficient men are, therefore, retained in the service to the detriment of efficiency. they, therefore, were unhesitatingly of opinion that the public interest would be best consulted by maintaining a system of superannuation allowances."[ ] in accordance with the foregoing recommendation parliament, in , enacted that the treasury might give "abolition terms" to persons whose offices should be abolished in consequence of the "reorganization" of their department, or branch of service. under that act, inefficient persons who are "reorganized out of the service" are given "pro rata" pensions, plus an allowance for "abolition of their office." for example, a man aged , with years of service, who would become entitled to a pension at the age of , will be retired at years, with a pro rata pension on the basis of years' service, plus an allowance of or years' service for abolition of his office.[ ] [sidenote: _cost of pensions to the incompetent_] in , before the select committee on civil services expenditure, sir william h. stephenson, chairman of the commissioners of inland revenue, illustrated the working of this system with the statement that in - , the salaries paid in the inland revenue department would aggregate $ , , . an additional $ , would be required for pensions; and a further $ , would be required on account of the abolition terms given to men who had been reorganized out of the inland revenue department. thus the "non-effective," or non-revenue producing, charges of the department were equivalent to per cent. of the effective, or revenue producing, charges.[ ] in the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments reported that the burden on the state for pensions was equivalent to per cent. to per cent. of the working salaries, and that the payment of the abolition terms raised the percentage in question to per cent. of the working salaries. sir reginald e. welby, secretary to the treasury, stated before the commission, that even the past liberal expenditure on account of pro rata pensions with abolition terms, had not enabled the state to get rid of "inefficient and incapable men." the chairman of the royal commission spoke of the abolition terms as amounting "almost to a scandal." sir r. e. welby and lord lingen, a former secretary to the treasury, contrasted the state's system of pensions with the system of the london and north western railway. the railway's pension system was maintained out of a fund raised by a . per cent. reduction from the salaries of the employees, and a . per cent. contribution from the treasury of the railway. sir r. e. welby, secretary to the treasury, and other witnesses, spoke of the abolition terms often acting as a premium on inefficiency. mr. robert giffen, the eminent statistician and political economist, who also was an officer of the board of trade, said: "when a man is reorganized out of the service, as a rule he gets so many years' service added [to his actual service], that is to say, at years, if he has served years, he may have or years' service added, and thus get two-thirds of his salary as a pension; and he begins to get his pension at once, instead of waiting until he is years of age. a man who thus gets a pension at years, really gets more than double what he would get if he waited until years of age. the present value of $ a year, beginning at once at the age of years, is a good deal more than double the present value of $ a year to be paid to a man when he reaches years. the difference in favor of the man who is reorganized out of the service, as against the man who remains until he is years of age, is simply overwhelming to my mind." sir algernon e. west, chairman of the inland revenue commissioners, illustrated the working of the practice of getting rid of inefficient men by reorganizing an office, by citing the following instance of "successful" reorganization. sir algernon west had retired upper division clerks, permanently reducing the number of the staff by . he had thus effected a saving in salaries of $ , a year. but he had incurred an annual expenditure of $ , on account of pensions, and an annual expenditure of $ , on account of abolition terms. therefore his net saving was not $ , but only $ , . yet sir algernon west denominated his reorganization successful. in the course of this reorganization, sir algernon west had increased the hours of work from hours to hours. the reorganization, also, had necessitated certain promotions. sir algernon had made it a condition of promotion, that the man promoted should consent to work hours a day. men not promoted he gave $ a year "as a personal allowance in consideration of the extra hour they were called to serve." one man, aged years, declined to work more than hours on any terms, saying that the government had made a contract with him for six hours' work a day. in order to get rid of this man, sir algernon west gave him a pension on the basis of years' service. legally, of course, the man had no claim to any pension or abolition allowance whatever, for he was in reality dismissed for refusing to perform the duties demanded of him.[ ] footnotes: [ ] _third report from the select committee on civil services expenditure_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _third report from the select committee on civil services expenditure_, ; q. , to , , , and following, and , to , . [ ] _third report from the select committee on civil services expenditure_, ; q. , . [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , , , , and , . [ ] the act of reads: "where a civil servant is removed from office on the ground of his inability to discharge efficiently the duties of his office, and a superannuation allowance cannot lawfully be granted to him under the superannuation acts of and , and the treasury thinks that the special circumstances of the case justify the grant to him of a retiring allowance, they may grant to him such retiring allowance as they think just and proper." ... [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , to , , and , a. [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , , , to , , and , . [ ] _who's who_, , conybeare, c. a. v., m. p., n. w. div. of cornwall, to ; member london school board, to ; education: christ church, oxford; publications: _treatise on the corrupt and illegal practices acts_, . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , to , ; and q. , , mr. g. e. rably. [ ] _who's who_, , vincent, sir edgar; m. p. since ; president of council of ottoman public debt, ; financial adviser to egyptian government, to ; governor of imperial ottoman bank, constantinople, to . [ ] _report from the select committee on national expenditure_, ; q. , and , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. , . [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , . [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and , . [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, , p. xx. [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , , mr. robert giffen, the eminent statistician and economist, who was also an officer in the board of trade. [ ] _third report from the select committee on civil services expenditure_, ; q. , . [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, , pp. xx and xxv, and q. , , , and , , , , , to , , , , , to , , , , , and following, , and following, and , to , . chapter xv the house of commons, under pressure from the civil service unions, curtails the executive's power to promote employees according to merit the civil service unions oppose promotion by merit, and demand promotion by seniority. testimony presented before: select committee on civil services expenditure, ; select committee on post office, ; royal commission to inquire into the civil establishments, ; from statement made in house of commons, in , by mr. raikes, postmaster general; and before the so-called tweedmouth committee, . instances of intervention by members of house of commons on behalf of civil servants who have not been promoted, or are afraid they shall not be promoted. in the matter of promotion, also, the civil servants' unions compel the members of parliament to intervene, on behalf of individual employees, in the details of the administration of the several departments of state. the organized civil service is not content that every man should have an equal chance of promotion, so far as his industry and capacity shall qualify him for advancement; it evinces a marked tendency to demand equal promotion in fact, that is, the elimination of the effects of the natural inequality among men. the house of commons, in yielding in this matter to the pressure from the organized civil service, is tending to reduce the public service to a dull level of mediocrity, which action at one and the same time impairs the efficiency of the public service and makes the service of the state unattractive to able and ambitious men. in this matter of promotion, the permanent heads of the departments are hampered also by the unbusinesslike attitude toward the conduct of the public business that characterizes large sections of the newspaper press as well the great mass of the voters. that unbusinesslike frame of mind, in turn, is the outgrowth of that untrained sympathy which makes every one tend to sympathize with the individual, whenever the interest of the individual clashes with that of the state. to illustrate, in , before the select committee on civil services expenditure, sir william h. stephenson, chairman of the commissioners of inland revenue, stated that in his department promotion was mainly by seniority in the two lowest classes, to some extent by seniority in the third class, but beyond that entirely by merit. but he hastened to add: "indeed, if i may judge by the complaints that i have heard out of doors, occasionally in the newspaper press, and elsewhere, the system of promotion by merit is supposed to be carried to rather an excessive extent in the inland revenue."[ ] [sidenote: _the glasgow postmaster's "mistake"_] in , before the select committee on post office, mr. hobson, postmaster at glasgow, stated that he could not promote his telegraph operators according to their dexterity, he was obliged to promote according to seniority. mr. gower, a member of the select committee queried: "therefore, there is no encouragement whatever to superior dexterity?" mr. hobson replied: "i should not recommend a clerk for promotion ... if i were satisfied that he was not doing all he could to improve himself ... and was only an indifferent operator. i should mention that in submitting the report, and recommend him to be passed over." mr. gower continued: "but suppose he took every sort of pains to improve himself, but did not improve?" the answer came: "i would then recommend him to go forward [_i. e._ for promotion]." mr. gower then asked: "have you any power to exchange a clerk who is a slow operator for another quicker operator in a district where it would not signify?" the postmaster at glasgow replied: "none whatever."[ ] the reader will recall that there are numerous telegraph stations in glasgow. in april, , the postmaster general, lord john manners, replied to the report of the select committee of , in a letter to the lords commissioners of the treasury. he concluded the letter with the statement: "in conclusion, i beg leave to say that it is, i think, hardly worth while to attempt to contradict the mistakes as to promotion into which the postmaster of glasgow was accidentally betrayed in giving his evidence before the committee of last session, and to which no reference is made in their report."[ ] before the same committee, mr. edward graves, divisional engineer, recommended that the head of the post office establish the rule, "that, other things being equal as to seniority and general business capacity, preference for promotion shall always be given to the telegraph clerk who has shown himself possessed of technical knowledge, and who is desirous of obtaining technical information."[ ] passing over a period of years, that is, from the year to the year , we find mr. e. trenam, controller london central telegraph office, testifying that because of danger that in the immediate future there would be a lack of telegraph clerks who had a knowledge of the technics of telegraphy, mr. w. h. preece, engineer-in-chief, had caused a special increase in pay--$ a year--to be offered to men who should acquire such knowledge. the witness added that "unfortunately many of the men who have [acquired] this knowledge are comparative juniors, and we are compelled to put them to work which those receiving higher pay are incompetent to perform. it will take some years to adjust the anomaly ... [that is, before the incompetent men receiving higher pay shall have been pensioned or shall have died]".[ ] [sidenote: _promotion by seniority, not jobbery, the public service's weak point_] before the royal commission of , appointed to inquire into the civil establishments, sir thomas h. farrer, who had been a member of the playfair royal commission of , and had been permanent secretary of the board of trade from to , said: "i should like to say that in the discussion which led [in ] to the adoption of mr. lowe's [chancellor of the exchequer] scheme[ ] [for the reform of the civil service] a mistake was often made, and is still made, in supposing that the great evil of the service is jobbery. that is not the case, and i say so with great confidence, having regard to what has been done by ministers whom i have served of both parties. the real evil of the service is promotion by routine, and not jobbing in the selection for superior places.[ ] but make your regulations what you will, the _sine qua non_, to make any regulations work well, is that the men at the head of the different offices shall have discretion, honesty, and courage, and shall not be afraid to put up the good men and to keep the inferior men in their place. i am quite confident from my own experience that it can be done, but i am certain that it can be done only if the men at the head of the offices will take a good deal of trouble about it." lord lingen, a member of the royal commission, and a former permanent secretary to the treasury, interpolated: "a good deal of trouble and a good deal of disagreeable interference." mr. farrer continued: "it requires tact, because of course you must not put a man up for mere merit. you cannot take a lad of and put him over a man of without a very strong reason; but taking the different sub-heads of the department into counsel; by a little give and take; by care, discretion, and confidence in the perfect honesty with which the thing is done, i believe it can be perfectly well managed.... the key of the whole thing is to put the proper men at the top of the offices." lord lingen and mr. farrer then went on to state that with every change of the government of the day, some civil servants who had been passed over, or had some other grievance, made the attempt to have their cases reopened.[ ] sir charles ducane, chairman of the commissioners of customs, said: "we promote strictly by merit; we never allow seniority to weigh with us."[ ] sir algernon e. west, chairman of the commissioners of inland revenue, said that he promoted by merit within the limits allowed him by the treasury ruling that no clerk could pass out of the second class into the first class without years' service in the second class. subsequent testimony established the fact that the treasury had made that ruling in order to prevent the second class clerks from bringing pressure on members of parliament with the view to securing automatic promotion from the second class into the first.[ ] just before making the foregoing statement, sir algernon west had said: "if you take the whole civil service, i think you will find a general concord of opinion that the man receiving from $ , to $ , a year is the weakest part of the civil service. i am not speaking of a young man who is in process of going higher, but of an elderly man who has risen to that kind of high salary, and has no prospect of getting anything more.... an ordinary middle aged man, who has got to $ , or $ , or $ , , generally is far too highly paid." mr. r. w. hanbury, a member of the royal commission, queried: "how would he get such a position?" the answer came: "by natural progression," _i. e._ promotion by routine.[ ] sir lyon playfair, a man of vast experience in the administration of the british civil service, said: "promotions by merit hardly take place in most offices, i think; at all events, there are very few instances brought before us."[ ] [sidenote: _promotion by seniority the great evil_] the royal commission itself reported: "we think that promotion by seniority is the great evil of the service, and that it is indispensable to proceed throughout every branch of it strictly on the principle of promotion by merit, that is to say, by selecting always the fittest man, instead of considering claims in order of seniority, and rejecting only the unfit. it is no doubt true that objections on the score of favoritism may arise in the application of such a rule in public departments, and the intervention of members of parliament also presents an obvious difficulty, but we think that such constant vigilance, tact, and resolution as may fairly be expected on the part of heads of branches and of offices, will meet these objections, and we believe that the certain advantages of promotion by merit to the most deserving men, and therefore to the public service, are so great as to be sure, in the long run, to command public support." [sidenote: _able men must "wait their turn"_] shortly before the royal commission had made this recommendation, in words which seemed to place the responsibility for past failure to promote by merit, on the permanent officers of the departments, as distinguished from the political heads of the departments, the ministers, mr. raikes, the postmaster general, and the representative in the house of commons of the university of cambridge, had refused to accept the advice of the permanent secretary of the post office, mr. s. a. blackwood, in filling a post of some importance in the secretary's office. on march , , the postmaster general, mr. raikes, in reply to questions put to him in the house of commons, said: ... "it is also the fact that i have recently declined to adopt the secretary's recommendation to promote to the first class [in the secretary's office] one of the junior officers in the second class over the heads of several clerks of much longer standing. the gentleman whom i have promoted was, in my judgment, fully qualified for promotion, and was senior clerk in the class, with the exception of one officer who, on the secretary's recommendation, has been passed over on sixteen occasions.... what was i asked to do? i was asked to promote a gentleman who was much lower down in the class, a gentleman who was third or fourth in the class, and to place him over the heads of his colleagues. this i declined to do. i made inquiries in the office, and i found that the gentleman who was promoted was a meritorious officer who had discharged his duties with adequate ability, and therefore i thought there was no reason for promoting over his head and over the heads of one or two other competent officers, a junior officer who could well afford to wait his turn. i acted in the interests of the public service, and especially in the interests of the department itself."[ ] * * * * * no post office official in the united kingdom has power to make a promotion. no one has power to do more than recommend for promotion. each recommendation for promotion is examined by the surveyor, and is then sent to headquarters, where "a most vigilant check is always exercised, not from the suspicion that there has been favoritism, but in order to secure that favoritism shall not be practised."[ ] ultimately the postmaster general passes upon every recommendation. sometimes the action of the postmaster general is merely formal, and is limited to the mere affixing of the postmaster general's signature to the recommendation made by the permanent officers of the department; at other times it is independent, and is preceded by careful consideration of the case by the postmaster general himself. whether or not the postmaster general shall give his personal attention to a recommendation for promotion, is determined largely by the presence or absence of the political element, that is, the temper of the house of commons. the postmaster general is not a mere executive officer with a single aim: the efficient administration of his department. he is first of all an important minister, that is, one of the aids of the prime minister in keeping intact the party following. he must know to a nicety how any given administrative act in the post office will affect his party's standing, first in parliament, and then among the constituents of the members of parliament. it is true that no british postmaster general would convert the post office into a political engine for promoting the interests of his party; but it is equally true that no british postmaster general would for a moment lose sight of the fact that governments have not their being in either a vacuum or a utopia, but that they live in a medium constituted of members of parliament and the constituents of members of parliament. in the course of a protest against the postmaster general being a member of the house of lords, sir h. h. fowler[ ] recently said: "no man who has sat in the house of commons for years can be ignorant of the fact that there is a tone in the house; that there are occasions in the house when, in dealing with votes [of supply] and administrative questions, a minister is required, who, with his finger on the pulse of the house, can sweep away the red tape limits and deal with the questions at once on broad general public grounds." to make the statement complete, sir h. h. fowler should have added the words: "and grounds of political expediency." in the course of his reply to sir h. h. fowler, mr. r. w. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury and representative in the house of commons of the postmaster general, said: "when i undertook the representation of the post office in the house of commons, the first rule i laid down was that [in replying to questions put by members as to the administrative acts of the post office] i would take no answer from a permanent official, and that all answers [framed in the first instance by permanent officials] should be seen and approved by the postmaster general [a member of the house of lords]. i also reserved to myself full discretion to alter the answers if i saw any necessity so to do."[ ] [sidenote: _the anxieties of postmasters general_] in , before the tweedmouth committee, mr. h. joyce, third secretary to general post office, london, said: "i well remember mr. fawcett's[ ] address to the head of a large department [of the post office] who, ... having a large number of promotions to recommend, had told the officers concerned whom he had recommended, and whom he had not, and what made the matters worse, he had in his recommendations taken little account of seniority, whereas mr. fawcett, like mr. arnold morley,[ ] had a perfect horror of passing anyone over. i only saw mr. fawcett angry on two occasions, and that was one of them."[ ] a moment before giving this testimony, mr. joyce had said: "it is always a matter of deep regret to the postmaster general--every postmaster general under whom i have served--when he is constrained to pass anyone over. i have seen mr. arnold morley in the greatest distress on such occasions."[ ] again, in defending the action of the post office in promoting one bocking, a second class sorting clerk at norwich, over the heads of men in his own class, and men in the first class, to a full clerkship, mr. joyce said: "it is a matter of the greatest regret to the postmaster general to feel constrained to pass over so many officers, all of whom were thoroughly respectable and zealous, and performed the duties on which they were employed very well, but the lamentable fact remains that they were not fit for a higher position; every endeavor was made at headquarters to what i might call squeeze them through, but it was no use." mr. badcock, controller london postal service, corroborated this testimony with the words: "the statement is absolutely correct. the reports on which it was based can be produced."[ ] in passing it may be added that in february, , mr. r. j. price, m. p., for norfolk, east, sought to intervene from the floor of the house of commons in this case of promotion. in and , mr. price had been returned to parliament from norfolk, east, with majorities of respectively votes and votes. still, again, at the barry dock post office, a branch office in cardiff, one arnold had been promoted from position number , by seniority, among the second class telegraph clerks, to a full clerkship, skipping class of the telegraphists. of this action, mr. joyce said: "it was a matter of great regret to the postmaster general, as expressed at the time, to pass so many officers, many of them most deserving men, but above mr. arnold there was actually no one competent to fill this important post. some had a knowledge of postal work, and some a knowledge of telegraph work, but none [beside mr. arnold] were conversant with work of both kinds, and some were otherwise objectionable. barry dock had suddenly shot into existence as a large town, which has now a population of about , , and so painful was it to the postmaster general to pass over all these deserving officers, that, rather than do so, he seriously contemplated raising barry dock to the level of a post town, and giving it a separate establishment of its own."[ ] again, one robinson was transferred from the post office at pontefract to a clerkship in the office of blackpool, being made to pass over the heads of two young men at blackpool, by name of eaton and butcher. mr. joyce said: "the case was specially put before the postmaster general, and with all his horror of passing people over, he decided that the two young men eaton and butcher were not qualified for promotion."[ ] * * * * * [sidenote: _"a strong order"_] in , one robinson, a postman at liverpool, and number in his class, was jumped to the position of assistant inspector. "he had, when a young postman, been selected by his inspector as a superior and promising officer. he had been temporarily employed [by way of tests] as assistant inspector, and had discharged the duties so efficiently that, on a vacancy occurring, he had been promoted to it." this case, as well as those previously mentioned, were cited as "grievances," before the tweedmouth committee, by the men selected by the post office employees to act as their spokesmen before the committee. lord tweedmouth, chairman of the committee, commenting on the case, said to mr. joyce: "still, it seems to have been rather a strong order to appoint an assistant postman to such an office and to give him such a great promotion." mr. joyce replied: "yes, it certainly does seem so; but for the position of inspector or assistant inspector of postmen there is no doubt that qualifications are required which are not ordinarily to be found in postmen.... for the positions of inspectors and assistant inspectors, i think i may say that the local authorities, and also headquarters, are more particular than they are about any other promotion, and they are most anxious to select actually the best man. in almost every other promotion, very great allowance is made for seniority; but in the case of inspectors it is not so, on account of the somewhat rare qualities required of inspectors, and because the post is a most invidious one."[ ] the reader will note that in the post office employees were complaining of a promotion made in . [sidenote: _the ablest man in the sheffield office_] it was established before the tweedmouth committee that in instances the post office employees, with the aid of members of the house of commons, have succeeded in forcing the post office to revoke promotions, or to promote men that have been passed over. for example, mr. joyce, third secretary, general post office, said: "wykes is unquestionably a very able man--probably the ablest man in the sheffield office--and it is quite true that he was promoted [from a second class sortership] to be an assistant superintendent; but for reasons quite unconnected with his ability and qualifications, that promotion has been cancelled. having said that, i trust the committee will not press me further upon the point, inasmuch as it is very undesirable that i should say more." mr. spencer walpole, a member of the committee and the secretary of the post office, added: "except, perhaps, that the cancelling of that promotion had nothing to do with the evidence that has been quoted?" mr. joyce replied: "it had nothing to do with that; the matter is still in a certain sense _subjudice_."[ ] [sidenote: _an m. p. promotes eleven men_] in , one m'dougall, a second class sorter in liverpool, was made a first class sorter, being promoted over the heads of men whom the liverpool postmaster had reported to be "not qualified for the duties of the higher class." on march , , mr. bradlaugh brought the matter up in the house of commons, by means of a question addressed to the postmaster general. he was not satisfied with the answer that the men passed over had been reported "not qualified for promotion."[ ] therefore, on june , , in committee of supply, on the post office vote, mr. bradlaugh again brought up the case of the liverpool sorters who had been passed over. he said he had personally investigated the qualifications of the men, and had found "that none of them warranted the answer given by the postmaster general" [on march ].[ ] mr. bradlaugh also brought up the case of one hegnett, who had been made assistant superintendent over the heads of persons "who were his seniors by many years." also the case of one helsby, promoted over the heads of persons. also the case of one miller, promoted over one richardson, "who had been acting as assistant superintendent for years with the salary of a supervising clerk only." mr. bradlaugh spoke of the committee of supply as "the only tribunal that can overrule the postmaster general." on june , mr. bradlaugh again intervened on behalf of the men who had been passed over. before the tweedmouth committee, mr. f. t. crosse, a sorting clerk at bristol, and one of the spokesmen of the post office employees, said: "macdougall, liverpool, a second class sorting clerk, was promoted to the first class over the heads of men, his seniors. mr. bradlaugh, m. p., brought the matter up in parliament during the discussion on the estimates. the result of mr. bradlaugh's intervention was that of the men passed over were promoted in a batch six months later." mr. joyce, third secretary to general post office, london, said it was true that "very soon afterward," of the men were promoted.[ ] "a great point was stretched" in favor of of the men. those men were technically called single duty men, and since no sorting clerk had been promoted to the first class [at liverpool] who could not perform dual duty. although these five men were single duty men, and therefore unable to rotate with others, which was a "great disability," they were promoted by reason of mr. bradlaugh's intervention. in explanation of the bradlaugh episode, it should be added, that dual duty men are those who are able to act as letter sorters as well as telegraphists; while single duty men are able to act only as sorters, or as telegraphists. in order to reap full advantage from the consolidation of the telegraph business with the postal business, the post office for years has been seeking to induce as many as possible of its employees to make themselves competent to act both as sorters and as telegraphists. at offices where it would be particularly advantageous to have the men able to act both as sorters and as telegraphists, the post office has sought to establish the rule that no sorter or telegraphist shall be promoted to the first class, unless able to act both as sorter and as telegraphist. mr. crosse was not the only witness before the tweedmouth committee whose testimony illustrated "the stimulus" conveyed by questions in the house of commons. mr. c. j. ansell, the representative of the second class tracers in london, stated that in two vacancies among the first class tracers in a london office had been left open for respectively months and months. he added: "in march, , the postmaster general's attention had to be called to this disgraceful state of affairs [by the tracers' union]. it required, however, the stimulus of a question in the house of commons. we do not know how far the postmaster general is responsible for this state of affairs, but it is only fair to state that his attention being drawn to this matter by the question, we were successful in getting those promotions ante-dated."[ ] * * * * * the limitations upon the postmaster general's power to promote men in accordance with the advice tendered him by his official advisers by no means is confined to the cases of promotion among the rank and file. for instance, it was established by the testimony given before the tweedmouth committee, that the postmaster cannot freely promote, to offices of more importance, postmasters who show that they have more ability than is required to administer the offices over which they happen to preside. for if a postmaster proves to be not equal to the demands of his office, the postmaster general cannot always remove him to a smaller office, promoting at the same time the more able man who happens to be in charge of the smaller office. the department tries to meet the situation by sending to the aid of the relatively incompetent postmaster "a smart chief clerk," taking care, however, that the inefficient postmaster shall receive less than the full salary to which the volume of business of the office would entitle him. if that expedient fails, the department will transfer the postmaster. mr. uren, postmaster at maidstone, and president of the postmasters' association, even asserted that nothing short of misconduct would lead to the transfer of a postmaster.[ ] it should be added, however, that mr. uren's testimony related to the small and medium sized places only, not to the larger cities.[ ] it must not be inferred, however, that the postmasters of the small and medium sized places appeared before the tweedmouth committee to demand unrestricted promotion by merit. on the contrary, with the great bulk of the public service of all descriptions,[ ] they held that promotion is "slow and uncertain" and that the system of promotion by merit "is thoroughly uncertain in its practical working." they protested also against the uncertainty and inequality inseparable from the system of making postmasters' salaries dependent upon the volume of business done by the several and individual post offices. they held that no postmaster should be made to suffer by reason of the fact that he happened to be stationed in a town or city that was not growing, or was not growing so rapidly as were other cities. by way of relief from the foregoing "uncertainties" and "inequalities" they demanded a reorganization of the postal service which should secure to the postmasters regular annual increments of pay, and should "regularize" promotion.[ ] [sidenote: _rank and file oppose promotion by merit_] it will be remembered that the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments, , expressed the belief: "that the certain advantages of promotion by merit to the most deserving men, and therefore to the public service, are so great as to be sure, in the long run, to command public support." but the fact remains that a large part of the rank and file of the british civil service is growing more and more intolerant of promotion by merit, and demands promotion by seniority. it will not accept as a fact the natural inequality of men; it asserts, with its cousins at the antipodes, the australasian civil servants, that it is the opportunity that makes the man, not the man that makes the opportunity. this impatience of the rank and file of the civil servants of promotion by merit was brought out in striking manner by many of the "grievances" cited by the men who appeared before the tweedmouth committee as the accredited representatives of the post office employees. some of those allegations of grievance have just been recorded, but this matter is of sufficient importance to warrant the recording of still others. mr. joseph shephard, chairman of the metropolitan districts board of the postal telegraph clerks' association, complained before the tweedmouth committee that one west, who had entered the telegraph service as a learner in , one month after one ward had entered as a learner, in was receiving $ , whereas ward was receiving only $ . it was true that ward had "had the misfortune to fail in the needle examination," the first time he had tried to qualify as a telegraphist, but "that little failure" ought not to have made the difference which existed in . mr. shephard also complained that one morgan, after years and months of service, was receiving only $ , whereas one kensington, after years and months of service, was receiving $ . he brushed aside as of no consequence, the fact that kensington had "qualified" in four months, whereas ward had taken twelve months to "qualify."[ ] one richardson, a telegraphist, at his own request had been transferred from horsham to east grinstead, and thence to redhill, because of the small chances of vacancies at the first two places. but the staff at redhill was weak and therefore the post office could not follow its usual practice of promoting a man, "not because he is a good man, but because he is not a bad one," to use the words of mr. j. c. badcock, controller london postal service.[ ] the authorities had to promote the best man at redhill, and thus richardson was passed over. mr. james green, who appeared as the representative of the postal telegraph clerks' association, referred to richardson's case as "the case of a learner who with some years' service is, according to my information, sent here and there relieving, presumably as a sort of recompense, though what his future will be remains a mystery. what surprises me in this matter is the spirit of indifference displayed by the heads of our department regarding the hopelessness of these learners' positions."[ ] one j. r. walker was an indoor messenger until october, , when he was apprenticed a paid learner. shortly before october, two lads had been brought in as paid learners; and, after a short service, they were appointed sorting clerks and telegraphists. they were promoted over walker, because of their superior education and intelligence. mr. green, the representative of the postal telegraph clerks' association, admitted the superior education of the lads in question, but complained that they had been preferred to walker.[ ] [sidenote: _the crompton episode_] one crompton, a letter sorting clerk at liverpool, in his leisure moments had made himself a telegraph instrument, had taught himself to telegraph, and had acquired a considerable technical knowledge of electricity. he had attracted the attention of the superintending engineer at liverpool; had been promoted, in , to the office of the superintending engineer; and, by , he had become one of the best engineers in the service. in , mr. tipping, the accredited spokesman of the postal telegraphists' association as well as of the telegraph clerks' association, complained of the promotion of crompton, which had occurred in . he said: "it seems most unreasonable that men who have, in some cases, not the slightest acquaintance with telegraphic apparatus and methods of working, should be preferred to those whose whole period of service has been passed in immediate connection therewith. it is apparent that such an absence of method is open to very serious objections, and allows great freedom of choice to those upon whose recommendations the appointments are made. in order, therefore, to safeguard, on the one hand, the interests of the department, and, on the other, to encourage those members of the telegraph staff who desire, by energy and ability, to improve their official _status_, the following suggestions are humbly submitted: that vacancies for junior clerkships in the offices of the superintending engineers, and for clerks at relay stations, should be filled by open competitive examination, held under the control of the civil service commissioners, and that telegraphists only be eligible."[ ] the crompton episode shows what minute supervision over the administration of the post office the civil service unions seek to exercise. the same minute supervision was attempted as recently as - by mr. nannetti, m. p. for the college division of dublin, and also a member of the corporation of dublin, as well as a member of the dublin port and docks board.[ ] on march , , mr. nannetti spoke as follows, in the house of commons: "i beg to ask the postmaster general whether his attention has been directed to the fact that two female technical officers, appointed in connection with the recently introduced intercommunication switch system in london, were selected over the heads of seniors possessing equal qualifications, and whether, seeing that in one case the official selected was taught switching duties by a telegraphist who is now passed over, he will state the reason for the selection of these officers?" the postmaster general, mr. austen chamberlain, replied: "the honorable member has been misinformed. there is no question of promoting or passing over any officer. all that has been done is to assign to particular duties, carrying no special rank or pay, two officers who were believed to be competent to perform them." on may , , mr. nannetti followed up the question with another one, namely: "i beg to ask the postmaster general whether his attention has been called to the fact that two women telegraphists were selected to perform technical duties in reference to the intercommunication switch in london, who were juniors in service and possessed of less technical qualifications than other women telegraphists who were passed over; and whether, seeing that, although official information was given that such selection was not a question of promotion and no special rank or pay would result, one of the two officers concerned has been appointed to a superior grade on account of her experience gained by being selected for these duties, he will explain why the more senior and experienced women were passed over in the first place?" the postmaster general replied: "i have nothing to add to the answer i gave on march , beyond stating that the officer to whom he is supposed to refer has not been appointed to any superior grade. she has merely been lent temporarily to assist at the central telephone exchange in work for which she has special qualifications."[ ] on april and may , , mr. nannetti again protested against the promotion of the woman in question to the position of first class assistant supervisor, saying: "this girl was appointed because she had strong friends at court." ... on the latter date mr. nannetti also intervened on behalf of a telegraphist at north wall, whose salary had been reduced from $ a week to $ , as well as on behalf of one wood, who had been retired on a reduced pension, by way of punishment. the case of wood, mr. nannetti had brought up in , when the post office vote was under discussion. for the purpose of bringing these several matters before the house, he now moved the reduction of the salary of the postmaster general by $ .[ ] on march , , mr. nannetti asked whether the statement of the controller that there was not a man qualified for promotion in the [dublin letter sorting] branch had had any influence "with the department in the filling of a certain vacancy in the dublin post office."[ ] that question illustrated a type of intervention that suggests the possibility of great britain reaching the stage that has been reached in australia, where members of parliament have been known to move reductions in the salaries of officers who had offended the rank and file by attempting to introduce businesslike methods and practices. if that stage ever is reached, there will be a great multiplication of cases like the following one. before the tweedmouth committee appeared mr. j. shephard, chairman metropolitan districts board of postal clerks' association, to champion the cause of mr. ----. said mr. shephard: "i have it here on his word that his postmaster has recommended him for a vacant clerkship at the district office. mr. ---- has served for many years under the eyes of this postmaster who recommends him for promotion, and i take it that that is full and sufficient evidence of mr. ----'s fitness to perform the duties of the clerk." mr. j. c. badcock, controller london postal service, testified in reply that he had summoned the postmaster in question, who had admitted that mr. ---- had discharged "minor clerical duties" in a perfectly satisfactory manner, but that his recommendation that mr. ---- should be promoted to a clerkship, "was made more out of sympathy with the man than with any hope that he would be qualified to undertake the higher duties which he would have to succeed to if appointed to a clerkship."[ ] * * * * * [sidenote: _m. p.'s act in advance_] in march, , mr. bradlaugh, m. p., intervened in the house of commons on behalf of two telegraph clerks at liverpool who feared they were about to be passed over in favor "of a young man who entered the engineering department nine months ago as a temporary foreman."[ ] in april, , captain norton intervened on behalf of two letter sorters, r. h. brown and h. johnson, who feared they were going to be passed over in the filling of certain vacancies among the overseers.[ ] in , captain norton was made a junior lord of the treasury in the campbell-bannerman liberal government. in march, , mr. m. joyce, m. p. for limerick as well as an alderman, asked the postmaster general: "whether it is his intention to promote a local official to the assistant superintendentship now vacant at the limerick post office, and, if not, will he assign the reason?... may i ask whether the duties of this office have not been performed in the most satisfactory manner by a local officer during the absence of the assistant superintendent, and will he give this matter due consideration, as every class of the community would be pleased at such an appointment."[ ] in april, , mr. shehan asked the postmaster general: "whether his attention has been directed to an application from dennis murphy, at present acting as auxiliary postman, for appointment to the vacant position of rural postman from mill street to culler, county cork; and whether, in view of the man's character and qualifications, he will consider the advisability of appointing him to the vacancy?"[ ] in february, , mr. nannetti asked the postmaster general "whether he is aware that a telegraphist named mercer, of the bristol post office, has applied for vacant postmaster ships since ; whether, seeing that during these periods clerks of less service, experience, ability and salary have been the recipients of these positions, he will make inquiry into the case?"[ ] in july, , mr. o'brien,[ ] m. p. for kilkenny, asked the secretary to the treasury, as representing the postmaster general, "whether he is aware that a postman named jackson, in kilkenny, has been in the post office service over years and that his wages at present are only s. per week; and whether jackson was given the increment of s. d. per week fixed by the new wages scale which came into operation in april, ; and if not, whether he will cause inquiry to be made into the case, with the view of giving jackson the wages to which he is entitled by the rules of the service?" mr. r. w. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury, replied: "the rural postman at kilkenny to whom the honorable member refers was transferred, on june , to another walk at that place, carrying wages of s. a week. his previous duty was not sufficient to warrant higher wages than s. a week."[ ] in april, , sir george newnes, m. p. for swansea, protested against the promotion out of order, according to seniority, of one a. e. samuel, a sorter and telegraphist at swansea.[ ] sir george newnes is the founder of george newnes, limited, proprietors _strand magazine_, _tit-bits_, etc.; and proprietor of the _westminster gazette_, the london evening newspaper of the liberal party. in february and march, , mr. c. e. schwann, m. p. for manchester, protested against the promotion out of order of two men at manchester, who had been respectively numbers and in their class.[ ] mr. schwann is president of the manchester reform club, and has been nine years president of the national reform union. he has held successively the offices of secretary, treasurer and president of the manchester liberal association. in he was elected to parliament by a majority of twenty-six votes. in july, , mr. keir hardie asked the financial secretary to the treasury: "whether the overseer's vacancy in the south eastern metropolitan district, created by the death of mr. feldwick, and recently filled by a suburban officer, will now be restored to the town establishment, seeing that the appointment properly belongs to this establishment?" mr. austen chamberlain replied: "the vacancy in question has been filled by the transfer of an overseer from a suburban office in the same postal district, but the vacancy thus created in the suburbs has been filled by the promotion of an officer in the town district office." in august, , mr. keir hardie asked the financial secretary to the treasury: "whether he is aware that the overseer's vacancy which occurred in the town establishment of the south eastern metropolitan district by the promotion of mr. may to an inspectorship at another office, has been filled by the transfer of an officer in the suburban establishment, thus diverting a town vacancy to the suburbs; and whether, in view of the fact that the chances of promotion in the suburban establishments are per cent. better than in the town establishment, he will cause the vacancy to be restored to the establishment in which it originally occurred?" mr. austen chamberlain replied: "the postmaster general is aware of the effect of the promotion in question, and has already arranged that the balance of promotion shall be readjusted on an early opportunity by the transfer of a town [officer] to a suburban vacancy."[ ] [sidenote: _a member of the select committee on post office servants, _] on march , , mr. charles hobhouse, m. p. for bristol, asked the postmaster general "why a number of men with unblemished character and with service ranging from to years have, in the recent promotions in the bristol post office, been passed over in favor of a junior postman?" in , mr. hobhouse was made a member of the select committee on post office servants.[ ] on march , ,[ ] mr. sloan, m. p. for belfast, intervened on behalf of the men who had recently been passed over in the selection of three men to act as "provincial clerks" in the post office at belfast. on the same day, mr. sloan asked the postmaster general "under what circumstances the junior head postman at belfast is retained permanently on a regular duty while his seniors, equally capable men, are compelled to rotate on irregular duties with irregular hours." on august , , the postmaster general, mr. sydney buxton, replied to mr. sloan: "i cannot review cases of promotion decided by my predecessor eighteen months ago." in mr. sloan had voted for a select committee on postal servants' grievances. the foregoing quotations could be extended indefinitely, but they illustrate sufficiently the several kinds of intervention in matters of mere administrative detail, as well as the high political and social standing of some of the members of parliament who lend themselves to those several kinds of intervention. but these quotations may not be brought to an end without mention of the qualifying fact that lord stanley, postmaster general from to , repeatedly stated in the house of commons that he did "not select the senior men unless they were best qualified to do the work."[ ] footnotes: [ ] _third report from the select committee on civil services expenditure_, ; q. , to , , and , . [ ] _report from the select committee on post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; q. , to , . [ ] _correspondence relating to the post office telegraph department_: letter of april , , postmaster general, lord john manners, to the lords commissioners of the treasury. [ ] _report from the select committee on post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; q. , . [ ] _report of the bradford committee on post office wages_, ; q. , and , . [ ] mr. lowe, chancellor of the exchequer, divided the service into three classes, in such a way that it was difficult, if not impossible, to pass from one class to the other. that was done with the object of preventing individuals from bringing pressure on members of parliament for promotion from class to class. [ ] compare also: _third report from the select committee on civil services expenditure_, ; q. , to , , mr. t. h. farrer, permanent secretary of the board of trade. "the salt of the service is the staff appointments.... since i have been in the board of trade there have been almost forty higher staff appointments, and on not more than four could i put my finger and say they had been made from any other motive than the desire to get the best man. on some occasions the good appointments have been made in the teeth of strong political motives to the contrary." [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , , and , to , . [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , . [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , , , to , , , , , and , ; and _first report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, , p. . [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. ; march , p. , ; may , p. , ; and april , p. . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , to , , mr. h. joyce, third secretary to general post office. compare also: q. and , , and appendix, p. , . extract from the "postmaster's book of instructions," p. . "except to clerkships of first class, all promotions from class to class, whether in the major or minor establishments, are governed by seniority, combined with full competency and good character. thus, on a vacancy occurring in a higher class, not being the first class of clerks, recommend for promotion that officer of highest standing [according to seniority] in the class next below who is qualified for the efficient performance of the duties of the higher class, and has conducted himself with diligence, propriety and attention in his present class to your satisfaction. if on the other hand you feel it incumbent on you to recommend some officer other than the one of highest standing [according to seniority] in his class, furnish a tabular statement after the following specimens, giving the names and dates of appointment of those you propose to pass over, and your reasons. these reasons must be stated with precision in the column set apart for observations. such entries as: 'scarcely qualified,' 'has not given satisfaction,' being insufficient in so important a matter." [ ] _who's who_, , fowler, rt. hon. sir h. h., m. p. (l.), wolverhampton, to , and since ; under secretary home department, - ; financial secretary to treasury, ; president local government board, - ; secretary of state for india, - . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. , sir h. h. fowler, and mr. r. w. hanbury. [ ] mr. fawcett, postmaster general. [ ] mr. arnold morley, postmaster general, - ; chief liberal whip, - . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , . compare, for example, _hansard's parliamentary debates_, september , . mr. a. morley, postmaster general, states that men had been passed over, after having been found wanting upon a trial on higher duties. he added: "i am, however, making further inquiries." [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , , and appendix, p. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. , and following. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and , to , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on the post office establishments_, ; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on the post office establishments_, ; mr. j. g. uren, president postmasters' association; q. , and following; and mr. e. b. l. hill, assistant secretary general post office; q. , . [ ] "but i do not think i ought to conceal the fact that the majority of our members are the postmasters of small and medium sized places who have very likely got, according to our ideas, more grounds for grievance than the postmasters of larger towns." [ ] that the peculiar demands and ideals described in these chapters are by no means confined to the post office employees, is shown by the subjoined quotation from a treasury minute of march, , relative to an inquiry by the chancellor of the exchequer, and the financial secretary to the treasury into the administration of the outdoor department of the customs revenue department, to wit: "besides the alleged loss of promotion through a reduction in the higher appointments, and the various arrangements by which they considered that they were injured in their emoluments or as to the hours of working, the officers of all grades complained of the existing system of promotion. they contended that it was unfair and fortuitous in its operation, and did not pay sufficient regard to seniority."--_report of the inter-departmental committee on the post office establishments_, ; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on the post office establishments_, . testimony of the representatives of the postmasters' association: mr. j. g. uren, mr. w. e. carrette (queenstown), mr. john macmaster; and appendix, p. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, , mr. joseph shephard; q. , to , , and testimony of mr. j. c. badcock, controller london postal service. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , , mr. lewin hill, assistant secretary general post office, london; and , , mr. jas. green. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , , mr. lewin hill, assistant secretary general post office, london; and , to , , mr. jas. green. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , , mr. w. h. preece, engineer-in-chief at the post office; and , , mr. e. j. tipping. [ ] _who's who_, . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. , ; and may , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , and may , , p. , and , to , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on the post office establishments_, ; q. , and , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, february , , p. . [ ] _who's who_, , o'brien, p., m. p. since ; mechanical and marine engineer. in mr. o'brien had been elected to parliament by a majority of fourteen votes. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, february , , p. ; and march , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , ; and august , , p. , . [ ] _who's who_, , hobhouse, c. e. h., m. p. (r.), east bristol since ; recorder of wills since . education: eton; christ church, oxford. m. p. (l), east wilts, - ; private secretary at colonial office, - ; county alderman, wilts, to present time. clubs: brooks', naval and military. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. , ; april , and may , , p. , . chapter xvi members of the house of commons intervene on behalf of public servants who have been disciplined evidence presented before: the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments, ; and the tweedmouth committee, . instances of intervention by members of parliament. mr. austen chamberlain, financial secretary to the treasury, in april, , states that at a low estimate one-third of the time of the highest officials in the post office is occupied with petty questions of discipline and administrative detail, because of the intervention of members of parliament. he adds that it is "absolutely deplorable" that time and energy that should be given to the consideration of large questions must be given to matters that "in any private business would be dealt with by the officer on the spot." sir john eldon gorst's testimony before the committee on national expenditure, . [sidenote: _m. p.'s and the rank and file_] in , mr. harvey, a member of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments, asked sir s. a. blackwood, secretary to the post office since : "now i should like to ask you ... whether you consider there is a distinct tendency among the clerical establishments [_i. e._, the clerks above the rank and file], especially the lower division clerks, to develop what for want of a better term i will call trades union spirit?" "yes, i believe there is a good deal of evidence of that." "have you, yourself, found it difficult to deal with that; is it a factor in your administration [of the post office]?" "not with regard to the lower division clerks [above the rank and file]; it is with regard to the subordinate ranks of the service, the rank and file; amongst them there is a very strong tendency in that direction." "a growing tendency?" "it is certainly growing." "a growing tendency then we may say to introduce the coöperation of members of parliament to deal with individual grievances?" "a very strongly growing tendency." at this point mr. lawson interrupted: "individual or class grievances?" "class grievances, but there are a great many instances in which individual grievances are brought forward [by members of parliament]." "the point of the question was whether this spirit of trades unionism was evoked for the sake of bringing forward individual grievances, and you said yes; and then i asked whether it was class grievances or individual grievances?" "i mean class grievances, but it is made use of in respect of individual grievances." mr. harvey resumed: "and you think it is growing?" "i think it is strongly growing." "so we may say, to repeat the question i put just now, that it makes a factor in your administration of the post office, and you have always to be prepared to meet this growing tendency?" "it is continuously raising difficulties, and very serious ones." mr. lawson queried: "you said something about trades unionism; do you think it is possible by any regulation to stop trades unionism of a great class such as the senior division, or the classes which are the subordinate part of your establishment?" "i think it would be very difficult." "you would have to reckon with that as a permanent factor?" "yes."[ ] this intervention on behalf of individual employees is managed as follows. members of parliament first interview the postmaster general; if they fail to obtain satisfaction, they bring the grievance of their constituent before the house of commons, by means of a question addressed in the house to the postmaster general. it will be remembered that mr. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury, in stated that he had agreed to represent the postmaster general in the house of commons only on condition that he should be given full freedom to answer such questions in any way he saw fit, and that he should not be bound by any answers furnished him either by the permanent officers of the post office or by the postmaster general. and that sir h. h. fowler protested against the postmaster general sitting in the house of lords, on the ground that the questions asked by members of the house of commons often demanded to be answered by a man who had his finger on the pulse of the house, and was able to cut through the red tape of officialism on public grounds, which meant, to set aside the rules of the department in response to the exigencies of political expediency. if the answer given by the postmaster general is unsatisfactory, the member of parliament gives notice that he will bring the matter up again on the discussion of the estimates of expenditure. in the meantime he brings to bear, behind the scenes, what pressure he can command. and he often learns to appreciate the grim humor of the reply once given by a former minister of railways in victoria, australia, to a victorian royal commission, to the query whether political influence was exercised in the administration of the state railways of victoria. the reply had been: "i should like to know how you can have a politician without political influence?" of course not all cases of intervention by members of parliament are as successful as was the intervention of mr. bradlaugh, which resulted in the promotion of eleven men out of fourteen who had been passed over as "not qualified for promotion," or, as was the intervention of the member of parliament whose name was not revealed, which brought about the revocation of the promotion of the ablest man in the post office at sheffield. indeed, the principal effect of these interventions is not to force the post office to retrace steps already taken, it is to prevent the post office from taking certain steps. these interventions modify the entire administration of the british post office. they compel the postmaster general and his leading officers to consider the political aspect of every proposal coming from the local postmasters, and other intermediate officers, be it a proposal to promote, to pass over, to discipline, or to dismiss. it was this possibility of intervention by members of parliament, acting under pressure from civil servants' unions, that gave the late mr. fawcett "a perfect horror of passing over," that caused mr. arnold morley "the greatest distress" whenever he had to pass anyone over, and that led mr. raikes to state in the house of commons, that, "in the interests of the public service, and especially in the interests of the post office itself," he had declined to follow the advice of his officers that he promote a certain clerk in the secretary's office; as well as that he made it his practice to try to mitigate the rules of the department governing punishment and dismissal. it was with the thought of parliamentary intervention in mind, that mr. austen chamberlain,[ ] postmaster general, said, in february, : "the selection of officers for promotion is always an invidious task." * * * * * [sidenote: _typical grievances_] the testimony given before the tweedmouth committee, , contains a number of incidents which show how leniently the post office department is obliged to deal with men who violate the rules. these incidents were brought before the committee by the representatives of the employees of the post office, for the purpose of proving by individual cases, that the department's rulings were unduly severe, and afforded just cause for grievance. one webster, a letter carrier at liverpool, in july, , failed to cover his whole walk, and brought back to the office, letters which he should have delivered. these letters he surreptitiously inserted among the letters of other carriers. mr. herbert joyce, third secretary to general post office, said dismissal would not have been harsh punishment for the offence; but webster was merely deprived of one good conduct stripe, worth cents a week. in and webster's increment of salary was arrested for unsatisfactory conduct. in july, , webster was removed from his walk, and reduced to the "junior men" on the "relief force," for having been under the influence of drink while on duty. in , webster complained to headquarters of harsh treatment, stating that though he had served years, he had not received three good conduct stripes. and in , mr. j. s. smith, the official representative of the provincial postmen, deemed it expedient to cite the case to the tweedmouth committee in the course of an argument to the effect that there was too great a difference "between the punishment meted out to postmen and the punishment meted out to sorters; not that i say the punishment is too slight for sorters, but it is, i might say, too severe for postmen," it may be added that, in , webster was recommended for three good conduct stripes, though the regulation says that a good conduct stripe shall be awarded only for five clear and consecutive years of good conduct. non-observance of that regulation led the tweedmouth committee to report: "the practice which has grown up in the department of awarding two stripes at the same time to a man whose service exceeds years, but whose unblemished service extends over only years, is, we think, a bad one, and should be discontinued."[ ] the foregoing recommendation of the tweedmouth committee was not endorsed by the government. on march , , the postmaster general, mr. sydney buxton, in reply to mr. thomas smyth, m. p., who was intervening on behalf of one thomas reilly, said: "i find that thomas reilly would have been entitled to an increase of one shilling and six pence a week in his wages as from april , , if his conduct during the preceding twelve months had been satisfactory. unfortunately the necessary certificate to that effect could not be given, but the question of granting the increase to reilly will come up again for consideration shortly.... it will be necessary to postpone for a time the award of a second stripe."[ ] in october, , one roberts, an auxiliary postman was warned that he would be dismissed unless his conduct improved. he had been reported for "treating parcel receptacles in a rough and reckless manner, and smashing the parcels." in november, , he altered the address on a parcel in order to save himself the trouble of delivering the parcel on the day on which he made the alteration. the parcel was given to a carrier on another route, who returned it as not deliverable. after some delay the parcel finally was delivered by roberts. when mr. s. walpole, secretary of the post office, heard this testimony, he exclaimed: "and was roberts dismissed on the spot?" mr. badcock, controller london postal service, replied: "no. the overseer described him as totally unreliable, and he was warned for the last time." mr. walpole continued: "why was he not dismissed?" mr. badcock replied: "well, he ought to have been." in january, , roberts was again cautioned; on february , , he failed to attend his morning duty; and he was seriously cautioned again. in march, , he was guilty of "gross carelessness," and was told to look for other employment. thereupon roberts wrote his postmaster that he was a member of the postmen's federation. shortly afterward, mr. churchfield, secretary of the postmen's federation, brought roberts' case before the tweedmouth committee, alleging that the post office department had dismissed roberts because he had supplied evidence to the representatives of the postal employees who had appeared before the tweedmouth committee.[ ] in , one woodhouse, a postman at norwich, was suspended for two days for irregular attendance, having been late times in three months. in , he was suspended for three days, having been late times during the year. woodhouse also had been very troublesome to the inspector, setting a bad example to the younger men. in , he was absent from duty because of intoxication, was grossly insubordinate to the local postmaster, whom he set at defiance, and also grossly insubordinate to the surveyor. the local postmaster recommended that he be dismissed. "at headquarters, however, with a large, and some people think a very undue, leniency, it was decided to give him one more trial." in , woodhouse was cautioned by the postmaster for insubordinate conduct to the inspector. in and , the postmaster refused to recommend him for good conduct stripes. in there was a marked improvement in woodhouse's conduct. the improvement was maintained, and in , woodhouse was recommended for good conduct stripes. of this man, mr. j. s. smith, the official representative of the provincial postmen, said, in , before the tweedmouth committee: "the last or years of woodhouse's career have been of a most exemplary description, a good time-keeper and zealous in the discharge of his duties, and yet, though he had been a postman for years, he has never been the recipient of a good conduct stripe. by this means he has been deprived of about $ , truly a great loss for a postman to suffer through having this vast sum deducted from his wages. it needs no words of mine to point out the great injustice that has been inflicted upon woodhouse. any little irregularity that may have occurred (such as bad time-keeping, which is admitted) in the first or years of his service, has been amply atoned for by or years' punctuality and excellent behavior."[ ] in november, , a letter carrier at manchester came "under the influence of drink," and reached at . p. m. a point in his walk which he should have reached at . p. m. "on the following day he was again under the influence of drink and unfit to make his delivery." the punishment was the deprivation of one good conduct stripe.[ ] in december, , a postman at newcastle, while off duty, but in uniform, "was reeling along [one of the principal streets] intoxicated at p. m." the case was sent up to the postmaster general, who decided that the man should lose one good conduct stripe. mr. spencer walpole, a member of the tweedmouth committee, and the permanent secretary to the post office, said dismissal would not have been too severe a punishment; and mr. h. joyce, third secretary general post office, london, assented to the statement.[ ] mr. badcock, controller london postal service, in replying to the testimony of mr. a. f. harris, the official representative of the london postmen, said that it was true that while one worth for some years past had off and on been made an acting head postman, he had not been recommended for promotion to the position of head postman, because his postmaster had reported that he was "shifty, unreliable, and careless." mr. walpole, secretary of the post office, thereupon queried: "is that not a reason for not employing him to act as head postman?" mr. badcock replied: "it was thought better to give him a chance, instead of letting him have the grievance of complaining that he had not had an opportunity of showing whether he was qualified." mr. walpole continued: "but if he showed himself shifty, unreliable, and careless for several years, ought not his trial as a head postman to cease?" mr. badcock replied: "i must confess that i think so."[ ] in february, , mr. marum intervened in the house of commons on behalf of one ward, a telegraphist, who had been dismissed in because he had discharged his duties unsatisfactorily.[ ] in february, , mr. lawson, a member of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments, intervened on behalf of one harvey, a letter carrier who had been dismissed in .[ ] in march, , mr. bartley[ ] intervened on behalf of one canless, who had been dismissed because the postmaster general "was of the opinion that mr. canless was not a fit person to be retained in the service." on dismissing the man, the post office had deducted from his pay the value of a postal money order--$ . --alleged to have been stolen by him.[ ] canless' case was brought up again in august, , upon the occasion of the debate upon the report of the bradford committee. in july, , mr. c. seale-hayne intervened on behalf of one j. c. kinsman, dismissed for insubordination and delegation of his duties to unauthorized persons.[ ] in august, , mr. sloan, m. p. for belfast, intervened on behalf of one templeton, of the belfast post office, dismissed for emptying ink on the head of a workman engaged in the post office.[ ] in march, , mr. john campbell, m. p., tried to induce the postmaster general to reopen the case of one m'cusker, who had been disciplined in .[ ] in april, , mr. lenty asked for a pension for one wright, whose "conduct had been such as to render him unfit for further employment in the public service."[ ] in august, , mr. crean asked for a pension for w. h. allshire, "who was reported for certain irregularities for which he would probably have been dismissed. while the matter was under consideration he sent in his resignation, which was accepted."[ ] in august, , mr. l. sinclair intervened on behalf of b. j. foreman, "who was not qualified for the award of a pension, as he was neither years of age nor incapacitated from the performance of his duty" when his service was terminated.[ ] in march, , earl compton intervened on behalf of a first class sorter who had been reduced to the second class after having been sentenced to a fine by a police magistrate.[ ] in december, , mr. keir hardie asked the postmaster general to modify the rules governing fines for being late at duty. in february, , mr. maddison made a similar request.[ ] in october, , mr. palmer intervened on behalf of some "learners" at reading, who had been punished "for careless performance of their duties, leading to serious delay in the delivery of telegrams."[ ] mr. palmer, a biscuit manufacturer, was the member for reading. in the past he had been an alderman as well as the mayor of reading. in july, , mr. groves intervened on behalf of a postman at manchester from whom annual increments of pay had been withheld under the rules governing irregular attendance.[ ] mr. groves is chairman of the south salford conservative association. in april, , mr. steadman said: "i honestly admit that this question business might be overdone; but at the same time, if anyone, postman or anyone else, thinks i can do his case any good by putting down a question, i shall always do so as long as i am a member of this house." mr. steadman proved as good as his boast; and in july, , he intervened on behalf of a man from whom the post office department had withheld two good conduct stripes "because he had absented himself frequently on insufficient plea of illness." mr. steadman stood ready to shield any malingerer who might apply to him, though malingering is a serious evil in the post office service. for example, in the average number of days' absence on sick-leave was . days for the men in that part of the staff that receives full pay during sick-leave, as against . days for the men in that part of the staff that receives only half-pay during sick-leave.[ ] mr. steadman had been elected to parliament by a majority of votes. he is at present a member of the london county council.[ ] in june, , mr. sydney buxton, who had become postmaster general, upon the formation of the sir henry campbell-bannerman ministry, in december, , expressed himself as follows:[ ] "he was informed a little while ago by his private secretary that in the ordinary way or applications of various sorts were made by honorable members in the course of a calendar month, but that for some months past, in consequence perhaps of there being a new government, a new parliament, new members, and a new postmaster general, the number of applications of all sorts had amounted to between and per month." [sidenote: _a member of the select committee on post office servants, _] in may, , mr. j. ward, a member of the select committee on post office servants, , asked the postmaster general "whether his attention had been called to the dismissal of e. c. feasey, of walsall, who had been an efficient officer in the postal service for years ... and whether he will reconsider the question of the man's reinstatement?" mr. buxton replied: "i have looked into the circumstances connected with the dismissal by my predecessor of e. c. feasey, formerly a town postman at walsall. i find that feasey had a most unsatisfactory record.... i am not prepared to consider the question of reinstatement."[ ] in march, , the postmaster general, in reply to mr. nannetti, m. p., said: "the reports and statements in the corcoran case were fully considered at the time [ ], and i can see no good purpose in reopening the matter after a lapse of five years."[ ] in april, , mr. wiles,[ ] m. p., intervened on behalf of the head messenger in the secretary's office at the general post office, london. under the administration of lord stanley, postmaster general, an allowance of shillings a week given the head messenger at the time of his appointment, had been withheld from october, , to october, . mr. sydney buxton replied: "i have already had this case under my consideration. the allowance of shillings a week is being granted, but unfortunately the allowance cannot be made retrospective." mr. wiles had been elected to parliament in january, , having defeated sir albert k. rollit, who, for many years, had made a specialty of championing the cause of post office employees who had a grievance. * * * * * [sidenote: _deplorable waste of executive ability_] in april, , mr. austen chamberlain, financial secretary to the treasury, and representative in the house of commons of the postmaster general, the marquis of londonderry, said: "in a great administration like this there must be decentralization, and how difficult it is to decentralize, either in the post office or in the army, when working under constant examination by question and answer in this house, no honorable member who has not had experience of official life can easily realize. but there must be decentralization, because every little petty matter cannot be dealt with by the postmaster general or the permanent secretary to the post office. their attention should be reserved in the main for large questions, and i think it is deplorable, absolutely deplorable, that so much of their time should be occupied, as under the present circumstances it necessarily is occupied, with matters of very small detail, because these matters of detail are asked by honorable members, and because we do not feel an honorable member will accept an answer from anyone but the highest authority. i think a third of the time--i am putting it at a low estimate--of the highest officials in the post office is occupied in answering questions raised by members of this house, and in providing me with information in order that i may be in a position to answer the inquiries addressed to me" concerning matters which, "in any private business, would be dealt with by the officer on the spot, without appeal or consideration unless grievous cause were shown."[ ] in march, , mr. austen chamberlain, postmaster general, read the following post office rule: "a postmaster is to address to his surveyor, and a subordinate officer is to address to the postmaster (who will forward it to his surveyor), any application from himself having reference to his duties or pay, or any communications he may desire to make relating to official matters; and if the applicant is dissatisfied with the result he may appeal direct to the postmaster general. but it is strictly forbidden to make any such application or other communication through the public, or to procure one to be made by members of parliament, or others; and should an irregular application be received, the officer on whose behalf it is made will be subject to censure or punishment proportionate to the extent of his participation in the violation of the rule." mr. chamberlain added: "but it has been my practice [as well as that of mr. chamberlain's predecessors] to treat the rule as applying only to applications so made in the first instance, and i have raised no objection to an officer who had appealed to me, and was dissatisfied with my decision, applying subsequently to a member of parliament."[ ] * * * * * the post office is not the only british department of state which is obliged to consider with care how far it may go counter to individual interests in enforcing rules and standards adopted for the preservation of the public interest. before the select committee on national expenditure, , sir john eldon gorst, m. p., and vice-president of the committee of council on education, to , said: "what i want to impress upon the committee is that parliament has never an influence which goes for economy of any kind in the expenditure of public money on education [about $ , , a year]. then i hope i have now shown the committee that the only security the public has that what it spends will be efficiently spent is the system of inspection. earlier in my evidence i also pointed out the two systems which are in vogue for inspection, namely the south kensington system and the whitehall system. the whitehall system, which deals with the larger amount of public money, is extremely inefficient. the elementary education inspectors have before their eyes the fear, first of all, of the managers of the schools which they visit. the managers of the schools are often important school boards like the school board of london, which is not a body to be trifled with, which has very great influence, both in parliament and in the education department, and which the inspectors are very much afraid of offending. but it is not only powerful school boards, but any managers [of schools] can take the matter up. if an inspector goes into a school and sees [reports] that the children are dirty, or that the school is dirty, or that the teacher is inefficient, the manager is up in arms at once, and writes a letter to the board of education, and comes up and sees the secretary, and protests against the inspector for having dared to make an unfavorable report of his or her school. besides that, the inspectors have before their eyes the fear of the national union of teachers. almost every teacher now is a member of the national union of teachers, and if an inspector is supposed to be severe, a teacher complains at once to the national union, and the case is taken up, possibly even in parliament, by some of the officials of the national union of teachers in parliament, and it is made very uncomfortable for the inspector. then, lastly, they [_i. e._, the inspectors] have the office--that is not, say, their own chief inspector, but the officials of the office, who do not like an inspector who makes trouble. the great art of an inspector is to get on well with the managers [of schools] and teachers, and to make no trouble at all. i have known cases of adverse reports which were not liked at the office being sent back to the inspector to alter," not by the chief inspector, or senior inspector of the district, but by some other person in the office.[ ] sir john eldon gorst was solicitor-general in - , under secretary for india in to , financial secretary to the treasury in - , deputy chairman of committees of the house of commons in to , and vice-president of council on education in to . he was a member of the house of commons in to , and has been a member continuously since . since he has sat as representative of the university of cambridge. sir john eldon gorst was by no means unwilling to take his share of blame for the mismanagement in the various departments of state arising out of the intervention of the house of commons--under pressure from the constituencies, or organized groups in the constituencies--in the administrative details of the departments of state. he said: "i have been as great a sinner as anyone in the days when i represented chatham,[ ] before i was a member of the government; i was perpetually urging the secretary of the admiralty for the time being to increase the expenditures at the dockyards"[ ] [in the interest of the laborers in the dockyards and of the merchants and manufacturers who have raw materials to sell to the dockyards]. footnotes: [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; sir s. a. blackwood, secretary to the post office since ; q. , to , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, february , , p. . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, , p. ; q. , and following, mr. j. s. smith; and q. , , mr. h. joyce, third secretary to the general post office. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; mr. churchfield, secretary postmen's federation; q. , and following; and mr. j. c. badcock, controller london postal service; q. , to , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; mr. h. joyce, third secretary to general post office; q. , ; and mr. j. s. smith; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; mr. h. joyce, third secretary general post office; q. , ; and mr. j. s. smith; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; mr. h. joyce, third secretary general post office; q. , to , ; and mr. j. s. smith, representative of the provincial postmen; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and following, and , and following. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, february , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, february , , p. , . [ ] _who's who_, , bartley, sir g. c. t., k. c. b., cr. ; m. p. north islington since ; assistant director of science division of science and art department till ; resigned to stand for parliament; established national penny bank to promote thrift, . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, august , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, december , , p. ; and february , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, october , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. ; july , p. , ; and mr. austen chamberlain, postmaster general, april , , pp. , and , . [ ] _who's who_, . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, may , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. . [ ] _report from the select committee on national expenditure_, ; q. , _et passim_. [ ] to . [ ] _report from the select committee on national expenditure_, ; q. , . chapter xvii the spirit of the civil service the doctrine of an "implied contract" between the state and each civil servant, to the effect that the state may make no change in the manner of administering its great trading departments without compensating every civil servant however remotely or indirectly affected. the hours of work may not be increased without compensating every one affected. administrative "mistakes" may not be corrected without compensating the past beneficiaries of such mistakes. violation of the order that promotion must not be mechanical, or by seniority alone, may not be corrected without compensating those civil servants who would have been benefitted by the continued violation of the aforesaid order. the state may not demand increased efficiency of its servants without compensating every one affected. persons filling positions for which there is no further need, must be compensated. each civil servant has a "vested right" to the maintenance of such rate of promotion as obtains when he enters the service, irrespective of the volume of business or of any diminution in the number of higher posts consequent upon administrative reforms. the telegraph clerks demand that their chances of promotion be made as good as those of the postal clerks proper, but they refuse to avail themselves of the opportunity to pass over to the postal side proper of the service, on the ground that the postal duties proper are more irksome than the telegraph duties. members of parliament support recalcitrant telegraph clerks whom the government is attempting to force to learn to perform postal duties, in order that it may reap advantage from having combined the postal service and the telegraph service in . special allowances may not be discontinued; and vacations may not be shortened, without safeguarding all "vested interests." further illustrations of the hopelessly unbusinesslike spirit of the rank and file of the public servants. upon a preceding page has been mentioned the contention of the civil servants that there is an implied contract between the state and the civil service that the conditions of employment obtaining at any moment shall not be changed to the disadvantage of the civil servants, except upon payment of compensation to all persons disadvantageously affected; and that unless such compensation is paid, any change in the conditions and terms of employment must be limited to future entrants upon the service of the state, or to persons who shall accept promotion on the express condition of becoming subject to the altered terms of employment. [sidenote: _implied contract for six hour day_] before the select committee on civil services expenditure, , mr. w. e. baxter, financial secretary to the treasury, said: "i am not an advocate for long hours; and in the mercantile business with which i am connected, i have years ago reduced the hours both of the clerks and of the workmen, but i am inclined to think the six hours given to their work by the government officials [that is, upper and lower division clerks], rather too short a period, and that it might with advantage be somewhat lengthened. at the same time we must always keep in mind that the effect of lengthening the hours would be to cause an immediate demand for an increase of pay. however i have a very strong impression that in most of the government offices there are too many clerks, and that there might be considerable economy in a reduction of numbers and an increase of hours." the chancellor of the exchequer stated to the committee that it would be inexpedient to try to raise the hours of clerks from hours to, say, hours. he said: "i suspect that my one-seventh more time would be more than compensated by my having to pay them a great deal more than one-seventh more salary; and i think it would be very perilous to take up the floodgates in that way."[ ] before the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments, , sir reginald e. welby, permanent secretary to the treasury, stated that he was in favor of extending the hours of the upper and lower division clerks from hours to . the chairman queried: "but can it be done with existing clerks without a breach of faith?" sir r. e. welby replied: "with regard to lower division clerks, it is provided that in consideration of an extra payment, which is according to the regulation, a hour office can be turned into a hour office.... there is no provision of that kind for the upper division, and, of course, any change would have to be made a matter of consideration.... the arrangement made between the authorities of the inland revenue and the treasury, in those departments of the inland revenue which have adopted the hours system, has been that the clerks who were under no stipulation to do hours' work, should have an extra allowance until promotion. as soon as they are promoted to another class, we have assumed that we have the right to put our conditions upon the promotion, and, therefore, from that time they fall into the ordinary scale of salary without addition." at this point mr. h. h. fowler, a member of the commission, queried: "i understand you to say there is no provision made for altering the period of service of an upper division clerk from hours to hours. i want to know where is the document by which the state binds itself over to accept hours' work ...?" "nowhere. the only thing is that when he enters the office he is told that the hours are from to , or from to ." mr. fowler continued: "i consider this is a question of vital importance, and i want to have it very distinctly from you: i want to know where is the contract between the state and any upper division clerk in any department, that he is only to work hours a day?" "there is no such document that i know of, and no such understanding further than the statement upon his entering the office that the hours are such and such." "but i want to ascertain whether there would be even an approach to a breach of faith (if such a term may be used) if the state says: 'we insist upon our servants working for us hours a day?'" "none in my mind, and i may add that it is generally known that the hours are so and so, but longer hours when required" [on exceptionally busy days]. to sir t. h. farrer, permanent secretary to the board of trade, to , the chairman of the royal commission said: "what is your view with reference to its being fair or necessary to increase the pay if seven hours' work be asked from an upper division clerk. do you think there is any contract to do only hours' work?" "no, there is no contract whatever; theoretically the rule is that civil servants are to do the business that is required of them. the practical difficulty remains that if you do it you may have a great uproar. you may cause discontent, and you may have, as i said before, pressure in the house of commons; but theoretically, and as a matter of right, i can see no reason why every officer should not be obliged to give hours for the existing pay." "have you not to some extent recognized it[ ] by creating a different scale of pay in the lower division for hours than for hours?" "yes, you have, and i am very sorry for it; when i say you have, i was a party to it,[ ] but i am sorry that we did it." "but you are of course of opinion that when you announce that the office hours are from to , it means that these are the hours of public attendance, but that it does not in any way prevent the head of the office from asking the clerks to stop until the work is done?" "no; but the larger your class of lower division clerks, the more you will find that the hours become fixed hours, and if they are asked to attend beyond them [because of unusual pressure of work], they will ask for extra pay for attendance."[ ] * * * * * [sidenote: _clerks are clerks_] in , mr. fawcett, postmaster general, created for the provincial towns the class of "telegraph clerks," who are recruited from the first class of telegraphists, and act as assistants to the assistant superintendents. since the men in question were styled clerks, they immediately contended that their hours of work should be reduced from hours a day to hours a week, the hours of the clerks proper. the department always has refused to recognize that claim. but mr. beaufort, postmaster at manchester, acting on a misreading of the rules, from to granted the telegraph clerks at manchester the hours a week. in the hours were raised to the correct number, namely hours a day, with half an hour for a meal. in , telegraph clerks from manchester sent a spokesman to the tweedmouth committee to state that they had become telegraph clerks in , when the hours were a week, and that they deemed it a "hardship" to be compelled to work hours a day.[ ] in november, , mr. austen chamberlain, financial secretary to the treasury, stated in the house of commons: "the town postmen at newton abbot were formerly paid on too high a scale [in consequence of an error of judgment made by a departmental officer]. the wages were accordingly reduced some years ago, but the postmen then in the service were allowed to retain their old scale of payment so long as they should remain in the service, and the new scale was applied only to postmen who entered the service subsequently. this will account for there being temporarily two scales for postmen at newton abbott."[ ] [sidenote: _standard of efficiency should not be raised_] in , mr. fawcett, postmaster general, established for metropolitan london the class of "senior telegraphists," with a salary rising by annual increments of $ , from $ to $ . he intended that this class should be filled by the promotion of men from the first class of telegraphists who possessed exceptional manipulative efficiency as well as sufficient executive ability to act as assistants to the assistant superintendents. but as a matter of fact many men were promoted to this class by mere seniority and without reference to their qualifications. in , however, under mr. raikes, postmaster general, the department resolved to promote to the senior class no more men who were not fully qualified.[ ] and in , the department imposed a technical examination[ ] between the first class of telegraphists and the senior class, in order to insure that all men promoted to the senior class should have the qualifications required of them. mr. h. c. fischer, controller of the london central telegraph office, said of this examination: "it is not considered unjust that this should have been enforced in the case of men who had always been employed on instrument duties, and who had only themselves to blame if they neglected to acquire some knowledge of technical matters, which all skilled telegraphists are expected to possess.... even before the institution of the examination it was always held that the possession of technical knowledge gave the man an additional claim to promotion to the senior class."[ ] before the tweedmouth committee the representatives of the first class telegraphists complained of the technical examination as a "grievance." they said: "the regulation came into operation at once, an act which is regarded as exceptionally unjust toward men of more than years' service, who, up to that time had understood from the general practice of the department, that, other things being equal, good conduct and manipulative efficiency would secure promotion. now, however, the possession of technical knowledge is added as a necessary qualification before promotion to the senior class, and this without a coincident rise in the maximum [salary] of the first class as compensation for the additional demand upon the capacity of the staff." as the alternative to the raising of the maximum salary of the first class [$ ], "it was earnestly contended that the scale to which the officer is raised on passing the examination should be materially enhanced [beyond the present maximum of $ ] in recompense for the further additional demand upon his time, and for his pecuniary outlay in preparing himself for the requirements of the department."[ ] prior to november, , special intelligence was required of the sorters of foreign letters in the london central post office, who were correspondingly well paid. the wages of the first class of sorters of foreign letters began at $ . a week, and rose to $ . , by triennial increments of $ . a week. those of the second class began at $ . , and rose to $ . , by annual increments of $ . a week. but in consequence of a material simplification of the duties of the foreign letter sorters, consequent upon the changes in the international postage charges, the department resolved, in november, , to replace the two classes of sorters of foreign letters by one class, with wages ranging from $ . a week to $ .[ ] it was provided, however, that the existing sorters of the first class should retain the old scale of wages; and that the existing sorters of the second class should have the option of immediate promotion to the new class, with wages rising from $ . to $ , or, "of being advanced to the $ . to $ . scale, in the order in which they would have attained to that scale if the old first class scale had not been abolished." in other words, the men who, prior to november, , had been in line for ultimate promotion to a class carrying wages of $ . to $ . , were offered the option "of being regarded as having a vested interest to rise to $ . a week, as vacancies should occur."[ ] [sidenote: _claim of exemption from vicissitudes of life_] in , mr. h. b. irons, a second class sorter in london, appeared before the tweedmouth committee to present the grievance of himself and colleagues, who, prior to , had given up the position of first class letter carriers to become second class letter sorters in order to improve their prospects of promotion. the grievance was that the prospects of promotion of letter sorters had been curtailed by the abolition of the sorterships of foreign letters in , and the abolition of the sortership of the first class of inland and foreign newspapers in . mr. irons alleged that he would have remained a letter carrier had he foreseen the changes in question.[ ] his argument was that the civil servant must be exempt from the ordinary chances and vicissitudes of life. * * * * * in some senior telegraphists protested that they ought to be made assistant superintendents, alleging that they were performing the duties of assistant superintendents. mr. raikes, postmaster general, found that some of the duties of the complainants were of the nature alleged, but not all of them. therefore, he made the complainants, forty-nine in number, second class assistant superintendents. by , this new class had come to number sixty-five. from to , the proportion borne by the senior telegraphists to the first class and second class telegraphists had ranged between to . and to . . the promotion of forty-nine senior telegraphists in , and of the others in subsequent years, raised the proportion in question to to , in . but counting senior telegraphists and second class assistant superintendents, there was, in , one of these superior officers to each . of first class and second class telegraphists. in other words, the rate of promotion of first class and second class telegraphists to appointments superior to the first class of telegraphists, but inferior to the position of assistant superintendent, had been more rapid in to , than it had been in to . in , mr. nicholson, chairman london branch of the postal telegraph clerks' association, appeared before the tweedmouth committee to voice the grievance of the first class and second class telegraphists, which was, that the rate of promotion from the second class and first class had decreased, as shown by the fact that there was only one senior telegraphist to each ten first class and second class telegraphists. mr. nicholson contended that the increase of telegraphic messages consequent upon the introduction of the charge of cents for words had necessitated the creation of a new class, the second class superintendents; and that the first class and second class telegraphists had a right to demand that they should derive benefit from that increase of traffic and that necessity of creating a new class of officers. that the department's failure to fill the vacancies created in the senior class of telegraphists by promotions to the class of second class superintendents, had deprived the first class and second class telegraphists of all advantage arising out of the creation of a new class of officers, the second class assistant superintendents.[ ] [sidenote: _right to fixed rate of promotion_] the nature of the claim made by the chairman london branch of the postal telegraph clerks' association is forcibly illustrated by the following incident from the proceedings of the royal commission on civil establishments, . mr. h. a. davies, the official representative of the clerks in the receiver and accountant general's office of the general post office, had made a similar demand on behalf of the men whom he represented. the chairman asked him: "does a man enter the public service on the assumption that all the upper places are to remain the same as when he enters.... if you and i enter the public service finding a certain department, the post office or any other, with twenty posts above to which we had a reasonable hope, if we behaved well, and showed merit; if administrative reform takes away five of these posts, are we entitled to compensation, because that is what it [your allegation of grievance] comes to? can you say, there being no contract whatever between me and the state when i entered the office as a clerk, no contract whatever that i should attain to a higher post, except when there is a vacancy, that i have a claim [to compensation] when administrative reform takes away some of the other places?" the spokesman of the post office clerks replied: "if i were defending that [position] to parliament, i think i should say that the country has a certain duty toward men who, when they entered the service, had, judging by the precedents of their office, a fair prospect of reasonable promotion, and that if any economy is effected by subsequent administrative reforms, the sufferers deserve some consideration."[ ] * * * * * from to mr. lawson, m. p.,[ ] was a member of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments. in march, , he intervened in the administration of the post office by asking the postmaster general how many vacancies there were in the first class of telegraphists at the central telegraph office, london; how long those vacancies had been open, and whether the postmaster general had received a petition from the second class telegraphists for their promotion; and whether there was anything to prevent him from complying with the request. the postmaster general replied that on january , , there had been vacancies. "to thirty-four of those vacancies i have made promotions within the last few days; and this, practically, is an answer to the petition of december, ."[ ] the reader will recall that in february, , mr. lawson had intervened on behalf of a letter carrier who had been dismissed in . in to , and to , mr. lawson was a member of the london county council. in june, , mr. hay, m. p.,[ ] asked the postmaster general, through the financial secretary to the treasury: "with reference to the fact that the proportion of appointments above $ a year in the central telegraph office, london, now bears the same relation to the staff below that salary as during the period when the circular [ to ] was issued promising a prospect of $ , whether he is aware that during the years to the proportion was one appointment above $ to . below [that salary], and that the proportion at the present time is one appointment above $ to . below; and, seeing that this difference of proportion represents nearly forty appointments, above $ , whether he will take steps to readjust that proportion on the basis of to . ?"[ ] in , mr. hay was made a member of the select committee on post office servants. in april and in august, , captain norton asked the postmaster general, through the financial secretary to the treasury, to appoint so many additional senior telegraphists that it should no longer be necessary to call on men in the class below to act as substitutes for the senior telegraphists who were taking their annual leave of one month.[ ] in , captain norton became a junior lord of the treasury in the sir campbell-bannerman ministry. in february, , mr. plummer[ ] stated that at newcastle-on-tyne thirty-eight telegraphists, who had, on an average, served years each, were waiting for promotion. "will the postmaster general facilitate promotion by enforcing in the future the civil service regulation with reference to retirement[ ] at the age of sixty years?" mr. austen chamberlain, financial secretary to the treasury, replied: "the postmaster general would not feel justified in enforcing the retirement of any efficient officers for the purpose of accelerating the promotion of others." on august , , captain norton repeated the request.[ ] on november , , mr. o'brien asked the postmaster to create more rapid promotion at liverpool by retiring all men who had qualified for the maximum pension [two-thirds of salary], irrespective of the fitness of such men to continue to serve.[ ] on june , , mr. keir hardie asked the secretary to the treasury, as representing the postmaster general: "whether he will state the special qualifications which necessitate the retention in the postal service of the assistant superintendent, mr. napper, and the inspector, mr. graham, at the west central district office, after reaching years of age; and if the probable date of retirement can be given?" on july , , mr. keir hardie asked: "if he will state what are the special qualifications which necessitate the retention of the inspector, mr. e. stamp, at the north western district office, after attaining the age of years; and if he can give the probable date of this officer's retirement?"[ ] any officer who is retired with a pension, on account of ill health, before he is sixty years of age, may, if he recovers his health, be recalled to duty at the discretion of the head of his department or of the treasury. under such circumstances the officer receives the salary of his new office and so much of his pension as shall be sufficient to make his total income equal to the original pension. under the foregoing rule two officers were made respectively postmaster at bristol and postmaster at hastings. before the tweedmouth committee, mr. uren, president of the postmasters' association, protested against such "blocking of some of the best offices by pensioners.... here are two good offices, one with $ , a year, and the other with $ , , which are taken up by pensioners who recover their health, and so block a line of promotion.... i only mention these as the two most recent cases with which this sort of thing has happened, but they are not the only occasions by a good many, which i am instructed to bring before your committee as a fair subject for consideration." mr. crosse, another witness, added: "the postal clerks' association also desire to endorse the evidence put forward by the postmasters' association as to the anomaly and injustice of certain postmasters being retained in the service who are in the receipt of pension and salary from the department."[ ] [sidenote: _mechanical equality demanded_] prior to august, , the postmen of metropolitan london were divided into two classes: the second class, with wages rising from $ . a week to $ , by annual increments of $ . a week; and the first class, with wages rising from $ a week, to $ . , by annual increments of $ . a week. in consequence of the rapid growth of the postal business, however, the postmen frequently passed through the second class into the first class, not in six years, but in from two to five years. but the rate of promotion from the second class into the first differed materially in the several metropolitan branch offices, because of the unequal growth of business at those several offices. that inequality of promotion violated the ideal[ ] of the civil servants, which is, that all should fare alike; and therefore, the postmen demanded that the division into two classes be abolished, and that every postman should rise, by stated annual increments, from the initial wage of $ . to the final wage of $ . . but the abolition of classification would put an end to the possibility of those rapid passings through the stages between $ . and $ that had been of frequent occurrence in the past in some of the metropolitan branch offices. by way of compensation for the loss of that chance the postmen demanded that the annual increment be increased beyond $ . a week. the department, in august, , abolished the classification of the postmen, but it refused to raise the annual increment. it said that the rapid promotion from $ . to $ that had characterized the past had been an accident, that it had not been foreseen, and that the men who had entered the service while it had obtained had not acquired a vested right to it. in the men who had been postmen prior to the abolition of classification appeared before the tweedmouth committee with the statement that they "were under the impression that it was an official principle that no individual should suffer by the introduction of a new scale of promotion or wages." they demanded compensation for the fact that they had lost, in , the possibility of passing in less than the regular time from the wage of $ . to that of $ . they stated that they were prepared to show that "they had suffered material pecuniary loss ... amounting in some cases to about $ ."[ ] all of which goes to show that in the british post office service the abolition of a grievance can in turn become a grievance. [sidenote: _equality, not opportunity_] before the tweedmouth committee appeared also the representatives of the telegraphers, to demand the abolition of the division of the telegraphers into classes, with promotion by merit between the classes. they demanded amalgamation into a single class, in which each one should pass automatically from the minimum pay to the maximum, provided he was not arrested by the efficiency bar, to be placed at $ a year. mr. e. b. l. hill, assistant secretary, general post office, london, began his discussion of this demand by quoting with approval the conclusion of the telegraph committee of , which was: "we have taken great pains to investigate this matter. almost without exception the provincial postmasters and telegraph superintendents were opposed to an amalgamation of the classes, and gave the strongest testimony to the value of the present division [into classes] as a means of discouraging indifference, and encouraging zeal and efficiency. we think ... that for purposes of discipline it is desirable to maintain the division of the establishment into two classes." mr. hill continued by saying that in the course of the last three or four years he had changed his opinion, and had come to the conclusion that amalgamation into one class must come. "the staff seems to desire, first of all, equality, and the abolition of classification seems to insure the fulfillment of that wish. at the same time classification is a valuable incentive to exertion and efficiency...."[ ] [sidenote: _opportunities rejected; increased pay demanded_] in the proportion borne by the supervising officers above the rank of first class sorting clerks to the total staff of sorting clerks was . per cent., whereas the proportion borne by the officers above the rank of first class telegraphists to the total staff was . per cent. at the same time the proportion borne by the first class clerks to the total of first and second class clerks was . per cent. on the postal side of the service, and . per cent. on the telegraph side. in other words, the chances of promotion to a supervising position are much better in the postal branch than in the telegraph branch; so much so, that to an able and energetic man, the postal branch is more attractive than the telegraph branch, even though the chances of reaching a first class clerkship are somewhat better in the telegraph branch than in the postal branch. but the letter sorting clerk's work is more irksome than the work of the telegraphist, and therefore "the telegraphists are usually reluctant, notwithstanding the better prospects of promotion, to accept work on the postal side." for example, in the four years ending with , only ten telegraphists at birmingham had themselves transferred to the postal side, and three of those ten had themselves re-transferred to the instrument room, because the work on the postal side proved too hard for them. again, on march , , mr. harley, the postmaster at manchester, issued the following notice: "i should like to afford an opportunity to telegraphists in this office of becoming acquainted with letter sorting duties, and, with this view, if a sufficient number of officers apply, i will arrange an evening duty of from to hours in the sorting office for a month in every three, such duty to form a portion of their hours' duty. about officers would be required to enable me to carry this suggestion into effect, and i shall be glad if all officers who are disposed to avail themselves of this opportunity of acquiring postal knowledge will submit their names." at the end of three weeks mr. harley had not had a single response, though he had in person explained to a number of "representative telegraphists the advantage which a knowledge of postal work would give them." the telegraphists, as a body, decline to avail themselves of the opportunities offered them to improve their chances of promotion; none the less they allege they have a grievance in the fact that their chances of promotion are not so good as are the chances of the sorting clerks. they demand that the post office redress their grievance, either by increasing the number of telegraph supervising officers, or by raising the salaries of the first and second class telegraphists sufficiently to compensate the telegraphists for their smaller chance of becoming supervising officers.[ ] [sidenote: _parliamentary intervention_] the telegraphists even try to bring pressure on the government to stop the post office from forcing them to learn letter sorting. for example, in , the post office required the telegraphists and sorters employed in the oxford central post office to work at the pleasure of the oxford postmaster at letter sorting or at telegraphing. the oxford telegraph clerks argued that they had contracts with the government to work as telegraph operators, and that the government had no right to force them either to do sorting, or to suffer transfer to some other office where the convenience of the government would not be affected by their refusal to act as sorters. the clerks kept up their agitation for years, and in december, , they induced mr. samuel,[ ] m. p., to champion their cause in the house of commons.[ ] mr. samuel, in and , had contested unsuccessfully south oxfordshire. he took "first class honors" at oxford, and he has published: _liberalism, its principles and purposes_. in , mr. samuel became under home secretary in the campbell-bannerman ministry. in june, , mr. william jones asked the postmaster general: "whether he is aware that for some time past endeavors have been made to compel the telegraph staff at oxford to perform postal duties, and that they have been informed that they would be removed compulsorily to other offices in the event of the men declining to perform those duties; and whether, in view of the declaration of previous postmasters general, that telegraphists who had entered the service before are exempt from the performance of postal work, he will explain the reasons for his action?" lord stanley, postmaster general, replied: "the telegraph work at oxford has of late considerably fallen off [in consequence of the competition from the telephone], and there is consequently not sufficient work to keep the officers in the telegraph office fully occupied. their services have therefore been utilized for the benefit of the department in such manner as the exigencies of the service require. all officers of the department are expected loyally to perform any work required of them which they are capable of undertaking; and unless some means can be found of utilizing the services of redundant telegraphists at the offices where they are at present employed, a transfer to another office is the only alternative."[ ] mr. jones had sat in parliament since . he is a private tutor at oxford; has been assistant schoolmaster at anglesey; and has served under the london school board.[ ] within ten days of the jones episode, mr. dobbie,[ ] who had just been sent to parliament to represent ayr burghs, scotland, intervened on behalf of the glasgow post office clerks, who objected to being compelled to do dual duties.[ ] at about the same time mr. henderson, who, before entering parliament, had been a member of the newcastle town council, intervened on behalf of one chandler, a sorting clerk and telegraphist at middlesbrough, who had been informed that his increment would be withheld because of his ignorance of telegraphy. the postmaster general replied: "all the circumstances of his case have already been examined more than once both by my predecessor and myself, and i am quite satisfied that he has received proper treatment."[ ] in october, , mr. parker, m. p., intervened on behalf of some telegraph clerks at halifax who were being made to sort letters.[ ] the bradford committee on post office wages, , reported: "... it was pointed out that in the larger offices promotion is better on the postal side.... this is admitted, though we understand that it is open to any telegraphists to acquire a knowledge of postal business, and so qualify for promotion on either side. it is found that this is not done, however, as the men prefer the telegraph work to the more irksome postal duties." [sidenote: _sundry vested rights_] the post office gives those counter men of london and dublin who receive or pay money over the counter, a risk allowance, for the purpose of reimbursing them for any errors that they may make in dealing with the public. no such allowance is given to the postal clerks in any other city; nor are such allowances paid by railway companies or other private employers. upon the provincial post office clerks making a demand for equal treatment with the london and dublin clerks, the department decided to discontinue the allowances in london and dublin "as to future entrants to the postal service," and under "the most sacred preservation of all existing interests."[ ] the tweedmouth committee endorsed this resolution, with the statement that "the rights of existing holders of risk allowances should, of course, in all cases be maintained." the tweedmouth committee suggested a new scale of pay for the several kinds of letter sorters in london. that new scale was suggested for two reasons: for the purpose of discontinuing the complex system of special allowances that had sprung up; and for the purpose of reducing the pay of several classes of sorters, the existing scale of payment being too high. the committee proposed that all existing rights be safeguarded, saying: "present holders of allowances should enter the [new] scale of salary at a point equal to their previous salary and allowances combined, and wherever the maximum of the present scale together with the allowances exceeds the maximum of the new scale, that, but no further excess, should be granted."[ ] the tweedmouth committee also reported: "we think that the holidays of the dublin and edinburgh [telegram] tracers should for the future be week days, the same period as london men performing the same duties, instead of weeks as at present, the change as to holidays of course not applying to present members of the class."[ ] the tweedmouth committee concluded that the holidays given to the letter sorters and the telegraphists in london and in the provincial towns were excessive. it proposed that the annual vacation of week days during the first years of service and of one month after years of service, be reduced, to respectively week days and week days. it added: "it is not, however, suggested that this change should apply to those officers already in the service who receive a leave of weeks during the first years, nor is it proposed to curtail the leave granted to those officers who have already served years, and are, therefore, in enjoyment of a month's holiday."[ ] before the royal commission on civil establishments, , sir reginald e. welby, secretary to the treasury, testified that throughout the civil service the upper division clerks had working days' vacation a year, besides the usual holidays. he said that but for custom, which had become "almost common law," there was no reason for giving such a "very liberal" annual vacation. but he added that any change should be made to apply only to future entrants to the public service.[ ] in the department increased from week days, to one calendar month, the annual leave of all men in the central post office, london, who were in receipt of $ a year, or more. in the following year, , the department gave the same increase to men with $ a year, or more, in the branch offices of metropolitan london, and in the offices of the provincial towns. in the representatives of the men who had not obtained the increase of annual leave until , appeared before the tweedmouth committee with the demand for ten days' pay by way of compensation for the fact that, in , they had "lost ten days."[ ] the tenacity with which the civil servants resist any change in the conditions of service that is to their advantage, is further illustrated by the following incidents. down to , the overseers in the postal service, who are on their feet all day, had one day a week of relief from duty. in that allowance was reduced to half a day; and in it was discontinued altogether. in each case the change was made to apply only to the future entrants upon the office of overseer. in the new entrants upon the office still were complying under protest only with the requirement of the department that they sign a paper stating that they were not entitled to any weekly "relief leave of absence."[ ] there are four monday bank holidays in the year; and for several years prior to , the telegraph branch, as an act of grace, gave a saturday holiday to those "news distributors" whose services could be spared on the saturdays preceding monday bank holidays. in it ceased to be possible to continue this act of grace without employing men on over-time, and therefore the practice was discontinued. in the news distributors complained before the tweedmouth committee that the withdrawal of "the days of grace was a grievance with which they would like the committee to grapple." the spokesman of the news distributors said: "after having enjoyed the privilege for [several] years it was withdrawn, an arbitrary course, almost, it is thought, without precedent. to grant a privilege, and then take it away, displayed a lamentable want of that courtesy that we think should be inseparable qualities of power and position."[ ] [sidenote: _intervention by members of parliament_] in june, , mr. shackleton[ ] intervened in the house of commons on behalf of some men in the liverpool post office, whose grievance was that an interval of minutes, given as "an act of grace," had been reduced to minutes.[ ] in july, , mr. james o'connor, m. p. for wicklow, intervened in a similar matter on behalf of the men at the london west central district office.[ ] * * * * * before the royal commission on civil establishments, , sir lyon playfair was asked whether it would not be better to replace by boy clerks the "writers" employed in the past. sir lyon replied: "i think that would be better for the civil service and better for the boy clerks themselves. of course, regard should be had to the writers who are employed now, and the change should be made by not taking on more, and not by dispensing with those that are now employed." a moment before, sir lyon playfair had been asked: "the writers are now a very large and very important body in the public service, are they not?" he had replied: "yes, and they make you feel their largeness and importance by parliamentary pressure."[ ] sir lyon playfair had been chairman of the royal commission on the civil service which had sat from to ; and he had been the author of the playfair reorganization of the civil service in . before the committee on civil services expenditure, , mr. w. e. baxter, financial secretary to the treasury, said: ... "but i may say at once in regard to the matter of the travelling expenses of county court judges, that i think the whole thing has hitherto been in such an unsatisfactory state that it would be very difficult to defend the action of the treasury in various matters connected with it." thereupon mr. west, a member of the committee, queried: "acting in accordance with that view last year, the chancellor of the exchequer endeavored to reform the system as to existing judges and as to future judges, did he not?... is that reform being now pursued with regard to the existing judges?" the financial secretary to the treasury replied: "not in regard to existing judges. i have always been of opinion that it is very difficult to go back upon arrangements which have been made in the past, however injurious to the public service and uneconomical they may have been, and that it would be better for economists [persons desiring to effect economy] to direct their attention to preventing new arrangements of a similar character."[ ] * * * * * [sidenote: _unbusinesslike spirit further illustrated_] the thoroughly unbusinesslike spirit of the postal employees is illustrated still further in the following "grievance" laid before the tweedmouth committee by the official representatives of the postal employees, who spoke, not as individuals, but as the instructed representatives of their respective classes of public servants. mr. g. mcdonald presented the grievance of the "news distributors," who "are the picked men of the telegraph service, chosen on the ground of exceptional merit." he complained that there was not sufficient opportunity for promotion, since [the automatic] promotion was limited to postmasterships worth from $ , to $ , a year, and there were not enough postmasterships of that kind. mr. mcdonald admitted that men under years "by competitive examination," could rise out of the class of news distributors to surveyors' clerkships; but he argued that since such promotion was attained by competitive examination, "it must be credited to the man himself who wins his position, and i therefore beg to suggest that it cannot count as promotion in the ordinary sense."[ ] another grievance of the news distributors was that they were not "treated and classed" as major division clerks, though they were paid on the scale of such clerks. they were compelled to work hours a week, whereas major division clerks worked only hours a week.[ ] mr. alfred boulden presented the telegraphists' grievances as to pensions. he demanded that retirement on pension should be optional at the age of fifty; and that if a man died in harness, such deduction as had been made from his salary toward the pension fund, should be paid to his heir-at-law. mr. h. c. fischer, controller london central telegraph office, replied that "optional retirement at years of age would result in the more healthy members of the staff retiring at that age, and seeking other employment to add to their income, leaving the less healthy and less useful persons to hang on in the service as long as they could."[ ] mr. a. w. north presented another grievance, namely, that a female telegraph clerk can become a female superintendent in years, whereas a male telegraph clerk can reach the corresponding position only after years of service.[ ] [sidenote: _the malingerers' grievance_] mr. j r. lickfold appeared as the representative of the postal employees to demand that in the case of an employee having failed to appear for duty, the department should accept without any inquiry whatever the medical certificate of any physician. at this time it was the practice of the department to doubt the genuineness of the illness and the _bona fides_ of a medical certificate only in case "the man had a bad record for frequent short sick absences," "though it was a well known fact that private [physicians' as distinguished from departmental physicians'] certificates could be obtained for cents without even the doctor seeing the patient, but on a mere statement of his symptoms from somebody else." in support of this request, mr. lickfold, as the instructed representative of the postal employees, could make no better argument than to cite the dismissal, early in , of two railway post office sorters, w---- and j----. in the evidence in rebuttal, mr. j. c. badcock, controller london postal service, gave the following account of the episode in question. w---- and j---- were absent from duty from january to inclusive. on january they sent in medical certificates dated the th, but the date of one of the certificates had apparently been changed from the th. w----'s landlady testified that w---- and j---- had returned to w----'s lodgings on the th, shortly after the departure of the mail train, saying that they had missed the mail, but saying nothing of illness. she added that both men had been repeatedly at w----'s lodgings on the th and th. both w---- and j---- were absent from their lodgings during the greater part of the three days from the th to the th. the post office inspector found j---- in bed on the night of the th. j---- told him he had not seen w---- since the th, gave evasive answers, and contradicted himself. the inspector also found w---- on the night of the th, and gave an equally unfavorable report upon w----'s answers. on the th, the departmental medical officer found both men in w----'s room, and reported there was no reason why both men should not have been on duty from the th to the th. mr. spencer walpole, permanent secretary of the post office and a member of the committee, said to the witness: "have you any doubt that the department would not have taken the extreme course of dismissing any of its servants on the divided opinion of two medical men, if there had been no previous cases against them?... these men are described as deliberate malingerers?" the chairman of the committee added: "do you not think it would be wise that before bringing forward a particular case of this sort, you should inform yourself thoroughly as to the nature of the case, and as to the character of the men to whom you refer?"[ ] * * * * * avery large portion of the evidence presented before the tweedmouth committee, which evidence covered upward of a thousand closely printed folio pages, affords a melancholy comment upon the theory which is rapidly spreading from the german universities over the english speaking countries, to wit, that the extension of the functions of the state to the inclusion of business enterprises automatically creates a public spirit which strengthens the hands of the political leaders in charge of the state, even to the point of enabling those leaders to reject the improper demands made upon them by organized bodies of voters, and to administer the state's business ventures with an eye single to the welfare of the community as a whole, particularly the long-run interest of the taxpayers. the so-called norfolk-hanbury compromise, the appointment and report of the bradford committee, and the appointment, in , of the select committee on post office servants--the last act not having the support, by speech or by vote, of a single man of first rate importance in the house of commons--are melancholy instances of what that most discerning of statesmen, the late marquis of salisbury, used to call "the visible helplessness of governments." footnotes: [ ] _third report from the select committee on civil services expenditure_, ; q. , and , . [ ] that is, the claim to additional pay for seven hours' work. [ ] that is, the civil service inquiry commission, - , of which sir t. h. farrer was a member. [ ] _second report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the civil establishments_, ; q. , and following, and , and following. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , , , and following. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, november , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. . mr. r. w. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury and representing the postmaster general: "but there were in the senior class certain men who, owing to the fact that they had been promoted by seniority without passing any examination, were not quite up to the normal average of the senior class." the reader will note that in no effort was made to remove the men not up to the standard of the senior class. the government had to await the retirement or the death of the incompetent men. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; mr. h. c. fischer, controller london central telegraph office; q. , . the examination covers: ( ) "crossing and looping wires with facility and certainty. ( ) tracing and localizing faults in instruments. ( ) tracing and localizing permanent and intermittent earth contact and disconnection faults on wires. ( ) methods of testing the electro-motive force and resistance of batteries, and a general knowledge of the essential features of the various descriptions of batteries. ( ) system of morning testing, both as regards sending and receiving currents, with the necessary calculations in connection with the same. ( ) making up special circuits in cases of emergency. ( ) joining up and adjusting single-needle, single-current, and double-current morse, both simplex and duplex, and wheatstone apparatus. ( ) fitting a wheatstone transmitter to an ordinary key-worked circuit. ( ) a general knowledge of the principles of quadruplex and multiplex working. ( ) measuring resistance by wheatstone bridge." these subjects are the same as those prescribed for superintendents and assistant superintendents, but the examination is less severe. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; appendix, p. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; appendix, p. , ; and q. , , mr. nicholson, chairman london branch, postal telegraph clerks association. see also: q. , , , , , , , , , , , , and appendix, p. , . [ ] the wages of the sorters of inland letters at the time were: $ to $ for the first class, and $ . to $ for the second class. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; mr. j. c. badcock, controller london postal service; q. , _et passim_, and appendix, pp. , and , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. and following. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , to , , and , and following. [ ] _second report of the royal commission on civil establishments_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _who's who_, , lawson, hon. h. l. w.; lieutenant-colonel and honorable-colonel commanding royal bucks hussars; e. s. of st baron burnham. education: eton; balliol college, oxford. m. p. (l.) west st. pancras, - ; east gloucestershire, - ; l. c. c. west st. pancras, - , and whitechapel, - . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , , p. , . [ ] _who's who_, , hay, honorable c. g. d., m. p. (c.) since ; partner in ramsford & co., stock-brokers; founder, manager, and director of the fine art and general insurance co., ltd. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, april , , p. ; and august , , p. . [ ] _who's who_, , plummer, sir w. r., kt. cr. ; m. p. (c.) newcastle-on-tyne since ; merchant; member of city council; director of newcastle and gateshead gas co. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, march , ; mr. austen chamberlain, postmaster general: "the regulation is that all pensionable officers of whatever grade whose conduct, capacity, and efficiency fall below a fair standard shall be called upon to retire at sixty; but retirement at sixty is not enforced in the case of officers whose conduct is good, and who are certified by their superior officers to be thoroughly efficient." [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, february , , and august , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, november , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. , ; and july , , p. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , to , ; and appendix, p. , . see also: _second report of the royal commission on civil establishments_, , p. xxiii; and _third report from the select committee on civil services expenditure_, ; mr. r. e. welby, principal clerk for financial business in the treasury; q. to . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; mr. e. b. l. hill, assistant secretary general post office, london; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; mr. h. symes, representative of the london postmen; q. , to , ; and mr. j. c. badcock, controller london postal service; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , _et passim_. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; mr. lewin hill, assistant secretary general post office, london; q. , to , ; mr. t. d. venables, general secretary postal telegraph clerks' association; q. , _et passim_; and mr. jno. christie, first class telegraphist at edinburgh; q. , _et passim_. [ ] _who's who_, , samuel, herbert, (l.) m. p., cleveland division of n. riding, yorkshire, since . contested unsuccessfully, south oxfordshire, and . education: university college school; balliol college, oxford. first class honors, oxford, . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, december , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. . [ ] _who's who_, . [ ] at the by-election of january , , mr. dobbie was elected by a majority of ; at the general election of january, , he was defeated by votes. the number of electors in the ayr district is , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, october , , p. . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; mr. e. b. l. hill, assistant secretary general post office, london; q. , ; and mr. s. walpole, secretary to the post office; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, , p. . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, , p. . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, , p. . [ ] _second report of the royal commission on civil establishments_; q. , to , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and following, and , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , to , , , , and , and following. [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _who's who_, , shackleton, d. j., m. p. (lab.), since . secretary of darwen weavers' association; vice-president of the northern counties weavers' amalgamation; member of blackburn chamber of commerce. [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, june , , p. . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, july , , p. . [ ] _second report of the royal commission on civil establishments_, ; q. , and , . [ ] _third report from the committee on civil services expenditure_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and following, and , to , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , and following, and appendix, pp. , and , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , . [ ] _report of the inter-departmental committee on post office establishments_, ; q. , to , and to . chapter xviii the house of commons stands for extravagance authoritative character of the evidence tendered by the several secretaries of the treasury. testimony, in , of lord welby, who had been in the treasury from to . testimony of sir george h. murray, permanent secretary to the post office and sometime private secretary to the late prime minister, mr. gladstone. testimony of sir ralph h. knox, in the war office since . testimony of sir edward hamilton, assistant secretary to the treasury since . testimony of mr. r. chalmers, a principal clerk in the treasury; and of sir john eldon gorst. mr. gladstone's tribute to joseph hume, the first and last member of the house of commons competent to criticize effectively the details of expenditure of the state. evidence presented before the select committee on civil services expenditure, . before proceeding to the subject proper of this chapter, it is desirable to say a word about the organization and the work of the treasury.[ ] the treasury consists of the first lord of the treasury, who is almost invariably the prime minister; the chancellor of the exchequer; and three junior lords of the treasury. "the treasury is pre-eminently a superintending and controlling office, and has properly no administrative functions." its duty is to reduce to, and maintain at, the minimum compatible with efficiency, the expenditures of the several departments of state. the treasury has three secretaries: the financial secretary, the parliamentary, or patronage secretary, and the permanent secretary. the financial secretary, after the chancellor of the exchequer, is the political head and conductor of the treasury. he is one of the hardest worked officers of the government. his duties were well described, recently, by mr. austen chamberlain, in the course of a brief sketch of his official career. said mr. chamberlain: "from the admiralty he was transferred to the position of financial secretary to the treasury, where, as his chief explained to him, he was in the position of an old poacher promoted to be gamekeeper, and his first duty was to unlearn the habits of five years and save money where previously it had been his pleasure to spend it." the parliamentary, or patronage secretary is the principal government whip. "he is a very useful and important functionary. his services are indispensable to the leader of the house of commons in the control of the house and the management of public business." "it devolves upon him, under the direction of the leader of the house, 'to facilitate, by mutual understanding, the conduct of public business,' and 'the management of the house of commons, a position which requires consummate knowledge of human nature, the most amiable flexibility, and complete self-control.'" as "whipper-in," the parliamentary secretary is generally assisted by two of the junior lords of the treasury, who are, at the same time, government whips. "those useful functionaries are expected to gather the greatest number of their own party into every division [of the house of commons], and by persuasion, promises, explanation, and every available expedient, to bring their men from all quarters to the aid of the government upon any emergency. it is also their business to conciliate the discontented and doubtful among the ministerial supporters, and to keep every one, as far as possible, in good humor." "an estimate of the importance of the duties which would naturally devolve upon these functionaries--from the increasing interference of the house of commons in matters of detail, and the necessity for the continual supervision of some member of the government conversant with every description of parliamentary business, in order to make sure that the business is done in conformity to the views entertained by the house--induced sir charles wood,[ ] to declare, in , that the reduction of the number of junior lords from four to three was a very doubtful advantage." the financial secretary and the parliamentary secretary are political officers, that is, they sit in the house of commons, and they change with every change in the government. the permanent secretary, on the other hand, is a non-political officer, or civil servant, who retains office through the successive changes of government, and secures the continuity of the office. he is the official head of the department, and of the whole civil service. the foregoing facts make it clear that for the purposes of this present discussion, one can cite no more authoritative personages than the several secretaries of the treasury. * * * * * the select committee on national expenditure, , took a great deal of evidence on the effect of the intervention of the house of commons in the administrative details of the several departments of state, particularly on the impairment of the power of the treasury to control the expenditure of the several departments. [sidenote: _lord welby on change in public opinion_] the most important witness was lord welby, who, as mr. welby, had entered the treasury in ; had been head of the finance department from to ; and had been permanent secretary from to . lord welby said that in theory the treasury had full power of control over the expenditures of the several departments, but that in practice that power of control was limited by the state of public opinion as reflected in the house of commons. as soon as the treasury became aware that it had not public opinion at its back, that fact "would have a certain influence on many of its decisions." then again, as soon as the other departments of state became aware that the treasury was not supported by public opinion, the authority of the treasury over those departments was impaired. "if an idea gets abroad that the house of commons does not care about economy, you will not find your servants economical." lord welby then went on to say that in all the political parties in the house of commons, "the old spirit of economy had been very much weakened." he put the change of public opinion at about the middle of the seventies, or, perhaps, rather later, say, in the eighties. previous to that change the influence of the chancellor of the exchequer had been "paramount, or very powerful, in the cabinet." but with the change in public opinion, "the effective power of control in the chancellor of the exchequer had been proportionately diminished." lord welby concluded: "i constantly hear it said now by people of great weight that economy is impossible, that you cannot get the house of commons to pay attention [to counsels of economy].... the main object [to be striven after], i think, is that there should be some correlation both in the minds of the government of the day and in the minds of the house of commons between resources and expenditure; i think that ought to exist, but i do not think it does exist at present. i see no evidence of it."[ ] mr. hayes fisher,[ ] a member of the committee, and financial secretary to the treasury, in to , replied to lord welby: "but is not the business of the treasury, and the main business of the treasury, to check that expenditure and keep it within reasonable bounds, outside of questions of policy?" lord welby replied: "quite so; but might i venture to ask the honorable member, who occupies one of the most important posts in the government, whether he would not be glad of support in the house of commons?" "most certainly we should on many occasions," was the answer. [sidenote: _sir george h. murray on change in public opinion_] sir george h. murray,[ ] permanent secretary to the post office, was called as a witness because "in the official posts he had held, particularly as private secretary to the late prime minister, mr. gladstone, he had had frequent opportunities for observation not only of the reasons for expenditure, but of the control exercised over it in parliament." he said: ... "but i think the whole attitude of the house itself toward the public service and toward expenditure generally, has undergone a very material change in the present generation.... of course, the house to this day, in the abstract and in theory, is very strongly in favor of economy, but i am bound to say that in practice members, both in their corporate capacity and, still more, in their individual capacity, are more disposed to use their influence with the executive government in order to increase expenditure than to reduce it.... that is the policy of the house--to spend more money than it did, to criticize expenditure less closely than it did, and to urge the executive government to increase expenditure instead of the reverse."[ ] [sidenote: _the commons the champion of class interests_] sir ralph h. knox,[ ] who had been in the war office from to , and who, for forty years, had listened to the discussions in parliament of the estimates of expenditure, said: ... "the mass of speeches that are made in supply before the house of commons, are speeches made on behalf of those who have grievances, their friends or constituents, or those with whom they work, or in whom they are particularly interested. if you take speech after speech, you find they are simply to the effect: 'we want more'--and they get more.... in former days there were more members who were willing to get up with some pertinence and some knowledge to criticize those proposals. but i cannot say there has been any very great tendency in that direction when details are being discussed.... what i want, is [someone] to nip in the bud, new proposals which are made by members of parliament very often on behalf of their constituents. a member, for instance, represents what i should call a labor borough; he gets up and proposes that the pay of every man employed in certain [government] factories or dockyards should be increased by so much a week, what i want is somebody to get up and say: 'that is not the view of the country, you must not accept that;' but instead of that the matter goes _sub silentio_, and the government, which is naturally interested in economy and in keeping the expenditure down, is induced to think if there is any feeling in the house at all, it is in favor of doubling everybody's pay." sir r. h. knox said he desired more opposition to unwarranted proposals, "because i know what extreme weight is attached to the speeches in supply by the minister in charge of a department, and by the department itself; but if they find that there is not a single man interested in economy when the details of the estimates are discussed, it places them in an exceedingly difficult position."[ ] [sidenote: _commons debates weaken treasury's hands_] sir edward hamilton, assistant secretary to the treasury since , said that the treasury could depend less than formerly upon the support of the house of commons, and that often-times the tendency of the debates in the house was to weaken the hands of the treasury.[ ] sir edward hamilton had entered the treasury in ; had served as private secretary to mr. lowe, chancellor of the exchequer, in - ; and as private secretary to mr. gladstone, first lord of the treasury, in to . he had been made successively principal clerk of the finance division in ; assistant financial secretary in ; and assistant secretary in . in he was made permanent financial secretary. mr. austen chamberlain, a member of the select committee, asked mr. r. chalmers,[ ] a principal clerk at the treasury: "is it within your experience as an official of the treasury that ministers of other departments not infrequently represent, as the reason for allowing expenditure, the strong pressure that has been put upon them in the house of commons?" "yes; i have seen repeated instances of that." "and their inability to resist that pressure for another year?" "yes."[ ] sir john eldon gorst, m. p., a man of large experience of the public service, said he had no doubt that in all offices there were officers who had ceased to have anything to do; and that was particularly true of the education department, where there was much reading of newspapers, and much literary composition. he had "even heard of rooms where ping pong was played, there being nothing else to do at the moment." sir john eldon gorst continued: "the treasury has power to make an inquiry into every office, it could institute an inquiry to see whether the office was or was not economically managed, but so far as i know that power never has been exercised. it would be very difficult indeed for the parliamentary head of a department to call in the treasury for such an investigation. it would make the parliamentary head extremely unpopular. the only person who, in my opinion, as things are, can really influence the expenses of an office, is the civil service head.... but although the civil service head of the office has a very great motive to make his office efficient, because his own credit and his own future depend on the efficiency of his office, he has comparatively little motive for economy. parliament certainly does not thank him; i do not know whether the treasury thanks him very much; certainly his colleagues do not thank him; ... and the natural disposition of a man to let well enough alone renders him reluctant to take upon himself the extremely ungrateful task of making his office, not only an efficient one, but also an economical one. i think anybody who has any experience of mercantile offices, such as a great insurance office, or anything of that kind, would be struck directly with the different atmosphere which prevails in a mercantile office and a government office.... i have no hesitation in saying that any large insurance company, or any large commercial office of any kind, is worked far more efficiently and far more economically than the best of the departments of his majesty's government."[ ] sir john eldon gorst's statement that he knew of no instance of the treasury exercising its power of instituting an inquiry conducted by treasury officers, into the administration of a department of state, recalls to mind some testimony given by sir r. e. welby, permanent secretary to the treasury, before the royal commission on civil establishments, . mr. cleghorn, a member of that commission, asked sir r. e. welby: "is there anybody at the treasury, for instance, who could say to the board of trade, or any other particular department: 'you have too many clerks, you must reduce them by ten?' is there anybody at the treasury with sufficient power and knowledge of the work to be in a position to say that, and to take the responsibility of it?" sir r. e. welby replied: "no." thereupon mr. r. w. hanbury, another member of the commission, asked: "there is not?" once more the answer was: "no."[ ] again, in , before the select committee on post office telegraph departments, mr. julian goldsmid, a member of the committee, asked mr. s. a. blackwood, financial secretary to the post office: "you would not like, perhaps, to give the reasons for that enormous overmanning which existed in some of the [telegraph] offices [in to ]?" mr. blackwood replied: "i am not acquainted with the reasons myself."[ ] sir ralph h. knox, in the course of his testimony, had quoted mr. bagehot's statement: "if you want to raise a certain cheer in the house of commons, make a general panegyric on economy; if you want to invite a sure defeat, propose a particular saving." he had continued: "i should like to add, 'if you want to lose popularity, oppose the proposals for increase.' there ought to be some members in the house of commons who would undertake that line." [sidenote: _gladstone's tribute to hume_] this wish of sir ralph h. knox recalls to mind the tribute paid, in , by mr. gladstone, to the memory of joseph hume, the first as well as the last member of the house of commons to acquire a knowledge of the expenditures of the government which was sufficient to enable the possessor to criticize with intelligence the details of the expenditures of the government. said mr. gladstone: ... "and in like manner, i believe that mr. hume has earned for himself an honorable and a prominent place in the history of this country--not by endeavoring to pledge parliament to abstract resolutions or general declarations on the subject of economy, but by an indefatigable and unwearied devotion, by the labor of a life, to obtain complete mastery of all the details of public expenditure, and by tracking, and i would almost say hunting, the minister in every department through all these details with a knowledge equal or superior to his own. in this manner, i do not scruple to say, mr. hume did more, not merely to reduce the public expenditure as a matter of figures, but to introduce principles of economy into the management of the administration of public money, than all the men who have lived in our time put together. this is the kind of labor, which, above all things, we want. i do not know whether my honorable and learned friend [mr. vernon harcourt], considering his distinguished career in his profession, is free to devote himself to the public service in the same way as mr. hume did. if, however, he is free to do so, i would say to him: 'by all means apply yourself to this vocation. you will find it extremely disagreeable. you will find that during your lifetime very little distinction is to be gained in it, but in the impartiality of history and of posterity you will be judged very severely in the scales of absolute justice as regards the merits of public men, and you will then obtain your reward.'"[ ] the british public, needless to say, still is waiting for the man, or men, who shall take upon themselves the invidious but honorable task of stemming the tide to extravagant expenditure, which, in great britain, as elsewhere, is the besetting sin of popular government. the british people still are waiting, though, since , they have vastly increased the functions of the government by nationalizing a great branch of industry, and therefore are more than ever in need of persons who shall emulate the late joseph hume. * * * * * in conclusion, let us compare with the testimony given in , the testimony given in , before the select committee on civil services expenditure. a member of the select committee of asked mr. w. e. baxter, financial secretary to the treasury: "am i right in thinking that you do not agree with the chancellor of the exchequer's declaration with regard to the treasury? i asked him this question: 'then it is a popular delusion to believe that the treasury does exercise a direct control over the expenditure of the department?' and the chancellor replied: 'i do not know that it is popular, but it is a delusion; i think that it would be much more popular that the treasury should exercise no control at all.'" mr. baxter replied: "i think that the chancellor stated it too broadly, and would, probably, if he had been secretary to the treasury for two or three years, have found that the treasury did, in point of fact, go back to some extent over the old expenditure as well as try to stop increases." a moment before, mr. baxter had said: "the most unpleasant part, as i find it, of the duty of the financial secretary to the treasury is to resist the constant pressure brought day by day, and almost hour by hour, by members of parliament, in order to increase expenditure by increasing the pay of individuals, increasing the pay of classes, and granting large compensations to individuals or to classes." the chairman of the committee queried: "and that pressure, which is little known to the public, has given you, and your predecessors in office, i presume, a great deal of thought and a great deal of concern?" mr. baxter replied: "as i said before, it is the most unpleasant part of my duties, and it occupies a very great deal of time which probably might be better spent." at this point mr. sclater-booth asked: "you spoke of the constant parliamentary pressure which has been exercised with a view to increasing salaries or compensations, do you allude to proceedings in parliament as well as private communications, or only to the latter?" mr. baxter replied: "i did in my answer only allude to private communications by letter and conversation in the house, because that was in my mind at the time. but of course my answer might be extended to those motions in the house which are resisted without effect by the government, and which entail great expenditure upon the country." mr. herman queried: "when you speak of the pressure put upon you by members of parliament for the increase of pay to classes, and the other points that you named, i suppose that you mean that it is partly party pressure, and that you are more subject to it at the present time than you would be if a conservative government were in power?" mr. baxter replied: "in my experience it has very little to do with party; men from all quarters of the house are at me from week to week." "do you mean to say that men opposed to you in political principles apply to you for that sort of thing now?" "certainly i should wish it to be distinctly understood that they do not ask this as a favor; they do not ask favors of me. they simply wish me to look into the question of the pay of individuals and of classes of individuals, as they put it, with a view of benefitting the public service.... in very few instances since i have been financial secretary to the treasury have i been asked by anyone to advance a friend, or to do anything in the shape of a favor. the representations are of this sort: 'here are a class of public officers who are underpaid. we wish you to look into the matter, and to consider whether or not it would be advantageous to the public service that their salary should be increased.' i look into it, and i say that i am not at all of that opinion, upon which my friend tells me that he will bring the matter before the house, and show us up." "and the other evil is one which is rapidly diminishing, and, in fact, is very small now, namely, interference in favor of individuals?" "very small indeed." to a question from mr. rathbone, mr. baxter replied: "i do not think that the representations in question have much effect; i only stated that the most unpleasant part of my duties was resisting the pressure brought to bear in that way." thereupon mr. rathbone continued: "they may not have an effect when the government has a majority of one hundred or so, or when there is no election impending, but do you think they have no effect when, as we have seen in former years for long periods, the government is carried on, whether by one side or the other, by a very small majority, or when an election is impending?" mr. baxter replied: "i have no doubt that they have had the effect in former times in those circumstances." "do you think they would be liable to have that effect again if either party should be reduced to that condition?" "it may be so." "can you suggest any mode of abating the parliamentary pressure to which you have alluded, whether it be exercised by public motions or by private influence?" the financial secretary to the treasury replied: "no; it is an evil very difficult to remedy. i think the better plan would be to inform the constituencies on the subject and let them know the practice which so widely prevails, in order that, if inclined to take the side of economy, they may look after their members of parliament." a moment later, mr. sclater-booth asked: "do you not think from what you have seen of the public service, that the treasury, existing particularly for that purpose, is the body which must be permanently relied upon to keep down expenditure?" "decidedly so." "even the constituencies can scarcely, as a rule, be appealed to in that sense, can they?" "no; i attach very much more importance to the power of the treasury than either to the action of the house of commons, or, i am sorry to say, to the voice of the constituencies."[ ] footnotes: [ ] the subjoined statements, excepting the quotation from mr. austen chamberlain, are taken from a. todd: _on parliamentary government in england_. [ ] sir charles wood, first viscount of halifax. private secretary to earl grey, to ; financial secretary to the treasury, to ; secretary to the admiralty, to ; chancellor of the exchequer, to ; president of the board of control, to ; first lord of the admiralty, to ; secretary of state for india, to ; raised to peerage as viscount halifax in ; lord privy seal, to . [ ] _report from the select committee on national expenditure_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _who's who_, , fisher, wm. hayes, m. p., financial secretary to the treasury, - ; junior lord of the treasury, and a ministerial whip, to ; hon. private secretary to sir michael hicks-beach, to ; and to right honorable a. j. balfour, to . [ ] _who's who_, , murray, sir g. h., joint permanent under secretary to the treasury since . entered the foreign office, ; transferred to treasury, ; private secretary to right honorable w. e. gladstone and to earl of rosebery, when prime minister; chairman board of inland revenue, to ; secretary to the post office, to . [ ] _report from the select committee on national expenditure_, ; q. , to , , and , to , . [ ] _who's who_, , knox, sir ralph h., entered war office in ; accountant-general, war office, to ; permanent under secretary of state for war, to ; a member of the committee which worked out lord cardwell's army reform, and of the royal commission on indian financial relations, ; civil service superannuations, ; and militia and volunteers, . [ ] _report from the select committee on national expenditure_, ; q. , to , , and , to , . [ ] _report from the select committee on national expenditure_, ; q. , to , . [ ] in mr. chalmers was made assistant secretary to the treasury. [ ] _report from the select committee on national expenditure_, ; q. to . [ ] _report from the select committee on national expenditure_, ; q. , to , , and , . [ ] _second report of the royal commission on civil establishments_, ; q. , to , . [ ] _report from the select committee on post office_ (_telegraph department_), ; q. , to , . [ ] _hansard's parliamentary debates_, february , , p. and following. [ ] _third report from the select committee on civil services expenditure_, ; q. , to , . chapter xix conclusion a large and ever increasing number of us are adherents of the political theory that the extension of the functions of the state to the inclusion of the conduct of business ventures will purify politics and make the citizen take a more intelligent as well as a more active part in public affairs. the verdict of the experience of great britain under the public ownership and operation of the telegraphs is that that doctrine is untenable. instead of purifying politics, public ownership has corrupted them. it has given a great impetus to class bribery, a form of corruption far more insidious than individual bribery. with one exception, wherever the public ownership of the telegraphs has affected the pocket-book interests of any considerable body of voters, the good-will of those voters has been gained at the expense of the public purse. the only exception has been the policy pursued toward the owners of the telephone patents; and even in that case the policy adopted was not dictated by legitimate motives. the nationalization of the telegraphs was initiated with class bribery. the telegraph companies had been poor politicians, and had failed to conciliate the newspaper press by allowing the newspapers to organize their own news bureaux. the government played the game of politics much better; it gave the newspapers a tariff which its own advisor, mr. scudamore, said would prove unprofitable. no subsequent government has attempted to abrogate the bargain, though the annual loss to the state now is upward of $ , , . the promise to extend the telegraphs to every place with a money order issuing post office was given in ignorance of what it would cost to carry out that promise. but the adherence to the policy until an anticipated expenditure of $ , , had risen to $ , , was nothing more nor less than the purchase of votes out of the public purse. not until did the government abandon the policy that every place with a money order issuing post office was entitled to telegraphic service. when the house of commons, in march, , against the protests of the government passed the resolution which demanded that the tariff on telegrams be cut almost in two, the government should have resigned rather than carry out the order. the government's obedience to an order which the government itself contended would put a heavy burden on the taxpayer for four years, was nothing more nor less than the purchase of parliamentary support out of the public purse. no serious argument had been advanced that the charge of cents for words was excessive. the argument of the leader of the movement for reduction, dr. cameron, of glasgow, was a worthy complement to the argument made in by mr. hunt, chancellor of the exchequer, to wit, that telegraphing ought to be made so cheap that the illiterate man who could not write a letter would send a telegram. dr. cameron argued that "instead of maintaining a price which was prohibitory not only to the working classes but also to the middle classes, they ought to take every means to encourage telegraphy. they ought to educate the rising generation to it; and he would suggest to the government that the composing of telegrams would form a useful part of the education in our board schools." parliament after parliament, and government after government has purchased out of the public purse the good-will of the telegraph employees. organized in huge civil servants' unions, the telegraph employees have been permitted to establish the policy that wages and salaries shall be fixed in no small degree by the amount of political pressure that the telegraph employees can bring to bear on members of the house of commons. with the rest of the government employees they have been permitted to establish the doctrine that once a man has landed himself on the state's pay-roll, he has "something very nearly approaching to a freehold of provision for life," irrespective of his fitness and his amenableness to discipline, and no matter what labor-saving machines may be invented, or how much business may fall off. to a considerable degree the state employees have established their demand that promotion be made according to seniority rather than merit. in more than one postmaster general have they instilled "a perfect horror of passing anyone over." turning to one part of the service, one finds the civil service unions achieving the revocation of the promotion of the man denominated "probably the ablest man in the sheffield post office." turning to another part of the service, one finds the postmaster general, mr. raikes, "for the good of the service" telling an exceptionally able man that "he can well afford to wait his turn." the civil servants, in the telegraph service and elsewhere, to a considerable degree have secured to themselves exemption from the rigorous discipline to which must submit the people who are in the service of private individuals and of companies. finally, the civil servants have been permitted to establish to a greater or a lesser degree a whole host of demands that are inconsistent with the economical conduct of business. among them may be mentioned the demand that the standard of efficiency may not be raised without reimbursement to those who take the trouble to come up to the new standard; that if a man enters the service when the proportion of higher officers to the rank and file is to , he has "an implied contract" with the government that that proportion shall not be altered to his disadvantage though it may be altered to his advantage. public opinion has compelled the great political parties to drop party politics with regard to the state employees, and to give them security of tenure of office. but it permits the state employees to engage in party politics towards members of parliament. the civil service unions watch the speeches and votes of members of the house of commons, and send speakers and campaign workers into the districts of offending members. in the election campaigns they ask candidates to pledge themselves to support in parliament civil servants' demands. their political activities have led mr. hanbury, financial secretary to the treasury in to , to say: "we must recognize the fact that in this house of commons, public servants have a court of appeal such as exists with regard to no private employee whatever. it is a court of appeal which exists not only with regard to the grievances of classes, and even of individuals, but it is a court of appeal which applies even to the wages and duties of classes and individuals, and its functions in that respect are only limited by the common sense of members, who should exercise caution in bringing forward cases of individuals, because, if political influence is brought to bear in favor of one individual, the chances are that injury is done to some other individual.... we have done away with personal and individual bribery, but there is still a worse form of bribery, and that is when a man asks a candidate [for parliament] to buy his vote out of the public purse." the tactics employed by civil servants have led the late postmaster general, lord stanley, to apply the terms "blackmail" and "blood-sucking." the conduct of the house of commons under civil service pressure has led mr. a. j. balfour, the late premier, to express grave anxiety concerning the future of great britain's civil service. it has led mr. austen chamberlain, representative of the postmaster general, to say that members of both parties had come to him seeking protection from the demands made upon them by the civil servants. on another occasion it has led mr. chamberlain to say: "in a great administration like this there must be decentralization, and how difficult it is to decentralize, either in the post office or in the army, when working under constant examination by question and answer in this house, no honorable member who has not had experience of official life can easily realize. but there must be decentralization, because every little petty matter cannot be dealt with by the postmaster general or the permanent secretary to the post office. their attention should be reserved in the main for large questions, and i think it is deplorable, absolutely deplorable, that so much of their time should be occupied, as under the present circumstances it necessarily is occupied, with matters of very small detail because these matters of detail are asked by honorable members and because we do not feel an honorable member will accept an answer from anyone but the highest authority. i think a third of the time--i am putting it at a low estimate--of the highest officials in the post office is occupied in answering questions raised by members of this house, and in providing me with information in order that i may be in a position to answer the inquiries addressed to me" about matters which "in any private business would be dealt with by the officer on the spot, without appeal or consideration unless grievous cause were shown." the questions of which mr. austen chamberlain spoke, at one end of the scale are put on behalf of a man discharged for theft, at the other end of the scale on behalf of the man who fears he will not be promoted. the practice of putting such questions not only leads to deplorable waste of executive ability, it also modifies profoundly the entire administration of the public service. lord welby, the highest authority in great britain, in testified that it was the function of the treasury to hold the various departments up to efficient and economical administration. but that the debates in the commons not only weakened the treasury's control over the several departments, but also made the treasury lower its standards of efficiency and economy. he added that in the last twenty or twenty-five years both parties had lost a great deal of "the old spirit of economy," and that at the same time "the effective power of control in the chancellor of the exchequer had been proportionately diminished." in former times the chancellor of the exchequer had been "paramount, or very powerful in the cabinet." upon the same occasion, sir george h. murray was called to testify, because "in the official posts he had held, particularly as private secretary to the late prime minister, mr. gladstone, he had had frequent opportunities for observation not only of the reasons for expenditure, but of the control exercised over it in parliament." sir george h. murray said: "but i think the whole attitude of the house itself toward the public service and toward expenditure generally, has undergone a very material change in the present generation.... of course, the house to this day, in the abstract and in theory, is very strongly in favor of economy, but i am bound to say that in practice members, both in their corporate capacity and, still more, in their individual capacity, are more disposed to use their influence with the executive government in order to increase expenditure than to reduce it." sir john eldon gorst testified in : "but although the civil service head of the office has a very great motive to make his office efficient, because his own credit and his future depend on the efficiency of his office, he has comparatively little motive for economy. parliament certainly does not thank him; and i do not know whether the treasury thanks him very much; certainly his colleagues do not thank him.... i think anybody who has any experience of mercantile offices, such as a great insurance office, or anything of that kind, would be struck directly with the different atmosphere which prevails in a mercantile office and a government office.... i have no hesitation in saying that any large insurance company, or any large commercial office of any kind is worked far more efficiently and far more economically than the best of the departments of his majesty's government." sir john eldon gorst might have added that the civil service head of a department really had only rather moderate power to enforce economy. before the royal commission of , lord welby [then sir welby], permanent secretary to the treasury, was asked: "but you would hardly plead the interference of members of parliament as a justification for not getting rid of an unworthy servant, would you?" lord welby, who had been in the treasury since , replied: "it is not a good reason, but as a matter of fact it is powerful. the house of commons are our masters." * * * * * in the hands of a commercial company, the telegraphs in the united kingdom would yield a handsome return even upon their present cost to the government. that is proven beyond the possibility of controversy by the figures presented in the preceding chapters. in the hands of the state, in the period from - to - , the operating expenses alone have exceeded the gross receipts by $ , , . if one excludes, as not earned by the telegraphs, the $ , , paid the government by the national telephone company in the form of royalties for the privilege of conducting the telephone business in competition with the state's telegraphs, the excess of operating expenses over gross receipts will become $ , , . that sum, of course, takes no account of the large sums required annually to pay the interest and depreciation charges upon the capital invested in the telegraph plant. on march , , the capital invested in the telegraphs was $ , , . to raise that capital, the government had sold $ , , of per cent. securities, at an average price of about . ; and for the rest the government had drawn upon the current revenue raised by taxation. on march , , the unearned interest which the government had paid upon the aforesaid $ , , of securities had aggregated $ , , , the equivalent of . per cent. of the capital invested in the telegraphs. upon the $ , , taken from the current revenue, the government never has had any return whatever. * * * * * the nationalization of the telegraphs has corrupted british politics by giving a great impetus to the insidious practice of class bribery. it also has placed heavy burdens upon the taxpayers. but that is not all. the public ownership of the telegraphs has resulted in the state deliberately hampering the development of the telephone industry. that industry, had the government let it alone, would have grown to enormous proportions, promoting the convenience and the prosperity of the business community, as well as giving employment to tens of thousands of people. in the year , only one person in each persons in the united kingdom was a subscriber to the telephone; and the total of persons employed in the telephone industry was only some , . on january , , one person in each persons in the united states was a subscriber to the telephone. under the telephone policy pursued by the government, the national telephone company down to the close of the year for all practical purposes had no right to erect a pole in a street or lay a wire under a street. as late as , not less than , miles of the company's total of , miles of wire were strung from house-top to house-top, under private way-leaves which the owners of the houses had the right to terminate on six months' notice. inadequate as it was, the progress made by the national telephone company down to was a splendid tribute to british enterprise. the necessarily unsatisfactory service given by the national telephone company, down to the close of , created a prejudice against the use of the telephone which to this day has not been completely overcome. again, the government to this day has left the national telephone company in such a position of weakness, that the company has been unable to brave public opinion to the extent of abolishing the unlimited user tariff and establishing the measured service tariff exclusively. on the other hand, it is an admitted fact that the telephone cannot be brought into very extensive use except on the basis of the measured service exclusively. the british government embarked in the telegraph business, thus putting itself in the position of a trader. but it refused subsequently to assume one of the commonest risks to which every trader is exposed, the liability to have his property impaired in value, if not destroyed, by inventions and new ways of doing things. in that respect the british government has pursued the same policy that the british municipalities have pursued. the latter bodies first hampered the spread of the electric light, in large part for the purpose of protecting the municipal gas plants; and subsequently they hampered the spread of the so-called electricity-in-bulk generating companies, which threatened to drive out of the field the local municipal electric light plants. very recently the british government has taken measures to protect its telegraphs and its long distance telephone service from competition from wireless telegraphy. it has refused an application for a license made by a company that proposed to establish a wireless telegraphy service between certain english cities. the refusal was made "on the ground that the installations are designed for the purpose of establishing exchanges which would be in contravention of the postmaster general's ordinary telegraphic monopoly." in order to protect its property in the submarine cables to france, belgium, holland and germany, the government has inserted in the "model wireless telegraphy license" a prohibition of the sending or receiving of international telegrams, "either directly or by means of any intermediate station or stations, whether on shore or on a ship at sea." in short, the commercial use of wireless telegraphy apparatus the government has limited to communication with vessels. * * * * * in one respect the nationalization of the telegraphs has fulfilled the promises made by the advocates of nationalization. it has increased enormously the use of the telegraphs. but when the eminent economist, mr. w. s. jevons, came to consider what the popularization of the telegraphs had cost the taxpayers, he could not refrain from adding that a large part of the increased use made of the telegraphs was of such a nature that the state could have no motive for encouraging it. "men have been known to telegraph for a pocket handkerchief," was his closing comment. mr. jevons had been an ardent advocate of nationalization. had he lived to witness the corruption of politics produced by the public ownership of the telegraphs, his disillusionment would have been even more complete. * * * * * from whatever viewpoint one examines the outcome of the nationalization of the telegraphs, one finds invariably that experience proves the unsoundness of the doctrine that the extension of the functions of the state to the inclusion of the conduct of business ventures will purify politics and make the citizen take a more intelligent as well as a more active part in public affairs. class bribery has been the outcome, wherever the state as the owner of the telegraphs has come in conflict with the pocket-book interest of the citizen. one reason has been that the citizen has not learned to act on the principle of subordinating his personal interest to the interest of the community as a whole. another reason has been that the community as a whole has not learned to take the pains to ascertain its interests, and to protect them against the illegitimate demands made by classes or sections of the community. there is no body of intelligent and disinterested public opinion to which can appeal for support the member of parliament who is pressed to violate the public interest, but wishes to resist the pressure. the policy of state intervention and state ownership does not create automatically that eternal vigilance which is the price not only of liberty but also of good government. one may go further, and say that the verdict of british experience is that it is more difficult to safeguard and promote the public interest under the policy of state intervention than under the policy of _laissez-faire_. under the degree of political intelligence and public and private virtue that have existed in great britain since , no public service company could have violated the permanent interests of the people in the way in which the national government and the municipalities have violated them since they have become the respective owners of the telegraphs and the municipal public service industries. no public service company could have blocked the progress of a rival in the way in which the government has blocked the progress of the telephone. no combination of capital could have exercised such control over parliament and government as the association of municipal corporations has exercised. finally, no combination of capital could have violated the public interest in such manner as the civil service unions have done. index abolition terms given to persons reorganized out of service, , ; premium on inefficiency, absolute dismissal, power of, in a public department would increase efficiency, - acland-hood, sir a., on election losses to supporters of conservative ministry, ; on loss of seats and votes, , administration, interference of members of the house with, , , - administrative acts, how answers to questions about, are framed, allshire, w. h., pension asked for, by mr. crean, m. p., ambrose, w., disgusted at civil service pressure, ansell, c. j., complaint by, applications or communications, post office rule for making, - arnold, ----, promoted by merit, - association of municipal corporations controls parliament more than capital, australia, offensive officials forced out of office in, ; promotion in, auxiliary staff, grievance of the, badcock, j. c., before tweedmouth committee, - , ; on redundant first class newspaper sorters in post office, - ; on squeezing through, ; on promotion, ; on roberts case, ; on worth case, ; on the malingerers' grievance, - balcarres, lord d. l., on election pledges, ; on specific pledges, balfour, a. j., anxiety of, for the public service, - bartley, sir g. c. t., intervened for one canless dismissed as unfit, baxter, w. e., on a six-hour day, - ; on travelling expenses of county court judges, ; on pressure brought by members of parliament on financial secretary, - bayley, thomas, asks for a select committee, ; motion lost, ; second motion of, ; on rights of the house, beaufort, ----, postmaster at manchester, error of, in granting hours of work, belgian state telegraphs run at a loss, ; rate table, n belgium, percentage of personal and social messages in, ; number of offices in, ; figuring cost in, ; experience of, - , ; telegraph introduced in, by british company, ; government of, appropriates the new industry, ; statistics, ; increased use in, ; telegrams to inhabitants, betting on horse races subsidized, - birmingham, extension of service in, - blackmail and blood-sucking methods employed, , , blackwood, sir s. a., recommends new newspaper tariff, - ; answers questions on increase of salaries under fawcett, - ; on removal of inefficient employees, - ; advice from, refused by mr. raikes, ; on trades union spirit among clerks, - booth, charles, member of bradford committee, , bortlewick, sir a., on parliamentary interposition, boulden, alfred, presented telegraphists' grievances as to pensions, bowles, gibson, on pressure on members, bradford, sir edward, chairman of bradford committee, , bradford committee, report, - , ; question submitted to it, ; ignores its reference, - ; reports its failure, ; ignored rules of procedure, ; declared comparison impossible, ; reported widespread discontent, , ; greater pressure of work, ; statements unsupported by evidence, ; recommended large increase of expenditure, ; not acceptable to post office workers, ; lord stanley on, - ; rejected by balfour government, ; before the house, bradlaugh, charles, intervenes for promotion of eleven men passed over, - , , breakdown, causes of, n bribery, personal, replaced by class, , british and irish magnetic company reported shilling rate unremunerative, british and irish magnetic telegraph company formed, - ; messages carried by, and receipts, - ; government purchase of, british telegraph company, - british telegraphy, history of, - brodrick, thomas, member of bradford committee, , brown, r. h., interference for, burbridge, r., member of bradford committee, , business methods not applicable in state service, , , - business ventures, state control of, an untenable doctrine, , - buxton, sydney, moved a select committee on post office servants, - ; on case of t. reilly, ; on number of applications by members of the commons, cable between dover and calais, cameron, dr. charles of glasgow, and rates for messages, ; resolution offered by, n; remarks on, - ; opposed, ; on increase of business without increase of cost, - ; his resolution passed, ; increase of mileage and operators under, ; bill to give effect to, and results, - ; argument of, campbell, john, intervention by, to reopen case eight years old, campbell-bannerman, sir henry, on election pledges, , - capital, very little new, invested after , - capital invested, how raised, ; sums on which revenue would have paid interest, , cavendish, lord frederick, debate on fawcett revision of wages, ; letter on agitation in postal service for increased wages, - chamberlain, joseph austen, on promotions and concessions, - ; would not throw responsibility on house of commons, - ; had personally considered all complaints made to him, ; petty grievances, - ; members had asked him to protect them from pressure of employees, ; opposed to thrusting details on a committee, ; proposed to get advice of business men on scale of wages of four classes, ; names the bradford committee, ; asks for a non-party vote, - ; replies to mr. nannetti's interventions, - ; on decentralization of administration in post office, - , - ; rule for making applications, - ; on wages of postmen at newton abbott, ; refuses to force retirements, ; on duties of secretaries of the treasury, - ; on pressure for expenditure, - chambers of commerce, british, demands of, for lower charges on telegraphic messages, - , ; agitation by, for state purchase of telegraph properties, chancellor of the exchequer, influence of, weakened, , - charges, lower, and better service, promise of, ; irrespective of distance, cheeseman, ----, dismissed for political activity, childers, h. c. e., opposed reduction of charges for telegrams, churchfield, charles, misrepresentations made by, - ; on the roberts case, - citizen, upbuilding the character and intelligence of the individual, civil establishments, royal commission on, testimony of sir charles du cane before, on dismissal of incompetent public employees, - civil servants, problem of a large body of, in a democracy, ; in revenue departments, enfranchised, , ; organized for political influence, ; culmination of demands of, on house of commons, ; on efforts of, to secure exemption from business standards of efficiency and discipline, - ; undue influence of in house of commons, - ; danger from increasing number of, not considered, , ; disfranchised in three departments, ; g. w. hunt on, - ; mr. gladstone on, - ; circularize members of parliament, ; warned by postmaster general, ; right of appeal conceded to, ; campaign of education, - ; positions as, sought and retained, - ; government compromises with, ; too much political pressure from, , - ; disfranchisement of suggested, ; concessions to by norfolk-hanbury committee, ; demand right to agitate, - ; commons the court of appeal for, - , ; disfranchised at their own request, ; ask new judgment on old facts, ; have friends in the commons, ; commons reminded of their votes, ; pressure from, intolerable, , , - ; hosts of non-economical demands granted to, ; political activities of, civil service should be kept out of politics, - ; a prime minister on the, - ; spirit of the, - ; implied contract between the state and the, , civil service head of an office can alone influence expenses, ; not thanked for services, , , civil service pressure, the treasury on, - ; evidence as to in , - ; earl compton's part in, - , ; w. ambrose disgusted at, civil service unions, intervention of, in behalf of the individual, , ; opposed promotion by merit, - ; active in election campaigns, ; more injurious to public interest than any combination of capital, civil services expenditure, select committee on, , testimony of sir wm. h. stephenson before, on dismissal of state servants, ; testimony given before, claims of the telegraph companies, class, r. w. hanbury on a new social, class bribery displacing personal, ; a result of public ownership, , , class grievances, spirit of trades unionism evoked for, class influence in house of commons the great reproach of the reformed parliament, - , - class interests, the commons the champion of, - class legislation to be avoided, cleghorn, j., on power of the treasury, - clerks, lower division, salaries of, n clery, ----, dismissed for political activity, , ; on political pressure, cochrane-baillie, c. w. a. n., query of, on press telegrams, commission on civil establishments, the royal, on pressure for increased wages, - committee of the indoor staff, report of, the basis for the raikes' revision of wages, ; not approved by civil servants, - committee on revenue department estimates, questions of chairman of, on salary increase under fawcett, - committee to ascertain profits of telegraph companies, competition, alleged wastefulness of, - compton, earl w. g. s. s., a representative of post office employees, ; demands a select committee, , , ; intervened for a sorter reduced for cause, consolidation of telegraph companies, argument for, - ; the companies' proposal, continuous counting of sporting messages, - cooke and wheatstone's inventions purchased, cornwell, ----, case of, cost, no explanation of discrepancies between estimates and actual, counter men, risk allowance for, crompton episode, the, - crosse, f. t., complains against promotion by merit, - ; on retention of pensioners in service, customs revenue department, complaints about promotion in, n danish government reports on users of telegraph, davies, h. a., on right to fixed rate of promotion, - davis, r. h., on action of post office authorities, davis, r. s., announces concessions made by postmaster general, day, implied contract for six hour, - ; w. e. baxter on, - ; sir r. e. welby on, - ; h. h. fowler on, ; sir t. h. farrer on, - decentralization of administration, necessity of, in post office, - , depreciation of plant, cost of, discipline, proper, should be preserved, ; typical cases of enforced leniency in, - discontent in postal and telegraph service, - , ; emphasized by a. k. rollit, - ; widespread, ; premium on, disfranchisement of civil servants suggested, disraeli, benjamin, on civil servants, - , disraeli ministry, concessions of the, ; made inadequate investigation of cost of nationalization, - ; replaced by the gladstone ministry, ; protest of, against enfranchising civil servants in revenue departments, , - dobbie, joseph, intervenes against dual duty at glasgow, - dockyard laborers not disfranchised, dual duty men, - du cane, sir charles, on getting rid of incompetent public employees, - ; on promotion by merit in the customs, duplex telegraphy, eastern telegraph cable company, work required by, _economist, the_, on nationalization, ; on bradford committee report, economy, parliament has never an influence for, in expenditure for education, ; change of public opinion toward, - ; a voice in defence of, wanted, - , edinburgh, extension of service in, edinburgh chamber of commerce leads in demand for lower charges, , , electoral disabilities, acts for relief of, n electric and international telegraph company, rates, - n; organized, ; first dividend declared, ; growth of, and prices ; paid ten per cent., ; messages carried by, and receipts, ; government purchase of, ; earnings of the, , , ; shares of, did not rise, electric light, spread of the, hampered, english companies, experience of, - equality, mechanical, demanded, ; not opportunity, examination of first class telegraphists for promotion, - executive ability, deplorable waste of, by intervention, - , - executive's power of dismissal, curtailment of, - ; power of promotion curtailed, - expense, enormous increase of, , , - , , expenses, operating, cost of, to state, ; estimated cost of, - ; under-estimated by one-half, - ; proportion of, to gross revenue, n; augmented, ; average per telegram, n; increase through raise in wages, extension of telegraph service, - ; estimated cost of, ; estimated _vs._ actual expenditure for, - ; effect of, unremunerative, farrer, sir t. h., on real difficulty of public service in getting rid of bad men, - , ; declared promotion by routine the real evil, ; put proper men at the top, ; on a six or seven hour day, - fawcett, henry, increased pay of telegraph operators, ; on increased salaries of telegraph employees, - ; horror of passing over any one, , ; created class of telegraph clerks, ; class of senior telegraphists, fawcett association, pledge contained in circular issued by the, n fawcett revision of wages, , , , ; increased expenditures from, - fay, samuel, member of bradford committee, , feasey, e. c., intervention for, by j. ward, - fergusson, sir james, on political circulars issued by civil servants, - ; issues a warning, ; on proper discipline, ; on conditions in the civil service, ; on employees taking part in politics, - financial failure of state telegraphs, reasons for, , - financial secretary, duties of the, , fischer, h. c., before tweedmouth committee, - , - ; on examination of telegraphists, - ; on optional retirement at fifty, fisher, hayes, on public expenditure, foreign experience in state operation, ; summary, foreign messages profitable in belgium, ; in switzerland, foreman, b. j., pension asked for, by l. sinclair, foster, m. h., on claims for reversionary rights, - fowler, sir h. h., on the tone in the house, ; protests against postmaster general sitting in house of lords, ; on a six or seven hour day, fowler, w., on contingent liabilities, , france, government of, appropriates the telegraph, ; increased use in, france, percentage of personal and social messages in, ; number of offices in, , freehold of provision for life, employee of the state has, , french experience, , french state telegraphs run at loss, garland, c. h., on service rendered by t. bayley, giffen, robert, on pensions to men reorganized out of service, gladstone, w. e., on class influence in house of commons, - , - ; on securing pledges from candidates, ; rescinds fergusson's warning, ; tribute of, to joseph hume, - a gladstone ministry, glasgow, extension of service in, glasgow postmaster's mistake, - godley, sir a., member of tweedmouth committee, , goldsmid, j., on overmanning offices, gorst, sir john eldon, on expenditure of public money on education, ; on mismanagement arising from intervention of house of commons, ; on power of treasury to make inquiries not exercised, ; on efficiency in business and government offices, , - goschen, g. j., on the evidence before select committee, - ; on reversionary rights of the railways, - ; questioned mr. scudamore on his estimates, - government, the problem of, and its solution, government, the, ignorant of relations between telegraph companies and railways, - ; obliged to purchase reversionary rights, ; should have resisted demands of railways, ; its estimate of total sum, . government clerks, scale of wages for, recommended by playfair commission, governments, the visible helplessness of, gower, g. g. leveson, questions of, on promotion, graves, edward, on promotion for ability, green, james, on cases of richardson and walker, - grievance, abolition of a, in turn a grievance, grievances, typical, - grimston, robert, on consolidation of telegraph companies, - groves, j. g., intervention by, guarantees required for new telegraph offices, , - ; check on log-rolling, ; agitation for reduction of, - hamilton, sir edward, on support of treasury in house of commons, hanbury, r. w., on penny postage, ; to postmaster general, - ; on political pressure, - ; cost of concessions, ; on political influence and pressure, - , ; on steadman's motion, - ; on wages of employees, ; opposed new committee, , ; denounces civil service pressure as intolerable, ; on "soft heartedness" on the part of heads of departments, ; on framing answers to questions from members, ; would represent postmaster general in house of commons only conditionally, harcourt, sir w., on post office employees, - hardie, j. keir, on concessions of tweedmouth committee, - ; intervention by, - , ; for specific retirements, harley, h., offers telegraphers chance to learn postal work, - harrison, ----, case of, hartington, marquis of, presents a bill for purchase money, ; on the bargain, - , ; erroneous estimates of, , , - , n harvey, a. s., on probationary period of service, ; on trades union spirit, hay, c. g. d., intervention by, for telegraphists, - heaton, j. h., on political patronage, - ; censured by constituents, hegnett, ----, promoted by merit. interference in case of, helsby, ----, promoted by merit. interference in case of, henderson, a., intervened for one chandler, hill, e. b. l., testimony before tweedmouth committee, ; against and for amalgamation of telegraphers into one class, hill, lewin, on yielding to civil service pressure, ; on increased expenditures, n; on civil service positions, n; no service like the public service, - ; recommendation to tweedmouth committee, ; on comparison of postmen with other classes of employment, - ; on messenger boys in post office department, hobhouse, c. e. h., intervention by, hobson, mr., postmaster at glasgow, obliged to promote by seniority, ; mistake of, holidays, tweedmouth committee on, ; sir r. e. welby on, ; news distributors' complaint about, - horse races, betting on, subsidized, - house of commons, intervention of members of, on behalf of public servants, - ; the court of appeal for civil servants, - , , ; reminded of civil servants' votes, ; omnipotent, ; responsibility resting on, ; members of coerced, ; asked to purchase votes, ; thirty threatened with loss of seats, - ; majority of members pledged, ; under pressure from the civil service unions, curtails executive's power to dismiss incompetent and redundant employees, - ; intervention of on behalf of individuals through civil service unions, ; is master of public departments, - ; pressure of members on heads of departments, - ; the tone in the, ; stimulus of a question in the, ; stands for extravagance, - ; the champion of class interests, ; debates in, weaken hands of treasury, , ; constant pressure from, on financial secretary for class interests, - hume, joseph, w. e. gladstone's tribute to, as a defender of economy in expenditure, - hunt, g. w., calls mr. scudamore author of bill to acquire telegraphs, ; on uses of telegraph, ; on estimated cost of and revenue from the telegraphs, ; on the terms of purchase, ; on purchase of reversionary rights, ; on civil servants, - incompetents, difficulty of removing, - , ; reorganized out of service on pensions, - ; cost of pensions to, ; juniors doing work of, indictment against telegraph companies, individual grievances, interference for, industry, a ready-made, acquired, inland messages, loss on, in belgium, - ; in switzerland, - inland telegrams, low rates on, ; losses incurred by, inland traffic, attempt to develop in belgium, - ; in switzerland, inquiry, scope of the, - inspection of education, - inspectors, educational, difficulties of, - inter-departmental committee on post office establishments named, - intervention through house of commons on behalf of individuals, - , ; in matters of promotion, - ; by members an obvious difficulty, ; types of, - ; on behalf of individual employees, how managed, - ; special cases of, by members of house of commons, - , - ; number of, ; waste of executive ability from, - ; mismanagement arising from, irons, h. b., complains of prospects for promotion, isle of man cable bought, jackson, ----, of kilkenny, interference for, jersey and guernsey cable bought, jevons, w. s., on the increased use of telegraphs, ; on cost of extension, ; disillusionment of, , jobbery not the great evil of the service, johnson, h., interference for, jones, w., intervenes for telegraph clerks at oxford, - ; lord stanley's reply to, joyce, h., on promotions for merit over men not qualified, - ; on case of robinson, - ; on wykes case, ; on the bradlaugh episode, ; on the webster case, joyce, michael, intervention by, - judges, county court, travelling expenses of, kearley, h. e., demands a select committee, - ; declares promotion of telegraphists blocked, ; statement of, declared misleading by mr. morley, - ; grievances of the auxiliary staff, kensington, ----, case of, kerry, c. h., before tweedmouth committee, ; on wages and speed of telegraphists, - knox, sir ralph h., on extravagance in house of commons, - ; defenders of economy needed, lacon, telegraphist at birmingham, case of, - _laissez-faire_, ; alleged breakdown of, - ; a better policy for the public interest than state intervention, lawson, h. l. w., on interference of members of parliament in dismissals from service, ; on spirit of trades unionism among clerks, - ; interventions by, ; for telegraphists, - learners, promotion of, leeds, extension of service in, - leeman, g., cross-questions mr. scudamore, - n, n, ; on mr. scudamore's estimates of cost of reversionary rights of railways, - , letter sorters, scale of wages for, - letter sent, scudamore's misleading comparison of telegrams with, - liberal party supported demands of civil servants, - lickfold, j. r., on medical certificates, - lingen, lord r. r. w., on difficulties in public departments due to triennial change of government, - ; on trouble to secure efficiency, log-rolling by members of house of commons, - london and provincial telegraph company, ; rates charged by, ; government purchase of, london central telegraph office, employees not drawn from, - london district telegraph company unsuccessful as result of low rates charged, - ; rate table, n; notice of, london local telegraph system enlarged, london trades council, complaints from, lowe, robert, on the immense price paid, - ; division of the service under, mcdonald, g., on grievances of news distributors, macdonald, j. a. m., questions mr. gladstone on civil service pressure, ; demands a select committee, ; motion for, lost, m'dougall, ----, promoted by merit, - maciver, david, on complaints of telegraphists, - maddison, f., on a non-official committee, magnetic telegraph company, - malingerers' grievance, j. r. lickfold on the, ; j. c. badcock on, - ; s. walpole to witness on, manchester, extension of service in, manners, lord john, on glasgow postmasters' mistake, - mears, ----, case of, member of parliament, should interference of, in behalf of public employee, lead to dismissal? ; influence of, may annul power of dismissal in public departments, members of house of commons intervene in cases of discipline, - members of parliament and the rank and file, mercer, ----, interference for, merchants, general, used telegraphs little, messages, annual increase in, ; relating to personal affairs an important part of traffic - ; annual increase of, in united kingdom, ; mr. scudamore's estimated increase of, - ; fully realized ; traffic of, ; increase in number of, , ; sent to individual newspapers, n; annual loss on newspaper, - , , ; delivered to newspapers, n; remained nearly stationary, n; increase of, mileage of telegraph lines in united kingdom, - , n; of extension, , n; increase of, through reduction of tariff, mitford, f., power of dismissal in public departments may be annulled by pressure from individual members of parliament, money order issuing post office, a telegraph office promised at every, money order post offices and telegraph facilities compared, monk, charles james, introduced and carried bill to enfranchise revenue officers, , ; mr. gladstone on the bill, - morgan, ----, case of, morley, arnold, postmaster general, ; on a select committee, - ; reply to mr. kearley on promotions, - , - ; on civil service positions, - ; on make up of select committee, - ; on the post office for revenue, ; lords commissioners of the treasury to, - ; on passing over men not qualified, , mowatt, sir f., member of tweedmouth committee, , , municipalities and national government as violators of permanent interests of the people, - murphy, dennis, interference for, murray, sir george h., on change in attitude of house of commons on expenditures, , nannetti, j. p., questions promotion of two female telegraphists, - ; interventions by, , , national expenditure, select committee on, evidence before in , on intervention of house of commons in departments of state, national joint committee of the postal association, resolution of, against the bradford committee, national telephone company, obstacles to development by, - national union of teachers, brings influence against inspectors, nationalization of the telegraphs, ; scotch as leaders in, , ; argument for, - ; has increased the use of telegraphs, newnes, sir g., intervention by, news distributors complain about saturday holiday, - ; other grievances laid before tweedmouth committee, - newspaper sorters, no work for first class, since , - newspapers, subscription charges to, for press bureau, - ; favored nationalization, ; maximum rate demanded by, ; yielded by scudamore, ; report of committee on, - ; loss on service to, - , , ; messages delivered to, n; given an unprofitable tariff, nicholson, a. s., on grievances of telegraphists, - non-paying telegraph offices, guarantees required for, , - ; misleading tables regarding, - norfolk-hanbury committee recommended further concessions, - ; work done by, ; did not give satisfaction, ; increased expenses from, norfolk-hanbury compromise, north, a. w., grievance of, as to female telegraphist, north, lord frederick, ordered civil servants to support the government, northcote, sir stafford, disillusionment of, norton, capt. c. w., an aggressive champion of civil servants, ; on technical examination of telegraphists, ; moves a reduction in expenses, ; charges government with breach of faith, - ; motion lost, ; on rights of postal servants as voters, - ; moved reduction of post office vote, ; on civil service agitation, - ; motion lost, ; vote, n; made a junior lord of the treasury, ; intervention by, ; for senior telegraphists, , o'brien, p., intervention by, - ; for retirements, o'connor, james, intervention by, official documents, list of, used as authorities, n operators, increase in number of, to meet reduction of tariff, overseers in postal service, relief from duty of, oxford telegraph clerks secure intervention against dual duty, - palmer, g. w., intervened for learners punished for carelessness, parliament warned against government's estimates, - , ; enacted purchase bill, ; responsible for telegraph deficits, - ; reduced tariff on telegrams, ; not competent to judge, - ; has never an influence for economy, . _see also_ house of commons parliamentary committees, titles of reports of, n parliamentary secretary, duties of the, - parties, both political, committed to nationalization, party, neither, in open alliance with civil servants, patey, c. h. b., on guaranteed offices, ; on operating expenses, ; on loss for newspaper service, - , ; on telegraph flimsy, - penny postage precedent, cited by mr. scudamore, - ; profit from, , pensioners, retired, recalled to service, ; protest against before tweedmouth committee, pension system no remedy for getting rid of incompetents, pensions, state's system of, contrasted with system of london and north western railway, pensions to the incompetent, cost of, permanent secretary, duties of the, personal bribery replaced by class bribery, playfair, sir lyon, testimony of, before royal commission on civil establishments, - ; on infrequency of promotion by merit, ; on writers, - playfair commission, scale of wages for government clerks recommended by, pledge contained in circular issued by the fawcett association, n plummer, sir w. r., intervenes for retirements, - political influence, effect of, on post office administration, - political pressure not all in one direction, ; too much from civil servants, , - , - politics forces the government's hand, - post office, the, a revenue department, ; denied by a. k. rollit, ; technical work of the, ; no part of its duty to make a profit, ; net revenue from, ; expenses increased, post office department, complaint of stagnation of promotion in, ; tweedmouth committee on, ; apparent net profits of, n; compelled to deal leniently with violators of rules, - post office employees denied by the conservative ministry a select committee on their pay and position, ; vote with liberals, ; and secure the committee, ; press house of commons for increase of wages and salaries, - ; circular of, objected to by lord stanley, post office officials can only recommend for promotion, post office servants, select committee on, postal clerks and telegraphists, comparative chances for promotion of, - ; bradford committee on, postal servants, are, fairly paid, ; expenditure demands of, called for, ; not satisfied with bradford committees' recommendations, , ; demands were "blackmail" and "blood-sucking," - , ; largely in hands of agitators, - ; and the general election of , - postal telegraph clerks' association, a powerful political organization, ; concessions granted to, ; demands adoption of the bradford committee report, - ; meetings of, - , postal telegraph offices, increase of, ; misleading tables regarding, - postmaster general, concessions made by, ; and the party following, ; limitations of power of, to promote or to remove, - ; interviewed first in cases of intervention by a member of parliament, postmasters general, anxieties of, regarding promotions, , , postmasters, demands of, from tweedmouth committee, ; salaries of, and volume of business, postmen, w. c. steadman on grievances of the, - ; thos. bayley asks for a committee on, postmen, london, abolition of classification of, - preece, w. h., on ignorance of telegraphers, ; offers increased pay for technical knowledge, press bureau maintained by telegraph companies, ; charges for service, - press hampers heads of departments in matter of promotions, price, r. j., sought to intervene in house in a case of promotion, private enterprise, adequate results of, - private enterprise in telegraphy broken down, , ; mr. scudamore's arguments to prove, ; his errors show his failure, probationers, difficult to dismiss, problem of government, the, and its solution, promotion, employees claim a vested right to, ; misleading table of, , ; tweedmouth committee, on, - ; bradford committee on, ; e. graves on preference for, ; by routine the real evil, , ; tact and honesty needed in, ; selection of officers for, an invidious task, ; right to fix rate of, claimed, - promotion by merit hardly takes place, ; recommended by the royal commission, ; regulations for, n; political element in, ; anxieties of postmasters general regarding, ; cases of, cited, - ; opposed by rank and file, ; complaints against, - promotion by seniority the great evil, ; demand for, widely established, promotions revoked through pressure from members, ; secured for men reported as "not qualified" by influence of c. bradlaugh, - prussia, effect of reduced rates on increase of messages in, , public interest promoted by activities of speculator and dividend seeker, public opinion, change of, in matters of public expenditure, - ; no body of intelligent and disinterested, public ownership a parasite, public service, british, an attractive haven of refuge, - ; no service like the, - , ; three distinguishing features of the, - ; prime minister balfour's anxiety for the, - ; future of the, in peril, ; reduced to a dull level of mediocrity, "public service" messages, allowance for value of, - purchase by the state, threat of, arrested extensions, purchase of the telegraphs, - ; bill introduced for, ; estimated price, ; provisions of bill, ; the _economist_ on, ; scudamore on the terms of, ; hunt on, ; amount asked for, ; robert lowe on government monopoly, - purchase price of telegraphs estimated, , ; of reversionary rights of railways, raikes, h. c., scheme of increased wages for telegraph employees, - ; rebukes the house for interference, ; on the management of his department, - ; on personal attention of postmaster general given to cases of dismissal, ; explains a case of promotion by seniority, - , raikes' revision of wages and salaries, - , - , ; increased expenditures from, - railway companies, m. h. foster's views on reversionary rights of, - ; government's proposition to, ; cost of the reversionary rights, - ; wires released to, railways, reversionary rights of the, in the telegraphs, ; purchase of the, necessary, ; mr. goschen on, - ; mr. scudamore's estimates for, erroneous, - ; leases of way-leaves, - rates for messages, control of, lost by the government, , , ; effect of reduction of, on increase of telegrams, ; charged by british companies, ; irrespective of distance, not remunerative, , - ; mr. scudamore's forecasts on, - reformed parliament, class influence the great reproach of the, - , - reilly, thomas, case of, reorganization out of service, - representation of the people bill, reuter's telegram company, property of, purchased, revenue, estimated gross, ; net, ; proved appalling blunders, ; receipts, - ; and interest on capital, - n; net from messages, ; large loss in, - , ; a diminished balance of, and increased expense, - , revenue department estimates, select committee on, report on deficit in telegraph department, - revenue officers, enfranchisement of proposed, ; opposed by disraeli, ; carried by mr. monk, ; g. w. hunt on, - ; favored by gladstone, , reversionary rights of railway companies, - ; sum paid for, ; estimate of, and cost, richardson, ----, case of, - right, the sole, to transmit messages by electricity acquired by the government, roberts, ----, auxiliary postman, case of, - robinson, postman at liverpool, appointed inspector, ; case cited as a grievance to tweedmouth committee, rockingham, marquis of, disfranchised revenue servants at their own request, , rollitt, sir albert k., on demands of telegraphists, ; on examinations for promotion, ; moved reduction of salary of post master general, ; endorses complaints, - ; demands a committee of business men, ; withdrew amendment, ; reminds commons of civil servants' votes, ; charges breach of contract, ; record of, ; supported norton's motion, ronalds, mr., attempts to interest british government in telegraphy, rothschild, baron f. de, on civil servants, royal commission of declared promotion by seniority the great evil, rutherford, w. w., a merchant in politics, salary, _see_ wages salisbury government succeeded by the gladstone, samuel, h., intervenes for telegraph clerks at oxford, saunders, mr., on gratuitous sporting messages, - schackleton, d. j., intervention by, school board of london, influence of, schwann, c. e., intervention by, - scudamore, f. i., commissioned to report on private and state telegraphs, , ; report of, - ; reports based on incomplete returns, - ; errors in his figures, - , , ; standards of service, - ; errors of estimate of cost of extension and operation, ; misleading comparison of telegrams with letters, - ; failure of his evidence, ; argued for state monopoly, - ; previously opposed the same, n; on a post office system of telegraphs, - ; on the terms of purchase, ; estimated cost, , ; cross-examination of, - n, n; ignorant of relations between telegraph and railway companies, ; report on reorganization of telegraphs, n; estimate of revenue, , - ; influence over two ministries, ; argues from penny postage, ; revenue forecasts, - ; increase of messages, ; gross revenue, ; working expenses, - ; stood by his estimates, - ; revenue predictions of, appalling blunders, ; responsible for, ; to committee of newspaper proprietors, - ; yields to newspaper demand, select committee on post office servants, composition of, and reference to, ; asks for reappointment, service, mr. scudamore's standards of, - service, change in conditions of, resisted, - shares, proposed way of selling, shaw lefevre, g. j., on the reduction of the tariff on telegrams, - shehan, d. d., intervention by, shephard, j., complaints of, before tweedmouth committee, - , - sloan, t. h., intervention by, - , smith, j. s., on the webster case, ; on woodhouse case, - smith, llewellyn, member of tweedmouth committee, , , smith, w. h., on the purchase of the telegraphs, smyth, thomas, intervention of, for thomas reilly, sorters of foreign letters, option of vested interest for, - ; complaint from second class, speculator and dividend seeker, the mere, split duties, complaint about, sporting messages sent gratuitously, ; to so-called hotels, staff appointments the salt of the service, n staff of men highly trained in the school of competition, stanley (of alderly), lord e. j. s., ordered report on post office telegraph service, ; on bradford committee's report, - , - ; would not receive circulars from members of house, ; cost of recommendations, , ; made own investigation and granted increased pay, , ; would bear responsibility, ; congratulated on his retirement, ; on promotion for merit, ; on dual duty, stansfeld, james, on difference between public and private establishment, - state, result of extending the functions of the, state employment means life employment, statistics of telegraph lines and facilities, - steadman, w. c., demands a select committee on causes of complaint, ; motion lost, ; moved reduction of postmaster general's salary, ; lost, ; third demand, ; lost, ; cites special cases of grievance, - ; on this question business, - stephenson, sir wm. h., on dismissal of state servants, - ; on cost of pensions of incompetents, ; on promotions, superannuation act, committee on operation of, swiss experience, - , switzerland, reports on users of telegraph in, ; effect of reduction of rates, ; telegraph introduced in, ; appropriated by the government, ; statistics, ; increased use in, ; telegrams to inhabitants in, table of ages and wages of provincial telegraphists, n tariff on telegrams reduced, , ; cut almost in two, ; government should have resisted vote to cut in two, tariffs and growth of traffic, - taylor, postman of sterling, case of, telegrams, proportion of, to letters sent, ; tariff on, reduced by house of commons, , ; cut almost in two, telegraph of no use in times of peace, telegraph clerks, lack of knowledge of technics by, - ; demanded reduction of hours, ; intervention for at halifax, telegraph companies, indictment of, ; proposal of the, ; unpopular, ; sums to be paid to, n telegraph deficit, aggregate, ; parliament responsible for, - telegraph department, report on deficits in, with statistics, - , ; not earning operating expenses, telegraph employees, good-will of, purchased out of public purse, telegraph lines, cost of rearranging and extending, , ; estimated, telegraph messages, and revenue from, - , n telegraph offices in united kingdom, ; non-paying, n telegraph service, extension of, - ; actual cost, telegraph stations, number of, in , ; distances from post office, ; open to the public, n; number of increased, telegraph systems of united kingdom and those of belgium and switzerland, distinction between, ; comparative use of, - telegraphists, average weekly wages paid to, by companies, - ; wages increased after transfer to post office, ; lord cavendish on organized agitation by, - ; table of ages and wages of, n; earl compton on grievances of the, ; cost of concessions to, , ; promotion of, blocked, - ; demand of, - ; neglected to improve themselves, ; false statements by, - ; c. h. kerry on work required of, - ; maximum salary of, raised, - ; complaints of, endorsed by a. k. rollit, - ; threaten to strike, ; concessions to, ; grievance of examination, ; charge of breach of contract, , - ; senior, promoted from first class, ; by examination, - ; first class complained of grievance, , ; increase in promotions, ; complaint, - ; intervention for second class by h. l. w. lawson, - ; capt. norton intervenes for, ; demand amalgamation into a single class, - ; reject opportunities and demand more pay, - ; seek intervention to prevent transfer as sorters, - ; grievances as to pensions, telegraphs, purchase of the, , - ; high price paid, - ; estimated cost and revenue, ; terms of the purchase, - ; scudamore and hunt on, - ; estimated revenue, , ; transferred to post office department, ; actual cost of to government, ; cost of extension and rearrangement, - ; earnings, - , ; become self-supporting, - ; failed to earn operating expenses, ; might have remained self-supporting, ; subsidize newspaper press, - ; rate charged, ; committee on increased cost of service, - ; subsidize pool-rooms, - ; extension of, a purchase of votes out of the public purse, ; would yield a profit in hands of a commercial company, telegraphs more freely used in switzerland and belgium than in the united kingdom, , telephone, competition from, telephone industry hampered by the state, - , telephone royalties included in gross receipts, _times, the_, on bradford committee report, - tipping, e. j., on the crompton case, towns, english and welsh, telegraphic facilities in, , - trades union spirit, development of a, - tradesman, small, did not use telegraph, traffic, growth of, and tariffs, - transit messages profitable in belgium, ; in switzerland, treasury, the, on civil service pressure, ; organization and work of the, - ; power of public opinion on, - ; power of, not exercised, , - ; importance of, , treasury, lords commissioners of the, on accepting recommendations of tweedmouth committee, - trenan, e., on lack of knowledge of technics in telegraph clerks, tribunal, a permanent non-political suggested, turner, ----, case of, tweedmouth committee, testimony before, , - ; membership of, - , ; report, - ; l. hill before the, - ; h. c. fischer, - ; c. h. kerry, - ; recommendations of, - ; recommendations of accepted, ; sharply criticized by a. k. rollit, - ; a one-sided tribunal, ; did not give satisfaction, ; increase of expenses by, ; testimony showing leniency of post office department with offenders, - ; special grievances cited to the, - ; on risk allowances, ; on pay for letter sorters, - ; on holidays, ; grievances laid before, - ; evidence before, shows the visible helplessness of governments, - united kingdom, telegraph facilities in , - ; telegrams to inhabitants in, united kingdom electric telegraph company, organized with uniform tariff irrespective of distance, ; extent of lines, ; shilling rate abandoned, - ; rates, n; rates increased, united kingdom telegraph company, ; government purchase of, universal private company, property of, purchased, uren, j. g., on transfers of postmasters, ; on blocking officers by pensioners, vacancy, suburban, interference in the filling of a, - verney, sir harry, moves enfranchisement of revenue officers, vested rights doctrine of the civil service, , ; sundry, - ; vincent, sir edgar, on dismissal of incompetent officers, - wages and salaries of employees raised by political pressure, - , , , - ; caused decrease of revenue, ; average weekly, paid to telegraphists by companies, - ; increase in after transfer to post office, ; fawcett revision of, ; lord cavendish on, - ; raikes revision of, - ; increased expenditures from, - , , ; no justification for raising maximum, ; tweedmouth committees' recommendations on, - ; adopted, ; further raise of, by norfolk-hanbury committee, ; cost of, - ; continued pressure for increase, - ; comparative, walker, j. r., passed over, walpole, spencer, member of tweedmouth committee, , , ; on punishment of a postman for intoxication, ; on roberts case, ; on worth case, ; on the malingerers' grievance, ward, j., member of select committee, intervention by, - wastefulness of the government's operation, ; inherent, ; diminution of, weaver, h., on the newspaper tariff, - webster, letter carrier, disciplined for misconduct, - welby, sir reginald e., testimony of, before royal commission on civil service pressure, - ; on power to remove incompetent employees, - , ; on probationary period, - ; on pensions, ; on abolition terms, ; on a six or seven hour day, - ; on vacations, ; on power of public opinion on treasury control of expenditures, - ; on power of treasury to limit number of clerks, - west, sir algernon e., testimony of, before royal commission on civil service pressure, - ; result of reorganization made by, ; on promotion by merit, - whips, government, - whitehall system of inspection inefficient, - wiles, t., intervention by, wireless telegraphy restricted from competition with government telegraph monopoly, - women telegraphists, promotion of, questioned, - wood, ----, interference in behalf of, - wood, sir charles, on reduction in number of junior lords, woodhouse, ----, postman at norwich, case of, - woods, samuel, motion of, for right to agitate, - ; lost, work, maximum of, provided for, writers and their importance, - wykes, ablest man in sheffield office, displaced after promotion, , , transcriber note: italics are rendered between underscores, e.g. _italics_. small caps are rendered as all caps. other changes made by the transcriber are listed below. transcriber's change table +------+---------------+---------------+ |image |as printed |changed to | |------+---------------+---------------+ | |premanent |permanent | | |augumented |augmented | | |extraordinarly |extraordinarily| | |unbiassed |unbiased | | |indefinately |indefinitely | | |commissoin |commission | | | | n | +----------------------+---------------+ proofreaders. this file was produced from images generously made available by the bibliotheque nationale de france (bnf/gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr. samuel f.b. morse his letters and journals in two volumes volume ii [illustration: sam'l. f.b. morse] samuel f.b. morse his letters and journals edited and supplemented by his son edward lind morse illustrated with reproductions of his paintings and with notes and diagrams bearing on the invention of the telegraph volume ii _published november _ "th' invention all admir'd, and each how he to be th' inventor miss'd, so easy it seem'd once found, which yet unfound most would have thought impossible." milton. contents chapter xxi october , --february , packet-ship sully.--dinner-table conversation.--dr. charles t. jackson.-- first conception of telegraph.--sketch-book.--idea of basic principle of telegraph of to-day.--thoughts on priority.--testimony of passengers and captain pell.--difference between "discovery" and "invention."--professor e.n. hereford's paper.--arrival in new york.-- testimony of his brothers.--first steps toward perfection of the invention.--letters to fenimore cooper chapter xxii -- still painting.--thoughts on art.--picture of the louvre.--rejection as painter of one of the pictures in the capitol.--john quincy adams.--james fenimore cooper's article.--death blow to his artistic ambition.-- washington allston's letter.--commission by fellow artists.--definite abandonment of art.--repayment of money advanced.--death of lafayette.-- religious controversies.--appointed professor in university of city of new york.--description of first telegraphic instrument.--successful experiments.--relay.--address in chapter xxiii -- first exhibitions of the telegraph.--testimony of robert g. rankin and rev. henry b. tappan.--cooke and wheatstone.--joseph henry, leonard d. gale, and alfred vail.--professor gale's testimony.--professor henry's discoveries.--regrettable controversy of later years.--professor charles t. jackson's claims.--alfred vail.--contract of september , .--work at morristown, new jersey.--the "morse alphabet."--reading by sound.-- first and second forms of alphabet chapter xxiv october , --may , the caveat.--work at morristown.--judge vail.--first success.--resolution in congress regarding telegraphs.--morse's reply.--illness.--heaviness of first instruments.--successful exhibition in morristown.--exhibition in new york university.--first use of morse alphabet.--change from first form of alphabet to present form.--trials of an inventor.--dr. jackson.-- slight friction between morse and vail.--exhibition at franklin institute, philadelphia.--exhibitions in washington.--skepticism of public.--f.o.j. smith.--f.l. pope's estimate of smith.--proposal for government telegraph.--smith's report.--departure for europe chapter xxv june, --january . arrival in england.--application for letters patent.--cooke and wheatstone's telegraph.--patent refused.--departure for paris.--patent secured in france.--earl of elgin.--earl of lincoln.--baron de meyendorff.--russian contract.--return to london.--exhibition at the earl of lincoln's.--letter from secretary of lord campbell, attorney-general. --coronation of queen victoria.--letters to daughter.--birth of the count of paris.--exhibition before the institute of france.--arago; baron humboldt.--negotiations with the government and saint-germain railway.-- reminiscences of dr. kirk.--letter of the honorable h. l. ellsworth.-- letter to f.o.j. smith.--dilatoriness of the french chapter xxvi january , --march , despondent letter to his brother sidney.--longing for a home.--letter to smith.--more delays.--change of ministry.--proposal to form private company.--impossible under the laws of france.--telegraphs a government monopoly.--refusal of czar to sign russian contract.--dr. jackson.--m. amyot.--failure to gain audience of king.--lord elgin.--earl of lincoln. --robert walsh prophesies success.--meeting with earl of lincoln in later years.--daguerre.--letter to mrs. cass on lotteries.--railway and military telegraphs.--skepticism of a marshal of france chapter xxvii april , --september , arrival in new york.--disappointment at finding nothing done by congress or his associates.--letter to professor henry.--henry's reply.-- correspondence with daguerre.--experiments with daguerreotypes.-- professor draper.--first group photograph of a college class.--failure of russian contract.--mr. chamberlain.--discouragement through lack of funds.--no help from his associates.--improvements in telegraph made by morse.--humorous letter chapter xxviii june , --august , first patent issued.--proposal of cooke and wheatstone to join forces rejected.--letter to rev. e.s. salisbury.--money advanced by brother artists repaid.--poverty.--reminiscences of general strother, "porte crayon."--other reminiscences.--inaction in congress.--flattering letter of f.o.j. smith.--letter to smith urging action.--gonon and wheatstone.-- temptation to abandon enterprise.--partners all financially crippled.-- morse alone doing any work.--encouraging letter from professor henry.-- renewed enthusiasm.--letter to hon. w.w. boardman urging appropriation of $ by congress.--not even considered.--despair of inventor chapter xxix july , --march , continued discouragements.--working on improvements.--first submarine cable from battery to governor's island.--the vails refuse to give financial assistance.--goes to washington.--experiments conducted at the capitol.--first to discover duplex and wireless telegraphy.--dr. fisher. --friends in congress.--finds his statuette of dying hercules in basement of capitol.--alternately hopes and despairs of bill passing congress.-- bill favorably reported from committee.--clouds breaking.--ridicule in congress.--bill passes house by narrow majority.--long delay in senate.-- last day of session.--despair.--bill passes.--victory at last chapter xxx march , --june , work on first telegraph line begun.--gale, fisher, and vail appointed assistants.--f.o.j. smith to secure contract for trenching.--morse not satisfied with contract.--death of washington allston.--reports to secretary of the treasury.--prophesies atlantic cable.--failure of underground wires.--carelessness of fisher.--f.o.j. smith shows cloven hoof.--ezra cornell solves a difficult problem.--cornell's plan for insulation endorsed by professor henry.--many discouragements.--work finally progresses favorably.--frelinghuysen's nomination as vice-president reported by telegraph.--line to baltimore completed.-- first message.--triumph.--reports of democratic convention.--first long-distance conversation.--utility of telegraph established.--offer to sell to government chapter xxxi june , --october , fame and fortune now assured.--government declines purchase of telegraph.--accident to leg gives needed rest.--reflections on ways of providence.--consideration of financial propositions.--f.o.j. smith's fulsome praise.--morse's reply.--extension of telegraph proceeds slowly. --letter to russian minister.--letter to london "mechanics' magazine" claiming priority and first experiments in wireless telegraphy.--hopes that government may yet purchase.--longing for a home.--dinner at russian minister's.--congress again fails him.--amos kendall chosen as business agent.--first telegraph company.--fourth voyage to europe.--london, broek, hamburg.--letter of charles t. fleischmann.--paris.--nothing definite accomplished chapter xxxii december , --april , return to america.--telegraph affairs in bad shape.--degree of ll.d. from yale.--letter from cambridge livingston.--henry o'reilly.--grief at unfaithfulness of friends.--estrangement from professor henry.--morse's "defense."--his regret at feeling compelled to publish it.--hopes to resume his brush.--capitol panel.--again disappointed.--another accident.--first money earned from telegraph devoted to religious purposes.--letters to his brother sidney.--telegraph matters.--mexican war.--faith in the future.--desire to be lenient to opponents.--dr. jackson.--edward warren.--alfred vail remains loyal.--troubles in virginia.--henry j. rogers.--letter to j.d. reid about o'reilly.--f.o.j. smith again.--purchases a home at last.--"locust grove," on the hudson, near poughkeepsie.--enthusiastic description.--more troubles without, but peace in his new home chapter xxxiii january , --december , preparation for lawsuits.--letter from colonel shaffner.--morse's reply deprecating bloodshed.--shaffner allays his fears.--morse attends his son's wedding at utica.--his own second marriage.--first of great lawsuits.--almost all suits in morse's favor.--decision of supreme court of united states.--extract from an earlier opinion.--alfred vail leaves the telegraph business.--remarks on this by james d. reid.--morse receives decoration from sultan of turkey.--letter to organizers of printers' festival.--letter concerning aviation.--optimistic letter from mr. kendall.--humorous letter from george wood.--thomas r. walker.-- letter to fenimore cooper.--dr. jackson again.--unfairness of the press. --letter from charles c. ingham on art matters.--letter from george vail.--f.o.j. smith continues to embarrass.--letter from morse to smith chapter xxxiv march , --november , precarious financial condition.--regret at not being able to make loan.-- false impression of great wealth.--fears he may have to sell home.-- f.o.j. smith continues to give trouble.--morse system extending throughout the world.--death of fenimore cooper.--subscriptions to charities, etc.--first use of word "telegram."--mysterious fire in supreme court clerk's room.--letter of commodore perry.--disinclination to antagonize henry.--temporary triumph of f.o.j. smith.--order gradually emerging.--expenses of the law.--triumph in australia.--gift to yale college.--supreme court decision and extension of patent.--social diversions in washington.--letters of george wood and p. h. watson on extension of patent.--loyalty to mr. kendall; also to alfred vail.-- decides to publish "defense."--controversy with bishop spaulding.--creed on slavery.--political views.--defeated for congress chapter xxxv january , --august , payment of dividends delayed.--concern for welfare of his country.-- indignation at corrupt proposal from california.--kendall hampered by the vails.--proposition by capitalists to purchase patent rights.--cyrus w. field.--newfoundland electric telegraph company.--suggestion of atlantic cable.--hopes thereby to eliminate war.--trip to newfoundland.--temporary failure.--f.o.j. smith continues to give trouble.--financial conditions improve.--morse and his wife sail for europe.--fêted in london.-- experiments with dr. whitehouse.--mr. brett.--dr. o'shaughnessy and the telegraph in india.--mr. cooke.--charles r. leslie.--paris.--hamburg.-- copenhagen.--presentation to king.--thorwaldsen museum.--oersted's daughter.--st. petersburg.--presentation to czar at peterhoff chapter xxxvi august , --september , berlin.--baron von humboldt.--london, successful cable experiments with whitehouse and bright.--banquet at albion tavern.--flattering speech of w. f. cooke.--returns to america.--troubles multiply.--letter to the honorable john y. mason on political matters.--kendall urges severing of connection with cable company.--morse, nevertheless, decides to continue.--appointed electrician of company.--sails on u.s.s. niagara.-- letter from paris on the crinoline.--expedition sails from liverpool.-- queenstown harbor.--accident to his leg.--valencia.--laying of cable begun.--anxieties.--three successful days.--cable breaks.--failure.-- returns to america.--retires from cable enterprise.--predicts in failure of apparently successful laying of cable.--sidney e. morse.--the hare and the tortoise.--european testimonial: considered niggardly by kendall.--decorations, medals, etc., from european nations.--letter of thanks to count walewski chapter xxxvii september . --september , visits europe again with a large family party.--regrets this.--sails for porto rico with wife and two children.--first impressions of the tropics.--hospitalities.--his son-in-law's plantation.--death of alfred vail.--smithsonian exonerates henry.--european honors to morse.--first line of telegraph in porto rico.--banquet.--returns home.--reception at poughkeepsie.--refuses to become candidate for the presidency.--purchases new york house.--f.o.j. smith claims part of european gratuity.--succeeds through legal technicality.--visit of prince of wales.--duke of newcastle.--war clouds.--letters on slavery, etc.--matthew vassar.-- efforts as peacemaker.--foresees northern victory.--gloomy forebodings.-- monument to his father.--divides part of european gratuity with widow of vail.--continued efforts in behalf of peace.--bible arguments in favor of slavery chapter xxxviii february , --november , sanitary commission.--letter to dr. bellows.--letter on "loyalty."--his brother richard upholds lincoln.--letters of brotherly reproof.-- introduces mcclellan at preëlection parade.--lincoln reelected.--anxiety as to future of country.--unsuccessful effort to take up art again.-- letter to his sons.--gratification at rapid progress of telegraph.-- letter to george wood on two great mysteries of life.--presents portrait of allston to the national academy of design.--endows lectureship in union theological seminary.--refuses to attend fifty-fifth reunion of his class.--statue to him proposed.--ezra cornell's benefaction.--american asiatic society.--amalgamation of telegraph companies.--protest against stock manipulations.--approves of president andrew johnson.--sails with family for europe.--paris exposition of .--descriptions of festivities.--cyrus w. field.--incident in early life of napoleon iii.-- made honorary commissioner to exposition.--attempt on life of czar.--ball at hotel de ville.--isle of wight.--england and scotland.--the "sounder."--returns to paris chapter xxxix november , --june . goes to dresden.--trials financial and personal.--humorous letter to e.s. sanford.--berlin.--the telegraph in the war of .--paris.--returns to america.--death of his brother richard.--banquet in new york.--addresses of chief justice chase, morse, and daniel huntington.--report as commissioner finished.--professor w.p. blake's letter urging recognition of professor henry.--morse complies.--henry refuses to be reconciled.-- reading by sound.--morse breaks his leg.--deaths of amos kendall and george wood.--statue in central park.--addresses of governor hoffman and william cullen bryant.--ceremonies at academy of music.--morse bids farewell to his children of the telegraph chapter xl june , --april , nearing the end.--estimate of the reverend f.b. wheeler.--early poem.-- leaves "locust grove" for last time.--death of his brother sidney.-- letter to cyrus field on neutrality of telegraph.--letter of f.o.j. smith to h.j. rogers.--reply by professor gale.--vicious attack by f.o.j. smith.--death prevents reply by morse.--unveils statue of franklin in last public appearance.--last hours.--death.--tributes of james d. reid, new york "evening post," new york "herald," and louisville "courier-journal."--funeral.--monument in greenwood cemetery.--memorial services in house of representatives, washington.--address of james g. blaine.--other memorial services.--mr. prime's review of morse's character.--epilogue illustrations morse the inventor (photogravure) from a photograph. drawings from sketch-book, showing first conception of telegraph morse's first telegraph instrument now in the national museum, washington. rough drawing by morse showing the first form of the alphabet and the changes to the present form quantities of the type found in the type-cases of a printing-office. calculation made by morse to aid him in simplifying alphabet "attention universe, by kingdoms right wheel." facsimile of first morse alphabet message given to general thomas s. cummings at time of transmission by professor s.f.b. morse, new york university, wednesday, january , . presented to the national museum at washington by the family of general thomas s. cummings of new york, february , . drawing by morse of railway telegraph, patented by him in france in , and embodying principle of police and fire alarm telegraph first form of key.--improved form of key.--early relay.--first washington-baltimore instrument the two keys and the relay are in the national museum, washington. the washington-baltimore instrument is owned by cornell university. s. f. b. morse from a portrait by daniel huntington. house at locust grove, poughkeepsie, new york sarah elizabeth griswold, second wife of s. f. b. morse from a daguerreotype. morse and his youngest son from an ambrotype. house and library at west d street, new york telegram showing morse's characteristic deadhead, which he always used to frank his messages morse in old age from a photograph by sarony. samuel f. b. morse his letters and journals chapter xxi october , --february , packet-ship sully.--dinner-table conversation.--dr. charles t. jackson.-- first conception of telegraph.--sketch-book.--idea of basic principle of telegraph of to-day.--thoughts on priority.--testimony of passengers and captain pell.--difference between "discovery" and "invention."--professor e.n. horsford's paper.--arrival in new york.-- testimony of his brothers.--first steps toward perfection of the invention.--letters to fenimore cooper. the history of every great invention is a record of struggle, sometimes heart-breaking, on the part of the inventor to secure and maintain his rights. no sooner has the new step in progress proved itself to be an upward one than claimants arise on every side; some honestly believing themselves to have solved the problem first; others striving by dishonest means to appropriate to themselves the honor and the rewards, and these sometimes succeeding; and still others, indifferent to fame, thinking only of their own pecuniary gain and dishonorable in their methods. the electric telegraph was no exception to this rule; on the contrary, its history perhaps leads all the rest as a chronicle of "envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness." on the other hand, it brings out in strong relief the opposing virtues of steadfastness, perseverance, integrity, and loyalty. many were the wordy battles waged in the scientific world over the questions of priority, exclusive discovery or invention, indebtedness to others, and conscious or unconscious plagiarism. some of these questions are, in many minds, not yet settled. acrimonious were the legal struggles fought over infringements and rights of way, and, in the first years of the building of the lines to all parts of this country, real warfare was waged by the workers of competing companies. it is not my purpose to treat exhaustively of any of these battles, scientific, legal, or physical. all this has already been written down by abler pens than mine, and has now become history. my aim in following the career of morse the inventor is to shed a light (to some a new light) on his personality, self-revealed by his correspondence, tried first by hardships, poverty, and deep discouragement, and then by success, calumny, and fame. like other men who have achieved greatness, he was made the target for all manner of abuse, accused of misappropriating the ideas of others, of lying, deceit, and treachery, and of unbounded conceit and vaingloriousness. but a careful study of his notes and correspondence, and the testimony of others, proves him to have been a pure-hearted christian gentleman, earnestly desirous of giving to every one his just due, but jealous of his own good name and fame, and fighting valiantly, when needs must be, to maintain his rights; guilty sometimes of mistakes and errors of judgment; occasionally quick-tempered and testy under the stress of discouragement and the pressure of poverty, but frank to acknowledge his error and to make amends when convinced of his fault; and the calm verdict of posterity has awarded him the crown of greatness. morse was now forty-one years old; he had spent three delightful years in france and italy; had matured his art by the intelligent study of the best of the old masters; had made new friends and cemented more strongly the ties that bound him to old ones; and he was returning to his dearly loved native land and to his family with high hopes of gaining for himself and his three motherless children at least a competence, and of continuing his efforts in behalf of the fine arts. from mr. cooper's and mr. habersham's reminiscences we must conclude that, in the background of his mind, there existed a plan, unformed as yet, for utilizing electricity to convey intelligence. he was familiar with much that had been discovered with regard to that mysterious force, through his studies under professors day and silliman at yale, and through the lectures and conversation of professors dana and renwick in new york, so that the charge which was brought against him that he knew absolutely nothing of the subject, can be dismissed as simply proving the ignorance of his critics. thus prepared, unconsciously to himself, to receive the inspiration which was to come to him like a flash of the subtle fluid which afterwards became his servant, he went on board the good ship sully, captain pell commanding, on the st of october, . among the other passengers were the honorable william c. rives, of virginia, our minister to france, with his family; mr. j.f. fisher, of philadelphia; dr. charles t. jackson, of boston, who was destined to play a malign rôle in the subsequent history of the telegraph, and others. the following letter was written to his friend fenimore cooper from havre, on the d of october:-- "i have but a moment to write you one line, as in a few hours i shall be under way for dear america. i arrived from england by way of southampton a day or two since, and have had every moment till now occupied in preparations for embarking. i received yours from vevay yesterday and thank you for it. yes, mr. rives and family, mr. fisher, mr. rogers, mr. palmer and family, and a full cabin beside accompany me. what shall i do with such an _antistatistical_ set? i wish you were of the party to shut their mouths on some points. i shall have good opportunity to talk with mr. rives, whom i like notwithstanding. i think he has good american feeling in the main and means well, although i cannot account for his permitting you to suffer in the chambers (of the general). i will find out _that_ if i can. "my journey to england, change of scene and air, have restored me wonderfully. i knew they would. i like john's country; it is a garden beautifully in contrast with france, and john's people have excellent qualities, and he has many good people; but i hate his aristocratic system, and am more confirmed in my views than ever of its oppressive and unjust character. i saw a great deal of leslie; he is the same good fellow that he always was. be tender of him, my dear sir; i could mention some things which would soften your judgment of his political feelings. one thing only i can now say,--remember he has married an english wife, whom he loves, and who has never known america. he keeps entirely aloof from politics and is wholly absorbed in his art. newton is married to a miss sullivan, daughter of general sullivan, of boston, an accomplished woman and a belle. he is expected in england soon. "i found almost everybody out of town in london. i called and left a card at rogers's, but he was in the country, so were most of the artists of my acquaintance. the fine engraver who has executed so many of leslie's works, danforth, is a stanch american; he would be a man after your heart; he admires you for that very quality.--i must close in great haste." the transatlantic traveller did not depart on schedule time in , as we find from another letter written to mr. cooper on october :-- "here i am yet, wind-bound, with a tremendous southwester directly in our teeth. yesterday the formosa arrived and brought papers, etc., to the th september. i have been looking them over. matters look serious at the south; they are mad there; great decision and prudence will be required to restore them to reason again, but they are so hot-headed, and are so far committed, i know not what will be the issue. yet i think our institutions are equal to any crisis.... "_october , o'clock._ we are getting under way. good-bye." it is greatly to be regretted that morse did not, on this voyage as on previous ones, keep a careful diary. had he done so, many points relating to the first conception of his invention would, from the beginning, have been made much clearer. as it is, however, from his own accounts at a later date, and from the depositions of the captain of the ship and some of the passengers, the story can be told. the voyage was, on the whole, i believe, a pleasant one and the company in the cabin congenial. one night at the dinner-table the conversation chanced upon the subject of electro-magnetism, and dr. jackson described some of the more recent discoveries of european scientists--the length of wire in the coil of a magnet, the fact that electricity passed instantaneously through any known length of wire, and that its presence could be observed at any part of the line by breaking the circuit. morse was, naturally, much interested and it was then that the inspiration, which had lain dormant in his brain for many years, suddenly came to him, and he said: "if the presence of electricity can be made visible in any part of the circuit, i see no reason why intelligence may not be transmitted instantaneously by electricity." the company was not startled by this remark; they soon turned to other subjects and thought no more of it. little did they realize that this exclamation of morse's was to mark an epoch in civilization; that it was the germ of one of the greatest inventions of any age, an invention which not only revolutionized the methods by which intelligence was conveyed from place to place, but paved the way for the subjugation, to the uses of man in many other ways, of that mysterious fluid, electricity, which up to this time had remained but a plaything of the laboratory. in short, it ushered in the age of electricity. least of all, perhaps, did that dr. jackson, who afterwards claimed to have given morse all his ideas, apprehend the tremendous importance of that chance remark. the fixed idea had, however, taken root in morse's brain and obsessed him. he withdrew from the cabin and paced the deck, revolving in his mind the various means by which the object sought could be attained. soon his ideas were so far focused that he sought to give them expression on paper, and he drew from his pocket one of the little sketch-books which he always carried with him, and rapidly jotted down in sketches and words the ideas as they rushed from his brain. this original sketch-book was burned in a mysterious fire which, some years later, during one of the many telegraph suits, destroyed many valuable papers. fortunately, however, a certified copy had wisely been made, and this certified copy is now in the national museum in washington, and the reproduction here given of some of its pages will show that morse's first conception of a recording electric magnetic telegraph is practically the telegraph in universal use to-day. [illustration: drawings from sketch book, showing first conception of telegraph] his first thought was evidently of some system of signs which could be used to transmit intelligence, and he at once realized that nothing could be simpler than a point or a dot, a line or dash, and a space, and a combination of the three. thus the first sketch shows the embryo of the dot-and-dash alphabet, applied only to numbers at first, but afterwards elaborated by morse to represent all the letters of the alphabet. next he suggests a method by which these signs may be recorded permanently, evidently by chemical decomposition on a strip of paper passed along over two rollers. he then shows a message which could be sent by this means, interspersed with ideas for insulating the wires in tubes or pipes. and here i want to call attention to a point which has never, to my knowledge, been noticed before. in the message, which, in pursuance of his first idea, adhered to by him for several years, was to be sent by means of numbers, every word is numbered conventionally except the proper name "cuvier," and for this he put a number for each letter. how this was to be indicated was not made clear, but it is evident that he saw at once that all proper names could not be numbered; that some other means must be employed to indicate them; in other words that each letter of the alphabet must have its own sign. whether at that early period he had actually devised any form of alphabet does not appear, although some of the depositions of his fellow passengers would indicate that he had. he himself put its invention at a date a few years after this, and it has been bitterly contested that he did not invent it at all. i shall prove, in the proper place, that he did, but i think it is proved that it must have been thought of even at the early date of , and, at all events, the dot-and-dash as the basis of a conventional code were original with morse and were quite different from any other form of code devised by others. the next drawing of a magnet lifting sixty pounds shows that morse was familiar with the discoveries of arago, davy, and sturgeon in electro-magnetism, but what application of them was to be made is not explained. the last sketch is to me the most important of all, for it embodies the principle of the receiving magnet which is universally used at the present day. the weak permanent magnet has been replaced by a spring, but the electro-magnet still attracts the lever and produces the dots and dashes of the alphabet; and this, simple as it seems to us "once found," was original with morse, was absolutely different from any other form of telegraph devised by others, and, improved and elaborated by him through years of struggle, is now recognized throughout the world as the telegraph. it was not yet in a shape to prove to a skeptical world its practical utility; much had still to be done to bring it to perfection; new discoveries had still to be made by morse and by others which were essential to its success; the skill, the means, and the faith of others had to be enlisted in its behalf, but the actual invention was there and morse was the inventor. how simple it all seems to us now, and yet its very simplicity is its sublimest feature, for it was this which compelled the admiration of scientists and practical men of affairs alike, and which gradually forced into desuetude all other systems of telegraphy until to-day the morse telegraph still stands unrivalled. that many other minds had been occupied with the same problem was a fact unknown to the inventor at the time, although a few years later he was rudely awakened. a fugitive note, written many years later, in his handwriting, although speaking of himself in the third person, bears witness to this. it is entitled "good thought":-- "a circumstance which tends to confuse, in fairly ascertaining priority of invention, is that a subsequent state of knowledge is confounded in the general mind with the state of knowledge when the invention is first announced as successful. this is certainly very unfair. when morse announced his invention, what was the general state of knowledge in regard to the telegraph? it should be borne in mind that a knowledge of the futile attempts at electric telegraphs previous to his successful one has been brought out from the lumber garret of science by the research of eighteen years. nothing was known of such telegraphs to many scientific men of the highest attainments in the centres of civilization. professor morse says himself (and certainly he has not given in any single instance a statement which has been falsified) that, at the time he devised his system, he supposed himself to be the first person that ever put the words 'electric telegraph' together. he supposed himself at the time the originator of the phrase as well as the thing. but, aside from his positive assertion, the truth of this statement is not only possible but very probable. the comparatively few (very few as compared with the mass who now are learned in the facts) who were in the habit of reading the scientific journals may have read of the thought of an electric telegraph about the year , and even of ronald's, and betancourt's, and salva's, and lomond's impracticable schemes previously, and have forgotten them again, with thousands of other dreams, as the ingenious ideas of visionary men; ideas so visionary as to be considered palpably impracticable, declared to be so, indeed, by barlow, a scientific man of high standing and character; yet the mass of the scientific as well as the general public were ignorant even of the attempts that had been made. the fact of any of them having been published in some magazine at the time, whose circulation may be two or three thousand, and which was soon virtually lost amid the shelves of immense libraries, does not militate against the assertion that the world was ignorant of the fact. we can show conclusively the existence of this ignorance respecting telegraphs at the time of the invention of morse's telegraph." the rest of this note (evidently written for publication) is missing, but enough remains to prove the point. thus we have seen that the idea of his telegraph came to morse as a sudden inspiration and that he was quite ignorant of the fact that others had thought of using electricity to convey intelligence to a distance. mr. prime in his biography says: "of all the great inventions that have made their authors immortal and conferred enduring benefit upon mankind, no one was so completely grasped at its inception as this." one of his fellow passengers, j. francis fisher, esq., counsellor-at-law of philadelphia, gave the following testimony at morse's request:-- "in the fall of the year i returned from europe as a passenger with mr. morse in the ship sully, captain pell master. during the voyage the subject of an electric telegraph was one of frequent conversation. mr. morse was most constant in pursuing it, and _alone_ the one who seemed disposed to reduce it to a practical test, and i recollect that, for this purpose, he devised a _system of signs for letters_ to be indicated and marked by a quick succession of strokes or shocks of the galvanic current, and i am sure of the fact that it was deemed by mr. morse perfectly competent to effect the result stated. i did not suppose that any other person on board the ship claimed any merit in the invention, or was, in fact, interested to pursue it to maturity as mr. morse then seemed to be, nor have i been able since that time to recall any fact or circumstance to justify the claim of any person other than mr. morse to the invention." this clear statement of mr. fisher's was cheerfully given in answer to a request for his recollections of the circumstances, in order to combat the claim of dr. charles t. jackson that he had given morse all the ideas of the telegraph, and that he should be considered at least its joint inventor. this was the first of the many claims which the inventor was forced to meet. it resulted in a lawsuit which settled conclusively that morse was the sole inventor, and that jackson was the victim of a mania which impelled him to claim the discoveries and achievements of others as his own. i shall have occasion to refer to this matter again. it is to be noted that mr. fisher refers to "signs for letters." whether morse actually had devised or spoken of a conventional alphabet at that time cannot be proved conclusively, but that it must have been in his mind the "cuvier" referred to before indicates. others of his fellow-passengers gave testimony to the same effect, and captain pell stated under oath that, when he saw the completed instrument in , he recognized it as embodying the principles which morse had explained to him on the sully; and he added: "before the vessel was in port, mr. morse addressed me in these words: 'well, captain, should you hear of the telegraph one of these days as the wonder of the world, remember the discovery was made on board the good ship sully.'" morse always clung tenaciously to the date of as that of his invention, and, i claim, with perfect justice. while it required much thought and elaboration to bring it to perfection; while he used the published discoveries of others in order to make it operate over long distances; while others labored with him in order to produce a practical working apparatus, and to force its recognition on a skeptical world, the basic idea on which everything else depended was his; it was original with him, and he pursued it to a successful issue, himself making certain new and essential discoveries and inventions. while, as i have said, he made use of the discoveries of others, these men in turn were dependent on the earlier investigations of scientists who preceded them, and so the chain lengthens out. there will always be a difference of opinion as to the comparative value of a new discovery and a new invention, and the difference between these terms should be clearly apprehended. while they are to a certain extent interchangeable, the word "discovery" in science is usually applied to the first enunciation of some property of nature till then unrecognized; "invention," on the other hand, is the application of this property to the uses of mankind. sometimes discovery and invention are combined in the same individual, but often the discoverer is satisfied with the fame arising from having called attention to something new, and leaves to others the practical application of his discovery. scientists will always claim that a new discovery, which marks an advance in knowledge in their chosen field, is of paramount importance; while the world at large is more grateful to the man who, by combining the discoveries of others and adding the culminating link, confers a tangible blessing upon humanity. morse was completely possessed by this new idea. he worked over it that day and far into the night. his vivid imagination leaped into the future, brushing aside all obstacles, and he realized that here in his hands was an instrument capable of working inconceivable good. he recalled the days and weeks of anxiety when he was hungry for news of his loved ones; he foresaw that in affairs of state and of commerce rapid communication might mean the avoidance of war or the saving of a fortune; that, in affairs nearer to the heart of the people, it might bring a husband to the bedside of a dying wife, or save the life of a beloved child; apprehend the fleeing criminal, or commute the sentence of an innocent man. his great ambition had always been to work some good for his fellow-men, and here was a means of bestowing upon them an inestimable boon. after several days of intense application he disclosed his plan to mr. rives and to others. objections were raised, but he was ready with a solution. while the idea appeared to his fellow-passengers as chimerical, yet, as we have seen, his earnestness made so deep an impression that when, several years afterwards, he exhibited to some of them a completed model, they, like captain pell, instantly recognized it as embodying the principles explained to them on the ship. without going deeply into the scientific history of the successive steps which led up to the invention of the telegraph, i shall quote a few sentences from a long paper written by the late professor e.n. horsford, of cambridge, massachusetts, and included in mr. prime's biography:-- "what was needed to the _original conception_ of the morse recording telegraph? " . a knowledge that soft wire, bent in the form of a horseshoe, could be magnetized by sending a galvanic current through a coil wound round the iron, and that it would lose its magnetism when the current was suspended. " . a knowledge that such a magnet had been made to lift and drop masses of iron of considerable weight. " . a knowledge, or a belief, that the galvanic current could be transmitted through wires of great length. "these were all. now comes the conception of devices for employing an agent which could produce reciprocal motion to effect registration, and the invention of an alphabet. in order to this invention it must be seen how up and down--reciprocal--motion could be produced by the opening and closing of the circuit. into this simple band of vertical tracery of paths in space must be thrown the shuttle of time and a ribbon of paper. it must be seen how a lever-pen, alternately dropping upon and rising at defined intervals from a fillet of paper moved by independent clock-work, would produce the fabric of the alphabet and writing and printing. "was there anything required to produce these results which was not known to morse?... "he knew, for he had witnessed it years before, that, by means of a battery and an electro-magnet, reciprocal motion could be produced. he knew that the force which produced it could be transmitted along a wire. he _believed_ that the battery current could be made, through an electro-magnet, to produce physical results at a _distance_. he saw in his mind's eye the existence of an agent and a medium by which reciprocal motion could be not only produced but controlled at a distance. the question that addressed itself to him at the outset was, naturally, this: 'how can i make use of the simple up-and-down motion of opening and closing a circuit to write an intelligible message at one end of a wire, and at the same time print it at the other?'... like many a kindred work of genius it was in nothing more wonderful than in its simplicity.... not one of the brilliant scientific men who have attached their names to the history of electro-magnetism had brought the means to produce the practical registering telegraph. some of them had ascended the tower that looked out on the field of conquest. some of them brought keener vision than others. some of them stood higher than others. but the genius of invention had not recognized them. there was needed an inventor. now what sort of a want is this? "there was required a rare combination of qualities and conditions. there must be ingenuity in the adaptation of available means to desired ends; there must be the genius to see through non-essentials to the fundamental principle on which success depends; there must be a kind of skill in manipulation; great patience and pertinacity; a certain measure of culture, and the inventor of a recording telegraph must be capable of being inspired by the grandeur of the thought of writing, figuratively speaking, with a pen a thousand miles long--with the thought of a postal system without the element of time. moreover the person who is to be the inventor must be free from the exactions of well-compensated, everyday, absorbing duties--perhaps he must have had the final baptism of poverty. "now the inventor of the registering telegraph did not rise from the perusal of any brilliant paper; he happened to be at leisure on shipboard, ready to contribute and share in the after-dinner conversation of a ship's cabin, when the occasion arose. morse's electro-magnetic telegraph was mainly an invention employing powers and agencies through mechanical devices to produce a given end. it involved the combination of the results of the labors of others with a succession of special contrivances and some discoveries of the inventor himself. there was an ideal whole almost at the outset, but involving great thought, and labor, and patience, and invention to produce an art harmonious in its organization and action." after a voyage of over a month morse reached home and landed at the foot of rector street on november , . his two brothers, sidney and richard, met him on his arrival, and were told at once of his invention. his brother richard thus described their meeting:-- "hardly had the usual greetings passed between us three brothers, and while on our way to my house, before he informed us that he had made, during his voyage, an important invention, which had occupied almost all his attention on shipboard--one that would astonish the world and of the success of which he was perfectly sanguine; that this invention was a means of communicating intelligence by electricity, so that a message could be written down in a permanent manner by characters at a distance from the writer. he took from his pocket and showed from his sketch-book, in which he had drawn them, the kind of characters he proposed to use. these characters were dots and spaces representing the ten digits or numerals, and in the book were sketched other parts of his electro-magnetic machinery and apparatus, actually drawn out in his sketch-book." the other brother, sidney, also bore testimony:-- "he was full of the subject of the telegraph during the walk from the ship, and for some days afterwards could scarcely speak about anything else. he expressed himself anxious to make apparatus and try experiments for which he had no materials or facilities on shipboard. in the course of a few days after his arrival he made a kind of cogged or saw-toothed type, the object of which i understood was to regulate the interruptions of the electric current, so as to enable him to make dots, and regulate the length of marks or spaces on the paper upon which the information transmitted by his telegraph was to be recorded. "he proposed at that time a single circuit of wire, and only a single circuit, and letters, words, and phrases were to be indicated by numerals, and these numerals were to be indicated by dots and other marks and spaces on paper. it seemed to me that, as wire was cheap, it would be better to have twenty-four wires, each wire representing a letter of the alphabet, but my brother always insisted upon the superior advantages of his single circuit." thus we see that morse, from the very beginning, and from intuition, or inspiration, or whatever you please, was insistent on one of the points which differentiated his invention from all others in the same field, namely, its simplicity, and it was this feature which eventually won for it a universal adoption. but, simple as it was, it still required much elaboration in order to bring it to perfection, for as yet it was but an idea roughly sketched on paper; the appliances to put this idea to a practical test had yet to be devised and made, and morse now entered upon the most trying period of his career. his three years in europe, while they had been enjoyed to the full and had enabled him to perfect himself in his art, had not yielded him large financial returns; he had not expected that they would, but based his hopes on increased patronage after his return. he was entirely dependent on his brush for the support of himself and his three motherless children, and now this new inspiration had come as a disturbing element. he was on the horns of a dilemma. if he devoted himself to his art, as he must in order to keep the wolf from the door, he would not have the leisure to perfect his invention, and others might grasp the prize before him. if he allowed thoughts of electric currents, and magnets, and batteries to monopolize his attention, he could not give to his art, notoriously a jealous mistress, that worship which alone leads to success. an added bar to the rapid development of his invention was the total lack (hard to realize at the present day) of the simplest essentials. there were no manufacturers of electrical appliances; everything, even to the winding of the wires around the magnets, had to be done laboriously by hand. even had they existed morse had but scant means with which to purchase them. this was his situation when he returned from europe in the fall of , and it is small wonder that twelve years elapsed before he could prove to the world that his revolutionizing invention was a success, and the wonder is great that he succeeded at all, that he did not sink under the manifold discouragements and hardships, and let fame and fortune elude him. unknown to him many men in different lands were working over the same problem, some of them of assured scientific position and with good financial backing; is it then remarkable that morse in later years held himself to be but an instrument in the hands of god to carry out his will? he never ceased to marvel at the amazing fact that he, poor, scoffed at or pitied, surrounded by difficulties of every sort, should have been chosen to wrest the palm from the hands of trained scientists of two continents. to us the wonder is not so great, for we, if we have read his character aright as revealed by his correspondence, can see that in him, more than in any other man of his time, were combined the qualities necessary to a great inventor as specified by professor horsford earlier in this chapter. in following morse's career at this critical period it will be necessary to record his experiences both as painter and inventor, for there was no thought of abandoning his profession in his mind at first; on the contrary, he still had hopes of ultimate success, and it was his sole means of livelihood. it is true that he at times gave way to fits of depression. in a letter to his brother richard before leaving europe he had thus given expression to his fears:-- "i have frequently felt melancholy in thinking of my prospects for encouragement when i return, and your letter found me in one of those moments. you cannot, therefore, conceive with what feelings i read your offer of a room in your new house. give me a resting-place and i will yet move the country in favor of the arts. i return with some hopes but many fears. will my country employ me on works which may do it honor? i want a commission from government to execute two pictures from the life of columbus, and i want eight thousand dollars for each, and on these two i will stake my reputation as an artist." it was in his brother richard's house that he took the first step towards the construction of the apparatus which was to put his invention to a practical test. this was the manufacture of the saw-toothed type by which he proposed to open and close the circuit and produce his conventional signs. he did not choose the most appropriate place for this operation, for his sister-in-law rather pathetically remarked: "he melted the lead which he used over the fire in the grate of my front parlor, and, in his operation of casting the type, he spilled some of the heated metal upon the drugget, or loose carpeting, before the fireplace, and upon a flagbottomed chair upon which his mould was placed." he was also handicapped by illness just after his return, as we learn from the following letter to his friend fenimore cooper. in this letter he also makes some interesting comments on new york and american affairs, but, curiously enough, he says nothing of his invention: "_february , ._ don't scold at me. i don't deserve a scolding if you knew all, and i do if you don't know all, for i have not written to you since i landed in november. what with severe illness for several weeks after my arrival, and the accumulation of cares consequent on so long an absence from home, i have been overwhelmed and distracted by calls upon my time for a thousand things that pressed upon me for immediate attention; and so i have put off and put off what i have been longing (i am ashamed to say for weeks if not months) to do, i mean to write to you. "the truth is, my dear sir, i have so much to say that i know not where to commence. i throw myself on your indulgence, and, believing you will forgive me, i commence without further apology. "first, as to things at home. new york is _improved_, as the word goes, wonderfully. you will return to a strange city; you will not recognize many of your acquaintances among the old buildings; brand-new buildings, stores, and houses are taking the place of the good, staid, modest houses of the early settlers. _improvement_ is all the rage, and houses and churchyards must be overthrown and upturned whenever the corporation plough is set to work for the widening of a narrow, or the making of a new, street. "i believe you sometimes have a fit of the blues. it is singular if you do not with your temperament. i confess to many fits of this disagreeable disorder, and i know nothing so likely to induce one as the finding, after an absence of some years from home, the great hour-hand of life sensibly advanced on all your former friends. what will be your sensations after six or seven years if mine are acute after three years' absence? "i have not been much in society as yet. i have many visitations, but, until i clear off the accumulated rubbish of three years which lies upon my table, i must decline seeing much of my friends. i have seen twice your sisters the misses delancy, and was prevented from being at their house last friday evening by the severest snow-storm we have had this season. our friends the jays i have met several times, and have had much conversation with them about you and your delightful family. mr. p.a. jay is a member of the club, so i see him every friday evening. chancellor kent also is a member, and both warm friends of yours.... "my time for ten or twelve days past has been occupied in answering a pamphlet of colonel trumbull, who came out for the purpose of justifying his opposition to measures which had been devised for uniting the two academies. i send you the first copy hot from the press. there is a great deal to dishearten in the state of feeling, or rather state of no feeling, on the arts in this city. the only way i can keep up my spirits is by resolutely resisting all disposition to repine, and by fighting perseveringly against all the obstacles that hinder the progress of art. "i have been told several times since my return that i was born one hundred years too soon for the arts in our country. i have replied that, if that be the case, i will try and make it but fifty. i am more and more persuaded that i have quite as much to do with the pen for the arts as the pencil, and if i can in my day so enlighten the public mind as to make the way easier for those that come after me, i don't know that i shall not have served the cause of the fine arts as effectively as by painting pictures which might be appreciated one hundred years after i am gone. if i am to be the pioneer and am fitted for it, why should i not glory as much in felling trees and clearing away the rubbish as in showing the decorations suited to a more advanced state of cultivation?... "you will certainly have the blues when you first arrive, but the longer you stay abroad the more severe will be the disease. excuse my predictions.... the georgia affair is settled after a fashion; not so the nullifiers; they are infatuated. disagreeable as it will be, they will be put down with disgrace to them." in another letter to mr. cooper, dated february , , he writes in the same vein:-- "the south carolina business is probably settled by this time by mr. clay's compromise bill, so that the legitimates of europe may stop blowing their twopenny trumpets in triumph at our _disunion_. the same clashing of interests in europe would have caused twenty years of war and torrents of bloodshed; with us it has caused three or four years of wordy war and some hundreds of gallons of ink; but no necks are broken, nor heads; all will be in _statu ante bello_ in a few days.... "my dear sir, you are wanted at home. i want you to encourage me by your presence. i find the pioneer business has less of romance in the reality than in the description, and i find some tough stumps to pry up and heavy stones to roll out of the way, and i get exhausted and desponding, and i should like a little of your sinew to come to my aid at such times, as it was wont to come at the louvre.... "there is nothing new in new york; everybody is driving after money, as usual, and there is an alarm of fire every half-hour, as usual, and the pigs have the freedom of the city, as usual; so that, in these respects at least, you will find new york as you left it, except that they are not the same people that are driving after money, nor the same houses burnt, nor the same pigs at large in the street.... you will all be welcomed home, but come prepared to find many, very many things in taste and manners different from your own good taste and manners. good taste and good manners would not be conspicuous if all around possessed the same manners." chapter xxii -- still painting.--thoughts on art.--picture of the louvre.--rejection as painter of one of the pictures in the capitol.--john quincy adams.--james fenimore cooper's article.--death blow to his artistic ambition.-- washington allston's letter.--commission by fellow artists.--definite abandonment of art.--repayment of money advanced.--death of lafayette.-- religious controversies.--appointed professor in university of city of new york.--description of first telegraphic instrument.--successful experiments.--relay.--address in . it was impossible for the inventor during the next few years to devote himself entirely to the construction of a machine to test his theories, impatient though he must have been to put his ideas into practical form. his two brothers came nobly to his assistance, and did what lay in their power and according to their means to help him; but it was always repugnant to him to be under pecuniary obligations to any one, and, while gratefully accepting his brothers' help, he strained every nerve to earn the money to pay them back. we, therefore, find little or no reference in the letters of those years to his invention, and it was not until the year that he was able to make any appreciable progress towards the perfection of his telegraphic apparatus. the intervening years were spent in efforts to rouse an interest in the fine arts in this country; in hard work in behalf of the still young academy of design; and in trying to earn a living by the practice of his profession. "during this time," he says, "i never lost faith in the practicability of the invention, nor abandoned the intention of testing it as soon as i could command the means." but in order to command the means, he was obliged to devote himself to his art, and in this he did not meet with the encouragement which he had expected and which he deserved. his ideals were always high, perhaps too high for the materialistic age in which he found himself. the following fugitive note will illustrate the trend of his thoughts, and is not inapplicable to conditions at the present day:-- "are not the refining influences of the fine arts needed, doubly needed, in our country? is there not a tendency in the democracy of our country to low and vulgar pleasures and pursuits? does not the contact of those more cultivated in mind and elevated in purpose with those who are less so, and to whom the former look for political favor and power, necessarily debase that cultivated mind and that elevation of purpose? when those are exalted to office who best can flatter the low appetites of the vulgar; when boorishness and ill manners are preferred to polish and refinement, and when, indeed, the latter, if not avowedly, are in reality made an objection, is there not danger that those who would otherwise encourage refinement will fear to show their favorable inclination lest those to whom they look for favor shall be displeased; and will not habit fix it, and another generation bear it as its own inherent, native character?" that he was naturally optimistic is shown by a footnote which he added to this thought, dated october, :-- "these were once my fears. there is doubtless danger, but i believe in the possibility, by the diffusion of the highest moral and intellectual cultivation through every class, of raising the lower classes in refinement." but while in his leisure moments he could indulge in such hopeful dreams, his chief care at that time, as stated at the beginning of this chapter, was to earn money by the exercise of his profession. his important painting of the louvre, from which he had hoped so much, was placed on exhibition, and, while it received high praise from the artists, its exhibition barely paid expenses, and it was finally sold to mr. george clarke, of hyde hall, on otsego lake, for thirteen hundred dollars, although the artist had expected to get at least twenty-five hundred dollars for it. in a letter to mr. clarke, of june , , he says:-- "the picture of the louvre was intended originally for an exhibition picture, and i painted it in the expectation of disposing of it to some person for that purpose who could amply remunerate himself from the receipts of a well-managed exhibition. the time occupied upon this picture was fourteen months, and at much expense and inconvenience, so that that sum [$ ] for it, if sold under such circumstances, would not be more than a fair compensation. "i was aware that but few, if any, gentlemen in our country would be willing to expend so large a sum on a single picture, although in fact they would, in this case, purchase seven-and-thirty in one. "i have lately changed my plans in relation to this picture and to my art generally, and consequently i am able to dispose of it at a much less price. i have need of funds to prosecute my new plans, and, if this picture could now realize the sum of twelve hundred dollars it would at this moment be to me equivalent in value to the sum first set upon it." the change of plans no doubt referred to his desire to pursue his electrical experiments, and for this ready money was most necessary, and so he gladly, and even gratefully, accepted mr. clarke's offer of twelve hundred dollars for the painting and one hundred dollars for the frame. even this was not cash, but was in the form of a note payable in a year! his enthusiasm for his art seems at this period to have been gradually waning, although he still strove to command success; but it needed a decisive stroke to wean him entirely from his first love, and fate did not long delay the blow. his great ambition had always been to paint historical pictures which should commemorate the glorious events in the history of his beloved country. in the early part of the year his great opportunity had, apparently, come, and he was ready and eager to grasp it. there were four huge panels in the rotunda of the capitol at washington, which were still to be filled by historical paintings, and a committee in congress was appointed to select the artists to execute them. morse, president of the national academy of design, and enthusiastically supported by the best artists in the country, had every reason to suppose that he would be chosen to execute at least one of these paintings. confident that he had but to make his wishes known to secure the commission, he addressed the following circular letter to various members of congress, among whom were such famous men as daniel webster, john c. calhoun, henry clay, and john quincy adams, all personally known to him:-- march , . my dear sir,--i perceive that the library committee have before them the consideration of a resolution on the expediency of employing four artists to paint the remaining four pictures in the rotunda of the capitol. if congress should pass a resolution in favor of the measure, i should esteem it a great honor to be selected as one of the artists. i have devoted twenty years of my life, of which seven were passed in england, france, and italy, studying with special reference to the execution of works of the kind proposed, and i must refer to my professional life and character in proof of my ability to do honor to the commission and to the country. may i take the liberty to ask for myself your favorable recommendation to those in congress who have the disposal of the commissions? with great respect, sir, your most obedient servant, s.f.b. morse. while this letter was written in , the final decision of the committee was not made until , but i shall anticipate a little and give the result which had such a momentous effect on morse's career. there was every reason to believe that his request would be granted, and he and his friends, many of whom endorsed by letter his candidacy, had no fear as to the result; but here again fate intervened and ordered differently. among the committee men in congress to whom this matter was referred was john quincy adams, ex-president of the united states. in discussing the subject, mr. adams submitted a resolution opening the competition to foreign artists as well as to american, giving it as his opinion that there were no artists in this country of sufficient talent properly to execute such monumental works. the artists and their friends were, naturally, greatly incensed at this slur cast upon them, and an indignant and remarkably able reply appeared anonymously in the new york "evening post." the authorship of this article was at once saddled on morse, who was known to wield a facile and fearless pen. mr. adams took great offense, and, as a result, morse's name was rejected and his great opportunity passed him by. there can be no reasonable doubt that, had he received this commission, he would have deferred the perfecting of his telegraphic device until others had so far distanced him in the race that he could never have overtaken them. instead of his having been the author of the "evening post" article, it transpired that he had not even heard of mr. adams's resolution until his friend fenimore cooper, the real author of the answer, told him of both attack and reply. this was the second great tragedy of morse's life; the first was the untimely death of his young wife, and this other marked the death of his hopes and ambitions as an artist. he was stunned. the blow was as unexpected as it was overwhelming, and what added to its bitterness was that it had been innocently dealt by the hand of one of his dearest friends, who had sought to render him a favor. the truth came out too late to influence the decision of the committee; the die was cast, and his whole future was changed in the twinkling of an eye; for what had been to him a joy and an inspiration, he now turned from in despair. he could not, of course, realize at the time that fate, in dealing him this cruel blow, was dedicating him to a higher destiny. it is doubtful if he ever fully realized this, for in after years he could never speak of it unmoved. in a letter to this same friend, fenimore cooper, written on november , , he thus laments:-- "alas! my dear sir, the very name of _pictures_ produces a sadness of heart i cannot describe. painting has been a smiling mistress to many, but she has been a cruel jilt to me. i did not abandon her, she abandoned me. i have taken scarcely any interest in painting for many years. will you believe it? when last in paris, in , i did not go into the louvre, nor did i visit a single picture gallery. "i sometimes indulge a vague dream that i may paint again. it is rather the memory of past pleasures, when hope was enticing me onward only to deceive me at last. except some family portraits, valuable to me from their likenesses only, i could wish that every picture i ever painted was destroyed. i have no wish to be remembered as a painter, for i never was a painter. my ideal of that profession was, perhaps, too exalted--i may say is too exalted. i leave it to others more worthy to fill the niches of art." of course his self-condemnation was too severe, for we have seen that present-day critics assign him an honorable place in the annals of art, and while, at the time of writing that letter, he had definitely abandoned the brush, he continued to paint for some years after his rejection by the committee of congress. he had to, for it was his only means of earning a livelihood, but the old enthusiasm was gone never to return. fortunately for himself and for the world, however, he transferred it to the perfecting of his invention, and devoted all the time he could steal from the daily routine of his duties to that end. his friends sympathized with him most heartily and were indignant at his rejection. washington allston wrote to him:-- i have learned the disposition of the pictures. i had hoped to find your name among the commissioned artists, but i was grieved to find that all my efforts in your behalf have proved fruitless. i know what your disappointment must have been at this result, and most sincerely do i sympathize with you. that my efforts were both sincere and conscientious i hope will be some consolation to you. but let not this disappointment cast you down, my friend. you have it still in your power to let the world know what you can do. dismiss it, then, from your mind, and determine to paint all the better for it. god bless you. your affectionate friend washington allston. the following sentences from a letter written on march , , by thomas cole, one of the most celebrated of the early american painters, will show in what estimation morse was held by his brother artists:-- "i have learned with mortification and disappointment that your name was not among the _chosen_, and i have feared that you would carry into effect your resolution of abandoning the art and resigning the presidency of our academy. i sincerely hope you will have reason to cast aside that resolution. to you our academy owes its existence and present prosperity, and if, in after times, it should become a great institution, your name will always be coupled with its greatness. but, if you leave us, i very much fear that the fabric will crumble to pieces. you are the keystone of the arch; if you remain with us time may furnish the academy with another block for the place. i hope my fears may be vain, and that circumstances will conspire to induce you to remain our president." other friends were equally sympathetic and morse did retain the presidency of the academy until . to emphasize further their regard for him, a number of artists, headed by thomas s. cummings, unknown to morse, raised by subscription three thousand dollars, to be given to him for the painting of some historical subject. general cummings, in his "annals of the academy," thus describes the receipt of the news by the discouraged artist:-- "the effect was electrical; it roused him from his depression and he exclaimed that never had he read or known of such an act of professional generosity, and that he was fully determined to paint the picture--his favorite subject, 'the signing of the first compact on board the mayflower,'--not of small size, as requested, but of the size of the panels in the rotunda. that was immediately assented to by the committee, thinking it possible that one or the other of the pictures so ordered might fail in execution, in which case it would afford favorable inducements to its substitution, and, of course, much to mr. morse's profit; as the artists from the first never contemplated taking possession of the picture so executed. it was to remain with mr. morse, and for his use and benefit." the enthusiasm thus roused was but a flash in the pan, however; the wound he had received was too deep to be thus healed. some of the money was raised and paid to him, and he made studies and sketches for the painting, but his mind was now on his invention, and the painting of the picture was deferred from year to year and finally abandoned. it was characteristic of him that, when he did finally decide to give up the execution of this work, he paid back the sums which had been advanced to him, with interest. another grief which came to him in the summer of (to return to that year) was the death of his illustrious friend general lafayette. the last letter received from him was written by his amanuensis and unsigned, and simply said:-- "general lafayette, being detained by sickness, has sent to the reporter of the committee the following note, which the said reporter has read to the house." the note referred to is, unfortunately, missing. this letter was written on april and the general died on may . morse sent a letter of sympathy to the son, george washington lafayette, a member of the chamber of deputies, in which the following sentiments occur:-- "in common with this whole country, now clad in mourning, with the lovers of true liberty and of exalted philanthropy throughout the world, i bemoan the departure from earth of your immortal parent. yet i may be permitted to indulge in additional feelings of more private sorrow at the loss of one who honored me with his friendship, and had not ceased, till within a few days of his death, to send to me occasional marks of his affectionate remembrance. be assured, my dear sir, that the memory of your father will be especially endeared to me and mine." morse's admiration of lafayette was most sincere, and he was greatly influenced in his political feelings by his intercourse with that famous man. among other opinions which he shared with lafayette and other thoughtful men, was the fear of a roman catholic plot to gain control of the government of the united states. he defended his views fearlessly and vigorously in the public press and by means of pamphlets, and later entered into a heated controversy with bishop spaulding of kentucky. i shall not attempt to treat exhaustively of these controversies, but think it only right to refer to them from time to time, not only that the clearest possible light may be shed upon morse's character and convictions, but to show the extraordinary activity of his brain, which, while he was struggling against obstacles of all kinds, not only to make his invention a success, but for the very means of existence, could yet busy itself with the championing of what he conceived to be the right. to illustrate his point of view i shall quote a few extracts from a letter to r.s. willington, esq., who was the editor of a journal which is referred to as the "courier." this letter was written on may , , when morse's mind, we should think, would have been wholly absorbed in the details of the infant telegraph:-- "with regard to the more important matter of the conspiracy, i perceive with regret that the evidence which has been convincing to so many minds of the first order, and which continues daily to spread conviction of the truth of the charge i have made, is still viewed by the editors of the 'courier' as inconclusive. my situation in regard to those who dissent from me is somewhat singular. i have brought against the absolute governments of europe a charge of conspiracy against the liberties of the united states. i support the charge by facts, and by reasonings from those facts, which produce conviction on most of those who examine the matter.... but those that dissent simply say, 'i don't think there is a conspiracy'; yet give no reasons for dissent. the catholic journals very artfully make no defense themselves, but adroitly make use of the protestant defense kindly prepared for them.... "no catholic journal has attempted any refutation of the charge. it cannot be refuted, for it is true. and be assured, my dear sir, it is no extravagant prediction when i say that the question of popery and protestantism, or absolutism and republicanism, which in these two opposite categories are convertible terms, is fast becoming and will shortly be the _great absorbing question_, not only of this country but of the whole civilized world. i speak not at random; i speak from long and diligent observation in europe, and from comparison of the state of affairs in this country with the state of public opinion in europe. "we are asleep, sir, when every freeman should be awake and look to his arms.... surely, if the danger is groundless, there can be no harm in endeavoring to ascertain its groundlessness. if you were told your house was on fire you would hardly think of calling the man a maniac for informing you of it, even if he should use a tone of voice and gestures somewhat earnest and impassioned. the course of some of our journals on the subject of popery has led to the belief that they are covertly under the control of the jesuits. and let me say, sir, that the modes of control in the resources of this insidious society, notorious for its political arts and intrigues, are more numerous, more powerful, and more various than an unsuspicious people are at all conscious of.... "mr. y. falls into the common error and deprecates what he calls a _religious_ controversy, as if the subject of popery was altogether religious. history, it appears to me, must have been read to very little purpose by any one who can entertain such an error in regard to the cunningest political despotism that ever cursed mankind. i must refer you to the preface of the second edition, which i send you, for my reasonings on that point. if they are not conclusive, i should be glad to be shown wherein they are defective. if they are conclusive, is it not time for every patriot to open his eyes to the truth of the fact that we are politically attacked under guise of a religious system, and is it not a serious question whether our political press should advocate the cause of foreign enemies to our government, or help to expose and repel them?" it was in the year that morse was appointed professor of the literature of the arts of design in the university of the city of new york, and here again we can mark the guiding hand of fate. a few years earlier he had been tentatively offered the position of instructor of drawing at the united states military academy at west point, but this offer he had promptly but courteously declined. had he accepted it he would have missed the opportunity of meeting certain men who gave him valuable assistance. as an instructor in the university he not only received a small salary which relieved him, in a measure, from the grinding necessity of painting pot-boilers, but he had assigned to him spacious rooms in the building on washington square, which he could utilize not only as studio and living apartments, but as a workshop. for these rooms, however, he paid a rent, at first of $ a year, afterwards of $ . three years had clasped since his first conception of the invention, and, although burning to devote himself to its perfecting, he had been compelled to hold himself in check and to devote all his time to painting. now, however, an opportunity came to him, for he moved into the university building before it was entirely finished, and the stairways were in such an embryonic state that he could not expect sitters to attempt their perilous ascent. this enforced leisure gave him the chance he had long desired and he threw himself heart and soul into his electrical experiments. writing of this period in later years he thus records his struggles:-- [illustration: first telegraph instrument, now in the national museum, washington] "there i immediately commenced, with very limited means, to experiment upon my invention. my first instrument was made up of an old picture or canvas frame fastened to a table; the wheels of an old wooden clock moved by a weight to carry the paper forward; three wooden drums, upon one of which the paper was wound and passed over the other two; a wooden pendulum, suspended to the top piece of the picture or stretching-frame, and vibrating across the paper as it passes over the centre wooden drum; a pencil at the lower end of the pendulum in contact with the paper; an electro-magnet fastened to a shelf across the picture or stretching frame, opposite to an armature made fast to the pendulum; a type rule and type, for breaking the circuit, resting on an endless band composed of carpet-binding; which passed over two wooden rollers, moved by a wooden crank, and carried forward by points projecting from the bottom of the rule downward into the carpet-binding; a lever, with a small weight on the upper side, and a tooth projecting downward at one end, operated on by the type, and a metallic fork, also projecting downward, over two mercury cups; and a short circuit of wire embracing the helices of the electro-magnet connected with the positive and negative poles of the battery and terminating in the mercury cups." this first rude instrument was carefully preserved by the inventor, and is now in the morse case in the national museum at washington. a reproduction of it is here given. i shall omit certain technical details in the inventor's account of this first instrument, but i wish to call attention to his ingenuity in adapting the means at his disposal to the end desired. much capital has been made, by those who opposed his claims, out of the fact that this primitive apparatus could only produce a v-shaped mark, thus-- __ __ _ \/|__| |/\/ |/\/|__/ --and not a dot and a dash, which they insist was of later introduction and by another hand. but a reference to the sketches made on board the sully will show that the original system of signs consisted of dots and lines, and that the first conception of the means to produce these signs was by an up-and-down motion of a lever controlled by an electro-magnet. it is easy to befog an issue by misstating facts, but the facts are here to speak for themselves, and that morse temporarily abandoned his first idea, because he had not the means at his disposal to embody it in workable form and had recourse to another method for producing practically the same result, only shows wonderful ingenuity on his part. it can easily be seen that the waving line traced by the first instrument--thus, __ __ _ \/|__| |/\/ |/\/|__/ --can be translated by reading the lower part into a i u . - . . . . - of the final morse alphabet. the beginnings of every great invention have been clumsy and uncouth compared with the results attained by years of study and elaboration participated in by many clever brains. contrast the clermont of fulton with the floating palaces of the present day, the rocket of stephenson with the powerful locomotives of our mile-a-minute fliers, and the hand-press of gutenberg with the marvellous and intricate hoe presses of modern times. and yet the names of those who first conceived and wrought these primitive contrivances stand highest in the roll of fame; and with justice, for it is infinitely easier to improve on the suggestion of another than to originate a practical advance in human endeavor. returning again to morse's own account of his early experiments i shall quote the following sentences:-- "with this apparatus, rude as it was, and completed before the first of the year , i was enabled to and did mark down telegraphic, intelligible signs, and to make and did make distinguishable sounds for telegraphing; and, having arrived at that point, i exhibited it to some of my friends early in that year, and among others to professor leonard d. gale, who was a college professor in the university. i also experimented with the chemical power of the electric current in , and succeeded, in marking my telegraphic signs upon paper dipped in turmeric and solution of the sulphate of soda (as well as other salts) by passing the current through it. i was soon satisfied, however, that the electro-_magnetic_ power was more available for telegraphic purposes and possessed many advantages over any other, and i turned my thoughts in that direction. "early in i procured forty feet of wire, and, putting it in the circuit, i found that my battery of one cup was not sufficient to work my instrument. this result suggested to me the probability that the magnetism to be obtained from the electric current would diminish in proportion as the circuit was lengthened, so as to be insufficient for any practical purposes at great distances; and, to remove that probable obstacle to my success, i conceived the idea of combining two or more circuits together in the manner described in my first patent, each with an independent battery, making use of the magnetism of the current on the first to close and break the second; the second the third; and so on." thus modestly does he refer to what was, in fact, a wonderful discovery, the more wonderful because of its simplicity. professor horsford thus comments on it:-- "in morse made the discovery of the _relay_, the most brilliant of all the achievements to which his name must be forever attached. it was a discovery of a means by which the current, which through distance from its source had become feeble, could be reënforced or renewed. this discovery, according to the different objects for which it is employed, is variously known as the registering magnet, the local circuit, the marginal circuit, the repeater, etc." professor horsford places the date of this discovery in the year , but morse himself, in the statement quoted above, assigned it to the early part of . it is only fair to note that the discovery of the principle of the relay was made independently by other scientists, notably by davy, wheatstone, and henry, but morse apparently antedated them by a year or two, and could not possibly have been indebted to any of them for the idea. this point has given rise to much discussion among scientists which it will not be necessary to enter into here, for all authorities agree in according to morse independent invention of the relay. "up to the autumn of ," again to quote morse's own words, "my telegraphic apparatus existed in so rude a form that i felt a reluctance to have it seen. my means were very limited--so limited as to preclude the possibility of constructing an apparatus of such mechanical finish as to warrant my success in venturing upon its public exhibition. i had no wish to expose to ridicule the representative of so many hours of laborious thought. "prior to the summer of , at which time mr. alfred vail's attention became attracted to my telegraph, i depended upon my pencil for subsistence. indeed, so straitened were my circumstances that, in order to save time to carry out my invention and to economize my scanty means, i had for months lodged and eaten in my studio, procuring my food in small quantities from some grocery, and preparing it myself. to conceal from my friends the stinted manner in which i lived, i was in the habit of bringing my food to my room in the evenings, and this was my mode of life for many years." nearly twenty years later, in , morse referred to this trying period in his career at a meeting of the association of the alumni of the university:-- "yesternight, on once more entering your chapel, i saw the same marble staircase and marble floors i once so often trod, and so often with a heart and head overburdened with almost crushing anxieties. separated from the chapel by but a thin partition was that room i occupied, now your philomathean hall, whose walls--had thoughts and mental struggles, with the alternations of joys and sorrows, the power of being daguerreotyped upon them--would show a thickly studded gallery of evidence that there the briarean infant was born who has stretched forth his arms with the intent to encircle the world. yes, that room of the university was the birthplace of the recording telegraph. attempts, indeed, have been made to assign to it other parentage, and to its birthplace other localities. personally i have very little anxiety on this point, except that the truth should not suffer; for i have a consciousness, which neither sophistry nor ignorance can shake, that that room is the place of its birth, and a confidence, too, that its cradle is in hands that will sustain its rightful claim." the old building of the university of the city of new york on washington square has been torn down to be replaced by a mercantile structure; the university has moved to more spacious quarters in the upper part of the great city; but one of its notable buildings is the hall of fame, and among the first names to be immortalized in bronze in the stately colonnade was that of samuel f.b. morse. chapter xxiii -- first exhibitions of the telegraph.--testimony of robert g. rankin and rev. henry b. tappan.--cooke and wheatstone.--joseph henry, leonard d. gale, and alfred vail.--professor gale's testimony.--professor henry's discoveries.--regrettable controversy of later years.--professor charles t. jackson's claims.--alfred vail.--contract of september , .--work at morristown. new jersey.--the "morse alphabet."--reading by sound.-- first and second forms of alphabet. in after years the question of the time when the telegraph was first exhibited to others was a disputed one; it will, therefore, be well to give the testimony of a few men of undoubted integrity who personally witnessed the first experiments. robert g. rankin, esq., gave his reminiscences to mr. prime, from which i shall select the following passages:-- "professor morse was one of the purest and noblest men of any age. i believe i was among the earliest, outside of his family circle, to whom he communicated his design to encircle the globe with wire.... "some time in the fall of i was passing along the easterly walk of washington parade-ground, leading from waverly place to fourth street, when i heard my name called. on turning round i saw, over the picketfence, an outstretched arm from a person standing in the middle or main entrance door of the unfinished university building of new york, and immediately recognized the professor, who beckoned me toward him. on meeting and exchanging salutations,--and you know how genial his were,-- he took me by the arm and said: "'i wish you to go up in my sanctum and examine a piece of mechanism, which, if you may not believe in, _you_, at least, will not laugh at, as i fear some others will. i want you to give me your frank opinion as a friend, for i know your interest in and love of the applied sciences.'" here follow a description of what he saw and morse's explanation, and, then he continues:-- "a long silence on the part of each ensued, which was at length broken by my exclamation: 'well, professor, you have a pretty play!--theoretically true but practically useful only as a mantel ornament, or for a mistress in the parlor to direct the maid in the cellar! but, professor, _cui bono?_ in imagination one can make a new earth and improve all the land communications of our old one, but my unfortunate practicality stands in the way of my comprehension as yet.' "we then had a long conversation on the subject of magnetism and its modifications, and if i do not recollect the very words which clothed his thoughts, they were substantially as follows. "he had been long impressed with the belief that god had created the great forces of nature, not only as manifestations of his own infinite power, but as expressions of good-will to man, to do him good, and that every one of god's great forces could yet be utilized for man's welfare; that modern science was constantly evolving from the hitherto hidden secrets of nature some new development promotive of human welfare; and that, at no distant day, magnetism would do more for the advancement of human sociology than any of the material forces yet known; that he would scarcely dare to compare spiritual with material forces, yet that, analogically, magnetism would do in the advancement of human welfare what the spirit of god would do in the moral renovation of man's nature; that it would educate and enlarge the forces of the world.... he said he had felt as if he was doing a great work for god's glory as well as for man's welfare; that such had been his long cherished thought. his whole soul and heart appeared filled with a glow of love and good-will, and his sensitive and impassioned nature seemed almost to transform him in my eyes into a prophet." it required, indeed, the inspirational vision of a prophet to foresee, in those narrow, skeptical days, the tremendous part which electricity was to play in the civilization of a future age, and i wish again to lay stress on the fact that it was the telegraph which first harnessed this mysterious force, and opened the eyes of the world to the availability of a power which had lain dormant through all the ages, but which was now, for the first time, to be brought under the control of man, and which was destined to rival, and eventually to displace, in many ways, its elder brother steam. was not morse's ambition to confer a lasting good on his fellowmen more fully realized than even he himself at that time comprehended? the reverend henry b. tappan, who in was a colleague of morse's in the new york university and afterwards president of the university of michigan, gave his testimony in reply to a request from morse, and, among other things, he said:-- "in you had advanced so far that you were prepared to give, on a small scale, a practical demonstration of the possibility of transmitting and recording words through distance by means of an electro-magnetic arrangement. i was one of the limited circle whom you invited to witness the first experiments. in a long room of the university you had wires extended from end to end, where the magnetic apparatus was arranged. "it is not necessary for me to describe particulars which have now become familiar to every one. the fact which i recall with the liveliest interest, and which i mentioned in conversation at mr. bancroft's as one of the choicest recollections of my life, was that of the first transmission and recording of a telegraphic dispatch. "i suppose, of course, that you had already made these experiments before the company arrived whom you had invited. but i claim to have witnessed _the first transmission and recording of words_ by lightning ever made public.... the arrangement which you exhibited on the above mentioned occasion, as well as the mode of receiving the dispatches, were substantially the same as those you now employ. i feel certain that you had then already grasped the whole invention, however you may have since perfected the details." others bore testimony in similar words, so that we may regard it as proved that, both in and , demonstrations were made which, uncouth though they were, compared to present-day perfection, proved that the electric telegraph was about to emerge from the realms of fruitless experiment. among these witnesses were daniel huntington, hon. hamilton fish, and commodore shubrick; and several of these gentlemen asserted that, at that early period, morse confidently predicted that europe and america would eventually be united by an electric wire. the letters written by morse during these critical years have become hopelessly dispersed, and but few have come into my possession. his brothers were both in new york, so that there was no necessity of writing to them, and the letters written to others cannot, at this late day, be traced. as he also, unfortunately, did not keep a journal, i must depend on the testimony of others, and on his own recollections in later years for a chronicle of his struggles. the pencil copy of a letter written to a friend in albany, on august , , has, however, survived, and the following sentences will, i think, be found interesting:-- "thanks to you, my dear c----, for the concern you express in regard to my health. it has been perfectly good and is now, with the exception of a little anxiety in relation to the telegraph and to my great pictorial undertaking, which wears the furrows of my face a little deeper. my telegraph, in all its essential points, is tested to my own satisfaction and that of the scientific gentlemen who have seen it; but the machinery (all which, from its peculiar character, i have been compelled to make myself) is imperfect, and before it can be perfected i have reason to fear that other nations will take the hint and rob me both of the credit and the profit. there are indications of this in the foreign journals lately received. i have a defender in the 'journal of commerce' (which i send you that you may know what is the progress of the matter), and doubtless other journals of our country will not allow foreign nations to take the credit of an invention of such vast importance as they assign to it, when they learn that it certainly belongs to america. "there is not a thought in any one of the foreign journals relative to the telegraph which i had not expressed nearly five years ago, on my passage from france, to scientific friends; and when it is considered how quick a hint flies from mind to mind and is soon past all tracing back to the original suggester of the hint, it is certainly by no means improbable that the excitement on the subject in england has its origin from my giving the details of the plan of my telegraph to some of the englishmen or other fellow-passengers on board the ship, or to some of the many i have since made acquainted with it during the five years past." in this he was mistaken, for the english telegraph of cooke and wheatstone was quite different in principle, using the deflection, by a current of electricity, of a delicately adjusted needle to point to the letters of the alphabet. while this was in use in england for a number of years, it was gradually superseded by the morse telegraph which proved its decided superiority. it is also worthy of note that in this letter, and in all future letters and articles, he, with pardonable pride, uses a capital t in speaking of his telegraph. one of the most difficult of the problems which confront the historian who sincerely wishes to deal dispassionately with his subject is justly to apportion the credit which must be given to different workers in the same field of endeavor, and especially in that of invention; for every invention is but an improvement on something which has gone before. the sail-boat was an advance on the rude dugout propelled by paddles. the first clumsy steamboat seemed a marvel to those who had known no other propulsive power than that of the wind or the oar. the horse-drawn vehicle succeeded the litter and the palanquin, to be in turn followed by the locomotive; and so the telegraph, as a means of rapidly communicating intelligence between distant points, was the logical successor of the signal fire and the semaphore. in all of these improvements by man upon what man had before accomplished, the pioneer was not only dependent upon what his predecessors had achieved, but, in almost every case, was compelled to call to his assistance other workers to whom could be confided some of the minutiæ which were essential to the successful launching of the new enterprise. i have shown conclusively that the idea of transmitting intelligence by electricity was original with morse in that he was unaware, until some years after his first conception, that anyone else had ever thought of it. i have also shown that he, unaided by others, invented and made with his own hands a machine, rude though it may have been, which actually did transmit and record intelligence by means of the electric current, and in a manner entirely different from the method employed by others. but he had now come to a point where knowledge of what others had accomplished along the same line would greatly facilitate his labors, and when the assistance of one more skilled in mechanical construction was a great desideratum, and both of these essentials were at hand. it is quite possible that he might have succeeded in working out the problem absolutely unaided, just as a man might become a great painter without instruction, without a knowledge of the accumulated wisdom of those who preceded him, and without the assistance of the color-maker and the manufacturer of brushes and canvas. but the artist is none the less a genius because he listens to the counsels of his master, profits by the experience of others, and purchases his supplies instead of grinding his own colors and laboriously manufacturing his own canvas and brushes. the three men to whom morse was most indebted for material assistance in his labors at this critical period were professor joseph henry, professor leonard d. gale, and alfred vail, and it is my earnest desire to do full justice to all of them. unfortunately after the telegraph had become an assured success, and even down to the present day, the claims of morse have been bitterly assailed, both by well-meaning persons and by the unscrupulous who sought to break down his patent rights; and the names of these three men were freely used in the effort to prove that to one or all of them more credit was due than to morse. now, after the lapse of nearly three quarters of a century, the verdict has been given in favor of morse, his name alone is accepted as that of the inventor of the telegraph, and in this work it is my aim to prove that the judgment of posterity has not erred, but also to give full credit to those who aided him when he was most in need of assistance. my task in some instances will be a delicate one; i shall have to prick some bubbles, for the friends of some of these men have claimed too much for them, and, on that account, have been bitter in their accusations against morse. i shall also have to acknowledge some errors of judgment on the part of morse, for the malice of others fomented a dispute between him and one of these three men, which caused a permanent estrangement and was greatly to be regretted. the first of the three to enter into the history of the telegraph was leonard d. gale, who, in , was a professor in the university of the city of new york, and he has given his recollections of those early days. avoiding a repetition of facts already recorded i shall quote some sentences from professor gale's statement. after describing the first instrument, which he saw in january of , he continues:-- "during the years and beginning of the studies of professor morse on his telegraph i found much interrupted by his attention to his professional duties. i understood that want of pecuniary means prevented him from procuring to be made such mechanical improvements, and such substantial workmanship, as would make the operation of his invention more exact. "in the months of march and april, , the announcement of an extraordinary telegraph on the visual plan (as it afterwards proved to be), the invention of two french gentlemen of the names of gonon and servell, was going the rounds of the papers. the thought occurred to me, as well as to professor morse and some others of his friends, that the invention of his electro-magnetic telegraph had somehow become known, and was the origin of the new telegraph thus conspicuously announced. this announcement at once aroused professor morse to renewed exertions to bring the new invention creditably before the public, and to consent to a public announcement of the existence of his invention. from april to september, , professor morse and myself were engaged together in the work of preparing magnets, winding wire, constructing batteries, etc., in the university for an experiment on a larger, but still very limited scale, in the little leisure that each had to spare, and being at the same time much cramped for funds.... "the latter part of august, , the operation of the instruments was shown to numerous visitors at the university.... "on saturday, the d of september, , professor daubeny, of the english oxford university, being on a visit to this country, was invited with a few friends to see the operation of the telegraph, in its then rude form, in the cabinet of the new york university, where it had then been put up with a circuit of seventeen hundred feet of copper wire stretched back and forth in that long room. professor daubeny, professor torrey, and mr. alfred vail were present among others. this exhibition of the telegraph, although of very rude and imperfectly constructed machinery, demonstrated to all present the practicability of the invention, and it resulted in enlisting the means, the skill, and the zeal of mr. alfred vail, who, early the next week, called at the rooms and had a more perfect explanation from professor morse of the character of the invention." it was professor gale who first called morse's attention to the discoveries of professor joseph henry, especially to that of the intensity magnet, and he thus describes the interesting event:-- "morse's machine was complete in all its parts and operated perfectly through a circuit of some forty feet, but there was not sufficient force to send messages to a distance. at this time i was a lecturer on chemistry, and from necessity was acquainted with all kinds of galvanic batteries, and knew that a battery of one or a few cups generates a large quantity of electricity capable of producing heat, etc., but not of projecting electricity to a great distance, and that, to accomplish this, a battery of many cups is necessary. it was, therefore, evident to me that the one large cup-battery of morse should be made into ten or fifteen smaller ones to make it a battery of intensity so as to project the electric fluid.... accordingly i substituted the battery of many cups for the battery of one cup. the remaining defect in the morse machine, as first seen by me, was that the coil of wire around the poles of the electro-magnet consisted of but a few turns only, while, to give the greatest projectile power, the number of turns should be increased from tens to hundreds, as shown by professor henry in his paper published in the 'american journal of science,' .... after substituting the battery of twenty cups for that of a single cup, we added some hundred or more turns to the coil of wire around the poles of the magnet and sent a message through two hundred feet of conductors, then through one thousand feet, and then through ten miles of wire arranged on reels in my own lecture-room in the new york university in the presence of friends." this was a most important step in hastening the reduction of the invention to a practical, workable basis and i wish here to bear testimony to the great services of professor henry in making this possible. his valuable discoveries were freely given to the world with no attempt on his part to patent them, which is, perhaps, to be regretted, but much more is it to be deplored that, in, the litigation which ensued a few years later, morse and henry were drawn into a controversy, fostered and fomented by others for their own pecuniary benefit, which involved the honor and veracity of both of these distinguished men. both were men of the greatest sensitiveness, proud and jealous of their own integrity, and the breach once made was never healed. of the rights and wrongs of this controversy i may have occasion later on to treat more in detail, although i should much prefer to dismiss it with the acknowledgment that there was much to deplore in what was said and written by morse, although he sincerely believed himself to be in the right, and much to regret in some of the statements and actions of henry. at this late day, when the mists which enveloped the questions have rolled away, it seems but simple justice to admit that the wonderful discoveries of henry were essential to the successful working over long distances of morse's discoveries and inventions; just as the discoveries and inventions of earlier and contemporary scientists were essential to henry's improvements. but it is also just to place emphasis on the fact that henry's experiments were purely scientific. he never attempted to put them in concrete form for the use of mankind in general; they led up to the telegraph; they were not a practical telegraph in themselves. it was morse who added the final link in the long chain, and, by combining the discoveries of others with those which he had himself made, gave to the world this wonderful new agent. a recent writer in the "scientific american" gave utterance to the following sentiment, which, it seems to me, most aptly describes this difference: "we need physical discoveries and revere those who seek truth for its own sake. but mankind with keen instinct saves its warmest acclaim for those who also make discoveries of some avail in adding to the length of life, its joys, its possibilities, its conveniences." we must also remember that, while the baby telegraph had, in , been recognized as a promising infant by a very few scientists and personal friends of the inventor, it was still regarded with suspicion, if not with scorn, by the general public and even by many men of scholarly attainments, and a long and heart-breaking struggle for existence was ahead of it before it should reach maturity and develop into the lusty giant of the present day. here again morse proved that he was the one man of his generation most eminently fitted to fight for the child of his brain, to endure and to persevere until the victor's crown was grasped. it is always idle to speculate on what might have happened if certain events had not taken place; if certain men had not met certain other men. a telegraph would undoubtedly have been invented if morse had never been born; or he might have perfected his invention without the aid and advice of others, or with the assistance of different men from those who appeared at the psychological moment. but we are dealing with facts and not with suppositions, and the facts are that through professor gale he was made acquainted with the discoveries of joseph henry, which had been published to the world several years before, and could have been used by others if they had had the wit or genius to grasp their significance and hit upon the right means to make them of practical utility. morse was ever ready cheerfully to acknowledge the assistance which had been given to him by others, but, at the same time, he always took the firm stand that this did not give them a claim to an equal share with himself in the honor of the invention. in a long letter to professor charles t. jackson, written on september , , he vigorously but courteously repudiates the claim of the latter to have been a co-inventor on board the sully, and he proves his point, for jackson not only knew nothing of the plan adopted by morse, and carried by him to a successful issue, but had never suggested anything of a practical nature. at the same time morse freely acknowledges that the conversation between them on the ship suggested to him the train of thought which culminated in the invention, for he adds:-- "you say, 'i trust you will take care that the proper share of credit shall be given to me when you make public your doings.' this i always have done and with pleasure. i have always given you credit for great genius and acquirements, and have always said, in giving any account of my telegraph, that it was during a scientific conversation with you on board the ship that i first conceived the thought of an electric telegraph. is there really any more that you will claim or that i could in truth and justice give? "i have acknowledgments of a similar kind to make to professor silliman and to professor gale; to the former of whom i am under precisely similar obligations with yourself for several useful hints; and to the latter i am most of all indebted for substantial and effective aid in many of my experiments. if any one has a claim to be considered as a mutual inventor on the score of aid by hints, it is professor gale, but he prefers no claim of the kind." and he never did prefer such a claim (although it was made for him by others), but remained always loyal to morse. jackson, on the other hand, insisted on pressing his demand, although it was an absurd one, and he was a thorn in the flesh to morse for many years. it will not be necessary to go into the matter in detail, as jackson was, through his wild claims to other inventions and discoveries, thoroughly discredited, and his views have now no weight in the scientific world. the third person who came to the assistance of morse at this critical period was alfred vail, son of judge stephen vail, of morristown, new jersey. in he was a young man of thirty and had graduated from the university of the city of new york in . he was present at the exhibition of morse's invention on the d of september, , and he at once grasped its great possibilities. after becoming satisfied that morse's device of the relay would permit of operation over great distances, he expressed a desire to become associated with the inventor in the perfecting and exploitation of the invention. his father was the proprietor of the speedwell iron works in morristown, and young vail had had some experience in the manufacture of mechanical appliances in the factory, although he had taken the theological course at the university with the intention of entering the presbyterian ministry. he had abandoned the idea of becoming a clergyman, however, on account of ill-health, and was, for a time, uncertain as to his future career, when the interest aroused by the sight of morse's machine settled the matter, and, after consulting with his father and brother, he entered into an agreement with morse on the d day of september, . in the contract drawn up between them vail bound himself to construct, at his own expense, a complete set of instruments; to defray the costs of securing patents in this country and abroad; and to devote his time to both these purposes. it was also agreed that each should at once communicate to the other any improvement or new invention bearing on the simplification or perfecting of the telegraph, and that such improvements or inventions should be held to be the property of each in the proportion in which they were to share in any pecuniary benefits which might accrue. as the only way in which morse could, at that time, pay vail for his services and for money advanced, he gave him a one-fourth interest in the invention in this country, and one half in what might be obtained from europe. this was, in the following march, changed to three sixteenths in the united states and one fourth in europe. morse had now secured two essentials most necessary to the rapid perfection of his invention, the means to purchase materials and an assistant more skilled than he in mechanical construction, and who was imbued with faith in the ultimate success of the enterprise. now began the serious work of putting the invention into such a form that it could demonstrate to the skeptical its capability of performing what was then considered a miracle. it is hard for us at the present time, when new marvels of science and invention are of everyday occurrence, to realize the hidebound incredulousness which prevailed during the first half of the nineteenth century. men tapped their foreheads and shook their heads in speaking of morse and his visionary schemes, and deeply regretted that here was the case of a brilliant man and excellent artist evidently gone wrong. but he was not to be turned from his great purpose by the jeers of the ignorant and the anxious solicitations of his friends, and he was greatly heartened by the encouragement of such men as gale and vail. they all three worked over the problems yet to be solved, morse going backwards and forwards between new york and morristown. that both gale and vail suggested improvements which were adopted by morse, can be taken for granted, but, as i have said before, to modify or elaborate something originated by another is a comparatively easy matter, and the basic idea, first conceived by morse on the sully, was retained throughout. all the details of these experiments have not been recorded, but i believe that at first an attempt was made to put into a more finished form the principle of the machine made by morse, with its swinging pendulum tracing a waving line, but this was soon abandoned in favor of an instrument using the up-and-down motion of a lever, as drawn in the sketch-book. in other words, it was a return to first principles as thought out by morse, and not, as some would have us believe, something entirely new suggested and invented independently by vail. it was rather unfortunate and curious, in view of morse's love of simplicity, that he at first insisted on using the dots and dashes to indicate numbers only, the numbers to correspond to words in a specially prepared dictionary. his arguments in favor of this plan were specious, but the event has proved that his reasoning was faulty. his first idea was that the telegraph should belong to the government; that intelligence sent should be secret by means of a kind of cipher; that it would take less time to send a number than each letter of each word, especially in the case of the longer words; and, finally, that although the labor in preparing a dictionary of all the most important words in the language and giving to each its number would be great, once done it would be done for all time. i say that this was unfortunate because the fact that the telegraphic alphabet of dots and dashes was not used until after his association with vail has lent strength to the claims on the part of vail's family and friends that he was the inventor of it and not morse. this claim has been so insistently, and even bitterly, made, especially after morse's death, that it gained wide credence and has even been incorporated in some encyclopedias and histories. fortunately it can be easily disproved, and i am desirous of finally settling this vexed question because i consider the conception of this simplest of all conventional alphabets one of the grandest of morse's inventions, and one which has conferred great good upon mankind. it is used to convey intelligence not only by electricity, but in many other ways. its cabalistic characters can be read by the eye, the ear, and the touch. just as the names of ampère, volta, and watt have been used to designate certain properties or things discovered by them, so the name of morse is immortalized in the alphabet invented by him. the telegraph operators all over the world send "morse" when they tick off the dots and dashes of the alphabet, and happily i can prove that this is not an honor filched from another. it is a matter of record that vail himself never claimed in any of his letters or diaries (and these are voluminous) that he had anything to do with the devising of this conventional alphabet, even with the modification of the first form. on the other hand, in several letters to morse he refers to it as being morse's. for instance, in a letter of april , , he uses the words "your system of marking, _lines_ and _dots_, which you have patented." all the evidence brought forward by the advocates of vail is purely hearsay; he is said to have said that he invented the alphabet. morse, however, always, in every one of his many written references to the matter, speaks of it as "my conventional alphabet." in an article which i contributed to the "century magazine" of march, , i treated this question at length and proved by documentary evidence that morse alone devised the dot-and-dash alphabet. it will not be necessary for me to repeat all this evidence here; i shall simply give enough to prove conclusively that the morse alphabet has not been misnamed. the following is a fugitive note which was reproduced photographically in the "century" article:-- "mr. vail, in his work on the telegraph, at p. , intimates that the saw-teeth type for letters, as he has described them in the diagram ( ), were devised by me as early as the year . two of the elements of these letters, indeed, were then devised, the dot and space, and used in constructing the type for numerals, but, so far as my recollection now serves me, it was not until i experimented with the first instrument in that i added the -- dash, which supplied me with the three elements for combinations for letters. it was on noticing the fact that, when the circuit was closed a longer time than was necessary to make a dot, there was produced a line or dash, that, if i rightly remember, the broken parts of a continuous line as the means of imprinting at a distance were suggested to me; since the inequalities of long and short lines, separated by long and short spaces, gave me all the variations or combinations of long and short lines necessary to form the alphabet. the date of the code complete must, therefore, be put at , and not , although at the date of the principle of the code was _evolved_." in addition to this being a definite claim in writing on the part of morse that he had devised an alphabetic code in , two years before vail had ever heard of the telegraph, it is well to note his scrupulous insistence on historical accuracy. in a letter to professor gale, referring to reading by sound as well as by sight, occur the following sentences. (let me remark, by the way, that it is interesting to note that morse thus early recognized the possibility of reading by sound, an honor which has been claimed for many others.) "exactly at what time i recognized the adaptation of the difference in the intervals in reading the _letters_ as well as the numerals, i have now no means of fixing except in a general manner. it was, however, almost immediately on the construction of the letters by dots and lines, and this was some little time previous to your seeing the instrument. "soon after the first operation of the instrument in , in which the type for writing numbers were used, i not only conceived the letter type, but made them from some leads used in the printing-office. i have still quite a quantity of these type. they were used in washington as well as the type for numerals in the winter of - . "in the earlier period of the invention it was a matter which experience alone could determine whether the _numerical_ system, by means of a numbered dictionary, or the alphabetic mode, by spelling of the words, was the better. while i perceived some advantages in the alphabetic system, especially in the writing of proper names, i at that time leaned rather towards the _numerical_ mode under the impression that it would, on the whole, be the more rapid. a very short experience, however, showed the superiority of the alphabetic mode, and the big leaves of the numbered dictionary, which cost me a world of labor, and which you, perhaps, remember, were discarded and the alphabetic installed in its stead." perhaps the most conclusive evidence that vail did not invent this alphabet is contained in his own book on the "american electro-magnetic telegraph," published in , in which he lays claim to certain improvements. after describing the dot-and-dash alphabet, he says:-- "this conventional alphabet was originated on board the packet sully by professor morse, the very first elements of the invention, and arose from the necessity of the case; the motion produced by the magnet being limited to a single action. during the period of the thirteen years _many plans have been devised by the inventor_ to bring the telegraphic alphabet to its simplest form." the italics are mine, for the advocates of vail have always quoted the first sentence only, and have said that the word "originated" implies that, while vail admitted that the embryo of the alphabet--the dots and dashes to represent numbers only--was conceived on the sully, he did not admit that the alphabetical code was morse's. but when we read the second sentence with the words "devised by the inventor," the meaning is so plain that it is astonishing that any one at all familiar with the facts could have been misled. the first form of the alphabet which was attached to morse's caveat of october , , is shown in the drawing of the type in the accompanying figure. [illustration: rough drawing of alphabet by morse showing the first form of the alphabet and the changes to the present form] it has been stated by some historians that the system of signs for letters was not attached to the caveat, but a careful reading of the text, in which reference is made to the drawing, will prove conclusively that it was. moreover, in this caveat under section , "the dictionary or vocabulary," the very first sentence reads: "the dictionary is a complete vocabulary of words alphabetically arranged and regularly numbered, _beginning with the letters of the alphabet_." the italics are mine. the mistake arose because the drawing was detached from the caveat and affixed to the various patents which were issued, even after the first form of the alphabet had been superseded by a better one, the principle, however, remaining the same, so that it was not necessary to patent the new form. as soon as it was proved that it would be simpler to use the letters of the alphabet in sending intelligence, the first form of the alphabet was changed in the manner shown in the preceding figure. exactly when this was done has not been recorded, but it was after vail's association with morse, and it is quite possible that they worked over the problem together, but there is no written proof of this, whereas the accompanying reproduction of calculations in morse's handwriting will prove that he gave himself seriously to its consideration. the large numbers represent the quantities of type found in the type-cases of a printing-office; for, after puzzling over the question of the relative frequency of the occurrence of the different letters in the written language, a visit to the printing-office easily settled the matter. this dispute, concerning the paternity of the alphabet, lasting for many years after the death of both principals, and regrettably creating much bad feeling, is typical of many which arose in the case of the telegraph, as well as in that of every other great invention, and it may not be amiss at this point to introduce the following fugitive note of morse's, which, though evidently written many years later, is applicable to this as well as to other cases:-- "it is quite common to misapprehend the nature and extent of an improvement without a thorough knowledge of an original invention. a casual observer is apt to confound the new and the old, and, in noting a new arrangement, is often led to consider the whole as new. it is, therefore, necessary to exercise a proper discrimination lest injustice be done to the various laborers in the same field of invention. i trust it will not be deemed egotistical on my part if, while conscious of the unfeigned desire to concede to all who are attempting improvements in the art of telegraphy that which belongs to them, i should now and then recognize the familiar features of my own offspring and claim their paternity." [illustration: quantities of the type found in a printing-office calculation made by morse to aid him in simplifying alphabet] chapter xxiv october , --may , the caveat.--work at morristown.--judge vail.--first success.--resolution in congress regarding telegraphs.--morse's reply.--illness.--heaviness of first instruments.--successful exhibition in morristown.--exhibition in new york university.--first use of morse alphabet.--change from first form of alphabet to present form.--trials of an inventor.--dr. jackson.-- slight friction between morse and vail.--exhibition at franklin institute, philadelphia.--exhibitions in washington.--skepticism of public.--f.o.j. smith,--f.l. pope's estimate of smith.--proposal for government telegraph.--smith's report.--departure for europe. i have incidentally mentioned the caveat in the preceding chapter, but a more detailed account of this important step in bringing the invention into the light of day should, perhaps, be given. the reports in the newspapers of the activities of others, especially of scientists in europe, led morse to decide that he must at once take steps legally to protect himself if he did not wish to be distanced in the race. he accordingly wrote to the commissioner of patents, henry l. ellsworth, who had been a classmate of his at yale, for information as to the form to be used in applying for a caveat, and, after receiving a cordial reply enclosing the required form, he immediately set to work to prepare his caveat. this was in the early part of september, , before he had met vail. the rough draft, which is still among his papers, was completed on september , and the finished copy was sent to washington on october , and the receipt acknowledged by commissioner ellsworth on october . the drawing containing the signs for both numbers and letters was attached to this caveat. having now safeguarded himself, he was able to give his whole mind to the perfecting of the mechanical parts of his invention, and in this he was ably assisted by his new partner, alfred vail, and by professor gale. the next few months were trying ones to both morse and vail. it must not be supposed that the work went along smoothly without a hitch. many were the discouragements, and many experiments were tried and then discarded. to add to the difficulties, judge vail, who, of course, was supplying the cash, piqued by the sneers of his neighbors and noting the feverish anxiety of his son and of morse, lost faith, and would have willingly abandoned the whole enterprise. the two enthusiasts worked steadily on, however, avoiding the judge as much as possible, and finally, on the th of january, , they proudly invited him to come to the workshop and witness the telegraph in operation. his hopes renewed by their confident demeanor, he hastened down from his house. after a few words of explanation he handed a slip of paper to his son on which he had written the words--"a patient waiter is no loser." he knew that morse could not possibly know what he had written, and he said: "if you can send this and mr. morse can read it at the other end, i shall be convinced." slowly the message was ticked off, and when morse handed him the duplicate of his message, his enthusiasm knew no bounds, and he proposed to go at once to washington and urge upon congress the establishment of a government line. but the instrument was not yet in a shape to be seen of all men, and many years were yet to elapse before the legislators of the country awoke to their opportunity. morse and vail were, of course, greatly encouraged by this first triumph, and worked on with increased enthusiasm. many years after their early struggles, when the telegraph was an established success and morse had been honored both at home and abroad, he thus spoke of his friend:-- "alfred vail, then a student in the university, and a young man of great ingenuity, having heard of my invention, came to my rooms and i explained it to him, and from that moment he has taken the deepest interest in the telegraph. finding that i was unable to command the means to bring my invention properly before the public, and believing that he could command those means through his father and brother, he expressed the belief to me, and i at once made such an arrangement with him as to procure the pecuniary means and the skill of these gentlemen. it is to their joint liberality, but especially to the attention, and skill, and faith in the final success of the enterprise maintained by alfred vail, that is due the success of my endeavors to bring the telegraph at that time creditably before the public." the idea of telegraphs seems to have been in the air in the year , for the house of representatives had passed a resolution on the d of february, , requesting the secretary of the treasury, hon. levi woodbury, to report to the house upon the propriety of establishing a system of telegraphs for the united states. the term "telegraph" in those days included semaphores and other visual appliances, and, in fact, anything by which intelligence could be transmitted to a distance. the secretary issued a circular to "collectors of customs, commanders of revenue cutters, and other persons," requesting information. morse received one of these circulars, and in reply sent a long account of his invention. but so hard to convince were the good people of that day, and so skeptical and even flippant were most of the members of congress that six long years were to elapse, years filled with struggles, discouragements, and heart-breaking disappointments, before the victory was won. morse had still to contend with occasional fits of illness, for he writes to his brother sidney from morristown on november , :-- "you will perhaps be surprised to learn that i came out here to be sick. i caught a severe cold the day i left new york from the sudden change of temperature, and was taken down the next morning with one of my bilious attacks, which, under other treatment and circumstances, might have resulted seriously. but, through a kind providence, i have been thrown among most attentive, and kind, and skilful friends, who have treated me more like one of their own children than like a stranger. mrs. vail has been a perfect mother to me; our good nancy shepard can alone compare with her. through her nursing and constant attention i am now able to leave my room and have been downstairs to-day, and hope to be out in a few days. this sickness will, of course, detain me a while longer than i intended, for i must finish the portraits before i return." this refers to portraits of various members of the vail family which he had undertaken to execute while he was in morristown. farther on in the letter he says:-- "the machinery for the telegraph goes forward daily; slowly but well and thorough. you will be surprised at the strength and quantity of machinery, greater, doubtless, than will eventually be necessary, yet it gives the main points, certainty and accuracy." it may be well to note here that morse evidently foresaw that the machinery constructed by alfred vail was too heavy and cumbersome; that more delicate workmanship would later be called for, and this proved to be the case. the iron works at morristown were only adapted to the manufacture of heavy machinery for ships, etc., and alfred vail had had experience in that class of work only, so that he naturally made the telegraphic instruments much heavier and more unwieldy than was necessary. while these answered the purpose for the time being, they were soon superseded by instruments of greater delicacy and infinitely smaller bulk made by more skilful hands. the future looked bright to the sanguine inventor in the early days of the year , as we learn from the following letter to his brother sidney, written on the th of january:-- "mr. alfred vail is just going in to new york and will return on monday morning. the machinery is at length completed and we have shown it to the morristown people with great _éclat_. it is the talk of all the people round, and the principal inhabitants of newark made a special excursion on friday to see it. the success is complete. we have tried the experiment of sending a pretty full letter, which i set up from the numbers given me, transmitting through two miles of wire and deciphered with but a single unimportant error. "i am staying out to perfect a modification of my portrule and hope to see you on tuesday, or, at the farthest, on wednesday, when i shall tell you all about it. the matter looks well now, and i desire to feel grateful to him who gives success, and be always prepared for any disappointment which he in infinite wisdom may have in store." we see from this letter, and from an account which appeared in the morristown "journal," that in these exhibitions the messages were sent by numbers with the aid of the cumbersome dictionary which morse had been at such pains to compile. very soon after this, however, as will appear from what follows, the dictionary was discarded forever, and the morse alphabet came into practical use. the following invitation was sent from the new york university on january , :-- "professor morse requests the honor of thomas s. cummings, esq., and family's company in the geological cabinet of the university, washington square, to witness the operation of the electro-magnetic telegraph at a private exhibition of it to a few friends, previous to its leaving the city for washington. "the apparatus will be prepared at precisely twelve o'clock on wednesday, th instant. the time being limited punctuality is specially requested." similar invitations were sent to other prominent persons and a very select company gathered at the appointed hour. that the exhibition was a success we learn from the following account in the "journal of commerce" of january , :-- "the telegraph.--we did not witness the operation of professor morse's electro-magnetic telegraph on wednesday last, but we learn that the numerous company of scientific persons who were present pronounced it entirely successful. intelligence was instantaneously transmitted through a circuit of ten miles, and legibly written on a cylinder at the extremity of the circuit. the great advantages which must result to the public from this invention will warrant an outlay on the part of the government sufficient to test its practicability as a general means of transmitting intelligence. "professor morse has recently improved on his mode of marking by which he can dispense altogether with the telegraphic dictionary, using letters instead of numbers, and he can transmit ten words per minute, which is more than double the number which can be transmitted by means of the dictionary." a charming and rather dramatic incident occurred at this exhibition which was never forgotten by those who witnessed it. general cummings had just been appointed to a military command, and one of his friends, with this fact evidently in mind, wrote a message on a piece of paper and, without showing it to any one else, handed it to morse. the assembled company was silent and only the monotonous clicking of the strange instrument was heard as the message was ticked off in the dots and dashes, and then from the other end of the ten miles of wire was read out this sentence pregnant with meaning:-- "attention, the universe, by kingdoms right wheel." the name of the man who indited that message seems not to have been preserved, but, whoever he was, he must have been gifted with prophetic vision, and he must have realized that he was assisting at an occasion which was destined to mark the beginning of a new era in civilization. the attention of the universe was, indeed, before long attracted to this child of morse's brain, and kingdom after kingdom wheeled into line, vying with each other in admiration and acceptance. the message was recorded fourfold by means of a newly invented fountain pen, and was given to general cummings and preserved by him. it is here reproduced. [illustration: "attention the unniverse! by kingdoms right wheel!" facsimile of the first morse alphabet message, now in the national museum, washington] it will be noticed that the signs for the letters are those, not of the first form of the alphabet as embodied in the drawing attached to the caveat, but of the finally adopted code. this has led some historians, notably mr. franklin leonard pope, to infer that some mistake has been made in giving out this as a facsimile of this early message; that the letters should have been those of the earlier alphabet. i think, however, that this is but an added proof that morse devised the first form of the code long before he met vail, and that the changes to the final form, a description of which i have given, were made by morse in , or early in , as soon as he became convinced of the superiority of the alphabetic mode, in plenty of time to have been used in this exhibition. the month of january, , was a busy one at morristown, for morse and vail were bending all their energies toward the perfecting and completion of the instruments, so that a demonstration of the telegraph could be given in washington at as early a date as possible. morse refers feelingly to the trials and anxieties of an inventor in a letter to a friend, dated january , :-- "i have just returned from nearly six weeks' absence at morristown, new jersey, where i have been engaged in the superintendence of the making of my telegraph for washington. "be thankful, c----, that you are not an inventor. invention may seem an easy way to _fame_, or, what is the same thing to many, _notoriety_, different as are in reality the two objects. but it is far otherwise. i, indeed, desire the first, for true fame implies well-deserving, but i have no wish for the latter, which yet seems inseparable from it. "the condition of an inventor is, indeed, not enviable. i know of but one condition that renders it in any degree tolerable, and that is the reflection that his fellow-men may be benefited by his discoveries. in the outset, if he has really made a _discovery_, which very word implies that it was before unknown to the world, he encounters the incredulity, the opposition, and even the sneers of many, who look upon him with a kind of pity, as a little beside himself if not quite mad. and, while maturing his invention, he has the comfort of reflection, in all the various discouragements he meets with from petty failures, that, should he by any means fail in the grand result, he subjects himself rather to the ridicule than the sympathy of his acquaintances, who will not be slow in attributing his failure to a want of that common sense in which, by implication, they so much abound, and which preserves them from the consequences of any such delusions. "but you will, perhaps, think that there is an offset in the honors and emoluments that await the successful inventor, one who has really demonstrated that he has made an important discovery. this is not so. trials of another kind are ready for him after the appropriate difficulties of his task are over. many stand ready to snatch the prize, or at least to claim a share, so soon as the success of an invention seems certain, and honor and profit alone remain to be obtained. "this long prelude, c----, brings me at the same time to the point of my argument and to my excuse for my long silence. my argument goes to prove that, unless there is a benevolent consideration in our discoveries, one which enables us to rejoice that others are benefited even though we should suffer loss, our happiness from any honor awarded to a successful invention is exposed to constant danger from the designs of the unprincipled. my excuse is that, ever since the receipt of your most welcome letter, i have been engaged in preparing to repel a threatened invasion of my rights to the invention of the telegraph by a fellow-passenger from france, one from whom i least expected any such insidious design. the attempt startled me and put me on my guard, and set me to the preparation for any attack. i have been compelled for some weeks to use my pen only for this purpose, and have written much in the hope of preventing the public exposure of my antagonist; but i fear my labor will be vain on this point, from what i hear and the tone in which he writes. i have no fear for myself, being now amply prepared with evidence to repel any attempt which may be made to sustain any claim he may prefer to a share with me in the invention of the telegraph." i have already shown that this claim of dr. jackson's was proved to be but the hallucination of a disordered brain, and it will not be necessary to go into the details of the controversy. these were anxious and nerve-racking days for both morse and vail, and it is small wonder that there should have been some slight friction. vail in his private correspondence makes some mention of this. for instance, in a letter to his brother george, of january , , he says:-- "we received the machine on thursday morning, and in an hour we made the first trial, which did not succeed, nor did it with perfect success until saturday--all which time professor m. was rather _unwell_. to-morrow we shall make our first exhibition, and continue it until wednesday, when we must again box up. professor m. has received a letter from mr. patterson inviting us to exhibit at philadelphia, and has answered it, but has said nothing to me about his intentions. he is altogether inclined to operate in his own name, so much so that he has had printed five hundred blank invitations in his own name at your expense." on the other hand, this same george vail, writing to morse on january , , asks him to "bear with a., which i have no doubt you will. he is easily vexed. trusting to your universal coolness, however, there is nothing to fear. keep him from running ahead too fast." again writing to his brother george from washington, on february , , alfred says: "in regard to professor m. calling me his '_assistant_,' this is also settled, and he has said as much as to apologize for using the term." why vail should have objected to being called morse's assistant, i cannot quite understand, for he was so designated in the contract later made with the government; but morse was evidently willing to humor him in this. i have thought it best to refer to these little incidents partly in the interest of absolute candor, partly to emphasize the nervous tension under which both were working at that time. that there was no lasting resentment in the mind of vail is amply proved by the following extract from a long letter written by him on march , :-- "the great expectations i had on my return home of going into partnership with george, founded, or semi-founded, on the promises made by my father, have burst. i am again on vague promises for three months, and they resting upon the success of the printing machine. "i feel, professor morse, that, if i am ever worth anything, it will be wholly attributable to your kindness. i now should have no _earthly_ prospect of happiness and domestic bliss had it not been for what you have done. for which i shall ever remember [you] with the liveliest emotions of gratitude, whether it is eventually successful or not." aside from the slight friction to which i have referred, and which was most excusable under the circumstances, the joint work on the telegraph proceeded harmoniously. the invitation from mr. patterson, to exhibit the instrument before the committee of science and arts of the franklin institute of philadelphia, was accepted. the exhibition took place on february , and was a pronounced success, and the committee, in expressing their gratification, voiced the hope that the government would provide the funds for an experiment on an adequate scale. from philadelphia morse proceeded to washington accompanied by vail, confidently believing that it would only be necessary to demonstrate the practicability of his invention to the country's legislators assembled in congress, in order to obtain a generous appropriation to enable him properly to test it. but he had not taken into account that trait of human nature which i shall dignify by calling it "conservatism," in order not to give it a harder name. the room of the committee on commerce was placed at his disposal, and there he hopefully strung his ten miles of wire and connected them with his instruments. outwardly calm but inwardly nervous and excited, as he realized that he was facing a supreme moment in his career, he patiently explained to all who came, congressmen, men of science, representatives of foreign governments, and hard-headed men of business, the workings of the instrument and proved its feasibility. the majority saw and wondered, but went away unconvinced. on february , president martin van buren and his entire cabinet, at their own special request, visited the room and saw the telegraph in operation. but no action was taken by congress; the time was not yet ripe for the general acceptance of such a revolutionary departure from the slow-going methods of that early period. while individuals here and there grasped the full significance of what the mysterious ticking of that curious instrument foretold, they were vastly in the minority. the world, through its representatives in the capital city of the united states, remained incredulous. among those who at once recognized the possibilities of the invention was francis o.j. smith, member of congress from portland, maine, and chairman of the committee on commerce. he was a lawyer of much shrewdness and a man of great energy, and he very soon offered to become pecuniarily interested in the invention. morse was, unfortunately, not a keen judge of men. scrupulously honest and honorable himself, he had an almost childlike faith in the integrity of others, and all through his life he fell an easy victim to the schemes of self-seekers. in this case a man of more acute intuition would have hesitated, and would have made some enquiries before allying himself with one whose ideas of honor proved eventually to be so at variance with his own. smith did so much in later years to injure morse, and to besmirch his fame and good name, that i think it only just to give the following estimate of his character, made by the late franklin leonard pope in an article contributed to the "electrical world" in :-- "a sense of justice compels me to say that the uncorroborated statements of f.o.j. smith, in any matter affecting the credit or honor due to professor morse, should be allowed but little weight.... for no better reason than that morse in - courteously but firmly refused to be a party to a questionable scheme devised by smith for the irregular diversion into his own pocket of a portion of the governmental appropriation of $ , for the construction of the experimental line, he ever after cherished toward the inventor the bitterest animosity; a feeling which he took no pains to conceal. many of his letters to him at that time, and for many years afterward, were couched in studiously insulting language, which must have been in the highest degree irritating to a sensitive artistic temperament like that of morse. "it probably by no means tended to mollify the disposition of such a man as smith to find that morse, in reply to these covert sneers and open insinuations, never once lost his self-control, nor permitted himself to depart from the dignified tone of rejoinder which becomes a gentleman in his dealings with one who, in his inmost nature, was essentially a blackguard." however, it is an old saying that we must "give the devil his due," and the cloven foot did not appear at first. on the other hand, a man of business acumen and legal knowledge was greatly needed at this stage of the enterprise, and smith possessed them both. morse was so grateful to find any one with faith enough to be willing to invest money in the invention; and to devote his time and energy to its furtherance, that he at once accepted smith's offer, and he was made a partner and given a one-fourth interest, morse retaining nine sixteenths, vail two sixteenths, and professor gale, also admitted as a partner, being allotted one sixteenth. it was characteristic of morse that he insisted, before signing the contract, that smith should obtain leave of absence from congress for the remainder of the term, and should not stand for reelection. it was agreed that smith should accompany morse to europe as soon as possible and endeavor to secure patents in foreign countries, and, if successful, the profits were to be divided differently, morse receiving eight sixteenths, smith five, vail two, and gale one. in spite of the incredulity of the many, morse could not help feeling encouraged, and in a long letter to smith, written on february , , proposing an experiment of one hundred miles, he thus forecasts the future and proposes an intelligent plan of government control:-- "if no insurmountable obstacles present themselves in a distance of one hundred miles, none may be expected in one thousand or in ten thousand miles; and then will be presented for the consideration of the government the propriety of completely organizing this _new telegraphic system as a part of the government_, attaching it to some department already existing, or creating a new one which may be called for by the accumulating duties of the present departments. "it is obvious, at the slightest glance, that this mode of instantaneous communication must inevitably become an instrument of immense power, to be wielded for good or for evil, as it shall be properly or improperly directed. in the hands of a company of speculators, who should monopolize it for themselves, it might be the means of enriching the corporation at the expense of the bankruptcy of thousands; and even in the hands of government alone it might become the means of working vast mischief to the republic. "in considering these prospective evils, i would respectfully suggest a remedy which offers itself to my mind. let the sole right of using the telegraph belong, in the first place, to the government, who should grant, for a specified sum or bonus, to any individual or company of individuals who may apply for it, and under such restrictions and regulations as the government may think proper, the right to lay down a communication between any two points for the purpose of transmitting intelligence, and thus would be promoted a general competition. the government would have a telegraph of its own, and have its modes of communicating with its own officers and agents, independent of private permission or interference with and interruption to the ordinary transmissions on the private telegraphs. thus there would be a system of checks and preventives of abuse operating to restrain the action of this otherwise dangerous power within those bounds which will permit only the good and neutralize the evil. should the government thus take the telegraph solely under its own control, the revenue derived from the bonuses alone, it must be plain, will be of vast amount. "from the enterprising character of our countrymen, shown in the manner in which they carry forward any new project which promises private or public advantage, it is not visionary to suppose that it would not be long ere the whole surface of this country would be channelled for those _nerves_ which are to diffuse, with the speed of thought, a knowledge of all that is occurring throughout the land, making, in fact, one neighborhood of the whole country. "if the government is disposed to test this mode of telegraphic communication by enabling me to give it a fair trial for one hundred miles, i will engage to enter into no arrangement to dispose of my rights, as the inventor and patentee for the united states, to any individual or company of individuals, previous to offering it to the government for such a just and reasonable compensation as shall be mutually agreed upon." we have seen that morse was said to be a hundred years ahead of his time as an artist. from the sentences above quoted it would appear that he was far in advance of his contemporaries in some questions of national policy, for the plan outlined by him for the proper governmental control of a great public utility, like the telegraph, it seems to me, should appeal to those who, at the present time, are agitating for that very thing. had the legislators and the people of been as wise and clear-headed as the poor artist-inventor, a great leap forward in enlightened statecraft would have been undertaken at a cost inconceivably less than would now be the case. competent authorities estimate that to purchase the present telegraph lines in this country at their market valuation would cost the government in the neighborhood of $ , , ; to parallel them would cost some $ , , . the enormous difference in these two sums represents what was foretold by morse would happen if the telegraph should become a monopoly in the hands of speculators. the history of the telegraph monopoly is too well known to be more than alluded to here, but it is only fair to morse to state that he had sold all his telegraph stock, and had retired from active participation in the management of the different companies, long before the system of stock-watering began which has been carried on to the present day. and for what sum could the government have kept this great invention under its own control? it is on record that morse offered, in , after the experimental line between washington and baltimore had demonstrated that the telegraph was a success, to sell all the rights in his invention to the government for $ , , and would have considered himself amply remunerated. but the legislators and the people of , and even those of , were not wise and far-sighted; they failed utterly to realize what a magnificent opportunity had been offered to them for a mere song; and this in spite of the fact that the few who did glimpse the great future of the telegraph painted it in glowing terms. it is true that the house of representatives had passed the resolution referred to earlier in this chapter, but that is as far as they went for several years. on the th of april, , mr. f.o.j. smith made a long report on the petition of morse asking for an appropriation sufficient to enable him to test his invention adequately. in the course of this report mr. smith indulged in the following eulogistic words:-- "it is obvious, however, that the influence of this invention over the political, commercial, and social relations of the people of this widely extended country, looking to nothing beyond, will, in the event of success, of itself amount to a revolution unsurpassed in moral grandeur by any discovery that has been made in the arts and sciences, from the most distant period to which authentic history extends to the present day. with the means of almost instantaneous communication of intelligence between the most distant points of the country, and simultaneously between any given number of intermediate points which this invention contemplates, space will be, to all practical purposes of information, completely annihilated between the states of the union, as also between the individual citizens thereof. the citizen will be invested with, and reduce to daily and familiar use, an approach to the high attribute op ubiquity in a degree that the human mind, until recently, has hardly dared to contemplate seriously as belonging to human agency, from an instinctive feeling of religious reverence and reserve on a power of such awful grandeur." in the face of these enthusiastic, if somewhat stilted, periods the majority of his colleagues remained cold, and no appropriation was voted. morse, however, was prepared to meet with discouragements, for he wrote to vail on march :-- "everything looks encouraging, but i need not say to you that in this world a continued course of prosperity is not a rational expectation. we shall, doubtless, find troubles and difficulties in store for us, and it is the part of true wisdom to be prepared for whatever may await us. if our hearts are right we shall not be taken by surprise. i see nothing now but an unclouded prospect, for which let us pay to him who shows it to us the homage of grateful and obedient hearts, with most earnest prayers for grace to use prosperity aright." this was written while there was still hope that congress might take some action at that session, and morse was optimistic. on march , he thus reports progress to vail:-- "i write you a hasty line to say, in the first place, that i have overcome all difficulties in regard to a portrule, and have invented one which will be perfect. it is very simple, and will not take much time or expense to make it. mr. s. has incorporated it into the specification for the patent. please, therefore, not to proceed with the type or portrule as now constructed: i will see you on my return and explain it in season for you to get one ready for us. "i find it a most arduous and tedious process to adjust the specification. i have been engaged steadily for three days with mr. s., and have not yet got half through, but there is one consolation, when done it will be well done. the drawings, i find on enquiry, would cost you from forty to fifty dollars if procured from the draughtsman about the patent office. i have, therefore, determined to do them myself and save you that sum." the portrule, referred to above, was a device for sending automatically messages which were recorded permanently on the tape at the other end of the line. it worked well enough, but it was soon superseded by the key manipulated by hand, as this was much simpler and the dots and dashes could be sent more rapidly. it is curious to note, however, that down to the present day inventors have been busy in an effort to devise some mechanism by which messages could be sent automatically, and consequently more rapidly than by hand, which was morse's original idea, but, to the best of my knowledge, no satisfactory solution of the problem has yet been found. morse was now preparing to go to europe with smith to endeavor to secure patents abroad, and, while he had put in his application for a patent in this country, he requested that the issuing of it should be held back until his return, so that a publication on this side should not injure his chances abroad. all the partners were working under high pressure along their several lines to get everything in readiness for a successful exhibition of the telegraph in europe. vail sent a long letter to morse on april , detailing some of the difficulties which he was encountering, and morse answered on the th:-- "i write in greatest haste, just to say that the boxes have safely arrived, and we shall proceed immediately to examine into the difficulties which have troubled you, but about which we apprehend no serious issue.... "if you can possibly get the circular portrule completed before we go it will be a great convenience, not to say an indispensable matter, for i have just learned so much of wheatstone's telegraph as to be pretty well persuaded that my superiority over him will be made evident more by the rapidity with which i can make the portrule work than in almost any other particular." at last every detail had been attended to, and in a postscript to a letter of april he says: "we sail on the th of may for liverpool in the ship europe, so i think you will have time to complete circular portrule. try, won't you?" chapter xxv june, --january , arrival in england.--application for letters patent.--cooke and wheatstone's telegraph.--patent refused.--departure for paris.--patent secured in france.--earl of elgin.--earl of lincoln.--baron de meyendorff.--russian contract.--return to london.--exhibition at the earl of lincoln's.--letter from secretary of lord campbell, attorney-general. --coronation of queen victoria.--letters to daughter.--birth of the count of paris.--exhibition before the institute of france.--arago; baron humboldt.--negotiations with the government and saint-germain railway.-- reminiscences of dr. kirk.--letter of the honorable h.l. ellsworth.-- letter to f.o.j. smith.--dilatoriness of the french. it seems almost incredible to us, who have come to look upon marvel after marvel of science and invention as a matter of course, that it should have taken so many years to convince the world that the telegraph was a possibility and not an iridescent dream. while men of science and a few far-sighted laymen saw that the time was ripe for this much-needed advance in the means of conveying intelligence, governments and capitalists had held shyly aloof, and, even now, weighed carefully the advantages of different systems before deciding which, if any, was the best. for there were at this time several different systems in the field, and morse soon found that he would have to compete with the trained scientists of the old world, backed, at last, by their respective governments, in his effort to prove that his invention was the simplest and the best of them all. that he should have persisted in spite of discouragement after discouragement, struggling to overcome obstacles which to the faint-hearted would have seemed insuperable, constitutes one of his greatest claims to undying fame. he left on record an account of his experiences in europe on this voyage, memorable in more ways than one, and extracts from this, and from letters written to his daughter and brothers, will best tell the story:-- "on may , , i left the united states and arrived in london in june, for the purpose of obtaining letters patent for my electro-magnetic telegraph system. i learned before i left the united states that professor wheatstone and mr. cooke, of london, had obtained letters patent in england for a '_magnetic-needle telegraph_,' based, as the name implies, on the _deflection of the magnetic needle_. their telegraph, at that time, required _six conductors_ between the two points of intercommunication _for a single instrument_ at each of the two termini. their mode of indicating signs for communicating intelligence was by deflecting _five magnetic needles_ in various directions, in such a way as to point to the required letters upon a diamond-shaped dial-plate. it was necessary that the signal should be _observed at the instant_, or it was lost and vanished forever. "i applied for letters patent for my system of communicating intelligence at a distance by electricity, differing in all respects from messrs. wheatstone and cooke's system, invented five years before theirs, and having nothing in common in the whole system but the use of _electricity_ on _metallic conductors_, for which use no one could obtain an exclusive privilege, since this much had been used for nearly one hundred years. my system is peculiar in the employment of _electro-magnetism_, or the _motive_ power of electricity, _to imprint permanent signs at a distance_. "i made no use of the deflections of the magnetic needle as _signs_. i required but _one conductor_ between the two termini, or any number of intermediate points of intercommunication. i used _paper moved by clockwork_ upon which i caused a _lever_ moved by _magnetism_ to _imprint the letters_ and _words_ of any required dispatch, having also invented and adapted to telegraph writing a _new and peculiar alphabetic character_ for that purpose, a _conventional alphabet_, easily acquired and easily made and used by the operator. it is obvious at once, from a simple statement of these facts, that the system of messrs. wheatstone and cooke and my system were wholly unlike each other. as i have just observed, there was _nothing in common in the two systems_ but the use of electricity upon metallic conductors, for which no one could obtain an exclusive privilege. "the various steps required by the english law were taken by me to procure a patent for my mode, and the fees were paid at the clerk's office, june , and at the home department, june , ; also, june , caveats were entered at the attorney and solicitor-general's, and i had reached that part of the process which required the sanction of the attorney-general. at this point i met the opposition of messrs. wheatstone and cooke, and also of mr. davy, and a hearing was ordered before the attorney-general, sir john campbell, on july , . i attended at the attorney-general's residence on the morning of that day, carrying with me my telegraphic apparatus for the purpose of explaining to him the total dissimilarity between my system and those of my opponents. but, contrary to my expectation, the similarity or dissimilarity of my mode from that of my opponents was not considered by the attorney-general. he neither examined my instrument, which i had brought for that purpose, nor did he ask any questions bearing upon its resemblance to my opponents' system. i was met by the single declaration that my '_invention had been published_,' and in proof a copy of the london 'mechanics' magazine,' no. , for february , , was produced, and i was told that 'in consequence of said publication i could not proceed.' "at this summary decision i was certainly surprised, being conscious that there had been no such publication of my method as the law required to invalidate a patent; and, even if there had been, i ventured to hint to the attorney-general that, if i was rightly informed in regard to the british law, it was the province of a court and jury, and not of the attorney-general, to try, and to decide that point." the publication to which the attorney-general referred had merely stated results, with no description whatever of the means by which these results were to be obtained and it was manifestly unfair to morse on the part of this official to have refused his sanction; but he remained obdurate. morse then wrote him a long letter, after consultation with mr. smith, setting forth all these points and begging for another interview. "in consequence of my request in this letter i was allowed a second hearing. i attended accordingly, but, to my chagrin, the attorney-general remarked that he had not had time to examine the letter. he carelessly took it up and turned over the leaves without reading it, and then asked me if i had not taken measures for a patent in my own country. and, upon my reply in the affirmative, he remarked that: 'america was a large country and i ought to be satisfied with a patent there.' i replied that, with all due deference, i did not consider that as a point submitted for the attorney-general's decision; that the question submitted was whether there was any legal obstacle in the way of my obtaining letters patent for my telegraph in england. he observed that he considered my invention as having been _published_, and that he must _therefore_ forbid me to proceed. "thus forbidden to proceed by an authority from which there was no appeal, as i afterward learned, but to parliament, and this at great cost of time and money, i immediately left england for france, where i found no difficulty in securing a patent. my invention there not only attracted the regards of the distinguished savants of paris, but, in a marked degree, the admiration of many of the english nobility and gentry at that time in the french capital. to several of these, while explaining the operation of my telegraphic system, i related the history of my treatment by the english attorney-general. the celebrated earl of elgin took a deep interest in the matter and was intent on my obtaining a special act of parliament to secure to me my just rights as the inventor of the electro-magnetic telegraph. he repeatedly visited me, bringing with him many of his distinguished friends, and on one occasion the noble earl of lincoln, since one of her majesty's privy council. the honorable henry drummond also interested himself for me, and through his kindness and lord elgin's i received letters of introduction to lord brougham and to the marquis of northampton, the president of the royal society, and several other distinguished persons in england. the earl of lincoln showed me special kindness. in taking leave of me in paris he gave me his card, and, requesting me to bring my telegraphic instruments with me to london, pressed me to give him the earliest notice of my arrival in london. "i must here say that for weeks in paris i had been engaged in negotiation with the russian counselor of state, the baron alexander de meyendorff, arranging measures for putting the telegraph in operation in russia. the terms of a contract had been mutually agreed upon, and all was concluded but the signature of the emperor to legalize it. in order to take advantage of the ensuing summer season for my operations in russia, i determined to proceed immediately to the united states to make some necessary preparations for the enterprise, without waiting for the formal completion of the contract papers, being led to believe that the signature of the emperor was sure, a matter of mere form. "under these circumstances i left paris on the th of march, , and arrived in london on the th of the same month. the next day i sent my card to the earl of lincoln and my letter and card to the marquis of northampton, and in two or three days received a visit from both. by earl lincoln i was at once invited to send my telegraph to his house in park lane, and on the th of march i exhibited its operation to members of both houses of parliament, of the royal society, and the lords of the admiralty, invited to meet me by the earl of lincoln. from the circumstances mentioned my time in london was necessarily short, my passage having been secured in the great western to sail on the d of march. although solicited to remain a while in london, both by the earl of lincoln and the honorable henry drummond, with a view to obtaining a special act of parliament for a patent, i was compelled by the circumstances of the case to defer till some more favorable opportunity, on my expected return to england, any attempt of the kind. the emperor of russia, however, refused to ratify the contract made with me by the counselor of state, and my design of returning to europe was frustrated, and i have not to this hour [april , ] had the means to prosecute this enterprise to a result in england. all my exertions were needed to establish my telegraphic system in my own country. "time has shown conclusively the essential difference of my telegraphic system from those of my opponents; time has also shown that my system _was not published_ in england, as alleged by the attorney-general, for, to this day, no work in england has published anything that does not show that, as yet, it is perfectly misunderstood.... "the refusal to grant me a patent was, at that period, very disastrous. it was especially discouraging to have made a long voyage across the atlantic in vain, incurring great expenditure and loss of time, which in their consequences also produced years of delay in the prosecution of my enterprise in the united states." the long statement, from which i have taken the above extracts, was written, as i have noted, on april , , but the following interesting addition was made to it on december , :-- "at the time of preparing this statement i lacked one item of evidence, which it was desirable to have aside from my own assertion, viz., evidence that the refusal of the attorney-general was on the ground '_that a publication of the invention had been made_.' i deemed it advisable rather to suffer from the delay and endure the taunts, which my unscrupulous opponents have not been slow to lavish upon me in consequence, if i could but obtain this evidence in proper shape. i accordingly wrote to my brother, then in london, to procure, if possible, from lord campbell or his secretary an acknowledgment of the ground on which he refused my application for a patent in , since no public report or record in such cases is made. "my brother, in connection with mr. carpmael, one of the most distinguished patent agents in england, addressed a note to mr. h. cooper, the attorney-general's secretary at the time, and the only official person besides lord campbell connected with the matter. the following is mr. cooper's reply:-- "'wilmington square, may d, . "'gentlemen,--in answer to yours of the th inst., i beg to state that i have a distinct recollection of professor morse's application for a patent, strengthened by the fact of his not having paid the fees for the hearing, etc., and these being now owing. i understood at the time that the patent was stopped on the ground that a publication of the invention had been made, but i cannot procure lord campbell's certificate of that fact. "'i am, gentlemen "'your obedient servant "'h. cooper.' "i thus have obtained the evidence i desired in the most authentic form, but accompanied with as gross an insult as could well be conceived. on the receipt of this letter i immediately wrote to f.o.j. smith, esq., at portland, who accompanied me to england, and at whose sole expense, according to agreement, all proceedings in taking out patents in europe were to be borne, to know if this charge of the attorney-general's secretary could possibly be true; not knowing but through some inadvertence on his (mr. smith's) part, this bill might have been overlooked. "mr. smith writes me in answer, sending me a copy _verbatim_ of the following receipt, which he holds and which speaks for itself:-- "'mr. morse to the attorney-general, dr. £ s. d. hearing on a patent . . . . giving notice on the same . ------ settled the th of august, . "'(signed) h. cooper.' "this receipt is signed, as will be perceived, by the same individual, h. cooper, who, nearly ten years after his acknowledgment of the money, has the impudence to charge me with leaving my fees unpaid. i now leave the public to make their own comments both on the character of the whole transaction in england, and on the character and motives of those in this country who have espoused lord campbell's course, making it an occasion to charge me with having _invented nothing_. "samuel f.b. morse." i have, in these extracts from an account of his european experiences, written by morse at a later date, given but a brief summary of certain events; it will now be necessary to record more in detail some of the happenings on that memorable trip. attention has been called before to the fact that it was morse's good fortune to have been an eye-witness of many events of historic interest. still another was now to be added to the list, for, while he was in london striving unsuccessfully to secure a patent for his invention, he was privileged to witness the coronation of queen victoria; our minister, the honorable andrew stevenson, having procured for him a ticket of admission to westminster abbey. writing to his daughter susan on june , , before he had met with his rebuff from the attorney-general, he comments briefly on the festivities incident to the occasion:-- "london is filling fast with crowds of all characters, from ambassadors and princes to pickpockets and beggars, all brought together by the coronation of the queen, which takes place in a few days (the th of june). everything in london now is colored by the coming pageant. in the shop windows are the robes of the nobility, the crimson and ermine dresses, coronets, etc. preparations for illuminations are making all over the city. "i have scarcely entered upon the business of the telegraph, but have examined (tell dr. gale) the specification of wheatstone at the patent office, and except the alarum part, he has nothing which interferes with mine. his invention is ingenious and beautiful, but very complicated, and he must use twelve wires where i use but four. i have also seen a telegraph exhibiting at exeter hall invented by davy, something like wheatstone's but still complicated. i find mine is yet the simplest and hope to accomplish something, but always keep myself prepared for disappointment." at a later date he recounted the following pretty incident, showing the kindly character of the young queen, which may not be generally known:-- "i was in london in , and was present with my excellent friend, the late charles r. leslie, r.a., at the imposing ceremonies of the coronation of the queen in westminster abbey. he then related to me the following incident which, i think, may truly be said to have been the first act of her majesty's reign. "when her predecessor, william iv, died, a messenger was immediately dispatched by his queen (then become by his death queen dowager) to victoria, apprising her of the event. she immediately called for paper and indited a letter of condolence to the widow. folding it, she directed it 'to the queen of england.' her maid of honor in attendance, noting the inscription, said: 'your majesty, you are queen of england.' 'yes,' she replied, 'but the widowed queen is not to be reminded of that fact first by me.'" writing to his daughter from havre, on july , , while on his way to paris, after telling her of the unjust decision of the attorney-general, he adds:-- "professor wheatstone and mr. davy were my opponents. they have each very ingenious inventions of their own, particularly the former, who is a man of genius and one with whom i was personally much pleased. he has invented his, i believe, without knowing that i was engaged in an invention to produce a similar result; for, although he dates back into , yet, as no publication of our thoughts was made by either, we are evidently independent of each other. my time has not been lost, however, for i have ascertained with certainty that the _telegraph of a single circuit_ and a _recording apparatus_ is mine.... "i found also that both mr. wheatstone and mr. davy were endeavoring to simplify theirs by adding a recording apparatus and reducing theirs to a single circuit. the latter showed to the attorney-general a drawing, which i obtained sight of, of a method by which he proposed a bungling imitation of my first characters, those that were printed in our journals, and one, however plausible on paper, and sufficiently so to deceive the attorney-general, was perfectly impracticable. partiality, from national or other motives, aside from the justice of the case, i am persuaded, influenced the decision against me. "we are now on our way to paris to try what we can do with the french government. i confess i am not sanguine as to any favorable pecuniary result in europe, but we shall try, and, at any rate, we have seen enough to know that the matter is viewed with great interest here, and the plan of such telegraphs will be adopted, and, of course, the united states is secured to us, and i do hope something from that. "be economical, my dear child, and keep your wants within bounds, for i am preparing myself for an unsuccessful result here, yet every proper effort will be made. i am in excellent health and spirits and leave to-morrow morning for paris." "_paris, august , ._ i have obtained a patent here and it is exciting some attention. the prospects of future benefit from the invention are good, but i shall not probably realize much, or even anything, immediately. "i saw by the papers, before i got your letter, that congress had not passed the appropriation bill for the telegraph. on some accounts i regret it, but it is only delayed, and it will probably be passed early in the winter." little did he think, in his cheerful optimism, that nearly five long years must elapse before congress should awaken to its great opportunity. "you will be glad to learn, my dear daughter, that your father's health was never so good, and probably before this reaches you he will be on the ocean on his return. i think of leaving paris in a very few days. i am only waiting to show the telegraph to the king, from whom i expect a message hourly. the birth of a prince occupies the whole attention just how of the royal family and the court. he was born on the th inst., the son of the duke and duchess of orleans. my rooms are as delightfully situated, perhaps, as any in paris; they are close to the palace of the tuileries and overlook the gardens, and are within half a stone's throw of the rooms of the duke and duchess of orleans. from my balcony i look directly into their rooms. i saw the company that was there assembled on the birthday of the little prince, and saw him in his nurse's arms at the window the next day after his birth. he looked very much like any other baby, and not half so handsome as little hugh peters. "i received from the minister of war, general bernard, who has been very polite to me, a ticket to be present at the _te deum_ performed yesterday in the great cathedral of paris, notre dame, on account of the birth of the prince. the king and all the royal family and the court, with all the officers of state, were present. the cathedral was crowded with all the fashion of paris. along the ways and around the church were soldiers without number, almost; a proof that some danger was apprehended to the king, and yet he ought to be popular for he is the best ruler they have had for years. the ceremonies were imposing, appealing to the senses and the imagination, and not at all to the reason or the heart." the king was louis philippe; the little prince, his grandson, was the count of paris. "_paris, september , ._ since my last matters have assumed a totally different aspect. at the request of monsieur arago, the most distinguished astronomer of the day, i submitted the telegraph to the institute at one of their meetings, at which some of the most celebrated philosophers of france and of germany and of other countries were present. its reception was in the highest degree flattering, and the interest which they manifested, by the questions they asked and the exclamations they used, showed to me then that the invention had obtained their favorable regard. the papers of paris immediately announced the telegraph in the most favorable terms, and it has literally been the topic of the day ever since. the baron humboldt, the celebrated traveller, a member of the institute and who saw its operation before that body, told mr. wheaton, our minister to prussia, that my telegraph was the best of all the plans that had been devised. "i received a call from the administrator-in-chief of all the telegraphs of france, monsieur alphonse foy. i explained it to him; he was highly delighted with it, and told me that the government was about to try an experiment with the view of testing the practicability of the electric telegraph, and that he had been requested to see mine and report upon it; that he should report that '_mine was the best that had been submitted to him_'; and he added that i had better forthwith get an introduction to the minister of the interior, mons. the count montalivet. i procured a letter from our minister, and am now waiting the decision of the government. "everything looks promising thus far, as much so as i could expect, but it involves the possibility, not to say the probability, of my remaining in paris during the winter. "if i should be delayed till december it would be prudent to remain until april. if it be possible, without detriment to my affairs, to make such arrangements that i may return this autumn, i shall certainly do it; but, if i should not, you must console yourselves that it is in consequence of meeting with success that i am detained, and that i shall be more likely to return with advantage to you all on account of the delay. "i ought to say that the directors of the saint-germain railroad have seen my telegraph, and that there is some talk (as yet vague) of establishing a line of my telegraph upon that road. i mention these, my dear child, to show you that i cannot at this moment leave paris without detriment to my principal object." "_paris, october , ._ you are at an age when a parent's care, and particularly a mother's care, is most needed. you cannot know the depth of the wound that was inflicted when i was deprived of your dear mother, nor in how many ways that wound was kept open. yet i know it is all well; i look to god to take care of you; it is his will that you should be almost truly an orphan, for, with all my efforts to have a home for you and to be near you, i have met hitherto only with disappointment. but there are now indications of a change, and, while i prepare for disappointment and wish you to prepare for disappointment, we ought to acknowledge the kind hand of our heavenly father in so far prospering me as to put me in the honorable light before the world which is now my lot. with the eminence is connected the prospect of pecuniary prosperity, yet this is not consummated, but only in prospect; it may be a long time before anything is realized. study, therefore, prudence and economy in all things; make your wants as few as possible, for the habit thus acquired will be of advantage to you whether you have much or little." thus did hope alternate with despondency as the days and weeks wore away and nothing tangible was accomplished. all who saw the working of the telegraph were loud in their expressions of wonder and admiration, but, for reasons which shall presently be explained, nothing else was gained by the inventor at that time. an old friend of morse's, the reverend dr. kirk, was then living in paris, and the two friends not only roomed together but dr. kirk, speaking french fluently, which morse did not, acted as interpreter in the many exhibitions given. writing of this in later years, dr. kirk says:-- "i remember rallying my friend frequently about the experience of great inventors, who are generally permitted to starve while living and are canonized after death. "when the model telegraph had been set up in our rooms, mr. morse desired to exhibit it to the savants of paris, but, as he had less of the talking propensity than myself, i was made the grand exhibitor. "our levee-day was tuesday, and for weeks we received the visits of distinguished citizens and strangers, to whom i explained the principles and operation of the telegraph. the visitors would agree upon a word among themselves which i was not to hear; then the professor would receive it at the writing end of the wires, while it devolved upon me to interpret the characters which recorded it at the other end. as i explained the hieroglyphics the announcement of the word, which they saw could have come to me only through the wire, would often create a deep sensation of delighted wonder; and much do i now regret that i did not take notes of these interviews, for it would be an interesting record of distinguished names and of valuable remarks." on the th of september, , morse enjoyed the greatest triumph of all, for it was on that day that, by invitation of m. arago, the exhibition of his invention before the institute of france, casually mentioned in one of his letters to his daughter, took place. writing of the occasion to alfred vail, he says:-- "i exhibited the telegraph to the institute and the sensation produced was as striking as at washington. it was evident that hitherto the assembled science of europe had considered the plan of an electric telegraph as ingenious but visionary, and, like aëronautic navigation, practicable in little more than theory and destined to be useless. "i cannot describe to you the scene at the institute when your box with the registering-machine, just as it left speedwell, was placed upon the table and surrounded by the most distinguished men of all europe, celebrated in the various arts and sciences--arago, baron humboldt, gay-lussac, and a host of others whose names are stars that shine in both hemispheres. arago described it to them, and i showed its action. a buzz of admiration and approbation filled the whole hall and the exclamations '_extraordinaire!' 'très bien!' 'très admirable!_' i heard on all sides. the sentiment was universal." another american at that time in paris, the honorable h.l. ellsworth, also wrote home about the impression which was produced by the exhibition of this new wonder:-- "i am sure you will be glad to learn that our american friend, professor morse, is producing a very great sensation among the learned men of this kingdom by his ingenious and wonderful magnetic telegraph. he submitted it to the examination of the academy of sciences of the royal institute of france, at their sitting on monday last, and the deepest interest was excited among the members of that learned body on the subject. its novelty, beauty, simplicity, and power were highly commended.... "other projects for the establishment of a magnetic telegraph have been broached here, especially from professor wheatstone, of london, and professor steinheil, of munich. it is said, however, to be very manifest that our yankee professor is ahead of them all in the essential requisitions of such an invention, and that he is in the way to bear off the palm. in simplicity of design, cheapness of construction and efficiency, professor morse's telegraph transcends all yet made known. in each of these qualities it is admitted, by those who have inspected it closely, there seems to be little else to desire. it is certain, moreover, that in priority of discovery he antedates all others." encouraged by the universal praise which was showered upon him, the hopeful inventor redoubled his efforts to secure in some way, either through the government or through private parties, the means to make a practical test of his invention. mr. f.o.j. smith had, in the mean time, returned to america, and morse kept him informed by letter of the progress of affairs in paris. avoiding, as far as possible, repetitions and irrelevant details, i shall let extracts from these letters tell the story:-- "_september , ._ on monday i received a very flattering letter from our excellent minister, governor cass, introducing me to the count montalivet, and i accordingly called the next day. i did not see him, but had an interview with his secretary, who told me that the administrator of the telegraphs had not yet reported to the minister, but that he would see him the next day, and that, if i would call on friday, he would inform me of the result. i called on friday. the secretary informed me that he had seen m. foy, and that he had more than confirmed the flattering accounts in the american minister's letter respecting the telegraph, but was not yet prepared with his report to the minister--he wished to make a detailed account of the _differences in favor of mine over all others that had been presented to him_, or words to that effect; and the secretary assured me that the report would be all i could wish. this is certainly flattering and i am to call on monday to learn further." "_october ._ i can only add, in a few words, that everything here is as encouraging as could be expected. the report of the administrator of telegraphs has been made to the minister of the interior, and i have been told that i should be notified of the intentions of the government in a few days. i have also shown the railroad telegraph to the saint-germain directors, who are delighted with it, and from them i expect a proposition within a few days." "_november ._ i intend sending this letter by the packet of the th inst., and am in hopes of sending with it some intelligence from those from whom i have been so long expecting something. everything moves at a snail's pace here. i find delay in all things; at least, so it appears to me, who have too strong a development of the american organ of 'go-ahead-ativeness' to feel easy under its tantalizing effects. a frenchman ought to have as many lives as a cat to bring to pass, on his dilatory plan of procedure, the same results that a yankee would accomplish in his single life." "_afternoon, november ._ called on the ministre de l'intérieur; no one at home; left card and will call again to-morrow, and hope to be in time yet for the packet." "_november ._ i have again called, but do not find at home the chief secretary, m. merlin.... i shall miss the packet of the th, but i am told she is a slow ship and that i shall probably find the letters reach home quite as soon by the next. i will leave this open to add if anything occurs between this and next packet day." "_november ._ i have been called off from this letter until the last moment by stirring about and endeavoring to expedite matters with the government. i have been to see general cass since my last date. i talked over matters with him. he complains much of their dilatoriness, but sees no way of quickening them.... i called again this morning at the minister's and, as usual, the secretary was absent; at the palace they said. if i could once get them to look at it i should be sure of them, for i have never shown it to any one who did not seem in raptures. i showed it a few days ago to m. fremel, the director of light-houses, who came with mr. vail and captain perry. he was cautious at first, but afterwards became as enthusiastic as any. "the railroad directors are as dilatory as the government, but i know they are discussing the matter seriously at their meetings, and i was told that the most influential man among them said they 'must have it.' there is nothing in the least discouraging that has occurred, but, on the contrary, everything to confirm the practicability of the plan, both on the score of science and expense." "_january , ._ i learn that the telegraph is much talked of in all society, and i learn that the _théâtre des variétés_, which is a sort of mirror of the popular topics, has a piece in which persons are made to converse by means of this telegraph some hundreds of miles off. "this is a straw which shows the way of the wind, and although matters move too slow for my impatient spirit, yet the telegraph is evidently gaining on the popular notice, and in time will demand the attention of governments. "i have the promise of a visit from the count boudy, chief of the household of the king, and who, i understand, has great influence with the king and can induce him to adopt the telegraph between some of his palaces. "hopes, you perceive, continue bright, but they are somewhat unsubstantial to an empty purse. i look for the first fruits in america. my confidence increases every day in the certainty of the eventual adoption of this means of communication throughout the civilized world. its practicability, hitherto doubted by savants here, is completely established, and they do not hesitate to give me the credit of having established it. i rejoice quite as much for my country's sake as for my own that both priority and superiority are awarded to my invention." chapter xxvi january , --march , despondent letter to his brother sidney.--longing for a home.--letter to smith.--more delays.--change of ministry.--proposal to form private company.--impossible under the laws of france.--telegraphs a government monopoly.--refusal of czar to sign russian contract.--dr. jackson.--m. amyot.--failure to gain audience of king.--lord elgin.--earl of lincoln. --robert walsh prophesies success.--meeting with earl of lincoln in later years.--daguerre.--letter to mrs. cass on lotteries.--railway and military telegraphs.--skepticism of a marshal of france. thus hopefully the inventor kept writing home, always maintaining that soon all obstacles would be overcome, and that he would then have a chance to demonstrate in a really practical way the great usefulness of his invention. but, instead of melting away, new obstacles kept arising at every turn. the dilatoriness of the french government seems past all belief, and yet, in spite of his faith in the more expeditious methods of his own country, he was fated to encounter the same exasperating slowness at home. it was, therefore, only natural that in spite of the courageous optimism of his nature, he should at times have given way to fits of depression, as is instanced by the following extracts from a letter written to his brother sidney on january , :-- "i know not that i feel right to indulge in the despondency which, in spite of all reason to the contrary, creeps over me when i think of returning. i know the feelings of tantalus perfectly. all my prospects in regard to the telegraph are bright and encouraging, and so they have been for months, and they still continue to be so; but the sober _now_ is that i am expending and not acquiring; it has, as yet, been all _outgo_ and no income. at the rate business is done here, the slow, dilatory manner in which the most favorable projects are carried forward, i have no reason to believe that anything will be realized before i must leave france, which will probably be in about six weeks. if so, then i return penniless, and, worse than penniless, i return to find debts and no home; to find homeless children with all hope extinguished of ever seeing them again in a family. indeed, i may say that, in this latter respect, the last ray is departed; i think no more of it. "i now feel anxious to see my children educated with the means they have of their own, and in a way of usefulness, and for myself i desire to live secluded, without being burdensome to my friends. i should be glad to exchange my rooms in the university for one or two in your new building. i shall probably resign both professorship and presidency on my return. the first has become merely nominal, and the latter is connected with duties which properly confine to the city, and, as i wish to be free to go to other places, i think it will be best to resign. "if our government should take the telegraph, or companies should be formed for that purpose, so that a sum is realized from it when i get home, this will, of course, change the face of things; but i dare not expect it and ought not to build any plans on such a contingency. so far as praise goes i have every reason to be satisfied at the state of things here in regard to the telegraph. all the savants, committees of learned societies, members of the chamber of deputies, and officers of government have, without exception, been as enthusiastic in its reception as any in the united states. both the priority and superiority of my invention are established, and thus the credit, be it more or less, is secured to our country. the prefect of the seine expressed a desire to see it and called by appointment yesterday. he was perfectly satisfied, and said of his own accord that he should see the king last evening and should mention the telegraph to him. i shall probably soon be requested, therefore, to show the telegraph to the king. "all these are most encouraging prospects; there is, indeed, nothing that has arisen to throw any insurmountable obstacle in the way of its adoption with complete success; and for all this i ought to feel gratitude, and i wish to acknowledge it before him to whom gratitude is due. is it right or is it wrong, in view of all this, to feel despondency? "in spite of all i do feel sad. i am no longer young; i have children, but they are orphans, and orphans they are likely to be. i have a country, but _no home_. it is this _no home_ that perpetually haunts me. i feel as if it were duty, duty most urgent, for me to settle in a family state at all hazards on account of these children. i know they suffer in this forming period of their lives for the want of a home, of the care of a father and a mother, and that no care and attention from friends, be they ever so kind, can supply the place of parents. but all efforts, direct and indirect, to bring this about have been frustrated. "my dear brother, may you never feel, as i have felt, _the loss of a wife_. that wound bleeds afresh daily, as if it were inflicted but yesterday. there is a meaning in all these acute mental trials, and they are at times so severe as almost to deprive me of reason, though few around me would suspect the state of my mind." these last few lines are eminently characteristic of the man. while called upon to endure much, both mentally and physically, he possessed such remarkable self-control that few, if any, of those around him were aware of his suffering. only to his intimates did he ever reveal the pain which sometimes gnawed at his heart, and then only occasionally and under great stress. it was this self-control, united to a lofty purpose and a natural repugnance to wearing his heart on his sleeve, which enabled him to accomplish what he did. endowed also with a saving sense of humor, he made light of his trials to others and was a welcome guest in every social gathering. the want of a place which he could really call home was an ever-present grief. it is the dominant note in almost all the letters to his brothers and his children, and it is rather quaintly expressed in a letter, of november , , to his daughter:-- "tell uncle sidney to take good care of you, and to have a little snug room in the upper corner of his new building, where a bed can be placed, a chair, and a table, and let me have it as my own, that there may be one little particular spot which i can call _home_. i will there make three wooden stools, one for you, one for charles, and one for finley, and invite you to your father's house." in spite of the enthusiasm which the exhibition of his invention aroused among the learned men and others in paris, he met with obstructions of the most vexatious kind at every turn, in his effort to bring it into practical use. just as the way seemed clear for its adoption by the french government, something happened which is thus described in a letter to mr. smith, of january , : "i wrote by the great western a few days ago. the event then anticipated in regard to the ministry has occurred. the ministers have resigned, and it is expected that the new cabinet will be formed this day with marshal soult at its head. thus you perceive new causes of delay in obtaining any answer from the government. as soon as i can learn the name of the new minister of the interior i will address a note to him, or see him, as i may be advised, and see if i can possibly obtain an answer, or at least a report of the administration of the telegraphs. nothing has occurred in other respects but what is agreeable.... "all my leisure (if that may be called leisure which employs nearly all my time) is devoted to perfecting the whole matter. the invention of the correspondent, i think you will say, is a more essential improvement. it has been my winter's labor, and, to avoid expense, i have been compelled to make it entirely with my own hands. i can now give you its exact dimensions--twelve and a half inches long, six and a half wide, and six and a half deep. it dispenses entirely with boxes of type (one set alone being necessary) and dispenses also with the rules, and with all machinery for moving the rules. there is no winding up and it is ready at all times. you touch the letter and the letter is written immediately at the other extremity.... in my next i hope to send you reports of my further progress. one thing seems certain, my telegraph has driven out of the field all the other plans on the magnetic principle. i hear nothing of them in public or private. no society notices them." "_february ._ i can compare the state of things here to an april day, at one moment sunshine, at the next cloudy. the telegraph is evidently growing in favor; testimonials of approbation and compliments multiply, and yesterday i was advised by the secretary of the _academie industrielle_ to interest moneyed men in the matter if i intended to profit by it; and he observed that now was the precise time to do it in the interval of the chambers. "i am at a loss how to act. i am not a business man and fear every movement which suggests itself to me. i am thinking of proposing a company on the same plan you last proposed in your letter from liverpool, and which you intend to create in case the government shall choose to do nothing; that is to say, a company taking the right at one thousand francs per mile, paying the proprietors fifty per cent in stocks and fifty per cent in cash, raising about fifty thousand francs for a trial some distance. i shall take advice and let you know the result. "i wish you were here; i am sure something could be done by an energetic business man like yourself. as for poor me i feel that i am a child in business matters. i can invent and perfect the invention, and demonstrate its uses and practicability, but 'further the deponent saith not.' perhaps i underrate myself in this case, but that is not a usual fault in human nature." it was natural that a keen business man like f.o.j. smith should have leaned rather toward a private corporation, with its possibilities of great pecuniary gain, than toward government ownership. morse, on the contrary, would have preferred, both at home and abroad, to place the great power which he knew his invention was destined to wield in the hands of a responsible government. however, so eager was he to make a practical test of the telegraph that, governments apparently not appreciating their great opportunity, he was willing to entrust the enterprise to capitalists. here again he was balked, however, for, writing of his trials later, he says:-- "an unforeseen obstacle was interposed which has rendered my patent in france of no avail to me. by the french patent law at the time one who obtained a patent was obliged to put into operation his invention within two years from the issue of his patent, under the penalty of forfeiture if he does not comply with the law. in pursuance of this requisition of the law i negotiated with the president (turneysen) of the saint-germain railroad company to construct a line of my telegraph on their road from paris to saint-germain, a distance of about seven english miles. the company was favorably disposed toward the project, but, upon application (as was necessary) to the government for permission to have the telegraph on their road, they received for answer that telegraphs were a government monopoly, and could not, therefore, be used for private purposes. i thus found myself crushed between the conflicting forces of two opposing laws." this was, indeed, a crushing blow, and ended all hope of accomplishing anything in france, unless the government should, in the short time still left to him, decide to take it up. the letters home, during the remainder of his stay in europe, are voluminous, but as they are, in the main, a repetition of experiences similar to those already recorded, it will not be necessary to give them in full. he tells of the enthusiastic reception accorded to his invention by the savants, the high officials of the government and the englishmen of note then stopping in paris. he tells also of the exasperating delays to which he was subjected, and which finally compelled him to return home without having accomplished anything tangible. he goes at length into his negotiations with the representative of the czar, baron meyendorf, from which he entertained so many hopes, hopes which were destined in the end to be blasted, because the czar refused to put his signature to the contract, his objection being that "malevolence can easily interrupt the communication." this was a terrible disappointment to the inventor, for he had made all his plans to return to europe in the spring of to carry out the russian contract, which he was led to believe was perfectly certain, and the czar's signature simply a matter of form. while at the time, and probably for all his life, morse considered his failure in europe as a cruel stroke of fate, we cannot but conclude, in the light of future developments, that here again fate was cruel in order to be kind. the invention, while it had been pronounced a scientific success, and had been awarded the palm over all other systems by the foremost scientists of the world, had yet to undergo the baptism of fire on the field of battle. it had never been tried over long distances in the open air, and many practical modifications had yet to be made, the necessity for which could only be ascertained during the actual construction of a commercial line. morse's first idea, adhered to by him until found by experience, in the building of the first line between washington and baltimore, to be impracticable, had been to bury the wires in a trench in the ground. i say it was found to be impracticable, but that is true only of the conditions at that early date. the inventor was here again ahead of his time, for the underground system is now used in many cities, and may in time become universal. however, we shall see, when the story of the building of that first historic line is told, that in this respect, and in many others, great difficulties were encountered and failure was averted only by the ingenuity, the resourcefulness, and the quick-wittedness of the inventor himself and his able assistants. is it too much to suppose that, had the russian, or even the french, contract gone through, and had morse been compelled to recruit his assistants from the people of an alien land, whose language he could neither speak nor thoroughly understand, the result would have been a dismal failure, calling down only ridicule on the head of the luckless inventor, and perhaps causing him to abandon the whole enterprise, discouraged and disheartened? be this as it may, the european trip was considered a failure in a practical sense, while having resulted in a personal triumph in so far as the scientific elements of the invention were concerned. i shall, therefore, give only occasional extracts from the letters, some of them dealing with matters not in any way related to the telegraph. he writes to mr. smith on february , :-- "i have been wholly occupied for the last week in copying out the correspondence and other documents to defend myself against the infamous attack of dr. jackson, notice of which my brother sent me.... i have sent a letter to dr. jackson calling on him to save his character by a total disclaimer of his presumptuous claim within one week from the receipt of the letter, and giving him the plea of a 'mistake' and 'misconception of my invention' by which he may retreat. if he fails to do this, i have requested my brother to publish immediately my defense, in which i give a history of the invention, the correspondence between dr. jackson and myself, and close with the letters of hon. mr. rives, mr. fisher, of philadelphia, and captain pell. "i cannot conceive of such infatuation as has possessed this man. he can scarcely be deceived. it must be his consummate self-conceit that deceives him, if he is deceived. but this cannot be; he knows he has no title whatever to a single hint of any kind in the matter." i have already alluded to the claim of dr. jackson, and have shown that it was proved to be utterly without foundation, and have only introduced this reference to it as an instance of the attacks which were made upon morse, attacks which compelled him to consume much valuable time, in the midst of his other labors, in order to repel them, which he always succeeded in doing. in writing of his negotiations with the russian government he mentions m. amyot, "who has proposed also an electric telegraph, but upon seeing mine he could not restrain his gratification, and with his whole soul he is at work to forward it with all who have influence. he is the right-hand man of the baron meyendorf, and he is exerting all his power to have the russian government adopt my telegraph.... he is really a noble-minded man. the baron told me he had a _large soul_, and i find he has. i have no claim on him and yet he seems to take as much interest in my invention as if it were his own. how different a conduct from jackson's!... every day is clearing away all the difficulties that prevent its adoption; the only difficulty that remains, it is universally said, is the protection of the wires from malevolent attack, and this can be prevented by proper police and secret and deep interment. i have no doubt of its universal adoption; it may take time but it is certain." "_paris, march , ._ by my last letter i informed you of the more favorable prospects of the telegraphic enterprise. these prospects still continue, and i shall return with the gratifying reflection that, after all my anxieties, and labors, and privations, and your and my other associates' expenditures and risks, we are all in a fair way of reaping the fruits of our toil. the political troubles of france have been a hindrance hitherto to the attention of the government to the telegraph, but in the mean time i have gradually pushed forward the invention into the notice of the most influential individuals of france. i had colonel lasalle, aide-de-camp to the king, and his lady to see the telegraph a few days ago. he promised that, without fail, it should be mentioned to the king. you will be surprised to learn, after all the promises hitherto made by the prefect of the seine, count remberteau, and by various other officers of the government, and after general cass's letter to the aide on service, four or five months since, requesting it might be brought to the notice of the king, that the king has not yet heard of it. but so things go here. "such dereliction would destroy a man with us in a moment, but here there is a different standard (this, of course, _entre nous_).... among the numerous visitors that have thronged to see the telegraph, there have been a great many of the principal english nobility. among them the lord and lady aylmer, former governor of canada, lord elgin and son, the celebrated preserver, not depredator (as he has been most slanderously called) of the phidian marbles. lord elgin has been twice and expressed a great interest in the invention. he brought with him yesterday the earl of lincoln, a young man of unassuming manners; he was delighted and gave me his card with a pressing invitation to call on him when i came to london. "i have not failed to let the english know how i was treated in regard to my application for a patent in england, and contrasted the conduct of the french in this respect to theirs. i believe they felt it, and i think it was lord aylmer, but am not quite sure, who advised that the subject be brought up in parliament by some member and made the object of special legislation, which he said might be done, the attorney-general to the contrary notwithstanding. i really believe, if matters were rightly managed in england, something yet might be done there, if not by patent, yet by a parliamentary grant of a proper compensation. it is remarkable that they have not yet made anything like mine in england. it is evident that neither wheatstone nor davy comprehended my mode, after all their assertions that mine had been published. "if matters move slower here than with us, yet they gain surely. i am told every hour that the two great wonders of paris just now, about which everybody is conversing, are daguerre's wonderful results in fixing permanently the image of the _camera obscura_, and morse's electro-magnetic telegraph, and they do not hesitate to add that, beautiful as are the results of daguerre's experiments, the invention of the electro-magnetic telegraph is that which will surpass, in the greatness of the revolution to be effected, all other inventions. robert walsh, esq., who has just left me, is beyond measure delighted. i was writing a word from one room to another; he came to me and said:--'the next word you may write is immortality, for the sublimity of this invention is of surpassing grandeur. _i see now that all physical obstacles, which may for a while hinder, will inevitably be overcome; the problem is solved;_ man may instantly converse with his fellow-men in any part of the world.'" this prophecy of the celebrated american author, who was afterwards consul-general to france for six years, is noteworthy considering the date at which it was made. there were indeed many "physical obstacles which for a while hindered" the practical adoption of the invention, but they were eventually overcome, and the problem was solved. five years of heart-breaking struggle, discouragement and actual poverty had still to be endured by the brave inventor before the tide should turn in his favor, but robert walsh shared with morse the clear conviction that the victory would finally be won. reference having been made to lord elgin, the following letter from him will be found interesting:-- paris, th march, . dear sir,--i cannot help expressing a very strong desire that, instead of delaying till your return from america your wish to take out a patent in england for your highly scientific and simple mode of communicating intelligence by an electric telegraph, you would take measures to that effect at this moment, and for that purpose take your model now with you to london. your discovery is now much known as well as appreciated, and the ingenuity now afloat is too extensive for one not to apprehend that individuals, even in good faith, may make some addition to qualify them to take out a _first patent_ for the principle; whereas, if you brought it at once, now, before the competent authorities, especially under the advantage of an introduction such as mr. drummond can give you to lord brougham, a short delay in your proceeding to america may secure you this desirable object immediately. with every sincere good wish for your success and the credit you so richly deserve, i am, dear sir, yours faithfully elgin. while it is futile to speculate on what might have been, it does seem as if morse made a serious mistake in not taking lord elgin's advice, for there is no doubt that, with the influential backing which he had now secured, he could have overcome the churlish objections of the attorney-general, and have secured a patent in england much to his financial benefit. but with the glamour of the russian contract in his eyes, he decided to return home at once, and the opportunity was lost. we must also marvel at the strange fact that the fear expressed by lord elgin, that another might easily appropriate to himself the glory which was rightly due to morse, was not realized. is it to be wondered at that morse should have always held that he, and he alone, was the humble instrument chosen by an all-wise providence to carry to a successful issue this great enterprise? regarding one of his other visitors, the earl of lincoln, it is interesting to learn that there was another meeting between the two men under rather dramatic circumstances, in later years. this was on the occasion of the visit of the prince of wales, afterward edward vii, to america, accompanied by a suite which included, among others, the duke of newcastle. morse was invited to address the prince at a meeting given in his honor at the university of the city of new york, and in the course of his address he said:-- "an allusion in most flattering terms to me, rendered doubly so in such presence, has been made by our respected chancellor, which seems to call for at least the expression of my thanks. at the same time it suggests the relation of an incident in the early history of the telegraph which may not be inappropriate to this occasion. the infant telegraph, born and nursed within these walls, had scarcely attained a feeble existence ere it essayed to make its voice heard on the other side of the atlantic. i carried it to paris in . it attracted the warm interest, not only of the continental philosophers, but also of the intelligent and appreciative among the eminent nobles of britain then on a visit to the french capital. foremost among these was the late marquis of northampton, then president of the royal society, the late distinguished earl of elgin, and, in a marked degree, the noble earl of lincoln. the last-named nobleman in a special manner gave it his favor. he comprehended its important future, and, in the midst of the skepticism that clouded its cradle, he risked his character for sound judgment in venturing to stand godfather to the friendless child. he took it under his roof in london, invited the statesmen and the philosophers of britain to see it, and urged forward with kindly words and generous attentions those who had the infant in charge. it is with no ordinary feelings, therefore, that, after the lapse of twenty years, i have the singular honor this morning of greeting with hearty welcome, in such presence, before such an assemblage, and in the cradle of the telegraph, this noble earl of lincoln in the person of the present duke of newcastle." reference was made by morse, in the letter to mr. smith of march , to daguerre and his wonderful discovery. having himself experimented along the same lines many years before, he was, naturally, much interested and sought the acquaintance of daguerre, which was easily brought about. the two inventors became warm friends, and each disclosed to the other the minutiae of his discoveries. daguerre invited morse to his workshop, selecting a sunday as a day convenient to him, and morse replied in the following characteristic note:-- "professor morse asks the indulgence of m. daguerre. the _time_ m. daguerre, in his great kindness, has fixed to show his most interesting experiments is, unfortunately, one that will deprive mr. m. of the pleasure he anticipated, as mr. m. has an engagement for the entire sunday of a nature that cannot be broken. will monday, or any other day, be agreeable to m. daguerre? "mr. m. again asks pardon for giving m. daguerre so much trouble." having thus satisfied his puritan conscience, another day was cheerfully appointed by daguerre, who generously imparted the secret of this new art to the american, by whom it was carried across the ocean and successfully introduced into the united states, as will be shown further on. writing of this experience to his brothers on march , , he says:-- "you have, perhaps, heard of the daguerreotype, so called from the discoverer, m. daguerre. it is one of the most beautiful discoveries of the age. i don't know if you recollect some experiments of mine in new haven, many years ago, when i had my painting-room next to professor silliman's,--experiments to ascertain if it were possible to fix the image of the _camera obscura_. i was able to produce different degrees of shade on paper, dipped into a solution of nitrate of silver, by means of different degrees of light, but finding that light produced dark, and dark light, i presumed the production of a true image to be impracticable, and gave up the attempt. m. daguerre has realized in the most exquisite manner this idea." here follows the account of his visit to daguerre and an enthusiastic description of the wonders seen in his workshop, and he closes by saying:-- "but i am near the end of my paper, and i have, unhappily, to give a melancholy close to my account of this ingenious discovery. m. daguerre appointed yesterday at noon to see my telegraph. he came and passed more than an hour with me, expressing himself highly gratified at its operation. but, while he was thus employed, the great building of the diorama, with his own house, all his beautiful works, his valuable notes and papers, the labor of years of experiment, were, unknown to him, at that moment the prey of the flames. his secret, indeed, is still safe with him, but the steps of his progress in the discovery and his valuable researches in science, are lost to the scientific world. i learn that his diorama was insured, but to what extent i know not. "i am sure all friends of science and improvement will unite in expressing the deepest sympathy in m. daguerre's loss, and the sincere hope that such a liberal sum will be awarded him by his government as shall enable him, in some degree at least, to recover from his loss." it is pleasant to record that the french government did act most generously toward daguerre. the reader may remember that, when morse was a young man in london, lotteries were considered such legitimate ways of raising money, that not only did he openly purchase tickets in the hope of winning a money prize, but his pious father advised him to dispose of his surplus paintings and sketches in that way. as he grew older, however, his views on this question changed, as will be seen by the following letter addressed to mrs. cass, wife of the american minister, who was trying to raise money to help a worthy couple, suddenly reduced from wealth to poverty:-- january , . i am sure i need make no apology to you, my dear madam, for returning the three lottery tickets enclosed in the interesting note i have just had the honor to receive from you, because i know you can fully appreciate the motive which prompts me. in the measures taken some years since for opposing the lottery system in the state of new york, and which issued in its entire suppression, i took a very prominent part under the conviction that the principle on which the lottery system was founded was wrong. but while, on this account, i cannot, my dear madam, consistently take the tickets, i must beg of you to put the price of them, which i enclose, into such a channel as shall, in your judgment, best promote the benevolent object in which you have interested yourself. poverty is a bitter lot, even when the habit of long endurance has reconciled the mind and body to its severities, but how much more bitter must it be when it comes in sudden contrast to a life of affluence and ease. i thank you for giving me the opportunity of contributing my mite to the relief of such affliction, hoping sincerely that all their earthly wants may lead the sufferers to the inexhaustible fountain of true riches. with sincere respect and christian regard i remain, my dear madam your most obedient servant s.f.b. morse. before closing the record of this european trip, so disappointing in many ways and yet so encouraging in others, it may be well to note that, while he was in paris, morse in not only took out a patent on his recording telegraph, but also on a system to be used on railways to report automatically the presence of a train at any point on the line. a reproduction of his own drawing of the apparatus to be used is here given, and the mechanism is so simple that an explanation is hardly necessary. from it can be seen not only that he did, at this early date, realize the possibilities of his invention along various lines, but that it embodies the principle of the police and fire-alarm systems now in general use. it is not recorded that he ever realized anything financially from this ingenious modification of his main invention. commenting on it, and on his plans for a military telegraph, he gives this amusing sketch:-- "on september , , a telegraph instrument constructed in the united states on the same principles, but slightly modified to make it portable, was exhibited to the academy of sciences in paris, and explained by m. arago at the session of that date. an account of this exhibition is recorded in the _comptes rendus_. "a week or two after i exhibited at my lodgings, in connection with this instrument, my railroad telegraph, an application of signals by sound, for which i took out letters patent in paris, and at the same time i communicated to the minister of war, general bernard, my plans for a military telegraph with which he was much pleased. [illustration: railway telegraph drawing by morse patented by him in france in , and embodying principles of police and fire alarm telegraph] "i dined with him by invitation, and in the evening, repairing with him to his billiard-room, while the rest of the guests were amusing themselves with the game, i gave him a general description of my plan. he listened with deep attention while i advocated its use on the battle-field, and gave him my reasons for believing that the army first using the facilities of the electric telegraph for military purposes would be sure of victory. he replied to me, after my answering many of his questions:-- "'be reticent,' said he, 'on this subject for the present. i will send an officer of high rank to see and converse with you on the matter to-morrow.' "the next day i was visited by an old marshal of france, whose name has escaped my memory. conversing by an interpreter, the reverend e.n. kirk, of boston, i found it difficult to make the marshal understand its practicability or its importance. the dominant idea in the marshal's mind, which he opposed to the project, was that it involved an increase of the material of the army, for i proposed the addition of two or more light wagons, each containing in a small box the telegraph instruments and a reel of fine insulated wire to be kept in readiness at the headquarters on the field. i proposed that, when required, the wagons with the corps of operators, two or three persons, at a rapid rate should reel off the wire to the right, the centre and the left of the army, as near to these parts of the army as practicable or convenient, and thus instantaneous notice of the condition of the whole army, and of the enemy's movements, would be given at headquarters. "to all this explanation of my plan was opposed the constant objection that it increased the material of the army. the hon. marshal seemed to consider that the great object to be gained by an improvement was a decrease of this material; an example of this economy which he illustrated by the case of the substitution of the leather drinking cup for the tin cup hung to the soldier's knapsack, an improvement which enabled the soldier to put his cup in his vest pocket. for this improvement, if i remember right, he said the inventor, who was a common soldier, received at the hands of the emperor napoleon i the cross of the legion of honor. "so set was the good marshal in his repugnance to any increase to the material of the army that, after a few moments' thought, i rebutted his position by putting to him the following case:-- "'m. marshal,' i said, 'you are investing a fortress on the capture of which depends the success of your campaign; you have , men; on making your calculations of the chances of taking it by assault, you find that with the addition of more troops you could accomplish its capture. you have it in your power, by a simple order, to obtain from the government these men. in this case what would you do?' "he replied without hesitation: 'i should order the , of course.' "'but,' i rejoined, 'the material of the army would be greatly increased by such an order.' "he comprehended the case, and, laughing heartily, abandoned the objection, but took refuge in the general skepticism of that day on the practicability of an electric telegraph. he did not believe it could ever be put in practise. this was an argument i could not then repel. time alone could vindicate my opinion, and time has shown both its practicability and its utility." chapter xxvii april , --september , arrival in new york.--disappointment at finding nothing done by congress or his associates.--letter to professor henry.--henry's reply.-- correspondence with daguerre.--experiments with daguerreotypes.-professor draper.--first group photograph of a college class.--failure of russian contract.--mr. chamberlain.--discouragement through lack of funds.--no help from his associates.--improvements in telegraph made by morse.-- humorous letter. morse sailed from europe on the great western on the d of march, , and reached new york, after a stormy passage, on the th of april. discouraged by his lack of success in establishing a line of telegraph in europe on a paying basis, and yet encouraged by the enthusiasm shown by the scientists of the old world, he hoped much from what he considered the superior enterprise of his own countrymen. however, on this point he was doomed to bitter disappointment, and the next few years were destined to be the darkest through which he was to pass. on the day after his arrival in new york he wrote to mr. f.o.j. smith:-- "i take the first moment of rest from the fatigues of my boisterous voyage to apprise you of my arrival yesterday in the great western.... i am quite disappointed in finding nothing done by congress, and nothing accomplished in the way of company. i had hoped to find on my return some funds ready for prosecuting with vigor the enterprise, which i fear will suffer for the want. "think a moment of my situation. i left new york for europe to be gone three months, but have been gone eleven months. my only means of support are in my profession, which i have been compelled to abandon entirely for the present, giving my undivided time and efforts to this enterprise. i return with not a farthing in my pocket, and have to borrow even for my meals, and even worse than this, i have incurred a debt of rent by my absence which i should have avoided if i had been at home, or rather if i had been aware that i should have been obliged to stay so long abroad. i do not mention this in the way of complaint, but merely to show that i also have been compelled to make great sacrifices for the common good, and am willing to make more yet if necessary. if the enterprise is to be pursued, we must all in our various ways put the shoulder to the wheel. "i wish much to see you and talk over all matters, for it seems to me that the present state of the enterprise in regard to russia affects vitally the whole concern." thus gently did he chide one of his partners, who should have been exerting himself to forward their joint interests in america while he himself was doing what he could in europe. the other partners, alfred vail and dr. leonard gale, were equally lax and seem to have lost interest in the enterprise, as we learn from the following letter to mr. smith, of may , :-- "you will think it strange, perhaps, that i have not answered yours of the th ult. sooner, but various causes have prevented an earlier attention to it. my affairs, in consequence of my protracted absence and the stagnant state of the telegraph here at home, have caused me great embarrassment, and my whole energies have been called upon to extricate myself from the confusion in which i have been unhappily placed. you may judge a little of this when i tell you that my absence has deprived me of my usual source of income by my profession; that the state of the university is such that i shall probably leave, and shall have to move into new quarters; that my family is dispersed, requiring my care and anxieties under every disadvantage; that my engagements were such with russia that every moment of my time was necessary to complete my arrangements to fulfill the contract in season; and, instead of finding my associates ready to sustain me with counsel and means, i find them all dispersed, leaving me without either the opportunity to consult or a cent of means, and consequently bringing everything in relation to the telegraph to a dead stand. "in the midst of this i am called on by the state of public opinion to defend myself against the outrageous attempt of dr. jackson to pirate from me my invention. the words would be harsh that are properly applicable to this man's conduct.... "you see, therefore, in what a condition i found myself when i returned. i was delayed several days beyond the computed time of my arrival by the long passage of the steamer. instead of finding any funds by a vote of congress, or by a company, and my associates ready to back me, i find not a cent for the purpose, and my associates scattered to the four winds. "you can easily conceive that i gave up all as it regarded russia, and considered the whole enterprise as seriously injured if not completely destroyed. in this state of things i was hourly dreading to hear from the russian minister, and devising how i should save myself and the enterprise without implicating my associates in a charge of neglect; and as it has most fortunately happened for us all, the th of may has passed without the receipt of the promised advices, and i took advantage of this, and by the liverpool steamer of the th wrote to the baron meyendorff, and to m. amyot, that it was impossible to fulfill the engagement this season, since i had not received the promised advices in time to prepare." this was, of course, before he had heard of the czar's refusal to sign the contract, and he goes on to make plans for carrying out the russian enterprise the next year, and concludes by saying:-- "do think of this matter and see if means cannot be raised to keep ahead with the american telegraph. i sometimes am astonished when i reflect how i have been able to take the stand with my telegraph in competition with my european rivals, backed as they are with the purses of the kings and wealthy of their countries, while our own government leaves me to fight their battles for the honor of this invention fettered hand and foot. thanks will be due to you, not to them, if i am able to maintain the ground occupied by the american telegraph." shortly after his return from abroad, on april , morse wrote the following letter to professor henry at princeton:-- my dear sir,--on my return a few days since from europe, i found directed to me, through your politeness, a copy of your valuable "contributions," for which i beg you to accept my warmest thanks. the various cares consequent upon so long an absence from home, and which have demanded my more immediate attention, have prevented me from more than a cursory perusal of its interesting contents, yet i perceive many things of great interest to me in my telegraphic enterprise. i was glad to learn, by a letter received in paris from dr. gale, that a spool of five miles of my wire was loaned to you, and i perceive that you have already made some interesting experiments with it. in the absence of dr. gale, who has gone south, i feel a great desire to consult some scientific gentleman on points of importance bearing upon my telegraph, which i am about to establish in russia, being under an engagement with the russian government agent in paris to return to europe for that purpose in a few weeks. i should be exceedingly happy to see you and am tempted to break away from my absorbing engagements here to find you at princeton. in case i should be able to visit princeton for a few days a week or two hence, how should i find you engaged? i should come as a learner and could bring no "contributions" to your stock of experiments of any value, nor any means of furthering your experiments except, perhaps, the loan of an additional five miles of wire which it may be desirable for you to have. i have many questions to ask, but should be happy, in your reply to this letter, of an answer to this general one: have you met with any facts in your experiments thus far that would lead you to think that my mode of telegraphic communication will prove impracticable? so far as i have consulted the savants of paris, they have suggested no insurmountable difficulties; i have, however, quite as much confidence in your judgment, from your valuable experience, as in that of any one i have met abroad. i think that you have pursued an original course of experiments, and discovered facts of more value to me than any that have been published abroad. morse was too modest in saying that he could bring nothing of value to henry in his experiments, for, as we shall see from henry's reply, the latter had no knowledge at that time of the "relay," for bringing into use a secondary battery when the line was to stretch over long distances. this important discovery morse had made several years before. princeton; may , . dear sir,--your favor of the th ult. came to princeton during my absence, which will account for the long delay of my answer. i am pleased to learn that you fully sanction the loan which i obtained from dr. gale of your wire, and i shall be happy if any of the results are found to have a practical bearing on the electrical telegraph. it will give me much pleasure to see you in princeton after this week. my engagements will not then interfere with our communications on the subject of electricity. during this week i shall be almost constantly engaged with a friend in some scientific labors which we are prosecuting together. i am acquainted with no fact which would lead me to suppose that the project of the electro-magnetic telegraph is unpractical; on the contrary, i believe that science is now ripe for the application, and that there are no difficulties in the way but such as ingenuity and enterprise may obviate. but what form of the apparatus, or what application of the power will prove best, can, i believe, be only determined by careful experiment. i can say, however, that, so far as i am acquainted with the minutiae of your plan, i see no practical difficulty in the way of its application for comparatively short distances; but, if the length of the wire between the stations is great, i think that some other modification will be found necessary in order to develop a sufficient power at the farther end of the line. i shall, however, be happy to converse freely with you on these points when we meet. in the meantime i remain, with much respect yours, etc., joseph henry. i consider this letter alone a sufficient answer to those who claim that henry was the real inventor of the telegraph. he makes no such claim himself. in spite of the cares of various kinds which overwhelmed him during the whole of his eventful life, morse always found time to stretch out a helping hand to others, or to do a courteous act. so now we find him writing to daguerre on may , :-- my dear sir,--i have the honor to enclose you the note of the secretary of our academy informing you of your election, at our last annual meeting, into the board of honorary members of our national academy of design. when i proposed your name it was received with enthusiasm, and the vote was _unanimous_. i hope, my dear sir, you will receive this as a testimonial, not merely of my personal esteem and deep sympathy in your late losses, but also as a proof that your genius is, in some degree, estimated on this side of the water. notwithstanding the efforts made in england to give to another the credit which is your due, i think i may with confidence assure you that throughout the united states your name alone will be associated with the brilliant discovery which justly bears your name. the letter i wrote from paris, the day after your sad loss, has been published throughout this whole country in hundreds of journals, and has excited great interest. should any attempts be made here to give to any other than yourself the honor of this discovery, my pen is ever ready for your defense. i hope, before this reaches you, that the french government, long and deservedly celebrated for its generosity to men of genius, will have amply supplied all your losses by a liberal sum. if, when the proper remuneration shall be secured to you in france, you should think it may be for your advantage to make an arrangement with the government to hold back the secret for six months or a year, and would consent to an exhibition of your _results_ in this country for a short time, the exhibition might be managed, i think, to your pecuniary advantage. if you should think favorably of the plan, i offer you my services _gratuitously_. to this letter daguerre replied on july :-- my dear sir,--i have received with great pleasure your kind letter by which you announce to me my election as an honorary member of the national academy of design. i beg you will be so good as to express my thanks to the academy, and to say that i am very proud of the honor which has been conferred upon me. i shall seize all opportunities of proving my gratitude for it. i am particularly indebted to you in this circumstance, and i feel very thankful for this and all other marks of interest you bestowed upon me. the transaction with the french government being nearly at an end, my discovery shall soon be made public. this cause, added to the immense distance between us, hinders me from taking the advantage of your good offer to get up at new york an exhibition of my results. believe me, my dear sir, your very devoted servant, daguerre. a prophecy, shrewd in some particulars but rather faulty in others, of the influence of this new art upon painting, is contained in the following extracts from a letter of morse's to his friend and master washington allston:-- "i had hoped to have seen you long ere this, but my many avocations have kept me constantly employed from morning till night. when i say morning i mean _half past four_ in the morning! i am afraid you will think me a goth, but really the hours from that time till twelve at noon are the richest i ever enjoy. "you have heard of the daguerreotype. i have the instruments on the point of completion, and if it be possible i will yet bring them with me to boston, and show you the beautiful results of this brilliant discovery. art is to be wonderfully enriched by this discovery. how narrow and foolish the idea which some express that it will be the ruin of art, or rather artists, for every one will be his own painter. one effect, i think, will undoubtedly be to banish the sketchy, slovenly daubs that pass for spirited and learned; those works which possess mere general effect without detail, because, forsooth, detail destroys general effect. nature, in the results of daguerre's process, has taken the pencil into her own hands, and she shows that the minutest detail disturbs not the general repose. artists will learn how to paint, and amateurs, or rather connoisseurs, how to criticise, how to look at nature, and, therefore, how to estimate the value of true art. our studies will now be enriched with sketches from nature which we can store up during the summer, as the bee gathers her sweets for winter, and we shall thus have rich materials for composition and an exhaustless store for the imagination to feed upon." an interesting account of his experiences with this wonderful new discovery is contained in a letter written many years later, on the th of february, :-- "as soon as the necessary apparatus was made i commenced experimenting with it. the greatest obstacle i had to encounter was in the quality of the plates. i obtained the common, plated copper in coils at the hardware shops, which, of course, was very thinly coated with silver, and that impure. still i was able to verify the truth of daguerre's revelations. the first experiment crowned with any success was a view of the unitarian church from the window on the staircase from the third story of the new york city university. this, of course, was before the building of the new york hotel. it was in september, . the time, if i recollect, in which the plate was exposed to the action of light in the camera was about fifteen minutes. the instruments, chemicals, etc., were strictly in accordance with the directions in daguerre's first book. "an english gentleman, whose name at present escapes me, obtained a copy of daguerre's book about the same time with myself. he commenced experimenting also. but an american of the name of walcott was very successful with a modification of daguerre's apparatus, substituting a metallic reflector for the lens. previous, however, to walcott's experiments, or rather results, my friend and colleague, professor john w. draper, of the new york city university, was very successful in his investigations, and with him i was engaged for a time in attempting portraits. "in my intercourse with daguerre i specially conversed with him in regard to the practicability of taking portraits of living persons. he expressed himself somewhat skeptical as to its practicability, only in consequence of the time necessary for the person to remain immovable. the time for taking an outdoor view was from fifteen to twenty minutes, and this he considered too long a time for any one to remain sufficiently still for a successful result. no sooner, however, had i mastered the process of daguerre than i commenced to experiment with a view to accomplish this desirable result. i have now the results of these experiments taken in september, or beginning of october, . they are full-length portraits of my daughter, single, and also in group with some of her young friends. they were taken out of doors, on the roof of a building, in the full sunlight and with the eyes closed. the time was from ten to twenty minutes. "about the same time professor draper was successful in taking portraits, though whether he or myself took the first portrait successfully, i cannot say." it was afterwards established that to professor draper must be accorded this honor, but i understand that it was a question of hours only between the two enthusiasts. "soon after we commenced together to take portraits, causing a glass building to be constructed for that purpose on the roof of the university. as our experiments had caused us considerable expense, we made a charge to those who sat for us to defray this expense. professor draper's other duties calling him away from the experiments, except as to their bearing on some philosophical investigations which he pursued with great ingenuity and success, i was left to pursue the artistic results of the process, as more in accordance with my profession. my expenses had been great, and for some time, five or six months, i pursued the taking of portraits by the daguerreotype as a means of reimbursing these expenses. after this object had been attained, i abandoned the practice to give my exclusive attention to the telegraph, which required all my time." before leaving the subject of the daguerreotype, in which, as i have shown, morse was a pioneer in this country, it will be interesting to note that he took the first group photograph of a college class. this was of the surviving members of his own class of , who returned to new haven for their thirtieth reunion in . it was not until august of the year that definite news of the failure of the russian agreement was received, and morse, in a letter to smith, of august , comments on this and on another serious blow to his hopes:-- "i received yours of the d inst., and the paper accompanying it containing the notice of mr. chamberlain. i had previously been apprised that my forebodings were true in regard to his fate.... our enterprise abroad is destined to give us anxiety, if not to end in disappointment. "i have just received a letter from m. amyot, who was to have been my companion to russia, and learn from him the unwelcome news that the emperor has decided against the telegraph.... the emperor's objections are, it seems, that 'malevolence can easily interrupt the communication.' m. amyot scouts the idea, and writes that he refuted the objection to the satisfaction of the baron, who, indeed, did not need the refutation for himself, for the whole matter was fully discussed between us when in paris. the baron, i should judge from the tone of m. amyot's letter, was much disappointed, yet, as a faithful and obedient subject of one whose nay is nay, he will be cautious in so expressing himself as to be self-committed. "thus, my dear sir, prospects abroad look dark. i turn with some faint hope to my own country again. will congress do anything, or is my time and your generous zeal and pecuniary sacrifice to end only in disappointment? if so, i can bear it for myself, but i feel it most keenly for those who have been engaged with me; for you, for the messrs. vail and dr. gale. but i will yet hope. i don't know that our enterprise looks darker than fulton's once appeared. there is no intrinsic difficulty; the depressing causes are extrinsic. i hope to see you soon and talk over all our affairs." mr. smith, in sending a copy of the above letter to mr. prime, thus explains the reference to mr. chamberlain:-- "the allusion made in the letter just given to the fate of mr. chamberlain, was another depressing disappointment which occurred to the professor contemporaneously with those of the russian contract. before i left paris we had closed a contract with mr. chamberlain to carry the telegraph to austria, prussia, the principal cities of greece and of egypt, and put it upon exhibition with a view to its utilization there. he was an american gentleman (from vermont, i think) of large wealth, of eminent business capacities, of pleasing personal address and sustaining a character for strict integrity. he parted with professor morse in paris to enter upon his expedition, with high expectations of both pleasure and profit, shortly after my own departure from paris in october, . he had subsequently apprised professor morse of very interesting exhibitions of the telegraph which he had made, and under date of athens, january , , wrote as follows: 'we exhibited your telegraph to the learned of florence, much to their gratification. yesterday evening the king and queen of greece were highly delighted with its performance. we have shown it also to the principal inhabitants of athens, by all of whom it was much admired. fame is all you will get for it in these poor countries. we think of starting in a few days for alexandria, and hope to get something worth having from mehemet ali. it is, however, doubtful. nations appear as poor as individuals, and as unwilling to risk their money upon such matters. i hope the french will avail themselves of the benefits you offer them. it is truly strange that it is not grasped at with more avidity. if i can do anything in egypt, i will try turkey and st. petersburg.'" morse himself writes: "in another letter from mr. chamberlain to mr. levering, dated syra, january , he says: 'the pretty little queen of greece was delighted with morse's telegraph. the string which carried the cannon-ball used for a weight broke, and came near falling on her majesty's toes, but happily missed, and we, perhaps, escaped a prison. my best respects to mr. morse, and say i shall ask mehemet ali for a purse, a beauty from his seraglio, and something else.'" and morse concludes: "i will add that, if he will bring me the purse just now, i can dispense with the beauty and the something else." tragedy too often treads on the heels of comedy, and it is sad to have to relate that mr. chamberlain and six other gentlemen were drowned while on an excursion of pleasure on the danube in july of . that all these disappointments, added to the necessity for making money in some way for his bare subsistence, should have weighed on the inventor's spirits, is hardly to be wondered at; the wonder is rather that he did not sink under his manifold trials. far from this, however, he only touches on his needs in the following letter to alfred vail, written on november , :-- "as to the telegraph, i have been compelled from necessity to apply myself to those duties which yield immediate pecuniary relief. i feel the pressure as well as others, and, having several pupils at the university, i must attend to them. nevertheless, i shall hold myself ready in case of need to go to washington during the next session with it. the one i was constructing is completed except the rotary batteries and the pen-and-ink apparatus, which i shall soon find time to add if required. "mr. smith expects me in portland, but i have not the means to visit him. the telegraph of wheatstone is going ahead in england, even with all its complications; so, i presume, is the one of steinheil in bavaria. whether ours is to be adopted depends on the government or on a company, and the times are not favorable for the formation of a company. perhaps it is the part of wisdom to let the matter rest and watch for an opportunity when times look better, and which i hope will be soon." he gives freer vent to his disappointment in a letter to mr. smith, of november , :-- "i feel the want of that sum which congress ought to have appropriated two years ago to enable me to compete with my european rivals. wheatstone and steinheil have money for their projects; the former by a company, and the latter by the king of bavaria. is there any national feeling with us on the subject? i will not say there is not until after the next session of congress. but, if there is any cause for national exultation in being not merely _first_ in the invention as to time, but _best_ too, as decided by a foreign tribunal, ought the inventor to be suffered to work with his hands tied? is it honorable to the nation to boast of its inventors, to contend for the credit of their inventions as national property, and not lift a finger to assist them to perfect that of which they boast? "but i will not complain for myself. i can bear it, because i made up my mind from the very first for this issue, the common fate of all inventors. but i do not feel so agreeable in seeing those who have interested themselves in it, especially yourself, suffer also. perhaps i look too much on the unfavorable side. i often thus look, not to discourage others or myself, but to check those too sanguine expectations which, with me, would rise to an inordinate height unless thus reined in and disciplined. "shall you not be in new york soon? i wish much to see you and to concoct plans for future operations. i am at present much straitened in means, or i should yet endeavor to see you in portland; but i must yield to necessity and hope another season to be in different and more prosperous circumstances." thus the inventor, who had hoped so much from the energy and business acumen of his own countrymen, found that the conditions at home differed not much from those which he had found so exasperating abroad. praise in plenty for the beauty and simplicity of his invention, but no money, either public or private, to enable him to put it to a practical test. his associates had left him to battle alone for his interests and theirs. f.o.j. smith was in portland, maine, attending to his own affairs; professor gale was in the south filling a professorship; and alfred vail was in philadelphia. no one of them, as far as i can ascertain, was doing anything to help in this critical period of the enterprise which was to benefit them all. when credit is to be awarded to those who have accomplished something great, many factors must be taken into consideration. not only must the aspirant for undying fame in the field of invention, for instance, have discovered something new, which, when properly applied, will benefit mankind, but he must prove its practical value to a world constitutionally skeptical, and he must persevere through trials and discouragements of every kind, with a sublime faith in the ultimate success of his efforts, until the fight be won. otherwise, if he retires beaten from the field of battle, another will snatch up his sword and hew his way to victory. it must never be forgotten that morse won his place in the hall of fame, not only because of his invention of the simplest and best method of conveying intelligence by electricity, but because he, alone and unaided, carried forward the enterprise when, but for him, it would have been allowed to fail. with no thought of disparaging the others, who can hardly be blamed for their loss of faith, and who were of great assistance to him later on when the battle was nearly won, i feel that it is only just to lay emphasis on this factor in the claim of morse to greatness. it will not be necessary to record in detail the events of the year . the inventor, always confident that success would eventually crown his efforts, lived a life of privation and constant labor in the two fields of art and science. he was still president of the national academy of design, and in september he was elected an honorary member of the mercantile library association. he strove to keep the wolf from the door by giving lessons in painting and by practising the new art of daguerreotypy, and, in the mean time, he employed every spare moment in improving and still further simplifying his invention. he heard occasionally from his associates. the following sentences are from a letter of alfred vail's, dated philadelphia, january , :-- friend s.f.b. morse, dear sir, it is many a day since i last had the pleasure of seeing and conversing with you, and, if i am not mistaken, it is as long since any communications have been exchanged. however i trust it will not long be so. when i last had the pleasure of seeing you it was when on my way to philadelphia, at which time you had the kindness to show me specimens of the greatest discovery ever made, with the exception of the electro-magnetic telegraph. by the by, i have been thinking that it is time money in some way was made out of the telegraph, and i am almost ready to order an instrument made, and to make the proposition to you to exhibit it here. what do you think of the plan? if mr. prosch will make me a first-rate, most perfect machine, and as speedily as possible, and will wait six or nine months for his pay, you may order one for me. morse's reply to this letter has not been preserved, but he probably agreed to vail's proposition,--anything honorable to keep the telegraph in the public eye,--for, as we shall see, in a later letter he refers to the machines which prosch was to make. before quoting from that letter, however, i shall give the following sentences from one to baron meyendorff, of march , : "i have, since i returned to the united states, made several important improvements, which i regret my limited time will not permit me to describe or send you.... i have so changed the _form_ of the apparatus, and condensed it into so small a compass, that you would scarcely know it for the same instrument which you saw in paris." this and many other allusions, in the correspondence of those years, to morse's work in simplifying and perfecting his invention, some of which i have already noted, answer conclusively the claims of those who have said that all improvements were the work of other brains and hands. on september , , he writes again to vail:-- "your letter of th ult. was received several days ago, but i have not had a moment's time to give you a word in return. i am tied hand and foot during the day endeavoring to realize something from the daguerreotype portraits.... as to the telegraph, i know not what to say. the delay in finishing the apparatus on the part of prosch is exceedingly tantalizing and vexatious. he was to have finished them more than six months ago, and i have borne with his procrastination until i utterly despair of their being completed.... i suppose something might be done in washington next session if i, or some of you, could go on, but i have expended so much time in vain, there and in europe, that i feel almost discouraged from pressing it any further; only, however, from want of funds. i have none myself, and i dislike to ask it of the rest of you. you are all so scattered that there is no consultation, and i am under the necessity of attending to duties which will give me the means of living. "the reason of its not being in operation is not _the fault of the invention_, nor is it _my neglect_. my faith is not only unshaken in its _eventual adoption throughout the world_, but it is confirmed by every new discovery in the science of electricity." while the future looked dark and the present was darker still, morse maintained a cheerful exterior, and was still able to write to his friends in a light and airy vein. the following letter, dated september , , was to a mr. levering in paris:-- "some time since (i believe nearly a year ago) i wrote you to procure for me two lenses and some plates for the daguerreotype process, but have never heard from you nor had any intimation that my letter was ever received. after waiting some months, i procured both lenses and plates here. now, if i knew how to scold at you, wouldn't i scold. "well, i recollect a story of a captain who was overloaded by a great many ladies of his acquaintance with orders to procure them various articles in india, just as he was about to sail thither, all which he promised to fulfill. but, on his return, when they flocked round him for their various articles, to their surprise he had only answered the order of one of them. upon their expressing their disappointment he addressed them thus: 'ladies,' said he, 'i have to inform you of a most unlucky accident that occurred to your orders. i was not unmindful of them, i assure you; so one fine day i took your orders all out of my pocketbook and arranged them on the top of the companionway, but, just as they were all arranged, a sudden gust of wind took them all overboard.' 'aye, a very good excuse,' they exclaimed. 'how happens it that mrs. ----'s did not go overboard, too?' 'oh!' said the captain, 'mrs. ---- had fortunately enclosed in her order some dozen doubloons which kept the wind from blowing hers away with the rest.' "now, friend lovering, i have no idea of having my new order blown overboard, so i herewith send by the hands of my young friend and pupil, mr. r. hubbard, whom i also commend to your kind notice, ten golden half-eagles to keep my order down." chapter xxviii june , --august , first patent issued.--proposal of cooke and wheatstone to join forces rejected.--letter to rev. e.s. salisbury.--money advanced by brother artists repaid.--poverty.--reminiscences of general strother, "porte crayon."--other reminiscences.--inaction in congress.--flattering letter of f.o.j. smith.--letter to smith urging action.--gonon and wheatstone.-- temptation to abandon enterprise.--partners all financially crippled.-- morse alone doing any work.--encouraging letter from professor henry.-- renewed enthusiasm.--letter to hon. w.w. boardman urging appropriation of $ by congress.--not even considered.--despair of inventor. it is only necessary to remember that the year , and the years immediately preceding and following it, were seasons of great financial depression, and that in the political unrest, which always precedes a presidential election, was greatly intensified, to realize why but little encouragement was given to an enterprise so fantastic as that of an electric telegraph. capitalists were disinclined to embark on new and untried ventures, and the members of congress were too much absorbed in the political game to give heed to the pleadings of a mad inventor. the election of harrison, followed by his untimely death only a month after his inauguration and the elevation of tyler to the presidency, prolonged the period of political uncertainty, so that morse and his telegraph received but scant attention on capitol hill. however, the year marked some progress, for on the th of june the first patent was issued to morse. it may be remembered that, while his caveat and petition were filed in , he had requested that action on them be deferred until after his return from europe. he had also during the year been gradually perfecting his invention as time and means permitted. it was during the year , too, that messrs. wheatstone and cooke proposed to join forces with the morse patentees in america, but this proposition was rejected, although morse seems to have been almost tempted, for in a letter to smith he says:-- "i send you copies of two letters just received from england. what shall i say in answer? can we make any arrangements with them? need we do it? does not our patent secure us against foreign interference, or are we to be defeated, not only in england but in our own country, by the subsequent inventions of wheatstone? "i feel my hands tied; i know not what to say. do advise immediately so that i can send by the british queen, which sails on the first prox." fortunately smith advised against a combination, and the matter was dropped. it will not be necessary to dwell at length on the events of the year . the situation and aims of the inventor are best summed up in a beautiful and characteristic letter, written on february of that year, to his cousin, the reverend edward s. salisbury:-- "your letter containing a draft for three hundred dollars i have received, for which accept my sincere thanks. i have hesitated about receiving it because i had begun to despair of ever being able to touch the pencil again. the blow i received from congress, when the decision was made concerning the pictures for the rotunda, has seriously and vitally affected my enthusiasm in my art. when that event was announced to me i was tempted to yield up all in despair, but i roused myself to resist the temptation, and, determining still to fix my mind upon the work, cast about for the means of accomplishing it in such ways as my heavenly father should make plain. my telegraphic enterprise was one of those means. induced to prosecute it by the secretary of the treasury, and encouraged by success in every part of its progress, urged forward to complete it by the advice of the most judicious friends, i have carried the invention on my part to perfection. that is to say, so far as the invention itself is concerned. i _have done my part_. it is approved in the highest quarters--in england, france, and at home--by scientific societies and by governments, and waits only the action of the latter, or of capitalists, to carry it into operation. "thus after several years' expenditure of time and money in the expectation (of my friends, _never of my own_ except as i yielded my own judgment to theirs) of so much at least as to leave me free to pursue my art again, i am left, humanly speaking, farther from my object than ever. i am reminded, too, that my prime is past; the snows are on my temples, the half-century of years will this year be marked against me; my eyes begin to fail, and what can i now expect to do with declining powers and habits in my art broken up by repeated disappointments? "that prize which, through the best part of my life, animated me to sacrifice all that most men consider precious--prospects of wealth, domestic enjoyments, and, not least, the enjoyment of country--was snatched from me at the moment when it appeared to be mine beyond a doubt. "i do not state these things to you, my dear cousin, in the spirit of complaint of the dealings of god's providence, for i am perfectly satisfied that, mysterious as it may seem to me, it has all been ordered in its minutest particulars in infinite wisdom, so satisfied that i can truly say i rejoice in the midst of all these trials, and in view of my heavenly father's hand guiding all, i have a joy of spirit which i can only express by the word 'singing.' it is not in man to direct his steps. i know i am so short-sighted that i dare not trust myself in the very next step; how then could i presume to plan for my whole life, and expect that my own wisdom had guided me into that way best for me and the universe of god's creatures? "i have not painted a picture since that decision in congress, and i presume that the mechanical skill i once possessed in the art has suffered by the unavoidable neglect. i may possibly recover this skill, and if anything will tend to this end, if anything can tune again an instrument so long unstrung, it is the kindness and liberality of my cousin edward. i would wish, therefore, the matter put on this ground that my mind may be at ease. i am at present engaged in taking portraits by the daguerreotype. i have been at considerable expense in perfecting apparatus and the necessary fixtures, and am just reaping a little profit from it. my ultimate aim is the application of the daguerreotype to accumulate for my studio models for my canvas. its first application will be to the study of your picture. yet if any accident, any unforeseen circumstances should prevent, i have made arrangements with my brother sidney to hold the sum you have advanced subject to your order. on these conditions i accept it, and will yet indulge the hope of giving you a picture acceptable to you." the picture was never painted, for the discouraged artist found neither time nor inclination ever to pick up his brush again; but we may be sure that the money, so generously advanced by his cousin, was repaid. it was in the year also that, in spite of the difficulty he found in earning enough to keep him from actual starvation, he began to pay back the sums which had been advanced to him by his friends for the painting of a historical picture, which should, in a measure, atone to him for the undeserved slight of congress. in a circular addressed to each of the subscribers he gives the history of the matter and explains why he had hoped that the telegraph would supply him with the means to paint the picture, and then he adds:-- "i have, as yet, not realized one cent, and thus i find myself farther from my object than ever. upon deliberately considering the matter the last winter and spring, i came to the determination, in the first place, to free myself from the pecuniary obligation under which i had so long lain to my friends of the association, and i commenced a system of economy and retrenchment by which i hoped gradually to amass the necessary sum for that purpose, which sum, it will be seen, amounts in the aggregate to $ . three hundred dollars of this sum i had already laid aside, when an article in the new york 'mirror,' of the th october, determined me at once to commence the refunding of the sums received." what the substance of the article in the "mirror" was, i do not know, but it was probably one of those scurrilous and defamatory attacks, from many of which he suffered in common with other persons of prominence, and which was called forth, perhaps, by his activity in the politics of the day. that i have not exaggerated in saying that he was almost on the verge of starvation during these dark years is evidenced by the following word picture from the pen of general strother, of virginia, known in the world of literature under the pen name of "porte crayon":-- "i engaged to become morse's pupil, and subsequently went to new york and found him in a room in university place. he had three other pupils, and i soon found that our professor had very little patronage. i paid my fifty dollars that settled for one quarter's instruction. morse was a faithful teacher, and took as much interest in our progress--more indeed than--we did ourselves. but he was very poor. i remember that when my second quarter's pay was due my remittance from home did not come as expected, and one day the professor came in and said, courteously:-- "'well, strother my boy, how are we off for money?' "'why, professor,' i answered, 'i am sorry to say i have been disappointed; but i expect a remittance next week.' "'next week!' he repeated sadly. 'i shall be dead by that time.' "'dead, sir?' "'yes, dead by starvation.' "i was distressed and astonished. i said hurriedly:-- "'would ten dollars be of any service?' "'ten dollars would save my life; that is all it would do.' "i paid the money, all that i had, and we dined together. it was a modest meal but good, and, after he had finished, he said:-- "'this is my first meal for twenty-four hours. strother, don't be an artist. it means beggary. your life depends upon people who know nothing of your art and care nothing for you. a house-dog lives better, and the very sensitiveness that stimulates an artist to work keeps him alive to suffering.'" another artist describes the conditions in in the following words:-- "in the spring of was searching for a studio in which to set up my easel. my 'house-hunting' ended at the new york university, where i found what i wanted in one of the turrets of that stately edifice. when i had fixed my choice, the janitor, who accompanied me in my examination of the rooms, threw open a door on the opposite side of the hall and invited me to enter. i found myself in what was evidently an artist's studio, but every object in it bore indubitable signs of unthrift and neglect. the statuettes, busts, and models of various kinds were covered with dust and cobwebs; dusty canvases were faced to the wall, and stumps of brushes and scraps of paper littered the floor. the only signs of industry consisted of a few masterly crayon drawings, and little luscious studies of color pinned to the wall. "'you will have an artist for a neighbor,' said the janitor, 'though he is not here much of late; he seems to be getting rather shiftless; he is wasting his time over some silly invention, a machine by which he expects to send messages from one place to another. he is a very good painter, and might do well if he would only stick to his business; but, lord!' he added with a sneer of contempt, 'the idea of telling by a little streak of lightning what a body is saying at the other end of it.' "judge of my astonishment when he informed me that the 'shiftless individual' whose foolish waste of time so much excited his commiseration, was none other than the president of the national academy of design--the most exalted position, in my youthful artistic fancy, it was possible for mortal to attain--s.f.b. morse, since better known as the inventor of the electric telegraph. but a little while after this his fame was flashing through the world, and the unbelievers who voted him insane were forced to confess that there was, at least, 'method in his madness.'" the spring and summer of wore away and nothing was accomplished. on august morse writes to smith:-- "our telegraph matters are in a situation to do none of us any good, unless some understanding can be entered into among the proprietors. i have recently received a letter from mr. isaac n. coffin, from washington, with a commendatory letter from hon. r. mcclellan, of the house. mr. coffin proposes to take upon himself the labor of urging through the two houses the bill relating to my telegraph, which you know has long been before congress. he will press it and let his compensation depend on his success." this mr. coffin wrote many long letters telling, in vivid language, of the great difficulties which beset the passage of a bill through both houses of congress, and of how skilled he was in all the diplomatic moves necessary to success, and finally, after a long delay, occasioned by the difficulty of getting powers of attorney from all the proprietors, he was authorized to go ahead. the sanguine inventor hoped much from this unsolicited offer of assistance, but he was again doomed to disappointment, for mr. coffin's glowing promises amounted to nothing at all, and the session of - ended with no action taken on the bill. in view of the fact, alluded to in a former chapter, that francis o.j. smith later became a bitter enemy of morse's, and was responsible for many of the virulent attacks upon him, going so far as to say that most, if not all, of the essentials of the telegraph had been invented by others, it may be well to quote the following sentences from a letter of august , , in reply to morse's of august :-- "i shall be in washington more next winter, and will lend all aid in my power, of course, to any agent we may have there. my expenditures in the affair, as you know, have been large and liberal, and have somewhat embarrassed me. hence i cannot incur more outlay. i am, however, extremely solicitous for the double purpose of having you witness with your own eyes and in your own lifetime the consummation in actual, practical, national utility [of] this beautiful and wonderful offspring of your mechanical and philosophical genius, and know that you have not overestimated the service you have been ambitious of rendering to your country and the world." on december , , morse again urges smith to action:-- "indeed, my dear sir, something ought to be done to carry forward this enterprise that we may all receive what i think we all deserve. the whole labor and expense of moving at all devolve on me, and i have nothing in the world. completely crippled in means i have scarcely (indeed, i have not at all) the means even to pay the postage of letters on the subject. i feel it most tantalizing to find that there is a movement in washington on the subject; to know that telegraphs will be before congress this session, and from the means possessed by gonon and wheatstone!! (yes, wheatstone who successfully headed us off in england), one or the other of their two plans will probably be adopted. wheatstone, i suppose you know, has a patent here, and has expended $ to get everything prepared for a campaign to carry his project into operation, and more than that, his patent is dated _before mine!_ "my dear sir, to speak as i feel, i am sick at heart to perceive how easily others, _foreigners_, can manage our congress, and can contrive to cheat our country out of the honor of a discovery of which the country boasts, and our countrymen out of the profits which are our due; to perceive how easily they can find men and means to help them in their plans, and how difficult, nay, impossible, for us to find either. is it really so, or am i deceived? what can be done? do write immediately and propose something. will you not be in washington this winter? will you not call on me as you pass through new york, if you do go? "gonon has his telegraph on the capitol, and a committee of the senate reported in favor of trying his for a short distance, and will pass a bill this session if we are not doing something. some means, somehow, must be raised. i have been compelled to stop my machine just at the moment of completion. i cannot move a step without running in debt, and that i cannot do. "as to the company that was thought of to carry the telegraph into operation here, it is another of those _ignes fatui_ that have just led me on to waste a little more time, money, and patience, and then vanished. the gentleman who proposed the matter was, doubtless, friendly disposed, but he lacks judgment and perseverance in a matter of this sort. "if congress would but pass the bill of $ , before them, there would be no difficulty. there is no difficulty in the scientific or mechanical part of the matter; that is a problem solved. the only difficulty that remains is obtaining funds, which congress can furnish, to carry it into execution. i have a great deal to say, but must stop for want of time to write more." but he does not stop. he is so full of his subject that he continues at some length:-- "everything done by me in regard to the telegraph is at arm's length. i can do nothing without consultation, and when i wish to consult on the most trivial thing i have three letters to write, and a week or ten days to wait before i can receive an answer. "i feel at times almost ready to cast the whole matter to the winds, and turn my attention forever from the subject. indeed, i feel almost inclined, at tunes, to destroy the evidences of priority of invention in my possession and let wheatstone and england take the credit of it. for it is tantalizing in the highest degree to find the papers and the lecturers boasting of the invention as one of the greatest of the age, and as an honor to america, and yet to have the nation by its representatives leave the inventor without the means either to put his invention fairly before his countrymen, or to defend himself against foreign attack. "if i had the means in any way of support in washington this winter, i would go on in the middle of january and push the matter, but i cannot run the risk. i would write a detailed history of the invention, which would be an interesting document to have printed in the congressional documents, and establish beyond contradiction both priority and superiority of my invention. has not the postmaster-general, or secretary of war or treasury, the power to pay a few hundred dollars from a contingent fund for such purposes? "whatever becomes of the invention through the neglect of those who could but would not lend a helping hand, _you_, my dear sir, will have the reflection that you did all in your power to aid me, and i am deterred from giving up the matter as desperate most of all for the consideration that those who kindly lent their aid when the invention was in its infancy would suffer, and that, therefore, i should not be dealing right by them. if this is a little _blue_, forgive it." it appears from this letter that morse bore no ill-will towards his partners for not coming to his assistance at this critical stage of the enterprise, so that it behooves us not to be too harsh in our judgment. perhaps i have not sufficiently emphasized the fact that, owing to the great financial depression which prevailed at that time, mr. smith and the vails were seriously crippled in their means, and were not able to advance any more money, and professor gale had never been called upon to contribute money. this does not alter my main contention, however, for it still remains true that, if it had not been for morse's dogged persistence during these dark years, the enterprise would, in all probability, have failed. with the others it was merely an incident, with him it had become his whole life. the same refrain runs through all the letters of and ; discouragement at the slow progress which is being made, and yet a sincere conviction that eventually the cause will triumph. on december , , he says in a letter to vail:-- "we are all somewhat crippled, and i most of all, being obliged to superintend the getting up of a set of machinery complete, and to make the greater part myself, and without a cent of money.... all the burden now rests on my shoulders after years of time devoted to the enterprise, and i am willing, as far as i am able, to bear my share if the other proprietors will lend a helping hand, and give me facilities to act and a reasonable recompense for my services in case of success." vail, replying to this letter on december , says: "i have recently given considerable thought to the subject of the telegraph, and was intending to get permission of you, if there is anything to the contrary in our articles of agreement, to build for myself and my private use a telegraph upon your plan." in answering this letter, on december , morse again urges vail to give him a power of attorney, and adds:-- "you can see in a moment that, if i have to write to all the scattered proprietors of the telegraph every time any movement is made, what a burden falls upon me both of expense of time and money which i cannot afford. in acting for my own interest in this matter i, of course, act for the interest of all. if we can get that thirty thousand dollars bill through congress, the experiment (if it can any longer be called such) can then be tried on such a scale as to insure its success. "you ask permission to make a telegraph for your own use. i have no objection, but, before you commence one, you had better see me and the improvements which i have made, and i can suggest a few more, rather of an ornamental character, and some economical arrangements which may be of use to you. "i thank you for your kind invitation, and, when i come to philadelphia, shall _a. vail_ myself of your politeness. i suppose by this time you have a brood of chickens around you. well, go on and prosper. as for me, i am not well; am much depressed at times, and have many cares, anxieties, and disappointments, in which i am aware i am not alone. but all will work for the best if we only look through the cloud and see a kind parent directing all. this reflection alone cheers me and gives me renewed strength." conditions remained practically unchanged during the early part of the year . if it had not been for occasional bits of encouragement from different quarters the inventor would probably have yielded to the temptation to abandon all and depend on his brush again for a living. perhaps the ray of greatest encouragement which lightened the gloom of this depressing period was the following letter from professor henry, dated february , :-- my dear sir--i am pleased to learn that you have again petitioned congress in reference to your telegraph, and i most sincerely hope you will succeed in convincing our representatives of the importance of the invention. in this you may, perhaps, find some difficulty, since, in the minds of many, the electro-magnetic telegraph is associated with the various chimerical projects constantly presented to the public, and particularly with the schemes so popular a year or two ago for the application of electricity as a moving power in the arts. i have asserted, from the first, that all attempts of this kind are premature and made without a proper knowledge of scientific principles. the case is, however, entirely different in regard to the electro-magnetic telegraph. science is now fully ripe for this application, and i have not the least doubt, if proper means be afforded, of the perfect success of the invention. the idea of transmitting intelligence to a distance by means of electrical action, has been suggested by various persons, from the time of franklin to the present; but, until the last few years, or since the principal discoveries in electro-magnetism, all attempts to reduce it to practice were, necessarily, unsuccessful. the mere suggestion however, of a scheme of this kind is a matter for which little credit can be claimed, since it is one which would naturally arise in the mind of almost any person familiar with the phenomena of electricity; but the bringing it forward at the proper moment, when the developments of science are able to furnish the means of certain success, and the devising a plan for carrying it into practical operation, are the grounds of a just claim to scientific reputation, as well as to public patronage. about the same time with yourself professor wheatstone, of london, and dr. steinheil, of germany, proposed plans of the electro-magnetic telegraph, but these differ as much from yours as the nature of the common principle would well permit; and, unless some essential improvements have lately been made in these european plans, _i should 'prefer the one invented by yourself_. with my best wishes for your success i remain, with much esteem yours truly joseph henry. i consider this one of the most important bits of contemporary evidence that has come down to us. professor henry, perfectly conversant with, all the minutiae of science and invention, practically gives to morse all the credit which the inventor himself at any time claimed. he dismisses the claims of those who merely suggested a telegraph, or even made unsuccessful attempts to reduce one to practice, unsuccessful because the time was not yet ripe; and he awards morse scientific as well as popular reputation. furthermore professor henry, with the clear vision of a trained mind, points out that advances in discovery and invention are necessarily slow and dependent upon the labors of many in the same field. his cordial endorsement of the invention, in this letter and later, so pleased and encouraged morse that he refers to it several times in his correspondence. to mr. smith, on july , , he writes:-- "professor henry visited me a day or two ago; he knew the principles of the telegraph, but had never before seen it. he told a gentleman, who mentioned it again to me, that without exception it was the most beautiful and ingenious instrument he had ever seen. he says mine is the only truly practicable plan. he has been experimenting and making discoveries on celestial electricity, and he says that wheatstone's and steinheil's telegraphs must be so influenced in a highly electrical state of the atmosphere as at times to be useless, they using the deflection of the needle, while mine, from the use of the magnet, is not subject to this disturbing influence. i believe, if the truth were known, some such cause is operating to prevent our hearing more of these telegraphs." in this same letter he tells of the application of a certain mr. john p. manrow for permission to form a company, but, as nothing came of it, it will not be necessary to particularize. mr. manrow, however, was a successful contractor on the new york and erie railroad, and it was a most encouraging sign to have practical business men begin to take notice of the invention. so cheered was the ever-hopeful inventor by the praise of professor henry, that he redoubled his efforts to get the matter properly before congress; and in this he worked alone, for, in the letter to smith just quoted from, he says: "i have not heard a word from mr. coffin at washington since i saw you. i presume he has abandoned the idea of doing anything on the terms we proposed, and so has given it up. well, so be it; i am content." taking advantage of the fact that he was personally acquainted with many members of congress, he wrote to several of them on the subject. in some of the letters he treats exhaustively of the history and scientific principles of his telegraph, but i have selected the following, addressed to the honorable w.w. boardman, as containing the most essential facts in the most concise form:-- august , . my dear sir,--i enclose you a copy of the "tribune" in which you will see a notice of my telegraph. i have showed its operation to a few friends occasionally within a few weeks, among others to professor henry, of princeton (a copy of whose letter to me on this subject i sent you some time since). he had never seen it in operation, but had only learned from description the principle on which it is founded. he is not of an enthusiastic temperament, but exceedingly cautious in giving an opinion on scientific inventions, yet in this case he expressed himself in the warmest terms, and told my friend dr. chilton (who informed me of it) that he had just been witnessing "the operation of the most beautiful and ingenious instrument he had ever seen." indeed, since i last wrote you, i have been wholly occupied in perfecting its details and making myself familiar with the whole system. there is not a shadow of a doubt as to its performing all that i have promised in regard to it, and, indeed, all that has been conceived of it. few can understand the obstacles arising from want of pecuniary means that i have had to encounter the past winter. to avoid debt (which i will never incur) i have been compelled to make with my own hands a great part of my machinery, but at an expense of time of very serious consideration to me. i have executed in six months what a good machinist, if i had the means to employ him, would have performed in as many weeks, and performed much better. i had hoped to be able to show my perfected instrument in washington long before this, and was (until this morning) contemplating its transportation thither next week. the news, just arrived, of the proposed adjournment of congress has stopped my preparations, and interposes, i fear, another year of anxious suspense. now, my dear sir, as your time is precious, i will state in few words what i desire. the government will eventually, without doubt, become possessed of this invention, for it will be necessary from many considerations; not merely as a direct advantage to the government and public at large if regulated by the government, but as a preventive of the evil effects which must result if it be a monopoly of a company. to this latter mode of remunerating myself i shall be compelled to resort if the government should not eventually act upon it. you were so good as to call the attention of the house to the subject by a resolution of inquiry early in the session. i wrote you some time after requesting a stay of action on the part of the committee, in the hope that, long before this, i could show them the telegraph in washington; but, just as i am ready, i find that congress will adjourn before i can reach washington and put the instrument in order for their inspection. will it be possible, before congress rises, to appropriate a small sum, say $ , under the direction of the secretary of the treasury, to put my telegraph in operation for the inspection of congress the next session? if congress will grant this sum, i will engage to have a complete telegraph on my electro-magnetic plan between the president's house, or one of the departments, and the capitol and the navy yard, so that instantaneous communication can be held between these three points at pleasure, at any time of day or night, at any season, in clear or rainy weather, and ready for their examination during the next session of congress, so that the whole subject may be fairly understood. i believe that, did the great majority of congress but consider seriously the results of this invention of the electric telegraph on all the interests of society; did they suffer themselves to dwell but for a moment on the vast consequences of the instantaneous communication of intelligence from one part to the other of the land in a commercial point of view, and as facilitating the defenses of the country, which my invention renders certain; they would not hesitate to pass all the acts necessary to secure its control to the government. i ask not this until they have thoroughly examined its merits, but will they not assist me in placing the matter fairly before them? surely so small a sum to the government for so great an object cannot reasonably be denied. i hardly know in what form this request of mine should be made. should it be by petition to congress, or will this letter handed in to the committee be sufficient? if a petition is required, for form's sake, to be referred to the committee to report, shall i ask the favor of you to make such petition in proper form? you know, my dear sir, just what i wish, and i know, from the kind and friendly feeling you have shown toward my invention, i may count on your aid. if, on your return, you stop a day or two in new york, i shall be glad to show you the operation of the telegraph as it is. this modest request of the inventor was doomed, like so many of his hopes, to be shattered, as we learn from the courteous reply of mr. boardman, dated august :-- dear sir,--yours of the th is received. i had already seen the notice of your telegraph in the "tribune," and was prepared for such a report. this is not the time to commence any new project before congress. we are, i trust, within ten days of adjournment. there is no prospect of a tariff at this session, and, as that matter appears settled, the sooner congress adjourns the better. the subject of your telegraph was some months ago, as you know, referred to the committee on commerce, and by that committee it was referred to mr. ferris, one of the members of that committee, from the city of new york, and who, by-the-way, is now at home in the city and will be glad to see you on the subject. i cannot give you his address, but you can easily find him. the treasury and the government are both bankrupt, and that foolish tyler has vetoed the tariff bill; the house is in bad humor and nothing of the kind you propose could be done. the only chance would be for the committee on commerce to report such a plan, but there would be little or no chance of getting such an appropriation through this session. i have much faith in your plan, and hope you will continue to push it toward congress. this was almost the last straw, and it is not strange that the long-suffering inventor should have been on the point of giving up in despair, nor that he should have given vent to his despondency in the following letter to smith:-- "while, so far as the invention itself is concerned, everything is favorable, i find myself without sympathy or help from any who are associated with me, whose interest, one would think, would impel them at least to inquire if they could render some assistance. for two years past i have devoted all my time and scanty means, living on a mere pittance, denying myself all pleasures and even necessary food, that i might have a sum to put my telegraph into such a position before congress as to insure success to the common enterprise. "i am, crushed for want of means, and means of so trivial a character, too, that they who know how to ask (which i do not) could obtain in a few hours. one more year has gone for want of these means. i have now ascertained that, however unpromising were the times last session, if i could but have gone to washington, i could have got some aid to enable me to insure success at the next session." the other projects for telegraphs must have been abandoned, for he goes on to say:-- "as it is, although everything is favorable, although i have no competition and no opposition--on the contrary, although every member of congress, as far as i can learn, is favorable--yet i fear all will fail because i am too poor to risk the trifling expense which my journey and residence in washington will occasion me. i will not run in debt if i lose the whole matter. so, unless i have the means from some source, i shall be compelled, however reluctantly, to leave it, and, if i get once engaged in my proper profession again, the telegraph and its proprietors will urge me from it in vain. "no one can tell the days and months of anxiety and labor i have had in perfecting my telegraphic apparatus. for want of means i have been compelled to make with my own hands (and to labor for weeks) a piece of mechanism which could be made much better, and in a tenth part of the time, by a good mechanician, thus wasting _time_--time which i cannot recall and which seems double-winged to me. "'hope deferred maketh the heart sick.' it is true and i have known the full meaning of it. nothing but the consciousness that i have an invention which is to mark an era in human civilization, and which is to contribute to the happiness of millions, would have sustained me through so many and such lengthened trials of patience in perfecting it." chapter xxix july . --march , continued discouragements.--working on improvements.--first submarine cable from battery to governor's island.--the vails refuse to give financial assistance.--goes to washington.--experiments conducted at the capitol.--first to discover duplex and wireless telegraphy.--dr. fisher. --friends in congress.--finds his statuette of dying hercules in basement of capitol.--alternately hopes and despairs of bill passing congress.-- bill favorably reported from committee.--clouds breaking.--ridicule in congress.--bill passes house by narrow majority.--long delay in senate.-- last day of session.--despair.--bill passes.--victory at last. slowly the mills of the gods had been grinding, so slowly that one marvels at their leaden pace, and wonders why the dream of the man so eager to benefit his fellowmen could not have been realized sooner. we are forced to echo the words of the inventor himself in a previously quoted letter: "i am perfectly satisfied that, mysterious as it may seem to me, it has all been ordered in its minutest particulars in infinite wisdom." he enlarges on this point in the letter to smith of july , . referring to the difficulties he has encountered through lack of means, he says:-- "i have oftentimes risen in the morning not knowing where the means were to come from for the common expenses of the day. reflect one moment on my situation in regard to the invention. compelled from the first, from my want of the means to carry out the invention to a practical result, to ask assistance from those who had means, i associated with me the messrs. vail and dr. gale, by making over to them, on certain conditions, a portion of the patent right. these means enabled me to carry it successfully forward to a certain point. at this point you were also admitted into a share of the patent on certain conditions, which carried the enterprise forward successfully still further. since then disappointments have occurred and disasters to the property of every one concerned in the enterprise, but of a character not touching the intrinsic merits of the invention in the least, yet bearing on its progress so fatally as for several years to paralyze all attempts to proceed. "the depressed situation of all my associates in the invention has thrown the whole burden of again attempting a movement entirely on me. with the trifling sum of five hundred dollars i could have had my instruments perfected and before congress six months ago, but i was unable to run the risk, and i therefore chose to go forward more slowly, but at a great waste of time. "in all these remarks understand me as not throwing the least blame on any individual. i believe that the situation in which you all are thrown is altogether providential--that human foresight could not avert it, and i firmly believe, too, that the delays, tantalizing and trying as they have been, will, in the end, turn out to be beneficial." i have hazarded the opinion that it was a kindly fate which frustrated the consummation of the russian contract, and here again i venture to say that the fates were kind, that morse was right in saying that the "delays" would "turn out to be beneficial." and why? because it needed all these years of careful thought and experiment on the part of the inventor to bring his instruments to the perfection necessary to complete success, and because the period of financial depression, through which the country was then passing, was unfavorable to an enterprise of this character. the history of all inventions proves that, no matter how clear a vision of the future some enthusiasts may have had, the dream was never actually realized until all the conditions were favorable and the psychological moment had arrived. professor henry showed, in his letter of february , that he realized that some day electricity would be used as a motive power, but that much remained yet to be discovered and invented before this could be actually and practically accomplished. so, too, the conquest of the air remained a dream for centuries until, to use professor henry's words, "science" was "ripe for its application." therefore i think we can conclude that, however confident morse may have been that his invention could have stood the test of actual commercial use during those years of discouragement, it heeded the perfection which he himself gave it during those same years to enable it to prove its superiority over other methods. among the other improvements made by morse at this time, the following is mentioned in the letter to smith of july , , just quoted from: "i have invented a battery which will delight you; it is the most powerful of its size ever invented, and this part of my telegraphic apparatus the results of experiments have enabled me to simplify and truly to perfect." another most important development of the invention was made in the year . the problem of crossing wide bodies of water had, naturally, presented itself to the mind of the inventor at an early date, and during the most of this year he had devoted himself seriously to its solution. he laboriously insulated about two miles of copper wire with pitch, tar, and rubber, and, on the evening of october , , he carried it, wound on a reel, to the battery in new york and hired a row-boat with a man to row him while he paid out his "cable." tradition says that it was a beautiful moonlight night and that the strollers on the battery were mystified, and wondered what kind of fish were being trolled for. the next day the following editorial notice appeared in the new york "herald":-- morse's electro-magnetic telegraph this important invention is to be exhibited in operation at castle garden between the hours of twelve and one o'clock to-day. one telegraph will be erected on governor's island, and one at the castle, and messages will be interchanged and orders transmitted during the day. many have been incredulous as to the powers of this wonderful triumph of science and art. all such may now have an opportunity of fairly testing it. _it is destined to work a complete revolution in the mode of transmitting intelligence throughout the civilized world._ before the appointed hour on the morning of the th, morse hastened to the battery, and found a curious crowd already assembled to witness this new marvel. with confidence he seated himself at the instrument and had succeeded in exchanging a few signals between himself and professor gale at the other end on governor's island, when suddenly the receiving instrument was dumb. looking out across the waters of the bay, he soon saw the cause of the interruption. six or seven vessels were anchored along the line of his cable, and one of them, in raising her anchor, had fouled the cable and pulled it up. not knowing what it was, the sailors hauled in about two hundred feet of it; then, finding no end, they cut the cable and sailed away, ignorant of the blow they had inflicted on the mortified inventor. the crowd, thinking they had been hoaxed, turned away with jeers, and morse was left alone to bear his disappointment as philosophically as he could. later, in december, the experiment was repeated across the canal at washington, and this time with perfect success. still cramped for means, chafing under the delay which this necessitated, he turned to his good friends the vails, hoping that they might be able to help him. while he shrank from borrowing money he considered that, as they were financially interested in the success of the invention, he could with propriety ask for an advance to enable him to go to washington. to his request he received the following answer from the honorable george vail:-- speedwell iron works, december , . s.f.b. morse, esq., dear sir,--your favor is at hand. i had expected that my father would visit you, but he could not go out in the snow-storm of wednesday, and, if he had, i do not think anything could induce him to raise the needful for the prosecution of our object. he says: "tell mr. morse that there is no one i would sooner assist than him if i could, but, in the present posture of my affairs, i am not warranted in undertaking anything more than to make my payments as they become due, of which there are not a few." he thinks that mr. s---- might soon learn how to manage it, and, as he is there, it would save a great expense. i do not myself know that he could learn; but, as my means are nothing at the present time, i can only wish you success, if you go on. of course mr. vail meant "if you go on to washington," but to the sensitive mind of the inventor the words must have seemed to imply a doubt of the advisability of going on with the enterprise. however, he was not daunted, but in some way he procured the means to defray his expenses, perhaps from his good brother sidney, for the next letter to mr. vail is from washington, on december , :-- "i have not written you since my arrival as i had nothing special to say, nor have i now anything very decided to communicate in relation to my enterprise, except that it is in a very favorable train. the telegraph, as you will see by thursday or friday's 'intelligencer,' is established between two of the committee rooms in the capitol, and excites universal admiration. i am told from all quarters that there is but one sentiment in congress respecting it, and that the appropriation will unquestionably pass. "the discovery i made with dr. fisher, just before leaving new york, of the fact that two or more currents will pass, without interference, at the same time, on the same wire, excites the wonder of all the scientific in and out of congress here, and when i show them the certainty of it, in the practical application of it to simplify my telegraph, their admiration is loudly expressed, and it has created a feeling highly advantageous to me. "i believe i drew for you a method by which i thought i could pass rivers, _without any wires_, through the water. i tried the experiment across the canal here on friday afternoon _with perfect success_. this also has added a fresh interest in my favor, and i begin to hope that i am on the eve of realizing something in the shape of compensation for my time and means expended in bringing my invention to its present state. i dare not be sanguine, however, for i have had too much experience of delusive hopes to indulge in any premature exultation. now there is no opposition, but it may spring up unexpectedly and defeat all.... "i find dr. fisher a great help. he is acquainted with a great many of the members, and he is round among them and creating an interest for the telegraph. mr. smith has not yet made his appearance, and, if he does not come soon, everything will be accomplished without him. my associate proprietors, indeed, are at present broken reeds, yet i am aware they are disabled in various ways from helping me, and i ought to remember that their help in the commencement of the enterprise was essential in putting the telegraph into the position it now is [in]; therefore, although they give me now no aid, it is not from unwillingness but from inability, and i shall not grudge them their proportion of its profits, nor do i believe they will be unwilling to reimburse me my expenses, should the telegraph eventually be purchased by the government. "mr. ferris, our representative, is very much interested in understanding the scientific principles on which my telegraph is based, and has exerted himself very strongly in my behalf; so has mr. boardman, and, in a special manner, dr. aycrigg, of new jersey, the latter of whom is determined the bill shall pass by acclamation. mr. huntington, of the senate, mr. woodbury and mr. wright are also very strongly friendly to the telegraph." this letter, to the best of my knowledge, has never before been published, and yet it contains statements of the utmost interest. the discovery of duplex telegraphy, or the possibility of sending two or more messages over the same wire at the same time has been credited by various authorities to different persons; by some to moses g. farmer in , by others to gintl, of vienna, in , or to frischen or siemens and halske in . yet we see from this letter that morse and his assistant dr. fisher not only made the discovery ten years earlier, in , but demonstrated its practicability to the scientists and others in washington at that date. why this fact should have been lost sight of i cannot tell, but i am glad to be able to bring forward the proof of the paternity of this brilliant discovery even at this late day. still another scientific principle was established by morse at this early period, as we learn from this letter, and that is the possibility of wireless telegraphy; but, as he has been generally credited with the first suggestion of what has now become one of the greatest boons to humanity, it will not be necessary to enlarge on it. a brighter day seemed at last to be dawning, and a most curious happening, just at this time, came to the inventor as an auspicious omen. in stringing his wires between the two committee rooms he had to descend into a vault beneath them which had been long unused. a workman, who was helping him, went ahead and carried a lamp, and, as he glanced around the chamber, morse noticed something white on a shelf at one side. curious to see what this could be, he went up to it, when what was his amazement to find that it was a plaster cast of that little statuette of the dying hercules which had won for him the adelphi gold medal so many years before in london. there was the token of his first artistic success appearing to him out of the gloom as the harbinger of another success which he hoped would also soon emerge from behind the lowering clouds. the apparently mysterious presence of the little demigod in such an out-of-the-way place was easily explained. six casts of the clay model had been made before the original was broken up. one of these morse had kept for himself, four had been given to various institutions, and one to his friend charles bulfinch, who succeeded latrobe as the architect of the capitol. a sinister fate seemed to pursue these little effigies, for his own, and the four he had presented to different institutions, were all destroyed in one way and another. after tracing each one of these five to its untimely end, he came to the conclusion that this evidence of his youthful genius had perished from the earth; but here, at last, the only remaining copy was providentially revealed to the eyes of its creator, having undoubtedly been placed in the vault for safe-keeping and overlooked. it was cheerfully returned to him. by him it was given to his friend, the reverend e. goodrich smith, and by the latter presented to yale university, where it now rests in the fine arts building. so ended the year , a decade since the first conception of the telegraph on board the sully, and it found the inventor making his last stand for recognition from that government to which he had been so loyal, and upon which he wished to bestow a priceless gift. with the dawn of the new year, a year destined to mark an epoch in the history of civilization, his flagging spirits were revived, and he entered with zest on what proved to be his final and successful struggle. it passes belief that with so many ocular demonstrations of the practicability of the morse telegraph, and with the reports of the success of other telegraphs abroad, the popular mind, as reflected in its representatives in congress, should have remained so incredulous. morse had been led to hope that his bill was going to pass by acclamation, but in this he was rudely disappointed. still he had many warm friends who believed in him and his invention. first and foremost should be mentioned his classmate, henry l. ellsworth, the commissioner of patents, at whose hospitable home the inventor stayed during some of these anxious days, and who, with his family, cheered him with encouraging words and help. among the members of congress who were energetic in support of the bill especially worthy of mention are--kennedy, of maryland; mason, of ohio; wallace, of indiana; ferris and boardman, of new york; holmes, of south carolina; and aycrigg, of new jersey. the alternating moods of hope and despair, through which the inventor passed during the next few weeks, are best pictured forth by himself in brief extracts from letters to his brother sidney:-- "_january , ._ i sent you a copy of the report on the telegraph a day or two since. i was in hopes of having it called up to-day, but the house refused to go into committee of the whole on the state of the union, so it is deferred. the first time they go into committee of the whole on the state of the union it will probably be called up and be decided upon. "everything looks favorable, but i do not suffer myself to be sanguine, for i do not know what may be doing secretly against it. i shall believe it passed when the signature of the president is affixed to it, and not before." "_january ._ i snatch the moments of waiting for company in the committee room of commerce to write a few lines. patience is a virtue much needed and much tried here. so far as opinion goes everything is favorable to my bill. i hear of no opposition, but should not be surprised if it met with some. the great difficulty is to get it up before the house; there are so many who must '_define their position_,' as the term is, so many who must say something to 'bunkum,' that a great deal of the people's time is wasted in mere idle, unprofitable speechifying. i hope something may be done this week that shall be decisive, so that i may know what to do.... this waiting at so much risk makes me question myself: am i in the path of duty? when i think that the little money i brought with me is nearly gone, that, if nothing should be done by congress, i shall be in a destitute state; that perhaps i shall have again to be a burden to friends until i know to what to turn my hands, i feel low-spirited. i am only relieved by naked trust in god, and it is right that this should be so." "_january ._ my patience is still tried in waiting for the action of congress on my bill. with so much at stake you may easily conceive how tantalizing is this state of suspense. i wish to feel right on this subject; not to be impatient, nor distrustful, nor fretful, and yet to be prepared for the worst. i find my funds exhausting, my clothing wearing out, my time, especially, rapidly waning, and my affairs at home requiring some little looking after; and then, if i should after all be disappointed, the alternative looks dark, and to human eyes disastrous in the extreme. "i hardly dare contemplate this side of the matter, and yet i ought so far to consider it as to provide, if possible, against being struck down by such a blow. at times, after waiting all day and day after day, in the hope that my bill may be called up, and in vain, i feel heart-sick, and finding nothing accomplished, that no progress is made, that _precious time_ flies, i am depressed and begin to question whether i am in the way of duty. but when i feel that i have done all in my power, and that this delay may be designed by the wise disposer of all events for a trial of patience, i find relief and a disposition quietly to wait such issue as he shall direct, knowing that, if i sincerely have put my trust in him, he will not lead me astray, and my way will, in any event, be made plain." "_january ._ i am still _waiting, waiting_. i know not what the issue will be and wish to be prepared, and have you all prepared, for the worst in regard to the bill. although i learn of no opposition yet i have seen enough of the modes of business in the house to know that everything there is more than in ordinary matters uncertain. it will be the end of the session, probably, before i return. i will not have to reproach myself, or be reproached by others, for any neglect, but under all circumstances i am exceedingly tried. i am too foreboding probably, and ought not so to look ahead as to be distrustful. i fear that i have no right feelings in this state of suspense. it is easier to say 'thy will be done' than at all tunes to feel it, yet i can pray that god's will may be done whatever becomes of me and mine." "_january ._ i am still kept in suspense which is becoming more and more tantalizing and painful. but i endeavor to exercise patience." "_february ._ i think the clouds begin to break away and a little sunlight begins to cheer me. the house in committee of the whole on the state of the union have just passed my bill through committee to report to the house. there was an attempt made to cast ridicule upon it by a very few headed by mr. cave johnson, who proposed an amendment that half the sum should be appropriated to mesmeric experiments. only supported him and it was laid aside to be reported to the house without amendment and without division. "i was immediately surrounded by my friends in the house, congratulating me and telling me that the crisis is passed, and that the bill will pass the house by a large majority. mr. kennedy, chairman of the committee on commerce, has put the bill on the speaker's calendar for thursday morning, when the final vote in the house will be taken. it then has to go to the senate, where i have reason to believe it will meet with a favorable reception. then to the president, and, if signed by him, i shall return with renovated spirits, for i assure you i have for some time been at the lowest ebb, and can now scarcely realize that a turn has occurred in my favor. i don't know when i have been so much tried as in the tedious delays of the last two months, but i see a reason for it in the providence of god. he has been pleased to try my patience, and not until my impatience had yielded unreservedly to submission has he relieved me by granting light upon my path. praised be his name, for to him alone belongs all the glory. "i write with a dreadful headache caused by over excitement in the house, but hope to be better after a night's rest, i have written in haste just to inform you of the first symptoms of success." on the same date as that of the preceding letter, february , the following appeared in the "congressional globe," and its very curtness and flippancy is indicative of the indifference of the public in general to this great invention, and the proceedings which are summarized cast discredit on the intelligence of our national lawmakers:-- electro and animal magnetism on motion of mr. kennedy of maryland, the committee took up the bill to authorize a series of experiments to be made in order to test the merits of morse's electro-magnetic telegraph. the bill appropriates $ , , to be expended under the direction of the postmaster-general. on motion of mr. kennedy, the words "postmaster-general" were stricken out and "secretary of the treasury" inserted. mr. cave johnson wished to have a word to say upon the bill. as the present congress had done much to encourage science, he did not wish to see the science of mesmerism neglected and overlooked. he therefore proposed that one half of the appropriation be given to mr. fisk, to enable him to carry on experiments, as well as professor morse. mr. houston thought that millerism should also be included in the benefits of the appropriation. mr. stanly said he should have no objection to the appropriation for mesmeric experiments, provided the gentleman from tennessee [mr. cave johnson] was the subject. [a laugh.] mr. cave johnson said he should have no objection provided the gentleman from north carolina [mr. stanly] was the operator. [great laughter.] several gentlemen called for the reading of the amendment, and it was read by the clerk, as follows:-- "_provided_, that one half of the said sum shall be appropriated for trying mesmeric experiments under the direction of the secretary of the treasury." mr. s. mason rose to a question of order. he maintained that the amendment was not _bona fide_, and that such amendments were calculated to injure the character of the house. he appealed to the chair to rule the amendment out of order. the chairman said it was not for him to judge of the motives of members in offering amendments, and he could not, therefore, undertake to pronounce the amendment not _bona fide_. objections might be raised to it on the ground that it was not sufficiently analogous in character to the bill under consideration, but, in the opinion of the chair, it would require a scientific analysis to determine how far the magnetism of mesmerism was analogous to that to be employed in telegraphs. [laughter.] he therefore ruled the amendment in order. on taking the vote, the amendment was rejected--ayes , noes not counted. the bill was then laid aside to be reported. on february , the once more hopeful inventor sent off the following hurriedly written letter to his brother:-- "you will perceive by the proceedings of the house to-day that _my bill has passed the house by a vote of to _. a close vote after the expectations raised by some of my friends in the early part of the session, but enough is as good as a feast, and it is safe so far as the house is concerned. i will advise you of the progress of it through the senate. all my anxieties are now centred there. i write in great haste." a revised record of the voting showed that the margin of victory was even slighter, for in a letter to smith, morse says:-- "the long agony (truly agony to me) is over, for you will perceive by the papers of to-morrow that, so far as the house is concerned, the matter is decided. _my bill has passed by a vote of eighty-nine to eighty-three._ a close vote, you will say, but explained upon several grounds not affecting the disposition of many individual members, who voted against it, to the invention. in this matter six votes are as good as a thousand, so far as the appropriation is concerned. "the yeas and nays will tell you who were friendly and who adverse to the bill. i shall now bend all my attention to the senate. there is a good disposition there and i am now strongly encouraged to think that my invention will be placed before the country in such a position as to be properly appreciated, and to yield to all its proprietors a proper compensation. "i have no desire to vaunt my exertions, but i can truly say that i have never passed so trying a period as the last two months. professor fisher (who has been of the greatest service to me) and i have been busy from morning till night every day since we have been here. i have brought him on with me at my expense, and he will be one of the first assistants in the first experimental line, if the bill passes.... my feelings at the prospect of success are of a joyous character, as you may well believe, and one of the principal elements of my joy is that i shall be enabled to contribute to the happiness of all who formerly assisted me, some of whom are, at present, specially depressed." writing to alfred vail on the same day, he says after telling of the passage of the bill:-- "you can have but a faint idea of the sacrifices and trials i have had in getting the telegraph thus far before the country and the world. i cannot detail them here; i can only say that, for two years, i have labored all my time and at my own expense, without assistance from the other proprietors (except in obtaining the iron of the magnets for the last instruments obtained of you) to forward our enterprise. my means to defray my expenses, to meet which every cent i owned in the world was collected, are nearly all gone, and if, by any means, the bill should fail in the senate, i shall return to new york with the _fraction of a dollar_ in my pocket." and now the final struggle which meant success or failure was on. only eight days of the session remained and the calendar was, as usual, crowded. the inventor, his nerves stretched to the breaking point, hoped and yet feared. he had every reason to believe that the senate would show more broad-minded enlightenment than the house, and yet he had been told that his bill would pass the house by acclamation, while the event proved that it had barely squeezed through by a beggarly majority of six. he heard disquieting rumors of a determination on the part of some of the house members to procure the defeat of the bill in the senate. would they succeed, would the victory, almost won, be snatched from him at the last moment, or would his faith in an overruling providence, and in his own mission as an instrument of that providence, be justified at last? every day of that fateful week saw him in his place in the gallery of the senate chamber, and all day long he sat there, listening, as we can well imagine, with growing impatience to the senatorial oratory on the merits or demerits of bills which to him were of such minor importance, however heavily freighted with the destinies of the nation they may have been. and every night he returned to his room with the sad reflection that one more of the precious days had passed and his bill had not been reached. and then came the last day, march , that day when the session of the senate is prolonged till midnight, when the president, leaving the white house, sits in the room provided for him at the capitol, ready to sign the bills which are passed in these last few hurried hours, if they meet with his approval, or to consign them to oblivion if they do not. the now despairing inventor clung to his post in the gallery almost to the end, but, being assured by his senatorial friends that there was no possibility of the bill being reached, and unable to bear the final blow of hearing the gavel fall which should signalize his defeat, shrinking from the well-meant condolences of his friends, he returned almost broken-hearted to his room. the future must have looked black indeed. he had staked his all and lost, and he was resolved to abandon all further efforts to press his invention on an unfeeling and a thankless world. he must pick up his brush again; he must again woo the fickle goddess of art, who had deserted him before, and who would, in all probability, be chary of her favors now. in that dark hour it would not have been strange if his trust in god had wavered, if he had doubted the goodness of that providence to whose mysterious workings he had always submissively bowed. but his faith seems to have risen triumphant even under this crushing stroke, for he thus describes the events of that fateful night, and of the next morning, in a letter to bishop stevens, of pennsylvania, written many years later:-- "the last days of the last session of that congress were about to close. a bill appropriating thirty thousand dollars for my purpose had passed the house, and was before the senate for concurrence. on the last day of the session [ d of march, ] i had spent the whole day and part of the evening in the senate chamber, anxiously watching, the progress of the passing of the various bills, of which there were, in the morning of that day, over one hundred and forty to be acted upon before the one in which i was interested would be reached; and a resolution had a few days before been passed to proceed with the bills on the calendar in their regular order, forbidding any bill to be taken up out of its regular place. "as evening approached there seemed to be but little chance that the telegraph bill would be reached before the adjournment, and consequently i had the prospect of the delay of another year, with the loss of time, and all my means already expended. in my anxiety i consulted with two of my senatorial friends--senator huntington, of connecticut, and senator wright, of new york--asking their opinion of the probability of reaching the bill before the close of the session. their answers were discouraging, and their advice was to prepare myself for disappointment. in this state of mind i retired to my chamber and made all my arrangements for leaving washington the next day. painful as was this prospect of renewed disappointment, you, my dear sir, will understand me when i say that, knowing from experience whence my help must come in any difficulty, i soon disposed of my cares, and slept as quietly as a child. "in the morning, as i had just gone into the breakfast-room, the servant called me out, announcing that a young lady was in the parlor wishing to speak with me. i was at once greeted with the smiling face of my young friend, the daughter of my old and valued friend and classmate, the honorable h.l. ellsworth, the commissioner of patents. on my expressing surprise at so early a call, she said:-- "'i have come to congratulate you.' "'indeed, for what?' "'on the passage of your bill.' "'oh! no, my young friend, you are mistaken; i was in the senate chamber till after the lamps were lighted, and my senatorial friends assured me there was no chance for me.' "'but,' she replied, 'it is you that are mistaken. father was there at the adjournment at midnight, and saw the president put his name to your bill, and i asked father if i might come and tell you, and he gave me leave. am i the first to tell you?' "the news was so unexpected that for some moments i could not speak. at length i replied:-- "'yes, annie, you are the first to inform me, and now i am going to make you a promise; the first dispatch on the completed line from washington to baltimore shall be yours.' "'well,' said she, 'i shall hold you to your promise.'" this was the second great moment in the history of the morse telegraph. the first was when the inspiration came to him on board the sully, more than a decade before, and now, after years of heart-breaking struggles with poverty and discouragements of all kinds, the faith in god and in himself, which had upheld him through all, was justified, and he saw the dawning of a brighter day. on what slight threads do hang our destinies! the change of a few votes in the house, the delay of a few minutes in the senate, would have doomed morse to failure, for it is doubtful whether he would have had the heart, the means, or the encouragement to prosecute the enterprise further. he lost no time in informing his associates of the happy turn in their affairs, and, in the excitement of the moment, he not only dated his letter to smith march , instead of march , but he seems not to have understood that the bill had already been signed by the president, and had become a law:-- "well, my dear sir, the matter is decided. _the senate has just passed my bill without division and without opposition_, and it will probably be signed by the president in a few hours. this, i think, is news enough for you at present, and, as i have other letters that i must write before the mail closes, i must say good-bye until i see you or hear from you. write to me in new york, where i hope to be by the latter part of next week." and to vail he wrote on the same day:-- "you will be glad to learn, doubtless, that my bill has passed the senate without a division and without opposition, so that now the telegraphic enterprise begins to look bright. i shall want to see you in new york after my return, which will probably be the latter part of next week. i have other letters to write, so excuse the shortness of this, which, if short, is sweet, at least. my kind regards to your father, mother, brothers, sisters, and wife. the whole delegation of your state, without exception, deserve the highest gratitude of us all." the representatives from the state of new jersey in the house voted unanimously for the bill, those of every other state were divided between the yeas and the nays and those not voting. congratulations now poured in on him from all sides; and the one he, perhaps, prized the most was from his friend and master, washington allston, then living in boston:-- "_march , ._ all your friends here join me in rejoicing at the passing of the act of congress appropriating thirty thousand dollars toward carrying out your electro-magnetic telegraph. i congratulate you with all my heart. shakespeare says: 'there is a tide in the affairs of men that, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.' you are now fairly launched on what i hope will prove to you another pactolus. _i pede fausto!_ "this has been but a melancholy year to me. i have been ill with one complaint or another nearly the whole time; the last disorder the erysipelas, but this has now nearly disappeared. i hope this letter will meet you as well in health as i take it you are now in spirits." morse lost no time in replying:-- "i thank you, my dear sir, for your congratulations in regard to my telegraphic enterprise. i hope i shall not disappoint the expectations of my friends. i shall exert all my energies to show a complete and satisfactory result. when i last wrote you from washington, i wrote under the apprehension that my bill would not be acted upon, and consequently i wrote in very low spirits. "'what has become of painting?' i think i hear you ask. ah, my dear sir, when i have diligently and perseveringly wooed the coquettish jade for twenty years, and she then jilts me, what can i do? but i do her injustice, she is not to blame, but her guardian for the time being. i shall not give her up yet in despair, but pursue her even with lightning, and so overtake her at last. "i am now absorbed in my arrangements for fulfilling my designs with the telegraph in accordance with the act of congress. i know not that i shall be able to complete my experiment before congress meets again, but i shall endeavor to show it to them at their next session." chapter xxx march , --june , work on first telegraph line begun.--gale, fisher, and vail appointed assistants.--f.o.j. smith to secure contract for trenching.--morse not satisfied with contract.--death of washington allston.--reports to secretary of the treasury.--prophesies atlantic cable.--failure of underground wires.--carelessness of fisher.--f.o.j. smith shows cloven hoof.--ezra cornell solves a difficult problem.--cornell's plan for insulation endorsed by professor henry.--many discouragements.--work finally progresses favorably.--frelinghuysen's nomination as vice-president reported by telegraph.--line to baltimore completed.-- first message.--triumph.--reports of democratic convention.--first long-distance conversation.--utility of telegraph established.--offer to sell to government. out of the darkness of despair into which he had been plunged, morse had at last emerged into the sunlight of success. for a little while he basked in its rays with no cloud to obscure the horizon, but his respite was short, for new difficulties soon arose, and new trials and sorrows soon darkened his path. immediately after the telegraph bill had become a law he set to work with energy to carry out its provisions. he decided, after consultation with the secretary of the treasury, hon. j.c. spencer, to erect the experimental line between washington and baltimore, along the line of railway, and all the preliminaries and details were carefully planned. with the sanction of the secretary he appointed professors gale and fisher as his assistants, and soon after added mr. alfred vail to their number. he returned to new york, and from there wrote to vail on march :-- "you will not fail, with your brother and, if possible, your father, to be in new york on tuesday the st, to meet the proprietors of the telegraph. i was on the point of coming out this afternoon with young mr. serrell, the patentee of the lead-pipe machine, which i think promises to be the best for our purposes of all that have been invented, as to it can be applied '_a mode of filling lead-pipe with wire_,' for which professor fisher and myself have entered a caveat at the patent office." vail gladly agreed to serve as assistant in the construction of the line, and, on march signed the following agreement:-- professor morse,--as an assistant in the telegraphic experiment contemplated by the act of congress lately passed, i can superintend and procure the making of the _instruments complete_ according to your direction, namely: the registers, the correspondents with their magnets, the batteries, the reels, and the paper, and will attend to the procuring of the acids, the ink, and the preparation of the various stations. i will assist in filling the tubes with wire, and the resinous coating, and i will devote my whole time and attention to the business so as to secure a favorable result, and should you wish to devolve upon me any other business connected with the telegraph, i will cheerfully undertake it. three dollars per diem, with travelling expenses, i shall deem a satisfactory salary. very respectfully, your ob't ser't, alfred vail. professor fisher was detailed to superintend the manufacture of the wire, its insulation and its insertion in the lead tubes, and professor gale's scientific knowledge was to be placed at the disposal of the patentees wherever and whenever it should be necessary. f.o.j. smith undertook to secure a favorable contract for the trenching, which was necessary to carry out the first idea of placing the wires underground, and morse himself was, of course, to be general superintendent of the whole enterprise. in advertising for lead pipe the following quaint answer was received from morris, tasker & morris, of philadelphia:-- "thy advertisements for about one hundred and twenty miles of / in. lead tube, for electro magnetic telegraphic purposes, has induced us to forward thee some samples of iron tube for thy inspection. the quantity required and the terms of payment are the inducement to offer it to thee at the exceeding low price here stated, which thou wilt please keep _to thyself undivulged to other person_, etc., etc." as iron tubing would not have answered morse's purpose, this decorous solicitation was declined with thanks. during the first few months everything worked smoothly, and the prospect of an early completion of the line was bright. morse kept all his accounts in the most businesslike manner, and his monthly accounts to the secretary of the treasury were models of accuracy and a conscientious regard for the public interest. one small cloud appeared above the horizon, so small that the unsuspecting inventor hardly noticed it, and yet it was destined to develop into a storm of portentous dimensions. on may , he wrote to f.o.j. smith from new york:-- "yours of the th april i have this morning received enclosing the contracts for trenching. i have examined the contract and i must say i am not exactly pleased with the terms. if i understood you right, before you left for boston, you were confident a contract could be made far within the estimates given in to the government, and i had hoped that something could be saved from that estimate as from the others, so as to present the experiment before the country in as cheap a form as possible. "i have taken a pride in showing to government how cheaply the telegraph could be laid, since the main objection, and the one most likely to defeat our ulterior plans, is its great expense. i have in my other contracts been able to be far within my estimates to government, and i had hoped to be able to present to the secretary the contract for trenching likewise reduced. there are plenty of applicants here who will do it for much less, and one even said he thought for one half. i shall do nothing in regard to the matter until i see you." a great personal sorrow came to him also, a short time after this, to dim the brilliance of success. on july , , his dearly loved friend and master, washington allston, died in boston after months of suffering. morse immediately dropped everything and hastened to boston to pay the last tributes of respect to him whom he regarded as his best friend. he obtained as a memento one of the brushes, still wet with paint, which allston was using on his last unfinished work, "the feast of belshazzar," when he was suddenly stricken. this brush he afterwards presented to the national academy of design, where it is, i believe, still preserved. sorrowfully he returned to his work in washington, but with the comforting thought that his friend had lived to see his triumph, the justification for his deserting that art which had been the bond to first bring them together. on july , in his report to the secretary of the treasury, he says:-- "i have also the gratification to report that the contract for the wire has been faithfully fulfilled on the part of aaron benedict, the contractor; that the first covering with cotton and two varnishings of the whole one hundred and sixty miles is also completed; that experiments made upon forty-three miles have resulted in the most satisfactory manner, and that the whole work is proceeding with every prospect of a successful issue." it was at first thought necessary to insulate the whole length of the wire, and it was not until some time afterwards that it was discovered that naked wires could be successfully employed. on august , in his report to the secretary, he indulges in a prophecy which must have seemed in the highest degree visionary in those early days:-- "some careful experiments on the decomposing power at various distances were made from which the law of propulsion has been deduced, verifying the results of ohm and those which i made in the summer of , and alluded to in my letter to the honorable c.g. ferris, published in the house report, no. , of the last congress. "the practical inference from this law is that a telegraphic communication on my plan may with certainty be established across the atlantic! "startling as this may seem now, the time will come when this project will be realized." on september , he reports an item of saving to the government which illustrates his characteristic honesty in all business dealings:-- "i would also direct the attention of the honorable secretary to the payment in full of mr. chase, (voucher ), for covering the wire according to the contract with him. the sum of $ was to be paid him. in the course of the preparation of the wire several improvements occurred to me of an economical character, in which mr. chase cheerfully concurred, although at a considerable loss to him of labor contracted for; so that my wire has been prepared at a cost of $ . , which is receipted in full, instead of $ , producing an economy of $ . ." the work of trenching was commenced on saturday, october , at a.m., and then his troubles began. describing them at a later date he says:-- "much time and expense were lost in consequence of my following the plan adopted in england of laying the conductors beneath the ground. at the time the telegraph bill was passed there had been about thirteen miles of telegraph conductors, for professor wheatstone's telegraph system in england, put into tubes and interred in the earth, and there was no hint publicly given that that mode was not perfectly successful. i did not feel, therefore, at liberty to expend the public moneys in useless experiments on a plan which seemed to be already settled as effective in england. hence i fixed upon this mode as one supposed to be the best. it prosecuted till the winter of - . it was abandoned, among other reasons, in consequence of ascertaining that, in the process of inserting the wire into the leaden tubes (which was at the moment of forming the tube from the lead at melting heat), the insulating covering of the wires had become charred, at various and numerous points of the line, to such an extent that greater delay and expense would be necessary to repair the damage than to put the wire on posts. "in my letter to the secretary of the treasury, of september , , one of the modes of laying the conductors for the telegraph was the present almost universal one of extending them on posts set about two hundred feet apart. this mode was adopted with success." the sentence in the letter of september , , just referred to, reads as follows: "if the circuit is laid through the air, the first cost would, doubtless, be much lessened. stout spars, of some thirty feet in height, well planted in the ground and placed about three hundred and fifty feet apart, would in this case be required, along the tops of which the circuit might be stretched." a rough drawing of this plan also appears in the sketch-book. it would seem, from a voluminous correspondence, that professor fisher was responsible for the failure of the underground system, inasmuch as he did not properly test the wires after they had been inserted in the lead pipe. carelessness of this sort morse could never brook, and he was reluctantly compelled to dispense with the services of one who had been of great use to him previously. he refers to this in a letter to his brother sidney of december , :-- "the season is against all my operations, and i expect to resume in the spring. i have difficulties and trouble in my work, but none of a nature as yet to discourage; they arise from neglect and unfaithfulness (_inter nos_) on the part of fisher, whom i shall probably dismiss, although on many accounts i shall do it reluctantly. i shall give him an opportunity to excuse himself, if he ever gets here. i have been expecting both him and gale for three weeks, and written, but without bringing either of them. they may have a good excuse. we shall see." the few months of sunshine were now past, and the clouds began again to gather:-- december , . dear sidney,--i have made every effort to try and visit new york. twice i have been ready with my baggage in hand, but am prevented by a pressure of difficulties which you cannot conceive. i was never so tried and never needed more your prayers and those of christians for me. troubles cluster in such various shapes that i am almost overwhelmed. and then the storm of which the little cloud was the forerunner burst in fury:-- december , . dear sidney,--i have no heart to give you the details of the troubles which almost crush me, and which have unexpectedly arisen to throw a cloud over all my prospects. it must suffice at present to say that the unfaithfulness of dr. fisher in his inspection of the wires, and connected with serrell's bad pipe, is the main origin of my difficulties. the trenching is stopped in consequence of this among other reasons, and has brought the contractor upon me for damages (that is, upon the government). mr. smith is the contractor, and where i expected to find a _friend_ i find a fiend. the word is not too strong, as i may one day show you. i have been compelled to dismiss fisher, and have received a very insolent letter from him in reply. the lead-pipe contract will be litigated, and smith has written a letter full of the bitterest malignity against me to the secretary of the treasury. he seems perfectly reckless and acts like a madman, and all for what? because the condition of my pipe and the imperfect insulation of my wires were such that it became necessary to stop trenching on this account alone, but, taken in connection with the advanced state of the season, when it was impossible to carry on my operations out of doors, i was compelled to stop any further trenching. this causes him to lose his profit on the contract. _hinc illæ lachrymæ._ and because i refused to accede to terms which, as a public officer, i could not do without dishonor and violation of trust, he pursues me thus malignantly. blessed be god, i have escaped snares set for me by this arch-fiend, one of which a simple inquiry from you was the means of detecting. you remember i told you that mr. smith had made an advantageous contract with tatham & brothers for pipe, and had divided the profits with me by which i should gain five hundred dollars. you asked if it was all right and, if it should be made public, it would be considered so. i replied, 'oh! yes; mr. smith says it is all perfectly fair' (for i had the utmost confidence in his fair dealing and uprightness). but your remark led me to think of the matter, and i determined at once that, since there was a doubt, i would not touch it for myself, but credit it to the government, and i accordingly credited it as so much saved to the government from the contract. and now, will you believe it! the man who would have persuaded me that all was right in that matter, turns upon me and accuses me to the secretary as dealing in bad faith to the government, citing this very transaction in proof. but, providentially, my friend ellsworth, and also a clerk in the treasury department, are witnesses that that sum was credited to the government before any difficulties arose on the part of smith. but i leave this unpleasant matter. the enterprise yet looks lowering, but i know who can bring light out of darkness, and in him i trust as a sure refuge till these calamities be overpast.... oh! how these troubles drive all thought of children and brothers and all relatives out of my mind except in the wakeful hours of the night, and then i think of you all with sadness, that i cannot add to your enjoyment but only to your anxiety. ... love to all. specially remember me in your prayers that i may have wisdom from above to act wisely and justly and calmly in this sore trial. while thus some of those on whom he had relied failed him at a critical moment, new helpers were at hand to assist him in carrying on the work. on december , he writes to the secretary of the treasury: "i have the honor to report that i have dismissed professor james c. fisher, one of my assistants, whose salary was $ per annum.... my present labors require the services of an efficient mechanical assistant whom i believe i have found in mr. ezra cornell, and whom i present for the approval of the honorable secretary, with a compensation at the rate of, $ per annum from december , ." cornell proved himself, indeed, an efficient assistant, and much of the success of the enterprise, from that time forward, was due to his energy, quick-wittedness, and faithfulness. mr. prime, in his biography of morse, thus describes a dramatic episode of those trying days:-- "when the pipe had been laid as far as the relay house, professor morse came to mr. cornell and expressed a desire to have the work arrested until he could try further experiments, but he was very anxious that nothing should be said or done to give to the public the impression that the enterprise had failed. mr. cornell said he could easily manage it, and, stepping up to the machine, which was drawn by a team of eight mules, he cried out: 'hurrah, boys! we must lay another length of pipe before we quit.' the teamsters cracked their whips over the mules and they started on a lively pace. mr. cornell grasped the handles of the plough, and, watching an opportunity, canted it so as to catch the point of a rock, and broke it to pieces while professor morse stood looking on. "consultations long and painful followed. the anxiety of professor morse at this period was greater than at any previous hour known in the history of the invention. some that were around him had serious apprehensions that he would not stand up under the pressure." cornell having thus cleverly cut the gordian knot, it was decided to string wires on poles, and cornell himself thus describes the solution of the insulation problem:-- "in the latter part of march professor morse gave me the order to put the wires on poles, and the question at once arose as to the mode of _fastening the wires to the poles_, and the insulation of them at the point of fastening. i submitted a plan to the professor which i was confident would be successful as an insulating medium, and which was easily available then and inexpensive. mr. vail also submitted a plan for the same purpose, which involved the necessity of going to new york or new jersey to get it executed. professor morse gave preference to mr. vail's plan, and started for new york to get the fixtures, directing me to get the wire ready for use and arrange for setting the poles. "at the end of a week professor morse returned from new york and came to the shop where i was at work, and said he wanted to provide the insulators for putting the wires on the poles upon the plan i had suggested; to which i responded: 'how is that, professor; i thought you had decided to use mr. vail's plan?' professor morse replied: 'yes, i did so decide, and on my way to new york, where i went to order the fixtures, i stopped at princeton and called on my old friend, professor henry, who inquired how i was getting along with my telegraph. "'i explained to him the failure of the insulation in the pipes, and stated that i had decided to place the wires on poles in the air. he then inquired how i proposed to insulate the wires when they were attached to the poles. i showed him the model i had of mr. vail's plan, and he said, "it will not do; you will meet the same difficulty you had in the pipes." i then explained to him your plan which he said would answer.'" however, before the enterprise had reached this point in march, , many dark and discouraging days and weeks had to be passed, which we can partially follow by the following extracts from letters to his brother sidney and others. to his brother he writes on january , :-- "i thank you for your kind and sympathizing letter, which, i assure you, helped to mitigate the acuteness of my mental sufferings from the then disastrous aspect of my whole enterprise. god works by instrumentalities, and he has wonderfully thus far interposed in keeping evils that i feared in abeyance. all, i trust, will yet be well, but i have great difficulties to encounter and overcome, with the details of which i need not now trouble you. i think i see light ahead, and the great result of these difficulties, i am persuaded, will be a great economy in laying the telegraphic conductors.... i am well in health but have sleepless nights from the great anxieties and cares which weigh me down." "_january ._ i am working to retrieve myself under every disadvantage and amidst accumulated and most diversified trials, but i have strength from the source of strength, and courage to go forward. fisher i have dismissed for unfaithfulness; dr. gale has resigned from ill-health; smith has become a malignant enemy, and vail only remains true at his post. all my pipe is useless as the wires are all injured by the _hot process_ of manufacture. i am preparing (as i said before, under every disadvantage) a short distance between the patent office and capitol, which i am desirous of having completed as soon as possible, and by means of it relieving the enterprise from the heavy weight which now threatens it." to his good friend, commissioner ellsworth, he writes from baltimore on february :-- "in complying with your kind request that i would write you, i cannot refrain from expressing my warm thanks for the words of sympathy and the promise of a welcome on my return, which you gave me as i was leaving the door. i find that, brace myself as i will against trouble, the spirit so sympathises with the body that its moods are in sad bondage to the physical health; the latter vanquishing the former. for the spirit is often willing and submits, while the flesh is weak and rebels. "i am fully aware that of late i have evinced an unusual sensitiveness, and exposed myself to the charge of great weakness, which would give me the more distress were i not persuaded that i have been among real friends who will make every allowance. my temperament, naturally sensitive, has lately been made more so by the combination of attacks from deceitful associates without and bodily illness within, so that even the kind attentions of the dear friends at your house, and who have so warmly rallied around me, have scarcely been able to restore me to my usual buoyancy of spirit, and i feel, amidst other oppressive thoughts, that i have not been grateful enough for your friendship. but i hope yet to make amends for the past.... i have no time to add more than that i desire sincere love to dear annie, to whom please present for me the accompanying piece from my favorite bellini, and the book on etiquette, after it shall have passed the ordeal of a mother's examination, as i have not had time to read it myself." on march , he writes to his brother:-- "i have nothing new. smith continues to annoy me, but i think i have got him in check by a demand for compensation for my services for seven months, for doing that for him in paris which he was bound to do. the agreement stipulates that i give my services for '_three months and no longer_,' but, at his earnest solicitation, i remained seven months longer and was his agent in 'negotiating the sale of rights,' which by the articles he was obliged to do; consequently i have a right to compensation, and mr. e. and others think my claim a valid one. if it is sustained the tables are completely turned on him, and he is debtor to me to the amount of six or seven hundred dollars. i have commenced my operations with posts which promise well at present." "_march ._ my telegraph labors go on well at present. the whole matter is now critical, or, as our good father used to say, 'a crisis is at hand.' i hope for the best while i endeavor to prepare my mind for the worst. smith, if he goes forward with his claim, is a ruined man in reputation, but he may sink the telegraph also in his passion; but, when he returns from the east, where he fortunately is now, we hope through his friends to persuade him to withdraw it, which he may do from fear of the consequences. as to his claims privately on me, i think i have him in check, but he is a man of consummate art and unprincipled; he will, therefore, doubtless give me trouble." "_april ._ a brighter day is dawning upon me. i send you the intelligencer of to-day, in which you will see that the telegraph is successfully under way. through six miles the experiment has been most gratifying. in a few days i hope to advise you of more respecting it. i have preferred reserve until i could state something positive. i have my posts set to beltsville, twelve miles, and you will see by the intelligencer that i am prepared to go directly on to baltimore and hope to reach there by the middle of may." "_may ._ let me know when susan and the two charles arrive [his son and his grandson] for, if they come within the next fortnight, i think i can contrive to run on and pay a visit of two or three days, unless my marplot smith should prevent again, as he is likely to do if he comes on here. as yet there is no settlement of that matter, and he seems determined (_inter nos_) to be as ugly as he can and defeat all application for an appropriation if i am to have the management of it. he chafes like a wild boar, but, when he finds that he can effect nothing by such a temper, self-interest may soften him into terms. "you will see by the papers that the telegraph is in successful operation for twenty-two miles, to the junction of the annapolis road with the baltimore and washington road. the nomination of mr. frelinghuysen as vice-president was written, sent on, and the receipt acknowledged back in two minutes and one second, a distance of forty-four miles. the news was spread all over washington one hour and four minutes before the cars containing the news by express arrived. in about a fortnight i hope to be in baltimore, and a communication will be established between the two cities. good-bye. i am almost asleep from exhaustion, so excuse abrupt closing." this was the first great triumph of the telegraph. morse and vail and cornell had worked day and night to get the line in readiness as far as the junction so that the proceedings of the whig convention could be reported from that point. many difficulties were encountered--crossing of wires, breaks, injury from thunder storms, and the natural errors incidental to writing and reading what was virtually a new language. but all obstacles were overcome in time, and the day before the convention met, morse wrote to vail:-- "get everything ready in the morning for the day, and do not be out of hearing of your bell. when you learn the name of the candidate nominated, see if you cannot give it to me and receive an acknowledgment of its receipt before the cars leave you. if you can it will do more to excite the wonder of those in the cars than the mere announcement that the news is gone to washington." the next day's report was most encouraging:-- "things went well to-day. your last writing was good. you did not correct your error of running your letters together until some time. better be deliberate; we have time to spare, since we do not spend upon our stock. get ready to-morrow (thursday) as to-day. there is great excitement about the telegraph and my room is thronged, therefore it is important to have it in action during the hours named. i may have some of the cabinet to-morrow.... get from the passengers in the cars from baltimore, or elsewhere, all the news you can and transmit. a good way of exciting wonder will be to tell the passengers to give you some short sentence to send me; let them note time and call at the capitol to verify the time i received it. before transmitting notify me with ( ). your message to-day that 'the passengers in the cars gave three cheers for henry clay,' excited the highest wonder in the passenger who gave it to you to send when he found it verified at the capitol." in a letter to his friend, dr. aycrigg of new jersey, written on may , and telling of these successful demonstrations, this interesting sentence occurs: "i find that the ground, in conformity with the results of experiments of dr. franklin, can be made a part of the circuit, and i have used one wire and the ground with better effect for one circuit than two wires." on the th of may he again cautions vail about his writing: "everything worked well yesterday, but there is one defect in your writing. make a _longer_ space between each letter and a still longer space between each word. i shall have a great crowd to-day and wish all things to go off well. many m.c.s will be present, perhaps mr. clay. give me news by the cars. when the cars come along, try and get a newspaper from philadelphia or new york and give items of intelligence. the arrival of the cars at the junction begins to excite here the greatest interest, and both morning and evening i have had my room thronged." and now at last the supreme moment had arrived. the line from washington to baltimore was completed, and on the th day of may, , the company invited by the inventor assembled in the chamber of the united states supreme court to witness his triumph. true to his promise to miss annie ellsworth, he had asked her to indite the first public message which should be flashed over the completed line, and she, in consultation with her good mother, chose the now historic words from the d verse of the d chapter of numbers--"what hath god wrought!" the whole verse reads: "surely there is no enchantment against jacob, neither is there any divination, against israel: according to this time it shall be said of jacob and of israel, what hath god wrought!" to morse, with his strong religious bent and his belief that he was but a chosen vessel, every word in this verse seemed singularly appropriate. calmly he seated himself at the instrument and ticked off the inspired words in the dots and dashes of the morse alphabet. alfred vail, at the other end of the line in baltimore, received the message without an error, and immediately flashed it back again, and the electro-magnetic telegraph was no longer the wild dream of a visionary, but an accomplished fact. mr. prime's comments, after describing this historic occasion, are so excellent that i shall give them in full:-- "again the triumph of the inventor was sublime. his confidence had been so unshaken that the surprise of his friends in the result was not shared by him. he knew what the instrument would do, and the fact accomplished was but the confirmation to others of what to him was a certainty on the packet-ship sully in . but the result was not the less gratifying and sufficient. had his labors ceased at that moment, he would have cheerfully exclaimed in the words of simeon: 'lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.' [illustration: first form of key] [illustration: improved form of key] [illustration: early relay the two keys and the relay are in the national museum, washington] [illustration: first washington-baltimore instrument the washington-baltimore instrument is owned by cornell university] "the congratulations of his friends followed. he received them with modesty, in perfect harmony with the simplicity of his character. neither then nor at any subsequent period of his life did his language or manner indicate exultation. he believed himself an instrument employed by heaven to achieve a great result, and, having accomplished it, he claimed simply to be the original and only instrument by which that result had been reached. with the same steadiness of purpose, tenacity and perseverance, with which he had pursued the idea by which he was inspired in , he adhered to his claim to the paternity of that idea, and to the merit of bringing it to a successful issue. denied, he asserted it; assailed, he defended it. through long years of controversy, discussion and litigation, he maintained his right. equable alike in success and discouragement, calm in the midst of victories, and undismayed by the number, the violence, and the power of those who sought to deprive him of the honor and the reward of his work, he manfully maintained his ground, until, by the verdict of the highest courts of his country, and of academies of science, and the practical adoption and indorsement of his system by his own and foreign nations, those wires, which were now speaking only forty miles from washington to baltimore, were stretched over continents and under oceans making a network to encompass and unite, in instantaneous intercourse, for business and enjoyment, all parts of the civilized world." it was with well-earned but modest satisfaction that he wrote to his brother sidney on may :-- "you will see by the papers how great success has attended the first efforts of the telegraph. that sentence of annie ellsworth's was divinely indited, for it is in my thoughts day and night. 'what hath god wrought!' it is his work, and he alone could have carried me thus far through all my trials and enabled me to triumph over the obstacles, physical and moral, which opposed me. "'not unto us, not unto us, but to thy name, o lord, be all the praise.' "i begin to fear now the effects of public favor, lest it should kindle that pride of heart and self-sufficiency which dwells in my own as well as in others' breasts, and which, alas! is so ready to be inflamed by the slightest spark of praise. i do indeed feel gratified, and it is right i should rejoice, but i rejoice with fear, and i desire that a sense of dependence upon and increased obligation to the giver of every good and perfect gift may keep me humble and circumspect. "the conventions at baltimore happened most opportunely for the display of the powers of the telegraph, especially as it was the means of correspondence, in one instance, between the democratic convention and the first candidate elect for the vice-presidency. the enthusiasm of the crowd before the window of the telegraph room in the capitol was excited to the highest pitch at the announcement of the nomination of the presidential candidate, and the whole of it afterwards seemed turned upon the telegraph. they gave the telegraph three cheers, and i was called to make my appearance at the window when three cheers were given to me by some hundreds present, composed mainly of members of congress. "such is the feeling in congress that many tell me they are ready to grant anything. even the most inveterate opposers have changed to admirers, and one of them, hon. cave johnson, who ridiculed my system last session by associating it with the tricks of animal magnetism, came to me and said: 'sir, i give in. it is an astonishing invention.' "when i see all this and such enthusiasm everywhere manifested, and contrast the present with the past season of darkness and almost despair, have i not occasion to exclaim 'what hath god wrought'? surely none but he who has all hearts in his hands, and turns them as the rivers of waters are turned could so have brought light out of darkness. 'sorrow may continue for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.' pray for me then, my dear brother, that i may have a heart to praise the great deliverer, and in future, when discouraged or despairing, be enabled to remember his past mercy, and in full faith rest all my cares on him who careth for us. "mr. s. still embarrasses the progress of the invention by his stubbornness, but there are indications of giving way; mainly, i fear, because he sees his pecuniary interest in doing so, and not from any sense of the gross injury he has done me. i pray god for a right spirit in dealing with him." the incident referred to in this letter with regard to the nomination for the vice-presidency by the democratic convention is worthy of more extended notice. the convention met in baltimore on the th of may, and it was then that the two-thirds rule was first adopted. van buren had a majority of the votes, but could not secure the necessary two thirds, and finally james k. polk was unanimously nominated. this news was instantly flashed to washington by the telegraph and was received with mingled feelings of enthusiasm, disappointment, and wonder, and not believed by many until confirmed by the arrival of the mail. the convention then nominated van buren's friend, senator silas wright, of new york, for the vice-presidency. this news, too, was immediately sent by wire to washington. morse at once informed mr. wright, who was in the capitol at the time, of his nomination, but he refused to accept it, and morse wired his refusal to vail in baltimore, and it was read to the convention only a few moments after the nomination had been made. this was too much for the credulity of the assembly, and they adjourned till the following day and sent a committee to washington to verify the dispatch. upon the return of the committee, with the report that the telegraph had indeed performed this wonder, this new instrumentality received such an advertisement as could not fail to please the most exacting. then a scene was enacted new in the annals of civilization. in baltimore the committee of conference surrounded vail at his instrument, and in washington senator wright sat beside morse, all others being excluded. the committee urged wright to accept the nomination, giving him good reasons for doing so. he replied, giving as good reasons for refusing. this first long-distance conversation was carried on until the committee was finally convinced that wright was determined to refuse, and they so reported to the convention. mr. dallas was then nominated, and in november of that year polk and dallas were elected. on june , morse made his report to the honorable mcclintock young, who was then secretary of the treasury _ad interim_. it was with great satisfaction that he was able to say: "of the appropriation made there will remain in the treasury, after the settlement of outstanding accounts, about $ , which may be needed for contingent liabilities and for sustaining the line already constructed, until provision by law shall be made for such an organization of a telegraphic department or bureau as shall enable the telegraph at least to support itself, if not to become a profitable source of revenue to the government." in the course of this report mention is also made of the following interesting incidents:-- "in regard to the _utility_ of the telegraph, time alone can determine and develop the whole capacity for good of so perfect a system. in the few days of its infancy it has already casually shown its usefulness in the relief, in various ways, of the anxieties of thousands; and, when such a sure means of relief is available to the public at large, the amount of its usefulness becomes incalculable. an instance or two will best illustrate this quality of the telegraph. "a family in washington was thrown into great distress by a rumor that one of its members had met with a violent death in baltimore the evening before. several hours must have elapsed ere their state of suspense could be relieved by the ordinary means of conveyance. a note was dispatched to the telegraph rooms at the capitol requesting to have inquiry made at baltimore. the messenger had occasion to wait but _ten minutes_ when the proper inquiry was made at baltimore, and the answer returned that the rumor was without foundation. thus was a worthy family relieved immediately from a state of distressing suspense. "an inquiry from a person in baltimore, holding the check of a gentleman in washington upon the bank of washington, was sent by telegraph to ascertain if the gentleman in question had funds in that bank. a messenger was instantly dispatched from the capitol who returned in a few minutes with an affirmative answer, which was returned to baltimore instantly, thus establishing a confidence in a money arrangement which might have affected unfavorably (for many hours, at least) the business transactions of a man of good credit. "other cases might be given, but these are deemed sufficient to illustrate the point of utility, and to suggest to those who will reflect upon them thousands of cases in the public business, in commercial operations, and in private and social transactions, which establish beyond a doubt the immense advantages of such a speedy mode of conveying intelligence." while such instances of the use of the telegraph are but the commonplaces of to-day, we can imagine with what wonder they were regarded in . morse then addressed a memorial to congress, on the same day, referring to the report just quoted from, and then saying:-- "the proprietors respectfully suggest that it is an engine of power, for good or for evil, which all opinions seem to concur in desiring to have subject to the control of the government, rather than have it in the hands of private individuals and associations; and to this end the proprietors respectfully submit their willingness to transfer the exclusive use and control of it, from washington city to the city of new york, to the united states, together with such improvements as shall be made by the proprietors, or either of them, if congress shall proceed to cause its construction, and upon either of the following terms." here follow the details of the two plans: either outright purchase by the government of the existing line and construction by the government of the line from baltimore to new york, or construction of the latter by the proprietors under contract to the government; but no specific sum was mentioned in either case. this offer was not accepted, as will appear further on, but $ was appropriated for the support of the line already built, and that was all that congress would do. it was while this matter was pending that morse wrote to his brother sidney, on june :-- "i am in the crisis of matters, so far as this session of congress is concerned, in relation to the telegraph, which absorbs all my time. perfect enthusiasm seems to pervade all classes in regard to it, but there is still the thorn in the flesh which is permitted by a wise father to keep me humble, doubtless. may his strength be sufficient for me and i shall fear nothing, and will bear it till he sees fit to remove it. pray for me, as i do for you, that, if prosperity is allotted to us, we may have hearts to use it to the glory of god." chapter xxxi june , --october , fame and fortune now assured.--government declines purchase of telegraph.--accident to leg gives needed rest.--reflections on ways of providence.--consideration of financial propositions.--f.o.j. smith's fulsome praise.--morse's reply.--extension of telegraph proceeds slowly. --letter to russian minister.--letter to london "mechanics' magazine" claiming priority and first experiments in wireless telegraphy.--hopes that government may yet purchase.--longing for a home.--dinner at russian minister's.--congress again fails him.--amos kendall chosen as business agent.--first telegraph company.--fourth voyage to europe.--london, broek, hamburg.--letter of charles t. fleischmann.--paris.--nothing definite accomplished. morse's fame was now secure, and fortune was soon to follow. tried as he had been in the school of adversity, he was now destined to undergo new trials, trials incident to success, to prosperity, and to world-wide eminence. that he foresaw the new dangers which would beset him on every hand is clearly evidenced in the letters to his brother, but, heartened by the success which had at last crowned his efforts, he buckled on his armor ready to do battle to such foes, both within and without, as should in the future assail him. fatalist as we must regard him, he believed in his star; or rather he went forward with sublime faith in that god who had thus far guarded him from evil, and in his own good time had given him the victory, and such a victory! for twelve years he had fought on through trials and privations, hampered by bodily ailments and the deep discouragements of those who should have aided him. pitted against the trained minds and the wealth of other nations, he had gone forth a very david to battle, and, like david, the simplicity of his missile had given him the victory. other telegraphs had been devised by other men; some had actually been put into operation, but it would seem as if all the nations had held their breath until his appeared, and, sweeping all the others from the field, demonstrated and maintained its supremacy. from this time forward his life became more complex. honors were showered upon him; fame carried his name to the uttermost parts of the earth; his counsel was sought by eminent scientists and by other inventors, both practical and visionary. on the other hand, detractors innumerable arose; his rights to the invention were challenged, in all sincerity and in insincerity; infringements of his patent rights necessitated long and acrimonious lawsuits, and, like other men of mark, he was traduced and vilified. in addition to all this he took an active interest in the seething politics of the day and in religious questions which, to his mind and that of many others, affected the very foundations of the nation. to follow him through all these labyrinthine ways would require volumes, and i shall content myself with selecting only such letters as may give a fair idea of how he bore himself in the face of these new and manifold trials, of how he sometimes erred in judgment and in action, but how through all he was sincere and firm in his faith, and how, at last, he was to find that home and that domestic bliss which he had all his life so earnestly desired, but which had until the evening of his days been denied to him. having won his great victory, retirement from the field of battle would have best suited him. he was now fifty-three years of age, and he felt that he had earned repose. to this end he sought to carry out his long-cherished idea that the telegraph should become the property of the government, and he was willing to accept a very modest remuneration. as i have said before, he and the other proprietors joined in offering the telegraph to the government for the paltry sum of $ , . but the administration of that day seems to have been stricken with unaccountable blindness, for the postmaster-general, that same wise and sapient cave johnson who had sought to kill the telegraph bill by ridicule in the house, and in despite of his acknowledgment to morse, reported: "that the operation of the telegraph between washington and baltimore had not satisfied him that, under any rate of postage that could be adopted, its revenues could be made equal to its expenditures." congress was equally lax, and so the government lost its great opportunity, for when, in after years, the question of government ownership again came up, it was found that either to purchase outright or to parallel existing lines would cost many more millions than it would have taken thousands in . the failure of the government to appreciate the value of what was offered to them was always a source of deep regret to morse. for, while he himself gained much more by the operation of private companies, the evils which he had foretold were more than realized. but to return to the days of ' , it would seem that in the spring of that year he met with a painful accident. its exact nature is not specified, but it must have been severe, and yet we learn from the following letter to his brother sidney, dated june , that he saw in it only another blessing:-- "i am still in bed, and from appearances i am likely to be held here for many days, perhaps weeks. the wound on the leg was worse than i at first supposed. it seems slow in healing and has been much inflamed, although now yielding to remedies. my hope was to have spent some weeks in new york, but it will now depend on the time of the healing of my leg. "the ways of god are mysterious, and i find prayer answered in a way not at all anticipated. this accident, as we are apt to call it, i can plainly see is calculated to effect many salutary objects. i needed rest of body and mind after my intense anxieties and exertions, and i might have neglected it, and so, perhaps, brought on premature disease of both; but i am involuntarily laid up so that i must keep quiet, and, although the fall that caused my wound was painful at first, yet i have no severe pain with it now. but the principal effect is, doubtless, intended to be of a spiritual character, and i am afforded an opportunity of quiet reflection on the wonderful dealings of god with me. "i cannot but constantly exclaim, 'what hath god wrought!' when i look back upon the darkness of last winter and reflect how, at one time everything seemed hopeless; when i remember that all my associates in the enterprise of the telegraph had either deserted me or were discouraged, and one had even turned my enemy, reviler and accuser (and even mr. vail, who has held fast to me from the beginning, felt like giving up just in the deepest darkness of all); when i remember that, giving up all hope myself from any other source than his right arm which brings salvation, his salvation did come in answer to prayer, faith is strengthened, and did i not know by too sad experience the deceitfulness of the heart, i should say that it was impossible for me again to distrust or feel anxiety, undue anxiety, for the future. but he who knows the heart knows its disease, and, as the good physician, if we give ourselves unreservedly into his hands to be cured, he will give that medicine which his perfect knowledge of our case prescribes. "i am well aware that just now my praises ring from one end of the country to the other. i cannot take up a paper in which i do not find something to flatter the natural pride of the heart. i have prayed, indeed, against it; i have asked for a right spirit under a trial of a new character, for prosperity is a trial, and our saviour has denounced a woe on us 'when all men speak well of us.' may it not then be in answer to this prayer that he shuts me up, to strengthen me against the temptations which the praises of the world present, and so, by meditation on his dealings with me and reviewing the way in which he has led me, showing me my perfect helplessness without him, he is preparing to bless me with stronger faith and more unreserved faith in him? "to him, indeed, belongs all the glory. i have had evidence enough that without christ i could do nothing. all my strength is there and i fervently desire to ascribe to him all the praise. if i am to have influence, increased influence, i desire to have it for christ, to use it for his cause; if wealth, for christ; if more knowledge, for christ. i speak sincerely when i say i fear prosperity lest i should be proud and forget whence it comes." having at length recovered from the accident which had given him, in spite of himself, the rest which he so much needed, morse again devoted himself to his affairs with his accustomed vigor. the government still delaying to take action, he was compelled, much to his regret, to consider the offers of private parties to extend the lines of the telegraph to important points in the union. he had received propositions from various persons who were eager to push the enterprise, but in all negotiations he was hampered by the dilatoriness of smith, who seemed bent on putting as many obstacles in the way of an amicable settlement as possible, and some of whose propositions had to be rejected for obvious reasons. before congress had finally put the quietus on his hopes in that direction, he considered the advisability of parting with his interest to some individual, and, on july , , he wrote to mr. david burbank from baltimore:-- "in reply to your query for what sum i would sell my share of the patent right in the telegraph, which amounts to one half, i frankly say that, if _one hundred and ten thousand dollars_ shall be secured to me in cash, current funds in the united states, or stocks at cash value, such as i may be disposed to accept if presented, so that in six months from this date i shall realize that sum, i will assign over all my rights and privileges in the telegraph in the united states. "i offer it at this price, not that i estimate the value of the invention so low, for it is perfectly demonstrable that the sum above mentioned is not half its value, but that i may have my own mind free to be occupied in perfecting the system, and in a general superintendence of it, unembarrassed by the business arrangements necessary to secure its utmost usefulness and value." a mr. fry of philadelphia had also made an offer, and, referring to this, he wrote to smith from new york, on july : "a letter from mr. fry, of philadelphia, in answer to the proposals which you sent, i have just received. i wish much to see you, as i cannot move in this matter until i know your views. i am here for about a fortnight and wish some arrangements made by which our business can be transacted without the necessity of so much waiting and so much writing." all these negotiations seem to have come to nothing, and i have only mentioned them as showing morse's willingness to part with his interest for much less than he knew it was worth, in order that he might not prove an obstacle in the expansion of the system by being too mercenary, and so that he might obtain some measure of freedom from care. mr. f.o.j. smith, while still proving himself a thorn in the flesh to morse in many ways, had compiled a telegraph dictionary which he called: "the secret corresponding vocabulary, adapted for use to morse's electro-magnetic telegraph, and also in conducting written correspondence transmitted by the mails, or otherwise." the dedication reads as follows: _to professor samuel f.b. morse, inventor of the electro-magnetic telegraph_ sir,--the homage of the world during the last half-century has been, and will ever continue to be, accorded to the name and genius of the illustrious american philosopher, benjamin franklin, for having first taught mankind that the wild and terrific ways and forces of the electric fluid, as it flies and flashes through the rent atmosphere, or descends to the surface of the earth, are guided by positive and fixed laws, as much as the movements of more sluggish matter in the physical creation, and that its terrible death-strokes may be rendered harmless by proper scientific precautions. to another name of another generation, yet of the same proud national nativity, the glory has been reserved of having first taught mankind to reach even beyond the results of franklin, and to subdue in a modified state, into the familiar and practical uses of a household servant who runs at his master's bidding, this same once frightful and tremendous element. indeed the great work of science which franklin commenced for the protection of man, you have most triumphantly subdued to his convenience. and it needs not the gift of prophecy to foresee, nor the spirit of personal flattery to declare, that the names of franklin and morse are destined to glide down the declivity of time together, the equals in the renown of inventive achievements, until the hand of history shall become palsied, and whatever pertains to humanity shall be lost in the general dissolution of matter. of one thus rich in the present applause of his countrymen, and in the prospect of their future gratitude, it affords the author of the following compilation, which is designed to contribute in a degree to the practical usefulness of your invention, a high gratification to speak in the presence of an enlightened public feeling. that you may live to witness the full consummation of the vast revolution in the social and business relations of your countrymen, which your genius has proved to be feasible, under the liberal encouragement of our national councils, and that you may, with this great gratification, also realize from it the substantial reward, which inventive merit too seldom acquires, in the shape of pecuniary independence, is the sincere wish of your most respectful and obedient servant the author. this florid and fulsome eulogy was written by that singular being who could thus flatter, and almost apotheosize, the inventor in public, while in secret he was doing everything to thwart him, and who never, as long as he lived, ceased to antagonize him, and later accused him of having claimed the credit of an invention all the essentials of which were invented by others. no wonder that morse was embarrassed and at a loss how to reply to the letter of smith's enclosing this eulogy and, at the same time, bringing up one of the subjects in dispute:-- new york, november , . dear sir,--i have received yours of the th and th inst., and reply in relation to the several subjects you mention in their order. i like very well the suggestion in regard to the presentation of a set of the telegraph dictionary you are publishing to each member of congress, and, when i return to washington, will see the secretary of the treasury and see if he will assent to it. as to the dedication to me, since you have asked my opinion, i must say i should prefer to have it much curtailed and less laudatory. i must refer it entirely to you, however, as it is not for me to say what others should write and think of me. in regard to the bartlett claim against the government and your plan for settling it, i cannot admit that, as proprietors of the telegraph, we have anything to do with it. i regret that there has been any mention of it, and i had hoped that you yourself had come to the determination to leave the matter altogether, or at least until the telegraph bill had been definitely settled in congress. however much i may deprecate agitation of the subject in the senate, to mar and probably to defeat all our prospects, it is a matter over which i have no control in the aspect that has been given to it, and therefore--"the suppression of details which had better not be pushed to a decision"--does not rest with me. in regard, however, to such a division of the property of the telegraph as shall enable each of us to labor for the general benefit without embarrassment from each other, i think it worthy of consideration, and the principle on which such a division is proposed to be made might be extended to embrace the entire property. the subject, however, requires mature deliberation, and i am not now prepared to present the plan, but will think it over and consult with vail and gale and arrange it, perhaps definitely, when i see you again in washington. i have letters from vail at washington and rogers at baltimore stating the fact that complete success has attended all the transmission of results by telegraph, there not having been a failure in a single instance, and to the entire satisfaction of both political parties in the perfect impartiality of the directors of the telegraph. while the success of the telegraph had now been fully demonstrated, and while congratulations and honors were showered on the inventor from all quarters, negotiations for its extension proceeded but slowly. morse still kept hoping that the government would eventually purchase all the rights, and it was not until well into that he was compelled to abandon this dream. in the mean time he was kept busy replying to enquiries from the representatives of russia, france, and other european countries, and in repelling attacks which had already been launched against him in scientific circles. as an example of the former i shall quote from a letter to his excellency alexander de bodisco, the russian minister, written in december, :-- "in complying with your request to write you respecting my invention of the electro-magnetic telegraph, i find there are but few points of interest not embraced in the printed documents already in your possession. the principle on which, my whole invention rests is the power of the electro-magnet commanded at pleasure at any distance. the application of this power to the telegraph is original with me. if the electro-magnet is now used in europe for telegraphic purposes, it has been subsequently introduced. all the systems of electric telegraphs in europe from to are based on the _deflection of the magnetic needle_, while my system, invented in , is based, as i have just observed, on the electro-magnet.... "should the emperor be desirous of the superintendence of an experienced person to put the telegraph in operation in russia, i will either engage myself to visit russia for that purpose; or, if my own or another government shall, previous to receiving an answer from russia, engage my personal attendance, i will send an experienced person in my stead." as a specimen of the vigorous style in which he repelled attacks on his merits as an inventor, i shall give the following:-- messrs. editors,--the london "mechanics' magazine," for october, , copies an article from the baltimore "american" in which my discovery in relation to causing electricity to cross rivers without wires is announced, and then in a note to his readers the editor of the magazine makes the following assertion: "the english reader need scarcely be informed that mr. morse has in this, as in other matters relating to magneto telegraphs, only _re_discovered what was previously well known in this country." more illiberality and deliberate injustice has been seldom condensed within so small a compass. from the experience, however, that i, in common with many american scientific gentlemen, have already had of the piratical conjoined with the abusive propensity of a certain class of english _savans_ and writers, i can scarcely expect either liberality or justice from the quarter whence this falsehood has issued. but there is, fortunately, an appeal to my own countrymen, to the impartial and liberal-minded of continental europe, and the truly noble of england herself. i claim to be the original inventor of the electro-magnetic telegraph; to be the first who planned and operated a really practicable electric telegraph. this is the broad claim i make in behalf of my country and myself before the world. if i cannot substantiate this claim, if any other, to whatever country he belongs, can make out a previous or better claim, i will cheerfully yield him the palm. although i had planned and completed my telegraph unconscious, until after my telegraph was in operation, that even the words "electric telegraph" had ever been combined until i had combined them, i have now made myself familiar with, i believe, all the plans, abortive and otherwise, which have been given to the world since the time of franklin, who was the first to suggest the possibility of using electricity as a means of transmitting intelligence. with this knowledge, both of the various plans devised and the time when they were severally devised, i claim to be the first inventor of a really practicable telegraph on the electric principle. when this shall be seriously called in question by any responsible name, i have the proof in readiness. as to english electric telegraphs, the telegraph of wheatstone and cooke, called the magnetic needle telegraph, inefficient as it is, was invented five years after mine, and the printing telegraph, so-called (the title to the invention of which is litigated by wheatstone and bain) was invented seven years after mine. so much for my _re_discovering what was previously known in england. as to the discovery that electricity may be made to cross the water without wire conductors, above, through, or beneath the water, the very reference by the editor to another number of the magazine, and to the experiments of cooke, or rather steinheil, and of bain, shows that the editor is wholly ignorant of the nature of my experiment. i have in detail the experiments of bain and wheatstone. they were merely in effect repetitions of the experiments of steinheil. their object was to show that the earth or water can be made one half of the circuit in conducting electricity, a fact proved by franklin with ordinary electricity in the last century, and by professor steinheil, of munich, with magnetic electricity in . mr. bain, and after him mr. wheatstone, in england repeated, or (to use the english editor's phrase) rediscovered the same fact in . but what have these experiments, in which _one wire_ is carried across the river, to do with mine _which dispenses with wires altogether_ across the river? i challenge the proof that such an experiment has ever been tried in europe, unless it be since the publication of my results. the year was drawing to a close and congress still was dilatory. morse hated to abandon his cherished dream of government ownership, and, while carrying on negotiations with private parties in order to protect himself, he still hoped that congress would at last see the light. he writes to his brother from washington on december :-- "telegraph matters look exceedingly encouraging, not only for the united states but for europe. i have just got a letter from a special agent of the french government, sent to boston by the minister of foreign affairs, in which he says that he has seen mine and 'is convinced of its superiority,' and wishes all information concerning it, adding: 'i consider it my duty to make a special report on your admirable invention.'" and on january , , he writes:-- "i am well, but anxiously waiting the action of congress on the bill for extension of telegraph. texas drives everything else into a corner. i have not many fears if they will only get it up. i had to-day the russian, spanish, and belgian ministers to see the operation of the telegraph; they were astonished and delighted. the russian minister particularly takes the deepest interest in it, and will write to his government by next steamer. the french minister also came day before yesterday, and will write in its favor to his government.... senator woodbury gave a discourse before the institute a few nights ago, in the hall of the house of representatives, in which he lauded the telegraph in the highest terms, and thought i had gone a step beyond franklin! the popularity of the telegraph increases rather than declines." the mention of texas in this letter refers to the fact that polk was elected to the presidency on a platform which favored the annexation of that republic to the united states, and this question was, naturally, paramount in the halls of congress. texas was admitted to the union in december, . writing to his daughter, mrs. lind, in porto rico on february , he says:-- "the telegraph operates to the perfect satisfaction of the public, as you perhaps see by the laudatory notices of the papers in all parts of the country. i am now in a state of unpleasant suspense waiting the passage of the bill for the extension of the telegraph to new york. "i am in hopes they will take it up and pass it next week; if they should not, i shall at once enter into arrangements with private companies to take it and extend it. "i do long for the time, if it shall be permitted, to have you with your husband and little charles around me. i feel my loneliness more and more keenly every day. fame and money are in themselves a poor substitute for domestic happiness; as means to that end i value them. yesterday was the sad anniversary (the twentieth) of your dear mother's death, and i spent the most of it in thinking of her...." "_thursday, february ._ i dined at the russian ambassador's tuesday. it was the most gorgeous dinner-party i ever attended in any country. thirty-six sat down to table; there were eleven senators, nearly half the senate.... the table, some twenty or twenty-five feet long, was decorated with immense gilt vases of flowers on a splendid plateau of richly chased gilt ornaments, and candelabra with about a hundred and fifty lights. we were ushered into the house through eight liveried servants, who afterward waited on us at table. "i go to-morrow evening to mr. wickliffe's, postmaster general, and, probably, on wednesday evening next to the president's. the new president, polk, arrived this evening amid the roar of cannon. he will be inaugurated on the th of march, and i presume i shall be there. "i am most anxiously waiting the action of congress on the telegraph. it is exceedingly tantalizing to suffer so much loss of precious time that cannot be recalled." this time there was no eleventh-hour passage of the bill, for congress adjourned without reaching it, and while this, in the light of future events, was undoubtedly a tactical error on the part of the government, it inured to the financial benefit of the inventor himself. the question now arose of the best means of extending the business of the telegraph through private companies, and morse keenly felt the need of a better business head than he possessed to guide the enterprise through the shoals and quicksands of commerce. he was fortunate in choosing as his business and legal adviser the honorable amos kendall. mr. james d. reid, one of the early telegraphers and a staunch and faithful friend of morse's, thus speaks of mr. kendall in his valuable book "the telegraph in america":-- "mr. kendall is too well known in american history to require description. he was general jackson's postmaster general, incorruptible, able, an educated lawyer, clear-headed, methodical, and ingenious. but he was somewhat rigid in his manners and methods, and lacked the dash and _bonhomie_ which would have carried him successfully into the business centres of the seaboard cities, and brought capital largely and cheerfully to his feet. of personal magnetism, indeed, except in private intercourse, where he was eminently delightful, he had, at this period of his life, none. this made his work difficult, especially with railroad men. yet the telegraph could not have been entrusted to more genuinely honest and able hands. on the part of those he represented this confidence was so complete that their interests were committed to him without reserve." professor gale and alfred vail joined with morse in entrusting their interests to mr. kendall's care, but f.o.j. smith preferred to act for himself. this caused much trouble in the future, for it was a foregone conclusion that the honest, upright kendall and the shifty smith were bound to come into conflict with each other. the latter, as one of the original patentees, had to be consulted in every sale of patent rights, and kendall soon found it almost impossible to deal with him. at first kendall had great difficulty in inducing capitalists to subscribe to what was still looked upon as a very risky venture. mr. corcoran, of washington, was the first man wise in his generation, and others then followed his lead, so that a cash capital of $ , was raised. mr. reid says: "it was provided, in this original subscription, that the payment of $ should entitle the subscriber to two shares of $ each. a payment of $ , , therefore, required an issue of $ , stock. to the patentees were issued an additional $ , stock, or half of the capital, as the consideration of the patent. the capital was thus $ , for the first link. w.w. corcoran and b.b. french were made trustees to hold the patent rights and property until organization was effected. meanwhile an act of incorporation was granted by the legislature of the state of maryland, the first telegraphic charter issued in the united states." the company was called "the magnetic telegraph company," and was the first telegraph company in the united states. under the able, if conservative, management of mr. kendall the business of the telegraph progressed slowly but surely. many difficulties were encountered, many obstacles had to be overcome, and the efforts of unprincipled men to pirate the invention, or to infringe on the patent, were the cause of numerous lawsuits. but it is not my purpose to write a history of the telegraph. mr. reid has accomplished this task much better than i possibly could, and, in following the personal history of morse, the now famous inventor, i shall but touch, incidentally on all these matters. on the th of july, , the following letter of introduction was sent to morse from the department of state:-- to the respective diplomatic and consular agents of the united states in europe. sir,--the bearer hereof, professor samuel f.b. morse, of new york, superintendent of electro magnetic telegraphs for the united states, is about to visit europe for the purpose of exhibiting to the various governments his own system, and its superiority over others now in use. from a personal knowledge of professor morse i can speak confidently of his amiability of disposition and high respectability. the merits of his discoveries and inventions in this particular branch of science are, i believe, universally conceded in this country. i take pleasure in introducing him to your acquaintance and in bespeaking for him, during his stay in your neighborhood, such attentions and good offices in aid of his object as you may find it convenient to extend to him. i am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, james buchanan, _secretary of state._ [illustration: s.f.b. morse from a portrait by daniel huntington] with the assurance that he had left his business affairs in capable hands, morse sailed from new york on august , , and arrived in liverpool on the th. for the fourth time he was crossing from america to europe, but under what totally different circumstances. on previous occasions, practically unknown, he had voyaged forth to win his spurs in the field of art, or to achieve higher honors in this same field, or as a humble petitioner at the courts of europe. forced by circumstances to practise the most rigid economy, he had yet looked confidently to the future for his reward in material as well as spiritual gifts. now, having abandoned his art, he had won such fame in a totally different realm that his name was becoming well-known in all the centres of civilization, and he was assured of a respectful hearing wherever he might present himself. freed already from pecuniary embarrassment, he need no longer take heed for the morrow, but could with a light heart give himself up to the enjoyment of new scenes, and the business of proving to other nations the superiority of his system, secure in the knowledge that, whatever might betide him in europe, he was assured of a competence at home. his brother sidney, with his family, had preceded him to europe, and writing to vail from london on september , morse says:-- "i have just taken lodgings with my brother and his family preparatory to looking about for a week, when i shall continue my journey to stockholm and st. petersburg, by the way of hamburg, direct from london. "on my way from liverpool i saw at rugby the telegraph wires of wheatstone, which extend, i understood, as far as northampton. i went into the office as the train stopped a moment, and had a glimpse of the instrument as we have seen it in the 'illustrated times.' the place was the ticket-office and the man very uncommunicative, but he told me it was not in operation and that they did not use it much. this is easily accounted for from the fact that the two termini are inconsiderable places, and wheatstone's system clumsy and complicated. the advantage of recording is incalculable, and in this i have the undisputed superiority. as soon as i can visit the telegraph-office here i will give you the result of my observation. i shall probably do nothing until my return from the north." nothing definite was accomplished during his short stay in london, and on the th of september he left for the continent with mr. henry ellsworth and his wife. mr. ellsworth, the son of his old friend, had been appointed attaché to the american legation at stockholm. morse's letters to his daughter give a detailed account of his journey, but i shall give only a few extracts from them:-- "_hamburg, september , ._ everything being ready on the morning of the th instant, we left brompton square in very rainy and stormy weather, and drove down to the custom-house wharf and went on board our destined steamer, the william joliffe, a dirty, black-looking, tub-like thing, about as large but not half so neat as a north river wood-sloop. the wind was full from the southwest, blowing a gale with rain, and i confess i did not much fancy leaving land in so unpromising a craft and in such weather; yet our vessel proved an excellent seaboat, and, although all were sick on board but mr. ellsworth and myself, we had a safe but rough passage across the boisterous north sea." stopping but a short time in rotterdam, the party proceeded through the hague and haarlem to amsterdam, and from the latter place they visited the village of broek:-- "the inn at broek was another example of the same neatness. here we took a little refreshment before going into the village. we walked of course, for no carriage, not even a wheelbarrow, appeared to be allowed any more than in a gentleman's parlor. everything about the exterior of the houses and gardens was as carefully cared for as the furniture and embellishments of the interior. the streets (or rather alleys, like those of a garden) were narrow and paved with small variously colored bricks forming every variety of ornamental figures. the houses, from the highest to the lowest class, exhibited not merely comfort but luxury, yet it was a selfish sort of luxury. the perpetually closed door and shut-up rooms of ceremony, the largest and most conspicuous of all in the house, gave an air of inhospitableness which, i should hope, was not indicative of the real character of the inhabitants. yet it seemed to be a deserted village, a place of the dead rather than of the living, an ornamental graveyard. the liveliness of social beings was absent and was even inconsistent with the superlative neatness of all around us. it was a best parlor out-of-doors, where the gayety of frolicking children would derange the set order of the furniture, or an accidental touch of a sacrilegious foot might scratch the polish of a fresh-varnished fence, or flatten down the nap of the green carpet of grass, every blade of which is trained to grow exactly so. "the grounds and gardens of a mr. vander beck were, indeed, a curiosity from the strange mixture of the useful with the ridiculously ornamental. here were the beautiful banks of a lake and nature's embellishment of reeds and water plants, which, for a wonder, were left to grow in their native luxuriance, and in the midst a huge pasteboard or wooden swan, and a wooden mermaid of tasteless proportions blowing from a conchshell. in another part was a cottage with puppets the size of life moving by clock-work; a peasant smoking and turning a reel to wind off the thread which his 'goed vrow' is spinning upon a wheel, while a most sheep-like dog is made to open his mouth and to bark--a dog which is, doubtless, the progenitor of all the barking, toy-shop dogs of the world. directly in the vicinity is a beautiful grapery, with the richest clusters of grapes literally covering the top, sides and walls of the greenhouse, which stands in the midst of a garden, gay with dahlias and amaranths and every variety of flowers, with delicious fruits thickly studding the well-trained trees. everything, however, was cut up into miniature landscapes; little bridges and little temples adorned little canals and little mounds, miniature representations of streams and bills. "we visited the residence of the burgomaster. he was away and his servants permitted us to see the house. it was cleaning-day. everything in the house was in keeping with the character of the village. but the kitchen! how shall i describe it? the polished marble floor, the dressers with glass doors like a bookcase, to keep the least particle of dust from the bright-polished utensils of brass and copper. the varnished mahogany handle of the brass spigot, lest the moisture of the hand in turning it should soil its polish, and, will you believe it, the very pothooks as well as the cranes (for there were two), in the fireplace were as bright as your scissors! "broek is certainly a curiosity. it is unique, but the impression left upon me is not, on the whole, agreeable. i should not be contented to live there. it is too ridiculously and uncomfortably nice. fancy a lady always dressed throughout the day in her best evening-party dress, and say if she could move about with that ease which she would like. such, however, must be the feeling of the inhabitants of broek; they must be in perpetual fear, not only of soiling or deranging their clothes merely, but their very streets every step they take. but good-bye to broek. i would not have missed seeing it but do not care to see it again." holland, which he had never visited before, interested him greatly, but he could not help saying: "one feels in holland like being in a ship, constantly liable to spring a leak." hamburg he found more to his taste:-- "_september ._ hamburg, you may remember, was nearly destroyed by fire in . it is now almost rebuilt and in a most splendid style of architecture. i am much prepossessed in its favor. we have taken up our quarters at the victoria hotel, one of the splendid new hotels of the city. i find the season so far advanced in these northern regions that i am thinking of giving up my journey farther north. my matters in london will demand all my spare time." "_september ._ the windows of my hotel look out upon the alster basin, a beautiful sheet of water, three sides of which are surrounded with splendid houses. boats and swans are gliding over the glassy surface, giving, with the well-dressed promenaders along the shores, an air of gayety and liveliness to the scene." it will not be necessary to follow the traveller step by step during this visit to europe. he did not go to sweden and russia, as he had at first planned, for he learned that the emperor of russia was in the south, and that nothing could be accomplished in his absence. he, therefore, returned to london from hamburg. he was respectfully received everywhere and his invention was recognized as being one of great merit and simplicity, but it takes time for anything new to make its way. this is, perhaps, best summed up in the words of charles t. fleischmann, who at that time was agent of the united states patent office, and was travelling through europe collecting information on agriculture, education, and the arts. he was a good friend of morse's and an enthusiastic advocate of his invention. he carried with him a complete telegraphic outfit and lost no opportunity to bring it to the notice of the different governments visited by him, and his official position gave him the entree everywhere. writing from vienna on october , he says:-- "there is no doubt morse's telegraph is the best of that description i have yet seen, but the difficulty of introducing it is in this circumstance, that every scientific man invents a similar thing and, without having the practical experience and practical arrangement which make morse's so preferable, they will experiment a few miles' distance only, and no doubt it works; but, when they come to put it up at a great distance, then they will find that their experience is not sufficient, and must come back ultimately to morse's plan. the austrian government is much occupied selecting out of many plans (of telegraphs) one for her railroads. i have offered morse's and proposed experiments. i am determined to stay for some time, to give them a chance of making up their minds." two other young americans, charles robinson and charles l. chapin, were also travelling around europe at this time for the purpose of introducing morse's invention, but, while all these efforts resulted in the ultimate adoption by all the nations of europe, and then of the world, of this system, the superiority of which all were compelled, sometimes reluctantly, to admit, no arrangement was made by which morse and his co-proprietors benefited financially. the gain in fame was great, in money nil. it was, therefore, with mixed feelings that morse wrote to his brother from paris on november :-- "i am still gratified in verifying the fact that my telegraph is ahead of all the other systems proposed. wheatstone's is not adopted here. the line from paris to rouen is not on his plan, but is an experimental line of the governmental commission. i went to see it yesterday with my old friend the administrator-in-chief of the telegraphs of france, mr. poy, who is one of the committee to decide on the best mode for france. the system on this line is his modification.... i have had a long interview with m. arago. he is the same affable and polite man as in . he is a warm friend of mine and contends for priority in my favor, and is also partial to my telegraphic system as the best. he is president of the commission and is going to write the history of electric telegraphs. i shall give him the facts concerning mine. the day after to-morrow i exhibit my telegraphic system again to the academy of sciences, and am in the midst of preparations for a day important to me. i have strong hopes that mine will be the system adopted, but there may be obstacles i do not see. wheatstone, at any rate, is not in favor here.... "i like the french. every nation has its defects and i could wish many changes here, but the french are a fine people. i receive a welcome here to which i was a perfect stranger in england. how deep this welcome may be i cannot say, but if one must be cheated i like to have it done in a civil and polite way." he sums up the result of his european trip in a letter to his daughter, written from london on october , as he was on his way to liverpool from where he sailed on november , :-- "i know not what to say of my telegraphic matters here yet. there is nothing decided upon and i have many obstacles to contend against, particularly the opposition of the proprietors of existing telegraphs; but that mine is the best system i have now no doubt. all that i have seen, while they are ingenious, are more complicated, more expensive, less efficient and easier deranged. it may take some time to establish the superiority of mine over the others, for there is the usual array of prejudice and interest against a system which throws others out of use." chapter xxxii december , --april , return to america.--telegraph affairs in bad shape.--degree of ll.d. from yale.--letter from cambridge livingston.--henry o'reilly.--grief at unfaithfulness of friends.--estrangement from professor henry.--morse's "defense."--his regret at feeling compelled to publish it.--hopes to resume his brush.--capitol panel.--again disappointed.--another accident.--first money earned from telegraph devoted to religious purposes.--letters to his brother sidney.--telegraph matters.--mexican war.--faith in the future.--desire to be lenient to opponents.--dr. jackson.--edward warren.--alfred vail remains loyal.--troubles in virginia.--henry j. rogers.--letter to j.d. reid about o'reilly.--f.o.j. smith again.--purchases a home at last.--"locust grove," on the hudson, near poughkeepsie.--enthusiastic description.--more troubles without, but peace in his new home. having established to his satisfaction the fact that his system was better than any of the european plans, which was the main object of his trip abroad, morse returned to his native land, but not to the rest and quiet which he had so long desired. telegraph lines were being pushed forward in all directions, but the more the utility of this wonderful new agent was realized, the greater became the efforts to break down the lawful rights of the patentees, and competing lines were, hurriedly built on the plea of fighting a baleful monopoly by the use of the inventions of others, said to be superior. internal dissensions also arose in the ranks of the workers on the morse lines, and some on whom he had relied proved faithless, or caused trouble in other ways. but, while these clouds arose to darken his sky, there was yet much sunshine to gladden his heart. his health was good, his children and the families of his brothers were well and prosperous. in the year his patent rights were extended for another period of years, and he was gradually accumulating a competence as the various lines in which he held stock began to declare dividends. in addition to all this his fame had so increased that he was often alluded to in the papers as "the idol of the nation," and honorary degrees were conferred on him by various institutions both at home and abroad. of these the one that, perhaps, pleased him the most was the degree of ll.d. bestowed by his _alma mater_, yale. he alludes to it with pride in many of his letters to his brother sidney, and once playfully suggests that it must mean "lightning line doctor." one of the first letters which he received on his return to america was from cambridge livingston, dated december , , and reads as follows:-- "the trustees of the new york and boston magnetic telegraph association are getting up a certificate of stock, and are desirous of making it neat and appropriate. it has seemed to me very desirable that one of its decorations should be your coat of arms, and if you will do me the favor to transmit a copy, or a wax impression of the same, i shall be much obliged." to this morse replied:-- "i send you a sketch of the morse coat of arms, according to your request, to do as you please with it. i am no advocate of heraldic devices, but the _motto_ in this case sanctions it with me. i wish to live and die in its spirit:-- "'_deo non armis fido._'" i have said that many on whom morse relied proved faithless, and, while i do not intend to go into the details of all these troubles, it is only right that, in the interest of historical truth, some mention should be made of some of these men. the one who, next to f.o.j. smith, caused the most trouble to morse and his associates, was henry o'reilly. mr. reid, in his "telegraph in america," thus describes him:-- "henry o'reilly was in many respects a wonderful man. his tastes were cultivated. his instincts were fine. he was intelligent and genial. his energy was untiring, his hopefulness shining. his mental activity and power of continuous labor were marvellous. he was liberal, generous, profuse, full of the best instincts of his nation. but he lacked prudence in money matters, was loose in the use of it, had little veneration for contracts, was more anxious for personal fame than wealth. he formed and broke friendships with equal rapidity, was bitter in his hates, was impatient of restraint. my personal attachment to him was great and sincere. we were friends for many years until he became the agent of f.o.j. smith, and my duties threw me in collision with him." it was not until some years after his first connection with the telegraph, in , that o'reilly turned against morse and his associates. this will be referred to at the proper time, but i have introduced him now to give point to the following extract from a letter of his to morse, dated december , :-- "do you recollect a person who, while under your hands for a daguerreotype in - , broke accidentally an eight-dollar lens? tho' many tho't you 'visionary' in your ideas of telegraphic communication, that person, you may recollect, took a lively interest in the matter, and made some suggestions about the propriety of pressing the matter energetically upon congress and upon public attention. you seemed then to feel pleased to find a person who took so lively an interest in your invention, and you will see by the enclosed circular that that person (your humble servant) has not lost any of his early confidence in its value. may you reap an adequate reward for the glorious thought!" it was one of life's little ironies that the man who could thus call down good fortune on the head of the inventor should soon after become one of the chief instruments in the effort to rob him of his "adequate reward," and his good name as well. morse had such bitter experiences with several persons, who turned from friends to enemies, that it is no wonder he wrote as follows to vail some time after this date:-- "i am grieved to say that many things have lately come to my knowledge in regard to ---- that show double-dealing. be on your guard. i hope it is but appearance, and that his course may be cleared up by subsequent events. "i declare to you that i have seen so much duplicity in those in whom i had confided as friends, that i feel in danger of entertaining suspicions of everybody. i have hitherto thought you were too much inclined to be suspicious of people, but i no longer think so. "keep this to yourself. it may be that appearances are deceptive, and i would not wrong one whom i had esteemed as a real friend without the clearest evidence of unfaithfulness. yet when appearances are against, it is right to be cautious." the name of the person referred to is left blank in the copy of this letter which i have, so i do not know who it was, but the sentiments would apply to several of the early workers in the establishment of the telegraph. i have said that morse, being only human, was sometimes guilty of errors of judgment, but, in a careful study of the facts, the wonder is great that he committed so few. it is an ungracious task for a son to call attention to anything but the virtues of his father, especially when any lapses were the result of great provocation, and were made under the firm conviction that he was in the right. yet in the interest of truth it is best to state the facts fairly and dispassionately, and let posterity judge whether the virtues do not far outweigh the faults. such an error was committed, in my judgment, by morse in the bitter controversy which arose between him and professor joseph henry, and i shall briefly sketch the origin and progress of this regrettable incident. in , alfred vail compiled and published a "history of the american electro-magnetic telegraph." in this work hardly any mention was made of the important discoveries of professor henry, and this caused that gentleman to take great offense, as he believed that morse was the real author of the work, or had, at least, given vail all the materials. as a matter of fact he had given vail only his notes on european telegraphs and had not seen the proofs of the work, which was published while he was absent in europe. as soon as morse was made aware of henry's feelings, he wrote to him regretting the omission and explaining his innocence in the matter, and he also draughted a letter, at vail's request, which the latter copied and sent to henry, stating that he, vail, had been unable to obtain the particulars of henry's discoveries, and that, if he had offended, he had done so innocently. henry was an extremely sensitive man and he paid no attention to vail's letter, and sent only a curt acknowledgment of the receipt of morse's. however, at a meeting somewhat later, the misunderstanding seemed to be smoothed over, on the assurance that, in a second edition of vail's work, due credit should be given to henry, and that whenever morse had the opportunity he would gladly accord to that eminent man the discoveries which were his. there never was a true second edition of vail's book, but in a few more copies were struck off from the old plates and the date was, unfortunately, changed from to . henry, naturally, looked upon this as a second edition and his resentment grew. morse's opportunity to do public honor to henry came in , when professor sears c. walker, of the coast survey, published a report containing some remarks on the "theory of morse's electro-magnetic telegraph." when professor walker submitted this report to morse the latter said: "i have now the long-wished-for opportunity to do justice publicly to henry's discovery bearing upon the telegraph. i should like to see him, however, previously, and learn definitely what he claims to have discovered. i will then prepare a paper to be appended and published as a note, if you see fit, to your report." this paper was written by morse and sent to professor walker with the request that it be submitted to professor henry for his revision, which was done, but it was not included in professor walker's report, and this naturally nettled morse, who also had sensitive nerves, and so the breach was widened. in this paper, after giving a brief history of electric discoveries bearing on the telegraph, and of his own inventions, morse sums up:-- "while, therefore, i claim to be the first to propose the use of the _electro-magnet for telegraphic purposes_, and the _first_ to _construct a telegraph on the basis of the electro-magnet_, yet to professor henry is unquestionably due the honor of the _discovery of a fact in science_ which proves the practicability of exciting magnetism through a long coil or at a distance, either to _deflect a needle_ or _to magnetize soft iron_." i wish he had never revised this opinion, although he was sincere in thinking that a more careful study of the subject justified him in doing so. a few years afterwards morse and his associates became involved in a series of bitterly contested litigations with parties interested in breaking down the original patent rights, and henry was called as a witness for the opponents of morse. he gave his testimony with great reluctance, but it was tinged with the bitterness caused by the failure of vail to do him justice and his apparent conviction that morse was disingenuous. he denied to the latter any scientific discoveries, and gave the impression (at least, to others) that henry, and not morse, was the real inventor of the telegraph. his testimony was used by the enemies of morse, both at home and abroad, to invalidate the claims of the latter, and, stung by these aspersions on his character and attainments, and urged thereto by injudicious friends, morse published a lengthy pamphlet entitled: "a defense against the injurious deductions drawn from the deposition of professor joseph henry." in this pamphlet he not only attempted to prove that he owed nothing to the discoveries of henry, but he called in question the truthfulness of that distinguished man. the breach between these two honorable, highly sensitive men was now complete, and it was never healed. the consensus of scientific opinion gives to henry's discoveries great value in the invention of the telegraph. while they did not constitute a true telegraph in themselves; while they needed the inventions and discoveries, and, i might add, the sublime faith and indomitable perseverance of morse to make the telegraph a commercial success; they were, in my opinion, essential to it, and morse, i think, erred in denying this. but, from a thorough study of his character, we must give him the credit of being sincere in his denial. henry, too, erred in ignoring the advances of morse and vail and in his proud sensitiveness. professor leonard d. gale, the friend of both men, makes the following comment in a letter to morse of february , : "i fear henry and i shall never again be on good terms. he is as cold as a polar berg, and, i am informed, very sensitive. it has been said by some busybody that his testimony was incompatible with mine, and so a sort of feeling is manifested as if it were so. i have said nothing about it yet." it would have been more dignified on the part of morse to have disregarded the imputations contained in henry's testimony, or to have replied much more briefly and dispassionately. on the other hand, the provocation was great and he was egged on by others, partly from motives of self-interest and partly from a sincere desire on the part of his friends that he should justify himself. in a long letter to vail, of january , , in which he details the whole unfortunate affair, he says: "if there was a man in the world, not related to me, for whom i had conceived not merely admiration but affection, it was for professor joseph henry. i think you will remember, and can bear me witness, that i often expressed the wish that i was able to put several thousand dollars at his service for scientific investigation.... the whole case has saddened me more than i can express. i have to fight hard against misanthropy, friend vail, and i have found the best antidote to be, when the fit is coming on me, to seek out a case of suffering and to relieve it, that the act in the one case may neutralize the feeling in the other, and thus restore the balance in the heart." in taking leave for the present of this unfortunate controversy i shall quote from the "defense," to show that morse sincerely believed it his duty to act as he did, but that he acted with reluctance:-- "that i have been slow to complain of the injurious character of his testimony; that i have so long allowed, almost entirely uncontradicted, its distortions to have all their legal weight against me in four separate trials, without public exposure and for a space of four years of time, will at least show, i humbly contend, my reluctance to appear opposed to him, even when self-defence is combined with the defence of the interests of a large body of assignees.... painful, therefore, as is the task imposed upon me, i cannot shrink from it, but shall endeavor so to perform it as rather to parry the blows that have been aimed at me than to inflict any in return. if what i say shall wound, it shall be from the severity of the simple truth itself rather than from the manner of setting it forth." in the year there still remained one panel in the rotunda of the capitol at washington to be filled by an historical painting. it had been assigned to inman, but, that artist having recently died, morse's friends, artists and others, sent a petition to congress urging the appointment of morse in his place. referring to this in a letter to his brother sidney, dated march , he says:-- "in regard to the rotunda picture i learn that my friends are quite zealous, and it is not improbable that it may be given me to execute. if so, what should you say to seeing me in paris? "however, this is but castle-building. i am quite indifferent as to the result except that, in case it is given me, i shall be restored to my position as an artist by the same power that prostrated me, and then shall i not more than ever have cause to exclaim: 'surely thou hast led me in away which i knew not'? i have already, in looking back, seen enough of the dealings of providence with me to excite my wonder and gratitude. how singularly has my way been hedged up in my profession at the very moment when, to human appearance, everything seemed prosperously tending to the accomplishment of my desire in painting a national picture. the language of providence in all his dealings with me has been almost like that to abraham: 'take now thy son, thine only son isaac whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt offering,' etc. "it has always seemed a mystery to me how i should have been led on to the acquirement of the knowledge i possess of painting, with so much sacrifice of time and money, and through so many anxieties and perplexities, and then suddenly be stopped as if a wall were built across my path, so that i could pursue my profession no longer. but, i believe, i had grace to trust in god in the darkest hour of trial, persuaded that he could and would clear up in his own time and manner all the mystery that surrounded me. "and now, if not greatly deceived, i have a glimpse of his wonderful, truly wonderful, mercy towards me. he has chosen thus to order events that my mind might be concentrated upon that invention which he has permitted to be born for the blessing, i trust, of the world. and he has chosen me as the instrument, and given me the honor, and at the moment when all has been accomplished which is essential to its success, he so orders events as again to turn my thoughts to my almost sacrificed isaac." in this, however, he did not read the fates aright, for a letter from his friend, reverend e. goodrich smith, dated march , , conveys the following intelligence: "i have just learned to-day that, with their usual discrimination and justice, congress have voted $ to have the panel filled by young powell. he enlisted all ohio, and they all electioneered with all their might, and no one knew that the question would come up. new york, i understand, went for you. i hope, however, you may yet yourself resume the pencil, and furnish the public the most striking commentary on their utter disregard of justice, by placing somewhere 'the germ of the republic' in such colors that shall make them blush and hang their heads to think themselves such men." but, while he was to be blessed in the fulfilment, of a long cherished dream, it was not the dream of painting a great historic picture. he never seriously touched a brush again, for all his energies were needed in the defence of himself and his invention from defamation and attack. in the summer of he met with another accident giving him a slight period of rest which he would not otherwise have taken. he writes of it to his brother on july : "on monday last i had the misfortune to fall, into one of those mantraps on broadway, set principally to break people's legs and maim them, and _incidentally_ for the deposit of the coal of the household." vail refers jestingly to this mishap in a letter of august : "i trust your unfortunate and unsuccessful attempt to get down cellar has not been a serious affair." and morse replies in the same vein: "my _cellar experiment_ was not so unsuccessful as you imagine. i succeeded to my entire satisfaction in taking three inches of skin, a little of the flesh and a trifle of bone from the front of my left leg, and, as the result, got one week's entire leisure with my leg in a chair. the experiment was so satisfactory that i deem it needless to try it again, having established beyond a doubt that skin, flesh and bone are no match against wood, iron and stone. i am entirely well of it and enjoyed my visit to the western lines very much." it was characteristic of morse that the first money which he received from the actual sale of his patent rights ($ for the right to use his patent on a short line from the post-office to the national observatory in washington) was devoted by him to a religious purpose. from a letter of october , , we learn that, adding $ to this sum, he presented $ to a sunday school, and $ to the fund for repairs. the attachment of the three morse brothers to each other was intense, and lasted to the end of their lives. the letters of finley morse to his brother sidney, in particular, would alone fill a volume and are of great interest. most of them have never before been published and i shall quote from them freely in following morse's career. sidney and his family were still in europe, and the two following extracts are from letters to him:-- "_october , ._ i don't know where this will find you, but, as the steamer caledonia goes in a day or two, and as i did not write you by the last steamer, i thought i would occupy a few moments (not exactly of leisure) to write you.... charles has little to do, but does all he can. he is desirous of a farm and i have made up my mind to indulge him.... i shall go up the river in a day or two and look in the vicinity of po'keepsie.... "telegraph matters are every day assuming a more and more interesting aspect. all physical and scientific difficulties are vanquished. if conductors are well put up there is nothing more to wish for in the facilities of intercourse. my operators can easily talk with each other as fast as persons usually write, and faster than this would be faster than is necessary. the canadians are alive on the subject, and lines are projected from toronto to montreal, from montreal to quebec and to halifax. lines are also in contemplation from toronto to detroit, on the canada side, and from buffalo to chicago on this side, so that it may not be visionary to say that our first news from england may reach new york via halifax, detroit, buffalo and albany.... "the papers will inform you of the events of the war. our people are united on this point so far as to pursue it with vigor to a speedy termination. however john bull may sneer and endeavor to detract from the valor of our troops, his own annals do not furnish proofs of greater skill and more fearless daring and successful result. the mexican race is a worn-out race, and god in his providence is taking this mode to regenerate them. whatever may be the opinions of some in relation to the justness or unjustness of our quarrel, there ought to be but one opinion among all good men, and that should be that the moment should be improved to throw a light into that darkened nation, and to raise a standard there which, whatever may become of the stars and stripes, or eagle and prickly pear, shall be never taken down till all nations have flocked to it. our bible and tract societies and missionaries ought to be in the wake of our armies." "_january , ._ telegraph matters are becoming more and more interesting. the people of the country everywhere are desirous of availing themselves of its facilities, and the lines are being extended in all directions. as might be expected then, i have my plans interfered with by mercenary speculators who threaten to put up rival telegraphs and contest my patent. _i am ready for them._ we have had to apply for an injunction on the philadelphia and pittsburg line. the case is an aggravated one and will be decided on monday or tuesday at philadelphia in circuit court of united states. i have no uneasiness as to the result. [it was decided against him, however, but this proved only a temporary check.] "there are more f.o.js. than one, yet not one quite so bad. i think amid all the scramble i shall probably have enough come to my share, and it does not matter by what means our heavenly father chooses to curtail my receipts, for i shall have just what he pleases, none can hinder it, and more i do not want.... house and his associates are making most strenuous efforts to interfere and embarrass me by playing on the ignorance of the public and the natural timidity of capitalists. i shall probably have to lay the law on him and make an example before my patent is confirmed in the minds of the public. it is the course, i am told, of every substantial patent. it has to undergo the ordeal of one trial in the courts.... "although i thus write, you need have no fears that my operations will be seriously affected by any schemes of common letter printing telegraphs. i have just filed a caveat for one which i have invented, which as far transcends in simplicity and efficiency any previous plan for the purpose, as my telegraph system is superior to the old visual telegraphs. i will have it in operation by the time you return." apropos of the attacks made upon him by would-be infringers, the following from a letter of his legal counsel, daniel lord, esq., dated january , , may not come amiss: "it ought to be a source of great satisfaction to you to have your invention stolen and counterfeited. think what an acknowledgment it is, and what a tribute to its merits." referring to this in a letter to mr. lord of a later date, morse answers: "the plot thickens all around me; i think a _dénouement_ not far off. i remember your consoling me under these attacks with bidding me think that i had invented something worth contending for. alas! my dear sir, what encouragement is there to an inventor if, after years of toil and anxiety, he has only purchased for himself the pleasure of being a target for every vile fellow to shoot at, and, in proportion as his invention is of public utility, so much the greater effort is to be made to defame, that the robbery may excite the less sympathy? i know, however, that beyond all this is a clear sky, but the clouds may not break away until i am no longer personally interested whether it be foul or fair. i wish not to complain, but i have feelings and cannot play the stoic if i would." it was a new experience for morse to become involved in the intricacies of the law, and, in a letter to a friend, henry i. williams, esq., dated february , , he naively remarks: "a student all my life, mostly in a profession which is adverse in its habits and tastes from those of the business world, and never before engaged in a lawsuit, i confess to great ignorance even of the ordinary, commonplace details of a court." his desire to be both just and merciful is shown in a letter to mr. kendall, written on february , just before the decision was rendered against him: "i have been in court all day, and have been much pleased with the clearness and, i think, conclusiveness of mr. miles's argument. i think he has produced an evident change in the views of the judge. yet it is best to be prepared for the worst, and, even if we succeed in getting the injunction, i wish as much leniency as possible to be shown to the opposing parties. indeed, in this i know my views are seconded by you. however we may have 'spoken daggers,' let us use none, and let us make every allowance for honest mistake, even where appearances are at first against such a supposition. o'reilly may have acted hastily, under excitement, under bad advisement, and in that mood have taken wrong steps. yet i still believe he may be recovered, and, while i would use every precaution to protect our just rights, i wish not to take a single step that can be misconstrued into vindictiveness or triumph." it was well that it was his invariable rule to be prepared for the worst, for, writing to his brother sidney on february , he says: "we have just had a lawsuit in philadelphia before judge kane. we applied for an injunction to stay irregular and injurious proceedings on the part of western (pittsburg and cincinnati) company, and our application has been _refused_ on technical grounds. i know not what will be the issue. i am trying to have matters compromised, but do not know if it can be done, and we may have to contest it in _law_. our application was in court of equity. a movement of smith was the cause of all." another sidelight is thrown on morse's character by the following extract from a letter to one of his lieutenants, t.s. faxton, written on march : "we must raise the salaries of our operators or they will all be taken from us, that is, all that are good for anything. you will recollect that, at the first meeting of the board of directors, i took the ground that 'it was our policy to make the office of operator desirable, to pay operators well and make their situation so agreeable that intelligent men and men of character will seek the place and dread to lose it.' i still think so, and, depend upon it, it is the soundest economy to act on this principle." just about this time, to add to morse's other perplexities, doctor charles t. jackson began to renew his claims to the invention of the telegraph, while also disputing with morton the discovery of ether as an anaesthetic, then called "letheon," and claiming the invention of gun-cotton and the discovery of the circulation of the blood. morse found a willing and able champion in edward warren, esq., of boston, and many letters passed between them. as jackson's wild claims were effectually disposed of, i shall not dwell upon this source of annoyance, but shall content myself with one extract from a letter to mr. warren of march : "i wish not to attack dr. jackson nor even to defend myself in _public_ from his _private_ attacks. if in any of his publications he renews his claim, which i consider as long since settled by default, then it will be time and proper for me to notice him.... the most charitable construction of the dr's. conduct is to attribute it to a monomania induced by excessive vanity." while many of those upon whom he had looked as friends turned against him in the mad scramble for power and wealth engendered by the extension of the telegraph lines, it is gratifying to turn to those who remained true to him through all, and among these none was more loyal than alfred vail. their correspondence, which was voluminous, is always characterized by the deepest confidence and affection. in a long letter of march , vail shows his solicitude for morse's peace of mind: "i think i would not be bothered with a directorship in the new york and buffalo line, nor in any other. i should wish to keep clear of them. it will only tend to harass and vex when you should be left quiet and undisturbed to pursue your improvements and the enjoyment of what is most gratifying to you." and morse, writing to vail somewhat later in this same year, exclaims: "you say you hope i shall not forget that we have spent many hours together. you might have added 'happy hours.' i have tried you, dear vail, as a friend, and think i know you as a zealous and honest one." still earlier, on march , , in one of his reports to the postmaster-general, cave johnson, he adds: "in regard to the salary of the 'one clerk at washington--$ ,' mr. vail, who would from the necessity of the case take that post, is my right-hand man in the whole enterprise. he has been with me from the year , and is as familiar with all the mechanism and scientific arrangements of the telegraph as i am myself.... his time and talent are more essential to the success of the telegraph than [those of] any two persons that could be named." returning now to the letters to his brother sidney, i shall give the following extracts:-- "_march , ._ i am now in new york permanently; that is i have no longer any official connection with washington, and am thinking of _fixing_ somewhere so soon as i can get my telegraphic matters into such a state as to warrant it; but my patience is still much tried. although the enterprise looks well and is prospering, yet somehow i do not command the cash as some business men would if they were in the same situation. the property is doubtless good and is increasing, but i cannot use it as i could the money, for, while everybody seems to think i have the wealth of john jacob, the only sum i have actually realized is my first dividend on one line, about fourteen hundred dollars, and with this i cannot purchase a house. but time will, perhaps, enable me to do so, if it is well that i should have one.... i have had some pretty threatening obstacles, but they as yet are summer clouds which seem to be dissipating through the smiles of our heavenly father. house's affair i think is dead. i believe it has been held up by speculators to drive a better bargain with me, thinking to scare me; but they don't find me so easily frightened. in virginia i had to oppose a most bigoted, narrow, illiberal clique in a railroad company, which had the address to get a bill through the house of delegates giving them actually the monopoly of telegraphs, and ventured to halloo before they were out of the woods. mr. kendall went post-haste to richmond, met the bill and its supporters before the committee of the senate, and, after a sharp contest, procured its rejection in the senate, and the adoption, by a vote of to , of a substitute granting me _right of way_ and _corporate powers_, which bill, after violent opposition in the house, was finally passed, to . so a mean intrigue was defeated most signally, and i came off triumphant." "_april ._ this you will recognize by the date is my birthday; years old. only think, i shall never be again. don't you wish you were as young as i am? well, if _feelings_ determined age i should be in reality what i have above stated, but that leaf in the family bible, those boys and that daughter, those nieces and nephews of younger brothers, and especially that _grandson_, they all concur in putting twenty years more to those . i cannot get them off; there they are !... "there is an underhand intrigue against my telegraph interests in virginia, fostered by a friend turned enemy in the hope to better his own interests, a man whom i have ever treated as a friend while i had the governmental patronage to bestow, and gave him office in baltimore. having no more of patronage to give i have no more friendship from him. mr. r. has proved himself false, notwithstanding his naming his son after me as a proof of friendship." the mr. r. referred to was henry j. rogers, and, writing of him to vail on april , morse says: "i am truly grieved at rogers's conduct. he must be conscious of doing great injustice; for a man that has wronged another is sure to invent some cause for his act if there has been none given. in this case he endeavors to excuse his selfish and injurious acts by the false assertion that 'i had cast him overboard.' why, what does he mean? was i not overboard myself? does he or anyone else suppose i have nothing else to do than to find them places, and not only intercede for them, which in rogers's case and zantziger's i have constantly and perseveringly done to the present hour, but i am bound to force the companies, over which i have no control, to take them at any rate, on the penalty of being traduced and injured by them if they do not get the office they seek? as to rogers, you know my feelings towards him and his. i had received him as a _friend_, not as a mere employee, and let no opportunity pass without urging forward his interests. i recollected his naming his son for me, and had determined, if the wealth actually came which has been predicted to me, that that child should be remembered." always desirous of being just and merciful, morse writes to vail on may : "rogers is here. i have had a good deal of conversation with him, and the result is that i think that some circumstances which seemed to inculpate him are explicable on other grounds than intention to injure us." but he was finally forced to give him up, for on august he writes: "you cannot tell how pained i am at being compelled to change my opinion of r. your feelings correspond entirely with my own. i was hoping to do something gratifying to him and his family, and soon should have done it if he would permit it; but no! the mask of friendship covered a deep selfishness that scrupled not to sacrifice a real friendship to a shortsighted and overreaching ambition. let him go. i wished to befriend him and his, and would have done so from the heart, but as he cannot trust me i have enough who can and do." the case of rogers was typical, and i have, therefore, given it in some detail. it was always a source of grief to morse when men, whom in his large-hearted way he had admitted to his intimacy, turned against him; and he was called upon to suffer many such blows. he has been accused of having quarrelled with all his associates. this, of course, is not true, for we have only to name vail, and gale, and kendall, and reid, and a host of others to prove the contrary. but, like all men who have achieved great things, he made bitter enemies, some of whom at first professed sincere friendship for him and were implicitly trusted by him. however, a dispassionate study of all the circumstances leading up to the rupture of these friendly ties will prove that, in practically every case he was sinned against, not sinning. a letter to james d. reid, written on december , will show that the quality of his mercy was not strained: "you may recollect when i met you in philadelphia, on the unpleasant business of attending in a court to witness the contest of two parties for their rights, you informed me of the destitute condition of o'reilly's family. at that moment i was led to believe, from consultation with the counsel for the patentees, that the case would undoubtedly go in their (the patentees') favor. your statement touched me, and i could not bear to think that an innocent wife and inoffensive children should suffer, even from the wrong-doing of their proper protector, should this prove to be the case. you remember i authorized you to draw on me for twenty dollars to be remitted to mr. o'reilly's family, and to keep the source from whence it was derived secret. my object in writing is to ask if this was done, and, in case it was, to request you to draw on me for that amount." in an earlier letter to his brother he remarks philosophically: "smith is smith yet and so likely to be, but i have become used to him and you would be surprised to find how well oil and water appear to agree. there must be crosses and the aim should be rather to bear them gracefully, graciously, and patiently, than to have them removed." while thus harassed on all sides by those who would filch from him his good name as well as his purse, his reward was coming to him for the patience and equanimity with which he was bearing his crosses. the longing for a home of his own had been intense all through his life and now, in the evening of his years, this dream was to be realized. he thus announces to his brother the glorious news:-- poughkeepsie, north river, july , . in my last i wrote you that i had been looking out for a farm in this region, and gave you a diagram of a place which i fancied. since then i was informed of a place for sale south of this village miles, on the bank of the river, part of the old livingston manor, and far superior. _i have this day concluded a bargain for it._ there are about one hundred acres. i pay for it $ , . i am almost afraid to tell you of its beauties and advantages. it is just such a place as in england could not be purchased for double the number of pounds sterling. its "capabilities," as the landscape gardeners would say, are unequalled. there is every variety of surface, plain, hill, dale, glens, running streams and fine forest, and every variety of different prospect; the fishkill mountains towards the south and the catskills towards the north; the hudson with its varieties of river craft, steamboats of all kinds, sloops, etc., constantly showing a varied scene. [illustration: house at locust grove, poughkeepsie, n.y.] i will not enlarge. i am congratulated by all in having made an excellent purchase, and i find a most delightful neighborhood. within a few miles around, approached by excellent roads, are mr. lenox, general talmadge, philip van rensselaer, etc., on one side; on the other, harry livingston, mrs. smith thomson (judge thomson's widow, and sister to the first mrs. arthur breese), mr. crosby, mr. boorman, etc., etc. the new railroad will run at the foot of the grounds (probably) on the river, and bring new york within two hours of us. there is every faculty for residence--good markets, churches, schools. take it all in all i think it just the place _for us all_. if you should fancy a spot on it for building, i can accommodate you, and richard wants twenty acres reserved for him. singularly enough this was the very spot where uncle arthur found his wife. the old trees are pointed out where he and she used to ramble during their courtship. on september , after again expatiating on the beauties and advantages of his home, he adds: "i have some clouds and mutterings of thunder on the horizon (the necessary attendants, i suppose, of a lightning project) which i trust will give no more of storm than will suffice, under him who directs the elements, to clear the air and make a serener and calmer sunset." on october , he announces the name which he has given to his country place, and a singular coincidence:-- "_locust grove._ you see by the date where i am. locust grove, it seems, was the original name given to this place by judge livingston, and, without knowing this fact, i had given the same name to it, so that there is a natural appropriateness in the designation of my home. the wind is howling mournfully this evening, a second edition, i fear, of the late destructive equinoctial, but, dreary as it is out-of-doors, i have comfortable quarters within." in the world of affairs the wind was howling, too, and the storm was gathering which culminated in the series of lawsuits brought by morse and his associates against the infringers on his patents. the letters to his brother are full of the details of these piratical attacks, but throughout all the turmoil he maintained his poise and his faith in the triumph of justice and truth. in the letter just quoted from he says: "these matters do not annoy me as formerly. i have seen so many dark storms which threatened, and particularly in relation to the telegraph, and i have seen them so often hushed at the 'peace, be still' of our covenant god, that now the fears and anxieties on any fresh gathering soon subside into perfect calm." and on november , he writes: "the most annoying part of the matter to me is that, notwithstanding my matters are all in the hands of agents and i have nothing to do with any of the arrangements, i am held up by name to the odium of the public. lawsuits are commenced against them at cincinnati and will be in indiana and illinois as well as here, and so, notwithstanding all my efforts to get along peaceably, i find the fate of whitney before me. i think i may be able to secure my farm, and so have a place to retire to for the evening of my days, but even this may be denied me. a few months will decide.... you have before you the fate of an inventor, and, take as much pains as you will to secure to yourself your valuable invention, make up your mind from my experience now, in addition to others, that you will be robbed of it and abused into the bargain. this is the lot of a successful inventor or discoverer, and no precaution, i believe, will save him from it. he will meet with a mixed estimate; the enlightened, the liberal, the good, will applaud him and respect him; the sordid, the unprincipled will hate him and detract from his reputation to compass their own contemptible and selfish ends." while events in the business world were rapidly converging towards the great lawsuits which should either confirm the inventor's rights to the offspring of his brain, or deprive him of all the benefits to which he was justly and morally entitled, he continued to find solace from all his cares and anxieties in his new home, with his children and friends around him. he touches on the lights and shadows in a letter to his brother, who was still in england, dated new york, april , :-- "i snatch a moment by the washington, which goes to-morrow, to redeem my character in not having written of late so often as i could wish. i have been so constantly under the necessity of watching the movements of the most unprincipled set of pirates i have ever known, that all my time has been occupied in defense, in putting evidence into something like legal shape that i am the inventor of the electro-magnetic telegraph!! would you have believed it ten years ago that a question could be raised on that subject? yet this very morning in the 'journal of commerce' is an article from a new orleans paper giving an account of a public meeting convened by o'reilly, at which he boldly stated that i had '_pirated my invention from a german invention_' a great deal better than mine. and the 'journal of commerce' has a sort of halfway defense of me which implies there is some doubt on the subject. i have written a note which may appear in to-morrow's 'journal,' quite short, but which i think, will stop that game here. "a trial in court is the only event now which will put public opinion right, so indefatigable have these unprincipled men been in manufacturing a spurious public opinion. "although these events embarrass me, and i do not receive, and may not receive, my rightful dues, yet i have been so favored by a kind providence as to have sufficient collected to free my farm from mortgage on the st of may, and so find a home, a beautiful home, for me and mine, unencumbered, and sufficient over to make some improvements.... "i do not wish to raise too many expectations, but every day i am more and more charmed with my purchase. i can truly say i have never before so completely realized my wishes in regard to situation, never before found so many pleasant circumstances associated together to make a home agreeable, and, so far as earth is concerned, i only wish now to have you and the rest of the family participate in the advantages with which a kind god has been pleased to indulge me. "strange, indeed, would it be if clouds were not in the sky, but the sun of righteousness will dissipate as many and as much of them as shall be right and good, and this is all that should be required. i look not for freedom from trials; they must needs be; but the number, the kind, the form, the degree of them, i can safely leave to him who has ordered and will still order all things well." chapter xxxiii january , --december , preparation for lawsuits.--letter from colonel shaffner.--morse's reply deprecating bloodshed.--shaffner allays his fears.--morse attends his son's wedding at utica.--his own second marriage.--first of great lawsuits.--almost all suits in morse's favor.--decision of supreme court of united states.--extract from an earlier opinion.--alfred vail leaves the telegraph business.--remarks on this by james d. reid.--morse receives decoration from sultan of turkey.--letter to organizers of printers' festival.--letter concerning aviation.--optimistic letter from mr. kendall.--humorous letter from george wood.--thomas r. walker.-- letter to fenimore cooper.--dr. jackson again.--unfairness of the press. --letter from charles c. ingham on art matters.--letter from george vail.--f.o.j. smith continues to embarrass.--letter from morse to smith. the year was a momentous one to morse in more ways than one. the first of the historic lawsuits was to be begun at frankfort, kentucky,-- lawsuits which were not only to establish this inventor's claims, but were to be used as a precedent in all future patent litigation. in his peaceful retreat on the banks of the hudson he carefully and systematically prepared the evidence which should confound his enemies, and calmly awaited the verdict, firm in his faith that, however lowering the clouds, the sun would yet break through. finding relaxation from his cares and worries in the problems of his farm, he devoted every spare moment to the life out-of-doors, and drank in new strength and inspiration with every breath of the pure country air. although soon to pass the fifty-seventh milestone, his sane, temperate habits had kept him young in heart and vigorous in body, and in this same year he was to be rewarded for his long and lonely vigil during the dark decades of his middle life, and to enter upon an indian summer of happy family life. while spending as much time as possible at his beloved locust grove, he was yet compelled, in the interests of his approaching legal contests, to consult with his lawyers in new york and washington, and it was while in the latter city that he received a letter from colonel tal. p. shaffner, one of the most energetic of the telegraph pioneers, and a devoted, if sometimes injudicious, friend. it was he who, more than any one else, was responsible for the publication of morse's "defense" against professor henry. the letter was written from louisville on january , , and contains the following sentences: "we are going ahead with the line to new orleans. i have twenty-five hands on the road to nashville, and will put on more next week. i have ten on the road to frankfort, and my associate has gangs at other parts. o'reilly has fifteen hands on the nashville route and i confidently expect a few fights. my men are well armed and i think they can do their duty. i shall be with them when the parties get together, and, if anything does occur, the use of dupont's best will be appreciated by me. this is to be lamented, but, if it comes, we shall not back out." deeply exercised, morse answers him post-haste: "it gives me real pain to learn that there is any prospect of physical collision between the o'reilly party and ours, and i trust that this may arrive in time to prevent any movement of those friendly to me which shall provoke so sad a result. i emphatically say that, if _the law_ cannot protect me and my rights in your region, i shall never sanction the appeal to force to sustain myself, however conscious of being in the right. i infinitely prefer to suffer still more from the gross injustice of unprincipled men than to gain my rights by a single illegal step.... i hope you will do all in your power to prevent collision. if the parties meet in putting up posts or wires, let our opponents have their way unmolested. i have no patent for putting up posts or wires. they as well as we have a right to put them up. it is the use made of them afterwards which may require legal adjustment. the men employed by each party are not to blame. let no ill-feeling be fomented between the two, no rivalry but that of doing their work the best; let friendly feeling as between them be cherished, and teach them to refer all disputes to the principals. i wish no one to fight for me physically. he may 'speak daggers but use none.' however much i might appreciate his friendship and his motive, it would give me the deepest sorrow if i should learn that a single individual, friend or foe, has been injured in life or limb by any professing friendship for me." he was reassured by the following from colonel shaffner:-- _"january ._ your favor of the st was received yesterday. i was sorry that you allowed your feelings to be so much aroused in the case of contemplated difficulties between our hands and those of o'reilly. they held out the threats that we should not pass them, and we were determined to do it. i had them notified that we were prepared to meet them under any circumstances. we were prepared to have a real 'hug,' but, when our hands overtook them, they only 'yelled' a little and mine followed, and for fifteen miles they were side by side, and when a man finished his hole, he ran with all his might to get ahead. but finally, on the th, we passed them about eighty miles from here, and now we are about twenty-five miles ahead of them without the loss of a drop of blood, and we shall be able to beat them to nashville, if we can get the wire in time, which is doubtful." there were many such stirring incidents in the early history of the telegraph, and the half of them has not been told, thus leaving much material for the future historian. but, while so much that was exciting was taking place in the outside world, the cause of it all was turning his thoughts towards matters more domestic. on june , he writes to his brother: "charles left me for utica last evening, and finley and i go this evening to be present at his marriage on thursday the th." it was at his son's wedding that he was again strongly attracted to his young second cousin (or, to be more exact, his first cousin once removed), the first cousin of his son's bride, and the result is announced to his brother in a letter of august : "before your return i shall be again married. i leave to-morrow for utica where cousin (second cousin) sarah elizabeth griswold now is. on thursday morning the th we shall (god willing) be married, and i shall immediately proceed to louisville and frankfort in kentucky to be present at my first suit against o'reilly, the pirate of my invention. it comes off on the d inst. so far as the justice of the case is concerned i am confident of final success, but there are so many crooks in the law that i ought to be prepared for disappointment." continuing, he tells his brother that he has been secretly in love with his future wife for some years: "but, reflecting on it, i found i was in no situation to indulge in any plans of marrying. she had nothing, i had nothing, and the more i loved her the more i was determined to stifle my feelings without hinting to her anything of the matter, or letting her know that i was at all interested in her." but now, with increasing wealth, the conditions were changed, and so they were married, and in their case it can with perfect truth be said, "they lived happy ever after," and failed by but a year of being able to celebrate their silver wedding. soon a young family grew up around him, to whom he was always a patient and loving father. we his children undoubtedly gave him many an anxious moment, as children have a habit of doing, but through all his trials, domestic as well as extraneous, he was calm, wise, and judicious. [illustration: sarah elizabeth griswold second wife of s.f.b. morse] but now the first of the great lawsuits, which were to confirm morse's patent rights or to throw his invention open to the world, was begun, and, with his young bride, he hastened to frankfort to be present at the trial. to follow these suits through all their legal intricacies would make dry reading and consume reams of paper. mr. prime in a footnote remarks: "mr. henry o'reilly has deposited in the library of the new york historical society more than one hundred volumes containing a complete history of telegraphic litigation in the united states. these records are at all times accessible to any persons who wish to investigate the claims and rights of individuals or companies. the _testimony_ alone in the various suits fills several volumes, each as large as this." it will, therefore, only be necessary to say that almost all of these suits, including the final one before the supreme court of the united states, were decided in morse's favor. every legal device was used against him; his claims and those of others were sifted to the uttermost, and then as now expert opinion was found to uphold both sides of the case. to quote mr. prime: "the decision of the supreme court was unanimous on all the points involving the right of professor morse to the claim of being the original inventor of the electro-magnetic recording telegraph. a minority of the court went still further, and gave him the right to the motive power of magnetism as a means of operating machinery to imprint signals or to produce sounds for telegraphic purposes. the testimony of experts in science and art is not introduced because it was thoroughly weighed and sifted by intelligent and impartial men, whose judgment must be accepted as final and sufficient. the justice of the decision has never been impugned. each succeeding year has confirmed it with accumulating evidence. "one point was decided against the morse patent, and it is worthy of being noticed that this decision, which denied to morse the exclusive use of electromagnetism for recording telegraphs, has never been of injury to his instrument, because no other inventor has devised an instrument to supersede his. "the court decided that the electro-magnetic telegraph was the sole and exclusive invention of samuel f.b. morse. if others could make better instruments for the same purpose, they were at liberty to use electromagnetism. twenty years have elapsed since this decision was rendered; the morse patent has expired by limitation of time, but it is still without a rival in any part of the world." this was written in , but i think that i am safe in saying that the same is true now after the lapse of forty more years. while, of course, there have been both elaboration and simplification, the basic principle of the universal telegraph of to-day is embodied in the drawings of the sketch-book of , and it was the invention of morse, and was entirely different from any form of telegraph devised by others. i shall make but one quotation from the long opinion handed down by the supreme court and delivered by chief justice taney:-- "neither can the inquiries he made, nor the information or advice he received from men of science, in the course of his researches, impair his right to the character of an inventor. no invention can possibly be made, consisting of a combination of different elements of power, without a thorough knowledge of the properties of each of them, and the mode in which they operate on each other. and it can make no difference in this respect whether he derives his information from books, or from men skilled in the science. if it were otherwise, no patent in which a combination of different elements is used could ever be obtained. for no man ever made such an invention without having first obtained this information, unless it was discovered by some fortunate accident. and it is evident that such an invention as the electro-magnetic telegraph could never have been brought into action without it. for a very high degree of scientific knowledge, and the nicest skill in the mechanic arts, are combined in it, and were both necessary to bring it into successful operation. _and the fact that morse sought and, obtained the necessary information and counsel from the best sources, and acted upon it, neither impairs his rights as an inventor, nor detracts from his merits._" the italics are mine, for it has over and over been claimed for everybody who had a part in the early history of the telegraph, either by hint, help, or discovery, that more credit should be given to him than to morse himself--to henry, to gale, to vail, to doctor page, and even to f.o.j. smith. in fact morse used often to say that some people thought he had no right to claim his invention because he had not discovered electricity, nor the copper from which his wires were made, nor the brass of his instruments, nor the glass of his insulators. i shall make one other quotation from the opinion of judge kane and judge grier at one of the earlier trials, in philadelphia, in :-- "that he, mr. morse, was the first to devise and practise the art of recording language, at telegraphic distances, by the dynamic force of the electro-magnet, or, indeed, by any agency whatever, is, to our minds, plain upon all the evidence. it is unnecessary to review the testimony for the purpose of showing this. his application for a patent, in april, , was preceded by a series of experiments, results, illustrations and proofs of final success, which leave no doubt whatever but that his great invention was consummated before the early spring of . there is no one person, whose invention has been spoken of by any witness, or referred to in any book as involving the principle of mr. morse's discovery, but must yield precedence of date to this. neither steinheil, nor cooke and wheatstone, nor davy, nor dyar, nor henry, had at this time made a recording telegraph of any sort. the devices then known were merely _semaphores_, that spoke to the eye for a moment--bearing about the same relation to the great discovery before us as the abbé sicard's invention of a visual alphabet for the purposes of conversation bore to the art of printing with movable types. mr. dyar's had no recording apparatus, as he expressly tells us, and professor henry had contented himself with the abundant honors of his laboratory and lecture-rooms." one case was decided against him, but this decision was afterwards overruled by the supreme court, so that it caused no lasting injury to his claims. as decision after decision was rendered in his favor he received the news calmly, always attributing to divine providence every favor bestowed upon him. letters of congratulation poured in on him from his friends, and, among others, the following from alfred vail must have aroused mingled feelings of pleasure and regret. it is dated september , :-- i congratulate you in your success at frankfort in arresting thus far that pirate o'reilly. i have received many a hearty shake from our friends, congratulating me upon the glorious issue of the application for an injunction. the pirate dies hard, and well he may. it is his privilege to kick awhile in this last death struggle. these pirates must be followed up and each in his turn nailed to the wall. the wash. & n.o. co. is at last organized, and for the last three weeks we have received daily communications from n.o. our prospects are flattering. and what do you think they have done with me? superintendent of washington & n.o. line all the way from washington to columbia at $ !!!!! this game will not be played long. i have made up my mind to leave the telegraph to take care of itself, since it cannot take care of me. i shall, in a few months, leave washington for new jersey, family, kit and all, and bid adieu to the subject of the telegraph for some more profitable business.... i have just finished a most beautiful register with a _pen lever key_ and an expanding reel. have orders for six of the same kind to be made at once; three for the south and three for the west. i regret you could not, on your return from the west, have made us at least a flying visit with your charming lady. i am happy to learn that your cup of happiness is so full in the society of one who, i learn from mr. k., is well calculated to cheer you and relieve the otherwise solitude of your life.... my kindest wishes for yourself and mrs. morse, and believe me to be, now as ever, yours, etc., alfred vail. mr. james d. reid in an article in the "electrical world," october , , after quoting from this letter; adds:-- "the truth is mr. vail had no natural aptitude for executive work, and he had a temper somewhat variable and unhappy. he and i got along very well together until i determined to order my own instruments, his being too heavy and too difficult, as i thought, for an operator to handle while receiving. we had our instruments made by the same maker--clark & co., philadelphia. yet even that did not greatly separate us, and we were always friends. about some things his notions were very crude. it was under his guidance that david brooks, henry c. hepburn and i, in , undertook to insulate the line from lancaster to harrisburg, pennsylvania, by saturating bits of cotton cloth in beeswax and wrapping them round projecting arms. the bees enjoyed it greatly, but it spoiled our work. "but i have no desire to criticize him. he seemed to me to have great opportunities which he did not use. he might have had, i thought, the register work of the country and secured a large business. but it went from him to others, and so he left the field." this eventful year of closed with the great telegraph suits in full swing, but with the inventor calm under all his trials. in a letter, of december , to his brother sidney, who had now returned to america, he says: "my affairs (telegraphically) are only under a slight mist, hardly a cloud; i see through the mist already." and in another part of this letter he says: "i may see you at the end of the week. if i can bring sarah down with me, i will, to spend christmas, but the weather may change and prevent. what weather! i am working on the lawn as if it were spring. you have no idea how lovely this spot is. not a day passes that i do not feel it. if i have trouble abroad, i have peace, and love, and happiness at home. my sweet wife i find, indeed, a rich treasure. uniformly cheerful and most affectionate, she makes sunshine all the day. god's gifts are worthy of the giver." it was in the early days of that a gift of another kind was received by him which could not fail to gratify him. this was a decoration, the "nichan iftikar" or "order of glory," presented to him by the sultan of turkey, the first and only decoration which the sultan of the ottoman empire had conferred upon a citizen of the united states. it was a beautiful specimen of the jeweller's art, the monogram of the sultan in gold, surrounded by diamonds in a graceful design. it was accompanied by a diploma (or _berait_) in turkish, which being translated reads:-- in the name of him sultan abdul hamid khan son of mahmoud khan, son of abdul hamid khan--may he ever be victorious! the object of the present sovereign decoration of noble exalted glory, of elevated place, and of this illustrious world conquering monogram is as follows: the bearer of this imperial monogram of exalted character, mr. morse, an american, a man of science and of talents, and who is a model of the chiefs of the nation of the messiah--may his grade be increased--having invented an electrical telegraph, a specimen of which has been exhibited in my imperial presence; and it being proper to patronize knowledge and to express my sense of the value of the attainments of the inventor, as well as to distinguish those persons who are the inventors of such objects as serve to extend and facilitate the relations of mankind, i have conferred upon him, on my exalted part, an honorable decoration in diamonds, and issued also this present diploma, as a token of my benevolence for him. written in the middle of the moon sefer, the fortunate, the year of the flight one thousand two hundred and sixty-four, in constantinople the well-guarded. the person who was instrumental in gaining for the inventor this mark of recognition from the sultan was dr. james lawrence smith, a young geologist at that time in the employ of the sultan. he, aided by the reverend c. hamlin, of the armenian seminary at bebek, gave an exhibition of the working of the telegraph before the sultan and all the officers of his government, and when it was proposed to decorate him for his trouble and lucid explanation, he modestly and generously disclaimed any honor, and begged that any such recognition should be given to the inventor himself. other decorations and degrees were bestowed upon the inventor from time to time, but these will be summarized in a future chapter. i have enlarged upon this one as being the first to be received from a foreign monarch. as his fame increased, requests of all sorts poured in on him, and it is amazing to find how courteously he answered even the most fantastic, overwhelmed as he was by his duties in connection with the attacks on his purse and his reputation. two of his answers to correspondents are here given as examples:-- january , . gentlemen,--i have received your polite invitation to the printers' festival in honor of franklin, on his birthday the th of the present month, and regret that my engagements in the city put it out of my power to be present. i thank you kindly for the flattering notice you are pleased to take of me in connection with the telegraph, and made peculiarly grateful at the present time as coming from a class of society with whom are my earliest pleasurable associations. i may be allowed, perhaps, to say that in my boyhood it was my delight, during my vacations, to seek my pastime in the operations of the printing-office. i solicited of my father to take the corrected proofs of his geography to the printing-office, and there, through the day for weeks, i made myself practically acquainted with all the operations of the printer. at years of age i compiled a small volume of stories, called it the 'youth's friend,' and then set it up, locked the matter in its form, prepared the paper and worked it off; going through the entire process till it was ready for the binder. i think i have some claim, therefore, to belong to the fraternity. the other letter was in answer to one from a certain solomon andrews, president of the inventors' institute of perth amboy, who was making experiments in aviation, and i shall give but a few extracts:-- "i know by experience the language of the world in regard to an untried invention. he who will accomplish anything useful and new must steel himself against the sneers of the ignorant, and often against the unimaginative sophistries of the learned.... "in regard to the subject on which you desire an opinion, i will say that the idea of navigating the air has been a favorite one with the inventive in all ages; it is naturally suggested by the flight of a bird. i have watched for hours together in early life, in my walks across the bridge from boston to charlestown, the motions of the sea-gulls.... often have i attempted to unravel the mystery of their motion so as to bring the principle of it to bear upon this very subject, but i never experimented upon it. many ingenious men, however, have experimented on air navigation, and have so far succeeded as to travel in the air many miles, but always with the current of wind in their favor. by _navigating_ the atmosphere is meant something more than dropping down with the tide in a boat, without sails, or oars or other means of propulsion.... birds not only rise in the air, but they can also propel themselves against the ordinary currents. a study, then, of the conditions that enable a bird thus to defy the ordinary currents of the atmosphere seems to furnish the most likely mode of solving the problem. whilst a bird flies, whilst i see a mass of matter overcoming, by its structure and a power within it, the natural forces of gravitation and a current of air, i dare not say that air navigation is absurd or impossible. "i consider the difficulties to be overcome are the combining of strength with lightness in the machine sufficient to allow of the exercise of a force without the machine from a source of power within. a difficulty will occur in the right adaptation of propellers, and, should this difficulty be overcome, the risks of derangement of the machinery from the necessary lightness of its parts would be great, and consequently the risks to life would be greater than in any other mode of travelling. from a wreck at sea or on shore a man may be rescued with his life, and so by the running off the track by the railroad car, the majority of passengers will be saved; but from a fall some thousands, or only hundreds, of feet through the air, not one would escape death.... "i have no time to add more than my best wishes for the success of those who are struggling with these difficulties." these observations, made nearly sixty-five years ago, are most pertinent to present-day conditions, when the conquest of the air has been accomplished, and along the very lines suggested by morse, but at what a terrible cost in human life. that the inventor, harassed on all sides by pirates, unscrupulous men, and false friends, should, in spite of his christian philosophy, have suffered from occasional fits of despondency, is but natural, and he must have given vent to his feelings in a letter to his true friend and able business agent, mr. kendall, for the latter thus strives to hearten him in a letter of april , :-- "you say, 'mrs. morse and elizabeth are both sitting by me.' how is it possible, in the midst of so much that is charming and lovely, that you _could_ sink into the gloomy spirit which your letter indicates? can there be a paradise without devils in it--blue devils, i mean? and how is it that now, instead of addressing themselves first to the woman, they march boldly up to the man? "faith in our maker is a most important christian virtue, but man has no right to rely on faith alone until he has exhausted his own power. when we have done all we can with pure hands and honest hearts, then may we rely with confidence on the aid of him who governs worlds and atoms, controls, when he chooses, the will of man, restrains his passions and makes his bad designs subservient to the best of ends. "now for a short application of a short sermon. we must do our best to have the depositions and affidavits prepared and forwarded in due time. this done we may have _faith_ that we will gain our cause. or, if with our utmost exertions, we fail in our preparations, we shall be warranted in having faith that no harm will come of it. "but if, like the jews in the maccabees, we rely upon the lord to fight our battles, without lifting a weapon in our defence, or, like the wagoner in the fable, we content ourselves with calling on hercules, we shall find in the end that 'faith without works is dead.' ... the world, as you say, is '_the world_'--a quarrelling, vicious, fighting, plundering world--yet it is a very good world for good men. why should man torment himself about that which he cannot help? if we but enjoy the good things of earth and endure the evil things with a cheerful resignation, bad spirits--blue devils and all--will fly from our bosoms to their appropriate abode." another true and loyal friend was george wood, associated with mr. kendall in washington, from whom are many affectionate and witty letters which it would be a pleasure to reproduce, but for the present i shall content myself with extracts from one dated may , :-- "it does seem to me that satan has, from the jump, been at war with this invention of yours. at first he strove to cover you up with a f.o.g. of egyptian hue; then he ran your wires through leaden pipe, constructed by his 'pipe-laying' agents, into the ground and 'all aground.' and when these were hoisted up, like the brazen serpent, on poles for all to gaze at and admire, then who so devout a worshipper as the devil in the person of one of his children of darkness, who came forward at once to contract for a line reaching to st. louis--_and round the world_--upon that principle of the true construction of _constitutions_, and such like _contracts_, first promulgated by that 'old roman' the 'hero of two wars,' and approved by the 'whole hog' democracy of the 'first republic of the world,' and which, like the moral law is summarily comprehended in a few words--'the constitution (or contract) is what i understand it to be.' "now without stopping to show you that o'reilly was a true disciple of o'hickory, i think you will not question his being a son of satan, whose brazen instruments (one of whom gave his first born the name of morse) instigated by the gent in black, not content with inflicting us with the irish potato rot, has recently brought over the scotch itch, if, perhaps, by plagues job was never called upon to suffer (for there were no courts of equity and chancery in those early days) the american inventor might be tempted to curse god and die. but, ah! you have such a sweet wife, and job's was such a vinegar cruet." it is, perhaps, hardly necessary to explain that f.o.j. smith was nicknamed "fog" smith, and that the "scotch itch" referred to the telegraph of alexander bain, which, for a time, was used by the enemies of morse in the effort to break down his patent rights. the other allusions were to the politics of the day. another good friend and business associate was thomas r. walker, who in was mayor of utica, new york. mr. walker's wife was the half-sister of mrs. griswold, morse's mother-in-law, so there were ties of relationship as well as of friendship between the two men, and morse thought so highly of mr. walker that he made him one of the executors of his will. in a letter of july , , mr. walker says: "the course pursued by the press is simply mercenary. were it otherwise you would receive justice at their hands, and your fame and merits would be vindicated instead of being tarnished by the editorials of selfish and ungenerous men. but-- _'magna est veritas et prevalebit_.' there is comfort in that at any rate." it would seem that not only was the inventor forced to uphold his rights through a long series of lawsuits, but a great part of the press of the country was hostile to him on the specious plea that they were attempting to overthrow a baleful monopoly. in this connection the following extract from a letter to j. fenimore cooper, written about this time, is peculiarly apt:-- "it is not because i have not thought of you and your excellent family that i have not long since written to you to know your personal welfare. i hear of you often, it is true, through the papers. they praise you, as usual, for it is praise to have the abuse of such as abuse you. in all your libel suits against these degraded wretches i sympathize entirely with you, and there are thousands who now thank you in their hearts for the moral courage you display in bringing these licentious scamps to a knowledge of their duty. be assured the good sense, the intelligence, the right feeling of the community at large are with you. the licentiousness of the press needed the rebuke which you have given it, and it feels it too despite its awkward attempts to brave it out. "i will say nothing of your 'home as found.' i will use the frankness to say that i wish you had not written it.... when in paris last i several times passed rue st. dominique. the gate stood invitingly open and i looked in, but did not see my old friends although everything else was present. i felt as one might suppose another to feel on rising from his grave after a lapse of a century." an attack from another and an old quarter is referred to in a letter to his brother sidney of july , also another instance of the unfairness of the press:-- "dr. jackson had the audacity to appear at louisville by _affidavit_ against me. my _counter-affidavit_, with his original letters, contradicting _in toto_ his statement, put him _hors de combat_. mr. kendall says he was 'completely used up.' ... i have got a copy of jackson's affidavit which i should like to show you. there never was a more finished specimen of wholesale lying than is contained in it. he is certainly a monomaniac; no other conclusion could save him from an indictment for perjury. "by the frankfort paper sent you last week, and the extract i now send you, you can give a very effective shot to the 'tribune.' it is, perhaps, worthy of remark that, while all the papers in new york were so forward in publishing a _false_ account of o'reilly's success in the frankfort case, not one that i have seen has noticed the decision just given at louisville _against_ him in every particular. this shows the animus of the press towards me. nor have they taken any pains to correct the false account given of the previous decision." although no longer president of the national academy of design, having refused reëlection in in order to devote his whole time to the telegraph, morse still took a deep interest in its welfare, and his counsel was sought by its active members. on october , , mr. charles c. ingham sent him a long letter detailing the trials and triumphs of the institution, from which i shall quote a few sentences: "'lang syne,' when you fought the good fight for the cause of art, your prospects in life were not brighter than they are now, and in bodily and mental vigor you are just the same, therefore do not, at this most critical moment, desert the cause. it is the same and our enemies are the same old insolent quacks and impostors, who wish to make a footstool of the profession on which to stand and show themselves to the public.... now, with this prospect before you, rouse up a little of your old enthusiasm, put your shoulder to the wheel, and place the only school of art on all this side of the world on a firm foundation." unfortunately the answer to this letter is not in my possession, but we may be sure that it came from the heart, while it must have expressed the writer's deep regret that the multiplicity of his other cares would prevent him from undertaking what would have been to him a labor of love. although alfred vail had severed his active connection with the telegraph, he and his brother george still owned stock in the various lines, and morse did all in his power to safeguard and further their interests. they, on their part, were always zealous in championing the rights of the inventor, as the following letter from george vail, dated december , , will show:-- "enclosed i hand you a paragraph cut from the 'newark daily' of th inst. it was evidently drawn out by a letter which i addressed to the editor some months ago, stating that i could not see what consistency there was in his course; that, while he was assuming the championship of american manufactures, ingenuity, enterprise, etc., etc., he was at the same time holding up an english inventor to praise, while he held all the better claims of morse in the dark,--alluding to his bespattering mr. bain and o'reilly with compliments at our expense, etc. "i would now suggest that, if you are willing, we give _mr. daily_ a temperate article on the rise and progress of telegraphs, asserting claims for yourself, and, as i must father the article, give the vails and new jersey all the 'sodder' they are entitled to, and a little more, if you can spare it. "will you write something adapted to the case and forward it to me as early as possible, that it may go in on the heels of this paragraph enclosed?" f.o.j. smith continued to embarrass and thwart the other proprietors by his various wild schemes for self-aggrandizement. as mr. kendall said in a letter of august : "there is much _fog_ in smith's letter, but it is nothing else." and on december , he writes in a more serious vein: "mr. smith peremptorily refuses an arbitration which shall embrace a separation of all our interests, and i think it inexpedient to have any other. he is so utterly unprincipled and selfish that we can expect nothing but renewed impositions as long as we have any connection with him. he asks me to make a proposition to buy or sell, which i have delayed doing, because i know that nothing good can come of it; but i have informed him that i will consider any proposition he may make, if not too absurd to deserve it. i do not expect any that we can accede to without sacrifices to this worse than patent pirate which i am not prepared to make." mr. kendall then concludes that the only recourse will be to the law, but morse, always averse to war, and preferring to exhaust every effort to bring about an amicable adjustment of difficulties, sent the following courteous letter to smith on december , which, however, failed of the desired result:-- "i deeply regret to learn from my agent, mr. kendall, that an unpleasant collision is likely to take place between your interest in the telegraph and the rest of your coproprietors in the patent. i had hoped that an amicable arbitrament might arrange all our mutual interests to our mutual advantage and satisfaction; but i learn that his proposition to that effect has been rejected by you. "you must be aware that the rest of your coproprietors have been great sufferers in their property, for some time past, from the frequent disagreements between their agent and yourself, and that, for the sake of peace, they have endured much and long. it is impossible for me to say where the fault lies, for, from the very fact that i put my affairs into the hands of an agent to manage for me, it is evident i cannot have that minute, full and clear view of the matters at issue between him and yourself that he has, or, under other circumstances, that i might have. but this i can see, that mutual disadvantage must be the consequence of litigation between us, and this we both ought to be desirous to avoid. "between fair-minded men i cannot see why there should be a difference, or at least such a difference as cannot be adjusted by uninterested parties chosen to settle it by each of the disagreeing parties. "i write this in the hope that, on second thought, you will meet my agent mr. kendall in the mode of arbitration proposed. i have repeatedly advised my agent to refrain from extreme measures until none others are left us; and if such are now deemed by him necessary to secure a large amount of our property, hazarded by perpetual delays, while i shall most sincerely regret the necessity, there are interests which i am bound to protect, connected with the secure possession of what is rightfully mine, which will compel me to oppose no further obstacle to his proceeding to obtain my due, in such manner as, in his judgment, he may deem best." chapter xxxiv march , --november , precarious financial condition.--regret at not being able to make loan.-- false impression of great wealth.--fears he may have to sell home.-- f.o.j. smith continues to give trouble.--morse system extending throughout the world.--death of fenimore cooper.--subscriptions to charities, etc.--first use of word "telegram."--mysterious fire in supreme court clerk's room.--letter of commodore perry.--disinclination to antagonize henry.--temporary triumph of f.o.j. smith.--order gradually emerging.--expenses of the law.--triumph in australia.--gift to yale college.--supreme court decision and extension of patent.--social diversions in washington.--letters of george wood and p.h. watson on extension of patent.--loyalty to mr. kendall; also to alfred vail.-- decides to publish "defense."--controversy with bishop spaulding.--creed on slavery.--political views.--defeated for congress. while i have anticipated in giving the results of the various lawsuits, it must be borne in mind that these dragged along for years, and that the final decision of the supreme court was not handed down until january , . during all this time the inventor was kept in suspense as to the final outcome, and often the future looked very dark indeed, and he was hard pressed to provide for the present. on march , , he writes to a friend who had requested a loan of a few hundred dollars:-- "it truly pains me to be obliged to tell you of my inability to make you a loan, however small in amount or amply secured. in the present embarrassed state of my affairs, consequent upon these never-ending and vexatious suits, i know not how soon all my property may be taken from me. the newspapers, among their other innumerable falsehoods, circulate one in regard to my 'enormous wealth.' the object is obvious. it is to destroy any feeling of sympathy in the public mind from the gross robberies committed upon me. 'he is rich enough; he can afford to give something to the public from his extortionate monopoly,' etc., etc. "now no man likes to proclaim his poverty, for there is a sort of satisfaction to some minds in being esteemed rich, even if they are not. the evil of this is that from a rich man more is expected in the way of pecuniary favors (and justly too), and consequently applications of all kinds are daily, i might say for the last few months almost hourly, made to me, and the fabled wealth attributed to me, or to croesus, would not suffice to satisfy the requests made." and, after stating that, of the , miles of telegraph at that time in operation, only one company of miles was then paying a dividend, he adds: "if this fails i have nothing. on this i solely depend, for i have now no profession, and at my age, with impaired eyesight, i cannot resume it. "i have indeed a farm out of which a farmer might obtain his living, but to me it is a source of expense, and i have not actually, though you may think it strange, the means to make my family comfortable." in a letter to mr. kendall of january , , he enlarges on this subject:-- "i have been taking in sail for some time past to prepare for the storm which has so long continued and still threatens destruction, but with every economy my family must suffer for the want of many comforts which the low state of my means prevents me from procuring. i contrived to get through the last month without incurring debt, but i see no prospect now of being able to do so the present month.... i wish much to know, and, indeed, it is indispensably necessary i should be informed of the precise condition of things; for, if my property is but nominal in the stocks of the companies, and is to be soon rendered valueless from the operations of pirates, i desire to know it, that i may sell my home and seek another of less pretension, one of humbler character and suited to my change of circumstances. it will, indeed, be like cutting off a right hand to leave my country home, but, if i cannot retain it without incurring debt, it must go, and before debt is incurred and not after. i have made it a rule from my childhood to live always within my means, to have no debts; for if there is a terror which would unman me more than any other in this world, it is the sight of a man to whom i owed money, however inconsiderable in amount, without my being in a condition to pay him. on this point i am nervously sensitive, to a degree which some might think ridiculous. but so it is and i cannot help it.... "please tell me how matters stand in relation to f.o.g. i wish nothing short of entire separation from that unprincipled man if it can possibly be accomplished....i can suffer his frauds upon myself with comparative forbearance, but my indignation boils when i am made, _nolens volens_, a _particeps criminis_ in his frauds on others. i will not endure it if i must suffer the loss of all the property i hold in the world." the beloved country place was not sacrificed, and a way out of all his difficulties was found, but his faith and christian forbearance were severely tested before his path was smoothed. among all his trials none was so hard to bear as the conduct of f.o.j. smith, whose strange tergiversations were almost inconceivable. like the old man of the sea, he could not be shaken off, much as morse and his partners desired to part company with him forever. the propositions made by him were so absurd that they could not for a moment be seriously considered, and the reasonable terms submitted by mr. kendall were unconditionally rejected by him. it will be necessary to refer to him and his strange conduct from time to time, but to go into the matter in detail would consume too much valuable space. it seems only right, however, to emphasize the fact that his animosity and unscrupulous self-seeking constituted the greatest cross which morse was called upon to bear, even to the end of his life, and that many of the aspersions which have been cast upon the inventor's fame and good name, before and after his death, can be traced to the fertile brain of this same f.o.j. smith. while the inventor was fighting for his rights in his own country, his invention, by the sheer force of its superiority, was gradually displacing all other systems abroad. even in england it was superseding the cooke and wheatstone needle telegraph, and on the continent it had been adopted by prussia, austria, bavaria, hanover, and turkey. it is worthy of note that that broad-minded scientist, professor steinheil, of bavaria, who had himself invented an ingenious plan of telegraph when he was made acquainted with the morse system, at once acknowledged its superiority and urged its adoption by the bavarian government. in france, too, it was making its way, and morse, in answer to a letter of inquiry as to terms, etc., by m. brequet, thus characteristically avows his motives, after finishing the business part of the letter, which is dated april , :-- "to be frank with you, my dear sir (and i feel that i can be frank with you), while i am not indifferent to the pecuniary rewards of my invention (which will be amply satisfactory if my own countrymen will but do me justice), yet as these were not the stimulus to my efforts in perfecting and establishing my invention, so they now hold but a subordinate position when i attempt to comprehend the full results of the telegraph upon the welfare of my fellow men. i am more solicitous to see its benefits extended world-wide during my lifetime than to turn the stream of wealth, which it is generating to millions of persons, into my own pocket. a few drops from the sea, which may not be missed, will suffice for me." in the early days of death took from him one of his dearest friends, and the following letter, written in february, , to rufus griswold, esq., expresses his sentiments:-- "i sincerely regret that circumstances over which i have no control prevent my participation in the services commemorative of the character, literary and moral, of my lamented friend the late james fenimore cooper, esq. "i can scarcely yet realize that he is no longer with us, for the announcement of his death came upon me most unexpectedly. the pleasure of years of close intimacy with mr. cooper was never for a moment clouded by the slightest coolness. we were in daily, i can truly say, almost hourly, intercourse in the year in paris. i never met with a more sincere, warm-hearted, constant friend. no man came nearer to the ideal i had formed of a truly high-minded man. if he was at times severe or caustic in his remarks on others, it was when excited by the exhibition of the little arts of little minds. his own frank, open, generous nature instinctively recoiled from contact with them. his liberalities, obedient to his generous sympathies, were scarcely bounded by prudence; he was always ready to help a friend, and many such there are who will learn of his departure with the most poignant sorrow. although unable to be with you, i trust the committee will not overlook me when they are collecting the funds for the monument to his genius." it might have been said of morse, too, that "his liberalities were scarcely bounded by prudence," for he gave away or lost through investments, urged upon him by men whom he regarded as friends but who were actuated by selfish motives, much more than he retained. he gave largely to the various religious organizations and charities in which he was interested, and it was characteristic of him that he could not wait until he had the actual cash in hand, but, even while his own future was uncertain, he made donations of large blocks of stocks, which, while of problematical value while the litigation was proceeding, eventually rose to much above par. while he strove to keep his charities secret, they were bruited abroad, much to his sorrow, for, although at the time he was hard pressed to make both ends meet, they created a false impression of great wealth, and the importunities increased in volume. it is always interesting to note the genesis of familiar words, and the following is written in pencil by morse on a little slip of paper:-- "_telegram_ was first proposed by the albany 'evening journal,' april , , and has been universally adopted as a legitimate word into the english language." on april , , mr. kendall reports a mysterious occurrence:-- "our case in the supreme court will very certainly be reached by the middle of next week. a most singular incident has occurred. the papers brought up from the court below, not entered in the records, were on a table in the clerk's room. there was no fire in the room. one of the clerks after dark lighted a lamp, looked up some papers, blew out the lamp and locked the door. some time afterwards, wishing to obtain a book, he entered the room without a light and got the book in the dark. in. the morning our papers were burnt up, and _nothing else_. "the papers burnt are all the drawings, all the books filed, dana's lectures, chester's pamphlet, your sketchbook (if the original was there), your tag of type, etc., etc. but we shall replace them as far as possible and go on with the case. _was_ your original sketch-book there? if so, has any copy been taken?" the original sketch-book was in this collection of papers so mysteriously destroyed, but most fortunately a certified copy had been made, and this is now in the national museum in washington. also, most fortunately, this effort on the part of some enemy to undermine the foundations of the case proved abortive, if, indeed, it was not a boomerang, for, as we have seen, the decision of the supreme court was in morse's favor. in the year , commodore perry sailed on his memorable trip to japan, which, as is well known, opened that wonderful country to the outside world and started it on its upward path towards its present powerful position among the nations. the following letter from commodore perry, dated july , , will, therefore, be found of unusual interest:-- i shall take with me, on my cruise to the east indias, specimens of the most remarkable inventions of the age, among which stands preëminent your telegraph, and i write a line by lieutenant budd, united states navy, not only to introduce him to your acquaintance, but to ask as a particular favour that you would give him some information and instruction as to the most practicable means of exhibiting the telegraph, as well as a daguerreotype apparatus, which i am also authorized to purchase, also other articles connected with drawing. i have directed lieutenant budd to visit poughkeepsie in order to confer with you. he will have lists, furnished by mr. norton and a daguerreotype artist, which i shall not act upon until i learn the result of his consultation with you. i hope you will pardon this intrusion upon your time. i feel almost assured, however, that you will take a lively interest in having your wonderful invention exhibited to a people so little known to the world, and there is no one better qualified than yourself to instruct lieutenant budd in the duties i have entrusted to his charge, and who will fully explain to you the object i have in view. i leave this evening for washington and should be much obliged if you would address me a line to that place. most truly and respectfully yours m.c. perry. it was about this time that the testimony of professor joseph henry was being increasingly used by morse's opponents to discredit him in the scientific world and to injure his cause in the courts. i shall, therefore, revert for a moment to the matter for the purpose of emphasizing morse's reluctance to do or say anything against his erstwhile friend. in a letter to h.j. raymond, editor of the new york "times," he requests space in that journal for a fair exposition of his side of the controversy in reply to an article attacking him. to this mr. raymond courteously replies on november , : "the columns of the 'times' are entirely at your service for the purpose you mention, or, indeed, for almost any other. the writer of the article you allude to was dr. bettner, of philadelphia." morse answers on november :-- "i regret finding you absent; i wished to have had a few moments' conversation with you in relation to the allusion i made to professor henry. if possible i wish to avoid any course which might weaken the influence for good of such a man as henry. i will forbear exposure to the last moment, and, in view of my duty as a christian at least, i will give him an opportunity to explain to me in private. if he refuses, then i shall feel it my duty to show how unfairly he has conducted himself in allowing his testimony to be used to my detriment. "i write in haste, and will merely add that, to consummate these views, i shall for the present delay the article i had requested you to insert in your columns, and allow the various misrepresentations to remain yet a little longer unexposed, at the same time thanking you cordially for your courteous accordance of my request." a slight set-back was encountered by morse and his associates at this time by the denial of an injunction against f.o.j. smith, and, in a letter to mr. kendall of december , the long-suffering inventor exclaims:-- "f.o.j. crows at the top of his voice, and i learned that he and his man friday, foss, had a regular spree in consequence, and that the latter was noticed in broadway drunk and boisterously huzzaing for f.o.j. and cursing me and my telegraph. "i read in my bible: 'the triumph of the wicked is short.' this may have a practical application, in this case at any rate. i have full confidence in that power that, for wise purposes, allows wickedness temporarily to triumph that his own designs of bringing good out of evil may be the more apparent." another of morse's fixed principles in life is referred to in a letter to judge e. fitch smith of february , : "yours of the st ulto. is this moment received. your request has given me some trouble of spirit on this account, to wit: my father lost a large property, the earnings of his whole life of literary labor, by simply endorsing. my mother was ever after so affected by this fact that it was the constant theme of her disapprobation, and on her deathbed i gave her my promise, in accordance with her request, that _i never would endorse a note_. i have never done such a thing, and, of course, have never requested the endorsement of another. i cannot, therefore, in that mode accommodate you, but i can probably aid you as effectually in another way." it will not be necessary to dwell at length on further happenings in the year . order was gradually emerging from chaos in the various lines of telegraph, which, under the wise guidance of amos kendall, were tending towards a consolidation into one great company. the decision of the supreme court had not yet been given, causing temporary embarrassment to the patentees by allowing the pirates to continue their depredations unchecked. f.o.j. smith continued to give trouble. to quote from a letter of morse's to mr. kendall of january , : "the good book says that 'one sinner destroyeth much good,' and f.o.j. being (as will be admitted by all, perhaps, except himself) a sinner of that class bent upon destroying as much good as he can, i am desirous, even at much sacrifice (a desire, of course, _inter nos_) to get rid of controversy with him." further on in this letter, referring to another cause for anxiety, he says: "law is expensive, and we must look it in the face and expect to pay roundly for it.... it is a delicate task to dispute a professional man's charges, and, though it may be an evil to find ourselves bled so freely by lawyers, it is, perhaps, the least of evils to submit to it as gracefully as we can." but, while he could not escape the common lot of man in having to bear many and severe trials, there were compensatory blessings which he appreciated to the full. his home life was happy and, in the main, serene; his farm was a source of never-ending pleasure to him; he was honored at home and abroad by those whose opinion he most valued; and he was almost daily in receipt of the news of the extension of the "morse system" throughout the world. even from far-off australia came the news of his triumph. a letter was sent to him, written from melbourne on december , , by a mr. samuel mcgowan to a friend in new york, which contains the following gratifying intelligence:-- "since the date of my last to you matters with me have undergone a material change. i have come off conqueror in my hard fought battle. the contract has been awarded to me in the faces of the representatives of messrs. wheatstone and cooke, brett and other telegraphic luminaries, much to their chagrin, as i afterwards ascertained; several of them, it appears, having been leagued together in order, as they stated, to thwart a speculating yankee. however, matters were not so ordained, and i am as well satisfied. i hope they will all live to be the same." in spite of his financial difficulties, caused by bad management of some of the lines in which he was interested, he could not resist the temptation to give liberally where his heart inclined him, and in a letter of january , , to president woolsey of yale, he says:-- "enclosed, therefore, you have my check for one thousand dollars, which please hand to the treasurer of the college as my subscription towards the fund which is being raised for the benefit of my dearly loved _alma mater_. "i wish i could make it a larger sum, and, without promising what i may do at some future time, yet i will say that the prosperity of yale college is so near my heart that, should my affairs (now embarrassed by litigations in self-defence yet undecided) assume a more prosperous aspect, i have it in mind to add something more to the sum now sent." the year was memorable in the history of the telegraph because of two important events--the decision of the supreme court in morse's favor, already referred to, and the extension of his patent for another period of seven years. the first established for all time his legal right to be called the "inventor of the telegraph," and the second enabled him to reap some adequate reward for his years of privation, of struggle, and of heroic faith. it was for a long time doubtful whether his application for an extension of his patent would be granted, and much of his time in the early part of was consumed in putting in proper form all the data necessary to substantiate his claim, and in visiting washington to urge the justice of an extension. from that city he wrote often to his wife in poughkeepsie, and i shall quote from some of these letters. "_february ._ i am at the national hotel, which is now quite crowded, but i have an endurable room with furniture hardly endurable, for it is hard to find, in this hotel at least, a table or a bureau that can stand on its four proper legs, rocking and tetering like a gold-digger's washing-pan, unless the lame leg is propped up with an old shoe, or a stray newspaper fifty times folded, or a magazine of due thickness (i am using 'harper's magazine' at this moment, which is somewhat a desecration, as it is too good to be trampled under foot, even the foot of a table), or a coal cinder, or a towel. well, it is but for a moment and so let it pass. "where do you think i was last evening? read the invitation on the enclosed card, which, although forbidden to be _transferable_, may without breach of honor be transferred to my other and better half. i felt no inclination to go, but, as no refusal would be accepted, i put on my best and at nine o'clock, in company with mr. and mrs. shaffner (the latter of whom, by the by, is quite a pleasant and pretty woman, with a boy one year older than arthur and about as mischievous) and mr. and mrs. john kendall. "i went to the ladies' parlor and was presented to the ladies, six in number, who did the honors (if that is the expression) of the evening. there was a great crowd, i think not less than three hundred people, and from all parts of the country--senators and their wives, members of the house and their wives and daughters, and there was a great number of fine looking men and women. i was constantly introduced to a great many, who uniformly showered their compliments on your _modest_ husband." the card of invitation has been lost, but it was, perhaps, to a president's reception, and the "great" crowd of three hundred would not tax the energies of the president's aides at the present day. the next letter is written in a more serious vein:-- "_february ._ i am very busily engaged in the preparation of my papers for an extension of my patents. this object is of vital importance to me; it is, in fact, the moment to reap the harvest of so many years of labor, and expense, and toil, and neglected would lose me the fruits of all.... f.o.j. smith is here, the same ugly, fiendlike, dog-in-the-manger being he has ever been, the 'thorn in the flesh' which i pray to be able to support by the sufficient grace promised. it is difficult to know how to feel and act towards such a man, so unprincipled, so vengeful, so bent on injury, yet the command to bless those that curse, to pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us, to love our enemies, to forgive our enemies, is in full force, and i feel more anxious to comply with this injunction of our blessed saviour than to have the thorn removed, however strongly this latter must be desired." "_march ._ you have little idea of the trouble and expense to which i am put in this 'extension' matter.... i shall have to pay hundreds of dollars more before i get through here, besides being harassed in all sorts of ways from now till the th of june next. if i get my extension then i may expect some respite, or, at least, opposition in another shape. i hope eventually to derive some benefit from the late decision, but the reckless and desperate character of my opponents may defeat all the good i expect from it. such is the reward i have purchased for myself by my invention.... "mr. wood is here also. he is the same firm, consistent and indefatigable friend as ever. i know not what i should do in the present crisis without him. i could not possibly put my accounts into proper shape without his aid, and he exerts himself for me as strongly as if i were his brother.... mr. kendall has been ill almost all the time that i have been here, which has caused me much delay and consumption of time." it was not until the latter part of june that the extension of his patents was granted, and his good friend, alluded to in the preceding letter, mr. george wood, tells, in a letter of june st, something of the narrow escape it had:-- "your patent extension is another instance of god's wonder working providence towards you as expressed in the history of this great discovery. of that history, of all the various shapes and incidents you may never know, not having been on the spot to watch all its moments of peril, and the way in which, like many a good christian, it was 'scarcely saved.' "in this you must see god's hand in giving you a man of remarkable skill, energy, talent, and power as your agent. i refer to p.h. watson, to whom mainly and mostly, i think, this extension is due. god works by means, and, though he designed to do this for you, he selected the proper person and gave him the skill, perseverance and power to accomplish this result. i hope now you have got it you will make it do for you all it can accomplish pecuniarily. but as for the money, i don't think so much as i do the effect of this upon your reputation. this is the apex of the pyramid." and mr. watson, in a letter of june , says: "we had many difficulties to contend with, even to-day, for at one time the commissioner intended to withhold his decision for reasons which i shall explain at length when we meet. it seemed to give the commissioner much pleasure to think that, in extending the patent, he was doing an act of justice to you as a great public benefactor, and a somewhat unfortunate man of genius. dr. gale and myself had to assure him that the extension would legally inure to your benefit, and not to that of your agents and associates before he could reconcile it with his duty to the public to grant the extension." morse himself, in a letter to mr. kendall, also of june , thus characteristically expresses himself:-- "a memorable day. i never had my anxieties so tried as in this case of extension, and after weeks of suspense, this suspense was prolonged to the last moment of endurance. i have just returned with the intelligence from the telegraph office from mr. watson--'patent extended. all right.' "well, what is now to be done? i am for taking time by the forelock and placing ourselves above the contingencies of the next expiration of the patent. while keeping our vantage ground with the pirates i wish to meet them in a spirit of compromise and of magnanimity. i hope we may now be able to consolidate on advantageous terms." it appears that at this time he was advised by many of his friends, including dr. gale, to sever his business connection with mr. kendall, both on account of the increasing feebleness of that gentleman, and because, while admittedly the soul of honor, mr. kendall had kept their joint accounts in a very careless and slipshod manner, thereby causing considerable financial loss to the inventor. but, true to his friends, as he always was, he replies to dr. gale on june :-- "let me thank you specially personally for your solicitude for my interests. this i may say without disparagement to mr. kendall, that, were the contract with an agent to be made anew, i might desire to have a younger and more healthy man, and better acquainted with regular book-keeping, but i could not desire a more upright and more honorable man. if he has committed errors, (as who has not?) they have been of the head and not of the heart. i have had many years experience of his conduct, think i have seen him under strong temptation to do injustice with prospects of personal benefit, and with little chance of detection, and yet firmly resisting." among the calumnies which were spread broadcast, both during the life of the inventor and after his death, even down to the present day, was the accusation of great ingratitude towards those who had helped him in his early struggles, and especially towards alfred vail. the more the true history of his connection with his associates is studied, the more baseless do these accusations appear, and in this connection the following extracts from letters to alfred vail and to his brother george are most illuminating. the first letter is dated july , :-- "the legal title to my patent for the american electro-magnetic telegraph of june th, , is, by the late extension of said patent for seven years from the said date, now vested in me alone; but i have intended that the pecuniary interest which was guaranteed to you in my invention as it existed in , and in my patent of , should still inure to your benefit (yet in a different shape) under the second patent and the late extension of the first. "for the simplification of my business transactions i prefer to let the articles of agreement, which expired on the th june, , remain cancelled and not to renew them, retaining in my sole possession the _legal title;_ but i hereby guarantee to you two sixteenths of such sums as may be paid over to me in the sale of patent rights, after the proportionate deductions of such necessary expenses as may be required in the business of the agency for conducting the sales of said patent rights, subject also to the terms of your agreement with mr. kendall. "mr. kendall informs me that no assignment of an interest in my second patent (the patent of ) was ever made to you. this was news to me. i presumed it was done and that the assignment was duly recorded at the patent office. the examination of the records in the progress of obtaining my extension has, doubtless, led to the discovery of the omission." after going over much the same ground in the letter to george vail, also of july th, he gives as one of the reasons why the new arrangement is better: "the annoyances of smith are at an end, so far as the necessity of consulting him is concerned." and then he adds:-- "i presume it can be no matter of regret with alfred that, by the position he now takes, strengthening our defensive position against the annoyances of smith, he can receive _more pecuniarily_ than he could before. please consult with mr. kendall on the form of any agreement by which you and alfred may be properly secured in the pecuniary benefits which you would have were he to stand in the same legal relation to the patent that he did before the expiration of its original term, so as to give me the position in regard to smith that i must take in self-defense, and i shall cheerfully accede to it. "poor alfred, i regret to know, torments himself needlessly. i had hoped that i was sufficiently known to him to have his confidence. i have never had other than kind feelings towards him, and, while planning for his benefit and guarding his interests at great and almost ruinous expense to myself, i have had to contend with difficulties which his imprudence, arising from morbid suspicions, has often created. my wish has ever been to act towards him not merely justly but generously." in a letter to mr. kendall of july , , morse declares his intention of publishing that "defense" which he had held in reserve for several years, hoping that the necessity for its publication might be avoided by a personal understanding with professor henry, which, however, that gentleman refused:-- "you will perceive what injury i have suffered from the machinations of the sordid pirates against whom i have had to contend, and it will also be noticed how history has been falsified in order to detract from me, and how the conduct of henry, on his deposition, has tended to strengthen the ready prejudice of the english against the american claim to priority. an increasing necessity, on this account, arises for my 'defense,' and so soon as i can get it into proper shape by revision, i intend to publish it. "this i consider a duty i owe the country more than myself, for, so far as i am personally concerned, i am conscious of a position that history will give me when the facts now suppressed by interested pirates and their abettors shall be known, which the verdict of posterity, no less than that of the judicial tribunals already given, is sure to award." while involved in apparently endless litigation which necessitated much correspondence, and while the compilation and revision of his "defense" must have consumed not only days but weeks and months, he yet found time to write a prodigious number of letters and newspaper articles on other subjects, especially on those relating to religion and politics. although more tolerant as he grew older, he was still bitterly opposed to the methods of the roman catholic church, and to the jesuits in particular. he, in common with many other prominent men of his day, was fearful lest the church of rome, through her emissaries the jesuits, should gain political ascendancy in this country and overthrow the liberty of the people. he took part in a long and heated newspaper controversy with bishop spaulding of kentucky concerning the authenticity of a saying attributed to lafayette--"if ever the liberty of the united states is destroyed it will be by romish priests." it was claimed by the roman catholics that this statement of lafayette's was ingeniously extracted from a sentence in a letter of his to a friend in which he assures this friend that such a fear is groundless. morse followed the matter up with the patience and keenness of a detective, and proved that no such letter had ever been written by lafayette, that it was a clumsy forgery, but that he really had made use of the sentiment quoted above, not only to morse himself, but to others of the greatest credibility who were still living. in the field of politics he came near playing a more active part than that of a mere looker-on and humble voter, for in the fall of he was nominated for congress on the democratic ticket. it would be difficult and, perhaps, invidious to attempt to state exactly his political faith in those heated years which preceded the civil war. in the light of future events he and his brothers and many other prominent men of the day were on the wrong side. he deprecated the war and did his best to prevent it. "sectional division" was abhorrent to him, but on the question of slavery his sympathies were rather with the south, for i find among his papers the following:-- "my creed on the subject of slavery is short. slavery _per se_ is not sin. it is a social condition ordained from the beginning of the world for the wisest purposes, benevolent and disciplinary, by divine wisdom. the mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having _per se_ nothing of moral character in it, any more than the being a parent, or employer, or ruler, but is moral or unmoral as the duties of the relation of master, parent, employer or ruler are rightly used or abused. the subject in a national view belongs not, therefore, to the department of morals, and is transferred to that of politics to be politically regulated. "the accidents of the relation of master and slave, like the accidents of other social relations, are to be praised or condemned as such individually and in accordance with the circumstances of every case, and, whether adjudged good or bad, do not affect the character of the relation itself." on the subject of foreign immigration he was most outspoken, and replying to an enquiry of one of his political friends concerning his attitude towards the so-called "know nothings," he says:-- "so far as i can gather from the public papers, the object of this society would seem to be to resist the aggression of foreign influence and its insidious and dangerous assaults upon all that americans hold dear, politically and religiously. it appears to be to prevent injury to the republic from the ill-timed and, i may say, unbecoming tamperings with the laws, and habits, and deeply sacred sentiments of americans by those whose position, alike dictated by modesty and safety, to them as well as to us, is that of minors in training for american, not european, liberty. "i have not, at this late day, to make up an opinion on this subject. my sentiments 'on the dangers to the free institutions of the united states from foreign immigration' are the same now that i have ever entertained, and these same have been promulgated from maine to louisiana for more than twenty years. "this subject involves questions which, in my estimation, make all others insignificant in the comparison, for they affect all others. to the disturbing influence of foreign action in our midst upon the political and religious questions of the day may be attributed in a great degree the present disorganization in all parts of the land. "so far as the society you speak of is acting against this great evil it, of course, meets with my hearty concurrence. i am content to stand on the platform, in this regard, occupied by washington in his warnings against foreign influence, by lafayette, in his personal conversation and instructions to me, and by jefferson in his condemnation of the encouragement given, even in his day, to foreign immigration. if this society has ulterior objects of which i know nothing, of these i can be expected to speak only when i know something." as his opinions on important matters, political and religious, appear in the course of his correspondence, i shall make note of them. it is more than probable that, as he differed radically from his father and the other federalists on the question of men and measures during the war of , so i should have taken other ground than his had i been born and old enough to have opinions in the stirring _ante-bellum_ days of the fifties. and yet, as hindsight makes our vision clearer than foresight, it is impossible to say definitely what our opinions would have been under other conditions, and there can, at any rate, be no question of the absolute sincerity of the man who, from his youth up, had placed the welfare of his beloved country above every other consideration except his duty to his god. it would take a keen student of the political history of this country to determine how far the opinions and activities of those who were in opposition on questions of such prime importance as slavery, secession, and unrestricted immigration, served as a wholesome check on the radical views of those who finally gained the ascendancy. the aftermath of two of these questions is still with us, for the negro question is by no means a problem solved, and the subject of proper restrictions on foreign immigration is just now occupying the attention of our solons. that morse should make enemies on account of the outspoken stand he took on all these questions was to be expected, but i shall not attempt to sit in judgment, but shall simply give his views as they appear in his correspondence. at any rate he was not called upon to state and maintain his opinions in the halls of congress, for, in a letter of november , , to a friend, he says at the end: "i came near being in congress at the late election, but had _not quite votes enough_, which is the usual cause of failure on such occasions." chapter xxxv january , --august , payment of dividends delayed.--concern for welfare of his country.-- indignation at corrupt proposal from california.--kendall hampered by the vails.--proposition by capitalists to purchase patent rights.--cyrus w. field.--newfoundland electric telegraph company.--suggestion of atlantic cable.--hopes thereby to eliminate war.--trip to newfoundland.--temporary failure.--f.o.j. smith continues to give trouble.--financial conditions improve.--morse and his wife sail for europe.--fêted in london.-- experiments with dr. whitehouse.--mr. brett.--dr. o'shaughnessy and the telegraph in india.--mr. cooke.--charles h. leslie.--paris.--hamburg.-- copenhagen.--presentation to king.--thorwaldsen museum.--oersted's daughter.--st. petersburg.--presentation to czar at peterhoff. i have said in the preceding chapter that order was gradually emerging from chaos in telegraphic matters, but the progress towards that goal was indeed gradual, and a perusal of the voluminous correspondence between morse and kendall, and others connected with the different lines, leaves the reader in a state of confused bewilderment and wonder that all the conflicting interests, and plots and counterplots, could ever have been brought into even seeming harmony. too much praise cannot be given to mr. kendall for the patience and skill with which he disentangled this apparently hopeless snarl, while at the same time battling against physical ills which would have caused most men to give up in despair. that morse fully appreciated the sterling qualities of this faithful friend is evidenced by the letter to dr. gale in the preceding chapter, and by many others. he always refused to consider for a moment the substitution of a younger man on the plea of mr. kendall's failing health, and his carelessness in the keeping of their personal accounts. it is true that, because of this laxity on mr. kendall's part, morse was for a long time deprived of the full income to which he was entitled, but he never held this up against his friend, always making excuses for him. affairs seem to have been going from bad to worse in the matter of dividends, for, while in he had said that only miles out of were paying him personally anything, he says in a letter to mr. kendall of january , :-- "i perceive the magnetic telegraph company meet in washington on thursday the th. please inform me by telegraph the amount of dividend they declare and the time payable. this is the only source on which i can calculate for the means of subsistence from day to day with any degree of certainty. "it is a singular reflection that occurs frequently to my mind that out of , miles of telegraph, all of which should pay me something, only miles is all that i can depend upon with certainty; and the case is a little aggravated when i think that throughout all europe, which is now meshed with telegraph wires from the southern point of corsica to st. petersburg, on which my telegraph is universally used, not a mile contributes to my support or has paid me a farthing. "well, it is all well. i am not in absolute want, for i have some credit, and painful as is the state of debt to me from the apprehension that creditors may suffer from my delay in paying them, yet i hope on." mr. kendall was not so sensitive on the subject of debt as was morse, and he was also much more optimistic and often rebuked his friend for his gloomy anticipations, assuring him that the clouds were not nearly so dark as they appeared. always imbued with a spirit of lofty patriotism, morse never failed, even in the midst of overwhelming cares, to give voice to warnings which he considered necessary. replying to an invitation to be present at a public dinner he writes:-- gentlemen,--i have received your polite invitation to join with you in the celebration of the birthday of washington. although unable to be present in person, i shall still be with you in heart. every year, indeed every day, is demonstrating the necessity of our being wide awake to the insidious sapping of our institutions by foreign emissaries in the guise of friends, who, taking advantage of the very liberality and unparalleled national generosity which we have extended to them, are undermining the foundations of our political fabric, substituting (as far as they are able to effect their purpose) on the one hand a dark, cold and heartless atheism, or, on the other, a disgusting, puerile, degrading superstition in place of the god of our fathers and the glorious elevating religion of love preached by his son. the american mind, i trust, is now in earnest waking up, and no one more rejoices at the signs of the times than myself. twenty years ago i hoped to have seen it awake, but, alas! it proved to be but a spasmodic yawn preparatory to another nap. if it shall now have waked in earnest, and with renewed strength shall gird itself to the battle which is assuredly before it, i shall feel not a little in the spirit of good old simeon-- "now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." go forward, my friends, in your patriotic work, and may god bless you in your labors with eminent success. it has been shown, i think, in the course of this work, that morse, while long-suffering and patient under trials and afflictions, was by no means poor-spirited, but could fight and use forceful language when roused by acts of injustice towards himself, his country, or his sense of right. nothing made him more righteously angry than dishonesty in whatever form it was manifested, and the following incident is characteristic. on june , , mr. kendall forwarded a letter which he had received from a certain milton s. latham, member of congress from california, making a proposition to purchase the morse patent rights for lines in california. in this letter occur the following sentences: "for the use of professor morse's patent for the state of california in perpetuity, with the reservations named in yours of the d march, , addressed to me, they are willing to give you $ , in their stock. this is all they will do. it is proper i should state that the capital stock of the california state telegraph in cash was $ , , which they raised to $ , , and subsequently to $ , . the surplus stock over the cash stock was used among members of the legislature to procure the passage of the act incorporating the company, and securing for it certain privileges." mr. kendall in his letter enclosing this naïve business proposition, remarks: "it is an impressive commentary on the principles which govern business in california that this company doubled their stock to bribe members of the state legislature, and are now willing to add but ten per cent to be relieved from the position of patent pirates and placed henceforth on an honest footing." morse more impulsively exclaims in his reply:-- "is it possible that there are men who hold up their heads in civilized society who can unblushingly take the position which the so-called california state telegraph company has deliberately taken? "accept the proposition? yes, i will accept it when i can consent to the housebreaker who has entered my house, packed up my silver and plated ware, and then coolly says to me--'allow me to take what i have packed up and i will select out that which is worthless and give it to you, after i have used it for a few years, provided any of it remain!' "a more unprincipled set of swindlers never existed. who is this mr. latham that he could recommend our accepting such terms?" in addition to the opposition of open enemies and unprincipled pirates, morse and kendall were sometimes hampered by the unjust suspicions of some of those whose interests they were striving to safeguard. referring to one such case in a letter of june , , mr. kendall says:-- "if there should be opposition i count on the vails against me. alfred has for some time been hostile because i could not if i would, and would not if i could, find him a snug sinecure in some of the companies. i fear george has in some degree given way to the same spirit. i have heard of his complaining of me, and when, before my departure for the west, i tendered my services to negotiate a connection of himself and brother with the lessees of the n.o. & o. line, he declined my offer, protesting against the entire arrangements touching that line. "having done all i could and much more than i was bound to do for the benefit of those gentlemen, i shall not permit their jealousy to disturb me, but i am anxious to have them understand the exact position i am to occupy in relation to them. i understood your purpose to be that they should share in the benefits of the extension, whether legally entitled to them or not, yet nothing has been paid over to them for sales since made. all the receipts, except a portion of my commissions, have been paid out on account of expenses, and to secure an interest for you in the n.o. & o. line." it is easy to understand that the vails should have been somewhat suspicious when little or nothing in the way of cash was coming in to them, but they seem not to have realized that morse and kendall were in the same boat, and living more on hope than cash. mr. kendall enlarges somewhat on this point in a letter of june , :-- "most heartily will i concur in a sale of all my interests in the telegraph at any reasonable rate to such a company as you describe. i fully appreciate your reasons for desiring such a consummation, and, in addition to them, have others peculiar to my own position. any one who has a valuable patent can profit by it only by a constant fight with some of the most profligate and, at the same time, most shrewd members of society. i have found myself not only the agent of yourself and the messrs. vail to sell your patent rights, but the soldier to fight your battles, as well in the country as in the courts of justice. almost single-handed, with the deadly enmity of one of the patentees, and the annoying jealousies of another, i have encountered surrounding hosts, and, i trust, been instrumental in saving something for the proprietors of this great invention, and done something to maintain the rights and vindicate the fame of its true author. nothing but your generous confidence has rendered my position tolerable, and enabled me to meet the countless difficulties with which my path has been beset with any degree of success. and now, at the end of a ten years' war, i am prepared to retire from the field and leave the future to other hands, if i can but see your interests, secured beyond contingency, and a moderate competency provided for my family and myself." the company referred to in this letter was one proposed by cyrus w. field and other capitalists of new york. the plan was to purchase the patent rights of morse, kendall, vail, and f.o.j. smith, and, by means of the large capital which would be at their command, fight the pirates who had infringed on the patent, and gradually unite the different warring companies into one harmonious concern. a monopoly, if you will, but a monopoly which had for its object better, cheaper, and quicker service to the people. this object was achieved in time, but, unfortunately for the peace of mind of morse and kendall, not just then. the name of cyrus field naturally suggests the atlantic cable, and it was just at this time that steps were being seriously taken to realize the prophecy made by morse in in his letter to the secretary of the treasury: "the practical inference from this law is that a telegraphic communication on the electro-magnetic plan may with certainty be established across the atlantic ocean! startling as this may now seem i am confident the time will come when this project will be realized." in a company had been formed and incorporated by the legislature of newfoundland, called the "newfoundland electric telegraph company." the object of this company was to connect the island by means of a cable with the mainland, but this was not accomplished at that time, and no suggestion was made of the possibility of crossing the ocean. one of the officers of that company, however, mr. f.n. gisborne, came to new york in and tried to revive the interest of capitalists and engineers in the scheme. among others he consulted matthew d. field, and through him met his brother cyrus w. field, and the question of a through line from newfoundland to new york was seriously discussed. cyrus field, a man of great energy and already interested financially and otherwise in the terrestrial telegraph, was fascinated by the idea of stretching long lines under the waters also. he examined a globe, which was in his study at home and, suddenly realizing that newfoundland and ireland were comparatively near neighbors, he said to himself: "why not cross the ocean and connect the new world with the old?" he had heard that morse long ago had prophesied that this link would some day be welded, and he became possessed with the idea that he was the person to accomplish this marvel, just as morse had received the inspiration of the telegraph in . a letter to morse, who was just then in washington, received an enthusiastic and encouraging reply, coupled with the information that lieutenant maury of the navy had, by a series of careful soundings, established the existence of a plateau between ireland and newfoundland, at no very great depth, which seemed expressly designed by nature to receive and carefully guard a telegraphic cable. mr. field lost no time in organizing a company composed originally of himself, his brother the honorable david dudley field, peter cooper, moses taylor, marshall o. roberts, and chandler white. after a liberal charter had been secured from the legislature of newfoundland the following names were added to the list of incorporators: s.f.b. morse, robert w. lowber, wilson g. hunt, and john w. brett. mr. field then went to england and with characteristic energy soon enlisted the interest and capital of influential men, and the atlantic telegraph company was organized to cooperate with the american company, and liberal pledges of assistance from the british government were secured. similar pledges were obtained from the congress of the united states, but, quite in line with former precedents, by a majority of only _one_ in the senate. morse was appointed electrician of the american company and faraday of the english company, and much technical correspondence followed between these two eminent scientists. in the spring of , morse, in a letter to his friend and relative by marriage, thomas r. walker, of utica, writes enthusiastically of the future: "our _atlantic line_ is in a fair way. we have the governments and capitalists of europe zealously and warmly engaged to carry it through. _three years_ will not pass before a _submarine telegraph communication will be had with europe_, and i do not despair of sitting in my office and, by a touch of the telegraph-key, asking a question simultaneously to persons in london, paris, cairo, calcutta, and canton, and getting the answer from all of them in _five minutes_ after the question is asked. does this seem strange? i presume if i had even suggested the thought some twenty years ago, i might have had a quiet residence in a big building in your vicinity." the first part of this prophecy was actually realized, for in , just three years after the date of this letter, communication was established between the two continents and was maintained for twenty days. then it suddenly and mysteriously ceased, and not till was the indomitable perseverance of cyrus field crowned with permanent success. more of the details of this stupendous undertaking will be told in the proper chronological order, but before leaving the letter to mr. walker, just quoted from, i wish to note that when morse speaks of sitting in his office and communicating by a touch of the key with the outside world, he refers to the fact that the telegraph companies with which he was connected had obligingly run a short line from the main line (which at that time was erected along the highway from new york to albany) into his office at locust grove, poughkeepsie, so that he was literally in touch with every place of any importance in the united states. always solicitous for the welfare of mankind in general, he says in a letter to norvin green, in july, , after discussing the proposed cable: "the effects of the telegraph on the interests of the world, political, social and commercial have, as yet, scarcely begun to be apprehended, even by the most speculative minds. i trust that one of its effects will be to bind man to his fellow-man in such bonds of amity as to put an end to war. i think i can predict this effect as in a not distant future." alas! in this he did not prove himself a true prophet, although it must be conceded that many wars have been averted or shortened by means of the telegraph, and there are some who hope that a warless age is even now being conceived in the womb of time. on july , , he writes to his good friend dr. gale: "i have no time to add, as every moment is needed to prepare for my newfoundland expedition, to be present at laying down the first submarine cable _of any considerable length_ on this side the water, although the first for telegraph purposes, you well remember, we laid between castle garden and governor's island in ." on the th of august, morse, with his wife and their eldest son, a lad of six, joined a large company of friends on board the steamer james adger which sailed for newfoundland. there they were to meet the sarah l. bryant, from england, with the cable which was to be laid across the gulf of st. lawrence. the main object of the trip was a failure, like so many of the first attempts in telegraphic communication, for a terrific storm compelled them to cut the cable and postpone the attempt, which, however, was successfully accomplished the next year. the party seems to have had a delightful time otherwise, for they were fêted wherever they stopped, notably at halifax, nova scotia, and st. johns, newfoundland. at the latter place a return banquet was given on board the james adger, and the toastmaster, in calling on morse for a speech, recited the following lines:-- "the steed called lightning (say the fates) was tamed in the united states. 't was franklin's hand that caught the horse, 't was harnessed by professor morse." to turn again for a moment to the darker side of the picture of those days, it must be kept in mind that annoying litigation was almost constant, and in the latter part of a decision had been rendered in favor of f.o.j. smith, who insisted on sharing in the benefits of the extension of the patent, although, instead of doing anything to deserve it, he had done all in his power to thwart the other patentees. commenting on this in a letter to mr. kendall of november , , morse, pathetically and yet philosophically, says:-- "is there any mode of arrangement with smith by which matters in partnership can be conducted with any degree of harmony? i wish him to have his legal rights in full, however unjustly awarded to him. i must suffer for my ignorance of legal technicalities. mortifying as this is it is better, perhaps, to suffer it with a good grace and even with cheerfulness, if possible, rather than endure the wear and tear of the spirits which a brooding over the gross fraud occasions. an opportunity of setting ourselves right in regard to him may be not far off in the future. till then let us stifle at least all outward expressions of disgust or indignation at the legal swindle." and, with the keen sense of justice which always actuated him, he adds in a postscript: "by the by, if judge curtis's decision holds good in regard to smith's _inchoate_ right, does it not equally hold good in regard to vail, and is he not entitled to a proportionate right in the extension?" during the early months of the financial affairs of the inventor had so far been straightened out that he felt at liberty to leave the country for a few months' visit to europe. the objects of this trip were threefold. he wished, as electrician of the cable company, to try some experiments over long lines with certain english scientists, with a view to determining beyond peradventure the practicability of an ocean telegraph. he also wished to visit the different countries on the continent where his telegraph was being used, to see whether their governments could not be induced to make him some pecuniary return for the use of his invention. last, but not least, he felt that he had earned a short vacation from the hard work and the many trials to which he had been subjected for so many years, and a trip abroad with his wife, who had never been out of her own country, offered the best means of relaxation and enjoyment. on the th of june, , he sailed from new york on the baltic, accompanied by his wife and his niece louisa, daughter of his brother richard. the trip proved a delightful one in every way; he was acclaimed as one of the most noted men of his day wherever he went, and emperors, kings, and scientists vied with each other in showering attentions upon him. his letters contain minute descriptions of many of his experiences and i shall quote liberally from them. to cyrus field he writes, on july , of the results of some of his experiments with dr. whitehouse:-- "i intended to have written you long before this and have you receive my letter previous to your departure from home, but every moment of my time has been occupied, as you can well conceive, since my arrival. i have especially been occupied in experiments with dr. whitehouse of the utmost importance. their results, except in a general way, i am not at present at liberty to divulge; besides they are not, as yet, by any means completed so as to assure commercial men that they may enter upon the great project of uniting europe to america with a certainty of success." and then, after dwelling upon the importance of dr. whitehouse's services, and expressing the wish that he should be liberally rewarded for his labors, he continues:-- "i can say on this subject generally that the experiments dr. whitehouse has made favorably affect the project so far as its _practicability_ is concerned, but to certainly assure its _practicality_ further experiments are essential. to enable dr. whitehouse to make these, and that he may derive the benefit of them, i conceive it to be a wise outlay to furnish him with adequate means for his purpose. "i wish i had time to give you in detail the kind receptions i have everywhere met with. to mr. statham and his family in a special manner are we indebted for the most indefatigable and constant attentions. were we relatives they could not have been more assiduous in doing everything to make our stay in london agreeable. to mr. brett also i am under great obligations. he has manifested (as have, indeed, all the gentlemen connected with the telegraph here) the utmost liberality and the most ample concession to the excellence of my telegraphic system. i have been assured now from the _highest sources_ that my system is not only the most practical for general use, but that it is fast becoming the _world's telegraph_." his brother sidney was at this time also in europe with his wife and some other members of his family, and the brothers occasionally met in their wanderings to and fro. finley writes to sidney from fenton's hotel, london, on july :-- "yours from edinburgh of the th ulto. is just received. i regret we did not see you when you called the evening before you left london. we all wished to see you and all yours before we separated so widely apart, but you know in what a whirl one is kept on a first arrival in london and can make allowances for any seeming neglect. from morning till night we have been overwhelmed with calls and the kindest and most flattering attentions. "on the day before you called i dined at greenwich with a party invited by mr. brett, representing the great telegraph interests of europe and india. i was most flatteringly received, and mr. brett, in the only toast given, gave my name as the inventor of the telegraph and of the system which has spread over the whole world and is superseding all others. dr. o'shaughnessy, who sat opposite to me, made some remarks warmly seconding mr. brett, and stating that he had come from india where he had constructed more than four thousand miles of telegraph; that he had tried many systems upon his lines, and that a few days before i arrived he had reported, in his official capacity as the director of the east india lines, to the east india company that my system was the best, and recommended to them its adoption, which i am told will undoubtedly be the case. "this was an unexpected triumph to me, since i had heard from one of our passengers in the baltic that in the east indies they were reluctant to give any credit to america for the telegraph, claiming it exclusively for wheatstone. it was, therefore, a surprise to me to hear from the gentleman who controls all the eastern lines so warm, and even enthusiastic, acknowledgment of the superiority of mine. "but i have an additional cause for gratitude for an acknowledgment from a quarter whence i least expected any favor to my system. mr. cooke, formerly associated with wheatstone, told one of the gentlemen, who informed me of it, that he had just recommended to the british government the substitution of my system for their present system, and had no doubt his recommendation would be entertained. he also said that he had heard i was about to visit europe, and that he should take the earliest opportunity to pay his respects to me. under these circumstances i called and left my card on mr. cooke, and i have now a note from him stating he shall call on me on thursday. thus the way seems to be made for the adoption of my telegraph throughout _the whole world_. "i visited one of the offices with dr. whitehouse and mr. brett where (in the city) i found my instruments in full activity, sending and receiving messages from and to paris and vienna and other places on the continent. i asked if all the lines on the continent were now using my system, that i had understood that some of the lines in france were still worked by another system. the answer was--'no, _all the lines on the continent_ are now _morse lines_.' you will undoubtedly be pleased to learn these facts." while he was thus being wined, and dined, and praised by those who were interested in his scientific achievements, he harked back for a few hours to memories of his student days in london, for his old friend and room-mate, charles r. leslie, now a prosperous and successful painter, gave him a cordial invitation to visit him at petworth, near london. morse joyfully accepted, and several happy hours were spent by the two old friends as they wandered through the beautiful grounds of the earl of egremont, where leslie was then making studies for the background of a picture. the next letter to his brother sidney is dated copenhagen, july :-- "here we are in copenhagen where we arrived yesterday morning, having travelled from hamburg to kiel, and thence by steamboat to corsoer all night, and thence by railroad here, much fatigued owing to the miserable _dis_commodations on board the boat. i have delivered my letters here and am awaiting their effect, expecting calls, and i therefore improve a few moments to apprise you of our whereabouts.... in paris i was most courteously received by the count de vouchy, now at the head of the telegraphs of france, who, with many compliments, told me that my system was the one in universal use, the simplest and the best, and desired me to visit the rooms in the great building where i should find my instruments at work. sure enough, i went into the telegraph rooms where some twenty of my own children (beautifully made) were chatting and chattering as in american offices. i could not but think of the contrast in that same building, even as late as , when the clumsy semaphore was still in use, and but a single line of electric wire, an experimental one to rouen, was in existence in france.... when we left paris we took a courier, william carter, an englishman, whom thus far we find to be everything we could wish, active, vigilant, intelligent, honest and obliging. as soon as he learned who i was he made diligent use of his information, and wherever i travelled it was along the lines of the telegraph. the telegraph posts seemed to be posted to present arms (shall i say?) as i passed, and the lines of conductors were constantly stooping and curtsying to me. at all the stations the officials received me with marked respect; everywhere the same remark met me--'your system, sir, is the only one recognized here. it is the best; we have tried others but have settled down upon yours as the best.' but yesterday, in travelling from corsoer to copenhagen, the chief director of the railroads told me, upon my asking if the telegraph was yet in operation in denmark, that it was and was in process of construction along this road. 'at first,' said he, 'in using the needle system we found it so difficult to have employees skilled in its operation that we were about to abandon the idea, but now, having adopted yours, we find no difficulty and are constructing telegraphs on all our roads.' "at all the custom-houses and in all the railroad depots i found my name a passport. my luggage was passed with only the form of an examination, and although i had taken second-class tickets for my party of four, yet the inspectors put us into first-class carriages and gave orders to the conductors to put no one in with us without our permission. i cannot enumerate all the attentions we have received. "at hamburg we were delighted, not only with its splendor and cleanliness, but having made known to mrs. lind (widow of edward's brother henry) that we were in hamburg, we received the most hearty welcome, passed the day at her house and rode out in the environs. at dinner a few friends were invited to meet us. mr. overman, a distant connection of the linds, was very anxious for me to stay a few days, hinting that, if i would consent, the authorities and dignitaries of hamburg would show me some mark of respect, for my name was well known to them. i was obliged to decline as i am anxious to be in st. petersburg before the emperor is engaged in his coronation preparations." while in denmark morse was granted a private interview with the king at his castle of frederiksborg, whither he was accompanied by captain raasloff:-- "after a few minutes the captain was called into the presence of the king, and in a few minutes more i was requested to go into the audience-chamber and was introduced by the captain to frederick vii, king of denmark. the king received me standing and very courteously. he is a man of middle stature, thick-set, and resembles more in the features of his face the busts and pictures of christian iv than those of any of his predecessors, judging as i did from the numerous busts and portraits of the kings of denmark which adorn the city palace and the castle of frederiksborg. the king expressed his pleasure at seeing the inventor of the telegraph, and regretted he could not speak english as he wished to ask me many questions. he thanked me, he said, for the beautiful instrument i had sent him; told me that a telegraph line was now in progress from the castle to his royal residence in copenhagen; that when it was completed he had decided on using my instrument, which i had given him, in his own private apartments. he then spoke of the invention as a most wonderful achievement, and wished me to inform him how i came to invent it. i accordingly in a few words gave him the early history of it, to which he listened most attentively and thanked me, expressing himself highly gratified. after a few minutes more of conversation of the same character, the king shook me warmly by the hand and we took our leave.... "we arrived in the afternoon at copenhagen. mrs. f. called in her carriage. we drove to the thorwaldsen museum or depository where are all the works of this great man. this collection of the greatest sculptor since the best period of greek art is attractive enough in itself to call travellers of taste to copenhagen. after spending some hours in thorwaldsen's museum i went to see the study of oersted, where his most important discovery of the _deflection of the needle_ by a galvanic current was made, which laid the foundation of the science of electro-magnetism, and without which my invention could not have been made. it is now a drawing school. i sat at the table where he made his discovery. "we went to the porcelain manufactory, and, singularly enough, met there the daughter of oersted, to whom i had the pleasure of an introduction. oersted was a most amiable man and universally beloved. the daughter is said to resemble her father in her features, and i traced a resemblance to him in the small porcelain bust which i came to the manufactory to purchase." "_st. petersburg, august , ._ up to this date we have been in one constant round of visits to the truly wonderful objects of curiosity in this magnificent city. i have seen, as you know, most of the great and marvellous cities of europe, but i can truly say none of them can at all compare in splendor and beauty to st. petersburg. it is a city of palaces, and palaces of the most gorgeous character. the display of wealth in the palaces and churches is so great that the simple truth told about them would incur to the narrator the suspicion of romancing. england boasts of her regalia in the tower, her crown jewels, her kohinoor diamond, etc. i can assure you that they fade into insignificance, as a rush-light before the sun, when brought before the wealth in jewels and gold seen here in such profusion. what think you of nosegays, as large as those our young ladies take to parties, composed entirely of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and other precious stones, chosen to represent accurately the colors of various flowers?-- the imperial crown, globular in shape, composed of diamonds, and containing in the centre of the greek cross which surmounts it an unwrought ruby at least two inches in diameter? the sceptre has a diamond very nearly as large as the kohinoor. at the arsenal at tsarskoye selo we saw the trappings of a horse, bridle, saddle and all the harness, with an immense saddle-cloth, set with tens of thousands of diamonds. on those parts of the harness where we have rosettes, or knobs, or buckles, were rosettes of diamonds an inch and a half to two inches in diameter, with a diamond in the centre as large as the first joint of your thumb, or say three quarters of an inch in diameter. other trappings were as rich. indeed there seemed to be no end to the diamonds. all the churches are decorated in the most costly manner with diamonds and pearls and precious stones." the following account of his reception by the czar is written in pencil: "on the paper found in my room in peterhoff." it differs somewhat from the letter written to his children and introduced by mr. prime in his book, but is, to my mind, rather more interesting. "_august , ._ this day is one to be remembered by me. yesterday i received notice from the russian minister of foreign affairs, through our minister mr. seymour, that his imperial majesty, the emperor alexander ii, had appointed the hour of . this day to see me at his palace at peterhoff. i accordingly waited upon our minister to know the etiquette to be observed on such an occasion. it was necessary, he said, to be at the boat by eight o'clock in the morning, which would arrive at peterhoff about . . i must dress in black coat, vest and pantaloons and white cravat, and appear with my turkish nishan [or decoration]. so this morning i was up early and, upon taking the boat, found our minister mr. seymour, colonel colt and mr. jarvis, attachés to the legation, with mrs. colt and miss jarvis coming on board. i learned also that there were to be many presentations of various nations' attachés to the various special deputations sent to represent their different courts at the approaching coronation at moscow. "the day is most beautiful, rendered doubly so by its contrast with so many previous disagreeable ones. on our arrival at the quay at peterhoff we found, somewhat to my surprise, the imperial carriages in waiting for us, with coachmen and footmen in the imperial livery, which, as in england and france, is scarlet, and splendid black horses, ready to take us to our quarters in the portion of the palace buildings assigned to the americans. we were attended by four or five servants in livery loaded with gold lace, and shown to our apartments upon the doors of which we found our names already written. "after throwing off our coats the servants inquired if we would have breakfast, to which, of course, we had no objection, and an excellent breakfast of coffee and sandwiches was set upon the table, served up in silver with the imperial arms upon the silver waiter and tea set. everything about our rooms, which consisted of parlor and bedroom, was plain but exceedingly clean and neat. after seeing us well housed our attendant chamberlain left us to prepare ourselves for the presentation, saying he would call for us at the proper time. as there were two or three hours to spare i took occasion to improve the time by commencing this brief notice of the events of the day. "about two o'clock our attendant, an officer named thörner, under the principal chamberlain who is, i believe, count borsch, called to say our carriages were ready. we found three carriages in waiting with three servants each, the coachman and two footmen, in splendid liveries; some in the imperial red and gold lace, and others in blue and broad gold lace emblazoned throughout with the double headed eagle. we seated ourselves in the carriages which were then driven at a rapid rate to the great palace, the entrance to which directly overlooked the numerous and celebrated grand fountains. hundreds of well-dressed people thronged on each side of the carriageway as we drove up to the door. after alighting we were ushered through a long hall and through a double row of servants of various grades, loaded with gold lace and with _chapeaux bras_. ascending the broad staircase, on each side of which we found more liveried servants, we entered an anteroom between two africans dressed in the costume of turkey, and servants of a higher grade, and then onward into a large and magnificent room where were assembled those who were to be presented. here we found ourselves among princes and nobles and distinguished persons of all nations. among the english ladies were lady granville and lady emily peel, the wife of sir robert peel, the latter a beautiful woman and dressed with great taste, having on her head a diana coronet of diamonds.... among the gentlemen were officers attached to the various deputations from england, austria, france and sardinia. several princes were among them, and conspicuous for splendor of dress was prince esterhazy; parts of his dress and the handle and scabbard of his sword blazed with diamonds. "here we remained for some time. from the windows of the hall we looked out upon the magnificent fountains and the terrace crowned with gorgeous vases of blue and gold and gilded statues. at length the master of ceremonies appeared and led the way to the southern veranda that overlooked the garden, ranging us in line and reading our names from a list, to see if we were truly mustered, after which a side door opened and the emperor alexander entered. his majesty was dressed in military costume, a blue sash was across his breast passing over the right shoulder; on his left breast were stars and orders. he commenced at the head of the column, which consisted of some fourteen or fifteen persons, and, on the mention of the name by the master of ceremonies, he addressed a few words to each. to mr. colt he said: 'ah! i have seen you before. when did you arrive? i am glad to see you.' when he came to me the master of ceremonies miscalled my name as mr. more. i instantly corrected him and said, 'no, mr. morse.' the emperor at once said: 'ah! that name is well known here; your system of telegraph is in use in russia. how long have you been in st. petersburg? i hope you have enjoyed yourself.' to which i appropriately replied. after a few more unimportant questions and answers the emperor addressed himself to the other gentlemen and retired. "after remaining a few moments, the master of ceremonies, who, by the by, apologized to me for miscalling my name, opened the door from the veranda into the empress' drawing-room, where we were again put in line to await the appearance of the empress. the doors of an adjoining room were suddenly thrown open and the empress, gorgeously but appropriately attired, advanced towards us. she was dressed in a beautiful blue silk terminating in a long flowing train of many flounces of the richest lace; upon her head a crown of diamonds, upon her neck a superb necklace of diamonds, some twenty of which were as large as the first joint of the finger. the upper part of her dress was embroidered with diamonds in a broad band, and the dress in front buttoned to the floor with rosettes of diamonds, the central diamond of each button being at least a half inch in diameter. a splendid bouquet of diamonds and precious stones of every variety of color, arranged to imitate flowers, was upon her bosom. she addressed a few words gracefully to each, necessarily commonplace, for what could she say to strangers but the common words of enquiry--when we came and whether we had been pleased with st. petersburg. "gratifying as it was to us to see her, i could not but think it was hardly possible for her to have any other gratification in seeing us than that which i have no doubt she felt, that she was giving pleasure to others. to me she appeared to be amiable and truly feminine. her manner was timid yet dignified without the least particle of hauteur. the impression left on my mind by both the emperor and empress is that they are most truly amiable and kind. "after speaking to each of us she gracefully bowed to us, we, of course, returning the salutation, and she retired followed by her maids of honor, her long train sweeping the floor for a distance of several yards behind her. we were then accompanied by the master of ceremonies back to the large reception-room, and soon after we left the palace, descending the staircase through the same lines of liveried servants to the royal carriages drawn up at the door, and returned to our rooms. on descending to our parlor we found a beautiful collation with tropical fruits and confectionery provided for us. our polite attendant, who partook with us, said that the carriages were at our service and waiting for us to take a drive in the gardens previous to dinner, which was to be served at five o'clock in the english palace and to which we were invited. "two carriages called charabancs, somewhat like the irish vehicle of the same name, with four servants in the imperial livery to each, we found at the door, and we drove for several miles through the splendid gardens and grounds laid out with all the taste of the most beautiful english grounds, with lakes, and islands, and villas, and statues, and fountains, and the most perfect neatness marked every step of our way. "the most attractive object in our ride was the italian villa, a favorite resort of the emperor, a perfect gem of its kind. we alighted here and visited all the apartments and the grounds around it. no description could do it justice; a series of pictures alone could give an idea of its beauties. while here several other royal carriages with the various deputations to the coronation ceremonies, soon to occur at moscow, arrived, and the cortège of carriages with the gorgeous costumes of the visitors alone furnished an exciting scene, heightened by the proud bearing of the richly caparisoned horses, chiefly black, and the showy trappings of the liveried attendants. "on our return to our rooms we dressed for dinner and proceeded in the same manner to the palace in the gardens called the english palace. here we found assembled in the great reception hall the distinguished company, in number forty-seven, of many nations, who were to sit down to the table together. when dinner was announced we entered the grand dining-hall and found a table most gorgeously prepared with gold and silver service and flowers. at table i found myself opposite three princes, an austrian, a hungarian, and one from some other german state, and near me on my left lord ward, one of the most wealthy nobles of england, with whom i had a good deal of conversation. opposite and farther to my right was prince esterhazy, seated between lady granville and the beautiful lady emily peel. on the other side of lady peel was lord granville and near him sir robert peel. among the guests, a list of whom i regret i did not obtain, was the young earl of lincoln and several other noblemen in the suite of lord granville.... some twenty servants in the imperial livery served the table which was furnished with truly royal profusion and costliness. the rarest dishes and the costliest wines in every variety were put before us. i need not say that in such a party everything was conducted with the highest decorum. no noise, no boisterous mirth, no loud talking, but a quiet cheerfulness and perfect ease characterized the whole entertainment. "after dinner all arose, both ladies and gentlemen, and left the room together, not after the english fashion of the gentlemen allowing the ladies to retire and then seating themselves again by themselves to drink, etc. we retired for a moment to the great reception-hall for coffee, but, being fearful that we should be too late for the last steamer from peterhoff to st. petersburg, we were hurrying to get through and to leave, but the moment our fears had come to the knowledge of lord granville, he most kindly came to us and told us to feel at ease as his steam-yacht was lying off the quay to take them up to the city, and he was but too proud to have the opportunity of offering us a place on board; an offer which we, of course, accepted with thanks. "having thus been entertained with truly imperial hospitality for the entire day, ending with this sumptuous entertainment, we descended once more to the carriages and drove to the quay, where a large barge belonging to the jean d'acre, english man-of-war (which is the ship put in commission for the service of lord granville), manned by stalwart man-of-war's-men, was waiting to take the english party of nobles, etc., on board the steam-yacht. when all were collected we left peterhoff and were soon on board. the weather was fine and the moon soon rose over the palace of peterhoff, looking for a moment like one of the splendid gilded domes of the palace. "on board the yacht i had much conversation with lord granville, who brought the various members of his suite and introduced them to me,--sir robert peel; the young earl of lincoln, the son of the duke of newcastle, who, when himself the earl of lincoln in , showed me such courtesy and kindness in london; mr. acton, a nephew of lord granville, with whom i had some conversation in which, while i was speaking of the greek religion as compared with the romish, he informed me he was a roman catholic. i wished much to have had more conversation with him, but the time was not suitable, and the steamer was now near the end of the voyage. "we landed at the quay in st. petersburg about eleven o'clock, and i reached my lodgings in the hotel de russie about twelve, thus ending a day of incidents which i shall long remember with great gratification, having only one unpleasant reflection connected with it, to wit that my dear wife, my niece and our friend miss l. were not with me to participate in the pleasure and novelty of the scenes." chapter xxxvi august , --september , berlin.--baron von humboldt.--london, successful cable experiments with whitehouse and bright.--banquet at albion tavern.--flattering speech of w.f. cooke.--returns to america.--troubles multiply.--letter to the honorable john y. mason on political matters.--kendall urges severing of connection with cable company.--morse, nevertheless, decides to continue.--appointed electrician of company.--sails on u.s.s. niagara.-- letter from paris on the crinoline.--expedition sails from liverpool.-- queenstown harbor.--accident to his leg.--valencia.--laying of cable begun.--anxieties.--three successful days.--cable breaks.--failure.-- returns to america.--retires from cable enterprise.--predicts in failure of apparently successful laying of cable.--sidney e. morse.--the hare and the tortoise.--european testimonial: considered niggardly by kendall.--decorations, medals, etc., from european nations.--letter of thanks to count walewski. his good democratic eyes a trifle dazzled by all this imperial magnificence, morse left st. petersburg and, with his party, journeyed to berlin. what was to him the most interesting incident of his visit to that city is thus described:-- "_august ._ to-day i went to potsdam to see baron humboldt, and had a delightful interview with this wonderful man. although i had met with him at the soirées of baron gerard, the distinguished painter, in paris in , and afterward at the academy of sciences, when my telegraph was exhibited to the assembled academicians in , i took letters of introduction to him from baron gerolt, the prussian minister. but they were unnecessary, for the moment i entered his room, which is in the royal palace, he called me by name and greeted me most kindly, saying, as i presented my letters: 'oh! sir, you need no letters, your name is a sufficient introduction'; and so, seating myself, he rapidly touched upon various topics relating to america." on the margin of a photograph of himself, presented to morse by the baron, is an inscription in french of which the following is a translation:-- to mr. s.f.b. morse, whose philosophic and useful labors have rendered his name illustrious in two worlds, the homage of the high and affectionate esteem of alexander humboldt. potsdam, august . the next thirty days were spent in showing the beauties of cologne, aix-la-chapelle, brussels and paris to his wife and niece, and in the latter part of september the little party returned to london. here morse resumed his experiments with dr. whitehouse and mr. bright, and on october , he reports to mr. field:-- "as the electrician of the new york, newfoundland and london telegraph company, it is with the highest gratification that i have to apprise you of the result of our experiments of this morning upon a single continuous conductor of more than two thousand miles in extent, a distance, you will perceive, sufficient to cross the atlantic ocean from newfoundland to ireland. "the admirable arrangements made at the magnetic telegraph office in old broad street for connecting ten subterranean gutta-percha insulated conductors of over two hundred miles each, so as to give one continuous length of more than two thousand miles, during the hours of the night when the telegraph is not commercially employed, furnished us the means of conclusively settling by actual experiment the question of the practicability as well as the practicality of telegraphing through our proposed atlantic cable.... i am most happy to inform you that, as a crowning result of a long series of experimental investigation and inductive reasoning upon this subject, the experiments under the direction of dr. whitehouse and mr. bright which i witnessed this morning--in which the induction-coils and receiving-magnets, as modified by these gentlemen, were made to actuate one of my recording instruments --have most satisfactorily resolved all doubts of the practicability as well as practicality of operating the telegraph from newfoundland to ireland." in , morse had been curtly and almost insultingly refused a patent for his invention in england, a humiliation for which he never quite forgave the english. now, eighteen years after this mortifying experience, the most eminent scientists of this same england vied with each other in doing him honor. thus was his scientific fame vindicated, but, let it be remarked parenthetically, this kind of honor was all that he ever received from the land of his ancestors. while other nations of europe united, two years later, in granting him a pecuniary gratuity, and while some of their sovereigns bestowed upon him decorations or medals, england did neither. however, it was always a source of the keenest gratification that two of those who had invented rival telegraphs proved themselves broad-minded and liberal enough to acknowledge the superiority of his system, and to urge its adoption by their respective governments. the first of these was dr. steinheil, of munich, to whom i have already referred, and to whom is due the valuable discovery that the earth can be used as a return circuit. the second was the englishman, w.f. cooke, who, with wheatstone, devised the needle telegraph. on october , a banquet was tendered to morse by the telegraph companies of england. it was given at the albion tavern. mr. cooke presided and introduced the guest of the evening in the following charming speech:-- "i was consulted only a few months ago on the subject of a telegraph for a country in which no telegraph at present exists. i recommended the system of professor morse. i believe that system to be one of the simplest in the world, and in that lies its permanency and certainty. [cheers.] there are others which may be as good in other circumstances, but for a wide country i hesitate not to say professor morse's is the best adapted. it is a great thing to say, and i do so after twenty years' experience, that professor morse's system is one of the simplest that ever has been and, i think, ever will be conceived. [cheers.] "it was a great thing for me, after having been so long connected with the electric telegraph, to be invited to preside at this interesting meeting, and i have travelled upward of one hundred miles in order to be present to-day, having, when asked to preside, replied by electric telegraph 'i will.' [cheers.] but i may lower your idea of the sacrifice i made in so doing when i tell you that i knew the talents of professor morse, and was only too glad to accept an invitation to do honor to a man i really honored in my heart. [cheers.] "i have been thinking during the last few days on what professor morse has done. he stands alone in america as the originator and carrier out of a grand conception. we know that america is an enormous country, and we know the value of the telegraph, but i think we have a right to quarrel with professor morse for not being content with giving the benefit of it to his own country, but that he extended it to canada and newfoundland, and, even beyond that, his system has been adopted all over europe [cheers]--and the nuisance is that we in england are obliged to communicate by means of his system. [cheers and laughter.] "i as a director of an electric telegraph company, however, should be ashamed of myself if i did not acknowledge what we owe him. but he threatens to go further still, and promises that, if we do not, he will carry out a communication between england and newfoundland across the atlantic. i am nearly pledged to pay him a visit on the other side of the atlantic to see what he is about, and, if he perseveres in his obstinate attempt to reach england, i believe i must join him in his endeavors. [cheers.] "to think that he has united all the stripes and stars of america, which are increasing day by day--and i hope they will increase until they are too numerous to mention--that he has extended his system to canada and is about to unite those portions of the world to europe, is a glorious thing for any man; and, although i have done something in the same cause myself, i confess i almost envy professor morse for having forced from an unwilling rival a willing acknowledgment of his services. [cheers.] "i am proud to see professor morse this side of the water. i beg to give you 'the health of professor morse,' and may he long live to enjoy the high reputation he has attained throughout the world!" soon after this, with these flattering words still ringing in his ears, he and his party sailed for new york and, once arrived at home, the truth of the trite saying that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country" was soon to be brought to his attention. while he had been fêted and honored abroad, while he had every reason to believe that his petition to the european governments for some pecuniary compensation would, in time, be granted, he returned to be plunged anew into vexatious litigation, intrigues and attacks upon his purse, his fame, and his good name. on november , , he refers to his greatest cross in a letter to mr. kendall:-- "i have just returned from boston, having accomplished the important duty for which i alone went there, to wit, to say 'yes' before a gentleman having u.s. commissioner after his name, instead of 'yes' before one who had only s. commissioner after his name; and this at a cost of exactly twenty dollars, or, if the one dollar thrown away in new york upon the s. commissioner be added, twenty-one dollars and three days of time, to say nothing of sundry risks of accidents by land and water travel. "well, if it will lead to a thorough separation of all interests and all intercourse with f.o.j., i shall not consider the time and money lost, yet, in conversation with mr. curtis, i have little hope of a change in judge curtis's views of the point in which he decides that smith has an inchoate right, and our only chance of success is in the reversal of that decision by the supreme bench, and that after another year's suspense.... "i wish there was some way of stopping this harassing, paralyzing litigation. i find my mind wholly unfit for the studies which the present state of the telegraph requires from me, being distracted and irritated by the constant necessity for standing on the defensive. smith will be smith i know, and, therefore, as he is the appointed thorn to keep a proper ballast of humility in s.f.b.m. with his load of honors, why, be it so, if i can only have the proper strength and disposition to use the trial aright.... write me some encouraging news if you can. how will the present calm in political affairs affect our california matters?" the calm to which he referred was the apparent one which had settled down on the country after the election of buchanan, and which, as everybody knows, was but the calm before the storm of our civil war. he has this to say about the election in a letter to the honorable john y. mason, our minister to france:-- "i may congratulate you, my dear sir, on the issue of the late election. my predictions have been verified. the country is quiet, and, as usual after the excitement of an election, has settled down into orderly acquiescence to the will of the majority, and into general good feeling. europeans can hardly understand this truly anomalous phase of our american institutions; they do not understand that it is characteristic that 'we speak daggers but use none'; that we fight with ballots and not with bullets; that we have abundance of inkshed and little bloodshed, and that all that is explosive is blown off through newspaper safety-valves." the events of the next few years were destined to shatter the peaceful visions of this lover of his country, for many daggers were drawn, the bullets flew thick and fast, and the bloodshed was appalling. it is difficult to follow the history of the telegraph, in its relation to its inventor, through all the intricacies involved in the conflicting interests of various companies and men in this its formative period. morse himself was often at a loss to determine on the course which he should pursue, a course which would at the same time inure to his financial benefit and be in accordance with his high sense of right. absolutely straightforward and honest himself, it was difficult for him to believe that others who spoke him fair were not equally sincere, and he was often imposed upon, and was frequently forced, in the exigencies of business, to be intimately associated with those whose ideas of right and wrong were far different from his own. the one person in whose absolute integrity he had faith was amos kendall, and yet he must sometimes have thought that his friend was too severe in his judgment of others, for i find in a letter of mr. kendall's of january , , the following warning:-- "i earnestly beseech you to give up all idea of going out again on the cable-laying expedition. your true friends do not comprehend how it is that you give your time, your labor, and your fame to build up an interest deliberately and unscrupulously hostile to all their interests and your own.... i believe that peter cooper is the only man among them who is sincerely your friend. as to field, i have as little faith in him as i have in f.o.j. smith. if you could get cooper to take a stand in favor of the faithful observance of the contract for connection with the n.e. union line at boston, he can put an end to all trouble, if, at the same time, he will refuse to concur in a further extension of their lines south." in spite of this warning, or, perhaps, because peter cooper succeeded in overcoming mr. kendall's objections, morse did go out on the next cable-laying expedition, and yet he found in the end that mr. kendall's suspicions were by no means unjustified. but of this in its proper place. the united states government had placed the steam frigate niagara at the disposal of the cable company, and on her morse, as the electrician of the american company, sailed from new york on april , . arriving in london, he was again honored by many attentions and entertainments, including a dinner at the lord mayor's. the loading of the cable on board the ships designated for that purpose consumed, necessarily, some time, and morse took advantage of this delay to visit paris, at the suggestion of our minister, mr. mason, in order to confer with the premier, count walewski, with regard to the pecuniary indemnity which all agreed was due to him from the nations using his invention. this conference bore fruit, as we shall see later on. in a letter to his wife from paris he makes this amusing comment on the fashions of the day, after remarking on the dearth of female beauty in france:-- "you must consider me now as speaking of features only, for as to form, alas, that is under such a total crinoline eclipse that this season of total darkness in fashion's firmament forbids any speculation on that subject. the reign of crinoline amplitude is not only not removed, but is more dominant than ever. who could have predicted that, because an heir to the french throne was in expectancy, all womankind, old and young, would so far sympathize with the amiable consort of napoleon iii as to be, in appearance at least, likely to flood the earth with heirs; that grave parliaments would be in solemn debate upon the pressing necessity of enlarging the entrances of royal palaces in order to meet the exigencies of enlarged crinolines; that the new carriages were all of increased dimensions to accommodate the crinoline? but so it is; it is the age of crinoline.... talk no longer of chairs, they are no longer visible. talk no longer of tête-à-têtes; two crinolines might get in sight of each other, at least by the use of the lorgnette, but as for conversation, that is out of the question except by speaking trumpets, by signs, and who knows but in this age of telegraphs crinoline may not follow the world's fashion and be a patroness of the morse system." all the preparations for the great enterprise of the laying of the cable proceeded slowly, and it was not until the latter part of july that the little fleet sailed from liverpool on its way to the cove of cork and then to valencia, on the west coast of ireland, which was chosen as the european terminus of the cable. morse wrote many pages of minute details to his wife, and from them i shall select the most important and interesting:-- "_july ._ here we are steaming our way towards cork harbor, with most beautiful weather, along the irish coast, which is in full view, and expecting to be in the cove of cork in the morning of to-morrow.... we left liverpool yesterday morning, as i wrote you we should, and as we passed the ships of war in the harbor we were cheered from the rigging by the tars of the various vessels, and the flags of others were dipped as a salute, all of which were returned by us in kind. the landing stage and quays of liverpool were densely crowded with people who waved their handkerchiefs as we slowly sailed by them. "two steamers accompanied us down to the bar filled with people, and then, after mutual cheering and firing of cannon from one of the steamers, they returned to port.... we shall be in cork the remainder of the week, possibly sailing on saturday, go round to valencia and be ready to commence on monday. then, if all things are prosperous, we hope to reach newfoundland in twenty days, and dear home again the first week in september. and yet there may be delays in this great work, for it is a vast and new one, so don't be impatient if i do not return quite so soon. the work must be thoroughly and well done before we leave it.... "_evening, ten o'clock._ we have had a beautiful day and have been going slowly along and expect to be in the cove of cork by daylight in the morning. the deck of our ship presents a curious appearance just now; between the main and mizzen masts is an immense coil of one hundred and thirty miles of the cable, the rest is in larger coils below decks. abaft the mizzen mast is a ponderous mass of machinery for regulating the paying out of the cable, a steam-engine and boiler complete, and they have just been testing it to see if all is right, and it is found right. we have the prospect of a fine moon for our expedition. "i send you the copy of a prayer that has been read in the churches. i am rejoiced at the manner in which the christian community views our enterprise. it is calculated to inspire my confidence of success. what the first message will be i cannot say, but if i send it it shall be, 'glory to god in the highest, on earth peace and good will to men.' 'not unto us, not unto us, but to thy name be all the glory.'" "_july , four o'clock afternoon._ on awaking this morning at five o'clock with the noise of coming to anchor, i found myself safely ensconced in one of the most beautiful harbors in the world, with queenstown picturesquely rising upon the green hills from the foot of the bay...." "_august ._ when i wrote the finishing sentence of my last letter i was suffering a little from a slight accident to my leg. we were laying out the cable from the two ships, the agamemnon and niagara, to connect the two halves of the cable together to experiment through the whole length of twenty-five hundred miles for the first time. in going down the side of the agamemnon i had to cross over several small boats to reach the outer one, which was to take me on board the tug which had the connecting cable on board. in stepping from one to the other of the small boats, the water being very rough and the boats having a good deal of motion, i made a misstep, my right leg being on board the outer boat, and my left leg went down between the two boats scraping the skin from the upper part of the leg near the knee for some two or three inches. it pained me a little, but not much, still i knew from experience that, however slight and comparatively painless at the time, i should be laid up the next day and possibly for several days. "my warm-hearted, generous friend, sir william o'shaughnessy, was on board, and, being a surgeon, he at once took it in hand and dressed it, tell susan, in good hydropathic style with cold water. i felt so little inconvenience from it at the time that i assisted throughout the day in laying the cable, and operating through it after it was joined, and had the satisfaction of witnessing the successful result of passing the electricity through twenty-five hundred miles at the rate of one signal in one and a quarter second. since then dr. whitehouse has succeeded in telegraphing a message through it at the rate of a single signal in three quarters of a second. if the cable, therefore, is successfully laid so as to preserve continuity throughout, there is no doubt of our being able to telegraph through, and at a good commercial speed. "i have been on my back for two days and am still confined to the ship. to-morrow i hope to be well enough to hobble on board the agamemnon and assist in some experiments." the accident to his leg was more serious than he at first imagined, and conditions were not improved by his using his leg more than was prudent. "_august , eleven o'clock a.m._ i am still confined, most of the time on my back in my berth, quite to my annoyance in one respect, to wit, that i am unable to be on board the agamemnon with dr. whitehouse to assist at the experiments. yet i have so much to be thankful for that gratitude is the prevailing feeling. "_seven o'clock._ all the ships are under way from the cove of cork. the leopard left first, then the agamemnon, then the susquehanna and the niagara last; and at this moment we are off the head of kinsale in the following order: niagara, leopard, agamemnon, susquehanna. the cyclops and another vessel, the advice, left for valencia on saturday evening, and, with a beautiful night before us, we hope to be there also by noon to-morrow. "this day three hundred and sixty-five years ago columbus sailed on his first voyage of discovery and discovered america." "_august ._ off the skelligs light, of which i send you a sketch. a beautiful morning with head wind and heavy sea, making many seasick. we are about fifteen miles from our point of destination. our companion ships are out of sight astern, except the susquehanna, which is behind us only about a mile. in a few hours we hope to reach our expectant friends in valencia and to commence the great work in earnest. "our ship is crowded with engineers, and operators, and delegates from the governments of russia and france, and the deck is a bewildering mass of machinery, steam-engines, cog-wheels, breaks, boilers, ropes of hemp and ropes of wire, buoys and boys, pulleys and sheaves of wood and iron, cylinders of wood and cylinders of iron, meters of all kinds,-- anemometers, thermometers, barometers, electrometers,--steam-gauges, ships' logs--from the common log to massey's log and friend's log, to our friend whitehouse's electro-magnetic log, which i think will prove to be the best of all, with a modification i have suggested. thus freighted we expect to disgorge most of our solid cargo before reaching mid-ocean. "i am keeping ready to close this at a moment's warning, so give all manner of love to all friends, kisses to whom kisses are due. i am getting almost impatient at the delays we necessarily encounter, but our great work must not be neglected. i have seen enough to know now that the atlantic telegraph is sure to be established, _for it is practicable_." was it a foreboding of what was to happen that caused him to add:-- "_we may not succeed in our first attempt_; some little neglect or accident may foil our present efforts, but the present enterprise will result in gathering stores of experience which will make the next effort certain. not that i do not expect success now, but accidental failure now will not be the evidence of its impracticability. "our principal electrical difficulty is the slowness with which we must manipulate in order to be intelligible; twenty words in sixteen minutes is now the rate. i am confident we can get more after awhile, but the atlantic telegraph has its own rate of talking and cannot be urged to speak faster, any more than any other orator, without danger of becoming unintelligible. "_three o'clock p.m._ we are in valencia harbor. we shall soon come to anchor. a pilot who has just come to show us our anchorage ground says: 'there are a power of people ashore.'" "_august ._ yesterday, at half past six p.m., all being right, we commenced again paying out the heavy shore-end, of which we had about eight miles to be left on the rocky bottom of the coast, to bear the attrition of the waves and to prevent injury to the delicate nerve which it incloses in its iron mail, and which is the living principle of the whole work. a critical time was approaching, it was when the end of the massive cable should pass overboard at the point where it joins the main and smaller cable. i was in my berth, by order of the surgeon, lest my injured limb, which was somewhat inflamed by the excitement of the day and too much walking about, should become worse. "above my head the heavy rumbling of the great wheels, over which the cable was passing and was being regulated, every now and then giving a tremendous thump like the discharge of artillery, kept me from sleep, and i knew they were approaching the critical point. presently it came. the machinery stopped, and soon amid the voices i heard the unwelcome intelligence--'the cable is broke.' sure enough the smaller cable at this point had parted, but, owing to the prudent precautions of those superintending, the end of the great cable had been buoyed and the hawsers which had been attached secured it. the sea was moderate, the moonlight gave a clear sight of all, and in half an hour the joyous sound of 'all right' was heard, the machinery commenced a low and regular rumbling, like the purring of a great cat, which has continued from that moment (midnight) till the present moment uninterrupted. "the coil on deck is most beautifully uncoiling at the rate of three nautical miles an hour. the day is magnificent, the land has almost disappeared and our companion ships are leisurely sailing with us at equal pace, and we are all, of course, in fine spirits. i sent you a telegraph dispatch this morning, thirty miles out, which you will duly receive with others that i shall send if all continues to go on without interruption. if you do receive any, preserve them with the greatest care, for they will be great curiosities." "_august ._ thus far we have had most delightful weather, and everything goes on regularly and satisfactorily. you are aware we cannot stop night nor day in paying out. on saturday we made our calculations that the first great coil, which is upon the main deck, would be completely paid out, and one of our critical movements, to wit, the change from this coil to the next, which is far forward, would be made by seven or eight o'clock yesterday morning (sunday). so we were up and watching the last flake of the first coil gradually diminishing. everything had been well prepared; the men were at their posts; it was an anxious moment lest a kink might occur. but, as the last round came up, the motion of the ship was slightly slackened, the men handled the slack cable handsomely, and in two minutes the change was made with perfect order, and the paying out from the second coil was as regularly commenced and at this moment continues, and at an increased rate to-day of five miles per hour. "last night, however, was another critical moment. on examining our chart of soundings we found the depth of the ocean gradually increasing up to about four hundred fathoms, and then the chart showed a sudden and great increase to seventeen hundred fathoms, and then a further increase to two thousand and fifty, nearly the greatest depth with which we should meet in the whole distance. we had, therefore, to watch the effect of this additional depth upon the straining of the cable. at two in the morning the effect showed itself in a greater strain and a more rapid tendency to run fast. we could check its speed, but it is a dangerous process. _too sudden a check would inevitably snap the cable_. too slack a rein would allow of its egress at such a wasting rate and at such a violent speed that we should lose too great a portion of the cable, and its future stopping within controllable limits be almost impossible. hence our anxiety. all were on the alert; our expert engineers applied the brakes most judiciously, and at the moment i write--latitude ° '--the cable is being laid at the depth of two miles in its ocean bed as regularly and with as much facility as it was in the depth of a few fathoms.... "_six p.m._ we have just had a fearful alarm. 'stop her! stop her!' was reiterated from many voices on deck. on going up i perceived the cable had got out of its sheaves and was running out at great speed. all was confusion for a few moments. mr. canning, our friend, who was the engineer of the newfoundland cable, showed great presence of mind, and to his coolness and skill, i think, is due the remedying of the evil. by rope stoppers the cable was at length brought to a standstill, and it strained most ominously, perspiring at every part great tar drops. but it held together long enough to put the cable on the sheaves again." "_tuesday, august ._ abruptly indeed am i stopped in my letter. this morning at . the cable parted, and we shall soon be on our way back to england." thus ended the first attempt to unite the old world with the new by means of an electric nerve. authorities differ as to who was responsible for the disaster, but the cause was proved to be what morse had foreseen when he wrote: "too sudden a check would inevitably snap the cable." while, of course, disappointed, he was not discouraged, for under date of august , he writes:-- "our accident will delay the enterprise but will not defeat it. i consider it a settled fact, from all i have seen, that it is perfectly practicable. it will surely be accomplished. there is no insurmountable difficulty that has for a moment appeared, none that has shaken my faith in it in the slightest degree. my report to the company as co-electrician will show everything right in that department. we got an electric current through till the moment of parting, so that electric connection was perfect, and yet the farther we paid out the feebler were the currents, indicating a difficulty which, however, i do not consider serious, while it is of a nature to require attentive investigation." "_plymouth, august ._ here i am still held by the leg and lying in my berth from which i have not moved for six days. i suffer but little pain unless i attempt to sit up, and the healing process is going on most favorably but slowly.... i have been here three days and have not yet had a glimpse of the beautiful country that surrounds us, and if we should be ordered to another port before i can be out i shall have as good an idea of plymouth as i should have at home looking at a map." while the wounded leg healed slowly, the plans of the company moved more deliberately still. a movement was on foot for the east india company to purchase what remained of the cable for use in the red sea or the persian gulf, so that the atlantic company could start afresh with an entirely new cable, and morse hoped that this plan might be consummated at an early date so that he could return to america in the niagara; but the negotiations halted from day to day and week to week. the burden of his letters to his wife is always that a decision is promised by "to-morrow," and finally he says in desperation: "to-day was to-morrow yesterday, but to-day has to-day another to-morrow, on which day, as usual, we are to know something. but as to-day has not yet gone, i wait with some anxiety to learn what it is to bring forth." his letters are filled with affectionate longing to be at home again and with loving messages to all his dear ones, and at last he is able to say that his wound has completely healed, and that he has decided to leave the niagara and sail from liverpool on the arabia, on september , and in due time he arrived at his beloved home on the hudson. while still intensely interested in the great cable enterprise, he begins to question the advisability of continuing his connection with the men against whom mr. kendall had warned him, for in a letter to his brother richard, of october , , he says: "i intend to withdraw altogether from the atlantic telegraph enterprise, as they who are prominent on this side of the water in its interests are using it with all then: efforts and influence against my invention, and my interests, and those of my assignees, to whom i feel bound in honor to attach myself, even if some of them have been deceived into coalition with the hostile party." it was, however, a great disappointment to him that he was not connected with future attempts to lay the cable. his withdrawal was not altogether voluntary in spite of what he said in the letter from which i have just quoted. while he had been made an honorary director of the company in , although not a stockholder, a law was subsequently passed declaring that only stockholders could be directors, even honorary directors. he had not felt financially able to purchase stock, but it was a source of astonishment to him and to others that a few shares, at least, had not been allotted to him for his valuable services in connection with the enterprise. he had, nevertheless, cheerfully given of his time and talents in the first attempt, although cautioned by mr. kendall. he goes fully into the whole matter in a very long letter to mr. john w. brett, of december , , in which he details his connection with the cable company, his regret and surprise at being excluded on the ground of his not being a stockholder, especially as, on a subsequent visit to europe, he found that two other men had been made honorary directors, although they were not stockholders. he says that he learned also that "mr. field had represented to the directors that i was hostile to the company, and was using my exertions to defeat the measures for aid from the united states government to the enterprise, and that it was in consequence of these misrepresentations that i was not elected." he says farther on: "i sincerely rejoiced in the consummation of the great enterprise, although prevented in the way i have shown from being present. i ought to have been with the cable squadron last summer. it was no fault of mine, that i was not there. i hope mr. field can exculpate himself in the eyes of the board, before the world, and before his own conscience, in the course he has taken." on the margin of the letter-press copy of a letter written to mr. kendall on december , , is a note in pencil written, evidently, at a later date: "mr. field has since manifested by his conduct a different temper. i have long since forgiven what, after all, may have been error of ignorance on his part." the fact remains, however, that his connection with the cable company was severed, and that his relations with messrs. field, cooper, etc., were decidedly strained. it is more than possible that, had he continued as electrician of the company, the second attempt might have been successful, for he foresaw the difficulty which resulted in failure, and, had he been the guiding mind, it would, naturally, have been avoided. the proof of this is in the following incident, which was related by a friend of his, mr. jacob s. jewett, to mr. prime:-- "i thought it might interest you to know when and how professor morse received the first tidings of the success of the atlantic cable. i accompanied him to europe on the steamer fulton, which sailed from new york july , . we were nearing southampton when a sail boat was noticed approaching, and soon our vessel was boarded by a young man who sought an interview with professor morse, and announced to him that a message from america had just been received, the first that had passed along the wire lying upon the bed of the ocean. "professor morse was, of course, greatly delighted, but, turning to me, said: '_this is very gratifying, but it is doubtful whether many more messages will be received_'; and gave as his reason that--'the cable had been so long stored in an improper place that much of the coating had been destroyed, and the cable was in other respects injured.' his prediction proved to be true." and mr. prime adds: "had he been in the board of direction, had his judgment and experience as electrician been employed, that great calamity, which cost millions of money and eight years of delay in the use of the ocean telegraph, would, in all human probability, have been averted." but it is idle to speculate on what might have been. his letters show that the action of the directors amazed and hurt him, and that it was with deep regret that he ceased to take an active part in the great enterprise the success of which he had been the first to prophesy. many other matters claimed his attention at this time, for, as usual upon returning from a prolonged absence, he found his affairs in more or less confusion, and his time for some months after his return was spent mainly in straightening them out. the winter was spent in new york with his family, but business calling him to washington, he gives utterance, in a letter to his wife of december , to sentiments which will appeal to all who have had to do with the powers that be in the government service:-- "as yet i have not had the least success in getting a proper position for charles. a more thankless, repulsive business than asking for a situation under government i cannot conceive. i would myself starve rather than ask such a favor if i were alone concerned. the modes of obtaining even a hearing are such as to drive a man of any sensitiveness to wish himself in the depths of the forest away from the vicinity of men, rather than encounter the airs of those on their temporary thrones of power. i cannot say what i feel. i shall do all i can, but anticipate no success.... i called to see secretary toucey for the purpose of asking him to put me in the way of finding some place for charles, but, after sending in my card and waiting in the anteroom for half to three fourths of an hour, he took no notice of my card, just left his room, passed by deliberately the open door of the anteroom without speaking to me, and left the building. this may be all explained and i will charitably hope there was no intention of rudeness to me, but, unexplained, a ruder slight could not well be conceived." the affection of the three morse brothers for each other was unusually strong, and it is from the unreserved correspondence between finley and sidney that some of the most interesting material for this work has been gathered. both of these brothers possessed a keen sense of humor and delighted in playful banter. the following is written in pencil on an odd scrap of paper and has no date:-- "when my brother and i were children my father one day took us each on his knee and said: 'now i am going to tell you the character of each of you.' he then told us the fable of the hare and the tortoise. 'now,' said he, 'finley' (that is me), 'you are the hare and sidney, your brother, is the tortoise. see if i am not correct in prophesying your future careers.' so ever since it has been a topic of banter between sidney and me. sometimes sidney seemed to be more prosperous than i; then he would say, 'the old tortoise is ahead.' then i would take a vigorous run and cry out to him,' the hare is ahead.' for i am naturally quick and impulsive, and he sluggish and phlegmatic. so i am now going to give him the hare riding the tortoise as a piece of fun. sidney will say: 'ah! you see the hare is obliged to ride on the tortoise in order to get to the goal!' but i shall say: 'yes, but the tortoise could not get there unless the hare spurred him up and guided him.'" both of these brothers achieved success, but, unfortunately for the moral of the old fable, the hare quite outdistanced the tortoise, without, however, kindling any spark of jealousy in that faithful heart. while sidney was still in europe his brother writes to him on december , :-- "i don't know what you must think of me for not having written to you since my return. it has not been for want of will but truly from the impossibility of withdrawing myself from an unprecedented pressure of more important duties, on which to _write_ so that you could form any clear idea of them would be impossible. these duties arise from the state of my affairs thrown into confusion by the conduct of parties intent on controlling all my property. but, i am happy to state, my affairs are in a way of adjustment through the active exertions of my faithful agent and friend, mr. kendall, so far as his declining strength permits.... i wish you were near me so that we could exchange views on many subjects, particularly on the one which so largely occupies public attention everywhere. i have been collecting works pro and con on the slavery question with a view of writing upon it. we are in perfect accord, i think, on that subject. i believe that you and i would be considered in new england as rank heretics, for, i confess, the more i study the subject the more i feel compelled to declare myself on the southern side of the question. "i care not for the judgment of men, however; i feel on sure ground while standing on bible doctrine, and i have arrived at the conclusion that a fearful hallucination, not less absurd than that which beclouded some of the most pious and otherwise intelligent minds of the days of salem witchcraft, has for a time darkened the moral atmosphere of the north." the event has seemed to prove that it was the southern sympathizers at the north, those "most pious and otherwise intelligent minds," whose moral atmosphere was darkened by a "fearful hallucination," for no one now claims that slavery is a divine institution because the bible says, "slaves, obey your masters." i have stated that one of the purposes of morse's visit to europe in was to seek to persuade the various governments which were using his telegraph to grant him some pecuniary remuneration. the idea was received favorably at the different courts, and resulted in a concerted movement initiated by the count walewski, representing france, and participated in by ten of the european nations. the sittings of this convention, or congress, were held in paris from april, , to the latter part of august, and the result is announced in a letter of count walewski to morse of september :-- sir,--it is with lively satisfaction that i have the honor to announce to you that a sum of four hundred thousand francs will be remitted to you, in four annuities, in the name of france, of austria, of belgium, of the netherlands, of piedmont, of russia, of the holy see, of sweden, of tuscany and of turkey, as an honorary gratuity, and as a reward, altogether personal, of your useful labors. nothing can better mark than this collective act of reward the sentiment of public gratitude which your invention has so justly excited. the emperor has already given you a testimonial of his high esteem when he conferred upon you, more than a year ago, the decoration of a chevalier of his order of the legion of honor. you will find a new mark of it in the initiative which his majesty wished that his government should take in this conjuncture; and the decision that i charge myself to bring to your knowledge is a brilliant proof of the eager and sympathetic adhesion that his proposition has met with from the states i have just enumerated. i pray you to accept on this occasion, sir, my personal congratulations, as well as the assurance of my sentiments of the most distinguished consideration. while this letter is dated september , the amount of the gratuity agreed upon seems to have been made known soon after the first meeting of the convention, for on april , the following letter was written to morse by m. van den broek, his agent in all the preliminaries leading up to the convention, and who, by the way, was to receive as his commission one third of the amount of the award, whatever it might be: "i have this morning seen the secretary of the minister, and from him learned that the sum definitely fixed is , francs, payable in four years. this does not by any means answer our expectations, and i am afraid you will be much disappointed, yet i used every exertion in my power, but without avail, to procure a grant of a larger sum." it certainly was a pitiful return for the millions of dollars which morse's invention had saved or earned for those nations which used it as a government monopoly, and while i find no note of complaint in his own letters, his friends were more outspoken. mr. kendall, in a letter of may , exclaims: "i know not how to express my contempt of the meanness of the european governments in the award they propose to make you as _the_ inventor of the telegraph. i had set the sum at half a million dollars as the least that they could feel to be at all compatible with their dignity. i hope you will acknowledge it more as a tribute to the merits of your invention than as an adequate reward for it." and in a letter of june , answering one of morse's which must have contained some expressions of gratitude, mr. kendall says further: "in reference to the second subject of your letter, i have to say that it is only as a tribute to the superiority of your invention that the european grant can, in my opinion, be considered either 'generous' or 'magnanimous.' as an indemnity it is niggardly and mean." it will be in place to record here the testimonials of the different nations of europe to the inventor of the telegraph, manifested in various forms:-- _france._ a contributor to the honorary gratuity, and the decoration of the legion of honor. _prussia._ the scientific gold medal of prussia set in the lid of a gold snuff-box. _austria._ a contributor to the honorary gratuity, and the scientific gold medal of austria. _russia._ a contributor to the honorary gratuity. _spain._ the cross of knight commander de numero of the order of isabella the catholic. _portugal._ the cross of a knight of the tower and sword. _italy._ a contributor to the honorary gratuity, and the cross of a knight of saints lazaro and mauritio. _württemberg._ the scientific gold medal of württemberg. _turkey._ a contributor to the honorary gratuity, and the decoration in diamonds of the nishan iftichar, or order of glory. _denmark._ the cross of knight commander of the dannebrog. _holy see._ a contributor to the honorary gratuity. _belgium._ a contributor to the honorary gratuity. _holland._ a contributor to the honorary gratuity. _sweden._ a contributor to the honorary gratuity. _great britain._ nationally nothing. _switzerland._ nationally nothing. _saxony._ nationally nothing. the decorations and medals enumerated above, with the exception of the danish cross, which had to be returned at the death of the recipient, and one of the medals, which mysteriously disappeared many years ago, are now in the morse case at the national museum in washington, having been presented to that institution by the children and grandchildren of the inventor. it should be added that, in addition to the honors bestowed on him by foreign governments, he was made a member of the royal academy of sciences of sweden, a member of the institute of france and of the principal scientific societies of the united states. it has been already noted in these pages that his _alma mater_, yale, conferred on him the degree of ll.d. i have said that i find no note of complaint in morse's letters. whatever his feelings of disappointment may have been, he felt it his duty to send the following letter to count walewski on september , . perhaps a slight note of irony may be read into the sentence accepting the gratuity, but, if intended, i fear it was too feeble to have reached its mark, and the letter is, as a whole and under the circumstances, almost too fulsome, conforming, however, to the stilted style of the time:-- on my return to paris from switzerland i have this day received, from the minister of the united states, the most gratifying information which your excellency did me the honor to send to me through him, respecting the decision of the congress of the distinguished diplomatic representatives of ten of the august governments of europe, held in special reference to myself. you have had the considerate kindness to communicate to me a proceeding which reflects the highest honor upon the imperial government and its noble associates, and i am at a loss for language adequately to express to them my feelings of profound gratitude. but especially, your excellency, do i want words to express towards the august head of the imperial government, and to your excellency, the thankful sentiments of my heart for the part so prominently taken by his imperial majesty, and by your excellency, in so generously initiating this measure for my honor in inviting the governments of europe to a conference on the subject, and for so zealously and warmly advocating and perseveringly conducting to a successful termination, the measure in which the imperial government so magnanimously took the initiative. i accept the gratuity thus tendered, on the basis of an honorary testimonial and a personal reward, with tenfold more gratification than could have been produced by a sum of money, however large, offered on the basis of a commercial negotiation. i beg your excellency to receive my thanks, however inadequately expressed, and to believe that i appreciate your excellency's kind and generous services performed in the midst of your high official duties, consummating a proceeding so unique, and in a manner so graceful, that personal kindness has been beautifully blended with official dignity. i will address respectively to the honorable ministers who were your excellency's colleagues a letter of thanks for their participation in this act of high honor to me. i beg your excellency to accept the assurances of my lasting gratitude and highest consideration in subscribing myself your excellency's most obedient humble servant, samuel f.b. morse. chapter xxxvii september , --september , visits europe again with a large family party.--regrets this.--sails for porto rico with wife and two children.--first impressions of the tropics.--hospitalities.--his son-in-law's plantation.--death of alfred vail.--smithsonian exonerates henry.--european honors to morse.--first line of telegraph in porto rico.--banquet.--returns home.--reception at poughkeepsie.--refuses to become candidate for the presidency.--purchases new york house.--f.o.j. smith claims part of european gratuity.--succeeds through legal technicality.--visit of prince of wales.--duke of newcastle.--war clouds.--letters on slavery, etc.--matthew vassar.-- efforts as peacemaker.--foresees northern victory.--gloomy forebodings.-- monument to his father.--divides part of european gratuity with widow of vail.--continued efforts in behalf of peace.--bible arguments in favor of slavery. many letters of this period, including a whole letterpress copy-book, are missing, many of the letters in other copy-books are quite illegible through the fading of the ink, and others have been torn out (by whom i do not know) and have entirely disappeared. it will, therefore, be necessary to summarize the events of the remainder of the year , and of some of the following years. we find that, on july , , morse sailed with his family, including his three young boys, his mother-in-law and other relatives, a party of fifteen all told, for havre on the steamer fulton; that he was tendered a banquet by his fellow-countrymen in paris, and that he was received with honor wherever he went. travelling with a large family was a different proposition from the independence which he had enjoyed on his previous visits to europe, when he was either alone or accompanied only by his wife and niece, and he pathetically remarks to his brother sidney, in a letter of september , written from interlaken: "it was a great mistake i committed in bringing my family. i have scarcely had one moment's pleasure, and am almost worn out with anxieties and cares. if i get back safe with them to paris i hope, after arranging my affairs there, to go as direct as possible to southampton, and settle them there till i sail in november. i am tired of travelling and long for the repose of locust grove, if it shall please our heavenly father to permit us to meet there again." [illustration: morse and his youngest son] before returning to the quiet of his home on the hudson, however, he paid a visit which he had long had in contemplation. on november , , he and his wife and their two younger sons sailed from southampton for porto rico, where his elder daughter, mrs. edward land, had for many years lived, and where his younger daughter had been visiting while he was in europe. he describes his first impressions of a tropical country in a letter to his mother-in-law, mrs. griswold, who had decided to spend the winter in geneva to superintend the education of his son arthur, a lad of nine:-- "in st. thomas we received every possible attention. the governor called on us and invited edward and myself to breakfast (at . o'clock) the day we left. he lives in a fine mansion on one of the lesser hills that enclose the harbor, having directly beneath him on the slope, and only separated by a wall, the residence of santa anna. he was invited to be present, but he was ill (so he said) and excused himself. i presume his illness was occasioned by the thought of meeting an american from the states, for he holds the citizens of the states in perfect hatred, so much so as to refuse to receive united states money in change from his servants on their return from market. "a few days in change of latitude make wonderful changes in feelings and clothing. when we left england the air was wintry, and thick woolen clothing and fires were necessary. the first night at sea blankets were in great demand. with two extra and my great-coat over all i was comfortably warm. in twenty-four hours the great-coat was dispensed with, then one blanket, then another, until a sheet alone began to be enough, and the last two or three nights on board this slight covering was too much. when we got into the harbor of st. thomas the temperature was oppressive; our slightest summer clothing was in demand. surrounded by pomegranate trees, magnificent oleanders, cocoa-nut trees with their large fruit some thirty feet from the ground, the aloe and innumerable, and to me strange, tropical plants, i could scarcely believe it was december.... "we arrived on thursday morning and remained until monday morning, edward having engaged a long island schooner, which happened to be in port, to take us to arroyo. at four o'clock the governor sent his official barge, under the charge of the captain of the port, a most excellent, intelligent, scientific gentleman, who had breakfasted with us at the governor's in the morning, and in a few minutes we were rowed alongside of the schooner estelle, and before dark were under way and out of the harbor. our quarters were very small and close, but not so uncomfortable. "at daylight in the morning of tuesday we were sailing along the shores of porto rico, and at sunrise we found we were in sight of guyama and arroyo, and with our glasses we saw at a distance the buildings on edward's estate. susan had been advised of our coming and a flag was flying on the house in answer to the signal we made from the vessel. in two or three hours we got to the shore, as near as was safe for the vessel, and then in the doctor's boat, which had paid us an official visit to see that we did not bring yellow fever or other infectious disease, the kind doctor, an irishman educated in america, took us ashore at a little temporary landing-place to avoid the surf. on the shore there were some handkerchiefs shaking, and in a crowd we saw susan and leila, and charlie [his grandson] who were waiting for us in carriages, and in a few moments we embraced them all. the sun was hot upon us, but, after a ride of two or three miles, we came to the henrietta, my dear edward and susan's residence, and were soon under the roof of a spacious, elegant and most commodious mansion. and here we are with midsummer temperature and vegetation, but a tropical vegetation, all around us. "well, we always knew that edward was a prince of a man, but we did not know, or rather appreciate, that he has a princely estate and in as fine order as any in the island. when i say 'fine order,' i do not mean that it is laid out like the bois de boulogne, nor is there quite as much picturesqueness in a level plain of sugar canes as in the trees and shrubbery of the gardens of versailles; but it is a rich and well-cultivated estate of some fourteen hundred acres, gradually rising for two or three miles from the sea-shore to the mountains, including some of them, and stretching into the valleys between them." his visit to porto rico was a most delightful one to him in many ways, and i shall have more to say of it further on, but i digress for a moment to speak of two events which occurred just at this time, and which showed him that, even in this land of _dolce far niente_, he could not escape the griefs and cares which are common to all mankind. mr. kendall, in a letter of february , announces the death of one of his early associates: "i presume you will have heard before this reaches you of the death of alfred vail. he had sold most of his telegraph stocks and told me when i last saw him that it was with difficulty he could procure the means of comfort for his family." morse had heard of this melancholy event, for, in a letter to mr. shaffner of february , he says: "poor vail! alas, he is gone. i only heard of the event on saturday last. this death, and the death of many friends besides, has made me feel sad. vail ought to have a proper notice. he was an upright man, and, although some ways of his made him unpopular with those with whom he came in contact, yet i believe his intentions were good, and his faults were the result more of ill-health, a dyspeptic habit, than of his heart." he refers to this also in a letter to his brother sidney of february : "poor vail is gone. he was the innocent cause of the original difficulty with the sensitive henry, he all the time earnestly desirous of doing him honor." and on march , he answers mr. kendall's letter: "i regret to learn that poor vail was so straitened in his circumstances at his death. i intend paying a visit to his father and family on my return. i may be able to relieve them in some degree." this intention he fulfilled, as we shall see later on, and i wish to call special attention to the tone of these letters because, as i have said before, morse has been accused of gross ingratitude and injustice towards alfred vail, whereas a careful and impartial study of all the circumstances of their connection proves quite the contrary. vail's advocates, in loudly claiming for him much more than the evidence shows he was entitled to, have not hesitated to employ gross personal abuse of morse in their newspaper articles, letters, etc., even down to the present day. this has made my task rather difficult, for, while earnestly desirous of giving every possible credit to vail, i have been compelled to introduce much evidence, which i should have preferred to omit, to show the essential weakness of his character; he seems to have been foredoomed to failure. he undoubtedly was of great assistance in the early stages of the invention, and for this morse always cheerfully gave him full credit, but i have proved that he did not invent the dot-and-dash alphabet, which has been so insistently claimed for him, and that his services as a mechanician were soon dispensed with in favor of more skilful men. i have also shown that he practically left morse to his fate in the darkest years of the struggle to bring the telegraph into public use, and that, by his morbid suspicions, he hampered the efforts of mr. kendall to harmonize conflicting interests. for all this morse never bore him any ill-will, but endeavored in every way to foster and safeguard his interests. that he did not succeed was no fault of his. another reminder that he was but human, and that he could not expect to sail serenely along on the calm, seas of popular favor without an occasional squall, was given to him just at this time. professor joseph henry had requested the regents of the smithsonian institute to enquire into the rights and wrongs of the controversy between himself and morse, which had its origin in henry's testimony in the telegraph suits, tinged as this testimony was with bitterness on account of the omissions in vail's book, and which was fanned into a flame by morse's "defense." the latter resented the fact that all these proceedings had taken place while he was out of the country, and without giving him an opportunity to present his side of the case. however, he shows his willingness to do what is right in the letter to colonel shaffner of february , from which i have already quoted:-- "well, it has taken him four years to fire off his gun, and perhaps i am killed. when i return i shall examine my wounds and see if they are mortal, and, if so, shall endeavor to die becomingly. seriously, however, if there are any new facts which go to exculpate henry for his attack upon me before the courts at a moment when i was struggling against those who, from whatever motive, wished to deprive me of my rights, and even of my character, i shall be most happy to learn them, and, if i have unwittingly done him injustice, shall also be most happy to make proper amends. but as all this is for the future, as i know of no facts which alter the case, and as i am wholly unconscious of having done any injustice, i must wait to see what he has put forth." in a letter to his brother sidney, of february , he philosophizes as follows:-- "i cannot avoid noticing a singular coincidence of events in my experience of life, especially in that part of it devoted to the invention of the telegraph, to wit, that, when any special and marked honor has been conferred upon me, there has immediately succeeded some event of the envious or sordid character seemingly as a set-off, the tendency of which has been invariably to prevent any excess of exultation on my part. can this be accident? is it not rather the wise ordering of events by infinite wisdom and goodness to draw me away from repose in earthly honor to the more substantial and enduring honor that comes only from god? ... i pray for wisdom to direct in such trials, and in any answer i may find it necessary to give to henry or others, i desire most of all to be mindful of that charity which 'suffereth long, which vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, hopeth all things, thinketh no evil.'" this check to self-laudation came at an appropriate moment, as he said, for just at this time honors were being plentifully showered upon him. it was then that he was first notified of the bestowal of the spanish decoration, and of the probability of portugal's following suit. perhaps even more gratifying still was his election as a member of the royal academy of sciences of sweden, for this was a recognition of his merits as a scientist, and not as a mere promoter, as he had been contemptuously called. on the island of porto rico too he was being honored and fêted. on march , he writes:-- "i have just completed with success the construction and organization of the short telegraph line, the first on this island, initiating the great enterprise of the southern telegraph route to europe from our shores, so far as to interest the porto ricans in the value of the invention. "yesterday was a day of great excitement here for this small place. the principal inhabitants of this place and guayama determined to celebrate the completion of this little line, in which they take a great pride as being the first in the island, and so they complimented me with a public breakfast which was presided over by the lieutenant-colonel commandant of guayama. "the commandant and alcalde, the collector and captain of the port, with all the officials of the place, and the clergy of guayama and arroyo, and gentlemen planters and merchants of the two towns, numbering in all about forty, were present. we sat down at one o'clock to a very handsome breakfast, and the greatest enthusiasm and kind and generous feeling were manifested. my portrait was behind me upon the wall draped with the spanish and american flags. i gave them a short address of thanks, and took the opportunity to interest them in the great telegraph line which will give them communication with the whole world. i presume accounts will be published in the united states from the porto rico papers. thus step by step (shall i not rather say _stride by stride_?) the telegraph is compassing the world. "my accounts from madrid assure me that the government will soon have all the papers prepared for granting the concession to mr. perry, our former secretary of legation at madrid, in connection with sir james carmichael, mr. john w. brett, the new york, newfoundland and london telegraph company, and others. the recent consolidation plan in the united states has removed the only hesitation i had in sustaining this new enterprise, for i feared that i might unwittingly injure, by a counter plan, those it was my duty to support. being now in harmony with the american company and the newfoundland company, i presume all my other companies will derive benefit rather than injury from the success of this new and grand enterprise. at any rate i feel impelled to support all plans that manifestly tend to the complete circumvention of the globe, and the bringing into telegraphic connection all the nations of the earth, and this when i am not fully assured that present personal interests may not temporarily suffer. i am glad to know that harmonious arrangements are made between the various companies in the united states, although i have been so ill-used. i will have no litigation if i can avoid it. even henry may have the field in quiet, unless he has presented a case too flagrantly unjust to leave unanswered." the short line of telegraph was from his son-in-law's house to his place of business on the bay, about two miles, and the building of it gave rise to the legend on the island that morse conducted some of his first electrical experiments in porto rico, which, of course, is not true. there is much correspondence concerning the proposed cable from spain or portugal by various routes to the west indies and thence to the united states, but nothing came of it. the rest of their stay in porto rico was greatly enjoyed by all in spite of certain drawbacks incidental to the tropics, to one of which he alludes in a letter to his sister-in-law, mrs. goodrich, who was then in europe. speaking of his wife he says: "she is dreadfully troubled with a plague which, if you have been in italy, i am sure you are no stranger to. '_pulci, pulci._' if you have not had a colony of them settled upon you, and quartered, and giving you no quarter, you have been an exception to travellers in italy. well, i will pit any two _pulci_ of porto rico against any ten you can bring from italy, and i should be sure to see them bite the dust before the bites of our porto rico breed." his letters are filled with apothegms and reflections on life in general and his own in particular, and they alone would almost fill a book. in a letter to mr. kendall, of march , we find the following:-- "i had hoped to return from honors abroad to enjoy a little rest from litigation at home, but, if i must take up arms, i hope to be able to use them efficiently in self-defense, and in a chivalrous manner as becometh a '_knight_.' i have no reason to complain of my position abroad, but i suppose, as i am not yet under the ground, honors to a living inventor must have their offset in the attacks of envy and avarice. "'wrath is cruel, but who can stand before envy?' says the wise man. the contest with the envious is indeed an annoyance, but, if one's spirit is under the right guidance and revenge does not actuate the strife, victory is very certain. my position is now such before the world that i shall use it rather to correct my own temper than to make it a means of arrogant exultation." he and his family left the island in the middle of april, , and in due time reached their poughkeepsie home. the "daily press" of that city gave the following account of the homecoming:-- "for some time previous to the hour at which the train was to arrive hundreds of people were seen flocking from all directions to the railroad depot, both in carriages and on foot, and when the train did arrive, and the familiar and loved form of professor morse was recognized on the platform of the car, the air was rent with the cheers of the assembled multitude. as soon as the cheers subsided professor morse was approached by the committee of reception and welcomed to the country of his birth and to the home of his adoption. "a great procession was then formed composed of the carriages of citizens. the sidewalks were crowded with people on foot, the children of the public schools, which had been dismissed for the occasion, being quite conspicuous among them. amid the ringing of bells, the waving of flags, and the gratulations of the people, the procession proceeded through a few of the principal streets, and then drove to the beautiful residence of professor morse, the band playing, as they entered the grounds, 'sweet home' and then 'auld lang syne.' "the gateways at the entrance had been arched with evergreens and wreathed with flowers. as the carriage containing their loved proprietor drove along the gravelled roads we noticed that several of the domestics, unable to restrain their welcomes, ran to his carriage and gave and received salutations. after a free interchange of salutations and a general 'shake-hands,' the people withdrew and left their honored guest to the retirement of his own beautiful home. "so the world reverences its great men, and so it ought. in professor morse we find those simple elements of greatness which elevate him infinitely above the hero of any of the world's sanguinary conflicts, or any of the most successful aspirants after political power. he has benefited not only america and the world, but has dignified and benefited the whole race." his friends and neighbors desired to honor him still further by a public reception, but this he felt obliged to decline, and in his letter of regret he expresses the following sentiments: "if, during my late absence abroad, i have received unprecedented honors from european nations, convened in special congress for the purpose, and have also received marks of honor from individual sovereigns and from scientific bodies, all which have gratified me quite as much for the honor reflected by them upon my country as upon myself, there are none of these testimonials, be assured, which have so strongly touched my heart as this your beautiful tribute of kindly feeling from esteemed neighbors and fellow-citizens." among the letters which had accumulated during his absence, morse found one, written some time previously, from a mr. reibart, who had published his name as a candidate for the presidency of the united states. in courteously declining this honor morse drily adds: "there are hundreds, nay thousands, more able (not to say millions more willing) to take any office they can obtain, and perform its functions more faithfully and with more benefit to the country. while this is the case i do not feel that the country will suffer should one like myself, wearied with the struggles and litigations of half a century, desire to be excused from encountering the annoyances and misapprehensions inseparable from political life." thanks to the successful efforts of his good friend, mr. kendall, he was now financially independent, so much so that he felt justified in purchasing, in the fall of the year , the property at west twenty-second street, new york, where the winters of the remaining years of his life were passed, except when he was abroad. this house has now been replaced by a commercial structure, but a bronze tablet marks the spot where once stood the old-fashioned brown stone mansion. while his mind was comparatively at rest regarding money matters, he was not yet free from vexatious litigation, and his opinion of lawyers is tersely expressed in a letter to mr. kendall of december , : "i have not lost my respect for law but i have for its administrators; not so much for any premeditated dishonesty as for their stupidity and want of just insight into a case." it was not long before he had a practical proof of the truth of this aphorism, for his "thorn in the flesh" never ceased from rankling, and now gave a new instance of the depths to which an unscrupulous man could descend. on june , , morse writes to his legal adviser, mr. george ticknor curtis, of boston: "you may remember that smith, just before i sailed for europe in , intimated that he should demand of me a portion of the honorary gratuity voted to me by the congress of ten powers at paris. i procured your opinion, as you know, and i had hoped that he would not insist on so preposterous a claim. i am, however, disappointed; he has recently renewed it. i have had some correspondence with him on the subject utterly denying any claim on his part. he proposes a reference, but i have not yet encouraged him to think i would assent. i wish your advice before i answer him." it is difficult to conceive of a meaner case of extortion than this. as morse says in a letter to mr. kendall, of august , , after he had consented to a reference of the matter to three persons: "i have no apprehensions of the result except that i may be entrapped by some legal technicalities. look at the case in an equitable point of view and, it appears to me, no intelligent, just men could give a judgment against me or in his favor. smith's purchase into the telegraph, the consideration he gave, was his efforts to obtain a property in the invention abroad by letters patent or otherwise. in _such_ property he was to share. no such property was created there. what can he then claim? the monies that he hazarded (taking his own estimate) were to the amount of some seven thousand dollars; and this was an advance, virtually a loan, to be paid back to him if he had created the property abroad. but his efforts being fruitless for that purpose, and of no value whatever to me, yet procured him one fourth patent interest in the united states, for which we know he has obtained at least $ , . is he not paid amply without claiming a portion of honorary gifts to me? well, we shall see how legal men look at the matter." [illustration: house and library at west 'd st., new york] one legal man of great brilliance gave his opinion without hesitation, as we learn from a letter of morse's to mr. curtis, of july : "i had, a day or two since, my cousin judge breese, late senator of the united states from illinois, on a visit to me. i made him acquainted with the points, after which he scouted the idea that any court of legal character could for a moment sustain smith's claim. he thought my argument unanswerable, and playfully said: 'i will insure you against any claim from smith for a bottle of champagne.'" it is a pity that morse did not close with the offer of the learned judge, for, in spite of his opinion, in spite of the opinion of most men of intelligence, in defiance of the perfectly obvious and proven fact that smith had utterly failed in fulfilling his part of the contract, and that the award had been made to morse "as a reward altogether personal" (_toute personelle_), the referees decided in smith's favor. and on what did they base this remarkable decision? on the ground that in the contract of with smith the word "otherwise" occurs. property in europe was to be obtained by "letters patent" or "otherwise." of course no actual property had been obtained, and smith had had no hand in securing the honorary gratuity, and it is difficult to follow the reasoning of these sapient referees. they were, on smith's part, judge upham of new hampshire; on morse's, mr. hilliard, of boston; and judge sprague, of the circuit court, boston, chairman. however, the decision was made, and morse, with characteristic large-heartedness, submitted gracefully. on october , he writes to mr. curtis: "i ought, perhaps, with my experience to learn for the first time that _law_ and _justice_ are not synonyms, but, with all deference to the opinion of the excellent referees, for each of whom i have the highest personal respect, i still think that they have not given a decision in strict conformity with law.... i submit, however, to law with kindly feelings to all, and now bend my attention to repair my losses as best i may." as remarked before, earlier in this volume, morse, in his correspondence with smith, always wrote in that courteous manner which becomes a gentleman, and he expresses his dissent from the verdict in this manner in a letter of november , in answer to one of smith's, quibbling over the allowance to morse by the referees of certain expenses: "throwing aside as of no avail any discussion in regard to the equity of the decision of the referees, especially in the view of a conscientious and high-minded man, i now deal with the decision as it has been made, since, according to the technicalities of the law, it has been pronounced by honorable and honest men in accordance with their construction of the language of the deed in your favor. but 'he that's convinced against his will is of the same opinion still,' and in regard to the intrinsic injustice of being compelled, by the strict construction of a general word, to pay over to you any portion of that which was expressly given to me as a personal and honorary _gratuity_ by the european governments, my opinion is always as it has been, an opinion sustained by the sympathy of every intelligent and honorable man who has studied the merits of the case." he was hard hit for a time by this unjust decision, and his correspondence shows that he regretted it most because it prevented him from bestowing as much in good works as he desired. he was obliged to refuse many requests which strongly appealed to him. his daily mail contained numerous requests for assistance in sums "from twenty thousand dollars to fifty cents," and it was always with great reluctance that he refused anybody anything. however, as is usual in this life, the gay was mingled with the grave, and we find that he was one of the committee of prominent men to arrange for the entertainment of the prince of wales, afterward edward vii, on his visit to this country. i have already referred to one incident of this visit when morse, in an address to the prince at the university of the city of new york, referred to the kindness shown him in london by the earl of lincoln, who was now the duke of newcastle and was in the suite of the prince. morse had hoped that he might have the privilege of entertaining h.r.h. at his country place on the hudson, but the duke of newcastle, in a letter of october , , regrets that this cannot be managed:-- i assure you i have not forgotten the circumstances which gave me the pleasure of your acquaintance in , and i am very desirous of seeing you again during my short visit to this continent. i fear however that a visit by the prince of wales to your home, however i might wish it, is quite impracticable, although on our journey up the hudson we shall pass so near you. every hour of our time is fully engaged. is there any chance of seeing you in new york, or, if not, is there any better hope in boston? if you should be in either during our stay, i hope you will be kind enough to call upon me. pray let me have a line on thursday at new york. i have lately been much interested in some electro-telegraphic inventions of yours which are new to me. i am yours very truly, newcastle. referring to another function in honor of the prince, morse says, in a letter to mr. kendall: "i did not see you after the so-styled ball in new york, which was not a _ball_ but a _levee_ and a great jam. i hope you and yours suffered no inconvenience from it." the war clouds in his beloved country were now lowering most ominously, and, true to his convictions, he exclaims in a letter to a friend of january , :-- "our politicians are playing with edged tools. it is easy to raise a storm by those who cannot control it. if i trusted at all in them i should despair of the country, but an almighty arm makes the wrath of man to praise him, and he will restrain the rest. there is something so unnatural and abhorrent in this outcry of _arms_ in one great family that i cannot believe it will come to a decision by the sword. such counsels of force are in the court of passion, not of reason. imagine such a conflict, imagine a victory, no matter by which side. can the victors rejoice in the blood of brethren shed in a family brawl? whose heart will thrill with pride at such success? no, no. i should as soon think of rejoicing that one of my sons had killed the other in a brawl. "but i have not time to add. i hope for the best, and even can see beyond the clouds of the hour a brighter day. god bless the whole family, north, south, east and west. i will never divide them in my heart however they may be politically or geographically divided." his hopes of a peaceful solution of the questions at issue between the north and the south were, of course, destined to be cruelly dashed, and he suffered much during the next few years, both in his feelings and in his purse, on account of the war. i have already shown that he, with many other pious men, believed that slavery was a divine institution and that, therefore, the abolitionists were entirely in the wrong; but that, at the same time, he was unalterably opposed to secession. holding these views, he was misjudged in both sections of the country. those at the north accused him of being a secessionist because he was not an abolitionist, and many at the south held that he must be an abolitionist because he lived at the north and did not believe in the doctrine of secession. many pages of his letter-books are filled with vehement arguments upholding his point of view, and he, together with many other eminent men at the north, strove without success to avert the war. his former pastor at poughkeepsie, the reverend h.g. ludlow, in long letters, with many bible quotations, called upon him to repent him of his sins and join the cause of righteousness. he, in still longer letters, indignantly repelled the accusation of error, and quoted chapter and verse in support of his views. he was made the president of the american society for promoting national unity, and in one of his letters to mr. ludlow he uses forceful language:-- "the tone of your letter calls for extraordinary drafts on christian charity. your criticism upon and denunciation of a society planned in the interests of peace and good will to all, inaugurated by such men as bishops mcilvaine and hopkins, drs. krebs and hutton, and winslow, and bliss, and van dyke, and hawks, and seabury, and lord and adams of boston, and wilson the missionary, and styles and boorman, and professor owen, and president woods, and dr. parker, and my brothers, and many others as warm-hearted, praying, conscientious christians as ever assembled to devise means for promoting peace--denunciations of these and such as these cannot but be painful in the highest degree.... i lay no stress upon these names other than to show that conscience in this matter has moved some christians quite as strongly to view _abolitionism_ as a sin of the deepest dye, as it has other christian minds to view slavery as a sin, and so to condemn slaveholders to excommunication, and simply for being slaveholders. "who is to decide in a conflict of consciences? if the bible be the umpire, as i hold it to be, then it is the abolitionist that is denounced as worthy of excommunication; it is the abolitionist from whom we are commanded to withdraw ourselves, while not a syllable of reproof do i find in the sacred volume administered to those who maintain, in the spirit of the gospel, the relation of _masters and slaves_. if you have been more successful, please point out chapter and verse.... i have no justification to offer for southern _secession_; i have always considered it a remedy for nothing. it is, indeed, an expression of a sense of wrong, but, in turn, is itself a wrong, and two wrongs do not make a right." i have quoted thus at some length from one of his many polemics to show the absolute and fearless sincerity of the man, mistaken though he may have been in his major premise. i shall quote from other letters on this subject as they appear in chronological order, but as no person of any mental caliber thinks and acts continuously along one line of endeavor, so will it be necessary in a truthful biography to change from one subject of activity to another, and then back again, in order to portray in their proper sequence the thoughts and actions of a man which go to make up his personality. for instance, while the outspoken views which morse held on the subjects of slavery and secession made him many enemies, he was still held in high esteem, for it was in the year that the members of the national academy of design urged him so strongly to become their president again that he yielded, but on condition that it should be for one year only. and the following letter to matthew vassar, of poughkeepsie, dated february , , shows that he was actively interested in the foundation of the first college for women in this country: "your favor of the th ulto. is received, and so far as i can further your magnificent and most generous enterprise, i will do so. i will endeavor to attend the meeting at the gregory house on the th of the present month. may you long live to see your noble design in successful operation." in spite of his deep anxiety for the welfare of his country, and in spite of the other cares which weighed him down, he could not resist the temptation to indulge in humor when the occasion offered. this humor is tinged with sarcasm in a letter of july , , to mr. a.b. griswold, his wife's brother, a prominent citizen of new orleans. after assuring him of his undiminished affection, he adds:-- "and now see what a risk i have run by saying thus much, for, according to modern application of the definition of _treason_, it would not be difficult to prove me a traitor, and therefore amenable to the halter. "for instance--treason is giving aid and comfort to the enemy; everybody south of a certain geographical line is an enemy; you live south of that line, ergo you are an enemy; i send you my love, you being an enemy; this gives you _comfort_; ergo, i have given comfort to the enemy; ergo, i am a traitor; ergo, i must be hanged." as the war progressed he continued to express himself in forcible language against what he called the "twin heresies"--abolitionism and secession. he had done his best to avert the war. he describes his efforts in a letter of april , , to mr. george l. douglas, of louisville, kentucky, who at that time was prominently connected with the southern lines of the telegraph, and who had loyally done all in his power to safeguard morse's interests in those lines:-- "you are correct in saying, in your answer as garnishee, that i have been an active and decided friend of peace. in the early stages of the troubles, when the southern commissioners were in washington, i devoted my time and influence and property, subscribing and paying in the outset five hundred dollars, to set on foot measures for preserving peace honorable to all parties. the attack on fort sumter struck down all these efforts (so far as my associates were concerned), but i was not personally discouraged, and i again addressed myself to the work of the peacemaker, determining to visit _personally_ both sections of the country, the government at washington, and the government of the confederates at richmond, to ascertain if there were, by possibility, any means of averting war. and when, from physical inability and age, i was unable to undertake the duty personally, i defrayed from my own pocket the expenses of a friend in his performance of the same duties for me, who actually visited both washington and richmond and conferred with the presidents and chiefs of each section on the subject. true his efforts were unsuccessful, and so nothing remained for me but to retire to the quiet of my own study and watch the vicissitudes of the awful storm which i was powerless to avert, and descry the first signs of any clearing up, ready to take advantage of the earliest glimmerings of light through the clouds." he had no doubts as to the ultimate issue of the conflict, for, in a letter to his wife's sister, mrs. goodrich, of may , , he reduces it to mathematics:-- "sober men could calculate, and did calculate, the _military_ issue, for it was a problem of mathematics and not at all of individual or comparative courage. a force of equal quality is to be divided and the two parts to be set in opposition to each other. if equally divided, they will be at rest; if one part equals and the other , it does not require much knowledge of mathematics to decide which part will overcome the force of the other. "now this is the case here just now. two thirds of the physical and material force of the country are at the north, and on this account _military_ success, other things being equal, must be on the side of the north. courage, justness of the cause, right, have nothing to do with it. war in our days is a game of chess. two players being equal, if one begins the game with dispensing with a third of his best pieces, the other wins as a matter of course." he was firmly of the opinion that england and other european nations had fomented, if they had not originated, the bad feeling between the north and the south, and at times he gave way to the most gloomy forebodings, as in a letter of july , , to mr. kendall, who shared his views on the main questions at issue:-- "i am much depressed. there is no light in the political skies. rabid abolitionism, with its intense, infernal hate, intensified by the same hate from secession quarters, is fast gaining the ascendancy. our country is dead. god only can resuscitate it from its tomb. i see no hope of union. we are two countries, and, what is most deplorable, two hostile countries. oh! how the nations, with england at their head, crow over us. it is the hour of her triumph; she has conquered by her arts that which she failed to do by her arms. if there was a corner of the world where i could hide myself, and i could consult the welfare of my family, i would sacrifice all my interests here and go at once. may god save us with his salvation. i have no heart to write or to do anything. without a country! without a country!" he went even further, in one respect, in a letter to mr. walker, of utica, of october , but his ordinarily keen prophetic vision was at fault: "have you made up your mind to be under a future monarch, english or french, or some scion of a european stock of kings? i shall not live to see it, i hope, but you may and your children will. i leave you this prophecy in black and white." in spite of his occasional fits of pessimism he still strove with all his might, by letters and published pamphlets, to rescue his beloved country from what he believed were the machinations of foreign enemies. at the same time he did not neglect his more immediate concerns, and his letter-books are filled with loving admonitions to his children, instructions to his farmer, answers to inventors seeking his advice, or to those asking for money for various causes, etc. he and his two brothers had united in causing a monument to be erected to the memory of their father and mother in the cemetery at new haven, and he insisted on bearing the lion's share of the expense, as we learn from a letter written to his nephew, sidney e. morse, jr., on october , :-- "above you have my check on broadway bank, new york, for five hundred dollars towards mr. ritter's bill. "tell your dear father and uncle sidney that this is the portion of the bill for the monument which i choose to assume. tell them i have still a good memory of past years, when i was poor and received from them the kind attentions of affectionate brothers. i am now, through the loving kindness and bounty of our heavenly father, in such circumstances that i can afford this small testimonial to their former fraternal kindness, and i know no better occasion to manifest the long pent-up feelings of my heart towards them than by lightening, under the embarrassments of the times, the pecuniary burden of our united testimonial to the best of fathers and mothers." this monument, a tall column surmounted by a terrestrial globe, symbolical of the fact that the elder morse was the first american geographer, is still to be seen in the new haven cemetery. another instance of the inventor's desire to show his gratitude towards those who had befriended him in his days of poverty and struggle is shown in a letter of november , , to the widow of alfred vail:-- "you are aware that a sum of money was voted me by a special congress, convened at paris for the purpose, as a personal, honorary gratuity as the inventor of the telegraph.... notwithstanding, however, that the congress had put the sum voted me on the ground of a personal, honorary gratuity, i made up my mind in the very outset that i would divide to your good husband just that proportion of what i might receive (after due allowance and deduction of my heavy expenses in carrying through the transaction) as would have been his if the money so voted by the congress had been the purchase money of patent rights. this design i early intimated to mr. vail, and i am happy in having already fulfilled in part my promise to him, when i had received the gratuity only in part. it was only the last spring that the whole sum, promised in four annual instalments (after the various deductions in europe) has been remitted to me.... i wrote to mr. cobb [one of alfred vail's executors] some months ago, while he was in washington, requesting an early interview to pay over the balance for you, but have never received an answer.... could you not come to town this week, either with or without mr. cobb, as is most agreeable to you, prepared to settle this matter in full? if so, please drop me a line stating the day and hour you will come, and i will make it a point to be at home at the time." in this connection i shall quote from a letter to mr. george vail, written much earlier in the year, on may :-- "it will give me much pleasure to aid you in your project of disposing of the _'original wire'_ of the telegraph, and if my certificate to its genuineness will be of service, you shall cheerfully have it. i am not at this moment aware that there is any quantity of this wire anywhere else, except it may be in the helices of the big magnets which i have at poughkeepsie. these shall not interfere with your design. "i make only one modification of your proposal, and that is, if any profits are realized, please substitute for my name the name of your brother alfred's amiable widow." although the malign animosity of f.o.j. smith followed him to his grave, and even afterwards, he was, in this year of , relieved from one source of annoyance from him, as we learn from a letter of may to mr. kendall: "i have had a settlement with smith in full on the award of the referees in regard to the 'honorary gratuity,' and with less difficulty than i expected." morse had now passed the scriptural age allotted to man; he was seventy-one years old, and, in a letter of august , he remarks rather sorrowfully: "i feel that i am no longer young, that my career, whether for good or evil, is near its end, but i wish to give the energy and influence that remain to me to my country, to save it, if possible, to those who come after me." all through the year he labored to this end, with alternations of hope and despair. on february , , he writes to his cousin, judge sidney breese: "a movement is commenced in the formation of a society here which promises good. it is for the purpose of diffusing useful political knowledge. it is backed up by millionaires, so far as funds go, who have assured us that funds shall not be wanting for this object. they have made me its president." through the agency of this society he worked to bring about "peace with honor," but, as one of their cardinal principles was the abandonment of abolitionism, he worked in vain. he bitterly denounced the emancipation proclamation, and president lincoln came in for many hard words from his pen, being considered by him weak and vacillating. mistaken though i think his attitude was in this, his opinions were shared by many prominent men of the day, and we must admit that for those who believed in a literal interpretation of the bible there was much excuse. for instance, in a letter of september , , to martin hauser, esq., of newbern, indiana, he goes rather deeply into the subject:-- "your letter of the d of last month i have just received, and i was gratified to see the evidences of an upright, honest dependence upon the only standard of right to which man can appeal pervading your whole letter. there is no other standard than the bible, but our translation, though so excellent, is defective sometimes in giving the true meaning of the original languages in which the two testaments are written; the old testament in hebrew, the new testament in greek. therefore it is that in words in the english translation about which there is a variety of opinion, it is necessary to examine the original hebrew or greek to know what was the meaning attached to these words by the writers of the original bible.... i make these observations to introduce a remark of yours that the bible does not contain anything like slavery in it because the words 'slave' and 'slavery' are not used in it (except the former twice) but that the word 'servant' is used. "now the words translated 'servant' in hundreds of instances are, in the original, 'slave,' and the very passage you quote, noah's words--'cursed be canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren'--in the original hebrew means exactly this--'cursed be canaan, a _slave_ of _slaves_ shall he be.' the hebrew, word is _'ebed'_ which means a bond slave, and the words _'ebed ebadim'_ translated 'slave of slaves,' means strictly _the most abject of slaves_. "in the new testament too the word translated 'servant' from the greek is _'doulas,'_ which is the same as _'ebed'_ in the hebrew, and always means a bond slave. our word 'servant' formerly meant the same, but time and custom have changed its meaning with us, but the bible word _'doulos'_ remains the same, 'a slave.'" it seems strange that a man of such a gentle, kindly disposition should have upheld the outworn institution of slavery, but he honestly believed, not only that it was ordained of god, but that it was calculated to benefit the enslaved race. to professor christy, of cincinnati, he gives, on september , his reasons for this belief:-- "you have exposed in a masterly manner the fallacies of abolitionism. there is a complete coincidence of views between us. my 'argument,' which is nearly ready for the press, supports the same view of the necessity of slavery to the christianization and civilization of a barbarous race. my argument for the benevolence of the relation of master and slave, drawn from the four relations ordained of god for the organization of the social system (the fourth being the servile relation, or the relation of master and slave) leads conclusively to the recognition of some great benevolent design in its establishment. "but you have demonstrated in an unanswerable manner by your statistics this benevolent design, bringing out clearly, from the workings of his providence, the absolute necessity of this relation in accomplishing his gracious designs towards even the lowest type of humanity." chapter xxxviii february , --november , sanitary commission.--letter to dr. bellows.--letter on "loyalty."--his brother richard upholds lincoln.--letters of brotherly reproof.-- introduces mcclellan at preëlection parade.--lincoln reëlected.--anxiety as to future of country.--unsuccessful effort to take up art again.-- letter to his sons.--gratification at rapid progress of telegraph.-- letter to george wood on two great mysteries of life.--presents portrait of allston to the national academy of design.--endows lectureship in union theological seminary.--refuses to attend fifty-fifth reunion of his class.--statue to him proposed.--ezra cornell's benefaction.--american asiatic society.--amalgamation of telegraph companies.--protest against stock manipulations.--approves of president andrew johnson.--sails with family for europe.--paris exposition of .--descriptions of festivities.--cyrus w. field.--incident in early life of napoleon iii-- made honorary commissioner to exposition.--attempt on life of czar.--ball at hôtel de ville.--isle of wight.--england and scotland.--the "sounder."--returns to paris. all the differences of those terrible years of fratricidal strife, all the heart-burnings, the bitter animosities, the family divisions, have been smoothed over by the soothing hand of time. i have neither the wish nor the ability to enter into a discussion of the rights and the wrongs of the causes underlying that now historic conflict, nor is it germane to such a work as this. while morse took a prominent part in the political movements of the time, while he was fearless and outspoken in his views, his name is not now associated historically with those epoch-making events. it has seemed necessary, however, to make some mention of his convictions in order to make the portrait a true one. he continued to oppose the measures of the administration; he did all in his power to hasten the coming of peace; he worked and voted for the election of mcclellan to the presidency, and when he and the other eminent men who believed as he did were outvoted, he bowed to the will of the majority with many misgivings as to the future. although he was opposed to the war his heart bled for the wounded on both sides, and he took a prominent part in the national sanitary commission. he expresses himself warmly in a letter of february , , to its president, rev. dr. bellows:-- "there are some who are sufferers, great sufferers, whom we can reach and relieve without endangering political or military plans, and in the spirit of him who ignored the petty political distinctions of jew and samaritan, and regarded both as entitled to his sympathy and relief, i cannot but think it is within the scope and interest of the great sanitary commission to extend a portion of their christian regard to the unfortunate sufferers from this dreadful war, the prisoners in our fortresses, and to those who dwell upon the borders of the contending sections." in a letter of march , to william l. ransom, esq., of litchfield, connecticut, he, perhaps unconsciously, enunciates one of the fundamental beliefs of that great president whom he so bitterly opposed:-- "i hardly know how to comply with your request to have a 'short, pithy, democratic sentiment.' in glancing at the thousand mystifications which have befogged so many in our presumed intelligent community, i note one in relation to the new-fangled application of a common foreign word imported from the monarchies of europe. i mean the word '_loyalty_,' upon which the changes are daily and hourly sung _ad nauseam_. "i have no objection, however, to the word if it be rightly applied. it signifies 'fidelity to a prince or sovereign.' now if _loyalty_ is required of us, it should be to the _sovereign_. where is this sovereign? he is not the president, nor his cabinet, nor congress, nor the judiciary, nor any nor all of the administration together. our sovereign is on a throne above all these. he is the _people_, or _peoples_ of the states. he has issued his decree, not to private individuals only, but to president and to all his subordinate servants, and this sovereign decree his servant the is the constitution. he who adheres faithfully to this written will of the sovereign is _loyal_. he who violates the embodiment of the will of the sovereign, is _disloyal_, whether he be a constitution, this president, a secretary, a member of congress or of the judiciary, or a simple citizen." as a firm believer in the democratic doctrine of states' rights morse, with many others, held that lincoln had overridden the constitution in his emancipation proclamation. it was a source of grief to him just at this time that his brother richard had changed his political faith, and had announced his intention of voting for the reelection of president lincoln. in a long letter of september , , gently chiding him for thus going over to the abolitionists, the elder brother again states his reasons for remaining firm in his faith:-- "i supposed, dear brother, that on that subject you were on the same platform with sidney and myself. have there been any new lights, any new aspects of it, which have rendered it less odious, less the 'child of satan' than when you and sidney edited the new york observer before lincoln was president? i have seen no reason to change my views respecting abolition. you well know i have ever considered it the logical progeny of unitarianism and infidelity. it is characterized by subtlety, hypocrisy and pharisaism, and one of the most melancholy marks of its speciousness is its influence in benumbing the gracious sensibilities of many christian hearts, and blinding their eyes to their sad defection from the truths of the bible. "i know, indeed, the influences by which you are surrounded, but they are neither stronger nor more artful than those which our brave father manfully withstood in combating the monster in the cradle. i hope there is enough of father's firmness and courage in battling with error, however specious, to keep you, through god's grace, from falling into the embrace of the body-and-soul-destroying heresy of abolitionism." in another long letter to his brother richard, of november , he firmly but gently upholds his view that the constitution has been violated by lincoln's action, and that the manner of amending the constitution was provided for in that instrument itself, and that: "if that change is made in accordance with its provisions, no one will complain"; and then he adds:-- "but it is too late to give you the reasons of the political faith that i hold. when the excitement of the election is over, let it result as it may, i may be able to show you that my opinions are formed from deep study and observation. now i can only announce them comparatively unsustained by the reasons for forming them. "i am interrupted by a call from the committee requesting me to conduct general mcclellan to the balcony of the fifth avenue hotel this evening, to review the mcclellan legion and the procession. after my return i will continue my letter. "_ o'clock, midnight._ i have just returned, and never have i witnessed in any gathering of the people, either in europe or in this country, such a magnificent and enthusiastic display. i conducted the general to the front of the balcony and presented him to the assemblage (a dense mass of heads as far as the eye could reach in every direction), and such a shout, which continued for many minutes, i never heard before, except it may have been at the reception in london of blücher and platoff after the battle of waterloo. i leave the papers to give you the details. the procession was passing from nine o'clock to a quarter to twelve midnight, and such was the denseness of the crowd within the hotel, every entry and passageway jammed with people, that we were near being crushed. three policemen before me could scarcely open a way for the general, who held my arm, to pass only a few yards to our room. "after taking my leave i succeeded with difficulty in pressing my way through the crowd within and without the hotel, and have just got into my quiet library and must now retire, for i am too fatigued to do anything but sleep. good-night." a short time after this the election was held, and this enthusiastic advocate of what he considered the right learned the bitter lesson that crowds, and shouting, and surface enthusiasm do not carry an election. the voice of that sovereign to whom he had sworn loyalty spoke in no uncertain tones, and lincoln was overwhelmingly chosen by the votes of the people. morse was outvoted but not convinced, and i shall make but one quotation from a letter of november , to his brother richard, who had also remained firm in spite of his brother's pleading: "my consolation is in looking up, and i pray you may be so enlightened that you may be delivered from the delusions which have ensnared you, and from the judgments which i cannot but feel are in store for this section of the country. when i can believe that my bible reads 'cursed' instead of 'blessed' are the 'peacemakers,' i also shall cease to be a peace man. but while they remain, as they do, in the category of those that are blessed, i cannot be frightened at the names of 'copperhead' and 'traitor' so lavishly bestowed, with threats of hanging etc., by those whom you have assisted into power." in a letter of mr. george wood's, of june , , i find the following sentences: "i have to acknowledge your very carefully written letter on the divine origin of slavery.... i hope you have kept a copy of this letter, for the time will come when you will have a biography written, and the defense you have made of your position, taken in your pamphlet, is unquestionably far better than he (your biographer) will make for you." the letter to which mr. wood refers was begun on march , , but finished some time afterwards. it is very long, too long to be included here, but in justice to myself, that future biographer, i wish to state that i have already given the main arguments brought forward in that letter, in quotations from previous letters, and that i have attempted no defense further than to emphasize the fact that, right or wrong, morse was intensely sincere, and that he had the courage of his opinions. returning to an earlier date, and turning from matters political to the gentler arts of peace, we find that the one-time artist had always hoped that some day he could resume his brush, which the labors incident to the invention of the telegraph had compelled him to drop. but it seems that his hand, through long disuse, had lost its cunning. he bewails the fact in a letter of january , , to n. jocelyn, esq.:-- "i have many yearnings towards painting and sculpture, but that rigid faculty called reason, so opposed often to imagination, reads me a lecture to which i am compelled to bow. to explain: i made the attempt to draw a short time ago; everything in the drawing seemed properly proportioned, but, upon putting it in another light, i perceived that every perpendicular line was awry. in other words i found that i could place no confidence in my eyes. "no, i have made the sacrifice of my profession to establish an invention which is doing mankind a great service. i pursued it long enough to found an institution which, i trust, is to flourish long after i am gone, and be the means of educating a noble class of men in art, to be an honor and praise to our beloved country when peace shall once more bless us throughout all our borders in one grand brotherhood of states." the many letters to his children are models of patient exhortation and cheerful optimism, when sometimes the temptation to indulge in pessimism was strong. i shall give, as an example, one written on may , , to two of his sons who had returned to school at newport:-- "now we hope to have good reports of your progress in your studies. in spring, you know, the farmers sow their seed which is to give them their harvest at the close of the summer. if they were not careful to put the seed in the ground, thinking it would do just as well about august or september, or if they put in very little seed, you can see that they cannot expect to reap a good or abundant crop. "now it is just so in regard to your life. you are in the springtime of life. it is seed time. you must sow now or you will reap nothing by-and-by, or, if anything, only weeds. your teachers are giving you the seed in your various studies. you cannot at present understand the use of them, but you must take them on trust; you must believe that your parents and teachers have had experience, and they know what will be for your good hereafter, what studies will be most useful to you in after life. therefore buckle down to your studies diligently and very soon you will get to love your studies, and then it will be a pleasure and not a task to learn your lessons. "we miss your _noise_, but, although agreeable quiet has come in place of it, we should be willing to have the noise if we could have our dear boys near us. you are, indeed, troublesome pleasures, but, after all, pleasant troubles. when you are settled in life and have a family around you, you will better understand what i mean." in spite of the disorganization of business caused by the war, the value of telegraphic property was rapidly increasing, and new lines were being constantly built or proposed. morse refers to this in a letter of june , , to his old friend george wood:-- "to you, as well as to myself, the rapid progress of the telegraph throughout the world must seem wonderful, and with me you will, doubtless, often recur to our friend annie's inspired message--'what hath god wrought.' it is, indeed, his marvellous work, and to him be the glory. "early in the history of the invention, in forecasting its future, i was accustomed to predict with confidence, 'it is destined to go round the world,' but i confess i did not expect to live to see the prediction fulfilled. it is quite as wonderful to me also that, with the thousand attempts to improve my system, with the mechanical skill of the world concentrated upon improving the mechanism, the result has been beautiful complications and great ingenuity, but no improvement. i have the gratification of knowing that my system, everywhere known as the 'morse system,' is universally adopted throughout the world, because of its simplicity and its adaptedness to universality." this remains true to the present day, and is one of the remarkable features of this great invention. the germ of the "morse system," as jotted down in the sketch-book, is the basic principle of the universal telegraph of to-day. in another letter to mr. wood, of september , , referring to the sad death of the son of a mutual friend, he touches on two of the great enigmas of life which have puzzled many other minds:-- "it is one of those mysteries of providence, one of those deep things of god to be unfolded in eternity, with the perfect vindication of god's wisdom and justice, that children of pious parents, children of daily anxiety and prayer, dedicated to god from their birth and trained to all human appearance 'in the way they should go,' should yet seem to falsify the promise that 'they should not depart from it.' it is a subject too deep to fathom. "... it is my daily, i may say hourly, thought, certainly my constant wakeful thought at night, how to resolve the question: 'why has god seen fit so abundantly to shower his earthly blessings upon me in my latter days, to bless me with every desirable comfort, while so many so much more deserving (in human eyes at least) are deprived of all comfort and have heaped upon them sufferings and troubles in every shape?'" the memory of his student days in london was always dear to him, and on january , , he writes to william cullen bryant:-- "i have this moment received a printed circular respecting the proposed purchase of the portrait of allston by leslie to be presented to the national academy of design. "there are associations in my mind with those two eminent and beloved names which appeal too strongly to me to be resisted. now i have a favor to ask which i hope will not be denied. it is that i may be allowed to present to the academy that portrait in my own name. you can appreciate the arguments which have influenced my wishes in this respect. allston was more than any other person my master in art. leslie was my life-long cherished friend and fellow pupil, whom i loved as a brother. we all lived together for years in the closest intimacy and in the same house. is there not then a fitness that the portrait of the master by one distinguished pupil should be presented by the surviving pupil to the academy over which he presided in its infancy, as well as assisted in its birth, and, although divorced from art, cannot so easily be divorced from the memories of an intercourse with these distinguished friends, an intercourse which never for one moment suffered interruption, even from a shadow of estrangement?" it is needless to say that this generous offer was accepted, and morse at the same time presented to the academy the brush which allston was using when stricken with his fatal illness. as his means permitted he made generous donations to charities and to educational institutions, and on may , , he endowed by the gift of $ , a lectureship in the union theological seminary, making the following request in the letter which accompanied it:-- "if it be thought advisable that the name of the lectureship, as was suggested, should be the morse lectureship, i wish it to be distinctly understood that it is so named in honor of my venerated and distinguished father, whose zealous labors in the cause of theological education, and in various benevolent enterprises, as well as of geographical science, entitle his memory to preservation in connection with the efforts to diffuse the knowledge of our lord and saviour, jesus christ, and his gospel throughout the world." curiously enough i find no reference in the letters of the year to the assassination of president lincoln, but i well remember being taken, a boy of eight, to our stable on the corner of fifth avenue and twenty-first street, from the second-floor windows of which we watched the imposing funeral cortège pass up the avenue. the fifty-fifth reunion of his class of took place in this year, and morse reluctantly decided to absent himself. the reasons why he felt that he could not go are given in a long letter of august to his cousin, professor e.s. salisbury, and it is such a clear statement of his convictions that i am tempted to give it almost in its entirety:-- "i should have been most happy on many personal accounts to have been at the periodical meeting of my surviving classmates of , and also to have renewed my social intercourse with many esteemed friends and relations in new haven. but as i could not conscientiously take part in the proposed martial sectional glorification of those of the family who fell in the late lamentable family strife, and could not in any brief way or time explain the discriminations that were necessary between that which i approve and that which i most unqualifiedly condemn, without the risk of misapprehension, i preferred the only alternative left me, to absent myself altogether. "you well know i never approved of the late war. i have ever believed, and still believe, if the warnings of far-seeing statesmen (washington, clay, and webster among them) had been heeded, if, during the last thirty years of persistent stirring up of strife by angry words, the calm and christian counsels of intelligent patriots had been followed at the north, and a strict observance of the letter and spirit of the constitution had been sustained as the supreme law, instead of the insidious violations of its provisions, especially by new england, we should have had no war. "as i contributed nothing to the war, so now i see no reason specially to exult in the display of brave qualities in an isolated portion of the family, qualities which no true american ever doubted were possessed by both sections of our country in an equal degree. why then discriminate between alumni from the north and alumni from the south at a gathering in which alumni from both sections are expected to meet?... no, my dear cousin, the whole era of the war is one i wish not to remember. i would have no other memorial than a black cross, like those over the graves of murdered travellers, to cause a shudder whenever it is seen. it would be well if history could blot from its pages all record of the past four years. there is no glory in them for victors or vanquished. the only event in which i rejoice is the restoration of peace, which never should have been interrupted.... "i have no doubt that they who originated the recent demonstration honestly believed it to be _patriotic_, for every movement nowadays must take that shape to satisfy the morbid appetite of the popular mind. i cannot think it either in good taste or in conformity with sound policy for our collegiate institutions to foster this depraved appetite. surely there is enough of this in the political harangues of the day for those who require such aids to patriotism without its being administered to by our colleges. that patriotism is of rather a suspicious character which needs such props. i love to see my children well clad and taking a proper pride in their attire, but i should not think them well instructed if i found them everywhere boasting of their fine clothes. a true nobleman is not forever boasting of his nobility for fear that his rank may not be recognized. the loudest boasts of patriotism do not come from the true possessors of the genuine spirit. patriotism is not sectional nor local, it comprehends in its grasp the whole country.... "i have said the demonstration at commencement was in bad taste. why? you will say. because commencement day brings together the alumni of the college from all parts of the union, from the south as well as the north. they are to meet on some common ground, and that common ground is the love that all are supposed to bear to the old alma mater, cherished by memories of past friendships in their college associations. the late commencement was one of peculiar note. it was the first after the return of peace. the country had been sundered; the ties of friendship and of kindred had been broken; the bonds of college affection were weakened if not destroyed. what an opportunity for inaugurating the healing process! what an occasion for the display of magnanimity, of mollifying the pain of humiliation, of throwing a veil of oblivion over the past, of watering the perishing roots of fraternal affection and fostering the spirit of genuine union! but no. the southern alumnus may come, but he comes to be humiliated still further. can he join in the plaudits of those by whom he has been humbled? you may applaud, but do not ask him to join in your acclamations. he may be mourning the death of father, brother, yes, of mother and sister, by the very hands of those you are glorifying. do not aggravate his sorrow by requiring him to join you in such a demonstration. "no, my dear cousin, it was in _bad taste_ to say the least of it, and it was equally _impolitic_ to intercalate such a demonstration into the usual and appropriate exercises of the week. you expect, i presume, to have pupils from the south as heretofore; will such a sectional display be likely to attract them or to repel them? if they can go elsewhere they will not come to you. they will not be attracted by a perpetual memento before their eyes of your triumph over them. it was not politic. it is no improvement for christian america to show less humanity than heathen rome. the romans never made demonstrations of triumph over the defeat of their countrymen in a civil war. it is no proof of superior civilization that we refuse to follow roman example in such cases. "my dear cousin, i have written you very frankly, but i trust you will not misunderstand me as having any personal reproaches to make for the part you have taken in the matter. we undoubtedly view the field from different standpoints. i concede to you conscientious motives in what you do. you are sustained by those around you, men of intellect, men of character. i respect them while i differ from them. i appeal, however, to a higher law, and that, i think, sustains me." his strong and outspoken stand for what he believed to be the right made him many enemies, and he was called hard names by the majority of those by whom he was surrounded at the north; and yet the very fearlessness with which he advocated an unpopular point of view undoubtedly compelled increased respect for him. a proof of this is given in a letter to his daughter, mrs. lind, of december , :-- "i also send you some clippings from the papers giving you an account of some of the doings respecting a statue proposed to me by the common council. the mayor, who is a personal friend of mine, you see has vetoed the resolutions, not from a disapproval of their character, but because he did not like the locality proposed. he proposes the central park, and in this opinion all my friends concur. "i doubt if they will carry the project through while i am alive, and it would really seem most proper to wait until i was gone before they put up my monument. i have nothing, however, to say on the subject. i am gratified, of course, to see the manifestation of kindly feeling, but, as the tinder of vainglory is in every human heart, i rather shrink from such a proposed demonstration lest a spark of flattery should kindle that tinder to an unseemly and destructive flame. i am not blind to the popularity, world-wide, of the telegraph, and a sober forecast of the future foreshadows such a statue in some place. if ever erected i hope the prominent mottoes upon the pedestal will be: '_not unto us, not unto us, but to god be the glory_,' and the first message or telegram: '_what hath god wrought._'" he says very much the same thing in a letter to his friend george wood, of january , , and he also says in this letter, referring to some instance of benevolent generosity by mr. kendall:-- "is it not a noticeable fact that the wealth acquired by the telegraph has in so many conspicuous instances been devoted to benevolent purposes? mr. kendall is prominent in his expenditures for great christian enterprises, and think of cornell, always esteemed by me as an ingenious and shrewd man, when employed by me to set the posts and put up the wire for the first line of telegraphs between washington and baltimore, yet thought to be rather close and narrow-minded by those around him. but see, when his wealth had increased by his acquisition of telegraph stock to millions (it is said), what enlarged and noble plans of public benefit were conceived and brought forth by him. i have viewed his course with great gratification as the evidence of god's blessing on _what he hath wrought_." it has been made plain, i think, that morse was essentially a leader in every movement in which he took an interest, whether it was artistic, scientific, religious, or political. this is emphasized by the number of requests made to him to assume the presidency of all sorts of organizations, and these requests multiplied as he advanced in years. most of them he felt compelled to decline, for, as he says in a letter of march , , declining the presidency of the geographical and statistical society: "i am at an age when i find it necessary rather to be relieved from the cares and responsibilities already resting upon me, than to take upon me additional ones." in many other cases he allowed his name to be used as vice-president or member, when he considered the object of the organization a worthy one, and his benefactions were only limited by his means. he did, however, accept the presidency of one association just at this time, the american asiatic society, in which were interested such men as gorham abbott, dr. forsyth, e.h. champlin, thomas harrison, and morse's brother-in-law, william m. goodrich. the aims of this society were rather vast, including an international congress to be called by the emperor napoleon iii, for the purpose of opening up and controlling the great highways from the east to the west through the isthmus of suez and that of panama; also the colonization of palestine by the jews, and other commercial and philanthropic schemes. i cannot find that anything of lasting importance was accomplished by this society, so i shall make no further mention of it, although there is much correspondence about it. the following, from a letter to mr. kendall of march , , explains itself: "if i understand the position of our telegraph interests, they are now very much as you and i wished them to be in the outset, not cut up in o'reilly fashion into irresponsible parts, but making one grand whole like the post-office system. it is becoming, doubtless, a _monopoly_, but no more so than the post-office system, and its unity is in reality a public advantage if properly and uprightly managed, and this, of course, will depend on the character of the managers. confidence must be reposed somewhere, and why not in upright and responsible men who are impelled as well by their own interest to have their matters conducted with fairness and with liberality." as a curious commentary on his misplaced faith in the integrity of others, i shall quote from a letter of january , , to e.s. sanford, esq., which also shows his abhorrence of anything like crooked dealing in financial matters:-- "i wish when you again write me you would give me, _in confidence_, the names of those in the board of the western union who are acting in so dishonorable and tricky a manner. i think i ought to know them in order to avoid them, and resist them in the public interest. it is a shame that an enterprise which, honestly conducted, is more than usually profitable, should be conducted on the principles of sharpers and tricksters. [illustration: telegram showing morse's characteristic deadhead, which he always used to frank his messages] "so far as the russian extension is concerned, i should judge from your representation that, as a stockholder in that enterprise to the amount of $ , , the plan would conduce to my immediate pecuniary benefit. but so would the _robbery of the safe of a bank_. if wealth can be obtained only by such swindles, i prefer poverty. you have my proxy and i have the utmost confidence in your management. do by me as you would do for yourself, and i shall be satisfied.... in regard to any honorable propositions made in the board be conciliatory and compromising, but any scheme to oppress the smaller stockholders for the benefit of the larger resist to the death. i prefer to sacrifice all my stock rather than have such a stigma on my character as such mean, and i will add villainous, conduct would be sure to bring upon all who engaged in it." in this connection i shall also quote from another letter to mr. sanford, of february , : "if government thinks seriously of purchasing the telegraph, and at this late day adopting my early suggestion that it ought to belong to the post-office department, be it so if they will now pay for it. they must now pay millions for that which i offered to them for one hundred thousand dollars, and gave them a year for consideration ere they adopted it." there are but few references to politics in the letters of this period, but i find the following in a letter of march , , to a cousin: "you ask my opinion of our president. i did not vote for him, but i am agreeably surprised at his masterly statesmanship, and hope, by his firmness in resisting the extreme radicals, he will preserve the union against now the greatest enemies we have to contend against. i mean those who call themselves abolitionists.... president johnson deserves the support of all true patriots, and he will have it against all the 'traitors' in the country, by whatever soft names of loyalty they endeavor to shield themselves." appeals of all kinds kept pouring in on him, and, in courteously refusing one, on april , he uses the following language: "i am unable to aid you. i cannot, indeed, answer a fiftieth part of the hundreds of applications made to me from every section of the country _daily_--i might say _hourly_--for yours is the third this morning and it is not yet o'clock." after settling his affairs at home in his usual methodical manner, morse sailed with his wife and his four young children, and colonel john r. leslie their tutor, for europe on the d of june, , prepared for an extended stay. he wished to give his children the advantages of travel and study in europe, and he was very desirous of being in paris during the universal exposition of . there is a gap in the letter-books until october, , but from the few letters to members of the family which have been preserved, and from my own recollections, we know that the summer of was most delightfully spent in journeying through france, germany, and switzerland. the children were now old enough not to be the nuisances they seem to have been in , for we find no note of complaint on that account. in september he returned with his wife, his daughter, and his youngest son to paris, leaving his two older sons with their tutor in geneva. as he wished to make paris his headquarters for nearly a year, he sought and found a furnished apartment at no. avenue du roi de rome (now the avenue du trocadero), and he writes to his mother-in-law on september : "we are fortunate in having apartments in a new building, or rather one newly and completely repaired throughout. all the apartments are newly furnished with elegant furniture, we having the first use of it. we have ample rooms, not large, but promising more comfort for winter residence than if they were larger. the situation is on a wide avenue and central for many purposes; close to the champs elysées, near also to the bois de boulogne, and within a few minutes walk of the champ de mars, so that we shall be most eligibly situated to visit the great exposition when it opens in april." his wife's sister, mrs. goodrich, with her husband and daughters, occupied an apartment in the same building; his grandson charles lind was also in paris studying painting, and before the summer of the next year other members of his family came to paris, so that at one time eighteen of those related to him by blood or marriage were around him. to a man of morse's affectionate nature and loyalty to family this was a source of peculiar joy, and those parisian days were some of the happiest of his life. the rest of the autumn and early winter were spent in sight-seeing and in settling his children in their various studies. the brilliance of the court of napoleon iii just before the _débâcle_ of is a matter of history, and it reached its high-water mark during the exposition year of , when emperors, kings, and princes journeyed to paris to do homage to the man of the hour. court balls, receptions, gala performances at opera and theatre, and military reviews followed each other in bewildering but well-ordered confusion, and morse, as a man of worldwide celebrity, took part in all of them. he and his wife and his young daughter, a girl of sixteen, were presented at court, and were fêted everywhere. in a letter to his mother-in-law he gives a description of his court costume on the occasion of his first presentation, when he was accompanied only by his brother-in-law, mr. goodrich:-- "we received our cards inviting us to the soirée and to pass the evening with their majesties on the th of january (wednesday evening). '_en uniforme_' was stamped upon the card, so we had to procure court dresses. mr. goodrich, as is the custom in most cases, hired his; i had a full suit made for me. a _chapeau bras_, with gold lace loop, a blue coat, with standing collar, single breasted, richly embroidered with gold lace, the american eagle button, white silk lining, vest light cashmere with gilt buttons, pantaloons with a broad stripe of gold lace on the outside seams, a small sword, and patent-leather shoes or boots completed the dress of ordinary mortals like brother goodrich, but for _extra_ordinary mortals, like my humble republican self, i was bedizened with all my orders, seven decorations, covering my left breast. if thus accoutred i should be seen on broadway, i should undoubtedly have a numerous escort of a character not the most agreeable, but, as it was, i found myself in very good and numerous company, none of whom could consistently laugh at his neighbors." after describing the ceremony of presentation he continues:-- "occasionally both the emperor and empress said a few words to particular individuals. when my name was mentioned the emperor said to me, 'your name, sir, is well known here,' for which i thanked him; and the empress afterwards said to me, when my name was mentioned, 'we are greatly indebted to you, sir, for the telegraph,' or to that effect. afterwards mr. bennett, the winner of the yacht race, engaged for a moment their particular regards.... [i wonder if the modest inventor appreciated the irony of this juxtaposition.] after the dancers were fully engaged, the refreshment-room, the salon of diana, was opened, and, as in our less aristocratic country, the tables attracted a great crowd, so that the doors were guarded so as to admit the company by instalments. i had in vain for some time endeavored to gain admittance, and was waiting patiently quite at a distance from the door, which was thronged with ladies and high dignitaries, when a gentleman who guarded the door, and who had his breast covered with orders, addressed me by name, asking me if i was not professor morse. upon replying in the affirmative, quite to my surprise, he made way for me to the door and, opening it, admitted me before all the rest. i cannot yet divine why this special favor was shown to me. "the tables were richly furnished. i looked for bonbons to carry home to the children, but when i saw some tempting looking almonds and candies and mottoes, to my surprise i found they were all composed of fish put up in this form, and the mottoes were of salad." it is good to know that morse, ever willing to forgive and forget, was again on terms of friendly intercourse with cyrus w. field, who was then in london, as the following letter to him, dated march , , will show:-- "singular as it may seem, i was in the midst of your speech before the chamber of commerce reception to you in new york, perusing it with deep interest, when my valet handed me your letter of the th ulto. "i regret exceedingly that i shall not have the great pleasure i had anticipated, with other friends here, who were prepared to receive you in paris with the welcome you so richly deserve. you invite me to london. i have the matter under consideration. march winds and that boisterous channel have some weight in my decision, but i so long to take you by the hand and to get posted upon telegraph matters at home, that i feel disposed to make the attempt. but without positively saying 'yes,' i will see if in a few days i can so arrange my affairs as to have a few hours with you before you sail on the th. [illustration: morse in old age] "i send you by book post the proceedings of the banquet given to our late minister, bigelow, in which you will see my remarks on the great enterprise with which your name will forever be so honorably associated and justly immortalized." it will be remembered, that the atlantic cable was finally successfully laid on july , , and that to cyrus field, more than to any other man, was this wonderful achievement due. in a letter of march , , to john s.c. abbott, esq., morse gives the following interesting incident in the life of napoleon iii:-- "in , i was one of a club of gentlemen in new york who were associated for social and informal intellectual converse, which held weekly meetings at each other's houses in rotation. most of these distinguished men are now deceased. the club consisted of such men as chancellor kent, albert gallatin, peter augustus jay, reporter johnson, dr. (afterwards bishop) wainwright, the president and professors of columbia college, the chancellor and professors of the new york city university, dr. augustus smith, messrs. goodhue and de rham of the mercantile class, and john c. hamilton, esq. and ex-governor w.b. lawrence from the literary ranks. "among the rules of the club was one permitting any member to introduce to the meetings distinguished strangers visiting the city. at one of the reunions of the club the place of meeting was at chancellor kent's. on assembling the chancellor introduced to us louis napoleon, a son of the ex-king of holland, a young man pale and contemplative, somewhat reserved. this reserve we generally attributed to a supposed imperfect acquaintance with our language. at supper he sat on the right of the chancellor at the head of the table. mr. gallatin was opposite the chancellor at the foot of the table, and i was on his right. "in the course of the evening, while the conversation was general, i drew the attention of mr. gallatin to the stranger, observing that i did not trace any resemblance in his features to his world-renowned uncle, yet that his forehead indicated great intellect. 'yes,' replied mr. gallatin, 'there is a great deal in that head of his, but he has a strange fancy. can you believe it, he has the impression that he will one day be the emperor of the french; can you conceive of anything more ridiculous?' "certainly at that period, even to the sagacious eye of mr. gallatin, such an idea would naturally seem too improbable to be entertained for a moment, but, in the light of later events, and the actual state of things at present, does not the fact show that, even in his darkest hours, there was in this extraordinary man that unabated faith in his future which was a harbinger of success; a faith which pierced the dark clouds which surrounded him, and realized to him in marvellous prophetic vision that which we see at this day and hour fully accomplished?" morse must have penned these words with peculiar satisfaction, for they epitomized his own sublime faith in his future. in he also was passing through some of his darkest hours, but he too had had faith, and now, thirty years afterwards, his dreams of glory had been triumphantly realized, he was an honored guest of that other man of destiny, and his name was forever immortalized. the spring and early summer of were enjoyed to the full by the now venerable inventor and his family. the exposition was a source of never-ending joy to him, and he says of it in a letter to his son-in-law, edward lind:-- "you will hear all sorts of stories about the exposition. the english papers (some of them), in john bull style, call it a humbug. let me tell you that, imperfect as it is in its present condition, going on rapidly to completion, it may without exaggeration be pronounced the eighth wonder of the world. it is the world in epitome. i came over with my children to give them the advantage of thus studying the world in anticipation of what i now see, and i can say that the two days only in which i have been able to glance through parts of its vast extent, have amply repaid me for my voyage here. i believe my children will learn more of the condition of the arts, agriculture, customs, manufactures and mineral and vegetable products of the world in five weeks than they could by books at home in five years, and as many years' travel." he was made an honorary commissioner of the united states to the exposition, and he prepared an elaborate and careful report on the electrical department, for which he received a bronze medal from the french government. writing of this report to his brother sidney, he says: "this keeps me so busy that i have no time to write, and i have so many irons in the fire that i fear some must burn. but father's motto was--'better wear out than rust out,'--so i keep at work." in a letter to his friend, the honorable john thompson, of poughkeepsie, he describes one of his dissipations:-- "paris now is the great centre of the world. such an assemblage of sovereigns was never before gathered, and i and mine are in the midst of the great scenes and fêtes. we were honored, a few evenings ago, with cards to a very select fête given by the emperor and empress at the tuilleries to the king and queen of the belgians, the prince of wales and prince alfred, to the queen of portugal, the grand duchess marie of russia, sister of the late emperor nicholas, a noble looking woman, the princess metternich of austria, and many others. "the display was gorgeous, and as the number of guests was limited (only one thousand!) there was more space for locomotion than at the former gatherings at the palace, where we were wedged in with some four thousand. there was dancing and my daughter was solicited by one of the gentlemen for a set in which prince alfred and the turkish ambassador danced, the latter with an american belle, one of the miss beckwiths. i allowed her to dance in this set once. the empress is truly a beautiful woman and of unaffected manners." in a long letter to his brother sidney, of june , he describes some of their doings. at the grand review of sixty thousand troops he and his wife and eldest son were given seats in the imperial tribune, a little way behind the emperor and the king of prussia, who were so soon to wage a deadly war with each other. on the way back from the review the following incident occurred:-- "after the review was over we took our carriage to return home. the carriages and cortège of the imperial personages took the right of the cascade (which you know is in full view from the hippodrome of longchamps). we took the left side and were attracted by the report of firearms on our left, which proceeded from persons shooting at pigeons from a trap. soon after we heard a loud report on our right from a pistol, which attracted no further attention from us than the remark which i made that i did not know that persons were allowed to use firearms in the bois. we passed on to our home, and in the evening were informed of the atrocious attempt upon the emperor of russia's life. the pistol report which i heard was that of the pistol of the assassin." farther on in this letter he describes the grand fête given by the city of paris to the visiting sovereigns at the hotel de ville. there were thirty-five thousand applications for tickets, but only eight thousand could be granted. of these morse was gratified to receive three:-- "well, the great fête of saturday the th is over. i despair of any attempt properly to describe its magnificence. i send you the papers.... such a blaze of splendor cannot be conceived or described but in the descriptions of the arabian nights. we did not see half the display, for the immense series of gorgeous halls, lighted by seventy thousand candles, with fountains and flowers at every turn, made one giddy to see even for a moment. we had a good opportunity to scan the features of the emperors, the king of prussia and the renowned bismarck, with those of the beautiful empress and the princesses and princes and other distinguished persons of their suite. "i must tell you (for family use only) that the emperor napoleon made to me a marked recognition as he passed along. sarah and i were standing upon two chairs overlooking the front rank of those ranged on each side. the emperor gave his usual bow on each side, but, as he came near us, he gave an unusual and special bow to me, which i returned, and he then, with a smile, gave me a second bow so marked as to draw the attention of those around, who at once turned to see to whom this courtesy was shown. i should not mention this but that sarah and others observed it as an unusual mark of courtesy." feeling the need of rest after all the gayety and excitement of paris, morse and part of his family retired to shanklin, on the isle of wight, where in a neat little furnished cottage--florence villa--they spent part of two happy months. then with his wife and daughter and youngest son he journeyed in leisurely fashion through england and scotland, returning to paris in october. here he spent some time in working on his report to the. united states government as commissioner to the exposition. among his notes i find the following, which seems to me worthy of record:-- "_the sounder._ mr. prescott, i perceive, is quoted as an authority. he is not reliable on many points and his work should be used with caution. his work was originally written in the interest of those opposing my patents, and his statements are, many of them, grossly unjust and strongly colored with prejudice. were he now to reprint his work i am convinced he would find it necessary, for the sake of his reputation, to expunge a great deal, and to correct much that he has misstated and misapprehended. "he manifests the most unpardonable ignorance or wilful prejudice in regard to the _sounder_, now so-called. the possibility of reading by sound was among the earliest modes noticed in the first instrument of , and it was in consequence of observing this fact that, in my first patent specifications drawn up in - , i distinctly specify these _sounds_ of the signs, and they were secured in my letters patent. yet mr. prescott makes it an accidental discovery, and in (the date of his publication) he wholly ignores my agency in this mode. the sounder is but the pen-lever deprived of the pen. in everything else it is the same. the sound of the letter is given with and without the pen." on november , , he writes from paris to his friend, the honorable john thompson:-- "i am still held in paris for the completion of my labors, but hope in a few days to be relieved so that we may leave for dresden, where my boys are pursuing their studies in the german language.... i am yet doubtful how long a sojourn we may make in dresden, and whether i shall winter there or in paris, but i am inclined to the latter. we wish to visit italy, but i am not satisfied that it will be pleasant or even safe to be there just now. the garibaldian inroad upon the pontifical states is, indeed, for the moment suppressed, but the end is not yet. "alas for poor italy! how hard to rid herself of evils that have become chronic. why cannot statesmen of the old world learn the great truth that most of their perplexities in settling the questions of international peace arise from the unnatural union of church and state? he who said 'my kingdom is not of this world' uttered a truth pregnant with consequences. the attempt to rule the state by the church or the church by the state is equally at war with his teachings, and until these are made the rule of conduct, whether for political bodies or religious bodies, there will be the sword and not peace. "i see by the papers that the reaction i have long expected and hoped for has commenced in our country. it is hailed here by intelligent and cool-headed citizens as a good omen for the future. the radicals have had their way, and the people, disgusted, have at length given their command --'thus far and no farther.'" chapter xxxix november , --june , goes to dresden.--trials financial and personal.--humorous letter to e.s. sanford.--berlin.--the telegraph in the war of .--paris.--returns to america.--death of his brother richard.--banquet in new york.--addresses of chief justice chase, morse, and daniel huntington,--report as commissioner finished.--professor w.p. blake's letter urging recognition of professor henry.--morse complies.--henry refuses to be reconciled.-- reading by sound.--morse breaks his leg.--deaths of amos kendall and george wood.--statue in central park.--addresses of governor hoffman and william cullen bryant.--ceremonies at academy of music.--morse bids farewell to his children of the telegraph. it will not be necessary to record in detail the happenings of the remainder of this last visit to europe. three months were spent in dresden, with his children and his sister-in-law's family around him. the same honors were paid to him here as elsewhere on the continent. he was received in special audience by the king and queen of saxony, and men of note in the scientific world eagerly sought his counsel and advice. but, apart from so much that was gratifying to him, he was just then called upon to bear many trials and afflictions of various kinds and degrees, and it is marvellous, in reading his letters, to note with what great serenity and christian fortitude, yet withal, with what solicitude, he endeavored to bear his cross and solve his problems. as he advanced in years an increasing number of those near and dear to him were taken from him by death, and his letters of christian sympathy fill many pages of the letter books. there were trials of a domestic nature, too intimate to be revealed, which caused him deep sorrow, but which he bravely and optimistically strove to meet. clouds, too, obscured his financial horizon; investments in certain mining ventures, entered into with high hopes, turned out a dead loss; the repayment of loans, cheerfully made to friends and relatives, was either delayed or entirely defaulted; and, to cap the climax, the western union telegraph company, in which most of his fortune was invested, passed one dividend and threatened to pass another. he had provided for this contingency by a deposit of surplus funds before his departure for europe, but he was fearful of the future. in spite of all this he could not refrain from treating the matter lightly and humorously in a letter to mr. e.s. sanford of november , , written from dresden: "your letter gave me both pleasure and pain. i was glad to hear some particulars of the condition of my '_basket_,' but was pained to learn that the _hens'_ eggs instead of swelling to _goose_ eggs, and even to _ostrich_ eggs (as some that laid them so enthusiastically anticipated when they were so closely packed), have shrunk to _pigeons'_ eggs, if not to the diminutive _sparrows'_. to keep up the figure, i am thankful there are any left not addled." he was all the time absorbed in the preparation of his report as commissioner to the paris exposition, and it was, of course, a source of great gratification to him to learn from the answers to his questions sent to the telegraph officers of the whole world, that the morse system was practically the only one in general use. as one of his correspondents put it--"the cry is, 'give us the morse.'" the necessity for the completion of this work, and his desire to give his children every advantage of study, kept him longer in europe than he had expected, and he writes to his brother sidney on december , : "i long to return, for age creeps on apace, and i wish to put my house in order for a longer and better journey to a better home." in the early part of february, , he and his wife and daughter and youngest son left dresden for paris, stopping, however, a few days in berlin. mr. george bancroft was our minister at the prussian court, and he did all that courtesy could suggest to make the stay of his distinguished countryman a pleasant one. he urged him to stay longer, so that he might have the pleasure of presenting him at court, but this honor morse felt obliged to decline. the inventor did, however, find time to visit the government telegraph office, of which colonel (afterwards general) von chauvin was the head, and here he received an ovation from all the operators, several hundred in number, who were seated at their instruments in what was then the largest operating-room in the world. another incident of his visit to berlin i shall give in the words of mr. prime:-- "not to recount the many tributes of esteem and respect paid him by dr. siemens, and other gentlemen eminent in the specialty of telegraphy, one other unexpected compliment may be mentioned. the professor was presented to the accomplished general director of the posts of the north german bund, privy councillor von phillipsborn, in whose department the telegraph had been comprised before prussia became so great and the centre of a powerful confederation. "at the time of their visit the director was so engaged, and that, too, in another part of the post-amt, that the porter said it was useless to trouble him with the cards. the names had not been long sent up, however, before the director himself came hurriedly down the corridor into the antechamber, and, scarcely waiting for the hastiest of introductions, enthusiastically grasped both the professor's hands in his own, asking whether he had 'the honor of speaking to dr. morse,' or, as he pronounced it 'morzey.' "when, after a brief conversation, mr. morse rose to go, the director said that he had just left a conference over a new post and telegraph treaty in negotiation between belgium and the bund, and that it would afford him great pleasure to be permitted to present his guest to the assembled gentlemen, including the belgian envoy and the belgian postmaster-general. there followed, accordingly, a formal presentation with an introductory address by the director, who, in excellent english, thanked mr. morse in the name of prussia and of all germany for his great services, and speeches by the principal persons present--the belgian envoy, baron de nothomb, very felicitously complimenting the professor in french. "succeeding the hand-shaking the director spoke again, and, in reply, mr. morse gratefully acknowledged the courtesy shown to him, adding: 'it is very gratifying to me to hear you say that the telegraph has been and is a means of promoting peace among men. believe me, gentlemen, my remaining days shall be devoted to this great object.'... "the director then led his visitors into a small, cosily furnished room, saying as they entered: 'here i have so often thought of you, mr. morse, but i never thought i should have the honor of receiving you in my own private room.' "after they were seated the host, tapping upon a small table, continued: 'over this passed the important telegrams of the war of .' then, approaching a large telegraph map on the wall, he added: 'upon this you can see how invaluable was the telegraph in the war. here,'--pointing with the forefinger of his right hand,--'here the crown prince came down through silesia. this,' indicating with the other forefinger a passage through bohemia, 'was the line of march of prince friedrich carl. from this station the crown prince telegraphed prince friedrich carl, always over berlin, "where are you?" the answer from this station reached him, also over berlin. the austrians were here,' placing the thumb on the map below and between the two fingers. 'the next day prince friedrich carl comes here,'--the left forefinger joined the thumb,--' and telegraphs the fact, always over berlin, to the crown prince, who hurries forward here.' the forefinger of the right hand slipped quickly under the thumb as if to pinch something, and the narrator looked up significantly. "perhaps the patriotic director thought of the july afternoon when, eagerly listening at the little mahogany-topped table, over which passed so many momentous messages, he learned that the royal cousins had effected a junction at königgrätz, a junction that decided the fate of germany and secured prussia its present proud position, a junction which but for his modest visitor's invention, the telegraph, 'always over berlin,' would have been impossible." returning to paris with his family, he spent some months at the hôtel de la place du palais royal, principally in collecting all the data necessary to the completion of his report, which had been much delayed owing to the dilatoriness of those to whom he had applied for facts and statistics. on april , , he says in a letter to the honorable john thompson: "pleasant as has been our european visit, with its advantages in certain branches of education, our hearts yearn for our american home. we can appreciate, i hope, the good in european countries, be grateful for european hospitality, and yet be thorough americans, as we all profess to be notwithstanding the display of so many defects which tend to disgrace us in the eyes of the world." on may he writes to senator michel chevalier: "and now, my dear sir, farewell. i leave beautiful paris the day after to-morrow for my home on the other side of the atlantic, more deeply impressed than ever with the grandeur of france, and the liberality and hospitality of her courteous people, so kindly manifested to me and mine. i leave paris with many regrets, for my age admonishes me that, in all probability, i shall never again visit europe." sailing from havre on the st. laurent, on may , he and his family reached, without untoward incident, the home on the hudson, and on june he writes to his son arthur, who had remained abroad with his tutor:-- "you see by the date where we all are. once more i am seated at my table in the half octagon study under the south verandah. never did the grove look more charming. its general features the same, but the growth of the trees and shrubbery greatly increased. faithful thomas devoy has proved himself to be a truly honest and efficient overseer. the whole farm is in fine condition.... "on thursday last i was much gratified with mr. leslie's letter from copenhagen, with his account of your reception by the king of denmark. how gratifying to me that the portrait of thorwaldsen has given such pleasure to the king, and that he regards it as the best likeness of the great sculptor." the story of morse's presentation to the king of denmark of the portrait, painted in rome in , has already been told in the first volume of this work. the king, as we learn from the above quotation, was greatly pleased with it, and in token of his gratification raised morse to the rank of knight commander of the dannebrog, the rank of knight having been already conferred on the inventor by the king's predecessor on the throne. in another letter to colonel leslie, of november , , brief reference is made to matters political:-- "to-morrow is the important day for deciding our next four years' rulers. i am glad our continental brethren cannot read our newspapers of the present day, otherwise they must infer that our choice of rulers is made from a class more fitted for the state's prison than the state thrones, and elevation to a scaffold were more suited to the characters of the individual candidates than elevation to office. but in a few days matters will calm down, and the business of the nation will assume its wonted aspect. "i have not engaged in this warfare. as a citizen i have my own views, and give my vote on general principles, but am prepared to learn that my vote is on the defeated side. i presume that grant will be the president, and i shall defer to the decision like a peaceable citizen. the day after to-morrow you will know as well as we shall the probable result. the telegraph is telling upon the world, and its effect upon human affairs is yet but faintly appreciated." in this letter he also speaks of the death of his youngest brother, richard c. morse, who died at kissingen on september , , and in a letter to his son arthur, of october , he again refers to it, and adds: "it is a sad blow to all of us but particularly to the large circle of his children. your two uncles and your father were a three-fold cord, strongly united in affection. it is now sundered. the youngest is taken first, and we that remain must soon follow him in the natural course of things." farther on in this letter he says: "i attended the funeral of mr. l---- a few weeks ago. i am told that he died of a broken heart from the conduct of his graceless son frank, and i can easily understand that the course he has pursued, and his drunken habits, may have killed his father with as much certainty as if he had shot him. children have little conception of the effect of their conduct upon their parents. they never know fully these anxieties until they are parents themselves." but his skies were not all grey, for in addition to his satisfaction in being once more at home in his own beloved country, and in his quiet retreat on the hudson, he was soon to be the recipient of a signal mark of respect and esteem by his own countrymen, which proved that this prophet was not without honor even in his own country. new york, november th, . professor s.f.b. morse, ll.d. sir,--many of your countrymen and numerous personal friends desire to give definite expression to the fact that this country is in full accord with european nations in acknowledging your title to the position of father of modern telegraphy, and at the same time in a fitting manner to welcome you to your home. they, therefore, request that you will name a day on which you will favor them with your company at a public banquet. with great respect we remain, very truly your friends. here follow the names of practically every man of prominence in new york at that time. morse replied on december :-- to the hon. hamilton fish, hon. john t. hoffman, hon. wm. dennison, hon. a.g. curtin, hon. wm. e. dodge, peter cooper, esq., daniel huntington, esq., wm. orton, esq., a.a. low, esq., james brown, esq., cyrus w. field, esq., john j. cisco, esq., and others. gentlemen,--i have received your flattering request of the th november, proposing the compliment of a public banquet to me, and asking me to appoint a day on which it would be convenient for me to meet you. did your proposal intend simply a personal compliment i should feel no hesitation in thanking you cordially for this evidence of your personal regard, while i declined your proffered honor; but i cannot fail to perceive that there is a paramount patriotic duty connected with your proposal which forbids me to decline your invitation. in accepting it, therefore, i would name (in view of some personal arrangements) wednesday the th inst. as the day which would be most agreeable to me. accept, gentlemen, the assurance of the respect of your obedient servant, samuel f.b. morse. the banquet was given at delmonico's, which was then on the corner of fifth avenue and fourteenth street, and was presided over by chief justice salmon p. chase, who had been the leading counsel _against_ morse in his first great lawsuit, but who now cheerfully acknowledged that to morse and america the great invention of the telegraph was due. about two hundred men sat down at the tables, among them some of the most eminent in the country. morse sat at the right of chief justice chase, and sir edward thornton, british ambassador, on his left. when the time for speechmaking came, cyrus field read letters from president andrew johnson; from general grant, president-elect; from speaker colfax, admiral farragut, and many others. he also read a telegram from governor alexander h. bullock of massachusetts: "massachusetts honors her two sons--franklin and morse. the one conducted the lightning safely from the sky; the other conducts it beneath the ocean from continent to continent. the one tamed the lightning; the other makes it minister to human wants and human progress." from london came another message:-- "cyrus w. field, new york. the members of the joint committee of the anglo-american and atlantic telegraph companies hear with pleasure of the banquet to be given this evening to professor morse, and desire to greet that distinguished telegraphist, and wish him all the compliments of the season." mr. field added: "this telegram was sent from london at four o'clock this afternoon, and was delivered into the hands of your committee at . ." this, naturally, elicited much applause and laughter. speeches then followed by other men prominent in various walks of life. sir edward thornton said that he "had great satisfaction in being able to contribute his mite of that admiration and esteem for professor morse which must be felt by all for so great a benefactor of his fellow creatures and of posterity." chief justice chase introduced the guest of the evening in the following graceful words:-- "many shining names will at once occur to any one at all familiar with the history of the telegraph. among them i can pause to mention only those of volta, the italian, to whose discoveries the battery is due; oersted, the dane, who first discovered the magnetic properties of the electric current; ampere and arago, the frenchmen, who prosecuted still further and most successfully similar researches; then sturgeon, the englishman, who may be said to have made the first electro-magnet; next, and not least illustrious among these illustrious men, our countryman henry, who first showed the practicability of producing electro-magnetic effects by means of the galvanic current at distances infinitely great; and finally steinheil, the german, who, after the invention of the telegraph in all its material parts was complete, taught, in , the use of the ground as part of the circuit. these are some of those searchers for truth whose names will be long held in grateful memory, and not among the least of their titles to gratitude and remembrance will be the discoveries which contributed to the possibility of the modern telegraph. "but these discoveries only made the telegraph possible. they offered the brilliant opportunity. there was needed a man to bring into being the new art and the new interest to which they pointed, and it is the providential distinction and splendid honor of the eminent american, who is our guest to-night, that, happily prepared by previous acquirements and pursuits, he was quick to seize the opportunity and give to the world the first recording telegraph. "fortunate man! thus to link his name forever with the greatest wonder and the greatest benefit of the age! [great applause]... i give you 'our guest, professor s.f.b. morse, the man of science who explored the laws of nature, wrested electricity from her embrace, and made it a missionary in the cause of human progress.'" as the venerable inventor rose from his chair, overcome with profound emotion which was almost too great to be controlled, the whole assembly rose with him, and cheer after cheer resounded through the hall for many minutes. when at last quiet was restored, he addressed the company at length, giving a resumé of his struggles and paying tribute to those who had befriended and assisted him in his time of need--to amos kendall, who sat at the board with him and whose name called forth more cheers, to alfred vail, to leonard gale, and, in the largeness of his heart, to f.o.j. smith. it will not be necessary to give his remarks in full, as the history of the invention has already been given in detail in the course of this work, but his concluding remarks are worthy of record:-- "in casting my eyes around i am most agreeably greeted by faces that carry me back in memory to the days of my art struggles in this city, the early days of the national academy of design. "brothers (for you are yet brothers), if i left your ranks you well know it cost me a pang. i did not leave you until i saw you well established and entering on that career of prosperity due to your own just appreciation of the important duties belonging to your profession. you have an institution which now holds and, if true to yourselves, will continue to hold a high position in the estimation of this appreciative community. if i have stepped aside from art to tread what seems another path, there is a good precedent for it in the lives of artists. science and art are not opposed. leonardo da vinci could find congenial relaxation in scientific researches and invention, and our own fulton was a painter whose scientific studies resulted in steam navigation. it may not be generally known that the important invention of the _percussion cap_ is due to the scientific recreations of the english painter shaw. "but i must not detain you from more instructive speech. one word only in closing. i have claimed for america the origination of the modern telegraph system of the world. impartial history, i think, will support that claim. do not misunderstand me as disparaging or disregarding the labors and ingenious modifications of others in various countries employed in the same field of invention. gladly, did time permit, would i descant upon their great and varied merits. yet in tracing the birth and pedigree of the modern telegraph, 'american' is not the highest term of the series that connects the past with the present; there is at least one higher term, the highest of all, which cannot and must not be ignored. if not a sparrow falls to the ground without a definite purpose in the plans of infinite wisdom, can the creation of an instrumentality so vitally affecting the interests of the whole human race have an origin less humble than the father of every good and perfect gift? "i am sure i have the sympathy of such an assembly as is here gathered if, in all humility and in the sincerity of a grateful heart, i use the words of inspiration in ascribing honor and praise to him to whom first of all and most of all it is preëminently due. 'not unto us, not unto us, but to god be all the glory.' not what hath man, but 'what hath god wrought?'" more applause followed as morse took his seat, and other speeches were made by such men as professor goldwin smith, the honorable william m. evarts, a.a. low, william cullen bryant, william orton, david dudley field, the honorable william e. dodge, sir hugh allan, daniel huntington, and governor curtin of pennsylvania. while many of these speeches were most eloquent and appropriate, i shall quote from only one, giving as an excuse the words of james d. reid in his excellent work "the telegraph in america": "as mr. huntington's address contains some special thoughts showing the relationship of the painter to invention, and is, besides, a most affectionate and interesting tribute to his beloved master, mr. morse, it is deemed no discourtesy to the other distinguished speakers to give it nearly entire." i shall, however, omit some portions which mr. reid included. "in fact, however, every studio is more or less a laboratory. the painter is a chemist delving into the secrets of pigments, varnishes, mixtures of tints and mysterious preparations of grounds and overlaying of colors; occult arts by which the inward light is made to gleam from the canvas, and the warm flesh to glow and palpitate. "the studio of my beloved master, in whose honor we have met to-night, was indeed a laboratory. vigorous, life-like portraits, poetic and historic groups, occasionally grew upon his easel; but there were many hours--yes, days--when absorbed in study among galvanic batteries and mysterious lines of wires, he seemed to us like an alchemist of the middle ages in search of the philosopher's stone. "i can never forget the occasion when he called his pupils together to witness one of the first, if not the first, successful experiment with the electric telegraph. it was in the winter of - . i can see now that rude instrument, constructed with an old stretching-frame, a wooden clock, a home-made battery and the wire stretched many times around the walls of the studio. with eager interest we gathered about it as our master explained its operation while, with a click, click, the pencil, by a succession of dots and lines, recorded the message in cypher. the idea was born. the words circled that upper chamber as they do now the globe. "but we had little faith. to us it seemed the dream of enthusiasm. we grieved to see the sketch upon the canvas untouched. we longed to see him again calling into life events in our country's history. but it was not to be; god's purposes were being accomplished, and now the world is witness to his triumph. yet the love of art still lives in some inner corner of his heart, and i know he can never enter the studio of a painter and see the artist silently bringing from the canvas forms of life and beauty, but he feels a tender twinge, as one who catches a glimpse of the beautiful girl he loved in his youth whom another has snatched away. "finally, my dear master and father in art, allow me in this moment of your triumph in the field of discovery, to greet you in the name of your brother artists with 'all hail.' as an artist you might have spent life worthily in turning god's blessed daylight into sweet hues of rainbow colors, and into breathing forms for the delight and consolation of men, but it has been his will that you should train the lightnings, the sharp arrows of his anger, into the swift yet gentle messengers of peace and love." morse's wife and his daughter and other ladies had been present during the speeches, but they began to take their leave after mr. huntington's address, although the toastmaster arose to announce the last toast, which was "the ladies." so he said: "this is the most inspiring theme of all, but the theme itself seems to be vanishing from us. indeed [after a pause], has already vanished. [after another pause and a glance around the room.] and the gentleman who was to have responded seems also to have vanished with his theme. i may assume, therefore, that the duties of the evening are performed, and its enjoyments are at an end." the unsought honor of this public banquet, in his own country, organized by the most eminent men of the day, calling forth eulogies of him in the public press of the whole world, was justly esteemed by morse as one of the crowning events of his long career; but an even greater honor was still in store for him, which will be described in due season. the early months of were almost entirely devoted to his report as commissioner, which was finally completed and sent to the department of state in the latter part of march. in this work he received great assistance from professor w.p. blake, who was "in charge of publication," and who writes to him on march : "i have had only a short time to glance at it as it was delivered towards the close of the day, but i am most impressed by the amount of labor and care you have so evidently bestowed upon it." professor blake wrote another letter on august , which i am tempted to give almost in its entirety:-- "i feel it to be my duty to write to you upon another point regarding your report, upon which i know that you are sensitive, but, as i think you will see that my motives are good, and that i sincerely express them, i believe you will not be offended with me although my views and opinions may not coincide exactly with yours. i allude to the mention which you make of some of the eminent physicists who have contributed by their discoveries and experiments to our knowledge of the phenomena of electro-magnetism. "on page of the manuscript you observe: 'the application of the electro-magnet, the invention of arago and sturgeon (first combined and employed by morse in the construction of the generic telegraph) to the purposes also of the semaphore, etc.' "frankly, i am pained not to see the name of henry there associated with those of arago and sturgeon, for it is known and generally conceded among men of science that his researches and experiments and the results which he reached were of radical importance and value, and that they deservedly rank with those of ampere, arago and sturgeon. "i am aware that, by some unfortunate combination of circumstances, the personal relations of yourself and professor henry are not pleasant. i deplore this, and it would be an intense satisfaction to me if i could be the humble means of bringing about a harmonious and honorable adjustment of the differences which separate you. i write this without conference with professor henry or his friends. i do it impartially, first, in the line of my duty as editor (but not now officially); second, as a lover of science; third, with a patriotic desire to secure as much as justly can be for the scientific reputation of the country; and fourth, with a desire to promote harmony between all who are concerned in increasing and disseminating knowledge, and particularly between such sincere lovers of truth and justice as i believe both yourself and professor henry to be. "i do not find that professor henry anywhere makes a claim which trenches upon your claim of first using the electro-magnet for writing or printing at a distance--the telegraph as distinguished from the semaphore. this he cannot claim, for he acknowledges it to be yours. you, on the other hand, do not claim the semaphoric use of electricity. i therefore do not see any obstacle to an honorable adjustment of the differences which separate you, and which, perhaps, make you disinclined to freely associate professor henry's name with those of other promoters of electrical science. "your report presents a fitting opportunity to effect this result. a magnanimous recognition by you of professor henry's important contributions to the science of electro-magnetism appears to me to be all that is necessary. they can be most appropriately and gracefully acknowledged in your report, and you will gain rather than lose by so doing. such action on your part would do more than anything else could to secure for you the good will of all men of science, and to hasten a universal and generous accord of all the credit for your great gift to civilization that you can properly desire. "now, my dear sir, with this frank statement of my views on this point, i accept your invitation, and will go to see you at your house to talk with you upon this point and others, perhaps more agreeable, but if, after this expression of my inclinations, you will not deem me a welcome guest, telegraph me not to come--i will not take it unkindly." to this morse replied on august : "your most acceptable letter, with the tone and spirit of which i am most gratified, is just received, for which accept my thanks. i shall be most happy to see you and freely to communicate with you on the subject mentioned, and with the sincere desire of a satisfactory result." the visit was paid, but the details of the conversation have not been preserved. however, we find in morse's report, on page , the following: "in , mr. sturgeon, of england, made the first electro-magnet in the horseshoe form by loosely winding a piece of iron wire with a spiral of copper wire. in the united states, as early as , the experimental researches of professor joseph henry were of great importance in advancing the science of electro-magnetism. he may be said to have carried the electro-magnet, in its lifting powers, to its greatest perfection. reflecting upon the principle of professor schweigger's galvanometer, he constructed magnets in which great power could be developed by a very small galvanic element. his published paper in shows that he experimented with wires of different lengths, and he noted the amount of magnetism which could be induced through them at various lengths by means of batteries composed of a single element, and also of many elements. he states that the magnetic action of 'a current from a trough composed of many pairs is at least not sensibly diminished by passing through a long wire,' and he incidentally noted the bearing of this fact upon the project of an electro-magnetic telegraph [semaphore?]. "in more recent papers, first published in , it appears that professor henry demonstrated before his pupils the practicability of ringing a bell, by means of electro-magnetism, at a distance." whether professor blake was satisfied with this change from the original manuscript is not recorded. morse evidently thought that he had made the _amende honorable_, but henry, coldly proud man that he was, still held aloof from a reconciliation, for i have been informed that he even refused to be present at the memorial services held in washington after the death of morse. in a letter of may , , to dr. leonard gale, some interesting facts concerning the reading by sound are given:-- "the fact that the lever action of the earliest instrument of by its click gave the sound of the numerals, as embodied in the original type, is well known, nor is there anything so remarkable in that result.... when you first saw the instrument in this was so obvious that it scarcely excited more than a passing remark, but, after the adaptation of the dot and space, with the addition of the line or dash, in forming the alphabetic signs (which, as well as i can remember, was about the same date, late in or early in ) then i noticed that the different letters had each their own individual sounds, and could also be distinguished from each other by the sound. the fact did not then appear to me to be of any great importance, seeming to be more curious than useful, yet, in reflecting upon it, it seemed desirable to secure this result by specifying it in my letters patent, lest it might be used as an _evasion_ in indicating my novel alphabet without recording it. hence the _sounds_ as well as the imprinted signs were specified in my letters patent. "as to the time when these sounds were _practically_ used, i am unable to give a precise date. i have a distinct recollection of one case, and proximately the date of it. the time of the incident was soon after the line was extended from philadelphia to washington, having a way station at wilmington, delaware. the washington office was in the old post-office, in the room above it. i was in the operating room. the instruments were for a moment silent. i was standing at some distance near the fireplace conversing with mr. washington, the operator, who was by my side. presently one of the instruments commenced writing and mr. washington listened and smiled. i asked him why he smiled. 'oh!' said he, 'that is zantzinger of the philadelphia office, but he is operating from wilmington.' 'how do you know that?' 'oh! i know his touch, but i must ask him why he is in wilmington.' he then went to the instrument and telegraphed to zantzinger at wilmington, and the reply was that he had been sent from philadelphia to regulate the relay magnet for the wilmington operator, who was inexperienced in operating.... "i give this instance, not because it was the _first_, but because it is one which i had specially treasured in my memory and frequently related as illustrative of the practicality of reading by _sound_ as well as by the written record. this must have occurred about the year ." a serious accident befell the aged inventor, now seventy-nine years old, in july, . he slipped on the stairs of his country house and fell with all his weight on his left leg, which was broken in two places. this mishap confined him to his bed for three months, and many feared that, owing to his advanced age, it would be fatal. but, thanks to his vigorous constitution and his temperate life, he recovered completely. he bore this affliction with christian fortitude. in a letter to his brother sidney, of august , he says: "the healing process in my leg is very slow. the doctor, who has just left me, condemns me to a fortnight more of close confinement. i have other troubles, for they come not singly, but all is for the best." troubles, indeed, came not singly, for, in addition to sorrows of a domestic nature, his friends one by one were taken from him by death, and on november , , he writes to william stickney, esq., son-in-law of amos kendall:-- "although prepared by recent notices in the papers to expect the sad news, which a telegram this moment received announces to me, of the death of my excellent, long-tried friend mr. kendall, i confess that the intelligence has come with a shock which has quite unnerved me. i feel the loss as of a _father_ rather than of a brother in age, for he was one in whom i confided as a father, so sure was i of affectionate and sound advice.... "i need not tell you how deeply i feel this sad bereavement. i am truly and severely bereaved in the loss of such a friend, a friend, indeed, upon whose faithfulness and unswerving integrity i have ever reposed with perfect confidence, a confidence which has never been betrayed, and a friend to whose energy and skill, in the conduct of the agency which i had confided to him, i owe (under god) the comparative comfort which a kind providence has permitted me to enjoy in my advanced age." in the following year he was called upon to mourn the death of still another of his good friends, for, on august , , george wood died very suddenly at saratoga. while much of sadness and sorrow clouded the evening of the life of this truly great man, the sun, ere it sank to rest, tinged the clouds with a glory seldom vouchsafed to a mortal, for he was to see a statue erected to him while he was yet living. of many men it has been said that-- "wanting bread they receive only a stone, and not even that until long after they have been starved to death." it was morse's good fortune not only to see the child of his brain grow to a sturdy manhood, but to be honored during his lifetime to a truly remarkable degree. the project of a memorial of some sort to the inventor of the telegraph was first broached by robert b. hoover, manager of the western union telegraph office, allegheny city, pennsylvania. the idea once started spread with the rapidity of the electric fluid itself, and, under the able management of james d. reid, a fund was raised, partly by dollar subscriptions largely made by telegraph operators all over the country, including canada, and it was decided that the testimonial should take the form of a bronze statue to be erected in central park, new york. byron m. pickett was chosen as the sculptor, and the park commission readily granted permission to place the statue in the park. it was at first hoped that the unveiling might take place on the th of april, , morse's eightieth birthday; but unavoidable delays arose, and it was not until the th of june that everything was in readiness. it was a perfect june day and the hundreds of telegraphers from all parts of the country, with their families, spent the forenoon in a steamboat excursion around the city. in the afternoon crowds flocked to the park where, near what is now called the "inventor's gate," the statue stood in the angle between two platforms for the invited guests. morse himself refused to attend the ceremonies of the unveiling of his counterfeit presentment, as being too great a strain on his innate modesty. some persons and some papers said that he was present, but, as mr. james d. reid says in his "telegraph in america," "mr. morse was incapable of such an indelicacy.... men of refinement and modesty would justly have marvelled had they seen him in such a place." at about four o'clock the governor of new york, john t. hoffman, delivered the opening address, saying, in the course of his speech: "in our day a new era has dawned. again, for the second time in the history of the world, the power of language is increased by human agency. thanks to samuel f.b. morse men speak to one another now, though separated by the width of the earth, with the lightning's speed and as if standing face to face. if the inventor of the alphabet be deserving of the highest honors, so is he whose great achievement marks this epoch in the history of language--the inventor of the electric telegraph. we intend, so far as in us lies, that the men who come after us shall be at no loss to discover his name for want of recorded testimony." governor claflin, of massachusetts, and william orton, president of the western union telegraph company, then drew aside the drapery amidst the cheers and applause of the multitude, while the governor's island band played the "star-spangled banner." william cullen bryant, who was an early friend of the inventor, then presented the statue to the city in an eloquent address, from which i shall quote the following words:-- "it may be said, i know, that the civilized world is already full of memorials which speak the merit of our friend and the grandeur and utility of his invention. every telegraphic station is such a memorial. every message sent from one of these stations to another may be counted among the honors paid to his name. every telegraphic wire strung from post to post, as it hums in the wind, murmurs his eulogy. every sheaf of wires laid down in the deep sea, occupying the bottom of soundless abysses to which human sight has never penetrated, and carrying the electric pulse, charged with the burden of human thought, from continent to continent, from the old world to the new, is a testimonial to his greatness.... the latin inscription in the church of st. paul's in london, referring to sir christopher wren, its architect,--'if you would behold his monument, look around you,'--may be applied in a far more comprehensive sense to our friend, since the great globe itself has become his monument." the mayor of new york, a. oakey hall, accepted the statue in a short speech, and, after a prayer by the reverend stephen h. tyng, d.d., the assembled multitude joined in singing the doxology, and the ceremonies at the park were ended. but other honors still awaited the venerable inventor, for, on the evening of that day, the old academy of music on fourteenth street was packed with a dense throng gathered together to listen to eulogies on this benefactor of his race, and to hear him bid farewell to his children of the telegraph. a table was placed in the centre of the stage on which was the original instrument used on the first line from washington to baltimore. this was connected with all the lines of telegraph extending to all parts of the world. the honorable william orton presided, and, after the reverend howard crosby had opened the ceremonies with prayer, speeches were delivered by mr. orton, dr. george b. loring, of salem, and the reverend dr. george w. samson. at nine o'clock mr. orton announced that all lines were clear for the farewell message of the inventor to his children; that this message would be flashed to thousands of waiting operators all over the world, and that answers would be received during the course of the evening. the pleasant task of sending the message had been delegated to miss sadie e. cornwell, a skilful young operator of attractive personality, and morse himself was to manipulate the key which sent his name, in the dots and dashes of his own alphabet, over the wires. the vast audience was hushed into absolute silence as miss cornwell clicked off the message which morse had composed for the occasion: "greeting and thanks to the telegraph fraternity throughout the world. glory to god in the highest, on earth peace, good will to men." as mr. orton escorted morse to the table a tremendous burst of applause broke out, but was silenced by a gesture from the presiding officer, and again the great audience was still. slowly the inventor spelled out the letters of his name, the click of the instrument being clearly heard in every part of the house, and as clearly understood by the hundreds of telegraphers present, so that without waiting for the final dot, which typified the letter e, the whole vast assembly rose amid deafening cheers and the waving of handkerchiefs. it was an inspiring moment, and the venerable man was almost overcome by his emotions, and sat for some time with his head buried in his hands, striving to regain his self-control. when the excitement had somewhat subsided, mr. orton said: "thus the father of the telegraph bids farewell to his children." the current was then switched to an instrument behind the scenes, and answers came pouring in, first from near-by towns and cities, and then from new orleans, quebec, san francisco, halifax, havana, and finally from hongkong, bombay, and singapore. mr. reid has given a detailed account of these messages in his "telegraph in america," but i shall not pause to reproduce them here; neither shall i quote from the eloquent speeches which followed, delivered by general n.p. banks, the reverend h.m. gallagher, g.k. walcott, and james d. reid. after miss antoinette sterling had sung "auld lang syne," to the great delight of the audience, who recalled her several times, chief justice charles p. daly introduced professor morse in an appropriate address. as the white-haired inventor, in whose honor this great demonstration had been organized, stepped forward to deliver his, valedictory, he was greeted with another round of cheering and applause. at first almost overcome by emotion, he soon recovered his self-control, and he read his address in a clear, resonant voice which carried to every part of the house. the address was a long one, and as most of it is but a recapitulation of what has been already given, i shall only quote from it in part:-- "friends and children of the telegraph,--when i was solicited to be present this evening, in compliance with the wishes of those who, with such zeal and success, responded to the suggestion of one of your number that a commemorative statue should be erected in our unrivaled park, and which has this day been placed in position and unveiled, i hesitated to comply. not that i did not feel a wish in person to return to you my heartfelt thanks for this unique proof of your personal regard, but truly from a fear that i could use no terms which would adequately express my appreciation of your kindness. whatever i say must fall short of expressing the grateful feelings or conflicting emotions which agitate me on an occasion so unexampled in the history of invention. gladly would i have shrunk from this public demonstration were it not that my absence to-night, under the circumstances, might be construed into an apathy which i do not feel, and which your overpowering kindness would justly rebuke.... "you have chosen to impersonate in my humble effigy an invention which, cradled upon the ocean, had its birth in an american ship. it was nursed and cherished not so much from personal as from patriotic motives. forecasting its future, even at its birth, my most powerful stimulus to perseverance through all the perils and trials of its early days--and they were neither few nor insignificant--was the thought that it must inevitably be world-wide in its application, and, moreover, that it would everywhere be hailed as a grateful american gift to the nations. it is in this aspect of the present occasion that i look upon your proceedings as intended, not so much as homage to an individual, as to the invention, 'whose lines [from america] have gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.' "in the carrying-out of any plan of improvement, however grand or feasible, no single individual could possibly accomplish it without the aid of others. we are none of us so powerful that we can dispense with the assistance, in various departments of the work, of those whose experience and knowledge must supply the needed aid of their expertness. it is not sufficient that a brilliant project be proposed, that its modes of accomplishment are foreseen and properly devised; there are, in every part of the enterprise, other minds and other agencies to be consulted for information and counsel to perfect the whole plan. the chief justice, in delivering the decision of the supreme court, says: 'it can make no difference whether he [the inventor] derives his information from books or from conversation with men skilled in the science.' and: 'the fact that morse sought and obtained the necessary information and counsel from the best sources, and acted upon it, neither impairs his rights as an inventor nor detracts from his merits.' "the inventor must seek and employ the skilled mechanician in his workshop to put the invention into practical form, and for this purpose some pecuniary means are required as well as mechanical skill. both these were at hand. alfred vail, of morristown, new jersey, with his father and brother, came to the help of the unclothed infant, and with their funds and mechanical skill put it into a condition to appear before the congress of the nation. to these new jersey friends is due the first important aid in the progress of the invention. aided also by the talent and scientific skill of professor gale, my esteemed colleague in the university, the telegraph appeared in washington in , a suppliant for the means to demonstrate its power. to the honorable f.o.j. smith, then chairman of the house committee of commerce, belongs the credit of a just appreciation of the new invention, and of a zealous advocacy of an experimental essay, and the inditing of an admirably written report in its favor, signed by every member of the committee.... to ezra cornell, whose noble benefactions to his state and the country have placed his name by the side of cooper and peabody high on the roll of public benefactors, is due the credit of early and effective aid in the superintendence and erection of the first public line of telegraph ever established." after paying tribute to the names of amos kendall, cyrus field, volta, oersted, arago, schweigger, gauss and weber, steinheil, daniell, grove, cooke, dana, henry, and others, he continued:-- "there is not a name i have mentioned, and many whom i have not mentioned, whose career in science or experience in mechanical and engineering and nautical tactics, or in financial practice, might not be the theme of volumes rather than of brief mention in an ephemeral address. "to-night you have before you a sublime proof of the grand progress of the telegraph in its march round the globe. it is but a few days since that our veritable antipodes became telegraphically united to us. we can speak to and receive an answer in a few seconds of time from hongkong in china, where ten o'clock to-night here is ten o'clock in the day there, and it is, perhaps, a debatable question whether their ten o'clock is ten to-day or ten to-morrow. china and new york are in interlocutory communication. we know the fact, but can imagination realize the fact? "but i must not further trespass on your patience at this late hour. i cannot close without the expression of my cordial thanks to my long-known, long-tried and honored friend reid, whose unwearied labors early contributed so effectively to the establishment of telegraph lines, and who, in a special manner as chairman of your memorial fund, has so faithfully, and successfully, and admirably carried to completion your flattering design. to the eminent governors of this state and the state of massachusetts, who have given to this demonstration their honored presence; to my excellent friend the distinguished orator of the day; to the mayor and city authorities of new york; to the park commissioners; to the officers and managers of the various, and even rival, telegraph companies, who have so cordially united on this occasion; to the numerous citizens, ladies and gentlemen; and, though last not least, to every one of my large and increasing family of telegraph children who have honored me with the proud title of father, i tender my cordial thanks." chapter xl june , --april , nearing the end.--estimate of the reverend f.b. wheeler.--early poem.-- leaves "locust grove" for last time.--death of his brother sidney.-- letter to cyrus field on neutrality of telegraph.--letter of f.o.j. smith to h.j. rogers.--reply by professor gale.--vicious attack by f.o.j. smith.--death prevents reply by morse.--unveils statue of franklin in last public appearance.--last hours.--death.--tributes of james d. reid, new york "evening post," new york "herald," and louisville "courier-journal."--funeral.--monument in greenwood cemetery.--memorial services in house of representatives, washington.--address of james g. blaine.--other memorial services.--mr. prime's review of morse's character.--epilogue. the excitement caused by all these enthusiastic demonstrations in his honor told upon the inventor both physically and mentally, as we learn from a letter of june , , to his daughter mrs. lind and her husband:-- "so fatigued that i can scarcely keep my eyes open, i nevertheless, before retiring to my bed, must drop you a line of enquiry to know what is your condition. we have only heard of your arrival and of your first unfavorable impressions. i hope these latter are removed, and that you are both benefiting by change of air and the waters of the clifton springs. "you know how, in the last few days, we have all been overwhelmed with unusual cares. the grand ceremonies of the park and the academy of music are over, but have left me in a good-for-nothing condition. everything went off splendidly, indeed, as you will learn from the papers.... i find it more difficult to bear up with the overwhelming praise that is poured out without measure, than with the trials of my former life. there is something so remarkable in this universal laudation that the effect on me, strange as it may seem, is rather depressing than exhilarating. "when i review my past life and see the way in which i have been led, i am so convinced of the faithfulness of god in answer to the prayers of faith, which i have been enabled in times of trial to offer to him, that i find the temper of my mind is to constant praise: 'bless the lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits!' is ever recurring to me. it is doubtless this continued referring all to him that prevents this universal demonstration of kindly feeling from puffing me up with the false notion that i am anything but the feeblest of instruments. i cannot give you any idea of the peculiar feelings which gratify and yet oppress me." he had planned to cross the ocean once more, partly as a delegate to russia from the evangelical alliance, and partly to see whether it would not be possible to induce prussia and switzerland and other european nations, from whom he had as yet received no pecuniary remuneration, to do him simple justice. but, for various reasons, this trip was abandoned, and from those nations he never received anything but medals and praise. so the last summer of the aged inventor's life was spent at his beloved locust grove, not free from care and anxiety, as he so well deserved, but nevertheless, thanks to his christian philosophy, in comparative serenity and happiness. his pastor in poughkeepsie, the reverend f.b. wheeler, says of him in a letter to mr. prune: "in his whole character and in all his relations he was one of the most remarkable men of his age. he was one who drew all who came in contact with him to his heart, disarming all prejudices, silencing all cavil. in his family he was light, life, and love; with those in his employ he was ever considerate and kind, never exacting and harsh, but honorable and just, seeking the good of every dependent; in the community he was a pillar of strength and beauty, commanding the homage of universal respect; in the church he walked with god and men." that he was a man of great versatility has been shown, in the recital of his activities as artist, inventor, and writer; that he had no mean ability as a poet is also on record. on january , , he says in a letter to his cousin, mrs. thomas r. walker: "some years ago, when both of us were younger, i remember addressing to you a trifle entitled 'the serenade,' which, on being shown to mr. verplanck, was requested for publication in the 'talisman,' edited and conducted by him and mr. sands. i have not seen a copy of that work for many years, and have preserved no copy of 'the serenade.' if you have a copy i should be pleased to have it." he was delicately discreet in saying "some years ago," for this poem was written in as the result of a wager between morse and his young cousin, he having asserted that he could write poetry as well as paint pictures, and requesting her to give him a theme. it seems that the young lady had been paid the compliment of a serenade a few nights previously, but she had, most unromantically, slept through it all, so she gave as her theme "the serenade," and the next day morse produced the following poem:-- the serenade haste! 't is the stillest hour of night, the moon sheds down her palest light, and sleep has chained the lake and hill, the wood, the plain, the babbling rill; and where yon ivied lattice shows my fair one slumbers in repose. come, ye that know the lovely maid, and help prepare the serenade. hither, before the night is flown, bring instruments of every tone. but lest with noise ye wake, not lull, her dreaming fancy, ye must cull such only as shall soothe the mind and leave the harshest all behind. bring not the thundering drum, nor yet the harshly-shrieking clarionet, nor screaming hautboy, trumpet shrill, nor clanging cymbals; but, with skill, exclude each one that would disturb the fairy architects, or curb the wild creations of their mirth, all that would wake the soul to earth. choose ye the softly-breathing-flute, the mellow horn, the loving lute; the viol you must not forget, and take the sprightly flageolet and grave bassoon; choose too the fife, whose warblings in the tuneful strife, mingling in mystery with the words, may seem like notes of blithest birds. are ye prepared? now lightly tread as if by elfin minstrels led, and fling no sound upon the air shall rudely wake my slumbering fair. softly! now breathe the symphony, so gently breathe the tones may vie in softness with the magic notes in visions heard; music that floats so buoyant that it well may seem, with strains ethereal in her dream, one song of such mysterious birth she doubts it comes from heaven or earth. play on! my loved one slumbers still. play on! she wakes not with the thrill of joy produced by strains so mild, but fancy moulds them gay and wild. now, as the music low declines, 't is sighing of the forest pines; or 't is the fitful, varied war of distant falls or troubled shore. now, as the tone grows full or sharp, 't is whispering of the Æolian harp. the viol swells, now low, now loud, 't is spirits chanting on a cloud that passes by. it dies away; so gently dies she scarce can say 't is gone; listens; 't is lost she fears; listens, and thinks again she hears. as dew drops mingling in a stream to her 't is all one blissful dream, a song of angels throned in light. softly! away! fair one, good-night. in the autumn of morse returned with his family to new york, and it is recorded that, with an apparent premonition that he should never see his beloved locust grove again, he ordered the carriage to stop as he drove out of the gate, and, standing up, looked long and lovingly at the familiar scene before telling the coachman to drive on. and as he passed the rural cemetery on the way to the station he exclaimed: "beautiful! beautiful! but i shall not lie there. i have prepared a place elsewhere." not long after his return to the city death once more laid its heavy hand upon him in the loss of his sole surviving brother, sidney. while this was a crushing blow, for these two brothers had been peculiarly attached to each other, he bore it with christian resignation, confident that the separation would be for a short time only--"we must soon follow, i also am over eighty years, and am waiting till my change comes." but his mind was active to the very end, and he never ceased to do all in his power for the welfare of mankind. one of the last letters written by him on a subject of public importance was sent on december , , to cyrus field, who was then attending an important telegraphic convention in rome:-- "excuse my delay in writing you. the excitement occasioned by the visit of the grand duke alexis has but just ceased, and i have been wholly engrossed by the various duties connected with his presence. i have wished for a few calm moments to put on paper some thoughts respecting the doings of the great telegraphic convention to which you are a delegate. "the telegraph has now assumed such a marvellous position in human affairs throughout the world, its influences are so great and important in all the varied concerns of nations, that its efficient protection from injury has become a necessity. it is a powerful advocate for universal peace. not that of itself it can command a 'peace, be still!' to the angry waves of human passions, but that, by its rapid interchange of thought and opinion, it gives the opportunity of explanations to acts and to laws which, in their ordinary wording, often create doubt and suspicion. were there no means of quick explanation it is readily seen that doubt and suspicion, working on the susceptibilities of the public mind, would engender misconception, hatred and strife. how important then that, in the intercourse of nations, there should be the ready means at hand for prompt correction and explanation. "could there not be passed in the great international convention some resolution to the effect that, in whatever condition, whether of peace or war between the nations, the telegraph should be deemed a sacred thing, to be by common consent effectually protected both on the land and beneath the waters? "in the interest of human happiness, of that 'peace on earth' which, in announcing the advent of the saviour, the angels proclaimed with 'good will to men,' i hope that the convention will not adjourn without adopting a resolution asking of the nations their united, effective protection to this great agent of civilization." richly as he deserved that his sun should set in an unclouded sky, this was not to be. sorrows of a most intimate nature crowded upon him. he was also made the victim of a conscienceless swindler who fleeced him of many thousand dollars, and, to crown all, his old and indefatigable enemy, f.o.j. smith, administered a cowardly thrust in the back when his weakening powers prevented him from defending himself with his oldtime vigor. from a very long letter written by smith on december , , to henry j. rogers in washington, i shall quote only the first sentences:-- dear sir,--in my absence your letter of the th ult. was received here, with the printed circular of the national monumental society, in reply to which i feel constrained to say if that highly laudable association resolves "to erect at the national capital of the united states a memorial monument" to symbolize in statuary of colossal proportions the "history of the electromagnetic telegraph," before that history has been authentically written, it is my conviction: that the statue most worthy to stand upon the pedestal of such monument would be that of the man of true science, who explored the laws of nature ahead of all other men, and was "the first to wrest electron-magnetism from nature's embrace and make it a missionary to, the cause of human progress," and that man is professor joseph henry, of the smithsonian institution. professor morse and his early coadjutors would more appropriately occupy, in groups of high relief, the sides of that pedestal, symbolizing, by their established merits and cooperative works, the grandeur of the researches and resulting discoveries of their leader and chief, who was the first to announce and to demonstrate to a despairing world, by actual mechanical agencies, the practicability of; an electro-magnetic telegraph through any distances. much more of the same flatulent bombast follows which it will not be necessary to introduce here. while morse himself naturally felt some delicacy in noticing such an attack as this, he found a willing, and efficient champion in his old friend (and the friend of henry as well) professor leonard d. gale, who writes to him on january , :-- "i have lately seen a mean, unfair, and villainous letter of f.o.j. smith, addressed to h.j. rogers (officer of the morse monumental association), alleging that the place on the monument designed to be occupied by the statue of morse, should be awarded to henry; that morse was not a scientific man, etc., etc. it was written in his own peculiar style. the allegations were so outrageous that i felt it my duty to reply to it without delay. as smith's letter was to rogers, as an officer of the association, i sent my reply to the same person. i enclose a copy herewith. "mrs. gale suggests an additional figure to the group on the monument--a serpent with the face of f.o.j.s., biting the heel of morse, but with the fangs extracted." professor gale's letter to henry j. rogers is worthy of being quoted in full:-- "i have just read a letter from f.o.j. smith, dated december , , addressed to you, and designed to throw discredit on morse's invention of the telegraph, the burden of which seems to be rebuke to the designer of the monument, for elevating morse to the apex of the monument and claiming for professor j. henry, of the smithsonian institution, that high distinction. "the first question of an impartial inquirer is: 'to which of these gentlemen is the honor due?' to ascertain this we will ask a second question: 'was the subject of the invention a _machine_, or was it _a new fact in science_?' the answer is: 'it was a _machine_.' the first was morse's, the latter was henry's. henry stated that electric currents might be sent through long distances applicable to telegraphic purposes. morse took the facts as they then existed, invented a machine, harnessed the steed therein, and set the creature to work. there is honor due to henry for his great discovery of the scientific principle; there is honor also due to morse for his invention of the ingenious machine which accomplishes the work. "men of science regard the discovery of a new fact in science as a higher attainment than the application of it to useful purposes, while the world at large regards the _application_ of the principle or fact in science to the useful arts as of paramount importance. all honor to the discoverer of a new fact in science; equal honor to him who utilizes that fact for the benefit of mankind. "has the world forgotten what robert fulton did for the navigation of the waters by steamboats? it was he who first applied steam to propel a vessel and navigated the hudson for the first time with steam and paddle-wheels and vessel in . do not we honor him as the father of steamboats? yet fulton did not invent steam, nor the steam-engine, nor paddle-wheels, nor the vessel. he merely adapted a steam-engine to a vessel armed with paddle-wheels. the combination was his invention. "there is another example on record. cyrus h. mccormick, the father of the reaping and mowing machine, took out the first successful patent in , and is justly acknowledged the world over as the inventor of this great machine. although one hundred and forty-six patents were granted in england previous to mccormick's time, they are but so many unsuccessful efforts to perfect a practical machine. the cutting apparatus, the device to raise and lower the cutters, the levers, the platform, the wheels, the framework, had all been used before mccormick's time. but mccormick was the first genius able to put these separate devices together in a practical, harmonious operation. the combination was his invention. "morse did more. he invented the form of the various parts of his machine as well as their combination; he was the first to put such a machine into practical operation; and for such a purpose who can question his title as the inventor of the electric telegraph?" to the letter of professor gale, morse replied on january :-- "thank you sincerely for your effective interference in my favor in the recent, but not unexpected, attack of f.o.j.s. i will, so soon as i can free myself from some very pressing matters, write you more fully on the subject. yet i can add nothing to your perfectly clear exposition of the difference between a discovery of a principle in science and its application to a useful purpose. as for smith's suggestion of putting henry on the top of the proposed monument, i can hardly suppose professor h. would feel much gratification on learning the character of his zealous advocate. it is simply a matter of spite; carrying out his intense and smothered antipathy to me, and not for any particular regard for professor h. "as i have had nothing to do with the proposed monument, i have no feeling on the subject. if they who have the direction of that monument think the putting of professor h. on the apex will meet the applause of the public, including the expressed opinion of the entire world, by all means put him there. i certainly shall make no complaint." the monument was never erected, and this effort of smith's to humiliate morse proved abortive. but his spite did not end there, as we learn from the following letter written by morse on february , , to the reverend aspinwall hodge, of hartford, connecticut, the husband of one of his nieces:-- "some unknown person has sent me the advance sheets of a work (the pages between and ) publishing in hartford, the title of which is not given, but i think is something like 'the great industries of the united states.' the pages sent me are entitled 'the american magnetic telegraph.' they contain the most atrocious and vile attack upon me which has ever appeared in print. i shall be glad to learn who are the publishers of this work, what are the characters of the publishers, and whether they will give me the name or names of the author or authors of this diatribe, and whether they vouch for the character of those who furnished the article for their work. "i know well enough, indeed, who the libellers are and their motives, which arise from pure spite and revenge for having been legally defeated parties in cases relating to the telegraph before the courts. to you i can say the concocters of this tirade are f.o.j. smith, of bad notoriety, and henry o'reilly. "are the publishers responsible men, and are they aware of the character of those who have given them that article, particularly the moral character of smith, notorious for his debaucheries and condemned in court for subornation of perjury, and one of the most revengeful men, who has artfully got up this tirade because my agent, the late honorable amos kendall, was compelled to resist his unrighteous claim upon me for some $ , which, after repeated trials lasting some twelve years, was at length, by a decision of the supreme court of the united states, decided against him, and he was adjudged to owe me some $ , ? "mr. kendall, previous to his decease, managed the case which has thus resulted. the necessity of seizing some property of his in the city of williamsburg, through the course of the legal proceedings, has aroused his revengeful feelings, and he has openly threatened that he would be revenged upon me for it, and he has for two or three years past with o'reilly been concocting this mode of revenge. "if the publishers are respectable men, i think they will regret that they have been the dupes of these arch conspirators. if not too late to suppress that article i should be glad of an interview with them, in which i will satisfy them that they have been most egregiously imposed upon." this was the last flash of that old fire which, when he was sufficiently aroused by righteous indignation at unjust attacks, had enabled him to strike out vigorously in self-defense, and had won him many a victory. he was now nearing the end of his physical resources. he had fought the good fight and he had no misgivings as to the verdict of posterity on his achievements. he could fight no more, willing and mentally able though he was to confound his enemies again. he must leave it to others to defend his fame and good name in the future. the last letter which was copied into his letter-press book was written on march , not three weeks before the last summons came to him, and it refers to his old enemy who thus pursued him even to the brink of the grave. it is addressed to f.j. mead, esq.:-- "although forbidden to read or write by my physician, who finds me prostrate with a severe attack of neuralgia in the head, i yet must thank you for your kind letter of the th inst. "i should be much gratified to know what part professor henry has taken, if any, in this atrocious and absurd attack of f.o.j.s. i have no fears of the result, but no desire either to suspect any agency on the part of professor henry. it is difficult for me to conceive that a man in his position should not see the true position of the matter." this vicious attack had no effect upon his fame. dying as soon as it was born, choked by its own venom, it was overwhelmed by the wave of sorrow and sympathy which swept over the earth at the announcement of the death of the great inventor. his last public appearance was on january , , when he, in company with horace greeley, unveiled the statue of benjamin franklin in printing house square, new york. it was a very cold day, but, against the advice of his physician and his family, he insisted on being present. as he drove up in his carriage and, escorted by the committee, ascended to the platform, he was loudly cheered by the multitude which had assembled. standing uncovered in the biting air, he delivered the following short address:-- "mr. de groot and fellow-citizens,--i esteem it one of my highest honors that i should have been designated to perform the office of unveiling this day the fine statue of our illustrious and immortal franklin. when requested to accept this duty i was confined to my bed, but i could not refuse, and i said: 'yes, if i have to be lifted to the spot!' "franklin needs no eulogy from me. no one has more reason to venerate his name than myself. may his illustrious example of devotion to the interest of universal humanity be the seed of further fruit for the good of the world." morse was to have been an honored guest at the banquet in the evening, where in the speeches his name was coupled with that of franklin as one of the great benefactors of mankind; but, yielding to the wishes of his family, he remained at home. he had all his life been a sufferer from severe headaches, and now these neuralgic pains increased in severity, no doubt aggravated by his exposure at the unveiling. when the paroxysms were upon him he walked the floor in agony, pressing his hands to his temples; but these seizures were, mercifully, not continuous, and he still wrote voluminous letters, and tried to solve the problems which were thrust upon him, even to the end. one of the last acts of his life was to go down town with his youngest son, whose birthday was the th of march, to purchase for him his first gold watch, and that watch the son still carries, a precious memento of his father. gradually the pains in the head grew less severe, but great weakness followed, and he was compelled to keep to his bed, sinking into a peaceful, painless unconsciousness relieved by an occasional flash of his old vigor. to his pastor, reverend dr. william adams, he expressed his gratitude for the goodness of god to him, but added: "the best is yet to come." he roused himself on the th of march, the birthday of his son, kissing him and gazing with pleasure on a drawing sent to the boy by his cousin, mary goodrich, pronouncing it excellent. shortly before the end pneumonia set in, and one of the attending physicians, tapping on his chest, said "this is the way we doctors telegraph"; and the dying man, with a momentary gleam of the old humor lighting up his fading eyes, whispered, "very good." these were the last words spoken by him. from a letter written by one who was present at his bedside to another member of the family i shall quote a few words: "he is fast passing away. it is touching to see him so still, so unconscious of all that is passing, waiting for death. he has suffered much with neuralgia of the head, increased of late by a miserable pamphlet by f.o.j.s. poor dear man! strange that they could not leave him in peace in his old age. but now all sorrow is forgotten. he lies quiet infant. heaven is opening to him with its peace and perfect rest. the doctor calls his sickness 'exhaustion of the brain.' he looks very handsome; the light of heaven seems shining on his beautiful eyes." on april , consciousness returned for a few moments and he recognized his wife and those around him with a smile, but without being able to speak. then he gradually sank to sleep and on the next day he gently breathed his last. his faithful and loving friend, james d. reid, in the journal of the telegraph, of which he was editor, paid tribute to his memory in the following touching words:-- "in the ripeness and mellow sunshine of the end of an honored and protracted life professor morse, the father of the american telegraph system, our own beloved friend and father, has gone to his rest. the telegraph, the child of his own brain, has long since whispered to every home in all the civilized world that the great inventor has passed away. men, as they pass each other on the street, say, with the subdued voice of personal sorrow, 'morse is dead.' yet to us he lives. if he is dead it is only to those who did not know him. "it is not the habit of ardent affection to be garrulous in the excitement of such an occasion as this. it would fain gaze on the dead face in silence. the pen, conscious of its weakness, hesitates in its work of endeavoring to reveal that which the heart can alone interpret in a language sacred to itself, and by tears no eye may ever see. for such reason we, who have so much enjoyed the sweetness of the presence of this venerable man, now so calm in his last sacred sleep, to whom he often came, with his cheerful and gentle ways, as to a son, so confiding of his heart's tenderest thoughts, so free in the expression of his hopes of the life beyond, find difficulty in making the necessary record of his decease. we can only tell what the world has already known by the everywhere present wires, that, on the evening of tuesday, april , professor morse, in the beautiful serenity of christian hope, after a life extended beyond fourscore years, folded his hands upon his breast and bade the earth, and generation, and nation he had honored, farewell." in the "evening post," probably from the pen of his old friend william cullen bryant, was the following:-- "the name of morse will always stand in the foremost rank of the great inventors, each of whom has changed the face of society and given a new direction to the growth of civilization by the application to the arts of one great thought. it will always be read side by side with those of gutenberg and schoeffer, or watt and fulton. this eminence he fairly earned by one splendid invention. but none who knew the man will be satisfied to let this world-wide and forever growing monument be the sole record of his greatness. "had he never thought of the telegraph he would still receive, in death, the highest honors friendship and admiration can offer to distinguished and varied abilities, associated with a noble character. in early life he showed the genius of a truly great artist. in after years he exercised all the powers of a masterly scientific investigator. throughout his career he was eminent for the loftiness of his aims, for his resolute faith in the strength of truth, for his capacity to endure and to wait; and for his fidelity alike to his convictions and to his friends. "his intellectual eminence was limited to no one branch of human effort, but, in the judgment of men who knew him best, he had endowments which might have made him, had he not been the chief of inventors, the most powerful of advocates, the boldest and most effective of artists, the most discerning of scientific physicians, or an administrative officer worthy of the highest place and of the best days in american history." the new york "herald" said:-- "morse was, perhaps, the most illustrious american of his age. looking over the expanse of the ages, we think more earnestly and lovingly of cadmus, who gave us the alphabet; of archimedes, who invented the lever; of euclid, with his demonstrations in geometry; of faust, who taught us how to print; of watt, with his development of steam, than of the resonant orators who inflamed the passions of mankind, and the gallant chieftains who led mankind to war. we decorate history with our napoleons and wellingtons, but it was better for the world that steam was demonstrated to be an active, manageable force, than that a french emperor and his army should win the battle of austerlitz. and when a napoleon of peace, like the dead morse, has passed away, and we come to sum up his life, we gladly see that the world is better, society more generous and enlarged, and mankind nearer the ultimate fulfillment of its earthly mission because he lived; and did the work that was in him." the louisville "courier-journal" went even higher in its praise:-- "if it is legitimate to measure a man by the magnitude of his achievements, the greatest man of the nineteenth century is dead. some days ago the electric current brought us the intelligence that s.f.b. morse was smitten with, paralysis. since then it has brought us the bulletins of his condition as promptly as if we had been living in the same square, entertaining us with hopes which the mournful sequel has proven to be delusive, for the magic wires have just thrilled with the tidings to all nations that the father of telegraphy has passed to the eternal world. almost as quietly as the all-seeing eye saw the soul depart from that venerable form, mortal men, thousands of miles distant, are apprised of the same fact by the swift messenger which he won from the unknown--speaking, as it goes around its world-wide circuit, in all the languages of earth. "professor morse took no royal road to this discovery. indeed it is never a characteristic of genius to seek such roads. he was dependent, necessarily, upon facts and principles brought to light by similar diligent, patient minds which had gone before him. volta, galvani, morcel, grove, faraday, franklin, and a host of others had laid a basis of laws and theories upon which he humbly and reverently mounted and arranged his great problem for the hoped-for solution. but to him was reserved the sole, undivided glory of discovering the priceless gem, 'richer than all its tribe,' which lay just beneath the surface, and around which so many _savans_ had blindly groped. "he is dead, but his mission was fully completed. it has been no man's fortune to leave behind him a more magnificent legacy to earth, or a more absolute title to a glorious immortality. to the honor of being one of the most distinguished benefactors of the human race, he added the personal and social graces and virtues of a true gentleman and a christian philosopher; the memory of his private worth will be kept green amid the immortals of sorrowing friendship for a lifetime only, but his life monument will endure among men as long as the human race exists upon earth." the funeral services were held on friday, april , at the madison square presbyterian church. at eleven o'clock the long procession entered the church in the following order:-- rev. wm. adams, d.d., rev. f.b. wheeler, d.d. coffin. pall-bearers. william orton, cyrus w. field, daniel huntington, charles butler, peter cooper, john a. dix, cambridge livingston, ezra cornell. the family. governor hoffman and staff. members of the legislature. directors of the new york, newfoundland and london telegraph company. directors of the western union telegraph company and officers and operators. members of the national academy of design. members of the evangelical alliance. members of the chamber of commerce. members of the association for the advancement of science and art. members of the new york stock exchange. delegations from the common councils of new york, brooklyn and poughkeepsie and many of the yale alumni. the legislative committee: messrs. james w. husted, l. bradford prince, samuel j. tilden, severn d. moulton and john simpson. the funeral address, delivered by dr. adams, was long and eloquent, and near the conclusion he said:-- "to-day we part forever with all that is mortal of that man who has done so much in the cause of christian civilization. less than one year ago his fellow-citizens, chiefly telegraphic operators, who loved him as children love a father, raised his statue in central park. to-day all we can give him is a grave. that venerable form, that face so saintly in its purity and refinement, we shall see no more. how much we shall miss him in our homes, our churches, in public gatherings, in the streets and in society which he adorned and blessed. but his life has been so useful, so happy and so complete that, for him, nothing remains to be wished. congratulate the man who, leaving to his family, friends and country a name spotless, untarnished, beloved of nations, to be repeated in foreign tongues and by sparkling seas, has died in the bright and blessed hope of everlasting life. "farewell, beloved friend, honored citizen, public benefactor, good and faithful servant!" the three morse brothers were united in death as they had been in life. in greenwood cemetery a little hill had been purchased by the brothers and divided into three equal portions. on the summit of the hill there now stands a beautiful three-sided monument, and at its base reposes all that is mortal of these three upright men, each surrounded by those whom they had loved on earth, and who have now joined them in their last resting place. resolutions of sympathy came to the family from all over the world, and from bodies political, scientific, artistic, and mercantile, and letters of condolence from friends and from strangers. in the house of representatives, in washington, the honorable s.s. cox offered a concurrent resolution, declaring that congress has heard--"with profound regret of the death of professor morse, whose distinguished and varied abilities have contributed more than those of any other person to the development and progress of the practical arts, and that his purity of private life, his loftiness of scientific aims, and his resolute faith in truth, render it highly proper that the representatives and senators should solemnly testify to his worth and greatness." this was unanimously agreed to. the honorable fernando wood, after a brief history of the legislation which resulted in the grant of $ , to enable morse to test his invention, added that he was proud to say that his name had been recorded in the affirmative on that historic occasion, and that he was then the only living member of either house who had so voted. similar resolutions were passed in the senate, and a committee was appointed by both houses to arrange for a suitable memorial service, and, on april , the following letter was sent to mrs. morse by a.s. solomons, chairman of the committee of arrangements:-- dear madam,--congress and the citizens of washington purpose holding memorial services in honor of your late respected husband in the hall of the house of representatives, on tuesday evening next, the th of april, and have directed me to request that yourself and family become the guests of the nation on that truly solemn occasion. if agreeable, be good enough to inform me when you will likely be here. the widow was not able to accept this graceful invitation, but members of the family were present. the hall was crowded with a representative audience. james g. blaine, speaker of the house, presided, assisted by vice-president colfax. president grant and his cabinet, judges of the supreme court, governors of states, and other dignitaries were present in person or by proxy. in front of the main gallery an oil portrait of morse had been placed, and around the frame was inscribed the historic first message: "what hath god wrought." after the opening prayer by dr. william adams, speaker blaine said:-- "less than thirty years ago a man of genius and learning was an earnest petitioner before congress for a small pecuniary aid that enabled him to test certain occult theories of science which he had laboriously evolved. to-night the representatives of forty million people assemble in their legislative hall to do homage and honor to the name of 'morse.' great discoverers and inventors rarely live to witness the full development and perfection of their mighty conceptions, but to him whose death we now mourn, and whose fame we celebrate, it was, in god's good providence, vouchsafed otherwise. the little thread of wire, placed as a timid experiment between the national capital and a neighboring city, grew and lengthened and multiplied with almost the rapidity of the electric current that darted along its iron nerves, until, within his own lifetime, continent was bound unto continent, hemisphere answered through ocean's depths unto hemisphere, and an encircled globe flashed forth his eulogy in the unmatched elements of a grand achievement. "charged by the house of representatives with the agreeable and honorable duty of presiding here, and of announcing the various participants in the exercises of the evening, i welcome to this hall those who join with us in this expressive tribute to the memory and to the merit of a great man." after mr. blaine had concluded his remarks the exercises were conducted as follows:-- resolutions by the honorable c.c. cox, m.d., of washington, d.c. address by the honorable j.w. patterson, of new hampshire. address by the honorable fernando wood, of new york. vocal music by the choral society of washington. address by the honorable j.a. garfield, of ohio. address by the honorable s.s. cox, of new york. address by the honorable n.p. banks, of massachusetts. vocal music by the choral society of washington. benediction by the reverend dr. wheeler of poughkeepsie. once again the invention which made him famous paid marvellous tribute to the man of science. while less than a year before, joyous messages of congratulation had flashed over the wires from the four quarters of the globe, to greet the living inventor, now came words of sorrow and condolence from europe, asia, africa, and america mourning that inventor dead, and again were they read to a wondering audience by that other man of indomitable perseverance, cyrus w. field. on the same evening memorial services were held in faneuil hall, boston, at which the mayor of the city presided, and addresses were made by josiah quincy, professor e.n. horsford, the honorable richard h. dana, and others. other cities all over the country, and in foreign lands, held commemorative services, and every telegraph office in the country was draped in mourning, in sad remembrance of him whom all delighted to call "father." mr. prime, in his closing review of morse's character, uses the following words:-- "it is not given to mortals to leave a perfect example for the admiration and imitation of posterity, but it is safe to say that the life and character of few men, whose history is left on record, afford less opportunity for criticism than is found in the conspicuous career of the inventor of the telegraph. "having followed him step by step from the birth to the grave, in public, social and private relations; in struggles with poverty, enemies and wrongs; in courts of law, the press and halls of science; having seen him tempted, assailed, defeated, and again in victory, honor and renown; having read thousands of his private letters, his essays and pamphlets, and volumes in which his claims are canvassed, his merits discussed and his character reviewed; having had access to his most private papers and confidential correspondence, in which all that is most secret and sacred in the life of man is hid--it is right to say that, in this mass of testimony by friends and foes, there is not a line that requires to be erased or changed to preserve the lustre of his name.... "it was the device and purpose of those who sought to rob him of his honors and his rights to depreciate his intellectual ability and his scientific attainments. but among all the men of science and of learning in the law, there was not one who was a match for him when he gave his mind to a subject which required his perfect mastery.... "he drew up the brief with his own hand for one of the distinguished counsel in a great lawsuit involving his patent rights, and his lawyer said it was the argument that carried conviction to every unprejudiced mind. "such was the versatility and variety of his mental endowments that he would have been great in any department of human pursuits. his wonderful rapidity of thought was associated with patient, plodding perseverance, a combination rare but mightily effective. he leaped to a possible conclusion, and then slowly developed the successive steps by which the end was gained and the result made secure. he covered thousands of pages with his pencil notes, annotated large and numerous volumes, filled huge folios with valuable excerpts from newspapers, illustrated processes of thought with diagrams, and was thus fortified and enriched with stores of knowledge and masses of facts, so digested, combined and arranged, that he had them at his easy command to defend the past or to help him onward to fresh conquests in the fields of truth. yet such was his modesty and reticence in regard to himself that none outside of his household were aware of his resources, and his attainments were only known when displayed in self-defense. then they never failed to be ample for the occasion, as every opponent had reason to remember. "yet he was gentle as he was great. many thought him weak because he was simple, childlike and unworldly. often he suffered wrong rather than resist, and this disposition to yield was frequently his loss. the firmness, tenacity and perseverance with which he fought his foes were the fruits of his integrity, principle and profound convictions of right and duty.... his nature was a rare combination of solid intellect and delicate sensibility. thoughtful, sober and quiet, he readily entered into the enjoyments of domestic and social life, indulging in sallies of humor, and readily appreciating and greatly enjoying the wit of others. dignified in his intercourse with men, courteous and affable with the gentler sex, he was a good husband, a judicious father, a generous and faithful friend. "he had the misfortune to incur the hostility of men who would deprive him of his merit and the reward of his labors. but this is the common fate of great inventors. he lived until his rights were vindicated by every tribunal to which they could be referred, and acknowledged by all civilized nations, and he died leaving to his children a spotless and illustrious name, and to his country the honor of having given birth to the only electro-magnetic recording telegraph whose line is gone out through all the earth, and its words to the end of the world." and now my pleasant task is ended. after the lapse of so many years it has been possible for me to introduce much more evidence of a personal nature, to reveal the character of those with whom morse had to contend, than would have been discreet or judicious during the lifetime of some of the actors in the drama. many attempts have been made since the death of the inventor to minimize his fame, and to exalt others at his expense, but, while these attempts have seemed to triumph for a time, while they may have influenced a few minds and caused erroneous attributions to be made in some publications, their effect is ephemeral, for "truth is mighty and will prevail," and the more carefully and exhaustively this complicated subject is studied, the more apparent will it be that morse never claimed more than was his due; that his upright, truthloving character, as revealed in his intimate correspondence and in the testimony of his contemporaries, forbade his ever stooping to deceit or wilful appropriation of the ideas of others. a summary, in as few words as possible, of what morse actually invented or discovered may be, at this point, appropriate. in , he conceived the idea of a true electric telegraph--a writing at a distance by means of the electromagnet. the use of the electro-magnet for this purpose was original with him; it was entirely different from any form of telegraph devised by others, and he was not aware, at the time, that any other person had even combined the words "electric" and "telegraph." the mechanism to produce the desired result, roughly drawn in the sketch-book, was elaborated and made by morse alone, and produced actual results in , , and . still further perfected by him, with the legitimate assistance of others, it became the universal telegraph of to-day, holding its own and successfully contending with all other plans of telegraphs devised by others. he devised and perfected the dot-and-dash alphabet. in , he discovered the principle of the relay. in , he received a french patent for a system of railway telegraph, which also embodies the principle of the police and fire-alarm telegraph. at the same time he suggested a practical form of military telegraph. in , he laid the first subaqueous cable. in , he discovered, with dr. fisher, the principle of duplex telegraphy, and he was also the first to experiment with wireless telegraphy. in addition to his electrical inventions and discoveries he was the first to experiment with the daguerreotype in america, and, with professor draper, was the first in the world to take portraits by this means, daguerre himself not thinking it possible. the verdict of the world, as pronounced at the time of his death, has been strengthened with the lapse of years. he was one of the first to be immortalized in the hall of fame. his name, like those of volta, galvani, ampere, and others, has been incorporated into everyday speech, and is now used to symbolize the language of that simple but marvellous invention which brings the whole world into intimate touch. the end index abbott, gorham, american asiatic society, ~ ~, abbott, j.s.c., from m. ( ) on louis napoleon in new york. ~ ~, abdul mejid, decorates m., ~ ~, abernethy, john, personality, ~ ~, , abolitionism, m.'s antagonism, ~ ~, , , , , , , accidents to m., runaway ( ), ~ ~, - in , ~ ~, fall ( ), during laying of atlantic cable ( ), , , breaks leg ( ), acton, ----. and m. at peterhoff ( ), ~ ~, adams, j.q., and election to presidency, jackson's congratulations, ~ ~, and m.'s failure to get commission for painting for capitol, ~ ~, - adams, john, portrait by m., ~ ~, adams, nehemiah, and civil war, ~ ~, adams, william, and m.'s last illness, ~ ~, at m.'s funeral, address, , at memorial services, _agamemnon_, and laying of first atlantic cable, ~ ~, agate. f.s., pupil of m., ~ ~, , and origin of academy of design, albany, m. as portrait painter at ( ), ~ ~, - alexander i of russia, in london ( ), appearance, anecdotes, ~ ~, - alexander ii of russia. m. on presentation to ( ), ~ ~, - attempt on life at paris ( ), allan, sir hugh, at banquet to m., ~ ~, allegorical painting, m. on, ~ ~, allegri, gregorio, m. on _miserere_, ~ ~, allston, washington, m. desires to study under, ~ ~, m. accompanies to england ( ), , journey to london, , on m. as artist, , , , and leslie, , and death of wife, coleridge's prescription, , and m., interest, influence and criticism, , , , , , , - , and war of , at premier of coleridge's _remorse_, illness, and dr. abernethy, , m. on, as artist, , m. on character. , dead man restored to life, , , , , , poems, on french school of art, at bristol ( ), , , , painting for steamer, uriel in the sun, compliment to, m. and death, ~ ~, , brush of, m. presents portrait and brush to academy of design, , _letters:_ to m. ( ) on dead man, blücher, ~ ~, with m. ( ) on sale of dead man, personal relations, , from m. ( ) on work at charleston, albton as r.a., to m. ( ) on rejection for government painting, ~ ~, from m. ( ) on daguerreotype and art, with m. ( ) on telegraph act, illness, painting, allston, mrs. washington, journey to england, ~ ~, , in england, health, death, alphabet. _see_ dot-and-dash. alston, j.a., and m., ~ ~, , , , to m. ( - ) on portraits, , , amalfi, m. at ( ), ~ ~, - american academy of art, condition ( ), ~ ~, , and union with academy of design, ~ ~, american asiatic society, ~ ~, american society for promoting national unity, ~ ~, americans, m. on cooper's patriotism ( ), ~ ~, - on european criticism, , amyot, ----, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , anderson, alexander, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, andrews, solomon, from m. ( ) on aviation, ~ ~, angoulême, duchesse d', in london ( ), ~ ~, annunciation, m. on feast at rome ( ), ~ ~, _arabia_, transatlantic steamer ( ), ~ ~, arago, d.f., and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , , , art, conditions in america ( ), ~ ~, , boston and ( ), _see also_ painting. atlantic cable, m. prophesies ( ), ~ ~, , organisation of company, - m. as electrician, , m.'s enthusiasm, attempt to lay cable across gulf of st. lawrence ( ), experiments of m. and whitehouse, , kendall's caution to m. on company, m.'s account of laying of first, - parting of first, delay, offer to purchase remainder of first, m.'s forced resignation from company, m. on first message over completed ( ), his prediction of cessation, , proposed, between spain and west indies, - m. on final success, greeting of company to m. ( ), "attention the universe" message, ~ ~, australia, m.'s telegraph in, ~ ~, austria, testimonials to m., ~ ~, austro-prussian war, influence of telegraph, ~ ~, aviation, m. on ( ), ~ ~, , avignon, m. at ( ), ~ ~, , aycrigg, j.b., and telegraph, ~ ~, , from m. ( ) on ground circuit, aylmer, lord, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, bain, alexander, and telegraph, ~ ~, , o and ground circuit, ball, mrs.----, m.'s portrait and trouble with, letters from m. ( ), ~ ~, - balloon ascension at london ( ), ~ ~, _baltic_, transatlantic steamer ( ), ~ ~, baltimore, construction of first telegraph line, ~ ~, - bancroft, ----, transatlantic voyage ( ), ~ ~, bancroft, george, and m. at berlin, ~ ~, banks, n.p., at m.'s farewell message to telegraph, ~ ~, at memorial services, banquets to m., at london ( ), ~ ~, , at paris ( ), at new york ( ), - barberini, cardinal, ~ ~, barrell, samuel, at yale, ~ ~, . battery, gale's improvement of telegraph, ~ ~, m.'s improvement, _see also_ relay. beecher, lyman, and m., ~ ~, beechy, sir william, m. on, ~ ~, beggars, m. on italian, ~ ~, , , , , , belgium, interest in m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, and gratuity to m., belknap, jeremy, on birth of m., ~ ~, bellingham, john, assassinates perceval, ~ ~, execution, bellows, h.w. from m. ( ) on sanitary commission, ~ ~, benedict, aaron, and wire for experimental line, ~ ~, benevolence, as female virtue, ~ ~, bennett, j.g., at french court ( ), ~ ~, berkshire, mass., m.'s trip ( ), ~ ~, , berlin, m. at ( ), ~ ~, ( ), bernard, simon, and m., ~ ~, and telegraph, bern, duchesse de, appearance ( ), ~ ~, bertassoli, cardinal, death, ~ ~, bettner, dr. ----, and henry-morse controversy, ~ ~, biddle, james, return to america ( ), ~ ~, biddulph, t.t., as minister, ~ ~, bigelow, john, farewell banquet to ( ), ~ ~, blaine. j.g., address at memorial services to m., ~ ~, , blake, w.p., to m. ( ) on m.'s report, ~ ~, on henry controversy, from m. on same, blanchard, thomas, machine for carving marble, ~ ~, blenheim estates, reduced condition ( ), ~ ~, bliss, seth, and civil war, ~ ~, blücher, g.l. von, at london ( ), appearance, ~ ~, , boardman, w.w., and telegraph, letters with m. ( ), ~ ~, - , , . bodisco, alexander de, from m. ( ) on telegraph, ~ ~, state dinner, bologna, m. on, ~ ~, boorman, james, and civil war, ~ ~, borland, catherine, ~ ~, boston, and art ( ), ~ ~, boston _recorder_, founding, ~ ~, boudy, comte, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , breese, arthur, and marriage of daughter, ~ ~, breese, catherine, marriage, ~ ~, _see also_ griswold. breese, elisabeth a. (mrs. jedediah morse), ~ ~, breese, samuel, in navy, ~ ~, under perry, breese, sidney, and m., ~ ~, breguet, louis, from m. ( ) on rewards for invention, ~ ~, brett, j.w., and atlantic cable, ~ ~ and m. in england ( ), , , from m. ( ) on withdrawal from cable company, and proposed spanish cable, bristol, england, m. at ( , ), ~ ~, . , , , - broek, m. van der, and gratuity to m., ~ ~, broek, holland, m. on unnatural neatness, ~ ~, - bromfield, henry, and m. in england, ~ ~, , from m. ( ) on family at new haven, brooklyn, n.y., defences ( ), ~ ~, brooks, david, and telegraph, ~ ~, brougham, lord, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , brown, james, banquet to m., ~ ~, bryant, w. c., and the club, ~ ~, from m. ( ) on allston's portrait, ~ ~, at banquet to m., address at unveiling of statue to m., tribute to m., buchanan, james, official letter introducing m. ( ), ~ ~, m. on election ( ), budd, t.a., and perry's japanese expedition, ~ ~, bulfinch, charles, and m., ~ ~, bullock, a.h., sentiment for banquet to m., ~ ~, bunker hill monument, greenough on plans, ~ ~, burbank, david, from m. ( ) on price for invention, ~ ~, burder, george, minister at london ( ), ~ ~, burritt, benjamin, prisoner of war, m.'s efforts for release, ~ ~, - butler, charles, at m.'s funeral, ~ ~, cadwalader, thomas, return to america ( ), ~ ~, _caledonia_, transatlantic steamer ( ), ~ ~, calhoun, j.c., and m.'s effort for commission for painting for capitol, ~ ~, california, graft in telegraph organisation, ~ ~, , campagna, roman, dangers at night, ~ ~, campbell, sir john, and m.'s application for patent, ~ ~, , campo santo at naples, ~ ~, - camucoini, vincenso, m. on, as artist, ~ ~, canterbury, m. on cathedral and service, ~ ~, - cardinals, lying in state, ~ ~, carmichael, james, and proposed spanish cable, ~ ~, caroline, queen, palace, ~ ~, carrara, m. on quarries ( ), ~ ~, - carter, william, courier, ~ ~, cass, lewis, and m. at paris ( ), ~ ~, , cass, mrs. lewis, from m. ( ) on lotteries, ~ ~ castlereagh, lord, and orders in council ( ), ~ ~, _catalogue raisonné_, ~ ~, , causici, enrico, at washington ( ), ~ ~, _ceres_, transatlantic voyage ( ), ~ ~, - chamberlain, capt. ----, transatlantic voyage ( ), ~ ~, chamberlain, ----, exhibition of telegraph in european centers, ~ ~, , drowned, champlin, e.h., american asiatic society, ~ ~, chapin, c.l., and m.'s telegraph in europe, ~ ~, charivari, m. on, ~ ~, charles x of france, new year ( ), ~ ~, charleston, m. as portrait painter at ( - ), ~ ~, - , - , - portrait of president monroe, m. and art academy, , charlestown, mass., dual celebration of fourth ( ), ~ ~, jedediah morse's church troubles, - , charlotte augusta, princess, appearance ( ), ~ ~, charlotte sophia, queen, appearance ( ), ~ ~, chase, ----, and experimental line, ~ ~, chase, s.p., presides at banquet to m., speeches, ~ ~, - , chauncey, isaac, cooper on, ~ ~, chauvin, ---- von, and m. at berlin, ~ ~, _chesapeake_, u.s.s., defeat, ~ ~, , chevalier, michael, from m. ( ) on leaving paris, ~ ~, cholera, in paris ( ), ~ ~, , political effect, christ before pilate, west's painting, ~ ~, , christ healing the side, west's painting, ~ ~, christian ix of denmark, and m., ~ ~, christy, david, from m. ( ) on slavery, ~ ~, church and state, m. on union, ~ ~, church of england, disestablishment in virginia, ~ ~, m. on service, circuit, single, of m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , ground, , , cisco, j.j., banquet to m., ~ ~, civil war, m.'s hope of prevention, ~ ~, , his attitude during, , , his belief in foreign machinations, m. and mcclellan's candidacy, , - m. and sanitary commission, m.'s denunciation of rejoicing over success, - claflin, william, and statue to m., ~ ~, clarke, george, buys m.'s painting of louvre, m.'s letter on this ( ), ~ ~, , clay, henry, and m.'s effort for commission for painting for capitol, ~ ~, clinton, ----, of albany, and m. ( ), ~ ~, club, the, of new york, ~ ~, , coat of arms, morse, ~ ~, , ~ ~, coffin, i.n., and lobbying for telegraph grant, ~ ~, , cogdell, j.s., artist at charleston ( ), ~ ~, and art academy there, colt, daniel, gift to academy of design, ~ ~, cole, thomas, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, at royal academy ( ), to m. ( ) on presidency of academy of design, ~ ~, coleridge, s.t., mental prescription for allston, ~ ~, and hat-wearing, and m., traits, , premier of _remorse_, and _knickerbocker's history of new york_, colfax, schuyler, and banquet to m., ~ ~, at memorial services, color, m.'s theory and experiments, ~ ~, colt, ----, with m. at peterhoff ( ), ~ ~, como, lake of, m. at ( ), ~ ~, concentration of effort, jedediah morse on, ~ ~, concord, n.h., m. at and on ( ), ~ ~, , congregational church, jedediah morse and orthodoxy, ~ ~, congress, m.'s painting of house ( ), ~ ~, - , conduct of presidential election ( ), resolution to investigate telegraph ( ), ~ ~, skeptical of m.'s invention, exhibition of telegraph before ( ) but no grant, , , , , , smith's report on telegraph, renewal of effort for telegraph grant without result ( - ), , , - second exhibition of telegraph ( ), workers for telegraph grant, , bill for experimental line in house ( ), - passage of bill in house, no action expected in senate, - passage of act, - refuses to purchase telegraph, , , , , memorial services to m., - consolidation of telegraph lines, ~ ~, , , , m. on beneficent monopoly, _see also_ public ownership. constant, benjamin, appearance ( ), ~ ~, constitution, m. on loyalty, ~ ~, cooke, o.f., rival of kemble, ~ ~, cooke, sir w.f., telegraph, ~ ~, m. on telegraph and his own, , , opposes patent to m., proposition to m. rejected, telegraph displaced by m.'s, personal relations with m., advocates use of m.'s telegraph, presides at banquet to m., speech, , cooper, h., and m.'s application for british patent, ~ ~, , cooper, j.f., characteristic remark, ~ ~, at rome ( ), read in poland, to m. ( ) on verboeckhoven and portrait of c., on criticisms, bitterness against america, statement of m.'s hints on telegraph ( ), , from m. ( ) on this, at fourth dinner at paris ( ), m. on principles and patriotism, - from m. ( ) on departure for america, leslie's politics, ~ ~, - from m. ( ) on illness, cares, conditions in new york, cooper's friends, art future, nullification, - and rejection of m. for painting for capitol, from m. ( ) on failure as painter, from m. ( ) on newspaper libels, _home as found_, m. on death and character, cooper, peter, and atlantic cable, ~ ~, , banquet to m., at m.'s funeral, copenhagen. m. at ( ), ~ ~, , copley, j.s., m. on, in old age. ~ ~, , corcoran, w.w., telegraph company, ~ ~, corcoran gallery, m.'s house of representatives, ~ ~, cornell, ezra, and construction of experimental line, ~ ~, - , m. on benevolences, , at m.'s funeral, cornell university, m. on founding, ~ ~, cornwell, sadie e., and m.'s farewell message to telegraph, ~ ~, _corpus domini_, procession at rome ( ), ~ ~, cox, s.s., resolutions on death of m., ~ ~, at memorial services, coyle, james, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, crawford, w.h., edwards' charges against ( ), ~ ~, cries of london, ~ ~, crinoline, m. on, ~ ~, crosby, howard, and m.'s farewell message to telegraph, ~ ~, cummings, t.s., and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, and m. as president of academy, on m.'s connection with academy, and commission to m. for historical painting, ~ ~, and telegraph, , curtin, a.g., banquet to m., ~ ~, , curtis, b.r., telegraph decision, ~ ~, , curtis, g.t., m.'s attorney, ~ ~, from m. ( ) on smith's claim to gratuity, - and on law, daggett, ----, of new haven, m.'s portrait ( ), ~ ~, daguerre, l.j.m., and m. at paris ( ), ~ ~, - from m. on sabbath, burning of diorama, french subsidy, from m. ( ) on honorary membership in academy of design, exhibition of daguerreotype in new york, reply, and portraits, daguerreotype, inventor imparts secret to m., ~ ~, discovery made public, m. on effect on art, , experiments of m. and draper, portraits first taken, - m.'s gallery, , first group picture, daly, c.p., and m.'s farewell message to telegraph, ~ ~, dana, j.f., m. and lectures on electricity ( ), ~ ~, friendship and discussions with m., dana, r.h., at memorial services to m., ~ ~, danforth, m.l. and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, m. on, ~ ~, dartmouth college, quarrel ( ), ~ ~, date of invention of telegraph, ~ ~, , daubeny, c.g.b., inspects early telegraph, ~ ~, davenport, ann, ~ ~, davis, ----, of new haven, m. rooms at house ( ), ~ ~, davy, edward, and relay, ~ ~, m. on telegraph, , day, jeremiah, and m.'s pump, ~ ~, to m. ( ) on gift to yale, dead man restored to life, allston's painting, ~ ~, , , , , , deadhead, m.'s characteristic telegraphic, ~ ~, declaration of independence, anecdote of george iii and, ~ ~, , decorations, foreign, for m., ~ ~, , , , , deforest, d.c., to m. ( ) on portrait, ~ ~, delaplaine, joseph, and m., ~ ~, democratic convention, reports by telegraph ( ), ~ ~, - denmark, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, decoration for m., , dennison, william, banquet to m., ~ ~, de rham, h.c., informal club, ~ ~, desoulavy, ----, artist at rome, escapes poisoning ( ), ~ ~, de witt, jan, concentration of effort, ~ ~, dexter, miss c., and sketch of southey, ~ ~, , dijon, m. at ( ), ~ ~, diligence, described, ~ ~, dining hour, english ( ), ~ ~, discovery and invention, ~ ~, dividends, m. on lack, , , . dix, j.a., to m. ( ) on letters of introduction, ~ ~, at m.'s funeral, ~ ~, dodge, w.e., banquet to m., ~ ~, , donaldson, r., m.'s painting for, ~ ~, dot-and-dash code, conception for numbers with hint of alphabet, ~ ~, , , , , as recorded by first receiver, numbers principle, dictionary, , paternity of alphabet, - substitution of alphabet for numbers, - peculiar to m.'s telegraph, m. on reading by sound, , , douglas, g.l., from m. ( ) on effort to prevent civil war, ~ ~, dover castle, m. on, ~ ~, drake, mrs. ----, transatlantic voyage ( ), ~ ~, draper, j.w., and daguerreotypes, ~ ~, , drawing-room, m. on queen charlotte's ( ), ~ ~, ; on mrs. monroe's ( ), dresden, m. at ( ), ~ ~, drummond, henry, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , dubois, john, at rome ( ), ~ ~, dunlap, william, on m.'s dying hercules, ~ ~, , on m.'s judgment of jupiter, , and origin of academy of design, duplex telegraphy, fisher's discovery ( ), ~ ~, , durand, a. b., engraving of m.'s lafayette, ~ ~, and origin of academy of design, dwight, s.e., and m., ~ ~, from m. ( ) on daggett portrait, dwight, timothy, and m., ~ ~, on jedediah morse, dwight's tavern, western, mass., ~ ~, dying hercules, m.'s sculpture and painting, ~ ~, , , - , , , , , , edwards, ninian, proposed mexican mission ( ), and charges against crawford, ~ ~, , from m. on mission, electricity, m.'s interest at college, ~ ~, and in dana's lectures ( ), henry on electric power, ~ ~, _see also_ morse (s.f.b.), telegraph. elgin, earl of, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , , to m. ( ) on patent, elgin marbles, m. on, ~ ~, , , elisabeth, princess, appearance ( ), ~ ~, ellsworth, annie, and telegraph, ~ ~, , , , ellsworth, henry, and m. abroad, ~ ~, ellsworth, h.l., marriage, ~ ~, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , on telegraph in france, , from m. ( ) on construction of experimental line, ellsworth, nancy (goodrich), ~ ~, ellsworth, william, engagement, ~ ~, emancipation proclamation, m. on, ~ ~, , embargo, effect in england, ~ ~, emotion of taste, m. on, ~ ~, england, appearance of women, ~ ~, ; wartime travel regulations ( ), condition of laboring classes, treatment of travellers, - critical condition ( ), effect of american embargo, , , , dining hour, attitude toward art, unpopularity of regent, crisis ( ), , , assassination of perceval, spanish victories ( ), severe winter ( ), economic depression ( ), liverpool ( ), , stage-coach journey to london, - peasantry, villages, canterbury cathedral, church service, - dover, m. on social manners, refusal of patent to m., ~ ~, - , , coronation of victoria, , use of m.'s telegraph, no share in gratuity to m., m. on, and civil war, _see also_ london, napoleonic wars, neutral trade, war of . english channel, steamers ( ), ~ ~, ( ), ~ ~, erie, lake, battle, ~ ~, esterhasy, prince, m. on, at peterhoff ( ), ~ ~, evarts, jeremiah, to m. ( ) on avoiding politics, ~ ~, evarts, w.m., at banquet to m., ~ ~, evers, john, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, experimental line, bill for, in congress, ~ ~, - route, m.'s assistants, - , , wires, failure of underground, substitution of overhead, , - , - trouble with smith, , , , , progress, operation during construction, - completion, "what hath god wrought" message, - reports of democratic convention, - cost of construction, incidents of utility, , fairman, gideon, and study of live figure, ~ ~, faraday, michael, and atlantic cable, ~ ~, farewell message to telegraph, ceremony of sending m.'s, ~ ~, - farmer, m.g., and duplex telegraph, ~ ~, farragut, d.g., and banquet to m., ~ ~, faxton, t.s., from m. ( ) on salaries, ~ ~, federalists, celebration of fourth at charlestown ( ), ~ ~, british opinion ( ), _see also_ war of . ferguson, ----, travel with m. ( ), ~ ~, , ferris, c.g., and telegraph, ~ ~, , , field, ----, pupil of m., ~ ~, field, c.w., and consolidation of telegraph companies, ~ ~, organisation of atlantic cable company, - from m. ( ) on experiments for cable, , kendall's distrust, and m.'s retirement from cable company, , from m. ( ) on a visit, success of cable, , banquet to m., , from m. ( ) on neutralizing telegraph, at m.'s funeral, at memorial service, field, d.d., and atlantic cable, ~ ~, at banquet to m., field, m.d., and telegraph, ~ ~, finley, j.e.b., and war of , ~ ~, and m. at charleston, , to m. ( ) on portraits, death, finley, samuel, ~ ~, fire-alarm, m.'s invention embodying principle, ~ ~, fish, hamilton, at early exhibition of telegraph, ~ ~, banquet to m., fisher, ----, artist at charleston ( ), ~ ~, fisher, j.c., and duplex telegraphy, ~ ~, , m.'s assistant at washington, , and construction of experimental line, dismissed, , , - , fisher, j.f., return to america ( ), ~ ~, on conception of telegraph, fleas, m. on porto rican, ~ ~, fleischmann, c.t., on europe and m.'s telegraph ( ), ~ ~, florence, m.'s journey to, during revolt ( ), ~ ~, m. at, , flower feast at genzano, ~ ~, - forsyth, dr. ----, american asiatic company, ~ ~, foss, ----, and f.o.j. smith, ~ ~, fourth of july, dual celebration at charlestown ( ), ~ ~, dinner at paris ( ), - foy, alphonse, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , , france, m. on attitude of americans ( ), ~ ~, , m. on first landing in ( ), on sunday in, , cold ( ), , winter journey across, by diligence, - funeral, , m. on social manners, quarantine ( ), m. avoids it, - lafayette on results of revolution of , patent to m., ~ ~, m.'s exhibitions and projects ( ), - renewed interest in m.'s telegraph, , , , , , , m. on people, testimonials to m., _see also_ napoleonic wars, paris. francesco caracoiolo, st., m. on feast, ~ ~, franklin, benjamin, name coupled with m.'s, ~ ~, , , , m. unveils statue, franklin institute, exhibition of telegraph, ~ ~, fraser, charles, artist at charleston ( ), ~ ~, frasee, john, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, frederick vii of denmark, and m., ~ ~, , ~ ~, frederick iii of germany, battle of königgrätz, ~ ~, frederick william iii of prussia, at london ( ), ~ ~, fredrick carl, prince, battle of königgrätz, ~ ~, frelinghuysen, theodore, nomination for vice-presidency announced over telegraph, ~ ~, fremel, ----, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, french, b.b., telegraph company, ~ ~, french academy of science. _see_ institute of france. frischen ,----, and duplex telegraphy, ~ ~, fry, ----, and telegraph company ( ), ~ ~, fulton, robert, and art, ~ ~, _fulton_, transatlantic steamer ( ), ~ ~, funeral, m. on french, ~ ~, , on lying in state of cardinal, on roman, on italian, , of m., ~ ~, , fuseli, j.h., and m., ~ ~, gale, l.d., first view of telegraph, ~ ~, aid to m. in telegraph, - , , , partnership in telegraph, loses interest, , , and subaqueous experiment, and construction of experimental line, , , kendall as agent, , and estrangement with henry, and extension of m.'s patent, from m. ( ) on kendall, ( ) on trip to newfoundland, m.'s tribute, from m. ( ) on receiving by sound, to m. ( ) on smith's last attack, to rogers on invention of telegraph, from m. on smith, _galen_, transatlantic ship ( ), ~ ~, gallagher, h.m., and m.'s farewell message to telegraph, ~ ~, gallatin, albert, informal club, ~ ~, and louis napoleon at new york, galley slaves, at toulon ( ), ~ ~, , garfield, j.a., at memorial services to m., ~ ~, gay-lussac, j.l., and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, genoa, serra palace, ~ ~, genzano, _festa infiorala_ ( ), ~ ~, - george iii, anecdote of declaration of independence, ~ ~, , expected death ( ), george iv, unpopularity as regent ( ), ~ ~, , appearance, george, sir rupert, and american prisoner of war, ~ ~, georgia, and nullification, ~ ~, ghost, scare at london ( ), ~ ~, gibbs. mrs. a.j.c., child, ~ ~, gibson, ----, artist at rome, escape from poisoning ( ), ~ ~, gintl, j.w., and duplex telegraph, ~ ~, gisborne, f.n., and telegraph, ~ ~, glenelg, lord, and war of , ~ ~, gleson, ----, oration at charlestown ( ), ~ ~, goddard, elisha, return to america ( ), ~ ~, gonon, ----, visual telegraph, ~ ~, , goodhue, jonathan, informal club, ~ ~, goodrich, mary, drawing, ~ ~, goodrich, nancy, marriage, ~ ~, goodrich, w.h., american asiatic society, ~ ~, presented at french court, - goodrich, mrs. w.h. (griswold), from m. ( ) on prospect of northern success, ~ ~, at paris ( ), gould, james, and m., ~ ~, grant, charles. _see_ glenelg. grant, u.s., m. on candidacy ( ), ~ ~, , and banquet to m., at memorial services, granville, countess, m. on, at peterhoff ( ), ~ ~, granville, earl, m. on, at peterhoff ( ), ~ ~, , gratuity, proposed foreign, to m., ~ ~, award, nations participating, , commission to broek, niggardly, m.'s acknowledgment, , smith's claim to share, - , share for vail's widow, greeley, horace, unveils statue of franklin, ~ ~, green, norvin, from m. ( ) on effect of telegraph, ~ ~, greenough, horatio, and m. at paris ( ), ~ ~, to m. ( ) on art future of america, poverty, religion, bunker hill monument, m.'s. domestic affairs, gregory xvi, election, ~ ~, coronation, , policy, grier, r.c., telegraph decision, ~ ~, griswold, a.b., from m. ( ) on being a traitor, ~ ~, griswold, catherine (breese), marriage, ~ ~, in europe with m. ( ), ~ ~, from m. ( ) on experiences in west indies, , ( ) on paris quarters, ( ) on presentation at court, griswold, h.w., marriage, ~ ~, griswold, r.w., from m. ( ) on cooper, ~ ~, griswold, sarah e., marries m., ~ ~, , gros, a.j., m. on allegorical painting, ~ ~, gypsies, m. on, ~ ~, habersham, r.w., and m. at paris ( ), on hints of telegraph, ~ ~, , on m.'s experiments with photography, halske, j.g., and duplex telegraph, ~ ~, hamburg, m. at and on ( ), ~ ~, , ( ), hamilton, j.c., informal club, ~ ~, hamlin, cyrus, and telegraph in turkey, ~ ~, hanover, n.h., m. at ( ), ~ ~, hare and tortoise fable applied to m. and brother, ~ ~, , harris, levitt, m. on, ~ ~, harrison, thomas, american asiatic society, ~ ~, hart, ann, marries isaac hull, ~ ~, hart, eliza, ~ ~, hart, jannette, and m., ~ ~, - , hartford, inn ( ), ~ ~, harvard college, lottery ( ), ~ ~, hauser, martin, from m. ( ) on slavery, ~ ~, haven, g.w., at fourth dinner at paris ( ), ~ ~, hawks, f.l., and civil war, ~ ~, hawley, dr. -----, of new haven, sermon ( ), ~ ~, hayne, r.y., and m., ~ ~, , henry, joseph, and relay, ~ ~, , , share in m.'s telegraph controversy, - , - , , , , , - , , letters with m. ( ) on consultation, - to m. ( ) in praise of telegraph, - on electric power, and construction of experimental line, smith on, as inventor of telegraph, , hepburn, h.c., and telegraph, ~ ~, hillhouse, joseph, to m. ( ) on m.'s family, social gossip, ~ ~, hillhouse, mary, ~ ~, hilliard, francis, referee on smith's claim, ~ ~, hilton, william, meets m., ~ ~, hinkley, ann, death, ~ ~, hodge, aspinwall, from m. ( ) on smith's last attack, ~ ~, hodgson, ----, proposed mexican mission ( ), ~ ~, hoffman, j.t., banquet to m., ~ ~, ; at unveiling of statue to m., ; at m.'s funeral, holland, m. on broek ( ), ~ ~, - and gratuity to m., holmes, i.e., and telegraph, ~ ~, holy thursday at st. peter's ( ), ~ ~, , holy see, and gratuity to m., ~ ~, _see also_ rome. holy week in rome ( ), ~ ~, - hone, philip, owns m.'s thorwaldsen, ~ ~, hoover, r.b., and statue to m., ~ ~, hopkins, j.h., and civil war, ~ ~, horsford, e.n., on invention of telegraph, ~ ~, - on discovery of relay, , at memorial services to m., house, r.e., and telegraph, ~ ~, . house of representatives, m.'s painting, ~ ~, - , houston, g.s., and telegraph, ~ ~, howard, henry, meets m., ~ ~, howe, s.g., imprisonment at berlin, ~ ~, hubbard, r., pupil of m., ~ ~, hull, ann (hart), ~ ~, hull, isaac, marriage, ~ ~, humboldt, alexander von, and m., ~ ~, , ~ ~, , , inscription on photograph, hunt, w.g., and atlantic cable, ~ ~, huntington, daniel, and m.'s house of representatives, ~ ~, ; estimate of m. as artist, - early view of telegraph, ~ ~, banquet to m., speech, , at m.'s funeral, huntington, j.w., and telegraph, ~ ~, , husted, j.w., at m.'s funeral, ~ ~, hutton, m.s., and civil war, ~ ~, immigration, m.'s attitude, ~ ~, - india, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, indians, jedediah morse as special commissioner, ~ ~, ingham, c.c., and portrait of lafayette, ~ ~, and origin of academy of design, to m. ( ) on academy, ~ ~, inman, henry, and portrait of lafayette, ~ ~, and origin of academy of design, to m. ( ) on academy, ~ ~, institute of france, m.'s exhibition of telegraph, ~ ~, , , , m.'s membership, invention, horsford on necessary elements, ~ ~, _see also_ morse, s.f.b. (_scientific career._) ireland, mrs. ----, at recoaro ( ), ~ ~, irving, washington, and coleridge, ~ ~, and m. at london ( ), isham, samuel, estimate of m. as artist, ~ ~, , isle of wight, m. on ( ), ~ ~, italy, travel from nice to rome ( ), ~ ~, - beggars, , , , , , perils of travel, , flower festival at genzano, - m. at naples and amalfi, - condition of travel ( ), to venice by boat on po, - m. at venice, - testimonials to m., , m. on conditions ( ), _see also_ rome. jackson, andrew, congratulates adams on election ( ), ~ ~, jackson. c.t., voyage with m. ( ), ~ ~, talks on electrical progress, later claim of giving m. idea of telegraph, , , , , , , , , , jacobins, federalist name for republicans ( ), ~ ~, jarvis, ----, with m. at peterhoff ( ), ~ ~, jarvis, s.f., to m. ( ) on war from federalist point of view, ~ ~, jarvis, mrs. s.f. (hart), , ; from m. ( ) on attitude toward art, copley, west, elgin marbles, london cries, knocking, american crisis, ~ ~, to m. ( ) on art in america, jay, p.a., and cooper, ~ ~, informal club, jewett, j.s., on m. and atlantic cable, ~ ~, jewett, william, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, jocelyn, n., travel with m. on continent ( - ), ~ ~, , from m. ( ) on attempt to paint, ~ ~, johnson, andrew, m. on, ~ ~, and banquet to m., johnson, cave, and telegraph, ~ ~, , , , from m. ( ) on vail, johnson, william, informal club, ~ ~, johnston, j.t., and m.'s thorwaldsen, from m. ( ) on it, ~ ~, - judgment of jupiter, m.'s painting, ~ ~, , , , , kane, j.k., telegraph decision, ~ ~, , kane, james, and m., ~ ~, kemble, j.p., m. on, as actor, ~ ~, kendall, amos, character as m.'s business agent, m.'s confidence, ~ ~, , , , , , , , first telegraph company, progress, and rival companies, on jackson's claim, and smith, , , and consolidation of lines, and extension of patent, benevolences, m. on death, _letters to m:_ ( ) on despondency, litigation, ~ ~, ( ) on destruction of evidence, ( ) on california telegraph graft, on suspicion of the vails, on sale of interests, trials of management, ( ) on distrust of cable company, ( ) on foreign gratuity, ( ) on death of vail, _from m:_ ( ) on mercy to infringers, ( ) on preparation against loss of suits, smith, ( ) on smith's triumph, law expenses, , ( ) on lack of dividends, on smith and extension of patent, ( ) on same, ( ) on honors and enmity, on lawyers, ( ) on smith and gratuity, on ball to prince of wales, ( ) on foreign machinations in civil war, ( ) on telegraph monopoly, kendall, john, and m., ~ ~, kennedy, j.p., and telegraph, ~ ~, , , kent, james, m.'s portrait, ~ ~, , , and cooper, ~ ~, informal club, and louis napoleon at new york, kent, moss, m.'s portrait, ~ ~, key. _see_ sender. king, c.b., leslie on, ~ ~, to m. ( ) on personal relations, at premier of coleridge's _remorse_, ; return to america, , king's (liverpool) arms hotel, ~ ~, , kingsley, j.l., m.'s profile, ~ ~, kirk, e.n., and m.'s exhibition of telegraph at paris, ~ ~, , knocking, m. on custom at london, ~ ~, know-nothing party, m.'s attitude, ~ ~, , königgrätz, battle of, influence of telegraph, ~ ~, krebs, j.m., and civil war, ~ ~, laboring classes, condition of english ( ), ~ ~, lafayette, marquis de, m.'s portrait, ~ ~, - , , , , m.'s friendship, to m. ( ) on bereavement, from m. ( ) with sonnet, and m. at paris ( ), and revolution of , and polish revolt, , in , on american finances ( ), m.'s toast to, at fourth dinner at paris ( ), , to m. ( ) on state of europe, nullification, poles, political effect of cholera, m. and death, ~ ~, on catholic church and american liberties, lafayette, g.w., meets m., ~ ~, m.'s letter of sympathy ( ), ~ ~, lamb, charles, and m., ~ ~, at premier of coleridge's _remorse_, lancaster, ----, transatlantic voyage ( ), ~ ~, . landi, gasparo, m. on paintings, ~ ~, , langdon, john, m.'s portrait, ~ ~, languages, m. and foreign, ~ ~, lasalle, ----, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, latham, m.s., and telegraph in california, m.'s scorn of methods, ~ ~, , law and lawyers, m.'s opinion, ~ ~, , , , , lawrence, james, m. on defeat and death, ~ ~, lawrence, w.b., informal club, ~ ~, lectures, m.'s, on fine arts, ~ ~, , , lee, g. w., gift to academy of design, ~ ~, leffingwell, miss ----, miniature by m., ~ ~, legion of honor, bestowed on m., ~ ~, le grice, comte, and m., ~ ~, , _leopard_, and laying of first atlantic cable, ~ ~, leslie, c.r., and m. at london ( - ), ~ ~, , , , on allston, king, coleridge, , as art student, and coleridge, , saul, to m. ( ) on being hard up, allston, war, and allston, , life and economies as student, , , to m. ( ) on _catalogue raisonné_, reunions with m. ( ), ( ), ( ), ~ ~, m. sits for sterne, ~ ~, m. on politics, ~ ~, anecdote of victoria, portrait of allston, leslie, eliza, travel with m. ( ), ~ ~, leslie, j.r., tutor to m.'s children, ~ ~, from m. ( ) on presidential election, letter-writing, jedediah morse on, ~ ~, lettsom, j.c., character, sheridan's ridicule, ~ ~, lincoln, earl of. _see_ newcastle. lincoln, abraham, m.'s attitude, ~ ~, , m. leaves no reference to assassination, lind, charles, m.'s grandson, ~ ~, art study at paris, lind, edward, porto rican estate, ~ ~, from m. ( ) on paris exposition, lind, mrs. henry, and m. at hamburg, ~ ~, lind, susan w. (morse), m.'s portrait, ~ ~, at new york ( ), ~ ~, from m. ( ) on congress and purchase of telegraph, domestic happiness, on dinner at russian minister's, ( ) on experiences on continent, - , m.'s visit to ( ), - , from m. ( ) on proposed statue, ( ) on unveiling of statue, _see also_ morse, susan w. liverpool, m. at ( ), ~ ~, - ( ), docks, liverpool (king's) arms inn, ~ ~, , livingston, cambridge, letters with m. ( ) on coat of arms and motto, ~ ~, at m.'s funeral, locust grove, m.'s home at poughkeepsie, ~ ~, , , , , , m.'s farewell, london, m. on cries ( ), ~ ~, on custom of knocking, on crowds, on vauxhall, - on st. bartholomew's fair, entrée of louis xviii ( ), - fête of allies, - approach ( ), m. at ( ), , ( ), ~ ~, ( ), - , , , ( ), m. on growth ( ), ~ ~, london _globe_, on m.'s dying hercules, ~ ~, lord, daniel, to m. ( ) on infringements, ~ ~, lord, nathan, and civil war, ~ ~, loring, g.b., and m.'s farewell message to telegraph, ~ ~, lottery, m.'s attitude, ~ ~, , , roman, louis xviii of france, entrée into london ( ), ~ ~, - appearance, louis philippe, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , , louisville _courier-journal_, tribute to m., ~ ~, louvre, m. on, ~ ~, m.'s painting of interior, , , , ~ ~, lovering, ----, from m. ( ) on daguerreotype material, anecdote, ~ ~, low, a.a., banquet to m., ~ ~, , lowber, r.w., and atlantic cable, ~ ~, lowell, ----, minister at bristol, eng. ( ), ~ ~, loyalty, m. on meaning in america, ~ ~, ludlow, h.g., from m. (c. ) on civil war, ~ ~, _lydia_, transatlantic ship ( ), ~ ~, lyons, m. at ( ), ~ ~, macaulay, zachary, invitation to m. ( ), ~ ~, and m., mcclellan, g.b., m. and presidential candidacy, ~ ~, , - mcclelland, robert, and coffin, ~ ~, mccormick, c.h., and reaper, ~ ~, mcfarland, asa, and m., ~ ~, , , mcgowan, samuel, on telegraph in australia, ~ ~, mcilvaine, c.p., and civil war, ~ ~, madison, james, and war of , ~ ~, maggiore, lago, m. at ( ), ~ ~, magnet, henry and, of m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, - _see also_ henry. magnetic telegraph company, ~ ~, main, william, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, mallory, ----, bookseller at boston, m. apprenticed to, ~ ~, manrow, j.p., and company to operate telegraph, ~ ~, marius in prison, m.'s painting, ~ ~, marlborough, duke of, gambler ( ), ~ ~, marseilles, m. at ( ), ~ ~, marsh, ----, of wethersfield ( ), ~ ~, marsiglia, gerlando, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, mary, princess, appearance ( ), ~ ~, mason, ----, proposed mexican mission ( ), ~ ~, mason, j.y., from m. ( ) on presidential election, ~ ~, and gratuity to m., mason, samson, and telegraph, ~ ~, , mathews, charles, from m. ( ) offering a faroe, ~ ~, maury, m.f., soundings of atlantic plateau, ~ ~, maverick, peter, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, mead, f.j., from m. ( ) on smith's last attack, ~ ~, melville, lord, and american prisoner of war, ~ ~, mexican war, m. on, ~ ~, mexico, m. and proposed mission ( ), ~ ~, - meyendorf, baron de, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , from m. ( ) on improvement, milan, m.'s impressions ( ), ~ ~, military telegraph, m.'s plan, ~ ~, - _miserere_, m. on allegri's, ~ ~, money, w.t., british consul at venice, and m. at recoaro ( ), ~ ~, , monks, m. on, ~ ~, monopoly, m. on beneficent telegraph, ~ ~, _see also_ consolidation. monroe, james, m.'s portrait, ~ ~, , and m., last levee, monroe, mrs. james, drawing-room, ~ ~, montaigne, m.e. de, m. on _essays_, ~ ~, montalivet, comte m.c.b. de, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , morgan, j.j., to m. ( ) on death of mrs. allston, ~ ~, morris, tasker, & morris, and experimental telegraph line, ~ ~, morse, arthur, from m. ( ) on return home, thorwaldsen portrait, ~ ~, on death of brother, morse, c.w., birth, ~ ~, childhood home, at new york ( ), ~ ~, and farm, marriage, m. seeks official position for, morse, elisabeth a., m.'s daughter, birth and death, ~ ~, morse, elisabeth a. (breese), character, ~ ~, , from r.w. snow ( ) on m. as artist, and war of , , illness ( ), travel ( ), decline and death, _letters to m:_ ( ) on religious duty, celebration of fourth, ~ ~, on uncertainty of life, on college extravagances, ( ) on sketch of southey, on war, ( ) on war, on dangers of success, on infidelity of americans in england, avoidance of actors and theatres, ( ) good advice, patron, his parents' early economies and success, reproof on debts, ( ) on peace, purchase for clothes, on right of parental reproofs, on dying hercules, ( ) on m.'s love affair, , _from m:_ (_see also_ his letters to jedediah morse) ( ) on work in charleston, provisions and plans for family, ( ) on travel, brother, own work, proposed trip abroad, ( ) on exhibition, servants, her health, , morse, finley, birth, ~ ~, attends brother's wedding, ~ ~, morse, jedediah [ ], death, career, ~ ~, morse, jedediah [ ], orthodoxy, ~ ~, prominence, children, to bishop of london ( ) on church property in virginia, to lindley murray ( ) on works, and m.'s desire for art career, , , , to talleyrand ( ) introducing m., and war of , , , , reputation in england, home scene ( ), domestic relations, , , from romeyn and van schaick ( ) on m.'s character, war views, and progress, church trouble at charlestown, - , , indian commissioner, moves to new haven, from s.e. morse ( ) on m. at new york, death, character and attainments, , monument, ~ ~, , _letters to m:_ ( ) on letter-writing, concentration of effort, ~ ~, ( ) on profession, ( ) on financial straits, brothers, war, , ( ) on economy, war, , ( ) on m.'s plans, ( ) on m.'s war views, , on m.'s plans, ( ) on love affair, , ( ) on death of m.'s wife, _from m:_ ( ) earliest letter, ( ) on journey to new haven, start at yale, ( ) on desire for relaxation, on routine, on montaigne's _essays_, ( ) on new york and philadelphia, ; on debts, ; on brother at college, profession, , ( ) on voyage to england, , ( ) on west as artist, war, on england and american crisis, west as artist, assassination of perceval, - on leslie, allston, own work, on tea-making, on diploma for father, orders in council, on drawing room, theatres, charivari, on war, gratitude to parents, allston, on war friends, - ( ) on expenses, work, allston, on dying hercules, on war, spanish victories, poet and painter, allston's poems, coat of arms, on progress, study at paris, war views, ( ) on british treatment of americans, religious sentiments, success at bristol, politics, allston, art in america, health, severe winter, on overthrow of napoleon, further study, on further study, ambition, parents' complaint of neglect, wilberforce and slave-trade, entrée of louis xviii, war views, on london fête of allies, on study at paris, on war views, study at paris, failure at bristol, on failure at bristol, english hatred of americans, ( ) on mother's reproof for extravagance and other failings, study at paris, russell portrait, , , on death of mrs. allston, on failure at bristol, economy and expenses, napoleon's return, on preparation for temporary return home, ambition, toil of painting, on napoleon's abdication, ( ) on painting tour in new hampshire, love affair and engagement, - ( ) on success at portsmouth, ( ) on voyage to charleston, on lodgings there, brother, on success there, ( ) on church trouble at charlestown, ( ) on death of m.'s wife, , on academy of design, literary society, ( ) on trials and blessings, lectures, on academy, question of second marriage, lectures, lafayette portrait, health, on anxiety about father's health, morse, louisa, goes abroad with m. ( ), ~ ~, morse, lucretia p. (walker), engagement to m., ~ ~, - , marriage, honeymoon, , goes to charleston with m. ( ), , children, , , , and m.'s plans ( ), , at concord ( ), and m.'s absence, with m. at new york, death, effect on m., - epitaph, , _letters to m:_ ( ) on academy at charleston, ~ ~, on perseverance, ( ) on sleeping on the floor, on mexican mission, _from m:_ ( ) on alston as patron, on work at charleston, on subsidence of work there, academy, on return, on a bonnet, on painting of house of representatives, , ( ) on experiences at albany, on failure at new york, mexican mission, ( ) on journey to washington, on failure of mission, success at new york, ( ) on same, lafayette portrait, washington experiences, - morse, r.c., birth, ~ ~, at phillips andover, at yale, , , to m. ( ) on war views, studies theology, different career, and brothers, , ~ ~, , at savannah ( ), ~ ~, , goes to frontier with father ( ), new york _observer_, from s.e. morse ( ) on m. at new york, marriage, , on m.'s talk on telegraph ( ), ~ ~, assists m. financially, and poughkeepsie place, from m. ( ) on withdrawal from cable company, and civil war, monument to father, , from m. ( ) on supporting lincoln, - m. on death, for other letters from m. _see_ morse, s.e. morse, s.e., birth, ~ ~, at phillips andover, at yale, , , plans for career, as misogynist, studies law, , different career, and brothers, , ~ ~, , boston _recorder_, ~ ~, invention of pump, new york _observer_, to father ( ) on m. at new york, to r.c. morse ( ) on same, on m.'s talk on telegraph ( ), ~ ~, , assists m. financially, , in europe ( ), , ( ), as tortoise to m.'s hare, , and civil war, monument to father, , m. and death, _letters to m:_ ( ) on family interest, ~ ~, ( ) on poet and painter, , _from m:_ ( ) on religion, ( ) on an execution, progress, west, van rensselaer, ( ) on near accident, ( ) on paris, letters for newspaper, ( ) on meeting with prince radziwill, on greenough, lafayette, polish revolt, paris mob, on painting of louvre, cholera in paris, lafayette on american finances, on louvre painting, cooper's character, american principles and european criticism, ( ) on illness, vail portraits, telegraph, ~ ~, on exhibition of telegraph, ( ) on projects in france, discouragement, on daguerreotype, ( ) on telegraph bill in congress, - , ( - ) on construction of experimental line, trials, fisher, smith, - , , ( ) on success, reports of democratic convention, smith, , , on foreign inquiries, congress and purchase, , ( ) on france and telegraph, ( ) on painting for capitol, on accident, on progress of telegraph, mexican war, infringements, printing telegraph, ( ) on rivals, litigation, , , on smith, on poughkeepsie home, - ( ) on litigation, home, , on engagement, ( ) on jackson's claim, newspaper hostility, ( ) on social and telegraph affairs in england, on experiences and honors on continent, ( ) on telegraphic affairs, slavery, ( ) on family party in europe, ( ) on death of vail, on workings of providence in his case, on telegraph in porto rico, proposed spanish cable, ( ) on report of electrical exhibition at paris, , , , on fêtes, on plans for winter, italy, church and state, american politics, on old age, ( ) on breaking leg, morse, s.e., jr., from m. ( ) on monument to father, ~ ~, morse, s.f.b., _early years, domestic life, and characteristics:_ birth, ~ ~, parents, schooling, - religious and moral attitude, , , , , , - , , , ~ ~, , parental solicitude as to character, ~ ~, - , , , , , , - , , attitude toward parents, , , , , , travel to new haven ( ), , start at yale, room, expenses and debts at college, , , , drops a class, parental admonitions against college extravagances, , tenacity, desire for relaxation at college, routine there, on montaigne's _essays_, desire to travel, interest in electrical experiments at college, portraits painted at college, , question of career, desires to become artist, apprenticed to bookseller, - , continued interest in art, - , art career decided upon, attitude and sacrifices of parents, , , , , , , , college love affair, - , on smuggling cigars, , on lotteries, , ~ ~, , and theatres, ~ ~, , , , - , sincerity, interest in public affairs, frankness, enjoyment of controversy, reading, and coat of arms, , ~ ~, appearance ( ), ~ ~, writes a farce ( ), , and brothers, , ~ ~, , industry, ~ ~, , and lucy russell, buoyancy, , , , love affair and engagement, - and fiancée, , on universalists, marriage, honeymoon, , and father's church troubles, , children by first wife, , , , marriage of future mother-in-law, domesticity, , , , , , ~ ~, , , family at new haven ( ), ~ ~, perseverance, on saying farewell, and death of wife, on her character, - , , ~ ~, sonnet on lafayette, ~ ~, homes for children, , leadership, altruism, , , ~ ~, thoughts on second marriage, ~ ~, , , ~ ~, and decline and death of father, ~ ~, , on servants, , and decline of mother, narrow escape ( ), - constitution, temperance, moulding of character, and foreign languages, patriotism, , , - , , ~ ~, , , on devotion and emotion of taste, ~ ~, capacity for friendship, , ~ ~, maintenance of his rights, ~ ~, , ~ ~, , necessary qualities of an inventor, , , , , , belief in divine ordination of his invention, and divine plan in trials and successes, , - , , , , , , - , , , - , , , , , , , , , , , , , , controversies over catholic church, - , , self-control, , sense of humor, , horror of debt, , , liberality, donations, , - , , , , , and poughkeepsie home, , , , , , , on being fifty-six, second marriage and family, , , and printing when a boy, despondency under strain of litigation, attitude toward rewards for invention, refuses to endorse notes, ; defence of slavery, , , , , , , , , - , , , on crinoline, as hare to brother's tortoise, , buys house in new york, monument to father, , on unitarianism, exhortation of his children, , on wayward sons, , on enigma of wealth, trials and afflictions of old age, , , , on old age, , and death of brothers, , pastor on character, poem ( ), , versatility, , prime's review of character, - sensibility, _art student in england, - :_ voyage to england with allston, ~ ~, - on english ladies, journey to london, on treatment of travelers, tips, impositions, - on english laboring class, on england and embargo, on dr. lettsom, on english dining hour, on a ghost, west's interest in, , , , , , , , , , , anecdote of west and george iii., , preparation to enter royal academy, , , on west as artist and man, , , , , on female artists, on attitude toward art in england and america, , , on copley in old age, on elgin marbles, , ~ ~, on cries of london, ~ ~, on custom of knocking, on balloon ascension and london crowd, on vauxhall gardens, - on st. bartholomew's fair, - economy, expenses, debts, , , , , , - , allston's interest and criticism, , , , , , , , , , , - work, , , on conditions in england ( - ), , , , , unfederalistic views on war of , , , , , , , , , - , , , - , , , , , , , , not molested during the war, , and leslie, , , , family interest in progress, , commendations and criticisms, , , , on assassination of perceval, , on difficulties and toil of painting, , and van rensselaer, , on life as student, on charivari, marius in prison, devotion to art, ambition, , , , . dying hercules, sculpture and painting, exhibition and awards, , , - , , , , , ~ ~, rooms at london, ~ ~, and wilberforce, , on american attitude toward french ( ), , on orders in council, , on retreat from moscow, on gilbert stuart, letters of introduction, london friends, and coleridge, , on contemporary american artists ( ), , on allston as artist and man, , , and study at paris, , , , - , , funds for longer stay abroad, , at bristol as portrait painter, lack of success, , , , , , . - question of self-support and further study, , , , , - , , efforts for release of burritt ( ), - and overthrow of napoleon, , seeks a patron, , , and london's celebration of overthrow of napoleon, - , - and death of mrs. allston, on napoleon's return and waterloo, , prepares for temporary return home, , , hope for employment in america, judgment of jupiter, not allowed to compete by royal academy, , , , , russell portrait, journal of dreadful voyage home, - experience at dover ( ), see ship carrying napoleon to st. helena, _art career in america:_ lack of demand, ~ ~, adams portrait, portrait painting in new hampshire ( - ), , - , settles down to portrait painting, , as portrait painter, , , , on painting quacks, portrait painting at portsmouth, - langdon portrait, at charleston ( - ), - , - , - and j.a. alston, , , , voyage to charleston ( ), on r.a. for allston, monroe portrait, , , thinks of settling at charleston, at washington ( ), , ( ), ; ( ), ( ), trouble over mrs. ball's portrait, - and academy at charleston, , trip through berkshires ( ), , painting of house of representatives, - , gift to yale ( ), deforest portrait, search for work, absence from home ( ), ( ), at albany, lack of success there, - moss kent portrait, plans for settling at new york, - james kent portrait, , and advancement of arts, studios at new york, , , , initial failure there ( ), - and mexican mission, - journey from new york to washington ( ), successful establishment at new york ( - ), - , , pupils, , ~ ~, , , lafayette portrait, ~ ~, - , , , , dr. smith portrait, on election of adams ( ), stanford portrait, and founding of national academy of design, - , as president of academy, , ~ ~, lectures and addresses on fine arts, ~ ~, , , pecuniary effect of connection with academy, as historical painter, informal literary club, , ~ ~, electioneering ( ), ~ ~, painting for steamer, annual address before academy ( ), review and rejoinder, and annual exhibition ( ), casts for the academy, divisions of life, art ambition and trials, huntington's estimate of, as artist, - color theory and experiments, influence of allston, results of distractions, isham's estimate, , hopes on return from abroad ( ), ~ ~, , on new york ( ), , on art instruction as his future, , on nullification, , efforts to resume profession, , on need of refining arts in america, enthusiasm wanes, , , fails to get commission for painting for capitol, - commission from fellow artists, never painted, fund returned, , , professor in university of city of new york, , , on effect of daguerreotype on art, , , and question of resuming painting in later years, , , and death of allston, , renewed effort for capitol painting ( ), - continued interest in academy, , again president of academy ( ), attempts to paint ( ), presents allston's portrait to academy, , _in europe, - :_ plans and preparation, commissions, ~ ~ , - , , , outbound voyage, diary of it, - at liverpool, docks, , materials on tour, journey to london, - on english villages, at london, royal academy, leslie, visits, , traveling companions, , on gypsies, on canterbury cathedral and service, - at dover, on dover castle, on channel passage, on landing in france, , at paris, louvre, lafayette, weather, - on letters for newspaper, on continental sabbath, , on allegorical painting, winter journey across france, - on diligence, on continental funerals, , , , , on sisters of charity and benevolence, at avignon, on catholic ritual and music, , , , , , , , - , ~ ~, on toulon navy yard and galley slaves, ~ ~, , travel by private carriage from toulon to rome, - imposition at inns, , on serra palace, genoa, on italian beggars, , , , , , on ligurian apennines, , on carrara marble quarries, - on pisa and leaning tower, - on carnival fooleries, arrival at rome, lodgings there ( ), on induction of cardinals, , on pius viii, on st. luke's academy, on kissing st. peter's toe, on sacred opera, on feast of annunciation, on roman society, - on passion sunday, on horace vernet, , on palm sunday, on lying in state of cardinal, on roman market, on allegri's _miserere_, on holy thursday, papal blessing, , on thorwaldsen, paints his portrait, , - , ~ ~, and later history, of portrait, ~ ~, - , ~ ~, on english, french, and american manners, ~ ~, , on landi's pictures, , on camuccini, sketching tour, happy life, rhapsody on subiaco, on monks, on rudeness of roman soldiers, on roman lotteries, on _festa inflorata_ at genzano, - on campagna at night, on summer day at rome, on illumination of st. peter's, on st. peter's day, - at naples ( ), at amalfi, on accident there, - on campo santo at naples, - on convent of st. martino, rhapsody on view, , on spagnoletto's dead christ, on roman revolt and danger to foreigners, , - , on roman new year, discussion with catholic convert, on election and coronation of pope, , , spectator at historic events, journey to florence during revolt ( ), - getting permission to remain there, on encounter with radziwill at rome, - work at florence, on travel in italy, on bologna, on journey to venice by po, - on venetian sights and smells, moralising on venetian society, homesick, travel to milan, at recoaro, - on gambling priests, on milan, on sacred pictures, at italian lakes, in switzerland, on rigi, , avoids french quarantine, - on paris after the revolution, and greenough at paris, , on lafayette and polish revolt, on lafayette's health ( ), on paris mob, - and r.w. habersham, and cholera, , painting of interior of louvre, , , ~ ~, , meets humboldt, ~ ~, presides at fourth dinner ( ), toast to lafayette, - letters published in brothers' paper, on cooper's patriotism, - on european criticism of america, , active interest in poles, at london ( ), on growth of london, sits to leslie, recovers health, , ~ ~, voyage home, , , on england, _scientific career to :_ early interest in electricity, ~ ~, invention of pump, early longing for telegraph, studies with silliman, machine for carving marble, , and dana's lectures on electricity ( ), discussions with dana, familiarity with electrical science, thoughts ( - ) connected with future invention of telegraph, , , , , , first conception of idea of telegraph ( ), - , ~ ~, experiments with photography, ~ ~, , ~ ~, divisions of life, trials of scientific life, ~ ~, , ~ ~, , , , jackson's conversations on electrical progress on board ship ( ), his later claim to invention, , , , , , , , , , , basis of telegraph worked out on voyage, dot-and-dash code, sketches, - , , simplicity of invention, , , , , thoughts on priority, , testimony of fellow passengers, , , date of invention, , scientific knowledge necessary for invention, - necessary combination of personal qualities and conditions, , , , , testimony of brothers on talk upon landing, , insistence on single circuit, , bars to progress, lack of funds and essentials, , first steps toward apparatus, saw-tooth type, cares ( ), forced to put invention aside, and death of lafayette, workshop in university building, resumes experiments ( ), , first instruments, - electro-chemical experiments, discovery of relay, , , shuns publicity of invention, poverty, in hall of fame, first exhibitions of telegraph ( - ), - , , - , , confidence of universal use, belief in aid to humanity, , , , , , , , , , , fears forestalling and rival claims, , , , , , , difference in principle of foreign inventions, , , , , - , , writes it "telegraph", originality of invention, share of others in it, - , , , , , , , , gale's and henry's connections, batteries, intensifying magnet, - , , - public and congressional suspicion, , , , , , , , , , acknowledgment of indebtedness, , , , , vail's association, contract, , , reversion to first plan for receiver, number code, dictionary, paternity of alphabet code, - patent in america, , , continuation of experiments, improvements, , , , , cumbersome instruments, alphabet supersedes number code, - portrule, , , "attention, the universe" message, friction with vail, , exhibition at washington ( ), no grant results, , , , connection of f.o.j. smith, cause of his later antagonism, , arrangement of partnership with gale, vail, and smith, desire and plan for government control, - , , , , , , , no share in later stock-watering, smith's report to congress, expects disappointments, , , european trip ( ), rivals in europe, , application for british patent, refused, - interest of english gentlemen, effort for special act of parliament, , exhibitions in england, russian contract, refusal of czar to sign it, , , , - , witnesses coronation of victoria, , french patents, , , on birth and baptism of comte de paris, , exhibition at institute of france, , , public and private projects in france, obstacles and failure, , - french enthusiasm over telegraph, , , , , , , , discouraged, dark years and poverty ( - ), - , , , - , , - , , - correspondent for sender, better part of failures, , protection of wires from malevolent attack, , , and underground wires, and daguerre, - invention for reporting railroad trains, and principle of fire-alarm, and military telegraph, - return to america ( ), and lack of effort by partners, - , , , , - , , , , , experiments with daguerreotype, takes portraits, - makes a business of it, , , takes first group picture ( ), chamberlain's exhibition of telegraph in european centers, - rejects proposition from wheatstone, renewed effort for congressional grant without result ( - ), , , - proposals for private companies, , threatens to abandon invention, , henry's praise of telegraph ( ), - obliged to make instruments himself, , experiment with submarine wires, , search for funds ( ), second exhibition before congress ( ), consideration and passage of act to build experimental line, - and fisher, , , , , - wireless experiment, , , , friends in congress, , omen in finding statuette of dying hercules, congratulations, construction of experimental line, route, assistants, - , wires, insulation, change from underground to overhead, , - , - trouble with smith, , , , , , , , prophesies atlantic cable ( ), , on strain of construction, progress of line, messages during construction, - ground circuit, completion of line, "what hath god wrought" message, - reports of democratic convention, - report on experimental line, , and on sounder and reading by sound, , , _career from :_ price of offer of telegraph to congress, ~ ~, , , , defence of rights and priority, , - , trials of success, , congress refuses to purchase invention, , , accidents ( ), ( ), ( ), , , ( ), abortive plans for private company, , smith's fulsome dedication, smith's antagonism and opposition, , , , , , , , - , , , , , , , , - , , - , - , foreign inquiries, , , woodbury's address ( ), kendall as agent, , , , , , first company, letter of introduction from department of state, fourth voyage to europe ( ), on crossing channel, on broek, - on hamburg, , attitude of european countries toward telegraph ( ), - on the french, litigation with infringers and rival companies, , - , , , - , - , , extensions of patent, share of partners, , - , , , , honors and decorations, , , - , , , and faithless associates, , , , - , and o'reilly, , , , , , - , , , , henry controversy, - , , , , , - , , progress of telegraph, displacement of other systems, , , , , , , , on mexican war, printing telegraph, and lawsuits, , , and salaries of operators, and vail, , , , , , financial stress, , , , , and rogers, , on aviation, , hostility of newspapers, - and death of cooper, on origin of "telegram", destruction of papers and evidence, and instruments for perry's japanese expedition, and consolidation of lines and monopoly, , , , , defeated for congress ( ), , and know-nothingism, - and dishonesty in telegraph organisation, , , - and sale of interests, , and organisation of atlantic cable company, private connection with telegraph line, trip to newfoundland ( ), , verse on invention, trip to europe ( ), and pecuniary reward from foreign nations, their honorary gratuity, , , - , - , , , experiments for atlantic cable, , attentions in england, banquet, cooke's toast, , - , and cooke, visit to leslie, attentions on continent, private interview with king of denmark, at copenhagen, , on oersted, on st. petersburg, on presentation to czar at peterhoff, - and humboldt, on buchanan's election, kendall's caution against cable company, on laying of first atlantic cable ( ), - and whitehouse's log, doubts success of first and second cables, , , forced withdrawal from cable company, - on office-seeking, family party to europe ( ), visit to daughter in porto rico, - , on st. thomas, , on change of climate and clothes, on son-in-law's estate, on death of vail, constructs first line in porto rico, public breakfast, and proposed spanish cable, - on porto rican fleas, greeting at poughkeepsie ( ), , on proposed candidacy for presidency, financially independent, , and visit of prince of wales, , and secession and compromise, , , attitude during civil war, - , , president of society for national unity, and founding of vassar, expects success of north, belief in foreign machinations, and sale of original wire of telegraph, president of a peace society, attitude toward lincoln, , supports mcclellan's candidacy, , - and help for southern prisoners of war, on loyalty to constitution, , and brother's support of lincoln, , endows lectureship in union theological seminary, refused to attend class reunion ( ), rebukes sectional rejoicing, - statue proposed, on benevolent use of telegraph wealth, demands on, for leadership and aid, , and american asiatic society, characteristic deadhead, on president johnson, final trip to europe ( ), paris headquarters, family gathering there, , presentation at court, court costume, - on field and success of cable, , on incident of louis napoleon's stay at now york, - on paris exposition, fêtes, - report on electrical display, , , , , on isle of wight, winter plans ( ), on italy and union of church and state, on reaction of _reconstruction_ ( ), at dresden, at berlin, von phillipsborn's courtesy, - return to america, and presidential election ( ), , new york banquet ( ), speeches, - on science and art, on death of kendall, unveiling of statue, - farewell message over the world by telegraph, , replies, address, - abandons plan for trip abroad ( ), last summer, on neutralisation of telegraph, , last public appearance, unveils statue of franklin, address, last illness, death, tributes to, - funeral, , grave, memorial services in congress, - and at boston, summary of inventions, fame, _letters: see_ j.s.c. abbott, allston, alston, andrews, aycrigg, ball, bellows, blake, boardman, bodisco, breguet, brett, bromfield, bryant, burbank, mrs. cass, chevalier, christy, clarke, cole, cooper, g.t. curtis, daguerre, day, de forest, dix, douglas, edwards, elgin, b.l. ellsworth, j. evarts, faxton, c.w. field, j.e.b. finley, gale, mrs. w.h. goodrich, green, greenough, a.b. griswold, c.b. griswold, r.w. griswold, bauser, henry, jos. hillhouse, hodge, ingham, s.f. jarvis, mrs. s.f. jarvis, c. johnson, johnston, a. kendall, king, lafayette, q.w. lafayette, c.r. leslie, j.r. leslie, e. lind. s.w.m. lind, livingston, d. lord, lovering, ludlow, macaulay, j.y. mason, mathews, mead, morgan, a. morse, e.a.b. morse, j. morse, l.p.w. morse, r.c. morse, s.e. morse, s.e. morse, jr., s.e.g. morse, s.w. morse, morton, newcastle, o'reilly, m.c. perry, ransom, raymond, reibart, roby, rossiter, salisbury, e.s. sanford, shaffner, e.f. smith, e.g. smith, f.o.j. smith, stevens, stickney, j. thompson, h. thornton, thorwaldsen, a. vail, mrs. a. vail, g. vail, van schaick, vassar, viager, walewaki, t.r. walker, mrs. t.r. walker, warren, watson, wells, williams, wood, t.d. woolsey. morse, sarah e. (griswold) marries m., ~ ~, , domestic life, from m. ( ) on diversions at washington, extension of patent, newfoundland trip ( ), goes abroad with m. ( ), ( ), ( ), from m. ( ) on crinoline, on laying of first atlantic cable, in porto rico ( ), and memorial services to m., morse, susan w., birth, ~ ~, with m. in new york ( ), childhood home, from m. ( ) on coronation of victoria, rival telegraphs, refusal of british patent, ~ ~, , on french patent, birth of comte de paris, on exhibitions and projects of telegraph in france, on need of economy, ( ) on "home," _see also_ lind, susan w. (morse). morse code. _see_ dot-and-dash. morton, j.l., letters with m. ( ) on academy of design, ~ ~, motto of morse coat of arms, ~ ~, moulton, s.d., at m.'s funeral, ~ ~, murray, lindley, complimentary letter from jedediah morse ( ), ~ ~, music, m. on continental, ~ ~, , sacred opera at rome, allegri's _miserere_, naples, m. at ( ), ~ ~, , campo santo, - convent of san martino, , napoleon iii, and m., ~ ~, , m. on, in new york, belief in his star, _napoleon_, transatlantic ship ( ), ~ ~, napoleonic wars, retreat from moscow, ~ ~, english success in spain, overthrow of napoleon, , louis xviii's entrée into london ( ), - london fete of allies, - napoleon's return from elba, news in london of his abdication, - m. sees ship bearing napoleon to st. helena, national academy of design, inception, m.'s plan of membership and control, ~ ~, - , organisers, m. as president, m.'s annual address, review, and rejoinder ( ), exhibition ( ), m. secures casts for, needs m.'s guiding hand ( ), trumbull's opposition to union of art academy, ~ ~, fear lest m. should resign presidency ( ), m. expects to resign presidency ( ), daguerre elected an honorary member, continuation of m.'s interest, m. again president ( ), m. presents portrait and brush of allston, , m. on progress ( ), national gallery, m. on ( ), ~ ~, _neptune_, transatlantic ship ( ), ~ ~, nettleton, ----, butler at yale ( ), ~ ~, neutral trade, search ( ), ~ ~, england and embargo, orders in council and nonintercourse, , , objects of orders, , repeal of orders, _see also_ war of . neutralization of telegraph, m. on ( ), ~ ~, , newcastle, fifth duke of (earl of lincoln), and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , , , to m. ( ) on visit of prince of wales, newcastle, sixth duke of (earl of lincoln), at peterhoff ( ), ~ ~, new haven, morse family at, ~ ~, newspapers, hostility to m.'s claims as monopolistic, ~ ~, - newton, g.s., and m., ~ ~, , marriage, ~ ~, new year at rome, ~ ~, new york city, called insipid ( ), ~ ~, defences in war of , m.'s plans for settling at ( ), future, - m.'s studios, rentals, , , , m.'s initial failure at, - his establishment at ( - ), - m.'s portrait of lafayette for, - , , literary club, , ~ ~, m. on improvement and conditions ( ), , m.'s home, banquet to m. ( ), - statue to m., unveiling ( ), - m.'s farewell message to the telegraph, - m.'s funeral, , _see also_ national academy of design. new york _herald_, on m.'s submarine experiment ( ), ~ ~, , tribute to m., new york _journal of commerce_, m. and travel letters for ( ), ~ ~, on exhibition of telegraph ( ), ~ ~, on m.'s rivals, new york _observer_, founded, success, ~ ~, new york, university of city of, m. as professor, and his telegraph, ~ ~, , , , _niagara_, u.s.s., and laying of first atlantic cable, ~ ~, - nicholas i of russia, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, nonintercourse, effect in england ( ), ~ ~, , northampton, marquis of, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , notes, m. refuses to endorse, ~ ~, nothomb, baron de, and m. at berlin, ~ ~, nullification, lafayette on, ~ ~, m. on compromise, ~ ~, , oberman, ----, and m. at hamburg ( ), ~ ~, oersted, h.c., m. on, ~ ~, office, m. on seeking at washington ( ), ~ ~, oldenburg, duchess of, appearance ( ), ~ ~, ombroai, ----, consul at florence ( ), ~ ~, orders in council, british attitude ( ), ~ ~, , repeal and war, , objects, , o'reilly, henry, character, ~ ~, to m. ( ) congratulations, infringements on m.'s patent, rival company, , , , - , , , last attack on m., orton, william, banquet to m., ~ ~, , and statue to m., and m.'s farewell message to the telegraph, , at m.'s funeral, o'shaughnessy, sir william, and m., ~ ~, , otho of greece, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, owen, j.j., and civil war, ~ ~, owen, robert, and wilberforce, ~ ~, at washington ( ), and m., painting, leslie on allston and king, ~ ~, comparison with poetry, , allston on french school, _see also_ allston, morse, s. f. b., national academy of design. palm sunday at rome ( ), ~ ~, palmer, ----, return to america ( ), ~ ~, paradise, j.w., and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, paris, comte de, birth, ~ ~, christening, paris, m. at ( ), ~ ~, - after revolution of , mob and polish revolt ( ), - cholera ( ), , m.'s exhibition of telegraph at ( ), projects, ~ ~, - m. at ( ), ( ), ( ), ( ), his presentation at court, - paris exposition ( ), m.'s enthusiasm, ~ ~, his report on electrical exhibit, , , , , fêtes, - attempt on czar's life, parisen, j., and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, parker, joel, and civil war, ~ ~, parkman, dr. george, m. on meanness, ~ ~, passion sunday at rome ( ), ~ ~, patent of telegraph, caveat, ~ ~, specification, application in england, refusal, - proposal of special act of parliament, , , french, , issued in united states, for printing telegraph, infringements, , - , , , - , , extension of m.'s, , - , , , patron, m. seeks ( ), ~ ~, , , patterson, j.w., at memorial services to m., ~ ~, patterson, r.m., and exhibition of telegraph, ~ ~, , payne, j.h., mrs. morse on character, ~ ~, peace, m. on telegraph and promotion, ~ ~, , , peale, rembrandt, and study of live figure, ~ ~, and portrait of lafayette, and origin of academy of design, peel, lady emily, at peterhoff ( ), ~ ~, peel, sir robert, at peterhoff ( ), ~ ~, pell, capt. ----, of the _sully_ ( ), ~ ~, on conception of telegraph, perceval, spencer, and american crisis ( ), ~ ~, , assassination, perry, h.j., and proposed spanish cable, ~ ~, perry, m.c., to m. ( ) on telegraph instruments for japanese expedition, ~ ~, persiani, ----, soirée, ~ ~, peter, saint, image in st. peter's at rome, ~ ~, feast day at rome, peterhoff, m. on presentation to czar at, ~ ~, - philadelphia, west on, as future art centre, ~ ~, exhibition of telegraph ( ), ~ ~, phillips, mrs. ----, transatlantic voyage ( ), ~ ~, phillips andover academy, m. at, ~ ~, phillipsborn, ---- von, and m. at berlin, ~ ~, , on telegraph and battle of königgrätz, photography, m.'s early experiments, ~ ~, , ~ ~, _see also_ daguerreotype. pickett, b.m., morse statue, ~ ~, pisa, m. at ( ), ~ ~, leaning tower, pius viii, at ceremonies in old age, ~ ~, , , death, platoff, ----, at london ( ), ~ ~, , plattsburg, battle, ~ ~, , poems by m. ~ ~, , ~ ~, - poet, and painter, ~ ~, , poinsett, j.r., and art academy at charleston, ~ ~, , and proposed mexican minion ( ), , poland, revolt ( ), ~ ~, - lafayette on revolt, , paris and revolt, mob ( ), - m.'s active interest, polk, j.k., presidential nomination reported by telegraph, ~ ~, , pope, f.l., on morse alphabet, ~ ~, popes. _see_ gregory, pius. porteus, beilby, from jedediah morse ( ) on disestablishment in virginia, ~ ~, porto rico, m.'s visit ( ), ~ ~, - , , first telegraph line, portraits by m., john adams, ~ ~, mrs. ball, - de forest, james kent, moss kent, lafayette, - , , , , john langdon, mrs. lind, james monroe, , , james russell, dr. smith, stanford, thorwaldsen, - , ~ ~, portrule, ~ ~, , , superseded, portsmouth, n.h., m. at ( - ), ~ ~, , , portugal, testimonials to m., ~ ~, , potter, edward, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, poughkeepsie, m.'s home at, ~ ~, , , , , , , greeting to m. ( ), , powell, w.h., commission for capitol painting, ~ ~, prescott, g.b., m. on work, ~ ~, _president_, u.s.s., reported capture ( ), ~ ~, presidential election, conduct in congress ( ), ~ ~, report over telegraph of conventions ( ), ~ ~, , - m. on buchanan's election, m. supports mcclellan's candidacy, , - m. on ( ), , prime, s.i., on m.'s anecdote of west, ~ ~, on m.'s grandfather, on jedediah morse and wife, , on incident in construction of experimental line, ~ ~, on success of line, on sustainment of m.'s patent, on m. and phillipsborn at berlin, - review of m.'s character, prince, l.b., at m.'s funeral, ~ ~, printing, m. on, ~ ~, printing telegraph, ~ ~, _see also_ house. prosch, ----, and instruments for telegraph, ~ ~, , prussia, testimonials to m., ~ ~, telegraph in austrian war, public ownership, m.'s plan for telegraph, ~ ~, - , , , price of offer, congress declines to purchase, , , , , pump, m.'s invention, ~ ~, putnam, aaron, oration at charlestown ( ), ~ ~, . putnam, i.w., as minister, ~ ~, quarantine, m. evades french ( ), ~ ~, - quincy, josiah, at memorial services to m., ~ ~, raasloff, capt. ----, and m., ~ ~, radziwill, prince m.j., m.'s encounter with, at rome ( ), ~ ~, - and polish revolt, railroads, first mention by m., ~ ~, m.'s invention for reporting trains, ~ ~, ralston, eliza, and m., ~ ~, , rankin, r.g., on first view of telegraph and m.'s attitude, ~ ~, - ransom, w.l., from m. ( ) on loyalty, ~ ~, raymond, h.j., and henry-morse controversy, letters with m. ( ), ~ ~, reading, m. and old poets, ~ ~, receiver, m.'s original conception, ~ ~, , , , first form, - reversion to first plan of up-and-down motion, multiple record, m. on receiving by sound, , , recoaro, m. at ( ), ~ ~, - reconstruction, m. on reaction ( ), ~ ~, reeves, tapping, and m., ~ ~, reibart, ----, from m. ( ) on candidacy for president, ~ ~, reid, j.d., on kendall as m.'s agent, ~ ~, on o'reilly, on vail's incapacity, , on huntington's address at banquet to m., and statue to m., and m.'s farewell message to telegraph, m.'s thanks to, tribute to m., reinagle, hugh, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, relay, m.'s discovery, ~ ~, other discoverers, henry and, , religion, m.'s early bent, ~ ~, , , parental admonitions, - m.'s attitude, , , , , , - m. on canterbury cathedral and service, - on continental sunday, , on devotion and emotion of taste, m.'s observance of sabbath, ~ ~, m. on union of church and state, _see also_ morse, s.f.b. (_early years_), roman catholic church. remberteau, comte, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, rents at new york, ~ ~, , , renwick, james, on m.'s conception of telegraph, ~ ~, republicans, called jacobins ( ), ~ ~, celebration of fourth at charlestown, _see also_ war of . revolution of , paris after, ~ ~, lafayette on european results, ribera, jusepe. _see_ spagnoletto. rigi, m. on, ~ ~, ripley's inn, hartford, ~ ~, rives, w.c., m.'s letter of introduction. ~ ~, at fourth dinner at paris ( ), return to america, ~ ~, m. on, and invention of telegraph, roberts, m.o., and atlantic cable, ~ ~, robinson, charles, and m.'s telegraph in europe, ~ ~, roby, mrs. margaret, from m. ( ) on ocean voyage, liverpool, ~ ~, ( ) on journey to london, experiences there, canterbury, dover, channel passage, paris, on journey to dijon, diligence, funeral, continental sunday, rocafuerto, vicente, m. on, ~ ~, rogers, h.j., and telegraph, ~ ~, break with m., , from smith ( ) on henry's invention of telegraph, rogers, lewis, return to america ( ), ~ ~, rogers, nathaniel, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, rogers, samuel, and m., ~ ~, , roman catholic church, emancipation question in england ( ), ~ ~, ; m. on french funeral, , on sisters of charity, on ritual, , , _festa infionta_ at genzano, - m.'s discussion with converts, , ~ ~, gambling priests, ~ ~, m. on sacred pictures, m.'s antagonism and controversies, ~ ~, - , - , _see also_ rome. rome, m.'s arrival and lodgings ( ), ~ ~, his work, , induction of cardinals, , plus viii in old age, kissing of st. peter's toe, st. luke's academy, beggars, feast of annunciation, society, - , passion sunday, palm sunday, lying in state of cardinal, market, allegri's _miserere_, holy thursday, papal benediction, , funeral, feast of st. francesco caracoiolo, procession of _corpus domini_, m. on monks, rudeness of soldiers, lotteries, campagna at night, a summer day, illuminations of st. peter's, st. peter's day, - vaults of st. peter's, social evil, death of pius vii, revolt in provinces ( ), danger to foreigners, , - , new year, election and coronation of gregory xvi, , , trasteverini, romeyn, dr. nicholas, and m., ~ ~, to jedediah morse ( ) on m., rossiter, j.p., to m. ( ) on social gossip, ~ ~, - royal academy, m.'s preparation for entrance, ~ ~, , , allston elected, m. at lecture ( ), royal society, m.'s exhibition of telegraph, ~ ~, russell, james, m.'s portrait, ~ ~, russell, lucy, and m., ~ ~, russia, and m.'s telegraph ( ), ~ ~, , , , - , renewed interest in telegraph ( ), , m. at st. petersburg and peterhoff ( ), - and gratuity to m., russian extension, m. and manipulation, ~ ~, st. bartholomew's fair, london, m. on ( ), ~ ~, - saint-germain railroad, and m.'s telegraph, ~ ~, , , _st. laurent_, transatlantic steamer ( ), ~ ~, st. luke's academy, rome, m. on, ~ ~, st. martino convent at naples, m. on, ~ ~, , st. peter's church. _see_ rome. st. petersburg, m. on display of wealth ( ), ~ ~, st. thomas island, m. at ( ), ~ ~, , salisbury, e.s., from m. ( ) on order for portrait, discouraging conditions, ~ ~, ( ) on yale's celebration of sectional victory, samson, g.w., and m.'s farewell message to telegraph, ~ ~, sanford, ahas, "appointment" at yale, ~ ~, sanford, e.s., from m. ( ) on crooked telegraph manipulations, ~ ~, on government purchase, on financial stress, sanitary commission, m. on aid for confederate prisoners of war, ~ ~, santa anna, a.l. de, at st. thomas ( ), ~ ~, saul, leslie's painting, ~ ~, sculpture, m.'s carving machine, ~ ~, , seabury, samuel, and civil war, ~ ~, search, british, of american ships, ~ ~, sebastiani, comte f.h.b., mob attack ( ), ~ ~, , secession, m.'s attitude, ~ ~, , , sender, saw-tooth type, ~ ~, , ; first form, improvement in portrait, , , correspondent or key substituted, "serenade," m.'s poem, ~ ~, , serra palace, m. on, ~ ~, . serrell, ----, and experimental telegraph line, ~ ~, , , servants, m. on problem, ~ ~, , on english, servell, ----, visual telegraph, ~ ~, seymour, t.h., with m. at peterhoff ( ), ~ ~, , shaffner, t.p. letters with m. ( ) on clash with rival company, ~ ~, - and m. at washington, from m. ( ) on death of vail, on henry controversy, shaw, ----, invention of percussion cap, ~ ~, shee, sir m.a., meets m., ~ ~, shepard, nancy, m.'s nurse, ~ ~, , ~ ~, sheridan, r.b., lines on lettsom, ~ ~, shubrick, w.b., at early exhibition of telegraph, ~ ~, siddons, mrs., m. on, ~ ~, siemens, werner, and duplex telegraph, ~ ~, and m. at berlin, silliman, benjamin, m. on "journal," ~ ~, m.'s scientific studies under, in berkshires with m., , epitaph for mrs. morse, , experiments in photography, m.'s indebtedness, ~ ~, simbaldi, palazzo, musical soirée at ( ), ~ ~, simpson, john, at m.'s funeral, ~ ~, sisters of charity, m. on, ~ ~, slave-trade, wilberforce and abolition, ~ ~, slavery, m.'s defence, ~ ~, , , , , , , - , smith, capt. ----, of _napoleon_ ( ), ~ ~, smith, e.f., from m. ( ) on endorsing notes, ~ ~, smith, e.g., and m. ~ ~, to m. ( ) on painting for capitol, smith, f.o.j., offer to help m., ~ ~, character, cause of later antagonism, , conditions of partnership, report to congress on telegraph, and patent specification, goes to europe with m., returns, on chamberlain, abandons efforts for telegraph, , , , , , and construction of experimental line, and beginning of hostility to m., , , , , , , and formation of companies, , telegraph dictionary, dedication to m., - life-long continuation of antagonism, , , , , , , , , and management of partnership, separation of interests, , , denial of injunction against, and extension of patent, demand of share, , , , claim to share foreign gratuity, - , m.'s acknowledgment to, , on henry as inventor of telegraph, - last attack on m., - , _letters to m.:_ ( ) on m.'s service to humanity, ~ ~, . _from m:_ ( ) on public control of telegraph, ( - ) on french and russian projects, key, - , , on jackson's claim, on english affairs, ( ) on discouraging conditions, abandonment by partners, , ( ) on wheatstone's proposition, ( ) on lobbyist, on making further effort, progress of rivals, aid from congress, ( ) on henry's praise, private company, , on abandoning invention, congress, on discouraging conditions, ( ) on bill in congress, on passage of act, on trenching contract, ( ) on company, on smith's dedication to m., disputed division of partnership, ( ) on separation of interests, ( ) on claim to share of gratuity, smith, goldwin, at banquet to m., ~ ~, smith, j.a., informal club ( ), ~ ~, smith, j.l., and telegraph in turkey, ~ ~, smith, nathan, m.'s portrait, ~ ~, smithsonian institution, and henry-morse controversy, ~ ~, smuggling, m.'s experience, ~ ~, , snow, r.w., to mrs. morse ( ) on m. as artist, ~ ~, social evil, m. on, at rome, ~ ~, society, m. on roman ( ), ~ ~, - on english, french, and american manners, , on venetian. society for diffusing useful political knowledge, ~ ~, solomons, a.s., and memorial services to m., ~ ~, somaglia, cardinal, lying in state, ~ ~, sorrento, m. at ( ), ~ ~, soult, marshal, ministry, ~ ~, sounder. _see_ receiver. south carolina, nullification, ~ ~, , ~ ~, , _see also_ charleston. southey, robert, sketch for admirer, ~ ~, , spagnoletto, m. on dead christ, spain, m. on wellington's victories, ~ ~, interest in m.'s telegraph, testimonials to m., proposed cable to west indies ( ), - spaulding, m.j., m.'s religious controversy, ~ ~, , spencer, george, discussion with m. on catholicism, ~ ~, spencer, j.c., and telegraph, ~ ~, sprague, peleg, referee on smith's claim, ~ ~, stafford, marquis of, seat and gallery, ~ ~, stanford, ----, of new york, m.'s portrait, ~ ~, stanly, edward, and telegraph, ~ ~, statham, samuel, and m. in ( ), ~ ~, statue to m., proposed ( ), , unveiling, - steinheil, k.a., telegraph, ~ ~, , , , and ground circuit, , , recommends m.'s telegraph, , stephen, ----, son of james, and war of , ~ ~, sterling, antoinette, and m.'s farewell message to telegraph, ~ ~, stevens, w.b., from m. on telegraph in congress, ~ ~, stickney, william, from m. ( ) on death of kendall, ~ ~, stiles, j.c., and civil war, ~ ~, stock-watering, m. not responsible, ~ ~, stothard, thomas, meets m., ~ ~, strong, caleb, expected election ( ), ~ ~, strother, d.h., on m.'s poverty ( ), ~ ~, , stuart, gilbert, m. on, ~ ~, , sturgeon, william, and electro-magnet, ~ ~, subiaco, m.'s rhapsody, ~ ~, sullivan, sarah w., marriage, ~ ~, sully, thomas, and study of life figure, ~ ~, and portrait of lafayette, painting for steamer, _sully_, transatlantic ship ( ), ~ ~, sunday, m. on continental, ~ ~, , supreme court, on m.'s patent, ~ ~, - , _susquehanna_, and laying of first atlantic cable, ~ ~, swedish royal academy of science, m.'s membership, ~ ~, , switzerland, m. in ( ), ~ ~, - talleyrand, c.m. de, from jedediah morse ( ) introducing m. ~ ~, taney, r.b., telegraph decision, ~ ~, tappan, h.b., on first view of telegraph, ~ ~, tardi, luigia, singer, ~ ~, tatham & brothers, and experimental telegraph line, ~ ~, taylor, moses, and atlantic cable, ~ ~, "telegram," origin, ~ ~, telegraph. _see_ atlantic cable, battery, circuit, consolidation, dot-and-dash, duplex, experimental line, morse (s.f.b.), patent, public ownership, relay, receiver, sender, wire, wireless. theatre, at st. bartholomew's fair ( ), ~ ~, m.'s attitude, , , - m. on kemble, cooke, mrs. siddons, premier of coleridge's _remorse_, maternal warnings against, m.'s farce, , thompson, john, from m. ( ) on fêtes of paris exposition, ~ ~, ( ) on desire to return home, thompson, m.e., and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, thornton, sir edward, at banquet to m., ~ ~, , thornton, henry, and m., ~ ~, , and war of , on orders in council, , letters with m. ( - ) on prisoner of war, - thorwaldsen, a.b., m. on, at rome and as artist, ~ ~, , ~ ~, m.'s portrait, ~ ~, , from m. ( ) on portrait, later history of portrait, - , ~ ~, gift to academy of design, ~ ~, thunder storms in venice, ~ ~, , tilden, s.j., at m.'s funeral, ~ ~, tips, m. on, in england, ~ ~, tisdale, ----, on dying hercules, ~ ~, todd, john, on jedediah morse, ~ ~, on mrs. morse, torrey, john, at exhibition of telegraph, ~ ~, toucey, isaac, and m. as office-seeker for son, ~ ~, toulon, m. on navy yard and galley slaves ( ), ~ ~, , town, ithiel, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, travel with m. ( - ), , trasteverini, character, ~ ~, travel, english war-time regulations ( ), ~ ~, treatment of travellers, tips, impositions, - delay in sailing of ships, m.'s journal of dreadful voyage ( ), - from new york to washington ( ), transatlantic ( ), - stage coach to london ( ), - channel steamers ( ), ( ), ~ ~, winter journey across france by diligence ( ), ~ ~, - diligence described, from toulon to geneva, , imposition of innkeepers, , from genoa to rome, - conditions and perils of italian, , , to venice by boat on po, - trentanove, raymond, gift to academy of design, ~ ~, trentham hall, ~ ~, trollope, mrs. francos, m. on _domestic manners_, ~ ~, trumbull, john, m. on, as artist, ~ ~, and m.'s portrait of mrs. ball, and academy of arts, , , ~ ~, turkey, testimonials to m., ~ ~, , turner, j.m.w., m. meets, ~ ~, twining, stephen, and m. at yale, ~ ~, , tyng, s.h., and statue to m., ~ ~, union theological seminary, m. endows lectureship, ~ ~, unitarianism, jedediah morse's opposition, ~ ~, m. on, ~ ~, universalists, m. on, ~ ~, upham, n.g., referee on smith's claim, ~ ~, uriel in the sun, allston's painting, ~ ~, vail, alfred, first view of telegraph, ~ ~, association with it, contract, , and dot-and-dash alphabet, - work with m., , , m.'s acknowledgment of indebtedness to, , , friction, , new arrangement of partnership, ceases effort for telegraph, , , , , , , and construction and operation of experimental line, agreement, , , , , and operation of telegraph, kendall, as agent, , , and henry controversy, relations with m. after , , , - , , incapacity for telegraph work, m. and death, , _letters to m:_ ( ) proposing exhibition at philadelphia, ~ ~, ( ) on private line, ( ) on accident, ( ) on avoiding active interest in companies, ( ) on suits, severing connection with telegraph, ( ) on newspaper hostility, _from m:_ ( ) on prospects, portrule, , on exhibition before institute of france, ( ) on discouraging conditions, ( ) on same, ( ) on scattered partners, hope, ( ) on duplex and wireless experiments, action in congress, ( ) on bill, on passage of act, on preparation for experimental line, ( ) on operating, , ( ) on faithless associates, on accident, ( ) on personal relations, ( ) on faithlessness of rogers, , ( ) on share under extension of patent, vail, mrs. alfred, from m. ( ) on share in gratuity, ~ ~, vail, george, and brother's connection with telegraph, ~ ~, to m. ( ) refusing assistance, from m. ( ) on brother's share in extension of patent, suspicion of m., from m. ( ) on original wire of telegraph, vail, stephen, and telegraph, ~ ~, , van buren, martin, and letters of introduction for m. ( ), ~ ~, and exhibition of telegraph ( ), ~ ~, vanderlyn, john, and m.'s portrait of mrs. ball, ~ ~, and portrait of lafayette, and origin of academy of design, painting for steamer, van dyke, h.j., and civil war, ~ ~, van rensselaer, stephen, and m. at london ( ), ~ ~, presented at court, and m. as artist, , van shalek, ----, to m. ( ) on new york's defenses, ~ ~, on victories, new england federalism, to jedediah morse on m.'s character, war views, and progress, orders painting from m., from m. ( ) on copies of paintings, vassar, matthew, from m. ( ) on vassar college, ~ ~, vassar college. m. and founding, ~ ~, vauxhall gardens, m. on ( ), ~ ~, - venice, m.'s journey to, by po ( ), ~ ~, - sights and smells, thunder storms, , society, _venice preserved_, m. on, ~ ~, vernet, horace, m. on, at rome, ~ ~, , victoria of england, coronation, ~ ~, anecdote of kindness, villages, aspect of english ( ), ~ ~, vinci, leonardo da, and science, ~ ~, virginia, disestablishment, church property, ~ ~, visger, harman, and m., ~ ~, to m. ( ) on self-support, allston, visscher, ----, in england ( ), and m., ~ ~, , - vouchy, comte de, and m., ~ ~, wainwright, j.m., informal club ( ), ~ ~, walcott, ----, and daguerreotypes, ~ ~, walcott, g.k., and m.'s farewell message to telegraph, ~ ~, waldo, s.l., and portrait of lafayette, ~ ~, and origin of academy of design, wales, prince of, m. and visit to america, ~ ~, new york ball, walewski, comte, and gratuity to m., ~ ~, to m. ( ) announcing award, m.'s reply, walker, charles [ ], m. on family, ~ ~, walker, charles [ ], with m. at new york ( ), ~ ~, walker, lucretia p., love and engagement to m., ~ ~, - visits his parents, and fiancé, converted, marriage, _see also_ morse, lucretia p. walker, s.c., and henry-morse controversy, ~ ~, walker, t.r., to m. ( ) on animosity of newspapers, ~ ~, from m. ( ) on atlantic cable, ( ) on monarchy in america, walker, mrs. t.r., from m. ( ) on poem, ~ ~, wall, william, and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, walpole, n.h., m. at ( ), ~ ~, walsh, robert, and m.'s telegraph, prophecy, ~ ~, war of , m. on british attitude ( ), ~ ~, ; m.'s republican attitude, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , federalistic attitude of m.'s family, , , , , , , , , , americans in england not disturbed, , question of orders in council, , , english opinion of federalists, allston's attitude, and french influence in america, , repeal of orders in council, hatred of americans in england, , , , m.'s efforts for release of a prisoner of war, - new york defences, lake erie and plattsburg, , new england's opposition, american effort ( ), federalistic view ( ), , england and peace overtures, mrs. morse on peace, warren, edward, and jackson's claim, letter from m. ( ), ~ ~, warren, mass. _see_ western. warren phalanx of charlestown ( ), ~ ~, washington, ----, telegraph operator, ~ ~, washington, george, as letter-writer, ~ ~, washington, d.c., m. at ( ), ~ ~, ( ), ( ), mrs. monroe's drawing-room, monroe's last levee, adams and jackson at it, m.'s effort for commission for painting for capitol, ~ ~, - , - first exhibition of telegraph, second exhibition, construction of telegraph line to baltimore, - _washington_, transatlantic steamer ( ), ~ ~, watson, p.h., and extension of m.'s patent, ~ ~, wealth, m. on divine enigma, ~ ~, webster, daniel, on jedediah morse, ~ ~, and m.'s effort for commission for painting for capitol, ~ ~, webster, emily, engagement, ~ ~, weld, thomas, induction as cardinal, ~ ~, meets m., wellington, duke of, spanish victories, ~ ~, wells, william, to m. ( ) on money, ~ ~, west, benjamin, interest in m., ~ ~, , , , , , , , , , , anecdote of george iii and declaration of independence, , christ healing the sick, christ before pilate, , activity and powers in old age, m. on, as artist, , , on philadelphia as art centre, gout, west. w.e., and m., ~ ~, western, mass., tavern ( ), ~ ~, western union telegraph company, passes a dividend ( ), ~ ~, "what hath god wrought" message, ~ ~, wheatstone, sir charles, and relay, ~ ~, telegraph, m. on telegraph and his own, , , , - , opposes patent to m., progress of telegraph, proposition to m. rejected. gets american patent, henry on telegraph, , and ground circuit, , telegraph displaced by m.'s, , wheeler, ----, return to america ( ), ~ ~, wheeler, f.b., on m.'s character, ~ ~, at m.'s funeral, at memorial services, whig convention ( ), report by telegraph, ~ ~, white, chandler, and atlantic cable, ~ ~, whitehouse, e.o.w., experiments for atlantic cable, ~ ~, , and laying of first cable, log, whitney. eli, and m.'s pump, ~ ~, wilberforce, william, and m., ~ ~, , and war of , and slave-trade, character, and final overthrow of napoleon, willard, j.s., death, ~ ~, _william joliffe_, channel steamer ( ), ~ ~, williams, h.i., from m. ( ) on law suits, ~ ~, willington, r.s., from m. ( ) on catholic plot, ~ ~, wilson, d.w., and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, wilson, j.l., and civil war, ~ ~, windsor, vt., m. at and on ( ), ~ ~, , winslow, hubbard, and civil war, ~ ~, wire, m. and underground, ~ ~, experiment with submarine, duplex telegraphy, , failure of underground, for experimental line, , - , , insulation for experimental line, , , use of naked, overhead, for experimental line, , use of ground circuit, , , wireless telegraphy, m.'s experiment, ~ ~, , , , wiseman, n.p.s., meets m., ~ ~, women, m. on appearance of english, ~ ~, wood, fernando, and memorial services for m., ~ ~, , wood, george, to m. ( ) on harassments, , ; and extension of patent, letter to m. ( ), , to m. ( ) on slavery argument, from m. ( ) on divine hand in progress of telegraph, on wayward sons, enigma of wealth, ( ) on benevolent uses of wealth from telegraph, death, woodbury, levi, and telegraph, ~ ~, , , woods, leonard, and civil war, ~ ~, woolsey, mary a., engagement, ~ ~, woolsey. t.d., and m. in italy ( ), ~ ~, from m. ( ) on contribution to yale, ~ ~, wright, c.c., and origin of academy of design, ~ ~, wright, silas, and telegraph, ~ ~, , refuses vice-presidential nomination over telegraph, württemberg, medal for m., ~ ~, wyatt, richard, gift to academy of design, ~ ~, wynne, james, anecdotes of coleridge and abernethy, ~ ~, - yale college, m. at, ~ ~, - student's routine ( ), m.'s incidental expenses, "appointments," m.'s gift ( ), ( ), ~ ~, daguerreotype of th anniversary of class of , ll.d. for m., m. refuses to attend class reunion ( ), - yates, j.c., and m., ~ ~, young, mcclintock, and telegraph, ~ ~, zantzinger, l.f., telegraph operator, ~ ~, transcriber's note: inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. obvious typographical errors have been corrected. italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=. the haunted mine by harry castlemon author of "the gunboat series," "rocky mountain series," "war series," etc. the john c. winston co., philadelphia, chicago, toronto. copyright, , by henry t. coates & co. contents. chapter page i. the sale of "old horse," ii. casper is disgusted, iii. julian is astonished, iv. where the box was, v. casper thinks of something, vi. a mr. haberstro appears, vii. a plan that didn't work, viii. claus calls again, ix. the master mechanic, x. where are the valises? xi. in denver, xii. casper nevins, the spy, xiii. getting ready for work, xiv. how casper was served, xv. how a mine was haunted, xvi. good news, xvii. mr. banta is surprised, xviii. grub-staking, xix. going to school, xx. waterspouts and blizzards, xxi. the camp at dutch flat, xxii. the haunted mine, xxiii. haunted no longer, xxiv. "that is gold," xxv. claus, again, xxvi. claus hears something, xxvii. bob tries strategy, xxviii. an inhuman act, xxix. a tramp with the robbers, xxx. home again, xxxi. conclusion, the haunted mine. chapter i. the sale of "old horse." "going for twenty-five cents. going once; going twice; going----" "thirty cents." "thirty cents! gentlemen, i am really astonished at you. it is a disgrace for me to take notice of that bid. why, just look at that box. a miser may have hidden the secret of a gold-mine in it. here it is, neatly dovetailed, and put together with screws instead of nails; and who knows but that it contains the treasure of a lifetime hidden away under that lid? and i am bid only thirty cents for it. do i hear any more? won't somebody give me some more? going for thirty cents once; going twice; going three times, and sold to that lucky fellow who stands there with a uniform on. i don't know what his name is. step up there and take your purchase, my lad, and when you open that box, and see what is in it, just bless your lucky stars that you came to this office this afternoon to buy yourself rich." it happened in the adams express office, and among those who always dropped around to see how things were going was the young fellow who had purchased the box. it was on the afternoon devoted to the sale of "old horse"--packages which had lain there for a long time and nobody had ever called for them. when the packages accumulated so rapidly that the company had about as many on hand as their storeroom could hold, an auctioneer was ordered to sell them off for whatever he could get. of course nobody could tell what was in the packages, and somebody always bought them by guess. sometimes he got more than his money's worth, and sometimes he did not. that very afternoon a man bought a package so large and heavy that he could scarcely lift it from the counter, and so certain was he that he had got something worth looking at that he did not take the package home with him, but borrowed a hammer from one of the clerks and opened it on the spot, the customers all gathering around him to see what he had. to the surprise of everybody, he turned out half a dozen bricks. a partner of the man to whom the box was addressed had been off somewhere to buy a brickyard, and, not satisfied with the productions of the yard, had enclosed the bricks to the man in st. louis, to see how he liked them. the purchaser gazed in surprise at what he had brought, and then threw down the hammer and turned away; but by the time he got to the door the loud laughter of everybody in the office--and the office was always full at the sale of "old horse"--caused him to arrest his steps. by that time he himself was laughing. "i'll tell you what it is, gentlemen," said he; "those bricks, which are not worth a nickel apiece, cost me just two dollars." he was going on to say something more, but the roar that arose caused him to wait until it was all over. then he went on: "i have spent fifty dollars for 'old horse,' and if anybody ever knows me to spend another dollar in that way i will give him my head for a football. a man who comes here to squander his money for anything like that is a dunce, and ought to have a guardian appointed over him. i wish you all a very good day." but in spite of this man's experience, julian gray had invested in this box because he thought there was something in it. he did not care for what the auctioneer said to him, for he talked that way to everybody; but julian knew there were no bricks in it, for it was done up too neatly. the box was not more than twelve inches long and half as wide, and by shaking it up and down the boy became aware that there were papers of some kind in it. he paid the clerk the amount of his bid upon it, picked up his purchase, and started for the door, paying no heed to the remarks that were offered for his benefit. there he met another boy, dressed in a uniform similar to the one he himself wore, and stopped to exchange a few words with him. "well, you got something at last," said the boy. "it is not bricks, i can swear to that." "no, sir, it is not," said julian. "lift it. it contains papers of some kind." "why don't you open it, and let us see what is in it?" "i won't do that, either. i am not going to have the whole party laughing at me the way they served that man a little while ago. come up to my room when jack comes home, and then i will open it." "i would not be in your boots for a good deal when jack sees that box," said the boy, hurrying away. "he says you have no business to spend the small earnings you get on such gimcracks as 'old horse.'" "i don't care," said julian, settling the box under his arm and going away in the opposite direction. "i've got the box, and if jack does not want to see what is in it, he need not look." julian broke into a run,--he knew he had no business to spend as much time in that express office as he had done,--and in a few minutes reached the headquarters of the western union telegraph company, in whose employ he was. he laid down his book of receipts for the dispatches he had delivered, then picked up his box again and stowed it away under the counter, where he was sure it would be out of everybody's way. "i don't care," julian repeated to himself, when he recalled what his older companion, jack shelden, would have to say to him when he found that he had been investing in "old horse." "i don't know that i expect to make anything out of it, but somehow or other i can't resist my curiosity to know what is in those bundles. when you can get the packages for little or nothing, where's the harm? but that is no way to save my money. i will never go near that express office again." with this good resolution, julian took his seat among the other boys and waited in silence for the operator to call upon him to deliver a dispatch. it came at last, and during the rest of the afternoon julian was kept busy. when six o'clock came he put his box under his arm and started for home. his duties were done for that day. the place that julian called home was a long way from the office, for, being a poor boy, he was obliged to room where he could get it as cheaply as possible. he passed along several streets, turned numerous corners, and finally sprang up the stairs in a sorry-looking house which seemed almost ready to tumble down, and when he reached the top he found the door of his room open. there he met his chum, who had already returned from his work, going about his preparations for supper, and whistling as though he felt at peace with himself and all the world. "halloo!" he exclaimed, as julian came in. "what's the news to-day? well, there. if you haven't been to that old express office again!" these two boys were orphans--or at least jack was. julian had a stepfather who, when his mother died, told the boy that he could not support him any longer, and that he must look out for himself. he no doubt expected that the boy would find himself in the poorhouse before he had been long out of his care; but julian was not that sort of a fellow. he wandered aimlessly about the streets, looking for something to do, sleeping in dry-goods boxes or on a plank in some lumber-yard; and one morning, while passing along the street, wondering where he was going to get something to eat, he saw a scene that thrilled him with excitement. a span of horses was running away, and a telegraph operator--julian knew that he was an operator from the uniform he wore--in making an attempt to stop them, lost his footing and fell on the ground right in front of the frantic team. julian was nearer to him than anybody else, and acting upon the impulse of the moment, but scarcely knowing why he did so, he dashed forward, seized the young man by the shoulders, and pulled him out of the way. it was all done in an instant, and julian shuddered when he thought of what he had done. "thank you, my lad," said the man, when he got up, brushed the dust from his clothes, and looked after the flying horses. "you saved my life, but you couldn't save the man in the buggy. now, what can i give you?" "i don't want anything, sir," said julian. the man was neatly dressed, and looked as though he had some money, and julian had more than half a mind to ask him for enough with which to get some breakfast. but he concluded that he would not do it; he would look farther, and he was sure that he could get something to do, such as sweeping out a store, and earn some breakfast in that way. "you don't want anything?" exclaimed the man. "well, you are the luckiest fellow i ever saw!" the man now turned and gave julian a good looking over. it was not necessary that he should ask any questions, for poverty was written all over him. "where's your home?" he asked. "i haven't any, sir." "have you had any breakfast?" "no, sir." "well, here's enough to enable you to get a good fill-out," said the man, pulling out a dollar. "get the very best breakfast you can, and then come down to the western union telegraph office and ask for wiggins. i will see what i can do for you." the man hurried away, and julian looked at the dollar he held in his hand, then gazed in the direction in which his benefactor had gone, and could hardly believe that he was awake. a dollar was a larger sum of money than he had ever had before. of course julian followed the operator's instructions. when he reached the western union telegraph office he was asked several questions about his habits, and what he knew about the city, and it finally ended by his being offered employment. julian jumped at the chance. he had no money with which to purchase a uniform, but wiggins got around that, and he had been there ever since, trying hard to do his duty, except in one particular, and his highest ambition was to become an operator. long before this time he made the acquaintance of jack sheldon, who finally came to room with him, and they had been fast friends ever since. jack had formerly gained a good living by shining boots and shoes around the st. louis foundry-works, until one day the master mechanic, who had taken a wonderful shine to him, offered to take him away from his blacking-brush and give him a position where he could make a man of himself. jack was waiting for this, and he promptly closed with it. of course his wages were small now, but he wanted to get away from the bootblacks and mingle with persons more like himself, and when julian made him a proposition to take him in as a roommate, jack was only too glad to agree to it. he was but a year older than julian, but he often took it upon himself to advise him; and one thing he could not stand was julian's longing to find out what was concealed in those packages that every once in a little while were sold in the express office. being economical himself, and never spending a cent unless absolutely necessary, he wanted to make his companion so, too. "that is no way for you to save money, julian," said jack. "to go to that express office when you ought to be at your work, and spending money for 'old horse' when you don't know what is in the bundle you bid on, is the very way for you to wear a poor man's clothes the longest day you live. i want to go into business myself some time, and i should think you would, too." this was the way he talked to julian every time he brought home a bundle of "old horse," and he was ready to talk to him now in the same way. chapter ii. casper is disgusted. "well, you have been to that old express office again and invested some of your hard earnings in 'old horse,' haven't you?" repeated jack, placing his hands on his hips and looking sullenly at the box, which julian placed upon the table. "is that any way for you to save your money?" "no, it is not; but, jack, i've got something in this," said julian. "see how nicely this box is done up----" "i don't care to know anything about it," said jack, turning away and going on with his preparations of getting supper. "that is the only thing i have against you. what do you care what is in those bundles? if they were worth anything don't you suppose that the people to whom they were addressed would have come after them? how much money have you got in bank, anyway?" "about forty dollars, i guess, including tips and everything." "well, i've got a hundred," said jack. "you will never be able to go into business by doing this way." "lend me your knife and talk about it afterward. i want to get these screws out." "take your own knife. i don't want to have mine broken." "well, i want you to remember one thing, jack. if i get anything out of this box, it is mine entirely. you will have no interest in it." "all right--i will agree to that." seeing that he must depend entirely upon himself to get his box open, julian took his knife from his pocket and went to work upon the screws; but they had been put there to stay, and he finally gave it up in disgust. then jack relented and came to his assistance. the strong blade of his knife presently worked the screws loose, and the inside of the box was revealed to them. there was nothing but a mass of papers, which looked so ancient that jack declared they had been through two or three wars. he took one look at them, and then went on with his work of getting supper. "what's the use of fooling away your time with that stuff?" said he. "that's all your 'old horse' amounts to. if you are going to spend money in that way, i wish you would get something that is of some use." julian did not reply. he took his box to an out-of-the-way corner where he would not be in jack's way, and devoted himself to the reading of the first paper he took up. "who's haberstro?" said he. "don't know him," said jack. "here's a letter addressed to him." "what is in it?" "oh, you want to know something about it, now, don't you?" "of course i do. if we can find out who haberstro is, we must take the letter to him." julian began and read the letter, which was written in a very plain hand, and before he had read a page of it he stopped and looked at jack, while an expression of astonishment came to his face. "go on with it," said jack; "we might as well know it all." julian "went on with it," and when he got through he had read a very good description of a gold-mine located somewhere out west, and inside the letter was a map which would lead anyone straight to it. there was one thing in it that did not look exactly right, and here is the passage that referred to it: "they have got the story around that the mine is haunted, but don't you believe it. i worked for almost six months in that mine alone after my partner took sick and died, going down into it and shovelling the dirt in, coming up and hoisting the bucket out, and went through the process of washing, and i never found anything to scare me yet. i took out, with every bucketful i washed, anywhere from ten to fifty dollars; anyway, i got fifty thousand dollars out of it. there is one thing about it: the mine is fully five miles from anybody's place, and in all that region you won't find a man who will prospect anywhere near you. it shows that all the country about dutch flat is not played out yet." a little farther on the letter spoke of the manner in which the miner came to turn his claim over to haberstro: "you know that very shortly after we got there my partner died, and was buried near the mine. perhaps that has something to do with the story of the mine's being haunted. i went to work and dug in the claim alone, not knowing anything about mining, until i made the sum that i told you of. finally i received a letter from some lawyer in europe, who told me that my father had died and left me heir to all his wealth. he urged me to come home and settle my claim at once, and who should my mind revert to but to you, old fellow, who stood by me when i was sick unto death. i know that we did not have the stamps to buy a mule-halter, but that did not make any sort of difference to you. you stayed at my back until i got well; and as i can't pay you in any other way i give you this mine, hoping it will make you as rich as it did me. more than that, for fear that the mine may play out on you, which i don't believe, i give you the deeds of several little pieces of property located in denver and vicinity, which you will find will be more than enough to run you, even if you don't choose to go mining. for me, nothing would suit me. you know how you used to rail at me because i wanted to go from one thing to another. after i had accumulated that property in denver, i had to go and look for claims, and that is the way i come to have this mine. "i send all these things to you by express, for i am in new york, now, and all ready to sail. by the time you get them i shall be on the deep sea. i forgot to say that the property which i have given to you for your kindness to me is worth, in round numbers, one hundred thousand dollars. take it, and live happily with it. i don't know that i shall ever see you again; but if i do not, remember that my blessing always goes with you." "well, sir, what do you think of that?" said julian, as he folded up the letter. jack sheldon did not know what to say. he sat with a case-knife in his hand and with one leg thrown over the table, his mouth open, and listening with all his ears to the contents of the letter. "i tell you that auctioneer uttered a prophecy when he said that some miser had hidden the secret of a gold-mine inside the lid of that box," said julian. "he told me that when i got home and opened this thing i would bless my lucky stars that i had come to that office to buy myself rich." "but there is one thing that you don't think of, julian," replied jack. "what's that?" "that we must make every effort to find this man haberstro." "yes," said julian, with a sigh, "i did think of that. but it seems hard to have so much money in our grasp, and then to have it all slip away." "of course it does. but that is the honest way of going at it." "here's the deeds for a block of buildings that cost this man twenty-five thousand dollars," said julian, continuing to examine the papers in the box. "oh, put the box away," said jack. "and he gives it all to this man haberstro. we must find him, julian, the first thing we do. who's that coming upstairs, i wonder?" the boys turned toward the door, which opened almost immediately, admitting casper nevins, the boy who had met julian at the express office. there was something about the boy that jack did not like. he could not have told what it was, but there are those we meet in every-day life who have certain traits of character that excite our suspicions. jack had often warned julian to keep away from him, and the latter did not cultivate his acquaintance any more that he could help; but, being employed in the same office that casper was, of course he was thrown into his company oftener than he desired. "good-evening, boys," said casper. "i was on my way home, and i thought i would drop in and see what julian bought to-day at the express office. you promised to show me if i would come up," he added, turning to julian. "i did, and there it is," said julian, passing over the letter. "sit down in this chair. we are so poor just now that we have only one chair apiece, but when we get out to our gold-mine we shall have two chairs." "ah! you have a gold-mine, have you?" said casper, with a smile. "when do you start?" "read the letter, and you will think we ought to start right away," said julian, while jack got up and proceeded with his supper. "we think of starting to-morrow morning." "i would like to have my hand on your coat-tail about the time you get out there," said casper. "now, the question is, does the mine pay anything?" "read the letter, and you will understand as much as we do." casper began the letter, and he had not gone far with it before he broke out with "jerusalem!" and "this beats me!" and "fifty thousand dollars!" when he had got done with the letter, he folded it up and passed it back to julian without saying a word. "and that is not all of it," said the latter. "do you see the rest of the papers there in that box? well, they are deeds of property which amount to one hundred thousand dollars." "whew!" whistled casper. "by gracious! you're lucky--are you not? when do you start?" "laying all jokes aside, we don't intend to start at all," said jack. "you don't?" exclaimed casper. "have you got something better on hand?" "no, i don't know that we have; but our first hard work must be to find this man haberstro. it would not be right for us to keep what is in that box without turning the city upside down in order to locate him." "why, the box was sold to you, was it not?" said casper, turning to julian. "of course it was. didn't i pay thirty cents of my hard earnings for it?" "did you agree to hunt up this man haberstro?" "no, because the clerks did not know where he was." "then i say the box and everything in it belongs to you. undoubtedly the man does not live here any more. he has gone somewhere else. i would not make a precious fool of myself, if i were you. take the money and say nothing to nobody." "and go out there and take possession of that property while there is another man waiting for it?" asked jack, with some heat. "yes, sir; that's what i would do." "then, sir, you are not honest. i am glad you don't train in my crowd." "i don't call it dishonest in holding fast to what you have. a hundred thousand dollars! you would not need to go mining at all." "we are well aware of that; but we must find out where that man lives, if we can. after having exhausted every means to find out, then i would consider that the property belongs to us. julian, we will have to see a lawyer about that." "that's what i was thinking," said julian. "well, of all the plumb dunces that ever i saw, you are the beat!" said casper, getting up and putting on his hat. "i tell you that if that property was mine i would never let anyone know that i had it. i would throw up my position to-morrow, borrow money, go out there and take possession; and you are fools if you don't do it." and casper went out, slamming the door behind him. chapter iii. julian is astonished. "well, sir, what do you think of that?" asked julian, when he heard the noise the telegraph boy made in running down the stairs. "he really acts as though he were mad about it." "he is a dishonest fellow," said jack, once more coming up to the table and throwing his leg over it. "you don't believe everything he said, do you?" "not much, i don't," replied julian, emphatically. "i could not go out there and work the mine as he talks of doing. i should think it was haunted, sure enough." "well, put the papers away, and then let us have supper. while we are doing that, we will decide what we are going to do with the box." "i say, don't let us do anything with it. we will put it up there on the mantel, and when we are through supper one of us will write an advertisement calling upon mr. haberstro to come up and show himself. i guess the _republican_ is as good a paper as any, isn't it?" "but haberstro may be a democrat, instead of a republican," said jack. "well, then, put it in both papers. that will cost us two dollars--seventy-five cents for the first insertion and a quarter for the second." it did not take the boys a long time to get their supper. they had nothing but bacon, baker's bread, tea, and a few cream cakes which jack had purchased on his way home; but there was an abundance, they were hungry, and they did full justice to it. after supper came something that everybody hates--washing the dishes; but that was something the two friends never neglected. the dishes must be washed some time, and the sooner it was done the sooner it would be over with. then one picked up the broom and went to sweeping, while the other lighted the lamp and brought out the writing materials. "i have already made up my mind what i want to say," said julian, who, being a better scribe than his companion, handled the pen. "wait until i get the advertisement all written out, and then i will read it to you." the pen moved slowly, and by the time that jack had finished sweeping and seated himself in a chair ready to listen, julian read the following: "information wanted regarding the whereabouts of s. w. haberstro, formerly of st. louis. if he will communicate with the undersigned he will hear of something greatly to his advantage. any relative or friend of his who possesses the above information will confer a favor by writing to the name given below." "there; how will that do?" said julian. "by the way, whose name shall i sign to it--yours or mine?" "sign your own name, of course. your place of business is much handier than mine." "i tell you, jack, it requires something besides a knowledge of penmanship to write out an advertisement for a newspaper. i have worried over this matter ever since we were at supper, and then i didn't know how you would like it. now, the next thing is to put it where it will catch the public eye in the morning." the boys did not intend to let the grass grow under their feet. they put on their coats and turned down the lamp, but before they went out they took particular pains to put the box where they knew it would be safe. they opened the closet, pushed the box as far back as they could on the top shelf, and threw some clothing in front of it to hide it from anyone who might look in there. burglaries were common in the city, and the boys never left anything in their room that was worth stealing. the friends did not ride on the street cars, for they believed that five cents was worth as much to them as it was to the conductor, but walked all the distance that lay between them and the business part of the city. they reached the newspaper offices at last, paid for two insertions in each paper, and went away satisfied that they had done all in their power to find mr. haberstro. "now we have done as we would be done by," said julian, "and i believe a glass of soda water would help me sleep easier. come in here." "we don't want any soda water," exclaimed jack, seizing julian by the arm and pulling him away from the drug store. "we don't need it. when we get home we will take a glass of cold water, and that will do just as well as all the soda water in town." "i suppose i shall have to give in to you," said julian, continuing his walk with jack, "but i think we deserve a little credit for what we have done. here we are with a fortune of one hundred thousand dollars in our pockets, and yet we are anxious to give it up if mr. haberstro shows himself. i tell you, it is not everybody in the world who would do that." "i know it, but that is the honest way of doing business. i never could look our master mechanic in the face again if i should go off and enjoy that money without making an effort to find the owner." in due time the boys reached home and went to bed, but sleep did not visit their eyes before midnight. they were thinking of the fortune that was in their grasp. no one would have thought these boys very guilty if they had kept silent about the contents of that box and had gone off to reap the pleasure which good luck or something else had placed in julian's hands; but such a thought had never entered their heads until casper nevins had suggested it to them. by being at the sale of "old horse" julian had stumbled upon something that was intended for mr. haberstro, and he was just as much entitled to the contents of it as anybody. "but i would be dishonest for all that," said he, rolling over in his bed to find a more comfortable position. "i never could enjoy that money, for i should be thinking of mr. haberstro, who ought to have it. no matter whether he is alive or dead, he would come up beside me all the while, and reach out his hand to take the money i was getting ready to use for my own pleasure. no, sir. we will do the best we can to find mr. haberstro, and if he does not show up within any reasonable time, then jack says the money belongs to us. i can spend it, then, to get anything i want, with perfect confidence." when julian got to this point in his meditations he became silent, and thought over the many things he stood in need of, and which he thought he could not possibly get along without, until finally he fell asleep; but the next morning, when he arose and returned jack's hearty greeting, that fortune came into his mind immediately. "i tell you what it is, jack," said he. "if, after waiting a few days, we don't hear from mr. haberstro or any of his kin, suppose i go to mr. wiggins with it? he will know exactly what we ought to do." "all right," said jack. "that will be better than going to a lawyer, for he won't charge us anything for his advice." "and shall you keep still about this?" "certainly. don't lisp it to anybody. we don't want somebody to come along here and claim to be haberstro, when perhaps he don't know a thing about what is in the box." "of course he would not know a thing about it," said julian, in surprise. "haberstro himself don't know what there is in the box. he has got to prove by outside parties that he is the man that we want, or we can put him down as a fraud." "that's so," said jack, after thinking a moment. "we must be continually on the lookout for breakers." why was it that jack did not go further, and say that they must be continually on the lookout for the safety of the box when they were not there to watch over it? it was not safe from anybody who knew it was there, and it would have been but little trouble for them to have taken it with them and put it into the hands of mr. wiggins. if they had thought of this, no doubt they would have lost no time in acting upon it. long before the hands on jack's watch had reached the hour of half-past six the two friends were on their way toward their places of business, and when julian reached the office almost the first boy he saw was casper nevins, who had denounced them for trying to find out what became of mr. haberstro. "good-morning, julian," said he. "have you advertised for that man of yours yet?" "what do you want to know for?" said julian, remembering what jack had said about keeping the matter still. "oh, nothing; only i want to tell you that if you get yourselves fooled out of that fortune you can thank yourselves for it. what is there to prevent some sharper from coming around and telling you that he is haberstro? you didn't think of that, did you?" "yes, we thought of it," said julian, with a smile. "do you suppose we will take any man's word for that? he must prove that he is the man we want, or else we won't have anything to do with him." "pshaw! that is easy enough. i can find fifty men right here in this town who will prove that they are president of the united states for half of what that box is worth. say!" he added, sinking his voice almost to a whisper, "you haven't said a word to anybody about advertising for him, have you?" "no; and i have not said a word to you about it either," said julian. "that's all right, but you can't fool me so easy. i want to tell you right now that there are a good many here who know about it, and that they are bound to have that box. ah!" he added, noting the expression that came upon julian's face, "you didn't think of _that_, did you?" "who are they?" asked julian. "there were men in the express office yesterday who know all about it. you needn't think you are going to keep that express box hid, for you can't do it. where did you put it?" "it is safe. it is where nobody will ever think of looking for it." "then you are all right," said casper, who was plainly very much disappointed because he did not find out where the box was. "but you had better keep an eye out for those fellows in the express office, for, unless the looks of some of them belied them, they will steal that box from you as sure as you are a foot high." "if they thought so much of the box, why didn't they buy it in the first place?" "that is for them to tell. i don't know but they have somehow got an idea that there is something in it. you are going to get fooled out of it, and it will serve you just right for advertising for haberstro." that day was a long one to julian, for he could not help turning over in his mind what casper had said to him. when he reached home after his day's work was done he went straight to the closet, paying no sort of attention to jack, who looked at him in surprise, took a chair with him, and hunted up the box. it was where he put it, and he drew a long breath of relief. "now, then, i would like to have you explain yourself," said jack, after he had waited some little time for julian to say what he meant by his actions. "it is there," said julian, "but i have been shaking in my shoes all day. did it ever occur to you that some of those people who saw me buy the box at the express office would come up here to take it?" "no; and i don't believe they will do it." "well, casper said they would." "you tell casper nevins to keep his long, meddlesome nose out of this pie and attend strictly to his own affairs," said jack, in disgust. "it is ours, and he has nothing to do with it. if anybody comes into this room when we are not here, it will be casper himself." "he can't; he has not got a key." "i know that. if he had, we would have trouble with that box. what did he say to you?" julian then repeated the conversation he held with casper that morning, and jack nodded his head once or twice to say that he approved of it. "you did perfectly right by declining to answer his question about advertising for our man," said jack. "what did he want to know that for? if they wanted the box, why did they not buy it in the first place?" during the next few days the two friends were in a fever of suspense, for they did not want somebody to come and take their fortune away from them. every man who came into the telegraph office julian watched closely, for he had somehow got it into his head that haberstro must be a german; but every german who came in there had business of his own, and as soon as it was done he went out. no one came to see julian about the box, and, if the truth must be told, he began to breathe easier. of late he had got out of the habit of looking for the box as soon as he came home, and perhaps the sport that jack made of him for it was the only thing that made him give it up. "one would think you owned that fortune," said he. "i don't believe a miser ever watched his gold as closely as you watch that box." "i don't care," said julian. "the fortune is ours, or rather is going to be in a few days. now you mark my words, and see if i don't tell you the truth." "there's many a slip. we will never have such luck in the world." "well, i am going to look at it now. it seems to me that if haberstro is around here he ought to have put in an appearance before this time. we have waited a whole week without seeing anything of him." "a whole week!" exclaimed jack, with a laugh. "if you wait a month without seeing him you may be happy. if we keep the box for three months without the man appearing, then i shall think it belongs to us." julian did not believe that. he thought that the contents of the box would belong to them before that time. he made no reply, but took a chair to examine the closet. he moved the clothing aside, expecting every minute to put his hand upon the box, and then uttered an exclamation of astonishment and threw the articles off on the floor. "what's the matter?" asked jack, in alarm. "the box is gone!" replied julian. chapter iv. where the box was. this startling piece of information seemed to strike jack sheldon motionless and speechless with astonishment. his under jaw dropped down, and he even clutched the back of a chair, as if seeking something with which to support himself. the two boys stood at opposite sides of the room looking at each other, and then jack recovered himself. "gone!" he repeated. "you are mistaken; you have overlooked it. i saw it night before last myself." "i don't care," said julian, emphatically; "i have taken the clothes all out, and the box is gone. look and see for yourself." julian stepped down from the chair and jack took his place. he peered into every nook and corner of the dark shelf, passed his hands over it, and then, with something like a sigh, got down and began to hang the clothes up in their proper places. then he closed the door of the closet, took a chair, and gazed earnestly at the floor. "well, sir, what do you think of that?" said julian. "didn't i tell you that if anybody came in here to look for that box while we were not here it would be casper nevins, and nobody else?" said jack. "you surely don't suspect him!" exclaimed julian. "i _do_ suspect him; if you could get inside his room to-night you would find the box." "why, then he is a thief!" said julian, jumping up from his chair and walking the floor. "shall we go down to no. station and ask the police to send a man up there and search him?" "i don't know whether that would be the best way or not," said jack, reflectively. "has casper got many friends among the boys of your office?" "i don't believe he's got one friend there who treats him any better than i do. the boys are all shy of him." "and well they may be. that boy got a key somewhere that will fit our door, and came in here and took that box. you say he has not any friends on whom he can depend in the office?" "not one. if he has any friends, none of us know who they are." "then he must be alone in stealing the box from us. he has it there in his room, for he has no other place to hide it. do you know what sort of a key he has to fit his door?" "of course i do. i was with him when he got it. it is a combination key; one that he folds up when he puts it into his pocket." "do you believe you can buy another like it?" "by george! that's an idea. let us go down and find out. then to-morrow, if i can get away, i will come up here and go through his room." that was jack's notion entirely. he wanted to see "the biter bit"--to know that he would feel, when he awoke some fine morning and found his fortune gone, just how they were feeling now. they put on their coats and locked the door,--it seemed a mockery to them now to lock the door when their fortune was gone,--and, after walking briskly for a few minutes, turned into the store where casper had purchased his key. when julian told the clerk that he wanted to see some combination keys, he threw out upon the counter a box which was filled to overflowing. "do you remember a telegraph boy who was in here several months ago and bought a combination lock to fit his door?" asked julian. "i was in here at the time, and i know he bought the lock of you." "seems to me that i _do_ remember something about that," said the clerk, turning around to the shelves behind him and taking down another box, "and we have got just one lock of that sort left." "are you sure this key will open his door?" asked julian. "i am sure of it. if it don't open his door, you can bring it back and exchange it for another." julian told him that he would take the lock, and while the clerk was gone to another part of the store to do it up he whispered to jack, "i have just thought of something. he has not any closet in his room that i know of, and who knows but that he may have put that box in his trunk? i had better get some keys to his trunk while i am about it." "do you remember how the key looked?" asked jack. "i guess i can come pretty close to it," answered julian. the work of selecting a key to the trunk was not so easy; but julian managed to satisfy himself at last, and the boys left the store. julian did not say anything, but he was certain that the box would be in his own possession before that time to-morrow. that would be better than calling the police to search his room. in the latter case, casper would be held for trial, and julian did not want to disgrace him before all the boys in the office. "i will give mr. wiggins the box as soon as i get my hands on it, but i shan't say anything to him about casper's stealing it," said he. "would you?" "you are mighty right i _would_," exclaimed jack, who looked at his friend in utter surprise. "he stole it, didn't he? he was going to cheat haberstro out of it if he showed up, and, failing that, he would leave us here to work all our lives while he lived on the fat of the land. no, sir; if you get the box you must tell mr wiggins about it." for the first time in a long while the boys did not sleep much that night. jack was thinking about casper's atrocity,--for he considered that was about the term to apply to him for stealing their box,--and julian was wondering if he was going to get into casper's room and recover the fortune which he was attempting to deprive them of. "i tell you, that boy is coming to some bad end," said jack. "i would not be in his boots for all the money he will ever be worth." "i don't care what end he comes to," said julian, "but i was just thinking what would happen to us if this key did not open his door. we would then have to get the police, sure enough." morning came at length, and at the usual hour julian was on hand in the telegraph office, waiting to see what his duties were going to be. as usual, he found casper nevins there. he looked closely at julian when he came in, but could not see anything in the expression of his face that led him to believe there was anything wrong. "good-morning, julian," said he. "good-morning," said julian. "how do you feel this morning?" "right as a trivet. i feel much better than you will when you find that that box is gone," added casper to himself. "he hasn't found it out yet, and i hope he will not until i get my pay. i have waited and watched for this a long time, and, thank heaven! i have found it at last. i wish i knew somebody who would take that box and hide it for me; but i can't think of a living soul." all the fore part of that day julian was kept busy running to the lower part of the city with messages, and not a chance did he get to go up past casper's room. two or three times he was on the point of asking mr. wiggins to excuse him for a few minutes, but he always shrunk from it for fear of the questions that gentleman would ask him. "where did he want to go?" "what did he want to go after?" "what was he going to do when he got there?" and julian was quite certain that he could not answer these questions without telling a lie. while he was thinking it over he heard his name called, and found that he must go right by casper's room in order to take the message where it was to go. he seemed to be treading on air when he walked up to take the telegraphic dispatch. "do you know where that man lives?" asked the operator. "i know pretty nearly where he lives," answered julian. "well, take it there, and be back as soon as you can, for i shall want to send you somewhere else. what's the matter with you, julian? you seem to be gay about something." "i don't know that i feel any different from what i always do," replied julian. "i will go there as soon as i can." when julian got into the street, his first care was to find his keys. they were all there; and, to gain the time that he would occupy in looking about the room, julian broke into a trot, knowing that the police would not trouble him while he had that uniform on. at the end of an hour he began to draw close to casper's room, and there he slackened his pace to a walk. "ten minutes more and the matter will be decided," said julian, his heart beating with a sound that frightened him. "that boy has the box, and i am going to have it." a few steps more brought him to the stairs that led up to casper's room. it was over a grocery store, and the steps ran up beside it. he turned in there without anybody seeing him, and stopped in front of the door. the combination key was produced, and to julian's immense delight the door came open the very first try. "i guess i won't lock it," muttered julian. "i might lock myself in. he does not keep his room as neat as we do ours." julian took one glance about the apartment, taking in the tumbled bedclothes, and the dishes from which casper had eaten his breakfast still unwashed on the table, and then turned his attention to what had brought him there. there was no closet in the room, and the box was not under the bed; it must therefore be in his trunk. one after another of the keys was tried without avail, and julian was about to give it up in despair, when the last key--the one on jack's bunch--opened the trunk, which he found in the greatest confusion. he lifted off the tray, and there was the box, sure enough. julian took it, and hugged it as though it was a friend from whom he had long been separated. "now the next question is, are the papers all here?" thought he. "there were seven of them besides the letter, and who knows but that he has taken a block of buildings away from us." but the papers were all there. however much casper might have been tempted to realize on some of the numerous "blocks of buildings" which the box called for, he dared not attempt the sale of any of them. it was as much as he could do to steal the papers. julian placed the tray back and carefully locked the trunk, and then looking around, found a paper with which to do up his box. then he locked the door, came down, and went on to deliver his message. "that boy called us foolish because we advertised for mr. haberstro," said julian, as he carefully adjusted the box under his arm. "i would like to know if we were bigger fools than he was. we could have found the police last night as easy as not, and it would have been no trouble for them to find the box. he ought not to have left it there in his trunk. he didn't think that we could play the same game on him that he played upon us." julian conveyed his message and returned to his office in less time than he usually did, and, after reporting, told mr. wiggins in a whisper that he would like to see him in the back room. "i know what you want," said mr. wiggins, as he went in. "you have been up to the express office, buying some more of that 'old horse.' some day i am going to give you fits for that. it is the only thing i have stored up against you." "can you tell when i did it?" asked julian, slowly unfolding the box which he carried under his arm. "haven't i carried my telegraphic dispatches in as little time as anybody? now, i have something here that is worth having. read that letter, and see if it isn't." mr. wiggins seated himself on the table and slowly read the letter which julian placed in his hands, and it was not long before he became deeply interested in it. when he had got through he looked at the boy with astonishment. "i declare, julian, you're lucky," said he. "now, the next thing for you to do is to advertise for haberstro." "we have already advertised for him. we have put four insertions in the papers." "and he doesn't come forward to claim his money? put two other advertisements in, and if he don't show up the money is yours." "that is what i wanted to get at," said julian, with a sigh of relief. "now, mr. wiggins, i wish you would take this and lock it up somewhere. i don't think it safe in our house." "certainly i'll do it. by george! who would think you were worth a hundred thousand dollars!" "it isn't ours yet," said julian, with a smile. "about the time we get ready to use it, here will come mr. haberstro, and we will have to give it up to him." "well, you are honest, at any rate, or you would not have advertised for him. this beats me, i declare. i won't scold you this time, but don't let it happen again." "i'll never go into that express office again while i live," said julian, earnestly. "i have had my luck once, and i don't believe it will come again." when julian went out into the office he saw casper there, and he was as white as a sheet. julian could not resist the temptation to pat an imaginary box under his arm and wink at casper. "what do you mean by that pantomime?" said he. "it means that you can't get the start of two fellows who have their eyes open," said julian. "i've got the box." "you have?" gasped casper. "you've been into my room when i was not there? i'll have the police after you before i am five minutes older!" casper jumped to his feet and began to look around for his hat. chapter v. casper thinks of something. julian stood with his hands in his pockets looking at casper, and something that was very like a smile came into his face. "i know what you went in there with mr. wiggins for," said casper; and having found his cap by that time, he jammed it spitefully on his head, "and i just waited until you came out so that i could ask you. i don't need to ask you. i tell you once for all----" "well, why don't you go on?" asked julian. "you will tell me once for all--what?" casper had by this time turned and looked sternly at julian, but there was something about him which told him that he had gone far enough. "go and get the police," said julian. "right here is where i do business. look here, casper: you came into our room and stole that box out of our closet." "i never!" said casper, evidently very much surprised. "so help me----" "don't swear, because you will only make a bad matter worse. i found the box in your trunk, just where you had left it. the way i have the matter arranged now, there's nobody knows that you took it; but you go to work and raise the police, and i will tell all i know. if you keep still, i won't say one word." casper backed toward the nearest chair and sat down. this conversation had been carried on in whispers, and there was nobody, among the dozen persons who were standing around, that had the least idea what they were talking about. if casper supposed that he was going to scare julian into giving up the box, he failed utterly. "i won't give up that fortune," said he, to himself, when julian turned away to go to his seat. "a hundred thousand dollars! i'll have it, or i'll never sleep easy again." during the rest of the day julian was as happy as he wanted to be. the box was now safe in the hands of mr. wiggins, and he would like to see anybody get hold of it. furthermore, mr. wiggins had told him to put two more advertisements in the papers, and, if mr. haberstro did not show himself in answer to them, the money was his own. "i do hope he won't come," said julian. "i don't believe in giving up that fortune." the boy was glad when the day was done, and the moment he was safe on the street he struck a trot which he never slackened until he ran up the stairs to his room. jack was there, as he expected him to be, and he was going about his work of getting supper. he looked up as julian came in, and he saw at a glance that he had been successful. "i've got it!" shouted julian; and, catching jack by the arm, he whirled him around two or three times. "it was in the trunk, just as i told you it was. mr. wiggins has it now, and he will take care of it, too." "that's the best news i have heard in a long time," said jack, throwing his leg over the table. "did you tell mr. wiggins about the way casper acted?" "no, i did not. somehow, i couldn't bear to see the boy discharged. i simply told mr. wiggins that it wasn't safe in our room." "well, i don't know but that was the best way, after all," said jack, looking reflectively at the floor. "but i tell you, if i had been in your place i would have let it all out. now tell me the whole thing." julian pulled off his coat, and, while he assisted jack in getting supper, told him all that passed between mr. wiggins and himself, not forgetting how the latter had promised to scold him at some future time for going to the express office and investing in "old horse." "i hope he will tell you some words that will set," said jack. "all i can say to you has no effect upon you." "i will never go near that express office again--never!" said julian, earnestly. "i hope you will always bear that in mind." "i've had my luck, and if i live until my head is as white as our president's i never shall have such good fortune again. i will get bricks the next time i buy." "you had better sit down and write out that advertisement for two more insertions, and after supper we'll take it down and put it in. if haberstro does not appear in answer to them the money is ours. that's a little better fortune than i dared to hope for." anybody could see that jack was greatly excited over this news, but he tried not to show it. if he had gone wild over it, he would have got julian so stimulated that he would not have known which end he stood on. he had to control himself and julian, too. he ate his supper apparently as cool as he ever was, and after the room had been swept up and the dishes washed he put on his coat and was ready to accompany his friend to the newspaper offices. "remember now, julian, we don't want any soda water to-night," said jack. "if you want anything to drink, get it before you start." julian promised that he would bear it in mind, and during the three hours that they were gone never asked for soda water or anything else. "just wait until i get that fortune in my hands, and then i will have all the soda water i want," said julian to himself. "but, after all, jack's way is the best. i don't know what i should do without him." in due time the boys were at home and in bed; and leaving them there to enjoy a good night's rest, we will go back to casper nevins and see what he thought and what he did when he found that he had lost the box he had risked so much to gain. he was about as mad as a boy could hold when he ran down the stairs after his interview with them in their room, and he straightway began to rack his brain to see if he could not get that box for himself. "of all the dunces i ever saw, those two fellows are the beat!" said he, as he took his way toward his room. "they have got the fortune in their own hands; no one will say a word if they use it as though it was their own; and yet they are going to advertise for the man to whom it was addressed. did anybody ever hear of a fool notion like that? i was in hopes that i could get them to go partners with me, but under the circumstances i did not like to propose it. why didn't i happen into that express office and bid on that box? gee! what a fortune that would be!" casper was almost beside himself with the thought, and he reached his room and cooked and ate his supper, still revolving some plan for obtaining possession of that box. he had suddenly taken it into his head that he ought to go into partnership with the two boys in order to assist them in spending their money, although there was not the first thing that he could think of that induced the belief. julian had always been friendly with him,--much more so than any of the other boys in the office,--although he confessed that he had not always been friendly with julian. "of course i have little spats with him, but julian isn't a fellow to remember that," said casper to himself. "i've had spats with every boy, and some of them i don't want anything more to do with. but julian ought to take me into partnership with him, and i believe i'll ask him. but first, can't i get that box for my own? that is an idea worth thinking of." it was an idea that had suddenly come into casper's head, and he did not think any more about the partnership business just then. of course their advertising for haberstro knocked all that in the head; but then if he had the box he could do as he pleased with it. the next day, at the office, he did say something about partnership, but julian laughed at him. he said that he and jack could easily spend all that money, and more too, if they had it. it was made in a joking way, and julian had not thought to speak to jack about it. "it is no use trying you on," said casper to himself, getting mad in a minute. "you can spend all that money yourselves, can you? i'll bet you don't. there must be some keys in the city that will fit your door, and i am going to have one." from that time forward casper had but just one object in view, and that was to get the box. he spent three days in trying the different keys which he had purchased to fit the lock, and one time he came near getting himself into difficulty. he was out a great deal longer than he ought to have been with a message, and when he got to the office mr. wiggins took him to task for it. "how is this, casper?" said he. "you have been gone three-quarters of an hour longer than you ought to have been." "i went just as soon as i could," replied casper, who was not above telling a lie. "the man wasn't at his place of business, and so i went to his home." "then you are excusable. it seems strange that he should be at home at this hour." casper did not say anything, but he was satisfied that he was well out of that scrape. he had not been to the man's home at all. he was trying the lock on julian's door. although he made two attempts without getting in, he succeeded on the third. the door came open for him, and after searching around the room in vain for the box, he looked into the closet. "aha! i've got you at last!" said he, as he drew the clothing aside and laid hold of the object of his search. "now i wish i had my money that is due me from the telegraph office. to-morrow would see me on my way toward denver." hurriedly locking the door, casper made the best of his way down the stairs and to his room, and put the box into his trunk. then he broke into another run and went to the office, where he arrived in time to avoid a second reprimand. "oh, you feel mighty well now," said casper, watching julian, who was talking and laughing with some of the boys, "but i bet you you will feel different in a little while. now who am i going to get to hide that box for me? none of the boys in here will do it, so i must go elsewhere." during the rest of the week casper was as deeply interested in watching the persons who came there as julian was. he did not advertise for haberstro, because he did not want to give up the box. he was more than half inclined to go to mr. wiggins and tell him he was going to leave when his month was out, but some way or other he did not. something compelled him to wait, and in three days more he found out what it was. he was in the office waiting for a message to deliver, when julian came in with a bundle wrapped up in a newspaper under his arm. casper was thunderstruck, for something told him that julian had played the same game that he had. he had been to his room and got the box. his face grew as pale as death when he saw mr. wiggins follow julian into the back room, and his first thought was to leave the office before he came out. "it is all up with me now," said he, rising to his feet and looking around for his cap, which, boy fashion, he had tossed somewhere, on entering the room. "he will tell mr. wiggins that i stole the box, and i will be discharged the first thing. i'll deny it," he added, growing desperate. "i haven't seen his box. he did not find it in my room, but got it somewhere else. i will make a fight on it as long as i can." so saying, casper sat down to await julian's return; but the boy came out alone, and the antics he went through drove casper frantic. "i've got the box," said julian, when casper asked him what he meant by that pantomime. the guilty boy was given plenty of opportunity to "deny it all," but he gave it up in despair when he found that julian was not to be frightened into giving up the box. the latter was perfectly willing that the police should come there, but if they did, he would tell all casper had done. he might get julian in a scrape, but he would get into a worse one himself. he was glad when julian moved off to his chair and left him alone. "i guess it is the best way as it is," said casper, getting upon his feet and looking out into the street. "if he sets the police onto me--good gracious, what should i do? so that plan has failed, and now the next thing is something else. i'll have that box, or die trying to get it." all that day, while he was in the office or carrying his telegraphic dispatches around the street, casper thought of but one thing, and that was, how was he going to get that box again? he did not have much to say to anybody, and when six o'clock came he lost no time in getting home. he had evidently determined upon something, for he ate a very scanty supper, changed his clothes, and hurried out again. his changing his uniform for a citizen's suit was something that would have brought him his instant discharge if his company officers had found him in that fix. he could mingle with loafers about the pool-rooms, and no one could have told that he was any different from anybody else. he could drink his beer, too, and no one would suspect that he was going back on the pledge he made to the company. but, then, casper was used to such things, and he thought nothing of it. more than that, he had an object to gain, and he had already picked out the person whom he hoped to induce to enter into a scheme to possess that box. "claus is the fellow i am going to try," said he, as he hurried along toward a pool-room which he often frequented. "he is a german, he is well along in years, and i know he isn't above making a dime or two whenever he gets the chance. now for it. it is make or break." chapter vi. a mr. haberstro appears. as casper nevins uttered these words he turned into an entry, ran up a flight of stairs, and opened the door of the pool-room. the apartment was always crowded at night, and the players were mostly young men who ought by rights to have been somewhere else. one end of the room was occupied with pool-tables, and the other was taken up by billiards, which were in full blast. casper gave out among the players that he was a broker's clerk, and the story seemed to satisfy the young men, who asked no further questions. there was no chance for him in a pool game, and consequently he did not look for it. he looked all around, and finally discovered his man claus, who was sitting near one of the tables, watching the game. this man was one of the loafers about the pool-rooms. he always dressed very neatly, but he was never known to have any money. he was a german, and that fitted the name of the man to whom the box was addressed. "i am living on the interest of my debts," said he, when some one asked what his occupation was. "i never have any money. i don't need it. i can get along without it. you fellows have to work every day, while i do nothing but sit around the pool-room and wait for some one to challenge me for a game." "but you must make some money sometime, or else you couldn't play pool as often as you do." "oh, as to that, i make a dollar or two when i find the right man who can play a little, and sometimes i make more. if i could get a chance to make a hundred thousand dollars i would take it in a minute. after that, i would not be obliged to work." these remarks were made in the presence of casper nevins, who remembered them. after he had stolen the box, and before julian had got it back again, he thought it best to try him on a new tack. "supposing you didn't get a hundred thousand dollars the first time trying," said he. "would not fifty thousand do you?" "well, i think i could live on that much. fifty thousand would tempt me awfully. i wish i had a chance to try it." "there is claus, and i am going to speak to him the first thing i do," said casper. "if there is anybody who can play the part of the missing haberstro, he is the man." "ah! good-evening, casper," he exclaimed, as the boy approached him. "how is the brokerage business to-day? have you made any money?" "i don't make any. the boss does all that." "well, why don't you pick up some money and go in yourself? you will never be a man in the world as long as you stay in the background. do you want to see me? here i am, and all ready for business. is there any money in this thing you have to propose?" claus, following casper's lead, occupied an arm-chair in a remote corner of the room, away from everybody, and casper sat down alongside of him. it was not any work for him to begin the conversation, for claus "had given himself away" every time the subject of money was introduced. "were you in earnest the other day when you said that if you had a chance to steal a hundred thousand dollars you would try it on?" said casper. "i want you to deal fairly with me now. i want to know just how you feel about it." "my dear boy, i was never more in earnest in my life," said claus emphatically. "just give me a chance, and you will see whether or not i meant what i said." "well, i have got a chance for you to make something," said casper. "you have? let her rip. i am all attention. but hold on a bit. let us get a cigar. have you any money?" "i have ten cents." "that is enough. anything to keep our jaws puffing. i can listen a great deal better with a cigar than i can without it." the two arose from their seats and made a trip to the bar. they lighted their cigars, and casper paid ten cents for them. it made no difference to claus that casper had paid out some of his hard earnings and wondered where his next morning's breakfast was coming from. as long as he got the cigar, it mattered little to him whether casper had any more money or not. "now i am all ready to listen," said claus, seating himself in his arm-chair once more. "be explicit; go into all the minutiæ, so that i may know what i have to do." there was no need that claus should tell casper this, and for the next fifteen minutes claus never said a word, but listened intently. he told about julian's habit of going to the express office on the day that "old horse" was offered for sale, until finally he bought the secret of a gold-mine which was hidden away in a box that came near being sold for twenty-five cents. the box was addressed to s. w. haberstro, and the boys had put four advertisements in the papers asking that man to show himself; and, if he did not show up in reasonable time, the money was to be theirs. "here is a copy of the _democrat_, with a copy of the advertisement in it," said casper. "i knew you would want to know everything, and so i brought it along. a hundred thousand dollars! now, why couldn't i have bid on that box? that little snipe does not get any more money than i do, and yet he had to go and buy himself rich." "then it seems that you are not a broker's clerk after all," said claus. "i don't know as i blame you." "you see i would get discharged if any of the company officers should find me dressed up in citizen's rig," said casper. "i can go among the boys, now, and have a good time." "i don't know that i blame you," repeated claus. "i will keep your secret. well, go on. i begin to understand the matter now." "i tell you i was mad when i found out that they were going to advertise for old man haberstro," said casper. "i called them everything but decent boys, and went to work to conjure up some plan for getting the box for my own. i got it, too----" "you did? then you are all right." "not so near right as you think i am. julian got some keys that would fit my door, and went in and stole it." "whew! they are a desperate lot; ain't they?" "that is just what they did; and, furthermore, julian gave the box into the hands of mr. wiggins, our chief telegraph operator. now, i want you to come down there, pass yourself off for haberstro, and claim that box. can you do it?" mr. claus did not answer immediately. he stretched his legs out before him and slid down in his chair until his head rested on the back of it. he was thinking over the details of the plan. casper did not interrupt him, but waited to see what he was going to say about it. "and you are willing to give me half the contents of that box if i will get it for you?" said he. "you have given me the hardest part of the work. where do you suppose that man wiggins keeps the box?" "in the bank, of course. he's pretty sharp, and you must look out for that. if we can get that box, i won't go near the mine. i am not going to handle a pick and shovel when i have fifty thousand dollars to fall back upon. i am not going to work every day when i am afraid that something will come up and scare me to death. i will take half the block of buildings described there, and you can take the other half. that is fair, isn't it?" "yes, it is fair enough, but i am afraid of that man wiggins. what sort of a looking man is he?" "the worst part about him is his eyes. they are steel-gray, and when he turns them on a culprit in the office you would think he was going to look him through. you will have to be pretty sharp to get around him." "well, suppose i go and see julian first. if i can get around him, that will be so much gained." this was the beginning of a long conversation between casper and claus, and when it was done the latter felt greatly encouraged, and told himself that he was nearer getting the box for his own than he ever was before. casper told him everything he could think of that related to the matter, and when claus got up, removed his hat and wiped his face with his handkerchief, casper said that if he would just act that way in the presence of mr. wiggins, he would carry the day. "you act more like a german than i ever saw you act before," said he. "if you will just do that way to-morrow, i will answer for your success." "i can act the german all over, if that is what he wants," said claus, with a laugh. "you haven't got another ten cents, have you? well, let it go. i will go home and sleep upon it." "but look here," said casper, earnestly. "if you come to that telegraph office you must not know me. you never saw me before." "of course not. i won't give you away. that money is worth trying for. what is the reason that you and i have not some good friends to leave us that amount of money?" "because we are not honest enough," said casper, bitterly. "honesty has nothing to do with it. we ain't sharp; that is what's the matter with us. well, good-night. i will go and see julian to-morrow night, and the next day i may be down to the telegraph office. i want to go easy, because i don't want to spoil the thing by being too brash." as it was already late, casper did not attempt to enter any game that night. he went home and tumbled into bed, and for a long time he lay thinking over what he had said to claus. there was another thing that came into his mind every once in a while, and that was, where was his breakfast to come from? "i was not going to get any cigars to-night, because ten cents was all i had left," said casper. "but i could not well refuse claus. no matter. if he succeeds in getting that box, i will have all the cigars i want." the next morning casper went to the office without any breakfast; but the first message he had to carry took him to a saloon where they set a free-lunch table. there he took the edge off his appetite and ate enough to last him until supper-time, when he was to get his pay. julian was there, looking as happy as ever. casper did not blame him for that. if he had a box with that amount of money in it, he would be happy, too. "by george! it is six o'clock," said casper, at length. "in two hours more i will know what julian says to claus. till then, i must have patience." casper received his money when the others did, and without saying a word to anybody set out for home. julian was not in quite so big a hurry. he walked along with his hands in his pockets, and once, when passing by a baker's shop, he went in and bought some cakes with which to top off their supper. jack sheldon always reached home before he did, and julian found him in his usual act of getting supper. in reply to his ordinary greetings, he answered that there had been nothing unusual going on in the telegraph office, and that no man who said his name was haberstro had been there to see about the advertisement that had appeared in the papers. "i tell you, jack, that fortune in the box is ours," said julian. "that man has had ample time to show up, and it won't be long before we will be on our way to denver." "don't be too sure of that," said jack. "haberstro may be off on a vacation somewhere. i shall believe we are in denver when we get there, and not before." almost as jack said the words there was a sound of somebody coming up the stairs. he stopped in front of the door, and called out to somebody he left below, "does mr. julian gray live here? thank you;" and a moment afterward his rap sounded upon the door. "what did i tell you?" whispered jack. "that's haberstro, as sure as you live." for an honest boy, julian's heart fell. his fortune was gone, and there were no two ways about it. he stepped to the door and opened it, and there stood claus, more neatly dressed than ever. "good-evening," said he, while his eyes roved from one boy to the other. "which one of you is julian gray?" "i am, sir." "i am delighted to meet you," said he; and he thrust out his hand, into which julian put his own. then he put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a card on which the name s. w. haberstro was engraved. "i got belated in my hotel while waiting for the train, and i picked up this paper and saw this advertisement in it. as it happened to be my name, i read it through." "come in, sir," said jack, placing a chair for him. "it is one of four advertisements that we put into the daily papers. your name is haberstro, i believe?" "that is my name. you said you had something of great value to tell me. what is it?" julian could not have opened his mouth to save him. he was obliged to let jack do all the talking. chapter vii. a plan that didn't work. julian gray took his stand in one corner of the room, with his hands in his pockets and his feet spread out, and looked at this man who called himself haberstro. he was a german, there were no two ways about that; and he had a habit of taking out his handkerchief and wiping his face with it that nobody but a pompous and well-to-do german ever imitated. "do you know of a man of the name of winkleman?" asked jack. "know him?" exclaimed the german. "of course i do. he was living here in st. louis with me, but all on a sudden he took the gold fever and went out to denver. i was engaged in pretty good business, and so i did not go with him. i never heard what he was doing out there. he--he isn't dead, is he?" "oh, no. he accumulated some property while he was out there. he got a notice that his father had died in europe and left all his property to him, and he has gone home to take possession of it." "then that accounts for his not writing to me. he always said that his folks were immensely rich, and that some day he would have more than he wanted. what property did he collect out there?" "he is worth several buildings which are worth a hundred thousand dollars. furthermore, he has given them to you." "to me?" cried the german, rising to his feet. "yes, to you. and, more than that, he has a mine out of which he took fifty thousand dollars, and you come into possession of that, also." "lord bless my soul!" exclaimed the german. "i don't remember that i ever did anything to him to give him so good an opinion of me." "did you not nurse him while he was sick?" "did you not care for your mother when she was sick?" returned the german. "of course that did not amount to anything. he was my chum, and i had to stand by him." "well, he gave you the property for it, anyway. he sent you the deeds by express, and julian bought them for thirty cents." "well, sir, that is a heap of money. i don't know anybody that needs it more than i do. where is the box now?" "it is safe in the hands of mr. wiggins. we were not going to have somebody come along here and claim to be haberstro. have you anybody here in st. louis to whom you can recommend us? we want to know who you are before we give up the box." "that is perfectly right and proper. you see, my home is in chicago, and i know but few persons here. if you think this mr----what do you call him?" "wiggins?" said jack. "yes; if you think he will want somebody to vouch for me, i can give him the names of all the germans in the city. where does he hang out?" "the union telegraph office. you know where that is?" "i can easily find it, for i have a tongue in my head. i don't believe i will go near that mine at all. i will sell it." "you had better not. the miners have a story around that it is haunted." the german threw back his head and laughed heartily. "i am not afraid of that. if he took fifty thousand dollars out of it, it is surely worth as much more. well, if you have told me everything, i guess i had better go back to my hotel. i was going back to my home to-night, but now i am glad i did not go." "i guess we have told you everything that pertains to the matter," said jack. "do you think of any questions you would like to ask us?" "no; but i may think of some to-morrow. good-night." "by the way," said jack, as if he had just thought of something. "where were you when this man winkleman was sick? you were out in the mines, i suppose?" "oh, no, we were not; we were here in st. louis. if we had been out at the mines, where no doctor could have been reached, he would have gone up on my hands. look here--i don't want you to do this for nothing. make up your minds what you ought to have and i will give it to you. if it had not been for you i would never have seen the box. good-night." the german bowed himself out and closed the door behind him. the boys waited until he got to the street, and then julian took possession of the chair he had just vacated. "well, sir, what do you think of that?" asked jack, using companion's expression. "i think our fortune is gone up," answered julian; and then he leaned his elbows on his knees and looked down at the floor. jack laughed as loudly as the german did a few moments before. julian straightened up and looked at him in surprise. "what do you mean by that?" he exclaimed. "is a hundred thousand dollars such a sum in your eyes that you can afford to be merry over it?" "no; but you will never lose it through that man. his name is not haberstro any more than mine is." "jack, what do you mean?" "you were so busy with your own thoughts that you didn't see how i was pumping him, did you? in the first place he told us that winkleman was sick in st. louis; and yet winkleman says in his letter that they were so poor that they could not raise enough to buy a halter for a mule. now, he would not have used such an expression as that if he had been here in the city, would he?" "no, i don't think he would," said julian, reflectively. "he used the words of the country in which he lived." "that is what i think. in the next place, he said that he was engaged in a paying business here, and consequently did not go with winkleman to the mines; and then, almost in the same breath, he said he could not refer me to anybody here because his home was in chicago. you didn't see those little errors, did you?" julian began to brighten up. he remembered all the german had said to jack, but somehow he did not think of it. the box was not lost, after all. "now, he must have had somebody to post him in regard to these matters," said jack. "who do you think it was?" "casper nevins!" said julian, who just then happened to think of the boy's name. "that is what i think. he is bound to have that box, is he not? don't you give that box up; do you hear me?" "i am mighty sure i won't give it up," said julian, emphatically. "i shan't give it up until you are on hand. i had better take mr. wiggins into my confidence to-morrow." "of course. tell him the whole thing. tell him about the mistakes this man made in his conversation with me, and let him draw his own conclusions. i never saw such a desperate fellow as that casper nevins is. now let us go on and get supper." "i feel a good deal better than i did a few minutes ago," said julian, with something like a long-drawn sigh of relief. "i thought the box was lost to us, sure." the boys were impatient to have to-morrow come because they wanted to see what the german--they did not know what his true name was--was going to do about it. "i will tell you one thing, jack," said julian. "if that dutchman goes to-morrow and sees mr. wiggins about it, he will get a look that will last him as long as he lives. i ought to know, for i have had those eyes turned on me two or three times. if that man stands against them i shall think he is a nervy fellow." the night wore away at last, and at the usual hour the boys were at their posts. casper was in the office, and he seemed to be uneasy about something. he could not sit still. he was continually getting up and going to the door, and then he would come back and walk around the room. when mr. wiggins came in and wished them all a good-morning, julian followed him into the back room. "julian, have you some news about that box?" said he. "yes, sir; there was a man up to our room and handed us this card, and i thought----" "halloo," said mr. wiggins. "the box does not belong to you, after all." "hold on until i get through explaining things," said julian. with this julian began, and told him of the conversation that had taken place between jack and the german, not omitting the smallest thing. mr. wiggins listened intently, and when the story was done he said, "somebody has been posting that man in regard to that box. now, who have you told about it except jack sheldon?" "i don't know as that has anything to do with it," said julian, who resolved that he would stand by casper as long as he could. "yes, it has; it has a good deal to do with it. does casper nevins know all about it?" "what do you know about casper?" said julian in surprise. he wondered if there was any boy in the office who could do anything wrong without mr. wiggins finding it out. "because he has been uneasy for the past week. does casper know all about it?" "yes, sir, he does. he was there when we read the letter." "that is all. i will see you again after a while." julian went out and sat down, and in a few minutes mr. wiggins came from the back room and spoke to the operator, who immediately sent off a dispatch. nobody was called to carry this, for the message went straight to the office for which it was intended. five minutes passed, and then a stout man, who was a stranger to all of them, strolled into the office. one of the boys got up to wait upon him, pushing some blanks toward him, but the stout man did not want to send any telegraphic dispatches. "i just want to look around and see how you do things here," said he. "then take this chair, sir," said mr. wiggins. "i guess you will find that we do things about right." the minutes passed, and all the boys who had congregated in the office had been sent off with messages--all except casper. there did not seem to be any dispatches for him. the chief operator was busy at his desk, when suddenly the door opened, and the same german who had called at julian's room the night before, came in. mr. wiggins glanced toward him and then he looked toward casper. the latter never could control himself when he was in difficulty, and his face grew white. "is this the western union telegraph office?" said the german, wiping his forehead with his handkerchief. "do i speak to mr. wiggins? well, sir, i would like to see you about a box that one of your boys bought at a sale of 'old horse' in the express office. that box contains something that is off immense value to me--s. w. haberstro." and he handed out his card with his name engraved on it. "there is a box here addressed to a man of that name," said mr. wiggins, "but it is in the bank now. i suppose you have plenty of friends here to whom you can refer?" "i am sorry to say that i have not," replied the german. "my home is in chicago. i can refer you to all the germans there." "then, would it not be worth while for you to write to some of your friends there and get some letters of recommendation? you see, we don't want to give the box to anybody unless we know who it is." "that is all right, sir. i have some business on hand in chicago, and i will go up there and get them." "that will be sufficient. good-day, sir." the german, who appeared to be in a great hurry, closed the door and hastened up the street. as soon as he was gone, mr. wiggins beckoned to casper and went into the back room. "who was that man who just went out?" said he, in a tone of voice which did not admit of argument. "tell me the truth." "his name is claus, sir," said casper. "where does he stay, principally?" "he stays first in one pool-room, and then in another. where he lives i don't know." "that will do," said mr. wiggins. "i never have been guilty of such a thing before," began casper. "i said that would do," interrupted mr. wiggins. "i may see you again after a while." when mr. wiggins and casper got out into the other room they found that the stout man had disappeared. he had gone out about the time that the german disappeared. in half an hour he came back, leaned over the desk, and spoke to the chief operator. "that fellow is no more haberstro than i am," he whispered. "his name is solomon claus. we have had him up a time or two for vagrancy, and i'll take him up for the same cause, if you say so." "no; let him go, but keep your eyes on him. he has not done us any harm yet. if he comes here again i will send for you." chapter viii. claus calls again. when the stout man reached the sidewalk he saw the german a short distance in advance of him, still hurrying along as though he had no time to waste. he turned several corners, and at last disappeared up the stairs that led to the pool-room. the detective, for that was what he was, did not seem to notice what had become of the german, but he marked the place where he had gone up and kept on to the station-house. there he changed his coat and hat, and picked up a huge walking-stick which stood in one corner. when he came out on the streets again, everybody noticed that he walked with difficulty, and there was an expression on his face which only those who were intimate with the detective would have thought belonged to him. it was very different from his ordinary appearance. instead of the frank, open look with which he regarded everybody, it was drawn up as though he was suffering intense pain, from which he could not get a moment's relief. the detective speedily found the place where the german had disappeared, walked wearily up the stairs, opened the door, and sank into the nearest chair. then he pulled a pair of eye-glasses from his pocket and became interested in a paper. but he used his eyes to some advantage, and quickly discovered the man he wanted seated off by himself, with his legs outstretched before him and his chin resting on his breast. "i guess he found some difficulty in getting that box," said the detective, who knew what mr. wiggins wanted of him before he came to the office. "you want to go easy, my friend, or i'll have you up for vagrancy again." there were not so many in the pool-room as there were the night before, and nobody seemed to bother the german; but presently, while he was thinking about it, another party came in. he took off his coat, seized a cue, and looked all around the room for an antagonist, until he discovered the german sitting there doing nothing. "halloo, claus!" he shouted, "come on, and let us have a game of billiards." "no, you must excuse me," was the reply; "i don't feel in the humor for billiards or anything else." "have you anybody on a string that you are trying to make some money out of?" asked his friend. "come on, and perhaps a game will brighten you up." "'claus,'" muttered the detective. "i know you now. i was told to find out what his name was, so i will go back. so this is where you hang out. i will remember you." the detective hobbled out the door and down the stairs; but by the time he got down to the street his lameness had all disappeared, and he walked as briskly as anybody. he went to the western union telegraph office, told mr. wiggins he had discovered that the man's name was claus, and not haberstro, and then went back to the station. casper nevins was called into the back room a moment afterward, but he was not there more than long enough to receive his discharge. "i have never done anything like this before," said casper, trying to beg off. "if you will overlook this----" "i can't do it," said mr. wiggins. "you are a boy that i can't trust. why, casper, do you know what will become of you if you do not mend your ways? you will get into the state's prison before you are five years older. i paid you up yesterday, and you have not done anything to-day, and so you can go." "it would not be of any use for me to ask for a letter of recommendation, would it?" asked casper. he always had a good deal of audacity about him, but this made mr. wiggins open his eyes in surprise. "not from me, you can't," he answered. "you will have to go somewhere else to get it." casper put on his cap and left the office, and on the way to the pool-room, where he expected to find claus, he blamed everybody but himself for the disgrace he had got into. he blamed claus, although it is hard to see what that man had done, for he worked as hard as anybody could to get that box; but he reproached julian gray more than all for his interference in the matter. "come to think of it, i don't know but i am to blame a little myself," said he, after he had thought the affair all over. "why did i not dig out the moment i got that box? i would have been in denver by this time, and enjoying my wealth. it beats the world what luck some people do have." but claus was not in the pool-room. he wanted to be alone, so that he could think over the matter, and he had gone out where he would be by himself. the barkeeper did not know where he had gone, and casper went home to change his clothes. as he pulled his uniform off he told himself that it would be a long time before he ever wore it again. then he threw himself into a chair and tried to determine what he should do next. "i have just ten dollars," he mused, taking the bill from his pocket, "and what i shall do when that is gone is another and a deeper question. i'll bet that claus don't get any cigars out of me to-night." meanwhile julian gray came in from delivering his message. his face was flushed, and he acted as though he had been running. he made his report, and then went into the back room in obedience to a sign from mr. wiggins. "well, julian, your box is still safe," said the latter. "has that dutchman been around here?" asked julian. mr. wiggins said he had, and then went on to give the boy a complete history of what claus had done to secure the box. "i got rid of him very easily," said mr. wiggins. "i told him that it would be well for him to write to some german friends in chicago, where he said he lived, and he said he was going up there on business and would bring the letters back with him. i found out that his name is claus, and that he hangs out in a pool-room. you don't know him, do you?" no, julian could not say that he had ever heard of him before. "well, don't you let the box go without seeing me about it." "nobody shall have it. mr. wiggins, i don't know how to thank you for what you have done." "you are a good boy, julian, and the only thing i have against you is that you will hang around that express office so much. some day i am going to give you a good scolding for that." "you will never hear of my being there again. i am done going there forever." "i don't think you will have to do it any more. you have your fortune, easy enough." "oh, mr. wiggins! do you think it is ours sure enough?" "well, perhaps i ought not to speak so positively; it is hard to tell at this stage of the game. i _hope_ you have." julian was delighted to hear mr. wiggins talk in this way, but before he could ask him any more questions that gentleman had gone back into the office. he then went out and looked around for casper. one of the boys told him he believed casper had got the "sack," for he put on his cap and left the office. "i don't know what he has been doing," said the boy; "do you?" "mr. wiggins knows, and he will not tell," replied julian. "i wonder what the poor fellow will do now?" julian was impatient for night to come, so that he could go home and see jack about it. it came at last, and julian never broke a trot until he ran up the stairs and burst into his room. "well?" said jack. "you look happy. tell us all about that dutchman." "there is not much to tell. his name is claus, and he lives in a pool-room." "i knew i was not mistaken in him," said jack, taking his usual seat by throwing his leg over the table. "that man had better go somewhere else." but that he did not feel inclined to go somewhere else just then was evident, for just as jack pronounced his name the boys heard his step coming up the stairs. he had a peculiar step, which, once heard, could not be forgotten. "well, he is coming again," said julian. "now, what are you going to say to him?" "that depends upon what he has to say to me," said jack. "go to the door, let him in, and put out a chair for him." he rapped on the door the minute he got there, and julian opened it for him. he looked closely from one to the other of the boys, but did not see anything in their faces to make him hide what he had on his mind. he had a new plan, but it did not promise as well as the one which had been defeated by mr. wiggins. he wanted to induce one of them to get the box for him and let him read the papers that were in it. if he could prevail upon them to bring the box out of the bank, he was certain that in some way he could get an opportunity to steal it. he did not intend to go about it slyly; he intended to take it, open and above-board, and let jack and julian help themselves if they could. he was certain that a revolver, presented at their heads and cocked, would surely keep them quiet until he had locked the door and got into the street. where he would go after that he neither knew nor cared. what he wanted was to get possession of the box. "ah! good-evening," said claus, bowing very politely. "i came back to see you about that box." "take a chair," said jack. "what about the box?" "mr. wiggins said it was in the bank," said claus, "and i want to know if you could get it out of there and let me read the letter and the papers. you see, the thing may not be for me, and i don't want to go home and bother my friends about it until i know what the box contains." "oh! your friends won't care anything about that," said jack. "you tell them that the box is for you, and they will give you all the letters you want. besides, i don't think mr. wiggins would agree to what you ask." the german did not like the way julian was acting. he had kept his eyes roaming from one to the other; but, although the boy occupied his favorite position, with his hands buried in his pockets and his feet spread out, his expression was different from what it had been the night before. there was a smile on his face, and it would not have taken very much to set him to laughing outright. claus began to think there was something up. "why, the box is your own, ain't it?" asked claus. "you can do what you please with it." "not now, we can't. we have told mr. wiggins that we wanted him to watch over it for us, and he will have to be present when you read the papers." "then you can't get it for me?" "no, i don't believe i could, mr. claus. you don't need anybody to give you a recommend. go to some of your friends here----" "claus! claus! that is not my name. my name is haberstro." julian grinned broadly, and even jack did not appear to be above merriment. "what do you mean by applying that name to me?" exclaimed claus. "there is my card." "i don't want to see it. i have one already. your name is claus, you live in a billiard saloon, and you got a full history of this box from casper nevins." "young man, i will have you arrested before you are an hour older!" said claus, getting upon his feet. "i come here and ask a civil question of you, and you insult me!" "do so, and we will have casper arrested for burglary and you for trying to obtain money under false pretenses. the sooner you get about it the better it will suit us." "very well--i will have a policeman here in less than ten minutes!" mr. claus went out, and this time he did not bow himself through the door as he had done the night before. the boys heard him going downstairs, and then turned and looked at each other. "somebody has been posting those fellows," said claus, as he hurried away toward casper's room. "i wonder if there was a detective in there while i was at the office? two attempts have failed, but the third is always successful." claus was almost beside himself with fury, but he retained his wits sufficiently to guide him on the road to casper's room. he found the boy in, seated in a chair, with his elbows on his knees, trying his best to make up his mind what he was going to do, now that he had been discharged from the telegraph office. he had sat that way ever since eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and had not been able to determine upon anything. the first intimation he had that anybody was coming was when the door was thrown open and claus came in, muttering something under his breath that sounded a good deal like oaths. "there is no need that you should say anything," said casper. "you have failed." "yes, sir, i have; failed utterly and plump," said claus. "and i have been discharged." "whew!" whistled claus. "you are in a fix, aren't you?" "yes, and i don't know what i shall do now. tell me your story, and i will tell you mine." "have you a cigar handy?" "no; and i have no money." "how long before you will be paid?" "oh, it will be two weeks yet." "then i will have to go down and get some cigars myself. i can think more clearly while my jaws are puffing than i can without." "you got your last cigar out of me, old fellow," said casper to himself, when claus had left the room. "i have but little money, and i am going to keep it." chapter ix. the master mechanic. "well, sir, what do you think of that?" said julian, when he was certain that claus had gone down the stairs and out on the street. "he had better try some other way of getting that box." "he has failed," said jack, putting a frying-pan filled with bacon on the stove. "casper nevins is at the bottom of that. i tell you, that money is safe yet." "do you know that i looked upon it as gone when he first came here and handed out his card?" said julian. "i thought he was haberstro, sure enough." "i confess that i thought so, too. now let us go on and get supper. the next time we save that money, somebody else will have a hand in it." "why, will we have to fight for it?" "it looks that way to me now. we don't know anything about business, and the first thing we know we'll get tripped up." "i did not think of that," said julian, drawing a long breath. "i wish mr. wiggins were going out to denver with us. i will get advice from him before we start." "we have not got out there yet," said jack, with a laugh. "if we do get there, we will go to the lawyer who drew up those deeds. he must be an honest man." the boys continued to talk in this way until the room was swept up and the dishes washed, and when bedtime came they went to sleep. the next morning found them on duty again. casper was not there to greet him and make inquiries concerning the box, but there were other boys there who wanted to know why casper had been discharged. they appealed to julian, for he was in the back room shortly before; but he thought the best thing he could do was to keep a still tongue in his head. "mr. wiggins knows why he discharged casper, and if he won't tell you, i don't know where else you can apply." "you had a hand in it and i know it," said one boy who was enough like casper to have been his brother. "maybe you are a spy on us." "you come out in the back yard and i'll show you who is a spy!" said julian, rising to his feet. "no one ever accused me of that before. if i am a spy, you want to do your duty right up to the handle." this was something new on julian, for we know how hard he worked to keep the police off from casper's track. some of the other boys turned away as if they were quite willing to believe that julian was seeking for promotion, while some others stood up close to him, as if to assure him of their protection. "if you will stay by me when mr. wiggins comes here, i will ask him before you if i had anything to do with casper's discharge. he will tell you the truth." but the boys wisely appealed to him not to do that. since casper had been discharged, they wanted their skirts clear of him, and the best way to do that would be to say nothing about it. "but, julian, you want to keep clear of that fellow who called you a spy," said one of the boys. "he has been jealous of you for a long time, in fact ever since the day you came into the office, and just as soon as he gets a good chance he is going to split on you." "thank you; i did not suppose i had an enemy in this city. let him keep watch, if he wants to. my conduct will bear investigation." julian did not do his work with his usual energy that day, for he could not bear to think that one boy was acting as a spy upon him. he carried his dispatches as well as he could, never stopping to gaze in at the prize windows or to make one of a crowd who gathered around some show that had stopped for a moment on a corner, and that was as well as anybody could do. jack laughed loudly when he saw what a gloomy face julian had on when he told him of the matter. "what do you care for spies?" said jack. "do your duty faithfully, and then you will be all right. in our place we don't have any such things. the boys are always glad to see me promoted, for they think they have a new mechanic to assist them when they get into trouble." for another month things moved along in their usual way, and nothing was heard from mr. haberstro. julian did not meet casper or claus, for they had disappeared completely. he held frequent and earnest consultations with mr. wiggins on the subject of the box, put other advertisements in the papers, and finally mr. wiggins took julian down to the bank and talked to the president. it excited julian wonderfully to know that the box was theirs. "i should not wait any longer, if i were in your place," said the president. "you have done all that you can to find the owner, and he does not make his appearance. you can go out there and lay claim to the property, and enjoy it; and if at any time this mr. haberstro turns up, you can give the property over to him. but i want you to be careful in what you are doing. there are plenty of haberstros in the world who would like nothing better than to get that box." "by george, jack," said julian, when he went home that night, "did i not tell you that that box was ours? i have talked with the president of the bank about it, and he says we can go out there and enjoy that property." jack took his usual seat, with his leg thrown over the table, and looked at julian without speaking. he had never laid great stress on having that box. he supposed that haberstro would show himself in due time, and all they would have to do would be to give up the money and go on with their work. his good fortune was a little too much for him to take in all at once. a dollar a day was pretty big wages for him, and he supposed that it would last till he learned his trade, and that then he would receive more money. but a hundred thousand dollars, to say nothing of the gold-mine! why, that mine had already yielded its owner fifty thousand dollars! "jack, why don't you say something?" exclaimed julian. "you don't act as though you were a bit pleased. i wish, now, that i had been a mile away when that box was put up for sale." jack roared. he was always ready to laugh when julian talked in this way. "i am very glad you _were_ there when it was sold," said he; "but the idea of owning so much money rather takes my breath away. i was just wondering what we would do if some more haberstros came up and demanded the money. i suppose there are some men like that in denver, as well as there are here." "the president cautioned me about that. he told me to be careful in what we did. now, jack, when will we start?" "i don't know. i shall have to see the master mechanic about that. you know that i am as deeply indebted to him as you are to mr. wiggins." "does he know about the box?" "not a thing. i thought i had better see you about that before i broached the subject to him." "well, then, tell it to him to-morrow. we don't want to be any longer in getting out there than we can help. we want to be there before the snow flies, or the first thing we know we'll be snowed up." "are you going to see mr. wiggins about it?" "i am. let us go out to denver at once." "i tell you it comes hard to say good-bye to those fellows; i have been with them so long that i hate to do it. if i get in trouble in any way, they will always help me out." the next day julian talked to mr. wiggins about going out to denver, and the latter's face grew grave at once. he could not bear to let julian go out there among strangers. he had always had him under his eye, was waiting for a chance to promote him, and now he was going away. "i will go down and get the box," said he. "and remember one thing, julian: you may get into a hard row of stumps out there, and i want you to write to me fully and plainly of what you are doing. if you want some money, say so; and if you want to come back here in the office, say that also, and i will try and make room for you." julian's eyes filled with tears when he saw mr. wiggins go out on the street and turn toward the bank. he found, with jack, that it was going to be hard work to say good-bye. when he went out into the other room, the boys noticed at once that he had been crying. "aha!" said the boy who had once accused him of being a spy, "you have come up with a round turn, have you?" "yes," said julian, "i've got it at last." "it serves you right!" said the boy. "if wiggins gave it to you in pretty good order i shall be satisfied. you know now how casper felt when he was discharged." "are you discharged, julian?" whispered another of the boys. "i guess i have got something like it," was the reply; "you won't see me here to-morrow." julian walked to the window and looked out on the street, and in a few minutes mr. wiggins came up with the box. the boy followed him into the back room, all the boys, of whom there were half a dozen in the office, looking on with surprise. mr. wiggins's face was grave, but he was not angry, and they did not know what to make of it. "i think i would do this up and send it by express--wouldn't you?" said he. "if this is put in your trunk, and the cars run off the track and get smashed, your trunk might get smashed, too, and the box with it. before i put the cover on i will write a letter to our agent in denver. i have never seen him, but that won't matter; and then, if you want any good advice, go to him. come in in the course of half an hour--" "no, sir!" said julian, emphatically; "i am going to do my duty as long as i stay in the office." "well, go ahead; i will give you the box, sealed and addressed to yourself, to-night." julian went out and took his seat among the boys, and about half of them felt a little bit sorry for him, but the other half did not. here was one favorite out of the way, and consequently there was a chance for somebody else. presently his name was called, and then julian went away to deliver his dispatch. when six o'clock came, julian went into the back room and received the package. "you will be around here before you go?" said mr. wiggins, extending his hand. "then i won't bid you good-bye. take this box to the express office and send it off. have you any money?" yes, julian had plenty of money. did mr. wiggins suppose that he was going to spend all his month's wages in two days? he took the box and went out, and took his way toward the express office, wondering what the clerk would say if he knew what was in that package. the clerk turned out to be the same one who had given him the box, but he said nothing about it; and when julian had paid the express charges on it he came out and started for home. as he was going up the stairs he heard the sound of voices in the room, and opened the door to find a man there, dressed in his best, and with a very smiling face, which he turned toward julian. "so this is the boy who bought himself rich," said he, getting on his feet "i know you from the description i have received of your uniform. i congratulate you heartily, but i am sorry you are going to take jack away from me. when you are awful home-sick, and are short of money, you can write to me, and i will send you something to come home on." "this is mr. dawson, our master mechanic," said jack. "i am glad to meet you, mr. dawson," said julian, shaking the man's hand very cordially. "jack often found fault with me for going to that office, but i struck it once,--didn't i?" "well, i should say you _did_," returned mr. dawson, with a laugh; "you couldn't do it again if you were to try it your lifetime." "sit down, sir; we will have supper ready after awhile, and you must join us." "that's just what i came up here for. jack is going away pretty shortly, and i shall not see him any more, so i came up to be with him as long as i could." mr. dawson moved back his chair so that he would not be in the way, and julian pulled off his coat and went to work; but he saw by the extra bundles there were on the table that his chum had been going back on his principles. there were cream cakes and peaches by the dozen, as well as sundry other little things that jack had purchased for supper. it was a better meal than they had been accustomed to for a long time, and if there was any faith in the way that master mechanic asked for peaches, he thoroughly enjoyed it. "i hope you boys will live this way while you are gone," said he, as he pushed back his chair and declined having any more. "you must remember that a hundred thousand dollars don't go very far. there certainly is an end to it, and the first thing you know you'll be there. now, i hope you fellows won't object if i smoke a cigar?" the "fellows" did not object, nor did he raise any complaint when they proceeded to wash the dishes. it was eleven o'clock when mr. dawson said it was time he was going home, and when the boys felt the hearty grasp of his hand at parting, they told themselves that there was one friend they were leaving behind. chapter x. where are the valises? for the next two days julian did not know whether he stood on his head or heels. jack went about his preparations very moderately, but the fact of it was, julian was in a great hurry. he could not help telling himself that if they did not get away from st. louis, that man haberstro would appear just at the wrong time, and they would have to go back to work again. he donned a citizen's dress and tied his uniform up neatly in a bundle, calculating to take it down to the office and present it to a boy there who did not act as though he had more in this world than the law allows. "i will give this up to hank," said he. "the poor fellow don't have any too much, and perhaps this suit will help him." jack accompanied him to the office--it was the first time he had ever been there--and while he was looking around to see how they did business, julian found the boy of whom he was in search. "here's a present i have brought for you, hank," said he in a whisper. "you asked me yesterday if i had been discharged, and that showed that you were a friend of mine. i told you the truth; i have been discharged, and i am going out to denver. this is my uniform. take it and wear it, and think of me." julian did not wait for the boy to raise any protests, but laid the bundle down on his seat, and then turned toward mr. wiggins. "i haven't gone yet," said he. "we are going to-morrow night." "well, come in and say good-bye before you go," said mr. wiggins. julian took the opportunity to introduce jack, who raised his cap respectfully. he listened while mr. wiggins congratulated him on his good fortune, and heard some very good advice in regard to saving his money. "i tell you what it is, julian," said he, when they had left the office behind them, "everybody who is anybody is glad that we are going to improve ourselves, and many seem to think there is going to be an end to that hundred thousand dollars." "i'll bet you that it don't come to an end with _me_," said julian, emphatically. "i am going to purchase some things that i need, but i shan't touch the principal at all." the first thing was to go to a store and buy a trunk. up to this time they had never had any receptacle for their clothes, carrying all their belongings in a traveling-bag. they concluded that one trunk was enough, and, after they had purchased it, jack shouldered it and was going to take it home. "come, now, that won't do," whispered julian; "it is three miles to our room." "no matter if it is a thousand," said jack; "i can take it there." "put it down, and i will get a carriage." "well, i won't pay for it." "i _will_; i don't see what's the use in our being so particular." jack put the trunk down, and julian went out, and very soon returned with a carriage. the boys held a consultation, and decided that, now that they had a conveyance, they might as well stop at some places on the way home and invest in some other articles they needed. "but i'll tell you one thing," said jack; "you are keeping this rig too long; i won't pay for it." it was three hours before the friends got home, and then they had their trunk more than half-filled with new clothing. the hackman carried it upstairs for them, and julian, having paid him his price, threw himself into a chair to wait until jack did the packing. in addition to the trunk, the boys bought small traveling-bags, in which they carried several handy little articles they thought they might need during their journey, such as towels, comb and brush; and julian stowed away in his a book that he had long desired to possess--"the last chronicle of barset," by anthony trollope. jack could hardly conceal his disgust; he was going to look out of the window when they were fairly on the train, and he would see more fun in that than julian could in reading his book. "there, sir, i guess it's all done," said jack, going to the closet to make sure that they had left nothing behind. "all right; lock the trunk and put the key in your pocket," said julian. "now give me half of what this room will come to during the present month, and i will go down and pay the landlady. we haven't anything to eat, so i guess we will have to go down to a restaurant and get dinner and supper all in one." "i think a sandwich and a cup of coffee would go pretty well," said jack. "oh! i am going to have a better meal than that. where's the money?" jack counted out his share of the rent, and julian posted off to see the landlady. he was gone a long time, but he came back with a receipt in his hand which he showed jack, and then the two boys went out to get their dinner. jack ordered what he had said he would; but anyone who could have seen what julian sent for would have thought he was a millionaire already. jack looked on but did not say anything; he was old enough to know that the change in julian's circumstances would make him reckless for a while. he remarked that he might as well go down to the shop and bid the fellows good-bye, and then it would be done with; so they turned their faces in that direction when they came out, and in a short time they were among the railroad shops. jack knew where to go; and, after leading his companion through a long workshop, where julian would certainly have got in somebody's way if he had not stuck close to his heels, finally ushered him into the helpers' room. he shook hands with them one after the other--dirty, begrimed fellows they were, too, looking very unlike the well-dressed men they were when dressed up for sundays--and presently he came to the master mechanic. the latter threw his arm around jack, led him away out of earshot of the others, and held an earnest conversation with him. he even put his hand into his pocket, but jack shook his head and turned away. "come on, julian; i guess i have said good-bye to them all," said he, as he led the way to the street. "every one of those fellows wanted to give me money--as if they didn't know i have enough already. well, i hope the last one of them will be successful. if they want any money, they can apply to me." julian had never seen jack look sad before. after going a little way on the street, jack turned and looked at the shop as if he thought he never would see it again. julian did not know that jack had so much heart in him. the next day was devoted to julian, who went down to the office and took leave of all his friends. even the boy who had accused him of being a spy came in for a good, hearty hand-shake. he did not know how to take it, but stammered out something about being sorry he had treated julian in the way he did. "that's all right," said the boy; "only, the next time don't you accuse any boy of being a spy on you unless you know whereof you speak." mr. wiggins had something more to say to julian. he conducted him into the back room, and kept him there until jack began to be impatient. when he came out again, julian was wiping his eyes. "i tell you, jack," said he, when they were well on their way to the railroad depot to purchase their tickets, "when one has been here and done the best he could in the office, it comes hard to say good-bye. every boy--and man, too--has used me white, if i except that fellow who accused me of being a spy. but this isn't the last time we will see st. louis, i hope. when we get out to denver, and get fairly settled, we will come back again." the friends waited a long time at the depot, for the ticket office was not open; but they had much to talk about. what sort of a looking place was denver? they had not read much about that, and they had somehow got it into their heads that it was a little settlement, and that they should find more wigwams there than houses. but at last the window was opened, and, falling in behind the others, they purchased tickets which were to carry them farther west than they had ever been before. "now, the next thing is to get a sleeping-car," said julian. "we don't want a sleeping-car," said jack, catching julian by the arm and leading him away. "you can lie down on one seat, and i can take the other, and we'll sleep just as well there as we would on a pile of down." julian was obliged to give up, but told himself that it would not always be so. he wanted to spend money for something he really needed, and he thought he could sleep better in a sleeping-car than he could in another which was devoted to passengers who were wide awake. nothing now remained but to get their supper and call a carriage to take them to the depot. the boys took coffee and sandwiches, and during the meal hardly spoke to one another. that was the last meal they would eat in st. louis, and they wondered what the future had in store for them. perhaps, when they got to denver, they would find that haberstro had been there already, and by some hook or crook had managed to get the property into his own hands. "but i don't see how that could be done," said jack, when julian hinted at this. "the deeds are in winkleman's name, and we have them. how is he going to get the property, then?" "i don't know; but i am afraid he will get it some way." "if he does, all we have to do is to give it up." but this was going to be a hard job, in julian's estimation. he did not confess that much, but it would be disastrous to him to have to surrender those blocks of buildings. he thought of it all that day, and while he was seated in the cars, going with as much speed as steam could put forth to carry him to his destination, it still bothered him. the master mechanic was there to bid them once more a good-bye, and julian was certain, when he turned away and hung his head down, that there were tears in his eyes. as long as daylight lasted, julian was busy looking out of the window as they rushed through the country; but when the lamps were lighted he began to grow sleepy. julian was sitting on one bench, and jack, having turned his seat over, was sitting on the other, and, having arranged their beds, they lay down on them; but it was a long time before they fell asleep. "now, you see, if we had a sleeping-car we wouldn't have to go to all this trouble," said julian. "wait until you get too tired to keep your eyes open, and you won't know whether we are in a sleeping-car or not," said jack; "i am most ready to go off this minute." jack's words came out true, for after they had given up their tickets and been furnished with a slip to put in their caps, julian speedily lost himself in the land of dreams, and the next thing he knew jack was shaking him by the shoulder. it was broad daylight, and the train was still whirling them onward. "can we get anything to eat along here?" said julian, looking out of the window; "i am hungry." "there is a place a few miles ahead, so i heard the conductor tell a passenger, where we will stop to get breakfast," said jack. "that was the reason i called you. if you are anything like me, you can eat a whole pan of baked beans." "baked beans!" said julian. "they have something better than that to eat on the railroad. i am going to get a breakfast that is worth the money." there was another thing that bothered julian, and that was, he did not have any place to wash; but jack told him that that would be remedied when they came to their stopping-place. they rode on for a dozen miles or so, and when the whistle sounded, and the brakeman announced fifteen minutes for breakfast, they left their valises in their racks and moved up nearer the door. "that wakes a fellow up," said julian, as he plunged his face into a basin of water. "we have to hurry, jack, for fifteen minutes is not a great while." the boys' breakfast was all that could be asked, although, if the truth must be told, they were not long in eating it. julian boarded the train first, and led the way along to their seats; but where were the valises they left there when they went out to breakfast? "is this our car?" said julian, running his eyes over the passengers. "why yes, this is our car," said jack. "there is that red-faced man who sat behind you; he was sitting there when we left st. louis. but what is the matter with you?" "matter enough; our valises are gone!" "by george! so they are!" "say!" said the red-faced man, leaning over the back of the seat. "i saw the man who took those valises, but i supposed he was a member of your party and that you had sent him for them; therefore i did not stop him." "what sort of a looking man was he?" "he was a very genteel fellow, but i noticed that he toed in, and that he had a very german cast of countenance." "i wonder if it was claus?" said julian. "i don't know what his name was, but he got the valises. say! if i were you i would search the train, and if you find him you can make him give your property up." "we will do it. i wonder if we are ever going to see the last of that man?" the train had been gathering headway all the while, and was now running at the rate of thirty-five miles an hour. if claus, or whoever stole the valises, was on the train, the boys were certain he could not jump off to escape them. chapter xi. in denver. "did the man find anything of value in your valises?" asked the red-faced man, as the boys turned toward the front part of the car. "he could have bought everything i had in my valise for two dollars," said jack, with a laugh. "it seems funny that he should want to put himself in danger of arrest for that" "he got a book in mine," said julian. "of course i have read it before, but i wanted to read it again. say, jack," he continued, when the latter reached the door and was about to open it, "if the man was claus, don't you suppose he had an eye on that box?" jack released the door and leaned up heavily against it. such an idea had never occurred to him. "he watched us while we were in st. louis, and when he saw us ready to come out, he got on the same train with us." "what a lucky thing it was that we sent that box off by express!" jack almost gasped. "of course it was claus, and we shall not find him on this train, either. he jumped off at that station back there." "let us go and see. if he is going to follow us in this way, we are going to be in a fix, the first thing you know." jack opened the door and went out, and julian followed close at his heels. they went slowly through the cars, looking sharply at every man they saw on the train, but nobody with "a very german cast of countenance" could be seen. the next thing was to try the other end of the train. jack led the way, as before, and when they got into their own car the red-faced man, who seemed to take an interest in their success, said, in a low tone, "did you find him?" "no," replied jack; "he must have got off at the station. we are going through the sleeping-cars, and, if he is not there, we will have to give him up." in the next car there was no one who looked like claus, and when they opened the door of the next car, and entered the vestibuled part of the train, they found themselves in an entry which was fitted up in the most gorgeous manner. a negro porter stood in front of the window looking out, and when he saw who the boys were, he stepped up in front of them. "does you want to see somebody on dis train?" he asked. "well, i should say we did," replied jack. "some one has stolen our valises, and we want to find him." "dat's bad. has you got a ticket?" "of course we have. don't you see the slips in our caps?" "but i mean a ticket for dis part of de train. if you hasn't got one, you can't go in." this was a new arrangement to jack. the last time he travelled on the railroad it was when the hands connected with the railroad-shop gave an excursion and a picnic, and then he had no difficulty in going all over the train; but he saw the beauty of it at once. "then we will have to give it up," said he, turning toward the door. "that man may be here and have our valises, and we can't help ourselves." "mebbe not," said the negro. "what kind of a looking man was he? i will go over the train and look for him." jack described the man as well as he could from the description the passenger had given him, and the negro went out. "just see what we would have got we had taken a sleeping-coach," whispered julian. "no one can come near you except those who purchased tickets at the depot." "we'll come to that after a while," said jack. "wait until we get our money. just now it seems as though we shall have to be constantly on the watch." the negro was gone a long time, but our friends found themselves busy in taking a note of all their surroundings. there must have been a good deal of money spent upon that sleeping-car. there did not seem to be a cheap thing about it. one or two passengers, who had slept late and were just getting up, came in, and yawned, and stretched, and prepared to go through their ablutions. they merely glanced at the two boys, and went on with their work. they did not care for the eating-stations that were scattered along the route; when they were hungry, they could go into the dining-coach and get all they wanted. "i tell you, it is worth while to know where your money is coming from when you travel," thought julian; "one feels so much safer." by the time he had reached this conclusion the negro appeared. "dar ain't a man on dis train that looks like the one you spoke of," said he. "dey's all americans; the last man-jack of them." "thank you," said jack. "our man has got off at the station. i hope he will get rich on what he found in those valises." the two friends went back to their own car, and to the inquiry of the passenger who sat behind them replied that the man had left the train as soon as he got the valises. then they settled down and prepared to enjoy their journey; but it must be confessed that claus came into their minds very frequently. if he was the one who took their valises, they were certain that they had not seen the last of him yet. "and to think that that fellow watched us all the while we were in st. louis," said jack, leaning over and whispering the words to julian. "he may watch us after we get in denver. who knows?" but claus, if that was the man, did not come near them any more during their journey. they grew weary, of course, and julian, having no book to read, slept most of the way. their night was passed in much the same way that the first one was, and about two o'clock in the morning they arrived at denver. the appearance of the city, wrapped though it was in slumber, surprised them. there were as many people running about in the depot as there were in st. louis, and all appeared to have work to do. the man to whom they had given their check was there to show them the way to their omnibus, and julian, while he was on the way to it, looked all around for indians, but did not see any. the hotel was as large as those they had left in st. louis, and almost before they knew it they were in their room with two beds in it, the porter had carried up their trunk, had bid them good-night, and they were alone. "say, jack, there's more houses than wigwams here, is there not?" "i was just thinking so myself," said jack. "denver is a big city. now, the next thing is something else. it is something i don't like to think of. that letter which mr. wiggins wrote to the agent here may help us some, but we have something to prove after that." "well, don't let us worry about that to-night," said julian. "perhaps in the morning it will look different." julian had never slept in so comfortable a bed before, and when sleep overpowered him he did not know a thing until he opened his eyes in the morning and saw jack standing at the window, with his suspenders about his waist, looking through the window at some mountains which seemed to be looming up close at hand. "when we get settled, if we ever do, we must walk out there and take a view from the top," said he. "how far are they away from here?" "about two or three miles, probably. i believe if we get on the summit of those mountains we can see california." "i have just thought of another thing that may bother us some," said julian. "i don't know whether the express clerks will want us to identify ourselves before they give us that box, but if they do--then what?" "although we are in the right, there is always something to bother us," said jack, seating himself in the nearest chair. "what will we do?" "we can't do anything except to write to st. louis. there is nobody here that knows us from adam." that was something that bothered jack during breakfast, but at eight o'clock, the hour when the express offices are generally open, they were directed by the clerk how to reach it, and in process of time drew up before the counter. to julian's inquiry if there was a box there addressed to himself the clerk placed the box before him, and never asked him who he was or where he came from. "now, the next thing is to keep an eye out for the telegraph office. if you see a sign sticking out, let me know it." "i see a sign already," said jack, pointing it out. julian began to feel a little more at home. he had worked in a telegraph office, and he was certain that he was going among friends. the boys were there, and they came up to wait on him, but julian went ahead until he confronted the operator at his desk. "is mr. fay in?" julian asked. "yes, sir. he is in his private office. would you like to see him?" "i would thank you first to give me a screw-driver so that i can take this cover off. there is a letter in here addressed to him." the screw-driver was soon forthcoming, and while julian was at work at it, a hustling little man suddenly stood before him. "do you want to see me?" he asked, in a business way. julian had by this time taken out the letter, which was placed on top, and handed it to mr. fay, who leaned against the counter and read it. the boys watched him closely, and finally saw his eyes light up with surprise. "this letter has a stamp on it, so i know it is all right," said he. "but this man wiggins i never heard of. come into the office." the boys followed him, seating themselves in chairs that were pointed out to them, while mr. fay went on reading the letter. he was utterly amazed, and looked at the two friends as if he could scarcely believe it. "which one of you boys is julian gray?" he asked. "you are? then i congratulate you from the bottom of my heart. you struck it rich once in buying 'old horse,' didn't you? how long have you been with mr. wiggins?" julian began, and told as much of his history as he was willing that any stranger should know--all except about pulling him out from under the feet of the runaway horses. he thought that that was a sacred matter between him and mr. wiggins, and so he said nothing about it. "and how about your friend, here, john sheldon?" said he. "you see, i want to get at the bottom of all your doings, so that i can explain it to mr. gibson, mr. winkleman's lawyer. we know of that man, and we know why he left; but we want to be certain that you have a right to the box." jack began and related his story; and although mr. wiggins did not say much about it, never having been acquainted with jack, the tale he told was so honest and truthful that mr. fay could not but believe him. "well, boys, i will go with you to see mr. gibson," said the operator. "it all rests with him. you see, all these things happened eleven months ago, and he has collected considerable money in rent for all these places. you will come in for fifteen or twenty thousand dollars at the start. he may want to ask you some questions." what mr. fay said almost took the boys' breath away. they had hardly anything in their pockets, and to be told that they were worth ten thousand dollars apiece was almost too good for belief. they followed mr. fay out on the street--the way he moved proved that he had come up from the ranks--and up the stairs that led to mr. gibson's office. they found the lawyer in there, walking up and down, but he stopped long enough to bid mr. fay good-morning. "what have these young men been doing?" said he, pulling up a chair for each one to sit down. "more lawsuits, i suppose." "no, sir, there is no law in this except what you have a mind to tell us. read this letter; but first let me introduce the boys." mr. gibson said he was glad to see them, and then commenced the letter, and before he had read it half-way through he whistled and looked at them with intense surprise. "well, sir, you have done it, have you not?" said he. "now, whom have you to prove that you bought this 'old horse' at the express office?" "read on, sir, and i think the letter will answer that question for you," replied julian. "i told mr. wiggins about it. that is all he knows of it." mr. gibson finished the letter at last, and then turned and gave the boys a good looking over. he evidently was not thinking about them at all, but about some point of law that had just occurred to him. finally he said, "i want you to understand that i believe your story, but in order to be all right in everything, and leave nothing for anybody to pick a flaw with, i would like to know what you did to look up this man haberstro." "if i were in your place, gibson," said mr. fay, "i would write to mr. wiggins and the president of that bank, and get a full history of the boys. they will tell the truth." "let me suggest to you, also, the name of mr. dawson," said jack. "i used to work for him, and he knows all about me." the lawyer took down the three addresses of the men he wanted to write to. "have you young fellows any money?" asked the lawyer. "yes, sir, a little." "will it last you two weeks?" the two friends were sure it would last them as long as that. "where are you stopping?" julian replied that they were stopping at some hotel, but they did not know which one. "well, fay will no doubt direct you to a cheaper boarding-house than that. what are you boys going to do with this?" said mr. gibson, placing his hand upon the box. "we want to put it somewhere so it will be safe," said julian. "shall i take charge of it for you? i will put it in the bank. it is most too valuable for me to carry around." "yes, sir." after a little more conversation his two clients went out. the lawyer sat for a long time thinking the matter over, and at last he got up, took the box under his arm and started for the bank. he had decided that he would go to st. louis that very night. chapter xii. casper nevins, the spy. "no, sir," said casper, leaning over and placing his elbows on his knees, his eyes gazing thoughtfully at the floor; "you don't get any more five cents out of me, yet awhile, to pay for cigars. i have got only ten dollars, and i am anxious to make that do. now, what shall i go at next?" casper nevins was in a predicament the first thing he knew. he claimed to be an orphan, the same as julian was; but those who were well acquainted with his history knew that he had a mother in a western village who was a dressmaker, and who would have been glad to get every cent he could send her. but casper never sent her any money. on the contrary, he often appealed to her to forward him a few dimes, to pay his debts for pool and cigars. claus often got into him a dollar or two on the games he lost, and his mother was the only person he had to call on. now he had lost his position, and the next thing was to find something else to do. he was really afraid he would have to go to work with his hands. he thought of jack sheldon, dirty and begrimed as he was when he came from the shop, and wondered how he would look in that fix. and, another thing, he wasn't satisfied that he could get as good a position as jack held. aside from being acquainted with the city and carrying the telegraphic dispatches, there was nothing else that he could do. "i tell you i am up a stump," said casper to himself; "i shall soon be sweeping out saloons, as julian did, to pay for my breakfast. i would rather die than do that." when he had reached this point in his meditations the door opened, and claus came in with a couple of cigars in his hand. he did not seem to be at all worried over his failure to get his hands upon that box, but he was whistling a jig as he closed the door and offered a cigar to casper. "what is the matter with you, any way?" he asked, when he saw the gloomy look on casper's face. "you act as though you had lost your last friend." "what am i going to do now?" asked casper. "i have no trade, no profession, and i must do something to keep myself in grub. there is no pool or cigars for me from this time on." "well, let that thing go until i tell you my story," said claus, who did not like to hear a man talk in this way. he knew that he was to blame for casper's shortness of funds--a good deal of his hard earnings was located in claus's own pockets--and he wanted to make him look on the bright side of things while he was in his presence. when he got away where he could not see him, then he could indulge in moody thoughts as often as he pleased. "i wish i had not played pool with you as often as i have," said casper, showing a little spirit. "every time i have crossed cues with you i have always been out three or four dollars. why don't you play with somebody else?" "well, if you are going to talk that way i'll go on," said claus, getting up from his chair. "what i was going to say was that i don't believe that box is gone yet. i have tried twice to get it and have failed; but there is a charm in everything. three times and out is what i go by; but if you don't want to hear what i have to say, why, good-night." "well, sit down," said casper, who couldn't bear to let claus go away if he had anything to say concerning that box; "but you yourself would be angry if you were in my fix." "oh, i have been that way lots of times. i have been so i didn't know where my next meal was coming from." "i have been that way, too," said casper. "the other night you got ten cents of me, and it was the last cent i had in the world; i had to get my next meal at the free-lunch saloons." "i didn't know you were as hard up as that," said casper, with surprise. "have you money with which to get breakfast to-morrow?" "not a cent." "then here are twenty cents," said claus, putting his hand into his pocket. "two meals will do you. in the meantime, if you get hard up for something to eat, go to the saloons; that's the way i do." "yes, but you always get something else. if i go in there and dabble with their lunch, the barkeeper will want to know why i don't get something to drink." "then walk out and go to another saloon. you ain't posted. now, i want to tell you my story. it isn't long, and i want to ask you a question before i get through." when claus said this, casper settled back in his chair and tried to look interested; but the trouble was, he only succeeded in looking guilty. "i have just come from julian's room," continued claus, "and i threatened him with the police. he called me by my own name, or jack did, and i want to know who has been telling him that. did you?" "i never said a word to him about you or anybody else," said casper, looking claus squarely in the eye. "did you say anything to mr. wiggins about it?" "never a word. there might have been a detective in the office while you were there." "a detective? who was it?" "i am sure i don't know. but if he knew your name, there was where he got it. you went up to the pool-room after you got through there? well, did anybody follow you up to see what your name was?" "there was nobody up there that i saw, and i took mighty good care to watch out. i threatened him with the police for addressing me by that name, and he just as good as told me to go and get them." "what made you say police at all? what had he done?" "i wanted him to get the box and let me read the papers in it, because i wanted to be sure that they were intended for me; but he would not do it." "of course he would not!" exclaimed casper, in disgust. "that was a pretty way to do business, wasn't it?" "i calculated, if he brought the box in there, to steal it away from them," said claus. "if i once got out on the street, i would like to see anybody catch me. i would have hung around this city for a month but that i would have got away with it." "and what would i be doing in the meantime?" "you would have known where i was," said claus, bending toward casper and speaking in a whisper. "i would have found means to communicate with you. of course if i had got that box you would have had a share of it." casper did not know whether to believe this or not. somehow he had felt suspicious of claus ever since the first night he spoke to him about the box. if the german got it without any of his help, he was sure that he never would see any of it. "well, you failed in that scheme, and i would like to know if you have some other means of getting hold of it." "certainly i have. three times and out is what i go by. my next scheme will be to steal the box from them on the train." "how are you going to do that?" "we will keep watch of them, and when they are ready to go to denver, we will go, too. you know their habits better than i do, and by keeping your eyes on them--" "well, i won't do it," said casper, emphatically. "they may not go for a month yet, and i must have something to eat in the meantime." "i will give you twenty cents a day and enough to pay your rent," said claus. "that will keep you going, won't it?" "you must give me more than that. i shall need a cigar once in a while, won't i?" "then i will give you thirty cents. you don't want to smoke more than two cigars every day, do you?" the question where claus earned the money he had was a mystery to every one except himself. when the police arrested him for vagrancy and the justice fined him ten dollars, believing that he was going to shut him up for two months, claus pulled out a roll of greenbacks as large as one's wrist. the justice gazed at him in surprise and said, "i had no idea that you were so well heeled as that." "i have a relative in europe who sends me money once in a while," said claus. "well, get out of here, and don't come into this station any more." "i won't," said claus; "and i wouldn't have come in here this time, only the police brought me." "you must go easy on me, because i haven't too many ducats," said claus, continuing the conversation which we have broken off. "i think thirty cents a day will see you through in good fashion." "of course that puts a different look on the matter. begin by giving me ten cents to get a cigar with to-night. thank you. now, what do you want me to do?" "you are to begin and keep your eye on julian, and report to me every day at the pool-room. whenever you see preparations made for them to go out to denver, you must let me know it; then we will go, too." "but how are you going to steal their valises, if they have any?" "they will leave their valises behind them when they go out to get their meals, and i will slip up and get them. you won't have anything to do with stealing them at all." "that is a bargain," said casper. "i believe that is the best way yet. but remember--you must keep out of their sight; and i will, too." a little more conversation was held on the subject, and then claus took his leave. when the door closed behind him casper arose to his feet, placed his thumb against his nose, and wiggled his fingers. that was his opinion of mr. claus's scheme. "i know what you mean to do," said he, in a voice that was choked with passion. "you are going to get me out there on the railroad and leave me. but i will see that you don't do it; i will stick closer to you than a brother, and when you get that box i will be close at hand. now i will go off to some restaurant and get some supper." the next morning dawned clear and bright, and when casper opened his eyes his first thought was to get up; but remembering that he had not to go to the office that day, he rolled over and dropped asleep again. but he had to get up at last; and after a good, hearty breakfast, and smoking a cigar, he strolled down toward the telegraph office. julian was there, sitting in his chair, for he could see him through the window. he had not made preparations to go to denver yet. and so it was during every day that the boys waited for haberstro to show up. julian was as impatient as casper, and even claus began to growl for fear there was being too big a haul made upon his money. "i am not an astor, to be giving you thirty cents a day to watch those fellows," said he. "if they don't begin to make some move very soon i shall be sorry that i hired you." "they are going to denver some time, and if you are bound to have a hand in the box, the best thing for you to do is to keep on hiring me," said casper. "i know what you want," he added to himself. "if you were to give me every cent of money you have, i would just about get my own back." but not long after this, when casper was strolling by the telegraph office to see what was going to happen, he saw julian and jack go in there. the two boys were dressed in citizens' clothes, too, and that proved that there was something up. while he was wondering whether or not he had better go back and report the matter to claus, mr. wiggins came out and took his way toward the bank. in a little while he came back again with the box under his arm. casper concluded to wait still longer, and the result proved satisfactory. the two friends came out of the office, and julian held the door open long enough to say, "i haven't gone yet; i will come back and bid you good-bye before i start." "by gracious, they are going!" said casper, so excited that he could not stand still. "now, the next thing is to find out _when_ they are going. i guess i will go and see what claus has to say about it." claus was found in the pool-room, and he was playing a game with somebody. he drew off on one side, and casper hurriedly related what he had to say to him. for a wonder claus smiled. "they are going to-morrow night," said he. "you talk as though you knew all about it. how do you know?" asked casper, with the accent on the adverb. "because julian has got his discharge, he is dressed in citizen's clothes, and they will have to take to-day in order to bid their friends good-bye and get some things that are necessary for the trip," said claus. "watch them closely, and when you see a carriage drive up to their door and a trunk put on, come to me here and i will be ready for you." "how are you going to get your own luggage down?" asked casper. "i don't want any luggage," replied claus; "i have more money than enough to buy--humph!" he had intended saying that he had money enough to buy all the clothing he wanted, but seeing casper's eyes fastened upon him he caught his breath in time and said, "i have money enough to pay for a night's lodging, and that is all we want. now you go and do just as i tell you." claus turned again to his game and casper went slowly out of the room. the german watched him, as he opened the door, and said to himself, "i wonder if that fellow knows what i am up to? he acts like it; but if he does, i would like to see him help himself." chapter xiii. getting ready for work. "i know just what you are going to do," repeated casper, as he ran down the stairs--"you are going to steal the box, and leave me out on the prairie to get back the best way i can. for two cents i would not have anything to do with it." but in spite of this resolution, casper, as soon as he reached the street, turned his gaze in every direction in the hope of finding julian and jack; but the boys had disappeared. he walked along the streets looking everywhere for them, and finally came to a standstill opposite julian's room. "they will have to come here some time, and i will just take my stand here in this door and watch for them," said casper. "they will not take that box with them, anyhow; it is much too valuable to lug about in a valise. they will send it by express." this was something that had occurred to casper on the spur of the moment, and he thought seriously of going back to claus with it; but, on the whole, he decided to keep still about it. he was getting thirty cents a day for doing nothing, and he did not want to bring that to an end too speedily. claus had plenty of money. casper had seen the inside of his pocketbook when he took it out to pay him his money, and he might as well have thirty cents of it as not. at the end of three hours casper saw the carriage coming up the street. he was certain that he was right in his suspicions, because carriages of that description were not often seen in that by-street; and, more than that, there was a trunk perched in front of the driver. he drew up in front of julian's room, and a moment afterward the boys got out. casper saw the driver catch up the trunk and carry it upstairs, and presently he came down again, mounted to his box, and disappeared up the street. "they are gentlemen now, and of course they could not carry that trunk upstairs," sneered casper, coming out of his concealment. "now, i wish i knew when they are going to start. if things were all right between julian and myself i would go upstairs and find out; but as it is, i guess i had better keep away; he would not tell me, anyhow. i stole that box from him once, and that was where i missed it. i ought to have gone to denver at once." after some time spent in rapid walking, casper once more found himself in the pool-room, and saw claus busy with his game. claus drew off on one side, while casper whispered the result of his investigations to him. "that is all right," said he, and a smile overspread his face. "you are much better at watching than i thought you were. wait until i get through here and i will give you a cigar." "but, claus, though they had a valise apiece in their hands, they have no idea of carrying the box in them," said casper; "it is too valuable." "that's the very reason they will take it with them," whispered claus. "they will not trust it out of their sight." "i'll bet you that they will send it by express," answered casper; "that is what i should do with it." "but all persons are not as careful as you are," said claus; and he turned to take his shot at the game. "you need not think you can soft-sawder me in that style," thought casper, as he backed toward a chair and took his seat to see how the game was coming out. "you have some other little trick that you want me to play. well, if it is not too dangerous i'll do it; if it is, i won't." "there is nothing more that we can do to-night, but i shall expect to see you bright and early to-morrow morning," resumed claus, as he finished his game and hung the cue up in its proper place. "here is a dollar. you may get yourself all the cigars you want." "thank you for nothing," said casper to himself, as he turned to leave the room. "the last game i played with you you got an even five dollars out of me. this does not make me straight with you by a long way." casper did not rise bright and early the next morning, because he did not think there was any need of it. he spent a quarter of claus's dollar for breakfast, smoked a cigar, and strolled leisurely down to the telegraph office. he was just in time to see julian and jack coming out. the face of the former wore a very sad expression, and there was a suspicious redness about his eyes, which looked as though he had been crying. "by gracious! i don't think i would shed tears if i were in your place," said casper, in disgust. "and you are going away with a hundred thousand dollars in your pocket! it beats me, how many people go to make up a world! julian has been bidding them good-bye in there, and so he must be getting ready to go off very soon. now i will go and see claus." casper found his companion in guilt at the very place he said he would be; and, for a wonder, he was sitting there alone, in one corner of the room. he told what he had seen, adding that julian could not keep back his tears when he came out. "we'll give him something to cry for when he goes out of that car," said claus, with a wink; "he will be just a fortune out of pocket." casper had several times been on the point of asking claus how he was going to work in order to secure to himself the full possession of all that property. he thought there would have to be some legal steps taken before the agent, or whoever had charge of those blocks of buildings, would be willing for claus to call them all his own. suppose the agent should write to some of the many friends he was presumed to have in chicago, and should get no answer from them; what would claus do then? all the friends he had were in st. louis; he did not know anybody in chicago, and consequently he would receive a check at the very start. if the german thought of this, he did not say anything about it. he wanted first to get the box, and then he could settle these things afterward. "well, there is only one thing for you to do now," said claus, after thinking the matter over; "you must stay around julian's room, and wait for them to go to the depot. you will find me right here." "i shall want a cigar to smoke in the meantime," said casper. it was right on the end of claus's tongue to make a flat refusal, but there was something in casper's eye, which he turned full upon him, that made him hesitate. he growled out something about not being made of money, but finally put his hand into his pocket and produced another dollar. "you need not mutter so lustily every time i ask you for money," said casper to himself as he left the pool-room. "i will have to give up this business before long, and i am going to make all i can." casper went straight to a restaurant and got his dinner, and with a cigar for company took up his usual hiding-place in the doorway and waited to see what was going to happen. he stayed there until four o'clock in the afternoon, and then began to grow interested. he saw julian come out and hasten away, and something told him that he had gone for a carriage. but why was it that casper got so mad, and threw his cigar spitefully down upon the pavement? julian was dressed in a suit of new clothes, and he looked like a young gentleman in it. the suit that casper wore was the only one he had, and when that was gone he did not know what he should do to get another. "that fellow must have received a good many tips while he was in the office," muttered casper, "or else he saved his money. i wish to goodness i had saved mine, instead of giving it all to claus." julian soon came back with a carriage, and it became evident that they were going to take the train for denver. julian and the hackman went upstairs, and when the boys came down again they each wore a traveling-coat and had a small valise in their hands. they got into the carriage and were driven away for the depot. "now, then, i am going to see if claus is fooled," thought casper, as he hurried off in another direction. "the box is not in those gripsacks; they are not large enough. now, you mark what i tell you." "what's the news?" said claus, who was loitering at one of the windows of the pool-room. "did you see them go?" he asked, in a whisper. "i did," answered casper. "we have just time to get down there, and that is all. you are making a mistake by not taking some baggage along." "no, i am not. we shall go as far as the station at which the passengers take breakfast, and then we will stop and come back. that is as far as we want to go." "and come back as empty-handed as we went," said casper to himself. "i'll bet there won't be anything worth having in those valises." it took claus and casper a long time to walk to the depot, although they went with all the speed they could command; but when, at last, they got there, they found that the ticket office was not open. it was no trouble at all for them to find the boys whom they were seeking; they occupied a couple of seats in the gentlemen's waiting-room, sitting pretty close together, too, and were engaged in earnest conversation. "those are the ones, are they not?" questioned claus. "they are dressed up so fine that i would not have known them." "yes; they have new clothes on," said casper. "they are going off as though they were business men starting out on a vacation." "that is the way we will travel when we get our money," said claus, with a wink. "and when we do get it you may go your way and i will go mine," said casper to himself; "i am not going to stay around where you are all the while bothering me to play a game with you. i am going to save my money; that's what i will do." it was shortly after they reached the depot that the ticket office was opened, and julian went to purchase tickets for himself and companion. casper watched them until they were safe in the train, and then claus bought two tickets for casper and himself, and they took seats in the car behind julian's. in that way they would keep out of sight. they did not intend to show themselves until the train stopped for breakfast the next morning, and then they would show themselves to some purpose. the night was a long and wearisome one to casper, who did not once close his eyes in slumber. he was wondering what was going to be the result of this new scheme of theirs, and telling himself over and over again that it would not amount to anything. it did not look reasonable that the boys should carry their box in a valise, and leave it behind when they went to breakfast while there was so much in it that needed their constant care. "and then, after he gets the valises and finds that there is nothing in them, that is the time for me to look out," thought casper. "he won't get away from me if i have to stay awake for two or three nights to watch him." finally, to casper's immense relief, day began to dawn and some of the wakeful passengers to bestir themselves. he arranged his hair with the aid of a comb which he had in his pocket, and then sat on the seat and waited impatiently for claus to wake up. all night long the german had slumbered heavily, as though he felt at peace with himself and all the world. that was something that casper could not understand. here he was, fully intending to steal a fortune from a boy who had come honestly by it, and yet he could sleep peacefully and quietly over it! "i wonder if i shall be the way he is?" soliloquized casper. "i will try this once, and if we don't get the box i will go back and go to work--that's the best thing i can do." it was not long before a brakeman came in and told them that they were approaching the place where they would be allowed fifteen minutes for breakfast; whereupon casper leaned over and shook claus by the shoulder. "it was time you were getting up," said he in a whisper; "it is time to go to work." "i heard every word that was said," said claus. "this is the place to which i bought tickets, and it is as far as we shall go. go forward, and see if they are in the car ahead of us." "but suppose they see me?" said casper. "you must not let them see you. keep out of their sight. if they leave their valises behind when they go out to breakfast, it is all i want." casper went, but he walked slowly, as if he did it under protest. when he arrived at the end of the car he found he could not see anything from there, so he opened the door and went out on the platform. he was gone a good while, but when he came back his face told claus all he wished to know. "they are there," casper whispered, "and are getting ready to go out. i saw the valises in the rack over their seats." "that's all right. now, when we go out you must keep close behind me. i will come in at the front end of the car as if i had a perfect right there, and if i say anything to you, you must just nod your head." "what must i do that for?" asked casper. "because there may be somebody looking. i want to convince everybody that i have a right to the valises. now, you go on ahead, and do as i tell you." casper did not approve of this plan at all. the understanding between him and the german was that he was to have no hand in stealing the valises, but this looked as though he was the prime mover in the affair. before he could make any further objection the cars stopped, the gong sounded for breakfast, and the passengers began to move toward the door. chapter xiv. how casper was served. "come on, now, and remember what i told you," said claus, getting on his feet. "there they go! all we have to do, now, is to go in there and get the valises. you know where they sat, don't you?" casper glanced toward the front end of the car, and saw julian and jack step down and hurry toward the dining-room. claus waited until most of the passengers got off, and then, with a motion to casper to follow him, he went boldly forward and climbed the steps. he opened the door, and, when casper went in, he said, "now tell me exactly where they sat, so that i can pick up the valises without exciting anybody's suspicions." "do you see that red-faced man sitting on the right-hand side?" whispered casper. "and do you see those valises in the rack directly in front him? well, they are the ones you want." "all right! we will have them out of there in a jiffy." "i don't like the way that man looks at us," casper ventured to remark; "perhaps he knows them." "it don't make any difference to me whether he does or not. if he says anything to us, we will tell him the valises belong to us, and that we have come after them." calling a smile to his face, claus went down the passage-way, looking at the various valises stowed away in the racks. when he arrived opposite the seat where julian had sat before he left the train, a look of surprise spread over his countenance, and he stepped in and took them down, one after the other. "these are ours, ain't they?" he asked, turning to casper. "yes--they are the ones." "i don't see what those boys put them in here for. now we will take charge of them ourselves." he passed one valise to casper, who took it and made his way out of the car, while claus kept close at his heels. "now we want to go somewhere and get out of sight as soon as we can," said casper, looking around guiltily, and almost expecting a policeman to take him by the collar. "i shall not feel easy until this train goes." "well, we don't want to get out of sight just yet," said claus. "that red-faced man kept his eyes on us, didn't he? let us see what he will make of it now." "why, claus, you are not going in there?" queried casper, when his companion led the way toward the waiting-room. "julian and jack went in there, and they will be certain to discover us." "no, they won't. you follow me, and do just as i do." casper turned his eyes and looked back at the train. there was the red-faced man, sitting by the car window, closely watching all their movements, and when he saw them enter the waiting-room into which julian and jack had gone a few moments before, his suspicions, if he had any, were set at rest, and he settled back in his seat and picked up a newspaper which he had just purchased. claus kept on to the waiting-room, but he did not stop when he got there. he kept right on through and went out at the other door, and after walking briskly for a few minutes, and turning several corners until he was sure that the depot had been left out of sight, he seated himself on the steps of a deserted house, took off his hat, and wiped his forehead. "it was not such an awful thing to get those valises, after all," said he. "when that train goes, we will go and get our breakfast." "but i would like to know what is in those valises first," said casper. "i tell you, you are fooled. i have felt this valise all over on the outside, and there is nothing in it that feels like a box." "i don't suppose you could feel anything of that kind in it, because i don't believe the box was put in there," said claus. "my only hope is that they took the papers out of the box and put them in here; consequently they left the box at home." "good enough!" exclaimed casper, catching up his valise and feeling the outside of it, to see if he could feel anything that seemed like papers that were stowed away on the inside of it; "i never thought of that. now, how shall we go to work to get the valises open? i haven't a key in my pocket that will fit them." "i haven't, either; but as soon as we get our breakfast we will go up the road a little distance and cut them open. these gripsacks will never be worth anything to anybody after we get done with them." even while they were talking in this way they heard the shriek of the whistle twice, followed by the ringing of the bell, and knew that their train was getting ready to start on again; whereupon claus got up and said he was as hungry as a wolf, and that he must procure a breakfast somewhere. "i shall not eat much till i find out what those valises are hiding from us," said casper. "it would be just dreadful if we should fail, after all the trouble we have been to." by the time they got back to the depot the train was well under way; but claus went out and looked after it, to satisfy himself that the coast was clear. then they placed their valises in charge of the clerk at the desk, enjoyed a good wash, and went in and took their seats at the table. their meal was a better one than they had had served up to them at st. louis, especially when they were hard up for money; and, after taking their time in eating it, claus settled the bill, took his valise, and started up the railroad track. "have you a cigar?" he asked, before they had gone a great ways. "that is all right. we will go on until we get into that sagebrush, and then we will stop and look into these things. i will take just a hundred thousand dollars for my find." "i'll bet you will take less than that," said casper; for, somehow, he could not get over the idea that the box had been sent by express. "there is nothing in them that you want." it did not take them more than a quarter of an hour to get into the sagebrush; and, after looking all around to make sure that there was no one in sight, they stepped down from the track and seated themselves on the bank beside it. claus did not waste any time in trying his keys upon the valise, but stretched out his legs and put his hand into his pocket, and when he pulled it out again he held a knife in it. "the shortest way is the best," said he, thrusting the blade into the valise he held in his hand. "come out here, now, and let us see what you have." his knife made short work of the valise, but nothing in the way of papers could be found. it was jack's valise that he had destroyed, and all he found in it was a brush and comb, and half a dozen handkerchiefs. "i just knew how it would be," said casper, despairingly. "you will find the same things in here." he had never seen claus look so angry and disappointed as he was at that moment. with a spiteful kick of one foot he sent the valise out of sight in the sagebrush, and was about to send the other things to keep it company, when he happened to think of something. "i guess i'll keep the handkerchiefs and brush and comb for the good they may do me," said he. "where's your valise?" casper handed it over, and in a moment more that valise was a wreck, also. they found things in it similar to those found in jack's gripsack, with the exception of a book which julian had purchased to read on his journey, the leaves of which were uncut. casper took possession of the handkerchiefs and the brush and comb, while claus slowly rolled up the book and sat with his eyes fastened on the ground. he was mad--casper could easily see that, and he dared not interrupt his train of thought. claus sat for some moments communing with his own thoughts, then broke into a whistle and got upon his feet. "to say that i am disappointed, and angry, too, would not half express my feelings," said he, pulling off his hat with one hand and digging his fingers into his head with the other. "i did not suppose they would send those papers by express, for i know it is something that i would not have done. i would have kept them by me all the while, so that i could see that they were safe. now, the next thing is to determine upon something else." "do you intend to make another effort to get the money?" asked casper, very much surprised. "your 'three times and out' did not amount to anything--did it?" "no, i don't suppose it did," said claus, who was evidently thinking about something else. "i guess you have done about all you can do, and so you had better go back to st. louis." this was nothing more than casper expected. he had his ten dollars stowed away somewhere about his clothes, together with small sums which he had saved from the amount that claus had paid him, and so he could pay his way back to st. louis easily enough; but what should he do when he got there? he shuddered when he thought of it. here was winter coming on, and unless he should obtain work very soon he would have to go out to where his mother lived, which was all of two hundred and fifty miles from there. and what should he say when he got home? he had gone to st. louis with big boasts of what he intended to do when he got there, and for him to turn up penniless and friendless at his mother's house was rather more than he had bargained for. "and what will _you_ do?" asked casper. "i haven't had time to think the matter over," said claus, who was rather surprised that his companion took his discharge, or whatever you might call it, so easily, "but i think i shall go on to denver." "and i can't be of any use to you there?" "no, i don't think you can. i may not be back to the city before next spring." "i wish you would tell me what you are going to do when you get there. you can't get the box; that will be safe in the bank." "but perhaps i can pass myself off for mr. haberstro. i have some of his cards in my pocket." "but you will only get yourself into trouble if you try that game. there are people out there who know haberstro." "well, that is so," said claus, looking reflectively at the ground. "i shall have to think up some way to get around that. at any rate, you cannot be of any further use to me, and so you had better start by the next train." "well, you had better give me some money before you turn me off in this way," said casper. "how am i going to get back to the city without money?" "where is that ten dollars you got out of the telegraph office when your time was up?" asked claus, who did not like it whenever the subject of giving some of his hard earnings was brought up before him. "you have not spent all of that, i know." "yes, i have. i have just a quarter, and there it is," said casper, pulling out of his pocket the coin in question. "i wish to goodness i had never seen you!" said claus, shoving his hand into the pocket in which he kept his money. casper heard the jingling of some silver pieces, and thought that perhaps his companion might be tempted to give him a few dollars. that would be better than nothing, and he would have some money left when he reached st. louis. "if i had never seen you, i would have more dollars left in my pocket than i have now," said claus, bringing out a handful of small change. casper said nothing in reply. he wanted to see how much claus was going to give him; and, once he had the money in his hand, he could talk to him as he pleased. "there are five dollars that i will give you, and you need not ask me for any more," said claus, counting out the money; "for, if you do, you won't get it." "i don't know whether five dollars will pay my fare to st. louis or not," said casper. "give me six." "no, sir; that's all i have to spare. it will take you so close to the city that you can easily walk in," said claus, turning on his heel and starting toward the town they had just left. "you can walk twenty-five miles very easily." it was right on the point of casper's tongue to "open out" on claus, and give him as good as he sent. wouldn't he have had more dollars in _his_ pocket if he had never met the man who was anxious at all times to play a game of billiards or pool with him, especially on pay-day, when casper was known to have money in his pocket? but, on thinking the matter over, he decided that he would say nothing about it. claus was a pretty big man, and there was no knowing what he would do if the boy made him angrier than he was now. "he is going to be fooled again," said casper, as he fell in behind claus, who walked toward the town as if he were in an awful hurry to get there. "what good will it do him to go on to denver? he can't get the box there, neither can he cheat julian out of his money. julian will find any amount of friends there--i never heard of a boy with a hundred thousand dollars in his pocket who could not find somebody to stand by him--and they will tell him what to do. oh! why did i make so great a mistake! i ought to have started for denver the moment i got my hands on that box. well, i got five dollars out of claus, anyhow." casper sauntered along behind claus, who was walking rapidly, and when he reached the depot he looked all around for his companion, but failed to see him. claus had gone off somewhere, and casper was there alone. chapter xv. how a mine was haunted. "well, boys," said mr. fay, when they had reached the street and were walking toward their hotel, "i have somehow taken a great interest in you, and i am anxious to see you come out all right. it is the most remarkable thing i ever heard of. you did not know what was in that box when you bought it, did you?" "no, sir," replied julian; "it was all sealed up. the auctioneer said something about a miner having hidden the secret of a gold-mine in it, and i bought it for thirty cents." "the auctioneer happened to hit the matter right on the head. i will go with you in search of a cheaper boarding-house than the one at which you are now stopping, and you had better remain there until mr. gibson hears from those people in st. louis. that will be two weeks, probably. if, at any time, you grow weary of walking about our city, looking at what little there is worth seeing, come down to the office, and we'll sit there and swap a few lies." mr. fay continued to talk in this way while they were walking along the streets, meanwhile turning several corners, and the longer he talked the more the boys saw the traits of his western character sticking out all over him. he talked like a gentleman, and then spoiled it all by remarking that they would "swap a few lies" when they came around to his office. he had probably been out west so long that he had become accustomed to western ways of conversation. at length mr. fay turned off from the sidewalk, ascended the steps that led to the door of a house, saying, as he did so, "now we will go in here and see what we can do," and rang the door-bell. it was a very different-looking house from the one they had been in the habit of living in when in st. louis. there were no broken-down doors to be opened before they went in, nor any rickety steps to be climbed, but everything was neat and trim, and kept in perfect order. a motherly-looking old lady answered mr. fay's pull at the bell. "ah! good-morning, mrs. rutherford," was the way in which mr. fay greeted her. "let me introduce julian gray and john sheldon. they are looking around for a cheap boarding-house,--not too cheap, mind you,--and i have called to see if you have any place in which to hang them up for the night." mrs. rutherford was glad to meet julian and jack, invited them into the parlor, and asked them if they wanted a room together. the boys replied that they did, and she conducted them upstairs, to show them a room that was vacant. they were gone not more than five minutes, and when they came downstairs again mrs. rutherford was putting some bills away in her pocket-book, and the boys acted as though they were well satisfied. "well, you have found a place, have you?" said mr. fay. "have you jotted down the street and number?" no, the boys had not thought of that, and julian quickly pulled his note-book from his pocket. "your city is somewhat larger than we expected to find it," began julian. "you don't find many wigwams around here now," answered mr. fay. "we keep spreading out all the time. can you boys find the way back to your hotel?" julian and jack thought they could find it if they were given time enough, but mr. fay thought he had better go with them. it was right on the road to his office, and he walked off so rapidly that his young companions were obliged to increase their speed in order to keep up with him. before they had gone a great way, julian, who was anxious to learn all he could about their surroundings, asked how far it was to the mountains behind them. mr. fay had evidently answered such questions before, for all he said in reply was, "how far do you think it is?" "i think two miles would cover the distance," he answered, for he was determined he would guess enough while he was about it. "how far do _you_ say it is, john?" said mr. fay, turning to jack. "i would rather be excused from expressing an opinion, but i think we could walk out there in two hours." "and come back the same day?" "why, yes; certainly." "now, let me tell you," said mr. fay: "if you have made up your minds to go out to the mountains, hire a good, fast walking-horse, and go out one day and come back the next." "is it as far as that?" exclaimed the boys, looking at each other with amazement. "it is all of twelve miles. you must take into consideration that the air is very rare up here, and that things appear nearer than they are. you are feet above the level of the sea." "my goodness! i didn't think we were so far out of the world!" "we have awfully uncertain weather here," continued mr. fay, "but still we regard our climate as healthy. our thermometer sometimes changes as much as forty degrees in twenty-four hours. since professor loomis took charge of the matter, the mercury has changed forty-five times in one day. what sort of a place did you expect to find denver, anyway?" "well, i did not know what sort of a place it was," said julian. "we thought we should find more wigwams here than houses, and you can't imagine how surprised we were when we found ourselves in a depot full of people." "denver used to be full of wigwams, but it is not so now. until the year the indians lived in peace; but in that year gold was discovered by w. g. russell, a georgian, on the banks of the river platte, which is but a little way from here, and that settled the business of the indians in a hurry. denver, black hawk, golden city, and many other cities that i can't think of now, were founded in , and a host of immigrants appeared. since that time we have been spreading out, as i told you, until we have a pretty good-sized city." "it shows what western men can do when they once set about it," said jack. "now, answer another question while you are about it, if you please. if the mercury changes forty degrees in twenty-four hours, working in the mines must be dangerous business." "that depends upon where you are working," said mr. fay. "if you are at work in a placer-mine, you stand a good chance of leaving your bones up there for somebody to bring home; but if you are working under the ground, it does not make any difference. are you thinking of going out to dutch flat to try your hand at it? i don't know where that is, but you can find plenty of men here who can tell you." "i have not said anything to julian about it, but i think that would be one of the best things we could do. you see, we are not settled in that property yet." "i see," said mr. fay. "gibson may get word from those fellows in st. louis that you are impostors, and that you stole that box instead of buying it at a sale of 'old horse.' that would be rough on you." the boys did not know how to take this remark. they looked at mr. fay, but he was walking along as usual, with his hands in his pockets, bowing right and left to the many persons he met on the streets, and did not seem to think anything of it. perhaps it was his ordinary style of talking. "i am not at all afraid of that," remarked jack. "if he finds us impostors, we are willing to go to jail." mr. fay threw back his head and laughed heartily. "i have no idea of anything of the kind," said he, as soon as he could speak. "i was just wondering what you would think of it. but what were you going to say?" "this property is not settled on us yet," replied jack, "and we may want something to keep us in grub while we are here. we have a perfect right to work that mine, have we not?" "if you can find it--yes. go up there, and if nobody else is working it, pitch in and take fifty thousand dollars more out of it." "and what will we do if somebody else is working it?" "you had better give up to them, unless you think you are strong enough to get the better of them. but you need not worry about that. the mine is haunted, and you won't catch any of the miners going around where ghosts are." "who do you suppose are haunting it?" asked julian. "that letter says the writer worked the mine alone, and took lots of money out of it, and never saw a thing to frighten him." "perhaps somebody has been murdered up there; i don't know. you won't see anything until you get down in the mine, and then you want to look out. i heard of a mine up at gold cove that was haunted in that way. there were a dozen miners tried it, and each one came away without getting anything, although the gold was lying on top of the ground. as often as a miner went below (it was about thirty feet down to the bottom), he was sure to see somebody at work there before him. he was picking with a tool at the bottom of the shaft in order to loosen it up, accompanying every blow he made with a sonorous 'whiz!' which showed that he was an irishman. some of the miners retreated to their bucket and signaled to their helper to pull them up, and you couldn't hire them to go into the mine again. others, with a little more bravery than they had, went up to put their hands on the man, but as fast as they advanced he retreated; and when they got to the end of the shaft, the phantom miner was still ahead, and picking away as fast as ever." "then the mine is deserted?" "yes, and has been for years. it is one of the richest mines around here, too." "why, i should think somebody would shoot him," said jack. "shoot him! he has been shot at more times than anybody could count; but he pays no attention to it. he is a ghost, and he knows you can't hurt him. i never saw it, and, what is more, i don't want to; but i would not go down into that mine for all the gold there is in the hills." "did anybody think a murder had been committed somewhere around there?" said julian. "i never heard that there was." "well, i just wish our mine would be haunted with something like that," said jack. "i would find out what he was, and what business he had there, or i would know the reason why." "well, you may have a chance to try it. does this look like your hotel? now i will bid you good-bye, and i will see you again to-morrow, if you come around." mr. fay departed, taking with him the hearty thanks of the boys for all his kindness and courtesy, and then they slowly ascended the steps to the office. they had secured one thing by his attentions to them--a boarding-house at which the money they had in their pockets would keep them safely for a month, if it took mr. gibson that long to hear from st. louis; but, on the whole, jack wished mr. fay had not used his western phraseology so freely. "does he want us to work that mine or not?" asked jack. "i don't know. he talked pretty readily, did he not?" "i wonder if that is the way all westerners talk? did he scare you out of going up there to that mine?" "no, sir," replied julian, emphatically. "do you know that i rather like that man? he reminds me of mr. wiggins, and talks exactly like him." "what do you suppose it was that those fellows saw in that mine?" "i give it up. some of these western men are good shots with a revolver, and it seems to me they might have struck the fellow if they had had a fair chance at him." "but he was a ghost, you know." "oh, get out! if they saw him there, you can bet that there _was_ somebody there. some of the miners had their minds all made up to see something, and of course they saw it." "but how do you account for that 'whiz!' that he uttered every time he struck with his pick?" "they never heard any 'whiz!' coming from that man; they only imagined it." "do you think their ears could be deceived, as well as their eyes?" "jack, i am surprised at you. you are big enough and strong enough to whip any ghost that i ever saw, and yet you are afraid to go down in that mine!" "wait until we find it, and then i'll show you whether i am afraid or not. now, if you will go on and pay our bill and have our trunk brought down, i'll go and get a carriage." in five minutes this was done, and the boys were soon on their way to their boarding-house. chapter xvi. good news. for a week after julian and jack went to their new boarding-house they had much to occupy their attention--so much, indeed, they did not think of going down to the telegraph office and "swapping a few lies" with the chief operator. their new home charmed them in every particular. mr. fay had not forgotten that _he_ had been a boy in the not so very long ago, and the boarding-house he had chosen for them was such as he would have chosen for himself. the boarders were young men who, like themselves, had come out west to seek their fortunes, and they were all employed in various avocations in the city. jack noticed one thing, and that was they did not run around of evenings to any extent; or, if they did, they went down to the library, where they spent their time in reading. "do you know that that is something that strikes me," said jack one night when they went upstairs to their room. "we ought to join the young men's christian association." "have you forgotten our mine?" asked julian. "no, i have not; but i don't believe in going up there in winter. a thermometer that can change so many times within twenty-four hours is something that i want to keep clear of." "well, where is the money to come from?" "humph!" said jack, who had not thought of that before; "that's so. where is it?" the first thing the boys thought of, when they got up the next morning, was to take a trip to the mountains. jack was in favor of walking. it was only twelve miles, and the amount they would have to pay out for a horse would keep one of them a week at their boarding-house. but julian could not see it in that light. "i tell you, you have never walked twenty-four miles in a day," remarked the latter. "i have done it many a time, but i am not going to do it now, when there is no need of it." "you act as though you had that money in your hands already," retorted jack. "now, i'll tell you what's a fact: i am going to have the same trouble with you that i had in st. louis. there won't be any 'old horse' for you to spend your money on, but you will squander it in some other way." "you will see," said julian, with a laugh. "come on, now; i am going to get a saddle-horse--one that can take me out there in an hour." jack reluctantly yielded to his companion, who made his way toward a livery-stable which he had seen when they came to their boarding-house. there they engaged a couple of saddle-horses which seemed to know what they were expected to do, for when allowed the rein they put off toward the mountains, and went along at a brisk pace. jack could not get over grumbling about hiring horses to do what they could do themselves, but julian did not pay the least attention to it. when they had gone a long distance on the road they met a teamster, and of him jack inquired how many miles they had yet to travel to reach their destination. "them mountains?" asked the man, facing about in his seat. "they are a matter of six miles from here." "if i had a good start for a run i believe i could jump that far," said jack. "yes, it does look that way," said the man; "but it would be a mighty lengthy jump for you. i guess you are a tenderfoot--ain't you?" "i never was so far west as this in my life." the man had evidently heard all that he wanted to hear, for he started his team, smiling and nodding his head as if to say that jack would learn more about distances on the prairie before he had been there long. the distance was fully as great as the boys expected to find it; and, when they drew up in front of a little hotel in the foothills, the mountains seemed to be as far off as ever. the proprietor came to the door, bid them good-morning in his cheery way, and asked if there was anything that he could do for them. "how far off are those peaks from here?" questioned jack. "twenty miles," said the man. "you are not going out there to-day, are you?" "why, the folks in denver told us that the mountains were twelve miles away," said jack, greatly surprised. "well, you are twelve miles from denver now. these little hills here are the beginning of the mountains." "i guess you may feed our horses and give us some dinner, and then we will go back," said julian. "well, jack, we've seen the mountains." "yes, and laid out six dollars for the horses besides," replied jack, in disgust. "the next time you want anything to carry you, we will go on foot." the man laughed heartily as he took charge of their horses, and the boys went into the hotel, where they found a fire on the hearth, and were glad to draw up close to it. "i declare, i did not know it was so cold," said julian. "i suppose it is warm enough in st. louis. how high is that city above the sea-level?" "i don't know," answered jack, who could not get over the feeling that those people in denver had played too much on his credulity. "twenty miles! i guess we won't go up to the top of those mountains, yet a while, and look for california. i wish those horses were back in the stable where they belong." "we will have them back there in three hours," answered julian, "and if you don't want me to hire any more horses, i won't do it." the boys got back to denver without any mishap, and after that they were eager to see the city. jack did not have anything to grumble about during the week that followed, for they went on foot, and there were no horses hired. finally, after viewing all the fine buildings that were to be seen, they thought of the telegraph operator, and decided to take him in the next day; so on monday they presented themselves at his office. mr. fay was there; and, unlike mr. wiggins, he did not seem to have much to do, for he was sitting in an easy-chair, with his feet perched upon the desk in front of him, playing with a paper-cutter. the boy who came forward to attend to their wants seemed to have made up his mind that mr. fay was the man they wanted to see, and so he conducted them into his private office. "halloo! boys," he cried, taking down his feet and pushing chairs toward them; "you are here yet, are you? have you been out to look at your gold-mine?" "no, sir," replied julian; "we could hardly go out there and come back in a week--could we?" "no, i don't believe you could. i have been thinking about you," continued mr. fay, depositing his feet on the desk once more, "and if you know when you are well off you won't go out there this fall. i was talking with a man who has come in from dutch flat, and he says it is getting most too cold up there to suit him. he has made a heap of money, and has come here to spend it. i suppose that is what you will be doing when you get to work out there--make all you want in summer, and come here in winter and spend it." "no, sir," asserted julian, emphatically; "we have worked hard for what little money we have, and we know how to take care of it. i thought it would not make any difference to us how cold it was if we were working under the ground; i thought you said something like that." "certainly, i said so," affirmed mr. fay; "but you will have to take provisions with you to last you six months. if you don't, you will get snowed up in the mountains; the drifts will get so deep that you can't get through them." "i did not think of that," said julian. "well, you had better think of it, for if you get up there, and get blocked by drifts, my goodness!--you will starve to death!" "did you say anything to the man about our claim up there?" "no, i did not, for i did not know where it was located. i will tell you what you can do, though. he is going back in the spring, and he can assist you in getting everything you need." "we are very much obliged to you for saying that," responded jack, who felt that a big load had been removed from his and julian's shoulders. "i am only speaking of what i know of the man," remarked mr. fay. "miners are always ready to help one another, and i know he will do that much for you. i will tell you where you can see him. do you know where salisbury's hotel is?" the boys replied that they did not. they had been all over the city, but did not remember having seen any sign of that hostelry. "well, i will go with you," said mr. fay "come around about two o'clock and we'll start. by the way, that lawyer has got back." "what lawyer, and where has he been?" "i mean gibson--the lawyer that you employed to do your business for you. he has been to st. louis." "good enough!" exclaimed jack. "he has found out by this time more than we could tell him." "i saw him last night just as he got off the train, and he desired me to tell you, if i happened to see you before he did, that he would be glad to see you around at his office as soon as you could get there," said mr. fay. "so you can run down there as soon as you please. you know where he hangs out--don't you?" yes, the boys were certain they could find his office without any help, and arose and put on their caps. they told mr. fay they would be sure to come around at two o'clock, to go with him to call upon the miner who had recently come from dutch flat, bade him good-bye, and left the office. "what do you think of the situation now?" asked julian, as they hurried along toward the place where the lawyer "hung out." "are you still sorry that i bid on that 'old horse?'" "i only hope there will be no hitch in the business," said jack. "if he should ask us some questions that we could not answer--then what?" "we will tell him the truth," said julian. "he can't ask us any questions that we can't answer. claus and casper could go in on telling lies, but that way would not suit us." as the boys had taken particular note of the location of mr. gibson's office, they went there as straight as though they had been in denver all their lives, ran up the stairs to the first floor, and opened the lawyer's door. mr. gibson was there, as well as two men whom he was advising on some law-point they had brought to him to clear up. when the boys came in he stopped what he was saying, jumped up, and extended a hand to each of them. "i was coming around in search of you fellows as soon as i got through with these men," said he. "how have you boys been, out here, so far away from home? please excuse me for fifteen minutes or so." the boys took the chairs he offered them, and for a few minutes kept track of what he was saying; but that did not last long. it was about a fence that a neighbor of the two men had built, but which their cattle had broken down, and they were anxious to get out of a lawsuit for the field of wheat their cattle had ruined. they heard the lawyer advise them, honestly, that they must either compromise the matter or get into a lawsuit, in which case they would have to pay full damages; and while he was talking to them he proved that he was a man who could do two things at once. he opened a drawer and took out two photographs, which he compared with the boys, one after the other. it did not take him long to decide upon this business, and then he devoted himself to the question of fences again. "it is as plain as daylight to me," said he, as he arose to his feet. "your cattle broke the fence down, went in, and ate up the man's wheat. it was a good, strong, staked-and-ridered fence, too. there are only two ways out of it: yon can either settle the matter with him, or you can go to law; and if you do that, you will get beaten." one of the men then asked him how much he charged for his advice, and when he said "five dollars," the boys cast anxious glances at each other. if he charged that way for advising a man to keep out of law, what price would he demand for taking care of one hundred thousand dollars? mr. gibson showed them to the door, bowed them out, and then turned to the boys. "i ought to have charged that man ten dollars," he declared, with an air of disgust. "he is always in a row; he never comes here to seek advice but that he wants to beat somebody. do you recognize these pictures?" "of course i do," replied julian. "this is a photograph of me, and that is my signature on the back; the other one is jack's." "i have been to st. louis since you were here," mr. gibson went on. "i called upon the men whose addresses you gave me, and found out all about you. i tried my best to find mr. haberstro, but could not do it, and so i have concluded that the money is yours." "everything?" exclaimed julian. "the gold-mine and all?" "everything belongs to you," answered mr. gibson; and one would have thought, from the way in which he announced the fact, that somebody had left the fortune all to julian. "of course, if mr. haberstro ever turns up you will have to surrender the money; but i don't take any stock in his turning up. julian, you now have very nearly twenty thousand dollars coming to you." "but jack must have half," said julian, earnestly. "he has stuck to me like a good fellow, and i don't know what i should have done without him." "well, then, that makes you worth ten thousand dollars apiece." julian drew a long breath and looked at jack. the latter leaned his elbows on his knees, whirled his cap in his hand, and looked at the floor. chapter xvii. mr. banta is surprised. "you fellows look surprised," said mr. gibson, running his eyes from one to the other of the boys. "it seems to me, if a man told me i had that amount of money coming to me, and that i had ten thousand dollars where i could draw on it at my leisure, this room would not hold me; i should want the whole city to splurge in." the boys made no reply. jack drew his hand once or twice across his forehead, as if to brush away some wrinkles, while julian got up and walked to the window. "you did not expect to get it--did you?" continued mr. gibson. "no, sir, we did not," replied julian; "but we hoped to get it. we tried our level best to find mr. haberstro, following the advice of mr. wiggins in everything he told us to do; but he was out of our reach." "he is dead, probably," said mr. gibson. "i know just what you tried to do, and all about it. of course there will be some law to go through with before you can step into the property. do you wish me to take charge of it for you?" "oh, mr. gibson, we really wish you would. we know nothing about law, and consequently we should not know how to act." "and do you wish me to take charge of the rental of your blocks of buildings?" "yes, sir; go on just as you did before, and when we want money we will come to you." "well, that is a different thing altogether," said mr. gibson, looking down at the floor. "the twenty thousand dollars that i told you of is now in the bank, subject to my order. i guess i had better go up there with you and have it changed. you can then get money whenever you want it. by the way, julian, mr. wiggins sent his kindest regards to you; and, furthermore, he gave me a letter which he wished me to hand to you. i've got one for you, jack, from your boss; what do you call him?" "master mechanic," replied jack. mr. gibson opened his desk and took out two letters, which he gave to the boys. the sight of mr. wiggins's handwriting on the envelope was almost too much for julian, for he put the letter into his pocket and walked to the window again. "there is some good advice in those letters, and i want you boys to follow it out implicitly," said the lawyer. "you will always find me here, ready to tell you what to do in case you get into trouble. you must come to me or to mr. fay every time you get into a box. but, first and foremost, don't have anything to do with strangers. there are some of them who are bound to hear of your good fortune, and will take every means in their power to get hold of it. don't sign any papers unless you bring them to me." "we have already had a little experience in that line," said julian, with a smile. "claus came up to us and tried to pass himself off for mr. haberstro, and he is the one who stole our valises on our way here; but he didn't make anything by it." "yes--i heard all about this man claus, and about that friend of yours, casper nevins. you know enough to steer clear of such fellows in future. now, if you are all through, we'll go up to the bank." the boys followed mr. gibson out of the office, along the street, turning three or four corners, until they reached the bank. he did not have any business to do with the man who stood behind the desk counting out the money, but he simply asked him, "is e. a. in?" "yes, sir; he is in his private office," replied the cashier. the boys did not know who e. a. was, but they found out a moment later, for the lawyer led them into the presence of the president of the bank. he was gray-headed and wore a pair of gold spectacles, but he stopped his work and shook mr. gibson warmly by the hand. he looked curiously at the boys, but when the lawyer began his story, talking very rapidly, for there was a card hung up over his desk which said on it, "this is my busy day," he laid down his pen and glanced at julian and jack with some interest. "and you want the twenty thousand dollars changed, so that it will be subject to their order?" said he. "yes, sir, that is my errand up here." the president got upon his feet and walked into the room where the cashier was. when he went, the boys had not more than ten dollars in their pockets that they could call their own; when he came back, they had a small fortune coming to them. "it is all right," said he. "and which of you boys was it who bid on the 'old horse?'" he continued, extending a hand to each of them. "you are the one? well, my son, remember that there is an end to your money somewhere, and if you go to work and spend it all without waiting for some more to come in, the end of it is not far off. i wish you good luck." the boys retraced their steps to the cashier's desk, and the transfer of the property from mr. gibson's order to their own was easily completed. mr. gibson signed a check, the boys attached their names to a big book which was thrust out at them, and then the cashier wanted to know if they needed any money. "we would like about one hundred dollars apiece," said julian. "very well; make out a check for it and sign your names to it, and you can get it all right. you will find the checks there on that desk." the boys accordingly made out their checks for the money, and mr. gibson stood watching them, smiling to himself when he saw how the boys' hands trembled, and how anxious they were to have everything correct. the money was paid on the checks, and julian and jack put it into their pockets. "you got it, didn't you?" said the lawyer. "yes, sir; thanks to you, we have got it," said julian. "mr. gibson, i can't begin to tell you how much we thank you----" "oh, that is all right," said the lawyer, opening the door of the bank; "only, don't get into a fuss and lose it all." "when we came here," continued julian, "we had no money at all; now see how different it is! i assure you that we are not going to get into any fuss. the money is safe where it is." "well, let it stay there. i am pretty busy this morning, so i beg that you will excuse me. good-bye." the lawyer hurried away, and julian stood a little on one side of the door of the bank, one hand thrust into his pocket where he had placed the bills, and his eyes fastened upon mr. gibson as long as he remained in sight. "say, jack," said he, suddenly; "i don't believe mr. gibson had any right to give us this money." "he hadn't?" exclaimed jack. "why, it was his." "no, it was not; it belongs to that haberstro estate. it seems to me he ought to have got an order from the court before giving any of the money up to us." "perhaps he has an order," said jack. "then why did he not say something about it? i would like to know when the court sits. if the judge finds any blundering in the business, why, then we are up a stump. what will we do if this man haberstro comes up, all on a sudden, and tells us he wants this hundred dollars?" "whew!" said jack; "i did not think of that." "but mr. gibson probably knew what the decision of the court was going to be or he would not have done this," added julian, after a moment's pause. "i guess we are all right, but i shall feel better when we have all that property in our hands." julian wished now, when it was too late, that he had not spoken to jack about this. during the dinner hour he was unusually silent and thoughtful, and the landlady's questioning could not get a word out of him. he would arouse up long enough to reply, and then he would fall to thinking again. "i will never tell you another piece of news as long as i live," said julian, as they went up to their room to get ready to accompany mr. fay to call on the miner. "you always have enough to say at dinner, but to-day you were as solemn as an owl." "i could not help it," said jack. "if that man who owns this property turns up here, i tell you we shall be in a fix. we shall spend this before the winter is over, and how are we to get a hundred dollars to pay him? i'll speak to mr. gibson about that the next time i see him." "i believe that would be a good plan," said julian, after thinking the matter over. "i'll bet you that he has some good reason for it." in due time the boys arrived at mr. fay's office, and found him ready to accompany them. all he said was that he was going out for half an hour, and if anybody came to see him he was to be told that he would soon be back; and then he set off, with his long strides, to lead the way to salisbury's hotel. the boys found it as much as they could do to keep up with him. "i guess you have been a messenger-boy in your day," said julian. "i was a messenger-boy for six years," replied mr. fay. "of course i did not want to hold that position all my life, so i learned telegraphy at odd times, and got my promotion as fast as i was qualified for it, until at last i got where you see me now. that's the way that young men ought to do--look out for promotion." "we received good news down there at mr. gibson's office," continued julian. "i knew you would. have you the property all in your hands?" "no; there is some law-business to go through with, first. we told mr. gibson to go ahead with it, as he did before." "that was the best thing that you ever did," said mr. fay, earnestly. "gibson is an honest man, even if he is a lawyer, and you will get every cent that is coming to you. now, then, here we are. you will find this rather a different hotel from the one you first stopped at when you came here, but the old fellow makes lots of money out of the miners. there is nobody stays here except those who have shovelled dirt." mr. fay opened the door as he spoke, and the boys speedily found themselves in the living-room of the hotel. before they had time to look around them the chief telegraph operator walked up and laid his hand upon the shoulder of a man who sat with his back to him. "you are here yet, are you, banta?" said he. "yes," replied the miner, looking up to see who it was that accosted him. "i am on hand, like a bogus coin made out of iron pyrites; you can't get rid of me." "i have brought some boys with me who would like to know something about the mines at which you are working," said mr. fay; and he proceeded to introduce julian and jack. banta speedily proved that he was a gentleman, for he straightway got upon his feet to shake hands with the boys. "all right," said the miner; "if anybody can tell them about dutch flat, i am the man." "they are going to stay here this winter, and go out with you next spring," mr. fay went on. "all right," said the miner, again; "i will put them where they can dig gold so fast that you won't see anything but gold coming out of the pit." "but they have a gold-mine up there already." "they have? where is it located?" mr. fay could not answer this question, so he stood aside and waited for julian to tell him the whereabouts of the mine. the boy began by asking him, "do you know the mine that winkleman used to work when he was here?" mr. banta started, and looked at julian to see if he was in dead earnest. the boy gazed fixedly at him, and the miner finally settled back in his chair and pulled himself down until his neck rested on the back of it. "of course i know that mine," said he. "you don't think of working there, do you?" "we thought some of trying it," replied julian. "pete, what do you think of that?" asked mr. banta, pushing his hand against the shoulder of the man who sat nearest him, with his eyes closed, as if he were fast asleep. "here are two boys going up to dutch flat next spring to work the winkleman mine." "well," replied pete, without lifting his head, "i am glad i am not going up there." "are the ghosts so awful thick up there?" asked julian, who felt his courage oozing out at the ends of his fingers. "you know something about it--don't you? the ghosts are so thick up there that you can't go down in the mine to shovel a bucketful of dirt without scaring some of them up." "well, you will have to excuse me," said mr. fay. "i should like to see what those ghosts are, but my work calls me. you will take charge of the boys next spring, will you, mr. banta?" "sure i will; but they are plumb dunces if they try to work that mine. i will go with them as far as i can, and the balance of the way they will have to depend on themselves." mr. fay said he believed they could do that, opened the door and went out, and julian and jack were left alone. chapter xviii. grub-staking. "sit down," said banta, pushing chairs toward the two boys with his foot; "i want to talk to you about that mine. what loon has been so foolish as to grub-stake you?" "grub-stake us?" repeated julian, for the words were quite new to him. "yes; he does not expect to get his money back again very soon. i mean the fellow who has furnished you with grub and tools, and such things, to work the mine with." "we never heard that before; we did not know there was anybody who _could_ grub-stake us." "say, pete, what do you think of that?" said banta, once more pushing the man who sat nearest him. "here are a couple of tenderfeet, come away out west from--where did you come from?" "from st. louis; this is as far west as we have ever been." "here are a couple of tenderfeet from st. louis who didn't know that they could get anybody to grub-stake them," continued banta. "what do you think of that?" pete, who had by this time got his wits about him, straightened up, pushed his hat on the back of his head, and regarded the boys with some curiosity. julian and jack looked at him, too, and concluded that he and banta were partners in working a mine. he was roughly dressed, but there was a good-natured look about him that made the boys take to him at once. there were other men, dressed as miners, in the room, and they all seemed to be interested in the conversation. "then i reckon i shall have to tell you about this grub-staking business," said banta, squaring around in his chair so as to face the boys. "you are going to lay in a supply of things yourselves, i suppose?" "yes, we are; and we shall have to depend on you to tell us what to get." "well, there is plenty of time between this and spring, and we will have time to talk that over afterward. now, about this grub-staking business. there are lots of fellows who come out here who haven't got the money to enable them to go prospecting, and what do they do but hunt up some fellow who is willing to buck against a hole in the ground, and get their provisions and tools of him. he gets half of what they make. the men stay out there until they have eaten up all their provisions and then come in; and if they have had good luck, so much the better. but if they have wasted their time in looking for gold where there wasn't any to be found, why, so much the worse; that man is just so much out of pocket. "well, along in ' pete and me struck this very town, and we flew so light that we couldn't hardly stay on the ground. we didn't have enough to buy our next meal with; but we struck a gang whom we knew, and headed along with them for the gold country. of course we had nothing, but we managed to strike a grub-stake and went prospecting up there behind dutch flat. we lit into that rock and dirt, working like beavers, but the sign didn't come right. it looked well enough at the start, but it did not pan out much. we stuck to it for nearly three months, and then concluded that we had better go down and get another grub-stake and strike in somewhere else. so i stayed up there alone, and pete went down and brought up the man that employed us. he looked at the hole, liked the looks of it, and wanted us to go farther; but pete and i couldn't see it in that light. one word brought on another, and he offered us three hundred dollars for the hole." "for the hole!" exclaimed julian. "and there was not a sign of gold about it?" "now, hold on till i tell you," returned banta. "there was a little sign of gold about it, but there was not enough to pay pete and me for digging. we snapped him up quicker'n a flash, and what does that man do? he went down to dutch flat, brought up his tools, and set in to working the hole, and before he had gone two feet farther he struck the richest vein you ever clapped your eyes on. he took sixty thousand dollars out of it. now, some of you fellows talk about hard luck. if any of you can beat that story, i'll give you what little i made on dutch flat this summer." "that _was_ hard luck, i must say," said julian. "and you lacked only two feet of being rich?" "only just two feet," returned banta, "we might have been running around now with two niggers to drive the team--one dressed as a coachman and the other as a footman. pete didn't get over pulling his hair for a month after that." "but we are going to stake ourselves next summer," said julian. "if we lose, it will come out of our own pockets. have you been anywhere near this mine that we are going to work?" "what do you think of that, pete?" exclaimed banta. "he wants to know if we have been near his mine. not much! i'll bet there are two hundred miners on dutch flat this minute, and not one of them has ever seen that mine. they have heard about it, they know there is plenty of gold up there, but nobody has ever been near it. the last two that went up there came away so badly frightened that they packed up and left the country so quick that you could not see them for the dust they kicked up along the trail. they saw something down there in the pit, and it took all the pluck out of them." "what did they see?" asked julian. "well, perhaps i was a little too fast in saying that they saw something," said banta. "they heard something, and that was as good as though they had seen it. it first began with a scurrying on the ground, as if somebody was hurrying over it. where it came from nobody knew; it seemed to fill the air all around them. before they had time to get frightened at this there was a shriek that made it appear as if the pit was full of unearthly spirits, and then all was still; but the fellows had heard enough. the man down below yelled to his partner to pull him up, and when he found himself safe on top he laid down on the ground and swore he would never go down there again. oh, you boys have something to face, if you are going up there!" "could not the sound they heard have been occasioned by bats that had been disturbed while trying to take a rest?" asked julian. "he had a light, of course." "bats!" exclaimed banta, with deep disgust; "it was a great deal larger than bats. and he could have seen them if he had a light, could he not?" "and, besides, bats don't shriek that way," said a miner who had not spoken before. "there used to be a miner who was working that pit along with winkleman----" "you hold your yawp," exclaimed banta, fiercely; "i am telling the boys nothing but facts. i want them to know just what they have to face. i don't go into any of this cock-and-bull story about a dead miner. if that man died up there, and was buried, he's there yet, and he can't come out to work in the pit any more." "what about him?" asked julian. "we want to know everything connected with the mine, then we will be prepared for anything." "but this thing is not connected with the mine," said banta; "it is some sort of a story the miners have, and there is not a word of truth in it. they tell about a miner being seen there by everyone who goes down, and when you try to get up to him, he is not there. he goes farther and farther away every time you approach him." "we have heard that story before," said julian, with a smile; "mr. fay knows all about it." "then of course you don't believe it. i have told you the truth about the mine, and now you can go up with me next spring or stay away, just as you have a mind to." "oh, we will go with you," said julian. "i never was interested in any property yet that i was afraid to work just on account of some things you could not see. when we bid you good-bye at dutch flat we shall know what there is in that mine before we come back." "i like your pluck," said banta; and the look of admiration he bestowed upon julian more than confirmed his words. "if you live up to that, i hope you will get some gold." "they say that gold is plenty up there," said another miner. "they say it is lying around under your feet." "and you never went there to get it!" exclaimed julian with surprise. "it isn't as thick as that," said banta. "probably every bucketful you send up to be washed will yield you from ten to fifty dollars. you will get rich at that rate." "well, i guess we have troubled you long enough," said julian, rising to his feet. "we are really obliged to you, mr. banta, for offering to take charge of us, although we are nothing but tenderfeet. there are no indians out there, are there?" "indians!--no; and if there were some on the warpath, we have miners enough up there to make them hunt their holes." "i am glad of that; we don't want anything to do with those savages, after what we have read about them. we will see you again, mr. banta." "do so, and the next time i will tell you what things you want to buy, to make your enterprise successful. good-morning." "there's two boys that have gone plumb crazy," said one of the miners, after the door had closed upon julian and jack. "i wonder how they got that mine, in the first place?" "the boys are bound to get gold there, if they can stick it out," said another. "one of the men who came down from there showed me a piece of metal as big as a marble, which he had picked up on the bottom of that pit; but the trouble is, can they stick it out?" "i believe _they_ will," said banta, settling down in his chair once more. "that boy who did most of the talking is one who has plenty of 'sand' to see him through. after they get fairly settled, i believe i'll go up and see how they are getting along." "then you will go without me," said pete; "i am as close to that mine as i want to be." "well, jack," said julian, as he buttoned his coat, "what do you think of our mine? shall we go up and try it? the miners all think there is gold up there." "we will have plenty of time to talk about that between this time and spring," returned jack. "mr. haberstro may come up before we get ready to start, and demand his money." "i have no fears on that score," replied julian. "did not the lawyer say that he did not look for that? but, jack, i really believe you are afraid of that mine." "you need not be. when we get up there, and get things fixed, i will be the first to go into it." "all right. i'll stand back and let you. now, jack, what are we going to do this winter? we can't sit around all the time without something to occupy our minds." "i have been thinking about that. let us call on mr. fay, and see what he says." julian thought this a piece of advice worth acting upon, and they bent their steps toward mr. fay's office, where they found him seated, as before, with his feet on the desk in front of him. when he saw who his visitors were, he jumped up hastily and seized each of them by the arm with a firm grip. "oh, boys, you surely haven't made up your minds to go up to that mine next spring, have you?" he asked, almost in a whisper. "why, yes, sir," said julian, somewhat surprised by the man's actions. "i reckon it is ours, and we want to see what gold is to be found in it." "but think of the ghosts you will have to contend with," said mr. fay. "you will hear scurrying of feet--what was that?" he continued, looking toward a distant part of his office and pulling the boys around in front of him. "i am certain there is a ghost there." julian and jack began to see into the matter now. the man was so full of his fun that he could not keep it in under any circumstances, and it had come to the surface when he saw the boys come into his office. perhaps a lingering smile around his mouth had something to do with it. "i don't believe you heard any ghost there," said julian; "they are so busy up there at the mine that they have no time to come down here to trouble you." "all right, boys; sit down. what did banta say the spirits looked like?" julian replied that he could not tell, for he had not seen them; and with this as an introduction he went on and repeated the miner's conversation as nearly as he could recall it. mr. fay listened, highly amused, and when julian ceased speaking he said, "if you can see them, what's the use of your being afraid? and as for that phantom miner, that happened a long ways from here. i ought to be kicked for trying to frighten you." "it will take something more than that to scare us out," said julian. "now, mr. fay, we want to ask your advice." "i am ready to give it. do you want to invest some property in a gold-mine?" no; julian assured him that it had no reference to their property, which was not theirs yet until the court had passed upon it, but it was in regard to their going to school in order to learn something. mr. fay was all attention now, and when julian spoke of joining some mercantile academy, he slapped his hands down upon his knees as if that was the best thing the boys could do. "i have no fears that your money will not prove useful to you," said he; "the idea of your wanting to go to school is a big feather in your caps. some young men, with such an amount of money as you have coming to you, would loaf around and do nothing until their funds were all gone; but you don't act that way. believe me, there is an end to that hundred thousand dollars somewhere." "that is just what the president of the bank told us when we called upon him," said julian. "we have worked so hard for the little money we have that we intend to take care of it. but, mr. fay, we don't believe that mr. gibson did right in giving us these funds." "what's the reason you don't?" "why, he said he would have to get word from the court before all the property could be turned over to us--" "oh, that's all right; mr. gibson knew what he was doing. you will find it all right when the judge hears the case. now, do you know where the business college is situated?" julian was not so sure about that, but he received certain instructions from mr. fay that made him think he could find it; so the boys put on their caps and went out. chapter xix. going to school. "is the boss mechanic anywhere about?" asked jack, who chanced to be the first who entered the college when they found it. they had opened a door, and found themselves in one of the study-rooms of the school. there were fifty men and women there, all interested with their books, and the best of order prevailed. a young man, whose seat was near the door, on seeing that the boys were strangers, had arisen and asked them what he could do for them. "the boss mechanic?" he repeated, in a surprised tone. "he means the man who is at the head of this institution," said julian. we want to see him for a few minutes, if you please." "oh, yes," said the young man, as he gave jack a looking over. "i guess you have worked at manual labor all your life." "yes, i have," replied jack; "i have done nothing but lift heavy iron for a good many years, and now i want to find an easier way of making a living." "you have come to the right place to find it. step this way." the student led the way around the room, passing close to the scholars, some of whom merely glanced up, others paying not the least attention to them, until he opened a door and ushered them into a private office. he introduced the boys as persons who had come there to see the "boss mechanic," and then went out; while a pleasant-faced, elderly gentleman replied that he was the "boss mechanic" of that school, and asked them what they wanted. jack, who had made a blunder by the first question he asked, remained silent, leaving julian to do all the talking. "we want to get an education," said julian. "well, that is what this school can give you," said the man. "what do you want to study?" "stenography and type-writing." "and you?" he added, turning to jack. "bookkeeping and writing; i write a fearful hand." the superintendent, having made a start with the boys, invited them to sit down, and in a few minutes he learned something of the boys' history, and what occupation they had been engaged in previous to coming to denver. without telling him anything of their circumstances, they chanced to mention the names of mr. fay and mr. gibson, and after that julian thought he seemed to take more interest in them. after a little conversation the boys pulled out their roll of bills and paid for six months' instruction and the books they would need, and then arose to go, after telling him they would be on hand in the morning, ready to go to work. "i'll tell you what's a fact," said jack, pausing on the stairs and pulling out his diminished roll of bills; "we will have to go to the bank and get some more money, the first thing you know." "that is so," replied julian. "and i have just thought of another thing. did you see how neatly all those students were dressed? i am going to draw two hundred dollars--" "man alive!" said jack, appalled by the sum mentioned. "suppose mr. haberstro comes up--" "i don't bother my head about him. we will go and get some money, and then we will go to a tailor's and get some clothes worth having. if mr. haberstro is going to appear, mr. gibson will show us the way out." jack was not convinced by any means, but he kept close by julian's side until he reached the bank. julian made out the check for him and he signed his name, and the money was paid to each of them without a word of protest. jack felt a little uneasy after that. he did not like to have so much money about him. he carried his left hand in the pocket where he had placed the bills, and looked at every roughly-dressed man he met, as if he were afraid that somebody would rob him. "i don't feel exactly right," said he to julian. "as soon as we get home i'll put this money in my trunk, and then i know it will be safe." "don't keep your hand on it all the while, or you will lead somebody to suspect something," said julian. "now, here is a tailor shop; let us go in and see what we can do." jack fairly gasped when julian said he wanted the finest suit of clothes there was in the store. he wanted two suits--one for every day and one for sundays. of course the merchant was eager to show them to him, and the result was that he ordered the best suits he had ever had in his life. jack did not believe in expensive clothes, but julian urged it upon him, telling him that he would look as though he came from the country among all those nicely-dressed students, and jack finally yielded to him. "that's the worst expenditure of money that i was ever guilty of," said he, when they were fairly on the street. "grumbling again, are you?" was julian's comment. "never mind; you will get used to it after a while." the next thing the boys had in view was to join the young men's christian association, so that they could get some books to take home with them; and when that was done they considered themselves settled for the winter. they went to school the next day, and from that time until spring opened they never missed a lesson. jack was rather awkward at first. the hands which had been in the habit of lifting heavy bars of iron could not accommodate themselves to a pen very readily; and oftentimes, when julian sat in his room, of nights, reading, jack was there learning to write. no two boys ever behaved themselves better than they did, and it was not long before they became favorites, both with the boarders and others who came there to visit. jack soon got used to his fine clothes, and wore them as if he had been accustomed to them all his life. they took an evening now and then to call upon mr. banta, and they always found him as talkative as ever. sometimes they became so interested in his tales of life in the gold-camps that it was ten o'clock before they returned home. mr. fay and mr. gibson also came in for visits occasionally, and once the latter took out a bundle of papers, which he handed to julian. "what are these?" he asked. "they are your property," said the lawyer. "you can keep the papers yourself, or you can let me keep them, and i will put them in my till in the bank." "do you mean that all comes to us?" inquired julian, while a thrill shot all through him. "yes, sir; the court decided so a week ago." "jack," said julian, turning to his companion, "are you sorry, now, that i went to the express office and invested in that 'old horse'?" jack could not say anything. he remembered how he had scolded julian for that, and he did not want it thrown up to him so often. julian then went on and told mr. gibson what had happened in their room the night he brought the "old horse" home, and the lawyer laughed loudly at his description of it. "mr. gibson, we really wish you would take charge of this matter for us," said julian. "you hope so, too--don't you, jack?" "of course; we don't know what to do with it." and so the matter was settled, and the boys breathed a good deal easier while they were on their way home. there was one thing that often came into their minds, and that was, what had become of claus and casper nevins? had they given up all hopes of gaining possession of that hundred thousand dollars? jack scouted the idea. casper might have given it up, but claus would stick to his idea until he got into jail by it. he was not a man who gave up so easily. it is true they had not seen anything of him since they came to denver, but jack was sure they would hear from him at some other time. "you will see," exclaimed jack, when he confided his opinions to julian. "you want to be on the watch, or the first thing you know he will jump down on us." "i guess mr. gibson can shut him up very easily," said julian. "yes; but it may happen when mr. gibson is not around." "eh? do you mean that he will come down on us while we are up at the mine?" "such things as that have happened. when you see a german you want to look out." things went along in denver as they usually did, and when winter fairly opened on them the boys thought they had never experienced such cold weather before. but it did not interfere with their business in any way. it was not long before mr. banta began to talk to them about the things that would be necessary for them to have if they were going to operate their mine successfully, and the boys had a lengthy list of things they would have to buy. they thought they could get along without some of them, but banta assured them that everything they had down would be of use to them sooner or later. as time wore on, the prospect of leaving denver and going off to the mountains alone, where they were destined to encounter some risks that they did not know whether they could stand up against or not, made the boys silent and thoughtful. in denver they had friends--they were sure of that; but when they got out to their mine they would be left all to themselves, and julian and jack did not know what they would make of it. jack had less to say about it than his companion, but it was plain enough to see that he was not going to back out. "i tell you i hate to go away and leave all the kind friends we have gathered about us," said julian, as they left salisbury's hotel after mr. banta had told them that by two weeks from monday they must be on hand bright and early, all ready to start for the mountains. "i wish i knew what was in that mine." "so do i; and the only way we can find out is to go and see," replied jack. "i don't believe in ghosts, but i have heard so much about the things up there in that mine that i am almost ready to give in to them." there was another thing that jack thought of, although he did not mention it. julian had always been one of the first to talk about going to the mine, and he was ready to accuse jack of cowardice; but when the time for their departure drew near, julian did not open his mouth. jack thought of that, but said nothing. mr. banta told them, finally, that they had better go to work and get their things ready, and they set about it in earnest. the first thing they did was to take leave of the students at the college. the boys were all sorry to see them go, and the superintendent said he hoped julian and jack had given up the idea of a gold-mine, for they were getting on so rapidly in their studies that he trusted to see them complete the course. he predicted they would come back poorer than when they went away. he had heard of such things before; and, after the young men had eaten up all their provisions, they would be glad to find somebody to grub-stake them back to denver. "you will see us back here in the fall," said julian, confidently. "we are not going to give up our chances of learning something." "but you may meet your death up there," said the superintendent. "i have often heard of such things." "i was awfully afraid you were going to say something about the ghosts in our gold-mine," said jack, as they went down the stairs. "you looked at me several times as though you wanted to say something about it." "it was right on the end of my tongue," said julian, "but i thought i had better keep still about it. if we should come back here before fall, they would say right away that we had been frightened out and dared not go back." mr. banta was busy getting his own things together, but he found time now and then to overlook the boys' expenditures. under his instructions they bought three horses,--two of them for riding, the other intended as a pack-horse to carry their utensils,--and then he led the boys away to a gun-shop, where they were to purchase rifles. "look here, mr. banta," said julian; "we don't need anything in here. we have got a revolver apiece, and, if the truth must be told, we have spent a good deal of time in practicing with them." "what good will a revolver do you?" asked banta, greatly surprised. "if we chance to meet any indians----" "but you told us there were no indians," said julian. "we don't want to shoot at anybody unless they are close at hand. maybe they will come in handy on the ghosts, you know." "well, you don't know anything about the plains--i can see that, plain enough. if you think revolvers are going to do you, why, i am done with you." "then we have purchased everything we want, have we?" "i think so. be on hand on monday morning, because we shall be off before the sun gets an hour high." the boys drew a long breath when they heard this. if they had not talked so much about visiting their mine it is probable that both of them would have backed squarely out. chapter xx. waterspouts and blizzards. "hi! nellie; get on, there! strike a trot! we won't get to the mountains in seven years, at this gait." it was mr. banta who spoke, and he emphasized his remarks by making the whip he carried in his hand crack loudly. the old, white bell-mare pricked up her ears and slowly quickened her pace, closely followed by all the pack-mules and horses belonging to the train. "that old pack-mare knows where we are going as well as we do," said banta, squaring around and throwing his leg over the horn of his saddle so that he could face the two boys whom he was addressing. "she has been up here so often that she knows every foot of the way. if we get hard up for deer meat, all we have to do is to take her bell off, and then we can go twenty miles out on the prairie, and she will bring us back home again. you can't get lost if you are on her." "why do you take the bell off when you want to go hunting with the mare?" asked julian of mr. banta, who, by reason of his age and experience, acted as leader of the company. "does the noise of the bell frighten the game?" "that is one reason," replied banta; "and the other is, we don't want all the pack-mules and horses to follow us. wherever they hear the bell, they will go to it. if we were on the other side of a wide river, even though it was swimming-deep, and some of these mules don't like water any too well, and should sound that bell a few times, they would all come over. if anything should happen to that old bell-mare, and she should die, we'd send a man on with that bell, and the mules would follow him wherever he went." it was monday morning, and the sun was just rising. the cavalcade had been on its way for two hours, for they left the hotel, amid wishes for good luck from all who saw them go, at the first peep of day. they went directly past the hotel at which julian and jack had stopped to eat dinner when they first came there, and were now alone in the foothills which arose on all sides of them. there were at least a dozen miners in the company, and they had all set out for dutch flat in the hope of digging up a fortune before the winter's storms overtook them. julian and jack were there, dressed in rough miners' clothing, and the horse which bore their provisions and tools was with the others who were following the bell-mare. anybody could see at a glance that these boys were tenderfeet, and they did not attempt to deny it. every other miner had a heavy winchester slung at his back, while the only firearms the boys exhibited were smith & wesson revolvers, which they carried strapped to their waists. they did not look forward to the future with as brave hearts as most of the miners did. they could not get the idea out of their minds that the gold they wanted to find was protected by something which they did not want to see. the miners now and then cast curious looks at them, to see if they were not afraid of the prospect before them, but finally came to the conclusion that the boys were "going through with it." the miners were happy, and sang rude songs and cracked jokes with each other; but the boys were busy with their own thoughts, and took no part in what was going on around them. "and i don't blame them, either," said one miner, in a low voice, to his companion. "i wouldn't take any part in the singing if i were in their place. they are brave enough now, but wait until they have been up to that mine about two days; then we will see them at our camp, frightened to death." "banta has rather taken them under his care, judging by the way he keeps watch over them," said the other miner. "yes; he was made acquainted with them by some high man in denver, and so he keeps an eye on them. but he can't go up to their mine with them. more than that, those ghosts will not stop for him or anybody else." julian and jack were not accustomed to being in the saddle from daylight until dark, and the ride was long and wearisome to them. they stopped at noon to eat their lunch and to let their animals crop the grass for a few minutes; but their packs were never removed from them until they halted for the night at a place which showed that there had been a camp before. lean-to's were scattered around, partly unroofed by the storms of winter, and remnants of fires were to be seen; and banta said that no one had been there since he and his party made the camp last fall. "we made this camp while we were going down to the city," said he. "it was raining when we stopped here, and that accounts for the lean-to's. we had a waterspout that night, this little stream was filled twenty feet deep, and some of us began to look wild." "a waterspout?" queried jack. "what is that?" "why, i don't know that i can describe it so that you can understand it," answered banta, scratching his head. "it is caused by the large quantity of water that sometimes falls among the hills up-country, and when it all rushes into these ravines--well, you can imagine how it looks, but i cannot describe it. this stream has not much water in it now--you can step across it anywhere; but i have seen it bank full from rains in the up-country, while there was not a drop of it fell here. i remember that night. i was sound asleep in a lean-to. i had told the boys that before morning we would have to get farther up the bank or run the risk of having some of our things carried off, and about midnight i awoke with a feeling that there was something going on. you don't know anything about that, do you? well, you wait until you have acted as guide for two or three mule-trains, and then you'll know it. everything depends upon you to see that the train comes out all right. "i could not go to sleep again when once i woke up, and so i arose and went out. it was still raining heavily, but the brook didn't show much sign of it. i placed myself on the edge of the bank, and hardly had i got there before a long, creamy wave, which extended clear across this gully, crept with a hissing sound across the sand and rocks. following with equal speed, and about a hundred feet behind it, was another wave, an unbroken mass of water at least five feet in height. it was not rounded into a wave, as at sea or on the lakes, but rose sheer and straight, a perfect wall of water. i knew that in five minutes this little creek would be brim full, so i raised a yell and awoke everybody in camp. the men i had with me were all veterans, and there was no need that i should explain matters. they took just one look at the water, and then grabbed their things and made a rush for the high bank behind the lean-to's. after placing them where they would be safe, they came back and made a rush for the horses. pete, there, caught the bell-mare, and by dint of pulling and boosting we finally got them to that level spot you see up there." mr. banta pointed to the bank, which seemed almost as straight as the side of a house, and the boys looked on with perfect astonishment. "how in the world did you get the mules and horses up there?" inquired julian. "a man can do a heap of things when he is working for his life and for things that he can't afford to lose," said banta, with a laugh. "pete has a heap of strength in those arms of his, and when i get hold of a mule's tail and begin to twist it, he goes somewhere as soon as he can. we got them up easy enough, and there we stayed for two whole days, until the water had all passed away. we didn't lose so much as a pound of bacon. but if i had been asleep, like the rest of the fellows were, we would have had a time of it; somebody would have had to swim for his life, and the current ran like lightning, too." "i did not know you had to look out for water on the plains," remarked julian. "is there anything you don't stand in fear of out here? you see, we want to know it all." "well, a waterspout is one thing, and a blizzard is the next," said banta. "i mean a blizzard where the clouds send down chunks of ice at you as big as your fist. oh, you needn't laugh. look at that." banta stripped up his leggings, and showed the boys a long, ragged scar which he had received in one of the commotions of nature referred to. the wound must have been a dangerous one. "and the worst of it was, i did not have a doctor look at it for two weeks," banta went on. "you see, i was out alone, and making the best track i could for the fort. the sky had all along been hazy, and on this day i had to go across the twenty-mile desert, where there was not a willow-twig big enough for me to get under. when i was about half-way over it began to rain, and in less than an hour afterward the blizzard came a-ripping. my horse and mule were made so frantic by the pelting of the ice that i finally let them go; but before i released the horse i took my knife and cut the saddle and blankets off him. what did i do that for? because i was too cold to use my fingers. i settled down there on the prairie, put the saddle and blankets over my head, and waited for the storm to cease; but before i did that, there came a big bunch of ice and struck me on the leg. i never had anything hurt so bad in my life." "how long did you have to stay there?" asked jack. "i hear that some of these storms last two or three days." "this one lasted one day, and i was glad to see the ice quit dropping. i was thirty miles from the fort, and i'll bet i didn't do two miles of walking in all that distance. i left everything except my weapons and crawled all the way. this is the saddle, right here." "i should keep that for the good it had done," said julian. "your saddle probably saved your life." "it will stay with me while i live," said banta, casting an affectionate look upon the article in question. "now, boys, suppose you get ready and chop some wood and start the fire. i'll take the things off the animals and straighten up the lean-to. you boys don't know how to make a lean-to, do you? if you take a good look at this one, you will see how it is done." there was one satisfaction the boys had in listening to mr. banta's stories--they were true, every word of them. if any of the "boys" tried to make things different from what they were, banta always shut them up. that was the reason the boys thought so much of him, and anything he had to say in regard to working their mine was always listened to with the keenest interest. the change that a few experienced men made in that deserted camp in a short time was wonderful. every stroke of the axe counted for something, and every step the men made to and from the places they had chosen to make their beds seemed to count for something else; so that by the time julian and jack had cut wood enough to last them all night the lean-to's were covered with fresh boughs, those who did not choose to sleep under shelter had their beds made up under the protecting branches of trees, the animals were staked out, and two of the cooks were busy getting supper. it was all done without the least commotion, for each man knew what his duty was. "if a rain-storm was coming up you couldn't have made this camp quicker," said julian. "it beats the world how soon men can get ready for the night." "yes, but that comes from experience, you know," said banta. "do you know that i have been thinking of something? when we get up to dutch flat, and you get ready to go up to your mine, i believe i will go with you." "that's the best piece of news i have heard for a long time," declared julian, who was delighted beyond measure. "we don't ask you to go down in the mine, you understand, but if you will just stay there until we get things fixed you will confer a great favor upon us." "yes, i guess i had better see to your wants a little," said banta. "you are tenderfeet, you have never lived alone in the mountains, and perhaps i can tip you a wink now and then that will be of use to you. you will need the mine cleared away--it has all grown up to grass by this time--and you will need a windlass and a lean-to; and maybe i can be of assistance." "i know you can; and of great assistance, too. i tell you, i feel easier. i have often wondered how that mine looked, and how we were going to get it in shape to work it, but i don't worry about it now. we are much obliged to you for your offer." "oh, that's all right. i remember that i was a boy myself, and any such little help as i have offered you would have been a regular blessing to me. now let us go and see if supper is ready." supper was almost ready, and the neat manner in which it was served up, and the way it was cooked, told the boys that if the miners could always get such food as that, they could work their claims to the best possible advantage. "can we help you a little?" said julian to one of the cooks after the meal was over and the man began gathering up the dishes. "what a-doing?" asked the cook. "we want to help you wash the dishes," said julian. "why, bless you, that's no trouble. there is only one way you can help us, and that is by sitting by and looking on. i never yet saw a tenderfoot that didn't get in the way. you will have enough of it to do when you get up to that ghost-haunted mine of yours and have to cook your own meals. you had better take my advice," said the cook, in a lower tone, "and stay down on dutch flat with us. there are no spirits down there." "but it is ours, and i don't see why we can't work it," replied julian. "if there is anybody there, we will make him show himself." "you will see," said the cook, going to the camp-fire for a bucket of water. "the next time we see you, you will be all ready to go back to denver." the cook struck up a whistle as he began washing the dishes, and the boys, taking this as a gentle hint that he would rather be alone, walked off to another fire which had been kindled in the upper end of the camp. all the miners were gathered about there, and each one of them had a story to tell about some wonderful "find" which he had almost struck, and then ceased digging because he was discouraged by the way the gold "showed up." banta was there, and after relating three or four stories of his own, he began to stretch and yawn as though he were sleepy, and finally arose and went into his lean-to. the boys followed him, hoping he would say something more about going up to their mine with them; but he talked on other topics until he got into bed, and then he became silent. he had already decided what he would do when they reached dutch flat, and there the matter ended. chapter xxi. the camp at dutch flat. the boys slept as comfortably as if they had been at home in their boarding-house. it is true their blankets were rather hard, and their pillows were not as soft as they might have been, being simply their saddles with nothing but the horse-blankets over them, but they never knew a thing from the time they went to bed until they heard mr. banta's voice roaring out "catch up!" they found all in the camp busy. some were raking the embers of the fire together, others were getting ready to cook breakfast, but most of them were engaged in packing the animals. this last was a task that the boys always wanted to see, for the operation was so complicated that they did not think they could ever learn how to do it. the mules were blinded, in the first place, so that they could not kick when the heavy pack was thrown upon their backs, and the man on the near side, who seemed to "boss" the business, placed his foot against the mule's side and called lustily for the rope which the other fellow held in his hands. "you have more rope there, and i know it," was the way in which he began the conversation. "here you are," said his companion, and the rope was passed over the pack to where the other fellow was waiting to receive it. "come, let's have a little more rope," repeated the first man. "there's oceans of it here, and you can have all you want of it." "are you all fast there?" "i will be in a minute. here's your end." "all fast here. now let us see him kick it off," said the first man; whereupon a dexterous twist tore off the blinders, and the mule was free to go and join his companions. it was all done in two minutes, and the pack was safe to last until the train halted for the night. "come on, boys," said mr. banta, turning to julian and jack, who stood, with towel and soap in their hands, watching the operation of packing the animals. "you must get around livelier than this. when you get to digging out gold by the bucketful you won't wait to wash your faces or get breakfast; you'll be down in that mine before the sun is up." "are we not going to eat at all?" asked julian, who was amused at the man's way of telling them that they would be so anxious to find the gold that they would not spend time to cook their meals. "yes, i suppose you will have to eat sometimes, but you will hold your grub in one hand and use the spade with the other." the miners were in a hurry, now, to resume their journey, and it took them about half as long to eat breakfast as they devoted to their supper. five minutes was about the time they applied themselves to their meal, and when mr. banta arose from his seat on the ground and drew his hairy hand across his mouth to brush away the drops of coffee that clung to his mustache the miners all arose, too. in less time than it takes to tell it they were all in their saddles and under way, and when they stopped again for the night they were in a camp which they had occupied on the way down to denver. mr. banta was as talkative as usual, and when he had got his pipe going, and had taken three or four puffs to make sure that it was well started, he began his round of stories, which the boys were always ready to listen to. they were all of a week in making their journey; and about three o'clock in the afternoon, when the old bell-mare struck a trot, mr. banta turned to jack and gave him a poke with his finger. "we are almost home," said he, joyfully. "i don't suppose this will seem like home to you, but it does to me, for it is the only home i have." "do you never get tired of this business?" asked julian. "i should think you would like to go back to the states, where you belong." "how do you know that i belong in the states?" asked mr. banta. "i judge by your way of talking, as much as anything. you were not raised in this country--i am certain of it." "well, i will go back when i get enough." "how much do you call enough?" "half a million dollars." julian and jack opened their eyes and looked surprised. "i've got three hundred thousand now in the bank at denver." "then you are not so badly off, after all. i think i could live on the interest of that much." "there are some objections to my going back," said mr. banta, looking off toward the distant mountains. "when i get back there i will have to settle down to a humdrum life, and there won't be nothing at all to get up a little excitement. here the thing is different. we live here, taking gold in paying quantities all the time, and the first thing we know we hear of some new placers, which have been found somewhere else, that make a man rich as fast as he can stick a shovel into the ground. of course we pack up and go off to find the new placers. we have a muss or two with some outlaws, and when we get rid of them we go to work and find out that there is nothing there." "then you wish yourself back at dutch flat," said jack. "that's the way it happens, oftentimes. it is the excitement that keeps us a-going. now, in the states i would not have any of that." "did you find many outlaws in this country when you first came here?" "they were thicker than flies around a molasses barrel," answered mr. banta. "but we have got rid of them all, and your life is just as safe here as it would be in st. louis. whenever we go to a new country, the outlaws are the first things we look out for. there's the camp, all right and tight, just as we left it." the camp covered a good stretch of ground; but then mr. banta had not told them that there were fully two hundred miners in it, and of course such a multitude of men, where nobody owned the land, would spread over a good deal of territory. the boys had a fine opportunity to take a survey of the first mining camp they had ever seen. they were surprised at the neatness of it. things in the shape of old bottles or tin cans were not scattered around where somebody would stumble over them, but such articles were thrown into a ravine behind the camp, out of sight. the most of the miners had erected little log cabins to protect them from the storms of winter, and the others had comfortable lean-to's which served the same purpose. most of the men were busy with their mines, but there were three or four of them loafing about, and when the noise made by the pack-animals saluted their ears they turned to see who was coming. one glance was enough; they pulled off their hats and waved them by way of welcome. "well, if here ain't banta!" they all exclaimed in a breath. "did you drop your roll down at denver and come back to get more?" "nary a time," replied mr. banta, emphatically. "we got just what we could eat and drink, and that is all the money we spent. who has passed in his checks since i have been gone?" (this was a miner's way of asking "who's dead?") "none of the boys who are here shovelling for gold," said the man, coming forward to shake hands with mr. banta, "but those four outlaws who came up here from denver to deal out some whiskey and start a faro bank could tell a different story, if they were here." "they did not get a foothold here, did they?" asked mr. banta. "i'll bet they didn't. we hardly gave them time to unpack their goods before we jumped on them and spilled their traps on the ground. one of the bums grew huffy at that, and he took a wounded arm down for the doctor to bandage up." "have any of the boys made their pile?" "some have, and some have not. tommy moran has struck a vein with sixty thousand dollars in it, and has been loafing around for the last two months, doing nothing. he went out to-day to see if he can get some more. he wants to go home, now." "i should not think he would like to travel between here and denver with that amount of money about him," said mr. banta. "well, there will be plenty more to join in with him when he is ready to go. the discouraged ones number a heap. the sign looks right, but the paying-stuff don't pan out first-rate. some are going home, and the rest are going off to hunt up new diggings." having briefly got at the news of what had been going on at the camp while he had been away, mr. banta led the way toward his own log cabin, which was fastened up just as it was when he left it. there was one bed, made of rough boards, an abundance of dishes, a fireplace, and one or two chairs, and that was all the furniture to be seen. but mr. banta thought his cabin just about right. "it don't matter how hard it rains or blows, this little house has sheltered me for a year, and has got to do so until my vein gives out. now, boys, catch the pack-animals and turn them over to me, and i'll soon make things look as though somebody lived here." julian and jack managed to secure the pack-animals by catching the bell-mare and leading her up to the door of the cabin, and it was not long before the bundles which they had borne for two hundred miles were placed on the ground, and mr. banta was engaged in carrying the things into his house. he unpacked all the bundles except the one that belonged to the boys, and that would not be opened until they reached their mine. "are you fellows decided on that matter yet?" he asked. "had you not better stay with us here on the flat? we will promise you that no spooks will trouble you here." "the more you talk about that mine, the more determined we are to see what is in it," answered jack. "you need not think you can scare us out in that way." "i like your pluck, and if you are determined to go there, why, i am going with you. it is only five miles, and we can easily ride over there in two hours." "where is it you are going?" asked one of the miners, who stood in the doorway unobserved. "you know that haunted mine, don't you?" "great moses! you ain't a-going up there!" said the man; and as he spoke he came into the cabin and sat down in one of the chairs. "the boys are going there, and i thought i would go with them to see them started," said mr. banta. "the mine is all grown up to grass, because there hasn't been anybody up there for some time now." "no, i should say not!" exclaimed the miner, as soon as he had recovered from his astonishment. "are the boys plumb crazy? i tell you, lads, when you see----" "tony, shut your mouth!" cried mr. banta. "the boys won't see anything, but they'll hear something that will take all the sand out of them. i have talked to the boys many times about that mine, during the past winter, but they have their heads set on it, and i don't see any other way than to let them go." "well, if we hear anything, there must be something that makes the noise," asserted julian. "it will be something that you can't see," said the miner, shaking his head and looking thoughtfully at the ground. "two fellows went up there since i knew the mine, and when they got down to the bottom of the pit they were so frightened that they came down here as fast as they could and struck out for denver. they were both big, stout men, and were armed with winchesters and revolvers. if they had seen what made the noise, they would have been apt to shoot--wouldn't they?" "i should think they would," answered jack. "will you go down into the mine when you get there?" asked the man, turning to mr. banta. "not much, as anybody knows of," declared the latter, shivering all over. "the ghosts don't bother anybody working at the top, so i shall get along all right." "well, that puts a different look on the matter," remarked tony, evidently much relieved. "then i shall expect to see you back in two or three days." "yes, i'll be back by that time," asserted mr. banta; and he added to himself, "if anything happens to the boys after that, why, i shall be miles away." this was the first time that mr. banta had anything to say to the miners about what he intended to do when he reached dutch flat, but it was all over the camp in less than five minutes. the miner went slowly and thoughtfully out of the cabin, as if he did not know whether it was best to agree to his leader's proposition or not, and it was not long before the men who were busy with things about their houses came up in a body to inquire into the matter. they were filled with astonishment; and, furthermore, they were anxious to see the boys who were going to take their lives in their hands and go up to work that pit, from which strong men had been frightened away. and it was so when six o'clock arrived, and the men all came in to get their supper. some of the miners declared that it was not to be thought of, and some said that if mr. banta was bound to go, they would go with him to see that he came out all right. "you see what the miners think of this business," remarked mr. banta, as he began preparations for their supper. "they think you are out of your heads." "well, you will not see anything of it, because you won't go into the mine," said jack. "you are mighty right i won't go into the mine," declared mr. banta, looking furtively about the cabin, as if he expected to see something advancing upon him. "we will go up there and put the pit all right, and then you will have to work it." "i wonder if there is any gold up there?" asked julian. "there is more gold up there than you can see in dutch flat in a year's steady digging. the men who have been down in the mine say so." "well, when we come back you may expect to see us rich," said julian, compressing his lips. "and you may be sure that the spooks won't drive us out, either." this was all that was said on the subject--that is, by those in the cabin; but when the men had eaten their suppers they all crowded into it, and the stories that would have been told of ghosts interfering with miners who tried to take away their precious belongings would have tested the boys' courage; but mr. banta did not allow them to go on. "as i told these boys down at denver, i am telling them nothing but facts in regard to this mine, and i want you to do the same," said he. "don't draw on your imagination at all." before the miners returned to their cabins, it came about that the boys were going to have a small army go with them on the morrow. at least a dozen miners declaimed their readiness to go with banta "and see him through," and banta did not object. "the more, the merrier," said he, when they had been left alone and he turned down his bedclothes. "now, you boys can spread your blankets on the floor in front of the fire and go to sleep; i will have you up at the first peep of day." chapter xxii. the haunted mine. mr. banta kept his word the next morning, for the day was just beginning to break when he rolled out on the floor and gave the order to "catch up." all the miners were astir soon afterward; but there was no joking or laughing going on in the camp, as there usually was. the men went silently about their work of cooking breakfast, or sat smoking their pipes in front of the fire, for their thoughts were busy with that mine up in the mountains. even the talkative mr. banta had nothing to say. he seemed to have run short of stories, all on a sudden. "say, julian," remarked jack, as they stood by the stream washing their hands and faces, "why don't banta talk to us the way he usually does? i'll bet he is thinking about what is going to happen to us." "i was just thinking that way myself," replied julian. "but we have gone too far to back out; we have got to go on." "of course we have. i wouldn't back out now for anything." breakfast was cooked and eaten, and the same silence prevailed; and that same silence did more to shake the boys' courage than all that had been said against their mine. mr. banta answered their questions in monosyllables, and when he had satisfied his appetite he put the dishes away unwashed and went out to catch his horse. "take hold of the bell-mare and lead her up the path," said he, addressing the miners who were getting ready to accompany him. "we have to take her and all the stock along, or the boys' pack-horse won't budge an inch." the miners were talkative enough now, when they saw the boys getting ready to start on their journey. they crowded around them, and each one shook them by the hand. "good-bye! kids," said one. "the next time i see you, you will be so badly scared that you won't be able to tell what happened to you up there; or, i sha'n't see you at all. i wish you all the good luck in the world, but i know that will not amount to anything." "do you think they can whip all these men?" asked jack, running his eye over the miners, who were getting on their horses and making ready to go with mr. banta. "that ain't the thing; you won't see anybody; but the sounds you will hear when you get fairly on the floor of that pit you will never want to hear again." the bell-mare was caught and led along the path, the stock all followed after her, and the miners brought up the rear. then mr. banta opened his mouth and proceeded to talk all the way to the mine. "you boys may come along here pretty sudden, some time, and if you don't find dutch flat you will stray off into the mountains and get lost; so i will just blaze the way for you." as mr. banta spoke he seized a handful of the branches of an evergreen and pulled them partly off, so that they just hung by the bark. "now, whenever you see that, you are on the right road," said he; "but if you don't see it, you had better turn back and search for a blaze until you find it." for once the boys did not pay much attention to mr. banta's stories, for their minds were fully occupied with their own thoughts. at last--it did not seem to them that they had ridden a mile--the man with the bell-mare sung out "here we are!" and led the way into a smooth, grassy plain which seemed out of place there in the mountains, and to which there did not appear to be any outlet except the one by which they had entered it. it was surrounded by the loftiest peaks on all sides except one, and there the plain was bounded by a precipitous ravine which was so deep that the bottom could not be seen from the top. near the middle of the plain was a little brook, placed most conveniently for "washing" their finds, which bubbled merrily over the stones before it plunged into the abyss before spoken of; and close on the other side were the ruins of the mine--a strong windlass, which had hauled up fifty thousand dollars' worth of gold--and the rope that was fast to the bucket, or rather to the fragments of it, for the bucket itself had fallen to pieces from the effects of the weather, and lay in ruins on the ground. still farther away stood the lean-to--firmly built, of course, but not strong enough to stand the fury of the winter's storms. taken altogether, a miner could not have selected a more fitting camp, or one better calculated to banish all symptoms of homesickness while they were pulling out the gold from the earth below. mr. banta kept a close watch on the boys, and saw the pleased expression that came upon their faces. "i know it looks splendid now, but it will not look so before long," said he, with a knowing shake of his head. "now, boys, let us get to work. we want to get through here, so as to get back to dutch flat to-night." the miners unsaddled their horses, grabbed their axes and spades, and set in manfully to make the "mine all right," so that the boys could go to work at it without delay. some repaired the lean-to, others laboriously cleared the mouth of the pit from the grass and brush which had accumulated there, and still another brought from the boys' pack the new bucket and rope which they expected would last just about long enough for one of them to go down and up--and they were positive that the boy would come up a great deal faster than he went down. the boys did not find anything to do but to get dinner, and they were rather proud of the skill with which the viands were served up. "i didn't know you boys could do cooking like this," said mr. banta, as he seated himself on the grass and looked over the table--a blanket spread out to serve in lieu of a cloth. "if the cooking was all you had to contend with you could live like fighting-cocks as long as you stay here." "we had hardly enough money to pay for a housekeeper while we were in st. louis, and so we had all this work to do ourselves," said julian. "you must give jack the credit for this. we kept bachelor's hall while we were at home. he cooked, and i swept out and helped wash the dishes." "now, boys," said mr. banta, after he had finished his pipe, "i guess we have julian and jack all ready to go to work whenever they feel like it. look over your work, and see if there is anything you have missed, and then we will go back to dutch flat. i tell you, i hate to leave you up here in this sort of a way." "you need not be," said jack. "if you will come up here in two weeks from now, we will have some gold-dust to show you." mr. banta did not say anything discouraging, for he had already exhausted all his powers in that direction. he inspected all the work, to satisfy himself that it was properly done, and then gave the order to "catch up." "of course your stock will go back with us," said he. "you could not keep them here away from that old bell-mare." "that was what we expected," said julian; "we may be so badly frightened that we won't think to bring our weapons with us." "i am not afraid to say that i'll risk that," said mr. banta, leaning over to shake julian by the hand. he told himself that the miner's heart was in that shake. it was very different from the clasp of the hand that he gave him when he was first introduced to him in denver. "good-bye, julian. that is all i can say to you." the other miners rode up to take leave of them, and all looked very solemn. some had a parting word to say, and some shook them by the hand without saying anything, the man with the bell-mare led off, the stock followed, the miners came last, and in two minutes more they were alone. julian sat down on the grass feeling lonely indeed, but jack jumped up and began to bestir himself. "come on, boy--none of that!" said he, beginning to gather their few dishes together. "we must get these things out of the way and i must get ready to go into that mine." "are you going down to-day?" asked julian. the time had come at last. for long months julian had talked about going down into that mine--not boastingly, to be sure, but he had said enough to make people believe he would not back out, and now the opportunity was presented for him to do as he had agreed. "why can't you let it go until to-morrow?" "because i am just ready to go now," said jack; and there was a determined look on his face which julian had never seen there before. "i am fighting mad, now, and to-morrow i may be as down-hearted as you are." "do you think i am afraid?" exclaimed julian, springing up and beginning to assist his chum. "i'll show you that i am not! if you want to go first you can go, and i will go the next time." julian went to work with a determination to get the dishes done as soon as possible. when they had got them all stowed away where they belonged, jack stopped to roll up his sleeves, examined his revolver, which he strapped to his waist, lighted his lamp, and led the way toward the mine without saying a word. julian gave a hasty glance at him and saw that his face was as calm as it usually was, and he began to take courage from that. "it looks dark down there, does it not?" asked julian, leaning on the windlass and peering down into the pit. "it is dark enough now, but it will be lighter when i get down there with my lamp," replied jack. "now, julian, are you sure you can hold me up?" "of course i can. if i can't, we had better get another man up here." jack stopped just long enough to shake julian by the hand, then seized the rope and stepped into the bucket, his partner holding the windlass so that he would not descend too rapidly. slowly he went down, until finally the bucket stopped. "all right!" called jack; and his voice sounded strangely, coming up from thirty feet underground. "this hole is bigger down here than it is at the top. somebody has cut away on each side to try to find gold," and at last he started off toward the gully. julian leaned over the pit and followed his companion's movements by the light of his lamp. he saw him as he went around to the "false diggings," and finally his lamp disappeared from view as jack went down toward the ravine. his face was very pale; he listened intently, but could not hear that rustling of feet nor that moaning sound that had frightened two men away from there, and his courage all came back to him. "i wonder what those men were thinking of when they started that story about this mine being haunted?" julian muttered to himself. "there is nothing here to trouble anyone." hardly had this thought been framed in julian's mind than there came a most startling and thrilling interruption. the boy was leaning over the pit with his head turned on one side, so that he could hear any unusual sounds going on below, and all of a sudden he sprang to his feet and acted very much as though he wanted to go below to jack's assistance. he distinctly heard that rustling of feet over the rocks below, some of them made by jack as he ran toward the bucket, and the other by something else that made julian's heart stand still. and with that sound came others--moans or shrieks, julian couldn't tell which--until they seemed to fill the pit all around him. this lasted but a few seconds, and then came the report of jack's revolver and the sound was caught up by the echoes until it appeared to julian that a whole battery of artillery had been fired at once. "there!" said julian, greatly relieved to know that jack had seen something to shoot at. "i guess one ghost has got his death at last!" a moment afterward came jack's frantic pull on the rope, accompanied by his frightened voice-- "pull me up, julian! for goodness' sake, pull me up!" julian jumped for the windlass and put every atom of his strength into it. at first the resistance of the bucket was just about what it would have been if jack had stepped into it; but suddenly the resistance ceased, the crank was jerked out of his hand, and julian was thrown headlong to the ground. "what was that?" exclaimed the boy, regaining his feet as quickly as he could. "jack, did you fall out of the bucket?" there was no response to his question. he leaned over and looked into the pit; but jack's light had gone out, and everything was silent below. the rustling of feet had ceased, the moans had died away, and the mine was as still as the grave. "something has happened to jack!" exclaimed julian, running to his lean-to after his revolver and lamp. "i am going down there to see about it if all the ghosts in the rocky mountains should be there to stop me!" julian worked frantically, and in less time than it takes to tell it he was ready to go down to jack's help. he hastily unwound the rope until all the length was out except the extreme end, which was fastened to the windlass by a couple of staples, and swung himself into the mine. he went down much faster than jack did, and when he reached the bottom he let go his hold on the rope, and, holding his revolver in readiness for a shot, he turned slowly about, as if he were expecting that whatever had frightened jack would be upon him before he could think twice. but nothing came. in whatever direction he turned his light, everything seemed concealed by egyptian darkness, and finally he resolved to let the ghosts go and turned his attention to jack. there he lay, close to julian's feet, his lamp extinguished and his revolver at a little distance from him; and it was plain that he was either frightened or dead, for julian had never seen so white a face before. his own face, if he only knew it, was utterly devoid of color, and his hands trembled so that he could scarcely use them. "i would like to know what it was that could make jack faint away in this fashion," muttered julian, first looking all around to make sure that nothing had come in sight before he laid his revolver down. "how to get him into that bucket, and the bail over him, is what bothers me just now; but he must go in, and get out of this." jack was a heavyweight, and if any boy who reads this has ever been called upon to handle a playmate who remained limp and motionless in his arms he will know what a task julian had to put him into the bucket. and remember that he must go inside the bail, otherwise he could not pull him out; and the bail would not stay up without somebody to hold it. but julian worked away as only a boy can under such circumstances, and was just getting him in shape, so that in a moment more he would have had him in, when he noticed that one of his hands was wet. he stopped for a moment to look at it, and at the sight of it he seemed ready to sit down beside jack and faint away, too. "it is blood!" murmured julian. "my goodness! you must get out of here, and be quick about it! what was that?" julian straightened up again, but he had his revolver in his hand. that moaning sound was repeated again, but the boy could not tell where it came from. it was not so great in volume as the first one that had saluted jack, but it was a complaining kind of a sound, such as one might utter who was being deserted by the only friend he had upon earth. julian stood there with his revolver in his hand, but, aside from the sound which rung in his ears for many a night afterward, his eyes could not reveal a single thing for him to shoot at. julian thought now that he had got at the bottom of the mystery. hastily slipping his revolver into his belt, he turned his attention to jack, and in a few moments had him ready to hoist to the top. then he seized the rope, and, climbing it hand over hand, he reached the surface, when, throwing off his hat and revolver, he turned around to haul up jack. chapter xxiii. haunted no longer. this time julian laid out all his strength on the windlass; but the bucket resisted, and he knew that jack's weight was safely within it. presently his head and shoulders appeared above the pit, whereupon julian slipped a bucket over the crank, and in a few minutes jack was safe above ground. to tumble him out of the bucket and dash into his face some water that he dipped up from the stream with his hat occupied but little of his time, and almost at once jack opened his eyes and looked about him. "well, sir, you saw them, did you not?" asked julian, with a smile. "i tell you, you wouldn't have smiled if you had been in my place," replied jack. "that thing looked awful as it came at me." "what thing?" "there is some animal down there who is not going to let us work this mine if he can help it," said jack, feeling around with his right hand to examine his shoulder. "as i stepped into the bucket with one foot he jumped--my goodness! i don't like to say how far it was; but i saw his eyes shining green in the darkness, and just as i pulled on him he sprang at me, dug his claws into my shoulder, and pulled me out. i thought i was gone up, sure; then all was blank to me. did you see him?" "i did not see anything," said julian. "when the bucket came up easily, as though you were not in it, i went down after you; but i did not see a thing. what was it?" "you tell. it was some kind of an animal that i never saw before. and didn't he make a howling just before he jumped! i wish you would look at my shoulder; it smarts awfully." jack could handle himself well enough now, and it was no trouble for him to roll over on his face and give julian a chance to view his wounds. his shirt was torn completely off, and underneath were four scratches which went the whole length of his back and spent themselves on the thick waistband of his trousers, which they had ripped in two. very little blood came from the wounds, and julian assured him that they were not deep enough to cause him any inconvenience. "you must have killed him before he got to you," said julian. "a bear could not jump that far, and if it were a panther--why, you have done something to be proud of. you have done it anyway, for you have cleared up something that scared those two men away from here." "do you really think so?" asked jack. "i know it." "but think of the howling he made! it seemed as if the pit was full of bears and panthers, and i didn't know which way to look. have you got all the blood off? then let us go down there and see about it. we can't work our mine with those fellows in there. if i killed him at once, how did he come to jump so far? and then he took himself off after clawing me; that is something i don't understand." "you have to shoot one of those fellows through the brain or in the spine, in order to throw him in his tracks. did you have a fair chance at his heart?" "i don't know. i simply shot a little ways below that green spot, in the darkness, and the next thing i knew i didn't know anything." "because, if you had a fair chance at his heart, a wild animal will sometimes run a good way before he drops. he is down there somewhere, and i'll bet you will find him. but, jack, there are others that we must get rid of before we own this mine." "what do you mean by that? i was in hopes i had shot the last one of them." "well, you did not. while i was working over you i heard those moans repeated. that proves others are there--don't it?" "i am going down to clear it up," persisted jack, who had got upon his feet by this time and started toward the lean-to. "hold on till i get cartridges to put in this revolver. i used to grumble at you because you spent so much money in denver, last winter, in shooting at a mark, but i begin to believe you were right and that i was wrong. if i had been as awkward with this shooting-iron as i used to be, you would have got the whole of that hundred thousand dollars to spend for yourself." "don't speak about it!" exclaimed julian, who wondered what he should do if jack was taken away from him. "i need somebody to grumble at me, and you will do as well as anybody. are you not going to put on another shirt?" "not much, i ain't. maybe i did not kill that animal, whatever it was and he will come for me again. now, you hold up and let me go," said jack, when he saw julian place one foot in the bucket." "i am a better shot than you are, and if i pull on one of those ghosts you will see him drop," returned julian, drawing the other foot in. "take hold of the windlass and let me down easy. if i halloo, you must lose no time in hauling me up." jack was obliged to submit to this arrangement, and he carefully lowered julian out of sight. when the bucket stopped he seized the rope, and in a moment more stood beside him. "i am glad it is animals that are interfering with us, for i am not at all afraid of them," declared jack. "now, where is that other sound you heard?" the question had hardly been formed on jack's lips when that sound came to their ears--not faint and far off, as was the one that caused julian to handle his revolver, but louder and clearer, as though the animal that made it was close upon them. sometimes they thought it was in front, and they held their revolvers ready to shoot at a moment's warning, and then, again, it sounded behind them; and in a second more it appeared as if the rocks on each side of them concealed the enemy that was uttering those startling sounds. "it is the echo--that's what it is," said julian. "there is only one animal in here, and we can't shoot him any too quick." julian, aided by his lamp, led the way cautiously along the subterranean passage, which would have been level but for the carelessness or haste of the men who had worked the pit before them, peering into every little cavity he saw, until at last he stopped suddenly and pointed his revolver at something that lay upon the floor. "what is it, julian?" whispered jack, pressing eagerly to his side. "well, sir, you have done it now," answered julian, bending over and examining the animal as well as he could by the light of his lamp. "this is the thing that frightened the other two men away." "what is it?" repeated jack. "a panther?" "no, sir; this animal will make two of the biggest panthers you ever saw. it is a lion!" "in america?" said jack, in astonishment. "it is what the miners call them, anyway. when we get it into the bucket i will let you have the crank, and we will see if it does not weigh almost as much as you do. this animal is a mother, and her babies are crying for her." jack was surprised when he saw what a monster animal his lucky shot had put out of the way, for he did not lay any claim to his skill as a marksman in making that shot. he must have shot her plumb through the heart, or else she would not have died so quickly. she looked as big as a yearling, marked for all the world like the panthers he had seen in the shows which he had attended; but it was her size more than anything else which impressed him. it was wonderful, too, what a change the sight of this animal made in jack. his courage all came back to him, and after taking a hasty glance at his trophy he took the lead and pressed on toward the farther end of the passage. every few feet he found what the miners called "false diggings"--that is, places that they had dug, either on the right-hand side or the left, to see if the vein they were following turned that way. in one of these "false diggings" jack stopped and pointed silently before him. julian looked over jack's shoulder, and saw that the miner had dug through the embankment there and into a cave which extended through into the gulch--the boys could see that by the little streaks of light which came in at the other end. on a slight shelf which formed one side of the passageway some leaves had been gathered, and in this bed were two cubs about the size of full-grown cats, while a third had crawled out and was trying, in his clumsy way, to follow his mother into the mine. the little thing was wild, and set up a furious spitting as the boys approached. "these things account for the noise you heard," remarked jack, picking up the cub and beating its head against the floor. "what made you do that, jack?" exclaimed julian. "we ought to save the young ones alive." "well, suppose we do; what will we raise them on? it is true that we might tell the milkman to leave us an extra quart or two to feed them on, for such little things can't eat bacon and hard-tack. now, after we get through--" "by gracious, jack--look out!" exclaimed julian, suddenly. "the old man is coming home to see what's the matter with his young ones!" jack dropped the cub he had picked up, and which he was about to serve as he had the first, and, looking toward the farther end of the passageway, saw that the light was shut off by the head and shoulders of another monstrous lion that had stopped when he discovered the boys. in an instant two revolvers were aimed at the white spot on his chest. "be sure you make as good a shot as you did before," whispered julian, whose face was as pale as jack's was when he pulled him out of the pit. "it's a matter of life and death with us." the revolvers cracked in quick succession, raising an echo that almost deafened them. without a moment's delay they fired again, then threw themselves prone upon the floor of the cave, for they saw the lion coming. he had evidently got all ready for a spring, and when the first two bullets struck him he made it, jumping over them and landing in the pit beyond. the moment he touched the ground two more balls went into him, and then the boys jumped to their feet; for they did not want the lion to spring upon them while lying down. but the animal made no effort to recover his feet; he was too badly hurt for that. he struggled frantically, springing from the ground as high as the boys' heads, and his motions were so quick and rapid that there was no chance to shoot him again; but this lasted only for a few seconds. his struggles grew weaker, and he soon lay upon the floor, stone dead. "there, sir," said julian, who was the first to speak; "this is a haunted mine no longer. our little -caliber revolvers did as good work as banta would have done with his winchester." "whew! i am glad it is all over, and that we were not frightened out of coming here. i don't believe in ghosts, anyway." "how do you account for that man in the mine up the country who always gets farther and farther away every time anybody tries to touch him?" asked julian. "i believe that story originated in the minds of some miners who were afraid to go there. and as for their shooting at him, i don't take any stock in that, either. now, i will finish what i was going to say when the old gentleman came in and interrupted me. after i have killed these cubs, we will go to work and fill this cave so full of the rocks which some of the miners have left scattered about that there won't be a chance for any other animal to make a commotion in this mine." the work of dispatching the cubs was very soon accomplished, and then the boys wanted to get the lions above ground, so that they could see how they looked. but when they undertook to lift the "old gentleman," to carry him to the bucket, they found they had more than they could do; so they each took hold of a hind leg and dragged him to the shaft. when they came to put him in, they saw there was not room enough for the cubs, for the bucket would not hold any more. "i'll go up and haul the old fellow out," said jack. "i tell you, he is big enough to scare anybody--is he not?" "yes," answered julian, with a laugh; "and if we had been frightened away, and somebody else had found out that they were lions, and not unearthly spirits, it would have been all over denver inside of a month." jack, who said he thought that was so, seized the rope and began working his way toward the top. then the bucket began to move, and presently julian saw it go out over the top. in a few minutes jack came down again, and they got the mother of the family ready to be hoisted up. julian went up this time, tumbled the lion out beside his mate, and let down the bucket for the dead cubs and jack, who, when he stepped out, found julian with his hat off and drawing his shirt-sleeves across his forehead. "i tell you, jack, if the dirt you send up weighs as much as these ghosts did, the one who pulls it out will have the hardest part of the work," said julian. "now let us sit down and take a good look at them." the longer the boys looked, the larger seemed to grow the animals that had created so great an uproar in the country for miles around. they regretted they had not brought a tape-line with them, that they might take measurements; but they came to one conclusion--if they found an animal like either of those in the mountains, they would give it a wide berth. they had read of encounters with them by men, and during their stay in denver had listened to some thrilling stories, told by miners, of their fierceness, and they decided that those men had more pluck than they had. "let us take the skins off, and by that time it will be night," said julian. "we can fill up the hole to-morrow." "i don't know how to go to work at it--do you?" asked jack, taking off his hat and scratching his head. "i never did such a piece of business in my life." "we are not going to take them off with the intention of selling them; we are going to show them to the miners. if we tell them our story without anything to show for it, they will think we are trying to shoot with a long bow. if we make a few holes in the skins by a slip of our knives, who cares?" the boys went to work on the cubs first, one holding the hind legs and the other doing the skinning, and they got along so well with them that they went to work on the big ones with more confidence. by the time it grew dark the skins were removed, and the carcasses were dragged away and thrown into the ravine. then the boys began supper with light hearts. the mystery of the haunted mine had been unearthed, and julian and jack were ready to dig up the treasure--that is, if there was any there waiting for them. chapter xxiv. "that is gold." "jack, come up here; i have something to show you." "what is it? have you made yourself rich by washing out the last bucket of earth i sent up?" "i have something, and it looks like gold. wait until i haul this bucket up, and then i'll send it down for you." this conversation took place between julian and his chum on the third morning after their arrival at the mine. the hole that led into the cave which the lions had made their habitation had been filled up so tight that even a ground-squirrel would have found it a hard task to work his way through; all the little rocks had been cleared away from the floor of the pit, making it an easy matter for them to carry the earth in a basket to the bottom of the shaft, and the digging had been going on for two days without any signs of "color" rewarding their anxious gaze. the buckets of dirt, as fast as they were sent up, were washed in the brook by the aid of a "cradle" which the boys had brought with them, but their most persistent "rocking" failed to leave a sediment behind. all the dirt went out with the water, and the cradle was as clean when they got through rocking it as it was before they began. "i believe the fellow who wrote that letter must have taken all the gold in the mine," remarked julian, one night, after they had spent a hard day's work at the pit. "fifty thousand dollars! that's a heap of money to take out of one hole in the ground." "i think so myself," replied jack; "but we will keep it up until our provisions are gone, and then we will go back to dutch flat." but on this particular day julian, who was washing the dirt at the head of the shaft, thought he saw some settlings in the bottom of his cradle, and forthwith began to handle it a little more carefully. the longer he rocked the more the sediment grew, until at last he had a spoonful, which he gathered up and then approached the mouth of the pit. "if you have any gold to show me i'll come up before the bucket does," declared jack; "the bucket can wait." "i have enough here to buy another block of houses," exclaimed julian, as jack's head and shoulders appeared. "what do you think of that?" "is it gold or not?" asked jack, who was inclined to be suspicious. "maybe it is some of that iron that mr. banta told us about." "that is just what i was afraid of," said julian; "but i reckon iron pyrites comes in lumps, don't it? if it does, this is gold, sure enough." the boys did not know what to make of it, and they finally decided that they would put it away until mr. banta came up to see how they were getting along, which he had agreed to do at the end of two weeks. the boys spoke of their "find" as iron pyrites, for they did not like to think they would be lucky enough to dig gold out of the ground, and this was not the only spoonful of dust that went into their bag. the bag grew in size as the days wore on, and finally, at the end of two weeks, it was almost full. "i tell you, jack, i don't like to show this to mr. banta," declared julian, holding up the bag, and looking ruefully at it. "perhaps we have done all our best digging all for nothing." "well, it can't be helped," was jack's reply. "they were inexperienced when they first came out here, and there was nobody to tell them whether they had iron pyrites or gold. but we have done one thing that he can't laugh at--we have worked the haunted mine." two weeks had never passed so slowly to the boys before. they worked early and late, but they found time now and then to glance toward the entrance of the valley, to see if mr. banta was approaching. all this while the bag grew heavier and fuller, until julian declared that it would not hold another spoonful. "then we must tie it up tight and hide it somewhere," said jack. "what is the use of hiding it?" asked julian. "nobody knows that we have been so successful in our haunted mine." "no matter; such things have happened, and we want to be on the safe side. we must hide it a little way from the lean-to, for there is the first place anybody will look for it." julian readily gave in, although he could not see any necessity for it, took a spade, and went with jack to what he considered to be a good hiding-place. a hole was dug, the bag put in, some leaves were scattered over the spot, and then jack drew a long breath of relief. "one would think we are surrounded by robbers," said julian. "who do you suppose is going to steal it?" "i don't know; but i have never had so much money, or what is equivalent to money, in my charge before, and, as i said before, i think it best to be on the safe side." "our two weeks have passed, and mr. banta ought to be here to-morrow," observed julian, leading the way back to the lean-to. "i expect he will look for us to be all chawed up." the very next day mr. banta appeared. the boys had found an extra "find" that morning. julian was rocking the cradle back and forth, and jack was leaning over his shoulder to see what gold there was in it, when they heard the sound of horses' hoofs on the rocks, and looked up to find the miner and his partner, pete, standing in the entrance to the valley. "now we will soon have this thing cleared up," exclaimed julian, joyfully. "mr. banta, you don't know how glad we are to see you again!" mr. banta did not say anything in reply. he and his partner rode slowly toward them, looking all around, as if they expected to discover something. "is it the ghosts you are looking for?" asked jack. "come along, and we will show them to you." "boys," stammered mr. banta, as if there was something about the matter that looked strange enough to him, "you are still on top of the ground. put it there." the boys readily complied, and they thought, by the squeeze the miner gave their hands, that he was very much surprised to see them alive and well, and working their mine as if such things as ghosts had never been heard of. "did you see them?" he continued. "you are right, we did," answered julian. "jack, pull off your shirt. he has some marks that he will carry to his grave." jack did not much like the idea of disrobing in the presence of company, but he divested himself of his shirt and turned his back to the miners. on his shoulder were four big welts, which promised to stay there as long as he lived. "it was a lion!" exclaimed mr. banta. "that is just what it was. now come with me and i will show you the skins. we have something to prove it." the miners followed after the boys, when, as they were about to pass their pit, julian said he wanted to see them about something that had been worrying them a good deal ever since they first discovered it. "what do you call that?" he asked, gathering up a pinch of the sediment that still remained in the cradle. "good gracious! do you gather much of this stuff?" exclaimed mr. banta, who was all excitement now. "it is not iron pyrites, is it?" "iron your grandmother!" retorted mr. banta. "it is gold, and a bag full of that stuff will be worth about ten thousand dollars to you!" "we have a bagful of it hidden away," asserted julian; while jack was so overcome with something, he didn't know what, that he sat right down on the ground. "jack thought we had best hide it, but i will get it and show it to you." "well, well! this beats anything in the world that i ever heard of! don't it you, pete?" asked mr. banta, dismounting from his horse. "here's you two, come out here as tenderfeet from st. louis, who never saw or heard of a gold-mine before, and you come up to this pit, which has all manner of ghosts and other things wandering about it at will,--so much so that they scared away two of the best men we had on dutch flat,--and then you get the upper hand of the spirits and make ten thousand dollars out of the mine in two weeks! i tell you that bangs me; don't it you, pete?" jack came up to take the horses and hitch them to swinging limbs, and mr. banta turned to julian and told him he was anxious to see that bag with the ten thousand dollars in gold in it; whereupon julian caught up a spade and hurried out, and jack, who had returned to the lean-to, was told to sit down and tell them the story about the haunted gold-mine. "there isn't much to tell," said jack, who, like all modest fellows, disliked to talk about himself. "i went down to see what the inside of the mine looked like, and one of the lions pitched onto me and i shot him." "there's more in the story than that comes to," declared mr. banta. "let us go out and look at the skins; we will hear the straight of the matter when julian comes in." the skins were rolled up,--they had been stretched on the ground until the sun dried them,--but jack quickly unrolled them, and the miners looked on as if greatly surprised. they could not understand how one ball, fired in the dark, had finished the lion so speedily. "it is a wonder she did not tear you all to pieces," said pete. "you must have made a dead-centre shot." the other skin was unrolled, too, and by the time the miners had examined it to their satisfaction julian came up with the bag. mr. banta untied it, and one look was enough. "that is gold," said he; "there is no iron pyrites about that. now, jack, you go on and get dinner for us, and we will listen while julian tell us about those ghosts." "i told you i did not believe in such things," remarked julian. "and the whole thing has come out just as i said it would." "what have you in this pack?" asked jack. "it looks like provisions." "that is just what it is. we thought you must be nearly out by this time, and so we brought some along. let the mule go home, if she wants to; she misses that old bell-mare." the story which jack did not tell lost nothing in going through julian's hands. he described things as nearly as he could see them before jack's light went out, and told of the lucky shot and the savage shrieks that came up to him through the pit. "those shrieks were what got next to me," declared julian, with a shudder. "i can't get them out of my mind yet. i thought that the ghost had jack, sure." "well, go on," said mr. banta, when julian paused. "there were two lions there--how did you get the other one?" when julian told how jack had taken charge of the matter, and had gone ahead in order to hunt up the other ghost, mr. banta acted as though he could scarcely believe it; while pete thrust his spurred heels out before him and broke out into a volley of such quaint oaths that julian threw back his head and laughed loudly. "if you had not done anything else since you have been up here but go to hunt up that lion with revolvers, i should know you were tenderfeet pure and simple," declared mr. banta. "why, boys, that was the most dangerous thing you ever did!" "well, we did not know what else to do," explained julian, modestly. "jack said the lion would not let us work the mine if he could help it, and so we had to go and find him." "i know some miners down at dutch flat who would think twice before going for that lion with their winchesters," declared pete, "and you had nothing but little popguns!" "they did the work, anyhow," asserted julian. "well, boys, you have been very lucky," said mr. banta. "take your bag of dust and hide it where nobody will ever think of looking for it. and remember--if any person comes here and asks you for money, you are to give him what is in the other bag, and keep still about this full one." julian's eyes began to open wide as this hint was thrown out. he looked at jack, who was by this time engaged in dishing up the dinner; but the latter only shook his head at him, as if to say, "didn't i say we had better hide that gold while we had the opportunity?" "who do you think is going to rob us?" asked julian, as soon as he could speak. "i am sure i don't know; but we have some men down at the flat who would not be any too good to come up here and see how you are getting along. of course this thing will get all over the flat in less than five minutes after we get there. we must tell just how we found you; for, if we try to keep it secret, the miners will suspect something and come up here in a body. but if they do that, then you will be safer than if you were alone." "we don't want any truck with such people," declared jack. "if we shoot as well as we did at the lion that wore that big skin, you will hear something drop. now sit up and eat some dinner." "jack, i believe you have the most pluck," said pete. "he has it all," replied julian. "he don't say much, but he keeps up a dreadful lot of thinking." dinner over, the miners lit their pipes, and then mr. banta said they wanted to go down into the mine to see how it looked. "it is my opinion that you won't get much more gold out of here," said he, as he stepped into the bucket. "you are gradually working your way toward the ravine, and when you break through the wall, you will find no color there." "i don't care," replied julian. "if it will hold out until we get another bag filled, that will be all we want. we can say, when we get back to denver, that we have been in the mines." "and had some adventures there, too," remarked mr. banta. "lower away." julian and pete followed mr. banta down to the bottom of the mine, and jack stayed up above to manage the bucket. they were gone a long time, for julian was obliged to tell his story over again; and, when they were pulled up, mr. banta repeated what he had said before he was let down, namely, that the boys had about reached the end of their vein. "but even with these bags full, you have got more than some men have who have been on the flat for two years," said he. "now, boys, is there anything we can do for you before we bid you good-bye?" no, julian and jack could not think of anything they wanted. they thanked the miners for bringing them some provisions, and offered payment on the spot; but mr. banta said they would let that go until the boys had got through working their mine. they shook them by the hand, wished them all the good luck in the world, turned their faces toward home, and in a few moments the sound of their horses' hoofs on the rocks had died away in the distance. chapter xxv. claus, again. "there!" said mr. solomon claus, as he entered at a fast walk the railroad depot, passed through it, and took up the first back street that he came to; "i guess i have got rid of him. now, the next thing is to go somewhere and sit down and think about it." claus kept a good watch of the buildings as he passed along, and at last saw a hotel, into which he turned. he bought a cigar at the bar, and, drawing a chair in front of one of the windows, sat down to meditate on his future course; for this german was not in the habit of giving up a thing upon which he had set his mind, although he might fail in every attempt he undertook. he had set his heart upon having a portion of that money that julian had come into by accident, and, although something had happened to upset his calculations, he was not done with it yet. "that was a sharp trick, sending off the box by express, when they might as well have carried its contents in their valises," said claus, settling down in his chair and keeping his eyes fastened upon the railroad depot. "wiggins was at the bottom of that, for i don't believe the boys would ever have thought of it. i wonder how they felt when they found their valises gone? now, the next thing is something else. shall i go home, get my clothes, and spend the winter in denver, or shall i go home and stay there? that's a question that cannot be decided in a minute." while claus was endeavoring to come to some conclusion on these points he saw casper nevins coming along the railroad and entering the depot. by keeping a close watch of the windows he discovered him pass toward the ticket office, where he made known his wants, and presently claus saw him put a ticket into his pocket. "so far, so good," muttered claus, as he arose from his chair. "i guess i might as well get on the train with him, for i must go to st. louis anyhow. perhaps something will occur to me in the meantime." casper was sitting on a bench, with his hands clasped and his chin resting on his breast, wondering what in the world he was going to do when he got back to st. louis, when he heard claus's step on the floor. he first had an idea that he would not speak to him at all; but solomon acted in such a friendly manner, when he met him, that he could not fail to accost him with "you were trying to shake me, were you?" "shake you! my dear fellow," exclaimed claus, as if he were profoundly astonished. "such a thing never entered my head! i simply wanted to get away by myself and think the matter over. have a cigar." "i don't want it!" declared casper, when claus laid it down upon his knee. "i don't believe i shall want many cigars or anything else very long." "disappointed over not finding that wealth, were you?" asked claus, in a lower tone. "well, i was disappointed myself, and for a time i did not want to see you or anybody else. i have wasted a heap of hard-earned dollars upon that 'old horse.'" "have you given it up, too?" inquired casper. "what else can i do? of course i have given it up. i will go back home again and settle down to my humdrum life, and i shall never get over moaning about that hundred thousand dollars we have lost." "do you think we tried every plan to get it?" "every one that occurred to me. they have it, and that is all there is to it. what are you going to do when you get back to st. louis?" inquired claus, for that was a matter in which he was very much interested. he was not going to have casper hanging onto him; on that he was determined. "i suppose i shall have to do as others do who are without work," replied casper. "i shall go around to every store, and ask them if they want a boy who isn't above doing anything that will bring him his board and clothes. i wish i had my old position back; i'll bet you that i would try to keep it." "that is the best wish you have made in a long time," said claus, placing his hand on casper's shoulder. "if i was back there, with my money in my pocket, i would not care if every one of the express boys would come and shove an 'old horse' at me. i tell you, 'honesty is the best policy.'" casper was almost ready to believe that claus had repented of his bargain, but he soon became suspicious of him again. that was a queer phrase to come from the lips of a man who believed in cheating or lying for the purpose of making a few dollars by it. for want of something better to do, he took up the cigar which claus had laid upon his knee and proceeded to light it. "well, i guess i'll go and get a ticket," remarked claus, after a little pause. "i don't know how soon that train will be along." "'honesty is the best policy,' is it?" mused casper, watching claus as he took up his stand in the door and looked away down the railroad. "some people would believe him, but i have known him too long for that. i wish i knew what he has in his head. he is going to try to get his hands on that 'old horse'; and if he does, i hope he will fail, just as we have done. he need not think that i am going to hold fast to him. i have had one lesson through him, and that is enough." claus did not seem anxious to renew his conversation with casper. he had heard all the latter's plans, as far as he had any, and now he wanted to think up some of his own. he walked up and down the platform with his hands behind his back, all the while keeping a bright lookout down the road for the train. "i must go to denver, because i shall want to make the acquaintance of some fellows there whom i know i can trust," soliloquized claus. "i can get plenty of men in st. louis, but they are not the ones i want. i must have some men who know all about mining, and perhaps i can get them to scrape an acquaintance with julian. that will be all the better, for then i can find out what he is going to do. well, we will see how it looks when i get home." for half an hour claus walked the platform occupied with such thoughts as these, and finally a big smoke down the track told him the train was coming. he stuck his head in at the door and informed casper of the fact, and when the train came up he boarded one of the forward cars, leaving his companion to do as he pleased. "you are going to shake me," thought casper, as he stepped aboard the last car in the train. "well, you might as well do it at one time as at another. i have all the money i can get out of you, but i am not square with you by any means. from this time forward i'll look out for myself." and the longer casper pondered upon this thought, the more heartily he wished he had never seen claus in the first place. he did not sleep a wink during his ride to st. louis, but got off the train when it reached its destination and took a straight course for his room. the apartment seemed cheerless after his experience on the train, but he closed the door, threw himself into a chair, and resumed his meditations, for thus far he had not been able to decide upon anything. "i am hungry," thought he, at length, "and after i have satisfied my appetite i will do just what i told claus--go around to the different stores and ask them if they want a boy. i tell you that will be a big come-down for me, but it serves me right for having anything to do with claus." we need not go with casper any further. for three nights he returned from his long walks tired and hungry, and not a single storekeeper to whom he had applied wanted a boy for any purpose whatever. sometimes he had sharp words to dishearten him. "no, no; get out of here--you are the fifth boy who has been at me this morning;" and casper always went, for fear the man would lay violent hands on him. on the fourth night he came home feeling a little better than usual. he had been hired for a few days to act as porter in a wholesale dry-goods store, and he had enough money in his pocket to pay for a good supper. the wages he received were small--just about enough to pay for breakfast and supper; but when the few days were up the hurry was over, and casper was once more a gentleman of leisure. and so it was during the rest of the summer and fall. he could not get anything to do steadily, his clothes were fast wearing out, and the landlord came down on him for his rent when he did not have a cent in his pocket. utterly discouraged, at last he wrote to his mother for money to carry him to his home; and so he passes out of our sight. as for claus, we wish we could dispose of him in the same way; but unfortunately we cannot. everybody was glad to see him when he entered the pool-room where he had been in the habit of playing, and more than one offered him a cigar. he told a long story about some business he had to attend to somewhere out west, and when he talked he looked up every time the door opened, as if fearful that casper would come in to bother him for more money. but casper was sick of claus. the lesson he had received from him was enough. claus remained in st. louis for two months; and he must have been successful, too, for the roll of bills he carried away with him was considerably larger than the one which casper had seen. when he was ready to go he bade everybody good-bye, and this time he carried his trunk with him. he was going out west to attend to "some business," which meant that he was going to keep watch of julian and jack in some way, and be ready to pounce upon them when they worked their mine--that is, if they were successful with it. "that will be the only thing i can do," decided claus, after thinking the matter over. "they have the buildings by this time, at any rate, so that part of it has gone up; but when they get out alone, and are working in their mine, that will be the time for me to take them. they will have all the work, but i will have the dust they make." when claus reached this point in his meditations, he could not help remembering that some of the men who were interested in the mines were dead shots with either rifle or revolver, and that if he robbed the boys he would be certain to have some of them after him, and what they would do if they caught him was another matter altogether. "i can shoot as well as they can," thought he, feeling around for his hip pocket to satisfy himself that his new revolver was still in its place. "if i have some of their money in my pocket, i would like to see any of the miners come up with me." when claus reached denver, his first care was to keep clear of julian and jack, and his next was to find some miners who were familiar with the country in the region bordering on dutch flat; for thus far claus had not been able to learn a thing about it. dutch flat might be five miles away or it might be a hundred, and he wanted somebody to act as his guide. he put up at a second-rate hotel, engaged his room, and then came down into the reading-room to keep watch of the men who tarried there. "i must find somebody whose face tells me he would not be above stealing a hundred thousand dollars if he had a good chance," decided claus; "but the countenances of these men all go against me--they are too honest. i guess i'll have to try the clerk, and see what i can get out of him." on the second day, as claus entered the reading-room with a paper in his hand, he saw before him a man sitting by a window, his feet elevated higher than his head, watching the people going by. he was a miner,--there could be no doubt about that,--and he seemed to be in low spirits about something, for every little while he changed his position, yawned, and stretched his arms as if he did not know what to do with himself. claus took just one look at him, then seized a chair and drew it up by the man's side. the man looked up to see who it was, and then looked out on the street again. "excuse me," began claus, "but you seem to be a miner." "well, yes--i have dabbled in that a little," answered the man, turning his eyes once more upon claus. "what made you think of that?" "i judged you by your clothes," replied claus. "have a cigar? then, perhaps you will tell me if you know anything about dutch flat, where there is--" "don't i know all about it?" interrupted the man. "ask me something hard. a bigger fraud than that dutch flat was never sprung on any lot of men. there is no color of gold up there." "then what made you go there in the first place?" asked claus. "it got into the hands of a few men who were afraid of the indians, and they coaxed me and my partner to go up," replied the man. "but there were no indians there. i prospected around there for six months, owe more than i shall ever be able to pay for grub-staking, and finally, when the cold weather came, i slipped out." "i am sorry to hear that," remarked claus, looking down at the floor in a brown study. "i have a mine up there, and i was about to go up and see how things were getting on there; but if the dirt pans out as you say, it will not be worth while." "you had better stay here, where you have a good fire to warm you during this frosty weather," said the man, once more running his eyes over claus's figure. "if you have a mine up there you had better let it go; you are worth as much money now as you would be if you stayed up there a year." "but i would like to go and see the mine," replied claus. "there was a fortune taken out of it a few years ago, and it can't be that the vein is all used up yet." "where _is_ your mine?" "that is what i don't know. i have somehow got it into my head the mine is off by itself, a few miles from everybody else's." "do you mean the haunted mine?" asked the man, now beginning to take some interest in what claus was saying. "i believe that is what they call it." "it is five miles from dutch flat, straight off through the mountains. you can't miss it, for there is a trail that goes straight to it." "do you know where it is?" "yes, i know; but that is all i do know about it. i saw two men who went there to work the pit, and who were frightened so badly that they lit out for this place as quick as they could go, and that was all i wanted to know of the mine." "then you have never been down in it?" "not much, i haven't!" exclaimed the man, looking surprised. "i would not go down into it for all the money there is in the mountain." "did those men see anything?" "no, but they heard a sight; and if men can be so badly scared by what they hear, they don't wait to see anything." "well, i want to go up there, and who can i get to act as my guide?" "i can tell you one thing," answered the man, emphatically--"you won't get me and jake to go up there with you. i'll tell you what i might do," he added, after thinking a moment. "are you going to stay here this winter?" "yes, i had thought of it. it is pretty cold up there in the mountains--is it not?" "the weather is so cold that it will take the hair right off of your head," replied the man. "if you will stay here until spring opens, you might hire me and jake to show you up as far as dutch flat; but beyond that we don't budge an inch." "how much will you charge me? and another thing--do i have to pay you for waiting until spring?" "no, you need not pay us a cent. we have enough to last us all winter. i was just wondering what i was going to do when spring came, and that made me feel blue. but if you are going to hire us--you will be gone three or four months, won't you?" yes, claus thought that he would be gone as long as that. then he asked, "how far is dutch flat from here?" "two hundred miles." the two then began an earnest conversation in regard to the money that was to be paid for guiding claus up to dutch flat. the latter thought he had worked the thing just about right. it would be time enough to tell him who julian and jack were, and to talk about robbing them, when he knew a little more concerning the man and his partner. he had not seen the other man yet, but he judged that, if he were like the miner he was talking to, it would not be any great trouble to bring them to his own way of thinking. chapter xxvi. claus hears something. never had a winter appeared so long and so utterly cheerless as this one did to solomon claus. the first thing he did, after he made the acquaintance of jake and his partner, was to change his place of abode. jake was as ready to ask for cigars as claus had been, and the latter found that in order to make his money hold out he must institute a different state of affairs. he found lodgings at another second-rate hotel in a distant part of the city, but he found opportunity to run down now and then to call upon bob and jake,--those were the only two names he knew them by,--to see how they were coming along, and gradually lead the way up to talking about the plans he had in view. it all came about by accident. one day, when discussing the haunted mine, claus remarked that he knew the two boys who were working it, and hoped they would have a good deal of dust on hand by the time he got here. "then they will freeze to death!" declared bob. "what made you let them go there, if you knew the mine was haunted?" "oh, they are not working it now," said claus. "they are in st. louis, and are coming out as soon as spring opens. they are plucky fellows, and will find out all about those ghosts before they come back." "yes, if the ghosts don't run them away," answered bob. "i understood you to say they are boys. well, now, if they get the better of the ghosts, which is something i won't believe until i see it, and we should get there about a month or two after they do, and find that they have dug up dust to the amount of ten or fifteen thousand dollars--eh?" "but maybe the gentleman is set on those two boys, and it would not pay to rob them," remarked jake. "no, i am not set on them," avowed claus, smiling inwardly when he saw how readily the miners fell in with his plans. "i tried my level best to get those boys to stay at home, for i don't want them to dig their wealth out of the ground, but they hooted at me; and when i saw they were bound to come, i thought i would get up here before them and see what sort of things they had to contend with." "what sort of relationship do you bear to the two boys?" asked bob. "i am their uncle, and i gave them a block of buildings here in denver worth a hundred thousand dollars and this haunted mine; but, mind you, i did not know it was haunted until after i had given it to them. but, boy like, they determined to come up, brave the ghosts, and take another fifty thousand out of it." bob and jake looked at each other, and something told them not to believe all that claus had said to them. if he was worth so much money that he was willing to give his nephews a hundred thousand dollars of it, he did not live in the way his means would allow. "and another thing," resumed claus. "i would not mind their losing ten thousand dollars, provided i got my share of it, for then they would learn that a miner's life is as full of dangers as any other. but remember--if you get ten thousand, i want three thousand of it." this was all that claus thought it necessary to say on the subject of robbing the boys, and after finishing his cigar he got up and went out. jake watched him until he was hidden in the crowd on the street, and then settled back in his chair and looked at bob. "there is something wrong with that fellow," he remarked. "his stories don't hitch; he has some other reason for wishing to rob those boys. now, what is it?" "you tell," retorted bob. "he has something on his mind, but he has no more interest in that pit than you or i have. he never owned it, in the first place." "then we will find out about it when we show him the way to the flat," said jake. "oh, there will be somebody there working the mine--i don't dispute that. but he is no uncle to them two boys. but say--i have just thought of something. we are not going up there for three dollars a day; and if we don't make something out of the boys, what's the reason we can't go to headquarters?" jake understood all his companion would have said, for he winked and nodded his head in a way that had a volume of meaning in it. the two moved their chairs closer together, and for half an hour engaged in earnest conversation. there was only one thing that troubled them--they did not like the idea of staying at dutch flat, among the miners, until they heard how the boys were getting on with their mine. "you know they did not like us any too well last summer," said bob, twisting about in his chair. "if we had not come away just when we did, it is my belief they would have ordered us out." "yes; and it was all on your account, too. you were too anxious to know how much the other fellows had dug out of their mines. you must keep still and say nothing." claus went away from the hotel feeling very much relieved. bob and jake had come over to his plans, and they had raised no objection to them. the next thing was to bring them down to a share in the spoils. he was not going to come out there all the way from st. louis and propose that thing to them, and then put up with what they chose to give him. "i must have a third of the money they make, and that is all there is about it," said he to himself. "they would not have known a thing about it if it had not been for me. who is that? i declare, it is julian and jack!" the boys were coming directly toward him, and this was the first time he had seen them since his arrival in denver, although he had kept a close watch of everybody he had met on the street. he stepped into a door, and appeared to be looking for some one inside; and when the boys passed him, he turned around to look at them. the latter were in a hurry, for it was a frosty morning, and they felt the need of some exercise to quicken their blood; besides, they were on their way to school, in the hope of learning something that would fit them for some useful station in life. they were dressed in brand-new overcoats, had furs around their necks and fur gloves on their hands, and julian was bent partly over, laughing at some remark jack had made. he watched them until they were out of sight, and then came out and went on his way. "i tell you we are 'some,' now that we have our pockets full of money," soliloquized claus, who grew angry when he drew a contrast between his and their station in life. "most anybody would feel big if he was in their place. but i must look out--i don't want them to see me here." fortunately claus was not again called upon to dodge the boys in his rambles about the city. he kept himself in a part of the city remote from that which the boys frequented. the winter passed on, and spring opened, and he did not again see them; but he heard of them through bob and jake, who made frequent visits to the hotel where mr. banta was located. "i guess we saw your boys to-day," said bob, who then went on to give a description of them. "they have it all cut and dried with banta, and he is going to show them the way to their mine. no, they did not mention your name once. they are going to buy a pack-horse, and load him up with tools and provisions, and are going out as big as life." "that is all right," said claus. "now, remember--i am to have a third of the dust you get." "of course; that is understood," answered jake, who now seemed as anxious to go to dutch flat as he had before been to keep away from it. "it would not be fair for us to take it all. where are you going after you get the money?" "i haven't got it yet," remarked claus, with a smile. "those ghosts may be too strong for the boys, and perhaps they will come away without anything." "then we will pitch in and work the mine, ourselves," said bob. "they say that gold is so thick up there that you can pick it up with your hands. we won't come away and leave such a vein behind us." "what about the ghosts?" queried claus, who could not deny he was afraid of them. "they may be too strong for you, also." "if they can get away with cold steel we'll give in to them," said jake. "but i'll risk that. where are you going when you get the money? of course you can't go back to st. louis." "no; i think i shall go on to california. i have always wanted to see that state." "well, we will go east. three thousand dollars, if they succeed in digging out ten thousand, added to what we shall make--humph!" said bob; and then he stopped before he had gone any further. it was a wonder that claus did not suspect something, but his mind was too fully occupied with other matters. where was he going when he got the money? that was something that had not occurred to claus before, and he found out that he had something yet to worry him. "you fellows seem to think you will get rich by robbing those boys," remarked claus, knowing that he must say something. "no, we don't," answered jake; "but that will be enough to keep us until we can turn our hands to some other kind of work. now about our pack-horse, tools and provisions. you have money enough to pay for them, i suppose?" "oh, yes--that is, i have a little," claus replied, cautiously, for he was afraid the miners might want more of it than he felt able to spend. "but i tell you i shall be hard up after i get those things." "you have other money besides what you gave the boys," said bob. "you can write to st. louis for more." "but i don't want to do that. i have with me just what i can spare, for my other funds are all invested." "oh, you can get more for the sake of what is coming to you," said jake, carelessly. "now, we want to start for dutch flat in about a week. that will give the boys time to fight the ghosts and get to work in their pit. suppose we go and see about our pack-horse and tools." claus would have been glad to have put this thing off for a day or two, but he could not see any way to get out of it. he went with the miners, who knew just where they wanted to go, and the horse he bought was a perfect rack of bones that did not seem strong enough to carry himself up to dutch flat, let alone a hundredweight of tools and provisions with him. the tools he bought were to be left in the store until they were called for, and the miners drew a long breath of relief, for that much was done. if claus at any time got sick of his bargain, and wanted to haul out, he could go and welcome; but they would hold fast to his tools and provisions, and use them in prospecting somewhere else. the morning set apart for their departure came at last, and claus and his companions put off at the first peep of day. they made the journey of two hundred miles without any mishap, and finally rode into the camp of dutch flat just as the miners were getting ready to have their dinner. they all looked up when they heard the newcomers, and some uttered profane ejaculations under their breath, while others greeted them in a way that claus did not like, for it showed him how his partners stood there with the miners. "well, if there ain't bob i'm a dutchman!" exclaimed one, straightening up and shading his eyes with his hand. "you are on hand, like a bad five-dollar bill--ain't you? i was in hopes you were well on your way to the states by this time." "no, sir; i am here yet," answered bob. "you don't mind if i go and work my old claim, do you? i don't reckon that anybody has it." "mighty clear of anybody taking your claim," said another. "you can go there and work it, for all of us; but we don't want you snooping around us like you did last summer." "what is the matter with those fellows?" asked claus, when they were out of hearing. "what did you men do here last summer?" "just nothing at all," replied jake. "we wanted to know how much gold everybody was digging, and that made them jealous of us." "but if you can't mingle with them as you did then, how are you going to find out about the haunted mine?" "oh, we'll mix with them just as we did last year, only we sha'n't have so much to say to them," said jake. "here is our claim, and it don't look as though anybody had been nigh it." claus was both surprised and downhearted. if he had known that the miners were going to extend such a reception as that to him he would have been the last one to go among them. there he was, almost alone, with two hundred brawny fellows around him, each one with a revolver strapped to his waist, and their looks and actions indicated that if necessity required it they would not be at all reluctant to use them. he managed to gather up courage to visit the general camp-fire, which was kindled just at dark, where the miners met to smoke their pipes and tell about what had happened in their mines during the day. this one had not made anything. the dirt promised fairly, and he hoped in a few days to strike a vein that would pay him and his partner something. another had tapped a little vein, and he believed that by the time he got a rock out of his way he would stumble onto a deposit that would make him so rich that he would start for the states in short order. "well, partner, how do you come on?" asked the man who was sitting close to claus, who was listening with all his ears. "does your dirt pan out any better than it did last summer?" "we have not seen the color of anything yet," replied claus. "i do not believe there is any gold there." "you are a tenderfoot, ain't you?" "yes; i never have been in the mines before." "and you will wish, before you see your friends again, that you had never seen them this time. if you get any dust, you hide it where your partners can't find it." there was one man, who did not take any part in the conversation, that kept a close watch on claus and listened to every word he said. it was mr. banta, who wondered what in the world could have happened to bring so gentlemanly appearing a man up there in company with bob and jake. "he must have money somewhere about his good clothes, and that is what bob is after," said he to himself. "but if that is the case, why did they not jump him on the way here? i think he will bear watching." three nights passed in this way, claus always meeting the miners at the general camp-fire, while his partners stayed at home and waited for him to come back and tell them the news, and on the fourth evening banta seemed lost in thought. he sat and gazed silently into the fire, unmindful of the tales that were told and the songs that were sung all around him. at last one of the miners addressed him. "well, banta, i suppose this is your last evening with us," he remarked. "yes; i go off to-morrow." "don't you wish you had not promised to go up there?" "no, i don't; i shall find out if the boys are all right, anyway. that is what i care the most about. i shall take some provisions with me, and if the boys are above ground i will leave them; otherwise, i shall bring them back." "oh, the boys must have the better of the ghosts by this time," said another; "they would have been here before this time if they had not. you will find them with more gold stowed away than they know what to do with." "and didn't they see the ghosts at all?" "why, as to that, i can't say. but they have beaten them at their own game. you will see." claus pricked up his ears when he heard this, and when the miners had all drawn away, one by one, and sought their blankets in their lean-to's, he asked of the man who sat near him, and who was waiting to smoke his pipe out before he went to bed, "where is banta going?" "up to the haunted mine," was the reply. "you see, he went up there two weeks ago with the boys, and promised to come back in two weeks to see how they were coming on. his two weeks are up to-night." "what is up there, anyway?" "well, you can ask somebody else to answer that question," said the miner, getting upon his feet. "i don't know what is up there, and i don't want to know." the miner walked off and left claus sitting there alone. he was certain that he was on the right track at last. as soon as banta came back they would know something about the haunted mine. chapter xxvii. bob tries strategy. "well, what did you hear this time?" asked bob, who lay on his blanket with his hands under his head and a pipe in his mouth. "everybody kept still about the haunted mine, i suppose?" "no, sir; i heard about it to-night for the first time," answered claus. "banta is going up there to-morrow." "then we will know something about it when he comes back," remarked bob. "i hope the boys have got the better of those ghosts in some way, and that they are working their mine. go on, and tell us what you have heard." claus did not have much to tell, for the miners had cut the conversation short; but what little he did say created great excitement between those who heard it now for the first time. the boys had got the better of those unearthly spirits in some way, for if the ghosts had driven them out and not allowed them to work their mine, the miners would have found it out long before this time. "i don't see why banta put it off for two weeks," said jake; "i reckon he was afraid of them spirits." the next day was one which claus often remembered. there was much excitement in the camp, although it did not show itself. there was none of that singing and whistling going on, but every man worked in silence. banta and his partner had got off at daylight, and ten hours must pass away before they could look for their return; but evening came on apace, the camp-fire was lighted, and the miners gathered around it and smoked their pipes without making any comments on the long delay of mr. banta and the man who had gone with him. there was one thing that troubled them, although no one spoke of it--the mule which had carried their pack-saddle came home alone, and was now feeding in company with the old bell-mare. that looked suspicious, but the men said nothing. for an hour they sat around the fire, and then one of them broke the stillness. he was an old, gray-headed man, experienced in mining, and of course all listened to what he had to say. he spoke in a low tone, as if there had been a patient there and he was afraid to arouse him. "ten miles in ten hours," said he, knocking the ashes from his pipe. "boys, something's got the better of those two men. i remember that several years ago i was waiting for a partner of mine who had gone away to prospect a mine----" "what was that?" exclaimed a miner, jumping to his feet. "i heard something, but i don't know what it was," said another. it was done quicker than we could tell it. in less than a second two hundred men sprang to their feet, and two hundred hands slipped behind them and laid hold of as many revolvers. of all those men, there was not one who would have hesitated to fight indians with the fear of death before their eyes, but there was not a single instance of a miner who did not change color at the sound of a noise which seemed to come upon them from no one could have told where. "which way did the noise come from?" asked a miner. "what did it sound like?" queried another. "there it is!" said the miner who had at first detected it--"it sounds like a horse's hoofs on the rocks. there! don't you hear it?" and so it proved. the noise was heard plainly enough by this time, and in a few moments more two men came out of the willows and rode into the circle of light that was thrown out by the camp-fire. they were banta and his partner; and one look at their faces was enough--they were fairly radiant with joy. "halloo! boys," cried banta. "i declare, you act as though you had lost your best friend; and some of you have revolvers drawn on us, too!" "say, pard," said one of the miners, shoving his revolver back where it belonged and extending a hand to each of the newcomers, "where have you been so long? your pack-mule has been home all the afternoon, and has kept the camp in an uproar with her constant braying. she acted as though she wanted to see your horses. did you see the boys?" "yes, sir, we saw the boys," answered banta. he did not seem in any particular hurry to relieve the suspense of his friends, which was now worked up to the highest degree, but dismounted from his horse very deliberately and proceeded to turn him loose. "well, why don't you go on with it?" asked another miner. "were the boys all right?" "the boys were all right and tight, and digging away as hard as they could." "did they--did they see the ghosts?" "of course they did; and the ghosts are now lying up there with their skins off." "were they animals?" "you are right again. now, hold on till i light my pipe and i'll tell you all about it. tony, you ought to have gone up there; you would be ten thousand dollars better off than you are this minute." tony was a man who was noted far and near for his success in killing the lions which were so abundant in the mountains. he would rather hunt them than dig for gold, because he was almost sure to get the animal he went after. he was filling his pipe when banta was speaking, but he dropped it and let it lay on the ground where it had fallen. "it is the truth i am telling you," declared banta. "if you don't believe it, you can go up there to that haunted mine and find out all about it. the boys killed them with nothing but revolvers." banta had his pipe lit by this time, and the miners crowded around him, all eager for his story. bob and jake were there, and no one seemed to pay the least attention to them; but they were impatient to learn all the particulars of the case. there was one question they wanted answered immediately, and that was, did the boys really have a bagful of dust, or was banta merely joking about that? fortunately tony recovered his wits and his pipe at the same time and asked the question for them. "did the boys get ten thousand dollars in two weeks?" he asked. "well, they brought a bag out for us to examine, and they thought it was nothing but iron pyrites," said banta; and then he went on smoking his pipe. "we took one look at the bag," said his partner, "and we took a big load off the boys' minds when we told them it was gold, and nothing else. yes, sir--they have it fair and square." "the boys are going ahead as though there had never been any ghosts there," said banta; and then he went on to tell the miners everything that had happened during their trip to the haunted mine; and when he got started, he followed julian's narrative, and paid no attention to jack's. it was certain that the story did not lose anything by passing through his hands. "jack pulled off his shirt," said he, in conclusion, "and he has some wounds on his back that will go with him through life." "and is the gold as thick as they say it is--so thick that one can pick it up with his hands?" "it is not quite as thick as that," replied banta, with a laugh. "but every time one washes out a cradleful he finds anywhere from a teaspoonful to three or four which he wants to put in his bag. i tell you, the boys have been lucky." "i am going up there the first thing in the morning," said a miner. "here i have been slaving and toiling for color for six months, and i can hardly get enough to pay for my provisions, but i'll bet it won't be that way, now, much longer." "wait until i tell you something," answered banta. "neely, you can go up there, if you are set on it; there's no law here that will make you stay away. there are plenty of places where you can sink a shaft without troubling the boys any, but whether or not it will pay you is another question. the boys will be down here themselves in less than two weeks' time." "how do you account for that?" "their vein is giving out. it will end in a deep ravine that is up there, and there their color ends." "why don't they go back farther and start another?" asked the miner. "it won't pay. the man who started that shaft upon which they are now at work was a tenderfoot, sure enough. there is not the first sign of color about the dirt anywhere. he thought it was a pretty place and so went to work, and the consequence is, it has panned out sixty thousand dollars. but go ahead if you want to, neely." neely did not know whether or not he wanted to go ahead with such a warning in his ears. banta was an experienced prospector, and he could almost tell by looking at the ground if there was any gold anywhere about there. a good many who had been on the point of starting for the haunted mine with the first peep of day shook their heads, and concluded they would rather stay where they were than go off to a new country. there were three, who did not say anything, whose minds were already made up as to what they would do. they waited until the miners were ready to go to their blankets, and then bob attracted the attention of those nearest him by saying, "what banta says throws a damper on me. the haunted mine is going to play out in a day or two, this place here is not worth shucks, and we are going off somewhere at break of day to see if we can't do better than we are doing here." "where are you going?" asked one. "i don't know, and in fact i don't care much. i'll go to the first good place i hear of, i don't care if it is on the other side of the rocky mountains. i came out here expecting to get rich in a few days, and i am poorer now than i was ten years ago. these mountains around here have not any gold in them for me." "and i say it is good riddance," whispered the miner to some who stood near him. "if you had acted as you did last year, you would have been sent out before this time." having paved the way for the departure of himself and companions, bob joined them and led the way into his own cabin. they seated themselves close together, for they did not want to talk loud enough to be heard by anyone who was passing their camp. "well, they have it!" exclaimed claus, who was so excited that he could not sit still. "and it is gold, too," declared jake. "banta says so, and that is enough." "in the morning, after we get breakfast," said bob, "we'll hitch up and take the back trail toward denver. we will go away from the haunted mine, and that will give color to what i told them a while ago." "what if you should chance to miss your way?" asked claus. "you can't lose me in these mountains; i have prospected all over them, and i have seen where the haunted mine is located a hundred times. what a pity it was that i did not stay there. sixty thousand dollars! jake, if we had that sum of money we would be rich." jake did not say anything--that is, anything that would do to put on paper. he stretched himself out on his blanket and swore softly to himself, so that nobody but his companions could hear him. "that will be three thousand three hundred dollars apiece," said claus, who did not like the way that bob and jake left him out entirely. "remember, i am to have a third of it." "of course; and it will be more than that. the boys will have some time to do more digging, and maybe they'll have another bagful. i understood you to say that the boys were pretty plucky." "you may safely say that," replied claus. "the way they stood up against those lions, when they did not know what was onto them, is abundant proof of that. you will have to go easy when you tackle them, or some of you will get more than you want." the three continued to talk in this way until they grew tired and fell asleep--that is, all except claus, who rolled and twisted on his blanket for a good while before he passed into the land of nod. but he was out before daybreak and busy with breakfast, while the others brought up the animals and packed them for their journey. there was only one man who came near them, and that was banta, who wanted to make sure they were not going toward the haunted mine. "well, boys, are you going to leave us?" he inquired. "where are you going?" "not giving you a short answer, we don't care much _where_ we go," replied bob. "there is nothing here for us, and we will go elsewhere. we are going to take the back track." "are you not deciding on this matter suddenly?" "we determined on it yesterday. we decided to go up to the haunted mine if you came back with a favorable report of the condition of things, but you say the lead is played out, and of course that knocks us. wherever we go, we can't find a much worse place than this." "well, boys, i wish you luck, and we'll all go away from here before a great while." "why are you so anxious to find out about where we are going?" asked bob. "because i wanted to remind you to keep away from that mine up the gully," answered banta, looking hard at bob while he spoke. "the boys have that mine all to themselves, and we are going to stand by them." "we have no intention of going near that haunted mine," asserted bob, rather sullenly. "if those boys have gold, let them keep it." "all right! then i have nothing further to say to you." so saying, banta turned on his heel and walked away. there was nothing insulting in what he said, but bob and his companions knew that he was in earnest about it. they all kept watch of him as long as he remained in sight, and then looked at each other with a broad grin on their faces. "i guess banta didn't make anything by trying to pump me," said bob. "when we get a mile or two down the gully, we'll save what little provisions we want, push our horses over the bluff----" "what do we want to do that for?" exclaimed claus, in great amazement. "can't we turn them loose?" "yes, and have them come back here and join the old bell-mare," said jake, in disgust. "we have to be in a hurry about what we do, for we must get a long start of the men here. if our nags appeared among the other horses here, the miners would know we had been fooling them and would start for the haunted mine at once." "couldn't we tie them up?" asked claus; "or, we could shoot them. that would be an easier way than pushing them over the bluff." "but there's the report our pistols would make," replied bob, turning fiercely upon claus. "the easiest way is the best. now, if we have everything we want, let us dig out from here." the men in the camp saw them when they mounted their horses and started down the gully toward denver, but there was not one who shouted a farewell after them. when they disappeared from view, banta drew a long breath of relief. "it is just as well that they took themselves off before we had a chance to tell them that their room was better than their company. i do not like the way they have been acting since they have been here." chapter xxviii. an inhuman act. "i'll bet no men ever went away from a camp before without somebody said good-bye to them," said jake. "they don't care where we go, or what luck we have, provided we don't go near the haunted mine. if they will just stay that way until to-morrow, they can all come on at once, if they have a mind to." claus was the soberest man in the party. he was waiting and watching for that bluff at which their faithful steeds were to give up their lives to make it possible for their owners to get away with the amount they expected to raise at the haunted mine. there was something cold-blooded about this, and claus could not bring himself to think of it without shivering all over. "i don't see why you can't tie them there," claus ventured to say; "they won't make any fuss until we are safely out of the way. it looks so inhuman, to kill them." "look here!" said bob, so fiercely that claus resolved he would not say anything more on the subject--"if you don't like the way we are managing this business, you can just go your way, and we'll go ours." "but you can't go yet," interrupted jake; "we are not going to have you go back to dutch flat and tell the men there what we are going to do. you will stay with us until we get that money." "of course he will," assented bob. "when we get through with that haunted mine we'll go off into the mountains, and then you'll be at liberty to go where you please." "of course i shall stay with you," said claus, not a little alarmed by the threat thus thrown out. then he added to himself, "i reckon i played my cards just right. if i can keep them from searching me, i'll come out at the big end of the horn, no matter what happens to them." for the next hour claus held his peace; but he noticed that his horse turned his head and looked down the gully as if he feared they were not going the right away. he did not remember that he had come that route before, but concluded that bob was gradually leaving the trail behind them, and was veering around to get behind the camp at dutch flat. then the mule which bore their pack-saddle began to be suspicious of it, too, for he threw up his head and gave utterance to a bray so long and loud that it awoke a thousand echoes among the mountains. "shut up!" exclaimed jack, jerking impatiently at his halter. "i hope that bluff is not far away. we'll soon put a stop to your braying when we get there." in another hour they came upon the bluff, one side of which was bounded by a deep ravine that seemed to extend down into the bowels of the earth, and the other was hemmed in by lofty mountains which rose up so sheer their tops seemed lost in the clouds above. here again the mule became suspicious, for, in spite of the jerks which jake gave at his halter, he set up another bray that sounded as if the mountains were full of mules. "hold fast to him, jake, until i take his saddle off," said bob, hastily dismounting from his horse; "i can soon stop that, if you can't. there--his pack is off. take him by the foretop--don't let him get away from you. now, then, look at you!" the mule got away in spite of all jake's efforts to hold fast to him. the moment the bridle was out of his mouth he dodged the grab that jake made for his foretop, and with a flourish of his heels and another long bray made for the gully by which he had entered the bluff. the horses made a vain attempt to follow him, and the animal on which claus was mounted seemed determined to go away, but he was finally stopped by his rider before he reached the gully. bob and jake were fairly beside themselves with anger. bob stamped up and down so close to the ravine that the least misstep would have sent him over the brink, and jake sat down on the ground and swore softly to himself. "i tell you, this won't do!" said bob, coming back to the horses. "let us put them over without the least delay; and, mind you, we won't take their bridles off at all. that mule will be in camp in less than an hour, so we must make tracks. let their saddles go, too." the men went to work at pushing the horses over into the ravine as if they were in earnest. first bob's horse went; then jake's; and finally they took claus's bridle out of his hands and shoved his horse over, too. claus did not see any of this work. the animals went over without making any effort at escape beyond putting out their feet and trying to push themselves away from the brink; but the miners got behind them, and all their attempts to save themselves amounted to nothing. he heard the horses when they crashed through the branches of the trees below him, and then all was silent. "what else could we do?" exclaimed bob, who thought claus looked rather solemn over it. "dutch flat is not a mile from here, and some one there would have heard their whinnying. i am sorry to do it, too, but when there is ten thousand dollars in sight, i don't stop at anything. now pitch that mule's things over, also, and then we'll get away from here." this being done, the three, with a small package of provisions on their shoulders, set out once more at a rapid pace, bob leading the way. for a long time no one spoke, the travelling being so difficult that it took all their breath to keep pace with bob; but finally he turned about and made a motion of silence with his hand, and then they began to pick their way through the bushes with more caution. after a few moments he stopped, pushed aside the branches of an evergreen, and after taking a survey of the scene presented to his gaze he made another motion, which brought his companions up beside him. "we have caught them at it!" said he. 'julian is on top, and jack is down below, shovelling dirt. where are your revolvers?" "those fellows from the flat have not come yet," said jake, looking all around to make sure that the boys were alone. "lead ahead, bob, and remember that we are close at your heels." leaving his provisions behind him, bob arose to his feet, stepped out of his place of concealment and advanced toward the pit. julian was so intent on watching his companion below that he did not hear the sound of their footsteps until they were so close to him that he could not pull his partner up; so he simply raised his head, and was about to extend to them a miner's welcome, when he saw something that made him open his eyes and caused him to stare harder than ever. there was something about that short, fleshy man which he was sure he recognized. it did not make any difference in what style of clothing claus was dressed in,--whether as a gentleman of leisure or as a miner,--his face betrayed him. he saw that it was all up with him, for he had no time to go to the lean-to after his revolver. "pitch that dirt out of the bucket and come up, jack," called julian, shaking the rope to attract the attention of his comrade. "claus is up here." there was a moment's silence; then jack's voice came back in no very amiable tones. "get away with your nonsense!" he exclaimed. "if i come up there again for just nothing at all, i pity _you_! if claus is there, make him show himself." "why, he's your uncle," asserted bob, who began to wonder if that was the first lie that claus had told them. "that man?" exclaimed julian. "not much, he ain't. jack, is claus your uncle?" "tell him to come down here and i'll see about it," said jack, who could not yet be made to see that there was something really going on at the top. "that makes two i have against you, old fellow." "no, you haven't got anything against me," said julian. "here is claus. don't you see his face? any man who would claim such an uncle as that--" "that is enough out of you!" interrupted jake. "fetch that partner of yours up, and then bring out your money--we must get away from here in a hurry." "well! well!" cried jack, who happened to look up and catch a glimpse of claus's face. "i will come up directly." "say, you, down there," called bob, bending over the shaft, "if you have a revolver down there, be careful that you keep it where it belongs." "don't worry yourself," answered jack; "i haven't anything in the shape of a revolver about me. hoist away, julian." the dirt was emptied out by this time, and jack stepped into the bucket and was promptly hoisted to the top. then he stood waiting for the three men to make known their wants; but he devoted the most of his time to scrutinizing the face of claus, to whom he was indebted for the presence of the other two. "do you think you could recognize me if you should chance to meet me again anywhere?" asked claus. "certainly, i could," answered julian; "i would recognize you if i saw you in asia. you are bound to have some of that money, are you not?" "that is just what i am here for," said claus, with a grin. "you have one bagful and another partly full, and we want them both as soon as you can get them." jack was astonished when he heard this, for mr. banta had told him to keep the full bag hidden where no one could find it. how, then, did claus know anything about it? julian was equally amazed; but, after thinking a moment, he turned on his heel and led the way toward their lean-to. bob and his companion kept close by the side of the two boys, for they did not want them to find their revolvers before they knew something about it. they had heard from various sources that the boys were fair shots, and they did not want to see them try it on. "well, claus, you slipped up on one thing," said julian; "you didn't get any of that block of buildings--did you?" "come, now, hurry up!" insisted bob. "where are those bags?" "here's one you have been talking about," answered jack, pulling the head of his bed to pieces and producing the article in question. "julian, you know where the other one is." while jack was engaged in performing this work the revolvers were kept pointed straight at him, for fear he might pull out another one and turn it loose upon them before they could draw a trigger. but the boys did not seem to care any more about the revolvers than if they had been sticks of wood that were aimed at them. claus had a revolver, but he did not seem inclined to use it. "are you sure it is gold in here, and not something else?" asked bob. "you have got the bag in your hands, and you can look and see for yourself," said jack. "go out in front of the lean-to and sit down on the ground so that i can watch you," said bob. "jake, go with that boy and dig up the other one. is this all you have made since you have been here?" "yes, that's all. now, what are you going to do with us?" "i'll tell you when jake comes back. is there much more of that lead down there?" "well, you have charge of the mine, now, and there is no law to hinder you from going down and finding out," retorted jack. "claus, where are you going? i don't expect to see these gentlemen any more, but i should like to keep track of you." claus did not see fit to answer this question, and in the meantime julian and jake returned with the other bag. chapter xxix. a tramp with the robbers. "oh, it is gold!" exclaimed jake, as bob took the bag and bent over it; "it is not iron pyrites." "stow that about your clothes, jake, and then we'll go on," said bob; "and we want you boys to gather up provisions enough to last you for three or four days. but, in the first place, where are your revolvers?" "don't you see them hung up there, in plain sight?" asked jack, pointing to the articles in question, which were suspended from the rack of the lean-to, in plain sight. "what are you going to do with us?" "we are going to take you a three days' journey with us, and then turn you loose." "why can't you let us go now?" queried julian. "we have nothing else that is worth stealing." "no, but you are too close to dutch flat," jake replied. "we haven't got anything against you, and when we get out there in the mountains--" "you might as well shoot us on the spot as to lose us among these hills. i pledge you my word that we will not stir a step--" "that is all very well," interrupted bob with a shake of his head which told the boys that he had already decided on his plan; "but, you see, it don't go far enough. if you don't go to the miners, the miners will come here to you, so we think you would be safer with us. gather up your grub and let us get away from here." the boy saw very plainly that bob and jake wanted to make their escape from the miners sure; so julian collected some bacon and hard-tack, which he wrapped up in a blanket and fixed to sling over his shoulders. there was one thing that encouraged him--"if he did not go to the miners, the miners would come after him"--and proved that they must in some way have had their suspicions aroused against bob and jake. jack also busied himself in the same way, and in a very few minutes the boys were ready to start. "i must say you are tolerably cool ones, to let ten or fifteen thousand dollars be taken from you in this way," remarked bob, who was lost in admiration of the indifferent manner in which the boys obeyed all orders. "i have seen some that would have been flurried to death by the loss of so much money." "if claus, here, told the truth, they have a whole block of buildings to fall back on," answered jake. "but maybe that is a lie, too." "no, he told you the truth there," said julian. "he tried to cheat us out of those buildings while we were in st. louis--" "i never did it in this world!" declared claus, emphatically. "did you not claim to be our uncle?" asked julian. "uncle!" ejaculated jack. "great scott!" claus did not attempt to deny this. bob and jake were almost within reach of him, and they looked hard at him to see what he would say, and he was afraid to affirm that there was no truth in the statement for fear of something that might happen afterward. he glanced at the boys, who were looking steadily at him, and jack moved a step or two nearer to him with his hands clenched and a fierce frown on his face, all ready to knock him down if he denied it; so claus thought it best not to answer the question at all. "you won't think it hard of me if i hit him a time or two?" asked jack. "come here and behave yourself," said julian, walking up and taking jack by the arm. "i think, if the truth was known, he is in a worse fix than we are." "but he claims to be my uncle!" exclaimed jack. the tone in which these words were uttered, and jack's anger over the claim of relationship, caused bob and jake to break out into a roar of laughter. "we'll take your word for it," said bob, as soon as he could speak; "but we can't waste any more time here. follow along after me, and jake will bring up the rear." bob at once set off to the spot where they had left their provisions, and, having picked them up, led the way down the almost perpendicular side of the ravine until they reached the bottom. now and then he would look over his shoulder at jack, who was following close behind him, and would break into another peal of laughter. "so you didn't want that fellow to claim relationship with you?" said he. "well, i don't blame you. he has done nothing but tell us one pack of lies after another ever since we met him. the only thing that had the least speck of truth in it was that we should find you here at the haunted mine." this remark was made in a low tone, so that it did not reach the ears of claus, who was following some distance behind. if claus had not seen already that he was in a "fix," he ought to have seen it now. "now, perhaps you wouldn't mind telling us what you are going to do with us," jack ventured to say, in reply. "well, the men there at dutch flat are hot on our trail now," asserted bob. "how do you know that?" "because our mule got away from us when we tried to shove him over the bluff. we wanted to destroy everything we had that we could not carry on our backs, but he got away from us. banta warned us against coming up here, and we fooled him by making him believe we were going straight down to denver; but he will be after us now. if he comes, he had better take us unawares; that's all." "we don't want to see that fight," remarked jack. "you'll let us go before that comes off?" "oh, yes; when we get you so deep in the mountains that you can't find your way back readily, why, then we'll let you go. if you behave yourselves, you won't get hurt." bob led the way at a more rapid pace when they reached the bottom of the gorge, jumping from rock to rock, and climbing over fallen trees that lay in their road, and jack followed his example. he knew that bob was making the trail more difficult to follow, but it was done in order to keep out of argument with his charge; for bob often stopped, whenever he came to a place that took some pains to get over, and saw that those who were following him left no tracks behind them. "there!" said bob, pulling off his hat and looking back at the way they had come; "i reckon banta will find some trouble in tracking us up here. i am hungry, and we'll stop here and have something to eat." after they had satisfied their appetites they took a little time to rest, and then set off again at a more rapid pace than ever. it was almost dark when they stopped to camp for the night. the boys were tired, and they showed it as soon as they had disposed of their bacon and hard-tack by wrapping their blankets about them and lying down to sleep, with their feet to the fire. their slumber was as sound as though they were surrounded by friends instead of being in the power of those who had robbed them of their hard-earned wealth. it seemed to them that they had scarcely closed their eyes when they were awakened by the sound of footsteps moving about, and threw off their blankets in time to see bob cutting off a slice of bacon. it was as dark as pitch in the woods, and the boys did not see how bob was to find his way through them. "it will be light enough by the time we have our breakfast eaten," said he, in response to the inquiry of julian. "you have a watch with you. what time is it?" julian had a watch with him, it is true, but he had been careful how he drew it out in the presence of bob and jake. it had no chain attached to it, and the boy was not aware that bob knew anything about it; but he produced the gold timepiece and announced that it was just five o'clock. this was another thing over which julian had had an argument with jack, who believed that, with the money he had at his disposal, he ought to have the best watch that could be procured, and, in spite of jack's arguments, he had purchased the best american patent lever he could find. jack's watch was an ordinary silver one, and he said that by it he could tell the time when dinner was ready as well as he could by a good timepiece. "do you want this watch?" asked julian, because he thought the man who would steal his money would not be above stealing his watch also. "oh, no," replied bob, with a laugh; "you can keep that. i wanted your money, and, now that i have it, i am satisfied." by the time breakfast was cooked and eaten there was light enough to show them the way, and bob once more took the lead. there was no trail to guide them--nothing but the gully, which twisted and turned in so many ways that julian almost grew heart-sick when he thought of finding his way back there in company with jack. more than once he was on the point of asking bob if he did not think they had gone far enough, but the man had been so friendly and good-natured all the time that he did not want to give him a chance to act in any other way. so he kept with him during that long day's tramp, looking into all the gullies he crossed, and once or twice he slyly reached behind him and pulled down a branch of an evergreen that happened to come in his way. "that's the way our women used to do in old revolutionary times when they were captured and wanted to leave some trail for their rescuers to follow," soliloquized julian; "but bob doesn't take any notice of it." "well, i reckon we'll stop here for the night," remarked bob, when it got so dark that he could scarcely see. "this is as far as we shall ask you to go with us, julian. i suppose you are mighty glad to get clear of us." "yes, i am," assented julian, honestly. "if you will give us what you have in your pockets, you can go your way and we will make no attempt to capture you." "oh, we couldn't think of that! you have wealth enough to keep you all your lives, and i have struggled for ten years to gain a fortune, and to-day i have just got it." "what would you do if somebody should catch you along the trail, somewhere? you would come in for a hanging, sure." "don't you suppose we know all that? it is a good plan for you to catch your man before you hang him. we have two revolvers apiece, and you know what that means." "you don't count claus worth anything, then," remarked jack. "eh? oh, yes, we do," exclaimed bob, who wondered what claus would think of him for leaving him out entirely. "but claus is not used to this sort of business, you know. he could make a noise, and that is about all he could do." "we know we should come in for a hanging if those fellows at dutch flat should ever get their hands on us, but when they do that we'll be dead. you need not think we are going to stay in this country, where everybody has got so rich, and we be as poor as job's turkey all the while. we have just as good a right to be rich as they have." when jake got to talking this way it was a sure sign that he was rapidly getting toward a point which bob called "crazy." he was always mad when he spoke of others' wealth and his own poverty; and the boys, who were anxious to get him off from that subject, began their preparations for supper. they were glad to know they had gone far enough with the robbers to insure their escape, and they were disposed to be talkative; but they noticed that claus was more downhearted than he had ever been. he lit his pipe, leaned back against a tree, and went off into a brown study. "i suppose he'll get a portion of the money that was stolen from us," said jack, in a low tone. "no, he won't," answered julian in the same cautious manner. "he has been promised some of that money, but i'll bet you he don't get a cent of it. he is here in these fellows' power, and they'll take what they please out of him." the boys, although as tired as they were on the previous day, were not by any means inclined to sleep. in fact they did not believe they had been asleep at all until they heard bob moving around the fire. it was five o'clock by julian's watch, and his first care was to find out what had become of claus, who lay muffled up, head and ears, in his blanket; but he would not have stayed there if he knew what was going to happen to him during the day. "now perhaps you will be good enough to tell us what route we have to travel in order to get out of here," said jack. "have you a compass with you?" asked jake. no, the boys had none; they did not think they would need one when they were surrounded by friends who knew the woods, and consequently they had not brought one with them. "you know which way is east, don't you? well, place your backs to the sun, and keep it there all the time. dutch flat lies directly west of here." "that will be good if the sun shines all the time," said julian. "but if it goes under a cloud--then what?" "then you will have to go into camp, and stay until it comes out again," replied bob. "but at this time of the year you have nothing to fear on that score. are you going already? well, good-bye. why don't you wish us good luck with that money we took from you?" "because i don't believe it will bring you good luck," said jack. "we worked hard for it, and we ought to have it. i wish you good-bye, but i don't wish you good luck." "shake hands with your uncle, why don't you?" asked bob. "not much!" returned jack. "if that money doesn't bring him some misfortune i shall miss my guess." julian and jack shouldered the blankets which contained the few provisions they had left, plunged into the thicket, and were out of hearing in a few minutes. the robbers sat by the fire without making any effort to continue their journey, and presently bob turned his eyes upon claus. "now, my friend, it is time for you to go, too," said he. chapter xxx. home again. claus had been expecting something of this kind. it is true he had a revolver, but by the time he could reach back to his hip pocket and draw it he could be covered by jake, whose weapon lay close at hand. there was but one thing to be done--he had to surrender. instead of getting three thousand dollars for his share in the robbery, he would be turned loose in that country, two hundred miles from anybody, without a cent left in his pockets--that is, if bob searched him. "well," said claus, "i suppose you want all the money i have around me. i should think you might leave me a little." "how much have you?" asked bob. without saying a word, claus unbuttoned his vest, worked at something on the inside, and presently hauled out a belt, which he handed over to bob. it did not stick out as though there was much money in it, and when bob began to investigate it, all he drew forth was twenty-five dollars. "you are a wealthy millionaire, i understood you to say," exclaimed bob, in great disgust. "this looks like it!" "i told you, when i had purchased the pack-mule, provisions and tools, that i should not have much left," answered claus. "that's all i have, and if you take it from me i shall starve." "stand up!" commanded jake, who was as disgusted as bob was. "you are sure you haven't got any about your clothes? but, first, i'll take possession of that revolver." the revolver having been disposed of, jake then turned his attention to feeling in all claus's pockets, but he found nothing more there--claus had evidently given them the last cent he had. "take your little bills," said bob, throwing claus's belt back to him. "if you are careful of them, they will serve you till you get back to denver." "and when you get there, you can go to one of those men who own that block of buildings and borrow another thousand or two. now, get out of here!" put in jake. "i thank you for this much," returned claus. "but i should thank you a good deal more if you would give me my revolver. i may want it before i reach denver." "give it to him, jake. he hasn't pluck enough to shoot at us or anybody else. make yourself scarce about here!" "they think they are awful smart!" thought claus, when he had placed some bushes between him and the robbers. "why didn't they think to look in my shoe? i have three hundred dollars that they don't know anything about. now i guess i'll go back to st. louis; and if anybody ever says anything to me about an 'old horse,' i'll knock him down." we are now in a position to take a final leave of claus, and we do it with perfect readiness. did he get back to st. louis in safety? yes, he got there in due course, but he had some fearful sufferings on the way. in the first place, he was nearly a week in finding his way out of the mountains; and by the time he reached a miner's cabin he was so weak from want of food that he fell prone upon the floor, and stayed there until the miner came from his work and found him there. of course he was taken in and cared for, and when he was able to resume his journey he offered to present the miner with every cent he had,--twenty-five dollars,--to pay him for his kindness; but the miner would not take it. "you will need every cent of that before you get to denver," said he. "the food and care i have given you don't amount to anything. good-bye, and good luck to you." he was nearly three times as long in finding his way back to denver. he tried to buy a horse on the way, but no one had any to sell. he now and then found a chance to ride when he was overtaken by a teamster who was going somewhere for a load, but the most of his journey was accomplished on foot. his long tramp never cost him a cent, for everybody pitied his forlorn condition. "i tell you, if i had been treated this way by those robbers i wouldn't look as bad as i do now," claus often said to himself; "i would have seen california before i went home." all this while, claus was on nettles for fear he would see some of the men from dutch flat who were in pursuit of him; but the trouble was, the miners all went the other way. they never dreamed that claus was going home, but saddled their horses at mr. banta's command, and, making no attempt to follow the devious course of the robbers through the mountains, took the "upper trail," and did their best to shut them off from the towns toward which they knew the men were hastening to buy some more provisions. what luck they met with we shall presently see. no man ever drew a longer breath than claus did when he came within sight of denver. he went at once to the hotel where he had left his clothes, but the landlord did not recognize him and ordered him out of the house; but he finally succeeded in making himself known; and, now that he was safely out of reach of the miners at dutch flat, he had some fearful stories to tell of his experience. "you know i left my clothes with you on condition that you would keep them for me for a year," said claus, who thought that was the wisest thing that he ever did. "well, i want them now. i have the key to my trunk, so everything is all right." claus was not long in recovering from the effects of his journey, for he could not help thinking that mr. banta, or some other man who belonged to the flat, would find out that he had gone to denver and come after him; so he remained there but two days before he took the cars for home. "now i am safe," said he, settling down in his seat and pulling his hat over his eyes; "i would like to see them catch me. but what shall i do when i get back to st. louis? i must settle down into the same old life i have always led, and that will be a big come-down for me." claus is there now, spending his time at the pool-rooms, where he makes the most of his living, and ready at any time to talk about the mines and the terrible experience he had there. and where were julian and jack all this while? to begin with, they were in the ravine, making all the haste they could to leave the robbers behind and reach the haunted mine before their provisions gave out. that troubled them worse than anything. "if our grub stops, where are we going to get more?" asked jack. "i don't believe there is a house any nearer than dutch flat." "and we can't get there any too soon," returned julian. "at any rate, we are better off than claus is. what do you suppose they intend to do with him?" "i suppose they intend to divide the money with him. what makes you think they would do anything else?" "from the way they treated him. if we could learn the whole upshot of the matter, you would find that they don't intend to give him a dollar." "i wish we could see mr. banta for about five minutes," said jack. "i don't like to give up that money. it is the first we ever earned by digging in the ground, and i was going to suggest to you that we keep some of it." julian replied by lengthening his steps and going ahead at a faster rate than ever. he, too, did not like to confess that the money was lost,--that is, if they could only get word to mr. banta in time. he did not know where the robbers were heading for; but, with two hundred men at his back, julian was certain he could come up with them before they had left the country entirely. "but i hope they will not hurt the robbers," said julian. "if they will just get the dust, that is all i shall ask of them." about five o'clock in the afternoon, when it began to grow dark in the ravine, julian, who had been all the time leading the way, stopped and pointed silently before him. jack looked, and there was the camp they had occupied two nights before. "we are on the right road, so far," said he. "if we don't miss our way to-morrow we are all right." the boys had not stopped to eat any dinner, and for that reason they were hungry. they spent a long time in cooking and eating their bacon, and julian said there was just enough for two more meals. he did not like to think of what might happen when it was all gone, and, after replenishing the fire, bade his companion good-night, wrapped his blanket about him, and laid down to rest; but sleep was out of the question. a dozen times he got up to see the time, and there was jack, snoring away as lustily as he had done at the haunted mine. julian wished that he, too, could forget his troubles in the same way, but when morning came he had not closed his eyes. julian proved to be an invaluable guide, for that night they slept in the first camp they had made after leaving the haunted mine. if he had always known the path, he could not have brought his companion straighter to it. "now keep your eyes open for the trail we made when we came down from our mine, and then we are at home. but i say, julian, i shall not be in favor of staying here. all our money is gone, i don't feel in the humor to work for any more, and we will go down to dutch flat." "and we'll stay there just long enough to find somebody starting out for denver, and we'll go with him," replied julian. "i don't want anything more to do with the mines as long as i live." the night passed away, and the next morning, without waiting to cook breakfast, the two boys started to find the trail that led up the bluff to the haunted mine. they were a long time in finding it--so long, in fact, that julian began to murmur discouraging words; but finally jack found it; and now began the hardest piece of work they had undertaken since they left the robbers. the cliff was as steep as it looked to be when they gazed down into its depths from the heights above, and they did not see how they had managed to come down it in the first place. "are you sure the mine is up here?" asked julian, seating himself on a fallen tree to rest. "i should not like to go up there and find nothing." "didn't you see the trail we made in coming down?" inquired jack. "of course we are on the right track; but if you spend all your time in resting, we shall never be nearer the top than we are this minute." julian once more set to work to climb the hill, and in half an hour more jack pushed aside some branches that obstructed his way and found himself in plain view of the mine. julian was satisfied now, but declared he could not go any farther until he had recovered all the wind he had expended in going up the bluff; but jack wanted to see that everything in the camp was just as they left it. he walked on toward the lean-to, and the first thing that attracted his attention was that his goods had been disturbed. the skins were gone, some of the blankets were missing, and there were hardly provisions enough to get them a square meal. julian came up in response to his call, and was obliged to confess that there had been other robbers while they were absent. "let us dish up the few provisions left, take those things we want to save, and dig out for the flat," said julian. "i am sure there is nothing here to keep us, now." "and we'll leave the dirt-bucket here for somebody else to use," added jack. "if he thinks there is a lead down there, let him go and try it. i did not send up enough dust the last time i was down there to pay for the rope." at the end of an hour the boys resumed their journey, each one loaded with a few things they wanted to save, and in two hours more they arrived within sight of dutch flat. some few of the men had already given up their workings and were sitting in front of the store, smoking their pipes; but one of them speedily caught sight of the boys, and the miners broke out into a cheer. in a few seconds more they were surrounded, shaking hands with all of them, and trying in vain to answer their questions all at once. "this is no way to do it," declared julian. "let us put our things in the cabin and get our breath, and i will tell you the story." "in the first place," began jack, as he deposited the things with which his arms were filled and came out and seated himself on the doorsteps of mr. banta's cabin, "let me ask a few questions. i won't delay the story five minutes. where is the man who owns this house?" "mr. banta?" said one of the miners. "he took the upper trail two or three days ago, and rode with all possible speed in the direction of mendota. he hopes in that way to cut off those villains." "he will do it, too, for they have no horses," said julian. "no horses? what did they do with them?" "i don't know, i am sure," answered julian, in surprise. "they were on foot when they came to rob us." "why, their mule came up here a few hours after they left, and made the biggest kind of a fuss, and banta suspected something at once. he called for some men to go with him, and he went as straight as he could to your mine. you were not there, and that proved that those miners had paid you a visit." "we are going to get our dust again!" said julian, slapping jack on the shoulder. "but i hope they won't hurt the robbers after they catch them." "well, that is rather a difficult thing to tell. a man who comes into a mining-camp and watches his chance to steal money instead of working for it, takes his life in his hand." "then they must have been the ones who disturbed our things," said jack. "probably they were. they brought the skins of the ghosts back, and also some of your provisions. they are there in his cabin now. now let us have that story." chapter xxxi. conclusion. when julian had fairly settled down to tell his story, which he did by crossing his right leg over his left leg and clasping his hands around his knee, he discovered that there was not so much to be told as he had thought for. his adventure with the robbers was nothing more than might have happened to any one of the miners who were standing around him; the only question in his mind was, would the other miner have fared as well as he did? "they came to our mine and stole our dust; but i don't see how they found out about the full bag. mr. banta told us to be careful about that." "why, mr. banta told it himself!" remarked one of the miners. "he said you had a bagful hidden away." "you see, he had to do it, or the men here would have become suspicions and gone up to your mine in a body," explained another. "go on--what next?" "they took the full bag, as well as the half-empty one, and told us we would have to go with them on a three days' journey into the mountains, so as to keep you fellows here in ignorance of the robbery as long as possible but they took us only a two days' journey, and then told us we had gone far enough. that's all there was of it." "is that all you have to tell?" asked one. "well, no. they went away from here on horseback, you said. now, what did they do with their animals? they were on foot when they came to see us, and they never said 'horses' once during the two days we were with them." "probably they rode their horses as far as they could, and then killed them." "no doubt they pushed them over a bluff," said a man who had not spoken before. "we did not see any horses; of that much we are certain. the only thing i can't see into is, what they did with claus after we went away. of course they agreed to give him a portion of the money they got off us." "maybe so, but i don't think they did it. go on--how did they treat you?" "as well as they knew how," answered julian, emphatically. "that is the reason why i hope mr. banta will be kind to them if he catches them." "well, you'll see how he'll treat them," retorted a miner. "you'll never see those three men again." julian became uneasy every time the men spoke of the way the miners would use their prisoners if they found them, but he knew it would be of no use to say a word. if anything was done to them, he was in hopes the miners would get through with it before they came to camp. he was not used to any western way of dealing with criminals, and he thought he was getting too old to become used to it now. this was the way julian told his story, in answer to numerous questions of the miners, who finally heard all they wanted to know. in regard to what had happened to claus, none of the miners had any idea. he did not get any of the dust that was stolen from the boys, and he would be lucky if he got away with a dollar in his pocket. "do you know, i have been on the watch for them fellows to get into a squabble of some kind before we saw the last of them?" remarked a miner. "that bob was a regular thief--one could tell that by looking at him. the short, pursy fellow--you called him claus, didn't you?--looked like a gentleman; but his face did not bear out his good clothes." the miners then slowly dispersed, one after the other,--some to their work, and some to lounge in front of the grocery, smoking their pipes,--and the boys were left to themselves. their first care was to get something to eat, for they had not had a sufficient quantity of food, the bacon and hard-tack they first put into their blankets having disappeared until there was none left. provisions were handy in mr. banta's cabin, and when they had got fairly to work on it they heard a sound from the miners whom they had left outside. "here they come!" shouted a voice. "now we'll see what will be done with those prisoners!" the boys looked at each other in blank amazement. they had caught the robbers, so their dust was safe; but what were they going to do with the culprits, now that they had captured them? "i declare," said another miner, at length, "they haven't brought any prisoners with them! and there's tony, with his arm tied up in a sling!" the boys had by this time reached the door, and saw mr. banta, accompanied by a dozen miners, ride into the camp. the boys looked closely at them, but could not see anybody that looked like bob and jake; but tony did not seem to have left all the fight there was in him up in the mountains, for he raised his rifle and flourished it over his head. "halloo! mr. banta," shouted julian. "you meant to catch them, did you? but i guess you came out at the little end of the horn." "well, there!" exclaimed mr. banta, stopping his horse and addressing himself to his men; "didn't i tell you those boys would come back all right? put it there, kids!" julian and jack shook hands with all the returning miners before they saw an opportunity to propound any other questions; and then, when they did ask them, they did not get any satisfactory answers. "did you get our dust?" asked jack. "yes, sir! and the men--ah!" said mr. banta, who stopped and looked around at the miners as if he hardly knew what to say next. "well, what about the men?" inquired julian. "you saw them, of course." "oh, yes, we saw the men; and when we asked them where the dust was that they stole down here at the haunted mine, they took it out of their clothes and gave it to us. ain't that so, boys?" the men around him nodded their heads emphatically, as if to say their leader had told nothing but the truth, but there was something in their faces that told a different story. the boys concluded they would ask no more questions while mr. banta was around, but when he went away they were sure they would get at the truth of the matter. "and, julian, there's your money," continued mr. banta, who had been trying to take something out of his coat-pocket. "there is the full bag, and there is the other. the next time i leave you with such an amount of money to take care of, i'll give you my head for a football." "why, mr. banta, _you_ told them all about this!" asserted jack, laughingly. "no, i never!" shouted mr. banta. "didn't you tell the men what we had done and all about the dust we had?" asked julian. "you _did_ tell them, and the robbers were sitting by the camp-fire, and heard it all." "eh? oh, well--i did say--i could not well help it--let us go into the cabin and see what you have to eat." mr. banta lost no time in getting into the cabin, for the boys had asked a question he could not answer, and when they followed him in he was engaged in filling his pipe. "we rode to the haunted mine and found you were not there, so we came back and took the upper trail on the way to mendota," said the miner, talking rapidly, as if he hoped to shut off any questions the boys might have ready to ask him. "we had a good time. we found the men there and asked them for the money, and they gave it over as peaceable and quiet as could be. now, don't let us hear any more about it. you know the whole of the story. is this all you have to ease a man's appetite? why, i could eat it all myself!" "that's a funny story," whispered jack, as he and julian went to the spring after a bucket of water. "well, keep still," said julian. "he told us not to say anything more about it, and that's just the same as an order. we'll get the straight of the matter yet." "who will you go to?" "we'll go to tony for it. he was the man who was shot in the fracas, and he will tell us all about it." it was two days before julian had an opportunity to speak to tony in private. tony's right arm was injured so badly that he could not use a shovel, and the boys volunteered to go down in his mine and help him--a voluntary act on their part which gained them the good-will of all the miners. one day, when tony was sitting by his mine smoking his pipe and julian was waiting for jack to fill up their bucket, the latter thought the chance had come, for tony was unusually talkative that morning. "now, there is no need that you should keep this thing away from us any longer," said julian, suddenly. "who shot those two men?" tony was taken off his guard and looked all around as if he was waiting for some one to suggest an answer. finally he took off his hat and dug his fingers into his hair. "who said anything about shooting a man?" he asked. "no one has said anything about it this morning, but i just want to know if everything i suspect is true," answered julian, with his eyes fastened on tony's face. "some one who was there can't keep his mouth shut," remarked tony, in great disgust. "mr. banta said he didn't want you to know anything about it, and here that man has gone and blowed the whole thing! but you'll remember that i didn't say a word about it--won't you?" "no one shall ever know what you tell me," asserted julian. "did you shoot them?" "well, i couldn't help it--could i? we came up with them just before we got to mendota. we rode right plump onto them before we knew it, and without saying a word they began to shoot. if they had had rifles, some of us would have gone under; but they had nothing but revolvers, and the first thing i knew something went slap through my arm, and i began to shoot, too. i got in two shots while you would be thinking about it, and then mr. banta looked through their clothes and got the dust. we went down to mendota and reported the matter to the sheriff, and he sent up and buried them." "it is a wonder to me that they didn't arrest you," said julian. "who--me? what did i do? the men were shooting at us, and i was defending myself. it would have taken more men than they had there to arrest me, for any man would have done the same. anyhow, we got your money back. say! don't lisp a word of this to mr. banta. he would go for me hot and heavy." julian was obliged to promise again that mr. banta should never hear a word of what tony had told him; but that night he told it to jack, who said that his "funny story" had come out just as he thought it would. "you said you didn't want them to deal with the culprits here in camp, and you have your wish," said jack. not long after that the miners, discouraged, packed up, by companies of half a dozen or more, bid good-bye to their associates, and struck out for other localities. dutch flat was "played out," there was no gold there for them, and they were going where they could do better. some of them talked of going home, while others, whose "piles" were not quite as large as they wished, were going to try it again for another year. mr. banta lingered there for some time, and then he, too, astonished the boys by bringing up his tools and telling them that next day he would strike for denver. "and when i get there i don't think i shall stop," said he. "i have been away from my home in the granite hills so long that i won't know how to act when i get there, and i can't learn any younger than i can now. i am going as far as st. louis with you, and then i shall strike off alone." this put new life into the boys. as soon as it became known in camp that mr. banta was going away, a dozen others joined in with his party, and when they rode away from the camp the few miners who were left behind cheered themselves hoarse. the boys had been "to the mines," had met with some adventures while there, and they were ready to go back among civilized people once more. their stay in denver did not last more than a week, and the boys were made to promise, over and over again, that after they had seen their friends in st. louis they would go back there to live. everything they had in the world was there, the western country seemed to agree with them, and there they would remain. they had not yet completed their course at the business school, and when that was done they must look for some useful occupation in which to spend their lives. mr. banta proved that he had some money in the bank before he had been in denver two days. the boys left him at his old hotel, clad in a miner's suit, and looking altogether, as he expressed it, "like a low-down tramp," and when they saw him again they could hardly recognize him. the barber had been at work on him, the tailor had done his best to fit him out; but the squeeze he gave their hands proved that he was the same "old banta" still. the boys never forgot him; his kindness had saved them many a dollar. after taking leave of mr. banta at st. louis the boys took up their quarters at a leading hotel, and for two weeks devoted themselves to calling upon their friends. as they signed their names to the register julian whispered, "i have often thought, while i have been carrying messages here in the city and looked into this hotel while hurrying past it, that the men who could put up at a first-class house like this must be a happy lot, and now i have a chance to see how it goes myself. jack, let us go down and have a glass of soda water. why don't you grumble about that the way you did the last time we were here?" but jack did not feel like grumbling--he was too happy for that. he did not think, while he was finding fault with julian for the wages he had spent at the express office in buying 'old horse,' that he was one whose fortunes hung upon the letter that was to tell him about the haunted mine. the end. the john c. winston co.'s popular juveniles. harry castlemon. how i came to write my first book. when i was sixteen years old i belonged to a composition class. it was our custom to go on the recitation seat every day with clean slates, and we were allowed ten minutes to write seventy words on any subject the teacher thought suited to our capacity. one day he gave out "what a man would see if he went to greenland." my heart was in the matter, and before the ten minutes were up i had one side of my slate filled. the teacher listened to the reading of our compositions, and when they were all over he simply said: "some of you will make your living by writing one of these days." that gave me something to ponder upon. i did not say so out loud, but i knew that my composition was as good as the best of them. by the way, there was another thing that came in my way just then. i was reading at that time one of mayne reid's works which i had drawn from the library, and i pondered upon it as much as i did upon what the teacher said to me. in introducing swartboy to his readers he made use of this expression: "no visible change was observable in swartboy's countenance." now, it occurred to me that if a man of his education could make such a blunder as that and still write a book, i ought to be able to do it, too. i went home that very day and began a story, "the old guide's narrative," which was sent to the _new york weekly_, and came back, respectfully declined. it was written on both sides of the sheets but i didn't know that this was against the rules. nothing abashed, i began another, and receiving some instruction, from a friend of mine who was a clerk in a book store, i wrote it on only one side of the paper. but mind you, he didn't know what i was doing. nobody knew it; but one day, after a hard saturday's work--the other boys had been out skating on the brick-pond--i shyly broached the subject to my mother. i felt the need of some sympathy. she listened in amazement, and then said: "why, do you think you could write a book like that?" that settled the matter, and from that day no one knew what i was up to until i sent the first four volumes of gunboat series to my father. was it work? well, yes; it was hard work, but each week i had the satisfaction of seeing the manuscript grow until the "young naturalist" was all complete.--_harry castlemon in the writer._ gunboat series. vols. by harry castlemon. $ . frank the young naturalist. frank on a gunboat. frank in the woods. frank before vicksburg. frank on the lower mississippi. frank on the prairie. rocky mountain series. vols. by harry castlemon. $ . frank among the rancheros. frank in the mountains. frank at don carlos' rancho. sportsman's club series. vols. by harry castlemon. $ . the sportsman's club in the saddle. the sportsman's club afloat. the sportsman's club among the trappers. frank nelson series. vols. by harry castlemon. $ . snowed up. frank in the forecastle. the boy traders. roughing it series. vols. by harry castlemon. $ . george in camp. george at the fort. george at the wheel. rod and gun series. vols. by harry castlemon. $ . don gordon's shooting box. the young wild fowlers. rod and gun club. go-ahead series. vols. by harry castlemon. $ . tom newcombe. go-ahead. no moss. war series. vols. by harry castlemon. $ . true to his colors. marcy the blockade-runner. rodney the partisan. marcy the refugee. rodney the overseer. sailor jack the trader. houseboat series. vols. by harry castlemon. $ . the houseboat boys. the mystery of lost river cañon. the young game warden. afloat and ashore series. vols. by harry castlemon. $ . rebellion in dixie. a sailor in spite of himself. the ten-ton cutter. complete catalog of best books for boys and girls mailed on application to the publishers the john c. winston co., philadelphia the roundabout library for young people this well-known series of books is recognized as the best library of copyright books for young people, sold at popular prices. the authors represented in the roundabout library are not only the best well-known writers of juvenile literature, but the titles listed comprise the best writings of these authors, over titles are now in this library and all new titles will be selected with the same care as in the past, for stories that are not only entertaining but equally _instructive_ and _elevating_. this respect for wholesome juvenile literature is what has made and kept _the roundabout library better than any other library of books for boys and girls_. our aim is to maintain the supremacy of these books over all others _from every viewpoint_, and to make the superior features so apparent that those who have once read one, will always return to the roundabout library for more. _bound in extra cloth, with gold title and appropriate cover designs stamped in colors, attractive and durable, printed on the best paper from large clear type. illustrated, mo._ price per. volume, $. catalogue mailed on application to the publishers. the john c. winston co., publishers philadelphia roundabout library for young people selected from the works of alger, castlemon, ellis, stephens, henty, mrs. lillie and other writers. price, per volume, $ . =across texas.= by edward s. ellis. =adventures in canada; or, life in the woods.= by john c. geikie. =alison's adventures.= by lucy c. lillie. =american family robinson, the; or, the adventures of a family lost in the great desert of the west.= by w. d. belisle. =bear hunters of the rocky mountains, the.= by anne bowman. =ben's nugget; or, a boy's search for a fortune.= by horatio alger, jr. =bob burton; or, the young ranchman of the missouri.= by horatio alger, jr. =bonnie prince charlie; a tale of fontenoy and culloden.= by g. a. henty. =brave billy.= by edward s. ellis. =brave tom; or, the battle that won.= by edward s. ellis. =by england's aid; or, the freeing of the netherlands ( - ).= by g. a. henty. =by pike and dyke; a tale of the rise of the dutch republic.= by g. a. henty. =by right of conquest; or, with cortez in mexico.= by g. a. henty. =by love's sweet rule.= by gabrielle emelie jackson. =cabin in the clearing, the.= a tale of the frontier. by edward s. ellis. =camping out, as recorded by "kit."= by c. a. stephens. =camp in the foothills, the.= by harry castlemon. =cornet of horse, the.= a tale of marlborough's wars by g. a. henty. =cruise of the firefly.= by edward s. ellis. =dear days, a story of washington school life.= by ada mickle. =diccon the bold.= a story of the days of columbus. by john russell coryell. =do and dare; or, a brave boy's fight for fortune.= by horatio alger, jr. =dog crusoe, the. a tale of the western prairies.= by r. m. ballantyne. =dog of cotopaxi, the.= by hezekiah butterworth. =doris and theodora.= by margaret vandegrift. =dr. gilbert's daughters.= by margaret h. matthews. =dragon and the raven, the; or, the days of king alfred.= by g. a. henty. =elam storm, the wolfer; or, the lost nugget.= by harry castlemon. =elinor belden; or, the step brothers.= by lucy c. lillie. =esther's fortune.= by lucy c. lillie. =floating treasure.= by harry castlemon. =four little indians.= by ella mary coates. =family dilemma.= by lucy c. lillie. =floating light of the goodwin sands, the.= by r. m. ballantyne. =for honor's sake.= by lucy c. lillie. =four boys; or, the story of the forest fire.= by edward s. ellis. =fox hunting, as recorded by "raed."= by c. a. stephens. =freaks on the fells.= by r. m. ballantyne. =gascoyne, the sandalwood trader.= by r. m. ballantyne. =girl's ordeal, a.= by lucy c. lillie =gorilla hunters, the.= by r. m. ballantyne. =great cattle trail, the.= by edward s. ellis. =hunt on snow shoes, a.= by edward s. ellis. =hartwell farm, the.= by elizabeth b. comins. =hector's inheritance; or, the boys of smith institute.= by horatio alger, jr. =helen glenn; or, my mother's enemy.= by lucy c. lillie. =helping himself; or, grant thornton's ambition.= by horatio alger, jr. =honest ned.= by edward s. ellis. =haunted mine, the.= by harry castlemon. =in freedom's cause.= a story of wallace and bruce. by g. a. henty. =in the reign of terror; the adventures of a westminster boy.= by g. a. henty. =jack midwood; or, bread cast upon the waters.= by edward s. ellis. =joe wayring at home; or, the adventures of a fly rod.= by harry castlemon. =kangaroo hunters, the; or, adventures in the bush.= by anne bowman. =king's rubies, the.= by adelaide fulaer bell. =lady green satin.= by baroness deschesnez. =left on labrador; or, the cruise of the yacht "curlew."= by c. a. stephens. =lena wingo, the mohawk.= by edward s. ellis. =lenny, the orphan.= by margaret hosmer. =lion of the north. the; a tale of the times of gustavus adolphus.= by g. a. henty. =luke walton; or, the chicago newsboy.= by horatio alger, jr. =lynx hunting.= by c. a. stephens. =limber lew, the circus king.= by edward s. ellis. =marion berkley.= by elizabeth b. comins. =missing pocket-book, the.= by harry castlemon. =mysterious andes, the.= by hezekiah butterworth. =northern lights.= stories from swedish and finnish authors. =off to the geysers; or, the young yachters in iceland.= by c. a. stephens. =on the amazon; or, the cruise of the "rambler."= by c. a. stephens. =on the trail of the moose.= by edward s. ellis. =orange and green; a tale of the boyne and limerick.= by g. a. henty. =oscar in africa.= by harry castlemon. =our boys in panama.= by hezekiah butterworth. =our fellows; or, skirmishes with the swamp dragoons.= by harry castlemon. =path in the ravine, the.= by edward s. ellis. =plucky dick; or, sowing and reaping.= by edward s. ellis. =queen's body guard, the.= by margaret vandegrift =question of honor.= by lynde palmer. =righting the wrong.= by edward s. ellis. =river fugitives, the.= by edward s. ellis. =romain kalbris.= his adventures by sea and shore. translated from the french of hector malot. =rose raymond's wards.= by margaret vandegrift. =ruth endicott's way.= by lucy c. lillie. =shifting winds; a story of the sea.= by r. m. ballantyne. =snagged and sunk; or, the adventures of a canvas canoe.= by harry castlemon. =squire's daughter, the.= by lucy c. lillie. =steel horse, the; or, the rambles of a bicycle.= by harry castlemon. =store boy, the; or, the fortunes of ben barclay.= by horatio alger, jr. =storm mountain.= by edward s. ellis. =struggling upward; or, luke larkin's luck.= by horatio alger, jr. =tam; or, holding the fort.= by edward s. ellis. =through forest and fire.= by edward s. ellis. =true to the old flag; a tale of the american war of independence.= by g. a. henty. =two bequests, the; or, heavenward led.= by jane r. sommers. =two ways of becoming a hunter.= by harry castlemon. =under drake's flag. a tale of the spanish main.= by g. a. henty. =under the holly.= by margaret hosmer. =under the red flag; or, the adventures of two american boys in the days of the commune.= by edward king. =ways and means.= by margaret vandegrift. =where honor leads.= by lynde palmer. =wilderness fugitives, the.= by edward s. ellis. =wild man of the west, the.= by r. m. ballantyne. =with clive in india; or, the beginning of an empire.= by g. a. henty. =with wolfe in canada; or, the winning of a continent.= by g. a. henty. =wyoming.= by edward s. ellis. =young adventurer, the; tom's trip across the plains.= by horatio alger, jr. =young circus rider, the.= by horatio alger, jr. =young conductor, the; or, winning his way.= by edward s. ellis. =young explorer, the; or, among the sierras.= by horatio alger, jr. =young miner, the; or, tom nelson in california.= by horatio alger, jr. =young ranchers, the; or, fighting the sioux.= by edward s. ellis. =young wreckers the.= by richard meade bache. the john c. winston co.'s popular juveniles j. t. trowbridge. neither as a writer does he stand apart from the great currents of life and select some exceptional phase or odd combination of circumstances. he stands on the common level and appeals to the universal heart, and all that he suggests or achieves is on the plane and in the line of march of the great body of humanity. the jack hazard series of stories, published in the late _our young folks_, and continued in the first volume of _st. nicholas_, under the title of "fast friends," is no doubt destined to hold a high place in this class of literature. the delight of the boys in them (and of their seniors, too) is well founded. they go to the right spot every time. trowbridge knows the heart of a boy like a book, and the heart of a man, too, and he has laid them both open in these books in a most successful manner. apart from the qualities that render the series so attractive to all young readers, they have great value on account of their portraitures of american country life and character. the drawing is wonderfully accurate, and as spirited as it is true. the constable, sellick, is an original character, and as minor figures where will we find anything better than miss wansey, and mr. p. pipkin, esq. the picture of mr. dink's school, too, is capital, and where else in fiction is there a better nick-name than that the boys gave to poor little stephen treadwell, "step hen," as he himself pronounced his name in an unfortunate moment when he saw it in print for the first time in his lesson in school. on the whole, these books are very satisfactory, and afford the critical reader the rare pleasure of the works that are just adequate, that easily fulfill themselves and accomplish all they set out to do.--_scribner's monthly._ the john c. winston co.'s popular juveniles. jack hazard series. vols. by j. t. trowbridge $ . jack hazard and his fortunes the young surveyor. fast friends. doing his best. a chance for himself. lawrence's adventures. charles asbury stephens. this author wrote his "camping out series" at the very height of his mental and physical powers. "we do not wonder at the popularity of these books; there is a freshness and variety about them, and an enthusiasm in the description of sport and adventure, which even the older folk can hardly fail to share."--_worcester spy._ "the author of the camping out series is entitled to rank as decidedly at the head of what may be called boys' literature."--_buffalo courier._ camping out series. by c. a. stephens. all books in this series are mo. with eight full page illustrations. cloth, extra, cents. camping out. as recorded by "kit." "this book is bright, breezy, wholesome, instructive, and stands above the ordinary boys' books of the day by a whole head and shoulders."--_the christian register_, boston. left on labrador; or, the cruise of the schooner yacht "curlew." as recorded by "wash." "the perils of the voyagers, the narrow escapes, their strange expedients, and the fun and jollity when danger had passed, will make boys even unconscious of hunger."--_new bedford mercury._ off to the geysers; or the young yachters in iceland. as recorded by "wade." "it is difficult to believe that wade and read and kit and wash were not live boys, sailing up hudson straits, and reigning temporarily over an esquimaux tribe."--_the independent_, new york. lynx hunting: from notes by the author of "camping out." "of _first quality_ as a boys' book, and fit to take its place beside the best."--_richmond enquirer._ fox hunting. as recorded by "raed." "the most spirited and entertaining book that has as yet appeared. it overflows with incident, and is characterized by dash and brilliancy throughout."--_boston gazette._ on the amazon; or, the cruise of the "rambler." as recorded by "wash." "gives vivid pictures of brazilian adventure and scenery."--_buffalo courier._