People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1895 — Page 1

Twenty-five cents pnys for a good 25c book and a three months trial subscription to

VOL. IV.

ENGLAND'S STATE OWED POSTAL TELEGRAPH.

The Great Electric Wire Web Flourishes As a Government Monopoly. IT HAS BEEN FOUND A GOOD THING FOB THE PEOPLE.

London, Feb. I.—Twenty-five years ago the telegraph act of 1868 came into operation, and the most important of modern applications of electrial science became a government monopoly. The telegraph system of England, which up to that date had been organized and carried on by competing private companies, as the sub-marine cable systems are now, was handed over —instruments, conductors, batteries, staff, and all—to the postmaster general, then the present duke of Devonshire, to be reorganized and carried on for the public benefit. It is only necessary to refer to a few figures concerning the telegraph business of the country at that time to understand the importance of the step taken by the government in 1868. There was in existence three principal companies, formed for the transmitting of news and private messages by telegraph, for they combined the functions both of telegraph companies and news agencies. These were the Electric and International, which purchased the Cook and Wheatstone patents in 1837, and was incorporated in 1846; the British and Irish Magnetic, which first established telegraphic communication with Ireland; and the United Kingdom Electric Telegraph, which first introduced the Morse and Hughes instruments. The tariff varied according to distance, with a minimum of 1 shilling for twenty words within 100 miles; and a message of that length between London and Valentia. in Ireland, cost as much as 6 shillings. Now it is 1 jience. The average cost of a private telegram was in 1869 2 shillings and 2 pence. In the present year of grace the average is only 7f pence. Under the old companies the highest" number of messages sent in one year was no more than 6,500,000. It leaped in the first year of government administration-in 1870-71-to 9,850,177, and has steadily grown, until now it has exceeded 70,000,000 in one year. The number of offices taken over by the government was under 3000; now there are over 9000. The old companies possessed 60,000 miles of wire; the postoftice now has 200,000 miles, of which 12.000 miles are laid underground.

FOR THE FREE AND UNLIMITED COINAGE OF SILVER AND GOLD AT THE FARJTY RATIO OF SIXTEEN TO ONE WITHOUT REFERENCE TO ANY OTHER NATION ON EARTH.

The* People’s* Pilot* Free FOR THREE MONTHS. hvienS-s a/n3 Patrons.: qA This circular letter is addressed to those patrons of the Pilot who may feel an interest in extending its circulation, and if you will kindiy consider this proposition it will be greatly appreciated, and you may find it convenient to add one new subscriber’s name to our trial list. By special arrangement with the publishers of the following books, which you have probably seen advertised and described, they can be obtained at so reasonable a price that the publisher of the People’s Pilot has determined to make this offer to obtain absolutely new trial subscribers: For every person who purchases one of these books at its regular selling price, the People’s Pilot will be sent to any address that may be desired. These books are excellent works by well known authors, and comprise the very cream of reform literature. The books are absolutely nonpartisan in character, dealing wholly with social questions from the standpoint of true political economy. If you do not care to ask your neighbor to buy one of these books and get the paper three months free, might it not please you to buy a book for yourself and have the paper sent to him. If each real friend of the paper and the cause it espouses, would add but one name to this trial list a great work would be accomplished, and it would nearly double its already large list. A Story from Pullmantown, 25c An Ounce of Predention, 50c The Pullman Strike, 25c From Earth’s Center, 30c Money Found, 25c Coin’s Financial School, 30c The Right of Labor, 25c Ten Men of Money Island, } Sullivan’s Direct Legislation, 25c P. P. Shot and Shell, '-35c Shylock’s Daughter, 25c 7 Financial Conspiracies, ) The Baltimore Plan, 25c Looking Backward, 50c

THE PEOPLE’S PILOT.

Press messages sent by the old companies amounted to a very small total in a year, because of the high tariff; but now they have reached 5,500,000 per annum, representing 600,000,000 words telegraphed. Although the parliamentary powers of the postoffl.ce over the ■ telegrams came into operatien Jan. 28, 1870, it was not until the night of Feb. 4 and 5 that the actual transfer took place from the old companies to the staff organized by F. I. Scudamore. The night w T as a night of great anxiety to the new postoffice stall', which had been hard' at work for months previously planning out the concentration of the various companies’ systems into one—a task of great difficulty, as the services of the telegraph companies were by no means perfect, and many large towns were, comparatively speaking, neglected in favor of olhers where there was competition. An increased traffic w T as anticipated from the institution of a uniform shilling rate, and new wires had to be connected, new T instruments bought, and a uniform code of regulations adopted. Perfect success might have been obtained at the outset in meeting the demands of the public but for the difficulties inherent to the welding of staffs working different systems, and to the enormous increase in the number of telegrams wrhich at once took place. The whole system was blocked from the outset, and for weeks. Telegrams accumulated on busy circuits by the hundred, and could not be dispatched for hours. It took months to get the central offioe staff into working order and to get the conntry postmasters and their cleiks instructed in the workings of even simple instruments ,and the marvelous perfection to which electrical transmission has now attained has been a slow but a steady development. The present-day aspect of that great focus of ceaseless energy, the central telegraph office, is the most impressive testimony to the wonderful development of the government telegraphs under W. H. Preece, C. 8.. the engineer in chief and electrican; J. C. Lamb. C. 8.. assistant secretary to the postjnaster-general,

RENSSELAER, IND.„ SATURDAY, MARCH 2. 1895.

andH. C. Fischer, the controller, who can literally feel the pulse of Europe. One-half of the whole telegraph messages of the country are transmitted from or through the central telegraph office, for most of the southern towns send their messages to the north, east or west through London. The cable-room, in which alone, 16,000 messages are dealt with every day, is in direct communication with Paris, Rome, Vienna, Berlin, Frankfort, and other chief continental cities, and rows and rows of Hughes printing instruments, with their pianette-like keyboards, are sending or receiving messages between London and the most distantparts of Europe. The Hughes instrument prints the message on topes like those in use in the clubs and newsrooms. It is the oldest printing telegraph, and though it has been improved it has not been superceded by any better instrument for long wires. Distance is no object. It prints a message from Vienna with the same facilities as if it only came from Brighton. The great sight, however, is “The Gallery,” which is really an entire floor of the building. Here all the instruments communicating with Great Britain and Ireland are grouped in blocks and sections of the little tables crowded with instruments, each with its attending clerk. The midlands and the north occupy the center of the great room, Scotland another section, Ireland another. Kent and Sussex are grouped in one corner and the southwestern counties in another, while the press telegrams are dealt with in a separate section. All are disposed in geographical order, and on a careful plan. Nearly 100,000 messages a day pass through the Gallery, and wonderful are the contrivances for saving time. The Wheatstone automatic transmitter, which twenty-five years ago could only be got to send with accuracy eighty words a minute over a comparatively short length of wire, can now be made to reel through the previously prepared tapes to the most distant parts of the north of Scotland at a speed of between 500 and 600 words a minute! The message is “punched” first of all on tapes, in a series of little holes, so placed that when the tape is passed between two rapidly revolving brass rollers representing the line wire on the transmitter, the current is made, reversed, and broken by shorter or longer pulsations accordingly as a dot or a dash is meant to be transmitted, in the signs of the Morse code. The dots and dashes are produced on another tape on the receiving instrument by an

EVERY TRAVELING MAN SHOULD HAVE ONE. INTERCH ANGE A R LE K l,u<-li mad 1,000-MILE TICKETS. ~=g MONON ROUTE. They are good Baltimore A. Ohio South-western R'y all divisions. 4 4 4 4 4 for one vp-ir Cincinnati, Hamilton A. Dayton r. R.- all divisions. 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,y Cincinnati, Janckson A. Macinaw Ry. 444444444 from date of Cincinnati A. Louisville Mail line Steame rs. 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 •ifllp and orind CLEVELAND, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO 4. ST. LOUIS R’Y. ALL DIVISIONS 4 4 e ’ good CLEVELAND&CANTON R R t 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 for passage on Cleveland, Akron a Columbus r r 4444444444 thp following Columbus, Hocking Valley a Toledo RY. 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ° Columbus, Sandusky a hocking R’y. 4444444444 lines: Indianapolis, Decator a western R'Y. 4 44444444 Indiana, Illinois A lowa R R 4444444444444 Louisville, New Albany A Chicago R'y. 4444444444 Louisville a Nashville R. R. (between Louisville and Cincinnati only.) 4 4 4 4 Louisville, Evansville a St, Louis Consolidated R R. 4 4 4 4 4 4 Ohio Central Lines 44444444 4 44 44144 f\\i Reoria, Decatur a Evansville R'y. 44444444444 / Pittsburg, Akron a Western R. R. 44444444444 Toledo, St Louis a Kansas City R. R. 4444444444 Wheeling a Lake Erie. 444444444444444 The above lines afford the commercial traveler access to the'principal cities and towns in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, with through lines to St. Louis. Note this: The coupons from this book will also be accepted in payment for excess baggage and for seats in parlor cars on the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway, also between Chicago and Cincinnati, v.ia L. N. A. & C. and C. H. & D. Railroads. The train service of line includes all the conveniences devised to make traveling a pleasure. Vestibuled trains, with parlor and dining cars on all day trains; Pullman buffet and compartment sleeping cars on all night trains. Special features: Steam heat. Pintsch light. SIDNEY B. JONES , City Pas. Act. I. D. BALDWIN, Dis. PA3. Ag't. E. H BACON, Dis. Pas. Act. 232 Clark St., Chicago. 2W. Washington St., Indianapolis. 4th and Market Sts Louisville W. H. MCDOEL, Vice Ptes. and General Manager. General Otticesi FRANK J. REED , General Passengcr Agent. iqo Custom House place, Chicago.

inked revolving wheel, which makes a dot ora dash accordingly as the pulsation is short or Jong. Not only is this high speed possible in regular practice with carefully adjusted instruments and a good current, but the same message can be transmitted to a number of places at same time. A speech of Lord Salisbury’s, for instance, can be transmitted by the same operation to Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Bradford, and Leeds, at each of which places the receiving instrument registers the signals simultaneously from the one instrument at the sending office. As if this were not sufficiently wonderful, there is in use on the Brighton table in the Gallery an instrument tliar sends from six different transmitters in London to six different receiving instruments at Brighton, and vice versa, at one and the-same time over the same wire. The process by which so many conflicting signals can be transmitted, and each reach the corresponding receiver at either end, is too technical to explain here. There is another floor above the Gallery, where all the London

branch office wires are, and these, alone deal with 20,000 messages a day. Most of the city and west end offices send up their messages to the central office by pneumatic tube, and the tube room is itself a remarkable sight, as each “carrier.” with its each batch of messages, is sucked in or driven out by the powerful beam engines down in the basement. The batteryroom, where all the current required is constantly being generated, is more gloomy than impressive, and it is readily credible that the vast vault contains three and a half miles of shelves packed with nests of Fuller’s bichromate, Daniell’s and Leclanche batteries, working always and consuming tons of “blue vitrol,” bichromate, and sal ammoniac in the silent ere; - tion of current. Many of the older telegraphic instruments, now out of date, are kept as curiosities, the most interesting collection being at South Kensington, where there is to be seen the identical instrument by means of which, in 1839, the murderer who escaped from Paddington by train was arrested at Slough: also the old fiveneedle instruments and the earlier forms of the double and single needle. The latter is still in use on railways, and in small country offices. The quarter century has also seen great strides in the application of the telegraph to public convenience, as in the transmission of money orders and savings bank withdrawals, and the institution of the telephone to Paris.

A Little Aore Sleep.

The infamy of the proposed fifty-j-ear-half-billion gold bond issue increases as one studies it. It was proposed to replace that amount of greenbacks and other paper money on which the peo pie are paying no interest by bank money based on the bonds, dollar for dollar. This, then, would be the result: Bond principal to be repaid, $500,000,000; simplo interest, #750,0ub, 0 Jo; simple interest on the new bank notes at six per cent., $1,500,000, • 000; grand apparent total, $2,750,000,000. \Ve say ‘apparent,’ because the interest received would be reloaned—compounded. We dare not compute that! But the amount as given above would require of 50c wheat five billion five hundred million bushels, or ten average crops! Of 5c cotton it would eat up 117,021,276 bales, or nearly fifteen average animal crops! Or, to meet the interest only on the bonds and bank notes would take all the earnings of an army of 150,000 sl-a-day men! Is it not immense for the Wall street brigands? Remember, in this connection, that when this scheme was voted down (for the time being) in the House last week, it was the Populist Eight that killed it—the vote being 122 for, to 130 against,—and thus saving the greenback from the fire, for the present at least. The 122 for the Cleveland scheme comprised most of the Republican members, including Reed : who had posed as an anti-gold-bug. If you think, Mr. Voter, that “a little more slumber” on your part will induce the gold conspirators to cease their plotting and stealing by-law, you will richly deserve to lose ail you have. That is what they are after.—A. H. in Hartford Arena.

Public Sale.

I will sell at my farm 3 miles south of Rensselaer, on the range i line road, the following property, on Thursday, March 7, 1895 9 head of milch cows. 8 head of horses and colts. Two heavy draft horses. One driving team. Four colts, two years old. 4 brood sows, 2 farm wagons. Studebaker spring wagon. 2 Deering mowers, 2 hay rakes. 1 hay gatherer, 1 binder. Disk harrow. Two horse wheat drill. Corn planter, 2 drag harrows. 2 stirring plows, 2 cultivators. 1 riding plow. 2 milk cans. Household and kitchen furniture and other articles. Terms of Bale: All sums of #5 and under cash in hand. A credit of 12 months without interest will be given on all sums over #5, purchasers giving bankable note. Discount, 10 per cent.

Jos. MITCHELL.

Will Buy County Orders.

Austin Co. will pay the highest price for county orders If .you want to cash them before the April installment of taxes give us a call, Austin & Co,

Death of Maggie Hanson.

Mrs. Maggie Hanson, wife of Benjamin Hanson, died at their home in Barclay township, on Sunday, Peh. 24 th, aged 118 years, 4 mouths and six days. She was buried in Weston cemetery, in Rensselaer, on Monday, Feb. 25th. Mrs. Hanson has been a faithful member of the M. E. Church since early life always doing the part of a consistent Christian. She was married to Benjamin Hanson Nov. 14, 1878, and of the seven children born of this union tive remain to mourn the loss of a devoted mother.

Money to Loan.

The undersigned have made arrangements whereby they are able to make farm loans at the lowest possible rate of interest, with the usual commission. Interest payable at the end of the year. Partial payments can be made on Jan. Ist of any year. Call and see us before making your loan; our money is as cheap and easy as any on the market. Information regarding the loans made by the Atkinson & Rigler Agency at Wabash, Itid., can be had at our office, up stairs in Williams-Stockton building, opposite court house.

WARREN & IRWIN.

A Home Burned.

Fire destroyed the home of Peter Hordeman, near the poor farm, at 4 o’clock Saturday morning last, the cause being unknown. The house was a total loss partially covered by sboo insurance in the Continential of which H. W. Porter is town and county agent. There was also S3OO insurance on the contents which was but a partial loss. An old log house adjoining was burned together with six large hogs, just butchered, upon which no insurance can be recovered.

Russell Threshing Machines.

L. S. Renicher is the agent for the Russell threshing machine. Any one contemplating the purchase of a thresher should see him and investigate the merits of this machine. He has used one with unequalled satisfaction in this county, and can guarantee every claim for it. Farmers who have had work done with it prefer it to any other. Prices as low are asked for inferior mac lines, and the easiest possible terms given for time payments. A full steam outfit will be on exhibition near Rensselaer depot after the 15th of April,

NUMBER 37.