Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1888 — This is a Great World [ARTICLE]

This is a Great World

An old telegrapher ia Globe Democrat. ; Before the invention of telegraphy the; people —of the Pacific slope did not learn of events in the Eastern States for several weeks after they had transpired, and foreign news was months in reaching them. Even at the present time, with steam engine, fast mails, etc., it would be about a week before they received New York news, and at least two weeks before events in London reached them, were it not for the telegraph. Now, however, it fre- . quently happens that the San Francisco newspapers publish news frem New York and London before it appears in the Atlantic coast papers. For instance, should something happen in New York at 5 o’clock a. m., at which time the New York pspers have gone to press, it can be flashed over the wires to San Francisco in time for publication in the papers of that city, it being then only 2 a. m., San Francisco time. In like manner an important cablegram arriving in New York at the same hour can be sent in the same way. With this advantage of time in favor of San Francisco it frequently happens that the Pacific Coast papers “scoop” their New York contemporaries on Eastern and foreign news.