Reflections

Progress in Telegraphy? “A great many people have an idea that there has been progress in telegraphy as well as other branches, but so far as the way lines are concerned I can speak from actual experience during the past summer, that they are in many cases just as bad or worse than they were twenty years ago. I have learned from some inquiries on the subject that the same care is not taken in keeping up the lines as was formerly the case. This matter of adjustment at way stations comes home to every man, for the reason that all may have occasion some time during our lives to send telegrams to small stations, and it is a fact that very often there are annoying delays that are accounted for by companies on the plea of bad weather. That is taken as something that cannot be prevented; it is an act of God. But here we see a device for preventing a large proportion of this trouble, which, to my own knowledge, has been in practical operation for some time.”