A £2 PER WORD CABLE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 30 November 1933, Page 11

A £2 PER WORD CABLE

When the Atlantic Cable was first available for the conveyance of messages many people on each side of the ocean would not believe in the apparent miracle which had been accomplished. The i first cable, which was completed in. £ 1858, broke down, as everyone knows, - after it had been in existence for only a day or two. It is to the second cable, u which was not finished until 3rd August, , 1866, that the following story refers. The J news of tlie successful laying spread rap- j idly all over the United States, but was ~ not entirely credited, save, perhaps, in New York. On tlie next day Governor 1 John Gilpin, of Colorado Territory, chan- J eed to enter the telegraph office at Den- ' ver, where lie was told that he could, if * lie pleased, cable to Europe. Ho laugh- * v cd at the assertion, but when it was re- 1 peated, lie negligently scrawled a mes- > sage on a scrap of paper, and said, i “There! I guess you may send that.” ] They sent it. The despatch had, in > those times, to be wired to New York ( and forwarded from there by steamer to 1 Newfoundland, whence it was cabled. It j read: . “Denver, Co., 4th August, 1866. < “To Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Em- < peror; [ “Tuileries, Paris, France. \ “Please leave Bohemia alone. No intcrferencc will be tolerated by this Ter- t ritory. j “John Gilpin, Governor.” Of course, if the incredulous Westerner had believed in the completion of the cable lie would not have indulged in the piece of impertinence. But lie did not ' believe until the bill for the conveyance J of the message was presented to him. " Then lie opened his eyes upon seeing a ) demand for £SB, the original tariff being i 1 ten dollars (or about £2) a word. j•*