an incredibly short time. And from the day it was opened, it has proved
probably the most profitable line of telegraph that has ever been
constructed. There was the practicability, and there was the demand and
the business to be done, and yet no living man could see it, or could be
made to see it, except Hiram Sibley. "And to-day," he said, with honest
pride, "to-day in New York, men to whom I went almost on my knees for
help in building this line, and who would not give me a dollar, have
solicited me to be allowed to buy stock in it at the rate of five
dollars for one."

"But how about the Indians?" I asked. "Why," he replied, "we never had
any trouble from the Indians. I knew we wouldn't have. Men who supposed
I was such a fool as to go about this undertaking before that was all
settled didn't know me. No Indian ever harmed that line. The Indians are
the best friends we have got. You see, we taught the Indians the Great
Spirit was in that line; and what was more, we proved it to them. It
was, by all odds, the greatest medicine they ever saw. They fairly
worshiped it. No Indian ever dared to do it harm."

"But," he added, "there was one thing I didn't count on. The border
ruffians in Missouri are as bad as anybody ever feared the Indians might
be. They have given us so much trouble that we are now building a line
around that State, through Iowa and Nebraska. We are obliged to do it."

This opened another phase of the subject. The telegraph line to the
Pacific had a value beyond that which could be expressed in money. It
was perhaps the strongest of all the ties which bound California so
securely to the Union, in the dark days of its struggle for existence.
The secession element in Missouri recognized the importance of the line
in this respect, and were persistent in their efforts to destroy it. We