Washington. He also suggested the possibility of laying a cable
across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1846 Colonel Colt, of revolver notoriety,
and Mr Robinson, laid a wire from New York to Brooklyn, and from Long
Island to Correy Island. In 1849--"

"I say, Fred," interrupted Bob, with an anxious look, "you are a walking
dictionary of dates. Haydn was nothing to you. But--couldn't you give
it me without dates? I've got no head for dates; never could stomach
them--except when fresh off the palm-tree. Don't you think that a
lecture without dates would be pleasantly original as well as
instructive?"

"No, Bob, I don't, and I won't be guilty of any such gross innovation on
time-honoured custom. You must swallow my dates whether you like them
or not. In 1849, I say, a Mr Walker--"

"Any relation to Hookey?"

"No, sir, none whatever--he laid a wire from Folkestone to a steamer two
miles off the shore, and sent messages to it. At last, in 1851. Mr
Brett laid down and successfully wrought the cable between Dover and
Calais which had been suggested by Wheatstone eleven years before. It
is true it did not work long, but this may be said to have been the
beginning of submarine telegraphy, which, you see, like your own
education, Bob, has been a thing of slow growth."

"Have you done with dates, now, my learned friend?" asked Bob,
attempting to balance a ruler on the point of his nose.

"Not quite, my ignorant chum, but nearly. That same year--1851,
remember--a Mr Frederick N. Gisborne, an English electrician, made the
first attempt to connect Newfoundland with the American continent by
cable. He also started a company to facilitate intercourse between
America and ireland by means of steamers and telegraph-cables. Gisborne
was very energetic and successful, but got into pecuniary difficulties,
and went to New York to raise the wind. There he met with Cyrus Field,
who took the matter up with tremendous enthusiasm. He expanded
Gisborne's idea, and resolved to get up a company to connect
Newfoundland with Ireland by electric cable. Field was rich and
influential, and ultimately successful--"

"Ah! would that you and I were rich, Fred," interrupted Bob, as he let
fall the ruler with a crash on the red-ink bottle, and overturned it;
"but go on, Fred, I'm getting interested; pardon the interruption, and
never mind the ink, I'll swab it up.--He was successful, was he?"

"Yes, he was; eminently so. He first of all rous