e different corporations, some of it at a price
as low as two cents on the dollar, and in consolidating the lines which
then extended over portions of thirteen States. The Western Union
Telegraph Company was then organized, with Mr. Sibley as the first
president. Under his management for sixteen years, the number of
telegraph offices was increased from 132 to over 4,000, and the value of
the property from $220,000 to $48,000,000.

In the project of uniting the Atlantic and Pacific by a line to
California, he stood nearly alone. At a meeting of the prominent
telegraph men of New York, a committee was appointed to report upon his
proposed plan, whose verdict was that it would be next to impossible to
build the line; that, if built, the Indians would destroy it; and that it
would not pay, even if built, and not destroyed. His reply was
characteristic; that it should be built, if he had to build it alone. He
went to Washington, procured the necessary legislation, and was the sole
contractor with the Government. The Western Union Telegraph Company
afterward assumed the contract, and built the line, under Mr. Sibley's
administration as president, ten years in advance of the railroad.

[Illustration: HIRAM SIBLEY.]

Not satisfied with this success at home, he sought to unite the two
hemispheres by way of Alaska and Siberia, under P. McD. Collins'
franchise. On visiting Russia with Mr. Collins in the winter of 1864-5,
he was cordially received and entertained by the Czar, who approved the
plan. A most favorable impression had preceded him. For when the Russian
squadron visited New York in 1863--the year after Russia and Great
Britain had declined the overture of the French government for joint
mediation in the American conflict--Mr. Sibley and other prominent
gentlemen were untiring in efforts to entertain the Russian admiral,
Lusoffski, in a becoming mariner. Mr. Sibley was among the foremost in
the arrangements of the committee of reception. So marked were his
personal kindnesses that when the admiral returned he mentioned Mr.
Sibley by name to the Emperor Alexander, and thus unexpectedly prepared
the way for the friendship of that generous monarch. During Mr. Sibley's
stay in St. Petersburg, he was honored in a manner only accorded to those
who enjoy the special favor of royalty. Just before his arrival the Czar
had returned from the burial of his son at Nice; and, in accordance with
a long honored custom when the head of