n, heard, smelled, tasted, and felt. So
universal is the dot-and-line alphabet,--for Bain's is on the same
principle as Morse's.

The reader sees, therefore, first, that the dot-and-line alphabet can be
employed by any being who has command of any long and short symbols,--be
they long and short notches, such as Robinson Crusoe kept his accounts
with, or long and short waves of electricity, such as these which
Valentia is sending across to the Newfoundland bay, so prophetically and
appropriately named "The Bay of Bulls." Also, I hope the reader sees
that the alphabet can be understood by any intelligent being who has any
one of the five senses left him,--by all rational men, that is,
excepting the few eyeless deaf persons who have lost both taste and
smell in some complete paralysis. The use of Morse's telegraph is by no
means confined to the small clique who possess or who understand
electrical batteries. It is not only the torpedo or the _Gymnotus
electricus_ that can send us messages from the ocean. Whales in the sea
can telegraph as well as senators on land, if they will only note the
difference between long spoutings and short ones. And they can listen,
too. If they will only note the difference between long and short, the
eel of Ocean's bottom may feel on his slippery skin the smooth messages
of our Presidents, and the catfish, in his darkness, look fearless on
the secrets of a Queen. Any beast, bird, fish, or insect, which can
discriminate between long and short, may use the telegraph alphabet, if
he have sense enough. Any creature, which can hear, smell, taste, feel,
or see, may take note of its signals, if he can understand them. A tired
listener at church, by properly varying his long yawns and his short
ones, may express his opinion of the sermon to the opposite gallery
before the sermon is done. A dumb tobacconist may trade with his
customers in an alphabet of short-sixes and long-nines. A beleaguered
Sebastopol may explain its wants to the relieving army beyond the line
of the Chernaya, by the lispings of its short Paixhans and its long
twenty-fours.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] The Fire Alarm is the invention of Dr. William F.
Channing:

"A wizard of such dreaded fame,
That when in Salamanca's cave,
Him listed his magic wand to wave,
The bells would ring in Notre Dame."

[14] I am proud to say that such suggestions have had so much
weight, that in 1868 the alarm strikes the number of