re were, besides, government
and private lines to a length vast but not ascertainable. In addition to
all this, the Bell Telephone Company, which conducted the main telephone
business of the country, owned, the same year, 307,748 miles of wire,
which the lines of other companies increased to 440,750 miles.

[Illustration: Mass of wiring about 10 by 20 feet.]
Under Side of a Modern Switchboard, showing 2,000 Telegraph Wires.

[1862-1877]

From this account of our country's material advance after the war we
purposely omit mention of the great economic progress at the South, as
that has been already reviewed in Chapter IV. We must, instead, notice
several events which decidedly checked the prosperity of these years.

So soon as gold had ceased to circulate in 1862, speculation in it
began, which was one of the most pernicious results of the depreciation
of paper. The ups and downs in the gold price of the greenback from week
to week and from day to day during the war were largely due to this
cause. In 1869 a clique of speculators in New York thought to realize an
immense fortune by cornering gold, a large proportion of the stock east
of the Rocky Mountains being known to be in New York City.

By Wednesday, September 22d, they had pushed up the price of gold in
greenbacks from 131 to 141, causing a disastrous tumble in stocks and
almost a panic. The money market grew tight, and interest enormous.
Loans were to be had only on the very best securities. On Thursday gold
still advanced, showing that the corner remained solid. At the last call
it stood at 144; at the first on Friday, September 24th, 105 was the
figure. The ring was believed at this time to hold in gold and in
contracts to deliver the same, over $100,000,000, while all the gold in
New York outside the United States Sub-Treasury was hardly over
$10,000,000. Only the Government could break the corner. At eleven
o'clock gold was at 155, whence in half an hour it rose to 160, then to
162, then to 164. In the midst of an excitement never paralleled in the
Gold Room before or since, it was announced on authority that the
Government would sell. The price at once went down to 135, and the power
of the clique was instantly broken. This day passed into history under
the name of "Black Friday."

[Illustration: Several men watching Bell using a phone.]
Professor Bell Sending the First Message by Long-distance Telephone,
from New York to Chicago.

[Illustration: H