elected was through Omaha
and Salt Lake City to San Francisco.

The undertaking proved less formidable than had been anticipated,
for, instead of two years, less than five months were occupied in
completing the line. Sibley's tact and ability did much to avoid
opposition by the Indians. He made the red men his friends and
impressed upon them the wonder of the telegraph. When the line was in
operation between Fort Kearney and Fort Laramie he invited the chief
of the Arapahoes at Fort Kearney to communicate by telegraph with
his friend the chief of the Sioux at Fort Laramie. The two chiefs
exchanged telegrams and were deeply impressed. They were told that the
telegraph was the voice of the Manitou or Great Spirit. To convince
them it was suggested that they meet half-way and compare their
experiences. Though they were five hundred miles apart, they started
out on horseback, and on meeting each other found that the line had
carried their words truly. The story spread among the tribes, and so
the telegraph line became almost sacred to the Indians. They might
raid the stations and kill the operators, but they seldom molested the
wires.

Among many ignorant peoples the establishment of the telegraph has
been attained with no small difficulty. The Chinese showed a dread of
the telegraph, frequently breaking down the early lines because they
believed that they would take away the good luck of their district.
The Arabs, on the other hand, did not oppose the telegraph. This
is partly because the name is one which they can understand,
_tel_ meaning wire to them, and _araph_, to know. Thus in Arabic
_tele-agraph_ means to know by wire.

Just as the Indians of our own plains had difficulty in understanding
the telegraph, so the primitive peoples in other parts of the world
could scarce believe it possible. A story is told of the construction
of an early line in British India. The natives inquired the purpose of
the wire from the head man.

"The wire is to carry messages to Calcutta," he replied.

"But how can words run along a wire?" they asked.

The head man puzzled for a moment.

"If there were a dog," he replied, "with a tail long enough to reach
from here to Calcutta, and you pinched his tail here, wouldn't he howl
in Calcutta?"

Once Sibley and the other American telegraph pioneers had spanned the
continent, they began plans for spanning the globe. Their idea was to
unite America and Europe by a line stretched throug