It took a special messenger of the
Government, with every facility known at the time for rapid travel,
nineteen days to go from the city of Washington to New Orleans with a
message to General Jackson that the war with England had ceased and a
treaty of peace had been signed. How different now!
We reached General Miles in Puerto Rico by cable, and he was able,
through the military telegraph, to stop his army on the firing line with
the message that the United States and Spain had signed a protocol
suspending hostilities. We knew almost instantly of the first shots
fired at Santiago, and the subsequent surrender of the Spanish forces
was known at Washington within less than an hour of its consummation.
The first ship of Cervera's fleet had hardly emerged from that historic
harbor when the fact was flashed to our capital, and the swift
destruction that followed was announced immediately through the
wonderful medium of telegraphy.
So accustomed are we to safe and easy communication with distant lands
that its temporary interruption, even in ordinary times, results in loss
and inconvenience.
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