Читать книгу The Greatest Romance Novels of Grace Livingston Hill - Grace Livingston Hill - Страница 103

Table of Contents

The stay in New York lengthened itself into nearly two weeks, for the business on which David had come was important and proved more difficult of settlement than he had expected. In the meantime life was one long, busy, happy dream for Nathan. He was with David all day long, save when that busy man was closeted with some great men talking over business matters which were private and confidential. Even then David often took Nathan with him as his secretary, asking him to take notes of things that were said, or occasionally to copy papers. The boy was acquiring great skill in such matters and could write a neat and creditable letter quite satisfactory to his employer. He had a good, natural hand-writing as well as a keen mind and willing heart, which are a great outfit in any work.

Everywhere they went David explained who and what people, places and things were. Their trip was a liberal education for the boy. He met great men, and saw the sights of the whole city. Every evening when business would allow, they went to some gathering or place of entertainment. He heard a lecture on Phrenology and Magnetism which interested him, and he resolved to try some of the experiments with the boys when he got home. He went to the New York Opera House to attend the Thirty-eighth Anniversary of the Peithologian Society of Columbia College, of which David Spafford was a member, and met Mr. J. Babcock Arden, the Secretary, whose name was signed to the notice of the meeting in the Tribune. It seed wonderful to meet a man whose name was prnted out like that in a New York paper. Mr. Arden greeted him as if he were already a man and told him he hoped be would be one of their number some day when he came to college, and Nathan's heart swelled with the determination to fulfil that hope.

They went to several concerts, and Nathan discov-ered that he enjoyed music immensely. The Philharmonic Society gave its first concert during their stay in the city and it was the boy's first experience in hearing fine singing. He sat as one entranced. Another night they heard Rainer and Dempster, two popular singers who were making a great impression, especially with their rendering of "The Lament of the Irish Emigrant," "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep," and "The Free Country." The melodies caught in the boy's brain and kept singing themselves over and over. He also came to know "Auld Robin Gray," a new and popular ballad, "The Death of Warren," "Saw ye Johnnie Coming" and "The Blind Boy." When he was alone he sang them over bit by bit until he felt they were his own. It was thus, coming upon him unaware one day, that David discovered the boy was possessed of a wonderfully clear, flute-like voice, and resolved that he must go to singing school during the winter, and must certainly sing in the choir, for such a voice would be an acquisition to the church. He decided to talk with the minister about it as soon as he got home.

Two days after their arrival in New York there came the celebration of the completion of the Croton Water Works. Heralded for days beforehand both by friends and enemies, the day dawned bright and clear and Nathan awoke as excited as if he were a little boy on Genera/ Training Day.

There was a six-mile pageant formed on Broadway and Bowling Green, marching through Broadway to Union Square, and down Bowery to Grand Street. There were twenty thousand in the procession and so great was the enthusiasm, according to the papers, that "there might have been two hundred thousand if there had been room for them."

First came the New York firemen, whose interest in the new water system was most natural, and following them in full uniform the Philadelphia firemen, their helmets and bright buttons gleaming in the sun. Then came the Irish, then the Germans, then the Masons, banners and streamers firing, a brilliant display. There was a float bearing the identical printing press on which Franklin worked, and Colonel Stone sat in Franklin's chair printing leaflets all about the Croton Water Works, which were distributed along the way as the procession moved. There was another float bearing two miniature steamboats, and next followed the gold and silver artisans. After them came the cars with models of the pipes and pieces of the machinery used in the water works, and maps of the construction; then the artisans whose labor had brought into being the great system. After them came the College, Mechanical and Mercantile Library Society, and last of all the Temperance Societies, whose beautiful banners bearing noble sentiments were greeted with loud acclamation by the people.

There were speeches and singing, and Samuel Stevens gave the history of New York water, telling about the old Tea-Water Pump which gave the only drinkable water until 1825. After that there were cisterns in front of the churches, and later the city appropriated fifteen hundred dollars to a tank on Thirteenth Street.

It was a great day, with bells ringing from morning to night, and the Croton Water Works sending out beautiful jets of water from the hydrants while the procession was moving; and at night the Astor House and the Park Theatre were illuminated. Nathan felt that he had been present at the greatest event in the world's history, and he wondered as he dropped off to sleep that night what the boys at home would say if they could know all that was happening to him.

A few days later David and Nathan were walking on the Battery, talking earnestly; at least David was talking and Nathan was listening and responding eagerly now and then. They were talking about the wonderful new telegraph, and its inventor, whom they had met that day and who had invited them to watch an experiment that was to be tried publicly on the morrow. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and presently as they walked and talked, looking out across the water, they saw a little boat proceeding slowly along, one man at the oars and one at the stern. Other idlers on the Battery that night might have wondered what kind of fishing the two men were engaged in that took so long a line, but David and Nathan watched with deep interest for they were in the secret of the little boat. In its stern sat Professor Morse with two miles of copper wire wound on a reel, paying it out slowly. It took two hours to lay that first cable between Castle Garden and Governor’s Island, and the two who watched did not remain until it was done for they had been invited to be present very early the next morning when the first test was to be made, and so they hurried back to the Astor House to get some sleep before the wonderful event should take place. Nathan was almost too much excited to sleep.

The New York Herald came out next morning with this statement:

MORSE'S ELECTRO-MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.

"This important invention is to be exhibited in operation at Castle Garden between the hours of twelve and one o'clock today. One telegraph will be erected on Governor's Island, and one at the Castle, and messages will be interchanged and others transmitted during the day. Many have been incredulous as to the power of this wonderful triumph of science and art. All such may now have an opportunity of fairly testing it. It is destined to work a complete revolution in the mode of transmitting intelligence throughout the civilized world."

At daybreak Professor Morse was on the Battery, and was joined almost immediately by David and. Nathan and two or three other friends deeply interested, and the work of preparing for the great test began. At last everything was in readiness, and the eager watchers actually witnessed the transmission of three or four characters between the termini of the line, when suddenly the communication was interrupted and it was found impossible to send any more messages through the conductor. Great was the excitement and anxiety for a few minutes, while the Professor worked with his instrument. Then looking up he pointed out on the water and a light broke into his face, for there lying along the line of the submerged cable were no less than seven vessels! A few minutes' investigation and it was found that one of these vessels in getting under way had raised the line on its anchor. The sailors, unable to understand what it meant, had hauled in about two hundred feet of the line on deck, and finding no end, cut off what they had and carried it away with them. Thus ignominiously ended the first attempt at submarine telegraphing.

A crowd had assembled on the Battery, but when they found there was to be no exhibition they began to disperse with jeers, most of them believing that they had been the victims of a hoax; and Nathan, watching the strong patient lines of the fine face of the inventor, found angry, pitying tears crowding to his own eyes as he felt the disappointment for the man who seemed to him so great a hero. How he wished in his heart that he were a man, and a rich one, that he might furnish the wherewithal for a thorough public test immediately; but he turned away with his heart full of admiration for the man who was bearing so patiently this new disappointment in his great work for the world. Nathan believed in him and in his invention with all his heart. Had he not heard the little click, click of the instrument and seen with his own eyes the strange characters produced? Others might disbelieve and jeer, but he knew, for he had seen and heard.

There were other great men to meet and hear talk, men whom in after years Nathan was to know more about and feel pride at having met, and because David knew a great many Nathan came in the way of seeing them also. There was Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote for the New York Tribune. That was all Nathan knew about him at the time, and thought that was enough because being with a journalist, he thought journalism the very highest thing in literature. In after years he learned of course to know better and to be exceedingly proud of his brief meeting with so great a man in the world of letters. Then there were Honorable Millard Fillmore and a kindly faced man named Henry Clay, and William Lloyd Garrison, all especial friends of David's and honored accordingly by the boy, who worshipped them from afar.

He heard much talk of things in general: The Indian Treaty; a man named Dickens from England who had travelled in America awhile and written some bitter criticisms of American journalists (how Nathan hated him!); a wonderful flying machine that was in process of being invented by a man named McDermott, which was a giant kite 110 feet long, 20 feet broad, tapering like the wings of a bird, under the centre of which the owner stood, the frame being eighteen feet high, and operated four wings horizontally like the oars of a boat ; wings made of a series of valves like Venetian blinds which opened when moving forward and closed when the stroke was made, each blade having twenty square feet of surface and being moved by the muscles of the legs. The wood was made of canes, the braces of wire, the kite and tail of cotton cloth, and the kite had an angle of ten degrees to the horizon. Nathan had it all carefully written down in his neat hand and he entertained secret hopes of making one for himself some day when he had the time. There was another one talked about, made by a man in New Orleans, a hollow machine like the body of a bird, and wings like a bird's with a man inside and light machinery to work the wings, but this seemed not so easy to carry out and Nathan inclined to the first one. Then there was great talk about postage, and the failure to have the rates cut down. Many thought it ought to be cut to five and ten cents with fifteen for long distances, and Nathan found much to think about.

But most of all he heard talk of politics, Whigs and Loco-Focos, and he began to take a deep interest in it all. When almost at the close of their stay David announced that he meant to take in the Whig-Convention on the way home the heart of the boy rose to great heights. The convention was to be held in Goshen, Orange County, 22 miles by steamboat and 44 miles by railroad, and the journey would take five hours. There were a hundred passengers in the party; notable men, and the experience meant much to the boy in after years.