“No; the nation owes not a dollar. The last of what we call the great debt was paid in 1979. It would have been paid long before that time had it not been that an enormous outlay was required to gain possession of the railway system of the country.”
“What did you pay for the telegraph system? That must have taken another immense sum.”
“The rights of the sympathetic telegraph system were purchased in 1892, for five millions of dollars, and that system caused all of the surface lines to be abandoned in a few years.”
“The sympathetic system, did you say?” and Cobb showed more interest than he had evinced in the President’s dry recital of the law of the country.
“That is the name of it,” Mr. Craft replied.
“Does it differ much from the Morse system?”
“Many would not understand your question, Junius. You must remember that the system has been in operation for over a hundred years; few persons know any other. Fortunately, I can answer your question, for I have studied the subject. There is practically no difference between the two systems, save in one respect—”
“And that respect is—” interrupted Cobb.
“That there is no wire, metal, or tangible connection of any kind between the instruments.”
“What! no wire! How, then, does the current pass?”