After working more or less imperfectly for three weeks, the cable gave out completely on the 1st of September after the transmission of 730 messages had been effected.
The cable operator at Heart’s Content, Newfoundland, named De Sauty, sent daily bulletins to the press holding out strong hopes for the restoration of the interrupted communication, but these hopes were not realized. The bulletins ceased and he disappeared and was never heard of again, at least by the public.
It is in allusion to this mysterious individual that Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the following humorous lines, and in fine satirical vein thought that with a Latin tutor and a professor of chemistry the educated classes would understand it.
De Sauty.
An Electro-Chemical Eclogue.
Professor. Blue Nose.
PROFESSOR.
“Tell me, O Provincial! speak ceruleo Nasal,
Lives there one De Sauty, extant now among you
Whispering Boanerges, son of silent thunder
Holding talk with nations.
“Is there a De Sauty, ambulant on Tellus
Bifed cleft-like mortals dormient in nightcap
Having sight, smell, hearing, food receiving feature
Three times daily patent.