40 



Monday, Feb. 25, 1878. 



Mr. Leonard Waldo, of the Cambridge Observatory, 

 gave an instructive illustrated lecture on 



Telling the Time, 



The occasion of our gathering here this evening is, I 

 believe, a unique one in the annals of New England ; but 

 if the kind words which Charles Kingsley has spoken of 

 the people of Salem are true, and if that strong interest 

 in all that pertains to seamen and ships is still alive, I 

 feel that our evening will be spent profitably and pleas- 

 antly together. 



The time-balls dropped from their masts at Deal, at 

 Cape Town, and from the magnificent heads of Sydney 

 harbor, are perhaps familiar to more than one member of 

 the time-honored East India Marine Society who may be 

 with us this evening ; and it will be to him not an unin- 

 structive thought, that in those distant British colonies 

 there exists this thoughtful attention to the needs of every 

 ship, domestic or foreign, which enters their ports. 



He will reflect, doubtless, that until within a few weeks 

 this kindness has not been reciprocated in one American 

 seaport. And he will be gratified to know that the 

 Western Union Telegraph Company now display at five 

 minutes of twelve, a ball at the top of a mast placed on 

 the highest pinnacle of their Broadway building in New 

 York ; and that precisely noon, as indicated from the 

 U. S. Naval Observatory, Washington, it falls from its 

 conspicuous position. Hearing this, your natural New 

 England pride suggests the query of the Cambridge poet, 



"Wall, neighbor, tell us wut's turned up thet's new? 

 You're youuger'n I be, — nigher Boston tu : 

 An' down to Boston, ef you take their showin', 

 Wut they don't know ain't hardly wuth the knowin', 

 There's sunthin' coin' on, I know." 



