350 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



lines of the Bankers and Merchants system from 

 the Great Lakes to the Gulf and from the At- 

 lantic to west of the Mississippi. 



The Southern Telegraph Company was in 

 financial distress and we bought it, pouring out 

 money for the extension of its lines throughout 

 the South. Everywhere the Western Union 

 fought us. It was especially vicious in Georgia 

 and we fought our way across the State with 

 from two to three gangs of men at each working 

 point, one gang to stay in jail while the others 

 worked. The Western Union secured strips of 

 land and arrested our workmen when we at- 

 tempted to carry our lines across them. Then 

 another gang was set to work while the first was 

 being bailed out. The sympathy of the people 

 was with us for the Western Union had few 

 friends in the South. 



We bought many lesser lines, the Board of 

 Trade between Chicago and St. Louis, the Pa- 

 cific Mutual, the Lehigh Valley, and many others. 

 I bought the West Shore telegraph line of Cal- 

 vin S. Brice and Samuel Thomas, but before the 



