Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/367

 COMMUNICATION IN EARLY OREGON 359 Construction of the railroad across the Isthmus of Panama was begun in 1850, and on January 30, 1855, the first train was run from Aspinwall to the City of Panama. From that time the mails to and from the Pacific Coast were carried on steamers plying regularly between New York and Aspinwall on the Atlantic side, taking seven to nine days for the run, and on the Pacific side between Panama and San Francisco, con- suming from 12 to 15 days. Steamers usually went into Aca- pulco on the Mexican coast for fresh water and sometimes re- plenished their supply of coal. The trip across the railroad was but a matter of a few hours' run. An advertisement appearing in the Columbian at Olympia, September, 1852, attracted my attention. It tells of the sail- ings in April of that year of the United States mail ship Georgia, commanded by David D. Porter, U. S. Navy (Ad- miral David D. Porter, of Civil War fame), to leave New York via Havana to Aspinwall. It said : "The Panama Rail- road is now in operation and the cars running to within a few miles of Gorgona. Passengers will thus be enabled to save about 35 miles of the river navigation, and also the expense and danger heretofore attending the landing of boats off Chagres. The following will be the rates of fare to San Fran- cisco: First cabin, $315; second cabin, $270; steerage, $200." In 1855 the construction of a telegraph line from Portland to San Francisco was begun. The line was actually completed as far as Corvallis, and a few messages transmitted, at least as far as Salem. It went through Oregon City and to Salem on the east side, and at the latter place crossed over to the west side, and thence to Corvallis. The wire was light iron and the insulators the necks of common 'junk' bottles placed around straight iron pins or nails in the tops of poles. The gathering of bottles and sale to W. K. Smith, who then had a drugstore in Salem, was a flourishing industry among the small boys of the village until the supply was exhausted. After that saloon- keepers found it necessary to keep their bins of empty bottles under lock and key. About the first spending money the writer ever earned was for these bottles. They were legal tender at