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<DIV>Bluefield Daily Telegraph<BR>August 31, 1910</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT size=4>TELEPHONE TO TAKE PLACE OF TELEGRAPH</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG>First Wire Between the East and the South Being
Removed After Sixty Years of Service</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=left> Old galvanized wire No. 5, now rust-eaten and
ready to fall to decay, the first of the telegraph wires to respond to the
soughing winds of the unbroken southern forests, the original wire connecting
the east and the south, and which was strung between Lynchburg, Va., and
Atlanta, Ga., during the construction of the Virginia and Tennessee Railway, now
nearly sixty years since, is at last nearing the end of its existence.
This faithful old wire, which was strung when the Civil war was in the
incubator, and which was used later to transmit the pathetic messages of that
memorable conflict between brothers of a common country, was removed between
Atlanta and Bristol, along the line of the southern [<EM>sic</EM>] Railway, in
1902*. A section of the same wire was left intact at that time along the
line of the Norfolk and Western Railway, between Bristol and Lynchburg.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> Recently Western Union linemen have been busy
with the task of tearing down and removing this faithful old servant of two
generations ago.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> Rust-eaten and robbed of every vestige of
galvanized coat, it snaps in two as the linemen pull at it in removing it from
the insulators. As one of the linemen expressed it, "It tells of the
departed glory of the Morse system of telegraph, for its removal is being
followed by the installation by the Norfolk and Western Railway Company of a
complete system of modern telephones, which are to take the place of the
telegraph system of dispatching trains."</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The new system of dispatching trains is
already in effect between Roanoke and Glade Springs, Va., a distance of
120-miles, and within the next two weeks the system will have been extended to
Bristol. The system of telegraphing train orders will in all probability
be eliminated by this new process. However, the telegraph will be retained
as a supplementary system for use in the case of emergency.</DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=left><EM>*Last numeral was indistinct on microfilm. The best
interpretation is shown.</EM></DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=6 face=Script>Gordon
Hamilton</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>