went the clerk's hands; and he read off the
words spelled by Dover; the sounds came in
this fashion, as rapidly as any one could well
read them from a book:

"The "—chop—"cow"—chop—"with"—
chop—"The"—chop—"Iron"—"Tail"
—chop.

"Go on," said Mr. Walker; for there was
a momentary pause.

Chop—chop—chip-chop. "Dover, says,"
interpreted the clerk, "that there is some one
knocking at his door. Wait."

"Ask what it is."

Chop—chop—chip-chop.

"He says he was trying to send us the Cow
with the Iron Tail, whilst somebody was
knocking about a message; and they made
such a noise that he stopped. He will send
the message to London, and then attend to
the Cow again."

All this was said as rapidly as though
Dover was bodily in the room at Tonbridge,
and was giving his explanation by word of
mouth.

There was again a short pause. We had
already found, not only that Dover and
London had obviously different hands upon
the instrument, but that the touch of each
clerk at a station, where there are two or
three, is easily known, and is a curious test of
his natural impetuosity.

"Dover is now talking to London,"
explained Mr. Walker. He had scarcely said
so, when the signal was given "Go on," and
on went our friend the Cow.

It—chop—was—chop—four—chop—o'clock
chop—in—chop—the—chop—morning,—chip-
chop—and—chop—the—chop—Cow—chop—
with—chop—the—chop—Iron—chop—Tail
chop—prepared—chip-chop—for—chop—the
—chop—duties—chop—of—chop—the—chop
—day—chop—with—chop—her—chop—
accustomed—chip-chop—stolidity—chip-chop.

The word "stolidity " bothered the clerk
for a second. " Is it 'stolidity?'" he asked.
"All right, go on," was the response—but,
before the words were uttered, Dover was
reading on, for the amusement of us good
folks, in the station at Tonbridge, miles
away from him. And on he went until he
had repeated thirty lines of the story, and
brought it to the point where it arrives at
the locality of the Cow in a certain Court in
Holborn.

"High—chop—Holborn—chip-chop—"

"That will do," said we, turning to the
clock. Then, counting up the amount sent,
we found that two hundred and thirty- seven
words had been telegraphed and read off in
about fourteen minutes.

Some of the instruments have, on their
large clock-looking faces, only one vibrating
needle, whilst others have two. The needles,
in the improved instruments, are much
smaller and lighter than in those first
constructed; it being naturally demonstrated by
experience that the smaller needle turned the
more readily and quickly on its axis. Let us
hear Mr. Walker's first lesson in the art of
conquering his mystic alphabet—the electric
A, B, C. He would fain persuade us that it
is vastly easy. And indeed, we should
observe that it is unquestionably so easy, as
that Mr. Walker's fairer and better half is
mistress of it, and both despatches and reads
messages with great facility, by a little electric
telegraph established between the Tonbridge
Station and his private house.

"Out of only two needles, each of which has but
two movements, the telegraph alphabet is formed.
On the face of the instrument are the letters of
the alphabet, arranged seriatim in two lines,
beginning at the left and ending at the right, as in
ordinary writing. The commencing series, from
A to P, is above the top end of the needles; and
the concluding series, from R to Y, below the
bottom end. Some letters are engraved once,
some twice, and others three times. To make a
letter engraved once requires one motion of the
needle; to make one engraved twice, two motions
of the needle; and to make one engraved three
times, three motions. In respect to the upper row,
the needle nearest to the letter is moved, and it is
moved so as to point toward the letter. In respect
to the lower row, both needles are moved, and
their lower end is made to point in the direction
of the letter required.

The rule of the current, is, that if it passes
any magnet—such as the magnetised needle
of the instrument—the north pole of the
magnet moves to the right, if the current be a
descending one. On the contrary, if it be an
ascending current, it moves to the left. But
to return to our letters;—

Six of the letters, C, D, L, M, and U, V, require
a twofold motion of the needle or needles, first
to the right then to the left for C, L, and U,
and first to the left then to the right for D,
M, and V. These six letters are engraved
intermediate, and with a double arrow between.
The alphabet produced by this arrangement is
of a simple character, and is very readily
acquired. To the stranger, it appears confused;
but when he has the key to it, the difficulty
disappears: it might at first sight appear that a dial
instrument—a telegraph, that is, provided with
alphabets engraved on a circular dial, and an index
made to revolve and point to any required letter
—is more simple. Several such telegraphs exist,
and among them are some very happily arranged;
and there is something so simple in the fact of
being able to point to any desired letter, that it is
no wonder the public generally may, on a hasty
glance, and before studying the practical merits of
the case, be ready to decide in their favour, and
prefer them to any other plan, the A, B, C of
which is less obvious.

"But is it such a very serious matter to learn
another alphabet? Every schoolboy, now-a-days,
knows some half-dozen alphabets: there are
Roman letters large, and Roman letters small;
manuscript letters large, and manuscript letters
small; Old English large, and Old English small;
Greek large, and Greek small, and so on, and all
different, and not one of them in which the letters