The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

Many explanations were offered of this sudden suspension of life. One writer argued that the Telegraphic Plateau was only a myth; that the bottom of the ocean was jagged and precipitous; that the cable passed over lofty mountain chains, and hung suspended from the peaks of submarine Alps, till it broke and fell into the tremendous depths below. But others found a readier explanation. With the natural tendency of a popular excitement to rush from one extreme to the other, many now believed that the whole thing was an imposition on public credulity, a sort of "Moon hoax." An elaborate article appeared in a Boston paper, headed with the alarming question, "Was the Atlantic cable a humbug?" wherein the writer argued through several columns that it was a huge deception. A writer in an English paper also made merry of the celebration in Dublin, where a banquet was given to Sir Charles Bright, in an article bearing the ominous title: "Very like a whale!" This writer proved not only that the Atlantic cable was never laid, but that such a thing was mathematically impossible. But since he turned out to be a crazy fellow, whom the police had to take into custody, his "demonstrations" did not make much impression on the public. The difficulty of finding a motive for the perpetration of such a stupendous fraud, did not at all embarrass these ingenious writers. Was it not enough to make the world stare? to furnish something to the gaping crowd, even though it were but a nine days' wonder? Those who thus reasoned seemed not to reflect that such deceptions are always sure to be found out; that one who goes up like a rocket comes down like a stick; and that if by false means he has made himself an object of popular idolatry, he is likely to become the object of popular indignation.