We understand that the business of the electro-magnetic telegraph between Washington and this city, since it became a branch of the Post Office Department, has far exceeded expectation. The correspondence between the merchants of the two cities, we are informed, is constantly carried on by means of this important invention; and we learn that it is frequently the case that orders, received here at 1 o’clock, P. M. from Washington, are filled and the goods placed in the freight train of cars at 3 o’-clock tho same afternoon, at which hour the reception of heavy goods ceases for the day. Orders for small packages, received at half-past 4, are attended to promptly, and the goods forwarded by the passengers train which leaves here at 5 o’clock, and reaches Washington at half past 7 o’clock.
The rooms in the post office building, now occupied by the assistant superintendent at this end of the line, are spacious and airy, and easily approached from Fayette street: and they are open each day from 8 to 10 a. m.; from 1 to 3, and from 5 to 7 p. m. Ladies and gentlemen desirous of witnessing the operations of the Telegraph, can do so by visiting the office, which is open to the public during the hours mentioned above; and such as wish it can have their names despatched to Washington and returned, printed in legible characters, in a few seconds of time.
A deep interest is now felt on the subject of the telegraph, and movements are on foot which will, it is thought, soon secure an uninterrupted communication between all the cities in the North along the Atlantic coast.
A gentleman now travelling in the West in a letter written to a friend of his in Washington, under date of Illinois, May 28, says:
“You can have little idea how much interest there is lilt all through this country in that astonishing invention, Morse’s Magnetic Telegraph. Men are excited about it; are talking now of ordering their goods for this immense West through the Telegraph. They say they must have it.”—Balt. Amer.
Southport Telegraph, Southport (Kenosha), WI, July 1, 1845