The telegraph manual: a complete history and description of the semaphoric, electric and magnetic telegraphs of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, ancient and modern.

464 INTERIOR OF AMERICAN TELEGRAPH STATION.
mechanism, preferring to manipulate by striking the wires together, and then receive with the tongue, by placing one wire
above and the other wire below it. The voltaic pulsations will
be felt on the tongue, and the dots and dashes are thus recognized as to time by the sense of feeling. In latter days practice
has gone farther, and a second party has received intelligence
from a distant office by noticing the quivering of the nerves of
the tongue of another, who had the wires attached as above
described. These latter modes of receiving, of course can never
be used for practical telegraphing, but they are common in the
repairing service, and have been for several years.
EXECUTION OF AN INDIAN RESPITED BY TELEGRAPH.
In 1850, a mail carrier, by the name of Colburn, was murdered on the plains some three hundred miles from the white
settlements, on the Santa Fe trail. The mail bag was found
near the dead body, open, and its contents scattered on the
ground. Among the papers were found several drafts for money,
which fact alone was sufficient to demonstrate that the murder
had been committed by the Indians.
Search was made by the whites, and different articles were
found in the possession of an old Indian, who was supposed to
be the murderer. He was arrested, and so was his whole
family. They were brought to Jefferson City, in the State of
Missouri, that being the place of the nearest court of jurisdiction.
At the first term thereafter the Indian was put on trial, and a
son of the old man was called as a witness. He denied that
his father had anything to do with the murder, or that he had
been accessory either before or after the fact. He confessed to
the murder, and declared that he alone had committed the
horrid deei! The father was released, and so were the whole
family, except the son. He was placed on trial. He again
confessed to the murder, which was satisfactorily proved by
some circumstantial evidence. He was convicted of the murder, and sentenced to be hung on the 14th of March, 1851.
The old Indian and his family were then conducted back, by
the Government, to their home in the wilds of the West, leaving
the youthful, but brave son behind, never again to be seen by
them.
But, a few days before the time fixed by the law for the
execution of the young Indian, whose name was See-see-sahma, it was discovered that he was not the murderer of the mail
carrier, and that he had confessed to the crime, in order to save
his father from dying, other than by the hands of the Great