Some years before, Mr. Sibley had created the Western Union Telegraph Company. At that time telegraphy was in a very depressed state. The country was to a considerable extent occupied by local lines, chartered under various State laws, and operated without concert. Four rival companies, organized under the Morse, the Bain, the House, and the Hughes patents, competed for the business. Telegraph stock was nearly valueless. Hiram Sibley, a man of the people, a resident of an inland city, of only moderate fortune, alone grasped the situation. He saw that the nature of the business, and the demands of the country, alike required that a single organization, in which all interests should be combined, should cover the entire land with its network, by means of which every center and every outlying point, distant as well as near, could communicate with each other directly, and that such an organization must be financially successful. He saw all this vividly, and realized it with the most intense earnestness of conviction. With Mr. Sibley, to be convinced was to act; and so he set about the task of carrying this vast scheme into execution. The result is well known. By his immense energy, the magnetic power with which he infused his own convictions into other minds, the direct, practical way in which he set about the work, and his indomitable perseverance, Mr. Sibley attained at last a phenomenal success. But he was not then telling me anything about this. He was telling me of the construction of the telegraph line to the Pacific Coast. Here again Mr. Sibley had seen that which was hidden from others. This case differed from the former one in two important respects. Then Mr. Sibley had been dependent on the aid and co-operation of many persons; and this he had been able to secure. Now, he could not obtain help from a human being; but he had become able to act independently of any assistance.