From the Feb. 2, 1893 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:
Telephonic communication between Martha’s Vineyard and New Bedford was established for the first time one day this week, when city editor Hough of the Standard, seated at a long-distance telephone in the editorial room, conversed with Weather Observer W. W. Neifert at Vineyard Haven. The experiment was an interesting one and proved wholly successful, demonstrating the practicability and possibilities of talking with the mainland. Mr. Neifert, who first proposed the experiment, is the United States signal officer at Vineyard Haven. The government wire in his office was attached to a long distance transmitter and Mr. W. A. Gidley, telegraph operator at Buzzards Bay, connected at that point the telegraph wire and the metallic circuit of the Southern Mass. Telephone Co. The experiment proved more successful than was expected, and for several minutes for the first time the voice of a man in New Bedford was heard on the Island.
The United States Signal Service telegraph line, over which conversation was held, extends overland from Vineyard Haven to Gay Head, where it connects with a submarine cable which crosses Vineyard Sound to Pasque, a short cable thence to Naushon, and is again connected with a cable which crosses to Woods Holl, and from there to New Bedford, via. Buzzards Bay and Tremont, on an ordinary telegraph line.
The Herald says: A letter from Capt. Fred J. Hard, written from The Cochran at Washington, indicates that he is busily pursuing his plans for the new enterprise of The Washington and Martha’s Vineyard Hotel Co. The hotel he hopes to begin work upon by the 10th of February. The plan shows the hotel in the form of a T, with the top cross 300-feet long fronting the ocean, and the stem 150 feet from Oak Bluffs avenue. The dining-room will occupy the stem of the T, 150 feet, with kitchen, etc., in a separate building at the west end of it. The house is to be lighted with electricity, warmed with steam heat and open fireplaces. Elevators and all modern improvements will be put in for the comfort of guests. The centre lobby will be 100 feet square, with two large bays to the front, one of which will be used as an amusement room, with a seating capacity for 100 people. The building is to be four stories high and the general architectural effect similar to the old Sea View, with a tower at each end and a higher tower over the centre. The engine room, laundry, servants’ dining room, storerooms, etc, will be in the basement.
There will also be an elegant boathouse on the lake, and the grounds are to be laid out by famous landscape gardener, H. V. Lawrence, who will convert the present bleak bluff into a fairy garden.
Capt. Hart has also interested Congressman Randall in a bill to dredge out Lake Anthony as a harbor for small boats.
The capital stock of the hotel company is $300,000 in $100 shares.
The Boston Transcript says: Congressman Randall of this State has recently won so great a triumph as almost to make him a man of national celebrity. His colleagues in Congress have gathered about him to ask him how he did it, and veteran Senators have said they never saw anything like it in a long experience. The departments have gossiped about it, and probably it has not escaped the attention of the President and cabinet. Mr. Randall has actually got the House in January, 1893, to take up and pass a bill that was enacted by the Senate in February, 1892. The bill provides for the establishment of a life saving station at Gay Head, a very dangerous point. Nobody in the House, we understand, ever denied the necessity of the station, or the merit of the bill; but the rules were in the way. Mr. Randall’s great triumph was in getting the rules out of the way, and this was accomplished by his persistence and his popularity. He is now trying to get the house to take up and pass the bill for the improvement of the lighthouse service at New Bedford. Being of a sanguine nature, Mr. Randall has hopes of getting this bill through, not being content with the laurels of his remarkable achievement in getting a bill of undoubted utility through both houses of Congress in eleven months.
Work is progressing rapidly on the changes to be made at the Island House, which, when completed, will greatly improve the same.
Mr. E. H. Matthews has greatly improved the cottage belonging to Judge Hand on the Highlands. Mr. Matthews is also about to make additions and alterations to the Summer Institute Cafe.
Mr. H. V. Lawrence, of Falmouth, a landscape gardener, spent a short time here last week with a view to laying out and beautifying Ocean park. and is in consultation with the park commissioners in regard to the same. It is understood that Mr. Lawrence has already received the contract from the Camp Meeting Association to make extensive improvements in the line of ornamenting and beautifying the Camp meeting grounds.
Compiled by Hilary Wallcox
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