The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-26
MONT GEMS.

A European correspondent writes as fol-
lows;--
The railway is not so curious, nor is the
mountain scenery 50 superlatively grand, as
to draw the tourist from the Simplon, st.
Gothard, st. Bernard; much less from the
Splugen passes. But the making of this road,
and the boring and burrowing now in pro-
gress under the Alps for its completion, in
connection with the struggle of commerce
and capital, men and nations--for short com
munications among each other and to open
the Orient; this it switch gives to Mont Gents
and to Italy, Just now a commanding COM
mercial and human interest.
Since | have been abroad the Pacific Rail
road has unfinished Ihave readof the cere-
monials The silver hammer and the golden
spike; the lyric poetry and the pious prayers
all is over. Trains are running (includlng
my friend George Francis) with irregular re-
gularity from ocean to ocean. Afew men are
made very rich and the poor government has
an unfailing source of political scrofula till
she " sells out her interests But it is great
thing l do not underrate its influence, either
as highway connecting remote parts of our
own country, or through the interior, which
1t will develop, much less as a link IN the
great Asiatic chain of commerce. Indian,
Mormon, mineral, metallic, and military
"strong box and weak-kneed questlons-au
of interest to us, nation, stride before the
mind, as it calls up the grand completed en-
terprise Two-thirds of the area OF the Union
is locally affected by it, but all of the Union
and all the world are affected by its relations
to exterior commerce. How that road was
built-the grants of land and gangs of work
men--of rings and picks, troubles and
ties, bonds and rails, speculations and spikes,
saloons and spades, gamblers and galleries,
corruptiOns and locomotives, which have been
instrumental in setting in motion what some
one has called this - He'll on Wheels, is a
matter / only glance at, to contrast with the
work, aim, and object of the Mont Gents
Railway and its forthcoming tunnel!
Both roads have one object, viz. a short
route to the East. 1t is the old dream of the
Portuguese and of Columbus-the path to
Cathay the road to wealth. the tabled, un-
counted wealth of the realm of Prester John!
Mont Gents is a big barrier; and when
pierced with its tunnel it will be gigantic
link in the great chain of commercial commu-
nication around our globe. That we all can
see. Going from Western Europe to the
East, one must cross the Alps, or go around
them by land water. If you go via Mar
seilles-by land-there is a railroad link yet
to be made from Menace to Genoa, though
the carriage road the Comiche-is one of
the finest in the world. If you steam from
Marseilles eastward, you lose in time. If you
travel through the Straits of Gibraltar, with
even the canal at Suez open, more time still
is lost, compared with railroad travel If the
Marseilles route were complete by rail, there
would still be an inconvenient angle, a great
DETECTION from a right line drawn from Lon
don and Paris to Alexandria, in Egypt l
make Alexandria the objective point for the
present. 1t will be so, especially if Suez is
successfully opened on the line eastward, for
many years, until the Turkish roads are built
to connect the Austrian lines with those run
ming into Asia When that is dore orr Pdcifc
2OddS lose TIER prestige and the question of
speediest transit over Europe and Asia is
settled in favor of the Turkish routes. Until
HeR Mont Gents has but one competing route
eastward as the shortest and best-thati is, the
route over the Alps, not far from Innsprucll
by the Brenner pass. Running southwest
from England or Ostend as far as Munich, it
then runs south to Verona, and thence by a
not very straight line to Ancona; and thence
to Brindisi, on the east coast of Italy, which
is the terminus also on Italian soil of the
Mont Gents route From Brindisi you have
| scarcely four days of voyaging to Suez. You
may now reach Alexandria, either by Cenis or
Brenner, in seven days or less, from Paris or
London. When the Mont Gents tunnel is
completed, will it not, by enhancing the
safety of travelling and reducing the time,
make this route the most available? Ger
taluly lOI rance, DelSlullll, anu InOSJ OF Uer-
many it will be SO; and why not for Eng
land? When the tunnel is made, Paris is
sixteen hours of Turin, and less than six days
from Egypt and Suez.
To America-the infant Hercues-reioic-
ing in his strength, overcoming the Sierras,
and rushing with the scream of the locomo-
tive over paths where the SHOWS never melt
and, at this time especially, sketch of the
Mont Gents Pass, and something of its histo-
ry may not be unwelcome
The railway, when completed, will not pass
under but near Mont Gents proper The pre-
sent railroad follows very nearly the old post
road, built by France, which may be consid-
cred as connecting Chambery with Turin
though the ascent of the railway does not
| begin fairly till you reach st. Michel. 1t ends
on the Italian side at Susa. 1t is eightv-three
miles from Chambery to st. Michel; from St
Michel, by Modane (where the tunnel begins).
to Susa, it is fifty miles 1t is all done by
daylight. The tunnel is about eight miles
1t ends on the Italian side, at Bardonneche.
!