The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1881-08-06

MT vanderbilt expressed himself as salts.
fed with the performance. He also stated
that he would let the mare trot until she
accomplished performance that fully sat
ished him, and then place her in his private
stable and drive her on the road. At the
conclusion Of the second heat he and his
party left the track Before going he or.
dered Bair not to drive third heat, but
to have the mare ready for Rochester, where
she will trot next Thursday.
Very soon the city council may expect
request from the Mutual Union telegraph
company for right of way into Cairo, with
the privilege of erecting its poles and string
ing its wires in our streets. We believe in
affording all suitable and reasonable en-
enlargement to competing enterprises, but
query DO we want to add to the existing
pole and wire nuisance? Is it not better to
insist from this time forth that "under-
ground telegraphy"is the rule for all future
enterprises, and that existing corporations
must expect within reasonable period to
be compelled also to put their wires be-
meath the surface? That this mode of lay
ing the wires is not only practicable, but
also profitable, has been demonstrated to
the satisfaction of experienced electricians
and telegraph managers in some of the
large cities in this country and in Europe.
In the latter country there are considerably
over thirty thousand miles Of wire under
ground in operation at the present time. No
doubt, therefore, exists as to
the perfect feasibility Of the system.
The system which has proved most success
full in European cities consists in carrying
a number of separate wires, insulated with
gutta percba, in iron pipes laid about two
feet below the surface. The Western Com
pany is now laying an experimental line
between New York and Newark on what is
known as the Brooks patent. This consists
of a cable composed Of q number of small
cotton covered wires, generally copper, led
through an iron pipe filled with poraffine
oil. Whether this method will prove more
satisfactory than the method now 50 extern
sively used in Europe remains to be seen.
Since 1876 an underground line carrying
125 wires has been in operation in New
York between the man office OF the West
ern Union Telegraph Company and their
branch offices in Pearl street and Hanover
Square. A similar line has been in opera
ton in the Capitol grounds in Washington
since 1867. 1t is true that the expense of
laying the wires underground is greater
than to carry them on poles; but it must be
remembered that the cost of maintaining
them is considerably lcssened; in other
words, what it costs more to lay them
it will cost less to keep them IN repair;
so that in the end, the
underground system would certainly
prove the cheaper and the better one. In
Cairo, at the present time, when most Of
the streets are not yet mecadamized, the ex-
pense would be comparatively small. But
besides all this, the principal question is:
Shall the streets of the city be any further
detaced and obstructed with poles and
wires, simply because the company erecting
them believes Though mistakenly that the
pole system is the chaapestl This would
be the only question that the council or the
citizens would have to determine when the
Mutual Union, or Jim" Keane telegraph
company seeks an entrance