Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-12-23
THE CABLE BUSINESS.
HOW CHICAGO SENDS MESSAGES TO
EVERYBODY AND EVERYWHERE.

Wiring the AntiPodes-The -Four Cor
ners Of the Earth Brought Close To-
gether-Sendina Cipher Dispatches-of
Interest to the Public
"The general public has no idea Of the
extent of the cable business in Chicago"
said Business Manager FELTON,, Of the West
ern Union Telegraph company, in response
to questions put to him by a reporter.
''Nor have many people an adequate con-
ception of the vigorous manner in which
cables and land ines have been spread over
the universe" he added 'There are now,
l believe, eight cables between North Amer
lea and Europe They average 5000 miles
long, and in all the world 1 understand
there are something like 100, 900 miles Of
submarine telegraph hines. South America
is connected with Europe by q cable from
lisbon, Portugal, to Pernambuco, Brazil,
distance of 1888 nautical miles. This is
the longest cable. Two cables connect
Florida with the island Of Cuba, and one
extends from Cuba to Aspinwall on the
Isthmus, and another to Rio Janeiro. From
Trinidad, the most southerly island of the
West Indies, cable follows the coast line
of Brazil clear down to Montevideo in
Uruguay, touching at many ports. There
are sixteen cables crossing the North sea
and the straits of Dover. Two cables con-
meet England and Portugal, and one cable
connects England and Spain. Nearly a
score of cables lie beneath the Mediter-
ranean. One extends the entire length
of the Red sea, from Suez to Aden thence
under the Arabian sea to Bombay, across
India. under the Bay of Bengal to Penang
and Singapore on the Malay peninsula,
thence north under the Gulf of Siam and
China sea to Hong Kong and China This
is known as the Indo route in the east, and
extends to Yokohama and Yeddo, Japan.
"a cable under the Sea Of Japan connects
Nagasakie with Viadivostok, one Of the
most remote points in Siberian Russia
From Singapore a cable touches Java and
Sumatra and reaches Australia Even
the Island of Tasmania, lying south Of Aus
tralia, is connected with the rest Of the
world by cable, and 80 is New Zealand The
great African cable, completed some years
ago, etxends from Alden, Arabia, 10 Natal,
one Of the extreme southern ports Of Africa.
80. you see, the four corners Of the earth
have been brought pretty close together by
the great cables which lie, some of them,
nearly four miles beneath the surface of the
ocean. The only thing now necessary 10
complete the electrical circuit of the world
is to lay cable under the Pacific ocean,
and 1 understand that project Is on foot,
under the able leadership of Cyrus W.
Field. to connect Japan and San Francisco
via the Sandwich Islands"
MESSAGES SENT EVERYWHERE.
care all of these cables which you have
mentioned used by Chicago peoplep'
Eyes, indeed. There is not a cable In the
world that is not frequently burdened with
messages from this city. 1t is probable
that there is not one telegraph Office in the
world to which we have not transmitted
messages, either for residents of Chicago or
for persons living in our territory. l some
times wonder where all the cable messages
come from If an Office were to be opened
on the coast Of Kamschatka, or in lower
Patagonia, or up some place near the north
pole, it is probable that in less than twenty
four hours some Chicago man would want
to send message there. The cable busi-
ness of the office is something enormous,
and lust now It Is increasing at the rate of
700 or 800 messages weekly. This is due to
the fact that the rates have been SO much
reduced on messages to England, France,
and Germany, it being with these coun-
tries, of course, that the bulk of our business
is transacted. Cable messages are carried
very cheap nowadays-only Is cents word
to Germany, and only - to France and
Enlgand See how cheap that is
''If you are business man, often using
the cables to communicate with other busi-
ness people, you use cipher. Besides,
your name and address, and the name and
address of your correspondent also, are reg
istered at the cable Office, so that in the mes
fort fha
one for the signature. One cipher word
NAV carry your whole message-for in
stance, the word orange may mean, 'ad-
wise you to sell January wheat and buy
pork For the word in the address you pay
10 cents-addresses and signatures all count
in cable work-for the signature u cents,
and for the cipher word or the message it
self 10 cents more That makes only Sc
cents for a message from Chicago to Lon
don or Paris. Why, a message to Ashland,
Ohio, or Anoka, Mimi, or Barai 90, Wis,
or New Orleans would cost you more
money. A very large portion of our cable
business is done in cipher"
OF INTEREST TO THE PUBLIC.
care there any other cable regulations of
interest to the publicS"
Eyes. Any word containing more than
ten letters counts as two words. No pune
tuation marks are SENT unless requested
and paid for. Oh is counted one letter. Ci-
pher words must be in one or all OF these
languages: English, French, German, ltal-
ian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish or Latin
Of course we cannot handle messages in
Chinese or japanese The Chinese residents
of Chicago send many messages to China,
but they are all in English We send all
of our cables in English characters, or,
rather, in their telegraphic symbols. The
tranlations are made, if at all, in the for
eign offices. Cipher messages are often
conglomerate of three or four languages
''In one day you might see many mes
sages to England, France and Germany
about corn, wheat, provisions, metal, toys,
silks, wines, millinery, chemicals, ma
chinery, everything; to Cuba about tobacco
and cigars; to the Cape of Good Hope
about ivory, barks and diamonds; to
Arabia about dates and palm oil, to Java
about sugar; to Switzerland about watches;
to Siam about furs and hides-to all parts
of the world, concerning almost every arti-
Gle known to commerce. Commercial use Of
cables Is developing rapidly because of the
reduced rates, and also on account OF the
growth of Chicagois business interests. The
Atlantic cables could not begin to handle
the transatlantic business were it not for the
fact that some of the wires are worked by
the duplex method and others by the quad
ruplex Quadruplexing wire, you know,
quadruples its capacity, two men sending
each way simultaneously. Chicago Her
aid.
Superhuous Legal Language.
Mr.. David Dudley Field, in a recent ad-
dress on law and lawyers, made some very
pertinent remarks on the useless verbiase that