The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-01
TELEGRAPH OPERATORS IN ASIA.
Fnglerds Overland telegraph Line
90 lndla--loW it is Worked.

One day While / was the guest of an
Fia.te caicf liz Persia, noticed that two
Of th.a nonlafls in the crowd that had gath
ered around the teat were without right
hands. B tin these members had been
chorped Off at the wrists. This is no I'M
usual sight in Persia, where mutilations of
this nature are often melted out. Neverthe
less. my curiosity WIS aroused and inquired
taeieason OF the punishme t.
s'Fercnghi telegraph, replied the nomads,
wit a suamefaced grin, much like young
srers who had been eau ut in some boylsh
fnliv and been punished for it. These
reoole were children even at the age of so.
and they harbCred no resentment toward
me because | belonged to the race whose in
yasion of their desert home with the tele-
Qraph wires had deprived them of their
hands
some If these experiences with an English
man, IL looked surprised and said
"N ny, didn't know we had any tele-
Graph lines in Persia"
"Neyer heard of the Indo- European tele-
graph lineN said |.
No" he said: II supposed our commu-
nicotion with India was by cable chiefly
r OF ers present, all reasonably we'll in-
formed men, expressed equal ignorance,
n nj tlen it occurred to me that l., too, had
yer heard of it until | raj right into the
limo itself in Persia. And vet this overland
telegraph line between EpEia nd and India
j. one of the most stupendous and interest
ing enterprises III the world.
From London to Calcutta, overland by
the m ost direct practicable route, is some
where near 5000 miles. Stationed here and
there at intervals of a few hundred miles
all along this distance aress little groups of
solitary British subjects the links of an
active chain of political and commercial
sympathy connecting the two widely separ-
atcd capitals of the British empire, the
home capital and the metropolis of India
The links of this great ARgio-Indian chain
are strung out through Belgium, Germany
aud European Russia to Odessa: thence
through the Crimean Peninsula to Bertch !;
down through Circassia and Georgia to
Tifis: across Transcaucasia and the Persian
frontier to Tabreez. From Tabreez they
continue on eastward to Teheran. At the
Persian capital the Indo- European line con
meets with the line owned and operated by
the Indian government. Practically, one is
but a continuation of the other, however,
and from Teheran the little group of En-
elishmen extend on south to Bushire passing
through the cities of Ispahan and Shiraz.
From Bushre they follow along the Mekran
coast through Beloochistan into India north
been on foreign soil from the west coast of
Belgium, debouches upon British territory.
These numerous groups and isolated sub
iects of Victoria, queen of England empress
# India, are simply the working force of the
largest and finest equipped telegraph line in
the world From the Belgian coast to far
distant India, there stretches one continuous
long row of splendid iron poles, climbing
over tie rugged mountains in the Caucasus,
Il %Io Law -,
deserts in long straight reaches, prOtrud-
ing like black, tapering stems from the
white, glaring sand-waves of Beloochstan.
NV first acquaintance with this remarkable
telegraph line was made at Tabreez. In
riding from Constantinople, through Anato-
liza and Koordistan, l had been accompanied
from time to time by stretches of dilapidated
Turkish line, usually one wire mounted on
rough poles, twice as far apart as they
ought to be, and leaning toward all points
of the compass. At Erzeroum | seemed to
have got beyond the territory covered by
the Turkish system, and had ridden several
days journey into Persia.
1t was wild barbarous country about
the Turko-Persian border, inhabited chiefly
by nofilad Koords, and | missed even the
occasional welcome company of the Turkish
telegraph line. It's disappearance seemed
like casting off the last strand of western
civilization. At that tim1 l hardly ex
pected to see another telegraph line until
should reach Japan, my intention being to
reach the Pacific through TurkiStan and
China.
Suddenly one day when nearing Tabreez
] saw away off on the desert a sight that
made me blink and rub my eyes to make
sure that it was not a mere optical illusion
| was looking at. The deserts of Persia are
famous for producing bogus objects-mir
ages of lakes and waving palms, of lovely
castles and similar fascinating scenes; but
this time it was none of these. Miles away
to the north, seemingly suspended in mid
air, was league long row of telegraph
poles, straight as a die, even as the pickets
of a garden fence.
AS | drew nearer the line assumed more
definite form. Its marvellous symmetry,
then discovered, was not the enchantment
of distance, but solid reality in English
iron, with the name of the contracting firm
stamped on the poles. Every pole taperinR
from a circumference of 20 inches at the
bottom to or at the top, and across the
dead level wastes of the Persian plains, set
up as evenly and perpendiculariy as they
might have been in Hyke park. 1t is
worth noting, perhaps, by the way, that
the English always take particular pairs tc
have everything of this kind very superior
in the east; it is a perpetual source of won
der and admiration to the natives, stand
ing advertisement OF England's wealth
power and ability to the multitude who
have no other way of learning.
From Tabreez | was able to follow this
infallible guide into Teherau. Often could
see it stretching ahead of me mile after
mile, the poles so even that they seemed not
to vary an inch, and disappearing in the
heavens at the farther end by the curious
legerdemain of the desert The Bolian
music of its triple wires, as the desert
breezes played through them, and the mes
sages flashed past from India to England
from England to India-how companion
able it was, that bit of civilization in bar
barous country, only those who have been
similarly placed know.
During my stay in Teheran I became
quite intimately acquainted with the staff
not only in the capital, but throughout all
Persia. There are many curious and inter
esting phases of life connected with the tele-
graph service in such a country as Persia
that are unknown here. Its alignment and
working staff represent narrow streak of
weshern civilization through all that part
of Asia Men 1000 miles apart, who never
saw each other in their lives, are neverthe-
less well acquainted. The lone Englishman at
the little interior control station of Dabeed
is kept informed from day to day by his
chums at Teheran of the doings of the
European colony there.
If Smith at Room has succeeded in his
scheme of growing little patch Of Irish
potatoes, his brother operators all along the
line know Of it. Jones at some little sta