Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-01-06
MEXICAN TELEGRAPHS
ATTACKED BY MONKEYS, ANTS,
WOODPEcKERS AND TIGERS.


Costly Transportation of Poles and Wires
Depredations of INSCRIPTIONS Ranch
eros-Other Enemies Besides Man
Service in the Hot Lands.
Like the land Of Grecian fable, Mexico i
a paradise grit with fire There are at leas
three distinct climates-that of the TIER;
tria, or Cold Land, up in the mountains
that of the TERRA Template, Tempera.,
Land, ON the plateau, and extending down
the slope toward the coast few score miles
and, lastly, that OF the TERRA Calien.e, OF
hot Land, which takes III the coast on til,
Pacific and Atlantic sides with also some oil
the sioping country.
The TERRA Tempiada is, at the north of the
country. characterized by vast treeless plains
| over which must be hauled by railway. or by
cart where the railway does not penetrate
the poles and wire for the lines Oftentilnes
great loads of poles, cut in the forests around
| Toluca or Pazcuaro. in the southern part OF
the republic. have TO be slowly and labor
1ously hauled over the hot plains of Chihua-
hua and put i'll place by men who carry their
rations for days with them. The cost of the
poles and the wire is necessarily greatly en-
HANGED by the transportation, and it may be
said that telegraph wire, placed almost any
/ where in Mexico, costs the government three
! times what it did landed at Vera Cruz Or
| Paso del Norte.
travellers on horseback in northern Mexico
| traversing these vast, treeless and melancholy
plains stop at night for camp, and, finding the
| telegraph poles accessible and admirably sea-
soned, cut them down for iirewood. And this
| Is not all The humble ranchero, desiring a
stock of wire with which to fence i'll an in
| closure, goes with his peon servants and cuts
down mile or two for use leaving poles
oftentimes PROSTATE. l have myself seen
poles wireless, and also long stretches Of wire
without poles
HoNEYCoMBING THE POLES
And the poles brought SO far at so great an
expense have other enemies besides man.
There Is the Insignificant looking worm, the
''Jengen,' which insidiously honeycombs the
poles Till some fine day they fall at the breath
OF a breeze strewing fragments of wood over
the ground. This is formidable opponent
of telegraph communication in Mexico ard
any bright American who can show how to
Keep 1T out OF the poles may fairly demand a
reward from the Mexican government
~ los paJaroS son enemigos tambien" land
the birds are also enemes). There Is Mex-
can woodpecker who sits up toward the tops
OF the poles and pecks and pecks and pecks
for whole days, till the top comes off, and
wires and cross arms go, too. A great
rogue is this Mexican woodpecker, the sworn
enemy of telegraph poles. The linemen
(celadores) shoot him when they can, but Of
what use: One dies and forty come after the
funeral
And then the white ants, those industrious,
unseen followers out of timber These tiny
creatures will eat our the inside of pole till
1t IS mere shell, solid apparently, sturdy
seemingly, but absolutely as go.i for nothing
as an eggshell. Up comes the wind, and the
poles blow away as if they were hornets
nests detached by a cyclone. These "hormi-
gas blancas" dig out the inside OF house tim
bers i'll some parts of the country. They have
even been known to so hollow out the legs o,
a dining table that one day down it CANT
with all its crockery and the MONDAY meal,
too. The hormiga blanca is also the swora
enemy of civilization and progress as repre-
sented By the telegraph.
Bit the Hot Land has its enemies Of telee.
raphy also. How Mayne Reid, or Ballan-
=
here presented. Picture to yourselves, goos
friends Oh seaside piazzas or lounging oC
mountain tops this summer day, a country Of
impenetrable vegetation, with gigantic palms
and plantains, with jungIes so dense that it is
hard work with a stout and sharp nIachete tc
make path through them, country of in
tense heat, OF inDumerable mosquitoes, and
ticks. and malaria and snakes, and vegeta-
not Il bo,@ tlof
interferes with the labor of man.
FIGHTING OFF THE PUMA
Such are some parts of the Mexican states
of Tabasco and Yucatan, and it is through
such regions that the telegraph which con-
meets the Mexican capital with important
points like San Juan Baptista or San Girls
tobal must penetrate. This is country
where the linemen go in couples, and armed
with rifles TO fight off the fierce puma" or
Mexican tiger (lgre), who assaults man and
is especially ravenous for telegraph con-
structors! The Mexican llnemen down i'll the
hot coast country shoot many puma while
out attending to their lines
scarcely less formidable antagonist is
found in the monkey tribe who inhabit the
juDgles and chaparral of Tabasco. Literally /
the woods are full OF them" Their favor
ite diversion, when not in quest Of food, is 10
betake themselves to the telegraph line for !
gvmnastic exercises. and liIlemen assert that !
often 100 able bodied monkeys may be seen /
swinging on the wire. festooned, monkey I
fashion, by looping their tails. The con- (
tinuous vibration Of these forest gymnasts /
starts the iron nails used on the cross arms,
and these often come down, bringing the wire
with them.
And il is not a safe matter to undertake 10
iispcrse these robust monkeys who play the
dickens with the telegraph lines i'll the
sparsely inhabited state of Tabasco LiEemen
have found that on shooting monkey swing
ing Oh the wire they have been pursued by
whole regiment Of monkeys, who, with stones
and nuts, have pelted them severely. at Is
no joke mo IS broma)," said 4 lineman re-
Gently, ITO have a tribe Of monkeys pursue
one; they are very strong inluy fuertes) ami
can bit with d stone or a stick in fashion 10
make a man bowl with pain. thing the
monkeys enjoy hugely"
In the coast couutry, especially on the gulf
If Mexico side, the wires, from the humid
condition OF the air, oxidize rapidly. and
wire is found by experience TO be in need Of
replacement in a years time. This adds
leaviiy 20 the cost % keeping up the service.
Still another difficulty il maintaining a
,ood service in the Hot Land states is the I'M
of acclimating, in many regions,
operators from The colder table
ands. They easily fall a pray to fe7ers, and,
they escape with their lives, they have
,een absent from their posts and the service
las suffered. So it has been found necessary
o make use of natives of those regions, often
educated, and from whom much