The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-01-10
A WORD TO THE TRADE.

It has been the custom, for
number of years, to sneeze at Eng
land, to say that the country that
gave to the world the steam engine
and the electric telegraph-let
Wheatstone and Morse quarrel over .
it-has lost its cunning and IS no /
more good, anyway. But what are |
we going to say when we see these |
very people we sneeZe at taking In |
the best Of the pudding under our |
very eyes. We all Of Us know that |
French capital put up the dlbs
necessary to put through canal
connecting the Mediterranean with
the Indian sea, but even that was
not a new accomplishment, for 1t Is
said the ships of Solomon, the great
earliest Syrian king, while voyaglng
to eastern lands IN search OF gold,
were broken at Ezion- geber. No
body knows where Ezion- geber was,
and nobody really nowadays cares.
But the fact remains that Solomon's
ships couldn't have got from the
Mediterranean to the Gulf OF Bag
dad, or, as others call it, the Persian
Gulf-in short, the dim, vague and
unprecedented Orient, the deep, yet
shining mystery of which enthralled
the hearts and entranced the imag-
nations of the Venetians. French
and English ramblers, who, holding
their lives in their hands, passed I'M
dauntedly through it. 1t matters
not what we call it now that the
world is so wide. We, of course, In
the blessed United States repose in
security. We dream and talk about
the portage of ships across necks of
land go as to save, in the long run,
time and fuel, but we see English
men and Canadians taking the very
bread out Of our mouths, and put
ting to serviceable purpose the idea,
for instance, which Captain Eads, of
Mississippi fame, propounded many
a year ago.
The idea of Eads was to bridge
that narrow isthmus, below Tehuan-
tepec, on our lower coasts, with
track of rails sufficiently strong to
carry over the heaviest ship afoat.
The ship was to be hoisted bodily,
cargo and all, boosted up with pro
per props, wheeled over and dipped
into deep water on the other side.
This was going to be done years ago,
at a point on the Central American
coast, somewhat south of Nicaragua,
where the land takes the form of
neck, SO as to render the engineering
feat easy of accomplishment. But,
as we have said before, while Amerl-
cans are thinking, Englishmen are
doing. There is now project afOot,
IL l. Il
into the millions, to build the very
same kind of ship-railrOad-Of
which our esteemed Captain Eads
was the progenitor-fromt the Bay of
Fundy to the Gulf of St Lawrence,
cutting through the narrow neck of
land between Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick, which is to our fast ocean
steamers what Suez is to the Orient.
OF course the shortening of passage
between New York, or Boston, and
Liverpool-estimated at five hundred
miles upon this rOute-must carry
vessels north of Newfoundland, and
through the Straits Of Belle Isle, as
the Quebec steamers go now days.
1t is simply matter of great-circle-
sailing, so far as tho saving of time
and distance Is concerned. But the
ship-railroad is quite another thing,
Here are men, backed by capital
who will put this thing to the test
1t is all well enough to say that we
can reap the benefit Of the expert
ence of old England, and that we
can build Atlantic cables after they
are laid; that Europe can open In
Recommendation with Australia by
line and cable, cheaper and more
expeditiously than through Sar
Francisco; but while we are think
ing, other people are acting. 1t il
very evident that lots of us are IL
Sleepy Hollow yet.-LS. F. News
Letter.