, 1896-07-29

Calais-The Car OF Russia Fav-
ored the Enterprise-An Accident
Upset All Plans.
A railway system having its western
terminus at Calais and its eastern
terminus at Calais and its eastern
Omaha, San Francesca. juneau. Alas
ka: Valdivostock. IrKoutsk. St. Peters
burg and Paris as division terminals
and way stations, crossing three of the
worlds five continents and doing away
with the necessity of a single mile of
ocean voyage. is a project suggested 30
years ago, and at hat time endorsed by
some of the most eminent authorities
as entirely feasible. and given 80 years
for a successful realization.
The protector of this inter-continen-
| tai line, who, but for an accident that
could not possibly have been foreseen
and a combination of circumstances
that can never occur again. would Ell
joy the highest favor of the au'ocrat Of
all the Russias and be a multi-million-
aire as well. is w. II. Kent Of s..
Joseph. Mo-, who has been spending 4
few days in Chicago with relatives. On
route to the west, after a months visit
to his native town of Williamsport.
Ind.
TRAINED ON THE WABASH.
Mr. .Kent's early railroad training
was obtained on the Wabash road in
the days when George H. Barrows,
Col. r. II. Andrews and the late John
B. Carson controlled the destinies of
that line. his father being retained in
the directory for 10 years. He is one Of
the few surviving passengers who, in
February, 1861. rode with Abraham
Lincoln on the special train that con
veyed the pre%sident-elect and his party
from Springfield to Lafayette on his
way to his first inaugural.
1t is worthy of mention that he, be,
ing but a bit of a boy at the time, was
lifted to Mr.. Lincoln's knee and there
told of the great mans W son of the
same age and name. who afterward
died at the White House. and for an
hour was held closely in the arms and
against the heart of "Old Abe"
1t was in 1868 that the idea of an in
ter-Continental railroad first suggest
ed itself, or rather was suggested by
the Introductory paragraph in Eugene
Sues famous fiction, The Wandering
Jew" in which the fated ~reviler, obedi-
thou till | come" had roamed the earth
over. and finally stood upon the bleak
and storm-swept shore Of Behring
Strait. and held mute %convers with
his male prototype on the opposite side.
In seeking a confirmation of the pos
silbility Of that dramatic scene present.
ed by the novelist, there was not the dis
appointment experienced in a like ex-
pertinent with some of the geological
statements of Jules Verne. On the con-
trary. making allowance for poetic
license" Eugene Sue was not so wide
of the mark.
EASY TO BRIDGE THE STRAIT.
Behring Strait, which lies between
the extreme northwestern point Of
North America and the remotest north
eastern cape of Asia, has an average
width of Sc miles, but in it the frag-
ments of a divided world are grouped
in what are known as the DIomede
Islands. and as a matter of fact the
widest stretch of water between land
island to island, or island to main
lands two and one-half miles.
Moreover, as may be verified by the
reports of the United States commits
sion to the Smithsonian Institution in
the early '70s, the strait is shallow: YES
sells often %anchoring there and ice
bergs cannot pass through to the Pa
cific ocean. Barring an arctic tempera-
ture, no obstacle exists to either bridg-
ing or tunneling Behring Strait-as-
suredly none other to the construction
and operation of a railroad from Puget
Sound to the strait, and from the strait
to the mouth Of the Amoor river, or to
the port of Valdivostock. And there is
no climatic obstacle that cannot be sur
mounted.
SCHEME GETS "A NEW IMPETUS.
A fresh impetus to the scheme sug-
gested by THE Wandering Jew" was
| added when the Canadian Pacific was
subsidized and received a large land
grant.
Mr.. Kent had by this time left the
| Wabash and was located at Omaha.
He had secured the most reliable maps,
Old and new. calculated to throw light
upon the various sections Of the pro-
posed route. together with valuable
books relating thereto, including those
emlbodying the details of the survey
conducted by the Russian-Amerfcan
Telegraph company, whose work was
abandoned upon the verge OF compile
ton when, in 1863, Cyrus Field succeed
ed in laying the first Atlantic cable, and
whose stock now represents s., o 900
of the stock OF the Western Union
Telegraph company.
"A map of the proposed route was pre-
pared, using the Mercator projection.
and the whole scheme was submitted
m s,rrh eminent railroad authorities as