Birmingham state herald., 1896-11-01
Phone J. E. Gossett to move or repair your stOve.m 9-26-I
CABLE AGAINST TELEGRAPH.

George Kennan Tells How the Success Of
 ae. the Cable Affected Him. MT. George Kennan writes story for November St. Nicholas entitled How the Bad News Came to Siberia" MT. Ken
 nan was engaged on the Russian over land telegraph, and the bad news was the
 announcement of the successful laying
 of the Atlantic cable, which brought his
 work to a sudden stop. MT. kennan
 says S.,
 Early the next morning I was awaken
 ed by one of the CossackS with the wei
 come news that there was square rig
 ged vessel in the offing, five or six miles
 beyond Matuga Island. I climbed hastily up the bluff and had no difficulty in mak- ing out with glass the masts and sails of a good sized bark, evidently Whaler which, although hull down, was appa- rently cruising back and forth with a | light southerly breeze across the gulf. | We ate breakfast hastily, put on our fur l kukhlankas and caps, and started Tn a whaleboat under oars for the ship, which l was distant about fifteen miles. Although | the wind was light and the sea compara- | lively smooth, it was a hard, tedious pull, and we did not get along side until after | 10 o'clock. Pacing the quarterback, as | we climbed on board, was good looking, | ruddy-faced, gray-haired man, whom | took to be the captain. He evidently | thought from our outer fur dress, that 1 we were only party of natives come off l to trade; and he paid no attention what | ever to us until I walked aft and said, Are you the captain of this bark?" At the first word of English he stopped as if transfxed, stared at me for mo- | ment in silence, and then exclaimed in a | tone of profound astonishment, Well! | Has the universal Yankee got up here? ?'' "Yes, captain, replied "he is not only | here, but he has been here two years or more. What bark is this?"
 Of rQ. | Mass.," he replied; "and I am Captain | Hamilton But what are you doing up in | this forsaken country? Have you been | shipwrecked?"
 "No.', I said; "we're up here trying to | build a telegraph line"
 "A telegraph line!' he shouted. Well, l if that aint the craziest thing l ever | heard of. Who's going to telegraph from | here?"
 I explained to him that we were trying | to establish telegraphic eommunication between America and Europe by way Of | Alaska Boring Strait and Siberia, and asked him if he had never heard of the | Russian American Telegraph company. Never" he replied. T didn't know there was such company; but I've been out two years on a cruise, and l haven
 kept up very we'll with the news" How about the Atlantic cable?" in-
 quired. Do you know anything about that?" ',sss i's
 "Oh, yeS," he replied cheerfully, as 1T
 he were giving me the best news in the
 world, "the cable is laid all right"
 Does 1t work?" I asked with sink
 ing heart
 "Works like a snatch-tackle," he re- sponded heartilL "rhe Frisco papers are publishing every morning the London news of the day before. I've got lot of lem on board that I'll give you. Perhaps you'll find something in them about your company"
 think the captain must have noticed, from the sudden change in the expression of our faces, that his news about the At lantic cable was a staggering blow to us, for he iemmediately dropped the subject and suggested the propriety of going be- low. a4s fal-tfl.42' @
 We all went down into the cosy, we'll | furnished cabin, where refreshments were | set before us by the steward, and where | the world, from whaling in the South Pa
 cifc to deg driving in Arctic Asia, and | from Weston's walk across the American l continent to Karakozef's attempt to as- assinate the ,czar. But 1t was on our side | at least a perfunctory conversation. The news of the complete success of the At | lantie cable was as unexpected as it was | dishea artening, and it filled our minds to l the exclusionSof everything else. We had | lost the race. and even if we should go | over the course we could hardly expect to l get any applause or attract any atten- | tion. The world would have no use for an l overland telegraph line through Alaska | and Siberia if 1t already possessed a working cable between London and New | York T-at.f e.Hns sn