The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1897-03-13
A RACE FOR a GIRDLE.

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The Contest Between the Overland
| Telegraph and the Atlantic Cable.
/ The race. course was between the
| Old World and the New. The racers
were telegraph companies. One was
| called the Russian ,;.c,.and.'. the
other. the atlantic Gable. 49, IS Z. =5s
The track Of the Russian lay be-
tween New Westminster in British Co
lumbia and Moscow in Russia. Up
through the unexplored Fraser river
valley it was to run, then on through
the untracked wilderness Of Alaska,
across Boring Strait, over the timber
less steppes of Arctic Siberia, and
along the dreary coast Of the Okhotsk
Sea to the mouth Of the Amoor. There
| the American racers called 3"W eStern
| Union," were to give over the race to
the Russian telegraph department.,
which was to make the hest time in
reaching Moscow. 49,. s.,s,.22 J.
Western Union said it would cover
! the ground in about two years. The
I cost would be about five millions of
| dollars; but what was five millions of
| dollars if the prize could be woman
! electric girdle for the earth? ss-.s
The path Of the Atlantic cable was
to be on a lakeland some two miles
deep in the ocean: reaching from Ire
land to Newfoundland. ~ s.,
The summer of 1865 found the world
watching this race with great interest.
| 1t opened when the ',eer OF the Rus
sian expedition set sail from San
| Francisco, northward bound. The
| "Atlantic" people at the same time
| were slowing away gigantic coils of
| cable into: the capacious hold of the
'Great Eastern'-a new cable some
| 1000 miles long.
The Western Union directors were
| shrewd business men. Five millions
Of dollars was little in comparison
with the benefit they would receive
| could they get Geographic communion
| ton with Europe, and they then be-
| lieved that the only way was by land.
! The public agreed with them nearly
unanimously. And so the two pro-
jects-the overland and the submarine
were pitted against each other.
A very unequal race it seemed at
| the outset. The Overland was strong
| and vigorous, the Atlantic was broken
by former failures. The Overland was
popular and had plenty of money back
Of it; the Atlantic was derided, and
''only FOOLS" it was said, would in
| vest in it,
| The fleet of the Russian expedition
which sailed from San Francisco in
the summer of 1865 was quite navy.
There were ocean steamers, sailing
| vessels, coast and river boats, and
Russian and American ships Of the
line, with promise of vessel from
Her. 5Majesty's navy. The expedition
was well Differed, and about 12O men
were enlisted -men Of superior ability
in every department. The supplies en-
braced everything that could be need
! ed. Thousands of tons Of wire, some
800 miles of cable, insulators, wagons,
etc. ..t-..: - :. ~ p. ~ -. ga f.,
August 20, 1866, the Great Eastern
landed its cable. at Trinity Bay, and
| the whole world was electrified by the
| news that it worked perfectly-that
the victory had been won. More than
that The Great Eastern not long
| afterward picked UP the cable lost the.
year before, and that, too, was soon in
working order. Two electric girdles
had been claspeda around The earth.
The success Of the atlantic" was
defeat for the Russian" An over
land telegraph line could never COM
pete With the submarine cables The
first triumphant "click. clicl1'' at Trim
ity Bay was therefore the death blow
| OF the Russian scheme, and all work
connected with that project was at
| once abandoned, ,..> >...,.-,.. f.; =
But tho worLers-the brave, men
nh 70 4, II IL
chees-buried in their lonely huts wait
ing for some news from their com
| rades, or straining every nerve to COM
plete their share of the great work.
how pathetic that so many of them did
| not hear what had, happened in some
cases for more than year after the
Parker in the November St. Nicholas.
Plants that Spread Quickly.
The dandelion is an old world flower,
got native--in America, save far to the
North and on some of the highest of
our western mountains But somehow
it was brought here, perhaps from
England in old colonial times, Now
we see it's golden heads and feathery
OtAAA>' CA Lie
sscl0cks' the boys and girls blow to tell
the hour. a few years ago the farmers
in the Northwest found new weed, a
vile prickly: weed, in their wheat fields.
In very short time this weed the
Russian thistle, has spread over wide
| acres Of the best farm land in that part
of the country and has done great in
jury to the crops. 8. n .5 .
How d.: these. plants spread so fast
and SO far? They are not carried about
and planted. No one would be so fool
ish as to SOW Russian thistles. The
|smother plant must have ways Of her
own for sending her offspring abroad
into the world. Plants propagate them
selves in two ways, from seed or from
buds. Sometimes these buds are borne
on slender runners. "A strawberry
plant, after it has blossomed, begins
to send out such runners, with buds,
unfolding tufts Of leaves, along them.
These tufts are at first connected with
the parent plant, but later the runners
between break away, and each tuft be-
comes a new-plant. Many grasses, like.
Bermuda grass and the troub lesome
quick or cough grass, have creeping
stems, each joint sending out bunch
of. roots below and a bud on the upper
side. IL you try to hoe up such grasses
you only make matters worse, for each