Arizona republican., 1898-05-10
ABOUT THAT CABLE.
News of Dewey's Victory Travelled
 Over Twelve Cables.

New York. May 9.-News of the fighting in Manila, on the other side of the earth, travels more than 14O0O miles, over dozen or more cables and three or more overland wires, be- fore it gets to this city. Very few per sons among the thousands who watch the bulletin boards these days, stop to think, when a Manila dispatch is posted, that the message was repeated over and over again, as it vas sent from cable office to cable office, in the long journey from the Philippine port to the American shore. It travel ed across seas, gulfs, bays and straits mountains, valleys and plains,. But the news that Commodore Dewey was ready to lombard Manila was known in this city thirty-five minutes in ac- tual time after the British operator at Manila opened his key. The cables were rushing things.
 The eastern cables are owned by British companies, the Eastern Tele- graph company and the Eastern EX- tension, Australia and China Tele- graph company. The two companies are controlled by the same men. Across the China sea, from Hong Kong to Cape Bolinao, on I.uzon island, in the Philippines, cable was laid in 1880. The cable is 529.11 miles long. From Cape Bolinao across the island to Manila is a telegraph line about 100 miles long. All the news we have received from Manila has been first telegraphed from Manila to the cable station at Cape Bolinao, and from there sent on by cable co Hong Kong.
 The news that Commodore Dewey had demanded the surrender of Manila and was about to lombard the city, received in the morning, was soon at terward followed by short cable dis patch from the office of the eastern Extension company in London read ing:
 "The cable between Hong Kong and manila is interrupted"
 Only a surmise could be made here as to the cause of the interruption. The wording of the dispatch led the general officers of the telegraph and cable companies in New York to be- lieve that the cable had been extended direct to Manila. At the Western Union office it was believed that, the bombardment of Manila having begun, the telegraph office had been deserted, and news of the bombardment would be sent to Hong Kong by tapping the land telegraph line north of Manila That the interruption had been caused by Commodore Dewey's picking up and cutting the cable north of Cape Bollnao was the opinion at the Com merclal Cable company's office.
 Without the aid of the Cape Boli- nao-Hong Kong cable, dispatches from Manila must be carried by boat across the China sea and there put on the cable to the south. From Hong Kong to New York message has an inter- esting course. From the Chinese port 1t is first sent down the China sea over a 460-mile cable to Saigon in Co., chin China Another cable. 63O miles long, conveys it to Singapore, on the straits; or it may be sent to the island Of Labuan, BorneO, and then 70 Singa- pore. From Singapore it runs around the Malay peninsula to the island of Penang, on the western coast of Lower Siam, a distance of 388 miles. Across the Bay of Bengal from Penang to Madras the message is repeated on cable 1,498 miles long.
 In India the message reaches the first land telegraph line after leaving the island of Luzon. Across India to Bombay the message runs over 500 miles of wire. Then it is put on a ca ble again to cross the Arabian sea to Alden, on the gulf of Alden, a distance of 1851 miles. Up through the Red sea to Suez is another long cable, 1,4l3 miles. Again the message goes over land over the 200 miles of wire from Suez to Alexandria.
 The Mediterranean has no direct cable from Alexandria to Gibraltar. The message must be sent over a 913- mile cable to the island of Malta, and then repeated over the Gibraltar cable, l,l26 miles further. From Gibraltar to Carcavellos, near Lisbon, is a short cable, 337 miles long, connecting the