Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-05-25
How 1T GETS HERE.
News From Manila has a Hard Time
Getting Here.

News from Manila, which is persu
ed SO eagera1y nowadays by all Amer
icans-and probably by Spaniards al
so-has to make a circuitous and la
borious journey before it reache.
either Madrid, London or New York
1t travels about $4,000 miles uuder SCI
and overland, and is passed from sta
ton to station by more than a dozer
operators, almost each one of them il
a different country. Just now, in con
sequence of the cutting of the single
telegraphic cable which connects the
Philippine islands with China the
news which New Workers. receive from
Manila must be carried to Hong Kong
by boat. The distance between Hong
Kong and Balinao, the cable station
of the Philippines, is about 1 900 miles.
Ba1inao is thirty miles from Manila.
From Hong Kong, telegraphIc news
destined for new New York is flashed
over second cable under the China
sea to Saigon; thence it goes to Sing
apore, at the end of the Malay penin-
sula, where it is taken up by another
operator and sent on to Penang; its
next objective point is Madras, India,
from whence it is sent overland across
India to Bombay. From Bombay a
cable takes the message under the In
dian ocean to Alden; from Alden it
passes along under the Red Sea to
Suez, thence to Port Said and Alexan-
dria successively, Upon leaving AL
exandria it goes through the Mediter-
ranean sea to Malta, from Malta to
Gibraltar. The operators at Gibra1-
tar may then transmit the message in
either one of two ways; they can send
it direct to Lands End, the western
extremity of Cornwall, England, or
they can send it to Lisbon, Portugal.
The usual practice is to send cable
messages from Gibraltar via Lisbon to
Lands End; from the latter point the
message goes overland to London.
The London opeI ator sends it to Wat
erville, in the west cost of Ireland,
and from there it crosses the Atlantic
Ocean to Canso, Nova Scotia, and the
Canso operator passes iton to New
York. All the cables used from Ma
Mia to Great Britain are owned and
controlled by the Eastern Gable COM
pany. Coming across the Atlantic
the cables of the Commercial Cable
company, or those controlled by the
Western Union and other lines may
be used.
Any individual sending a message
of ten words or more from Manila to
New York would have to pay $2.35 for
eacn word. If the message is sent di-
rect from Hong Kong it costs $1.60 per
word. The rates between the Philip
pines and Hong Kong are higher in
proportion than between any of the
other points along the route. This
fact is explained by old telegraph men
on the theory that there is so little
cable business done between Manila
and Hong. Kong that the rates must
be pretty high in order to make the
cable pay.
Ordinarily the transmission of a
message of any length from Manila
to New York will actually consume
five hours of time. One word could
be sent through in little less than
two minutes, but in order to accomp-
1ish that feat an operator would have
to be on the watch at each station and
rush the word along. In the regular
order of business, however, DELAYS of
a greater or less degree are inevitab1
at each station.
The difference in time between Ma
Mia and New ork is about thirteen
hours. While the resident of this city
is eating his 9 o'clock breakfast the
person of regular habits in Manila is
wooiug slumber, for it is there ten
O'Clock p. m. If te1egraphic mes
sage sent from Manila at 10 O'Clock in
the evening could come through to
New York instantaneously, it would
reach here at r;ne O'Clock in the morn
ing of the same day. But, allowing
for the five hours consumed in trans
mission, a cablegram sent from Mani
la at 10 pm. would reach here at d.
m. of the same day. In the ordinary
course of business te1egraphic mes
sage will come through to New York
from Hong Kong in about four hours
and half. Expert handlers of tele-
graph cables say that with a proper.
ly equipped cable ship a cut cable in
the deep sea can be put together in a
very few days. The electricians are
able to locate the break within a mile
of the actual point of separation, and
the graphing apparatus of the cable
ship is able to pick up the loose ends
of a cable very quickly.
The first-class warships of the
United States Navy are the Massa
chusetts, tMaine), Oregon, Iowa, In
diana, Texas, Kentucky, Kearsarge
On the docks uncomp1eted are the
Alabama, Illinois and Wisconsin. The
first-class battleships by general act
OF Congress are named after the