The Opelousas courier., 1898-08-13
GETTING NEWS FROM MANILA.
It Makes a Circuitous and Laborious
journey Before Reaching New York.

It Makes a Circuitous and Laborious
journey Before Reaching New York.
News from Manila, which is perused
80 eagerly nowadays by all Americans
and probably by Spaniards also
has to make a circuitous and laborious
journey before it reaches either Mad
rid, London Or New York. It travels
about IA, 900 miles under sea and over
la id, and is passed from station to
station by more than a dozen opera
TOES, almost each one Of them in q
different country. In consequence of
the cutting of the single telegraplic
cable which connects the Philippine
Islands with China, the news which
has recently been received from Man
la was carried to Hong Kong by boat.
The distance between Hong Kong and
Balinao, the cable station OF the Phil
ippines, is about 1000 miles. Balinao
is 80 miles from Manila.
From Hong Kong, telegraphic news
destined for New York is flashed over
q second cable under the China sea, to
Saigon; thence it goes to Singapore, at
the end of the Malay peninsula, where
it Is taken up by another operator and
sent on to Penansi its. next OBJECTIVE
polnt. is Madras, ndia, from whH-ce
it is Sent overland across Nnla to
Bombay. From B~Albay a cable takes
the message under the Indian ocean
to Alden; from Alden it passes along
under the Red sea to Suez, thence to
Port Said and Alexandria successive
ly. Upon leaving Alexandria it goes
through the Mediterranean sea to
Malta and from Malt to Gibraltar.
The operators at Gibraltar 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 to Lands End; from
the latter point the message goes
overland to London. The London
operator sends it to Waterville, on the
west coast of Ireland, and from there
it crosses the Atlantic ocean to Canso,
Nova Scotia, and the Canso operator
passes it on to New York. All the
cables used from Manila to Great
Britain are owned and controlled by
the Eastern Cable company. Coming
ACROSS the Atlantic, the cables Of the
Commercial Cable company, OF those
controlled by the Western Union and
other lines may be used.
Any individual sending a message
from Manila to New York would have
to pay $2.35 for each word. If the
message is sent direct from Hong
Kong it costs SLIGO per word. The
rates between the Philippines and
Hong Kong ne 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 an.7 length from Manila to
New York will actually consume five
hours of time. One word could be
sent through in a little less than two
minutes, but in order to accomplish
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 lesser degree are inevitable
at each station.
The difference in time between
Manila and New York is about -
hours. While the resident of this
city is eating his 8 o'clock breakfast
the person of regular habits il Man
lila is wooing slumber, for it is there
10 o'clock p. m. If a Geographic mes
sage sent from Manila at 10 o'clock in
the evening could come through to
New York instantaneously, it would
reach here at 8 o'clock in the morning
of the same day. But allowing for
the five hours consumed in transmits
sion, a cablegram sent from Manila at
10 p. m. would reach here at 2 p. m.
of the same day. In the ordinary
course of business a Geographic mes
sage will come through to New York
from Hong Kong in about four hours
and a half.
Expert handlers of telegraph cables
say that with a properly equipped
cable ship a cut cable in the deep sea
can be put together in q very few
days. The electricians are able to
locate the break within q 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. New York Times.