The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-21

from the surfaces of the myriad crystals
which make up the snow-white sand rock
until it seems as though the black lines
of pipe which contain the mysterious ca
bles of the many voices were set in
block Of very marble.
For 1t is in the subway of the North
western Telephone company that the
reader will imagine himself, a sub
way unlike any other in America,
If not in the world, representing two
miles and half of tunneling, capacious
enough to accommodate thousands of tel
ephone lines and yet to permit who wills
to walk without STOPPING, unless he be
unusually tall, and all without a support
Ing brace for the ceiling. Had you
notion the subways were these little
square boxes of fired clay that you have
seen piled up along the curbstones in the
spring time like lengths out of organ
pipe? Well you are partly right. Those
are used for conduits, where the geology
of the street does not permit access to
the sandstone underlying. The square
pipes answer the purpose there, but not
so well as do the tunnels where every
inch of every one Of a thousand,
yes many thousands of lines, is far re-
moved from the necessity of occasional
tinkering or the possibility of molesta-
ton by house movers or sewer diggers,
the wayfaring plumber or the builder of
cellars.
Few cities are situated as is st. Paul
with respect to this sandstone formation,
which makes it's subway system In the
upper business district look with its cleo
trio illumination like the enchanted laby-
ninth of some modern Daedalus, where
the grooming of the city above sings
through the rope like strands below a
soothing lullaby for the superstition that
the workers below ground ultimately be-
come blind like the mules of the Austrian
salt mines. Minneapolis has the sand
rock, too but it is far below the CITY,
and on 1t lies the limestone ledge and
soil so deep that it makes the tunnel plan
almost impracticable on the ground of
expense. But here, underlying the upper
plateau of the city business district, just
below a comparatively thin ledge OF lime
stone, in few spots if any exceeding forty
feet in thickness, including the scant COW
ering of soil that nature gave it, lies the
sandrOck that may be easily studied by
casual visit TO either of the bridges that
span the river. Once cut through this
limestone and the work of tunneling be-
comes 50 easy that the engineers of the
rocky St Gothard and the oozy Thames
would alike hold up their hands in won
der 1t Is so simple that one almost Won
derS that the small boys OF generation
ago did not have the family fire shovel
lost all the time while they pursued lines
of exploratory study in the under crust.
They would have needed little else in the
way of tools.
Stopping at a point in front of the
Windsor hotel, but about forty feet be-
low the pavement, or possibly fifty below
the tiled floor of Boniface Monfort's lob
by, one day, a curious visitor asked how
hai OF aierIt Al
query having originated from the dis
covery that while the tunnel crews work.
ed from both ends in different lines the
tunnels came together with jog Of but
a hands breadth
The answer was so simple 1t was
abashing.
Hung two lanterns at the start in the