The age-herald., 1899-10-10
RUSH MATERIAL
 CAME BY EXPRESS
Two Car Loads Consigned to
 Alabama Steel Rod Mill.
EXTRAORDINARY SHIPMENT I
Big Increase in Railroad Construction in the United States Twenty-sev en Hundred Miles Since Jan
 uary Links and Pins

Two Pennsylvania baggage cars filled
 with express matter billed from Pittsburg to Birmingham and consigned to the Ala
 bama Steel Rod Mill, arrived here yester- day afternoon on Louisville and Nashville No. 3.
 These two cars constitute eXtraordi-
 nary shipment in this district, and contain ed machinery fittings for the new plant,
 now In course of construction. The reason
 this shipment was made by express Is due
 to the fact that the material was badly
 needed, and work in certain departments was being delayed. Immediately upon arri-
 val Agent Hamm, of the Southern Express
 company, had these two cars attached to
 switch engine and moved out to the plant
 of the company at Ensley.
 Railroad Construction
 The Railway Age advance sheet imparts
 the information that as many miles of new
 road were constructed in the United States during the three months ending September | 30 as were built in the first six months of l the year, making in round numbers the 1 total aggregate of 27,0oO miles of track laid from January to September SO Since July 1 work has progressed rapidly, and more headway would have been made except for | the fact of a dearth in labor.
 The 2,7OO miles of track laid thus far dur ing 1899 exceed the total mileage for any
 year since 1892, with the exception of 1893, l when 3,0S0 miles were completed. Eleven states have thus far added 100 miles or over, | each as follows: Arkansas, 234 miles; Iowa, 2O3 miles; Minnesota, 157 miles; Penn sylvania, 1S6 miles; New Mexico, 135 miles; | Louisiana, 123 miles, Oklahoma, 103 miles; ,,aiIa md la- bama and Mississippi approximately 100 miles each. This makes a total of l,5Oi | miles in the eleven states named, or 154 miles more than one-half the total new mileage for the entire country. The eight | southern states of Alabama, Florida, Geor- 1 gia. Mississippi, North Carolina, South Car | olina, Tennessee and Louisiana have bullt
 6s4 miles of road, and the seven southwest
 ern states of Missouri, Arkansas, oklaho-
 ma, Indian Territory, Texas, New Mexico | and Arizona have added i5o miles, making 1 a total of 1,2S9 miles in these fifteen south- l ern and southwestern states. The states or l Ohio. Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota,
 Michigan and Wisconsin have added 5S6
 miles, and if we add Nebraska, Kansas, | Colorado and Utah to these the total is 'S6 | miles.
 | The report C. nes from Europe that moo- ern tourists will soon be given an oppor- l tunity to take a delightful ride into the
 home of the forbidden fruit.
 An English syndicate has secured con
 cession from the Sultan of Turkey to build a railroad through the Euphrates valley to the Persian Gulf. If this be true. as is
 most probably the case, one shall soon be able to go by rail to the site of the Garden of Eden, as it is located by the Bible. It is reasoned that the Biblical Garden of Eden was in Mesopotamia, the district lying between the rivers Tigris and Euph- rates This being the case, it is no exag-
 geration to say that the new railroad,
 which is to be constructed along the valley
 of the Euphrates will pass through the site of the Garden of Eden.
 The importance of the project does not. however, lie in this. but in the great coun- ty which will be opened to trade and Eu- ropean influence by this railway. In Octo- ber, 1888, the German bank concluded an arrangement with the Turkish minister of internal affairs, by which 1t undertook to build a railway from port opposite Con- stantinople, first to Angora, and later to
 Koniah. On November 27, 1892, four years later than the signing of the agreement, the first train was run from Ismid to An
 gora and the Anatolian railroad was an established institution. Kaiser Wilhelm has not shown himself a friend of the porte
 for nothing. He desired an outlet for Ger
 man industry and capital, and he has found
 an excellent one.
 The extension of this railway from Ko- nah, first to Bagdad, about a thousand
 miles, and thence to Bassora on the Per
 sian gulf, another 400 miles, has been pet
 scheme of the young monarch. The move
 by which England now undertakes this
 work is but one result of the entente cor
 diale lately sealed between him and his grandmother. It means much for both Great Britain and Germany. To Great Britain it means a new and short route to India a saving of at least five days over the Suez canal route; to Germany it means new field for colonization and a good feeder for her road already in operation. Links and Pins
 Charles Jones, passenger agent of tine Kansas City. Memphis and Birmtng gham
 railroad, has announced an excursion into
 Birmingham on the 25th on account of the Robinson circus.
 Chief Engineer Monfort, of the Louisville
 and Nashville, passed through the city yes-
 terday afternoon.
 The union passenger station officials say
 that the incoming continues to exceed tne
 outgoing travel at this point.
 Round trip tickets to Washington for one
 fare will be sale today and tomorrow
 on account of the meeting of the Southeast
 ern Tariff association. ldaE
 MT. R. M. Ellis, travelling passenger agent
 of the Alabama Great Southern Is out of
 the city. r