The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-08-07
BEATEN BY The CABLE.
(Chleago Times-Herald.l


the United States government telegraph
me tnat VIII connect the Yukon country
Win the outside world In speaking of the
project 1t is stated that his trip Will mark
tLs pioneer work or erecting ware Ior
this purpose in the frozen regions. This
IL Is an error
In the spring of the year 1899 Lieuten-
ont FREDERICK Schwatka, the well known
explorer, along with TWO or three mis-
gulqeo young newspaper men VINO had
wild WIG visions OF plueking fame out of the
a aaS,.ic wastes started north from van
couNeF INTO the Yukon country on what
was destined TO be his last long trip be-
Tore his death, which occurred TWO years
later IN Portland, Ore. Schwatl1a had
pEio5IIiissd 70 SHOW. the boys something
VIA IN the way OF scenery, and he kept
MS word. But that's a digression For
IOur months the party. starting from
WHAT is now Lake Bennett. sheet of
water mat the Yukon gold discoveries
nave prought ltno prominence. circled
through the great unexplored territory to
the east and north, taking delight in the
Wonders that revealed themselves and
ing ana making friends with the natives.
one afternoon camp was pitched about
mile from the southwestePly edge Of
lake Tesln, and there the party settled
native carriers, as was their custom.
wandered round a few miles from camp
70 mingle with any Indians they could
tlno' one morning, standing at the en-
or thirty half Aleut. half Siwash. people
peculiar to the region. gathered and be-
gan 10 explain in excited language that
they "a had come 10 barter. Schwatka yelled
mandS till he happened 20 pep his head
OUT OF MS tent and saw what the material
was that they had to trade with
ne was up and in front of them in a
rnYT% !
sAlltGlly woven baskets worked in heavy
copper WIRE. The lieutenant was min
eral hend, and he had the fever If
eyer ever ANYBODY had, He had no conception
lhat mere was sold In Alaska, though the
party mad tramped twice over what WAS
destined IN lew years 10 become one OF
the greatest gold bearing localities in the
world But mere, before his eyes, was g
pile OF pure virgin copper, worked up by
these natives into fancy shapes
Where did this come from?" he asked
them eagerly
From ClataQuo sound
Schwatka nearly had heart disease. The
sound was on the tide water of the Pa
eric ocean-Which meant that the copper
oeus were easy OF access to the cheapest
Iorm OF transportation in existence.
III you Will lead me to where this stuff
came from, he said, you SHAH have two
guns and 200 cartridges"
Wei, that was how the party found it
sen three weeks later on the shores of
Cidtaduo The great copper mine was a
myth The baskets We're made of pure
metal all right. But the metal awas
portion or the old Russian-Ameriean tele-
graph line that had been abandoned TWEEN
lE-IIVe years before, and left standing
When the engineers, doWncast and brOk-
eh-nearted. heard from the ticker attach
ment IN the virgin forest the fateful
words;
Abandon everything. The Atlantic
cable is success. We are beaten
., ., q
one OF the failures that deserves to go
down In history as a piece Of splendid
neroilSm ana marvellous triumph over
crushing difficulties Is this Russian
american telegraph project, or. as it was
more commonly called, Collins Overland
Line 10 Europe How many people are
there Who know that before the close of
the civil war a scheme involving the cree
uon OF 1900 miles of land telegraph wire
was actually being carried out bOCh from
the european and the American ends, and
that, mad IL not been for the success Of
the last and seemingly hopeless attempt
10 lay an Atlantic cable the United States
MOuld now be getting its daily news of
the world by way OF the frozen Yukoni
ana the wastes Of Siberia?
Inc project was no hopeless fantasy Of
the brain OF dreamer. Hard headed
practical men, Morse himself included
rad unhesitatngly given it as their opin-
ION mat the Dian was entirely feasible
winch II no doubt was. Perry Med. COL
l-nS, al that time commercial agent to
Russia from the United States was the
originator OF the idea. With many others
ne mad all along been skepdcaI of the
success OF an ocean cable, and after se?-
eral consultations with Russian engineers
ne came TO America ana made a pro-
poSaI TO the Western Union Telegraph
company; speaks volumes for the
commercial spirit and enterprise of that
day that the plan, novel and gigantic
as il was, met with hearty backing
SIX months later the Russian govern
ment not only assured the American pro-
moters mat It would guarantee the con-
Strucuon OF the 1000 miles of line from
Moscow to the Pacific, but that the Rus
sian bureau OF telegraphs, solely on the
strength OF MI Collins personal assur-
anCeS, had actually begun the cOnstruC-
ton OF the section lying between the
sreitt cities OF hazan and Irkutsk. That
was in 1852
At the time the enterprise was preached
the Pacific coast, amid general rejoicin3s,
had become connected with the eastern
states by telegraph line. The Cali
fornia State Telegraph company was cp-
Grating wire OF its own from San Fran
cisco to vancouver The distance from
this latter point to Boring straits is l $40
miles, and the strait itself, over which
a small cable was TO pass, was thirty
nine miles wide, with a maximum depth
of leo feet.
The American division Of the work was
taken in hand by the Western Union and
begun at the close of 1858 Surveying
parties We're sent out from Vancouver
and soon had a track mapped from there
TO Fort Alexander. and thence to the
Yukon river and Fort Fraser. The 80
miles of UNEMPLOYED wilderness between
the Fraser and Stickeen rivers was trav-
erSed by these brave surveyors on snow
shoes in the dead of winter, and after
seventy days of terrible hardships they
reached the banks of the Simpson river.
BY the end of the following summer me
line, well strung on substantial poles.
had actually been brought through to
this point. The labor involved IN the
work can hardly be conceived, except
perhaps by those argonauts of late years
who have wrestled with the problems
of transportation in northern regions,
The beginning OF the summer OF 300
saw the line stretching along the banks
of the great Skeena river and thence
across almost in straight line TO Fort
Pelly Get ont your atlas and see what
Q work ike that must have involved
In the midst of it all $50 miles north
of New Westminster they attached the
instruments TO the end of the line one
morning to give the usual daily greeting
to Vancouver. The message they got IN
reply must have seemed ike q sentence
of death The h6rOiSnn, the Selt-SacrlIice,
the lonely vigils in the snow, the hunger
and the suffering-useiess sacrlIlces eV-
cry one. 49,
that left an English port one day with
an enormous coil of cable material in her
hold carried with her also. although her
skipper knew 1t not. the wreck Oh many
a future and many an ambition.
The money loss was very great. Inc
line was left standing just as II had peeh
built And the natives have made play
things for barter out OF what was once
destined to be the link between the GU
"Oi'' '''N JOHN R. RATHoM