Newport weekly independent., 1901-11-29
4 RACE AGAINST TIME.
Trnphic Account of the Rec0td- Breaking Journey of the Aus
 tralian-LOndon Mail


 commerce; without tray lportation commerce would be impossible; those states and nations are rich, powerful and enlightened whose transporta ton facilities are the best and most com- prehensive; the dying nations are those with little or no transportation faci1ities.''
 Then the speaker uttered these two memorable sentences:
 Trade follows the flag"
 Trade follows the mail."
 If these statements be true, too great importance can hardly be placed upon the recent achievement of an American Pacific liner and of the live great railroads making up the transcontinental system between San Francisco and New York, of which MT. Charles Barnard gives a graphic account in the -Four Track Series.''
 At the post office of Sydney, N. s. w., there lay, early in the morning of August 13, 1901, 367 sacks of the most important mail matter ever sent from Australia to England. There are two routes by which such mail could go. One IS an all-British route by way of the Suez canal. The other is prac- tically an all-American route, by way of Samoa, Hawaii, San Francisco, New York and thence to London. Of course, under the present arrange ment, the last lap, on the bosom of the broad Atlantic, is sailed under the British flag. The British route is the older one and also the shorter, being 12,500 miles, while the distance the other away around is 13551 a difference of over a thousand miles.
 That morning, the 18th of August, the American flag was flying on a new ship, fresh from the American ship yards on the Delaware. She was the best available ship that day in the South Pacific. The only thing to do was to place the important mail on board the new American. twin-screw steamer "Ventura,' of the Oceanic Steamship company, which was done at ten o'clock in the morning. From Sydney the Ventura steered straight for Auckland, and entered that har- Dor on the 17th. Taking on freight, mails and passengers she again set sail, making for the beautiful and po- etlc islands of Samoa, thence for Ha- wali and San Francisco. At seven D. m, September ?, she anchored at quarantine in San Francisco harbor, having made the voyage in 20 days and hours. Had the Ventura been urged it is possible she could have ar- rived few hours earlier and landed those precious mail bags that day. AS 1t happened they could not be landed till S:3O on the morning of the 3d. They were at once transferred by teams to the Market street station of the Southern Pacific (Ogdenroute), and at ten o'clock they began their eventful journey across the continent to New York, 3,3SS miles away.
 Suddenly the unexpected happened. The train arrived at Ogden, Utah, two dreadful hours late.
 The mail was transferred to the mail car of train No. ? of the Union Pacific. It was still late when it reached Omaha. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy put the single mail car containing his majesty's mail behind a special fast engine. It was night run against time for No. 10S6. On and on, 60 miles an hour steady. The train entered Union sta- tion, Chicago, at SOS a. m., on the 9th. Five hundred and eight miles in 555 minutes.
 No. 6 is the Lake Shore-New York Central "fast mail'-the heaviest fast mail train in America. She had left at S:30. That train had to be over- taken. A new special, two cars and No. 566, would try if it had to chase it all the way into Buffalo. At pre- cisely 9:50:30 a. m. she pulled out from the Lake Shore station-and No. 6 one hour and 29% minutes ahead. As the special ate up the miles, it became evident that she was making up the lost time. She would overhaul No. at Toledo. Two hum dred and forty-four miles in 265h minutes. The thing had been done. The two hours lost 2,O0O miles away had been made up.
 At Buffalo, the precaution was taken to make up the New York Gen.
 
 sections, sending on those mail bags from Australia, together with Uncle Sam's mail, in the first section. This was the fifth and last of the railroad lines forming the route across the United States. The train pulled into the Grand Central station the morn- ing of the 7th at 9:57-three minutes ahead of time.
 The Campania sailed at noon, with his majesty's mail on board, 25 days and hours out of Sydney. At seven o'clock Saturday morning, September 14, the Australian mail was deliv- cred at the post office in London, as- sorted and ready for the carriers. Instead of the old time of 35 days and some hours by way of the Suez canal, it was done in 32 days less some hours by using the American ,A