New-York tribune., 1903-01-29
By RAIL TO VICTORIA FALLS.

Among the reasonably expected achievements
Of the new year there is probably not one that
makes a stronger appeal to the Imagination
than the railroad to Victoria Falls. Wireless
telegraphy across the Atlantic really belongs to
last year, and the cable across the Pacific Will
possess no originality. Work upon an isthmian
canal is an old STORY, and the New-York sub
way big as it is, possesses no element Of nov
elty or of romance. But the announcement OF
a railroad to Victoria Falls startles one almost
as would an invitation to. visit the centre of
the earth or to make trip to the moon.
For, while it is nearly half a century since
the greatest of all African explorers discovered
it, that stupendous cataract is yet to the world
a name of mystery and might, and little more
1t is as vague and shadewy as is the perpetual
pillar of cloud which rises above the actual
falls so high that it is an unfailing landmark
for the roaming Barotse and Matabele over a
Thousand miles of terraced wilderness. In all
the forty-seven years since Livingstone first of
all white men gazed upon 1t, probably not twice
forty-seven white men have seen the cataract
Contrast their number with the myriads that
yearly look upon Niagara! Yet as an awe in
spring spectacle even Niagara must grant
precedence to Mosieatunya as the greatest cata-
ract of the world. The Niagara River, it is
true, is more than twice as wide as the Zam-
besi. But, then, the falls of the latter are
more than twice the height of the former. If
we imagine the American falls increased in alti-
tude from the present 162 feet to something
like 365 feet, and Increased also In volume we
shall have some idea of the colossal grandeur
of Mosioatunya-'the place of smoke and thun-
der" Then let us imagine the river below the
falls CONSTRUCTED into q channel less than hun
dred feet wide. between walls Of polished black
haca ole 10 hat Of fko 1odn ,ioI fAa
cataract plunges instead of the soft gray lime
stone of Nagara-and we shall complete
scene without a superior in all the world.
Now work is actually beginning on a bridge
across the chasm just below the falls and there
is good reason to expect that before the end of
the present year the railroad will be completed
thither and trains will be run directly from
Cape Town to Victoria Falls, passing the
way the Matoppo Hills, where Rhodes made
peace with the Matabele and where his ashes
now repose, and the Shangani River where
Alan Wilson and his men made one Of the most
heroic stands, and fights and deaths, in his
tory. Moreover, two years hence the British
Association for the Advancement Of Science is
invited to hold its yearly meeting at Victoria
Falls! Truly, this world is growing very very
small! 1t is completely engrt with tele-
graphic cables, and there is one railroad clear
across the cuIdSldu cOHlluenl anu HdfI Il dozen
across the North American; and only a few
more years will be needed for completing
railroad Iengthwise OF Africa, passing In sight
of the Victoria Falls. and by the sources of the
Nile, and across the very desert beneath whose
sands were whelmed the chariots of Cambyses.
Yes, very small the world is growing, and there
has not often been stronger reminder of the
fact than this announcement of railroad to
Victoria Falls.