The Washington herald., 1907-06-09


president Of the Louisville and Nash
Vile, began as a telegrapher and local
freight agent. working up TO his present
place by way Of half a dozen railroads.
Kennnn Was m Operator.
a leading writer Of to-day in his line
George Kennan. who opened the eyes Of.
the Western world 10 the horrors Of s.
berian prison life about twenty years
ago. began life as a telegraph operator
and perhaps. owes all his prominence rs
correspondent and literary man % the
opportunities thus opened % him.
His father was telegraph operator,
and when the son was born. in lsi5. was
manager Of an office IN Norwalk, Ohio,
on the Wade. Speed. and O'Be.Iy line
the first that was built in the West-long
since merged with the Western Union.
Kennau senior was very anxious that
Kennan Junior should become an expert
| operator early in life and incredible as it
may seem. the lad sent mis- first telegraph
message when he was six years old. and
before ne was able % read manuscript.
4 At twelve he took charge Of key reg
ularly. When the civil war broke out he
/ did his best to get into the telegraphers
/ corps at the front but unsuccessfully, all
though the service was then in the con-
/ troll Of Gen. Arson Stager. seperintend-
ent Of the Western Union. and an old
/ friend Of Kennan senior.
How His Opportunity Came.
/ Before young Kcnnan was nineteen.
/ however. Stager gave him a much-pvized
! opportunity. In 1874 Perry ". Collins.
! then figure in the telegraphic world
schemed out the plan 20 unite the Old
World and the New through a line across
/ Siberia and Bering Strait TO Alaska.
then Russian territory, and on south to
! San Francisco. the Russian governmen.
to undertake the building Of the Asiatic
part Of the line. from ST. Petersburg
across Russia and Siberia, private capi-
tai in this country 10 build the Ameri-
can portion
Collins went 10 Siberia. got the Rus
slams 70 agree. and. returning, induced
the Western Union 10 take up the Amer
lean end Kennan heard about II and
wrote to Gen. Stager asking if he might
Join the forces. Stager didn't answer
the letter by mail. but one night went
personally to the key and called up the
boy, who, young as he was, was manager
Of the office at Cincinnati.
Gould You get ready 20 go 10 Alaska
in two weeks?" wired stager.
"Yes." replied Kennan, Il can get
ready in two hours
You may 60" said Stager.
With three others, young Kennan sail
ed for Kamchatka on a small trading
vessel in July. lS65-there was no regular
steam line up the Alaskan coast then
landing on the peninsula after a tedious
voyage of forty-seven days.
For two years after that Kennan work
ed on the Asian mainland, travelling
overland from Bering Straits to the Ok
hotsk Sea. the object being 10 locate the
most desirable route 20 the mouth of the
Amur River. In this time he covered
from GOO 10 5000 miles on dog and rein
deer sledges, on horseback. and in ca
noes.
4 Surprised Skipper.
Then. in 1867, when az work on the
shores of the Okhotsk Sea, a chance
steamer brought news that. the Atlantic
cable having proved a success, the Rus
so-American line had been abandoned
Kennan and his men went out in a whale
boat TO meet this steamer. clad exactly
as the Eskimos of that region were clad
, and the captain did not recognize then
as white men until after they had step.
ped upon the ships deck When Ken.
nan bade him "gOod-day" in good nasa
English and asked the name
of his vessel the captain started.
Good Lordw he cried Has the uni
versal Yankee nation got up here? Where
did you come from? What are you do
Z ing?"
, After an interchange of general GOSSIP
. the captain gave Kennan a bundle o.
newspap apers. and the telegraphic party
went ashore. Late that night one o.
Remnants men. hungrily reading the new!
of the world, stumbled upon a paragraph
, in a San Francisco paper which told o.
the success Of the Atlantic cable and the
consequent abandonment OF the schem,
on which the party was at work.
Kennan started home at the beginning
of the winter. On the return journel
, he covered 5000 miles in reindeer sledges
to st. Petersburg. travelling day and nigh
, the last 1000 miles. He had learned Rus
sian in his two or three years of IF
e in Siberia. had become interested in tn
] Russian exile system. and later wen
back several times on his own account
once for the Century Magazine. Thi
: trip was in preparation for his articles
= on the exiles and exposing the horror
; of the prisons, which gave him his grea