The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1908-03-27


Col. Walbridge, though advanced in
years, is still active on this side of
the line. He is SO years of age.
| -
Vacation Days in Porto Rico.
One of the last places we visited at
San Juan was the wireless telegraph
station of the United States govern
ment. 1t is one of the four largest of
our government stations, the others
being Key West, Guantanamo, Cuba,
and at Colon. We went in the even
ing when most of the wireless tele-
graphing is done as the wires" work
better due to more favorable static
conditions. II know that is right be-
cause the operator said SOL
Here at San Juan the messages are
mostly transmitted to and received
from Key West, though it is possible
to talk direct with Washington, 1850
miles away and the operator told me
that he had taken messages from Cape
Cod, 100 miles distant The system
used here is that of De Forest and not
that of Marconi. am told that there
is now new system better than
either.
We watched the San Juan operator
shoot the dots and dashes of the Morse
code into the air backed by $4,000
volts of electricity while we held onto
our heads to keep them from explod-
ing or getting blown off by the fearful
din. To my unprofessional eye it
looked like jerking on and off ten
million candle power arc light not
very well anchored and trying hard to
get away. Key West finally answered
that they could not hear very well and
to try again later. | put the receiver
on my head and heard the Guantana-
mo station talking with Key West. AS
received thus from distance of a
thousand miles the dots and dashes
seemed very mild and inoffensive and
| would as lief catch one as a mos
quito.
Mr. Jones the handsome young man
from Cedar Rapids. Ia, who was chief
of the station, said that nearly every
night they could hear the Colon sta
ton calling. trying to get into commu-
nication with the Connecticut, the flag
ship of Admiral Evans fleet. He had
not heard the flagship answer at that
time but expected to soon.
We left San Juan for New York
on Wednesday afternoon, March IL,
and were due In New York Monday
evening, March 16 but not really
reaching there until Tuesday morning.
We came back on the same steamer
on which we went down and were
glad to be able to as we all liked the
ship and its officers so well. 1t is
slow ship but clean and attractive. !
am writing this Sunday afternoon just
little north Of Cape Hatteras and
some 300 miles to the eastward.
SO far we have had remarkably hne
weather and a smooth sea except for
bad swell just after leaving San Ju-
an. This swell was the result OF q
gale that had blown for several days
previously. 1t sent most of the wom-
en- on board to bed but they soon re-
covered as the sea smoothed out.
There are only few passengers on
board and they are quiet lot so we
have had an uneventful voyage. Every
day DR.. Pratt and have played crib
bage against Mr.. Gibson and Captain
Foss. They have had the best Of 1t
| as we have lost all the money we won
| coming down. The girls have amused
themselves reading and playing shoy-
el-board Martha is one of the star
| players and beats me easily.
! We have met another cribbage ex-
pert, f. c. Hartnagle of Lyons, N. Y,
who is the mail clerk on the boat.
| There is room on the boat fitted up
! like mail car and mail to and from
| the island is sorted and sacked just
! as it is on car. Mr. Hartnagle Is
new man on the run and does not like
| it very well.
Since writing the foregoing we have
experienced our only storm on the trip
and that only small one. 1t came
as we we're crossing the gulf stream
| Sunday night and was accompanied
by thunder and lightning. The wind
whistled and shrieked as 1t never does
on land and the San Juan rolled and
| pitched so that people in the upper
| berths had to hang on with both hands
! to keep from being thrown out and
| did not dare go to sleep. The squall
only lasted an hour or two, however
though the wind blew pretty hard all
| the time we were in the gulf stream
which is here about 80 miles WIDE
| When we turned out Monday morning
we found decided change in temper
AZURE and from then until we reached
| New York it was too cold to be very
| pleasant on deck.
We did not see land Monday night
but came inside Sandy Hook some
| time during the night and most of us
woke up when the ship anchored of
! the quarantine station. We were call
/ ed at o'clock to be inspected when
the quarantine doctor came aboard
Continued on Next Page.