The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-14
From Cassier's Magazine.

From Casters Magazine
 THE most remarkable railroad in the world now is in course of construc-
 x ton in that part of Turkey in Asia broadly known as Arabia. The railway is unusual in many ways, but chiefly because it is built on the faith of the Ma hometans all over the world.
 This narrowgauge railway starts rom the town of Damascus, and has the holy town of Mecca as its objective point. It will thus cover a distance of 175o kilo- meters. By far the greater portion of the line has been constructed, and the road is now regularly operated on the 1900 kilometers intervening between Damascus and Medina.
 The financing of this enterprise has been unparalleled in the annals of railroad building The avowed intent of the con struction was to afford primarily a con venient way of travelling to the 225,oOo pill grins, who, it Is computed. come every year from all corners of the Mahometan world. and at a cost of s250 head, to worship at the Kaaba. It was estimated | that $50 round trip trate would be sui ficient to insure the financial stability O. the undertaking. Money was provided for the construction of the road by ap- peals made to the religious feelings of the a5O, ,0O0, 900 Mohsmetans scattered in wide l ly separated regions of the globe, and their voluntary contributions to this pious undertaking was besought. So success l fully did this scheme work that $14,OOo,HO were soon collected, and for a time about SIP. .ooOO0 were contributed annually by the faithful. This operation involved no responsibilities whatever to the promoters. headed by Abdul Hamid. the. former Sul- tan of Turkey. inasmuch as all these funds were bestowed In the form of dona- tions Thus tho road had no sharehold- CTS and no bonded indebtedness, it's capi- tai being spontaneously wiped off.
 Labor costs called for no additional ex- penditures, as the men were drawn from the ranks of the army and no extra pay vas awarded them for manual labor on the line Their only supplementary re- nuneration for this work consisted in tkeir liberation from military service after the, expiration of two-thirds of their time. With this sole inducement in sight vol unteers were numerous, and at no time vas there felt any difficulty in getting all the labor required.
 The management was ntrusted to the imperial Hedjaz railway commission ap- pointed in 1900, and the construction of the line turned over to army engineers. It must be said that the latter attained re- markable results in the face of such difficulties as the handling of men who were altogether inexperienced in this kind of work, as well as the necessity of carry
 ing on operations In country infested by hostile Bedouin tribes aware of the impending loss of their secular freedom through the advent of steam engines roll ing over steelbound roadbeds.
 By the middle of 1905. 600 kilometers had been completed, an average of lzo kilometers a year. Since then work was pushed with increasing rapidity By Sep tomber 1. 1907, 572 additional kjlometers were open to traffic, and by November 1908, 500 kilometers moro were ready to support the weight of engines and cars a record advance of almost one kilometer daily. This showing compares very fav- orably with any made elsewhere in the flight of the numerous obstacles inherent to the geographic conditions prevailing Tn the country traversed
 Among the many technical problems with which the builders were confronted was that of the overcoming of sand dunes. These shifting piles of very fine siliceous material form one of the mos' conspicuous features of the toposrapny of the Arabian desert. Contrary to all expectations, however, they did not ma terially retard construction, and sucn sano hills that could not be avoided were s''n' ply used, as it was found that where their dimensions precluded removal ! was quite safe to ride over them.
 The religious character of the under taking is well evinced by the fact ina
 each train carries mosque "aso"
 wherein pilgrims are enabled to perfor" : their deyotons in the course or the Jour
 ney to the sacred cities. Externally, thu