The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-13
Midway Island and Its Little Colony of
Cable Operators and Their Fami-
lieS---PaCifiC'S Great Bird Park


and night the swing back and forth of
the siphon recorder of the Morse code,
which brings to the cable hut the news
of the world, it's policies, its pulse of
commerce, and every dot which comes
in from the Orient must be relayed
for its next leap to the waiting Occid-
ent and every western dash must be
sped onward as an eastern dash that
the world may go ahead That is Mid
way, a station on the Commercial Pa
cific Cable. Few have ever heard of
this remote outpost, 1t comes now
into the news simply because there is
a break in the cable and the news that
would go under the Pacific must find
other lines OF transit.
A mere detail of cable administra-
ton is this a mere matter of repair
for which provision has already been
made. Delicate tests have been made
with instruments of precision each
shore end has measured resistances
in the dead cable, mile after mile has
ton and it has been announced that
the break is to be found at Midway.
Already the cable ship has been des-
patched from Seattle out upon the
Pacific. The fault will be found and
the break repaired. Then east and
west Midway will send it's signal; the
worlds business will resume and Mid
way will drop from memory, in the
patient performance of duty unnoticed
SO long IS it is well performed.
This is the picture of the moment
when Midway is in the news; the
sketch of that remote islet where west
edge of east and tomorrow thrusts
today ASIDE. The outpost of empire
becomes imperial only through The
manhood that there does it's duty. Out
at Midway is vedette of civilization,
two dozen men and women. The sun
glare is over them; they all go goggled
lest their eyes be burned in their
sockets. Even variety has gone from
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neither variableness nor shadow of
turning. Also the wind is not fitful;
all day long for months on end it
blows from just the same corner of
the horizon and the sand which whirl-
ed in yesterdays blast will dance the
same endless whirl today and again
tomorrow. The rains will come on
their appointed days. just so many
gallons will pelt down as this day a
year ago and the clouds will roll aside
with strict observance of the calen-
dar.
Life is monotony; monotony steTeo-
typed. Four times in the year comes
a break Once every ninety days the
supply schooner comes from Honolulu,
with mail from home, papers and fresh
food; once in so often new operator
comes 20 take his trick at sending;
once in so often comes the chance for
WEAKNESS to get back to land where
things happen and rules have excep-
tons.
Here in picture and in text is Mid
way, outpost of empire, relay station
of news, wind blasted sunburnt home
of three and twenty pioneers. But
there is no lack of those who would
pioneer in the midst of the sea. At
the executive Offices of the cable com
pany they will tell you that they have
more applications for a Midway billet
than they can fill. There is a five
year contract into which the operators
on this distant post enter, but if the
solitude prove too much for any one
on the island there are so many on
the waiting list that relief is always
granted.
The superintendent is the Oldest
resident; he was there before the
cable came ashore; he began in 1902
In ten years he has seen the island
grow from barrenness to a measure OF
productivity. When first he landed
the only shelter was an old shack
built of the ruins of the Pacific Mail
shed, pieced out with wreck stuff from
the Wandering Minstrel, in which
Capt Walker had lived for more than
a year Now the settlement is a tidy
village, and two windmills spin in the
steady breeze Every night light is
kndled on the highest peak, dune
about as high as three story house
The superintendent was there when
the cable was drawn from the ocean
upon that lonely beach and the world
knew one more link in Puck's girdlC
about it, BY commission from the
United States he acts as game warden
to preserve the birds from the Japan
ese poachers. He is chief forester too;
he has anchored the sand with patches
of San Francisco or mariana grass
and as that spreads steadily over the