Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1926-07-31
TELEPHONE LOOKING FOR
new WORLDS TO CONQUER
Complete System Recently Installed
In Egypt And The Holy Land.

years with considerable accomplish
ments to its credit in the new world,
is looking for other worlds to conquer,
Just recently it has started its march
of progress through strange lands in
the old world where communications
have been carried by message bearers
almost since the beginning of time.
Last summer, for instance, accord
ing to Long Lines, employees maya
zine of the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company, New York the
telephone visited Egypt and the Holy
Land and decided to remain there in
definitely. Consequently, the next
time you are in Alexandria, your
dragoman or guide may be expected
to beam with civic pride in announc-
ing that from booth right here in
his home town you may now make
reservations with the hotel clerk in
Jerusalem, 300 miles away.
AS if determined to keep your in
terest focused upon communication
topics he may next point out small
island in the harbor where once stood
the Pharos of Egypt. This, he ex-
plains was a great tower whence pre-
arranged signals were sent by means
of smoke by day, and fire by night. It
was the most famous of ancient COM
munication devices, built during the
conquests of Alexander the Great in
the Third century, B. c., and regarded
as one of the Seven Wonders of the
Ancient World.
Cairo, "City of Many Tongues"
farther down the Nile, is also proud
of the fact that electrical science has
Joined with history in linking it with
the Holy Land. Any one seeking
proof of the historical connection will
gladly be shown, in the suburbs of
Cairo, the exact spot where the infant
Moses was found among the bulrushes
along the Nile. Had "long distance"
existed in those days as now, Pha-
raoh's court reporters in Cairo might
have dictated the story to their home
offices in Alexandria, Port Said and
Holy Land cities in time to appear in
the late news editions.
The Holy City, conquered and re-
conquered through the dusty centur-
les, has become a cosmopolitan pa-
triarch which shelters many races and
religions, freedom of worship being
assured for them all. English, He
brew and Arabic are the official Ian
guages. Naturally, the versatile mod
ern telephone "speaks" them fluently
and often.
The globe-trotting telephone dur
ing the last year has shown a PEN
chant for going from one extreme to
another-both as to temperature and
human temperament. Outstanding in
this connection is the fact that just
north of tropical India a long dis
lance line has made it's way to Lhasa,
the Forbidden City, deep in the heart
of Tibet The line, constructed by ex-
perts loaned by the Indian govern
ment, spans LA miles of the toughest
mountain country where temperatures
are likely to vary from freezing in
the shade to above 100 in the sun.
For a hundred years no white man
set foot within the city gates of
Lhasa. In this mysterious land the
telephone has "gone native" for it is
said that one purpose of the new long
distance line will be to spread the
news of approaching invaders so that
they may be halted. It seems rather
paradoxical that the modern telephone
is admitted into Tibet partly for the
purpose of keeping modernism out.
Within the last twelve months a
pole line has threaded the Jungle
growth of equatorial Africa and as
cended to the rarer atmosphere at Ad-
dis Ababa, capital of Abyssinia. In
SO doing the telephone again proves
that it is an intrepid traveller.
Thus like fancy free young emf
grant from the New World, the long
distance telephone has rolled up con-
siderable mileage in its excursions
thru foreign lands. News reports in
future no doubt will tell of perennial
extensions in its itinerary, for "long
distance" as we know it takes no
mincing steps when the time seems
ripht for moving ON To soma other