The Nome nugget., 1934-09-01

'rans-Andean Cable.
 Aconcagua, highest mountain In | Americas, whose snow-capped pei rubs the sky 23,0SO feet above t sea.
 Christ of the Andes.
 At Las Cuevas the westbou' train crawls into the mountain si from Argentina to emerge Chilean soil. Over the hill throu which this two-mile tunnel runs laid the telephone cable: and, if t day be clear, just as your trs emerges In Chilean. sunshine y can look up at the hilltop and ! hold that famous peace mounta the Christ of the Andes. whi stands more than 12,0O0 feet abe sea level, on the Chile-Argenti frontier.
 Far below, though still at 9,l feet elevation, Inca Lake is among the peaks. Still descendil your train creaks, squeals. winds in and out among mol tains of infinite majesty, dignity distance, rattles over bridges u span roaring cascades, to emerge last into fertile green valleys Chile.
 In clean, safe, steam-heai trains, this is a fascinating u You may sit comfortably at luI and look out through plate-gl; windows at one of the worlds n astounding panoramas. But merely see 1t. The workers [ there along the track, in skat caps, ear muffs and mittens- engineers on snowshoes and crew driving the rotary blow agai the drifts-they not only see they feel and smell the Andes. And they hear the voices of high passes, the hiss of the sn and shriek of the winds around crags, the roar of avalanches.
 Down the smooth, steep, snow-c cred slope of one mountain, plai visible from the train, an avalan' slides. Countless tons of rock, and snow, coasting straight do from the very clouds leave a 10 perpendicular scar. What is t funny trail down the mount side?" asks solitaire player, 10 ing up from his cards. No one swers.
 To save their cable from tn slides, the telephone engineers bur 1t in the rocks all the way from Cuevas, on the Argentine side, o to Juncal, in Chile.
 Safety Comes First.
 "When we picked out the TO for laying our cable over the An 1t was not with the view of keel close to roads and trails," said official of the Amerlcan-owned t phone and telegraph compt "What we sought was a path { would give the cable the most ter and minimize the danger breaks from avalanches, landsll or earthquakes.
 But always we had to carry heavy cable on the last lap of hard Journey up steep mounts and over cliffs, to where we blasted q sunken way for 1t. ( picked men could stand this tren dous physical ordeal. We ci only those who had worked for v in high attitudes. Even the bl ing and digging of our cables derground path over this roof the world, ditch many milesal was a back-breaking task"
 Once the Andes separated = and the Argentine not only pf Y cally and in a commercial way, also formed barrier against Ii lectual, social and artistic relati Now, by this cable, friendly 1T course is easy; and not only Santiago talk over the Andes across the far pampas to Buenos Aires, but by . 66-mile c under the great River Platte can talk to Montevideo. in Urug and from there on by radio phone to Europe. the British H and the United states.
 The Andes are as high, cold vast as ever. Only they seem so now because trains and pl are faster than mules and lla and because our voices on the telephone cable carry farther the voices of General San Mi and old Chief TuDac YuDa nh0ufiu9 aGrnna fhA Rnnv0na