The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1934-04-20

mile tunnel runs Is laid the telephone
cable; and, If the day be clear, just
as your train energies In Chilean sun
shine you can look up at the hilltop
and behold that famous peace monu-
ment, the Christ of the Andes, which
stands more than 10000 feet above sea
level, on the Chile-Argentine frontier.
Far below, though still at 1900 feet
elevation, Inca Lake is set among the
peaks. Still descending, your train
creaks, squeals, and winds in and out
among mountains of infinite majesty,
dignity and distance, rattles over
bridges that span roaring cascades, to
emerge at last into fertile, green val
leys of Chile.
In clean, safe, steam-heated trains,
this is fascinating trip. You may
sit comfortably at lunch and look out
through plate-glass windows at one of
the worlds most astounding panoram-
as. But you merely see it. The work.
ers out there along the track, in skat-
ing caps, ear muffs and mittens-the
engineers on snowshoes and the crew
driving the rotary pillow against the
drifts-they not only see but they feel
and smell the Andes.
And they hear the voices of the high
passes, the hiss of the snow and
Shrek of winds around the crags, the
roar Of avalanches.
Down the smooth, steep, snow-cov-
cred slope of one mountain, plainly
visible from the train, an avalanche
slides. Countless tons Of rock. dirt
and snow, coasting straight down from
the very clouds leaves long, perpen-
dicular scar. what is that funny trail
down the mountain side?' asks soli-
taire player, looking up from his cards.
No cne answers.
To save their cable from these
slides, the telephone engineers buried
1t in the rocks all the way from Las
Cuevas, on the Argentine side, over to
Juncal, in Chile.
Safety Comes First.
"When we picked out the route for
laying our cable over the Andes, 1t
was not with the view of keeping close
to roads and trails said an official Of
the American-owned telephone and
telegraph company. what we sought
was path that would give the cable
the most shelter and minimize the dam
ger of breaks from avalanches, land
slides or earthquakes.
"But always we had to carry the
heavy cable on the last lap Of its hard
journey up steep mountains and over
cliffs, to where we had blasted sunk
en- way for it. Only picked men could
stand this tremendous physical ordeal.
We chose only those who had worked
for years In high attitudes. Even the
blasting and digging Of our cables I'M
derground path over this roof of the
world, ditch many miles long, was
q back-breaking task"
Once the Andes separated Chile and
the Argentine not only physically and
in commercial way, but also formed
a barrier against intellectual, social
and artistic relations. Now, by this
cable, friendly intercourse is easy and
not only can Santiago talk over the
Andes and across the far pampas to
busy Buenos Aires, but by a 66-mile
cable under the great River Platte she
can talk to Montevideo, In Uruguay,
and from there on by radio telephone
to Europe, the British Isles, and the
United States.
When the Airplane Survey party.
which was sent to South America in
1880 by the National Geographic So
ciety, reached Santiago de Chile, one
OF its members called the society's
headquarters In Washington, D. G.
Over thousands Of miles Of sea, jun
gle. plains and Andean SHOWS this
long-distance dialogue was held as cas-
fly as if the speakers had been face
to face.
WHAT a contrast since doughty old
Tupac Yupanqui, the Inca warrior,
braved these Andean passes! Prob
ably 1t often took him weeks to get
his runners through. Now, when the
passes are free of dangerous storm
clouds and fogs, planes fly every week
between Santiago and Mendoza
The Andes are as high, cold and
vast as ever. Only they seem less so
now because trains and planes are
faster than mules and llamas, and be-
cause our voices on the new telephone
cable carry farther than the voices
of General San Martin and old Chief
Tupac Yupanqui shouting across the
canyons