Show at a cable relay station on LIFE the westward course of empire Is loneliness sublime there one watches lay and night the swing back arad forth of the siphon re corder of tle code which brings to the cabi hut the new s of the world its poll cle its pulse of commerce and every dot which comes in from the orient must be relayed tor its next beai to the waiting occident and every western dash must be sped on ward an an eastern dash that the world iray go ahead that Is midway a station on the commercial pacific cable few have ever beard of this remote outpost out at midway Is a vedette of cial two dozen men and women the bun glare is over them they all go goggled lest their eyes be burned in their sockets even variety has gone from their lives in the lonely exile there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning also the wind is not fitful all day long for months on eid it blows from just the sama cornar of the horizon and the sand which whirled in yesterday s blast will lance the same endless whirl to day and again tomorrow the rains will come on their appointed days just many gallons will pelt down as this day a 5 ear ago and the clouds covered with grass and low bushes lower brooks sand island about a quarter of a mile west rises to th comparatively imposing height rf fifty five feet but what it makes up in altitude it loses in vegetation ita co verine of grass being much it Is a mile and a halt long three quarters of a mile wide glaring coral sand the corald corals on which the islets are based of whose disintegration are in fact composed are principally and madre pores a shown by the specimens still growing in the lagoon as well as by the frag ments in the dry soil which have not yet been reduced by the weather the sand which is the product of leaching of the dead coral by the rain Is a clear white very glaring in the bright sun and remarkably trying to the eyes in the center and eastern part of the sand island the disintegrating coral has been compacted by the rains into a stiff lime crust about a third of an inch thick and forming a glistening surface which requires considerable force to break on the immediate shores of the island the sand is about eighteen inches deep b tore the tras ments of coral begin to appear of any size the higher levels are apparently ll CABLE STATION ON MIDWAY will roll aside ft ath strict observance of the calendar life Is monotony monotony stereotyped four times in the year cornea a brenk once ninety days the supply ec hooner comes from honolulu with mall from home and fresh food once in so often a new operator comes to take his trick at send ing once in so often cornea the chance tor weariness to get back to land where things happen and rules have exceptions here in picture and in text Is mid way outpost of empire relay station of news wind blasted 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 corn pany they hlll tell you that they have more applications or a midway billet alian they can fill there Is a alve apar contract into which the operators oh this distant post enter but if the solitude proves too much tor anyone on the island there are many on the waiting list that relief Is always granted part of great bird preserve way back in 1867 the tiny group then known as brooks islands from their supposed discoverer was an by the U S S lackawanna because the pacific mall company thought it wanted it for a coaling sta alon the islands he some fifteen hundred miles northwest ot honolulu and between them and the hawaiian group Is a string of uninhabited islets that together with midway have been et aside as a national seabird preserve patrolled patr oled by 0 revenue cutter to keep off the poachers of the midway group brooks island is a roughly pear shaped lagoon atoll surrounded by a barrier reef of coral with two passages sufficient iv wide to permit vessels of consider ubie draft to enter the lagoon the atoll Is about to and a half miles long and varies in width from half a mile to two and a half miles the greatest breadth being toward the southwest the passages through the reef lie on the west and northwest sides the lagoon is fully a mile and a half wide at its widest and completely surrounds what little land there Is it Is thickly sown with patches of coral which in many large masses reaches close to the surface but boat channels may be found by careful steering and there Is ro danger since the water Is always still the land Is found at the east bide of the lagoon two islands each little than a mile long middle brooke or eastern island rises to a height of about flato y feet coral sand thinly entirely abllan mere dune drift ot sand by the wind from the beaches at any rate digging to such depth as was possible in the loose and readily sliding material fahed to disclose anything but sand water Is nowhere visible in fact there can be said to be no supply 0 fresh water at all pita along the beach will yield water at a depth of about four feet and this Is potable As Is commonly the case in the line islands nearer the equator this water Is sea water filtered and sweet ened by percolation through the coral sand one euch pit wilt be found in general for abbit a month a brief life for a well but matter of no great moment since another pit may be dug to a fresh supply within a few feet plenty of bird and fish it the land la of little worth the sea and the air bear an inordinate share of the burden of food tor man small as the islets ae a e the number 0 birds passes all reckoning one may mention a million merely as a con unit of meagre the albatross grudges mankind the room to walk about in the booby Is as absurd and foolish and altogether well named on midway as wherever found the sandwich tern Is under foot and an excellent table bird the bosi bird and the frigate are found at tain seasons on their nests and the plover and the curlew are in sufficient quantity to find their way to the bill of fare in the lagoon 1 abundance of fish cod sea perch the always toothsome mullet mackerel and the gaudy cory phenas so brilliant in their varied coloring that to put them into the pan seems almost to desecrate the rainbow by cooking tt the tre pang or beche de mer may be had with no more exertion than that ct picking its dark ugliness from the clear bottoms of the tide pool and those who have had oriental table ev per lence recognize that it may be made into the most savory of soups A delicious cockle Is somewhat sparsely found and many univalve mol luska afford a plentiful supply of palatable foods in the crevices of the sea reels which skirt the lagoon lie bidden many large crustaceans these ar rarely seen tor their habit Is becie alve but a pot baited overnight with somewhat high fragments of fish la usually found well filled in the mora ing and the size of the crustaceans crusta ceana runs rather higher than our best lobsters they lack the strong alawa ot the lobster they are more of the equalla type but the meat 1 very fine eating and abundantly wholesome 4 Y |