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Show THE CENTRAL AFRICAN TELEGRAPH ' The Cape-to-Calro telegraph line has been completed to UJIJI, on tho cast shore of Ijvkn Tangnn!ka, 5500 miles from Cnpe Town. The vvlro Is strung on Insulated Iron posts sent from Kngland. The construction parties are dlv lded into live sections, In the proportion, on the average, of ono white man to a bundle i and twenty natives. The first relay, comprising two whlto men and two hun. dred natives, survejs the line nnd clears a path fifteen feet wide. The second relay re-lay widens the imthvvay to sixty feet; such width being considered necessary to keep the truck entirely clear, ns the distance between stations Is very great, and lepalia nf breaks must be slow and costly The third relay digs tho holes. The fourth relay plants the posts. Tho llfth inlay stilngs the wires. None of the i-ts weighs less than 160 pounds and nearly all are fourteen feet high. The line Is building altogether fiom the south, and will now be pushed onward to I'ashoda, where It will connect with the wire to Khuitoum and Alexandiln. The distance to complete between UJIJI and I'ashoda is Just about half that from Cape Tov 11 to UJiJI. so that about two-thirds of the distance is wiled; but the remaining part will take much longer proportionately, us tho dlstunce of tiuiwportlng material grows as tho line Is completed, and transportation of evei jibing being by pack on animals or men, the added distance becomes a seilous hlndtance. A notevvorthv nuttir In connection with tho building of this telegraph Is the exactions of the Herman Government Govern-ment upon the coiniianj-. Usually the right of way foi a telegraph line la not eonslcleied tn be of any particular consequence, con-sequence, und any one with a bona lltle ptnjei t can get it thioiiBh tbli country 01 Canada ahuont for the asking. Ilut not m with the Germans. This telegraph tele-graph line passes through the western border of Herman Hast Afibu, anil In return for the privilege of passing, tho company was ebiig d raja the Ulec-trlcal Ulec-trlcal World und Pnui rr, to build a separate line through Cicrman Last Africa from north to south, to be the property of the German Government, end to be used wholly for the telegraphic tele-graphic purposes of the German colonj-. That Government will connect Its poles on tho coast with the UJIJI station of the line. It is a most striking evidence of the energy and progress of the time to havo this line pushed to the darkest portion por-tion of tho earth. The railroad will follow fol-low in time, of course, and the darkness dark-ness of the land will disappear with the light of modern civilization, which will dispel the foul darkness as the sun scatters scat-ters the morning mists. |