Show A RACE FOR A GIRDLE fhe contest between the overland telegraph and the atlantic cable the racecourse race course was between the old world orld and the now new the lacera were telegraph companies one was called tile the russian overland Ov Oveil eiland arid tile the other was I 1 the atlantic cable the track of the russian lay between IN new ew westminster in british I 1 columbia and I 1 moscow in russia up through the unexplored fraser river valley it was to run then on through the untracked tracked wilderness of alaska across bering over the timber i less steppes of arctic siberia and along the dreary coast of the sea to the mouth of the am there I 1 the american racers called western union were to give over the race to tho the russian telegraph department which was to make its best time in reaching moscow western union said it would cover i the ground in about two years the cost would be about five fire millions of dollars but what wa five millions of dollars it if the prize could be won an electric girdle of the earth the path of the atlantic cable was to be on a tableland some two miles deep in the ocean reaching from crom ireland to newfoundland the summer of found the world watching this race with great interest it opened when the fleet of the russian expedition set sail from san ban francisco north northward vard b bound tile the atlantic people at the same time x were ere sto stowing away gigantic coils of cable into the capacious hold of the great eastern a new cable some 2000 miles long the western union directors were nere shrewd business men F five ive mil millions liong of dollars was little in comparison avith the benefit they could receive could they get telegraphic communication with europe and they hey then believed that the only way was by land tho public agreed with them nearly unanimously and so the two projects the overland and the submarine were L pitted against each other A very unequal race it seemed at tile outset the overland was strong and vigorous the atlantic was broken bf by former ormer failures the overland was popular and had bad plenty of money back of it the atlantic was derided and only fools 1 it was said would invest in it the fleet of the russian expedition which sailed from san francisco in the summer ot of 1805 was quite a navy there were cceal steamers sailing vessels coast and river boats ind russian and american ships of 1 hie line with a promise of a vessel from her Maje navy the expedition was well officered and about men were enlisted men of superior ability in every department the supplies embraced everything that could be needed thousands of tons of wire some miles of cable insulators tois wagons etc august 20 26 the great eastern landed its cable at trinity day bay and the whole world was electrified by the news that it worked perfectly that the victory had bad been won moie aba than n that the great eastern not dot long iong afterward picked up the cable lost the year before and that too was as soon in boiking order two electric girdles had bad been clasped around are und tha iha earth the success of the atlantic was defeat for the russian Russ lau an overlaid telegraph line could never compete with the submarine cables the first triumphant click click at trinity bay was therefore the deathblow death blow of 0 the russian scheme and all work connected with nith that project was at onea oace abandoned but the workers the brave men facing famine among the wild chock chees buried in their lonely huts hilts waiting for some news from their comrades or straining every nerve to complete their share of the great voi how pathetic that so many of them did not hear what had bad happened in some cases for more than it a year after iho be success of the cable jane marsh parker in st nicholas |