The difference in the number of persons per mile
in the two cases is also very great, Europe taking six times as many
persons to support a mile of railway as the States, and can only be
accounted for by the fact that American railways are constructed much
cheaper than the European ones.
* * * * *
BEFORE IT HAPPENED.
AT 9 A.M. on Wednesday, September 13, the correspondent of a press
agency dispatched a telegram to London with the intimation that the
great battle at Tel-el-Kebir was practically over. It may possibly
astonish not a few of our readers (says a writer in the _Echo_), to
learn that this message reached the metropolis between 7 and 8 o'clock
on the same morning; and, in fact, had an unbroken telegraphic wire
extended from Kassassin to London, Sir Garnet Wolseley's great victory
might have been known here at 6:52 A.M., or (seemingly) at a time when
the fight was raging and our success far from complete. Nay, had the
telegram been flashed straight to Washington in the United States, it
would have reached there something like 1 h. 44 m. after the local
midnight of September 12. Paradoxical as this sounds the explanation
of it is of the most simple possible character.
Pages:
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107