CROOKED PATHS OF CABLE MESSAGES
When we follow the course of a cable dispatch, and see how many hands it passes through before reaching the person it is intended for, the wonder is that all cipher messages do not contain mistakes. The message from Minister Conger, for instance, was filed at Tien-tsin. The operator ticked it off to the cable station at Hongkong. From there it was sent to Singapore; it entered India, was caught up at Madras and hurried on to Bombay; with lightning wings it flew to Aden, in Arabia, where it was put on the cable to Suez, Africa. Then began the race toward Europe, by the way of Malta, Gibraltar, and Lisbon, ending on the eastern hemisphere at London. From the English capital it made another deep-sea journey to New York, and from there was telegraphed overland to Washington, having been transcribed no fewer than fifteen times.—Christian Advocate.