AROUND THE WORLD | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 10, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 22.

AROUND THE WORLD.

A RESIDENT of London last June sent two postal cards round the world, one on the 6th to Vancouver via the Canadian packet and trans-Atlantic route, and the other two days later, to Hongkong via Brindisi and the Suez Canal, with the request that they might be sent on to the original sender, the first via Yokohama, Hongkong, etc., and the second via San Francisco and New York, which was done. One traveled eastward and the other westward, the object being to ascertain the quickest mail route around the world. The result has been that the eastward card (or second dispatched) returned on August 17, after an unprecedentedly quick passage of seventy days, while the other (or westward card) was not received in London till September 17, a month later, after 103 days' journey. The postmarks on the cards show that the eastward card was able to complete its journey with barely any stoppage at all. Allowing for stoppages, the actual time taken by the westward card in going round the world is reduced to 66 days' traveling. The estimated mileage that each card traveled was about 22,100 miles, the cost being 3¾d. eastward and 3d. westward. A third postal card was also sent from Dover on June 22 to Shanghai, via St. Petersburg, Kalgan, Pekin, and Hongkong, thence home via the United States, thus crossing the Russian and Chinese Empires. This card reached home after a journey of 89 days, at the cost of 2¾d. only. A similar journey by two cards going eastward and westward, which were dispatched from Sweden about ten years ago, occupied 116 and 117 days respectively.—Christian at Work.