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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 1899)
M for a Bid funnel Under the M Sea Win Will Connect Ireland and Scotland Money is ready and plans are laid for a tunnfl that will make all tunnels dug hitherto seem rather Insignificant, and that Incidentally will bring the United States and Europe several hours nearer. It is believed that It will begin a new era for Ireland and will advance Belfast many steps In the scale of Importance. It Is proposed to perform all of these wonders by dril ling a $50,000,000 hole thirty-five miles through the rock under the northern part of the Irish sea. through which passengers could be whisked by train, and could thus travel from London to Galway or Queenstown without chang ing cars All that the plan waits for now Is a guarantee from the British government of 3 per cent on the capi tal Invested from the time that the tunnel Is in working order. A big meeting was held the other day In a committee room of the house of com mons, presided over by the Marquis of Londonderry, former lord lieutenant of Ireland, In which the enterprise was boomed vigorously by Lord Rosebery and the Earl of Spencer and many oth er Important personages. A deputation was sent to the first loid of the treas ury to talk persuasively to him about the 3 per cent part of the business, anil the government is considering the question. If the government guaran tees the Interest the preliminary work will begin at once, and It Is expected that the tunnel will be completed In about ten years from the time the first sod is turned. When the time comes to turn that sed the man to do It really ought to be Lord Londonderry, whose powerful Influence has been exerted for it ever since It appeared that the plan was practicable. To him, therefore, I applied for Information on the sub ject, although lords of high degree are not much given to granting interviews In England. Lord Londonderry's great town bouse In artlatocratlc Park lane in London is as grim and forbidding out side as It is spacious and luxurious within. The marquis was In his libra ry, seated at a flat-topped desk, which one must suppose to be the grandfath er of all desks, for It was big enough r MAAAA<WS«VNAA^V%MVWWWVWVW to make three or four ordinary writ ing tables. Young eouples have start ed housekeeping before now In a house whose floor surface appeared no great er than the top of that desk. It was covered with newspapers nnd maps, In which the marquis was evidently much interested. "I believe," he said, "that the pro posed tunnel would bring a great change to Ireland, and although, of course, it is an undertaking that would have appalled the engineer of a gener ation ago, I am told that there Is no mechanical difficulty today that stands In the way of It. The total length of the tunnel under the sea would be twenty-five miles and the approaches on either side would be about flve miles each, making thirty live miles In all. Of course that Is about three times as long as any tunnel yet built. The Simplon la about thirteen miles, Isn't It? And the lit. Oothnrd tunnel Is something like nine miles long Hut It Is astonishing what progress the en gineers have made, and It la likely that In the course of ten years It would take to build the tunnel still further pro gress would be made, so that the sec ond half might be done In te*a time than the Aral half would take. "However, that ts a matter for the •vperts to talk about. What I am most gure shout Is that the tunnel will he a great saving of time It takes sli hours to get from tiondon to t'1 rlls * It) meant >4 the tunnel It woald be possible to go from Carlisle lo Helfaat In from two to three hours With th» Improvements that are to he eipected la tea years II sh<v«l4 be possible to get from IWIfaal to Oalway la three hours That makes eleven or twelve hours from l^M»4«a to Oalwny -Itut why 4<* you mepttoa Ualway * Thai lea l sspeclally nots4 as a sea port, la Ilf Hft |* likely to he If the tunnel '« but!! It la tbe most convenient port to New York. na4 It I* In the most can Ira I part of trslssf It I* tbe aatursl stopping pirns of th« trsnsailanti •ter mers, «"4 ms- be*-me a port of and does much the larger part of her business. Belfast would probably be the railroad terminal of the tunnel, and doubtless the trains would run to Belfast from the English side without stopping. To go from Belfast to Gal way without changing cars would re quire an entire new line of railroad, rfVWWAA/VWWWWWVWWWWV/\ “I can’t say, but it seems hardly likely that the government will refuse. This case isn't parallel to that of Mr. Hhodes’ railroad. Africa is unknown, and the receipts from the road were problematical, but with this tunnel the receipts can be estimated almost scien tifically, and besides the tunnel would LQXIMMPKRNV, U**n I4CVTKN \MT Of IHMI.AMtk along parallel with the Scotch coast. With the route as at present laid out, it la estimated that the tunnel at Its deepest point would be 500 feet under the surface of the sea, and that the steepest gradient will be one In seven ty-five, which is nothing extraordi nary. Any American engineer would con sider the estimate of ten years' time required for this Job to be rather lib eral. for great progress has been made In the speed of tunnel digging In the last twenty-five years. When St. (loth ard tunnel was begun In 1872 the high est rate of progress was two and a half yards a day. Kleven years later the average rate of progress In the Arlberg tunnel was twelve yards a day. Since then the inornate has been rapid, and if a chance la given to American con tractors to bid on the tunnel, the llrlt ish public will be rather likely to dis cover that it wouldn't take ten years to tie Kngland and Ireland together with steel. Not a little doubt has twen express • d about the financial feasibility of this extraordinary undertaking Would the government have to go down Into Its po»ket to find the 3 per cent* It i« said In reply that a large part of Ire land's growing commerce would reach Kngland through the tunnel, which would ex pec to compete with the channel *tc*ei»r« la price, and, of ours*, far outrun them In speed It Is said, furthermore, that the (Ireea Isle Pan vast pusiblili »«a M yet uodevelop «d and only watting for a imething u» ! , out* along and stir them up Owing to the slfurta of Irish capitalists lour ota are beginning to tahe a greater tn~ ! lereat la the taland than they ever tooh before se t if it were not su«-h n tig), uii pis s to reach they auvM he expec ted to go mere in ah->«ta, Aa the route t« hrsttland would be an abort and quieli It Is eipe* ted that Irish pro due* woull had a new and prohtabt* mat hr< ta the manufacturing towns o' grot*4*4 and »h* north of Kagdnnd ft Mild ttK*»WN great importance. It would cut sev eral hours off the time of passage If the steamers were to stop there, In stead of going to Queenstown.” owing to the present difference In the gauge between the English and Irish roads, but that would come in time, “I believe the passenger traffic alone “But that program is rather disas trous for Queenstown, isn't it?” “Yes, rather.” “And Queenstown Is going to be heard from on the subject isn’t she?” "No doubt, but it is the voice of Bel fast that will carry weight, for that Is the city most directly interested in the tunnel. It is the chief city of Ireland, VWWSAA/ would go a long way toward making the line pay, for It Is a long disagree able trip by boat across the channel. But perhaps I am prejudiced. They say I am In favor of the tunnel because I am such a notoriously bad sailor.” “If the government refuses to guar tee the 3 per cent Interest will the plan fall through for the present?” have an important effect upon the de velopment of Ireland. It is an affair of national importance. The money. I understand, can be had as soon as the government guarantees the Interest but the stockholders will not ask the gov ernment to step In until the work is entirely done and the plant is ready for operation. I know little about the plans or the financial part of the work, but I have no doubt American capital would be largely interested. "But one thing is certain, the effort to Interest the government Is entirely non-political. At the house of com mons meeting, over which I had the honor to preside, one of the strongest supporters of the plan was my oppo nent at the polls, and Lord Rosebery wrote me that he had long believed there were few more pressing objects of policy, not only from the Irish point of view, but also from the British and Imperial viewpoints. He said he be lieved that £10,000,000 was cheap, con sidering the advantages to be gained." This tunnel Is not new. Fifteen years ago it was seriously discussed, and later the Belfast chamber of com merce took it up, and asked for gov ernment assistance in getting prelimi nary souudings. and also for a guaran tee of interest on the capital invested. But the enterprise looked bigger than It does now, and £10,000,000 sounded like more money then than it does now, and the government was afraid to go into it. About the only danger now, from an engineering viewpoint, Is the possibil ity of fissures in the rock. The vari ous strata that would be crossed are known to be Individually waterproof, but a fissure where two atrata3 are Joined might spoil the whole plan, and make It necessary to find some other place of crossing than that now select ed, connecting Stranraer on the Scotch side with Magee island, twen ty miles northeast of Belfast on the Irish side. This is not the narrowest point in the channel, but it Is the most feasible. Even here the tunnel would have to make a detour of two or three mlle3 under water, to avoid an especially deep depression running - . HANDLING BULLION IN MEXICO Rubber Who Attacked the Train Had in I'Dpletuml Surprise. The story was told by a mining man who had a good deal of experience in old Mexico, says the New Orleans Times-Democrat. “In the foothills of the Sierra Madres, about sixty miles west of Chihuahua,” he said, “is the Santa Rosa gold mine, which was worked very profitably In the early ’80s. The only trouble was In getting the bullion to Chihuahua, for the coun try was infested with all manner or thieves and desperadoes and the trail was a splendid place for a hold up. On one occasion Just before a regular ship ment of a couple of bricks worth about $30,000 the superintendent got a tip that the pack train would be attacked, and took the precaution of sending along an extra guard, consisting of six men heavily armed with Winchesters and revolvers. A prospector named Dixon was at the mine and had intend ed going In with the party, but when he heard the rumor of the trouble he sensibly concluded that he would be safer alone and set off on an old south trail, driving a wretched burro loaded with his camping outfit. His sagacity was applauded when the news came back that the pack train had been am buscaded in a rocky pass by a large party of Mexican brigands. One of the escorts was wounded at the first volley, and, seeing themselves hopelessly out numbered, the guards abandoned the treasure mule and fled for their lives. Dixon reached Chihuahua all right and chuckled greatly when he heard the story, ter he had been chaffed a good deal at the mine for refusing to go with what was considered a perfectly safe escort. I mot him several months later and complimented him on his nerve in taking chances. ‘The chances were considerably bigger than you sup pose,’ he replied with a grin. ‘That pack mule was loaded with sawdust. The gold bricks were on my burro, un der the camp truck.’ ” HOBBIES OF ROYALTY. Queen Victoria's hobby is gardening, and she is passionately fond of dogs and ponies, her especial favorite being her old black pony Jessie. Her ma jesty Is also a great lover of bullfinches and has several of them, whose pretty tricks and charming piping give her Immense pleasure. To insure the safe ty of the feathered pets it is forbidden for any one In the royal household to have a cat—at least, any one whose apartment is at all near the queen's. The prlncerv of Wales has a great liking for lace. Her collection, which has some wonderful specimenst is worth $250,000. The duchess of York has one of the most interesting collec tions of postcards on record. It has been contributed to by the sovereigns of every land where postcards are used, the German relations of her royal highness supplying by far the greater number. Tho duke of Edinburgh Is an ardent stamp collector, and possesses one of the finest collections In the world. His daughter, the crown prlncces of Rou niania, delights In perfumery bottles, as did her grandmother, the late em press of Russia, who had a unique col lection of elaborate and beautiful bot tles, which was valued at $35,000, and was bequeathed to her grandmother. The queen of Italy has a peculiar hobby—a collection of gloves, boots and shoes which have been worn at dif ferent periods by royal and Imperial personages. She has a pair of white slippers and a fan which belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots; also shoes worn by Queen Anne and the empress Jose phine. King Humbert takes great pleasure in amateur cooking, at which art he is an adept. The empress of Germany Is a cham pion knitter, and uses Urge wooden needles for the work she does. The queen of Greece spends a good deal of her time In fancy needlework, and is said to be the finest needlewoman among European royalties. The dowa ger queen of Portugal Is fond of shoot ing and spends much time at her country place on the seaboard at Cal das, where she amuses herself by firing from a high window at bottles placed iu the sea for the purpose, rfhe Is said to be an excellent markswuman. The empress of Japan is distinguished for her clever manipulation of the koto, a Japanese Itutrrment resembling the slther. Natunil llrltl^m of The mml valuable natural bridge In the world is to be found In Arisons, lying across a dwp chasm forty feat In width. It la a petrified tree about four feet in diameter and about l'H) feet In length. It ts pure agate all through and therefore t* much more valuable a* regards malarial than any bridge of marble or granite could he Hut the moat eapenslve material of which a bridge has ever been built ta probably telegraph wire On# was ! built uver the J he I una river at Kohala. in the Punjab. In the place of a bridge which was swept away la Iba It * «de in 1**3 A similar bridge was ggg •trucieil duriag the first ri.>u Un can* paiga over the Kohora river fur mill* tary purpose# Ml HawtnJ • Mlaal* tt hat do you thlab of stamping «*“» letter# n minute* I £•** are try ing a sew machine in the t*hlcago pislitfcr, and that la Its r«>«rd Su far The it set Haw U stamped «a each letter, to* • gather with the eaareliag stamp, att I if there la anv delay In dlapai'hing the teller the hlgme ran be easily locate* The machine only regelres age npurg. ! ««*■ The first Nebraska tlie Craok Heglment. Nebraska owns the crack volunteer regiment of the United States and also boasts of the Biggest Mall Order House west of the Mississippi. Hayden Bros, are rapidly absorbirg the greater portion of western mail order trade and are even encroaching on the dis tricts of the eastern houses. Send postal cards for free price lists on any goods you need to Hayden Bros., The Big Store, Omaha. Lots of men never succeed in getting there Blmply because a dread of failure keeps them from starting. 44One Year s Seeding, Nine Years' Weeding/9 &fjcglcdcd impurities in your blood wdt sow seeds of disease of which you may never get rid. If your blood is even the least bit impure, do not delay, but take Hood's Sarsaparilla at once. In so doing there is safety/ in delay there is danger. Be sure to get only Hood's, because The attempts of ex-Governor Charles Warren Lippitt, of Rhode Island,, to suppress the playing of street pianos near his residence has proved unsuc cessful and have developed the fact that such music, or such noise, is not nearly as unpopular as the paragraph ed would have us believe. The Prov idence police have been uniformly In different to the ex-governor's appeals, anil now some of his neighbors, to show their lack of sympathy, are hav ing the pianos wheeled into their front yards and played there. New I'liteiitn. During the past week 517 TJnltei States Inventors received patents, ani oi iuib numuer 169 sold either the entire or a part of their In vention before the patent had is sued. Amongst the concerns who bought patent* were the follow ing: Columbia and Electrical Vehicle Co., Jersey City, N. J.; Victor Safe and Lock Co., 1. 1 Cincinnati, Ohio; Union Switch and Signal Co., Swissville, Pa.; Ansonla Brass & Copper Co., Ansonla, Conn.; Western Electrical Co., Chicago, 111.; Singer Manufacturing Co., of New Jersey; E. P. Allis Co., Milwaukee, Wis.; Carter’s Ink Co., Boston, Mass.; Whitehead & Coag Co., of New Jersey; American Wal tham Watch Co., Waltham, Mass. Inventors desiring Information as to the law and practice of patents, may obtain the same by addiesslng Sues At Co., Bee Building, Omaha, Neb. President McKinley has received the LL. D. degree from seven colleges. U. £ O. Uallroail I'ses Crude Oil. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad Is now using crude oil on Its tracks, though not so extensively as ltne3 which do not use crushed 6tone for ballast. There are many road cross ings, stations, etc., where dust flies after the passage of fast trains, and these places are being heavily coated with oil. So far the results have been gratifying. Facts must be feminine—at least they are stubborn things. Ilwfl the It ml Fluff of Dunfrer. lie I pimple*. Motel i* •*, I olU. no re* iir<* danger u« «lRi.a?*of t r Id liter. |» Isoncd h’o»d. Cioeart*t* C andy CatiMrtk-will »a\e you. Drurfutoi*, iu,^5,Vh* The enimity between Senators Chandler and Gallinger, ©f New Hampshire, was caused by a dispute regarding a postofltce appointment. A*k Vow Dralrr for Allen's FooI-Rim, A powder to shake iu your shoes. It rests the feet. Cures Corns, Bunions, Swollen, Sore, Hot, Callous, Aching, Sweating Feet and Ingrowing Nails. At all druggists and shoe stores, ‘.'5 eta. Sample mailed Fit EE. Address Alien 8. Olmsted, Be ltoy, N. Y. Vegetables are like fresh air—Indis pensable for our health; they cool and purify the blood und add n necessary acid to It. Work, for All. Thousands of men are making good wages In the harvest fields of Minne sota, North and South Dakota. There ts room for thousands more. Half rates via the Groat Northern Itjr. from St. Paul. Write Max Bass, 220 South Clark Street. Chicago. The Chine*# tael la a coin which ha never existed. ft la altnply a uni uaetl for convenience, ranlllm Thera ara warty atarvhea on Ik* maria but o«lv on# KanlUaa* AU gn- aTa««l II. Every ft""* haruaaheeper uaea it. Try V aad be aunvtaead Iwfge (taekage We Out o( clothes out of countenance out of countenance out of wit.- Uet 1 .fonatta. The trutha are leant desire to heal •re thaws which It would be to uut n!vantage t«* Itaow, Mra WlMies a a>wikia( faesWalaea teethtae. ►•»<«>« tks on, eels— t« aaoaa.aaaatialei.i, AUkknUo I*r Marita t.ulher Hnwkr, who oi» la Cleveland O. the other day at lb age of IT made the grat •■|>earh la fa vor of aholltloa ever made la Ohio rhla waa al Oheriia. which throng! hta effort a waa made the headunarten •if the underground railway l*r llruaha later laughl the nrat colam > H'huui la the west He waa aa mil male friend of Ida da . Tahtag th« g-iteram*ai crop r»p » aa a heels for computation the »tails I la tan nf the Nee V or k IVoaloa* K« change Egurea that at present prt e I the ha rv eat a of tht* rvaueiry. line t • la tight, ara worth ll.WId»,fd