SUBMARINE CABLES AND THEIR MANUFACTURE. 



209 



divan, he would be assassinated. This prophecy 

 sank deep into the mind of Abbas, and assassi- 

 nation was always uppermost in his thoughts.' 



" ' I wonder, then,' I said, ' that he ventured 

 to ill-treat or even to threaten the very Mame- 

 lukes who kept guard over him ! ' 



" ' No European,' answered Artim, ' would 

 have done so, nor would he, perhaps, when he 

 was cool, but in his fits of anger he was mad. 

 He killed several of his Mamelukes — one a few 

 days before his own death — and certainly had 

 threatened the two who murdered him.' 



" ' What has become of them ? ' I asked. 



" ' I believe,' answered Artim, ' that they are 

 still in the army. They have never been pun- 

 ished. Abbas's mother came to Said to ask that 

 her son might be revenged ; but Mahmoud Pasha, 

 Mustapha Bey, and Elfi Bey, the three persons 

 who first heard of the murder, had all been 

 Mamelukes. To preserve the honor of the corps 

 they made the physicians sign a certificate that 

 the death was natural, and Said was anxious that 

 that story should be believed, as he did not wish 

 to put the assassination of viceroys into people's 

 heads.' 



" ' With whom,' I said, ' does Sai'd live ? ' 



" ' With his servants,' answered Artim Bey, 

 'like all Oriental princes. His barber, his bath- 

 ing-man, his pipe-fillers, form the fonds of his so- 

 ciety. Then his soldiers, particularly his com- 



mon soldiers, have free access to him. Turks 

 are fond of low company. They are at ease in it.' 



" ' Said,' I said, ' seems to me at ease in all 

 companies.' 



" ' For a short time,' answered Artim ; ' but he 

 does not like the restraints of polished society, or 

 the sustained conversation of intelligent persons, 

 lie has quickness, d-propos, and repartee, and 

 some humorous naivete, but there is no sequence 

 in his ideas. He cannot reason. He has dis- 

 missed all his council, and turned his ministers 

 into clerks ; but so little is he aware of the ex- 

 tent of the duties he has assumed that he wastes 

 four or five hours every day drilling recruits. 

 That, however, is his amusement; and the amuse- 

 ments of a Turk are so few that he must take what 

 he can get. A friend of mine, a native physician, 

 was called in a few days ago by a Turk, and 

 found him dying of dyspepsia, arising from tor- 

 por of mind and body. He advised him to ride. 

 " I don't like riding," said the patient. " Then," 

 said the physician, "spend a few hours every 

 morning in your harem." " I hate my harem," 

 was the answer. "Then," said the physician, 

 " count your money for a few hours." " I don't 

 care about money," said the patient. " Then," 

 said the physician, " hang yourself, for how can 

 life be endurable to a man who does not care for 

 his horse, or his wife, or his money ? " ' " — Fort- 

 nightly Review. 



SUBMARINE CABLES AND TIIEIB MANUFACTURE. 



TWENTY-SEVEN years ago the first subma- 

 rine cable was laid across the Strait of 

 Dover. This was a single copper wire covered 

 in gutta-percha, which parted next day ; and the 

 first practicable submarine cable was laid in 

 1851, on the same route. Since then the prog- 

 ress of ocean telegraphy has been extraordinary, 

 no fewer than six cables spanning the Atlantic 

 bed — five to North America (although these are 

 not all working), and one to South America by 

 way of Madeira and Pernambuco. And so ex- 

 tensive is the already existing network of foreign 

 cables that, when Asia is united to America by 

 cabling the Pacific, the electric girdle round the 

 world will be complete from east to west, as it 

 now is between north and south. 



In this great development of telegraphy our 

 countrymen have unquestionably furnished both 



14 



the lion's share of the work and the capital. The 

 cables have nearly all been manufactured in Lon- 

 don, which is the headquarters of telegraphy. 



The principal parts of a submarine cable are . 

 the conductor ; the insulator/ and the protector, 

 or sheathing. The conductor, as its name im- 

 plies, is the wire which conducts or conveys the 

 electric current from one place to another. It 

 corresponds to the iron wire of our ordinary 

 open-air or land lines of telegraph. Along this 

 wire, as is well known, the current from the bat- 

 tery at the station from which the message is 

 being sent travels to the station receiving the 

 message, where it passes to the earth, and ap- 

 pears to return through the earth to the battery 

 again, thus completing its circuit. There are two 

 distinct parts of the circuit which the current 

 has to traverse — namely, the outgoing part, rep- 



