Francis Arnold Collins

“ There are hundreds of amateur wireless stations along the Atlantic seaboard listening to ships’ messages. It is comforting to know that if, by an accident, the powerful shore stations should fail to catch our messages, an army of alert boys are on guard.
Some four hours after your ship has passed out of Sandy Hook, or after a ninety-mile run, the operator bids the Sea Gate station good-by, and begins to feel ahead for the next station at Sagaponack, or even the one at Siasconset, on Nantucket Island. If your ear is Sensitive enough, you have probably heard her call sometime before. ”

“ For a few minutes all sending and receiving is stopped while the ship throws out her name, over and over again. Soon the wireless man catches the Nantucket’s reply, and explains that he could recognize the operator’s sending among a thousand.
Then he plunges into the work of sending and receiving messages. It was the Nantucket station, he will explain to you, that first picked up the C Q D call of the ill-fated Republic, and, by its promptness, gave the rescue steamers the news in time to save all on board. The first call of a station is always listened to with a thrill of expectation. ”

“ Even the staid old farm-house looks self-conscious and out of place when surrounded by a herd of dromedaries, zebras, or llamas.
The llamas posing for their pictures.
The difficulties of animal farming are, of course, endless. For one thing the wilder animals draw the race line very strictly. The domestic and the wild animals, even of the same species, never live happily together. The sacred cow will not graze peacefully with her domesticated sister—neither seems happy. To put zebras and horses in the same pasture, however large it may be, brings about instant and violent conflicts. ”

“ Ever since the steamer left New York, the editors of her daily newspaper have been receiving the latest news and publishing it in their daily editions, exactly as in any well-equipped newspaper ashore. This news is sent out regularly from a station at Cape Cod. The news of the world, including the latest stock-exchange quotations, is boiled down to 500 words, and is sent broadcast out across the Atlantic at exactly ten o'clock every night. It is thrown out for about 1800 miles in all directions, so that any vessel between America and the middle of the ocean may catch it. ”

“ The good ship is now nearing the eastern-most point of North America, and at Cape Race picks up the last land station. Once more a batch of messages is received and despatched. Cape Race is not a post to be coveted. It is one of the most isolated in the world, and throughout the greater part of the year perhaps the coldest. Operators stationed here have gone blind from the glare of the sun upon unbroken icefields. In leisure hours they have some compensation in hunting wild northern game. ”

“ And for all the years the circus animals have wintered among such civilizing influences on their Pennsylvania farm, they remain persistently ignorant of many things which an ordinary barnyard animal accepts as a matter of course. The llamas never respect fences, even very high and strong ones. Not one of them is of the slightest value for ordinary farm work. To herd them, since many of them are so powerful and swift of foot, is, perhaps, the most difficult of the chores on this extraordinary farm. ”

“ A novel diversion of a transatlantic crossing, nowadays, is a game of chess or checkers played between passengers on two steamers hundreds of miles apart. The squares of the boards are numbered and the moves announced by simply telegraphing these numbers, when each move is made. ”

“ Our operator understood perfectly, but he found time to ask his friend if the fishing were good, and received instantly an indignant reply.
RECEIVING A WIRELESS MESSAGE ON DECK. After Cape Sable, the ship continues its shore messages through the wireless station at Sable Island. Our ship is far north now, and the wireless stations are well up toward the verge of the snows. If you have sailed out of New York on a hot summer’s day, it will be difficult to picture to yourself the man who is now talking to you, perhaps wrapped in heavy winter clothing, looking out on a field of ice. ”

“ News of this kind takes precedence over everything else, and the apparatus is tuned to catch these reports, whether it gets the regular messages or not.
Your wireless operator seems to be on the friendliest possible terms with all the wireless stations. The men are constantly changing about between the ships and the shore stations. To this group of operators the world seems small indeed. The men may not meet for years, and yet, in stations thousands of miles apart, their friendship is kept alive by almost constant conversation. ”

“ And he went back to the pump, unloosened the patient old camel, and proceeded to fill up his seventh or eighth stomach.
“Have to de the best you can,” the farmer said. “I ’d sooner farm a thousand cows than that fifty head of camel and dromedaries, let alone the zebras, llamas, and yaks.”
Meanwhile herds of outlandish-looking animals crowd the quaint old farm-buildings on every hand. ”