Three hours later another building was rented on the unburned rim of the city, and the wire chiefs were at work.

In one day there was a system of wires for the use of the city officials.

In two days these were linked to long-distance wires; and in eleven days a two-thousand-line switchboard was in full working trim.

This feat still stands as the record in rebuilding.
In the supreme emergency of war, the telephone is as indispensable, very nearly, as the cannon.

This, at least, is the belief of the Japanese, who handled their armies by telephone when they drove back the Russians.
Each body of Japanese troops moved forward like a silkworm, leaving behind it a glistening strand of red copper wire.