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SO U V E N I R 
 
 Trip of Congressional Party 
 to Panama 
 
 March 12-18, nineteen hundred and seven 
 
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 LETTERS WRITTEN. TO THE WASHINGTON, PA., OBSERVER BY ERNEST F. ACHESON 
 
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Congressional Party on Steps of Hotel Tivoli. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/souvenirtripofcoOOache 
 
PREFA CE 
 
 On March 6, 1907, a party composed of forty-five members of the U. S. House of Representatives sailed from New- 
 York on the Steamer Panama for Colon. The personnel of the party was as follows : 
 
 Ernest F. Acheson, Washington, Pa. 
 Henry C. Allen, Little Falls, N. J. 
 Andrew J. Barchfeld, Pittsburg, Pa. 
 Franklin E. Brooks, Colo. Springs, Col. 
 Robert F. Brussard, New Iberia, La. 
 Albert S. Burleson, Austin, Tex. 
 John C. Chaney, Sullivan, Ind. 
 Pleasant T. Chapman, Vienna, I1L 
 Ralph D. Cole, Findlay, O. 
 John Dalzell, Pittsburg, Pa. 
 Charles R. Davis, St. Peter, Minn. 
 Beman G. Dawes, Marietta, O. 
 Edgar C. Ellis, Kansas City, Mo. 
 David J. Foster, Burlington, Vt. 
 John H. Foster, Evansville, Ind. 
 
 Finis J. Garrett, Dresden, Tenn. 
 Clarence C. Gilhams, La Grange, Ind. 
 Oscar W. Gillespie, Fort Worth, Tex. 
 Joseph V. Graff, Peoria, 111. 
 Daniel L. Granger, Providence, R. I. 
 James M. Gudger, Ashville, N. C. 
 Ebenezer J. Hill, Norwalk, Conn. 
 Elias S. Holliday, Brazil, Ind. 
 James A. Hughes, Huntingdon, W. Va. 
 Benjamin Johnson, Bardstown, Ky. 
 J. Warren Keifer, Springfield, O. 
 James Kennedy, Youngstown, O. 
 John W. Langley, Prestonburg, Ky. 
 George L. Lilley, Waterbury, Conn. 
 Mial E. Lilley, Towanda, Pa. 
 
 George A. Loud, AuSable, Mich. 
 Samuel W. McCall, Winchester, Mass. 
 Bird S. McGuire, Pawnee, Okla. 
 Thomas F. Marshall, Oakes, N. D. 
 Theobold Otjen, Milwaukee, Wis. 
 Richard Wayne Parker, Newark, N. J. 
 Sereno E. Payne, Auburn, N. Y. 
 Ernest M. Pollard, Nehawka, Neb. 
 Jos. E. Ransdell, Lake Providence, La. 
 Joseph T. Robinson, Lonoke, Ark. 
 William W. Rucker, Keytesville, Mo. 
 Edmund W. Samuel, Mt. Carmel, Pa. 
 Charles F. Scott, Iola, Kan. 
 Sylvester C. Smith, Bakersfield, Cal. 
 Edward L. Taylor, Columbus, O. 
 
 Mr. Payne acted as president of the delegation and Mr. Scott as secretary. Hon. Benjamin F. Harper, Auditor for 
 the War Department, and his wife ; Col. George W. Goethals and Maj. D. D. Gaillaid, two of the U. S. Engineers chosen 
 by President Roosevelt as members of the re-organized Canal Commission, were passengers on the Panama and accompa- 
 nied the party on its inspection of the Isthmus. 
 
 Before leaving home the writer had promised to send some letters to the Washington, Pa., Observer. Those who 
 were members of the party will understand how fully the time was occupied and the great pressure under which the work was 
 done. No opportunity for correction or revision of the articles was afforded as they were mailed when written. The writer 
 is assured that those who are familiar with the circumstances will overlook errors and deal charitably with these hasty pro- 
 ductions. This souvenir is printed at the suggestion of some members of the delegation who had read the newspaper letters. 
 Washington, Pa., April 20, 1907. ERNEST F. ACHESON. 
 
/ 
 
First Day on the Isthmus 
 
 Colon, Panama, March 12. — The trip 
 from New York to Colon in the month 
 of March is most delightful, at least 
 we found it so this year. The weather 
 was fine throughout the entire voyage, 
 the table was good, the state rooms 
 comfortable and all the surroundings 
 enjoyable. We came on the ship 
 "Panama," owned by the Panama 
 Railroad company, which now belongs 
 to the Isthmian Canal commission. 
 The distance between New York and 
 Colon is 1,975 miles, and the "Pan- 
 ama" makes it in less than six days. 
 It is a ship of five thousand seven 
 hundred tons, only about one-half the 
 size of one of the great ocean liners, 
 yet more than sixty times as large as 
 the boat in which Columbus first cross- 
 ed the Atlantic. 
 
 One of the most interesting inci- 
 dents of our voyage was the glimpse 
 we had of San Salvador or Cat Island, 
 on which Columbus first set foot. We 
 passed within a half mile to the east, 
 and could clearly see the pile of stones 
 which has been erected as a monu- 
 ment to mark the spot where Colum- 
 bus is said to have landed. This island 
 is now designated on the map as 
 Watling's island. Columbus called it 
 San Salvador, "The land of the Holy 
 Savior." The great navigator expect- 
 ed to reach Asia on this voyage, and 
 
 had letters to the Great Kahn of Tar- 
 tary, whom he hoped to convert to 
 Christianity. It would be thought 
 that the name bestowed upon this 
 island by the discoverer would have 
 been accepted throughout all time, 
 but it has been rechristened and given 
 the name of a man of whom the world 
 knows nothing. We have many in- 
 stances of this in history, and in our 
 own western Pennsylvania. One hun- 
 dred and fifty years ago when Wash- 
 ington first crossed the Alleghenies he 
 stood upon the mountain top in what 
 is now Somerset county and looked 
 down at the place where the Castle- 
 man river, the Youghiogheny river 
 and Ursina creek unite. The coming 
 together of three streams at one place 
 was so unusual that Washington call- 
 ed it "Turkey Foot" and so it was 
 known for more than a hundred 
 years. A few years ago the people 
 of that place who did not appreciate 
 the unique character of the name, 
 and the fact that it had been given 
 by one of the most illustrious men in 
 the world's history, had it changed to 
 Confluence, a name which could mark 
 the point of union of any two streams. 
 So Bloody Hun in Bedford county, an 
 historic spot since revolutionary days, 
 was robbed of its name not long ago, 
 and given the commonplace title of 
 
 — 3— 
 
 Everett. Only recently a proposition 
 has been made to change the name of 
 the old town of Hickory in Washing- 
 ton county to that of Wabash. Such 
 vandalism should be discouraged. 
 
 The "Panama" is equipped with the 
 De Forest system of wireless tele- 
 graphy. It is a never ceasing wonder. 
 The operator sent messages for many 
 of us to the station at Cape Hatteras 
 and talked with other vessels at sea, 
 many of which were so far away that 
 we could not see them. He caught 
 many messages flying through the air 
 from Cuba and other points. The wire- 
 less telegraph is truly one of the mar- 
 velous inventions of the age. 
 
 When we reached the Gulf stream 
 some one recalled the story of the 
 old sea captain, who during the Civil 
 war told the British that the Yankees 
 would get even for their unfriendli- 
 ness, by digging the Panama canal 
 and turning the Gulf stream into the 
 Pacific. It was a story which attract- 
 ed some attention and caused specula- 
 tion. Magellan, the discoverer, was 
 quoted as having said that a volcanic 
 eruption which would make a channel 
 across the Isthmus of Panama, would 
 deflect the Gulf stream to the Pacific, 
 and convert England and Northern 
 Europe into a territory as barren and 
 desolate as Greenland. As the Gulf 
 
stream is 80 miles wide and a thous- 
 and feet deep, with a current of two 
 or three miles per hour, it is not like- 
 ly that even a sea level canal across 
 the Isthmus, 200 feet wide and 40 
 feet deep, would have the slightest 
 effect upon it. Moreover the tide at 
 Colon, as shown by a series of obser- 
 vations covering a period of five years 
 is less than one and a half feet, while 
 at Panama on the Pacific side is near- 
 ly nineteen feet. In a sea-level canal 
 at least one lock would be necessary 
 to regulate the tide, and prevent the 
 rush of water from the Pacific to the 
 Atlantic. However, the type of canal 
 as adopted involves its construction at 
 a level of 85 feet above the sea. 
 
 The city of Colon has a bad reputa- 
 tion. It is less than two feet above 
 sea level, and until recently has been 
 notoriously unhealthy. It is surround- 
 ed by the miasmatic swamps of the 
 Chagres river. When the French were 
 at work on the canal twenty years ago, 
 it was said that every cart load of 
 earth which ,was handled near Colon 
 represented a human life. Likewise it 
 was stated that in the construction of 
 the railroad across the Isthmus there 
 was a death for every tie that was 
 laid. Both these statements were ex- 
 aggerations. The railroad is forty 
 seven miles long, and twenty-five 
 hundred ties are used in each mile. 
 Some authorities here say that less 
 than seven thousand persons who were 
 
 employed on these two enterprises 
 died during their construction. How- 
 ever, the cemetery at Monkey Hill, 
 just outside Colon, contains thirty 
 thousand graves. Many thousands of 
 these are the last resting places of 
 adventurers, criminals and outcasts 
 from every nation who were attracted 
 to Panama by the great work going on, 
 and were never able to leave. Rum 
 caused the death of thousands. Those 
 who use alcohol too freely cannot live 
 in the tropics. As rum lost Russia 
 the war with Japan, it also carried off 
 thousands who came to Panama es- 
 pecially in those days before the pro- 
 per sanitary measures were put into 
 operation and yellow fever was preval- 
 ent. Although. Colon is not in the 
 Canal zone, the Isthmian commission 
 has control so far as sanitation and 
 the preservation of the peace is con- 
 cerned. The streets are being raised, 
 paved and sewered, and it will not be 
 long until the old Spanish town has 
 more the appearance of a bustling 
 American city. 
 
 Our party is to go across the Isthmus 
 on the Panama railroad. This line is 
 47 miles in length and cost originally 
 $8,000,000. It was built by Americans, 
 to whom a concession was granted in 
 1850. It was finished in 1855, and for 
 years thereafter was said to be the 
 best paying railroad in the world. It 
 had a monopoly of railroad rights on 
 the Isthmus. No one could build a 
 
 —4— 
 
 road of any kind between the two 
 oceans. It paid for itself in four 
 years. Columbia received $250,000 a 
 year for the concession. For thirty 
 years it cost $25.00 in gold for pas- 
 sage across the Isthmus, and the 
 freight charges were $160.00 per ton. 
 As oniginaHy constructed the road 
 had a five foot gauge and fifty-six 
 pound rails. The ties were lignum 
 vitae, so hard that it was necessary to 
 bore holes to drive spikes. This was 
 the only wood that could be used on 
 account of the ants. The telegraph 
 poles are iron. The big bridge across 
 the Chagres river is said to have been 
 the first steel structure of the kind. 
 It is still standing and in excellent 
 condition. 
 
 Colon is almost due south of Wash- 
 ington county. It is just a little east 
 of the 80th meridian, which passes 
 through Bentleyville and Finleyville. 
 It is a little north of the 9th parallel. 
 The 40th parallel crosses southern 
 Washington county. 
 
 We are to go from Colon today to 
 Panama city on the Pacific coast. The 
 route of the railroad and of the canal 
 is from northwest to southeast. This 
 is rather puzzling, as we naturally 
 think the canal should be on an east 
 and west line. However, the Isthmus, 
 which is four hundred and eighty miles 
 long and thirty-seven to one hundred 
 and ten miles wide, runs almost east 
 and west. Panama, the Pacific en- 
 

 
 
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trance to the canal, is almost twenty 
 miles further east than Colon. As a 
 local illustration we might say that 
 if the Washington seminary stood on 
 the site of Colon, the direction of the 
 canal toward the Pacific, instead of 
 being along Maiden street toward Main 
 street, would be out East Maiden 
 street toward Brady's hill. 
 
 One can see here something of the 
 vast work done by the French. Dur- 
 ing the decade which they were at 
 work, they spent over $250,000,000. 
 The United States paid $40,000,000 
 to the French company for all its 
 right, title and interest in the canal. 
 It has been alleged that of what the 
 French spent one third was stolen, 
 one-third wasted and one-third went 
 into the work of digging the canal. - 
 Already I find these figures question- 
 ed. Many of those who know a good 
 deal about the canal say that while 
 undoubtedly millions of dollars were 
 squandered and stolen, that at least 
 half the total- expenditure was for 
 work which will count in the comple- 
 tion of the canal. The total excava- 
 tion under the French regime was 
 about 88,000,000 cubic yards. Much 
 of the money which was squandered 
 was in the purchase of useless ma- 
 chinery which is now out of date. 
 Fully one-half of the excavation was 
 in the backbone of the divide between 
 the two oceans, and was useful work. 
 The original French plans contem- 
 
 plated a sea level canal seventy-two 
 feet wide and twenty-nine and a half 
 feet deep, but the plan subsequently 
 adopted was for a canal ninety-eight 
 feet wide, and twenty-nine and a half 
 feet deep. 
 
 According to the plan adopted by 
 the United States, the great cut will 
 be two hundred feet wide at the bot- 
 tom and forty feet deep. It will 
 be five hundred feet wide for two- 
 thirds of its length. When the French 
 left the great cut the distance across 
 the highest point was about seven 
 hundred and fifty feet. When our 
 canal is completed it will be about a 
 thousand feet. The French erected 
 over twenty-one hundred buildings of 
 various kinds, and Mr. Wright, the 
 architect who has charge of the work 
 in that line for our government, tells 
 me that they are of excellent design, 
 material and construction. While the 
 French erected fine hospitals, they 
 did nothing for the preservation of 
 health. Indeed they were not familiar 
 with modern methods of preventing di- 
 sease. Under their administration the 
 employes were poorly fed and the 
 mortality among them was appalling. 
 
 When the United States gave $40,- 
 000,000 for the canal, the various parts 
 of the work were estimated as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 Excavation, $27,500,000; Panama 
 railroad, $6,850,000; maps, drawings 
 and records, $2,000,000, and buildings, 
 
 — 5— 
 
 storehouses, hospitals, land, equip- 
 ment, etc., $4,000,000. This seems to 
 have been a good bargain for Uncle 
 Sam. 
 
 One of the greatest accomplish- 
 ments of the Americans on the Isth- 
 mus has been the suppression of yel- 
 low fever. The mosquito has practic- 
 ally been put out of business. The 
 medical authorities and scientific 
 world now recognize the correctness 
 of the mosquito theory as to yellow 
 fever. The transmission of yellow 
 fever has been prevented, and the 
 disease stamped out, by destroying 
 the "loaded" mosquito. Oil is scat- 
 tered throughout all the swamps and 
 stagnant pools where these mosquitoes 
 breed. As a result no authentic case 
 of yellow fever has been reported here 
 for eighteen months, whereas it was 
 once prevalent at all seasons. 
 
 While the theory that malaria is 
 conveyed by mosquitoes is not yet 
 so generally accepted, it is being 
 demonstrated by actual experiments 
 here to be correct. The medical men 
 say that within a few months they 
 will satisfy the scientific world that 
 malaria is due to the mosquito, just 
 as yellow fever is. Just as the ma- 
 laria bearing mosquito is destroyed, 
 the prevalence of malaria decreases. 
 The authorities examine the blood of 
 the West Indian negros who come 
 here to work, and it is found that nine- 
 ty-eight percent have malaria in their 
 
systems. These men are required to 
 sleep behind wire screens, and the 
 malaria rapidly disappears. The same 
 experiment has been made with the 
 laborers from other countries. The 
 Spanish workmen who live in un- 
 screened quarters get malaria. Those 
 who are housed behind screens escape I 
 it. Those who sleep in tents un- 
 screened soon succumb to malaria. 
 
 The health of the people on the 
 Isthmus in the Canal zone is wonder- 
 
 fully good. Upwards o£ seven thous- 
 and Americans, including about one 
 thousand five hundred women and 
 children, are here, and no death has 
 been reported for a year from disease. 
 No government or no city ever made 
 more intelligent and comprehensive 
 arrangements for the health of its 
 people than the United States has 
 made for those who are to construct 
 the Isthmian canal. The temperature 
 here is lower than at many points in 
 
 the United States. The thermometer 
 has never registered 100 degrees 
 while the official thermometer at the 
 weather bureau in Washington city 
 has recorded a heat of 104 degrees. 
 What is needed here is sanitation and 
 the proper observance of the laws of 
 health, and these the authorities are 
 insisting upon. The French failed 
 largely for the lack of these precau- 
 tions. We shall succeed more easily 
 because we have taken them. 
 
 History of the Canal Project 
 
 Panama City, March 13. — This 
 morning I saw the sun rise out of 
 the Pacific ocean. Panama City is 
 built upon a point of land which ex- 
 tends southward into Panama Bay. 
 On account of the geographical situa- 
 tion the sun both rises from the Pa- 
 cific and sets in the Pacific. The loca- 
 tion is puzzling and it is some time 
 before the sojourner can get the points 
 of the compass. The sunrise was glor- 
 ious. It is only a few minutes after 
 old sol peeps above the horizon until 
 he shines in all his splendor. The 
 reflected light gives the appearance of 
 two suns. 
 
 The bay is very quiet at all times. 
 Numerous islands protect the shores, 
 and while the wind sometimes blows 
 
 hard there is no sea. It is no wonder 
 that Balboa, who was the first white 
 man to look upon this ocean, called it 
 the Pacific. It may be a misnomer as 
 applying to the ocean as a whole, but 
 this part of it is never visited by se- 
 vere storms. 
 
 This morning our party went to 
 Culebra cut, where the Isthmian Canal 
 is to pass through the mountain 
 range, and unite the waters of the At- 
 lantic and Pacific. We had a special 
 train and every facility was given us 
 for seeing the tremendous work which 
 is going on. Before speaking speci- 
 fically of the Culebra cut, it may be 
 well to refresh the recollection of your 
 readers with a few facts about the 
 canal. 
 
 The idea of cutting a canal across 
 the Isthmus of Panama was conceiv- 
 ed soon after its discovery, over four 
 hundred years ago. The first survey 
 was made in 1581. From that time to 
 the present more than a dozen dif- 
 ferent routes were examined, and in 
 1881 the French began the work of 
 constructing the canal between Limon 
 Bay on the Atlantic and the Bay of 
 Panama on the Pacific. The famous 
 French promoter M de Lesseps, who 
 built the Suez Canal, was in charge of 
 the undertaking. When the French 
 company failed, after expending over 
 $250,000,000, the United States gov- 
 ernment purchased its rights and title 
 for $40,000,000. The length of the 
 canal is fifty miles from deep water 
 
r 
 
on the Atlantic to deep water on the 
 Pacific. Beginning at the Atlantic 
 end it will be a sea level canal 1,000 
 feet wide and 40 feet deep for a dis- 
 tance of seven miles. Then by the 
 construction of three enormous locks, 
 each having a lift of 28% feet, ships 
 will be raised to a height of 85 feet 
 above the ocean. There they will en- 
 ter Gatun lake, which is to be formed 
 by building a dam 8,000 feet long, a 
 half mile wide at the bottom and one 
 hundred and thirty-five feet high. This 
 lake will have an area of 110 square 
 miles and will back the water for a 
 distance of thirty-two miles through 
 the great divide to the Pedro Miguel 
 lock (or Peter Magill, as the boys here 
 call it), on the Pacific side of the 
 mountain; thence by Sosa lake deep 
 water is extended for a distance of six 
 miles to La Boca. The Peter Magill 
 lock is to have a lift of thirty feet, and 
 the two Sosa locks twenty-seven and a 
 half feet each. From the Sosa locks 
 a sea level channel is dredged a thous- 
 and feet wide and 40 feet deep, for 
 a distance of four miles. 
 
 It is estimated that it will take a 
 ship about twelve hours to pass 
 through the canal. Each vessel will 
 pay a toll of about $2.00 per ton. They 
 can well afford to do this, as the con- 
 struction of the canal will shorten the 
 distance by water between New York 
 and San Francisco over eight thousand 
 miles. The saving in distance to all 
 
 points on the Pacific will be in this 
 proportion. 
 
 The greatest achievement of the 
 Americans on the Isthmus has been 
 the permanent driving out of yellow 
 fever. The Isthmus is today as safe a 
 place to visit, as almost any part of the 
 world. The sanitary regulations are 
 better observed here than in many 
 places in the United States. Mosqui- 
 toes are scrupulously guarded against. 
 Most of the houses have porches. 
 These are screened; then the windows 
 have screens, and in many cases mos- 
 quito bars on the beds are used. These 
 precautions have been effective, but 
 are coming to be unnecessary, because 
 there are no mosquitoes. I have not 
 seen a mosquito since I have been here. 
 Dr. Gorgas, who has charge of the 
 health bureau on the Canal zone, tells 
 me that he has drained every swamp 
 near the line of the canal where the 
 expense would not be too great. If 
 the cost is prohibitive, he uses oil and 
 the surface of all the swamps is sprink- 
 led with the oleagenous fluid. His de- 
 partment has used over two thousand 
 barrels of California oil in this way. 
 The pipe line extends clear across the 
 Isthmus, within sight of the railroad 
 and looks familiar to a visitor from 
 Washington county. 
 
 The word Culebra is pronounced as 
 though spelled coolavra, the letter "b" 
 having the sound of "v." Most of the 
 natives give the "e" the sound of "a." 
 
 — 7— 
 
 The length of the cut through the 
 range of hills is nine and a half 
 miles. At the summit it will be 241 
 feet deep. As the water will be forty 
 feet deep the traveler on the ships go- 
 ing through will look up the moun- 
 tain side to the pinnacle 201 feet. The 
 trip through the canal at this point 
 in some respects will resemble the 
 trip by the inland passage from Seat- 
 tle to Alaska. The amount of exca- 
 vation yet to be made in this cut is 
 52,000,000 cubic yards. Last month 
 639,000 yards were taken out and to- 
 day 31,000. Great steam shovels are 
 at work, each of which lifts five yards 
 of earth and can raise from ten to 
 fifteen tons of rock at a time. 
 
 The Culebra cut is distinctively a 
 railroad proposition. Given the time 
 and the money there is no question 
 as to the ability of the engineers to 
 finsh the work successfully. The 
 greatest difficulty is in the disposing 
 of the material and it is this which 
 leads to the estimate that it will take 
 six or eight years. The engineers, 
 foremen and all those in charge of 
 the work are very enthusiastic and 
 have no doubt of their ability to com- 
 plete the job within the time they have 
 set. Most of them think the United 
 States got a great bargain in its pur- 
 chase of the canal for $40,000,000. 
 They speak well of the French and 
 the work done by them. 
 
 One of the entertaining persons I 
 
met on this trip was Judge Gudger, of 
 the United States court for the Canal 
 zone. This court is composed of three 
 judges. They sit separately, and if an 
 appeal is taken, en banc as a supreme 
 court. They dispose of all cases, 
 civil and criminal. No jury trials are 
 held. This is said to be a great sav- 
 ing in time. It is estimated that the 
 courts transact their business in less 
 than one-third the time taken in 
 similar cases in the United States. 
 The lawyers waste little time in ques- 
 tioning witnesses, and even less in 
 addressing the court. Yesterday 
 Judge Gudger pronounced the death 
 sentence on the first person to be con- 
 victed of murder on the Canal zone. 
 The case has been appealed and will 
 go to the supreme court of the United 
 States, which must determine wheth- 
 er or not a prisoner can be convicted 
 of a capital offense in the United 
 States court without a jury trial. It 
 will be an interesting argument, in- 
 volving the question whether or not 
 the constitution at all times fol- 
 lows the flag. The right of trial by 
 jury is one of our sacred institutions, 
 for which English speaking people 
 have been willing to lay down their 
 lives. In the Canal zone, however, 
 about half the old Columbian laws are 
 in force. The native Panamans do 
 not like the trial by jury, and prefer 
 to be tried before a single judge. 
 I had an interesting talk with G. R. 
 
 Shanton, who is the Captain of Police, 
 and also United States Marshall, Cor- 
 oner and Warden of the Penitentiary. 
 From him I learned that the average 
 number of arrests per month were 
 about six hundred. The estimated 
 population of the Canal zone is now 
 70,000. Every nationality on earth is 
 represented. Considering this fact, 
 the amount of crime is very small. 
 The largest number of cases are forg- 
 eries, principally in altering the time 
 checks. Assault and battery cases 
 come next, and then the violation of 
 the sanitary regulations. Failure to 
 observe the health laws is a serious 
 offense here. If anyone throws slops 
 upon the ground or in any way vio- 
 lates the sanitary regulations, he is 
 arrested and fined, and if the offense 
 is repeated he is sent to jail. This 
 vigilance accounts largely for the 
 splendid health in the canal zone. I 
 imagine the offenses of this kind are 
 far fewer here than in the borough of 
 Washington, which some are wont to 
 regard as a model. C. M. Ruple, Esq., 
 secretary of the board of health and 
 Health Officer Carter have said that 
 hundreds of the citizens of Washing- 
 ton disregard the sanitary laws con- 
 stantly. If such persons were arrest- 
 ed and fined as they are here the 
 borough treasury would be replenished 
 rapidly. 
 
 The Canal zone is a safe place in 
 which to live and seems to be freer 
 
 — 8— 
 
 from serious crime than Washington 
 county. During the past three years 
 only ten homicides have occurred, and 
 two cases of assault upon women. 
 While I do not have the figures, I am 
 sure that the records of the Washing- 
 ton county court will show a greater 
 number. The police are vigilant. 
 They make the people live decently 
 whether they wish to or not. At this 
 time the penitentiary contains 100 
 prisoners, a small number consider- 
 ing the character of many of the com- 
 mon laborers, who have come hither. 
 The Canal zone's police force con- 
 sists of 180 persons, 80 white men, 
 and 100 blacks from Jamaica. The 
 Jamacian negro, having lived under 
 British rule, is a law abiding citizen, 
 and makes a good officer. Each po- 
 liceman must be at least five feet eight 
 inches in height. The blacks are paid 
 $40.00 per month and board, and the 
 whites $75.00. After two years' ser- 
 vice the whites receive $83.00 per 
 month, and the ten sergeants $125.00 
 per month. Under the management of 
 Captain Shanton it is a model police 
 force. The captain was for twenty 
 years a cow boy in Wyoming. He saw 
 service with Buffalo Bill. When the 
 Spanish war broke out he was sheriff 
 of the county in which he lived, and_ 
 resigned to become an officer in the 
 army. President Roosevelt knew of 
 his qualities, and put him in charge of 
 the police department here. He is 
 
Beautiful Palms and Road at Ancon Hospital. 
 
certainly the right man in the right 
 place. 
 
 This afternoon we visited the Ancon 
 hospital. It is said to have the most 
 beautiful location of any hospital in 
 the world. Ancon is a volcanic moun- 
 tain which rises for a height of 620 
 feet from the sea. Its top is within a 
 mile of Panama city. The French 
 graded off the side of the mountain 
 200 feet above the ocean, and formed 
 a plateau on which the numerous hos- 
 pital buildings were erected. The out- 
 look from the hospital grounds is mag- 
 nificent, and the cool breezes are al- 
 ways in motion there. Extensive 
 drives and walks have been laid which 
 are amply protected from the torrent- 
 ial rain fall by heavy stone water- 
 tables and culverts. The entire ex- 
 penditure for building and grounds is 
 said to have been over $3,000,000. 
 Some say $5,000,000 were expended, 
 but the United States secured every- 
 thing for $1,000,000. Some of the 
 buildings have been remodeled and 
 enlarged. 
 
 A number of the patients who were 
 spoken to were loud in their praises 
 of the treatment they had received. 
 A young man from Washington city, 
 whose leg had been amputated, said 
 he had been accorded every attention 
 which could possibly have been given 
 him at the national capital and con- 
 gratulated himself that when misfor- 
 tune came he was near what he con- 
 sidered the best hospital of which he 
 had knowledge. 
 
 After visiting the splendid residence 
 which was erected by the French en- 
 gineer on the point of Ancon moun- 
 tain, facing the Pacific, we went to the 
 cemetery on the edge of the city, 
 where it is claimed by some that the 
 remains of Balboa were buried. This 
 fact is questioned, however, and I 
 have been unable to verify it. The 
 discoverer of the Pacific seems to be 
 the patron saint of Panama. His bust 
 adorns all the money of the Republic 
 and also ornaments its postage 
 stamps. The story of his adventurous 
 life, read when a boy, comes back to 
 
 me amid the scenes of his great 
 achievements. He escaped from his 
 creditors in Spain, by being shipped 
 to the West Indies in a cask. He 
 was the best of the Spanish adven- 
 turers who came to this country at 
 the close of the fifteenth century. It 
 was his lot to be beheaded at the be- 
 hest of the worst of the many infam- 
 ous Spanish governors who exploited 
 this region. 
 
 In one part of the old cemetery can 
 be seen a pile of human skulls and 
 bones where the bodies have been 
 burned. The old Spanish custom is 
 to rent a grave for eighteen months, 
 and after that, unless considerable ad- 
 ditional rent is paid, the bodies are 
 disinterred and burned. I remember 
 seeing a large pit in a corner of the 
 beautiful graveyard in Havana, where 
 hundreds of exhumed human bodies 
 had been thrown. But since the Amer- 
 icans came here this revolting man- 
 ner of disposing of the dead has been 
 abandoned. 
 
 —9— 
 
Random Notes on Panama 
 
 Ancon, Canal Zone, Panama, March 
 14. — A few random notes on Panama, 
 its people and what can be seen and 
 heard here, may perhaps prove inter- 
 esting to some of the readers of the 
 Observer. 
 
 Many inquiries have been made 
 about positions under the Isthmian 
 Canal Commission and the prospect of 
 getting work here, by residents of 
 Western Pennsylvania. After diligent 
 inquiry one concludes that Panama is 
 one of the best places to work in the 
 world. No other location is more 
 healthy and no place could be found 
 in the tropics which is cooler than 
 this. Certainly it would be difficult 
 to discover another spot where sani- 
 tary regulations are so strictly en- 
 forced. The wages here are good. 
 Most of the employes save money, 
 perhaps because there is no way to 
 waste It. Competent men can get po- 
 sitions at from $125.00 to $175.00 per 
 month. This includes those who are 
 fitted to serve as sanitary inspectors, 
 brakemen, dumpmen, foremen of gangs 
 on the railroad work, time-keepers, 
 camp foremen, hotel managers and po- 
 sitions of that sort. A man can live 
 in the company's quarters for $27.50 
 per month for board. His rooms are 
 furnished free. Single meals are 30c. 
 Men who receive $75.00 per month are 
 
 saving $45.00 of it. Others with fam- 
 ilies, who get from $150.00 to $200.00 
 per month, can live on $50.00. The 
 employes with families, after they 
 have served the commission for six 
 months, get a house with light and 
 fuel free. 
 
 The Italian is highly esteemed as 
 a common laborer. He is paid 20c an 
 hour, while the negroes are only given 
 10c an hour. The foremen say that 
 the difference in efficiency is greater 
 than that represented by the disparity 
 of wages. One of the superintendents 
 stated that he would rather have one 
 Italian than six Jamaican negroes, or 
 Panamans. Several hundred Span- 
 iards have been imported, and they 
 rank with the Italian laborers. 
 
 Thousands of negroes have come 
 here from Jamaica. Sometimes as 
 many as three hundred arrive in one 
 ship. The Jamaican negro, however, 
 will not work more than three days 
 in five. He can make enough in three 
 days to live sumptuously. Many of 
 them go off into the jungle and build 
 shacks of their own, instead of oc- 
 cupying the Company houses. If 
 they do not wish to work they can pick 
 a living off of the trees. Oranges, 
 bananas and sweet potatoes can be 
 gathered in abundance. The sweet po- 
 tatoes are a kind of a yam and are 
 
 —10- 
 
 very palatable. Some negroes follow 
 fishing for a livelihood. In the olden 
 times they had to fish about five days 
 in the week to make a living. Since 
 the Americans began work on the 
 canal, prices have advanced and they 
 get so much more for their catch that 
 they will not fish more than three days 
 in the week. 
 
 The Chinese are becoming the gard- 
 eners of Panama. They have the in- 
 dustry and give the growing vege- 
 tables the constant attention which is 
 necessary for success. The Chinese 
 are spoken of here as the Dutchmen 
 of Panama. They raise a surprising 
 amount of garden truck on a small 
 patch, and they get good prices for it. 
 
 The old residents are vegetarians to 
 a great extent. They eat fruit, veg- 
 etables and fish, avoiding the cold stor- 
 age meats which come from the United 
 States. 
 
 A University club has been formed 
 in Panama City, and it has over two 
 hundred members. An old residence 
 has been rented and fitted up as a club 
 house. The walls are ornamented with 
 the colors of most of the prominent 
 colleges of the United States. The 
 members of the various Greek letter 
 fraternities have organized Panama 
 associations and are connected with 
 the University club. Eight members 
 
of Beta Theta PI are connected with 
 the club and other "frats" are as well 
 represented. 
 
 If you wish to ascertain exactly how 
 hot it is you have difficulty in finding 
 a thermometer. The weather varies 
 so little that no interest is exhibited in 
 the rise and fall of the mercury. The 
 thermometer has ranged from 74 to 
 85 degrees Fahrenheit, and this is 
 about the average the year around. 
 One day is so much like another that 
 no one speaks of it. There is no sale 
 for thermometers and the weather liar 
 has no show whatever. 
 
 The beautiful lignum vitae trees with 
 their yellow tops can be seen on the 
 mountains, and give the landscape a 
 picturesque beauty. As this is about 
 the middle of the dry season, the coun- 
 try is somewhat parched and brown. 
 The lignum vitae trees stand out most 
 prominently on the hill tops. The 
 wood of this tree is the hardest and 
 can scarcely be cut with the ordinary 
 tools. Some of the old ties of the Pan- 
 ama railroad are being sawed into 
 pieces to make canes, ink-stands, and 
 other articles. 
 
 The currency of Panama is the Bal- 
 boa or dollar, half Balboa, twenty cent, 
 and ten cent piece. This money has 
 only half the purchasing power of the 
 American silver. The Americans call 
 it Monkey or Spigoti money. The 
 term Spigoti is an abbreviation of the 
 Panaman "No speak English." A 
 
 nickle was coined for sometime, but 
 its coinage has been discontinued and 
 nickles now bring 20c in "Monkey 
 money" apiece. The ladies are mak- 
 ing bracelets and the gentlemen watch 
 chains of the Panaman nickle piece, 
 which is becoming quite scarce. 
 
 About $2,000,000 per month are be- 
 ing paid out in the Canal Zone to em- 
 ployes. A large portion of this is sent 
 back to the United States and to the 
 West Indies. An average of 115,000 
 dollars in Postoffice money orders are 
 sent away each week. Among the em- 
 ployes are many negroes from Bar- 
 badoes. A curious circumstance re- 
 cently was that so many money or- 
 ders from Panama reached the Bar- 
 badoes that it was necessary to call 
 the legislature together to supply the 
 deficiency of $10,000, caused by cash- 
 ing postoffice orders from the Canal 
 Zone. 
 
 The Panama government receives 
 forty per cent of the postoffice rev- 
 enus of the Canal Zone, and the whole 
 amount is practically clear money. 
 Panama has been handsomely treated 
 by the United States, but many of its 
 people do not appreciate what has 
 been done for them. When Uncle 
 Sam came here the city of Panama 
 was a dirty hole with unpaved streets, 
 uneven sidewalks and no sewage sys- 
 tem. Our government put in a com- 
 plete sewer system, built a reservoir 
 and supplied the town with an abund- 
 
 —11— 
 
 ance of fresh water, and paved the 
 streets with fire brick. It also clean- 
 ed up the premises around private 
 houses and in some cases removed a 
 carload of filth from a lot not more 
 than twenty or thirty feet squarer Be- 
 fore the Americans came water was 
 hauled into town in carts and sold. 
 Now good water is furnished through 
 pipes. Yet three weeks after these 
 improvements were completed and the 
 streets paved at the expense of Uncle 
 Sam, the local newspaper wanted to 
 know why the Americans did not 
 sprinkle the streets. 
 
 The work of the Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association in the Canal Zone is 
 in charge of A. Bruce Minear, who 
 represents the International commit- 
 tee. Excellent work is being done un- 
 der his direction. On the steamer 
 "Panama" coming down I met Wm. H. 
 Baxley, who is to manage the Associa- 
 tion building at Culebra. For several 
 years past he has been superintend- 
 ent of the Association work at the 
 Twenty-third St. branch in New York 
 City. Having proven his capacity 
 there he was selected for superintend- 
 ent of the Culebra branch. Our party 
 visited the new Y. M. C. A. building at 
 Gorgona and found it admirably adapt- 
 ed to its purpose. The rooms are 
 large and well arranged, and the build- 
 ing itself very attractive. A large 
 room has been provided for dancing. 
 One of the young men stated that at 
 
some of the dances more girls were in 
 attendance than boys, which is rather 
 surprising. The nights are always 
 cool, and dancing is pleasant. 
 
 To illustrate the rapidity with which 
 the work on the canal is now going for- 
 ward, it may be stated that under the 
 French regime the largest record for 
 excavation in the Culebra Cut in any 
 month was 220,000 cubic yards. Dur- 
 ing February last 639,112 cubic yards 
 were taken out. The average is in- 
 creasing almost daily. To-day the total 
 was over 33,000 yards. The amount 
 excavated in February equalled the 
 number of cubic yards contained in 
 the National capitol at Washington. 
 The day President Roosevelt was here 
 7,000 cubic yards were excavated in 
 the cut, and it was claimed at that 
 time by critics of the enterprise that 
 this was an exceptionally high record, 
 and that everybody was hustling to 
 make a good impression on the presi- 
 dent. Yet to-day almost five times as 
 much earth and rock were taken out 
 of the great cut as the day Roosevelt 
 visited it. 
 
 The railroad fare across the Ithmus 
 is now $2.40 first-class or less than 
 one-tenth what it was in the old days 
 of the California gold excitement. 
 Among the early gold seekers in Cali- 
 fornia were a number of residents of 
 Washington county, who crossed the 
 Isthmus on foot. I think James W. 
 Kuntz was one of these. Daniel 
 
 Hodgens, of West Midletown rode 
 across on a mule in 1854, before the 
 railroad was completed. 
 
 U. S. Consul Shanklin receives many 
 inquiries from the United States about 
 lands. Judging from the stack of let- 
 ters on his desk on that subject, many 
 persons contemplate investing in real 
 estate in Panama. The chief draw- 
 back to this has been that the land 
 laws are very defective, and good ti- 
 tles cannot readily be secured. To 
 meet this situation the president has 
 called a special session of congress, 
 which is to pass only upon this ques- 
 tion. It is proposed to adopt some 
 system for the sale of lands, by which 
 the Republic of Panama will guaran- 
 tee the title. Immigration is to be 
 encouraged and an effort made to de- 
 velop the resources of the Interior. 
 The area of Panama is 31,570 sq. miles, 
 or not quite three-fourth that of Penn- 
 sylvania. It is estimated that only 
 three or four per cent of the soil is 
 cultivated. Of course a large part is 
 used for grazing, but at least one- 
 half the territory is unoccupied. The 
 land is wonderfully fertile and all 
 sorts of tropical fruits and vegetables 
 thrive here. The rains are exceed- 
 ingly heavy. During the wet season 
 you may go riding through the coun- 
 try on horse back in the morning and 
 cross many streams which are almost 
 dry. When you come back In the af- 
 ternoon you may have to swim your 
 
 —12— 
 
 horse across a raging torrent, fifteen 
 feet deep. A resident of the temperate 
 zone can have no conception of the 
 great waterfall. For this reason a na- 
 tive avoids the low ground. Most of 
 the huts are built on the knolls. If 
 you meet a native going to work, arm- 
 ed with his machete, he will say he is 
 going to his mountain instead of his 
 farm or garden patch. 
 
 While the railroad across the Isth- 
 mus is the only one in the Republic, 
 the telegraph and telephone systems 
 are fairly good and cover the country 
 pretty well. Panama is almost five 
 hundred miles in length and most of 
 its towns can only be reached by boat, 
 either on the Atlantic or the Pacific 
 coast, but you can communicate read- 
 ily with all the important towns over 
 the wires. 
 
 The native Panaman is small of 
 stature. He has used liquor to excess, 
 and as a result after several genera- 
 tions his physical power of resistence 
 is very low. He is kindly, affection- 
 ate and good to his family. In a total 
 population of 340,000 it is estimated 
 that not more than ten per cent are 
 responsible citizens, and not over five 
 percent are educated. About five per 
 cent of the population is white, and 
 about ten per cent Indian. Of the re- 
 maining eighty-five per cent probably 
 the proportion of mixed blood is twen- 
 ty per cent white, forty per cent In- 
 dian and forty per cent negro. These 
 
\ 
 
are the figures given by some of the 
 Americans who have been on the 
 Isthmus for years and have made care- 
 ful inquiry. The native Panaman 
 is indolent, and without ambition to 
 accumulate property. He is satisfied 
 to live from day to day on the fruits 
 which nature provides. It has been 
 said that he can get along by swing- 
 ing in a hammock, rocking it with his 
 toe and picking bananas with his 
 hands. While a large percentage of 
 the births are classed as illegitimate, 
 it cannot be said that the Panaman- 
 ians are immoral; rather they are un- 
 moral. They are accustomed to the 
 common law marriage. In many sec- 
 tions of the county priests are inacces- 
 sible, and for years the marriage fees 
 were so high that the natives would 
 have to work for months before they 
 could earn enough to pay for having 
 a ceremony performed. Even now the 
 civil authorities authorized to solem- 
 nize these marriages are often many 
 miles away, and through centuries of 
 indifference to the necessity of such 
 marriage, the natives have become 
 careless. Men and women live to- 
 gether all their lives as husband and 
 wife, and are true to each other, and 
 yet no formal marriage ceremony has 
 ever been performed. 
 
 As a result of the revolution and the 
 erection of the Republic of Panama the 
 private monopolies have been abolish- 
 ed. Formerly it was the custom of the 
 
 Columbian government to grant mo- 
 nopolies to one man to sell liquor, to- 
 bacco, salt or any necessity. A way 
 was found to do this by whipping the 
 devil around the stump. The import 
 duty on a certain article would be 
 fixed at a very high figure, and then 
 some favored individual was given a 
 concession to import that article free. 
 The lottery is still in operation, be- 
 cause it has a vested concession, 
 which does not expire until 1912. This 
 concession will not be renewed. 
 
 Our ideas of geography are freshen- 
 ed up and made more definite by a 
 visit to Panama. Here on the Pacific 
 coast we find the mail for San Fran- 
 cisco being sent by way of New York. 
 Going thus, it reaches its destination 
 in twelve days, while it takes from 
 twenty-two to twenty-eight days to go 
 to San Francisco by the steamship on 
 the Pacific. 
 
 The Canal Commission during the 
 month of February furnished a million 
 meals to its employes. Each employe 
 must have a card before entering the 
 dining room, showing that he worked 
 nine hours during the previous day. 
 He pays 30c for each meal. 
 
 While the liberal treatment accord- 
 ed Panama by the United States gov- 
 ernment is not appreciated, it has had 
 a good effect in all the countries of 
 South America. The people of those 
 countries are looking to the United 
 States as their guide and friend. Mr. 
 
 —13— 
 
 F. A. Pezet the Peruvian minister, tells 
 me that over two hundred young men 
 from Peru are now attending college in 
 the United States. He says many 
 more would be glad to get an educa- 
 tion in our colleges, if they could af- 
 ford to pay the fare to North America. 
 The Isthmian Canal Commission gives 
 a special rate of $25.00 to students of 
 Panama who wish to go to New York 
 on their steamers. The students from 
 other South American countries must 
 pay the regular fare of $90.00. If the 
 $25.00 rate could be secured, and a 
 similar rate on the steamship lines 
 along the western coast of South 
 America, Mr. Pezet believes that fully 
 a thousand Peruvian boys would go to 
 the United States each year to secure 
 a liberal education. 
 
 At Empire on the line of the canal, 
 I met William Fox, whose family re- 
 sides on East Maiden street. He has 
 been here for twenty-five months and 
 is now working as a blacksmith. Dur- 
 ing the first year, before the sanitary 
 regulations were enforced, he was ill 
 several times but since last December 
 a year, has been in perfect health. Mr. 
 Fox is eligible to membership in the 
 society of the "Tropical Tramps; ' as 
 the Americans call themselves, after 
 they have been in the Tropics for two 
 years. The president is credited with 
 having suggested that all the employes 
 who have stuck to their work for two 
 years without going back to the 
 
states, be given a button of honor. He 
 regards the men building the canal, 
 as -composing an army, similar to that 
 which fought the battles of the Civil 
 war. Many of them have enlisted for 
 the campaign and propose to stick by 
 the job until the canal is finished. 
 The president feels that all those who 
 stay in the tropics for two years 
 should have special recognition. Mr. 
 Fox has already earned this distinc- 
 tion. 
 
 Balboa and Bolivar are the patron 
 saints of this region. They both 
 achieved lasting fame by great deeds. 
 
 It was in 1513 that Balboa looked out 
 from one of these mountain tops on the 
 Pacific and laid claim to all the land 
 washed by its waters in the name of 
 the King of Spain. It was Simon Boli- 
 var who three centuries later led the 
 South American Provinces to liberty. 
 It was in 1826 that Bolivar called the 
 first American Peace Conference to 
 meet at Panama. It is noteworthy that 
 the United States discouraged this 
 movement, because the slave-holders 
 feared a declaration against their 
 cherished institution. More than a 
 half century after Bolivar's attempt 
 
 to secure co-operation between all the 
 American countries, a permanent Pan- 
 American congress was successfully 
 established by that illustrious son of 
 Washington county, James G-. Blaine. 
 Bolivar's idea grows as the years pass, 
 and to-day one hears more of the un- 
 ion of American countries, than at any 
 time in the past. Only to-day a most 
 intelligent observer of South Ameri- 
 can affairs, and a patriotic citizen of 
 one of its Republics, declared his be- 
 lief in the early union of all the coun- 
 tries of South America. It will be a 
 glorious day when this is accomplished 
 
 Mosquitoes on the Isthmus 
 
 / 
 
 Ancon, Canal Zone, Panama, March 
 ]5. — The mosquito is always an inter- 
 esting subject of conversation on the 
 Isthmus. To it is rightly attributed 
 the transmission of the deadly and 
 disabling diseases, yellow fever and 
 malaria. Different species of mos- 
 quitoes spread different diseases. The 
 yellow fever mosquito has his own 
 breeding ground which he prefers. If 
 the number of these pests increases 
 suddenly the health officers know 
 where to go. They can tell a yellow 
 fever mosquito at a distance of six 
 feet by the black and white stripes 
 on his legs. They generally rest on 
 
 a dark object so they can not be seen 
 so readily. If one has on a dark coat 
 and light trousers the mosquitoes will 
 light on the coat. If the person is 
 awake they will bite on the wrists or 
 shins and then move instantly before 
 he can hit them. 
 
 The yellow fever mosquito is harm- 
 less unless he has been infected by 
 biting some one who has the fever. 
 There is no risk in being bitten unless 
 yellow fever is in the neighborhood. 
 A light case of yellow fever may 
 spread the deadly contagion and re- 
 sult in many deaths if the patient is 
 not isolated. 
 
 —14— 
 
 A peculiarity of the yellow fever 
 mosquito is that it stands perpedic- 
 ular to the surface of the wall or ceil- 
 ing and is therefore hard to see. All 
 other varieties of mosquitoes and in- 
 sects in general hold the body par- 
 allel to the resting surface. Observa- 
 tion of mosquitoes confined in glass 
 cases shows that the female must have 
 a drink of blood before she will lay 
 eggs. 
 
 The health officers can locate their 
 breeding places as readily as a boy 
 can find a bird's nest. Their favorite 
 haunts are low lands covered with 
 water, possibly only a half inch deep. 
 
They also breed around deeper water. 
 A female mosquito will lay 200 eggs. 
 A fish an inch long will eat 30 such 
 larvae. 
 
 It is a mystery why some persons 
 are immune from the yellow fever 
 mosquito. The Jamaican negroes are 
 remarkably free from it. A series of 
 experiments with sixteen mosquitoes 
 confined in a net showed that all 
 would bite the hand of a white man 
 which was stuck into the net. Some- 
 tlimes one mosquito would bit thei 
 hand of a colored man, but usually 
 none of them would touch it. One 
 theory is that as yellow fever was per- 
 ennial in Jamaica for centuries all the 
 ancestors of the present generation 
 who were susceptible to the fever had 
 it and the descendants are immune. 
 The medical name of the yellow fever 
 mosquito is Stegomia. The last case 
 of fever in the Canal Zone was in 
 September, 1905, eighteen months ago. 
 
 The retail trade of the Canal Zone 
 is almost exclusively in the hands of 
 the Chinese. They keep all the stores. 
 As the government has discon- 
 tinued the coinage of the nickel or 
 one-twentieth of a Balboa, the smallest 
 coin is one-tenth of a Balboa or ten 
 cent piece. Curiously enough a plug 
 of tobacco is used in making change 
 where the amount is a nickel. The 
 Chinese used to sell large quantities 
 of liquor and used dope freely there- 
 
 in. Now the board of health analyses 
 all liquors sold. 
 
 Sosa and La Boca Dams. 
 
 Today our party visited La Boca and 
 examined the sites of the Sosa and 
 La Boca dams. These two dams will 
 make Sosa lake, which will have an 
 area of eight square miles. Sosa hill 
 is an isolated peak of volcanic forma- 
 tion 350 feet high. The Sosa dam ex- 
 tends for a mile north of and the La 
 Boca dam west from Sosa hill. The 
 Sosa dam will be eighty feet high, 
 a quarter of a mile wide at the base, 
 a mile long and will contain about 
 5,000,000 cubic yards of earth and rock. 
 The engineers say it can be built in 
 one year. 
 
 The La Boca dam will be a mile 
 and one-eighth in length and will con- 
 tain about 6,000,000 cubic yards. The 
 material for it will be dredged from 
 the channel which will extend from 
 the locks to deep water. This ma- 
 terial will be lifted by the hydraulic 
 method and it will take three years to 
 do the work. The material for the 
 construction of the Sosa dam is being 
 brought from the Culebra cut. The 
 two Sosa locks will have a lift of 
 32% feet each. The channel to deep 
 water will be one thousand feet wide 
 and forty feet deep. The area of the 
 Rio Grande valley which will drain 
 into Sosa lake is 15 square miles, about 
 half of which will be covered by water. 
 The spillway is to be west of the hills 
 
 —15— 
 
 beyond the La Boca dam through a 
 natural depression in the range of 
 hills. 
 
 The saying that gray hairs are due 
 to early piety is familiar. At Gatun 
 [ heard the Spanish version which is 
 that they come from sitting too long 
 in damp churches. In many towns in 
 the tropics the churches with their 
 thick adobe walls are the coolest plac- 
 es to be found and in the noon hours 
 attract some worshippers who are not 
 particularly noted for piety. 
 
 Laborers Well Cared For. 
 
 The common laborers on the Canal 
 zone are as well treated as the bosses 
 and foremen. Every man gets good 
 meals of healthful food and has a com- 
 fortable bed. He also has a chance 
 to take a bath whenever he wishes 
 without charge. The quarters are ar- 
 ranged so that each man has his own 
 shower bath and his own hook for 
 clothes. 
 
 When the French were digging the 
 canal the death rate from smallpox 
 was as high as 80 per month. No case 
 of smallpox has been reported in the 
 zone for three years past, while it 
 may be said to have been epidemic 
 when the French were in control. It 
 was among the troops at the time of 
 the Revolution. American vigilance 
 and energy have stamped it out. 
 
 The 18 public schools in the Canal 
 zone which are in charge of Ameri- 
 can teachers are very successful. The 
 
pupils are children of the laborers who 
 are of many races and nationalities 
 and of the natives who reside in the 
 zone. Education is compulsory. The 
 digging of the canal is helping to 
 spread the English language and to 
 hasten the day when it will become 
 the universal language of mankind. 
 
 About 750 tons of soft coal are used 
 on the Canal zone daily. It comes 
 from the Pocahontas, W. Va., field via 
 Norfolk. Pittsburg coal should be put 
 down at New Orleans via the Ohio 
 river cheaper than Pocahontas coal 
 can be delivered by rail at Norfolk. 
 The coal operators of Western Penn- 
 sylvania should aim to supply all the 
 bituminous coal used in this region. 
 
 Panama has had rather a checker- 
 ed political career. After Bolivar 
 achieved independence for the Span- 
 ish nations of South America, it be- 
 came a state of New Granada, then 
 it was for several years independent, 
 and afterwards joined its fortunes with 
 Colombia as a separate state. Fin- 
 ally it declared its independence on 
 November, 4, 1903, after the Colom- 
 bian congress had refused to ratify 
 the treaty giving the United States 
 the right to construct the canal. 
 French Did Good Work. 
 
 Again and again one hears the 
 work of the French comiplimented. 
 Those who have had abundant oppor- 
 tunity to judge as to the character 
 of the work say that it was first class. 
 
 There was graft at Paris and extrav- 
 agance at Panama. Much of the 
 French machinery is out of date and 
 worthless. This is not surprising. 
 Every manufacturer has this exper- 
 ience. Old methods must be discard- 
 ed and the most improved modern 
 machinery installed by those who wish 
 to keep in the race for industrial su- 
 premacy. 
 
 American manufacturers have out- 
 stripped their European competitors 
 because they are always ready to 
 throw out the best machine in use if 
 a better one is invented. They do 
 not hesitate at the los incurred on 
 old machines if new ones will do the 
 same work quicker and better. 
 
 It is said that it was Tom Scott, the 
 first president of the Pennsylvania 
 railroad, who found that it was cheap- 
 er to burn the cars after a bad wreck 
 than incur the loss from delay by 
 blocking the tracks while trying to 
 save the cars. What he did was de- 
 nounced at the time as reckless ex- 
 travagance. What seems like waste 
 is sometimes true economy. Our gov- 
 ernment is wise in employing only the 
 most improved machinery in digging 
 the canal and the French machines 
 of two decades ago are out of date. 
 
 Ice is a necessity on the Canal zone 
 and the factory installed by the com- 
 mission is now turning out an abund- 
 ant supply. Before this plant was 
 put into operation ice sold at ten cents 
 
 —16— 
 
 per pound. Now it can be bought at 
 60 cents per hundred pounds. 
 
 The import duties of Panama are 
 ten per cent ad valorem on most ar- 
 ticles. The tariff on cattle imported 
 is $20 per head. A tax of $4 per head 
 is imposed on all cattle slaughtered. 
 The duty on sugar is 4 and 15-16 cents 
 per pound or virtually prohibitive. 
 This was imposed with a view of in- 
 creasing the production of rum. You 
 can purchase four glasses of rum now 
 for 5 cents American money, so it is 
 an easy matter to get drunk. 
 
 The Panamans have been rum drink- 
 ers for 400 years and their physical 
 deterioration has been steady. More 
 rum and cheaper rum will render them 
 less capable of holding their own in 
 the conflict of races which are sub- 
 duing the earth. 
 
 Policemen Very Numerous. 
 
 Policemen are so numerous in Colon 
 and Panama city that you can scarce- 
 ly walk 100 feet without meeting one. 
 They are gorgeously arrayed in uni- 
 forms which are conspicuous for gold 
 lace. The two towns have 964 police- 
 men although Colon is credited with 
 only 10,000 population and Panama 
 with 25,000. Each town has an area 
 of about one square mile and each 
 is surrounded by the territory ceded 
 to the United States and constituting 
 the Canal zone. 
 
 The policemen are nearly all native 
 Panamans. They really constitute the 
 
standing army of Panama. Whenever 
 an ambitious politician becomes formi- 
 dable to the government he is given a 
 job on the police force. The police- 
 men are paid $40 per month in gold, 
 so that Panama has an annual bill 
 of $462,720 for police protection for 
 these two towns. 
 
 It is safe to assert that 50 able 
 "bodied Americans could preserve the 
 peace better and constitute a more 
 efficient and satisfactory force. The 
 policemen are usually small in stat- 
 ure and insignificant in appearance. 
 One of our burly Irish officers could 
 handle several of them in a rough 
 and tumble fight. 
 
 If any serious trouble occurs on 
 the isthmus it is likely to come 
 through the offlciousness and lack of 
 discretion of these Panama police. 
 They are proud of their position and 
 eager to show their authority. Sev- 
 eral incidents have occurred which 
 have been very aggravating to Ameri- 
 cans. The police construe their rules 
 strictly and do not appear to have 
 capacity to distinguish between will- 
 ful and persistent violations of the 
 law and accidental or petty infractions 
 of it. Most of the sidewalks are nar- 
 row, three or four feet only in width, 
 and a pedestrian is not allowed to 
 loiter or stand with an umbrella up 
 when the streets are crowded. 
 
 The wife of an American happened 
 to stop one day for a moment to look 
 
 at the goods displayed in the show 
 window of a store, when a policeman 
 stepped up, grabbed her umbrella, 
 lowered it, and ordered her imperious- 
 ly to move on. She resented his im- 
 pudence with spirit. 
 
 Another rule is that any one who 
 lays hands on an officer is guilty of 
 assault. On one occasion recently a 
 naval officer went ashore at Panama 
 and wishing to make some inquiries, 
 went to the polioe. He found several 
 members of the force on a street cor- 
 ner conversing together. He stepped 
 up to the party and spoke, but was not 
 answered. To attract the attention of 
 the leader of the party, who was a 
 sergeant of police, he laid his hand on 
 his shoulder. Immediately one of the 
 officers knocked him down with his 
 mace and when he tried to rise and 
 resisted, the others pounded him se- 
 verely. Of course an investigation 
 followed. The Americans insisted that 
 the policemen be discharged but they 
 were let off with a fine of $25 in gold. 
 
 It is such occurrences as these 
 which cause friction and may lead to 
 a serious outbreak. They prove that 
 most of the Panamans are not fit to 
 hold places of authority. They are 
 domineering and anxious to display 
 their authority. It would not be sur- 
 prising if their ill treatment of an 
 American one of these fine days re- 
 sults in such an ebullition as will stir 
 the isthmus to the core. Lincoln said 
 
 —17— 
 
 our country could not exist half free 
 and half slave. Likewise many Ameri- 
 cans believe that work cannot go on 
 smoothly and successfully for the next 
 decade with a division of authority in 
 police matters between Americans and 
 Panamans. 
 
 Panama Elections a Farce. 
 
 The elections are dominated by the 
 police and are generally regarded as 
 a farce. The administration has en- 
 tire control of the electoral machin- 
 ery and it always wins. Two political 
 parties are in existence, best describ- 
 ed as "the ins" and "the outs." "The 
 ins" control the registry of voters and 
 enroll all who can be counted on to 
 support their side; the others can look 
 out for themselves. The police man- 
 age the elections and take the ballot 
 box to every man who will vote right. 
 It is alleged that at the last election 
 450 policemen in Panama city voted 
 in every precinct and thus demonstrat- 
 ed their devotion to the government. 
 Liquor a Curse to Isthmus. 
 
 While the congress has forbidden 
 the sale of intoxicating liquors in gov- 
 ernment buildings, immigrant sta- 
 tions, and in soldiers' and sailors' 
 homes, Uncle Sam is in the liquor 
 business all right in the Canal zone. 
 High license prevails. Liquor is sold 
 at retail at about fifteen of the Unit- 
 ed States restaurants and at the 
 Tivoli hotel at Ancon and the Wash- 
 ington hotel at Colon, which are run 
 

by the Isthmian Canal commission for 
 the accommodation of its employes 
 and transient visitors. You cannot 
 buy liquor at the government refriger- 
 ator from which the hotel bars and 
 restaurants are supplied. The license 
 fee is $100 in gold per month. 
 
 Under the French regime liquors 
 were sold freely and this policy ac- 
 counts partly for the demoralization 
 which characterized that period. Only 
 five per cent as many places where 
 liquor is sold are in existence today 
 as were under the French. Still there 
 seems to be no excuse for the exist- 
 ence of any licensed liquor saloon. 
 Every one agrees that the use of 
 alcoholic drinks in the tropics is dan- 
 gerous and debilitating. Four cen- 
 turies of practically free rum have 
 ruined the • native races and pulled 
 their conquerors down to even a low- 
 er level. 
 
 The United States should not count- 
 enance the sale of intoxicating liquors 
 on any territory in the tropics over 
 which it has supreme authority. The 
 Isthmian Canal commission is the 
 creature of the president who has 
 been given absolute control over the 
 vast project of digging the canal. By 
 his order the sale of liquor can be 
 stopped and he should make that or- 
 der at once to protect our young men 
 who are at work on the canal and as 
 an example to the representatives of 
 the numerous races who are employed 
 
 in the great undertaking and who 
 have suffered and been debased by 
 the legalized reign of rum. We should 
 strive to elevate these poor people and 
 not drag them down to lower levels 
 by furnishing them with intoxicating 
 liquors which deblitate and destroy 
 ambition, energy and enterprise. 
 Guarding Water Supply. 
 
 The importance of maintaining an 
 adequate supply of pure water is 
 keenly appreciated. Health officers 
 patrol the reservoir sites day and 
 night and the entire watershed sup- 
 plying each reservoir is closely watch- 
 ed. No one can cross a water reser- 
 voir unless he is escorted by an of- 
 ficer. The diseases thus carefully 
 guarded against are diarrhoea and ty- 
 phoid fever. So rigid is this protec- 
 tion that the Canal zone with its tens 
 of thousands of laborers has fewer 
 cases of typhoid than the small vil- 
 lages in Washington county. 
 
 In the Pavaiso district which now 
 has 3,800 population and had 800 two 
 and a half years ago, only four cases 
 of typhoid have occurred in that time. 
 Yet it takes only two guards on horse- 
 back, one on duty during the day and 
 the other during the night, to protect 
 its reservoir, Rio Grande No. 2, from 
 contamination. If the water could be 
 filtered through sand perhaps this 
 rigid inspection could be dispensed 
 with. 
 
 The Americans on the isthmus get 
 
 —18— 
 
 heartily tired of cold storage meats. 
 So it happens that a live chicken on 
 the Canal zone will bring $2.50 mon- 
 key money, while 50 cents is consid- 
 ered a good price back in the country. 
 Fresh fish can be had although the 
 supply is not equal to the demand. 
 The Caribbean sea and Panama bay 
 abound in fine fish, but the prices 
 have gone up so the fisherman will 
 not work steadily. They care only 
 for enough money to supply the wants 
 of the day and have no ambition to 
 accumulate. Turtles weighing from 
 400 to 600 pounds can be taken near 
 Colon and turtle soup is served in the 
 restaurants daily. 
 
 Canal a Godsend to Natives. 
 
 The digging of the canal has proven 
 a godsend to the inhabitants of the 
 overpopulated islands of the West 
 Indies. This is especially the case 
 with the Barbadoes, where the popu- 
 lation is nearly 1,100 to the square 
 mile or over twice that of any country 
 in Europe or of any state in our 
 Union. 
 
 The English steamer Solent, Royal 
 Mail line, makes three trips every 
 month between Bridgetown and Colon 
 and each time brings 1,500 Barbadon- 
 ians as contract laborers to work on 
 the canal. Thus the most densely in- 
 habitated island in the world is afford- 
 ed relief by the enterprise of our 
 country -in resolving to connect the 
 waters of the two great oceans. 
 
Old Mother Isthmus does not worry 
 so much about this influx as many 
 good people in the United States do 
 about the character of the European 
 immigration which is vastly superior. 
 The Barbadonians speak English and 
 are accustomed to observe the law 
 but are indolent and not fond of 
 steady work. 
 
 Many of these laborers want to work 
 only with new tools. Some of the 
 gangs rebelled against using the old 
 French picks, so the foreman hit on 
 a happy expedient and dipped all the 
 picks in tar so all have the same ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 It is not laborers only who kick 
 at times against what they believe is 
 unfair treatment. It is related that 
 a supply of fine grape-fruit intended 
 for the Hotel Tivoli was by mistake 
 delivered at one of the boarding hous- 
 es on the Canal zone instead of or- 
 anges, which had been ordered. The 
 first American boarder who came in 
 to breakfast was not familiar with the 
 delicious fruit and threw it at the 
 waiter's head for serving him a sour 
 orange. Other boarders followed 
 with complaints until assured how the 
 grape-fruit was esteemed as an appe- 
 tizer for breakfast. Which recalls the 
 
 old saying about casting pearls be- 
 fore swine. 
 
 Few cases of malaria are reported 
 now, but the hunt for the hiding place 
 of the malaria carrying mosquito goes 
 on so steadily as to make life a bur- 
 den for that industrious little insect. 
 Every patient with malaria is closely 
 confined behind screens for a fatal 
 case may result from the contagion 
 carried by a mosquito from a patient 
 who has suffered from a very light 
 attack. For this reason the persons 
 with malaria are sent to the hospital 
 and isolated. 
 
 Naturalized Americans Troublesome. 
 
 The only persons on the zone who 
 make any trouble are the naturalized 
 American citizens. Some of these 
 came here to exploit the people and 
 do not relish the restrictions imposed 
 by the commission. They talk about 
 their rights as American citizens be- 
 ing infringed. They do not distinguish 
 between liberty and license. They 
 purchased citizenship and did not in- 
 herit it, so would have a government 
 of which they can simply make use, 
 and which will permit them to pro- 
 ceed in any way they choose to make 
 money. 
 
 The Canal zone, a strip ten miles 
 wide from sea to sea, has an area of 
 nearly 300,000 acres. The Gatun and 
 Sosa lakes will cover about 75,000 
 acres, and the canal, locks and rail- 
 road which is to be rebuilt on a new 
 line, will occupy about 50,000 acres. 
 This will leave 175,000 acres which 
 belong to the United States and which 
 are exceedingly fertile. Nearly all this 
 land could be cultivated and after the 
 completion of the canal, doubtless 
 will be. Gatun lake will be a beautiful 
 sheet of water with attractive islands. 
 Already it is predicted that when the 
 canal is completed these will be sites 
 for winter hotels. 
 
 The land in the zone is susceptible 
 to high cultivation if given as much 
 attention as the Chinese gardeners 
 now give it. It will grow tropical 
 fruits the year round, and when ques- 
 tioned, the Chinese gardener at the 
 Tivoli said he had good success with 
 all the vegetables of the temperate 
 zone except celery. Two crops of rice 
 can be raised every year. Those who 
 raise fruits and vegetables in the zone 
 should find a ready market -even after 
 the canal is finished, by supplying the 
 ships which will pass through. 
 
 ' 
 
 -19- 
 
Congressional Party on the Ancient Bridge on the Road to Old Panama. 
 
Old Panama and the Pirate Morgan 
 
 Colon, Panama, March 18. — A visit 
 to the ruins of Old Panama was one of 
 the delightful features of this memor- 
 able trip. The old city was located 
 about seven miles north-east of the 
 present Panama and its ruins well re- 
 pay the traveler for the toilsome trip. 
 The route for four miles is over a mag- 
 nificent macadamized highway built 
 by the Canal Commissioners through 
 Zone territory; thence over a wagon 
 road, rough and seldom used, for a 
 mile and a half to a point where ve- 
 hicles must be left and the remaining 
 distance traversed on foot or on horse- 
 back. About a mile of the last stretch 
 is along the beach of Panama bay. Al- 
 together it is a charming and roman- 
 tic route. 
 
 The city of Old Panama was found- 
 ed by the Spaniards in 1521, only eight 
 years after Balboa discovered the 
 Pacific ocean. A road was constructed 
 across the isthmus wide enough to ac- 
 commodate two carts abreast. The 
 building of this road was a difficult 
 task as much of the route was through 
 swamps and over mountains. When it 
 was completed Old Panama became a 
 place of great importance and for one 
 hundred and fifty years was famous 
 throughout Europe. It was called the 
 Key to the Pacific and the Gate of the 
 Universe. Fabulous treasure came to 
 
 Panama en route to Porto Bello where 
 it was shipped to Spain. It is said to 
 have been a beautiful city and the 
 •picturesque situation, with tree lined 
 coast, with wide Savanna back of it 
 and the mountain peaks in the dis- 
 tance make it easy for the imagina- 
 tion to picture "Panama the Golden," 
 whose wealth and voluptuous luxury 
 attracted the fierce buccaneers of the 
 Seventeenth century. 
 
 When at the heighth of its glory Old 
 Panama is said to have had a popula- 
 tion of over 20,000, with 12,000 build 
 ings, palatial public structures, eight 
 monasteries, a splendid hospital, and 
 many magnificent private mansions 
 built of stone or aromatic cedar. It 
 was the wealth of this beautiful city 
 which excited the cupidity of the reck- 
 less freebooters of the West Indies. 
 Henry Morgan, an adventurous priv- 
 ateer, a native of Wales, planned the 
 expedition against Panama. This dar- 
 ing ruffian was one of the most de- 
 praved and brutal buccaneers of that 
 period made infamous by the crimes 
 of desperate cutthroats ready to face 
 any danger for plunder and rapine. 
 
 It was in 1671 that Morgan and his 
 band of 2,000 buccaneers left the West 
 Indies in 37 ships, captured Porto 
 Bello, reduced the castle at the mouth 
 of the Chagres river murdering nearly 
 
 —20— 
 
 300 of the garrison, and marched 
 across the Isthmus against Panama. 
 The pillage of that beautiful city is 
 one of the darkest pictures in the his- 
 tory of our western world. Men and 
 children were murdered, women out- 
 raged, houses and churches plunder- 
 ed. It was a revolting carnival of 
 crime. For days the buccaneers revel- 
 ed in the license of lust and loot 
 which characterized their conduct on 
 such occasions. After their demoniac 
 debauch the pirates put the torch to 
 the town and entirely destroyed most 
 of its buildings. The reign of hor- 
 ror during the sack of Panama was 
 indescribable. Some of the inhabi- 
 tants escaped by fleeing to the moun- 
 tains, while others put to sea in ves- 
 sels ladened with valuables. 
 
 In approaching Old Panama we 
 crossed an arched stone bridge, built 
 without mortar, which has been stand- 
 ing nearly 400 years. Mr. Hallan, the 
 enterprising photographer, took a pic- 
 ture of our party when gathered upon 
 the bridge and again when we assem- 
 bled in the ruins of the old church 
 with its tree covered walls as a back- 
 ground. These walls are fully 30 feet 
 in height and four feet thick. Great 
 trees are growing upon thejr tops, the 
 roots extending down into the ground. 
 It is one of the most unique and pic- 
 
turesque scenes to be found anywhere. 
 Albeit the glimpse it gave of the old- 
 en time and the vivid recollection of 
 a revolting incident in human history 
 which it recalled left a feeling of sad- 
 ness. The ruins of Old Panama are 
 covered by a rank growth of tropical 
 vegetation for after its tragic fall the 
 Spaniards abandoned it and since its 
 destruction only the curious, the treas- 
 ure seeker, or the tourist cares to visit 
 it. The Indians still bury their dead 
 among the ruins and we saw many 
 new graves within the old walls of the 
 church. 
 
 Panama Saving Money. 
 
 The $10,000,000 which Panama re- 
 ceived from Uncle Sam have not been 
 squandered. About $1,000,000 were 
 used in paying the debts of the State 
 of Panama, $6,000,000 invested in se- 
 curities in the United States, and 
 $300,000 deposited as guarantee of 
 parity of currency. The remainder is 
 on deposit in New York and London 
 and is to be used to pay for public im- 
 provements or to protect additional is- 
 sues of currency. Panama's finances 
 appear to be in good shape. 
 
 The total amount of excavation on 
 the Canal is estimated at 110,000,000 
 cubic yards according to the latest re- 
 vised figures. The amount of dredg- 
 ing to be done in the sea level chan- 
 nel on the Atlantic side is 12,000,000 
 cubic yards and on the Pacific 8,000,- 
 
 000. Everyone here believes this ma- 
 terial can be moved within the time 
 limit, eight years. 
 
 Panama's Customs Receipts. 
 
 The customs dues (impuesto com- 
 mercial, on general merchandise 
 which is taxed 10 per cent ad valorem 
 amounted last year to $935,325 Pan- 
 ama silver. On liquors which are heav- 
 ily taxed in comparison with other 
 merchandise, the dues were $409,000; 
 on tobacco $100,000; cigarettes $58,- 
 000; matches, coffee, opium and salt 
 $47,000. Coffee and salt are protect- 
 ed by the Panama tariff on account of 
 being produced in abundance here. 
 
 Mr. Ehrman, the successful banker 
 of Panama, has a wonderful collection 
 of curios and rare Indian relics, which 
 many members of our party by his 
 courtesy examined with interest. 
 Nearly all of them are of solid gold 
 and of great value. Mr. Ehrman's 
 father came here over forty years ago 
 from Louisiana and the firm is well 
 established and prosperous. He has 
 enjoyed exceptional opportunities of 
 gathering the golden relics of a by- 
 gone race. The ornaments are found 
 in old graves which are located by tap- 
 ping the earth. Most of them are 
 shaped like frogs, tigers, pigs, bats, 
 birds, and other living creatures. Oth- 
 ers represent men and women. The 
 figures are usually rudely hammered 
 out, though some display considerable 
 
 —21— 
 
 skill. Agazzi examined this collection 
 twice but was unable to decide as to 
 the age when the ornaments were 
 made. 
 
 Beautiful Island of Taboga. 
 
 A trip by boat to Taboga Island was 
 one of the enjoyable incidents of our 
 sojourn on the Isthmus. Taboga is 
 ten miles from Panama city in a part 
 of the bay where the gentle breezes 
 always blow. The island is about 
 seven miles long by three miles wide 
 and has a population estimated at 3,- 
 000. How so many people can live 
 there would be a mystery were it not 
 for the prodigality with which nature 
 produces her fruits and the abundance 
 of fish in the bay near by. Any one 
 can go out and with little effort gath- 
 er enough fruit to sustain life. 
 
 In Taboga village the streets are so 
 narrow and with so many offsets and 
 turns as to make the passage of a ve- 
 hicle impossible if there were such a 
 conveyance on the island. The houses 
 are miserably cheap and poor struc- 
 tures, built without regard to lines or 
 lots, apparently erected anywhere the 
 occupant took a notion to set up a 
 home. They are jammed in close to- 
 gether and full of people and pigs, for 
 in many houses we could see women, 
 children, and pigs on friendly terms. 
 Five hundred people are thus packed 
 on a piece of ground no larger than 
 
the College campus, on a rough, stony 
 hillside. 
 
 The French built a sanitarium on 
 Taboga island which now belongs to 
 our Canal commission. It is in charge 
 of Dr. and Mrs. Randall, who manage 
 it successfully. Many patients from 
 the hospitals at Ancon and Colon are 
 sent to Taboga to recuperate after a 
 siege of sickness. Many of those who 
 are barely able to stand when they 
 reach Taboga are soon invigorated by 
 the life giving breezes and in a few 
 weeks are able to go back to work. We 
 visited the odd old church built over 
 200 years ago and left Taboga glad 
 that we had been so fortunate as to 
 get this brief glimpse of such a 
 strange mode of life. 
 
 The Great Gatun Dam. 
 
 The site of the mighty Gatun Dam 
 was carefully examined by our party. 
 Interest has entered in this dam be- 
 cause it is the part of the project 
 which has been most severely criticiz- 
 ed. Mr. Stevens, Mr. Ripley, and ev- 
 ery engineer with whom I talked ex- 
 pressed the utmost confidence in the 
 character of the foundation and no 
 one has the slightest doubt that it will 
 hold. Indeed some assert that 1,000,- 
 000 cubic yards of material would be 
 sufficient to hold the waters of 
 Chagres river and the waters of Gatun 
 
 lake which is created by this great 
 dam. 22,000,000 cubic yards are to 
 be used in making it. The area of 
 the lake will be 110 square miles. 
 The dam will be 8,000 feet long 
 and 135 feet high. It will be 
 100 feet wide at the top and 2,625 feet, 
 or a half mile, wide at the bottom. 
 The water will be 85 feet deep, so the 
 top of the dam will be 50 feet above 
 the level of the lake. This and a spill- 
 way 150 feet wide should be sufficient 
 to take care of the great floods in the 
 Chagres river. The material for the 
 Gatun dam will be conveyed an aver- 
 age distance of 10 miles. 
 
 It costs $1 per mile to move a train- 
 load of earth and rock. Bach train is 
 composed of seventeen cars which 
 hold an average of 18 yards each. 
 They are loaded and unloaded by ma- 
 chinery. The material is chiefly the 
 indurated clay of which the public has 
 heard so much from canal critics. It 
 is a volcanic rock which crumbles just 
 as much as our Washington county 
 limestone does when exposed to the 
 air, but underground is quite hard. It 
 is blasted out of the hills by dynamite. 
 The holes are drilled seven feet apart 
 and 20 feet deep. The charge is from 
 30 to 60 pounds. The drilling ma- 
 chines were formerly run by steam 
 but now compressed air is used. The 
 increase in efficiency is said to be ful- 
 
 —22— 
 
 ly 20 per cent. As all the material 
 from the great cuts has to be handled 
 on the cars it was thought best to use 
 much of it in increasing the thickness 
 of the Gatun dam so as to make it safe 
 beyond all peradventure. 
 
 The lottery which is in operation at 
 Panama City has a branch at Colon. 
 The drawing takes place on Sunday. 
 This morning scores of men and wo- 
 men, mostly colored, were gathered in 
 front of the lottery office to see the 
 lucky number posted. The highest 
 prize, $3,000, was won by number 744. 
 Others drew smaller sums but of 
 course thousands were disappointed. 
 Gambling in this form is general. 
 Even the reputable stores sell lottery 
 tickets. The result is very demoraliz- 
 ing. In some way our government 
 should put a stop to this. 
 
 Bull Fights are Revolting. 
 
 The bull fight yesterday was a re- 
 volting exhibition. Such a show is 
 given now every Sunday. The animals 
 have little spirit and are terribly goad- 
 ed to madden them. The valiant bull 
 fighters take no chancp* themselves, 
 having safe retreats built close to the 
 walls of the arena. The so-called fight 
 was merely a cruel way of slaughter- 
 ing the animal but the spectators 
 cheered with delight as the frenzied 
 bull, bleeding from many cruel wounds 
 occasionally charged his tormentors 
 
Congressional Party at the Ruins of the Church at Old Panama. 
 
who waved their red capes. The spec- 
 tacle was disgusting in the extreme 
 and it is marvellous how any one can 
 enjoy it. 
 
 This town has many husky, enter- 
 prising Americans who are cram full 
 of energy and are bound to succeed. 
 Their modern and progressive meth- 
 ods cause the native Panaman to open 
 his eyes in wonder and also arouse 
 his jealousy. The native is too indo- 
 lent to hustle himself, yet is envious 
 of the go-ahead American who has in- 
 fused new life into the Isthmus. The 
 native is mostly incapable of appre- 
 ciating American generosity, the op- 
 portunities open to him, and the debt 
 he owes to the United States for its 
 liberal treatment. He seems to think 
 these concessions were made by us 
 through fear of complications. For 
 these reasons American residents 
 speak with some contempt of the na- 
 tives. 
 
 Enthusiasm of Canal Workers. 
 The splendid enthusiasm of those 
 who have charge of all departments of 
 Canal work is inspiring. The spirit 
 of confidence and devotion to the 
 cause is all pervasive, and permeates 
 the very atmosphere of the Zone. The 
 esprit de corps of those directing all 
 branches of the work is magnificent. 
 The great enterprise has attracted to 
 the Isthmus many of the most active 
 
 and patriotic young men of the states 
 who are anxious to have their names 
 linked with this master achievement 
 of all the ages. In their lexicon there is 
 no such word as fail. Whoever inspir- 
 ed this- enthusiasm performed a great 
 work. If it was the personality of Mr. 
 Stevens as many claim, he is certainly 
 entitled to the thanks of the country. 
 One thing is sure. Every one speaks 
 with admiring enthusiasm of Mr. 
 Stevens and regrets his departure. 
 The points of general agreement on 
 other matters are that the sanitary 
 work of Col. Gorgas is remarkable, 
 that Capt. Shanton handles the police 
 department admirably, and that U. S. 
 Consul Shankin is an energetic, effi- 
 cient, and popular officer whose devo- 
 tion to the interests of his country 
 makes his services invaluable. On all 
 other matters there is more or less 
 disagreement. 
 
 The Canal when completed will 
 probably have cost $250,000,000. While 
 this is a vast sum it is not so much in 
 proportion to the wealth of the United 
 States as the cost at the time of its 
 construction of the old National road. 
 That was the first great work of in- 
 ternal improvement undertaken by the 
 government. It was begun 100 years 
 ago under President Jefferson's admin- 
 istration when the country was so 
 poor that is was not thought worth 
 while to compile statistics of wealth. 
 
 —23— 
 
 The United States expended about $7,- 
 000,000 in constructing that famous 
 old highway. It was for many years 
 the main artery of commerce between 
 the East and the West. Its cost was 
 a mere bagatelle compared to its ben- 
 efits in binding together remote sec- 
 tions of our country. So the cost of 
 the Isthmian Canal will be counted as 
 a small expenditure a century hence 
 when the American people come to es- 
 timate what has been accomplished by 
 uniting the Atlantic and Pacific at 
 Panama. 
 
 Canal Work an Object Lesson. 
 
 The work on the Canal Zone is an 
 object lesson to the whole of Latin 
 America. The Anglo Saxon has con- 
 quered the tropics. He has shown 
 that the race can live and thrive in a 
 hot climate. By strictly observing the 
 laws of health and enforcing sanita- 
 tion he has eradicated deadly disease 
 and banished such afflictions as ma- 
 laria which paralyze effort. The in- 
 habitants of Latin America can learn 
 how they must live by observing what 
 has been done on the Isthmus. When 
 the Canal is completed thousands of 
 competent young Americans, familiar 
 with their customs and language by 
 years of residence on the Zone, will be 
 equipped to aid them in the march of 
 progress and civilization. The Pana- 
 
ma Canal will improve the social, mor- 
 al, material, and political conditions in 
 every country between the Rio Grande 
 and the Straits of Magellen. President 
 
 Roosevelt's administration will be not- 
 ed in history for many wise and be- 
 neficent measures but the supreme 
 achievement of his two terms will be 
 
 recorded as the inauguration of work 
 on the Isthmian Canal through his in- 
 sistent leadership and sagacious 
 statesmanship. 
 
 Costa Rica the Best of the Central American Countries 
 
 San Jose, Costa Rica, March 20, — 
 Sailing from Colon at 1 o'clock on 
 Monday our section of the congress- 
 ional party reached Port Limon, Costa 
 Rica, early yesterday morning. The 
 distance is 192 miles. Our ride through 
 the golden Caribbean was on the beau- 
 tiful steamer Ellis of the United 
 Fruit company's line, a staunch ves- 
 sel of 3,000 tons, manned by as polite 
 and capable a set of officers and crew 
 as ever trod a ship's deck. Every- 
 thing possible was done to promote the 
 comfort and happiness of the pas- 
 sengers. 
 
 Port Limon was named by Columbus 
 who sailed along this coast on his last 
 voyage vainly searching for a pas- 
 sage to the western sea. The old r avi- 
 gator explored the shore lines of each 
 gulf and bay and sailed into each river 
 between Yucatan and Trinidad. This 
 portion of the land was well named 
 Costa Rica, or rich coast, and the 
 harbor in which our good ship an- 
 chored was called "Puerto de Limon," 
 because the islands near by were cov- 
 
 ered with lime trees. Limon, pro- 
 nounced as though spelled Lemone, 
 has a population of 8,000, a large pro- 
 portion being negroes from Jamaica, 
 who are employed in loading and un- 
 loading ships and upon the immense 
 banana plantations near by. English 
 is the exclusive language as it is in all 
 the coast country of Costa Rica. In- 
 deed English is taught now in all the 
 schools throughout the country and 
 its study is compulsory. It must also 
 be used in all the stores. Costa Rica 
 prides itself on being the only country 
 of Central America which has more 
 school teachers than soldiers and this 
 is saying a great deal in Latin Amer- 
 ica, where revolutions follow one an- 
 other in rapid succession and civil au- 
 thority is generally only maintained 
 by force of arms. 
 
 Great Banana Country. 
 
 The railroad connecting Port Limon 
 with San Jose, the capital, has a 
 guage of three feet, six inches. The 
 distance is 102 miles. For six miles 
 
 —24— 
 
 after leaving Limon the road skirts the 
 coast most of the way within sight of 
 the breaking billows and then turns up 
 -the valley of the Reventizan river. For 
 many miles it passes through the won- 
 derful banana farms which have made 
 Costa Rica famous. Here the banana 
 grows all the year around. A banana 
 shoot or branch, as it is called, starts 
 to produce at the age of nine months. 
 The branches are cut down each sea- 
 son. Then the laborer cuts the shoots 
 with his machette or corn cutter, 
 sticks the machette into the ground, 
 twists it, puts in a, shoot, stamps it, 
 and that is all the cultivation the ban- 
 ana branch gets. The underbrush 
 which grows in tropical luxuriance is 
 cut three times each year, however. 
 The banana bunches are measured by 
 hands. Each perfect hand has 22 ban- 
 anas. The number of hands on a 
 bunch ranges from 7 to 22. The aver- 
 age number of bananas on a bunch 
 is 144, though a few bunches have 
 been found with upward of 500. 
 The land along this coast is pe- 
 
culiarly adapted to banana raising. 
 While the banana trees thrived for 
 awhile in other countries of Central 
 America no soil seemed rich enough 
 to stand the continuous cultivation of 
 bananas save that of Costa Rica 
 and upper Panama. Land can be 
 bought here at $12 per acre. It 
 costs $40 per acre to clear it, 
 and put it in condition to raise 
 bananas. It will yield 15 bunches 
 of bananas per acre every month. 
 Taking the average of 144 bananas to 
 the bunch it will be seen that each 
 acre will produce 25,920 bananas an- 
 ually. The vegetation is so rank and 
 its growth so rapid that it takes one 
 man to every three acres to clear the 
 brush and grass every four months, 
 pick the fruit, dig the ditches, build 
 the bridges, and do all the necessary 
 work. Farm laborers are paid from 
 85 cents to $1.50 per day, American 
 money. As $1 of our money is equiv- 
 alent to 215 centavos or $2.15 Costa 
 Rican money, the laborers can live lux- 
 uriously on these wages if they choose. 
 Here as in Panama the Jamaicans are 
 indolent and will not work regularly. 
 If engaged to go to work at 7 a. m. 
 they may not appear until 8 or 9 
 o'clock, and after three or four days' 
 work will lay off for two or three 
 days. Frequently they go off into the 
 bush or jungle as it is called, build a 
 shack and clear a piece of ground. 
 Under the law these squatters must 
 
 be paid for their improvements if the 
 owner of the land wishes to take pos- 
 session. The land is divided into hec- 
 tares or 2.47 acres and all calculations 
 as to production are based on this 
 measurement. 
 
 The Banana Industry. 
 The United Fruit company owns 
 150,000 acres of land susceptible of 
 banana culture. The greater por- 
 tion of this, remote from the railroad, 
 is not yet used for the production of 
 bananas. Last year the company pur- 
 chased about half of the bananas it 
 shipped. Many banana growers own 
 their own farms. During 1906, no less 
 than 8,500,000 bunches were shipped 
 from Port Limon, of which 5,000,000 
 went to the United States. There is 
 no export duty on bananas. About 
 400 ships or an average of more then 
 one ship per day loaded with bananas 
 left Port Limon last year. This year 
 it is confidently believed 10,000,000 
 bunches will be exported. A ship 
 of 3,000 tons sometimes takes from 
 40,000 to 50,000 bunches. While the 
 Jamaica bananas are pronounced bet- 
 ter by epicures the Costa Rican or 
 Limon bananas sell better in the mar- 
 ket because they look better. They 
 have a fine appearance and four cus- 
 tomers out of five will choose them. 
 A good many settlers have come here 
 from the United States and have been 
 very successful in banana raising. I 
 
 —25— 
 
 have therefore sought information on 
 the subject for the Observer, think- 
 ing that some of our Washington coun- 
 ty farmers who are selling coal lands 
 may wish to come here to try banana 
 growing. The business is said to be 
 very profitable and the consumption 
 increases steadily. I can well remem- 
 ber when a banana was unknown in 
 Washington. 
 
 Mountain Climbing By Rail. 
 Passing through vast banana farms, 
 one of which belonging to one com- 
 pany is nine miles in length, our train 
 reaches the foot hills of the Cordil- 
 leras and begins its winding climb to 
 the summit, a mile above us in the 
 clouds. The road follows the valley 
 of the Reventizan, which soon be- 
 comes a dashing torrent. For forty 
 or fifty miles there is a succession of 
 horseshoe bends equal to any of the 
 curves on the W. & W. railroad, be- 
 tween Washington and Waynesburg. 
 The route is more tortuous and the 
 grade at many points heavier than on 
 the only railroad which reaches 
 Greene county's capital. Like our 
 "Narrow gauge" this line is a great 
 revenue producer. Last year it earn- 
 ed over $1,700,000. It was built by 
 an English syndicate, but has been 
 taken over by the United Fruit com- 
 pany. The Reventizan is a consider- 
 able stream and as it falls again and 
 again over the rocks for mile after 
 
mile, the thought comes that some day 
 this power now wasted will be util- 
 ized. It would undoubtedly be suffic- 
 ient to generate electricity which 
 would operate the railroad, light many 
 towns and run thousands of machines. 
 Our train winds through picturesque 
 mountain passes and deep gorges 
 where mighty walls of solid rock 
 rise for hundreds of feet. The moun- 
 tains are fertile to their very tips. 
 Gardens are planted on slopes as steep 
 as the roof of a house. Clouds hover 
 over us obscuring the mountains 
 across the valley. As we approach the 
 summit we get a good view of Irazu, 
 a volcano on a peak said to be 14,000 
 feet above the sea, but which does 
 not look the part. It is one of a group 
 in this neighborhood which are row 
 quiescent, but sometimes get gay and 
 vomit sulphur, lava and ashes. Two 
 miles from the summit we stop at Car- 
 tago, a town of 10,000 people, which 
 was destroyed by an eruption nearly 
 60 years ago. It is 90 miles from the 
 coast and about 5,000 feet above sea 
 level. The air is cool and bracing 
 and one can scarcely believe that it 
 is only a few hours since we were 
 sweltering in tropical heat at Port 
 Limon. Many persons from the Canal 
 zone come to Cartago to recuperate 
 when worn out by continuous hot 
 weather. It takes only a day from 
 Colon to reach this mountain top. We 
 are told that accommodations for 
 
 boarders are at a premium and it has 
 been suggested that the Canal com- 
 mission build a Sanitarium at Cartago. 
 A few weeks here would do as much 
 to revitalize a man as his six weeks 
 annual vacation spent in the States 
 and the trip would be much less ex- 
 pensive. A peculiarity of this region 
 is that it will rain for weeks on the 
 Atlantic side of the mountains and 
 never a drop fall on the Pacific side. 
 Going down to San Jose the descent is 
 about 150 feet to the mile. Switches 
 and sidings for runaway trains are 
 provided, the tracks of the sidings 
 running at a stiff upward grade for 
 some distance to allow a runaway 
 train which is switched to it to ex- 
 pend its force and enable the crew to 
 get control of it. 
 
 San Jose, the Capita! City. 
 
 After a delightful seven hours ride 
 we reached San Jose, the capital of 
 Costa Rica. It happened to be the feast 
 day of St. Joseph, in whose honor the 
 city is named, and the stores and busi- 
 ness places were closed while people 
 thronged the beautiful parks and listen- 
 ed to good music by the National band. 
 San Jose has a population of 25,000 
 and is a solidly built town of clean 
 and attractive appearance. The 
 streets are narrow as in all Spanish 
 towns, but are well paved. The bulk 
 of the population of Costa Rica is in 
 the country around San Jose. It was 
 
 —26— 
 
 settled by immigrants from provinces 
 in Spain where the people were Cau- 
 casians and had never mingled with 
 the Moors. When they came to Costa 
 Rica they kept their blood pure and 
 refused to intermarry with the Indians 
 as most of the Spanish settlers did. 
 Thus it happens that while at Panama 
 city, a place about the same size as 
 San Jose, it is said that there are 
 only 16 families without any trace 
 of the tar-brush, as the mixing of 
 races is called, in the capital of this 
 Republic and the country round 
 about, thousands of families of Euro- , 
 pean descent and pure Caucasian 
 blood can be found. Pew negroes are 
 seen here. They keep to the coast 
 country. 
 
 The population of Costa Rica is es- 
 timated at 350,000. The area is 18,- 
 400 square miles or equal to that of 
 New Hampshire and Vermont com- 
 bined. The foreign population is 
 about 7,000 and this is increasing 
 slightly by immigration. The govern- 
 ment has begun to encourage immi- 
 gration by the sale of land on easy 
 terms. Costa Rica maintains an army 
 of only 1,000 men while Nicaragua has 
 5,000. Just now some apprehension 
 is felt as to the effect which the mili- 
 tary success of President Jose Santos 
 Zelaya, of Nicaragua will have on Cen- 
 tral American politics. Zelaya is 
 carrying on war with Honduras and 
 Salvador. He is said to be ambitious 
 
Specimens of Bananas, Port Limon, Costa Rica. 
 
to unite all the Central American 
 states in a union of which he would be 
 president. He is represented as a mil- 
 itary dictator and if successful in his 
 present operations it is feared will 
 turn upon Costa Rica. Union with 
 Nicaragua and other Central American 
 states' would not be agreeable to 
 Costa Rica. It would prefer annexa- 
 tion to the United States. Indeed, as 
 long ago as 1822 it was ready to fol- 
 low San Salvador in asking the United 
 States for annexation. It is the most 
 advanced country in Central America, 
 with a more desirable population and 
 with more stable government. No 
 revolution has occurred here for 35 
 years. The gold standard has been 
 adopted and business is on a solid bas- 
 is. The people are peaceful and do 
 not want to go to war. They have 
 the reputation of being more indus- 
 trious and honest than their neigh- 
 bors in other states. Most of them 
 take little interest in politics, do not 
 vote and care little who governs them 
 so that peace is maintained. While 
 they probably work more than the 
 inhabitants of other countries in the 
 tropics they are not hustlers. Here 
 as m other Spanish countries the word 
 most often used is "Manana," mean- 
 ing "some other time." The country 
 has immense resources, agricultural, 
 mineral and timber, but the greater 
 part of its territory is unoccupied. 
 Here as in all Spanish countries, there 
 
 is no land tax. That is the reason the 
 country has not made progress. Im- 
 mense tracts of land are held under 
 ancient grants and as there is no tax 
 to pay it is held in rich families who 
 do not use it and will not subdivide 
 and sell it. Import duties are levied 
 on tobacco, liquors and various kinds 
 of goods. 
 
 Great Fertility of the Soil. 
 It is said broadly that everything 
 will grow in Costa Rica. By far the 
 larger part of the population and pro- 
 duction is on the Pacific side of the 
 mountains, yet nine-tenths of all its 
 exports are from Port Limon. Sixty- 
 five per cent, of these exports go to 
 the United States. While bananas are 
 the principal export, still last year 
 the value of coffee exported was $3,- 
 350,000. At Limon we saw 450 men 
 employed loading our ship with ban- 
 anas. All told 32,000 bunches or over 
 4,600,000 bananas are to be put on 
 board. This is about an average load. 
 Then if one considers that the United 
 Fruit company has 102 ships carrying 
 fruit to the United States and Europe 
 he gets a faint idea of the tremend- 
 ous growth of the business. Of course 
 many of the ships ply between Cuba, 
 Jamaica and other fruit producing 
 countries to ports of the United 
 States and England. This company 
 gives work to 7,000 persons including 
 railroad employes. 
 
 —27— 
 
 San Jose boasts of one of the most 
 magnificent theatres in the world. 
 Only Paris and Milan have structures 
 which exceed it in grandeur. It was 
 built by the government and cost over 
 $1,500,000. The money was raised by 
 a coffee tax. The best mechanics and 
 decorators in Italy were brought here 
 to do the work. Although only ten de- 
 grees from the Equator the mercury 
 never rises above 84, while in Canada 
 it reaches 104. Perpetual spring reigns 
 and the flowers are perennial. The 
 days are warm and the nights cool 
 enough to sleep under a blanket. No 
 one has an overcoat, and the houses 
 have no chimneys. Shoes are not 
 worn by the women of the lower class- 
 es. Education is free and compulsory 
 between the ages of eight and four- 
 teen. On account of earthquakes the 
 houses are one and two story struc- 
 tures with thick adobe walls. 
 Through the courtesy of Mrs. Fernan- 
 dez we were permitted to see the in- 
 terior of one of the houses of the bet- 
 ter class. She invited us to her resi- 
 dence which is on an elevation over- 
 looking the town. Mrs. Fernandez's 
 husband was at one time Minister of 
 Education and at the time of his death 
 was president of congress. We were 
 charmingly entertained at this beau- 
 tiful Costa Rican home and if its in- 
 mates are representative of the people 
 we must admit that they surpass us in 
 social graces. The children were edu- 
 
cated abroad, speak several languages 
 fluently and have accomplishments 
 which fit them to adorn the best so- 
 ciety anywhere in the world. 
 
 Strict Sanitary Regulations. 
 
 The sanitary and quarantine regu- 
 lations are better enforced in Costa 
 Rica than in any state in Central 
 America. The health officer who came 
 aboard the Ellis at Port Limon did 
 not perform his duties in the usual 
 perfunctory manner. He felt the pulse 
 and examined the vaccination mark 
 of every passenger. The buzzards 
 help to protect the public health and 
 great flocks of these scavengers of 
 the air can be seen from the car win- 
 dows. We also see many teams of 
 oxen yoked together by the horns as 
 in Cuba. San Jose is over 4,000 feet 
 above the sea, on the Pacific slope of 
 
 the mountains and its surroundings 
 are picturesque and beautiful. The 
 valleys between the mountain ranges 
 near by are exceedingly rich and fer- 
 tile. And to speak again of the ban- 
 ana it is reported that a grower has 
 just produced a bunch flavored like 
 an apple and which smells and tastes 
 like an apple. This has caused s >me 
 excitement in the banana world and 
 the success of the experiment will 
 open a wider market and lead to a 
 largely increased demand for the 
 banana. 
 
 What has been accomplished by the 
 United Fruit company shows what 
 American energy and enterprise can 
 do in a tropical country. It is over 
 four hundred years since Europeans 
 first set foot in Costa Rica. It was 
 the first country on the mainland of 
 the continent to be discovered, but 
 
 as yet its marvellous resources are 
 scarcely touched. Extensive prairies 
 affording fine pasturage are found in 
 the northern part of the country and 
 vast forests of valuable timber in the 
 northeastern section. Sugar, corn, 
 cocoa and tropical fruits flourish. The 
 coffee is of superior quality. The land 
 held by the government is sold at a 
 nominal figure with a long time allow- 
 ed for payment. Costa Rica only needs 
 more enterprising Americans with cap- 
 ital, such men as manage the United 
 Fruit company, to bring it into the 
 first rank of prosperous communities 
 of this continent. One bids adieu to 
 this wonderful little country of Cen- 
 tral America, thankful that he has had 
 an opportunity to visit it and wishing 
 for it the development and advance- 
 ment which its rich resources and 
 varied attractions merit. 
 
 -23- 
 
New Orleans and the Lower Mississippi 
 
 The return trip from Panama was 
 made by way of New Orleans. Eight 
 days were spent with other members 
 of the committee on rivers and har- 
 bors of the House of Representatives 
 in an inspection of Louisiana water- 
 ways. This committee visited Louis- 
 iana at the request of the state dele- 
 gation and was entertained by the 
 commercial organizations of the prin- 
 cipal cities of the state. The follow- 
 ing interview appeared in the Observer 
 of Saturday, April 6 : 
 
 "Our ship entered the south pass of 
 the Mississippi a little after noon on 
 Sunday, March 24. I had seen the 
 mouths of the Mississippi before, but 
 what can be learned there is a never 
 ceasing wonder. The Father of 
 Waters has three great outlets, the 
 South Pass, the Southwest Pass and 
 the Southeast Pass. All told, 1,300,000 
 cubic feet of water, or seven times 
 that amount in gallons, passes out in- 
 to the gulf each minute. The amount 
 of matter carried in suspension and 
 deposited as sediment each year 
 would cover one square mile of ter- 
 ritory to a height of 360 feet. As the 
 average depth of water is between 30 
 and 40 feet, this soil washed from 27 
 states makes from 10 to 12 square 
 miles of land annually. Pennsylvania 
 and Louisiana have the same area, 
 
 45,000 square miles. While the area 
 of Pennsylvania is fixed, Louisiana 
 adds to its total each year a strip of 
 land as large as South Franklin town- 
 ship. 
 
 New Orleans. 
 
 "It was my third visit to New Or- 
 leans, and yet there is so much to see 
 there that I enjoyed every minute of 
 the stay. Its history is intensely in- 
 teresting. It has a location which in- 
 sures its pre-eminence as one of the 
 great cities of America. If New Or- 
 leans had the push and enterprise of 
 many of the small northern towns it 
 would soon have a population of 1,- 
 000,000. Its people do not seem to be 
 imbued with the mad rush for wealth 
 which characterizes our northern com- 
 munities. If a merchant makes $5,000 
 or $10,000 per year he spends it; and 
 if a clerk receives $1,500, he has no 
 ambition to save it. As a whole the 
 people do not care to accumulate. The 
 Mardi Gras is an annual extravagance 
 in which the city indulges. It costs 
 $1,000,000 for the display. I was told 
 that men gave $25 or $50 to make 
 this a success who could not afford it. 
 Then everybody loses a week of work 
 and the waste in wages is estimated at 
 $2,000,000. On the other hand the 
 city takes credit for $1,000,000 spent 
 
 —29— 
 
 by 100,000 visitors, but is still short 
 about $2,000,000 on account of this fes- 
 tival. During its continuance every- 
 body keeps open house and entertains 
 friends. New Orleans has been satis- 
 fied to have dirty streets with foul 
 water covered with green scum in 
 the gutters, but a better day is dawn- 
 ing. The city is growing by force of 
 circumstances. Its commanding loca- 
 tion and splendid harbor, with water 
 100 feet deep for miles above and be- 
 low, compel it to forge ahead and as- 
 sure its future supremacy. 
 
 "Our party went up the Mississippi 
 by boat to the mouth of the Red river. 
 The banks are lined with beautiful su- 
 gar plantations many of which contain 
 from 2,000 to 3,000 acres. A good su- 
 gar house with modern equipment 
 costs about $100,000. Some of these 
 plantations sell at $250 an acre. The 
 current in the river is very shifty and 
 uncertain. Sometimes it eats re- 
 morselessly into one of its banks un- 
 til half a plantation will be washed 
 away. This is a dead loss to the own- 
 er, although a little lower down the ac- 
 cretions on the other shore may add 
 an equal area to the plantation of a 
 neighbor. The land thus made be- 
 longs to the owner of the plantation 
 so enlarged. Many fine homes have 
 gone into the river and disappeared. 
 
The channel is seven-eighths of a mile 
 wide at New Orleans and three-fourths 
 of a mile wide for a long distance 
 above the city. If a cut is made 
 across a bend to straighten the chan- 
 nel, the rover eventually makes a re- 
 verse curve somewhere below and 
 stretches out to its usual length. This 
 was true of it in its natural state. 
 Now it is confined by levees about 20 
 feet high on each side. These revet- 
 ments cost from $20 to $45 per run- 
 ning foot. 
 
 "About ten miles above New Orleans 
 on the east side is the beautiful 1,000,- 
 acre plantation of Gibbs Morgan, Esq., 
 one of the leading lawyers of that city. 
 He is a great-grandson of Col. George 
 Morgan, of Morganza, and has rela- 
 tives living in this community. His 
 home is known as the "Danish Consul 
 plantation," as it formerly belonged to 
 Mr. Frellsen, who was consul from 
 Denmark to New Orleans for many 
 years. 
 
 Plaquemine Bayou. 
 
 "Plaquemine is on the west bank 
 of the Mississippi about 100 miles 
 above New Orleans. Here came 
 Nicholas Wilson from Washington a 
 hundred years ago and settled on a 
 splendid plantation a mile below the 
 town. He was an uncle of Alexander 
 Wilson, Esq.; of Misses Jennie and 
 Eleanor Baird, of East Wheeling street 
 
 and connected with many other fami- 
 lies in this community. The old plan- 
 tation contained several thousand 
 acres and has been divided into three 
 parts. Some of Mr. Wilson's descend- 
 ants live on these plantations yet. Oth- 
 ers are scattered over the state, at 
 New Orleans, Lake Charles and 
 Shreveport. All are worthy descend- 
 ants of a good man. The lock which 
 has just been completed W Plaque- 
 mine to connect the Mississippi with 
 the Bayou is the largest in the world. 
 It will have a lift of 36 feet, twice that 
 of the lock at the Soo, and the gates 
 are 52 feet in order to accommodate 
 the rise of water during floods in the 
 Mississippi. Many beautiful sugar 
 plantations are located on the Plaque- 
 mine Bayou. I was interested to 
 know that some of them used Wash- 
 ington county coal which comes from 
 the Monongahela river. They pay 
 $5.30 per ton. Last year 500,000 tons 
 of this coal were sold at Plaquemine. 
 Most of the planters, however, are 
 using oil brought from Texas as fuel. 
 The price of oil has been going up and 
 is now $1.40 a barrel. One planter 
 told me that he considered a ton of 
 Pittsburg coal equal to five barrels of 
 oil, but another put the proportion at 
 one ton to two and a half barrels. If 
 the improvement of the Ohio river 
 were completed and a uniform depth 
 of nine feet from Pittsburg to Cairo 
 
 —80— 
 
 the year around assured our coal 
 could be sold at $2.50 to $3.00 per ton. 
 These big plantations use from 4,000 
 to 6,000 tons each annually. 
 
 Big Real Estate Deal. 
 
 "Baton Rouge, the state capital, is 
 an interesting little city, not so large 
 as Washington. The portion of Lou- 
 isiana east of it to the Pearl river was 
 not included in the purchase made by 
 Livingston from the French in 1803. It 
 was claimed by the Spaniards for 
 years afterward and called West Flor- 
 ida. In 1810 it was taken by Ameri- 
 cans and the Spanish claim has never 
 been settled. It is not clear how Liv- 
 ington overlooked this piece of terri- 
 tory. He made the greatest real es- 
 tate deal in history when he bought 
 Louisiana. Next to the treaty of 1783, 
 this purchase represents our greatest 
 and most valuable acquisition of ter- 
 ritory. Jefferson only wanted New Or- 
 leans, but Livingston acquired a vast 
 territory besides at a low price. He 
 was a shrewd dealer, saying to the 
 French that it would be a hundred 
 years before the white man set foot 
 west of the Mississippi. In less than 
 50 years the Stars and Stripes were 
 afloat over everything clear to the Pa- 
 cific. West Florida has been under 
 seven flags, English, Spanish, French, 
 West Florida, United States, Confed- 
 erate and United States. No other 
 
piece of territory in our country has 
 ■witnessed such a change of sovereign- 
 ty. 
 
 "Our boat turned up the Red river 
 and then down the Atchafalaya. A 
 plantation on the Red river was the 
 scene of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' Mrs. 
 Stowe never visited Louisiana and her 
 information came from a school teach- 
 er who had spent some time there. 
 All those here who speak of the book 
 say that it is an extreme picture. Usu- 
 ally the relations between master and 
 slave were kindly and instances of 
 such cruelty as is depicted in 'Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin' were rare. Atchafala- 
 ya' is an Indian word, meaning 'very 
 long river.' As a matter of fact it is 
 a very short river. It is supposed that 
 at one time it was the outlet of the 
 Red river. At one point the Red and 
 the Mississippi came within six miles 
 of each other. The Red worked its 
 way east and the Mississippi west un- 
 til the two were united and the waters 
 of the Red went to the gulf by the 
 Mississippi channel. Recently the 
 mats of drift in the Atchafalaya were 
 cut away and now about one-fourth of 
 the flow of the Red goes to the gulf by 
 way of the Atchafalaya. 
 
 "We went by boat from Morgan City 
 to Franklin up the Teche, pronounced 
 *Tesh.' This is through Acadia, made 
 famous by Longfellow in his poem, 
 'Evangeline.' Part of our trip was by 
 
 the light of the full moon. Fine sugar 
 plantations are on either bank. We 
 passed the tree under which Evange- 
 line is said to have slept as her lover 
 went by. It has been cut up and most 
 of it carried away by relic hunters. 
 The old love story was told as we 
 glided gently by with music on the 
 upper deck, which made the trip seem 
 like one in Fairyland. 
 
 Avery Island Salt Mine. 
 
 "We visited the great salt mine at 
 Avery island. It is the largest mine 
 in the world. The area of the island 
 is four square miles and two square 
 miles of this is a solid block of salt. 
 Drills have been put down through it 
 to a depth of 2,299 feet, when cedar 
 wood 25 and 30 feet in thickness was 
 encountered. Operations are carried on 
 now 532 feet below the surface so as 
 to give a roof and keep the water out. 
 Entries are driven very much in the 
 same way as in our coal mines except 
 that they are about 25 feet in height. 
 Eighty thousand tons of salt were tak- 
 en from this mine last year. We saw 
 10,000 tons at the mouth of the mine 
 waiting shipment, but no cars avail- 
 able. The cars on hand only held 20 
 tons and seemed very small along side 
 of our 50 ton coal cars. General Av- 
 ery's grandfather came from New 
 Jersey in 1815 and settled on this isl- 
 and. Lump salt was discovered in 
 
 —31— 
 
 1862, the first in America. It is 98.6 
 per cent pure. Tobasco pepper also 
 grows in profusion on this island and 
 a thousand barrels of oysters are 
 shipped every day. Five hundred 
 men are given employment. The high- 
 est part of the island is 350 feet above 
 the sea. Here General Avery, his 
 sons and Civil Service Commissioner 
 Mcllhenney, his son-in-law, have fine 
 homes, where we were beautifully en- 
 tertained. 
 
 "We passed the island owned by the 
 late Joseph Jefferson, the actor, which 
 he called Bob Acres. In this neighbor- 
 hood are lands said to yield 300 to 400 
 barrels of onions per acre. The seed 
 is brought from Bermuda. The oyster 
 beds nearby yield 1,000 barrels per 
 acre. Last year 3,000,000 bushels of 
 oysters were taken from the Louis- 
 iana beds and on each bushel the state 
 imposes a tax of one cent. 
 
 Wide Rice Lands. 
 
 "We passed through miles and miles 
 of rice land. Much of this land can 
 be purchased for $20 to $25 per acre. 
 The average production of rice 
 is about ten sacks per acre. 
 Each sack contains 180 pounds and 
 sells at $3. Many instances are giv- 
 en of persons who have cleared the 
 price of the land in one crop. It is 
 said to be a common thing. It is only 
 20 years since rice growing was be- 
 
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 Palm Avenue, Cristobal Colon, Canal Zone. 
 
gun in this neighborhood. One man 
 can cultivate 100 acres. Wages are 
 pretty good and the demand for labor 
 is great. The usual rate is $1.50 per 
 day for common labor. Many farm- 
 ers are moving from Illinois and Iowa 
 to these rice lands. They say one 
 must pay $125 per acre now for good 
 land in those states. Such land when 
 planted in corn will produce about $20 
 gross. They can produce $30 worth 
 of rice on land which they can buy for 
 one-fifth as much as in Illinois or 
 Iowa. 
 
 "Lake Charles is one of the growing 
 towns of the state and the metropolis 
 of Southwestern Louisiana. It has nu- 
 merous saw mills which turn out about 
 750,000 feet of lumber per day. The 
 yellow pine timber belt is about 15 
 miles north of the town. 
 
 Wonderful Sulphur Mine. 
 
 "Ten miles northwest of Lake" 
 Charles is the wonderful sulphur 
 mine, said to be the greatest in the 
 world. Sulphur was discovered here 
 during the Civil war while boring for 
 salt. Over $2,000,000 were expended 
 by different companies in attempting 
 to mine it. The property finally pass- 
 ed into the hands of the Standard Oil 
 company and Professor Herman 
 Frasche, the engineer for that great 
 company, invented a method of get- 
 ting it out. Wells are drilled to a 
 
 depth of 500 to 600 feet. A 13-inch 
 iron pipe is inserted with a six-inch 
 pipe inside. Superheated steam is 
 forced down the larger pipe. It melts 
 the sulphur and the air pressure 
 brings it up the six-inch pipe. It 
 pours out like molasses. It is confin- 
 ed in large square pens made by set- 
 ting heavy planks on edge. Some of 
 these pens are 200 by 1,400 feet, with 
 an area of about seven acres. The sul- 
 phur cools when it comes in contact 
 with the air. The planks are then 
 raised and this is continued until the 
 blocks of sulphur are 30 feet high. We 
 saw several of these chunks. The mine 
 produced last year 300,000 tons. The 
 market price was $22 per ton. Dur- 
 ing the Russo-Jap war it rose to $40 
 per ton. The deposit of sulphur ia 
 500 feet below the surface and is 125 
 feet in thickness. The limits of the 
 deposit have been defined and the 
 bed is known to contain 45,000,000 
 tons. In the ground the sulphur is ab- 
 solutely pure. After handling it, 
 walking over it, and so forth, it is 
 99.8 per cent pure. Some years ago 
 the property was assessed at $50,000. 
 It was raised to $85,000 and the com- 
 pany appealed. The assessment stood 
 and was then raised to $500,000. The 
 company again appealed, but the val- 
 uation was not changed. This year it 
 has been assessed at $5,000,000 and 
 the usual appeal is pending. 
 
 —32— 
 
 "The Jennings oil field is interest- 
 ing from the fact that 250 wells were 
 drilled on 75 acres. They are about 
 1,600 feet deep. The best well pro- 
 duced 3,500,000 barrels. It made a 
 thousand barrels an hour for 60 days. 
 The field now produces 18,000 barrels 
 per day. 
 
 "Shreveport is the largest city in 
 Louisiana outside of New Orleans. Its 
 population is about 25,000. Some large 
 gas wells were brought in in that 
 neighborhood last year and the town 
 has been piped. It is being widely ad- 
 vertised as a city which has "natural 
 gas to burn," and the population is 
 increasing rapidly. 
 
 Municipal Ownership. 
 
 "Our trip wound up at Monroe, a 
 town of 16,000 inhabitants, in North- 
 eastern Louisiana, which has been 
 making interesting experiments in mu- 
 nicipal ownership. It is the only town 
 in the United States which owns its 
 own street railway. Seven miles of 
 first class track were laid at a cost of 
 $130,000 for construction and equip- 
 ment. Three lines etxend from the 
 center of the town to the suburbs. The 
 service is good and the fare five cents. 
 I was assured that the venture was 
 successful from the start and at the 
 present rate the net receipts would 
 pay for the road in five years. The 
 city has also taken over the water 
 
plant and electric light works and 
 claims to have cheaper water and 
 light than other towns. Last year Mon- 
 roe purchased 300 acres of land two 
 miles from the center of the town. 
 The street railway has been extended 
 out to it, a summer theatre erected, a 
 race track built, a ball ground laid out, 
 a grandstand erected, and trees, 
 shrubs and flowers planted. The land 
 cost the city $40,000. The municipal- 
 ity also owns the wharf, which cost 
 $10,000 and a bridge which cost $88,- 
 000. It has expended over $400,000 
 for public utilities, yet its bonded debt 
 is now only $250,000. Monroe is try- 
 ing an interesting experiment which 
 will be watched closely by other pro- 
 gressive towns in the country. 
 
 Fine Waterways. 
 
 "Louisiana has a matchless system 
 of waterways. Its rivers and bayous 
 which are navigable have a length of 
 over 5,000 miles and reach all save 
 three of its 58 parishes, which corre- 
 spond to our counties. By the cutting 
 of canals, which can be done at a small 
 cost on account of the alluvial soil, a 
 vast network of interlacing waterways 
 can be created. The rivers and bayous 
 are quite deep, 50 to 100 feet in depth 
 being common. The soil is of won- 
 derful fertility. The whole state is al- 
 luvial and made of the richest por- 
 tion of the 27 states washed by the 
 Mississippi and its branches. All the 
 low land will eventually be reclaimed 
 and will blossom like the rose. The 
 state could sustain a population equal 
 
 to that of Holland, which has over 500 
 to the square mile. Western Pennsyl- 
 vania should have a deep interest in 
 Louisiana, for its development will 
 open a wide field for our coal, iron, 
 steel, pottery, glass, and other pro- 
 ducts. With a nine-foot stage in the 
 Ohio river these products can be con- 
 veyed to Louisiana at one-eighth of 
 the present freight charge by rail. On 
 the other hand, their sugar, molasses, 
 rice, salt and lumber can be brought 
 up the river at less than one-fourth the 
 cost of shipment by rail. Most of the 
 sugar goes now by water to New York. 
 It costs us $3.80 per ton to bring it 
 by rail from New York to Pittsburg. 
 With a uniform stage of water in the 
 Ohio it could be brought from New Or- 
 leans to Pittsburg at $2.30 per ton." 
 
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