Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-08-18
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
Special Correspondence.

Wall street circles, and | may almost |
say, among people generally. is the OPP |
ening of bids for stock in the French |
scheme. the one engineered by NJ. de
Lesseps, the Grand Digger General of |
the famous Suez canal, and which was
approved by the International Commits
sion recently in session at Paris, but to
which our American Commissioners
steadily objected. The possible compli-
cations, with the Monroe doctrine, of on
European Regency of a project of such
magnitude makes the matter something
of political as we'll as commercial and
economical import. The Frenchmen
have very kindly offered to let us help
pay for the piper and have through their
financial agents here, the Credit Lyon
nais, who are sumptuously accommo-
dated in that magnificent palace, the
Equitable Insurance Building, allowed
our moneyed magnates to hand forth
any amount Of ducats. But, strange to
say, although many of our bankers,
shipping merchants, and other plutocratic
dignitaries, have spoken warmly in ia
vor Of the plans Of NJ. de Lesseps, SO far
as it appears as yet not one dollar has
| UU0u rorUuUUmIug rruur any .A----;.,ap
1t seems that all the shares, amounting
to the modest sum Of S9O,0GO,OOO, will
be allotted to European applicants-if
there are any. So our poor ceuntrymen
will be left out of the cold. if the French
plan is suffered to proceed. The Nicar-
aguan Government seems to have, In its
own interest, walked up with a vast deal
more of energy than is usual with the
somewhat indolent authorities of Gen.
trail American States when anything
but revolutions are under discussion.
They have already, it is said, begun
deepening the Nicaraguan canals, and in
that way fallen into line with the rec
concentrations of our own intelligent
explorers. 1t would seem on the face of
it that the American idea was by all
odds the most reasonable in any way.
Two splendid ports at the extremity Of
the canal, with Lake Nicaragua as a
most convenient halfway house in the
middle, and the canal communication di-
vided in this way, and by several miles
shorter than by any other route. 1t Ii
true the objection was raised by those
favoring the French plan that the Amer
lean route entailed the blowing up Of
tunneling of considerable rock at nj
. insignificant elevation. This, however
in view of the present use Of dynamite
. etc., cannot be held to be of valid OBJ
lection.
The engineering difficulties of tn
: Mont Gents and Hoosac tunnels, ant
| even of the Suez canal itself were inf
3 nitely greater, and the proposed Amer
, can Interoceanic canal on rock
t bed would require next to nothing fo
. repairs. The Suez canal is only KEEP
? free from sand by most stupendous sur
of money put into pumping and dredg
e ing machinery every year. Some quee
@ ideas have been preached about thi
l Isthmus cutting. One was to have
railroad with a forty or fifty foot gauge
locomotives large enough to move hug
trucks, or rather sections of dry dock
!, on wheels, on which the largest vessel
: fully laden might be carried over tt
Isthmus, like bale of calicoes, the loo
: motives to be fitted with donkey engine
It about the size of the Corliss centenni
e motor, to shovel the coal, turn the po
" derous throttles. oil them up, etc. A
is other notion was to initiate balloons al
l. calmly lift steamships across from oce;
a to ocean.
10 The recurrence of an outbreak of "
/ low fever at Memphis and the appea
Il ance in few isolated instances in cas-
IL in New York and Brooklyn, where t
- patients had eluded the Quarantine re
regulations, has excited considerable
- terest in that old-fashioned safegual
~ 1t is, of course. nuisance to passeDgt
to be detained in quarantine and to &C
az signees and shippers when the unloa
~ ing Of cargoes is interfered with, /
~ properly administered quarantine is |
Il doubtedly great protection. Few p'
10 pie know what the institution really
III in New York, and many have M
III unreasonable horror of it.
~ The Quarantine station is in fact s
NC uated in charming locality at the
III trance of the harbor, and has mar
DC views that beat Coney Island or Lo
ia Branch hollow. DIR. Vanderpoel,
~ Superintendent, has a charming re
" dence on Staten Island, but the hos
III tai proper is on an island half nj
30 away, an artificial reef built out in
W broad Atlantic itself. The buildn
81 are all frame huts, exquisitely Gle
'"' and open to every breeze, and surrorn
nc ed by snch vegetation as will grow
Is such briny atmosphere. The stat
gu physicians and nurses is of excere
composition, and if there is chance
q any sick man to recover, he cannot ?