St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-08-15
Our New York Letter.

' L Wv h1iAS'
Our New York Letter.
, THE GREAT SHIP CANAL-AMERICAN IN
VISITORS FIGHTING sHY-soME RE
MARKABLE PLANs-QUARANTINE
ODD DIVORCE CASE.
New YORK, Aug. 9Th, 1879.
To the Editor of the CaIedOnian:
The topic of most interest just nov
in Wall street circles, and | may almOs
say, among people generally, is the
opening of bids for stock in the Frencl
scheme, the one engineered by M. d.
Lesseps, the Grand Digger General o
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 COM
plieations, with the Monroe doctrine,
of an European Regency of project OF
such magnitude makes the matter
something of political as well as COM
mercial 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 LyOnnais, who are sumptuOusly
accommodated in that magnificent pal
ace, the Equitable Insurance Building,
i olIovUad nrr ,,onava1 D,aUDataS 70 boud
forth any amount of ducats. But,
strange to say, although many of our
bankers, shipping merchants, and other
plutOcratic dignitaries, have spoken
warmly in favor of the plans of NJ. de
Lesseps, so far as it appears as yet not
one dollar has been forthcoming from
any American. 1t seems that all the
shares, amounting to the modest sum
of $1,000, 900, will be allotted to Eu-
rUrvUu appIiC;IniS-if thera amy
So our poor cOuntrymen will be left out
in the cold, if the French plan is suffer
ed to proceed. The Nicaraguan Gov
eminent seems to have, i'll its own in
terest, walked up with vast deal more
of energy than is usual with the some
what indolent authorities of Central
American States when anything but
revolutions are under discussion. They
have already, it is said, begun deepen
ing the Nicaraguan canals, and in that
way fallen into line with the recon-
mendations of our own intelligent ex-
plorers. 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 extremities
of the canal, with Lake Nicaragua as
most convenient halfway house in the
middle, and the canal communication
divided in this way, and by several
miles shorter than by any other route
1t is true the objection was raised by
those favOring the French plan that the
American route entailed the blowing
up or tunneling of considerable rock at
no insignificant elevation. This, how
ever, in view of the present use of dy-
Mantle, etc, cannot be held to be a
valid objection.
The engineering difficulties of the
Mont Gents and HOOsac tunnels, and
even of the Suez canal itself were inf
nltely greater, and the proposed Am
erican InterOceanic canal on rocky
bed would require next to nothing for
repairs. The Suez canal is only kent
free from sand by most stupendous
sum of money put into pumping and
dredging machinery every year. Some
queer ideas have been preached about
this Isthmus cutting. One was to have
railroad with a forty or fifty foot
gauge, locomotives large enough to
move huge trucks, or rather sections of
dry docks on wheels, on which the
largest vessels fully laden might be
carried over the Isthmus, like bale of
callcOes, the locomotives to he fitted
with donkey engines, about the size of
the Corliss centennial motor, to shovel
the coal, turn the pOnderous throttles.
oil them up, etc. Another notion was
to initiate balloons and calmly lift
steamships across from ocean to ocean.
The recurrence of an outbreak of
yellow fever at Memphis and the ap-
pearaDce i'll few isolated instances of
cases in New York and BROOKLYN,
where the patients had eluded the
Quarantine regulations, has excited
considerable interest in that old-fash-
Toned safeguard. 1t is, of course, a
nuisance to passengers to be detained
III quarantine and to cOnsignees and
shippers when the unloading and load
ing of eargOes is interfered with. but
properly administered quar- antine is un
doubleday a great protection. Few
people know what the institution really
is in New York, and many have most
unreasonable horror of it.
The Quarantine station is in fact sit
uated in charming locality at the en-
trance to the harbor, and has marine
views that beat Coney Island or Long
Branch hollow. DR.. Vanderpool, the
superintendent, has a charming resi-
dence on Staten Island, but the hospi-
tai proper is on an island about half a
mile away, an artificial reef built out
In the broad Atlantic itself. The build
lngS are all frame huts, exquisitely