Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-09-01

Death and Decay on the lsthmus-
Gruesomc sights.

your veranda late at night you see th(
door OF the little adobe house across tht
way open. The woman of the house, Whf
hodges two or three canal employees, peers
lcautiously out into the street, re-
enters the house, and wien she comes
out again drags something over
the threshold. across thu narrow side
walk, and leaves II lying IN the dlrty
street. When she closes toe door again
there is no noise but the plash OF the tide
ION the shaIe. Soon 1T grows lighter.
lbuzzard, drops lazily DOWN from the rcGi
i0f tie Cathedral and porches on tue some
thing i'll the street. The outlines become
more distinct. You walk down. drive
away the bird who flies sOlemnly back TO
his waite otOwer, and stand looking IN the
quick dawn of the tropics at what Waj
Yesterday a mau--a week before strong
mana month before a hopeful man, sail
ing out Of Havre. He Is dead OF the yell
low fever.
The woman with whom he lodged
might have sent him to tie cOmpany's
hospital; true, but she did not know lust
what forms or expenses that might mean
for her. She did what she could, as she
will tell the gOssips, and no doctor could
do more. When the fever came it was
Gods Judgment on these foreigners. lie
mad but little in her house, and what he
had was surely hers. IL could not be
called his now. A mGH comes
down the narrow street, turns
aside. avoids the corpse, and
goes on 10 ms work. By-aHd-by, wnen
many more have passed, a wagon comes
aud stops. Two men lit down from it d
wretched broken coffin, bound with knot
ted ropes, and roll tn5 dead man IN, iace
down as it happens. They drive MIN TO
the pauper burial ground, leave MIN
there, aud take the coffin of again. This
is the seamy side Of life in Panama.
One cannot but think, sometimes. how
strange a spectacle the wreck lett on the
1sthmus by the attempt TO build a canal
Will present to the twentieth century.
n ost of the machinery will be lett, as
much of it now lies, embedded in mud
aud eEcrusted vita rust. belgian loco
motives, conteseediy useless and already
abandoned, lie cauted on broken tracks.
With shameaced formallty the engineer
10 charge has brushed over the bright
work with some wbitewash. But nothing
could make those locomotives look as il
they Were ever to be used again, and as
the moonlight falls on these whitened
outlines aud tiecks tae veg tation growing
up about them with 2rotesque shadows,
The engines look like wretChed skeletons.
One can fancy the great clumsy dseQge5
rotting at their mOOrings, and the Yict1-
ri0us mud slowly covering their tank
like hulls. And when the jungle has
Obliterated all the angles of NJ. de Lesseps'
liJtle scratch along the hill tops OF the
lsthmus, the long arms OF the eXcavatOrs
will rise above tue tree tops like adrowned
mans hand above the water. Already
Que can see in some abandoned portions
or the work wondering lizards summing
themselves upon the deserted pan-cars
and buzzards nesting on the derricks.
The South sea bubble OF OUT century
will only be remembered ae people see lis
vestiges from car windows OF the Panama
railroad. Il the birds OF the air. aud the
beasts of the forest could laugh, how they
would laugh as t&A come back to the
streams from mich VI de Le-sep,' mmers
frightened them away WITH dynamite.
ChristOphe Colon VIII be, perhaps, the
strongest ruin Of al, It. is a huge quay,
built out between Old Colon and the lit
Tie inlet w1lch is pOmpOGsly described a
''the portion OF the canal already naVj-
gable" Here are the Colon offices OF the
company aud the official residences,
among them great square house, built
for the exclusive use OF Ibis Excellency"
the "Man Who Pierces Continents But
the "Man VINO Pierces Continents" has
so far spert only ten days in his executive
mansion.
At the largest of the canteeus at CHRIS
tophe Colon may be seen tue minor
officials IN all their glory. On Que side Of
the room is long bar; on the other a
number OF little tables, and Il small hu5
Jealous orchestra. Here these men bring
their wives and dance with them night
after night, under the eyes Of the INSECT
laneous congregation at the tables: stOk-
ers from the steamers AZ the port and
mechanics in The company's employ; ca
reerng ah0ul the room, cAroming against
trsy-laden waters, AID finally heading
mesGames, their partners, to the bar 10
quench thoir thirst. IL is all Innocent
enough, clumsy bourgeois merI y-mak-
Ing; but 1t in part explains the laXity OF
discipline in the cOmpanys service
Fancy the gentlemen in charge OF the
work on the Croton Aaueduct taking
thesr wives 20 saloon trequenJed by the
lab rcrs, and dancing there!
In sober truth, none of The resident EN-.
ployes treat their work as bona tide en-
terprise. Talk to them about {, aud they
lash themselves into a state of freuz cd
enthusiasm over their chieftalp. lie
Grand Francais," and over the project
whose ndnitesimal possibilities tueir
customary Incidence and more injurious
spasms OF misdirected activity are daily
decreasing. With great rafting OF
glasses they drink long life to the com
pany ana damnatIOn 10 the scouudrel
stockholders VINO, as they try to make
themselves believe, inspire the critic SINS
which even the French journals. once ar
dent Lessepians, now direct upon tne
scheme. But all this is mere rhodomon-
tado. 1t is as idle as the courtesics ex
changed between two fever pa,iests,
each assuring the other THAI he never
looked better, and that the doctors
are mercenary alarmisis; and
1t has not the same element OF
pathos. When the final crash does come
and even II al. de Lesseps succeeds in
his present manGuvres IL must come be.
lore long-these very men will be as loud
IN their excavations as they now are in
their bombast, and far more sincere. One
realizes here in the atmosphere 0i the
canal interests how terrible the results
OF this crash will be in France, and how
grave an error the French government
Will md itself guilty Of. These matters
1t is not Within my province to discuss.
but the results here upon the lsthnus
Will In themselves aggregate one of The
most disastrous calamities ct the ave.
One cannot butforesee the call which viii
be made upon the benevolence of the
world for the relief OF unhappy the men
who, tempted u curse the seeming good
fortune by WHICH they survived tbemaior,-
~ OF tHelr comrades, viii be left literally
destitute IN foreign and desolate coun-
try.
Even now the Isthmus is far from being
the Land OF Promise il is supposed 10
baYa bnoouoG cttv al r.ftt..,. -.