The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-05-01
HORRORS OF THE ISTHMUS.
THE TRAGEDY OF THE PANAMA CANAL.
It's Progress Marked by Trail of Blood
and SIaughter-Frightful Sacrifice OF
Human Life in the Prosecu-
ton of This Enterprise.

With the forlorn hope agitating the stranded
Panama canal company that private capitalists
of England in conjunction with the interested
capitalists of America, may yet come forward
with the fabulous amount necessary for the
Utopian project, revived speculation has given
some impetus to the paralyzed promoters of
the unlucky enterprise, and much secret negO-
tiating is on foot But there is another side
issue to which the company is also fully alive.
If. in the course of human events as illustrated
by the fluctuations of French politics Boulan-
ger should yet ultimately triumph, it is prOba-
BILE that more Frenzy money in the shape of
government loan may be advanced.
But neither in France, nor in the United
States. and still less in England, is there more
than general and abstract knowledge of what
is going on in that prescribed and isolated
tract, and what the real difficulties in clear
ing it. In first starting the enterprise it is
scarcely probable that DeLesseps, at his most
liberal eonjectures. could have dreamt that if
collapse should come at all it would be at the
expiration of eight years, with but One-third OF
those interminable forty-six miles completed.
OF what he did know of that foul cline and its
mysteries, the world was destined TO learn but
little. Indeed, what is known under the sur
face OF life in this most singularly condemned
spot on Gods earth is cleaned from the few
who return from seeking fortune there and
from the travellers between New York and San
Francisco. The former class are not generally
ditusive in their "reminiscences; they have
nothing TO gain by detailing past miseries to
ears that give them little credenee-and the
travellers acquire very scant knowledge at best.
These, upon arriving at Aspinwall are given a
glimpse of the best side of the city-Of Ocean
ave-, with its verandaed railroad, flats and
lines of cOcoanut trees-and are then hurried
across to await the arrival of the other vessel
in the more salubrious climate of Panama
City. Or if the San Francisco steamer be the
first in, the passengers are detained at
Panama City to escape the infectious
atmosphere of the Chagres and its surround
ings. Here they are shown the picturesque old
church of St. Marie, the hall in which Sara
Bernhardt played to people who paid S15 for
their seats, the luxurious home of Project Her
rara and other notables and at the last horn
blow of the Atlantic vessel are sped across and
embarked. What can these people tell of Lille
on the isthmus? Perhaps the Hon. Mr.. Rives
of Virginia, the distinguished president OF the
Panama railroad land the still more distin-
guished father of his daughterl, might make
some sinister revelations as TO why the
Panama canal scheme is not practicable. But
he, like other potentates, may have special
reasons for silence.
1t is q fact not generally known that the
workers the dredges of the canal only
served four hours out of the twenty-four,
owing TO their inevitably enervated condition.
For these four hours day they were paid Sl50
in gold per month, and all their expenses.
Back of these employees there stood, all the
time. grim standing army, living in idleness,
but paid Just the same. They were individu-
ally waiting-indeed they had seldom long to
wait-tO step into the shoes of each new victim
feled by that most virulent scourge, the
Panama fever. And so, Tor eight years, the
laborers came from all nations, went to their
tasks and dropped out of their places, which
were filled from this standing army. This, in
turn, was filled up by fresh impOrtations of
those lured by gold into the pittall, or driven
there by desperate fortunes at home.
A special train runs night and day to that
browning mount of horrors, Monkey Hill cem-
etery. OF late years there has been an effort
to change this diabOlical name to Mt. Hope,
but the conditions of the place remain the
same. Collins may be rented, and sometimes
borrowed, to take bodies to their ghOul-like
destination, but here the dead, the native dead
almost invariably, are dumped upon some
stark occupant of an open ditch, and are left
to the mercies of the monkeys gibbering above
them.
For those who survive the fever there re-
main the dangers accruing from Semi-barbar-
GUS population, largely made up OF Jamaica
negroes, haf-breed Spaniards, COlumbians
and CreOles. Among these, the revolver,
the dirk and the teeth of the
assassin are ready in any lonely place beneath
the lurid sky of a Panama, night or day. 1t
is needless to tell OF the easy living here; OF
champagne that is less a luxury than cold
water; of cocoanuts and alligator, pears thurst-
ing themselves in at the window, of laces
and diamonds sold in underground shops at
nominal prices. These cease to tempt when
the staples of life are wanting As there
are no cattle in Panama, meat is one of the
highest-priced and most unpalatable articles of
food. The cattle, which are mostly shipped
from New York and Peru, are driven, feyered
and famished. from the vessel to the slaughter
house; are butchered in their diseased and
emaciated condition, sold and eaten. A fair IL
lustratiOn of a Panama market is eggs, which
are chiefly brought here from Peru, and sold at
% cents per dOZen-a dozen averaging only
three fit for use. AT the hotels guanas and
parrots are served, the former often disguised
under the name of turkey. Native servants
may be hired for song, but they are generally
so vicious that household is much safer with
out them.
Licentious. voracious and inhuman, the ma
tive population continually furnish items that
would create a panic if published in almost
any psaOer in "the states" but are scarcely
| deemed worthy of headline in the one Pan
anna daily. Railroad men, who would be dis
tressed at running over a dogs tail at home,
| will tell you of how they have been compelled
to hurl fellow-beings from their trains, simply
to save the lives of those they have in charge
and their own. And the city guardians are
often driven TO like eXtremitIes. Daylight
frequently reveals in public places even about
the plaza of Aspinwall. where reputable citi-
zens may walk in the early hours of the night
a wounded man, who is probably doomed to
lie suffering and exposed to the sultry sun and
still more sultry rain until death comes to his
relief.
These are few of the startling facts. which
prove that the money so freely spent here is to
the actual builders of the canal like the pre-
cious poison of the upas tree, obtained at such
frightful cost OF life as to render the attempt
almost futile. That the consummatiOn of the
scheme would be benefaction to the world at
large must be conceded The end is not yet,
and the problem is one of the most interesting
in international affairs
An Appropriate Nom de Plume.
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