Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-19
WITH RUNNING WATER.
The Model of the Nicaragua Canal for
the Paris Exposition.

In the back room of paint shop on 18th
street, opposite the Corcoran Art gallery, there
has been on exhibition for several DAYS large
working model of the Nicaragua canal. 1t was
constructed by Mr.. E. E. Court, civil engineer
of the photographic Office after nearly four
months of labor and at cost of about $4,000
1t is of plasterof-paris, 80 feet long and wide,
and is built in sections, so that it can be taken
apart and boxed for shipment to Paris, where
1t will be exhibited at the international expo
sition. 1t starts on its long journey to-
morrow. The model is a representation
of the country lying between the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans. including Lake Nicaragua
and the rivers that will be utilized in the con-
struction of the canal. The hills and noun
tains peer up over the mahogany rail that
borders the model while the lake and rivers
flow with real water in constant motion.
Every mountain peak and hillside has sys-
tenn of streams and brooks. flowing into
larger ones and forming the sources that
go to fill the lake and furnish the water that
is to carry ships across the Isthmus.
THE STREAMS.
There are fully 300 of these streamlets, and
the water supplying them comes through
minute pin-holes in the surface Of the plaster
from a complex system of water-works located
underneath the model There is much
plumbing involved Mr.. Court informed STAR
reporter, rs there is in a city square. Each pin
hole requires a spigot. and lines Of streams
have to be strung on branches of pipes like the
veins and arteries Of the body. The pressure
is so regulated as to give just enough water to
fill the river basins and to back up over the low
country at the dams, which form the most
striking feature Of the plan.
THE KEY TO THE CANAL PROBLEM.
Engineer Menocal, who was one Of the pro-
moters of the idea of this canal. explained the
workings of the model to The STAR reporter
yesterday The key of the situation lies in the
building of two immense dams. so to back
the waters of the lake over the low lands or
valleys and thus give continuous broad water
way to within about three or four miles of the
Pacific and twelve or thirteen miles of the At
lantic. AT present Lake Nicaragua has but one
outlet, by the San Juan river to the Atlantic.
This river is to be damned at Ochoa, half way
to the sea, by wall ffty-six feet high. This
will bring the water to the level of the lake
and turn the course of the stream into a valley
formed on one side by the mountain slope and
on the other by broken ridge of foot hills, the
spaces between which are to be filed by small
dams.
There is no outlet on the Pacific side, so cut
seven miles long is to be made through a spur
to the lola basin, now cultivated valley about
$500 acres in extent, but to be converted into
a lake.
From sea to sea the distance is 169 miles, of
which 142 miles will be river. lake and basin
navigation, and the remainder by canal. The
work Will be actually started on the isthmus
during the latter part of April and it is thought
will occupy about five years.
Great crowds of people have visited the
MODEL, including many high in official life,
| among them President Harrison, Secretary
Tracy, Secretary Blaine, and Secretary Proctor.
bill appointing a commission to act with
similar body to be appointed by Pennsylvania
| to fix the boundary line between the states has
passed the Delaware senate. Ex-Secretary Bay
ard Is named as one of the commissioners.
Fire yesterday destroyed the large four-story
| furniture store of Comstock 4 Avery, Peoria,
| Ill. Loss 100000.
Senator Sherman has been sued at Mansfield
| Ohio. by the county treasurer for unpaid rail-
road stock taxes, II, 74S for personal stock, and
| Sl3,5lS for stock held as trustee.
| letter has been received by Mayor Grant, of
| New York, requesting that the English flag be
hoated from the city hall on st. Georges day
as the Irish flag was yesterday.
The report telegraphed from Parkersburg
| W. Va, that Detective Baldwin and posse were
surrounded in the wilds of Mcdowell county
by desperate moonshiners they went to capture
| is false.
| The falling Of an elevator at the machine
| shops of Flynn Enrich in Baltimore, yes
terday, hurled three men down through the
| open shaft from the fourth floor to the bottom
| OF the elevator WELL distance of forty feet
| All we're seriously injured.
Frederick H. Stevens, 50 years old, q veteran
of the seventy-second Pennsylvania regiment,
swallowed dose of poison in New York yes
terday, with suicidal intent, and was dead when
| found.
Charles Naujack, o German attendant at the
| city hospital, Savannah, Ga, committed suicide
Saturday by shooting himself through the head
with horse pistol He was insane over spirit
! ualism.