The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1890-03-08
collanse OF a Great Canal.

United States Consul Virquair, station
ed at Aspinwali, IN his last official report
to the State Department, gives striking
picture of the present condition of affairs
along the line OF the Panama Canal. The
decadence of Colon (AspinwalD and the
almost entire prostration of all business
at that place siuce the collapse Of the
canal becomes more and more aprarent.
1t very often happens that not solitary
vessel Is to be found in the harbor,
thing That was never known there, even
previous to 1880 and after 1860; and yet
Il is but = short whi'e ago since vessels
were obliged to be anchored out for days
IN waiting for dock room at which to
unload their respective cargoes.
The local traffic of the isthmus during
the timethat work was being pushed on
the canal had reached vast proportions.
The line of the canal, between Colon and
sPanams, about fifty miles, was vast
bivouac, where the most energetic of all
natlonali,ies and races had congregated
to amass wealth, aud many have done SO,
especially among the Chinese portion OF
1t. Wages were high, pIincely salaries
weretpaid, money was made easy and cx-
pended most freely. Day time was not
enough; the nights themselves were turn
ed into day, aud, literally speaking, the
twenty-four hours of the day were
constant draft on various industries. The
expression the most htrlng is, SIT was
Bedlam let loose," and the people can not
have any idea of what the isthmus was
in 1885, 1886, 1887 and part of 1883, un-
less they have seen it.
Forty towns have sprung up on the
line in almost as many miles, every one
of them thriving. real bee hive of peo-
pie; in fact, all of them bent, not only at
changing the physical aspect OF land, but
in turning tropical Jungle of heretofore
death dealing CLINE into new Babylon
for never was there such q confusion Of
tongues and a conglomeration of races
from all over the world. These people
fighting back the diseases manfully, dying
at once without murmur, or living III
spite of cline, lives of the most reckless
dissl patton when at leisure. 1t is not a
wonder that so many died; it is wonder
that SO many have lived. Indeed, it can
be truthfuily said, tfat '.grim death
got exhausted ct the task" and retreated
to his lair. The is.hmus had become
habitable; before the advent of this reck-
less thro3g 1t was not. And what bas
become of it all? Vanished. The peo-
pie have all gone, business is dead on the
line, the local traffic is dead, the line OF
the canal, once-oniy short while ago
the livclless place on the globe, is dead
the rank vegetation of the tropics is
growing dense-, it seems, for the rest II
has had, Kidding from view railroad
trains, dredges, and all the paraphernalla
.of the canal contractors, who lett theii
implements of all sorts as if work were
to have been resumed in the morning.
Colon and Panama still live, bus tha!
is all, merely bTway stations for the
traffic across the isthmus eastward and
westward between two hcmispheres. In
Colon rents have fallen OFT 500 per cent
in three months, and are still on the de-
cline. The Panama Railroad, which in
1853 paid $3.50 per cent of dividends,
will in 1889 pay only o per cent. This
line in 1888 carried 1,3D0,000 passengers
$4,000 every dug); this year il may Carry
probably 10000, il so many.
But the transit traffic has not suffered
on the contrary, it is the only local traffic
which 10 a shor: six months has suffered a
loss OF nearly 10000 tons of imports
that is to say. this much has been lost to
the local trade. As result nearly two
tl,ir& of the business houses in Colon are
closed up and bankrupt sales are daily
occurrence.