Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-26

around and around big wooden wheel,
whose revolutions shorten the cable, inch
by inch. The wharf is more than !, 900 feet
long, with solid foundation of coral reef,
and all its piles that touch the water are
covered with copper, to resist the ravages
of the 'ship-worm," here known as Ell
Teredo.
THE CURIOUS LITTLE SHIP WORM.
This industrious little creature is precisely
like an animated auger, with boring head.
whether he is born in the wood or enters it
in infancy, nobody knows; but certain it is
that he goes right on boring all the davs of
his life, closely following the grain and
never turning aside unless he encounters
fellow workman who has the right of way.
The teredo can work better, or rather worse,
below salt water than above it and seems to
have an especial fondness for steamers
lying in tropical harbors. Through his in
sidious agency thousands of human lives
and millions OF dollars have been lost in
ships whose timbers he has riddled, the
injury not being suspected till far out at
sea, when the first gale blew them in pieces.
The ship-worm, like adversely, has not
been without its uses, however, since from
it Brunei borrowed his idea for tunneling
under the Thames. AS the teredo's head is
furnished with a set of disks that rapidly
d
gigantic iron "worm, with windows In its
head, and in each window he placed man,
who removed the earth before him and thus
made way for the machine to be pushed for
ward. And now most tunneling machines
are made on the same principle.
BEAUTIFUL AND CELEBRATED FLOWER.
But before setting out to edo" the town,
let us stop moment at the Office ofthe Pacific
A. No ~ Il inka
view Captain j. NJ. Dow, the genial Super
intendent, who has resided many years on
the Isthmus and is still very much alive,
reports on the "deadliness'' of the climate
to the contrary notwithstanding, About the
brightest spot in all this section is the COM
pany's garden adjoining the Office, where
may be found wonderful collection of tropi-
cal fruits and strange flowers, among
them the celebrated Flor del Esperitu
Santo (Flower of the Holy Spirit),
known to botany as Perlstera elataa
Its waxy-white blossom resembles a tulip,
and inside the flower is the perfect figure of
dove, with dropping wings and head bent
so that the bill nearly touches the breast.
The body Of the dove is white as snow, the
bill is tipped with crimson and a rich per-
fume is exhaled, like that of the magnolia.
1t is said that the earliest Spanish explorers,
those cruel yet superstitious crusaders,
knelt before this flower and worshiped it,
and to this day so much of religious
reverence cllngs to it that a native, how
ever generous be may be with the rest OF his
possessions, never presents one to person
whom he does not know to be true Cath
olic.
DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY.
AS all the world is aware, Colon, or As
fha ic1 nf
zanillo. Until leased by the Colombian
Government to the Panama Railway Com
pany, In 1S54-55, Manzanillo Island was
nothing but q series of mud flats and salt
marshes. The railroad managers forthwith
constructed an isthmus, connecting it to the
main land, established their headQ Quarters on
the northern and western shores, after hav-
ing filed up a considerable portion of the
mud fats; and subleased the rest of the
island to capitalists, for building purposes.
A mushroom town at once sprang up. Com
merce fourished, especially when the OPEN
ing of the canal work in 1880 put millions
of dollars into circulation.
One long street, with wooden houses
facing the sea, comprises nearly the whole
of the city; and yet it is divided into "uuar-
ters" almost as distinct from one another as
though they were separate towns. That
nearest the wharf, where the Americans
mostly congregate, is called Aspinwall, in
honor of Mr.. w. Aspinwall, of New York,
one of the railway directors, and is decidedly
cosmopolitan in its character. The same
long street, merging into beautiful ave-
nue. of palms, leads to the French quarter,
which is universally known as Colon.
Among its handsome residences, the two
largest and handsomest are those that were
built for M. de Lesseps and his son. Near
them is the colossal bronze statue OF Chris
topher Columbus, with beautiful Indian
girl crouching beside him-a gift to the
town from Empress Eugene. There is
very large and well-appointed hospital here,
as also another in the American quarter,
and most of the offices and buildings of the
canal company.
The American quarter has its bronze
statue, too. though not quite so pretentious
as that Of the French-one of AspinWall.