The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-12-12
THE PANAMA CANAL WRECK
The Scene of Ruin and D~esolation Now
Presented on the Isthmus of Darien.
Tens of Millions of Dollars Thrown Away
The Unruly Chaeres River-Nature Will
Convert the Whole Into a Muddy Ditch.


tically nothing. In the first flush Of the
canal scheme Panama was to become a new
FL Dorado, q place where money could he
made as it was during the gold excitement
in California and Australia. The tonnage
of the world would pass through the canal.
New towns with French names and French
inhabitants would grow along Its route.
Colon would blossom into vigorous life,
and the ancient city of Panama would
throw off Its lethargy ond become one OF
the foremost seaports of the world.
Those were flush times on the isthmus.
and the officials of the canal found leisure
great estates for themselves. Even the
sleepy natives awoke. They began to
dream Of wealth and hustled around as If
they did not live in the land of tomorrow.
The merchants did q great business. The
money-changers were never idle. and cash
flowed from the canal treasury into q
thousand channels. Everybody. if he only
talked canal and believed canal. could get
rich.
Now the collapse has come. The same
crash that overthrow Loubetand n Ministry
of France has ruined the isthmus. The new
towns have faded away. The parks and
the gardens ore abandoned. The great
estates have gone TO JOIN the castles IN
Spain, and there is nothing left but desola-
tion.
RUSTING AND ROTTING.
The property of the canal company Is
rusting and rotting in neglect. When the
American Construction and Dred Com
pany finished it's work it sold it's machin-
cry to the Nicaragua Canal Company.
Perhaps the latter might have made some
purchases of the tame kind from the French
contractors, but the Frenchmen did not
care enough about their plant TO dispose of
1t. There had been too much money
in sub-lettlng contracts. They were
Obtained D , from selling elm econd.band tools.
Their machinery, the dredges, the cranes
and all the other appliances. Is now strung
In confusion across the isthmus from Colon
TO Panama. 1t is not sheltered from the
tropical sun and rams. 1t lies III the mud
and the jungle. the iron rusting and the
wood rotting and the tangled vegetation
of the isthmus growing over 1t. Many
pieces have sunk deep In the swamps and
others lie where they were trossed from
the boats or tram cars yaars ago. never
having seen q minutes use. Several OF the
dredging machines cost more than Sl0O,Ooo
apiece.
A French expert. who recently went to
Panama, says there is $90.00 600 worth OF
equipment lying on the isthrEue. By worth
he probably meant cost. Tor the Americans
and others declare that as an available
asset the machinery cannot be counted as
anything. 1t will never be moved. A large
portion is already i~rretrievably damaged.
1t has suffered 30 severely from exposure
tnat much of is could not be used. even il
work were resumed on the Panama canal,
which Is no longer classed among the prob
abilities.
The company built fine houses for its
officers. A few of these are still occupied.
but the others are neglected and bling
away. and the remainder will soon follow.
The natives of the isthmus do not have
any use for French villas, and the company
cannot calculate upon much income from
rents. In q few years these houses Will be-
come relics like the mansions of the rich
French and Spanish sugar. planters b
fiourished in San Domingo before the up-
rising of the blacks and the days of Tous-
saintPOuvertGre. There the ignorant and
half-savage negroes build their cabins
splendor, and the same thing Will occur on
the lsthmuB OF Panama.
The delights and the fashions Of Paris
have disappeared. The collapse of the
great scheme left no heart in any one for
merriment.' The contractors have sailed
back to France with their gains. and only
those of the French are left who cannot get
away. The isthmuS Is pumped out. Neither
profit nor glory IS to be gained there now.
No contracts arc to be let and sublet, and
the natives and the imported negroes are
permitted TO wrestle undisturbed with the
fevers. and the mlasmas. and the other
evils OF the tropics.
WHAT is THERE LETT
What ia left Of the canalf The answer to
this question can be altered every year, for
the condition of the work is deteriorating
very rapidly. The cut was to have been
from Colon, on the Atlantic coast. to Pan
ana. on tho Pacific coast. q distance of
ffty-four miles. Suez is eighty miles long,
but the obstacles presented at Panama
were UNNECESSARILY greater. In the Culebra
cut and the hills of Mindi the elevation of
the isthmus IL three hundred feet above the
level of the sea, and the excavation in
those places had to be made through the
solid rock, too. And then came the OBJ
stacie of the Chagres river, which was
practically insurrlonntabie. The canal
crosses and recrOsses it.
Were 1t an ordinary, we'll behaved river
IL might be easily managed. But 1t is a
wild. hayward, untamed river, like the
people of the country through which it
flows A heavy tropical rain comes. and 1t
rises forty feet in twelve hours. What to
do with so much water, Tor ir lows into
the canal as well. then becomes a problem
that has vexed the best engineers IN the
WOAA1s ~ oiSlCuity A0o OOOn OONidlcO
partly by an intricate system of dams and
locks. but no one can soy whether it would
have lasted or would have subdued the
Charges IN lts widest moments.
Tho canal. as originally intended. would
have been thirty feet deep. from 200 to $50
feet broad at the top and about 100 feet
broad at the bottom. On the Atlantic side
are eighteen or twenty miles of canal,
dreoged TO a depth of sixteen feet by the
American Construction and Dredging Com
pany, aud there are partial excavations
and lines traced by the French all the way
to Panama.
Al Colon, living In the water, is n huge
pile of granolithic blocks, 10000 in number.
They were brought from the West Indies
at a total cost of about 40 francs a block.
They were intended for banking up the
canal. but were dumped of the ships into
the water years ago. and have been lying
there ever SINCE. a mOnumen To the reck-
lessness and corruption of the Panama
scheme.
The eighteen or twenty miles of partial.
~ completed canal will soon become moth
ing but a muddy ditch. 1t is not walled
mp with stone, but Is lnclosed merely with
q line OF wooden posts. The banks are
caving in, and every time il rains huge
masses OF earth are washed into the canal.
In the tropics winter is replaced by @ rainy
season. Then il rams almost every day
and night. and the water comes down with
q profusion and violence unknown in these
temperate regions. In q few years toe
canal, except where cut through the solid
heavy washings, and the vegetation will
begin TO grow again where the dredging
machines tore 1t away.
NATURE u ULTIMATE CoNQUERoR.
The restoration of nature occurs much