The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1893-01-12
THE GREAT CANAL DEAD.
Work Will Probably Never be Re-
sumcd ON the Panama Ditch
where millions nre sunk.

II noticed in q dispatch from Pana-
ma" said a traveller who arrived in this
city ON the last isthmus steamer to a
New York Press reporter ''that the
new Panama Canal Company has APP
piled for an extension OF one year in
which to resume work on the big ditch,
and that the Columbian government
would probably grant it il it were paid
enough.
''The time limited for resuming work
expires in about two months, I think
on February %, 1893. Unless work is
under way then the concessions made to
the company lapse and the property on
the isthmus escheats to the Columbian
government.
~ have Just been over the ground,
and, in my opinion, work will never be
resumed.
81 don't think canal can DO cut
through, taking advantage of the present
work, in ten years and for a mint of
money. Ii anybody can do it, however,
it would be an American. In fact the
only actual canal is the seven miles on
tho Atlantic. navigsble for small boats,
which was cxcayated by American con-
tractors This is fast filling up.
"Only those familiar with the tropics
know the monstrous growth OF tropical
verdure. When you consider that n
banana plant will jump twenty feet in a
few months, you can form an idea. The
banks have fallen in aud are oyergrowp
with trees and nnderbrnsh. That por-
ton OF the ditch, actually or partially
excavalei, Is rapidly filling UP, while the
biz furrow, as /. were, which winds it's
way across tho iathmus, will SODA be OBJ
literasasl catireiy by the rapl growth OF
plants aad trers aad saslIodts from the
hillsides"
COSTLY MACHINERY WRECKED.
"The sight Of the wreck OF costly ma
chinery along the line of the canal is
enough to make ono weep. They told me
it was worth s20,0O0,O0o. Il will all go
to the Columbian government, but it is
questionable whether it has much actual
value, owing to its condition and remote
situation. Huge dredgers, some half
concealed by trees which have sprung up
around them, stand in the ditch and on
the hillsides, just as they were left when
they ceased for the last time biting off
chunks Of earth. There are hundreds of
them. Some of the larger ones are looked
after by native watchmen. Just before
the train rolls into filthy Aspinwall, one
notices in the river hundreds of black,
sidewheel, shoal water boats of that pc
culiar French model.
THE entire isthmus ia almost a con-
tinuous line of little towns or settlements
OF the canal company. The corrugated
iron aud wooden houses, with their wide
verandas, from the barracks OF the men
to the elaborate cottage of the official, all
set on brick or cement foundations,
every nail and every inch of material
having been imported at double cost,
show where the money went"
DESERTED TOWNS.
These towns are all deserted save by
a few natives and Jamaica negroes, the
latter, however, livingin their dirty lit
tie huts. These negroes were the only
people who could stand the work, and
they swarm on the isthmns. At every
turn and scattered along the canal are
scores Of locomotives, some under sheds,
but most of them exposed. There are
thousands of flat and dump cars side
tracked and lying about. In several Of
the larger towns are iron and machinery
yards, in which are tons and tons of
rails, iron, apparatus and machinery OF
all kinds, all rusty and as good as
worthless, and all placed there at twenty
times their cost This scene OF desola-
tion, OF ruin and of wreckage is one OF
the most impressive sights one can wit
ness, especially as one realizes that this
is all there is to show for the millions
thrown into the ground on the isthmus."