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 she Panama Ditch
where Millions arc sunk.

81 noticed in a dispatch from Pana-
ma said 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 if it were paid
enough.
THE time limited for resuming work
expires in about two months, 1 think
on February 20, 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.
81 have just been over the ground,
aud, in my opinion, work will never be
resumed.
81 don't think canal can be cut
through, taking advantage of the present
work, in ten years and for mint of
money. II anybody can do ii, however,
II would be an American. In fact the
only actual canal is the seven miles on
the Atlantic, navigable for small boats,
which was excavated by American con
tractors. This is fast filling up.
"0nly those familiar with the tropics
know tho monstrous growth OF tropical
verdurc. When YOU consider that n
banana plant viii jump twenty feet in q
fow months, you can form All idea. The
banks have fallen in aud ARE oversrown
with trees and ulderbrusb. That ror-
ton OF the ditch, actually or partially
excavated, is rapidly filling up, while the
biz furfow, as it were, which winds its
way across tho isthmas. win soon be OBJ
liberated oaiircly liy Che rapid growth of
plants and trees and washunts from the
hilIsidos."
COSTLY MACuIEEBY WRECKED.
THE sight of the wreck Of costly ma
chincry along the line of the canal is
enough to make one weep. They told me
1t was worth $20,0O0,0Oo. 1t will all 20
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 rs 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 is almost q con-
tinuous line of little towns or settlements
OF the canal company. The corrugated
iron and 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.
"Thcse towns are all deserted save by
a few natives and Jamaica negroes, the
latter, however, living in their dirty lit
tie huts. These negroes were the only
people who could stand the work, and
they swarm on the isthnl is. 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-
ton, 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."