The morning call., 1894-12-08

level canal on the plan of Lieutenant
Bonaparte Wyse was the ruin of De Les
seps. Work was begun upon that in 1884
and came to a full stop through lack OF
funds in 1885,
The expenditures amounted to total OF
about $685. 1000, 900. about S6O,000,O00 of
which has been spent in Paris. In return
for these millions the canal has been prac-
tcally finished from Colon. the Atlantic
side for about ten miles. thence on it is
about half completed for five miles. Then
comes the first dam at Bujio. From Bujio
for eight miles the country was to bave
been flooded and made into an inland lake.
From San Pablo dam also there is an in
land lake of nine miles. Then comes the
height of Las Cascadas. from which point
for the distance of i've miles Culebra was
to be cut down to let the lake through.
On the next two miles there is a small
amount of work to be done. There is still
less to be done on the next two aud on the
next two practically nothing. Thence the
canal is practically completed for five
miles. when it enters the beautiful bay of
Panama. off the island of Perico.
1t is estimated that the prosecution and
completion now Of the whole prof would
Sc
There are to-day $50, 600, 900 worth of ma
chinery On the isthmus that has never
been used, and there have been enough
houses put up to accommodate $4,000 men.
Much of this machinery is underground,
having been dumped out of the ships as
they would arrive TO save demurrage. 1t
was then used for fills, and much of the
ID ade ground at Christopher Colon to-day
has buried in it brand-new machinery.
Thus were the foundations of houses laid,
and purchasing agents were enriched by
second order OF machinery, which in turn
would go toward The making Of new foun-
dations. Only small proportion of the
houses were ever used at one time. from
which the reader may make his own in
ference. The contractors were allowed
$3.50 per hour for displacement of stumps,
but nothing for the time when they were
repairing machinery. So they would keep
loose stumps always ahead and collect
their royal stumpage. Employees Of every
grade, from highest to lowest, were wal
lowing in a debauch Of women and absinthe
and brandy.
And the end. The end came when Paris
and the world rang with the Panama scan
dal and the Republic of France even
seemed to totter under its load of shame.
The end came when Herr and Arton fled
in mad fear from their indignant dupeS
ard when Baron Reinach took poison by
way Of facing in the other world terrOrs
that would not equal the actualities of this;
when French statesmen were retired in
ignOminy and even the President of the
republic was not free from the breath of
suspicion: when Charles de Lesseps, son
of the old Count, and Eiffel, and even the
grand Frenchman bimself, were branded
as felons, and the younger men were put
in the felons' dock and given felons' pun
ishment. The end came when Ferdinand
de Lesseps, in his eighty-ninth year, sat
alone amid the ruins of his falling world,
and to his darkened mind there pierced no
echo of the thousands of his countrymen
led by him to ruin and bitter poverty.
De Lesseps was twice married. the sec
on1 time very late IN life, and leaves a
widow and a large family of young chill
dren besides his son Charles.