The morning call., 1894-12-08

of his country. The great Frenchman
broke into that strongbox as cOolly as his
followers in the Panama affair afterward
plundered the savings of the French peas
ants, and In 1859 work began on the big
ditch.
On August 15 1869. the dream Of De
Lessens came true, and Said Pasha was
without his millions. The waters Of the
Red Sea met those of the inner ocean in
the Bitter Lakes, and the short route TO
India, realized by the Ptolemies and
dreamed of in later time by the first Ma
poleon. was an established fact. Cannon
doomed, the greatest of all lands gathered,
decorations were showered upon the pro-
jector, Said Pasha spent other millions In
dazzling feteS in his honor, when on the
17th of November following ships, long
and stately line of them, passed through
the canal from Port Said to Suez. That
was the day OF De Lesseps' triumph.
Success had succeeded, and the methods
of it were overlooked. Perhaps, on that
day. he should have died.
After devoting some thought and expert
ment to the project of turning the Sahara
into an inland sea by means of an enor-
nous ditch which should admit the waters
of the ocean. and also projecting a ship
canal through the isthmus of Corinth In
Greece, De Lesseps in 1874 visited British
India in connection with a proposed CEN
tral Asian railway, designed TO unite In
dla directly with the south of Europe.
The British authorities were favorably i'm
pressed with The idea, though it received
much opposition elsewhere. and ap-
pointed a committee to consider the pro-
ject, but it came to nothing.
Then came Panama, This was to be the
crown of his life, the wedding of the two
greatest oceans of the world. OF course
there was the preliminary looking over
the ground, only this time it was detail
entrusted to engineers trained in the
school of De Lesseps-eugineers strong
in the faith that whatever they
desired done could be done. They
had not, then, met Culebra. There
is reason to believe. just the same, that
they had heard OF that STUN bling-block, or
that the Chagres River appalled, even
their warm enthusiasm, for it is certain
tha De Lesseps endeavored TO get control
OF the Nicaragua canal concession. He
failed in this. The Americans had good
thing, ana knew it. What of that? The
negotiator, the diplomat, came out
strongly again, and the Government of the
United States of Colombia was induced to
grant a franchise to the Interoceanic
Canal Company, organized in 1878. The
commission of engineers returned to Paris
from Panama glowing. They had been
over the route. They had seen the Pacific
Ocean blue glimmering in the tropic sun.
They had eaten OF the fruits of the warm
land and dallied with its women. Natu-
rally the canal was feasible, practicable.
1t was but few tons of earth removed-a
riyar turned aside. Poui! 1t was finished.
Tney had missed Culebra in crossing by
the Panama Railway and the Chagres in
flood had not been revealed to tn EN-.
The capital of the canal company was
fixed al 600, 100000 francs, half of which
was arranged to be covered by the Issue of
OBLIGATIONS and the remainder distributed
in shares of 500 francs each, 1,209, 500
shares having been already subscribed for.
The total cost of the canal it was esti-
mated would be 512, 100000 francs, and it
was announced that it would be completed
by 1888. Engineers, surveyors. laborers
and lavish quantities of material and
money were sent out to the istbmus, and
De Lesseps confidently asserted that he
would live to sail through the completed
canal in spite Of the discouraging predic-
tions of failure which were uttered upon
all sides,