The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-27

gave the company all the public lands on
the line Of the track, and provided that the
ports Of Panama and Colon were to be free
ports. This last is the case to-day. The
original concession was for only forty-nine
years, but it has since been extended, with
some notifications, to ninety-nine years,
during which the company pays the govern
ment $4,000 a year for the privilege.
It took five years to build the road. When
it was begun the isthmus was a miasmatic
wilderness. and the lire ran through the
swamps and along the valleys of the Cha
gres and Rio Grande rivers, crossing the
mountain range at elevation Of 26s feet.
Forty-seven miles of such road could be
easily and comparatively cheaply built in
the United States. Here it cost, by the
time it was completed, SS,0OO,OO0. 1t began
to earn money as soon as the first few
miles OF track were laid and when the
road was opened for traffic, in 1855, it had
already received over 100000 for trans
portation, and within four years it's earn
ings were more than it's original cost, and
the owners were walking on velvet. Dur
ing one year it carried 100000 passengers
receiving $SO,OO0,OoO from that source alone.
1t has carried as much as 100000 tons of
freight in year, and within twelve years
after it was finished $3.50, 900 worth of
specie passed over it on it's way from San
Francisco to New York. It got all the gold
passengers of the early fifties who crossed
the isthmus, and made them pay heavily
for carrying their gold mining outfits in
addition TO the $25 fare.
A DEAD MAN FOR EVERY TIE
Even at these rates the trip was cheap
one. for it shortened the danger of the
fevers which often caught these gold hun
tiers who crossed on foot. The ride by rail
is less than four hours BY mule or on
foot it took two or more days. The health
Of the isthmus was then worse than it is
now. During the building of the road the
company ran funeral train and it is said
that there are more deaths than there are
ties in the entire line. was talking yes
terday with an American who ran the flu
neral train. He says they put the dead in
rows, piling one row crosswise on the top
of that beneath it, until the big hole made
for the days burial was nearly filed, when
earth was thrown in to fill up. One thou
sand Cinnamon were imported for the work.
Within month a number of them had died,
and hundreds of the remainder committed
suicide SO that the station where they
worked is now called Mato-chine, which
means Kill Cinnamon. We brought down
Brooklyn boy with US who has the job of
station agent at this place would not take
the place for the isthmus. 1 met yesterday
a graduate of the Boston School of Tech
nology, who has come here to work on the
railroad. He told me he received $3.50
month, which was better than he could Go
in the States, but that he had just got
up from an attack of malarial fever. met
a Baltimore mana Mr.. Hodges-who is en-
,I0 in SrI,0 foI5
he had had siege of yellow fever last year,
and in short, have found but few Ameri-
cans who have not been fever stricken at
some time or other during their stay here.
Many of them say, however, that the 18TH
mus is no worse than some Of our Southern
ports, and that If one takes good care of
himself there is not much danger. 1 am told
that of all the foreigners, Americans stand
the climate best, English next, then French,
and then Italians.
The ride across the isthmus Is delightful
one. The country, after you pass the few
miles of low1and on the Atlantic side rises
into many wooded hills, and the distant
views make you think of the forest-covered
rolling lands of the United States rather
than of the tropics. There are few palm
trees, though you now and then pass ba-
mana plantation. You go by villages of
matched huts and the buildings of the ca
nal people are everywhere to be seen. The
road runs very smoothly and the track is
we'll kept. 1t is a five-foot gauge equipped
with hgnum vitae ties and f1fty-six-pound
rails These ties are about the only ones,
except iron, which will withstand the att
tack of the wood-eating ants which are
found here. They are from trees so small
that tree seldom furnishes. more than one
tie, and the wood is so hard that spikes cam
not be driven into it. Holes have to be
bored for every bolt, and this extra work
makes the ties expensive. Each one costs
about $3.50 in silver. The telegraph poles
are Of iron. All of the rolling stock comes
from the United States. The superintend-
ent's private observation car, in which we
rode, was made in Wilmington, and some of
the locomotives came from Philadelphia.
The frst-class cars have wicker seats, like
those of some of our smoking cars The
second-class are built like long street cars,
with the seats running lengthwise under
the windows. rode for some time second
class to see the people. Half of the passen-
gers were jamaica negroes, one-third was
made up of Chinese, and the rest were ma
tive ColombianS. The Chinese were the
best dressed of the lot, and the neatest
AS the American conductor came in asked
him as to his health, and was told that he
had been travelling over the road for seven
years and had not been sick day.
WAGES OF RAILROAD MEN.
All wages of Americans are paid in gold
and those of the common laborers in silver
Engineers get $157 a month, conductors
$14S a month and telegraph operators from
$75 to 800. The brakemen are natives, and
they receive $1.75 a day in silver. Common
laborers get from 80 to IS cents day. and
most of those who work on the tracks are
Jamaica negroes. They put in ten hours a
day beginning at a. m. and working until
IL. Most of them bring their first meal of
coffee and bread to the track and eat it
there. AT II they stop for breakfast, which
is usually made up of rice and q bit of
dried meat, and at go to work again and
work until 6, when they go home fog din
ner.
Most Of the Americans here are weII-edu-
Gated men, and many of them have trav-
eled all over North and South America.
Some have literary ability, and / have been
much interested in little volume of poems
by an American named Gilbert Here is one
which will be appreciated by any man who
has spent much time in the tropics. It de-