St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1901-07-03

The railroad across the Andes to the
Ecuadorian capital will be the result OF
American skill and enterprise.
For years a railroad had been strug-
Cling across the alluvial plains OF the
cacao and sugar plantations Of the Ecu
adorian coast, only to be baff1ed by the
Andes, where for centuries only mules
and Indians picked their way bearing
burdens on their backs and heads. BY
July rails will have been spiked over the
last mile of these trails, skirting preci-
pieces, crossing torrents, climbing
through passes twelve thousand feet
high, until the Guayaquil and Quito Rail
road will have come out upon the high
plateau where it can travel swiftly over
the highways built by the Incas, and
come into Quito.
To American engineers alone belongs
the credit of opening a wonderful new
land to the enterprise of the world.
American engineers have succeeded where
French, Italian and Spanish engineers
failed to as much as connect the scat
tered stretches of preliminary survey.
"Only Americans can build the road we
must have across the Andes" said Presi-
dent Alfaro decisively when ne came into
power, and he set Senior Luis F. Carlo,
the Ecuadorian Minister at Washing
ton, to searching for the right American.
Senior Carlo found Archer Hartman.
1t is Archer Harmau's will that has
forced a we'll built and effectively
equipped railroad through the passes Of
the Andes. Mr.. Hartman went to Ecua-
dor on tour of inspection in 1897. He
found an i'll equipped shaky little line
already built across the lower plains.
He found a mountain full in his face, a
mountain seemingly impossible save for
the mules who stepped gingerly along
the lodges Of cliffs. But in this noun
tain, too, he found great stores of min
eral wealth. He saw beyond the noun
tain great and fertile plateau. wit h an
ideal climate, OVERLOOKING with an
abundance of grain and cattle, that had
small outlet, though it might have fed
great section of the world. Still furtherin
the orient of Ecuador he found vast for
ests of rubber and of hard woods, seams
OF coal and deposits of pure sulphur and
alum. What he could only glance at
then he has seen more clearly in the last
year through the eyes of eight parties OF
American engineers, who have been spy
ing out the land for him. A. A. Blow,
mining engineer, sailed for Ecuador re-
Gently, to lead a well equipped exploring
party through these regions.
When Archer Hartman came back from
that tour of investigation he brought
concession from the government to build
road from Guayaquil to Quito. In
New York and London he found men to
back him financially. Then he gathered
about him a corps of skilled American
engineers. At last way for the rails
was blazed across the Andes, and James
P. Macdonald, of New York, began the
work of construction with six thousand
Jamaican negroes whom he took to
Ecuador when the native labor failed
him. Before them go the American
engineers, led by Major John A. Hartman,
formerly of the 9th Cavalry.
Now the wonderful mountain section
over the Palmyra Pass is approaching
completion, and there remains to be built
only the stretch across the plateau into
Quito, presenting no engineering difficult
ties. Guamote will be reached in Sep
TENDER, from which point railroads will
radate, opening an immensely rich coun-
| try. Every steamer sailing around the
Horn of late carries cargoes Of rails and
bridges, locomotives and cars, from the
American shops, equipping a railroad
that will open for development one of the
richest republics in South America.-[ New
York Tribune.