Waterbury Democrat., 1902-07-10

were filled up.r A summary gwen by Mir. Lambert, in the Forum, Is suggestive: After five years of work shallow inlets on either shore, great scratch in the rock from Colon to Panama, andethe white posts of the surveyors represent all the progress made. Whistling gangs of ne groes fourished spades and picks lazily only when the overseer was near. Section bosses loitered about, surly and perspiring, under their umbrellas Chiefs lounged on the verandas of model bungalows, fitted with every sanitary convenience and pitched on the unhealthiest spots in the neighbor- hood absorbing absinthe and speculating between the relative undesirability of bl- ious fever, remittent fever, Chagres fever, yellow fever and fever and ague. Contract ors quarreled and kept the company's hands at standstill. At the main offices red tape and official bumbledom hampered the dispatch of business"
 In 1886 Hon. John Bigelow, exUnited States minister to France, who had ac- companied M. de Lesseps on a tour of in spection in Panama, reported that the greater portion of the reputed receipts of $l20,000000 had been expended Ion the work of preparation and installation" and not in actual digging But M. de Lesseps went home with optimistic stories quite the reverse of those told in America by
 
 Mr. Bigelow.
 Nevertheless the company was obliged to secure loan after loan, with the condi- tions for the obtaining of the loans be- coming more and more oppressive. In l8S8 the government granted permission for the issuing of the notorious lottery bonds of 720, 100000 francs, but there was not ob- servable in reference to these bonds the confidence of earlier days. Investigations were instituted and it was found criminal miSrepresentations had been made of the affairs of the company, and that willful deception had been employed in regard to the estimate of cost. Up to 1890 the canal had cost l,25o, ,0000 900 francs, and at least 0,000O00 more francs were needed to finish it; and then it would not be the original tide-water canal, but less costly waterway of locks and sluices. It was shown that de Lesseps had given as estl- mate S43, ,000,0 900 francs, when he was aware the cost of such canal as he proposed would be three times that sum.
 The Panama Scandal.
 To secure money for the canal when the company was at its wits end de Lesseps dls- tributed large sums of money among mem bers of parliament. The money was to induce them to vote in favor of his lot tery scheme. DaToH ue INelHdcu, q oS"ioih banker, had charge of bribing the par liamentarians The French press was bought up right and left, and new papers were started by interruptions editors, which boomed the scheme and helped drain the coffers of the company. The tale of the bribing began to leak out and the great est excitement prevailed in Paris. Rumors were ahoat that de Reinach was to be ar rested, but the morning after the day the rumor was started de Reinach was found dead in his bed. Senators, deputies, cabi- net ministers and editors were accused of receiving bribes, and many one high in authority trembled for his liberty. Many arrests were made. Charles de Les seps, son of M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, made confessions duplicating himself but not oth- CTS suspected, and was sentenced to imprls- onment. His father, as told above, was ar rested and condemned, but was too ill to