The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-10


 ed to tell the results of his observa-
 tions in the land of the insect and the fever, and the information furnished
 by him is here given to the public.
 ''Pll give you a description of Pan-
 anna as it was, as it is, and as it can
 be-" said MT. Christian When
 went there in 1893 the great bubble in
 which the Frenehmen had invested
 their millions had burst and all those
 who had robp.:d tine company were
 gone. Only few decrepit caretakc-s
 renamed where the thousands of la
 porers mad bea.. husy at their tasks Cnly these and lhe whitening hcnes Of those who nal perished on the fever
 haunted marshes Gf the most terrible
 Land on the globe. Standing in
 ghustiy silence Gecaying from the moist
 N,GGs that hl,E continually dur-i-g ceI,ain hours a* the day. were the
 sr,endid palaras built by the Frsncn
 ''fers who cama ever to build tle
 canal. Among these establishm 'nts
 vas the house H De Lesseps. the en-
 gil ger who designed the canal. All
 of them were falling to pieces, and
 neglect showed on all sides. lad
 access to the books of the company
 through the courtesy. of M. De Sosa,
 one Of the engineers of the canal, and from these books I discovered exactly
 what had been expended, bth on the
 canal and on the houses and other ex-
 travagances of the officers. Some of those residences were the biggest swim
 dies ever perpetrated on any people.
 The house occupied by De Lesseps
 could have been built for s15,OO0, but
 it was placed on the books of the
 company at a cost of $l50,000. A
 few one-story buildings, called hos
 pitals, all of which could have been
 erected for $10,000, were charged up at
 $1,0O0 900. The total amount expended on the isthmus, as figured by me, from
 the company's private books, was $266,- 00O,000. With this great sum the canal
 was cut for distance of exactly twen-
 ty miles, eleven miles on one side the
 isthmus, and nine on the other. Twen- ty-seven miles remain to be cut, and
 the part remaining is the hardest of all, for it requires that mountains be moved-the kind of mountains that re-
 quire money as well as faith to move
 them.
 Directly in the path of the survey stands Culebra, the sake as it's name
 signifies, and before the first ship
 crosses the isthmus of Panama this
 snake must be destroyed, the noun
 tain must not only be brought down
 to level with the surrounding country,
 but even it's roots must be dug up, In spite of the millions spent in cutting its gray sides, Culebra stands to-day all most as if 1t had never known the
 prick of the Iaborer's shovel. Millions more will have to be poured into that
 black land of death before the noun
 tain disappears from the path of prog
 ress and the waters of the Atlantic
 and the Pacific unite. This, or sys-
 tenn of locks in connection with Cha
 gres river, isssaid by eminent engineers
 to be the only solution of the isthmian
 waterway. It is the Chagres which makes the country unhealthy. Annually
 1t overfiows its banks and rushes over the low swamp lands, leaving vegetable E and animal matter to decay under the
 fierce rays of the tropic sun and breed-
 ing strange and swift death for the < people who inhabit the isthmus. It is
 the source of the most dangerous fever
 ever known, a fever that even the na-
 tive Afrcans. brought over by De l Lesseps and hs company, could not withstand in the slightest degree. Thou sands and thousands of them suc- } cumbed to it's attacks shortly after they were landed on the fatal coasts. The 1aborer. picking steadily at the wall of the canal, would complain of slight indisposition, and would lean against the bank to rest a moment. In that po- sition death would strike him, and there to-day his bones lie. This is the story of the fever from one end of the land to the other. When fresh 2 disgings are made at the present time \ along the ha1f-flled excavations made ten years ago, countless skeletons of these unfortunate creatures are found just where they fell when overtaken by 3 the fever. No man once attacked has ever recovered. f~
 ] Panama and Colon and the country ! between them form the deadliest spot ! in the world. No one ventures out of the house after nightfall, if there has been the slightest fall of rain, or if { the atmosphere is at all damp. It is < death to do so. Within two hours of such exposure, or of getting the least { wet, the dread fever commences, and before midnight the victim has passed { away. I crossed the isthmus from ocean to ocean on foot, walking along i 1.-the track of the Panama railroad In no other way could have crossed. The
 interior is mass of underbrush so
 thick that nothing but reptiles can penetrate it. The machete of the na-
 tive sometimes enables him to so short
 distances, but to an American of high
 CT and more civilized attitudes pass
 age is impossible. Only path about - railroad affords foot passage across
 d foot wide alongside the track of the
 the isthmus. This jungle is broken by
 spaces covered with water, the very
 appearance of which provokes shiver n in the breast of the beholder. Green \. it's surface mottled with slimy, dartins
 creatures, stagnant, repulsive. with reptiles of loathsome character summing f on the higher spots, one glance at the
 sight els the history of the fate oi
 the workmen who tried to dig the e canal. The country Is one grand insect e nursery. Everything is named for an