The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1904-08-10

6nal negotiations for the transfer or
title and property Of the Panama Ca
nal company to the United States and
who was recalled from Paris to so 10
The isthmus to help in the organization
of a government for the canal zone, re-
Gently returned to Washington. In
speaking of conditions on the isthmus
30 a reporter of the Washington Post,
Judge Russell said:
I'VE have some $50 square miles of
territory along the canal route, ocCu-
pied by ten or twelve thousand people,
soon 10 be increased by several thou
sands They are largely negroes who
speak what they regard as English and
Spanish. / could seldom tell which
they were attempting. There are a
few Chinese very good gardeners ana
Shopk eepers, and some persons OF Span
ish and French extraction. The peo-
Dle, all or nearly all, are living in lit
tie villages along the railroad, many
of them in houses now belonging TO
us and some in houses they own, Whlle
the land under them Is ours.
There is very little Agricultural
few pineapple and vegetable patches
and some pastures for cows. l do not
know that the cows give milk. never
saw any except the canned article
The cattle look very fine and healthy,
however, and the Panama country Is Fl
cattle country Dense tropical trees
vines and bushes on hills, some five to
foot TiUb and in n1CtI1r-
s,suue valleys, fill the pictures behind
the villages except for the small rivers
and famous Chagres, which sometimes,
very rarely, rises twenty or thirty feet
Near Panama and reaching near the
canal for miles is a salt marsh fire.
quented by alligatOrs, throwing up
grass-so called-twice as high as corn
stalks, and q variety Of bushes, some
of them towering prettily, as at Mira
flores, which takes its name from these
flowers.
|"The populations of Panama and
Colon, now carefully cut off by
t,oundary delimitation from our zone
a., similar, but there are more eau
Easians and many of unmistakable
Indian blood. Panama is a Spanish
looking town of about 10000 or $4,000
people, very picturesque from the sea-
Coma is less Spanish looking and large
liz OF homely frame houses. 1t has pic
fnrpsque spots-a few, CristObal Colon,
near by, in the zone, comprises three
or four fine houses on the waters edge
and statue of Columbus. The houses
are known as those of De LeSsepS and
belong to us.
II am frequently asked how much
work the French did on the canal-a
very important question. They did
very considerable amount, principally
cutting at Culebra, where the ground
Is high for a couple of miles. slept
at CuIebra, going to Panama every
incoming to work on the construction
of the zone government The governor,
General George Davis, also made his
home at the cut He has now moved
to a hillside near the beautiful hos
initial buildings we acquired from the
French company in the suburbs OF
Panama.
~"One hot, bright day, good for seeing
clearly, l clambered up a hill that
rises above the great cut, taking a
Jamaica negro with maChete to clear
a oath, and from the top could see
about twenty miles of canal and canal
route, including a mile or more of the
Immense trench sunk by the Panama
company, where the force OF Jamaica
negroes transferred to us was working
with picks shovels, locomotives and
dump cars.
'"Tc the eye the cut seems already
low and wide enough; but, of course,
actual measurement leaves it from a
half 80 two-thirds unfinished. Almost
che whole length of the canal has been
cut to some extent by the French, and
several miles on the Atlantic side are
acfDaIly open and navigable from the
sea The rapid tropical growth hides
uEcn of the work, but it is there. In
addition to this, years of recorded eX-
perjence and sOundings, bOrings and
surveys, flood measurements, rain
2augings, labor experiments and eX-
peyiments with machines are turned
over by the French in minute and
naInstaking charts and books.
u am also asked what about the
condition of the property bought from
the French. At first that seemed to me
Cieplorable, wrecks of dump trains and
digging machines strewing the line Of
Rhe canal in sOrrowful abandonment.
but the case is not so bad. The build
1ngs for wOrkmen and officials, nearly
all In fine condition. are very numerous
and would cost a large sum to replace,
and in many buildings are locomotives
by the hundreds which are either fit
for use or, as experiments show, can
easily be made so. 1t is true that some
OF the machines are not of the latest
and best types and will be used little
or not at all
Then l am asked about the climate
s.rR sanitary TnottprS I want tO he