The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-13

ing the deviation required by the canal
plans.
This deviation will be no small piece of
work, as il will mean the rebuilding of
practically all that portion of the road now
situate on high ground. The canal plans
provide for artificial lake stretching
from Bohio, fourteen miles from Colon, to
Ledro Miguel, on the Pacific side, a distance
of about twenty-five miles. This lake will
be formed by monster dam at Bohio, and
for miles about on either side of the pres
ent line of railroad between Bohio and
Pedro Miguel and its level Will be, approx
mately, seventy feet above the level of the
railroad at Bohio. 1t follows, therefore,
that the railroad must change its route.
This it will do starting from point be-
tween Bohio and Colon, running to the east
ward and climbing the hills and mountains
until it reaches an elevation higher than
will be the surface of the proposed lake. 1t
will then run in the direction of Panama,
skirting the shores of the lake, and, pass
ing through an extremely picturesque coun-
try, will connect with the present route
short distance outside of Panama The cost
of this deviation will be heavy, but so will
be the profits from the operation during
the nine years that will elapse before the
gates of the Bohio dam are finally closed
and the Chagres river is made TO submerge
the present line and all the country there
about.
"A LIFE FOR EVERY TIE" YARN.
The heaviest cost of this work will prob
ably be in human life. for the sanitation
measures to be applied along the route of
the canal can hardly extend to it, although
the line of it will lie we'll within the canal
zone we shall acquire. This cost will not.
however, be as great as was the corre-
spending expense during the original work
of canal construction. There is story
which has gone round the world and be-
come classic that every crosstie in the
Panama Railroad represents a human life
lost in the building" That is. of course,
false. j. S. Higbid once ventilated it in
proper style. Mr.. Higbid is roadmaster OF
the Panama Railroad, and a few months
ago he crossed with a party of missionaries,
who related the story to him, and asked:
Where are the graves of all those peo-
pie who died?"
"Well you see, it was like this" Higbid
answered Everything buried in this coun-
try petrifes, so as each one of those men
died they buried him right under a tie. IL
is awful hard to get wood in the isthmus
that will last in contact with the soil. and
the idea was that when the crOsstie rotted
the body of the man buried under IL would
be petrifed. so they could remove the tie,
raise the petrihed body and in that way
have stone roadbed all the way from
Colon to Panama"
Higbid's explanation was a fitting answer
to the story, which, while preposterous in
fact, is true in that ii implies that cOnstruc-
ton work in this country. wherever exca-
waiting is necessary, eXacts a terrible toll in
human life. IL will exact that toll from the
deviation unless, in planning sanitary inn
provements, the United States shall extend
its scheme of sanitation, pure water sup
ply, etc. to include the proposed new route
of the canal
ROAD is ISTHMIAN BENEFACTOR.
In its operation at the present time the
railroad is the great benefactOr of the 18TH
mus, no matter what it may once have done
towards depopulating these parts of the
earth. Without il the isthmus would now
be in the virgin state of undevelopment, for
the road is the one support Of all these peo-
pie. In its executive offices, located at Colon,
Americans only are employed. Americans
compose, also, all of its train crew, and
they are paid excellent wages an engineer
drawing $3.50 (gold) a month, the equiva-
lent of about 800 in the monkey money
of this country. But for track and dock
laborers, along the entire line and at either
terminal; agents at the way stations; crews
of yard engines; brakemen on freight trains
and the unskiled labor In the shops and
about the yards. native Panamaians or the
more intelligent West Indian negroes are
employed Fer these the road maintains
silver payroll, its disbursements amounting
to thousands OF dollars monthly. From this
source everybody on the isthmus (among
the natives, except the few shopkeepers and
professional mem who pretend TO live ac-
cording to civilized standards draws his
means OF a livelihood. The railroad pays
them well in the money current here, and
they are happy and contented lot.
With its white mployes-experienced rail-
road men from the States-the railroad deals
generously in matters other than salaries.
1t provides them with living quarters for
themselves and families. free of charge 1t
makes ice for them, selling il as cheaply as
IL is sold I'm the States. II has provided the
hotel in Colon and leased II to n Frenchman
who Is under contract 20 board as many of
the employees as desire 10 board there and to
charge no more than SO (gOld) a month for
each adult. One end of this hotel has been
set apart as a club for the use of the Ameri-
can railroaders, and there the company
maintains billiard and pool stables, other
games, generously stocked library. besides
furnishing all the leading newspa pers
weeklies and magazines published in the
States. over in Panama equally generous
treatment is accorded these white employees
The residences or those permanently located
at that end OF the line are at La BOca
For these trainmen who have TO stay over
night in Panama, but who reside In Colon,
the railroad has fitted the second floor Of
it's station building with bedrooms. reading
rooms, bathrooms. etc. These men are, in
the main, old and trusted employees. who
have become thoroughly acclimated. and
who familiar with the companys re-
quirements down 10 their smallest detail
That their lot is made easier by the fact
that this is road on which no wheel
turns at night Is to their advantage
A sTICKLER FOR MONOPOLY.
But IL in the treatment OF its employees the
railroad Is generous. IL is exactly the OPP
posite in enforcing compliance with all the
terms OF its concessions. SO rigidly does IL
maintain its monopoly OF transportation IA
cilities that except by its trains there is
no way OF conveying produce or supplies TO
or from interior points except by pack mules
or BY runners who carry enormous packs