The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1904-12-24
PANAMA PLAGUE SPOTS.
IT is KNOWN AS THE GRAVE.
YARD OF AMBITION.
Death in Life Around CoIon-Plants
Luxuriate, But Men Can Not Live
in Swamp Masmas-Mysteries Of
the Jungles.


In Swamp Maismas-Mysteries Of
the JungIes.
Colon, or Aspinwall, as it is so ne
times called, has a population of
about $500, and has one OF the best
hotels on the Isthmus. In company
With one of the canal officials | Wis
tied the works at COioc. and drove
four or five miles along the banks
of the waterway. In the early Gays
Of the digging, owing 20 the aWfnl
heat and frequent rains, men aie1 SO
fast that it was impossible t. htcp
track of their deaths. TIE Canal
Company and the Railway Company
had separate hospitals al Colon and
Panama, and the capacity of each
was taxed all the time. The Railway
Company had a morgue in ASolnwall, /,
and white men were stored IN its
vaults ten deep awaiting burial. Men
soon lost all fear of death, end de-
spite the warnings of physicians,
would carouse nightly and inhale the
deadly vapors which eXuded from the
earth, to fall victims rfext day to the
Chagres and yellow fever.
The canal from the Atlantic side
goes through the tropical jungle and
through earth feculent for unnunl-
bered aged with parasitical and vege-
table decay. 1t is the abode of the
deadly Chagres fever, typhus, dys-
entery and yellow fever, where
snakes abound and, where mosqui-
toes, scorpions and centipedes make
existence for the Write man almost
intoierable. Half buried in the rank
earth lie costly machinery, dredges,
pneumatic drills and. steam shovels,
which were found unsuited to the
work and cast aside as 50 much scrap
non Here came thousands of the
hose negro population Of the West
indies, tempted by the alluring bait
Of a dollar or two dollars day. Half
0f them are buried along the banks
Of the canal; the other half returned
home with enough money to buy a
few acres Of banana land and close
out their lives in comfort and indo-
lence.
Here, too, lie mouldering the ske,e-
tons of French engineers, sub1cGn-
tractors. clerks and petty officials.
Nho left La Belle, France, with glor-
jaus expectations. the promise Of big
pay and the hope of rapid promotion.
Mhzt" killed them? The climate?
No. the same monster that killed
hundreds when Hamilton Merritt.
Away back in the ttirties. was dig
az the Welland Canal. Then it was
ne ~fever and ague," produced by
foul water and air tainted by the *
halations arising from its low ground
md marshes through which the lines
we're run. But the monster CT Pena-
na is merciless il its cruelty and
nrely spares a wi.tc man. If you
pace but an atom of the earth that
= taken from a foot below the soil
mder a microscope, it will palritate
Nth life, but it is life which means
death to you
From the disturbed soil there rises
! warm vapor charged with deadly
sfteria, which plays havoc with the
Hopgeet constitutions. This ne
laitic mist is the hideous wrath OF
pe canal monster. the horrible. i'm
rpab'e thing that haunts swamps
nd marsles and is in the earth omni-
resent. Only those who have fol-
nNed an Indian trail through tropi-
- forest where perpetual twilight
mgns and damp heat prevails, have
~ Idea of the rapid and rank vege-
lon of equatorial lands. 1t is a
setation of matted and gigantic
mes. Of fleshy plants and strange
yes festooned with llianas and mon
"a creepers, where insects riot and
air IS oppressive with tne odor
durnal flowers. Among these
MeH plants and vines the struggle
possession Of the soil never ends.
NA the monster trees are sometime
WDgled'in the grip of the tough and
wed bush-rope that coils around,
M through the bark and saps the
= out Of. them.
have. seen this fibrous parasite
My as thick as a mans body.
ted like a corkscrew around
{yPrch of the forest, and rearing its
high above the topmost
aches. With us in Canada nearly
Qees and plants are anemophil-
but here they are fertilized by
ect agency. AS a result the woods,
ishes and swamps swarm with life
and day. In the forest every
is perennial, and as no sun
r ever enters, the air is soggy
ue vegetation steaming and
A More than that, there are her
ons trees, rich in pith, which, un-
the forest trees that grow by
entric rings, require no more
IONS for their life than prevail
warm soil, great humidity
"a, atmosphere saturated with
ealc acid gas. In this sunless
every noxious plant and tree
mates. Make a few yards clear
N! - te"rning and tomorrow some
nt -namaiess growth, with
I>34StiKo appearance ia twisting