The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-01-01
THEY CALL SHALER
KING OF THE LSTHMUS
General Superintendent of the Panama Railroad
Is Power in That Land.
BY MERRILL A. LEAGUE.
Special Correspondent Of the Morning News


er than twenty days, change his opin-
ion of the health qualities of the 18TH
mus. bachelor, he declares that
the worst woman is better than the
| pest man, yet women are almost en-
TIRE strangers at his bungalow, a
rambling, lowered structure, set down
IN the midst of a cocoanut grove. on
the choicest part of the waterfront of
Colon. In this bungalow there is the
atmosphere of a mans olub-large read
ing rooms, carefully arranged sta ok
OF hooks and periodicals, billiard and
pool tables, shower baths, men servants
and those other things which predomi-
nate in places frequented by men only.
J Here Col. Shaler confidently expects
TO spend the next few years. II am
too young to think about quitting
work, he says. When the United
States shall have become firmly es-
tablished on the isthmus and under
taken the management of the railroad,
he may return to the states to live
upon his competence; but just now the
Colonel-chivalrous, genial, courteous
with the old-school Southern type of
courtesy, and buoyantly active-is car
rying too much of the burden of the
new republic for him to think of lay
ing it down.
Prescott in the Revolution.
When. on the 4th of November. Col
Torres was hesitating about accepting
the sum of $4,000 gold offered him if
he would take the Colombian troops
that had landed the day before al Co.
lon and sail back to Cartagena, it look
ed for a time as though only the re-
lease of Gems. Tovar and Amaya, who
were held prisoners of the republic
at Panama. would avert a clash be-
tween the Colombians. and the Ameri-
can marines. Torres insisted up
on seeing and comforting with
the two generals. The officials
of the new republic were 10th
to grant his demand; Torres could not
run the risk os crossing the isthmus
to probable arrest. 1t was then that
Herbert G. Prescott, assistant superin-
tendent OF the Panama Railroad. with
Headquarters at Panama, took charge
of this end of the situation. He de-
manded that Tovar and Amaya be pro-
duced at the railroad station in this
city, and his demand was granted.
A special train was in readiness to
| transport them across the isthmus, and
Prescott made himself personally re-
sponsible TO the junta for their safe
return to custody. Commander Hub
bard, of the Nashville, had issued an
order forbidding the transportation of
armed men in either direction by the
railroad. Prescott did not propose to
violate this order, but he had to run
the risk of Tovar and Amaya trying
| to escape or of an attempt being made
to rescue them. He was, therefore,
| justified, when he agreed to let about
twenty-five of his friends. who wished
| to reach Colon. take passage on the
train. That each one of these friends
carried a revolver in his hip pocket
| was a fact of which Prescott was Of
ficially ignorant: but so determined is
| his own disposition that, had Tovar
| or Amaya tried to escape, or had an
attempt been made to rescue them,
| Prescott knew his friends would not
see him outwitted. 1t happened that
Torres succumbed to the temptation
| offered by IS. 900 before the special left
Panama, but the incident shows that
| Prescott is not without resources, and
| that he understands the art of doing
things al the right way.
AmadOr's Chief Aid-de-Cnmp.
Next to Col. Shaler, Mr.. Prescott is
the most formidably prominent man
on the isthmus His position is one of
extreme Importance. He has lived
long in Central American countries,
though still a young man; speaks
| Spanish like a native, understands
most intimately the weaknesses of the
Panamaian character, is enthusiastic,
fertile-minded, adroit and most ca
pable. He is carrying to-day a card
hastily penciled at the moment when
Panama independence was established
and signed by the members of the
junta, on which is attested the fact
that, but for the assistance rendered
by H. G. Prescott, the Republic of
Panama could never have been Gre
ated He knows down to its minutest
details just what part the railroad, by
it's command over trans-isthmian
traffic, is fitted to play in the affairs