Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-08
THE TEN-MI[E STRIP
Talk With General Davis
When He Was Governor.
WHAT THE ZONE IS
LAND THAT UNCLE SAM OWNS ON
THE ISTHMUS.
Towns and Municipalities - A Mixed
Population-The Question
of Health.
WHAT THE ZONE rs

Copyright. 1905. by Frank G. Carpenter)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
PANAMA
I have just had a talk with Major Cen
eral George w. Davis, the governor of our
Panama possessions, in his palatial resi-
dence on Ancon hill. I even rode with
him to it in the gubernatorial carriage be-
hind the coachman and livery with his
silver buttons, bearing the monogram, 2.
c., or Panama canal. The carriage Is the
old one belonging to the French director
general, which came into our hands as
part of our Panama purchase. The horses
went with it, and also the buttons. The
livery a long blue coat, made by Pana
ma tailor, was bought by General Davis
out of his own pocket and as for the resi-
dence, that is the old home of the man who
had charge of the French stables, and is in
sight and smell of where hundred or so
canal ponies and draft mules are now
uuartered. 1t was originally intended for
the corral master and his assistants, but
it has since been overhauled. repaired and
repainted and now makes comfortable
bungalow home for the governor.
Every one knows General Davis. He has
been in the public eye ever since De Les
seps began this canal we are now building
Born on q farm in Connecticut, he was en-
ployed in lumber business in Georgia when
the war broke out, but he made his way
north and joined the Union army. He went
in as a volunteer sergeant and came out as
a captain of the regular army. He had al
ready risen to a colonelcy when we began
our war with Spain, and during that strug-
gle his service was such that he was pro-
NOTED to be brigadier general and then
major general of volunteers. General Davis
has since served governor of Porto Rico,
military governor of Manila, and he was for
a time the commander OF all the troops OF
the Philippines. He was appointed one OF
the members of the canal commission, and
also the governor of our ten-mile strip on
the isthmus of Panama, with its population
of 1900 newly adopted American citizens.
How Governor Davis Looks.
Governor Davis is now sixty-f1ve years of
age, but he is in his prime intellectually.
He is as straight as one of the royal palm
trees not far from his house; he Is as brown
as a berry and as tough as nut. He has,
with the exception of a few weeks, when he
went home on account of the serious i'll
ness of his wife, been here since his ap-
pointment last February./and he is, in fact
about the only one of the canal commission
who has spent much time on the ground
He represents the commission, and also the
government AS ruler of the zone he has
more power than any state governor In the
Union He can order any one off the United
States territory as an impeachment to the
canal work or as detrimental to the best
interests of his little principalfty. He has,
in fact, the powers of a military ruler, and
he might be called the car of our Panama
possessions.
| asked General Davis to tell me just what
land Uncle Sam owns at Panama. Said he
I'VE have altogether about 100000 acres
By the treaty we own a strip five miles wide
on each side of the winding Panama canal
which. with the three marine miles at each
end. is more than fifty miles long The
land is of every description. Some of it is
low and rather marshy; other parts are
high land covered with jungle. Several
torrential rivers run through 1t, including
the Chagres, the Rio Grande, the Trinidad
and others, and its middle portion is COM
posed of the ragged low mountains best
known by the big cut at Culebra. The strip
runs from ocean to ocean, and in addition
we have several islands in Panama bay and
the right to take any other land that may
be needed for the use of the canal
Public Lands in the Zone.
How are the lands held governor? I
suppose they mostly belong to the natives p"
II judge that two-thirds are so owned, -
was the reply. THE remainder, amounting
to about 100000 acres, belongs to the United
States by virtue of the canal and the treaty.
BY the treaty with Panama we have the old
lands that Colombia held, and by the pur-
chase of the canal we have all that were
assigned to the French, as well as those
which have been acquired from time to time
by the Panama railroad, which, as you
know, runs through the strip right along
the line of the canal
rs the land of value for farmng?' %
The most of It could be so used; but so