Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-07-18
NOT WORTH THE COST.
A Nurse From Panama Says Canal j,
Costino Too MANY Lives,

Costing Too Many Lives.
New York, July ALREADY this
ditch the government is digging on thu
Isthmus of Panama has cost more III
lives than II will ever be worth, i'm :
portant tho it promises to be to thu
commercial world. Panama is not 4
white mans country. That fact can
not be made too emphatic"
Miss Alena A. Robinson, matron In
the hospital at Colon, Panama, who re-
turned to New York on the steamship
Advance, was the speaker. She had
abandoned her work and the isthmus
after years residence in Panama.
She said:
81 became accustomed to the life af-
ter time and thought would stay In
definitely But vacation spent in
New York was my undoing. When
returned to Colon, after few weeks
spent here, to find three of the mea
had known and left in the full flush OF
health, had died of yellow fever-well
/ Just couldn't stand it any longer. One
of them had occupied the room next to
mine. He was taken with the fever
and removed to$the hospital. They all
had everything to live for. felt tfat
their lives alone were worth more than
the whole enterprise. 1t made me sick
at heart.
mo one in Panama blamed Mr.. Wal
lace. chief engineer of the ditch, for
leaving the isthnus. It was generally
said by those nearest to him that 1t
was case OF cold feet"-that he was
afraid Of the fever-but no one blamed
him because Of the fact. He was crtti-
cized, however, for leaving the way he
did. The first rumor there, printed In
a Colon newspaper, was that he vas
about to leave for a short vacation.
Next thing he was gone for good.
Chief Architect Morris johnson, who
was to have married in a short time
a relative Of Mrs. Wallace, was taken
sick with yellow fever in her house.
Within few days after he was strick-
en- down he died. The end came with
in two weeks Of the day set for his
wedding. His bride-to-be was in Chi
cago. And he was hurried into his
grave, as all those must be who die
of yellow fever. This could not but be
an awful thing for Mrs. Wallace.
Fever Killed in Six Days.
"Haverstock, in the government en-
ploy, was In the best Of health and
spirits when I left Panama for my va
cation. After six days he was dead
and was buried in the Monkey Fill
cemetery His room was thoroly tumi-
gated and the mosquitoes killed. Then
wentnir went into 1t. He was sick
lust six days, took the fever very soon
after occupying the room, thus PROV
ing to my mind that fumfgation does
not destroy the germs in these .Pana-
manian houses. He, too died. Both
had been in magnificent condition
when taken with the awful fever The
strong and the well seem more likely
indeed, to contract the disease than do
the siclxly and those Of coarser fiber.
..when Chief Mechanical Engineer
Strong first came to Panama, eight
months ago, he said hopefully: The
canal will be built in ten years. Be
for I left he again expressed himself
on this subject. This time he said:
we of this generation will never live
to see it finished Thus does life in
Panama change the viewpoint.
There is something in the very at
mosphere which demoralizes man.
The most sane, we'll balanced minds in
a few months get crotchety and err
ratio. I cannot account for this. I
only give the fact. 1t is hot, but still
the thermometer rarely stands in the
COS. It is the humidity, however, that
makes life almost unbearable. You
cannot inhale full breath Of air. You
feel an iron pressure on your chest
contracting the lungs"