Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-11-14
SEVEN UP IN THE ZONE.
Stocks of Bibles and Playing Cards
For Canal Men.


Seven-up, auction pitch, casino, or
another game of cards dear to the
heart of the soldier Of fortune, pro-
vided he be in the employ of the Gov
ernment, may be played at the ex-
pense of Uncle Sam, who has laid in
large supply Of playing cards and
Bibles for the use Of the men who
will construct the big ditch. The BIZ
bles will probably be used by the
leaders of the Sunday services to be
held in the canal zone, while the
playing cards will be utilized as one
form Of those amusements Of which
the commission speaks as so essen
tial to the maintenance Of content
ment and discipline among men suf-
fering from the enervating climate Of
the tropics.
1t appears from the press dis
patches that Miss Shonts, a sister Of
the chairman of the commission, in
tends to urge a temperance crusade
on the Isthmus and she will proba-
bly, now be reinforced by the followers
of the various anti-vice societies so
soon as they discover that playing
cards have been purchased with Un-
Gle Sans money for the edification
of his workmen.
Among other interesting stores that
have been laid may be mentioned a
number of Guinea pigs and a large
collection Of white mice, which are to
be used by the surgeons in their search
for microbes, germs and other things
of that sort. In anticipation Of the
possible needs of the medical division
of the canal staff, these purchases
have provided for a collection Of
wooden legs Of assorted sizes.
The extensive purchases for the
canal have been completed for the
present, although acquisitions for ma
terial are being constantly received,
but chiefly for small lots Of miscella'
neous supplies. The commission has
purchased or ordered $4,000 pounds
of blasting powder and 617, 900 pounds
Of dynamite, to be used in removing
locks on the line Of the canal. Thirty
million feet of lumber has been pur-
chased, about 23,000,0GO feet coming
from the Pacific coast. The paving
of the city Of Panama has required
the purchase of 100000 paving
brick, while 3,5O0,OOO brick are to
be used in the construction Of build
ings and quarters for the workmen.
Besides the engines used by the
Panama Railroad, 120 locomotives
have been bought for excavating
each lock three hundred feet in width
hundred dump cars. The flat
cars are used for excavating and are
unloaded by rapid machines which
scrape the earth from whole
train in short order. Spreaders are
then used to remove the earth from
the railroad track, upon which the
cars are operated. To build these ex-
cavating lines 5000 tons Of steel rails
and $4,000 cross ties, upon which
the rails will be laid, have been
bought.
The subcommittee Of the board Of
consulting engineers were In session
all Of yesterday and made such head
way that they expect to be able to
submit tentative report bearing upon
the whole proposition at the meeting
of the full board next Tuesday. The
figures with which these committees
have dealt in their consideration OF
the canal problem have been almost
staggering to the layman.
If the lock system is adopted, as
seems almost certain, these figures
show that the series Of locks required
to lift ships up to the highest level IN
the Culebra Cut will be made up Of
compartments aggregating more than
two-thirds of a mile in length, and
each lock three hundred feet In width
Pressure on locks Of such huge di-
mensions would be something enor-
nous. One set of gates would be
ninety feet high and $50 feet broad
and weigh 100000 pounds. The
board estimates that it would require
at least seven years time to con-
struct these locks alone.-Washing-
ton Post.