Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930, 1905-09-14
THE PANAMA GRAVEYARD.
Dcath in Various Forms Awaits Labor
crs on the Isthmus.

CTS O'I TIT
Lab0rers are wanted on the big ditch
in Panama. No cravens or weaklings
need apply-that is. no cravcns who are
afraid Of the fcvers lurking in the yell
low InistS Of the ChaGres river. and no
wcakiinga who cannot stand under 4 sky
that bends overhead like n molten bell
and labor in a ditch 100 feet deep in mud
to the ankles, in humidity that drives
men mad and in Il plague of flies and
mosquitoes and noxious insects.
Yet men will go TO their deaths just
the same. for Uncle Sam holds forth lur-
ing inducements and the ditch must be
built.
1t is estimated that 1:j.000 laborers
are buried up on Monkey hill, near Colon.
In the awful times of De Lesseps and
the French control they died like flies
In 1888 1900 men were buried there.
and now the United States government IS
making experiments among various races
Of men 10 see what nationality can best
bear the fearful hardShips. Chinese
coolies. Jamaica negroes, Portuguese,
black men from Africa. Dominicans-at
have been tried. so far in vain. 20 stand
the siege Of death.
the brunt better than other national-
tics Death and a dollar look alike TO
them. They require but little to eat.
They plant their own gardens with vans
and bananas They grow rice and man
age to support themselves and save near
ly all their salaries.
AS conditions are at present in Pan
ANA only II kind and merciful Providence
can prevent thousands of laborers from
dying there annually. OF course, the
United States authorities are trying to
alleviate existing conditions. but as q
matter of fact the sun kills what the
fevers leave, and there is no preventive
Of sunstroke where men work ten hours
in steamng mud in a terrible sun glare.
Even under the improved conditions
since the United States assumed con-
troll Panama is still 1.-The garbage spot
of the earth The streets are filthy and
odorous, and even the strongest labOrers
from the States find the climate enervat-
ing and demOralizing and are unable to
withstand the awful heat after few
DAYS work The thermometer during the
day Is almost always above ~ degrees
The humidity is so great that there Is
little evaporation and rust and mlldeW
form over everything not in constant use.
Hundreds cf great black vultures hover
| lazily over the town or sit on the apex
| of the roofs III silent funereal rows They
fatten on the offal or garbage heaps and
not infrequently upon men who wander
away in delrium and die in the jungle.
| Dozens of laborerS are confined III the
insane asylum, a quadrangle of noisOme
| and breathless cells around a cement
| covered court, so hot under foot that 1t
| can scarcely be traversed. A laborer may
escape the yellow fever, but there are
| other human ills which are almost inev-
| table Acute malarial fever Is one OF
these, and once firmly planted in the sys-
tenn it means either a change of climate
or a slow, dragging death. Even now,
with the complement of laborers not
nearly filled, the ambulance is constant
| ly on the go. When the French were
| digging the canal there were dozen
vehicles on the go day and night con-
yeying the sick to the hospitals and ths
| dead to the graveyard.