The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-07-17
AWFUL ROLL OF
DEATH FOR CANAL
Cost in Human Life Already More
than Ditch Is Worth, Says
Nurse.
New York Sun speoial service. I.

New. York, JulyEl - Already the
ditch the government is digging on the
Isthmus of Panama has cost more in
lives than it will ever be worth, impor-
tant tho 1t promises to be to the com
mercial world. Panama is not white
MANS to country: That b fact cannot be
Miss Alena AZ. Robinson, matron in
the hospital at Colon, Panama, who re-
turned to New York on the steamship
Advance, was the speaker. She has
abandoned her work and the isthmus
after year g residence in Panama. She
said:
I became accustomed to the life after
a time and thought would stay indef-
nitely. But a vacation spent In New
York was my undoing. When returned
to Colon, after a few weeks spent here.
to find three of the men I had known and
left In the full flush Of health had died of
yellow fever-well, I just couldn't stand
1t any longer. One of them had occupied
the room next to mine. He was taken
with the fever and removed to the hospi-.
tai They all had everything to live for.
l felt that their lives alone were worth
more than the whole enterprise. It made
me sick at heart.
As to WalIace's Leaving.
No one in Panama blamed Mr.. WAL
lace, chief engineer of the ditch, for leav-
Ing the lsthmus. It was generally said
by those nearest to him that it was a
case Of "cold feet''-that he was afraid
of the fever-but one blamed him be-
cause Of that fact. He was criticized,
however, for leaving the way he did. The
first rumor there, printed In a Colon
newspaper, was that he was about to
leave for short vacation. Next thing he
was gone for good.
Chief Architect Morris Johnson, who
was to have married in short time
| a relative of Mrs. Wallace, was taken
| sick with yellow fever in her house.
| Within a few days after he was stricken
down he died. The end came within two
weeks of the day set for his wedding.
I His bride-to-be was in Chicago. And he
was hurried into his grave, as all those
must be who die Of yellow fever. This
| could not but beEan awful thing to Mrs.
Wallace. j
Fever Killed In Six Days.
Haverstock, In the government employ,
was in the best of health and spirits when
I left Panama for my vacation. After
six days he was dead and was buried In
Monkey Hill cemetery. His room was
thoroly 'fum1gated and the mosquitoes
killed. Then Wentmir went into it.. He
was sick just six days, took the fever
very soon after occupying the room, thus
proving to my mind that fumigation 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
we'll seem more likely, indeed, to contract
the disease than do the sickly and those
Of coarser fiber. 2%s*.
| When Chief Mechanical Engineer
Strong first came to Panama, eight
months ago, he said hopefully: "The
canal will be built in ten years." Before
I left he again expressed himself on this
subject. This time he said: eve Of this
generation will never live to see 1t fin
ished."' Thus docs life in Panama change
the viewpoint. =.
There is something in the very atmos-
phere which denioralizes a man. The
most sane, well-balanced minds in a few
months get crotchety and cratic. I can.
not account, for this. I only give the
fact. 1t is hot but still the thermometer
rarely stands in the COS. It is the hui
Nudity, however, that makes life almost
unbearable. You cannot 1nhale a full
breath of air. You feel an iron pressure
on your chest, contracting the lungs.