The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-10
PROBLEMS THAT ARE OFFERED BY
 THE WORLDS GREATEST DITCH

prove conditions that the workers will have little 10 fear from this particular form of pestilence Out of the thirty five most recent cases of the fever, twen- ty-four recovered bearing testimony to the efficacy of the American sanitary methods. The deadly stegomyia mosquito, bringing the germs of malaria and swamp levers to the blood of his victim, is still the scourge of the interior, and as yet no provisions for protection against the pest have been provided, simply for lack of knowledge in dealing with what is an unknown condition. A careful study of the mosquito problem is now occupying the attention of a staff of learned men, who hope to have some adequate pro- tection to offer within a few months.
 The writer may have been slightly preiudieed against the climatic and san itary conditions of the isthmus before he set foot upon the land for during the trip an engineer, who had previously spent several months along the route of the canal said 10 him: T would not care to live in Panama, nor would l care to remain there for a lengthy period, for tho conditions make 1t almost impossi- ble for a man who has been accustomed to the simplest and most ordinary com forts of living to exist there. The con- ditions of Panama are wretched'
 But any prejudlced acquired on ship board has been engulfed in the light of knowledge gained by personal observa- ton, and the foregoing remarks anent conditions under which our men who build the canal must labor are drawn from what the writer has seen for him. self. It should be possible for the aver age robust inhabitant of the northern states to acclimatize himself, particular ly after the commission has carried out it proposed scheme of sanitation. but just now the wastes of jungle and swamp have anything but an ecouraging effect upon the newcomer.
 Everyday Life on lsthmus.
 To one fresh from New York. who has spent most of his life rubbing elbows with his fellows on Broadway or in crowded buildings the most depressing thing about the Panama prospect is the dreariness and lack of any form of social recreation which confronts the men sent down to build the canal. The natives or the district are the product one would naturally expect in an undersized, insig- niflcant, tropical country, whose popuia- ton has been increased by wholesale im- portations of Jamaica negroes. Out in the interior, where most of the men must live there is nothing to distract man mind from the monotonous round of days work and a nights sleep. and the American nature is not so constituted as to welcome such condition. The ne- groes of Panama and Jamaica are the laziest and most slovenly type of crea- ture that ever claimed kin to the human race through a slight similarity of i'm age. Their chief ambition in life is to lie flat on thier backs In the shadiest spot to be found and close their eyes to the world and everything in 1t. The few thousand such men still employed on the canal excavations by the old French com many go through their half days work in the most perfunctory manner, waiting for the signal to announce the monday siesta. when they indulge in the only prompt movements of which they are ca pablo, dropping their tools and then lounging toward the trees; here they He in a lifeless lethargy so absolute that remarks addressed to them are not usual-