Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-26
CANAL CONDITIONS
DESCRIBED By ONE AS HE sEES
THEM.
Government ID Doing Everything Pos
sible for Comfort Of the Employees
Mosquitoes and yellow Jack"

Tho following Is q letter from canal
employee, written to friend in this city,
which gives an account OF the conditions in
the isthmus:
| COROZAL. Canal Zone. August g. 1905.
I have no modification to make Of my ac-
count Of the conditions found on the 18TH
mus given in my. letter to you Of July 2
| There are some things I might amplify. For
| instance, / said that the canal commission
| seemed disposed to do all 1t could in reason
| to make 1t comfortable and inexpensive for
its employees on the isthmus. The trouble Is
| that not few expect the unreasonable:
| and coming here and not finding things al
! they expected to find them get disgruntied.
go back to the states and sing their tales of
woe wherever they can find listening ear
or get newspaper to print their dolorOuS
| effusions. The fact Is that the average
American has to do a certain amount of
| kicking in order to enjoy good health. You
know how 1t is yourself. We have been at
1t ever since we kicked over the traces
about certain tea transaction. During the
| Spanish war 1t was ''embalmed beef" etc.
During the civil war it was something else;
but there is this to be said about the Amer
lean soldier. he registers his kick with no
uncertain vigor while in camp or the
march. and when the time for business
comes he goes into action and fights like
tn: devil. l think there ought to be some
such spirit about this canal transaction.
Uncle Sam has undertaken big job. and
snds in need of men who, while they do
a reasonable amount Of kicking on occa-
sion, stand by the stuff when the pinch
comes So far as I am concerned, 1 have
not a word of complaint to find, either with
the climate or with the canal commission.
1t Is doing to the letter all it agreed to do
the commission, 1 mean-and as to the cn-
mate. like it much better than do the
climate Of Washington. Here Is remark
able fact: There has not been, to my
Ildv
stroke on the isthmus of Panama during
the month Of July. Can Washington boast
as much?
Some Of the Enemies to Be Met.
have said that Uncle Sam has under
taken big Job, and, as in all his big jobs,
h, has his enemies to reckon with. The
worst enemy he has to deal with In the
work Of constructing the canal is the pesky
mosquito ard. possibly, the great transcon-
tinental railroad corporations. The. mos
quito Is the foe with which the fellow on
the isthmus must deal. Not that his tribe
Is so numerous. 1t may be difficult for
you to believe that L have been annoyed
more by mosquitoes in Franklin Park than
l have in the canal zone. / have not seen
one of the pistiferous rascals in our rooms
for two weeks. The trouble with the Pan
anian mosquito is he has become so con-
terminated by the company he has kept. and
has SO contaminated his fellow inhabtant
Of Panama that the native genus homo and
the native mosquito mighty bad things
to have around-from a sanitary point of
view. By actual test 1t has been deter
mired that the native Panaman Is a reek-
Ing reservoir of malarial poison. II the
mosquito would only content himself with
doing business with the native it wouldn't
be SO bad. But he seems prone to fill HIM
SELF up on the bad blood of the native and
then hunt up the white man for dessert
|Quirine is the only remedy. One must take
1t here or pay the penalty of malarial fe-
yrnr (l,r~ a1f,iv, tLat ntv,e.
per day, taken Immediately after the even
ing meal. are complete antidote to the
poison of the malarial mosquito. Meantime
there is being waged relentless war upon
the festive buzzer. Forests being
cleared away, the grass and weeds are be-
ing cropped close to the ground. the
marshes are being drained, the houses fumi-
gated in season and out of season, the ma
tiyes are doped with quinine-so far as they
can be indua ed to take 1t. the purpose be-
ing to destroy the malarial poison in the
blood of the people and at the same time
kill off the generation of mosquitoes that
has imbibed the poison. From end to end
of the canal zone the warfare Is being
waged, led by that skillful and tireless foe
OF disease, Colonel Gorgas. one of the no.
blest men alive. The individual has but lit
tie to fear from malaria: but the canal
terprze has much. Malaria seldom kills
man. but it puts him out of business as a
working factor in the construction Of the
canal. for awhile, at least
Chances With Yellow Jack.
Every man who comes to the isthmus
takes his chances with yellow Jack"
While the probabilities are a thousand to
one that he win not have 1t. the possibility
IS he may. No one can tell when the mos
quito that carries the germs of the dread
disease altogether a different species from
the malaria mosquito) is going to put into
ones system a hypodermic dose of triple
extract poison more to be dreaded than the
venom of the rattlesnake. About one-third
of the yellow fever cases in July were ia
tai The RATHER kills but one fourth Not
every one, however. who is bitten by the
yellow fever mosquito has the disease. The
insect must have first bitten a person with
the fever. 1t then requires about twelve
days for the virus so to develop in the mos
quito to enable 1t to inoculate a person
by its bite Meantime when the first symp-
toms of fever appear. whatever the cause,