Evening journal., 1905-11-03
THIS COUNTRY BIG
ENOUGH FOR HIM
Six Months in Colombia and
Panama Enough for
Howard B. Pyle
INTERESTING INCIDENTS OF TRIP

After spending six months In colom-
bia and Panama, S. A.. Howard B.
Pyle. Of No. 1915 West street. erecting
foreman for the American Bridge
company, has reached the conclusion
that the United States is big enough for
any man to make a living in and that
there Is no place like home. He has
Just returned from the South American
continent and is convinced that he Will
never return.
With L. l.. Wanson, Of Boston, and
o. II. Brown, Of Brooklyn. Mr.. pyle
I went 10 Colombia six months ago to
supervise the construction OF two
bridges on the Ferrocarren del Cauca.
(railroad) running from Buenaventura,
on the west coast Of Colombia, to Cali,
in the interior. one Of the two bridges
/ is located at Can Cipriano and the
other at San Jose.
/ Mr.. Wanson was the engineer in
charge Of the expedition. and is still
conhned with malaria at San Cipriano.
Mr. Pyle also had a six weeks siege
OF the sickness. but has fortunately re-
covered without any IN effects,
The Wilmington engineer has been
Entertaining his friends since his re-
turn with interesting incidents con-
Injected with his trip. When a reporter
Tor The Evening Journal called on him
today he smilingly and unhesitatingly
told OF his experiences.
FOOD VERY POOR AND SCARCE.
1--WE had our headquarters at San
iClpriano" said Mr.. Pyle. 'and had a
fairly comfortable shack with tin
roof The food, however, was very
poor and scarce. During the last ST a
days we were In the country / don't
remember having had anything to eat
worth talking about
THE natives in the interior live in
the jungles and are a mixture OF Ja-
maican and Indian blood. They are
almost savages. the women sometimes
wearing skirts and the men often moth
ing at all but loin cloths we had
sixty OF these savages working for US
and fortunately had no fatal accidents.
zone is constantly up against ma
laria and yellow fever. I visited the
Panama Canal Zone twice. Work on
that undertaking has now stopped and
the forces used in constructing that inn
mense ditch are at present engaged in
building quarters and making that dis
trict sanitary and healthy"
Il wouldn't go TO Panama to work
, under existing conditions" added Mr.
Pyle. IL they gave me the entire 18TH
mus"
When asked why he replied: BE
cause there is no Mt accommodation for
imam and the food is OF the poorest kind.
{ Every necessity of life as at purchas-
Necessities Of life cannot be had at
a reasonable price. and particularly can
this be said OF clothing.
I'VE were employed in what is CALI
ed the continuous rain belt. 1t rains
every day and night in that particular
section. and in consequence malaria is
the easiest thing to get
LABORERS GET SOS A DAY.
"The railroad company on the road
we were working pays its laborers $65
a day Colombia money. This seems a
large sum but when one considers that
for an American gold dollar you can
lget 10 Colombian dollars, it does not
seem so much.
The railroad company for S105, CO.
lombia money. supplies each laborer
with six pounds Of beef a pound and a.
half of rice and three pounds of brown
sugar each week. Sunday is known as
killing day On this day the railroad
company kills its beef for distribution
among the employees. The beef is cut
down by a stroke from n machete. The
natives then jump on the carcass and
with wooden axes cut it up in pieces.
each taking the six pounds allotted to
him.
The Ferrocarrill del Cauca has been
under construction for twenty-six
years and Of the sixty miles which it
Is intended to construct, II this can
even be accomplished, only twelve
miles is in operation. The work is
frequently interrupted by the heavy
rains which cause landslides and wash
away work that has been accomplished.
Work on the two bridges being con-
4 structed by the American Bridge Com
pany on the line of the railroad was
stopped on account of the rains, the
water frequently rhing ten to twelve
feet in the time of two and a half
hours. on this account mostly the
work was stopped and will not be rA-
3 sumed until after the December rains.
e. The natives are very religious and
e have something like 1O5 feast days dur
= ing the year. We made our men work
s on one of these holidays recently. and
an old man in the hills Immediately
" predicted that a big flood would occur
IS on October 2S, and wash the false work
d OF the bridges away. This may also
e have something to do with the stopping
d of the work at this time.
r SAW AN INTERESTING SIGHT.
"On my way home 1 stopped at
Kingston. Jamaica. and while there
witnessed a novel sight. When our
= boat entered the harbor a dozen or two
7 natives swan out TO meet us and with
out much trouble made us acquainted
= with the fact that they wanted money
tossed overheard for them to dive af-
=, ter. The water was remarkably clear
= and a silver coin dropped overheard
could be seen for some distance under
y the surface. The divers went after
3 the coins like fish and would come up
= with beaming faces and proudly dis
playing the coin. The money would
., be Immediately placed in the mouth Of
= = its possessor and he was then ready to
90 after another.