The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-18

shallow. natural reservoirs or fresh
 ssnS 1SSss Ss ErosHd sor sysry teSar SSare S pe lowest In the midle. When the town was originally built no attempt was made to fill the low ground. either in that the entire Surface was practIcafIy g quaGmire: when the quagmire be- came inpassable' certain of the streets were crudely improved by filling espe- cially bad mud holes with soft rock or other mater14l. Tn September. 1905, q syeternaticJ Jeffort was begun to formu- late general plan for the proper san temporary relief measure were taken, while in July the prosecution of the
 work was begun in good earnest. The erinR draining. gutterfng and paving of the streets. Some four months will
 be required before the work of sewer eompietsd. con but ths progress already i i made is very marked DitcheS have tbeen dug through the town, connecting these the bonds. s which have have served e isS as breeding places for the mosquitoes. are
 drained. These ditches have answered
 .hhsir purpose, fer they are 2, probably
 mutton in the number of mosquitoes. More ditehes of tho kind are being
 Colon Water Supply.
 It was not practicable. with the force view of the need that the force should
 to begin this work before. carly last winter Water mains were then laid in the town and water was furnished as people Sry in Thia hsreh from proved, to be of insuficient capacity beforel the end of the dry season and the shortage was made up bv hauling that there was at all times an ample supply of the very best water. Sincs that time the new reservoir back of Mount Hope has been practically com pleted. visited this reservoir. It Is mile broad. 1t now carries some 5oo,- 00o.9o0 gallons of first class water. II forward herewith a photograph of photographs of what I saw while I was on the Isthmus. Nothing but CatacIysm will hereafter render 1t ne- eessary In the dry season to haul water for the use of Colon and Cristobal.
 One of the most amusing Gas well as dfshonest) attacks made upon the Commission was in connection with this reservoir. The writer in aues- ton usually confined himself to vague general mendacity; but in this case he specifically stated that there was no water fin the vicinity fit for a reser- Evoir q drank II, and t was excellent). and that this particular reservoir would never hold water anyway. Ac- companytng this message as I have eaid before, is a photograph of the res ervoir as I myself saw 1t. and as 1t has been in existence ever since the article in question was published. With typi- cal American humor. the engineering corps still at work at the reservoir nave ehrtstened 9 large boat which Is
 now used on the ireservo!. y. the name of the individual who thus denied the possibility of the reservoirs existence. Colon Gsavememfs.
 rode through the streets of Colon, seeing them at the heIght of the rainy
 season, after two days of almost un- exampled downpour, when they were at their very worst. Taken as whole they were undoubtedly very. bad: as ington before Grants administration. Front street is already in thoroughly satisfactory shape, however. Some cf the side streets are also in good con- dition. Through three-fourths of the
 town it Is now possible to walk, even
 during the period of tremendouR rain. owing to the rapidity with which the surface water is carried away in the ditches. Tn the remaining one-fourth
 of the streets the mud is very deep
 about as deep as In the ordinary street of Iow-lyiug prairie river town of Ing early spring. All men 10 whom conditions of the Colon streets were 100 per cent better than a year ago. The most superficial examination of the, shs town rsIas shows the progrsss that has lcadamizing the streets. Complaint was
 made to ne by an entirely. reputable
 man as to the character of some of streets. On investigation the com
 plaint proved well founded. but 1t also appeared that the use of the material
 in question had been abandoned. the commission after having tried 1t in one or. two streets finding 1t not appro- prieta.
 The .resnlt of the investigation of thls honest complaint was typical Of what occurred when I investigated
 most of the other honest complaints made to sn1e., That Is. where the com piaints were not made wantonly or ma ltciousiy. they almost always proved due to failure to appreciate the fact ton, and completion of this TItanic work in tfoplc wilderness. It Is inl- possible to avoid souia mistakes in building sGiant canal through, jungle covered mountains and swamps, while at the, same time sanitatlnE tropic cities. and providing for the feedlnR and general care of from twenty to thirty thousand workers. The com plaints brought to me. either of insuf- ficient provision. in caring for some of the laborers, or. of falure to finish the of CSlo6 or Srors of failure .a S,S tS wooden sidewalks for the use of the iaborers in the rainy season. on inYes- tiRaLlonr pFoVeus hlhoHL WlIhOuL excep- inability of the commission to do every
 For instaDce, 1t was imperative that Panama, which had the highest death rate and where the chance of yellow fever epidemic was strongest, should be cared for first: yet most of the conl- plaints as to the delay in taking care of Colon wero due to the inability. or pie fact. Again, as the thousand of iaborers are brought over and housed, set to supply wooden sidewalks and bath house, because other more vital necessities have to be met; and in con- sequence, while most of the settlements have good bath houses, and. to a large are plenty of settlements where wood en walks have not vet been laid down. and visited one where the bath houses have not been provided, But In this very settlements the frames of the every case the utmost effort is being made to provide tho wooden walks. Of course. In some of the newest camps tents are used pending the building of houses Where possible, ! think de. the semldetaehed houses now in gem eral use 1..,.,-
 Care and fOreth0ught have been ex- ercised by the Commission. and noth- ing has reflected more credit upon them than their refusal either to go ahead too fast or to be deterred by the fear of criticism from not going ahead fast enough. 1t Is curious to note the fact tht m3y of ths most esess sfYes cFtfs fSe for precisely opposite reasons. some complaming bitterly that the work is not in more