Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-03-22
THE IRON FOUNDATION
OF CHRISTOBAL
Many New and Costly Machines
Dumped by the French, and
Many Old Cars Dumped by
Americans For a Foundation.

| On February II we received a tele-
/ graphed pass and word to come to
Colon from ChaS. II. Guckel, the
electrician, for conference on electri-
Cal and steam crane matters. At
lZ:30 p. m. our fever gauge showed 102
degrees fever, which made US get busy
with our bottle of quinine tablets. By
four p. m. we were outside of "A grains
and the gauge showed 102 and seven
tenths degrees. We boarded the 2 D.
m. train for Panama and caught the
$50 p. IN. passenger for Colon, and
were delayed at Culebra and Empire
on account of No. eight not arriving
on time where We bad orders to pass
them, so did not arrive at Colon until
nine p. M, too late for supper and
almost too late to get lodgings. But
after much hunting, found ma n
willing to give up his own bed for
some of my tin and SO avoided the
experience of passing night on the
streets with dose of malaria for
company. You may ask how can any
one travel with 103 degrees of fever?
L Will say that l07 degrees and even
ll2 degrees is not uncommon for this
lclimate, but above los Is liable to
bring on delirium SO when the 104
marx is reached [ would advise
staying at home or trip to Oncon
hospital. Sunday morning we awoke
at $50, and at a. m. walked to
ChriStObal for our coffee; not very
hungry considering that we had
missed our supper, but we ate Just the
same, aud downed more quinine for a
sort of dessert, after which we hunted
up Gust Franks, for short chat as he
was dressing and having his coffee,
after which he took the train for
Bahio where he expected to buy a
horse. Then we went to the electrl-
clans office; he was not in SO we took
in the P. r. r. Colon Electric plant
where we saw the engine and dynamo
that we took out of the La Roca plant
where we were first put in charge at
La Boca, and looked over their record
ing steam and voltage cards and found
that La Boca could give them cards
and spades on showdown. The
electrician finely answered and
apolOgized and informed me that a
young electrician had arrived a few
days previous, this being the first sort
of delayed matters at home. Well he
will get used to such things after a
while. After leaving the office [
hunted up Mrs. Cotey, daughter of
Mrs. Sweeney and a sister to Mrs.
g. w. Baker, Jr. Her husband is a
foreman in the l. G.. G. shops at
ChriStobal. l then took a look along
the beach where | saw that the
Americans were following French
methods of making land by dumping
hundreds of old French dump cars
into the sea and covering them up
with dirt from Empire or Culebra.
This is how all the land that
Christobal is built on was made by
the French, only in their case the cars
and machinery were new, but had
defects in their construction which
would have less chances for inyeStiga-
tion If buried, than there would be if
left 10 sight The Americans can dump
a thousand car loads of old scrap with
cut missing it in the least. The
French filled in a large tract of land
where hundreds of houses stand
among cocoa nut palms 40 to 80 feet
tall which were planted by the
French. At the outer most point of
this land stands the administration
building. in front of which is monu-
ment with a bronze statue OF its top
looking for the first ship to enter and
go through the Panama canal; he has
had long weary watch. Let US hope