Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1907-11-12

dong The canal VIII be built" said
PRECEDENT Roosevelt CONCERNING the
PapaIna canal. which the United
Sta.Cs has undertaken to complete.
Thus it seems that we have reached
tn. last siago OF one OF the greatest
engineering enterprises In human his
tory. ana one the story OF which.
though much Of it is now forgotten,
is about the most remarkable eyer
told Of any undertaking..
a quarter Of century has gono
since this gigantic tnsk OF cutting Il
waterway through the isthmus which
connects North and South America
was first begun. De Lesseps' engi-
neering commission estimated its cost
at S43c000U0 francs; De Lcsseps
himself himself placed the figure at
600.000,000 francs (Sl90,000 O00) and
began tho stupendous work with the
iightcst and most confident of hca Is.
Loss than eight years later his com
pany was bankrupt. with $500 100000
OF debts and only quarter OF the
work was completed.
Greatest OF Fiascos.
Probably never was a greater nasco
brought about by such reckless ex-
travagancc. Il had no idea" wrote an
engineer who visited Panama a few
y
until went and saw for myself what
reckless. fabulous extravaganza there
was on the Isthmus from 1881 to 1889
Tho sum of s26$,GOO,O00 was spent in
building about onc.fourth OF t't Pan
ANA canal. Competent engnejfs say
that the same work. Earring the acct
dents from the rising of the Chagres
river. could Do done today for about
S35.000,000. To no exact, the De Les
sCDs company spent about S2500O0
600 and cxcavatcd less than 70.00O,000
cubic yards Of earth and gravel.
The Californians talk about the
palmy days when extravagance was
tie rule in San Francisco and ut Nir
ainia City, but these were not conf
parable with the days In 1883 and
1854 when men made 100000 francs
profit n month ut Panama and Colon
met one man there who had sold
mules and donkeys to the Panama
Canal Company In 1852 and made
s3n0 900 clear between June and Sep
tcmbc- from an invested capital of
$40 900. He told me of man from
Now Orleans who brought down n
stock of ruhl-cr boots necessary in
WORKING in tho swamps and streams)
worth about $4,000. and who sold the
whole lot 10 n contractor for the ca
nal company for $4,000 cash down"
Prodaalty and Vice.
Strange tales. too. are told OF high
salaried Officials who gave grand balls
Ut which champagne was drunk by
the gobletful and men and women
amused themselves by throwing hand
fuls of gold and silver coin out of the
windows to sec the natives fight and
Sc-0mble on the ground for IT, They
tell OF the orchestra of 90 Partisan
musicians that was kept ut Colon for
three years at largo expense. solely
u furnish music for the canal off
Gals and their friends of an evening.
They toll. too, Of the eQupagcS of
the canal company at Colon in those
days and of the women and men who
played night after night haccarat with
one hand and roulette with the other.
These are but samples OF the prodigal
wasting Of money by the company
which undertook to construct the ca
nal and whose failure brought ruin
TO tens of Thousands of investors in
France and equally remarkable Is the
Dissertation or tho state OF things after
work had ceased.
Costly Machinery Left to Rot.
Machinery ana apparatus that had
rot in the swamp and forests. There
were hundreds of dredges brought
from France ard Belgium at cost
of $4,000 each. enormous steam
cranes from birmingham worth
e1fo0 apiece. wagons. thousands of
steal rails. hcans of railway tools ana
steel cables-all abandoned ana hu-
rlod IN dirt and rust Machinery
which had cost CT 100000 was strewn
along the line OF the canal for n dis
tance OF about 80 miles.
Ten steam pumps and reservoirs.
which had cost not less than c10,0OO
wore lyng in heap Just as they had
been dumped from the cas-. the crat-
ing not even having ben removed.
while at a place near Almazilla. IL
miles from Panama, there was a pile
of rusted nails which had never been
used. which could not have been
bought under e1o.000.
Train Sank In The Mud.
Rushing in sheds were 100 locomo-
English French, Belgian and
American: Mt tho canals mouth doy-
IN large tueboats were living rotten
and useless. while on a ass-grown.
decaying spur of the construction
railroad, a few miles southwest OF tho
Culnhrn cut. were Il Philadelphia To-
connective md train of II cars stand
ing inst where tho engineer shut off
stcam when the financial iwbblc burst
and ho and the crew loft their work.
The coil was soft and spongv. and the
weight of tho locomotive and cars had
DO no 80 heavily on the track that
tho train had sunk yard deep in the
ooze
In the mud and made ground about
he harbor at Colon were tons upor
tone OF costly machinery which bad