New-York tribune., 1908-05-10
BY R1IL TO QUITO.
Nc5c Railroad from Pacific to Cdm-
tai Of Ecuador Open.

day 4 nice quiet town is Quito. except for
casual carthuiales 1t has been pursuing the
even tenor Of its way since its incorporation by
tIe Spaniards. about }6I years ago, but 1t VIII
celebrate the passing Of the mule ana he cohi-
Ing Of the railroad this week. Up TO this time
Quito las had difficulty in advertising itself 1t
has managed 70 get into the geography books
and be connected IL the memory of civilized
cuiIlhC7d with such outlandisE names rs CHM
lorazo and Cotopax The arrival of the r;ili-
road means a Chamber Of Commerce and a real
estate boom and the boosting of the town as
summer resort. incidentally, the road adds two
hundred miles to the completed sections Of the
pan-A!ncrican route.
Everything is a problem in South Arnerlca'
and the budinE of railroads amid precipices
whore the llama and the condor DISPUTE su-
rrtnlacv is not the least difficult. If you decide
to make that trip by rail to Quito. buying
ticket for the 2S6-miIe journey at the seaport
CITY Of GuayaquiI. your hair will rise more than
once as you gaze downward into trestled
ahvsscs see the slope of the track above you
and watch the locomotive zigzaGSing up the face
Of Pistisa.i Mountain with on the COW
catcher strowing sand on the rails.
II will take 4 day and half to make the rum
which is not rapid from the home standpoint,
but which beats mule travel by about two.,
weeks There are said to be a hundred thop-sl
sand mules more or less, that will lose theE1
3obs by the opening of the steam route FER
hans some revolutionist Will buy them. recon-
struct them into mountain battery ana over
turn q tew governments.
rf, r;l1avaauiI and Quito railroad has been built
bv English ard American capital The man
mart OF the road was mapped about ten years
ago hy Colonel W. F. skunk, well known en-
rin.c~ and the principal engineer afterward was
Major John i Harmon. a West Point graduate
who died Of yellow fever in Ecuador last year
The engineering difficulties in the tansle of An
dean cross ranges, a mountain system appar-
entity built for the purpose Of defyinS railroads.
have been great and sometimes urrfVftiieo
Suitchbacks and tunnels enable trains 10 climb
10 a height of 10.6o0 feet above sea level with
a maximum gradient of ~ per cent. In a few
hours trains ascend from a tropical climate, pro
ducing cacao and rubber TO a temperate region
Of wheat and corn. The snowcIad volcanic
reake Of ChimboraZO. 20 700 feet, and CotopaAl,
10 3g3 feet are visible the traveller from the
car window. and if the wind blows from the
east he may get a sample OF cruFted aShes on
his clothes from COtopaxi, twenty-five mics
away There are plenty of common peaks aver
aging two miles in altitude mountain OF
sheer sulphur has been deposited by Mother
Nature near the route at Aausi- 1t Is beng
worked by the natives in primitive way.
The falling Of rocks and pebbles down the
mountain sides has smashed most of tho win |
dowS in the construction trains and endangered
the lives Of the road builders. Just how many |
Ives have been lost is not stated. The Andes /
,1re not usually conquered without the eXpondI- /
ture Of much life and treasure. An eiGhtN-si1 /
mile stretch of the Oroya line in the Peruvian !
mountains cost Of lives of seven thousand men !
TE.re was also 4 money expense OF S2',HHEo !
a. The rate OF $500 600 mile The Ecuador |
roaJ-eincla track Of couree-has cost $4,000 |
0pO or an average of SSSp'o mile. The most
eyn.,eiyc mile has been three times above the |
average President AlfarO Of Ecuador. who has
chastiscd his rivals into an apparently Perma-
ncnt state OF tranquility. pledges the govern
mcut salt monopoly 20 pay the interest on the
railway bonds The first forty miles Of the road.
over the s,yarnpy lowlAHGs from GuayaTuH TO
the foothills were built in 1871. and cntdiod
heavy mortality among the workrncn through
an endemic Of fever and smallpox.
Quito mas its advantages. but you have 10 20
through GuayaQuil to get there. and GuaNaguil
is Just now filed with yellow fever and buhonic
rlar71o There were 130 deaths from plague and !
sixteen deaths from yellow fever during the
month of April Some business men Of Guaya- |
ouil which IS now considered the leading port !
m the west coast of South America and handles |
Fcuadors enormous caCao crop. argue that II IS
scafnst their interests 10 clean UP the city and
prevent epdenics. because otherwise strangers