Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-01-07

camera in hand are seen going out to
the canal to photograph the steam
shovels that day by day eat away so
ravenously at the embankments of
earth and rock beside which even a
steam shovel seems small. 1t Is re-
markable and, it might be said, aston
ishing to see the huge rocks these
steam shovels can lift to the dump
cars that they may be hauled off and
dumped outside the canal prism. A
steam shovel will easily and deftly
handle rock weighing 21,000 pounds, or
1S9 cubic feet (taking weight Of rock at
only 1900 pounds to the cubic yard,
which is very low). Most Of the blast
ing done in the big ditch" is where
these steam shovels grumble and squirt
and growl out, as 1t seems, wordless
menace against the embankment that
seems so slow in crumbling away. One
may get some conception Of the great
amount of blasting that is done when
he is told that for an output Of $4,000
cubic yards Of dirt and rock it takes on
an average about 265,OOO pounds Of ex-
plosives.
The record Of excavation for Novem-
ber place measurement, shows the
grand total of 1,S3S.4S6 cubic yards.
OF the 1,S3S,4S6 cubic yards, 1864
cubic yards were taken from the canal
prism; and 1,O33,719 cubic yards by the
steam shovels; also, 732,720 cubic
yards by dredges. So truly it may be
said that without the dredges no dig
ging, and without the steam shovels no
accomplishment.
At present there are $4,000 workmen
$4,000 of whom are Americans) en-
pioyed on the canal, and all are re-
garded as performing excellent service
under the division of authority that Is
effective and time saving. And so
some, knowing this, have enthusiastic
cally predicted that the Panama canal
can be completed in five years time at
cost of $1OO,OOO,OOO less than the
s2SO, ,0O0, 900 sought. With this predic-
ton comes, also, the assertion that IL
beral financial support will be FORTH
coming to that end. The members OF
the appropriations committee of con-
gress after a recent visit here, return
ed processing themselves pleased with
the progress made on the great ditch,
satisfied with the methods in vogue,
and pledging that half decade Will see
the canal an accomplished fact. The
men now in control are saying but lit
tie, but they are performing remark
able work
Sanitary conditions here are pro-
nounced perfect, and as a result new
made grave is scarcely ever seen out
on Monkey Hill, where thousands OF
the worlds unknown, wos toiled and
died here, lie sleeping in the silence OF
voiceess death. In the days and years
when the French worked here, the
records and the graves show that on
many mornings in succession the sun
would shine upon a plot of green grass
in the cemetery on Monkey Hill and at
night the stars Of heaven would look
down on the same spot and, as 1t
seemed, beat in emotion over the ten
graves, fresh and flowerless, where on
that day men who had died OF yellow
fever had been covered in that last
wakeless sleep. But now it is different.
A case of yellow fever is practically
unknown. The water supply is splen-
did and the health of the workers is at
the top notch.
But even with this the voice of
weeping and the voice of agony go up
along the line of the canal, for in a
work like this some one must suffer
and some must die. Some who have
come here in all the beauty Of physical
manhood have left as cripples with
twisted limbs. Some who, strong OF
muscles and sound Of limb, have gone
out to work at morning have been car
ried back at night crushed and helpless
as babes. Others, bent in toll, when
they thought not of danger, have given
their lives when they wished for life.
But. as it's said, all these must needs
be that the canal may be finished; and
though hundreds toll and suffer and die
glory will stand beside our GRIEF, and
triumph shall be the end Of it all.
And in those days. the days of
years now unknown, when the world
looks upon the Panama canal as one
of the grandest accomplishments OF
the centuries, all these things will have
passed away. But so long as men cling
to life and so long as men shrink from
death. these tolls, these tears, these
sufferings and these deaths will be
hOn0red by those who have known
struggles or gloried in triumphs.
ROBERT G. LEE.
| AZ Ispahan, Persia, is known as the
"city of roses" but q traveller says