The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-04-12
UNCLE SAINTS
BIGGEST JOB


just returned from a trip 20 Panama.
says,
Americans planning vacation
who enjoy sea voyage can not d.
better than make a trip TO Panama,
and witness the stupendous work that
is being carried on for the purpose OF
linking the Atlantic and Pacific
Il one takes the six day ocean trip
from New York they may encounter
a little rough weather-iust enough
70 give one an ocean experience
worth remembering --but the voyage
IS ordinarily restful and enjoyable.
One cannot visit the Panama ca.
nal one and view the work that Is
being done, without feeling a JUST.
fable pride In the fact that Ameri
can genius, enterprise, and energy
have conquered the terrors of the
lsthmian climate, overcome the ire
mendous engineering difficulties and
carried on the stupendous work OF
successfully piercing the Isthmus, to
a point where the completion Of the
canal is clearly I'm sight
A visit TO Panama brings some
agreeable surprises even to one who
makes the trip with the expectation
of finding conditions reasonably sat
isfactory. In the first place. the eli.
mate, particularly in the dry season,
lasting from December to April, is
far from being oppressively hot. as
most visitors expect to find it, and
to one fresh from a northern win
ter, who dresses properly, the change
is agreeable and pleasing
During our six days on the 18TH
mus the mercury was never higher
than SO. There was generally a good
breeze, and at night in the open and
well ventilated houses of the trop-
les one was not entirely comfortable
without blanket
Another surprise that one meets
is the spirit of energy with which
the work is being carried on One
naturally expects to find everyone
moving at a deliberate and languid
gait in the tropics.
1t is true that the natives move
; with much elaboration; that on the
canal where hand work is being car
ried on with colored crews the gait
Of the laborer is exasperatingly de
liberate, though steady, but the
great portion of the work on the
Isthmus is being done with machin
cry, or in connection with machinery
and where this is the case all hands
have a lively gait which is not at al
suggestive of the tropics.
Working With Energy.
To see the long dirt trains shut
thing in and out of the Culebra cut fo
lowing each other with military pre-
cision and almost alarming proximity
and at rate which makes the blacl
brakeman on the rear of the trai
hang on with desperation to kee
from being thrown off by the bump
and curves of the temporary tracks
to see the automatic trains at tn
enormous cement mixers at Gatu
moving, swiftly and with the precis
= ion of fate; to watch the little eleC
h trio locomotives hustle and hum u
and down the lock pits; to view tn
great five yard steam shovels 5000
and dump their mighty loads wit
noisy and persistent energy; to not
N the batteries Of steam drills, name
N by jamaican negroes, pounding nois
fly and persistently; to watch tn
4. steady, persistent and effective move
d ments of the great floating dredge
at the Atlantic and Pacific ends @
b the canal, all these sights tend
" dissipate any idea that one may hav
had that the canal is being dug wit
3 any symptom of tropical languor an
deliberation.
But amid all the hustle and bustl
of the work on the canal and tn
multiplied detail of work which il
r wolves almost every conceivable kin
}. of construction, and the employment
of an army of oevr forty thousan
= men, the most striking feature c
all is the perfect organization an
Y order with which the work is bein
carried on; the correlation of all tn
units of the enterprise; the tremeI
dous accomplishment, without con
fusion.
FalthfuIness and Loyalty Of the
Workers.
The most remarkable feature {
this wonderful enterprise is the To-
atty and faithfulness of the worker
Much credit is undoubtedly due