Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1911-03-24
Letter From fh0rsten Hotter
oAn Interesting 7rabel Sketch by Young Gentleman
From Lincoln County

which was to sail for Colon, located
at the Atlantic entrance of the Pana-
ma Canal, was put to the trouble OF
explaining to the accommodating
steward or usher at the gang plank,
that | did not possess ticket which
entitled me to a first class or second
class cabin passage, as he evidently
did me the honor to believe l was.
Well the ship carried me across the
waters and landed me safely on the
shores of Panama. and that was main
| ly my object in getting aboard the
ship anyway.
Colon and Panama are very old
cities and this was very manifest In
the design and architecture OF their
buildings the narrow and squallid
streets, and prevailing sense of age
which prevades everything. Panama
City Is situated at the Pacific end OF
the canal, and Colon at the Atlantic
end.
After landing at Colon and while
walking about on the streets looking
for a suitable hotel, where the price
of a room and bed would be within
the limitations of my pocketbook and
vet be respectable. l decided that l
did not like Panama.; anyway, thinks
l, do not like Colon. 1t was dis
agreeably hot and close on the streets
and in among the buildings. But the
next day l got on the train and rode
out to where They were at work on
the canal, stopping first at Gatun,
where three immense locks are being
built 1t was not nearly so hot and
close out along the route Of the canal
as it was in the cities Of Colon or
Panama.
The quarters furnished and provid-
ed by the American government for
it's employees we're in every instance
built up on high ground and not only
that, but they rested on piles or posts
which brought the floor of the build
ing up to about four or five feet away
from the ground. Each and every
building was enclosed by a double
! netting of mosquito screen. The
water used for drinking and cooking
purposes was all sterilized water and
consequently free from germs. No
filth or disease breeding truck was
permitted around. A good sewer sys-
tenn was in operation at every estab-
lished camp or town where the men
we're fed and quartered Electricity
was used for lighting purposes, so
that altogether the men who work
for Uncle Sam on his "big ditch'
which will connect the two oceans,
are pretty we'll provided for. The
average wages paid to an American
employee is $3.50 per month, with free
quarters and light. Single men are
assigned rooms In large buildings
built on the plan of hotel, with
rooms, Railways, an immense dining
room, a kitchen and it's auxiliaries.
Married men with their families are
assigned cottages where they can en-
joy every comfort of home life. Ii
braries and reading rooms are proyids
ed. The Y. M. G. A. have large
commodious and luxurious halls con-
tanning reading rooms, rooms in which
are billiard tables and pool tables and
and recreations. Board at the dining
tables is served at a charge of 30 cents
per meal to employees, who are pro-
vided with q meal book at so much
per week or month. A visitor who
eats at the dining tables pays so cents
for his meal and they were good meals
too, ! want to say.
There are now about $4,000 men on
the payroll of the government in the
Canal zone, 6,OOO of these are Ameri-
cans. uolored laborers are quartered
and fed separately and away from the
white or American employees The
West Indian laborers are paid 9Ocent is
a day and European laborers receive
sls0 per day Quarters are always
provided for any class of employees by
the Government. Spaniards, Italians,
ETC.. are classed as European laborers.
The Culebra cut is the next place of
Importance after leaving Gatup.
Here American ingenuity and unsur-
passed engineering, combined with
indomitable and untiring courage, is
cutting the mountain range, the back
bone of the continent in twain. The
cut at Culebra when Completed, will
be about 500 feet deep, from 500 feet
to half a mile wide and about nine
miles long. 1t is the most enormous
excavating undertaking in the world.
When | was there, l counted 80 steam
shoyels at work excayating, with as
many gravel trains to carry the dirt
gravel and rock out Of the cut to be
dumped in the Black Swamp, thus
, doing away with that pest infested
, nuisance. There might have been
, more steam shovels at work there,
| think possibly there were as many a.
100. Then there were stone drilling
[ outfits, all up and down along the
Z bed of the cut, drilling holes for the
the blasting of the rocky bottom
A which was encountered in places. lr
1 the evening after the workmen hac
left the cut, the charges would bt
| fired and the reports as of thunderinf