El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-08-03

sheet of water, with its many islands.
and in the future one viii be able to
look at the ships going through.
The vegetation on both sides of the
road IS tropical. There are palm trees
and bamboos and fern trees as tall as
a one story cottage Some of the trees
have magnificent foliage, being COW
cred with blossoms of the brightest Of
red, yellow and blue Some of them
are loaded with orchids. and others are
bearded with Spanish moss. Part of
the way is through jungle like that
of the Himalaya foothills above the
plains of the Ganges. and in other
places the country is open, and again
we see hills and ridges not unlike
those of the Blue Ridge.
Going on, we pass many little towns
composed Of mere shacks, and at Guile
bra and Empire find the great build
ings Of the canal and the homes of
the employees. A little farther on we
see Cucuracha and Paraiso and then
stop at Pedro Miguel, where there is
a big engine yard and roundhouse-
Here are the locks connecting the IS
foot level with the MiraflOres lake,
and the next stop beyond is at Mira
flores itself where the ships make
their final descent to the Pacific sea
level We then go on through the one
tunnel of the line, and. leaving the
canal route. cross level ground to
Panama, the capital of the republic.
There is a branch road running on to
Balboa, but here the line practically
ends, the two towns of Panama and
AncOn being Joined together almost in
front of the station
AS we stop we look at our watches
We have been just about two hours
crossing the isthmus, and have come
through on time the rate of travel
being about % miles per hour. There
are three or four passenger trains each
way daily, but more on Sunday, due
TO the fact that that is a holiday. when
the canal employees ride back and forth
visiting their friends. go
a Train Every -Four Minutes.
In a trip like this one sees some
thing of the enormous traffic which Is
going on in the isthmus- In addition
to the Panama railway proper, are the
construction roads Of the canal which
are sending rivers Of earth and rock
out to the dumps on Lidgerwood cars.
There are so many trains that the
tracks actually seem to be moving.
This is so both on the commercial
road and on the excavation lines. Al
together something like 5000 cars are
in use and the engines number more
than 400. There are p trains which
are always at work carrying out coarse
rock from Culebra to Gatun and there
is a great number which are moving
out toward Balboa.
Altogether the average is $50 trains
every day, which is equal to one train
every four minutes, day and night, all
the year through. These trains go all
the time with the exception of Sun
days. and it seems to me that the com
mercial road is almost as busy at night
as in the day time. 1t has a cold stor-
age train at 1 o'clock in the morning
and another train at 5. 1t has a regular
work train at $50. starting out from
ARcon and another an hour later,
which is filled with clerks. officials
and tourists. Every one gets up early
here, and girls who have never seen
the sun rise. are crawling out of their
beds these hot mornings even before
ne comes up in order that they may
have a chance to see the canal.
At present. in addition to the regular
traffic, We have what are called the
trains These are cars
which have been put on to take Wis
itors through the canal. They make
special trips through the various divi-
sions with a loUd-mOuthed conductor
and, the charge is 81 a trip.
Handling the Traffic.
It is a big job to handle 3S6 trains a
day on so mile line and its branches,
and 7 am told that that job is better
done here than it has ever been done
elsewhere. The trains move like clock
work, and every engineer and every
brakeman has to be Johnny on the
spot to catch the signals and not cause
complications.
In the first place, the labor trains