The mirror., 1913-06-26

| Orleans and streets in Mexico City.
The entrance to the houses is right
off the main streets-that is of the
middle class. Their parks and
driveways are beautiful. They
have band concerts in their parks
every evening, and what will ap-
pear strange to you will be to see
all couples take the inside circle.
ladies without escorts take the mid
die circle, and young men the out
side. Each circle walks in opposite
direction to the other, and they
walk for hours listening to some of
the finest band selections you can
hear anywhere, and they never
forget to render America" and
Dixie before they quit.
Facing Cathedral Park is the
old Spanish Cathedral, which does
not look as if 1t had stood there for
hundreds of years, and thousands of
tourists attend services there every
chance they get. The towers of
this old landmark are rooted with
real mother r-of-pearl, and when the
suns rays reflect back to you from
them, it has every color of the rain
bow. Out towards the Savannahs,
one of the boulevards, you will see
many beautiful homes and we'll
kept lawns and also on Ancon Hill,
where the officials reside, you would
be surprised to see the elegance
and grandeur of this Little New
port"
Many books could be written of
the history of the Panama Canal,
and not farther back than Garfield's
time there was inside'' talk of
our country going after it, but we
didn't and the French started actual
work on the Canal, February 1st,
1881, and you know from history
what they accomplished and what
they spent. They had Madam
Sarah Bernhardt and her entire
company come from Paris to pre-
sent the French opera, Aida" on
the opening day. Orders were left
at all drinking establishments to
give each and every one a bottle of
champagne that passed their doors,
and to collect on the checking up
of their empty cases. But the
money they spent and the trouble
+boD boJ 10 NOT 20, mo 70 orit;,ioo
for most of the officers of this gl-
gantic undertaking, either commit
ted suicide or were sent to instltu-
tions similar to what we are in at
the present time. Can you imagine
$400, 100000 being spent on the
Canal in less then eight years? for
the crash came December 18th.
1883.
The United States should be con-
graduated that they secured such
beautiful hospitals and Office build
ings, which the French had erected,
also the magnificent palaces that
the members of the board lived in,
and yet when Uncle Sam" first
took hold, you will remember the
trouble we had, and the many diff
erent boards that were asked to re-
sign; also the many changes in the
chief engineers department., but,
after several of these changes 1t
was turned over to the United
States Army, with Col. George ID.
Gotheals as director general.
What he has accomplished you all
know.
Although we have lost hundreds of
good, brave men, who died from the
fever, and whose bodies still rest in
Monkey Hill" cemetery, we are
nearing the completion of the great
est piece of civil engineering ever
undertaken by man. The death
rate four years ago on the Zone
was second, Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
being first as the healthiest city, so
you can see master hand' has ac-
complished that which was for so
many years the one drawbac to
the Zone.
It's true we are spending great
deal more money than was at first
estimated. but the work is being
done, and Col. Gotheal's promises
us that water will be turned in
some time this coming November.
There is few things in closing
| want you to remember. Looking
at the map it would seem to you
that the Canal would run nearly