The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-01-13
copyrighted. 1914, by Frank u.
Carpenter.)

tNODN liz lllCbt OIL ~
Carpenter.)
Tiyoli Hotel. Ancon,
am writing this letter at the close
Of a long days journey through the
Panama canal / have Travelled over
II from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
anl today ] rode more thar thirty
five miles In a steam launch through
the Culebra cut and over the WIND
ipys Of the channel in Lake Gatun.
Rear Admiral III. II. Rousseau OF the
canal commission furnished the
launch. and he was in command OF
the party, consisting Of Mr.. w. H.:
Mullins. the Costa Rican manager OF
the United Fruit Company, the man
aging editor Of one Of the New YORK
dailies and several others. 1t was
early in the morning when we start
ed out from Gamboa, and 1t was long
after noon when we ended our trip
at the locks at Gatun, having spent
eight hours in steaming in n u
Of the great channel which, within
a few months from now will be traV-
ersed by the steamers Of the united
oceans.
have visited the canal again and
again in the several stages Of its
making. i saw it late in the nine
ties, when the French were in charge,
and again in 1905, when our first
chief engineer, Mr.. Wallace, was
dragging the old French machinery
out Of the jungle and setting our
first steam shovels to working. ]
have been or the ground several
tines during the administration OF
Col. Goethals, when more tina 49,.
600 men were employed, and 1 have
seen the mighty dredges and the two
score Of steam shovels, each Of which
does the work Of 500 men, coughing
out the beds OF the oceans and lift
ing the rock from the great Gu
through the Andes.
The work has been so great that /
has dwarfed all past undertakings
1t has changed the makers Of tn
Pyramids to pygmies, and has mad
the great Chinese wall seem no big
ger than the rail fence round you
farm. But i shall not write of tn
immensely Of the construction. Tha
has been pictured again and agar
This letter deals with the canal at il
completion, hen the evidences c
the labor and brains which have cos
the United States more thar $500,
100000 have been largely buried b
the waters of the Chagres. It dea,
with the great waterway as It looi
sLAIu hoSi a. ~ III ooh ~ q
time TO come.
All the pictures you have seen
the canal have represented It as
mighty ditch through the mountain
1t has been ragged and rough, ar
has looked as though it were gougt
out over night. Now that the wat
In in. the canal seems to be a thou
and years old. The Secretary Of w,
when he was here h other day cou
not realize that the green sides
culebra had been made by stea
novels 1t seemed to him like
natural valley, and ne said it loo
ed to him like the banks or certa
rivers in Maine. The tropical veg
tAtion has already covered the sid
OF the cut. and in time every bit
rock will be as green al the mou
tains which slope back from t
canal. The vegetation now reach
almost to the water. and there 9
vines which hang down and bat
themselves in the channel. There 2
enormous masses Of green in Cat
lake, and the Gatun dam is fast D,
ing on a coat of emerald gre
Within a few years the canal will
lined by masses Of tropical vege
ton from one end to the other.
will be like u great botanical e
den, and will be the scenic canal
the world.
/ have gone through the Suez car
1t is a ditch through the desert, W
ragged gray towns here and the
Now and then one sees a caravan
camels moving along on the bar
and there are sometimes miraees
the air overhead. Otherwise, eve
thing save the canal itself is thiI
and dry. Here at Panama eve
thing is the g%reenest of green. TT
are palm trees and. fern trees, Y
bananas and all the plants Of
jungle.
But letsme take you with me
our trip OF today. Our team lau
makes about nine miles an hour
we nave Fritz Marti as pilot
guide. He understands Lake Gs
and the canal from one end to
other. He is far better posted I
the man who took the first