The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-05-06

tality records as summed up by our
sanitary officials for three consecu-
tive months in 1884; in October it
was a little over ten percent; IN
November it was l02 per thousand.
and in December it had dropped to
933 per thousand. But in spite of
this mortality record, and the siniy-
ter conditions in Paris, things
doomed on the Isthmus.
There were hundreds of young
engineers who knew little, and
cared less, about the Bourse, yet at
announcement the of excavation they
accomplished with their puny equip
ment, and the accurate surveys they
made have been of great service to
us. and our men who followed them
have the highest respect for these
men who worked there thirty-five
years ago, and in spite of the treach-
cry of the wildcat promoters in
Paris, and in the midst of the then
fever riden jungle, they accomplish.
ed wonders.
The natives of Central America
decided that law was more profit
able than revolutions, and that it was
less dangerous. so they either turn
ed lawyers or judges. Needless to
say the courts always decided that
the French could pay, and it il
doubtful if the De Lessepis Co. could
have succeeded. even if all the none i
had been honestly expended.
The crash came in 1888; eight
years of the most heroic fight man
ever made against nature was lost.
Bunan Varilla was one of the few
men who never lost faith in the ulti-
mate completion of the canal. Let
me quote his summing up of the sit
uation:-
After having the audacity to
attempt to realize the dream of Col
umbus; after having expended such
enormous sums of money and effort;
after having, through their efforts,
travelled two thirds of the road; after
having assembled and set to work a
gigantic equipment; after having
withstood all the tests, and bought
all the knowledge, brocken all resist
ance, triumphed over every obstacle;
after having excavated nearly fifty
million cubic meters under condi-
tions at first difficult and obscure,
are we going to abandon all this,
when there only remains forty
millions of cubic meteres to move,
under conditions we'll known and
defined? Are we going to allow the
belief to weigh down the coming
generation that our country is no
longer capable of anything but spas
modic energy, that the proud and
powerful force of continuous effort
is henceforth stranger to us?"
But the resultant scandal had
been too great, and the company
went into the hands of the receivers,
who kept up a show of work to hold
the concession.
Bunan Varilla took an active part
in the revolution which gave us the
Canal Zone, and to him we owe the
care of the records and statistics
which have been of so much value
to our engineers.
A treaty between the US. and
the Federation of New Granada. by
which we guaranteed to keep the
Isthmus open for transit was signed
in 1S46. And though the lid was
kept on but part of the time, as
shown bv the fifty-three revolutions
in fifty seven years. it is difficult to
say how many times the United
States was called upon to perform
the duty imposed by the treaty. We,
however, strictly adhered to the
treaty, up to the time Of the revolu-
ton of 1904. Then the American
people took up the canal subject
after the French failure. in fact,
several different companies were