Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1920-05-06


boat. On reaching quarantine we
phoned a friend and she got permits
sion to visit us, a privilege not often
granted. She took our tickets, pass
ports and certificates of good. health
to the u. S. office and got our cabins
reserved on the Carriage. She had to
make three trips to the office bring
ing more papers to- fill out and for us
to sign. At every. port where ship
lands, before passengers are allowed
to get off, a doctor comes on and ex-
amines every passenger and employee
also all their passports and numerous
certificates of health. If from the q.
S. a receipt that their income taxes
are paid is demanded sometimes they
take the temperature Of each person;
all this red tape takes hours of tine.
The quarantine building at Christobal
is several stories high with a wide
veranda around each, built on the sea
shore in a beautiful park 0ofj royal
palms and flowers, clean airy rooms
and American cooked food served In
four courses are provided. Our late
President Roosevelt spent several
days there. What was good enough
; for a President of the United States
should be good enough for any one.
Land Slide in the Canal 4.
The day that we reached Colon in
the Italian ship there was land slide
! in the canal which delayed ships
gong through the canal six days. The
Italian ship was bound Ecuador
and Peru. 1t must have been tedious
waiting for those passengers and ex-
pensive, too. We sailed from Colon,
March oath. went up the coast OF
Panama SO miles where the ship I'M
loaded lumber and took on bananas.
At a port on the way they took on a.
hundred or more men and some OF the
mems wives and children, all Sill
vers which do the work in these hot
countries. These men worked, pre-
pairing the ship for the bananas. Cars
| from fifteen miles or more brought
the fruit from the plantations and
some hundreds more men, as it re-
|
at this harbor. They have four large
machines for loading the fruit. The
machines are 40 feet long with wheels
at each end. They take off the wheels
from the end reaching into the boat.
This machine is run by an engine at
the end resting on the wharf. This
elevator carried the fruit much as
straw is carried on the separator
a threshing machine.
| There are canvas sacks every six
feet in which are carefully placed a
bunch of bananas by two men which
are carried up running near the top
of the elevator and dropped down into
the vessel. The empty sacks are Ia
ken back on the lower part of eleva-
tor Shelves made of Stats are plac-
ed in the six lower decks of the ship.
A cushioned table with springs is
placed on each deck to receive the
bananas. Men take each bunch from
the table and stand it on end on the
shelves When that deck is filled the
elevator is shortened to reach the
deck next higher. AS our ship took
on between 10000 and $4,000 punches
! They filled three sides of seven decks
lining the bottom and sides with BAN
ana leaves A bruised bunch or q
broken one easily spoils and spoils 9th
ers. They threw all such into the sea
or piled them on the wharf for any
! one to take who cared for them. 1t
seemed a great waste even if bananas
retail in the south for penny apiec(
They were from a. m. until s p. N.
loading the boat. They said that they
could unload in four hours in New Or
| leans.
harvesting Bananas
| Many passengers took a train into
the country to see the plantation and
the harvesting Of the bananas, AS I
had seen them grow and picked them
from tree in South America I did
not care to go with the thermometer
registering 90 degrees.
The tree grows ten feet and higher
! in one season. AS the fruit grows it
becomes heavy, the tree bends down
and dies though four or more inches
through. New trees spring up from the
roots to spare the fate of the old, also
new plants are planted. One could
hardly believe that they could grow
so large in one year but then we must
remember there is no winter or froF
that most trees have both blossoms
and fruit on them the year around,
such as oranges, lemons and coca
nut palms. The palms have blossoms
that look like corn tassels. At the
root of the tassel grow the cocoa
nuts, bunch of all sizes. -
| The boat was loaded heavier on one
side the side on which we had cabin.
The decks s1anted SO it was not easy
or pleasant to promenade decidedly
unpleasant and impossible. One night
and day when there was a high wind