The Coconino sun., 1925-01-09

were no towns, except one, which give
a feller a pain to note. 1t was the
Canal Zone penitentiary. 1 don't
know what the total contents of the
place numbered, but saw about 80
fellows dressed in zebra clothes be-
ing marched along back into the big
wire fenced corral at route step, evi-
IDENTIFY on their way to dinner. 1t
certainly didn't resemble any good
place to stay.
On to Pedro Miguel lock. Pedro was
evidently Of Spanish distraction as
will be noted by his name, probably
related to Segurro Miguel These
locks are SO of mile in length. We
made these rapids without accident
and went on to the Miraflores locks.
The Miraflores locks have an extra
depth on account of the more nervous
condition of the Pacific ocean, which
flanks this end of the canal.
Believe it or not, but the west side
of the canal is 27 miles east of the
west side of the ditch. We got on the
west coast of North America by going
east If you think that's a DANCED
lie Just ask whom it may concern and
you'll soon discover that no real es-
tate man propagated the idea to us.
/ didn't buy no land here so J. don't
think we got lied to about it. Any
how, amt we going west to get back
east again? If we ever get back to
New York again as the bandit cruise
agency advises, we are willing to ad-
NIT the earth is round regardless of
the fact that we are sailing on water
from two to four miles deep, all stuck
on a round ball and the water don't
leak off. 1t looks like all oceans sor-
ter drain into each other. I'm not
gonta argue, but it looks mighty queer
Just how a tank of water can be
poured around the outside OF a big
barrel and have it stick.
September 26, 1913, the Gatun locks
were first tested. The same day just
400 years previous, Balboa crossed the
isthmus to the northeast of that place.
There was no town there at that time,
but later some enterprising real es-
tate agent started a village around
his foot prints in the sand and called
it Balboa. Like most instances OF
this kind, the fellows who stayed
there never thought the place would
amount to anything anyhow and
probably shook dice to see whether to
call it Hogstye or Balboa. But the
town has grown quite considerable
since 1913 and Balboa would hardly
know his old home town.
AS a matter of fact, generally
speaking, most improvements down
here, outside those nature was work
ing on, have been made since Teddy
Roosevelt took notion to renovate
the 50-mile strip and build the big
ditch that Mr.. DeLesseps of France
dreamed of and failed in constructing
after millions had been spent. His
mistakes apparently we're in starting
the project at too early a period when
folks were not in much of hurry
anyhow, and, in not realizing that a
man in hot climate has got to feel
mighty good if he viii work much.
The sanitary conditions were bad.
Every mosquito carried around a
hatch of diseases in his kit to kill off
an army. So one can imagine how lit
tie work would be done by bunch of
men who were constantly talking over
the details of their individual and per-
sonaI physical complaints. You know
how it would be if you had the itch,
how difficult it would be to keep both
hands on the shovel all the time. Well,
by Teddy's direction, all germs were
excluded from the Canal Zone. Then
the canal was dug.
1t is understood that Columbus hit
this port in 1902. He thought it was
a bathing beach off the coast of Asia,
but evidently the natives had lied to
him. This was very regretable since
it was many years after his death be-
fore new maps were made, renovating
the idea. This was very unhappy
thing. Lying that way often hurts a
country and even to this day real es-