Evening star., 1938-10-23
Builders of Jungle Railroad
Plan Reunion after 80 Years
lien NO,u Scattered Oue1'
Earth, Faced BrnsiI's
PeriIs as Youths.
BY W. n. sHIPPEN, Jr.

sAdAAoAC xedlIU&u t1AOuSH BTCc1l
Jungle in East-Central Brazil long
since have scattered to the four
corners.
One Is an engineer In Switzerland,
another . mine owner in the Canadian
Rockies, still another . planter in the
East Indies-hundreds Of men, scat
tered much farther than the usual
group. because in their youth they got
taste Of pioneering on . dangerous
frontier.
Now they are near the retiring age (;
heads Of households and businesses,
with interests far removed from the
equatorial forest which once held the
fate Of them ALL But one Of them
John Armitage, now an auditor with
the Home Owners Loan Corporation
has proved that strong bond still ties
them after 80 years.
Plan 4 Reunion.
From his home at 1902 Russell road,
Alexandria. Mr.. Armitage writes and
receives letters almost daily from men
he has not glimpsed since the railroad
builders sailed homeward after turning
over to the operating company the
handiwork which had cost so much in
human strength, health and life itself.
The light homeward-bound
youngsters left many behind them, VIC
Tins of malaria, of poisonous insects,
Of construction accidents, whose graves
already were being reclaimed by the
voracious jungle along q 200-mile
right-of-way from Porto Vellio, on
the Madeira River, to a terminal on
the Mamore. near the Bolivian border.
Indeed, 1t was said the railroad had
claimed one life for. every cross tie in
its length.
Mr.. Armitage and his fellow workers
hope to renew old acquaintances at a
reunion next August, their first. A
meeting on the East Coast probably
will be held at the New York Worlds s
Fair. Another meeting is being
planned In San Francisco.
Tough Job and Dangerous.
Mr.. Armitage expects a large turn
out In New York-from 300 to 600
men. The experiences which the men
shared were not unlike those Of SOL
diers on active duty, and = spirit Of
comradeship has prevailed through the
years.
1T was tough job we'll DONE" Mr..
Armitage said Another outf1t had
tried it but the jungle won.
We went down in 1907. wasn't
quite l8 then, but had gotten some
technical training at the Pennsylvania
Military Academy.
AT first we lived in huts Of tin and
palm fronds There was no fresh food,
no ice, no electric lights. We carried
revolvers strapped to our waists. Why?
Well, we didn't want to get our heads
shrunk.
There were head-hunting Indians
in the jungles then. I don't know if
they ever got any of our crew, but
sometimes small hunting party
would fail to return. No trace
OF their bodies was ever discovered.
The ants, you know, can clean skele-
ton in q few hours; there were other
pyowlers to scatter the bones.
The only clues we ever had were
bits Of white mems equipment, turning
up from time to time among the river
tlomads-a watch. pair OF shoes, pa
iamas, hunting knife. But we
could never prove what became Of the
missing men.
Malaria Took Biggest Toll.
Malaria took the biggest toll. We
wore mosquito netting over our hats,
md slept under it. We regularly ate
. grains of quinine day, but the
yer kept bringing down the best Of
US. Then there were vampire bats A
man would 90 to sleep in his hammock,
strong and healthy, and awake the
next morning too weak to rise from
loss Of blood.
He would see pool OF his own
h,ood attracting ants on the ground.
- There is something in bats saliva
which prevents coagulation. The crea-
lures fan their victim with their
wings gently so as not to disturb him
while they lap away at blood stream
started by their lance-like teeth.
There were giant anacondas, some
80 feet long, and terrible little fish
which swan in schools and could
strip q man OF his flesh in few
minutes. Jaguars and pumas had
little fear Of man, and army ants
none at all.
Jaguar Guarded Whisky.
Il had pet jaguar which didn't
increase my popularity with the boys,
I'm afraid. You see, I was the Gus
todian Of the liquor in our camp.
kept the jaguar on guard duty in
the store ROOM There were a dozen
cases of Scotch on hand most Of
the time-the men needed whisky in
that damp climate.
The jaguar did lot to promote
temperance in camp. He usually sat
on the cases, but he offered no
objection If man reached in through
the screen door for drink or 30.
I always kept one bottle Of Scotch
in a boot near the door enough
for q quick short one, If the man
got hard up, but not too much. The
jaguar looked after the rest"
This may or may not have &C
counted for the fact that Mr.. Armi-
tage turned in in the darkness one
night and learned he WAS sharing
mis- hamock with . 60-pound frog.
Termites Ate Crossties.
Just before the job was completed
in 1918, Mr.. Armitage met the late
Theodore Roosevelt In a jungle camp
while the Colonel was on his now
famous exploration of the River of
Doubt. He gave the President some
of the maps he had made in the
years Of his jungle experience.
Mr.. Armitage said an unusual
feature of the railroad was the fact
that termites ate up the crossties 80
fast the construction crews finally
were forced to bury the ties under
hard-packed layer of earth.
You should have heard the engi-
neers howl when they saw that track
The engineers wanted to be able to
see what kind Of ties they were run
N;ro oyar ard ~ fbA ,a,.&-..&,.n