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diff --git a/48924-0.txt b/48924-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b6eb79 --- /dev/null +++ b/48924-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,991 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 48924 *** + + JOSEPH PENNELL'S PICTURES + OF THE PANAMA CANAL + + FOURTH EDITION + + + + + JOSEPH PENNELL'S PICTURES + OF THE PANAMA CANAL + + REPRODUCTIONS OF A SERIES OF + LITHOGRAPHS MADE BY HIM ON THE + ISTHMUS OF PANAMA, JANUARY--MARCH, + 1912, TOGETHER WITH IMPRESSIONS + AND NOTES BY THE ARTIST + + [Illustration: ++ Decorative image.] + + PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON + J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + 1913 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY JOSEPH PENNELL + + PUBLISHED, SEPTEMBER, 1912 + + + PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS + PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A. + + + + + TO + J. B. BISHOP + + SECRETARY OF THE ISTHMIAN + CANAL COMMISSION + + WHO + + MADE IT POSSIBLE + FOR ME TO DRAW + THESE LITHOGRAPHS + + AND + + WHO WAS ALSO GOOD + ENOUGH TO ACCEDE + TO MY REQUEST AND + READ AND CORRECT + THE PROOFS FOR ME + + + + +INTRODUCTION--MY LITHOGRAPHS OF THE PANAMA CANAL + + +The idea of going to Panama to make lithographs of the Canal was mine. +I suggested it, and the _Century Magazine_ and _Illustrated London +News_ offered to print some of the drawings I might make. + +Though I suggested the scheme a couple of years ago, it was not until +January, 1912, that I was able to go--and then I was afraid it was too +late--afraid the work was finished and that there would be nothing to +see, for photographs taken a year or eighteen months before, showed +some of the locks built and their gates partly in place. + +Still I started, and after nearly three weeks of voyaging found, +one January morning, the Isthmus of Panama ahead of the steamer, a +mountainous country, showing deep valleys filled with mist, like snow +fields, as I have often seen them from Montepulciano looking over Lake +Thrasymene, in Italy. Beyond were higher peaks, strange yet familiar, +Japanese prints, and as we came into the harbor the near hills and +distant mountains were silhouetted with Japanese trees and even the +houses were Japanese, and when we at length landed, the town was full +of character reminiscent of Spain, yet the local character came out +in the Cathedral, the tower of which--a pyramid--was covered with a +shimmering, glittering mosaic of pearl oyster shells. The people, not +Americans, were primitive, and the children, mostly as in Spain, were +not bothered with clothes. + +I followed my instinct, which took me at once to the great swamp near +the town of Mount Hope, where so many of De Lesseps' plans lie buried. +Here are locomotives, dredges, lock-gates, huge bulks of iron, great +wheels, nameless, shapeless masses--half under water, half covered with +vines--the end of a great work. I came back to Colon by the side of +the French Canal, completed and working up to, I believe, Gatun Lock +and Dam, and spent the afternoon in the American town, every house +Japanese in feeling, French or American in construction, screened with +black wire gauze, divided by white wood lines--most decorative--and all +shaded by a forest of palms. Through these wandered well-made roads, +and on them were walking and driving well-made Americans. There were +no mosquitoes, no flies, no smells, none of the usual adjuncts of a +tropical town. + +At the end of the town was a monument, a nondescript Columbus, facing +nowhere, at his feet an Indian; but it seemed to me, if any monument +was wanted at Colon, it should be a great light-house or a great statue +towering aloft in the harbor, a memorial to the men who, French and +American, have made the Canal. + +Next day I started across the Continent to Panama, for I learned +the Government headquarters were there, and, until I had seen the +officials, I did not know if I should be allowed to work or even stay +on the Isthmus. But at Gatun I got off the train, determining to do +all I could before I was stopped--as I was quite sure I should be. I +saw the tops of the locks only a few hundred yards away, and, turning +my back on the stunning town piled up on the hillside, walked over to +them; from a bridge bearing a sign that all who used it did so at their +own risk I looked down into a yawning gulf stretching to right and +left, the bottom filled with crowds of tiny men and tiny trains--all in +a maze of work; to the right the gulf reached to a lake, to the left +to mighty gates which mounted from the bottom to my feet. Overhead, +huge iron buckets flew to and fro, great cranes raised or lowered huge +masses of material. As I looked, a bell rang, the men dropped their +tools, and lines of little figures marched away, or climbed wooden +stairs and iron ladders to the surface. The engines whistled, the +buckets paused, everything stopped instantly, save that from the depths +a long chain came quickly up, and clinging to the end of it, as Cellini +would have grouped them, were a dozen men--a living design--the most +decorative motive I have ever seen in the Wonder of Work. I could not +have imagined it, and in all the time I was on the Isthmus I never saw +it but once again. For a second only they were posed, and then the huge +crane swung the group to ground and the design fell to pieces as they +dropped off. + +Across the bridge was a telephone station and beyond and below it the +great approaches to the locks along which electric locomotives will +draw the ships that pass through. There was a subject, and I tackled it +at once. In the distance the already filling lake--among islands, but +the highland still above the water, dotting it, crowned with palms and +strange trees; dredgers slowly moved, native canoes paddled rapidly, +over all hovered great birds. To the right was the long line of the +French Canal, almost submerged, stretching to the distance, against +which, blue and misty and flat, were strange-shaped mountains, outlined +with strange-shaped trees. Bridges like those of Hiroshigi connected +island with island or with the mainland. It was perfect, the apotheosis +of the Wonder of Work, and as I looked the whole rocked as with an +earthquake--and then another. I was dragged into the hut as showers of +stones rattled on the roof as blast after blast went off near by. Soon +people in authority came up--I supposed to stop me; instead it was only +to show pleasure that I found their work worth drawing. These men were +all Americans, all so proud of their part in the Canal, and so strong +and healthy--most of them trained and educated, I knew as soon as they +opened their mouths--the greatest contrast to the crowd on the steamer, +who now were all tamely following a guide and listening to what they +could neither understand nor see during their only day ashore. These +engineers and workmen are the sort of Americans worth knowing, and +yet I did not see any golf links at Gatun. The day was spent in that +telephone box and on the Spillway of the Dam--a semicircle of cyclopean +concrete, backed by a bridge finer than Hokusai ever imagined, yet +built to carry the huge engines that drag the long trains of dirt and +rock across it, to make the dam. The dam, to me, was too big and too +vague to draw. And all this is the work of my countrymen, and they are +so proud of their work. Yet the men who have done this great work will +tell you that we owe much to the French, and that if the engineers and +the Commission at Panama had not the Government, with unlimited men +and money, behind them, and the discoveries in sanitary science of +which the French were ignorant, we, too, would have failed. They tell +you, and show you how, the French worked on the Canal right across the +Isthmus, and we are carrying out the great project they were unable to +complete. And we have won the admiration of the world. + +The sanitary problem is solved, but they tell you under the French, +fever carried off a man for every tie that was laid on the Panama +Railroad. This is a legend, but a true story is, that the French cared +so little for their lives that with every shipload of machinery came +boxes of champagne, and those who received them asked their friends +to dinner--finished the bottles--and were buried in the empty box in +the morning. Now there is no fever in the Canal Zone, but there is +plenty of drink in and outside of it, but, I am told, "indulged in with +wonderful moderation." I certainly never saw an American under the +influence of it. + +In the evening a ride of two hours took me over the thirty miles to +Panama--one of the last passengers over the old line of the Panama +Railway, now buried under the waters of the growing lake. From the +railroad I saw for the first time the primeval forest, the tropical +jungle, which I had never believed in, never believed that it could +not be penetrated save with an axe or a machete; but it is so, and the +richness of it, the riot of it, the variety of it, is incredible and +endless. The train puffed along, in that time-taking fashion of the +tropics I should soon be familiar with, passing points of view I made +notes of, for first impressions are for me always the best, and one +trip like this gives me more ideas than days of personal pointing out. +Finally Panama was reached in the dark; all I saw was a great hill lit +up with rows of lights, one above the other, in the night. + +The day had not been hot, the sky was not blue or black--it was white, +and filled with white clouds, though they were dark against it. There +was no glare--and I had forgotten my sketching umbrella; but I never +needed it. So far as I know, there is always a breeze--it is never +really hot in the day--and as soon as the sun sets the trade wind +rises--if it has not been blowing all day--and I could always sleep +at night. It is all so unlike other hot countries--but, then, Panama +is unlike other places: the sun rises and sets in the Pacific, and +the city of Panama, though on the Pacific, is east of Colon, on the +Atlantic. + +There was not a smell, or a mosquito, or a fly on Ancon Hill, but over +it all was the odor of petroleum, with which the streams and marshes of +the whole zone are sprayed almost daily; and this has made the Canal +and saved the workers. + +Next morning I went to the Administration Building and presented my +letters, though I did not know if I should be allowed to draw. But it +seemed that everything had been arranged for me by the Commission, who, +it also seemed, had been doing nothing for weeks but waiting my coming. +I was clothed, fed, taken about in motor cars and steam launches, given +passes on the railroad, and finally turned loose to go where I wanted +and draw what I liked--and if anything happened or did not happen I was +just to telephone to headquarters. + +The following day, donning my khaki, which I wore only once, and +pocketing my pass and some oranges, I started for the locks at Pedro +Miguel--pronounced, in American, Peter Megil, just as Miraflores is +called Millflowers. We were all down, had breakfast, and off in the +train--a jim-crow one--before the sun was up, and at Pedro Miguel +station I found myself one of a horde of niggers, Greeks, Hindoos, +Slovaks, Spaniards, Americans and engineers, bound for the lock, half a +mile away. Here I went down to the bottom to get a drawing of the great +walls that lead up to the great gates, now nearly finished. I had come +at exactly the right time. These walls are surmounted with great arches +and buttresses--the most decorative subject, the most stupendous motive +I have ever seen--almost too great to draw. Unlike my experiences of a +lifetime at other Government works, I was asked for no permit. I was +allowed to go where I wanted, draw what I liked; when any attention was +paid to me, it was to ask what I was working for--give me a glass of +ice water--precious, out of the breeze at the bottom of a lock--offer +to get me a photograph or make one, to suggest points of view, or tell +me to clear out when a blast was to be fired. And the interest of these +Americans in my work and in their work was something I had never seen +before. A man in huge boots, overalls and ragged shirt, an apology for +a hat, his sleeves up to his shoulders, proved himself in a minute +a graduate of a great school of engineering, and proved as well his +understanding of the importance of the work I was trying to do, and his +regret that most painters could not see the splendid motives all about; +and the greatest compliment I ever received came from one of these men, +who told me my drawings "would work." + +Day after day it was the same--everything, including government hotels +and labor trains, open to me. The only things to look out for were the +blasts, the slips of dirt in the cut, and the trains, which rushed and +switched about without any reference to those who might get in front +of them. If one got run over, as was not usual; or blown up, which +was unusual; or malaria, which few escaped among the workmen, there +were plenty of hospitals, lots of nurses and sufficient doctors. Each +railroad switch was attended by a little darkey with a big flag; of +one of whom it was said he was seen to be asleep, with his head on +the rails one day. The engineer of an approaching dirt train actually +pulled up, and he was kicked awake and asked why he was taking a nap +there. The boy replied he was "'termined no train go by, boss, widout +me knowin' it"; and of another who, awaking suddenly and seeing half +a train past his switch, pulled it open and wrecked all the trains, +tracks and switches within a quarter of a mile; or the third, a +Jamaican, a new hand, who, being told he was not to let a train go by, +promptly signalled a locomotive to come on, and when he was hauled up, +smilingly said: "Dat wan't no train wat yer tole me to stop; dat's a +enjine." + +Drawing had other interesting episodes connected with it, as when +I sat at work in Culebra Cut the leading man of a file of niggers, +carrying on his head a wooden box, would approach, stop beside me and +look at the drawing. As I happened to look up I would notice the box +was labelled, _Explosives, Highly dangerous_. Then, with his hands in +his pockets, he and the rest of the gang would stumble along over the +half-laid ties, slippery boulders and through the mud, trying to avoid +the endless trains and balance the boxes on their heads at the same +time. I must say, when I read the legend on the box the sensation was +peculiar. They tell you, too, that when President Taft came down to the +Cut all dynamiting gangs were ordered out; but one gang of blacks was +forgotten, and as the train with the President and Colonel Goethals in +it passed, the leader cheered so hard that he dropped his box, which +somehow didn't go off. It was interesting, too, when one had been +working steadily for some time, to find oneself surrounded, on getting +up, by little flags, to announce that the whole place had been mined +and should not be approached; or to find oneself entangled in a network +of live wires ready to touch off the blasts from hundreds of yards +away, and to remember that I was behind a boulder about to be blown to +pieces, and might be overlooked; or to be told I had better get out, as +they were ready to blast, after a white man had got done chucking from +one rock, to a black man on another, sticks of melanite, as the easiest +way of getting them to him; or ramming in, with long poles, charges so +big that trains, steam shovels and tracks had to be moved to keep them +from being "shot up." I always kept out of the way as far as possible +after the day at Bas Obispo when, standing some hundreds of yards from +a blast watching the effect of showers of rocks falling like shells in +the river, I heard wild yells, and, looking up, saw a rock as big as a +foot-ball sailing toward me. I have heard one can see shells coming and +dodge them. I know now that this is so, though I had to drop everything +and roll to do it. But I don't like it; and accidents do happen, and +there are hospitals all across the Isthmus with men, to whom accidents +have happened, in them. But nothing happened to me. I did not get +malaria or fever, or bitten or run over. I was very well all the +time--and I walked in the sun and worked in the sun, and sat in the +swamps and the bottoms of locks and at the edge of the dam, and nothing +but drawings happened; but I should not advise others to try these +things, nor to get too near steam shovels, which "pick up anything, +from an elephant to a red-bug," but sometimes drop a ton rock; nor play +around near track-lifters and dirt-train emptiers--for the things are +small respecters of persons. But most people do not get hurt, and I +never met anyone who wanted to leave; and I believe the threat to send +the men home broke the only strike on the Canal. + +I did not go to Panama to study engineering--which I know nothing +about; or social problems--which I had not time to master; or Central +American politics--which we are in for; but to draw the Canal as it is, +and the drawings are done. + +I was there at the psychological moment, and am glad I went. It +is not my business to answer the question: When will the Canal be +opened?--though they say it will be open within a year. + +Will the dam stand? Those who have built it say so. + +Which is better, a sea level or a lock? The lock canal is built. + +I did not bother myself about these things, nor about lengths and +breadths and heights and depths. I went to see and draw the Canal, +and during all the time I was there I was afforded every facility for +seeing the construction of the Panama Canal, and from my point of +view it is the most wonderful thing in the world; and I have tried to +express this in my drawings at the moment before it was opened, for +when it is opened, and the water turned in, half the amazing masses of +masonry will be beneath the waters on one side and filled in with earth +on the other, and the picturesqueness will have vanished. The Culebra +Cut will be finer, and from great steamers passing through the gorge, +worth going 15,000 miles, as I have done, to see. But I saw it at the +right time, and have tried to show what I saw. And it is American--the +work of my countrymen. + + JOSEPH PENNELL + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +THE ILLUSTRATIONS BEGIN WITH COLON AND PROCEED IN REGULAR SEQUENCE +ACROSS THE ISTHMUS TO PANAMA. + + I COLON: THE AMERICAN QUARTER + + II MOUNT HOPE + + III GATUN: DINNER TIME + + IV AT THE BOTTOM OF GATUN LOCK + + V THE GUARD GATE, GATUN + + VI APPROACHES TO GATUN LOCK + + VII END OF THE DAY: GATUN LOCK + + VIII THE JUNGLE: THE OLD RAILROAD FROM THE NEW + + IX THE NATIVE VILLAGE + + X THE AMERICAN VILLAGE + + XI THE CUT AT BAS OBISPO + + XII IN THE CUT AT LAS CASCADAS + + XIII THE CUT FROM CULEBRA + + XIV STEAM SHOVEL AT WORK IN THE CULEBRA CUT + + XV THE CUT: LOOKING TOWARD CULEBRA + + XVI THE CUT AT PARAISO + + XVII THE CUT LOOKING TOWARD ANCON HILL + + XVIII LAYING THE FLOOR OF PEDRO MIGUEL LOCK + + XIX THE GATES OF PEDRO MIGUEL + + XX THE WALLS OF PEDRO MIGUEL + + XXI BUILDING MIRAFLORES LOCK + + XXII CRANES: MIRAFLORES LOCK + + XXIII WALLS OF MIRAFLORES LOCK + + XXIV OFFICIAL ANCON + + XXV FROM ANCON HILL + + XXVI THE CATHEDRAL, PANAMA + + XXVII THE CITY OF PANAMA FROM THE TIVOLI HOTEL, ANCON + + XXVIII THE MOUTH OF THE CANAL FROM THE SEA + + + + +I COLON: THE AMERICAN QUARTER + + +The city of Colon is divided into two quarters--the native, or +Panamanian, and the American. The former is picturesque, but has +nothing to do with the Canal and is some distance from it. The Canal +cannot be seen from the city. The American quarter, in which the Canal +employees live, stands on the sea shore, and is made up of bungalows, +shops, hotels, hospitals--all that goes to make up a city--save +saloons. All are built of wood, painted white, and completely screened +with wire gauze, rusted black by the dampness, a protection from +mosquitoes and other beasts, bugs and vermin. Raised on concrete +supports mostly with long, gently sloping roofs, and buried in a forest +of palms, the town, the first the visitor will see, seems absolutely +Japanese, is very pictorial and full of character. The design, I +believe, of the houses was made by the American engineers or +architects. + +Very few of the higher Canal officers live at Colon, which is the +Atlantic seaport of the Isthmus, the eastern mouth of the Canal, though +Colon is west of Panama--such is the geography of the country. + +The mouth of the Canal will be fortified; breakwaters and light-houses +are being built. + +For authorities on fortification it may be interesting to state that +the forts will be so situated that the locks will be completely out +of range of an enemy's guns. Personally I am not a believer in wars +or navies. If my theories were practised there would be no need for +fortifications. + +[Illustration] + + + + +II MOUNT HOPE + + +Near Mount Hope, which--for the French--should be called the Slough of +Despond, or the Lake of Despair, is a huge swamp about a mile or so +from Colon, on the left bank of the French Canal, seen on the right of +the lithograph. This swamp is now filled with all sorts of abandoned +French machinery. Dredges, locomotives, and even what seem to be lock +gates, show amid the palms in the distance. Huge American cranes for +raising this French material--which the American engineers have made +use of--and discharging cargo from the ships in the French Canal--which +is here finished and in use--loom over the swamp, the banks of which +are lined with piers and workshops full of life--a curious contrast to +the dead swamp in which not a mosquito lives, nor a smell breathes. + +[Illustration] + + + + +III GATUN: DINNER TIME + + +Between Mount Hope and Gatun is much more of the swamp and much more +abandoned machinery, but the Canal is not to be seen from the railroad, +or any evidence of it, till the train stops at the station of Old +Gatun, with its workmen's dwellings crowning the hillside. I regret +I made no drawing of these, so picturesquely perched. At the station +of Gatun--the first time I stopped--I saw the workmen--in decorative +fashion--coming to the surface for dinner. The lithograph was made from +a temporary bridge spanning the locks and looking toward Colon. The +great machines on each side of the locks are for mixing and carrying +to their place, in huge buckets, the cement and concrete, of which the +locks are built. The French Canal is in the extreme distance, now used +by our engineers. + +[Illustration] + + + + +IV AT THE BOTTOM OF GATUN LOCK + + +There is a flight of three double locks at Gatun by which ships will be +raised eighty-five feet to the level of Gatun Lake. From the gates of +the upper lock--the nearest to the Pacific--they will sail across the +now-forming lake some miles (about twenty, I believe) to the Culebra +Cut; through this, nine miles long, they will pass, and then descend by +three other flights of locks, at Pedro Miguel and Miraflores, to the +Pacific, which is twenty feet higher, I believe, than the Atlantic. +The great height, eighty-five feet, was agreed upon so as to save +excavation in the Cut and time in completion--one of those magnificent +labor-saving devices of the moment--which I, not being an engineer, see +no necessity for--having waited four hundred years for the Canal, we +might, as an outsider, it seems to me, have waited four more years and +got rid of a number of the locks, even if it cost more money. + +The lithograph made in the middle lock shows the gates towering on +either side. These gates were covered, when I made the drawing, with +their armor plates. The lower parts, I was told, are to be filled with +air, and the gates, worked by electricity, will virtually float. The +scaffolding is only temporary, and so is the opening at the bottom and +the railroad tracks, which were filled up and discarded while I was +there. So huge are the locks--the three, I think, a mile long, each +one thousand feet between the gates, and about ninety feet deep--that, +until the men knock off, there scarce seems anyone around. + +[Illustration] + + + + +V THE GUARD GATE, GATUN + + +There is a safety gate in each lock, to protect, in case of accident, +the main lock gate, just suggested, with the figures working at the +armor-plate facing, on the extreme right. Beyond are the outer walls +and approaches of the upper lock, and beyond these, but unseen, the +lake. At the bottom is the railroad and the temporary opening shown +in the previous drawing. The scale, the immensity of the whole may be +judged by the size of the engines and figures. I have never seen such a +magnificent arrangement of line, light and mass, and yet those were the +last things the engineers thought of. But great work is great art, and +always was and will be. This is the Wonder of Work. + +[Illustration] + + + + +VI APPROACHES TO GATUN LOCK + + +These huge arches, only made as arches to save concrete and to break +the waves of the lake, are mightier than any Roman aqueduct, and more +pictorial, yet soon they will be hidden almost to the top by the waters +of the lake. Electric locomotives will run out to the farthest point, +and from it, tow the ships into the lock. Beyond is Gatun Lake, and +to the right the lines of the French Canal and Chagres River stretch +to the horizon. Even while I was on the Isthmus the river and canal +disappeared forever before the waters of the rapidly rising flood. All +evidence of the French work beyond Gatun has vanished under water. I +did not draw the Dam or the Spillway simply because I could not find a +subject to draw, or could not draw it. + +[Illustration] + + + + +VII END OF THE DAY--GATUN LOCK + + +This was another subject I saw as the men stopped work in the evening. +On the left is the stairway which most of them use, and on both sides +are iron ladders which a few climb. The semicircular openings are for +mooring the ships. + +[Illustration] + + + + +VIII THE JUNGLE + +THE OLD RAILROAD FROM THE NEW + + +While I was on the Isthmus the old line from Gatun to the Culebra Cut +at Bas Obispo was abandoned, owing to the rising waters of the lake, +which will soon cover towns, and swamps, and hills, and forests. This +drawing was made looking across the lake near Gatun, with the dam in +the distance, and I have tried to show the rich riot of the jungle. +Below, on the old road, is a steam shovel digging dirt. The little +islands, charming in line, are little hills still showing above the +waters of the forming lake. + +[Illustration] + + + + +IX THE NATIVE VILLAGE + + +This lithograph was made on the new line, which discovered to the +visitor primitive Panama, its swamps, jungles and native villages; but, +owing to Colonel Gorgas, native no longer, as they are odorless and +clean; but the natives, with their transformation, seem to prefer to +the palm-leaf roof, corrugated iron and tin, and abandoned freight cars +to live in. The huts are mostly built on piles near the rivers. In the +background can be seen the strange-shaped mountains and strange-shaped +trees. The white tree--I don't know its name--with the bushy top has +no bark, and is not dead, but puts out leaves, Mrs. Colonel Gaillard +tells me, in summer; and she also tells me the jungle is full of the +most wonderful orchids, birds, snakes, monkeys and natives, and offered +to take me to see them. I saw her splendid collection of orchids at +Culebra, through the luxuriance of which Colonel Gaillard says he has +to hew his way with a machete every morning to breakfast, so fast do +plants grow on the Isthmus. Advantage of this rapidity of jungle growth +has been taken to bind together the completed parts of the surface of +the dam, which are covered with so much vegetation that I could not +tell Nature's work from that of the engineers. + +[Illustration] + + + + +X THE AMERICAN VILLAGE + + +These are scattered all across the Continent, hemmed in by the tropical +jungle or placed on the high, cool hill. In all there is, first, the +news-stand at the station; then, the hotel--really restaurants--where +on one side the Americans "gold employees" dine for thirty cents, +better than they could for a dollar at home--and more decently; men, +women and children. On the other, in a separate building, usually, +the "silver employees" foreigners; and there are separate dining and +sleeping places and cars for negroes, even on workmen's trains. The +Indian has the sense and pride to live his own life down there, apart, +as at home in India. There are many in the Zone. + +The head men in each of these towns have their own houses; the lesser +lights share double ones; and I believe the least of all, bunks; but +these matters didn't interest me, nor did sanitary conditions or social +evils or advantages. + +There are also clubs, I believe, social centres, mothers' meetings, +churches, art galleries and museums on the Isthmus, but I never saw +them. I was after picturesqueness. Still, it is no wonder, under +present conditions, that I never found a man who wanted to +"go home"--and some hadn't been home for seven years, and dreaded +going--and rightly. The Canal Zone is the best governed section of the +United States. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XI THE CUT AT BAS OBISPO + + +The Culebra Cut commences near Bas Obispo--from this place--where +the Chagres River enters Gatun Lake, the cut extends for nine miles, +to Pedro Miguel. All between here and Gatun will be under water. The +drawing was made at the bottom of the cut, and the various levels on +which the excavations are made may be seen. The dirt trains, one above +the other, are loading up from the steam shovels on each side of the +old river bed in the centre. The machinery for shifting tracks and +unloading trains is wonderful, but not very picturesque. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XII IN THE CUT AT LAS CASCADAS + + +This drawing shows the cut and gives from above some idea of the +different levels on which the work is carried out. It is on some of +these levels that slides have occurred and wrecked the work. The +slides move slowly, not like avalanches, but have caused endless +complications; but Colonel Gaillard, the engineer in charge, believes +he will triumph over all his difficulties--which include even a small +volcano--there is a newspaper story--but no earthquakes. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XIII THE CUT FROM CULEBRA + + +At this point the cut is far the deepest at the continental divide, and +here the French did their greatest work, and here this is recorded by +the United States on a placque high up on the left-hand bare mountain +face of Gold Hill. The drawing was made looking towards Pedro Miguel. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XIV STEAM SHOVEL AT WORK IN THE CULEBRA CUT + + +This beast, as they say down there, "can pick up anything from an +elephant to a red-bug"--the smallest thing on the Isthmus. They also +say the shovel "would look just like Teddy if it only had glasses." It +does the work of digging the Canal and filling the trains, and does it +amazingly--under the amazing direction of its amazing crews. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XV THE CUT--LOOKING TOWARD CULEBRA + + +This is the most pictorial as well as the most profound part of +the cut. Culebra, the town, is high above--some of it has fallen +in--on the edge in the distance--on the left. The white tower is an +observatory from near which the lithograph No. XIII of the cut was +made. The drawing is looking toward the Atlantic. The engineer of the +dirt train--the smoke of which is so black because the engines burn +oil--climbed up to see what I was at, and incidentally told me he was +paid $3,600 a year, had a house free and two months' holiday. It is +scarcely wonderful he has little interest in home, but the greatest +pride in "our canal," and his only hope was to be "kept on the job" and +run an electric locomotive for the rest of his life. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XVI THE CUT AT PARAISO + + +At this point the old railroad crosses the Canal bed, and there is +a splendid view in both directions. This is looking toward the same +mountains as in the previous drawing, early in the morning. The +mountains are covered with long lines of mist, under which nestles +the American-Japanese town of Paraiso. The new line of railroad never +crosses the Canal, but passes behind the mountain on the right. The +scheme of having it follow the Canal through Culebra Cut has been +abandoned, owing to the slides. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XVII THE CUT LOOKING TOWARD ANCON HILL + + +This is the view toward the Pacific from the same spot in the full +stress of work. The Pedro Miguel locks are in the distance, beyond is +Ancon Hill, dominating Panama, miles farther on; and to the right, +between the hills, but miles still farther, beyond Miraflores lock, the +Pacific. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XVIII LAYING THE FLOOR OF PEDRO MIGUEL LOCK + + +This is the most monumental piece of work on the Canal, and the most +pictorial. The huge approaches, quite different in form from Gatun--for +all the locks have character, and the character of their builders--are +only arches to save concrete. Here were men enough laying the concrete +floor--others swarming over the gates not yet covered with their armor +plate. Beyond is the lock just shown between the gates. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XIX THE GATES OF PEDRO MIGUEL + + +This is the same lock nearer the gates, and shows the great length of +it from gate to gate and something of its building and construction, +from my point of view. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XX THE WALLS OF PEDRO MIGUEL + + +This was drawn from the opposite end of the lock and the great side +walls topped with their concrete-making crenellations and cranes are +seen. In the foreground, on the left, is one of the side openings for +emptying the water from one lock to another--for all the locks are +double, side by side, and ships will not have to wait until a lock is +empty, as is usual, before they can enter, but, as one empties, the +same water partly fills the one beside it, and so steamers will pass +without waiting. Two or three small vessels can go through at the same +time, as well as the largest with room to spare. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XXI BUILDING MIRAFLORES LOCK + + +This lock, the nearest the Pacific, is again quite different and is the +work of a civil engineer, Mr. Williamson, and not of army officers, +like the rest. Between the two forces, I believe, the most fierce +harmony exists. The drawing shows the two locks side by side, the great +cranes--they are different, too--towering above. All the ground here +will be filled by a small lake between this lock and Pedro Miguel. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XXII CRANES--MIRAFLORES LOCK + + +These great cranes travel to and fro, and as I drew the nearest I found +the lines changing, but thought there was something wrong with me. +So huge were they, and so silently and solemnly did they move, that +I could not believe they were moving. This is the Pacific end of the +lock--the last on the Canal. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XXIII WALLS OF MIRAFLORES LOCK + + +The only wall in March of the approach to Miraflores may be contrasted +with the similar subject No. XX--Pedro Miguel. + +Much as there was to be done in March, the engineer, Mr. Williamson, +had no doubt it would be finished this fall; for as fast as the other +locks were completed, men and machines were to be put on this. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XXIV OFFICIAL ANCON + + +Amid these royal palm groves work and live many of the members of the +Isthmian Canal Commission--the rest are on the high hill at Culebra. +To the secretary, Mr. J. B. Bishop, and to his family, I am endlessly +indebted for endless help while on the Zone. + +Ancon is a perfect Japanese town--built by Americans--and the interiors +of the houses here and at Culebra are as delightful as their owners are +charming--and I know of what I speak. The large building against the +ocean is the Administration Office of the Isthmian Canal Commission. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XXV FROM ANCON HILL + + +A road winds up Ancon Hill, passing the official residences and the +hospitals, finally reaching a terrace bordered with royal palms. Below +to the left is the Tivoli Hotel, and still lower and farther away, the +city, while the Pacific fills the distance. This is the most beautiful +spot I saw on the Isthmus. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XXVI THE CATHEDRAL, PANAMA + + +The Cathedral, one of a number of churches in the city of Panama, +stands in a large square. The feeling of all these, with their richly +decorated façades and long, unbroken side walls, is absolutely +Spanish--but the interiors are far more bare--much more like Italian +churches. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XXVII THE CITY OF PANAMA FROM THE TIVOLI HOTEL, ANCON + + +From the wing of the Government hotel in which I stayed I looked out +over the city of Panama to the Pacific. If this city were in Spain, or +if even a decent description of it were in a European guide-book, the +hordes of Americans who go to the Canal would rave over it. As it is, +not many of them (not being told) ever see it, though there are few +towns in Europe with more character. But I regret to say my countrymen +don't know what they are looking at, or what to look at, till they have +a guide-book, courier or tout to tell them. The Government provides, I +am told, a Harvard graduate to perform the latter function, and sends +out daily an observation car across the Continent. + +The two strange, flat-topped mountains, miles out at sea, are to be +fortified, and they are so far from shore, and the locks so far inland, +as to be out of range--as well as out of sight--of modern guns and +gunners. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XXVIII THE MOUTH OF THE CANAL FROM THE SEA + + +This drawing was made from the channel which leads out to the Pacific +Ocean. The mouth of the Canal is on the left in the flat space between +the mountains; on the right of this, the dark mass on the edge of the +water is the docks and harbors; then comes the great, towering Ancon +Hill, one side all dug out in terraces for dirt, much of which goes to +fill in the outside of locks, which, however, will work before they are +filled in. And for what other purposes the War Department are going to +use this Gibraltar they alone know. The other side, a mass of palms +shelters the houses of the officials, and at the foot of the hill, to +the right, Panama--as beautiful as Naples or Tangier, yet hardly a +tourist knows it; and--well, the Government is not running a tourist +agency. + +The breakwater, which will connect the fortified islands miles away +with the mainland, is just started in the centre. This is the first and +last view of Panama--and of the greatest work of modern times, the work +of the greatest engineers of all time. + + JOSEPH PENNELL + +[Illustration] + + + + +Life of James McNeill Whistler + +BY ELIZABETH R. AND JOSEPH PENNELL + + +The Pennells have thoroughly revised the material in their Authorized +Life and added much new matter, which for lack of space they were +unable to incorporate in the elaborate two-volume edition now out of +print. Fully illustrated with 96 plates reproduced from Whistler's +works, more than half reproduced for first time. + + +Crown 8vo., fifth and revised edition. + +Whistler binding, deckle edge. + +$3.50 net. + +Three quarters grain levant, $7.50 net. + + + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------- + + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. | + | | + | Duplicated section headings have been omitted. | + | | + | Italicized words are surrounded by underline characters, | + | _like this_. | + | | + | [++] indicates a caption added by the transcriber. | + +------------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Joseph Pennell's pictures of the +Panama Canal, by Joseph Pennell + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 48924 *** |