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•* .* it? * rf * p • 'V^ « ;.. -J * . ->% THE... iiilizatinn. Our part. In the Philip- pines, In Iluwa.i. in ( h.uix, In s. illlnpi tlx* Uii so-Juiutui- e war and in iln-- l , uli:|iii;i ranal nil looks In this ilim*- pon T l 1k» noi'iiilv'' of . A .iHvkn tin* l.ow’- 4 on. ImiIM'iv. •1 are or nil CANAL How Uncle Sam Is Tack ling the World’s Most Gigantic Engineer 3 * ing Feat. Ten Thousand Men Digging Through a Mountain Range ^ . on the Isthmus to Connect Two Mighty Oceans. , Largest Force at Work on the Culebra Cut. From the Atlantic to the Pacific the Canal Will Be Fifty Miles Long and at Least Forty Feet Deep—Many Dams to Be Built and a River’s Course May Be Changed. Sanitary Conditions Being Successfully Mas* tered—Towns and Cities Properly Sewered. Pure Water Brought From the Mouo* tains—Employees Well Housed and Fed—Suitable Hospitala and Medical Attend* ance Provided. I By J. A. EDGERTON T HE United States government is doing many big things these days—maintaining the integrity of China, keeping the “open door” In the orient, protecting the ■mailer republics of the whole west ern hemisphere and acting as a media tor in securing peace in the far east. But withal she is doing nothing larger than the attempt to connect the At lantic and Pacific oceans by a water way through the isthmus of Panama. This is admitted to be the most gigan tic engineering feat ever undertaken by man. Longer canals h.-iv'e been made. The Suez ditch, i\»r example. But none of them has presented the difficulties that are encountered at Panama. Digging through a mountain range is a new proposition. De Les seps was successful in making the Suez waterway. Yet he fell down on Pana ma. It remains for Uncle Sam to do what France failed to do. Will he suc ceed? Who, knowing his history and spirit, can doubt it'( If faith, grit and determination can overcome the passive resistance of nature lie will overcome. He has conquered a conti nent, won in five wars and for the first time in history lias made representa tive government a shining success. What is the mere constructing of a ca ual fifty miles long to compare witli these larger accomplishments? Of course he will win. The American pea pie are a unit on this undertaking, and when the American people unite oppo sition might as well get out of the 1 way. This is not boasting; it Is simply the will and the consciousness of abili ty to perform. The Panama canal will be built. The nation is pledged to reach that goal. It has set its hand to the task, and every American should have too much pride in his country to see it fail. World's Great Highway. Almost since the discovery of the new world men have dreamed of unit ing the two oceans. The scheme was definitely broached in the early part of the sixteenth century. Now, in the be ginning of the twentieth, the thing is to he done. A problem large enough to engross the attention of men for 400 years is large enough for a great nation to undertake. A result that will bene ficially affect the commerce of the en tire earth Is sufficiently important that no possible effort should be neglected for its r accomplishment. Prophetic minds have foreseen that some day. and no very distant day at that, the greatest civilization the world has known is to fringe the shores of the Pacific. That ocean, rather than the Atlantic, is to be the w ; rld’s great highway. The Panama canal will be the gate to the Pacific, and with Its completion it will open the door to a new >ra. These are the larger aspects of the case, and a thing is never really seen until it Is s(wn at its best. It is from this higher viewpoint that the Ameri can people should behold the under taking. The vexatious details of sani tation, engineering, shaping of rivers and digging the waterway, must of course be encountered. But these should never obscure from our sight the final goal. This is really a great thing we have set out to do. It will benefit all mankind. It will be a mile post , in history. It will make for the future. What are a few comparative ly small obstacles that they should stand in the way of tills larger good? PacHIc Civilization. It is not without interest that much of American history for the last decade has had to do with this future Pacific scV V.'r.lt Whit-man, with his eoi* mie vi. ion. w much of this ihiqg thui is now shaping I’cihaps> .'mini Hay. with I'l*' farsighted statesmanship, had the same object in-view. At any rate, it is plainly coming, and In bringing it i bout no one step will be more impor tant than the con traction of the Pana ma canal. Passing from the general to the par ticular, the present status of the work on the canal can he simply told. Tin re are about 10,000 men now employed, most of whom are engaged in the »<• lual digging of the big ditch. The hu gest force of the.-e is at work on what is known as the Culebra cut. which was started by the French under De Lesseps. This cut is across the moun tains, where the largest amount of ex cavating must be done. The cana! crosses the range at its lowest point, hut even at this the hills are iu the neighborhood of 300 feet above the lead of the sea. The French cut down about half of the way. and the Ameri cans have taken up the work where they left off. Now all this may look easy on paper, but that first 150 feet exhausted the French nation—or that and the climate and the grafting alto gether did it—and that was the least difficult end of the work./ Digging out the bottom of a mountain range is a harder proposition than digging out the top of it, and it is the bottom half of the contract that we have on our hands. No Time Being Lost. The sinking of that other 150 feet is i: >t all that will have to be done, how ever. for the ditch itself must be at h t forty feet in depth. This is sup- po> g of course that the canal is to be :: ea level affair, a point that is by no means settled. Most of the engi neer- favor that plan, but congress must m e the decision. It is estimat ed that ii would take $80,000,000 more to build a ea level canal than one with locks at i • sixty foot level, and it is practically < ertain that it will not go above the s'. Iy foot level. It will also require at lea^two years’ additional time. The \ irk that Is now being done is such tiiat would have to be done whatever the level. Thus no time tropical native to do, and that is to pro vide for proper sewers in the towns and cities; second, they have got pure, fresh water from the mountains; third, they have provided proper rales and regulations for protecting the physical wellbeing of employees; fourth, they have provided suitable hospitals and medical attendance. The result is that the death rate is only an Infinitesimal part of what it was under the French regime. Immense Progress Made. Another great work done by the 1 An ' i lean commissions has been in .imv after the proper housing and f. ling of the men. This has been a gigantic task in itself, but is now well under way. Then there is a railroad i to run, which belongs to Uncle Sam, as well as a steamship line from Colon to New York. The railway proper is ouly about forty-five mile's long, but it has numerous spurs and sidetracks amounting to about 200 miles In all. Then there has been all the French ; machinery, much of which had been al lowed to rust and go to ruin, to reno vate or throw into the scrap heap, as the case seemed to warrant. In add! tion to all of tills, there has been an immense amount of surveying to do. All these different departments of the ; work are organized, and immense prog- I ross lias been made under each head. Taken all in all, there is nothing dis couraging in the situation up to date. The ohly things that can defeat the work or very materially retard it are | red tape and grafting, and the presi dent has ; shown a very vigorous tend- ! ency to discourage both. He seems to think that the ouly way to dig a canal is to dig it, and as he is the boss of the whole job it may reasonably be ex pected that the dirt will fly. About Fifty Miles Long. The canal winds somewhat and is forty-five miles In length. With the dredging in the sea it wilk be about fifty miles all told. So far as the 1 plans have been perfected, it will prob ably be 150 feet wide at the bottom and at least forty feet deep. If built | at the sixty foot level several locks will be necessary. If at sea level one ; lock only will be required. This one lock, which will be near the Pacific entrance, will be for the purpose of ; shutting out the high tides on the Pa eifle side, the variation there being twenty feet as against only about four feet on the Atlantic side. The two untrnnces to the big ditch will be near rbil: -.a •• m " r\ l.te ra- - l—HOTEL FOR CANAL WORKMEN T-SJTE OF ATLANTIC ENTRANCE TO THE CANAL. 3-BLASTINO IN THE CULEBRA CUT. 4—CULEBRA HILL NORTHERN END OF THE CUT. The Hand That Wards Off Coughs, Colds, Grip And Restores Nervous, Dyspeptic Catarrh Wrecks. '/r 0 A "During the recent Grip epidemic, claiming a million victims or more, the efficiency of Peruna in quickly relieving this malady and its after-effects has been the talk of the continent!'—N. Y. Journal. N * ^ VUi w m ii,! L IKE . A DEMON grip has crossed oar conctry, leaving behind scores of physical wrecks. Victims of catarrh of the head, catarrh of the throat, catarrh of the lungs, catarrh of the stomach, catarrh of the kidneys, catarrh of the pelvic organs, are to be counted by hundreds of thou sands. Grip is epidemic catarrh, and sows the seed of chronic catarrh within the system. This is so true that few grip sufferers are able to make a complete recovery until they have used Peruna. Never in the history of medicine has a remedy received such unqualified and universal eulogies as Peruna. If you do not derive prompt and satis factory results from the use of Peruna, write at once to Dr. Hartman, giving a full statement of your case, and he will be pleased to give you his valuable ad vice gratis. Cured of Obstinate La Grippe. Henry Distin, the inventor and maker of band instruments for the Henry Distin Mfg. Co., at Williamsport, Pa., is probably the most active old man in Philadelphia to-day. He writes from 1441 S. 9th street, Philadelphia, Pa.: “I write to inform you that I had a bad attack of la grippe last December which lasted more than three months, and which left me with catarrh, and several of my friends advised me to try your wonderful medicine, Peruna. “I began w 1th a bottle the first week in March and it certainly did me a great deal of good. “I was so well satisfied that I purchased another bottle, and followed your directions which you furnish with every bottle, and I am glad to say that it has cured me. I shall certainly rec ommend the Peruna to all my friends.”— Henry Distin. Congressman Powers of Vermont Uses Pe-ru-na In His Family. Hon. ii. Henry Powers, writes from Morrisville, V t.: “Peruna I have used in my family with success. I can recommend it as an excellent family remedy, and very good for coughs, colds and catarrhal af fections.”—H. Henry Powers. Pe-ru-na For Catarrhal Nervousness and Stomach Troubles. Hon. W. J. Purman, ex-member of Congress from Florida, writes from 1421 Q street, N. W., Washington, D. G.: “Prom representations to me, from my own experience, I feel justified in recommending your Pernna to any and all persons suffering with catarrhal nervousness or stomach troubles.”— W. J. Purman. Address Dr. S. B. Hartman, President of the Hartman Sanitarium, Columbus, Ohio. Don’t Forget a When buying anything in my line for Is being lost, and Uncle Ram can heat the evidence and argumentsrbf the en gineers, after which he can render his verdict. Many Dams to Be Built. The cut through the mountains is ou ly a small part of the work. In addi tion, many dams have to be made, and one river that occasionally goes on a ranipage will either have to be domes tlcated or persuaded to go in some oth er direction. One proposition Is to dig a tunnel through the mountains and make tills river rim into the other ocean. But, then, turning an adult riv er from one wean to another is only n trifling proposition for your Uncle Sam uel to tackle. As. for the dams, the contemplated one at Bohlo Is to be abandoned for the simple reason that bedrock Is a couple of hundred feet farther down than was Imagined, and a dam that is not founded on the eter nal rock is like the house built on the sand. It would fall, and great would be tlie fall of it. One of the chief difficulties with Which the French had to contend was the elimate. Panama is hot, malarial, damp, discouraging and generally a tough proposition for civilized white men to run up against As for the na tives, they arc used to It. and they are so generally no account that It does not much matter as to them. They are too lazy to dig a ditch even for sow- »ge, much less a ship canal. So It Is absolutely necessary for Anglo-Saxons to do the work or at least to oversee It. As before stated. It was the climate and grafting that queered the French. But what Is climate to a Yankee? If It does not suit him he makes It over. This Is what lie has been engaged In doing at Panama. True, the sun Is as hot as ever, but It Is not the sun that kills. It Is the bad water, the unsani tary conditions, the failure to take pre cautions In safeguarding health. These things the Americans are In a fair way of overcoming. First, they have done what It never seems to occur to a the cities of Panama and Colon, the termini of the present Panama railway.. As to the time required to complete the undertaking, who can tell? The engineers say eight years for the sixty foot level and ten years for the sea level canal. To do the thing actually may take longer. The American peo ple must make up their minds to see the thing through whatever time Is needed. The same holds true as to ex pense. The engineers have figured on $230,000,000 for a sea level ditch and considerably less for a lock canal. It may be more than that. It Is one thing to build on paper and another to build on earth. But the American people have made up their minds to stay by the task regard less of expense—provid ed always that the money does not go into the capacious pocket of the grafter. At present we can reiit in the assur ance that the canal will be construct ed. Come what may, Yankee pluck and grit will see the thing through. Faith will remoye mountains, and Un clo Sam has 'faith. Besides, ho has dynamite, steam shovels and vim. No dinky little mountain range 300 feet htgli can stand before a combination like that. \ The Order of Goata. The Independent Order of Goats, a New Jersey fraternal organization which was incorporated recently at the statehouse in Trenton, has Its office at Montclair, says a special dispatch to the New York Times. The order Is formed for the relief of Its members, to pay death benefits and to promote fraternal Interests of Its members. New Way to Flaht Moaqnltoea. A Memphis (Mo.) man has discovered a new way lo get rid of mosquitoes, says the Kansas City Star. He says to rub alum on your face and hands. When the mosquito takes a btte it puckers its buzzer so It can’t sting It sits down In n damp place, tries to dig the Juncker loose, catches Its death of cold and dies of pneumonia. Neckties, Suspenders, Mufflers, Silk Handkerchiefs, Fancy Vests, Stick Pins, Hats, Shoes and Clothing. The earlier you buy the better you will be pleased. Better buy now before tlie rush. Get what you want and buy sensible gifts like I sell—Good Clothing, Shoes, Hats, or anything in my Furnishing Department make Christmas Remembrance worth while. Long after the llowers have faded and' the knick-knacks have been de stroyed, the present you buy here for your loved ones will remain as a lasting me mento of a Happy Christmas. Fifty-eight Drummers’ Samples of Men’s Suits in all shades; no two suits alike in whole lot; both double and single breasted styles. We Are selling them at COST. Also Big Lot of Ladies’ Cloaks and Jackets at the lowest prices that any were ever sold.for in Gaffney. Be sure to seo them. BIG LOT OF MEN’S OVERCOATS to go for less than Wholesale Cost. $4.98 and up. If you see them you will get one. You have the money, I have the goods. You need the goods, I need the money. LET’S SWAP. Nelson, The Star Clothier. Opposite The Postoffice, Gaffney, S. C.