File:Panama and the canal in picture and prose (1913) (14596541988).jpg

Identifier: panamacanalinpic01abbo (find matches)
Title: Panama and the canal in picture and prose ..
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Abbot, Willis John, 1863-1934. (from old catalog)
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Publisher: New York (etc.) Pub. in English and Spanish by Syndicate publishing company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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^ land orwater, but for a long time without avail. Under thedirection of the United States officers, however, theproblem was solved, and today the streets ofColon are as well paved as those of any Ameri- 36 PANAMA AND THE CANAL can city, vitrified brick being the material chieflyused. In the days when there was no pavement therewere no sewers. Today the town is properly drained,and the sewage problem, a very serious one in atown with no natural slope and subject to heavyrains, is efficiently handled. There was no watersupply. Drinking water was brought from the failing died like the flies that swarmed about theirfood and their garbage indiscriminately. Not untilthe Americans declared war on filth and appointedCol. W. C. Gorgas commander-in-chief of the forcesof cleanliness and health did Colon get cleaned up.About the base of the Toro light cluster thehouses of the engineers employed on the harborwork, and on the fortifications which are to guard
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bottle alleyA typical Colon street before the Sanitary Department concluded the work of cleaning up mainland and peddled from carts, or great jars bywater carriers. Today there is an aqueduct bringingclear cool water from the distant hills. It affords astriking commentary upon the lethargy and lazinessof the natives that for nearly half a century theyshould have tolerated conditions which for filth andsqualor were practically unparalleled. The Indianin his palm-thatched hut was better housed and morehealthfully surrounded than they. Even the French failed to correct the evil and so the Atlantic entrance of the canal on the west side—other defensive works are building about a milenorth of Colon. To these and other forts in courseof construction visitors are but grudgingly admittedand the camera is wholly taboo. They are stilllaughing in Col. Goethals office at a newly electedCongressman—not even yet sworn in—who wrotethat in visiting the Canal Zone he desired particu-larly to mak

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