contractors has been so seriously entertained. Contractors would furnish highgrade experts to superintend the dredging, the excavating and the concrete. work for the dams and locks; in addition to which they would hire all the laborers required-the upshot of the arrangement being that an immense amount of trouble would be taken from the shoulders of the government, which would merely pay all the wages and provide the food and other supplies, as well as materials for construction.

Under such an agreement the contractors would receive their own remuneration in the shape of an agreed percentage of the total cost of the work.

the ensuing appointment of Lieut.-Col. George W. Goethals to take charge of the task, has altered the whole situation and Col. Goethals is the man to whom the country is now looking for the realization of the great plans laid.

When the Panama steamship pulled out from the dock on the sixth day of March quite a crowd of friends and officials assembled to wish the new chairman of the Panama Canal Commission good luck and a safe voyage. A number of enthusiastic people on the dock showered the decks with snowballs, and the Colonel waved his hat and smiled beamingly upon the playful compliment, for it was the last glimpse of snow that will

greet his eyes for some time. Just before the ship sailed the Colonel was called upon to pose before a crowd of snap-shot artists. The sun beamed brightly upon the white decks and as the tall, commanding army officer stood for the ordeal a shadow fell across his face. "Put your hat back on your forehead," shouted a friend, laughingly, "it casts a shadow across your face." The Colonel shook his head and smiled. "Well, there is no shadow across your reputation anyway," called out his friend.

Colonel Goethal's departure was not characterized by the official distinction that was accorded previous Panama Canal Chiefs. A number of Congressmen who are visiting the zone were aboard, and the President's emissary, James Bucklin Bishop. When Colonel Goethals got ready to board the ship he found himself encumbered with his sword and some other official regimentals. He impetuously threw them into the hands of Mr. Drake, the Superintendent of the Panama Steamship Company, with a bland remark, "Here, Mr. Drake,

you take these; I won't need them down there."

The man who succeeds John F. Stevens looked as if he meant it. It ran through the minds of those who saw the act that this brilliant army officer at that moment and by that sign, divested himself of the gold braid and red tape of officialdom. He is a tall, sturdy, muscular looking man, with a ruddy complexion, a small, round face of pugnacious caste and has a broad forehead set off by a crown of pure white. Otherwise his appearance is youthful, his smile is pleasant, his lips are full, and he has the appearance of the typical well poised army officer. His eyes alone are the distinguishing characteristic in his countenance. They are large and flash with quick appreciation and perception. His hands are large and strong and indicate a practical nature. Col. Goethals gives the impression of strength and ability above the average.

Col. Goethals was pressed to give his opinion upon the situation at Panama and a forecast of what his immediate duties

would consist. He practically said that he was going to Panama, that he was a soldier and that he would obey orders. He is very taciturn and while very receptive of other people's opinions, reserves his own. It is known, however, that Col. Goethals, while enjoying the perquisite of some $15,000 per year in excess of his regular salary as Lieutenant Colonel, really goes to the Isthmus as a representative of his immediate Chief, Gen. J. F. MacKenzie, the head of the Engineer Corps of the Army. Col. Goethals has been instructed to make a full report of the situation, with recommendations, particularly with reference to the labor situation and the policy of letting the work out to private contractors. It is well known that the President found the labor situation very unsatisfactory at the time he was in Panama. One of the reasons that Gov. Swettenham of Jamaica was unpopular came from the fact that he was opposed to the Jamaican negroes going to Panama and getting "fancy ideas" on wages and manners of living. The new head of the Canal Commission must decide the questions of alien labor

and form a style of contract which will be satisfactory to the government, as well as open the field to the large contracting firms who are eager to get their share of the work. Major Goethals' experience in government harbor and river work, as well as his association as assistant to the chief of the engineering army, has practically fitted him for his work at Panama. He is a native of New York and graduated from West Point in 1880. He was assistant to Lieut. Col. Merrill, and later was professor of civil and military engineering at West Point. Since 1889 he has made his home in Washington, and to him have been assigned some of the most difficult tasks in the engineer corps of the war department.

Of

The government is now furnishing quarters and rations for about twentyfive thousand laborers on the canal. They are of many nationalities. Italians there is a considerable number, and nine hundred of the army of diggers come from the north of Spain. A few months ago bids to furnish Chinamen were invited, not to exceed fifteen thousand, and offers to supply them at the

low rate of nine to eleven cents an hour were received. It is altogether likely that much of the future work on the canal will be done by industrious persons with pigtails.

But at the present time a great majority of the laborers are "Jamaicans,"

on his head, place upon it a stone the size of a brick to hold it down, and in this manner will convey it to its destination.

They are remarkably unimaginative and literal, these Jamaicans. Not long ago an American official going over the

Panama Railroad heard the conductor of the train say to a negro who had confessed himself ticketless and penniless: "Then you'll have to get off this car!" The black fellow immediately walked to the rear of the car and jumped off, though the train was going thirty miles an hour.

In another instance the negro foreman of a gang working on a temporary railroad in the Culebra Cut deliberately left a switch open, allow-. ing an engine to run off the track and plunge down an embankment. When asked why he had not obeyed his orders, which were to flag any train that approached, he replied: "You tole me to flag a train, sah, but dis was a locomotive!"

which term is made, for colloquial purposes, to cover negroes from various parts of the West Indies, including Jamaica, Martinique, and the Barbadoes. They are exceedingly unsatisfactory, being lazy, shiftless, and indisposed to pay for enough substantial food to give them the strength requisite for the work demanded of them. Consequently the government has been driven to the expedient of giving them three square meals a day as part of their wages. Even so, however, they prove wretchedly unserviceable, a common practice of theirs being to desert the quarters provided for them, put up rude shacks in the edge of the forest, and content themselves with reporting for duty on three or four days out of every fortnight.

The "Jamaicans" are a very primitive type of negroes-not so very far away, indeed, from the aboriginal African. Their not-distant ancestors wore no clothes, and, having for this reason no pockets, were accustomed to carry even small burdens on their heads. Thus the Jamaican on the Isthmus, if entrusted with a letter to be delivered, will put it

The digging of the Panama ditch is not only the biggest piece of work ever undertaken by man (the building of the Pyramids falling almost into insignificance beside it), but decidedly the most picturesque. One feature of it consists of the removal of a huge mountain from one place for planting in another spot where it will furnish the requisite material for the mightiest dam ever known. By means of this dam will be created an artificial lake twenty-five miles long-a body of water somewhat irregular in shape and covering an area of one hundred and ten square miles.

This lake will extend from the Culebra Cut eastward to Gatun, where the great dam is to be located, and will receive its water supply from the Chagres River and from eighteen other streams of lesser importance, all of which will flow into it. At the Pacific end of the canal will be another artificial lake, of smaller size, spanning the distance of