Relating to Phineas Barton
Phineas B. Barton was in his own way an extremely pleasant and jolly
man, but he required a great deal of knowing. He was moderately tall,
clean shaven, as is the typical American of to-day, fairly good-looking,
and about forty years of age. When he liked he could be voluble enough,
but as a general rule his conversation was chiefly noteworthy by its
absence; for Phineas was undoubtedly prone to silence and taciturnity.
"It's like this," he explained to Jim; "I'm boss at the present time of
the foreign labour we employ on the Panama Canal works, and guess I have
to talk most all the day when I'm at work. So a fellow gets used to
keeping his mouth shut at other times, so as to rest his jaw. Glad
you're coming out to my quarters."
He had thanked Jim quietly and with apparently little feeling for his
action in plunging into the sea to save him when the steamer foundered,
and after that had said not a word. But that did not imply that Phineas
was ungrateful. It was not in his nature to employ many words; he had
decided to show his gratitude in other ways. It was for that reason, no
doubt, that he had invited our hero to his house. And, now that the
whole party had disembarked, he proceeded to lead the way.
"Got any traps?" he asked.
"Not a stick," Jim answered. "We're here as we stand up."
"Then transport isn't a difficulty. It's nine miles to my quarters, and
the railway will take us there quick. There's cars going one way or the
other most always; come along to the terminus."
Jim and his comrades had no idea of the work which was going on on this
narrow isthmus of Panama, therefore the reader may imagine that he was
intensely surprised, once he and his friends had left the one-storied
dwellings of Colon, to find human beings seething everywhere. Bands of
labourers of every colour were working along the route where the canal
would open into the Caribbean, while heavy smoke and the rattle of
machinery came from another spot farther on.
"Where we're getting to work to cut our locks," explained Phineas,
nursing his broken arm. "It's there that I broke this arm of mine two
weeks ago. I was fool enough to get in the way of a dirt train, and of
course, not having eyes itself, it shunted me off the track with a bang.
That's why I was on my way back to the States; but guess that holiday'll
have to wait. I'm keen to get back to work."
From the open car in which the party was accommodated he pointed out the
various features of the isthmus, and in particular the works of the
canal. And gradually Jim gathered the fact that this undertaking upon
which his country had set its heart was gigantic, to say the least of
it.
"No one knows what we're doing save those who've been here," said
Phineas, a note of pride in his voice. "Back home there's folks ready
enough to criticize and shout that things aren't being done right; but
they ought to come right out here before opening their mouths. You've
got an idea of the canal, of course?"
Jim reddened. To be truthful, his own struggle to make a way in this
world had occupied most of his attention. He was naturally interested in
all that concerned his own country, but even though so near to the
isthmus he had never been farther than Colon when the ship put into
port, and whilst there had merely observed rather a large number of
policemen, both white and black. Of the huge army of workmen engaged in
the canal enterprise he had not caught a glimpse.
"It's an eye-opener, this," he admitted. "I had no idea there were so
many men, or so much machinery, though if I had thought for a little I
could have guessed that there must be a bustle. As to the scheme of the
canal, I haven't more than the vaguest idea."
"And I can't give you much information here. We'll want to get aboard an
inspection car and run right through. That'll be a job for to-morrow.
We'll have the inspector's car, and run along to the other side. But,
see here, this canal's the biggest thing in canals that's ever been
thought of. The Suez Canal don't hold a candle to it. The Kiel Canal is
an infant when compared with what this will be when it's finished.
There's fifty miles, or thereabouts, of solid dirt between Colon and
Panama, and America has decided to get to at that dirt and cut a way
clear through it, a way not only big enough to take ships of to-day,
but to take ships of to-morrow, ships that'll make the world open its
eyes and exclaim."
The very mention of the work made Jim gasp. He asked for particulars
promptly. "It'll take a heap of time, I expect," he said. "Reckon a
canal a mile long and fifty feet wide by thirty deep isn't dug in a
day."
"Nor hardly in a year. But we're not digging all the way," explained
Phineas. "America has selected what is known as the high-level canal;
that is, she's not just digging a track clear through from Atlantic to
Pacific, a tide-level canal as you might call it, for there are
difficulties against such a scheme. To begin with, there's a tide to be
reckoned with at Panama, while this Atlantic end has none; which means
your water level at the Pacific side is different from that at the
Atlantic. Then there's river water to be contended with. This isthmus
gets a full share of rain, particularly near the Atlantic, and the
rivers get packed with water in a matter of a few hours. Well, you've
got to do something, or that flood will swamp your canal, wash away your
works, and do other damage."
"Then the high level has fewer difficulties?" asked Jim.
"You may say so, though the job is big enough in all conscience. Shortly
put, it's this. We begin the canal by dredging in Limon Bay, right here
beside Colon, and cut our dirt away, in all for a matter of just over
seven miles. Then we build three tiers of double locks, which will take
any vessel, and which will float them up in steps to the 85-foot level.
Once up there the ship steams into a huge lake where there's dry land
to-day. We get that lake by damming the Chagres River right there before
us, at Gatun, throwing the water back into a long natural hollow, and
when the work is finished we shall have a body of water there
four-fifths the size of Lake Geneva. Anyway, it'll allow a steamer to
get along under her own power till she arrives at the other end of the
lake at Obispo. Even then she uses her own power, though she has to slow
down. She enters what we call the Culebra cut, just nine miles long,
where we are burrowing our way through the hills. That's one of the
biggest of our jobs. You'll be interested when you see it. We've a small
army of men at work, and rock drills and steam shovels are going all
day, while dirt trains travel to and fro more often than electrics in
the New York subway. Then comes a lock at Pedro Miguel, and another at
Milaflores, which let our ships down to Pacific level. Way down at that
end we've a lot of dredging to do to clear the below-sea track of the
canal."
Indeed it was no wonder that Phineas found it a matter of impossibility
to describe the gigantic, herculean task which America has undertaken.
Moreover, it may be forgiven our hero if he failed, in such a short
space of time, fully to comprehend what was being done. A canal was
being fashioned, that he knew well enough, and now Phineas had given him
a rough idea of its direction, and of the methods to be employed to
obtain a waterway from one ocean to the other. The rest had necessarily
to be left to the imagination, and to the moment when clear plans of the
works could be studied.
"But you know a bit about it, and that's good for the present," said
Phineas. "I'm not going to give you a bad headache right off by throwing
more particulars at you, though I fancy you'd be interested to know just
one or two items."
"And those?" asked Jim, by no means bored with the description. In fact,
like any healthy youngster, he was intensely interested in this canal,
and was burning with impatience to see all the machinery employed, the
methods used by the engineers and their staff to bring about the various
works. "I'd give something to see the lake," he admitted. "Almost as big
as that of Geneva? Gee! That's a whopper."
"You may say so," agreed Phineas, again a tinge of pride in his voice.
"There'll be somewhere about 160 square miles of water in that lake, and
a fleet will be able to lie to in it. Those locks at Gatun, which are to
be double--one for steamers going up, and the other for ships coming
down--will each give a usable length of 1100 feet, which is a good 300
feet longer than any ship yet afloat. They'll be 110 feet wide, and have
a minimum depth of 41 feet. Put that all together, and remember that
when the gates of the locks are shut, and water allowed to come down,
the biggest battleship yet heard of will be lifted solid just about 32
feet, and then warped on into another lock as like the last as two peas.
In less than an hour we'll raise a ship up to our high-level canal from
the Atlantic, and we'll do it, sir, as easy as you lift rowing boats
down on the rivers."
Phineas went hot at the thought of the undertaking, and, looking at him,
Jim could see that the man was filled with a huge pride, with a
tremendous fixity of purpose, the courage and tenacity to push on with a
labour which his country had begun, and which the honour of the nation
demanded should be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. And in a little
while Jim understood that there was not a white employee engaged on the
isthmus who did not dream of the day when the canal would be opened,
when their own countrymen, some of whom at this moment were ready to
discount their labours, would be amongst the keenest admirers of the
finished task.
"But guess it's time we thought of the house," said Phineas, dragging
his attention away from the works before him. "I've a shanty way up the
hill there, with a housekeeper to look to it for me. She'll take care of
Miss Sadie."
They descended from the car and slowly trudged up the hill. Then Phineas
gave them a welcome to his home.
"Looks cool and nice; don't it?" he remarked, as they ascended a flight
of steps leading on to a wide veranda. "I can see you looking at my
windows, young man. Well, we don't have any out here. A chap gets to
live without them easily enough. There's just copper gauze right round
the veranda, and the same over the window openings. Most days it's so
hot one doesn't think of their absence. And if a cold spell comes, one
can easily put on something warmer. Now we'll get along in and feed. Ha,
Mrs. Jones, that's you again! You didn't think to see me back so soon,
till I telephoned from Colon. This is Miss Sadie, and this is Jim, the
young man who rescued me. We're just hungry, so we'll come right in if
things are ready, and Tom here, and Sam, and Ching can get round to the
kitchen. You'll find 'em useful boys."
The widow who looked to Phineas's affairs was a pleasant woman, and gave
our hero and his sister a real welcome. As to the negroes, though she
looked at them askance at first, she rapidly found them a blessing. For
Tom installed himself as butler unasked, while Sam carried dishes to and
fro. Ching settled down to the work of washing up the things as if he
had been brought to the isthmus for that very purpose.
"All of which just makes things slide along as if they were oiled," said
Phineas with a glad smile, as he lolled on his veranda afterwards.
"See here, Jim, them boys of yours can go along helping Mrs. Jones while
you're here; but of course, if they were at work on the canal, they
would have their own quarters along with the other coloured men. Pity
you're not staying. Where do you go after New York?"
It was a leading question, and Jim explained his position frankly.
"I don't complain," he said, "but we certainly have had our share of ill
fortune. First Father lost his money, then his life. Afterwards my
brother went off his head with fever, and was lost in the forest way
down there below Colon. I've got to find work other than diving."
"You've done a bit of that, then?" asked Phineas.
Jim nodded. "A lot," he said. "But I'm not really skilled."
"You've handled tools and machinery?"
"Many a time; Father made me learn from the very beginning."
"See here!" cried Phineas suddenly; "you're after a job, and look to
earn dollars. Well, there are dollars to earn here for a good man. Try a
spell on the canal works. We've vacancies almost all the while, for men
get tired of the job, while others fall sick. Then there's every sort of
work, to suit the knowledge of everyone. Of course white men have the
pick. They're skilled men, and naturally enough they get posts of
responsibility. Some drive steam navvies, others rock drills, while some
are powder men, and place the charges which we fire every night after
five. At the locks there's pile driving and concrete laying, with white
men to run the engines or supervise. As to diving--well, there may be
some of that, but it's the land we're chiefly engaged with."
The temptation to accept the proposal right off was strong, and Jim
found it difficult to keep from answering. Then he suddenly asked a
question.
"There's my sister," he said. "I suppose Tom and the others could easily
get work, and so stay here; but this place hasn't the best of
reputations for health. I must look after her."
"And she'll be as well looked after here as anywhere," said Phineas
eagerly. "We're high up out of the valley, the house has lately been
built, while that yarn about the health of the isthmus is old history.
We've changed all that. An American army surgeon, with others to help
him, discovered that yellow fever was given by a particular form of
mosquito. Well, he set to work to find where that mosquito lived and
bred. Then he formed a sanitary corps, drainage was looked to, scrub
cut down, windows barred by copper gauze. And we've fixed that mosquito.
Yellow fever is now unheard of on the isthmus, while there's very little
malarial fever. The canal zone, particularly in these high parts, is as
healthy as New York. Come now."
"I agree to stop if she cares to do so," cried Jim suddenly, for there
was an eagerness about the man before him which captivated him. It was
clear, in fact, that Phineas was anxious that Jim should stay; and since
he promised work, and stated that no harm could come to Sadie from
residence there, why, if matters could be arranged, Jim made up his mind
he would stay. Perhaps here he would find the means to cut the first
steps in that flight which was to lead to a revival of his fortunes.
"Then here's a plan," said Phineas. "I'm real glad you'll stay on here,
for I want a companion. I lost my wife five years ago, and by rights
should be living way over there in one of the hotels the American
Government has built for its employees. But I chose to have a house
alone, and at times it's lonesome. You'll stay along with me, and
Sadie'll have Mrs. Jones to look after her. There's a Government school
a quarter of a mile away, with plenty of boys and girls going. As for
the darkies and the Chinaman, I can't promise anything at present.
Depends on the work they have to do; but I've an idea I could make that
fellow Tom extra useful."
Exactly what was in the mind of this American official Jim could not
guess. He went to bed that night with a feeling of exultation to which
he had been a stranger for a long while, for Sadie had taken to Mrs.
Jones, and was delighted at the thought of remaining.
"Why trouble to go along to New York?" she asked him, in her wise little
way, when he asked her what she would like. "This place is glorious. The
view from the house is really magnificent, and there's no loneliness
anywhere. Look at the works going on, with thousands of men. Then Mrs.
Jones tells me that there are a number of boys and girls, so that I am
sure to have companions. You can earn good wages here, Jim, and perhaps
rise to a position of responsibility."
"Rise! that I will!" our hero told himself, for he was bubbling over
with enthusiasm. "I've myself alone to look to, and I'll work and make
those in authority over me see that I'm trustworthy. I'll show 'em I'm
not a skulker. Wonder what job I'll get?"
It was at an early hour on the following morning that he was up and out,
only to find Phineas abroad before him.
"That you, youngster?" he sang out cheerily, seeing Jim. "I've been down
to the office of the Commission doctor, who's fixed this arm for me. The
man who saw to it aboard the ship that brought us in hadn't too much
time, for there were others who'd been injured by some of those
Spaniards who'd been fighting. In consequence I had a bit of pain last
night; but I'm easy now. Let's get some breakfast, then you and I'll be
off."
An hour later found the two down at the point where the dirt trains were
already dumping their contents, and just where the huge Gatun dam was to
be erected, so, standing on an eminence, Jim was able, with the help of
his friend, to follow in a logical manner the plans of the American
engineers. For he could look into the long, winding hollow along which
at that moment flowed the tributaries of the Chagres River.
"It's just as clear as daylight," said Phineas, his face aglow, for
anything to do with the Panama Canal warmed him, so great was his
enthusiasm. "Away there below us, where you see two rivers coming
together to form what is known as the Chagres River, you may take it
that the level of the land is just a trifle above that of the sea, and
of course the water on this isthmus has found the lowest level possible.
It could not get away to the east because of the hill, and west here,
where we are, there's another. So that water just flows out between
them, the hills themselves forming, as it were, the neck of a bottle.
Well, we're just putting a cork into that neck. We're erecting a dam
across the valley between these two hills which will be 7700 feet in
length, measured across the top, while its base measurement will be 2060
feet."
"Enormous!" exclaimed Jim. "But surely such a tremendous mass is hardly
necessary?"
"What! with 164 miles of water behind it? Young sir, let me tell you
that there'll be a clear depth of water of 80 feet all along this end of
the lake we're forming. A body of water like that exerts terrific
pressure, and to make that dam really secure against a fracture, to make
an engineering job of it, as we should say, the dam ought to be
constructed of masonry built right into solid rock. But there ain't no
rock, more's the pity."
"None?" asked Jim. "Then you won't be able to use masonry?"
"Right, siree! But we're going to fix the business, and reckon, when the
dam's finished, nothing'll move it. Listen here, and jest look away
where I'm pointing. There's an army of niggers and European spademen at
work along the line the dam's to follow. They're working a trench right
across, 40 feet down into the soil. Those engines you can see smoking
along there are driving sheet piling of 4-inch timbers 40 feet down
below the bottom of that trench. When they have finished the job of
piling, the trench'll be filled chuck up with a puddled core of clay
that'll act like a sheet anchor."
"And so hold the dam in position," suggested Jim.
"Just what I thought you'd say. No doubt that puddled core will help to
hold the huge mass of earth that we're going to dump around it. But
we're working that piling in and making the core for another purpose
also. With a huge body of water in this hollow there'll be a certain
amount of soaking into the subsoil--seepage we call it. It might loosen
the ground underneath our dam, and so cause the thing to burst; but with
a 40-foot trench, filled with a puddled core which'll stop any water,
and this extra 40 feet of piling--just 80 feet of material
altogether--we stop that seepage, and at the same time kind of fix a
tooth into the ground that'll hold the weight of New York city."
The whole thing was gigantic, or, rather, the scheme of it all; for the
reader must realize that Jim and his friend were looking down upon an
unfinished undertaking. But those smoking engines and the army of men
at work were an indication of the enormous labour and skill required in
the erection of this Gatun dam, itself only one item in the numerous
works of the canal, though, to be sure, one of the vastest. In fact,
When Jim learned that from base to summit the dam would measure no less
than 135 feet, and would be 50 feet above the level of the water in
Gatun Lake, there was no wonder that he gasped.
"It just makes a man scratch his head," laughed Phineas. "And sometimes
it makes one inclined to swear, for there's folks in the States who
can't cotton to what we're doing here, and who wonder why there are so
many men employed and so much money being spent. They seem to think that
the canal ought to be finished in a matter of three or four years."
"Then the sooner they come out here and see for themselves what is
happening the better for everyone," cried Jim indignantly. "That dam
alone will take a vast amount of time, I imagine."
"Then you come along down here, sir, and I'll show you a work that's
just as gigantic."
Phineas took our hero to the western end of the trench across which the
dam would lie, and there caused him more astonishment. For here another
army of labourers was employed in delving, while enormous steam diggers
tore huge mouthfuls of earth and rock away from the sides of the cutting
that was being made to accommodate the double line of three locks which,
when America has completed her self-imposed undertaking, will raise the
biggest vessel ever thought of to the surface of the lake above, or will
drop her with equal facility down on to the bosom of the Atlantic.
"There's those steam navvies," observed Phineas, halting in front of one
and surveying it reflectively. "A man who runs a machine like that can
earn good dollars, and there's competition for the post. Say, Jim, how'd
you care to try your hand at it?"
The very suggestion caused our hero to hold his breath. It was not that
he was frightened by the mass of machinery; it was merely the novelty of
the work. He stepped a pace or two nearer before he answered, and
watched closely what happened. A young American, only a few years older
than himself, sat on a seat beside the gigantic main beam of the digger,
his head within a few inches of the flying gear wheels which transmitted
movement, while right beside him, fixed to the base of the steel-girded
beam, was the engine. One hand was on the throttle, while the other
operated a lever. Down came the huge bucket attached to the secondary
beam, the chains which supported it clanking over their stout metal
pulleys; then the hand operating the lever moved ever so little, the
chains tautened, and the hardened-steel cutting lip of the digger bit
into the bank which was being excavated. Deeper and deeper it went.
Glug! glug! glug! the machine grunted, while the tip of the main steel
girder, where the hauling chains passed over it, bent downwards ever so
little. A shower of broken earth burst over the edge of the digger, a
faint column of dust blew into the air, while the engine gave forth
another discordant glug. Then up came the huge bucket, crammed to the
very top with debris, the whole machine shuddering as the strain was
suddenly taken off it. But the man remained as composed as ever. He
touched another lever, causing the apparatus to swing round on its axis.
Almost instantly a movement from his other hand released the trigger
holding the bottom of the huge earth receptacle in place, so that,
before the machine had actually finished swinging, the huge mouth of
this wonderful invention was disgorging its contents into a dirt car
alongside.
"Fine!" cried Jim delightedly. "That's a job I should like immensely,
but I guess it requires a little training."
"Practice, just practice," smiled Phineas. "See here, Jim; this arm of
mine has started in aching again. How'd you care to stay along here and
have a lesson? That young chap's a friend of mine, so there'll be no
difficulty about the matter."
It may be imagined that Jim eagerly accepted the offer. He was keen
enough to accompany Phineas on his promised trip right along the canal
works, but already the sight of all that was happening round about Gatun
had been sufficient for one day, while the huge machine before him and
its cool and unruffled operator fascinated him.
"Gee! nothing I'd like better," he cried.
"Then come along." Phineas at once went close up to the machine, and at
a signal from him the operator brought it to a rest.
"Howdy?" asked the young fellow. "Getting in at it, Mr. Barton?"
Under the tan which covered face and arms there was a sudden flush of
pride which an ordinary individual might well have passed unnoticed.
But Jim was slowly beginning to understand and realize something of the
spirit that seemed to pervade every member of the whole staff engaged on
the isthmus. For there was no doubt that the completion of the canal was
a pet object to them one and all, an undertaking the gradual progress of
which filled them with an all-absorbing interest. Each mouthful of dirt,
for instance, which this steam digger tore from the ground and shot from
its capacious maw into the earth trains was a little more progress,
something further attained towards that grand and final completion to
which all were sworn.
"Howdy? Say, Harry boy, this here's Jim. You've heard of that little
business we had on the way to New York?"
The young man nodded, and regarded Jim critically. "Wall?" he asked
curtly.
"He's the lad that came along after me when I was left aboard the
foundering vessel."
The one who had been addressed as Harry dropped his hands from the
levers, swung round on his seat the better to gaze at our hero, and,
still with his eyes on Jim, replied to Phineas.
"I read it in the paper," he admitted. "How did it happen?"
Phineas promptly gave him the narrative, Harry meanwhile keeping his
eyes on Jim. Then, when he learned that our hero had decided to stay on
the isthmus, and seek work there, he climbed out of the narrow cab
bolted to the side of the digger, dropped lightly to the ground, and,
walking straight up to Jim, held out his hand.
"It's men we want here," he said pleasantly. "Guess you're one. Glad to
shake hands with an American who's done a good turn for my friend
Phineas. What job are you after?"
Jim told him promptly, while he exchanged his handshake vigorously; for
he liked the look of this young American, and took to him instantly.
"I'm not sure yet exactly what job I'll ask for," he answered. "Guess
I'm ready to take anything that's going; but I was wondering whether
you'd give me a lesson on the digger."
"Know anything about engines and suchlike?" asked Harry sharply.
Jim nodded. "Guess I do," he said, with that delightful assurance so
common to the Americans. "I've handled engines of many sorts,
particularly those aboard ship; and for some months past I've been doing
diving."
"Git in there," said Harry, motioning to the cab, "I'll larn you to work
this plant inside an hour or two. Then all that's wanted is jest native
gumption, gumption, siree, spelt with a big G, 'cos a man ain't no good
on these here chugging machines unless he can keep his head cool.
There's times when the digger pulls through the earth quicker than you
can think, and when, if you didn't cut off steam, you'd overwind and
chaw up all the chain gear. Then the lip of the digger may happen to get
hold on a rock that wants powder to shift it, and if there's steam still
on, and the engines pulling, you're likely as not to break up some of
the fixings, and tip the whole concern over on to its nose. Hop right
in; Mr. Barton, I'll see to this here Jim till evening."