The Cortland News, Friday, May 4, 1883.
Topics in the Tropics.
Letter from D. Eugene Smith.
Aspinwall, March 21, 1883.
Colon, Panama Canal.
After enjoying the delightful climate of San
Jose for a few days, and a fortnight of life in the woods, and after waiting a
week in Port Limon for a steamship, I came by the Royal Mail to this place. In
America we speak of it as Aspinwall, but it is always known by the name
"Colon" down here. If Americans wish Mr. Aspinwall's memory to be
cherished by posterity, they best select a fitter monument to his enterprise than
this on which they wish to force his name. For Colon is probably the worst town
in the civilized world. It is built in a swamp; its drainage is poor; its
running water is poisonous, and its white streets reflect the sun's rays
intolerably. It is a town of tumble-down buildings, and the dregs of humanity, scarcely
knowing law, morality or gospel, and only inhabited for the sake of money-making.
The
god of the people is the Almighty Dollar, with its usual attendance of fallen
angels; their amusements are cock-fighting and drinking, and their occupation,
gambling. Of thirteen consecutive stores in a certain block I counted eleven
bar-rooms. In short, one may say that Colon is the rendezvous of the world's
adventurers; the "Five Points," "Seven Dials," of earth. I
may add, believing the expression pardonable now if ever, that Colon is termed down
here, with more force than elegance, "The Jumping-off Place to Hell."
A new
town is building about a mile from here, to which they contemplate giving the
name "Colombo." It is at the entrance of the canal, and is intended for
the employes [sic] on that work. It is a novel sight to see land raised,
streets laid out and houses erected before the occupants arrive, but so it is.
Acres of land are covered with temporary storehouses in which the immense
amount of machinery and working tools for the enterprise are kept. It looks
like the preparation for a great battle; and so, indeed, it is—a battle with
forty-seven miles of earth from one to two hundred and fifty feet above the
sea. Already the work has begun in three places, at Panama, in the interior,
and at Colon. That it will be completed is assured; when it will be, or whether
there is half enough capital raised to accomplish it, are questions that are
debated. The son of M. de Lesseps is at the head of affairs in Panama, and the
work is being pushed with energy.
I
leave here in a couple of days for New Orleans, visiting Nicaragua and Honduras
on the way.
D. E. S.
BANANA GROWING.
In
the North we have very little idea of southern fruits, and those which we do
see here are a kind of mystery to us. 1 doubt if a half-dozen people in Cortland
could give any idea of how a banana grows. You have asked me to tell your
readers, and 1 will try what information I can impart.
Bananas
have to be cultivated, like corn. They grow from shoots, or small plants, which
are put in hills, about 230 to an acre, the shoots costing $35 per thousand in
Central America.
In
about a year or year and a half they begin to bear. A stalk springs up and by the
time it begins to show signs of fruit another comes up beside it, so that new
stalks are always growing up to replace the old. The fruit comes out of the
top, exactly like the tassel out of a corn-stalk, and hangs over in the same way.
Indeed, a banana plantation looks somewhat like a gigantic cornfield, if one
can imagine the corn-leaves all growing about the top, and the stalk fifteen or
twenty feet high. The fruit is preceded by a red waxy flower, of no beauty. The
bananas point upward as they hang over on the tree, instead of pointing
downward as they hang in the stores [of the] North.
When
the fruit is ready to cut, the whole stalk is cut down, it being useless after
bearing. It is then used as a fertilizer. It is of the same texture as a
corn-stalk, and a botanist would say that it belonged to the great division of
endogenous plants, like corn, grass, sugar-cane, and all of our vegetables. It
soon decays, and enriches the soil with no expense. The bananas are not cut
until a steamer arrives for them. Then all is hurry and excitement. All of the
laborers are sent into the banana grove and the bunches are carefully laid by
the railroad track and covered with leaves to await transmission to the port.
Delivered at the track they bring forty cents (in our money) per bunch. A plant
bears from three to four bunches per year, and continues bearing well for four
years, after which they are renewed.
Plantain
trees are not so tall nor leafy as bananas. They bear about a fourth as many on
a bunch, but otherwise appear much the same. The fruit is about twice or three
times as large as a banana, but is of the same family. A mistaken idea prevails
in some parts of the North as to this fruit. It is that the green bananas are
plantains, and the red ones are bananas proper. The red banana comes from Cuba
and some of the other islands. The green ones are from the Isthmus and from
Central America and are much superior to the red. There is just as much
difference between a green banana and a plantain as between a muskmelon and a
pumpkin. The latter looks like the former, but is larger
and coarser grained, and must be cooked to be palatable. So a plantain is never
eaten raw but is either roasted or fried in butter. They are never seen in this
part of the country, though a few are shipped to New Orleans.
The
banana is scarcely ever eaten where it is grown. The plantain is a staple food.
The banana does not easily digest in a warm climate; and a sure recipe for
sickness is to eat bananas at will, especially if liquor is drunken with them.
Fortunately nature has decreed that there is little desire to eat them there so
that one does not suffer in consequence of abstinence. The banana is shipped in
great quantities to New York and New Orleans. Every steamer that leaves carries
from five thousand to ten thousand bunches, averaging perhaps about a hundred
to a bunch. They keep very well for a fortnight after picking if the air is
allowed to circulate freely through them. The trade is constantly increasing,
and the demand is still far in excess of the supply.
D. E. S.
Colon, Panama: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col%C3%B3n,_Panama
Panama Canal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Panama_Canal
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