Wednesday, April 23, 2014

TOPICS IN THE TROPICS (Part Five)



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.


 

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