People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1894 — COUNT DE LESSEPS DEAD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COUNT DE LESSEPS DEAD.

Distinguished French Financier and Engineer Fames Away. Paris, Dec. B.—Count FerdjnandTde Lesseps, who nas been one of the most prominent characters in France for more than a quarter of a century, is dead. The end of his life came after a protracted illness, induced and aggravated bv the severe strain to which

the distinguished man was subjected during the Panama canal scandals, trials and results. (Ferdinand Marie, Viscount de Lesseps, was born in Versailles, November 11, 1805. He received his early education in Paris, but finished it with his father, a consular agent, and lived with him in Philadelphia in 1819-22. He was consular agent at Lisbon in 1825 to 1827, and served afterwards at Tunis, Alexandria, Cairo, Rotterdam, Malaga and Barcelona. He was then appointed successively minister to Spain and to Rome. While on a visit to Egypt in 1854 he disclosed the project of a Suez canal to Said Pasha and two years later secured the desired concession. The canal was opened for steamers of light draught in 1865. and the full plans were carried to completion in 1889, Since 1873 Count de Lesseps has concentrated his attention to the Panama canal z It was in 1875 that de Lesseps inaugurated the movement that culminated in the canal congress of 1879 and the adoption of the scheme for uniting the Atlantic and Pacific at the isthmus of Panama, From the beginning the aged engineer and diplomat seems to have been as badly deceived and victimized as the public. Lying circulars were Issued, and the Paris and Panama papers were Induced to aid in the deception of investors, The magic of the name of de Lesseps caused the thrifty peasantry all over France to open their woolen stockings, and gold poured into the Panama treasury in a flood. The story of the extravagance and corruption which followed Is still fresh in the public mind. It constitutes one of the most disgraceful, as well as one Of the most gigantic swindles in history. At the time the exposure came the actual cost of the completed fraction of the canal—variously estimated at one-fourth, one-fifth and one-tenth—was $260,000,000, more than double the first estimate of the entire work. The money had gone into extravagant and useless outlay and into the pockets of the conspirators and those of leading statesmen and journalists in Paris. There was not sufficient evidence that either de Lesseps or his son had received any of the money in a corrupt way. but to satisfy the public rage both were convicted, although the sentence against de Lesseps, Sr., was never carried out. I

FERDINAND DE LESSEPS.