The main obstruction at Panama / Keppler.

Illustration shows a bloated businessman labeled "Railroad Interests" smoking a cigar and wearing a gold necklace of railroad passenger cars, sitting on the hillside at the Culebra Cut in Panama; he is speaking to Uncle Sam, who is standing on the edge of the Cut, his coat over one arm and holding a pick-axe with the other. Stuffed head-first, in the businessman's pocket, is John F. Wallace, chief engineer of the canal construction until his resignation in 1905.

Caption: Gentleman in the Background Sam, here's an engineering problem for you. If it'll take ten years to cut through Culebra, how many years will it take to cut through me?
Illus. in: Puck, v. 57, no. 1481 (1905 July 19), centerfold.
Copyright 1905 by Keppler & Schwarzmann.