The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1866-01-11

Jlme keeping up an lnceeeant ga0bllng
in French, German, Spanish; not one
word Of which we could understand.
Finally one of them struck 4 lead-he
asked John if he could talk "United
|States?" John told him he could talk
it almost as well as grown person,
whereupon the intelligent native (af-
ter q little parley with John, who had
constituted himself our business man, D
agreed to deliver our baggage at the
Howard House for "four bit" After
wading about four hundred yards
through swarm of fruit veHders. pic
peddlors, boot blacks, and the inter
esting professors of several other fine
arts We finally arrived at the Hocard
House. sl31 Jel TTe ffls
To call tia Hotel would be simply
ridiculous. John says one OF tho
Priests, (we had three Of them aboard)
having spoken Of it as atkoter upon
his arrival at the house counted Ills
beads and repeated a pater noster for
having given it SO respectable an a.
lie-ance. rs sot,as er
ItS part billiard room, part bar,
and part something else. Iknow Of
no word which will 80 fully express
| my ideas of the place, as that word of
soldier origin, ",Shebang." But she.
bang as it was, it was quite a relief to
get off the miserable old boat. The
ofice-it may .have been the bar--or
perhaps the billiard room, certainly
there was register and few OF those
things pertaining to the Office of an
ordinary hotel, yet the register was
laid out on q counter at which you
could buy "the stuff to make drunk
come at o quarter drink. At one
end of the room there were two bill
ard tables, and at the other three or
four round card tables at which sun
dry sable colored Spaniards were
gambling for Argadenti9 m1'at1.,a,
The edge of the sidewalk in front of
tho hotel, apd in fact along the whole
length of the street, was completely
barricaded with boxes and barrels, up
on the top of which there was a tempt.
ing display of tropical fruits, cigars
and all sorts of nick max and for eve-
ry box there was squallid looking
salesman. Some were genuine Afri-
cans; some were native Indians, diff
ering very little in appearance from
the negroes except in the hair; others
were Spaniards, while the greater part
of them were living and unmistakablo
evidences that our New Grenada
neighbors are theoretical as well as
practical followers Of Horace Greeieys
theory of miscegenatioa! i'.ni .'''a2,
| got a fresh cigar and Capt bought
a couple Of oranges aud we started out
on tour Of inspection. l had formed
an idea that Aspinwali was quite q
large place. In this | was mistaken,
In area ii is about as large as the
Fourth Ward in Lancaster, though /
should think IL had some three or four
Observation-Disclosures The houses are
all small frame buildings, packed
closely together, without any door
yards and every single house I saw in
town was both q dwelling house and q
place OF business. In q little shanty
would be a family Of ton or twelve
children, men, womon, and two or
three dogs and half dozen parrcts, A
little corner ten by twelve, would be
partitioned off in which they will sell
fruit, pics and cakes, tobacco and
drinks. principally winc l don't
think saw a single place in town at
which they did not sell all Of the above
named articles. o'i.@nI "a e'
On the tops Of the houses, fences and
trees there were scores of filthy, lazy,
looking bustards and carton eating
crows, together with some larger birds
of the vulturc species. Aspinwall
must be q rich place for such birds, for
there is certainly filth enough tofeed
an army of them, They are not only
permitted but encouraged thus to fra;
ternize with the people. And tits un
lawful to kill any Of them as they are
the only "health officers" of the place.
We returned to the quondamihotcl
thoroughly disgusted with AspinwaE.
Somebody romarking upon the diver.
sity of nationalities among the inhab.
itants Of the place, said that "there
was somebody from every place therc." "
/ was about to remark thatI didn't
think there was any one there from
Lancaster, when, as if to give me tho
lie, q well dressed gentleman stepped
up to me and said, allow arey-y-o.o.
I'd Ch-ch-ch-arley" II was ststtering
Tom Nunan, a Lancaster boy, and one
Of my schoolmates. lIo is in the en-.
ploy of the Pahhma Railroad Go. 4
By this time everybody was ashore
from the steamer, and as John OBJ
served, to man up q tree II looked
as if they were all drunk Anbit was
really sol Everybody soomed SO over
ljoyed at their release from the old
ship that they took to drinking the
wine, which was really excellent. |
speak from experience, and before II
o'clock every ono seemed gloriously
drunk-but me. lnN'2'A 'C'''9 iP9, ''t
Wednesday, 27th-Wc got an early
breakfast and 1890 took the train for
Panama. Just before leaving ! noticed
John making notes in his Journal II
ran thus "Aspinwall-latitude Z be-
4 longs to New Grenada; mighty hot ;
full of niggers, Indians and whisky II
Very brief but expressive o,,r h
\ They call it forty,two miles across
the Isthmus from Asplnwall to Pana-
ma. We were about three hours and
i half in making il. On arriving al