The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1898-01-29

donkey one would almost wonder now they
could live.
Each train was in charge of but one man.
Very often he would not be in sight OF
them.
These donkies had Travelled back and
forth so often all they would have to do
was to load them up and get them started
for they know how to pick their way if
there was any pick in it.
All of these boxes were marked Wells &
Fargo's Express.
When we came within about five miles
of Panama we struck road pav,d with
cobble stones. This no doubt, has his
tory running back many years. Our hearts
began to tighten for we could move along
at good pace, and soon Panama Bay hove
in sight, with a large steamer anchored in
the distance.
We were soon on the outskirts of the
city, and passing through, to my recolieo-
ton, what appeared to be gap in wall,
as though there had been wall once
around the city of Panama.
We moved on down the street toward
the bay, looking at the cathedral and old
buildings all covered with tile, until we
come to the American or United States
hotel.
The name we thought was good enough,
so we halted there to take rest. We looked
up the street and to our great astonish-
ment, our donkey was coming along as
gentle as possible, but no native, we IN
loaded him, gave him pat and let him
20. One said, 'boys we are $4 in" Not
much, for the native was there on time.
We paid him contract price, then all were
satisfied. | forget to mention that one of
our attractions after we entered the city
was large show bill representing bull
fight.
After we got rested up little, we went
to the beach to take path; to wash off
some of the Isthmus mud. There was an
old Spanish fort close by, where we could
see crowd gathering. We concluded to
take that in, and soon found it was the
entrance to where the bull fight was to
take place. We paid our so cents to see
the show.
The old fort was used as prison. In its
walls were cells that were occupied by
prisoners. On top Of the wall there were
large brass guns almost hid from view by
growth OF weeds. In the fort or Jail yard,
a fellow was leading around an old poor
steer, with ribbons tied to its horns. A
pretty good sample of what we used to call
an ELK Neck ranger and boys were
carrying roosters under their arms and the
priest was in the crowd with his cock ed
hat and gown. About this time crowd
rushed toward the entrance We soon
found that there were about 300 of our
passengers fleeced out of so cents apiece.
The steamer that we saw anchored in the
bay proved to be the John l.. Stephen,
Capt. Pearson, that was to take US to San
, Francisco. They We're already Tightening
out the Wells * Fargo's express goods.
They fired a gun which was a signal for the
passengers to come on board 1t was calm
and the sea was smooth, and it was mt long
before all were on board, anchor up, and
on our way to Frisco My finances were
such that when bought my ticket, l
decided to try the steerage, believing |
could stand it, and would reach there if
the ship did. | don't care how good dis
position a man has, if he stays on ship
board long enough he will naturally be-
come growler.
We reached that poiut about our iood,
when actually we were fed better on the
Pacific side than we were on the Atlantic.
We growled at the steward, took samples
OF the mush and molasses to the captain
| The doctor tasted it and said if we could mt
eat that, he would prescribe cruel for u.s.
All of this was of no avail, and then we
went to stealing canned goods out of the
mess rooms. One of our chaps from Boston,
lowered himself through the skylight in
the upper deck into the bake room and
| passed up . loaves Of bread. While the
! eilpioSe S were lying dDOut Oh tdDleS ana
benches asleep, another fellow Struggled
himself aft and had two or three good
square meals with the first cabin pas.
sengers. He got caught in the evening
when all the passengers were on the prom
ena1e deck, he was brought out between
two sailors to take a promenade with q big
card on his back telling what he had done.
He didn't mind it, but it broke up the
stealing We steamed all the way up
within easy sight Of the Mexican coast,
nothing but mountains to be seen with no
heavy growth of timber, but thick growth
Of small stuff We were to stop at
Acapulco for coal, and the report was that
we were but short distance off. We
strained our eyes for an entrance but could
see no break in the coast, nothing but a
string of mountains as far as the eye could
reach Presently gap in the noun
tains opened up and the ship shaped
it's course for it, which told us twas
the entrance to Acapulco. We went
in but short distance and turned to the
left, which opened up to us one of the