Evening star., 1901-06-18

Spent a Night in Jail in the City Of
Panama.
WASHINGTON CITIZENS EXPERIENCE
Taken for Revolutionists, Were
Not Allowed to Leave the City.
CONDITION OF THE CANAL

A party of Washingtonians has just re-
turned to the city after an interesting ex-
perlence with the Colombian insurrection at
Pana ma, United States of Columbia. Three
members Of the party while at Panama were
arrested upon suspicion of being revolu-
tionists and confined for one night in an
uncleanly Jail before they could establish
their identity. The party was composed of
Henry Brock, owner of the Congressional
Hotel; his son, Paul G. Brock; Arthur c.
Peters, son Of Commander Peters of the
navy; Perry Allen, son of w. H. Allen of
this city, formerly of the United States
Nicaraguan canal commission. and Otis NJ.
Cox well-known clubman of Philadelphia.
Messrs. Brock, Peters and Cox were the
only members of the party, however, who
became implicated in the revolution. The
from Panama at the time, did not learn of
the affair until next morning, by which
time the release of the young men had been
made.
Among the other members of the party of
Washingtonians were a number of civil en-
gineers under Maj. Harmon, en- route to
Guayaqun, Ecuador, where they are now
engaged in the construction of the Guaya-
quill and Quito railroad. one of the most
difficult engineering feats in the history of
South American railroads, although the rail-
road will Re only 16o miles in length when
Completed
Cox were on their way from New York to
San Francisco, by way of the Panama
route. on a pleasure trip. They left New
York on March 10 and encountered the cy-
clone of March p, when two days out of
port. This postponed their arrival at Colon
for several days
From Colon to Panama the route Of the
railroad is parallel to that Of the Panama
canal, and an excellent opportunity was had
to view the progress of the canal When
Panama was reached the city was in tur-
moil account of the revolution. Ihe
town was under martial law, and an attack
by the insurrectionists, who were encamped
in the mountains about the city In consider
able force, was hourly expected. Under the
circumstances the gentlemen went immedl-
ately to La Boca and took passage on the
first boat for San Francisco The ship, how
ever, was not scheduled to leave until the
next morning and Mr.. Peters. Mr.. Cox and
Mr. Paul Brock decided to visit Panama to
view the city, trusting to good fortune to
get back again.
Could Not Leave.
The young men remained in the city un-
til IL o'clock. When they decided to return
to La Boca, they found the city under strict
guard and martial law. They were
that nobody was allowed to leave
the city after 10 o'clock. They also learned
that the first train out of the city in the
was at 8 o'clock, and that the boat
on which they had engaged passage would
sail at 6.
After hurried consultation the young
men bribed IN Italian cab driver to take
them to La Boca, and at II o'clock they
started on an hour and half trip across
the mountains to the little town at the Pa
cific entrance to the Panama canal.
I'VE had accomplished about half the
distance" said Mr.. Brock this morning,
''and were congratulating ourselves on our
escape from the city. when suddenly, with
out any warning. the cab was surrounded
formed that we were prisoners. We could
not understand anything that was said to
us, and of course the ColombianS knew
nothing of English. The Italian cab driver
We were in doubt for some time whether
we had been arrested by the government
troops or by insurgents. Finally. however.
we were ordered to the ground and march
ed back to Panama This made us feel
somewhat easier. Here we were marched
before the perfecto of police, and lot Of
soldiers investigated us for almost an hour.
They must have decided that we We're rev.
for Mr.. Peters had purchased
a machette as souvenir, and looked very
warlike Accordingly we were carried to
jail. We tried to talk to the authorities in
bad French and in German, but they either
couldn't or wouldn't understand US. When
they placed us under guard Mr.. Peters sug-
gested that we take the jail away from
them. The Colombian soldiers are black.
very small and look to be delicate and
weak We decided, however, to do nothing
rash, although we could probably have
given them considerable trouble Mr. Pc
ters then orered the guard a bribe, but as
ne didn't show the money, for fear of being
robbed, he was not understood.
I'VE remained under guard in 1ail until
nearly dawn, when an officer who had been
on outpost duty came back to the city. He
spoke English, and the perfecto sent him
10 us we were granted an audience. BY
this time we were boiling with rage, and
we gave that little Colombian officer some
plain English. AS soon as they found ont
that we We're American citizens they be-
for us, and treated us with the most seryile
respect. They released the Italian cab
driver, restored his cab and sent MS on tn
La Boca. They even offered us a guard
which we declined.
Our troubles were not at an end. how
ever. About two miles outside of La Roca
the Italian surreptitiously took a long mis-
toi out of his pocket and placed it on the
seat by him. Mr.. Peters reached through
the window, secured it, removed the cham
per ana laid 1t back on the seat. In par
ticularly lonely place the cab driver at
tempted to hold us up. He couldn't under
stand why we laughed at him. He turned
on us suddenly, although we were watch
lllS IoF move Oh tnlS KIND, and dema nded
all Of our valuables. We joked with him
and the Italian became furious / imagine
that we broke down all of the established
precepts in Italian brigandage We still
had the machette, and might have over
powered him. but without resorting to
force we could not have made him drive
us any closer to La Boca. He was afraid
that we would report him to the police.
The driver sat on the road and refused To
move another STEP SO that we were Obliged
to make the. rest of the trip on foot. Each
of was loaded down with about fiftv
pounds of curios, and. to cap the climax,
we got lost. u.s.
When we finally staggered into La Boca.
completely eXhausted-for we wouldn't de-
sert a single one of the curios we had
bought-it was only to- find that the boat
did not leave until the afternoon
THAT was my first experience in a Latin
republic with revolution on its hands"
added Mr.. Brock. THE people there in
Colombia are excitable, and we were de-
cidedly fortunate to- escape without serious
injury. l suppose we had no business to
be roaming about the mountains In a cab
at midnight, especially at time when the
government was expecting to be overturned
at any time: but that didn't make the in
dignity offered to us any the less. At the
same time. we regarded the matter in the
light of joke. 'gt--'
II do not think that the present reyolu-
NI