Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-12-11
WAR A NATIONAL GAME
CENTRAL AMERICA so REGARDS ITS
CONSTANT REVOLUTIONS.

| A few days before sailing from Lon
don, writes Sir Martin Conway, the
distinguished mountain climber, to the
London Times, l met a Columbian
! gentleman. rs it true that there is a
revolution going forward in your coun-
;syf" asked. THAT is nothing" was
f.sS reply; "it is our substitute for
| cricket. Our young men must have
their game" A month later l saw the
game played. 1t proved to be not un-
exciting.
| On the morning of July "a we landed
at Colon. the local newspapers were
! silent about the existence Of military
operations, but report said that Pana-
ma was besieged and was to be
stormed that day. "Besieged," snort
| ed our Yankee skipper. Il have seen
these disturbances. Two small bodies
of opposing troops come in sight of
one another They fire thets guns in
the air and then they run away in op-
posite directions. That is a Central
American revolution. You won't have
any trouble" We climbed on board
| IhS LlOl Hin5 tldlu, WulCu pIaL tSu, do
usual, from Colon. | sat beside a
French engineer of the Panama canal,
and was fully occupied for two or three
hours of the journey in observing the
works accomplished or In progress,
which he explained to me- Three
thousand men are still continually at
work, and the great Culebra cutting
has been excavated down to the level
OF DO metres above the sea. At Guile
bra the engineer left me, and a short
time afterward the train halted in the
outskirts of Panama. We had heard
no firing, and were skeptical about
there being any fighting Looking for
ward along the line, l saw a man wave
his hat and the train began to ad-
vance 1t entered a shallow cutting
with high bank on the right (Pan-
ANA behind iD and low one on the
left. Looking to the right we saw a
few armed men, and presently discov-
cred that the whole length of that en-
banlment was intrenched and lined
with riflemen, whose heads occasional
ly peeped over and looked at us. Three
hundred yards or so to the left, in a
scrub-covered swamp, were an indie
terminate number of men, the attack
ing force. Across the line little way
ahead was a road bridge, which proved
to be the object of attack, A few
hundred yards further ahead was the
corrugated iron railway station, end
ing in a warehouse carried on q pier
stretching out into the sea- We had
not advanced many yards toward the
bridge before a few shots were fired,
the temptation of the heads peering
over at the train probably being too
much for the attacking force. They
were at once replied to, and before we
realized what was happening the train
was between two lines of some 1000
fighting men, separated by less than
quarter of a mile, and pumping lead
at one another from Mauser rifles. A
shell dropped near the bridge as we
crossed below it. The men on our
right fired over the train, but the car
riages were often exposed to the insur-
gents on our left, and bullets camo
over in a horizontal stream, the car
riages being freely hit. Down on tho
floor dropped the passengers with sin
gular unanimity. "All come forward
to the baggage van," shouted the
guard; and forward they went along
the corridor of the train, grovelling on
hands and knees, the funniest sight
Imaginable.
In this condition the train stopped
in the goods station, and every one
was left to shift for himself. There
WERE of course, no porters or officials
| of any sort; there was nowhere for
the passengers to go. Bullets were
coming freely through the shed, and a
| few hours later our train was itself
the main point of attack, the two op-
posing forces fighting between the
wheels and through the windows. At
present, however, the attack was only
beginning to be pressed home. The
passengers having local knowledge
melted away in a moment, and we for
eigners, a dozen men, were left like
sheep without shepherd.
l sailed forth down bullet swept
street and then round a corner.
passed carts laden with dead and
| NcuhNSu' puiiplu5 hlucOuSly dSdli4SI
one another over the uneven road. The
streets were practically deserted, but
almost every house displayed a flag,
English and American flags being
commonest-any flag, indeed, except
the Colombian. 1t looked as though
some fete was about to take place.
Through doors ajar and barred win
dows frightened faces peeped and with
drew. We passed two men firing their
rifles this way and that, in a state of
great excitement, either drunk or run
ming amuck. Bullets were always
whistling overhead and pinging against
the houses
Neither side had any ambulance ar
rangements worth mention. Asked for
their ambulance, the insurgents pro-
duced two spade. Accordingly Capt
Fegan lanOed an ambulance party and