The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-11-19

Of the city of Colon at the Atlantic end of the railway, a comparatively
 friendly writer. the late United States
 Minister scruggs, writes: "The town of
 Colon is enYirOned by stagnant ponds
 and IagOons, and the inland breeze is always laden with deadly malaria.
 Sickening odOrs assail the nostrils at every turn. Even the dogs and don keys look forlorn and unhappy. You
 seldom hear hearty laugh or see a | cheerful face. The only species of ani- mate nature that seems to enjoy life
 here is the mosquito. He comes in
 swarms so thick you fear to take a deep l breath lest you inhale whole mouth ful of the poisonous pests" 1 These then, have been the gIaring
 defects of the people in the past-in- difference to the improvement of their physical environment, and disposi-
 tion to live on the passing traveller, to the neglect of their natural resources. ] But the causes of this lie not wholly, [ and not necessarily. in the very fiber of the people. There have been contribu- ting causes. In the first place the Pan- ! anna railway has not been a civilizing Influence. Wherever else on earth a railroad has been built, it has depended for it's revenue on the natural resources of the country, and has developed those resources by every means. But, in Pan- anna, as a matter of course, the railway is thing apart. Its all-suffieient source of revenue is transisthmian 1 traffic; the resources of the country it has deliberately neglected and this could hardly be for the country's good.
 Moreover, the people have had to en- dure evil government. Prof. Royce speaks of fairly good buildings bearing l the legend, National school" and finding the buildings barracks, This,
 of course, means ignorance, and in a
 country so near in stock to the abori-
 zines, ignorance means superstition. One traveller tells story of seeing in
 one of the little towns at night weird scene. "The people were busy exor- cislng witch. They had a fire built
 and by incantations had succeeded in inclosing the witch in wide circle, of which the fire was the center. Dane ing and chanting, they gradually closed this circle. At times the invisible witch mould make a rush to one side and you could see the circle sag as she pressed against it in her attempt to get out. But they chanted the louder i and held hands in the circle, and Sine was gradually driven toward the fire. As the circle grew smaller one and the other dropped out, and even to me look ing on it seemed as If some invisible object struggled against this circle, it l swayed and struggled so. At length it was narrowed to the very fire inself, and with great shout the witch was ] declared burned. as the flames leapt and then died down again. There cer- ltainly was the smell of scorched flesh, 1 for many of the frantic witch-finders their bare feet
 There are effects of ill-government even more direct than this. The whole 1 story of q rotten fiscal system and an lalmost incredibly depreciated currency ] is told in the bill of expenses sent by an I American salesman home to his house. I It included such items as these: Pres l sing trousers, $45; room at hotel $250; laundry for week, s6S0." The Colom- l bian paper change for an American $10 ! gold piece was so bulky as to necessi- tate local pickaninny as a page to carry it from bank to hotel. The local
 money has, however, very little real
 value, the rate of exchange being one
 to hundred; that is for United States dollar you get hundred dollars ! in Colombian bills. ITO send letters 5 home,' says traveller, T spend $1 for l Eve postage stamps. Yet postage ] there is cheaper than in any other \ country I have visited. A stamp for l foreign postage would cost five cents here. Tn Colombia it cost what was a fifth of q cent in our money. In the
 same way to buy a bottle of soda water
 and pay se for it sounds large, yet it is l only six cents in real value"
 l That the natural resources to make
 prosperions nation are in Panama Is 1 the evidence of every traveller. A. G. l Kingsbury, a Boston mining engineer, who returned but a few days ago, says I that "the country away from the sea cost town is in a large measure an ul. tanned wilderness where roam baboons