The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-09-24
Philadelphia Ledger.

Tramp.
Philadelphia Ledger.
While recently in Aguadulce, near the
harbor of Panama, saw a barefooted ma
tive cross the plaza with packbasket
that was Of bell-shape. and had the wide
part uppermost-on a level with his neck.
That was an odd-looking packbasket in
the eyes of man from the Adirondacks,
and I followed the native into the prin-
cipal store of the town. There I found
the man taking few pounds Of coffee
from his basket and offering it for SALE
The merchant told me story about the
transaction.
+. Between 1885 and 1887 many of the
weather. men of the interior Of the 18TH
mus Of Panama were moved by stories
of great profit realized elsewhere in the
coffee business to undertake making cof-
fee plantations on the slopes Of the cor
dilleras Of the tsthmus. Hundreds Of
acres Of land were prepared. and thou
sands OF young trees were set out, but
for various reasons, the chief Of which
was a lack Of knowledge Of the business,
every plantation failed.
In the meantime. however. the men of
wealth had given away few trees to this
and that faithful peon or laborer. These
barefooted citizens, in most cases, owned
patches Of land Gland was to be had for
the taking and small fee), wherein
they had built little matched huts for
homes, and where they raised enough corn
and rice and other things to supply the
family. The young cofree trees given
them We're set out on these patches Of
land-in the shade Of the banana stalks,
usually, and were thereafter cared for in
the happy go-lucky fashion in which bare
footed Juan does all his work. ~
TO the establishment Of all the owners
tot fIa$h nI f,Sl
time came when the barefooted Juan be-
gan coming to town with a packbasket
full OF coffee for sale. The trees that
had been set out by twos and threes had
thrived. Naturally the peon increased his
stock OF trees. No great progress has
neen made-it is not in the nature of
things there for the peon to make great
progress-but it has been abundantly dem
onstrated that coffee planting is what
Rocky mountain miners call poor mans
proposition. The labor of one man is suf-
flclent to care for many trees, and to
raise corn and rice and pigs and chick
ems also.
And there is another kind of planting
that would pay still better in the low
lands of the isthmus, for there the va
mia bean grows wild. Any native after
learning how, might care for enough vines
to make himself rich, for vine in good
health Is said to yield enough beans every
W. Will ASA a OOlldI Ill SOlO, ana some
are known to yield five times that sum.
The matter seems interesting, because It
SHOWS that the workmen of the region
nave opportunities for material progress
ana also because the building of the Pan
anna canal is sure to draw throng Of
ehterprlslng people to this most interest
ing neck of land.
In the histories Of the region one NAV
read many interesting stories Of the gold
mat the Span1ards got from the Indians
OF the 1sthmus. Everyone remembers
now the buccaneers, after leaving the
town or Santa Maria. learned that they
nad arrived three days too late, for the
Span1ards had within that time shipne&
out three hundredweight of gold'' to
fanama' Dr. B. q. Fabriga of Aguadulce.
a graduate of Manhattan college and Of
the College of Physicians and Surgeons
OF New York, told me that his great
grandfather, in the year 1900, got so much
solo DUST from a stream In Veraguas that
When spread out on sheet Of canvas the
heap was from two to three inches deem
ana SO large that a boy could lie down on
II as on bed. One may suppose that
the placer diggings within reach have all
peen worked out, but it is certain that
no work worth mention has been done
on the Lodges known to exist, not to mora
than mention total lack Of systematic
search for gold-bearing reefs.
Don Juan Jose Diaz, formerly mayor Of
Fanama, a man who received a present
OF gold watch from the foreigners OF
the city because of his integrity, described
TO me mine wherein there was and Is
a vein Of free milling ore fourteen feet
thick between walls, every ton of which
yields from $3.50 to 80 in metal Other
veins still richer but Of more difficult &C.
:. cess were In the neighborhood. The don
mad 2-cent stamp mill on the property
and 1T was run once in while. With
that outfit the mine yielded a profit when
It was worked. But the don told me- TO
warn all capitalists to keep out of the
} mining business in Colombia. The Pc
/ cul1arities of the government were likely
to prove discouraging, for one thing.
Then men fit to manage mine in the
region were hard to find. If a man had
a single seed Of dishonesty in his makeup
1t would surely grow in that country.
!, For either the man would be overanxious
to get rich enough to- go back to God -
country" or he would take to the ways
OF the country there SO kindly that he
, would lose all interest In his employers.
Even an honest manager could not be
sure of making a mine pay, for the labor.
ers were not like those elsewhere Dig
cling ore was not wholly to their taste,
he said.
) had talk later with a peon who had
worked In the don's mine. He said he
y took contracts, which mean that he was
> paid by the ton of ore taken out He
, said he made $3.50 every day he worked.
That was high pay for the region. .
good hand in a canefeld getting but 81
cents. But this peon said he did not work
more than half the time while on thu
Job, and he finally quit it altogether and
went back to the Indianlike life on hi.
own patch Of land. He said that while
working at the mine he had no way Of
spending the money after he had earned
1t, and it did him mo good"
The life Of the isthmian cowboys might
be described in interesting fashion be.
cause Of the tremendous contrast afforded
ltwhen It Is compared with that OF the
cowboys who used to gather at Dode,
City when that was the principal shippfns
point Of the American plains. The life
Of the West Indian negro who drifts abou
the interior of the isthnust would b.
worth consideration in any story O
trampdom But the facts about masor
whom met in the little village Of RENE
dios must serve for the last of the glfmp
ses of the workmen Of the new republic
This man had been q sailor on O. Sal
Francisco schooner for something over :
year, and he had acquired fund Of fore
castle and longshore' English that in hi
mouth was laughable rather than shock
ing. Hearing Of my arrival, he hunted n,
up for the sake of talk in English
After time he told me that his hom
was In David, and that he had come t
4 Remedies to work at his trade-he was I
build an adobe house. In answer to :
Equestion he said he was to receive 81 20
day for his work, and he added that tina