The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-11
PANAMATANS MONGREL
IN RACE md DEPRAVED
SAVAGES IN CONDITION.
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not unpleasant. for upon their return they
So common has this practice been for many
decades among the San Bias Indians that
to-day the tribe understands and speaks the
English language freely, and While FORBID
ding him their coast after shutdown, is al
ways glad TO welcome and entertain an
EngliSh-speaking man during the day and
to trade freely with him. These Indians live
in the most primitive fashion, observing all
their tribal forms and ceremonies, and are
not. therefore. to be considered in connection
with the actual domestic and social prob
lens on the isthmus.
CONDITIONS MOST DEPRAVED.
These problems are many and perplexing,
by far the most interesting having to do
with the ninety and nine. This mass of the
population is thoroughly mongrel; to it NOR
atty, judged by modern institutions, is
thing entirely unknown. OF the pure
blooded Colombians or Spaniards there are
none to be found In the great body of the
people, This mass is composed of all races
and colors-West Indian negroes, Indians,
mulattoes, Chinese, debased whites, Syrians
Malayans, and the infinitude of others, who
have lived here for two or three decades
and blended their blood so Unfortunately
that racial types and characteristics have
been lost in bewildering mixture. Living,
as 1t does, entirely separate and apart from
ences, this great body of people has degen-
Grated naturally, until to-day IL occupies a
very low plane. In the City of Colon 1t in
habits bungalows reeldng with filth, built
over disease-breeding swamps that are
perpetually covered with a vile green scum.
1t threads its way in that city along narrow
board walks. edging streets that are filled
with growth of rank vegetation; or. where
the streets are over solid ground, that are
Uttered with refuse matter of every noXiOus
variety. For there are no amusements. no
entertainment The men, after their day s
work about the docks or in the railroad s
service is done crowd the saloons and
gambling houses. For the women there is
no fate better than monotonous days passed
at lounging about clad in the thinnest APP
parel, smoking black cigarettes, leerfng at
passers-by and minding the children, who
come literally in swarms, and who, clad
only in their pakedneSS, are raised I'm ig-
norance. iding away the days at play in the
mud and filth of the town. having as COM
panions others of their kind, a few NANCY
monkeys, two or three screeching parrots
or chattering parOquets, and generally a
sad-looking specimen of the fiea-bitten pig.
Under such circumstances one does not
look for culture or refinement; nor does
one wonder that people die in this fever
infected land. The wonder is that condi-
tionS are as good as they are; that any
body lives, instead of that some thousands
die every year.
In the Interior between Colon and Pan
ANA, and in those parts well away form
the railroad domestic and social conditions
of this republic the people live in meanly
built matched novels, or exist as squat
tiers" in the long-disused and decaying
canal company houses. In the villages
along the line of the railroad appear pow
erty and squalor in their worst forms, the
people budding together like bees in a
hive. living without thought or hygiene or
sanitation. and i'm homes so squaid that il
is a safe assertion that the meanest negro
in the most benighted section OF our own
South would not spend day amid such
CONDITIONS IN PANAMA.
In Panama conditions are no better. Pan
anna Ga famed city, a worlds capital and
the isthmus metropois) is tumble Of soft
yellow stone, adobe and frame houses. of
! cobblestone streets, of ruined churches and
of overcrowded tenements. The streets are
| crooked and narrow, and the houses are
built flush with the sidewalk line. In all
| the city there is such thing as sewer
age system. But three buildings in the
place boast the luxury of running water.
| The only gardens aside from the few
| public plazas, are enjoyed by those who
| have built ''lean-to' shantieS within the
| ruins that abound on every hand, and there
established their domiciles. The children
and here, as in Colon, they come In swarms
! live in the streets, breathing the noXious
| odors that constantly I'LL the air, and that
| are caused by the free dumping upon the
| thoroughfares of garbage and fecal matter
which lies to be beaten I'D by the rains
| baked by the torrid sun and 10 send lis
| nauseating odors and disease-breedine
germs outward through twenty-four hours
| OF the day. Here, as in Colon, the passer-
| by encounters indecently CARRIED women
/ naked babies. dense clouds of bugs, whole
/ focks of insinuating turkey buzzards and
| inevitably the NANCY monkey. the chatter
| ing birds and the fiea-bitten pigs.
| How this population lives is mystery
] In Colon IL draws its sustenance through
the railroad. the money paid out by that
| institution suficing to provide the few
| chase the limited assortment of edibles il
| consumes. In Panama the railroad, with il:
| allied steamship interests, desultory in
| terest in the fishing industry and some little
| cOastwise trading, furnishes IL the means
| for livelihood, but in the interior. since
| the stoppage of canal work. there has beer
| practically nothing TO which the inhabitan
| could turn his hand. AND yet they manage
| TO live The marketing of wild banana
| and oranges, the gathering OF bamboo anC
| sugarcane, afford them a little, very little
! cash. For the rest they go 10 the soil OF
| the rivers and forests, where yuccas, yams
| fish and birds are 10 be found in abund
! ance. lguanas, an exaggerated species o
| thrive in spite OF the feas and the mango
| and they exc out an existence which woul,
| kill a white man in a months time. bu
| under which they seem 10 take on flesh an,
| TO be able TO utterly refute any and al
| suggestions or race suicide"
| Among the native population the mar
| rage relation is little thought OF. Th'
Institution OF matrimony In this land Il