The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-01-03
SECTION TNO


81 LTHOUGH there is a flag Panama. and
the affairs Of state in hands. life rolls
- on IN Its accustomed way The bells in TIE old
a towers keep calling the faithful 70 prayer long
Hles Of vendors parade the streets eternally
crying their frugal wares; buzzards soar in
the hot air hop under foot in their never-ending
search For offal the horde Of quarreing women
crowd the market place to chatter, barter, to
fight; polite drink ia the cafes and busy them
selves with political plot and counter-plo and dusky
senoritas lounge in cool paos dreaming the dreams
that southern maidens dream.
The south is always the south, It's idle shiftless
children play and parley their hours away. and the
bring little change them They are as aln-
less the winds that play in the palms. II Is no
wonder. The word tropic sounds narcotic. It is so
easy 70 sit and watch The drifting clouds and fall
asleep YOU look. 1t is of resist You may
summon all your powers of viii, but drowsiness
touches you with its gentle finger and you drift softly
ont the Of sleep.
1t takes something about as exciting as revolu-
zion to keep the inhabitants awake It said that
Intrigue breeds in every cafe It really Is exciting
plot against the king and turn the rascal It is
Infinitely more exciting if his majesty anticipates you
and shoots you for impudence The last revolu-
zion has been called the "bloodless Instruction"
However, the margin by which it termna ted
very narrow. General Tovar. commanding 500 troops
and commissioned TO uphold the authority Of Colon-
bia, landed in Colon He applied the authorities
of the Panama railroad for special train carry
his soldiers to the capital His application was polite
" refused He demanded and threatened and stoned.
as rate generals will but the train still denied
him.
Then General Tovar made the mistake that saved
fhe blood the revolution and which lost the sthmus
Cor his country went alone to Panama to buster
and to threaten leaving his soldiers in charge of his
subordinate Colonel Torres AS soon as the general
arrived here he was promptly arrested. When his
caDtors searched him. they found orders thir-
ty-hve of the principal citizens, and as many
he thought needed shooting The rebels this
wired their leaders in Colon that they had the general
under lock and key and authorized them spend
amount up TO $4,000 American gold, to bride Colonel
Torres to clear with his soldiers The negotia-
tons were started with the colonel and in order to
get line his temperature, offer of 5000 was
made to han if he would evacuate He struck him
self the breast, Kissed through his teeth said
lot Of things his responsibility the honor his
country. and all that then marched his soldiers up
and down the street to show what bad man he was
The nsurgent leaders approached him again to inform
raise $500 more they would pay the steamship
company $1,000 for the transporta of his men, and
told him. further, that if he didnt accept their OFFER
they would chew him up and spit him out, and spend
This threat was rather ridiculous considering the
fact that he had 500 armed while the only force
and forty volunteers The colonel said he anesse5 ne
would quit. He took his bride and lis inglorf-
retreat The press dispatches time gave the
number OF opposing forces and there was considers he
withdrawal of the Colombian troops, when there was
much at stake and the force so numerically able
70 enforce its demands. believe something was said
about inducing" the officers withdraw. That
$4,000 the ''inducement.'
For a few days there considerable appTehen-
sion for the safety of Americans in Colon. There
really was danger long the rebels were rat
lng their gold pieces in Colonel Torres ears 1t viii
make him feel really bad when he learns that he
might just we'll have had S25,000 if
for it, OF course the colonel is a much traduced
man throughout the length ard breadth Of Colom-
bia, but he did no more than his general would have
done If the chance had been his: he did more than
she Colombian congressman tried when they held
up the canal treaty. The gold got into unexpected
pocket that was all Colombia has had a great deal
about the United States using force, but this
nsrrauOn of fact, coupled with the history of the
whole negotiation makes t very plain that itching
palms of the Colombian officers and politicians what
really lost her cause She has indeed the VIC
tim OF weakness but that weakness was her own
The sweet tooth seems TO flourish in hot climate.
children gnaWing at pieces of sugar cane is always
q familiar sight ia tr pical lands. Sometimes they
get little else TO eat on former trip TO the tropics
had IN my employ little black boy. by the name of
Domingo who ran errands for Necessarily be-
came quite familiar with the habits my young as