The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-15
BY MERRILL A. PRAGUE.

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 (staff Correspondent of The Advertiser.)
 Panama, R. P. Dec. 26.--This place. mora than any other city in Ameriea, Is inseparabiy linked in history with the early days of white mems presence on the Western Hemisphere. Standing upon the higest point of the Paseo, the battery promenade at the barracks, one may, witn the aid of field glasses, obtain good view of the ruins. of the cathedral tower at ''old" Panama, four miles away as the crow flies: six as one must Journey 70 reach its base. The way to 'old" Pan- anna is seldom traveled--one needs ne- gro with a machete for a companion, for three miles of that way is through the jungle and the path must be cleared-but foolish is the visitor to the isthmus who does not traverse 1t. for there was the seat of Spain's first glory in the Western world. the center from which radiated her forces in exploring the west coast of the Americas. the gateway through which flowed the commerce which once gave her power and riches, and the city upon which she founded her empire of the West
 What manner of place "old' Panama was in it's halycon days no man now knows exactly. It must, however, have been a goodly city--time, location and circumstances all considered-for its ruins are eloquent of past grandeur. It was in
 
 Columbus had discovered the Western Hemisphere-that "old'' Panama was founded. and in 15N 1t was. by royal decree, raised to the dignity of a city. As early as 1524 vessels were navigating the Chagres River as far as Cruces. whither merchandise was transported from ''old" Panama over a stone road. Che only remnant of which now remains is a stone tide bridge on the beach near the tower ruin. In 1897 the stone road was extended from Cruces to Porto Bello. on the Caribbean coast, and thereafter, for neary a century, "old" Panama flour ished upon trade and commerce.
 In 15n Sir Henry Morgan and his bucca- neers, assisted by the Indians, who were filled with an implacable hatred for the Spanish. swept down upon Panama and literally extinguished 1t. That act or wanton despoilation produced the Pan- anna of today, for the stricken inhabitants of the old city fled in terror along the coast to the volcanic elevation where now stands the city, and founded the only Panama the world now knows. The old city Is, however. by long odds the moro interesting place of tho two. Morgan s cutthroats, after pillaging it and giving it over to the torch, left it but stone ruin, and more than two centuries have completed the work of spreading deso- Iation.
 'EOld" Panama and the New.
 I was out there yesterday. There lives amid these ruins, once the home of wealth, splendor and power, one aged na- 1 tive PanameSe. His home is a matched hut: his associates the birds and reptiles that infest the place; his thoughts of an unbroken idleness; his ambition naught save to live among the ruins, hard by the Cathedral tower of which he fancies him. Y1aa4 AI&ts Nfrya- m l mingo is the only name he has ever known-will cut paths through the jungle and lead you from ruin to ruin. Time and the vegetable growth decaying and being deposited on the ground, have sufdced to raise the level of the soil to what was once the second story of the houses in
 ''old' Panama. The vegetation is 50 ex. 1 cessive that it Is impossible to advance foot until after the machete has done | It's work; but persist and you may wander | among the remains of homes and palaces all in solid stone and now encountered
 with vines, wild fig trees and weeds. Bats will rise dazed and noisy from the roofIes; ! gables and dark, dank, buried floors; but presently you will come to an open space Here-a few hundred yards from the Ca.
 thedral tower-mount the walls of whai | was once parish church. Thick anC | strong they were and they have resisted LhO aoNaliI6 Ol NC6CLallOu SO Illdl Luc1 | tnclose the only cleared place to be found | where once were streets and plasas. AnC here within these walls spread about in
 discriminatory. each marked with a rougI | cross made of twigs tied together with tn, 1 tendril of vine, is tho native burying | ground, patronized by those poor human In the interior and along the coast. It |
 a note of pathos emphasizing desolation | for here come these destitute beings witt l their dead-tn the onIV hit of con nseora fe, | ground to be found for miles around.