The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-12
THE MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER.

together and to raise their family. If
 as sometimes happens, they can save
 enough money to defray the expenses of
 wedding ceremony, they may at some
 future date be legally married. but even
 marriage of this classe are exceptional. There was one in the native quarter of
 Colon not long ago, however, and gala
 occasion it was. The bride and groom
 were the bIackest of the black natives. They had been living as man and wife for
 nobody knew exactly how long when good fortune befel them, and they concluded to be married. The native population thronged the little church to see the sight;
 there was a grand display of gaudy col
 ores. and the crowd rejoiced with an ex-
 ceeding great joy when bride and groom
 marched soiemnly up the aisle attended by their seven children, all born out of | wedlock. That was a day to be remem-
 bered in the native quarter, and accounts of the dissipation that marked the cele-
 bration of that legal union are still vivid ! in the recital
 Inexcusable as this system of concubin- | age Is on general principles, 1t has here | a phase which makes it especially hide 1 ous. and that is the indiscriminate rela- | tions subsisting between the races. Abso- lutely no social lines or class distinction dre uEdWH dfuOHS ttilS HidsS Ol tHo pOpu- lation. negress lives with Chinaman; | a depraved white lives with a mulatto;
 there will be in one house an Indian and
 slant-eyed negress living as man and
 wife. while perhaps a smallpox-marked
 Chinaman. upon whom leprosy Is making | its inroads and whose white hair has | become so sprase that there is not enough | of it to twist into a que, will share the | house with them as the father or grand I father of the chocolate-colored female" | for among this native population there is
 just enough respect for decency to cause
 them to drop the word wife" when | speaking of their women, and use the
 designation ''my female"
 Domestic Methods.
 To this ninety-and-nine modern com
 forts. conveniences and facilities are 1 wholly unknown. The scarcity of water | in Panama-all that Is to be had is either caught in rain barrels or pur- chased from the regular vendors, who | draw 1t from wells reeking with filth | and peddle 1t about the city in barrel lcarts-makes laundering a matter of much difficulty, and Is the common excuse for the scant personal use made of water Clothes are seldom or never washed in the city or Panama itself. except during the height of the rainy season. At all other times a procession of barefooted women, clad only in their chemisettes and With each pulling away at a pipe or a black cigarette, wends it's way along the railroad track in the direction of Coro- gal, about three miles out from the city There tributary of the Rio Grande river runs for short distance over gravel. and is free from alligators and poisonous wa ter snakes that abound in rivers and lagoons here abouts. In the pool at this nOinf wall shaded nd tt,raI -I the women plunge with their wash" af- ter dofhng the few clothes they wear
 Standing in the water unblushing in their nakedness even when photograph CT is about, these women molsten the clothes and rub them with a root which grows freely and which takes the place of soap. The clothes we'll saturated and soaped, the laundress goes to the river's band. There, laying the wet garments up- on the stones, she belabors them with a board until all the dirst Is supposed to be loosened, when they are carried back to the stream to be rinsed, after which they are hung about on the bushes and trees to dry. At evening time, seven days in week, the procession that journeyed outward in the morning comes slowly homeward, each woman with a bundle of clothes. popularly supposed to have been washed. poised on her head. In the inte- AAOi hhC pEdCtiCC lS IOllOWeQ, the only difference being that brooks and riv- ulets are commonly patronized, and the women, not having to go into the water, detain their apparel during the laundering process. Washboards and washtubs. hot water and the other accessories to clean Illness are virtually unknown here.
 Equally primitive methods are employed In other branches of the domestic labors Meals are usually prepared over small charcoal stoves; hammocks and palm leaf cots take the place of beds; chairs are a luxury, the floor being the place most fre- quented for rest and repose.
 Panama Has a Society.
 With the i per cent of the population which knows and practices civilized ways infinitely better general conditions obtain. This contingent is divided into two classes the mixed better element at Panama and the American colony at Colon. At the Panama side of the isthmus this bet ter element is composed of the educated. cultured and refined natives, some few hundreds in number with a sprinklinR of English. Germans, Americans and other advanced races. With this element mod ern methods are common. Morality exists in an advanced state the sanctity of the home and the domestic relation being up- held with a scrupulousness the exact on- posite of the utter disregard for morality