The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-01-16
THE CITY OF PANAMA
A city That Is Expiring of hamilton,
BY MERRILL A. LEAGUE.
Special Correspondent of the Morning News

ure; but, had she desired to do 81
Fanama might long ago have freed
herself from the burden of disease and
danger to life she now carries. Colon
pla consistently reduced the revenues
OF the department, but Panama has
had her own municipal council and
her lndenpedent revenues, Notwith-
standing this, she has absolutely neg
lected to establish or enforce even the
most ordinary regulations for sanitary
Improvement, as we'll as methods for
preventing infection. Garbage is left
Tor days at time in the streets in
the small yards in the rear of the res
licences, to decay and pollute the
earth as well as the atmosphere. Each
house has its own cesspool. and these
go unattended year in and year out.
The small yards in the rear of pri-
Vate residences are sinks of corrup-
ton, Uttered with rotting offal and
decaying matter of all sorts. People
die of infectious diseases, and none
save the most desultory methods of
disinfection are ever invoked
1t is, in the light of this, not strange
that Panama has a bad name. Health
is we'll nigh impossible in such a
place, and when we bring into account
the general ignorance of the populace,
the universal poverty, the torridity of
sunshiny days, and the constant down.
pour of rain that marks other days,
conditions are seen to be ripe for pes
thence. The general situation is not.
however, as bad as it is in the trans
isthmian city of Colon
Complete Transformation Required.
Fifteen thousand people are domi-
ciled here in an area little larger than
that occupied by the $500 in Colon,
but Panama stands high, whereas
Colon is in a swamp, the houses here
are, in the main, constructed of stone,
with tile roofs, while in Colon there
are only t1imsy frame shacks,. Here
the rains wash the streets; in Colon
they but accentuate the swamps and
quagmires. The streets in Panama are
little better than dark alleys, but they
are paved. That the pavement is only
the toughest cobbestone is true, but
even that suffices to reduce the num-
Der of incubating places for disease
spreading mosquitoes. To clean up
Panama would be comparatively sim
pie task, and when the United States
authorities shall have completed the
work, which they will begin as soon
as the treaty is ratified, this will be
converted into no mean city-its tropi-
cal location considered
The statement recently made in the
states to the effect that Panama may
even become a popular winter resort
should not, however, be credited. 1t
can never acquire that comeliness un-
til there shall have occurred a change
amounting to a complete transforms
ton, for as it now is there is abso-
lutely no attraction to draw visitors.
There is not in all the vicinity of
Panama a single driveway. Charming
stretches of country, where beautiful
drives might be made, there are in
abundance, especially out over the sa-
Vanna-or plain-a three-mile eXpanse
of level country lying to the east
ward of the city. On this savanna
where the vegetation closely resembles
that of the temperate zone the
Wealthier residents of Panama main
tain dry season" or summer homes
With a little enterprise and the ex-
penditure of a moderate amount OF
money, a charming suburb might be
called into being on this plain. To-
day 1t is little better than other parts
of the isthmus, and scarcely accessi-
Bile during any except the dryest and
hottest terms, during which, because
of it's compact style of construction
the city itself is uncomfortable.
1t Is n FeatureIesS City.
Within the city there are practical
ly no points calculated to evoke more
than a passive interest. The Cathe-
dral-there are none save Catholic
churches on this side of the isthmus
is typically Spanish in it's architec-
ture, but despite its age-it was built
in 1860 of a soft yellow stone-it fails
to attract. Seen from a distance, age
worn and with small trees growing in
it's eave-troughs and about its spires,
it presents a pretty picture. Viewed
at close range, its age and the gen.
eral air of neglect and decay it bears
are repellant. OF other churches there
are none of sufficient Importance to
engage interest. The little concrete
shrines erected here and there upon
street corners index the Catholicism of
the place, but their number makes
them commonplace. The government
building is far from a snowy structure,
while the Cabildo, or city hall, is on
the verge of succumbing to the action
of time and the elements.
There is no theater in the city; no
place of any especial historic mo-
ment-nothing save an expanse of yell
low houses with red tile roofs and mar
row balconies, chasmlike streets, open
ing now and then into a small and APP
parently poverty-stricken square, or
carrying one by a pile of old ruins.
OF these latter only one deserves es-
pecial mention, and that only because
of one feature. This is the ruin of the
Church of San Domingo, standing well
down toward the water front. Nobody
seems to know exactly how old this
church is. but tradition has it that it
was completed about 200 years ago,
and that the night before it was to be
consecrated it was destroyed by fire.
It stands now as the site of one of
the wonders of the world-a fiat arch
built of brick and without keystone.
This arch has a span of about seventy
feet and measures about eighteen
inches on either side. 1t hangs some
thing like forty feet above the ground,
absolutely unsupported, and has hung
there for two centuries, a small brick
link between two ruined walls. This
arch has been studied by architects,
but none has ever solved the problem
of how, without a curve, it was ever
constructed in the first instance, or
why it did not fall ages ago. 1t Is to-
day pointed to by populace which
hungers for the canal as positive proof
that the isthmus is free from earth
- - m AEWN