Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-12-13
PAY DAY AT PANAMA.
How Canal Laborers Are Given
 Their Wages.
INCIDENTS OF TRIP ON MONEY CAR

Picturesque Scenes Along the Line
 When 6O,OOO Silver Dollars Are
 Dumped Into oJanlaicans'H Hats-Some
 Try to "Raise" Pink Pay Slips-Ex-
 pert Chinese Money Counters.
 All is not gold that glitters on the isthmus. Much of it is tin" or Mex" as the handsome and heavy silver coins the Panamanian government furnishes the canal paymaster for laborers' wages are called, says the Panama cor respondent of the New York Herald. It would be just as acceptable by any other name so long as Uncle Sam buys the coin and stands behind it to the ex- tent of paying two of the cart wheel dollars for one of the kind he uses at home. He uses the smaller dollar in Panama too when he pays his own boys in the offices and all skilled white laborers, and they to the number of 2,500 are paid once a month about S250,0 in much the same manner as government clerks are paid in Wash ington. There are 15,O00 of the labor CTS, who are paid S600,000 "tin" month in fortnightly payments, and the making thereof has many interest ing features.
 One day on the canal zone pay car showed what a child is the average West Indian in spite of his muscular and rather ferocious appearance. Per haps the belief that this is so has much to do with cne comfort of the pay clerks and the safety of great piles of money periodically. spread out in the jungle before crowds of these infantile giants. Not only their honesty, but the seeming absence of desire to steal on the part of the native Panamanian was demonstrated from the very start of the paymaster with the bulky coin from the administration building. It was hardly daylight. Cashier Wald rop's watch gave the hour as o'clock, and he motioned for drivers of two double mule trucks to back up to the curb.
 Sixty thousand dollars were ready for carting to the Panama railroad station to be put on the pay car for the "silver men" working at Cristobal, Gatun. Bohio. Tabernilla and San Pa bio. One of the three Jamaican zone policemen went inside to watch the ne gro boys bring out the bags of coin, and the others stood by while the bags were put on the wagons. A crowd of early morning idlers gathered around and seemed to enjoy hearing the coin rattle as the bags were thrown down. The cashier cried Sixty" which meant that the S600OO had been load ed and he was ready to start. A po- liceman got on each truck, the mules were whipped up, and the wagons, fol- lowed by the cashier and the core spondent in one cab and Pay Clerks Embry, Page and Deveyrie in another, were soon at the station.
 There it was evident that some one connected with the Panama railroad had blundered. The pay car which should have been in Panama was at Colon, the other end of the road. After some delay, during which the S60,000 in coin was on the trucks in the street, it was decided to put the money in the baggage car of the ' o'clock train and transfer it to the pay car at Colon, where payments would begin instead of at San Pablo.
 Weren't you afraid somebody might run off with one of those bags while they were standing around in the street," the correspondent asked the cashier after the train got under way.
 "Not bit" he replied, with a laugh, "but I counted them every time they were moved just the same Each bag contains S1,O00 It is true, but it weighs sixty pounds. Silver. you see, has it's advantages. Nobody is going to carry S1.OO0 very far without get ting caught. But there is not the slightest danger of losing a dollar, not if a bag should break. The crowd would pick up the coin and hand it in. If there was a raid it would take a lot of men to carry of the 3,6C0 pounds of money. nearly two tons, and then they would have only S30,OOO in our money. l don't take chances. but I think these are the most honest people ever saw"
 Chief of Police Shanton agrees to this. but he thinks the terrors of the jungle and the watch kept on the two ports has more effect on the morals of the zone than early teaching. 4 bank CT in Panama overheard one big fellow say to another in the bank the other day as they observed the low, exposed counters loaded with gold and silver coin, Say. Bill, if we had this in Cheyenne we wouldn't do a thing to it. would we;' ''Ah, what's the useT' replied the other disgustedly. You cant lug it of the blooming strip"
 At a little after II o'clock the pay car. with the coin aboard was run on q siding at Cristobal and three lines of laborers faced the doors on its side. These doors are in pairs, the men climbing up on the trucks of the car to one of the double doors and. after re- ceiving their money. passing out the other and jumping down. The pay counter. running the length of the car. is close tO the doors. and there is room for only one man to stand in front of 1t as he passes from one door to the other. The diflculty of climbing to the door also prevents overcrowding.
 Each man must present his pink pay certificate. which gives his number. the amount due him and the signature of the designated official. who thus certf-