Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-02-22
CHINESE NEW YEAR
ON THE ISTHMUS
La BOca, Jan. q. 1906

Beginning with January 23 at noon,
| the Cinnamon at La BOca commenced
TO celebrate with fire crackers, and
their way Of shooting them have con-
yinced he that we Americans have
made very feeble effort to celebrate
the Fourth of July. We should in
vite few Cinnamon to give US time
| for our money, and there will be more
merican boys delighted than there
ever was at our time since the fOunda-
tion Of our national holiday.
All Chinese shops were closed at
La BOca, (which means every shop
there and at q a. III. or daylight, fire
crackers were swapping continuously
until II d. IN. and continuously in this
case means without ceasing or let up.
| When [ went to my breakfast at Ills
! | saw d red carpet Of the remains Of
| fire crackers fully two inches deep all
over the streets of the village. On
| the 25th DIT p. IN. l had occasion to
go to Panama to do some shopping,
where l found out to my regret that
| had missed most all the New Year,
| and had only heard few fire crackers,
though fully twelve barrels had been
| fired off ut La BOca. The Chinese at
Panama were at it full blast. After
leaving the cars at the old station
| started up through the Chinese shops
near the market place where [ was
compelled to stop and wait for string
of fire crackers forty feet long hang
the ground at the center of the street
and hung from stout pole from a
high roof.
The fire crackers were fastened to
| two small chains aud | should say
about four lunches deep or four con-
tinuOus lunches forty feet long; as
| fast aS the lower end burned off the
string was lowered by means of tackle
keeping lower end at about three and
half feet from the pavement. There
were eight or ten Cinnamon on the
upper veranda lighting anG throwing
down large fire crackers about eight
inches long: these were exploding at
intervals of about five seconds, as a
sort of bass to the tenor of the smaller
ones. When the string burned away to
1he fancy ornament there was an eX-
ploSiOn of powder which put the fancy
work out of existence. There were
two Cinnamon with hand pumps such
as are used to clean windows, on the
and two or three more carrying wafer
in pals To supply the pumps while the
string was burning away. The street
is about twenty-four feet wide and no
one was able to pass while the string
lasted.
Well, as | passed on after the eX-
| hibition was over, L thought that
about all the fire crackers on the Is
| thmus must be gone by this time, as
every Chinese resort l passed had red
| carpets covering the whole street in
front of them. But upon returning
| toward the old station again | ran
| against the real thing: there were
about fifteen Cinnamon on an upper
| veranda where three short poles pro-
jected at an angle of fOrty-tive degrees
| from which strings of fire crackers
| about sixteen feet long were being
| fired off same as before, except that
there was square box about six in
ches square which exploded when the
string was consumed; as soon as one
string was gone another was adjusted
so that three strings were kept burn
| ing all the time. A bout twenty such
strings were used while | was there
and one Chinaman was lighting some
big fire crackers and throwing them
down on the pavement. These were
octagonal in form and fully sixteen
inches long by eight inches in diam
upon my arrival upon the scene, il
landed about thirty feet from me and
| was nearly thrown off my feet wher
it exploded and d bunch of bamboo
IsliverS large enough to fill pail was
thrown from the cracker. | had bust
ness further back when the next one
was thrown, and did not want tC
see it,-hearing was enough for me
One big one landed on the street
and failed TO 60 off, and about three
lSiXteenthS of an inch of fuse was left
a negro grabbed it and tried to light
it; three times | got ready to dodge
arms and legs but luck was in his
favor and he could not light it. |
afterwards heard that this same thing
occurred the day before and there is
a negro in some hospital without any
larmS. After this exhibition was over
| was joined by white man going to
ward the depot AS we were passing
a building he asked if / ever went
into a certain church. My answer
was no and he said, LETS go in." 1t
proved to be Chinese house of wor-
ship. and as we entered we found a
room will, carved chairs of some
valuable wood, dark in color, and some
pictures on the wall and altar, also a
stairway which we went up and here
we found the most exquisite and fine
carvings. My companion said they
were supposed TO be solid gold, but
my opinion is that it was gold leaf
work, for no Columbian or Panamanian
or Central American government
would be able to protect such a
quantity of gold. The preSiden Is
themselves would head the raid and
get up special revolution to cover up
their liability for indemnity.
Here was the finest of silk with