The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-08-02
CONDITIONS NOT THE BEST
ON ISTHMUS OF PANAMA

earth by $50 o'clock and the nights
are long and DIM.
THE system of red tape is very
efficient and-expensive. In many
cases the cost is multiplied by hun
dreds on its account, as well as much
waste.
"One of the serious problems is
that Of labor The wages to mechan-
les are inadequate to the conditions
undergone. The wages of laborers
are barely sufficient to live on. Eignty
cents per day (gold) is what many re-
ceive and they are Quartered in camps
or old warehouses, in hunks three or
four deep. One of my helpers, who is
q Mule ABOVE the average. Is paying
$3.50 per month room rent.
THE laborers are mostly jamaica
niggers-and three of them are hardly
worth one southern niger, except for
talking, and they have lots of that.
They are not jolly at their work-a
song Is seldom heard except on Sun
day afternoons when the Go Preach"
ones get on the streets and strive for
the largest audiences I have lost
nearly all the religion had, trying to
work them.
III there are ten wrong ways to do
thing, they will do it those ten ways
and then look for another wrong way
before you can impress on them the
right way. And to hit one-we1l they
are English gentlemen" (accent on
the 'gentlemen0 and you are fined
thirty dollars for hitting one.
Our master mechanic has paid
two fines. One man got sentence of
seven days in Jail for hitting niger
that called him bad name.
Their vocabulary is about the only
amusing thing about them, and to
hear them is to laugh, even one is
too angry to count one hundred
''The food here is fair. The 18TH
mian hotels charge $27.00 per month
for meals I am in private mess
where We divide up the expenses at
the end of the month. There are
thirtythree in the mess. Most Of
them have eaten at the hotels, and
say the mess Is much to be preferred.
WeM-tell Mrs. c. her table was
nothing like this, where change is
nothing but name
'Truit-natfve is high. Oranges
40 cents a dozen; lines a cent a
piece; bananas the same; pine apples
80 cents; coacoanuts 10 to 20 cents.
Yet-we can walk out in the countru
and get lines. oranges, bananas, Co
coanuts, ETC., for the trouble of get
ting them.
Washing of clothes is high. til
costs three tines what / paid in Pen
sacola for the same amount.
There is much sickness here now.
King Fever Is greedy monarch and
is getting his full quota / do not
know what the death rate is-the
day. All of my gang was out last
week (three machinists and two help
ers) To-day, one of my men went
out at a. M. and one at 1:15 p. m.
Tonight asked for help. and the
foreman showed me a file of sick
(about twenty. and said Wait until
morning The sickness seems to
strike very suddenly at times.
"One of the disagreable features
here is the assigning of men to posi-.
lions. Many times where two men
have come down partners, one is as
signed here, and one up the line, and
K is very hard ESQ 1 am told) to get
transferred.
''In this place one has to have a
partner whether one prefers solitude
Or not, but one seldom has a choice,
and many men have been transferred
from one room to another, without so
much as by your leave to make room
for some more favored one
Another word about the niggers.
Both the Colon and Cristobal police
with few exceptions are colored.
Doctors bring medicine (rum and
quinfne) every day to the shop
'fOne man, when told that an UNI
brella was necessity, said-'Uh! It's
sea boots and rubber coat
"My room mate secured permanent
quarters recently. The other evening
came in and found the other bed oc-
cupied by rain coat and two bottles
of beer.
please send me The Journal The
only paper 1 get is occasionally a
New York Sund = paper, which
course is from week to ten days old
when get 1t. We pay ten cents for
1t and double prices for the maya
zines"