The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1907-08-21
Cbe
SenOra'S Chicken
AN INCIDENT AT PANAMA
BY STEPHEN KEENE

A deal depends on the mosqu 10,
sRd one must needs be careful with
what kind OF mosquitoes he associ-
nSc;s. One of the wrong kind put me in
fhe hospital with yellow fever and
sent me to Taboga.
In the zone going to Taboga" sig
nifies something rather serious, yet
rot as serious as going to Monkey
Hill" or ito Flamenco Island" for If
you go to either of these latter places
you never come back. In other words,
Monkey Will and Flamenco Island are
two cemeteries Of the zone the one at
Colon and the other in Panama Bay.
While l was at work on the large
NAVY" camp at Emperador, in
March 1906, | had occasion to so to
the Culebra camps one evening for
some of my carpenter tools, left there
tire previous week. In passing the low
ground between the stations, where
the Pow ground between the stations,
where the path ran beside the old
Wrench chantier, past disused dump
ears and slough overgrown with
rank grass, swarm of mosquitoes
rcse, suddenly about my ears, and
proved so ravenous that was bitten
more than dozen times before could
gEa away from them. To that one en-
suRnter the doctors attributed an at.
Rack of fever which left me so weak
S1,uA ry,i+ 81
nscne 1t was even worse ttcn that,
kg felt numb all over, as If para
bved. The hospital doctor said that
this was the sequela of the malarial
fsTer; | have an idea that it was in
YaBt due to the powerful medicines
shich they gave me. Be that as it
bay. they sent me to Taboga to recup-
ETSte. ,
Taboga is an island seven miles
8uwn the bay from the old City of Pgi-
lnGna, on the Pacific side of the 18TH
rBBs. 1t is a mile and half in length
by half mile in width, and rises to
a height of nearly nine hundred feet.
IN fact, II is the top of mountain
bslf-submerged in the bay. There are
TWO little villages on the island, and a
ernvalescent hospital for canal en-
p3oyes.
otherwise the island is kind of
fdcnic ground for the Panama people,
and is especially noted for It's pine
n9les,
As the sanatorium was uncomfort-
Absy full of patients at this time, the
doctor in charge sent me to the house
,s6 mulatto woman of the island,
snamed Rafaela Marel, who cooked for
Americans there, and for picnic par
ekea She was noted for her chicken
q yAmercain, and certainly she made
Wy palatable chicken sandwiches.
Sonora Marels house is several hun
Hred feet up the hillside from the sea-
4 would by no means term her care
fss housekeeper, yet it was a rather
sngy place-for Panama. The sonora
ABmke little English; and there
wgre three rooms fronting the sea
yiew, of which mine was the middle
Be
Ror week lay there, nourished for
xke most part on chicken, looking out
On the bay, where our war ships were
~ anchor, and watching the coastwise
steamers going and coming from the
pnst.
One Of the two rooms adjoining
Eiae served the sonora as a kind of
6Uit store. Here she had banana
huuches hung up by the dozen, and
IN low, broad shelf round three
ssses of Cne room were pineapples
and custard-apples by the score. Raw
ikhiHg fruity odors were waited in to
ms through the open door.
What the room on the other side
Durtained was not so clear; in fact,
began to wonder about it, for now and
tsen there were odd, rushing sounds
In there, as of pigs but no grunting.
Once in the night, however, was
Weakened by single loud squawk. If
= had been able to get up and move
nlsDut | might have settled the ques-
tinm by opening the door and looking
An; but was quite helpless, or
thsught was. It did not seem to
Tut that l possessed strength even
10 rise to a sitting posture in my cot.
n had rained heavil yone afternoon
znd the night was cloudy and dark,
hut shortly after 12 the wind rose,
and blew SO hard that my door began
sBzraming violently.
shouted several times for the sen.
sun to come and shut II, but she
assmed to have gone away, or else to
~ very sound asleep.
At last drowsed of again, but was
nxakened by some heavy creature
Dnshing furiously over the eoverlet Of
my cot. A chair was upset IN the
anrkness, and the water basin elat-