The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1907-10-05
Ole
Senora's Chicken
AN INCIDENT AT PANAMA
BY STEPHEN KEENE

~. + r. !. ~ ssst*+*'rf':"T
A deal depends on the mosquito,
and one must needs be careful with
what kind of mosquitoes he associ-
ates. One of the wrong kind put me III
the hospital with yellow fever, and
sent me to Taboga.
In the zone going to Taboga" sig
nifies something rather serious, yet
not as serious as going to Monkey
Hill" or Ito Flamenco Island" for II
you go to either of these latter places
you never come back. In other words,
Monkey Hill 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, I had occasion to 50 70
the Culebra camps one evening for
some of my carpenter tools, left there
the previous week. In passing the low
ground between the stations, where
the low ground between the stations,
where the path ran beside the Old
French chantier, past disused dump
cars and a slough overgrown with
rank grass, a swarm OF mosquitoes
rose suddenly about my ears, and
proved so ravenous that I was bitten
more than dozen times before ! could
get away from them. To that one en-
counter the doctors attributed an at
tack Of fever which left me SO weak
that could neither rise nor stand
alone. It was even worse than that,
for l felt numb all over, as II para
lyzed. The hospital doctor said that
this was the sequela of the malarial
fever; l have an idea that it was in
part due to the powerful medicines
which they gave me. Be that as it
may, they sent me to Taboga to recup-
crate.
| Taboga is an island seven miles
down the bay from the old City of Pa
mama, on the Pacific side of the 18TH
mus. It is a mile and half in length
by half a mile in width, and rises to
q height of nearly nine hundred feet.
In fact, it Is the top Of a mountain
half-submerged in the bay. There are
two little villages on the island, and
convalescent hospital for canal en-
ployes.
Otherwise the island Is a kind Of
picnic ground for the Panama people,
and is especially noted for It's pine
apples.
AS the sanatOrium was uncomfOrt-
ably full Of patients at this time. the
doctor In charge sent me to the house
of. mulatto woman Of the island.
named Rafaela Marcel, who cooked for
Americans there, and for picnic par
ties. She was noted for her chicken
q rAmercain, and certainly she made
very palatable chicken sandwiches.
Sonora Marels house is several hum
.dred feet up the hillside from the sea.
I would by no means term her care
full housekeeper, yet it was rather
coy place-for Panama. The sonora
spoke a little English; and there
were three rooms fronting the sea
view, Of which mine was the middle
one.
For a week l lay there, nourished for
the most part on chicken, looking out
on the bay, where our war ships were
at anchor, and watching the coastwise
steamers going and coming from the
port.
One of the two rooms adjoining
mine served the sonora as a kind of
fruit store. Here she had banana
punches hung up by the dozen, and
on q low, broad shelf round three
sides of ,ne room were pineapples
and custard-apples by the score. Raw
ishing fruity odors were waited in to
me through the open door.
What the room on the other side
contained was not SO clear; in fact,
began to wonder about 1t, for now and
then there were odd, rushing sounds
in there, as Of pigs, but no granting.
/ Once in the night, however, l was
Weakened by single loud squawk. If
I had been able to get up and move
about I might have settled the ques-
ton by opening the door and looking
in; but I was quite helpless, or
thought I was. It did not seem to
me that possessed strength even
- rise 10 sitting posture in my cot.
It had rained heavil zone afternoon