The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1909-08-06

| swung UP into the cab of the loco
motive at Colon and cudcled down on
the warm leather seat with nod Of
recognition and a handful of Pana
maniac money TO the engineer II is
not every evening that one gets the
chance of riding from the Atlantic to
the Pacific in the cab of locomotive.
The distance from sea 10 sea at Pana
ma Isl AZ miles. The Panama railroad
curves some and in one or two places
/ was reminded of a railroad down in
West Virginia where the curves are
so sharp that the fireman often throws
coal into the headlight of his own en-
CINE.
The track from Colon. Panama. is
what railroad men call a red-hot
track; that is. II is tammed all day
long with passenger trains. ten cars
TO train. and trains of fiat cars load
ed with dirt from the Culebra excava-
ton. AT night the freight goes
through from the big ships waiting on
one side to vessels at the wharves on
the other. 1t takes two hours and a
half TO cross the isthmus and the fare
is $40. Our special train whlrled
through station after station-about a
mile apart-and the buZzards hoped
OF the track and the other regular
traffic stood aside to let us pass. To
right and left the rank vegetation
crowded right up to the rails-cocoa-
nut palms and banana trees. bejucca
vines and ceiba trees. As you leave
Colon it's hard to tell where the green
gins. Everything is green-a poison
Gus, verdigris green.
The main thoroughfare OF the Pana.
ma railroad swings around quite out
side the Culebra cut. sending spur
tracks into 1t to fetch the spoil away.
From Paraiso you can look back be-
tween the mighty walls of the cut with
terrace after terrace, where the steam
shovels stand. eating out seven or
eight tons of clay at every bite. On
this particular occasion ii was too
dark TO see more than the vague out
line of Gold hill and then directly In
front of us the moon rose, round and
pumpkin yellow, as our locomotive
charged up hill toward the east, and II
really seemed as though we were go
ing TO take a header right straight
into the moon, when we should get 70
the top Of the grade.
So we rocked and reeled onward
through the soft flooding moonlight
and at all the stations near to Pana
ma the platforms were crowded with
Americans I'm evening dress and their
partners in white muslin and chiffon
waiting TO take the regular train &c
Panama, to attend the new years
dance of the Culebra club. So when
we got to Panama and ] had clam
bered down out of the cab and said
my grimy and perspiring adieu e
their satanic majesties of the hrottlt
and the firebox-there was the Ti7ol
hotel, where the dance was to be held
ablaze with light and festooned witt
bunting and vines and all manner o.
creeping things. all ready for tn,
fiesta.
ran upstairs and put on a boiled
shirt and a black coat. with two tail!
20 IL. and the usual evening regalia o
one who is condemned" TO live in I'll,
midst OF a "clean and shaven race.
When | got down stairs a band owe
in the corner was vigorously going II
There was no piano. but they haC
about IL trombones. a violoncello.
flute and the parts of several violins
at really made very tolerable music.
4, At a few minutes before IL O'Clock
when turned 10. the dancers wer,
still hopping and gliding about Sud
denly the whistle OF the fee plant an,
the bells of the cathedral found on
that the new year was born and thel
the whole town at once was In an w
roar. The Chinese were setting OF
long strings OF firecrackers; the bull
hide drums and tambours, the tin can
full of stones. the barking dogs AM