The Red Cloud chief., 1911-11-02

Bare feet stuck in the wooden stirrups. He
and his steed are festooned with bags. baskets
and packages, the tout ensemble suggesting an
itinerant Christmas tree. Stuck under the saddle
flap, elsewhere beyond ready reach. is a rife
or shotgun. Of ancient make. probably unservice-
able. and almost certainly unloaded. Everyone
goes armed upon the road.
Occasional reminders Of less peaceful times
are seen In a small wooden cross set In the
ground and surrounded by rude rail fence. indi'
eating the spot where some unfortunate met
violent death in the commission of crime Pan.
falcon rode alongside as approached one OF
these unconsecrated burying places that contained
two crosses With emotioness precision he told
the grizzly tale Of two compadres who had fallen
out and here had fought to the death with their
knives.
Compadres are bosom companions. bound BY q
bond closer than that Of brotherhood Only .
woman can break that tie, and when compadre
turns against compadre hell knows no greater
bitterness. These two hacked each other until
they fell. gaspng and bleeding. and foamins at
the mouth. still jabbins with waning strength
They were found dead locked In each others
arms. Perhaps at the very last the spirit Of com.
padreship returned to soothe their passing.
put this reflection to Pantaleon. but he do
clared It more likely that they died cursing each
other and thinking Of the girl. My own conclu.
sion pleased me better. but felt bound to defer
to my moso's superior knowledge Of the charac.
teristics Of his countrymen.
Presently the road entered the monte and We
rode between wooden walls reinforced BY heavy
underground At long intervals we passed small
clearings whore the settler had cut over the
ground. burned the debris where Il fell and Scat
tered his seed with careless confident hand.
The machete 10 the universal agricultural impie.
ment. plow has never been seen in the coun.
try. Cultivation 10 neglected a. an unnecessary
trouble. Withal. harvests are bounteous and re-
with the infallible regularity of the solar sys.
tenn. I saw fields Of sugar cane that had yielded
rich crops for fifteen unbroken seasons. and q
piece Of land which has stood in corn contin.
uously for half century.
All over the Pacific slope Of Chiriqui ID q top
soil. from to 20 feet thick formed by the vol.
ages from the mountain Sides Il n rich 20 any
in the world. but not one-hundredthousandth part
Of II has been turned to the account OF man.
Outside Of David. the population 10 less than four
to the square mile Apart from score OF cattle
raisers and coffee growers. NO man produces more
than enough to meet bis needs. whilst markets at
their very doors are crying aloud for the poten.
tial products Of the province. Panama 10 paying
high prices for Jamaican fruit and Cuban sugar
and American tobacco. whilst these and many 9th.
or imported commodities can be grown within
her bordcrE
The pathetic mystery Of It 10 that tens Of thou.
sands are slaving in city sweatshops and facto
riss. or painfully wrinsing living from reiuc.
tant soil. when land unlimited lies waiting to
richly reward any man who viii cast handful Of
seed upon H.
Ten miles out from David We came to Aianjs