The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-08-13

hurks found men ana women lying
with opium outfits before them. Some
We're hitting the pipe and others Steep
ing of the effects Of the drug. Some
OF the slnOkelS Mere oOtOmoldlS, =
faX were negroes and some were
Chinese. | did not see a SINGLE Alaer-
lean. although | am told that some
are to be found among the patrons,
and that even American women nave
come to the joints. | doubt TINS.
have seen the opium saloons Of
Shanghai and Canton. They are
grand in comparison with these OF
ranama, but the glazed eyes and
dreamy looks of the smokers are the
same.
\ City OF Caves.
The average visitor to the canal
leaves Panama City knowing nothing
about it. It YOU would understand
how these people really live you must
! get inside the buses and IN
the caves which form the homes of
the poor.
Panama is a queer city. 1t IS one
in which . hundre or more families
have all the money, and where the
remaining thousands earn only
enough to keep soul and body to
gether. The average family of the
lower classes-sleeps in a cave on the
first floor; or if on the second. 1t is
| over a store and the whole family
will have but one room. There are
thousands Of families here, each Of
which has only one room and this
is so small that the OOkin is done
in d common hall outside it. The
kitchen stove is a pot Of charcoal put
inside a box to keep off the wind, the
box being nailed to the fence OF post
Of the Neranda.
Most Of these caNe-honles have. no
windows, being ventilated by an open
ing which run around the tops of the
walls under the ceiling. There is no
plaster nor paper. The walls are of
boards. painted or not, as the land
lord may order.
[ am having my films developed by
a photographer here whose studio is
at the top Of a three-story frame
building. lie tells me hat there are
more than a thousand men, women
and children in his building and that
there are altogether something like
two or three and rooms, each
housing Il family.
/ a looked into some of the
rooms. They are as dark as a pocket
and the smoke from the cooking in
the halls outside has turned their
walls black. Some of the Don are
about ten feet square. They have
no ventilation except at the doors.
That building is a fire trap. IT is
all wood excepting the roof. which is
Of galvanized iron. | tremble at the
possible loss in case Of d fire.
| asked my photographer as to the
rents, and was told that they are
from 81 to SO per room per month
in gold. Similar rates prevail in the
Jamaica negro quarters in New Gale
donna, which | described at the be-
ginning of this letter. The rents are
here so high and the building so cheap
that many structures pay in rents
every year the cost of the land and
the building. This is likewise SO in
Colon. There is n ~caravansary
known as the Coal Chute, which has
the cost Of its erection within four
teen months.
The Cave Stores of Panama.
1t is interesting to look at the cave
stores of the isthmus. They are mere
holes in the wall about ten feet square
and perhaps eight feet in height
They have no windows, facing the
street. and the door alone gives the
; light. Often one of these little store
rooms will be the home Of the family
which keeps it. 1t is a store or work
, shop in the daytime and a sleeping
place after dark.
AS to work, the idea prevails a.
home that these Panamanians are
lazy. [ do not find them so. Some
3 kind of house industry is going or
s everyWhere, In one little shop shoe
makers will be pounding away. Ir
I another the women and girls are
making lace, While farther on arr
, cigarmakers, carpenters and black
y smiths. Much Of the work is done
a out on the sidewalks. 1 see many
women sewing On the edge Of thu
. street, and the tailors bring theil
! ! chairs out to the roadway and sitter
. in the sun. The most common store
u is the petty saloon. Drinks are solo
$ everywhere. and there are cores 0
: fruit stores and groceries.
The Lottery Business.
> There is one thing which employ;
u more people in Panama City perhap,
J than any Other, and that is the lottery
+ It's tickets are sold by men, womel
and children on every block Of Pana
ma and Colon. 1t is against the Law
e to sell them on our CAM Zone. bu
g the lottery peddlers roost about tn