Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-18
BIG DITCH. NOT ALL
Of PANAMA SIGHTS
King of Bygone Days Spent
Eleven Million Dollars on
Sea Wall.
CATHEDRAL is ROOTED
WITH MOTHER OF PEARL
Americans Talk You Dizzy About
Locks, But One Lucky Woman
Knows Lots More Than That.

That ditch isn't the only thing in Pan
ama-not by canal site!
There is a seawall that cost some OPP
tmistic king $11 100000, but you will
have to step out Of the isthmus into his
tory to learn his name. The natives can
not understand you. and the Americans
do not know.
And there is cathedral rooted with
mother-of-pearl that echoes to the pray
ers of three centuries. 1t makes a dandy
post card. with earth-shaken crevices
for weeds to crawl through and the palm
shaded plaza beyond But just you try
to get at the record OF this monument of
Spain's supremacy in the new world
and unless you are extra lucky you will
go back to the Hotel Tivoli as wise as
when you started.
The Padre Who Dreamed
There is that other church of 1.-The fiat
arch for modern architects to marvel
over, but you may not hope to know
more of its building than the story of
the padre who dreamed" the arch and
who risked his life under it while the
stones were being placed. This side OF
the jungle there is lone tower-all that
is left of the oldest cathedral Of oldest
mas SlOOu SudTO dil lIcoC
centuries over the ruins OF other church.
es, homes, converts, schools and forts
and over the dust of the ancient people
whom Morgan put to flame and sword.
Its principal mission these days is to
furnish cards and snapshots for tourists
who apparently never heard of the sWoop
down of the British buccaneer.
There is Balboa HILL climbed by the
bravest and best Of the Conquistadores,
who got the first civilized glimpse OF
, ..rrha South - There curious
>cemeteries whose inscriptions spell the
history of Spains dominion when her
flag had the right of way on two oceans
and along all the coast land that stood
tumble of the Cordelleras against the sky
line: the shadowy green of palms. the
gorgeousness of songless birds, the silver
blue of Panama bay. billowing out to
silver-blue ocean, and always the soft
voice, the low laughte rand the pictur-
| esque queerness of the native Panaman.
A PIeasure-Loving Innocent.
| If you know him well enough. he is a
pleasure-loving innocent: torpid in the
sun-baking noon, SO much quicksilver in
the breezy twilight, and, when he ism t
fearing what the white Yankees will do to
! him. quite the liveliest little human on
the map. The native is a garrulOus soul,
but these days there is a furtive curiosity
in his eyes. He is waiting to see what
will happen. He looks at the canal. And
he looks at his bamboo-thatched shack
and his banana patch. He remembers
what the United States did to the
mosquitoes. And to the leathery green
folds of Chagres scum. And he wonders.
And, maybe, he fears.
The tourist who skips down to see the
canal before it takes to drink, will get
his glimpse of these survivals of a rule
forever past. but the historic traditions
and romance that make of each an epic,
a melodrama or a fairy tale-for a story
goes with everything in Spain-will be a
closed page with the book thrown away.
And when he skips back to Colon next
day to catch his ship, he makes believe
he has seen Panama. But that, of
course is a joke. Way up in his soul
where the truth lives he knows better.
The American Talks You Dizzy.
The American? Oh. the American will
talk you dizzy about locks, gates. suices
and every other what not about canal
digging. That's all. he is working his
levelest best to do his share and then
clear out for home. He tells you that
the old United States is good enough for
him. And he says it with the air of one
who waves flag to the. tune of THE Star
Spangled Banner" But. all the same,
he is having bully time in his mes
quito-barred house, if he is married
with plenty of ice, cheap laundry,
hospital that looks like the frontispiece
to paradise, and, if he should die, a
breezy hill of flowers and grass; tomb
stones, as white and cute as can be, with
good company all around him and the
ocean below. If he is single, he gets
all the luXuries of the Hotel Tivoii. at
boarding house rates-not forgetting the
most sparkling, tnrist-quenching water
he ever tasted in his life. The American
is a fine fellow, all right. but he doesn't
know beans about Panama. And he
doesn't care.