Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1913-08-15

te Protect the Locks.
I and often have considerable educa
ton. The best OF them have found
positions as clerks, stewards and ths
like. The Barbadians are in the main
densely ignorant, but they are
happy lot and as they stream away
from the canal to their quarters in
the evening they sing, frolic and play
practical jokes as though they had
not just completed day Of back
breaking labor. They receive an aver
age of $50 month, their meals cost
| them 80 cents a day and their living
/ quarters almost nothing unless they
| prefer to rent rooms from outsiders
| Then they get the worst of 1t, for
rentals for ordinary rooms, without
furniture and conyeniences, are eD
orbitant. The barracks for laboren
provided by the commission are fitted
with several tiers Of hunks made Of
canvas slung on iron frames. At reg
ular intervals these are taken down
| and boiled, and such other sanitary
measures as are necessary are car
| ried out with regularity and pre-
| cision
If the laborer is injured or falls ILL.,
there is a dispensary and doctor
close 1T hand, and II the case is at
all serious the patient Is sent to the
hospital at Ancon or Colon. There
he receives free as skilful treatment
as money could buy. and there he is
kept until he RECEIVERS or dies.
! There is intense rivalry between
| the Jamaican and the "Bajian," for
each believes firmly that his island
| is bigger and better than the Others
and, incidentally. both believe that
both Jamaica and Barbados are larger
| than Cuba. Their looks of dismay
when shown map of the West In
dies are comical to behold.
Two things these negroes are eI
tremely fond of-religion and rum
| And both are rather disastrous to
many of them The insane asylum
whose buildings struggle up one slope
of AncQn hill is full Of them, and
according to the doctors most of them
have been brought there by either
rum or religion. Every evening in
the streets of Panama may be en-.
countered large groups of negroes,
listening to the exhortations of some
| leader, often a woman, and singing
with feryor the hymns she intones
for them. On other corners are de-
| tachments of the Salvation Army,
working with equal enthusiasm. And
| in the living quarters and the hos
pitfalls groups will surround soma
amateur pastor who breaches to them
and prays for them In these ways,
when they are not drinking, the ne
groes spend much of their leisure
time, and as they are impressionable
and excitable and ignorant, the re-
suits are not always good
Pay day in the zone furnishes
some interesting scenes. The pay
car traverses the railway and at each
labor camp or town a long line OF
negroes files through it. Each man
must present his pay check and
Identification tag with one hand and
in the other hold his hat or cap. Into
the latter the cashier shoves the Sill
yer coins that make up the WORK
mans monthly stipend. The process
is extraordinarily rapid, as it must
be for there are many thousands OF
laborers to be paid.
Up near the summit of Ancon hill
is large patch of ground where nc
vegetation ever grows. According to
the legend, an Indian maiden sat
there centuries ago and wept bitterly
for the fate of her countrymen whom
she could see far below toiling under
the lashes OF the cruel Spaniards. Her
salt tears flowed down the hillside
and so impregnated the soil thas
henceforth no vegetation could exist
there. II any maiden from Jamaica
or Barbados ever sits up there, sne
need not-weep over the lot OF her feF
lOw-islanders. Indeed, her smiles a.
their happy condition might well re-
store that bit of land to its pristine
fertility. Her husband, father OF
brother is earning more than he ever
did before, is living better, and Wnen
he returns to his island home may
have saved up enough to loaf for
long time under the shade of the
sheItering palm
So the real diggers of the canal
though unhonored and unsung, arc
well paid. well fed and well housed
In their degree they ara as fortunatS
as any others who have found en-
ployment in the zone