Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1913-08-14


and often have considerable educa
ton. The best of them have found
positions as clerks. stewards and the
like. The Barbadians are in the main
densely ignorant, but they are a
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 a day OF back.
breaking labor. They receive an aver.
age of $50 n month, their meals cost
them 30 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 conveniences, are OK.
orbitant. The barracks for laborers
provided by the commission IRE 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.
II the laborer is injured or falls III,
there is a dispensary ana a doctor
close at 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.
l.. -
the Jamaican and the "Bajan," 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 nap of the West IL
dies are comical to behold
Two things these negroes are OK.
tremely fond ofA-religion and rum.
And both are rather disastrous 10
many of them. The insane asylum
whose buildings straggle up one SLOPE
of Ancon 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 woman, and singing
with fervor 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 some
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 no
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 Spanlards. Her
salt tears flowed down the hillside
and so impregnated the soil that
henceforth no vegetation could exist
there. II any maiden from Jamaica
or Barbados ever sits up there she
need not weep over the lot Of her fell
low-islanders. Indeed, her smiles at
their happy condition might well re-
store that bit OF land to it's pristine
fertility. Her husband, father or
brother is earning more than he ever
did before. is living better, and when
he returns to his island home may
have saved up enough to loaf for
long time under the shade of the
sheltering palm.
So the real diggers of the canal
though unhonored and unsung, are
we'll paid. we'll fed and well housed.
In their degree they are as fortunate
as any others who have found en-
ployment in the zone.