The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1914-06-12
A COUNTRY EDITOR
SEES PANAMA CANAL
And Tells The Echo Readers of Ills Trip
and What He Sees and Hears

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with pirates. Every boy is a sailor be-
tween the ages Of twelve and sixteen
and most OF US have been boys at some
time or another-unless we happened
to have been girls. We have all sailed
with Marryat, Stevenson, Irving and
others and most Of them have taken US
directly thru these waters. The Span
ish Maine was a reality in my mind
long before I saw it, and the associates
of these boyhood days came back with
vivid force when I at last found myself
sailing the same seas traversed by the
brave Hispanolia.
What more realistic than to stand on
the forward deck, and gaze down on
the iorecastle, where lean, barefooted
crew of Fortune Islanders were painting
rigging and swabbing deck, their
browny backs bent to their tasks, show
ing the smooth play of very thick mus
Giles through very thin cotton shirts and
every one OF them looking the part Of
first-class pirate from his cracked heels
to the top of his woody head. The sea,
the sky, every atom Of our environ
ment conspired to the suggestion OF
piracy and I would not have been sur
prised at all had Long John Silver rolled
out OF the forecastle roaring stave of
his favorite song:
Fifteen men on a dead mans chest,
70 no and a bottle of rum"
But it wasn't Long John at all but
his first cousin-the deck Steward -
or perhaps the room steward, or the
table steward, or whatever his steward
ship might happen to be, they are all
stewards if they don't happen to be
captains, or first second, third or some
other numbered officer and they are
pirates just the same. If he is called
steward, he is a pirate, and you will
find it out jolly well when you get
through tipping him, or rather them.
The illusion keeps up when you get
to shore. Here you are in Panama,
the city built by the Spaniards behind
wall forty feet high and sixty feet
broad to keep out the pirates, and
which cost the king of Spain so much
money he thought he ought to be able
to see it across the water. But the
wall is now in decay and, if it were of
of use today it might only serve to
keep the pirates in instead Of out. The
American tourist is said to be to blame
for encouraging the tipping habit, and
if he is he has lot to answer for, be-
cause the habit once formed is incur
able. Nor is it entirely the tip OF
which I would complain. All the way
along this route was beset with ex-
cessive charges. Hotel keepers charge
too much. Merchants charge too
much. Hackmen and automobile
agents charge too much. They are all
direct descendants Of old man Morgan,
the boss pirate of them all.
In one port, the leading hotel had
the nerve to ask Waldorf Astoria prices
and at the same time ask their guests
to climb stairs without an elevator, OF
perhaps ought to say lift, seeing as
this was English territory. No tele-
phones in the rooms. and delivery Of
ice water by freight. In this hotel il
you wanted anything you called a boy,
who called another boy, who called an
other to find out what you wanted.
Then you were informed that the boy
you wanted for this particular duty was
out. If you wanted a cocktail before
dinner your waiter sent waiter to get
waiter to tell the steward to fetch the
cocktails, and then waiter number one
usually went and got them himself es-
pecially if he believed there was tip
in sight.
In Santiago we found a frst-class
hotel. Everything American. Prices
not too bad. In the lavatory every
thing was up-to-date from porcelain to
plumbing.
Il miss something" said 1.
Sure you do says Bill. You mis-:
the pirate with the whisk broom and
itching palm"
But we spoke too soon. In he came
whisk broom in hand.