The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-02
BASEBALL A CIVILIZING
 INFLUENCE IN PANAMA

so ssset in their ways as to insist that no possible good, under any possible | circurla stances, could come out of Sunday baseball. Yes, there are folks son, no matter how thoroughly inn bued with the idea of the sancitty of the Sabbath, would be convinced by a visit to Panama that in one instance at least Sunday baseball has Justified itself
 Before Uncle Sam, armed with his pick and shovel, went down ito Pan anna for the purpose of digging a little ditch across the country, it would have been pretty difficult to find an uglier and more vicious bunch of horhbres than the rank and file of the Panamaniacs. Of course, there were many exceptions to this rule, but just the average Panama niac, armed with knife or machete, wasn't the sort of chap you would want to meet on a dark street at nj ight. He looked bad, and he felt bad, and by goIly, he was. bad. Drink didn't improve his temper any-and he was always drunk He found his principal amusement in cock-fighdng, hisspassio on for that s'sport'' being even greater than his love for buIl-baitfng. Cooking mains, tore Cbull fighting) ex- hibitions dancing the s'c1nbiafsto the music of the accordion or the tom tom, and all the booze he could drink, constituted the Panamaniacs idea of the bliss. - st
 wrong with hiIn-nothing that. could mt be cured. His mixed Indian, Afri- can and Spanish heredity made him inclined to viciousEe ess, and his cruel sports and pastimes added fuel to the flames tsfa
 The change that has come over Pan anna in recent years is best illustrated by the manner in which the people celebrate their fiestas. The greatest of thesa holidays, the anniversary of Panama.'s independence from ColSm- bian rule, will be celebrated this week, the third of November being Panama's day for making the eagle scream.
 Baseball is played during the winter months in Panama, and the enthusi- asn for the great American game be gins to boil at about this time of the year: when the fans are discussing pennant hopes with all the fervor that characterizest the northern bug" Of all the civilizing influences which Uncle Sam introduced into Panama, baseball has a place near the head Of the. list. And it was Sunday baseball at that, for the canal workers who introduced Panama to baseball had no opportunity to play other than on the first day of the week. Although the diamond pastine is now being played
 
 as we'll as by the North 1Americans who operate a real league, it is still almost exclusively a Sunday pastime.
 The breeding of game cocks in Panama has suffered great blow as a result of the general interest in basebali.s While cock-ffghting still has it's devotees and the toro is not without a large following, the rising generation is gradually losing interest in those cruel amusements. Offer "a Panama boy a baseball outfit or a fighting rooster, and the chances are that he will choose the former. Yet only a few years ago the same kid would have realized the greatest ann bition of his life in the possession of a good cock. and would have sniff ed at the very idea of exerting himself to provide his own amusement. It is safe to predict that st is only a, matter of a short time when the Panama nians will wholly abandon their sports of their fathers in favor or the games introduced by theNeffYan- quis.'' And if they persist in playing on Sunday, why, take it--from one who knows 'em, they are capable. of doing lots worse things with their time.
 Those 3,O0o,OoO rifles the Russians have just received from the sJaps will be useful to point at the Germans, even if the cartridges. are still in the factory.
 The fact that the boys take readily to the idea of military drill in schools does not prove that they would lower their. dignity by marching in with the girls at the Sunday school concert
 There is a widespread conviction that the game laws should be rigidly observed by other people. The football players are submitting to rigid training rules, but you can't get boy to live Oh bread, meat and cereals and go to bed at 10 o'clock merely to pass in his studies. JUST ARRIVED, i FRENCH AND DUTCH BULBS JOHN RICK & SON.
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