Evening star., 1915-10-16
The Panama Canal at Work.
x.-Life on the Zone Today.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

| PANAMA, October 4-To an old en-
| ploye the brave days on the zone are
| gone. Compared to the construction
| period. with its rapid promotions and
| fabulous salaries, the present era of
administration and operation is tame
thing indeed. The change has been
| gradual. but to the old employees
| 1t is an overwhelming change. They
have lived their epic. as one of them
| expressed 1t. and now they are living
| their prose.
Many of them, of course, are leaving
the zone, for now that the work is
done only fraction of the old force
! can be used. So men who have given
the best years Of their lives to build
| ing the canal are going away for good,
and this gives them no pleasure. For
| If you think that the old employe is in
a hurry to go back to the United States,
now that his task is done, you are
greatly mistaken. If you ask him
about it he will probably tell you that
ha would like to remain at Panama
little longer. And If you press him he
| may admit that life on the isthmus,
with its strange combination of Yam
kee efficiency and the easy, pleasure
| loving ways of the Latin, has thrown
| the spell of it's peculiar charm upon
| his days at Panama.
| The life on the Canal Zone today is
probably the most exotic under the
| flag. There is nothing like it anywhere
el$:, in the world. Here the American,
bent upon great achievement and
| money making, has come squarely in
contact with the Latin, asking only to
| dream his life pleasantly away. as his
fathers have been doing for two GEN.
| turtles. These two diverse elements
gled. but certainly they have become
adjusted and each has brought much to
the other.
Take the matter of sports. for ex-
| ample. There could be nothing more
different than the Yankee and the Pan
| aman conceptions of sport. The
Yankee wants to get out and do some-
! thing strenuous, so that he can per-
| spire and get excited. The Panaman
| idea of sport is not to do something.
| but to watch somebody else do it. He
plays no games that cannot be played
sitting in a chair. The bull ring, the
nothing but an excited spectator. are
his typical amusements. Living in a
land teeming with game, he seems even
Ito lack the conception of hunting as a
sport. When he takes the field he Is
after meat, rather than amusement.
| There is bull ring at Panama City.
and this ancient sport of all Spanish
peoples. modern descendant of the
|
ticed. 1t cannot be said, however, that
bull fighting reaches a very high state
of development in Panama. You see 1t
at it's best in Mexico and in some parts
nearer the tropics both the bulls and
the bull fighters seem to lack enthu-
siasm and energy. Now and then, on
some gala occasion. a really gorgeous
dors, is held in the Panama ring, but
the ordinary Sunday bull fight is rather
a poor affair. Yet as glimpse into
unchanged Panaman life it is in
tensely interesting to the visitor.
X
There was rather slim attendance
at a fight that was held here a few
| weeks ago. An
Ohio School "Marm'!' eager rabble of
at Bull Fight. Of T all shades
of black and yellow crowded about the
edge of the ring. A little higher up
were seated a good many tourists, ma
rooned in Panama City by the sndes
at Culebra cut. Far above in the boxes
could be seen the dandies and senori-
tas, representatives of the Panaman
| haute monde.
| Decidedly the most expectant. inter-
ested and excited portion Of the audi
ence was the group of tourists VINO
! comprised everything from a typical
Englishman on his way back from ia
maica to Join his regiment to an Amer
ican school teacher travelling for the
summer. Parenthetical1y, it may be
remarked that if you want to spot
real hypocrite, pick the person VINO
says that he or she wouldn't like to
see anything so brutal as a bull fight.
True, the civilized man. whose idea of
sport is a fair contest, may be dis
Susted after he gets there. but there is
something atavistic left in each OF us
| to which this primitive eXhlbltlon lr-
resistibly appeals.
| So even the school marin from Ohio
was disappointed in the first bull. He
was obviously a creature of domestic
When the big. coffee-colored and rath-
| er portly banderillero, who looked like
shabby edition of Henry VIII, grace
fully put the beribboned barbs into the
amazed and insulted. but not at all an
cry. He absolutely refused to charge
any one under any circumstances So
they gave him up as a bad JOB and
The second bull took one look at the
crowd, felt the orickle of cold steel in
his shoulder and decided that the game
was too rough for him He hurdled
the runway, ran back into the corral
and refused to play under any circum
stances.
| By this time, all of the spectators
We're convinced there wasn't gong to
be any bull fight at all. but the third
bull was a surprise. He made
| fyine jump through the gate and
caught a bystander with one horn.
Then he chased everybody out of the
ring except the Panaman Henry
VII. This bold gentleman proved him
self to be really a bull fighter of tall
ent. He planted the banderillas in the
bulls shoulder and wore him out with
futile charges at a gracefully hirted
cane. At last the bull was staggering
with exhaustion. The matador came
forward with his sword. The school
f, teacher from Ohio covered her face
with her handkerchief; the young Eng
lishman remarked, that it was a rum
sort of sport: the Panamans leaned
far out from their seats, shouting and
gesticulating with excitement.
=