Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-10-22
THE PANAMA
CANAL AT WORK
By Frederic ]. Haskin

IContinued from Editorial Page.1
and loafers of many races doze on the
| benches.
The prevailing architectural fen
ture in Panama City is undoubtedly
the balcony. If there are fifty miles
| of streets in Panama, there must be a
| hundred miles of balcony, for nearly
every house has at least one, many
have two, and some have three or
four.
Every balcony in Panama is a gar
den. The lack of all growing things in
the streets is made up by the festoons
| OF vine and flower that hang over
every railing. incidentally, as you
pass beneath, while the senorita is at
her morning task of caring for the
flowers the water she pours upon
rickety floor and down the back of
| your neck. This dripping of water
from the balconies upon the narrow
! sidewalks is a subject of constant
municipal agitation in Panama, and
of many brilliant editorials in the local
press.
The residence section of Panama is
directly over the business section.
am reliably informed that there is
only one man in Panama who owns a
residence in the city, devoted exclu-
sively to residence purposes. Even a
millionaire, who enjoys an income of
| $50. 900 gold month, lives over his
place of business, which is drug
store.
Extensive Cab Service
Panama City has one of the most
extensive cab services in proportion to
GAL 2-CITIES OF THE ISTHMUS.
its size in the world. cab in Panama
is sort of one-horse shay. or. as one
| caustic critic from Kentucky put it, a
"one-half horse shay" for the typical
Panamanian cob only stands about
eleven hands high and weighs about
500 pounds. His disposition is NOR
ose, medtative and unstable. He has
! to be hitched far out to the end of the
shafts in order to keep him from
kicking the dashboard to pieces.
All of these cabs are owned by a
sort of trust or combine, which is a
striking example of organized ineffi-
cheney. When the day is fine and you
would like to take a walk the cabs
fairly mob you. If you accidentally
wriggle your little finger while walking
down the street, three of them stop
and implore you to ride. But If you
arrive at the depot when it is pour
! ing bucketfuls, as it always pours at
Panama, you cannot get a cab either
! by bribery or force. All the drivers
inform you that they have been en-
gagged ahead of time. You must either
part with a perfectly extortionate sum
! or else plunge into the tropical storm,
which is just like a river. Further
more, while you can go down hill very
nicely in a Panamanian cab. going up
| hill is something of a speculative VEN
ture. An attempt to reach the sum
NIT of Ancon in one of these vehicles
resulted in the harness breaking in two
| places, while the intelligence and the
penknife of the passenger were neces-
sary to mend it before the trip could
be completed.
Beyond Human Comprehension
The Panamanian cabman will take
you anywhere in the city for ten cents
| American money, unless the harness
| breaks, the horse balks or traffic gets
permanently Congested in one of the
side streets, all of which frequently
happen. Why two Panamanian cab
drivers will approach each other from
opposite ends of the street when there
is only room for one vehicle, and then
stop in the middle and curse each
other for twenty minutes, is something
which the American intelligence can
not comprehend.
Another favorite amusement of the
IPanamanian cabby is to get a tourist
Who does not know the city and then
drive him round and around through
the labyrinthine streets, thereby taking
an hour or so to reach his destination
ana making an eXorbitant charge.
n visit to the President of Panama
is a pleasantly informal affair. The
| palace" is a very old building of the
best Spanish type, built of stone and
tinted a faint weather blue. 1t is a
two-story building. the center being
pierced by a courtyard, which occu-
pies more space than all the rest of the
house. This is filled with tropical
lplants twenty feet high, lifting up to
meet the vines and flowers that droop
from the railing of the gallery above
AS you enter the wide veranda, SOL
diers are discovered in various atti-
tudes of repose and meditation, but
lthey quickly jerk upright and salute
as the visitor passes. The president
Ireceives in fine, breeze-swept cham
her in the front of the building, with
long French windows looking down a
typical vista of narrow street lined