The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-01-14
DOWN ON THE PANAMA

ESQ rambling, that I'm afraid you
haven't much of AN idea of where /
! am. 1t is so entirely different from
anything I've ever seen or any place
I've been, that it seems impossible
to start description of it. Panama
City on the Pacific belongs to the
! Republic of Panama but is under Unit
ed States sanitary control. Ancon lies
right next to it, across the street in
| fact but it is not hard to tell where
one leaves off, and the other begins
as Ancon is very beautiful, while
Panama has narrow streets and no
lawns. 1t is very hilly, but the
streets are all paved and the yards
are full of tropical foliage. The hills
have been graded and the higher part
! is called Balboa Heights. We live in
| the Heights, just. over the line from
| Balboa and as yet | don't know the
dividing lines between the three
| places. Balboa is lower down in the
flats and the school | am in is about
four blocks from the house, though
| there are no real divisions of blocks :.
The streets just continue until they
! end We have to buy our provisions
! in the Ancon Commissary for delivery,
! though we are nearer Balboa. The
commissaries are the government
stores and everything is payed for
! with commissary tickets. You can get
! them in 81 80, So and SIS books, with
/, 2, :, 10, and 80 cent coupons. They
certainly are the biggest nuisance,
and at first | couldn't get used to
! them or count them at all Some
times they are very finicky about
taking torn out coupons, as they are
not supposed to be transferable.
| Four of us, Eley Buckheiser, from
! Michigan and my room mate, Matte
/ Allen Frazier from Oklahoma, Ger
trude Kuehne from Indiana and |
have a French cottage, ESQ called
because it was built by the FRENCH
F., 1t has four rooms, a small kitchen,
back enclosed porch, bath and shower
and a tiny front porch. The windows
are screened and have no glass and
the kitchen has an opening a foot
wide all around the top, also screened
The house is just like summer cot
tage at home, no plastering and has a
corrugated roof, covered with tar.
We are only ten feet or so from
the street, (There are very few side
walks,) but our yard has a banana
tree, two large red hibiscus bushes
same bright colored foliage plants and
several other shrubs and plants,
never saw before and no one seems
to know the name of. The porch is
covered with g. vine, which has
small leaves, something on the order
of the smilaX, and blue bell shaped
blossom There is another vine, also
with an orange colOred blossom. II
! really is very pretty and we are al
ready quite attached to our little home
There is sort of hedge around one
side of the yard and in the back
some shrubs and another banana tree
We got some Holy Ghost orchids the
Sunday | was out with the Martis
and l am hoping they will bloom
This is not their season and the
blossoms we found were very small
The flower is white with a white cen
ter, which really looks very much like
dove with its wings outspread. The
petals near the center are splashed
with purple and the flower has very
sweet odor.
There are comparatively few flow
ers here, and they wilt very quickly
after being picked. However, there
are many plants with highly colore.d
foliage, and they are used a great de !
in landscape gardening.
The American cities are laid Out
with an eye to beauty, and vines and
plants of every description are used
wherever possible.
Saturday night party of twelve oil
us, six teachers and six bachelors went
up Ancon hill. 1t is the hill which An
con and Balboa Heights are built on
but the center of it is too high fol
buildings 1t was quite stiff climb, az
the trail is very narrow and eX-
tremely steep and rocky in places
When we got to the top, we were
dripping with perspiration, but there
was fine breeze, which soon cooled
us off, and | was really chilly for the
first time since | left New York. We
built a bonfire and roasted marsh
!, mallows and apples. The marshmal-
lows were so warm that they fairly rar
but they tasted as good sprinkled will
Canal Zone dirt as they do at home
The view was simply wonderful from
one side we could see Panama City
and the Pacific far below with thou
sands of twinkling lights and from the
other Balboa and the Canal FOL
d several miles, down to the Mira
flores locks. Everything is lighted
with electricity and the moon is full
just now, SO altogether it was quite
enchanting. On a clear night the
moon and stars are so beautiful. The
evening star is especially lovely now
it seems as if you could reach up and
pick it out of the sky. One man sale
the other day he. believed it was the
tropical moon that held him there.
| The big dipper is too far down the
horizon TO be easily seen. The South
em Cross, a constellation CT the dry
season, is visible now very early in
the morning We saw it the other day
when we got up at $50 for mass, JUS
before it disappeared.
! The days are very hot, begging the
pardon of the Isthmians They are al
boosters down here and though they
do not take the climate as personally
as the Californians, still it is we'll moi
to be too frank with your opinions