The Little River news., 1918-12-25
FROM BENN1E POTTS
Ashdown Navy Boy Writes Interest
 ing Letter of a Trip.

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 ing Letter of a Trip. The following letter was written by Bonnie Potts with the U. s. Navy to his mother, Mrs. Josie Potts, of this city:
 S. S. Noord Brabant, 11-818. Dear Mother:
 We will arrive in Pisauga, Chile, to- day sometime if nothing happens, and we will be here about week I think loading then back to the good old U. s. A. again although I don't know where we will go to unload but any place in the U. s. suits the crew.
 have certainly had fine time at the different places that we stopped visiting as many places of interest as possible but of course we only spent about a day in each place except at Key West, Fla, where we stopped for three days.
 Everyone was surprised at the little town of Christobal, Panama, now an American port, l think we were ex- pecting to see an ancient country town and to our surprise, although there are just few hundred people there mostly Americans, the streets were paved, and were bordered by all kinds of tropical trees bearing fruit such as bananas and cocoanuts. And it was the prettiest little place lying in little hollow among the great noun 1 tains that almost completely surround ed it. There was just a. few stores but the largest was the scommissary run by the U. s. Government and it carried complete stock of everything and the prices were very reasonable and the store would be credit to any city in the world in fact have never seen cleaner or more up to date place in the largest cities.
 1 And every one there seemed to be living in great style, having Y. M. C.. A. and gymnasium and post office. Then there was one of the swellest restaurants there that I have ever seen believe me, there was some style to that place, you could get anything that you wanted to eat and get it very cheap and the service is unsurpass- able. You could hunt the cities over and never find a, finer restaurant than they had there.
 I think that the reason that every thing is fixed up so nice there is be- cause it is owned and operated by the government. Sure and there were a few sailors and soldiers there to make the population complete.
 Then the next day we passed through the canal, first we were lowed into the locks by little electric en- zines that are on each side of the can al and then the monstrous steel gates are closed and the ship was raised thirty feet in fifteen minutes by water pouring into the lock, then we passed into another lock. and raised another total of eigE ty-five feet in very few minutes, then we could look back anc see the ocean far below us The en- gineers in these little engines wore collars and ties and had all kinds of reading matter and sat under a little awning on the rear of the engine so you can imagine what hard lot Is theirs, and they receive $200 per month and houses free.
 But they have to pass very hard examination to get the job, and the men that helped build the canal, that is the mechanics, were given prefer ence over all others, because they had ito go through all the hardships of building. All the buildings or resi- ldences are built several feet off the ground and screened to keep out flies mosquitoes and so forth. and 1t is a healthy place to live in now. But be- fore the American engineers came there 1t was nothing but swamp with all kinds of levers to dishearten even the strongest of men. It certainly was complete transformation from a wilderness to thriving little town.
 The wharves and docks too, are all new and of the latest types with all the latest labor saving devices, and are kept as clean as pin you might say. In Boston 1t used to take us two days to unload and there they unload- ed in twelve hours.
 { But the trip through the canal was