Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 219, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1913 — AMERICANS on the ISTHMUS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AMERICANS on the ISTHMUS

Colon, C. Z.—For the American resident of the Canal Zone life is not all beer and skittles. There is plenty of beer, but £ have not seen a skittle here. Perhaps I, would not have recognized one if I had seen it. The American in a foreign land Is not so tenacious of his home customs as is the Englishman, and in Panama he finds himself not only in a tropic clime but in the midst of a civilization much older than his own. Consequently he yields in many particulars to .the customs of that clime and that civilization. The mid-day siesta of two hours, when he disrobes and dozes in a cool room, the dip in the ocean before dinner and the evening stroll in the plaza all appeal to him as to the native and have become a part of his life there. At the same time the Influx of northerners has had its effect on the Panamanians, especially, perhaps, in the matter of sports. Bullfights no longer are to be seen here and cock - fighting has suffered a marked decline. In place of them the native now enjoyß frequent wrestling matches and prizefights, indulges in tennis to some extent and has taken kindly to the national American sport of baseball. It is the American woman on whom the changed conditions of life bear hardest, for housekeeping on the isthmus is attended by many annoyances. A good many people have the idea that a woman in the tropics lies in a hammock all day and at meal time picks her food from the branches of trees that shade her resting place. As a matter of fact she must do her household shopping as at home, and the domestic problem is with her here as there, only more so if possible. For clothing and standard groceries she usually goes to the store of the commissary department, where she can buy well and cheaply. But for fruit and many of the vegetables there is tfie daily trip to the market. In that spacious building—l am speaking now of Colon and Panama —are scores of booths and tables, attended by Jamaicans, Chinese and native Panamanians, and piled high with taro, breadfruit, soursaps, guavas, papayas, banahas, plantains, alligator pears, mangoes, oranges, cocoanuts and a dozen other tropical products. The layout is tempting, but the purchasing is a task. Such. a thing as a fixed price is unknown and one must bargain diligently or get the worst of it And the insolence of the negro women is often commensurate with their ignorance. The native meat market is quite “impossible” for white people from the United States, for the meat, roughly hacked, is sold immediately after slaughtering, and the screening enforced by the American Banitary department is rendered ineffective by open doors. . The domestic servants employed by Americans in the zone are almost all Jamaican negresses. They are neat and clean, but their stupidity usually is monumental. Every detail of the household operations must be driven into their heads, and their minds seemingly are on the island home they have left, for their memory is almost nil and their eyes see little close at hand. Then, too, after a year or so of service and Bavlng they begin to think of returning to Jamaica and grow “weary." "Why, Blanche,” said one shocked housewife, “here it is eleven o’clock and the breakfast dishes and kitchen things not washed, and the ants all over them!” “Oh, marm, I couldn't do them, I’m so exharsted this morning," was Blanche’s reply. That’s a mild sample of what must be contended with.

Speaking of ants, there is another of the annoyances of housekeeping in the tropics. The ants are everywhere, in unbelievable numbers and most extrar ordinary activity. Screens do not keep them out nor Insect exterminators discourage them. They must simply be endured. If they take a fancy to a nicely growing garden of young vegetables, they cut and carry oft all the leaves In a night. It la the so-called leaf ant that does that. All over the Isthmus he is to be seen, moving in processions along well beaten paths, each individual carrying a leaf or other bit of foliage. One day I saw a long line of them moving through the sparse turf, all carrying tiny red blossoms cut from a small weed. It was a very picturesque miniature parade. No place and no age has been free from the cockroach, and in Panama be grows to an enormous size and spends some of his time and energy eating the covers of bound books. Rust and mould Add to the woes of the American housekeeper, and many articles she must keep In “dry closets” in which electric lamps are kept burning. There are not In Panama a great man? of the old pure-blooded Spanish

E.W. PICKARD

families, whose members possess education and refinement, and those that are there are not especially fond of Americans. Consequently there is not much social intercourse between the two races. The social activities of the Americans have three general cehters —the Tivoli club, the Washington Cotillon club and the Young Men’s Chris, tian association. The first two are dance organizations and give balls at ternate fortnights at the Tivoli hotel in Ancon and the Washington hotel in Colon. These affairs are quite formal and attract the best of the Americans from all parts of the zone. As for the Y. M. C. A., its work on the isthmus really deserves a chapter to itself, for it has been one oF the big factors in the successful building oI the canal. At first it was found impossible to persuade men from the United States to remain long on the isthmus. The pay was good, the work interesting, but homesickness found easy victims and they resigned and went back to the States in discouraging numbers. Several remedies were tried, and finally the commission established a club house in every zone town of any size and wisely put them in charge of the Y. M. C -A. In these houses are billiard rooms, bowling alleys, gymnasiums, soda fountains, lb braries, lounging rooms and a dozen other conveniences, and each house has a hall large enough for dances and amateur dramatics and musical entertainments. The secretaries in charge have been exceedingly active in the organization of bowling, baseball, billiard and other leagues, and the tourneys are continuous and of great interest. Of course no intoxicating drinks are to be found in these clubs, but in other respects they are conducted on lines so liberal as to be sometimes surprising. In one of them, for instance, I saw a number of young men and women dancing in the hall, to the music of a phonograph, immediately after the close of the Sunday evening religious service. This may have been-an exceptional case, as it was in one of the more isolated towns.

In Ancon, Cristobal and some others of the larger American towns flourishing women’s clubs have been maintained, and these were united in a zone federation which dissolved only this year, feeling that its work was done with the virtual the canal. The clubs have done a great deal in the way of philanthropy and study, and many social functions are given under their auspices. As may readily be comprehended, life for Americans in the zone is much like life in an American suburban town, and it has some of the disadvantages of the latter. Gossip and social jealousies are prevalent here, as there, and not a few-women have been driven back to the States by them. Disputes over promotions and the assignments of living quarters cause bitterness and estrangements, and of course there are innumerable complaints of undue influence —“pull”—in these matters. In some cases it must be admitted .there has been cause for these complaints, and, sad to say, often woman has been the cause. Her influence with certain of the high offlctrds cannot be doubted, and sometimes It has results that are to be deplored. Here is one instance of the power exerted by “pull.” A man for some years has held a responsible position with the Panama Railroad company, and who has a wife, two daughters and a young son, has been waiting long for housekeeping quarters, which are at a premium. Two minor clerks of the railway had been attentive to the daughters, but. being objectionable te the father, were discouraged. But the clerks had some influential connections, and in revenge have so cons rived things that the family in question has been passed by repeatedly in the assignment of housekeeping quarters. The father and son live in one building, the mother and daughters’ in another, and all must take their meals at the hotel.

Naturally, not many of the Americans on the isthmus will remain there after the completion of the canal. A few of the doctors may engage In general practice there —some already have done so—and some of the workmen may find the tropic climate so to their liking that they will stay. But nearly all are looking rather eagerly to the time when they can return to the states. The engineers and physicians no doubt will find that the experience they have had will be invaluable to them in the getting of positions and practice when they come home. But to readjust themselves to the old conditions of living may not he easy for the men and women who have been in the zone for years.