PICTURESQUE PANAMA
A Panamanian cart loaded with English tea biscuit, drawn by an old
American army mule, driven by a Hindoo wearing a turban, drove up in front
of a Chinese shop. The Jamaican clerk, aided by the San Blas errand boy,
came out to supervise the unloading. The mule wriggled about out of
position, a Spanish policeman came along and everybody got out and
"cussed" the mule.
That is Panama, every day. Across the street is an Italian lace shop run
by a Jew. Next door is a printery, operated by a Costa Rican. Just beyond
is a French laundry conducted by a man from Switzerland, and on the next
corner is a beautiful Chinese store where they sell everything from Japan.
Cloisonne and lacquer and curious carvings, silks, embroideries,
scientific instruments--they are all here. You can buy Canton linen,
Hongkong brass, Nikko carvings, Hindoo embroidery, German cutlery, French
microscopes, Canadian flour, New York apples, and California grapes all
within a block. And the products of Central and South America are all
about.
The street in front of the shops is full of Panamanians, Peruvians,
Ecuadorians, Chileans, Colombians, and San Blas Indians, besides some
representatives of every country of North and South America, Europe, Asia,
and Africa. Canal Zone Americans walk past Yankee business men, and native
police crowd the mestizos off the sidewalk.
Panama is a jitney town, and the honk of the never-silent horn punctuates
the clang and dash of the trolleys and automobiles down a fifteen-foot
street in a mad race to see which can get through first. Overhanging roofs
nearly touch above blooming orchids and talking birds that scream across
the narrow streets. Gloomy interiors and stumbling stairways lead up to
spacious apartments and breezy balconies. Above are occasional
roof-gardens. All the rooms have high ceilings, all the streets are paved,
and all the kids wear clothes--sometimes.
There is no possible human shade or tint that is absent here. The
Anglo-Saxons are white, more or less. The Jamaicans are black, mostly. The
Panamanian is most often a soft and pleasing brown, done in a number of
wholly unmatchable tints. And the natives from these many sunny countries
round about are of every known color-tone, from chrome yellow to Paris
green. This is the human kaleidoscope of the earth: shake it up and you
will get a different result every time.
You may not like it, but you can never truthfully say that Panama is not
interesting--all the time.
The streets are clean. Daily sweepers and nightly garbage men take care of
that. The sidewalks are narrow, of course. Perhaps these two-foot
sidewalks account in part for the innate courtesy of the Latin mind. One
must be either polite or profane when he makes his way along these little
ledges, often two or three feet above the street. A portable stepladder
would help some.
[Illustration: BATHS--WHOLESALE AND RETAIL]
Some of these houses are old, very old. A few are new; most of them have
stood here one or two hundred years. There are many three stories high, a
few boast of four stories, but the most of them have but two. Third
stories are popular because of the breezes that blow and make life
comfortable.
Plazas are small, but parked and well kept, and they are used as only
Latin-Americans know how to use a plaza. The little ones are garden-spot
oases in the deserts of bare walls and wide eaves. Santa Ana Plaza is the
heart of the city, and there is no hour of the day or night that there are
not people there. If you really wish to see the world go by, sit on the
stone bench at Santa Ana Plaza and look about you. If you stay long
enough, you may see anybody, from the latest naked brown baby to the last
chosen president of any country you may name.
Sitting in the plaza is a business by itself in this country. The North
American uses a park as a short cut, cross-corners, to get somewhere. But
with the tropic citizen, the plaza is an end in itself. He is not going
anywhere, he is just sitting in the plaza. He may not even be called a
bench-warmer--the bench is already warm. He is sitting in the plaza--that
is all.
The band-night parade in Santa Ana Plaza is an institution. Around the
central garden they saunter, to the swing of the very good music from the
central pavilion. The outer walk is wide, and so is the parade. Clockwise
walks the inner circle, three abreast, all young men. In the opposite
direction saunter the young women, also in threes. 'Round and 'round they
go, talking, laughing, listening, looking, lingering, while the band plays
on. It is a good band too. And not the least of the exhibit is the clothes
the women wear. In matter of graceful and apparently comfortable costumes
the Panamanian girls need apologize to none of their northern sisters. Who
is to blame the boys if they keep on walking around for the sake of seeing
the seeable, especially when she may be quite worth watching? Every added
turn means one look more. It is all very dignified and proper, but human
nature is the same old composition in every land, and the blood in the
heart runs red, no matter what the tint or tan without. In a land where
the customs of chaperonage are exceeding strict, and no young woman is
supposed to be left alone with any young man for the briefest moment, it
is easy to see why the band nights in the plaza are popular. Ostensibly
the young women, after the manner of their kind, have no interest in the
young men, but just the same, their soft brown eyes have the same old way
of wandering at the right moment; it is the same old trick and it works in
the same old way.
The cathedral plaza is rather a different matter. Here gather the elite,
in numbers on concert nights, and more or less on other fair evenings. The
grown-ups sit about on the benches and the children run and play,
care-free and comfortable. Well-dressed and content, these are the best of
the old native stock that used to live "inside" the walls of Panama that
the Spanish king thought he should be able to see. There are usually a few
Americans with the crowd, and it is a peaceful and restful family scene.
Were it not for the incessant clatter of the trolleys and jitneys the
place would be a good rest-cure. But as matters now stand, there is too
much pandemonium for any permanent peace.
[Illustration: CONVENT DOOR]
Out at the point of the seawall, near Chiriqui Prison, stands an old stone
sentry box. It appears to belong to the prison now, but there was a time
when the outlook from that point on the bay of Panama was the viewpoint of
Panamanian life as it faced the Pacific and marked the place of departure
for shores unknown. It is prosaic enough now to stand beside the little
old stone tower and watch a big liner leave the canal and throw back its
smoke-plume as it steams out to sea, having left the Atlantic Ocean seven
hours before. Gone with the days of the explorers and pirates are the
mystery and menace of it all. The sentry box meant something then. Its
lone occupant scanned anxiously the horizon for the sail that might mean
fresh plunders, news from the world beyond, bountiful booty or stolen
treasure, or perchance a fight to the finish with other pirates as
unscrupulous as the villains on shore. Now the children gather there at
sunset to play, care-free on the high wall overlooking the Gulf of Panama.
Old Spanish houses are built with the yard inside. It is delightfully
intimate and cozy, but not very democratic. Green and clean and cool are
these little parked "interiors" of the better houses. Some of the common
patios are dirty and disheveled, and the worst of them are better left
alone, but the American Health Department looks after the sanitation of
them all.
Chino (Chinese) shops sell everything, but, aside from the fine stores on
Central Avenue, are mostly devoted to native trade. Out in the interior
the Chinese storekeepers transact practically all the business of the
country. Wherever there are two or three families gathered together, there
the Chinese storekeeper is sure to appear, ready to harvest any small or
large coins that may be in circulation.
There were at one time about five hundred saloons of all sorts in Panama,
This number has been greatly reduced with hope of complete extinction,
owing to the exigencies of the near-by American soldiers on the Canal
Zone. The monthly payroll of the Zone is a stream of gold, and it is a
case of losing that gold or cleaning up Panama. Military orders and
voluntary boycotts made Panama a lonesome town for the latter part of
1918.
[Illustration: OFFICIAL LOTTERY IN BISHOP'S HOUSE, PANAMA]
There is the official lottery, suspiciously located. To be sure, the
bishop does not personally supervise the drawings, and perhaps he does not
get anything out of it, but no one who knows Panama claims such to be the
case. When did the hierarchy ever oppose a gambling game that promised
profit for the cause? Gaunt, hungry-looking cripples and pobres hang about
the corners selling lottery tickets. Evidently, none of the profits come
to these unfortunates.
Panama City has its neighborhoods like any other Old-World town. "Inside"
the old wall includes the original fortified town on the little peninsula
jutting into the bay. Here live officials, professional and business men.
Beyond this lies the town that overflowed the wall and now reaches down to
the park in front of the Tivoli Hotel. This is the barrio of Santa Ana.
Caledonia and Guachapali and San Miguel lie across the railway and serve
to fill in the space between the Spanish town and the Exposition grounds.
A mile and a half beyond the palaces of the exposition lies Bella Vista,
beautiful for situation and rivaling Southern California for its real
estate enterprise. Over toward the Canal is Chorilla between the Cemetery
and Ancon Hill. At the end of the five-cent car fare on the line to the
savanas is the famous--or infamous--bull ring. Who said that bullfights
had been abandoned? Not much. Between bullfights and prize fights the
season is not allowed to drag, and it must be admitted that the number of
American patrons of these brutalizing contests is not to the credit of the
kind.
The open market where the fishermen come ashore is one of the show places
of Panama. Pangas and chingas and craft of every sort, except the modern
kind, bring in on high tide cargoes of bananas, coconuts, charcoal,
camotes, rice, sugar, syrup, rum, papayas, mangoes, lonzones, chiotes,
poultry, pigs, ivory nuts and a score of fruits and vegetables unnamable
by the uninitiated. When the tide recedes the boats lie high, if not very
dry, and the unloading proceeds apace. It is an interesting and lively
scene, and the bicker and barter go on by the hour.
Hard by is the big native market, resort of housekeepers and servants in
search of commissary bargains. This one is fairly clean and is the morning
recreation of thousands of shoppers.
Panama has its theaters, of the sort to be expected. One of the movie
houses compares well with the best anywhere, and most of the others are in
good condition. The national theater is a credit to the country and forms
a section of the national palace. On the Canal Zone the clubhouses,
sometimes called Y. M. C. A.'s, put on several picture shows a week in
commendable effort to supply recreation to their patrons.
The architecture of the old churches is a bit disappointing to travelers
who have seen the splendid buildings of other Latin lands. The Cathedral
has two modern towers, a clock in one of them, and the twelve apostles in
life size on the facade. The Jesuit Church by the Malecon is very old and
rather interesting. Recently a new concrete tower has been added, of
striking appearance, but not closely in conformity with the architecture
of the church. This church contains a famous old painting of purgatory and
heaven, and down below, the flames of the lost. It is notable that in the
place of purgatory are bishops, priests, and kings. There are ten people
in heaven, and ten in purgatory, and of each ten three are women.
Query--Where did the painter think that the women belong? It is an
interesting question, especially for the women.
The big Merced Church on Central Avenue has a curious and interesting
little street chapel on the corner of the sidewalk, and here are arranged
curious exhibitions at Christmas and Easter. I saw here the ancient
village of Bethlehem, with the inn and manger and oxen; but there were
also a miniature lake with a steamboat, and a grocery wagon delivering
goods to the ancient Bethlehemites. The stores bore advertisements of
patent breakfast foods.
No place can be truly romantic until it possesses some good ruins, and
Panama claims distinction in the old Flat-Arch Church near the palace. The
interior is now used as a garage, and no one but the tourist seems to
think the place of any interest. Two blocks away stands the facade of the
fine old stone church that has been a ruin now for years. The interior is
now a stable, and the old walls of the college have been used for the
construction of a modern cheap tenement house. The stone front of the old
wall stands as a fine example of the architecture and building of 1751,
when the church was finished.
The San Filipi Neri Church, at the corner of Avenida B and Fourth Streets,
is made from stone carried in from Old Panama. This church is said to have
the most beautiful interior in the city, but, as it is very rarely opened
to the street, the visitor will have to accept the statement without
opportunity to judge for himself.
[Illustration: RUIN OF FAMOUS FLAT-ARCH CHURCH]
The savanas lie northeast of Panama and beyond the ruins of Old Panama.
The rolling slopes of green and the growing number of villas will make
this strip of country valuable and famous before long.
Of Panama's hotels not much need to be said, except that they are good of
their kind. Latin hotel standards are different from those of North
America, but good judges of hotel life have pronounced those of Panama to
be quite endurable.
There are always two or three daily papers in Panama and an indefinite
number of weeklies. An immemorial custom exists by which when any citizen
has anything on his mind that he feels he should unload to the profit or
otherwise of the public, a printed pronunciamento is issued and circulated
about the streets by boys, handed out freely to everybody in sight. This
really effective method is sometimes used for important matters of state.
[Illustration: EIGHTH-GRADE ROOM, PANAMA]
The educational system is modeled upon the best Latin-American standards,
with primary schools of four grades throughout the Republic. Provincial
centers have schools with two, and in a few cases four years more. The
National Institute, at the foot of Ancon Hill, maintains a normal school
for men and a liceo which grants the degree of Bachelor of Arts upon the
completion of about the equivalent of the American college freshman year.
The young women are given a normal course in the Women's Normal School at
the Exposition grounds. There is no coeducation above the primary grades.
The Agricultural Experimental Farm and School, abandoned as an experiment
station, is used as a reform school.
Taboga Island lies off shore and furnishes a point of much interest. It is
the week-end Mecca of the Zone people and also of many of the Panamanians.
There are a good American hotel, several fair native hotels, good fishing,
tramping, an interesting native village, a healthful climate, and a fine
view--and all within ten miles of Panama.
If the prowler is looking for real adventure, he can seek for it on Gocos
Island, three hundred miles south of Panama. Here are said to lie hidden
somewhere ten millions of dollars' worth of treasure, stolen from Callao
and other points between 1820 and 1830. Harvey Montmorency wrote it up in
a book entitled On the Track of the Treasure, and so well did he tell the
story that four large expeditions have been organized and sent to find it.
One man is said to have found a little gold for his pains, but the others
went home poorer than they came. And if these are too easy destinations,
there lie the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Peru, said to contain
many possibilities, of many kinds. Peru is supposed to have the islands on
the market, and anybody with the money can purchase one, all his own.