Colonel Gorgas had been appointed health officer of the city of Panama and of Colón by the Panama government, and health departments were being organized in both cities. A systematic cleaning of dirty places (a Herculean task) and a rigid enforcement of modern sanitary laws and regulations had already been begun. The Zone commission was at work constructing the new reservoir, about twelve miles from the canal, out of which Panama and the whole Zone have since been supplied with healthy water. The people of Panama were using rain-water collected in cisterns for drinking and washing. In the rainy season the streets flowed with it and the cisterns overflowed; but in the dry season many of the reservoirs were empty, and there was practically a water famine up to the time of my visit. Those who could afford it, drank imported waters, such as White Rock, Apollinaris, Vichy, etc.
Why the people of Panama are not all dead long ago is past finding out. The animal kingdom from the mosquito up has preyed upon them, and the elements have conspired against them, drenching them for six months of the year and burning them and devitalizing them during the other six. They have also conspired against themselves, having had a civil war on an average of almost once a year. The country has been ravaged by adventurers and pirates in past centuries and beggared by Colombia in the present one. They have scarcely any developed resources. But now they have run under the wing of the United States, who will kill the mosquitoes for them, provide hospitals to take them in out of the sun and rain, make fresh ice-water to keep them cool, arbitrate for them to keep their peace, build a canal for them to increase their business, and will keep out the foreign foe when they are threatened. If such a sudden change from prostration to prosperity does not spoil the child then it deserves all it gets, and is fit to survive. The French spoiled the Panamanians somewhat, and made them dependent and parasitic, but it is to be hoped that our influence will be to encourage the development and financial independence of the country.
We were cordially invited to remain at Ancón and breakfast with the officers and their families at eleven o’clock. The breakfast seemed to be looked forward to with great pleasure and was made quite a social event by them. And I do not wonder that they enjoyed it after doing a good day’s work while fasting. Their aim was never to put off until after breakfast what could be done before. They must have been ravenous by eleven o’clock. But as our blood was heated and our collars wilting, we thought it better to get back to the hotel before the day became hotter.
After our customary appetizer, to keep away Doctor Echeverría’s melancholy and fulfill my vow to do as the Panamanians did, we went to our rooms and refreshed ourselves with cold water and fresh linen (both externally), and were prepared to appreciate a substantial breakfast. They brought us first a large dish of tiny clams (coquillos) cooked in their shells. These varied from the size of a small split pea to that of a lima bean, and were as finely flavored and delicious as their delicate physique indicated. We then had some very hot shirred eggs and made them hotter with a little Worcestershire sauce, which gave them a fine, tropical flavor. Then came Italian spaghetti daintily served, a medium-tough nicely cooked beefsteak, some juicy pineapple, too sweet to bear any sugar, and a small cup of deliciously bitter coffee which I subdued by the addition of a little evaporated cream.
I was glad that I had not spoiled my breakfast by eating eggs at eight o’clock, for I was very hungry when we sat down to it, and enjoyed it so much that I think it really must have been good.
CHAPTER IX
A Siesta and Such
Preparations for a Panama Siesta—Barricading the Door—Interruption—Waiting for the End—Obliged to Get up—Opening the Box of Water—A Fatal Tip—An Imitation College Yell—Its Effectiveness—Horseback Riding—The High-toned Boarding Stable—Effect of Work upon Men and Animals in the Tropics—The Tramp and the Rich Man—Shopping—Tickets for the Bull-fight—Cigaret Smoking and the Habit—The Dusky Maiden—No Fool like an Old Fool—Biased Opinions—The War-cry—Town Gossip—A prescription for a Bottle of Beer—After-dinner Amusements—Ubi Tres Medici—Temperance of the Doctors—Mosquitoes and Poetry—The Night Watchman.
It was about noon when we finished our Spanish breakfast, and we agreed to take a siesta and meet again at half-past three. First, however, we stepped into a provision store in the next building and bought a case of fifty bottles of mineral water for use in our rooms. My American ancestors had drunk water for so many years that I had inherited the habit, and could not give it up, as many foreigners do, and we did not wish to be obliged to go to the bar every time we wanted a drink of water, for the bar-tender invariably put something in it.
I then went to my room to try the siesta and learn just what it was like. By the time I had climbed to the top of the house I was in a profuse perspiration so that clothes became insufferable and a draft of air indispensable. Hence, after opening the door about six inches and putting my trunk against it, I pulled the bed in front of the window to enable it to catch the drafts and breezes, and hung the upper bed cover over the foot to shield me from the sight of any one who might peep around the edge of the barricaded door. After having tucked the edges of the life-saving mosquito bar carefully under the mattress all around, I lay down with some of my clothes on. But the drafts and breezes were imperceptible and perspiration was active, and I soon had to work one of the edges of the mosquito bar loose, crawl out of bed and divest myself of more clothes. By keeping perfectly quiet I now perspired freely only where I was in contact with the mattress, which would have been considered a hard and cool one for any place but Panama, where it was a hard one only.