I lay listening to the well-played music, sometimes loud and martial as for soldiers marching to battle, at other times rhythmic and sensuous as for dancing, or soft and sentimental as for love-making, until I fell asleep to dream. I dreamed of a place where there was no killing for sport, no premature dying from disease, no gambling with lottery tickets, no scale of unearned wages, no rivalry for luxury and no system of imposition upon the weak by the crafty. Such a world there is, but it is in the region of the spirit or in the land of dreams, not in Panama nor in Pan-America.
PART II
The Pan-American
Medical Congress
Part II
CHAPTER I
The Opening of the Congress
Preparations for the Congress—Secretary Calvo—President Icaza’s Hospitality—Arrival of the Western Contingent—Doctors and Drink—Reception by Doctor Amador, President of Panama—The Palacio de Gobierno—Former Presidents and Governors—Mrs. Amador—The President—Revolutions and Their Origin—Opening Exercises of the Congress—Eastern Contingent Absent—The $25,000 Barrel—Speeches by Mr. Wallace, Mr. Robinson, Doctor Gorgas, and Music by the Band—The Panama Railway—Poetry and Prophecy by Punch.
On Monday, January 2nd, the preparations for the Pan-American Medical Congress began in earnest. Dr. José E. Calvo, the secretary, with a smile that never came off, worked like a little Hercules for the congress that almost never came off. Upon his shoulders rested the responsibility of making preparations for the scientific program, and although he was the whole thing, so to speak, he was not even hustling and impatient in his demeanor. His affability was so great and his manners so quiet that he really seemed meek, as all high officials should. High officials so often forget that they are servants.