Speeches were made by President Icaza, U. S. Minister Barrett, the Panamanian Treasurer, the Minister of War, Doctor Brower, Doctor Senn, and others whose names I did not learn, each in his own language and each one creditable to the speaker and to his country. In order to give a semblance of spontaneity to the speeches, each speaker had a number given him, and when a speaker had spoken and the band had played, the one with the next number would stand up unannounced and speak as if inspired by the preceding speaker and by the occasion. This would have worked charmingly had not the crowd called upon an extra speaker early in the evening. Doctor Brower, whose medieval ancestors had been subject to Spanish rule, and who inherited the temperament of a Spaniard and the physique of two Spaniards, did not understand Spanish. He, therefore, did not know that an extra man without a number had spoken. So he mistook his count and arose a number ahead of his turn, and ahead of the speaker whom he was to have followed, and whose speech was supposed to inspire his. But the doctor was equal to the occasion and spoke with as much eloquence as if his speech was in place, and as if people knew who he was and what he said. His speech elicited much applause, particularly from the highest ladies of the land and others who did not understand English. It was one of the best speeches of the evening, only it was out of place.
But the speech of the evening was that of Minister Barrett, who, I suppose, never was, and never will be, a minister of the gospel; he is in politics. His speech was full of wit, satire and good-natured banter, delivered in a full-chested baritone voice, and made one think that to hear a good after-dinner speech was worth a bad attack of matutinal indigestion.
The serving at table was quite rapid and satisfactory except that some of the many different kinds of wine looked alike, and tasted quite unlike, and the waiters mixed them up as they went around filling partially emptied glasses. The result was disastrous to the nerves of such connoisseurs as we all were. But in consequence of rapid serving and short speeches, the entertainment was over in time for the guests to go over to the clubs in their cocktail coats, and have more refreshments and a few straight nightcaps to settle the blended wines, and thus oblige no one to get into one of those hotel beds until his mind at least was properly made up.
Just what kind of water the Panamanians offered the Panamericans, and just what the Panamericans accepted from the Panamanians, I can not say from observation, but I know that the Panamanians offered generously and that the Panamericans were kindly disposed to do their duty. “New occasions teach new duties,” as Lowell said. Feasts are better than fevers and postprandials preferable to postmortems, was the concensus of the congress.
Having two more banquets to contend with during the following twenty-four hours, as well as a short scientific session to keep awake at, I sneaked off to bed when others went to the clubs, remembering the proverb that “He who eats and runs away may live to eat some other day,” and hoped they were as happy as they thought they were.
During these two days they dined and dinned us without intermission. Eating and drinking to the strains of stirring music occupied most of our time and attention outside of the scientific meetings, and it became necessary to give more thought to the filling of our stomachs at table than to the unloading of our minds upon the congress. Indeed, it was difficult to enjoy the scientific meetings when the energies were so heavily taxed with gastric and gustatory functions. If we had not had so many good times we should have enjoyed the meeting more.
CHAPTER III
Panama Bay and Paramount Barrett
An Excursion to the Island of Toboga—Panama from the Sea—A Picturesque Village—A Delightful Stroll to the Sanatorium—A Banquet Aboard—We Return Refreshed and Invigorated—A Dinner with Minister Barrett—His Travels and Experiences—He Wheedles One Empress and Amuses Another, Beats Admiral Dewey, Refuses a Harem, Shocks a Female Boarding-school, Suppresses a Revolution, Discourses upon Elephants and Has a Joke Played upon Him—At the Ball—Mr. and Mrs. Wallace—Twenty-five Thousand Dollars for Grave Digging.
An excursion and banquet on the bay and a visit to Toboga Island twelve miles out had been planned for us, and we assembled Thursday morning at eight o’clock at the railway station. A short ride by rail took us to the large pier at the Boca or mouth of the canal from which a channel has been dredged through the shallow water out to the Island of Perico. We started from the Boca because the pier at the city of Panama stood on dry land at low tide, and the boats were lying about on their sides much of the time.