These may not be representative types, but they represent actual observations and they abound. They may not be peculiarly American but they were Americans. They are somewhat different from European gourmands I have seen. The higher the grade of civilization the less pronounced the types. Each country, in fact, has its own varieties, and they are found everywhere except at the poles. Yet even in the Arctic regions travelers are apt to be great gourmands, although seldom gourmets. They have been known to eat everything in sight, from hair oil to shoe polish, from old shoes to dish cloths, and boast of it afterward—if they survived it.
PART III
BACK
Part III
CHAPTER I
Accommodations at Colón
Arrival—Queer Methods of the Manager of Washington Hotel—Driving People Away—The Astor Hotel and the Swiss Hotel—The Town Noises—Advantages of the Washington Hotel—Reason for the Peculiar Treatment—The Veranda and the Breeze—A Delightful Room to Sleep in—A Healthy Situation at Last—The Shower Bath and “Next”—A Bald-headed Dude in a Three-bedded Room—The Meals—No More Siestas Needed—Gathering Cocoanuts and Throwing Them into the Sea—A Fine Place for Useless Windmills—A Doctor Goes Hunting—A Tropical Shower and a Glorious Morning.
The remainder of the Western contingent, including myself, arrived at Colón about 10 A. M. on Saturday, January 7th, and went to the Washington Hotel. As usual the manager had no vacant beds. A guest arriving in the morning would find him busy with his little grocery store that adjoined the hotel office, and could not ascertain whether any vacancies would occur before night or not. If a guest arrived in the afternoon the places had been given to those who had arrived in the morning. I knew this and waited until the manager could give me more definite information. Doctor and Mrs. Crile and Doctor and Mrs. Palmer, however, were square-dealing and plain-speaking North Americans, and took him at his word when he shrugged his Italian shoulders and said in French that he had no empty beds or rooms. They went to the Astor Hotel where Doctor and Mrs. Brower were stopping and which was located near the center of the town, one short block from the main street and main noises. They said that the food was quite satisfactory after it had been supplemented by the fruit laid in by them and which could always be obtained at the public market. Doctor Brower and his followers seemed to think that in Colón man could live by fruit alone, but many of us felt that we could live by water alone; and thus we were divided into two camps, one near the market and the other near the sea. A few Westerners who had no patience with the foreign diplomacy of the Washington Hotel manager found good rooms and eatable food at the Swiss Hotel, which was located on the main business thoroughfare called Front Street. There it was noisy within as well as without, for the building was a wooden shell that conveyed the indoor sounds from hall to hall and room to room until the last guest was in bed. A merry-go-round with its shrill music marred the early evening, the carousing public disturbed the late evening and the switch engines and freight trains puffed and rattled all night along the main street in a way that suggested insomnia. As the town was only three streets wide and the third street was on stilts over stagnant water and inhabited only by negroes, it was impossible to get far away from the noises and noisomeness. Besides, the sea breeze did not blow through the town as it blew at the Washington, and the rooms were so hot that refreshing sleep was impossible, even when the din subsided for a few moments.