A BACHELOR’S QUARTERS
That is perhaps a trifle disquieting to the adventurous housekeeper, but, except for the purpose of entertaining, the Commissary must be a great boon. Its selection of household necessities is sufficiently varied to meet every need; the quality the best and its prices are uniformly lower than in the United States. This comparative cheapness in prices is, of course, due to the elimination of the middlemen, the buying by the commissary in large quantities and the disregard of profit as an element in the business. There is but one step between the Beef Trust, or other manufacturers, and the ultimate consumers on the Zone. The one intermediary is the Commissary. It buys in such quantities that it can be sure of the lowest prices. It buys in markets 3,000 miles or more away from its stores, but it gets the lowest freight rates and an all-water carriage from New York. Finally it pays no rent and seeks no profit, hence its prices should be the lowest. Here is a selection from the printed list issued in April, 1913, from which any house-keeper can judge of Zone prices:
| Veal Cutlets, per pound | 17 | c |
| Lamb Chops, per pound | 24 | c |
| Corned Beef, No. 1 | 14 | c |
| Sirloin Steak, per pound | 19 | c |
| Halibut, fresh, per pound | 15 | c |
| Chickens, fancy roasting, 51⁄2 pounds each | $1.25 | |
| Ducks, blackhead, pair | 60 | c |
| Pork, salt, family | 14 | c |
| Eggs, fresh, dozen | 25 | c |
| Butter, creamery, special | 41 | c |
| American Cheese, per pound | 22 | c |
| Celery, per head | 11 | c |
| Cabbage, per pound | 3 | c |
| Onions, per pound | 3 | c |
| Potatoes, white, per pound | 3 | c |
| Turnips, per pound | 3 | c |
| Grapefruit, each | 4 | c |
| Oranges, Jamaica, per dozen | 12 | c |
THE TIVOLI HOTEL
THE GRAPE FRUIT OF PANAMA
If, however, the Commissary system reduces life to something of a general uniformity and destroys shopping as a subject of conversation, the ladies of the Zone still have the eternal servant problem of which to talk. De Amicis, the travel writer, said that servants formed the one universal topic for conversation and that he bid a hasty farewell to his mother in Naples after a monologue on the sins of servants, only to find, at his first dinner in Amsterdam, whither he had traveled with all possible speed, that the same topic engrossed the mind of his hostess there. In Panama the matter is somewhat simplified by the fact that only one type of servant is obtainable, namely the Jamaica negress. It is complicated by the complete lack of intelligence offices. If a housekeeper wants a maid she asks her friends to spread the tidings to their servants, and then waits, supine, until the treasure comes to the door. Servants out of employment seek it by trudging from house to house and from village to village. Once hired they do what they have to do and no more. Among them is none of the spirit of loyalty which makes the “old Southern mammy” a figure in our fiction, nor any of the energy which in the Northern States Bridget contributes to household life—though, indeed, Bridget is disappearing from domestic service before the flood of Scandinavians and Germans.
The only wail I heard on the Isthmus about the increasing cost of living had to do with the wages of servants. “In the earlier days”, said one of my hostesses reminiscently, “it was possible to get servants for very low wages. They were accustomed to doing little and getting little, as in Jamaica and other West Indian islands, where many servants are employed by one family, each with a particular ‘line’. People say that in Panama City servants can still be found who will work for $5 silver ($2.50) per month, and that Americans have spoiled them by paying too much. But I think they have developed a capacity for work and management equal to that of servants in the States and deserve their increased wages. I pay $15, gold, a month to my one capable servant. Occasionally you will find one who will work for $10, but many get $20 if they are good cooks and help with baby. Probably $12 to $15 is an average price.