MADE the 300 miles
journey up to David,
the capital of the
Province of Chiriqul,
in a coasting steamer
'of the house-boat
type, with open lowei
desk and galvanized
iron roof over all —
20 feet out of water
and only 6 feet draft
with full load.
David was founded
somewhat more than
a century ago by the
the first of the Pana
man Obaldias, who
created a princely
estate from a royal grant of land.
Mangote, situated about 8 miles from
the town, is now in the hands of his
great-grandsons, whose father was
lately president of the republic. Be
fore the revolutionary days many
Chiricano landowners maintained a
lordly estate in peace and prosperity.
David is an attractive place, clean
and orderly as a Dutch burg and pic
turesque as a Tyrolean hamlet. Along
the broad, drab lengths of the streets
are lined modest dwellings with
whitewashed walls, red-tiled roofs, and
blue and green doors and window
shutters. The most pretentious resi
dences are no more than two-storied
frame structures, with 10 rooms at
most and a patio in the rear. Os the
5,000 inhabitants perhaps 50 are “well
to do,” in the conventional sense of
the phrase. The remainder are super
latively poor, measured by the stand
ard of dollars and cents, but passing
rich in fact by reason of having
everything that they need and probably all they
desire. Everyone seems to secure an easy live
lihood, but precisely how is difficult to determine.
A hard worker is not to be seen, but neither is
a beggar nor a vagrant, and the municipality does
not boast any such institution as an almshouse.
However, the matter is divested of much of its
mystery when one considers that land as prolific
as any in the world is to be had for the taking,
and a man's outfit of clothing consists of three
pieces—straw hat, shirt, and cotton trousers—
while a woman gets along very well with one gar
ment, and children are not encumbered to that
extent.
Although the dry season was well-nigh spent,
everything looked fresh and green the morning
that I galloped out upon the llano on my way to
Divala. My moso, a long, lean fellow with a
melancholy visage, followed at a pace -which he
never varied, but which later experience taught
me could always be depended on to bring him
up with me at the end of a ride. Man never
possessed a less appropriate name than bis.
Pantaleon—“panther lion” —was possibly be
stowed upon him in a spirit of irony. He was
profoundly self-possessed and had the commend
able characteristic of confining his attention to
his own business and just so much of his em
ployer’s as properly concerned him.
Before us stretched one of the llanos, which
lie, like grassy islands in a forest sea, at intervals
all along the Pacific slope of the Cordillera. For
6 miles onward and 2 on either side of us the
ground extended in a sweep as level as a billiard
table and as green. With its thick covering of
jenjebrillo, the tract looked strikingly like a bit
of the blue-grass country of Kentucky. Here and
there a wild fig or a ceibo threw its heavy-leafed
branches wide, affording grateful shelter for man
and beast. On every side the close ranks of the
forest trees hemmed the llano in, and away be
yond in our front rose the jabbed teeth of the
sierra, with the smoking cone of El Volcan pro
jecting beyond the ruck.
A well-worn crack indicates the shortest route
to the point where the road enters the forest.
We keep it in sight for the sake of preserving
our bearing, otherwise one might ride unrestrain
edly on the darkest night over this flat expanse,
unbroken by gullies and devoid of burrows. In
fact, I have cross<^ it at a hand gallop in a
downpour of rain, when my horse’s ears were not
distinguishable and the blurred lights of David
made a lurid beacon patch in the distance.
These llanos are the “commons" of the people
—the poor man's grazing ground. We pass small
herds of from 10 to 20 head, nibbling the herbage,
which is ample for sustenance but not sufficiently
rich and plentiful to condition them for market.
Scattered over the range are a few mares, with
foals at their heels. In this country they ride
and work only the male horses, leaving the fe
males constantly at grass. This is obviously a
bad system, for it retards hereditary transmission
and results in the development of serviceable
qualities on one side only. The animals are un
dersized and the breed poor, the best strain being
derived from Peruvian stallions. Despite his un
promising appearance, however, the Panamanian
pony is apt to surprise you with a wonderful dis
play of stamina. I have been carried fifty-odd
miles by one in twelve hours and found him fit
for a good day’s journey the next morning. They
are easy-going beasts, with a single-foot gait, and
If one will be content to ride them in the manner
to which they are accustomed, quite as service
able as the average mount to be picked up in
Central or South America. It is distinctly advis
able. however, to get rid of the greasy hair bridle
of the country, even though no better substitute
than a piece of clean rope is available. Failure
to take this precaution once cost me a sore hand
of which I was not cured for weeks.
Now and again a traveler jogs by, with a mut
tered “Buenos dias” —a salutation that is never
emitted by man, woman or child. The rider
wears a conical straw hat, a cotton shirt, flap
ping free in the wind, and a pair of blue jeans.
Bare feet are stuck in the wooden stirrups. He
and his steed are festooned with bags, baskets
and packages, the tout ensemble suggesting an
itinerant Christmas tree. Stuck under the saddle
flap, or elsewhere beyond ready reach, is a rifle
or shotgun, of ancient make, probably unservice
able, and almost certainly unloaded. Everyone
goes armed upon the road.
Occasional reminders of less peaceful times
are seen in a small .wooden cross set in the
ground and surrounded by a rude rail fence, indi
cating the spot where some unfortunate met a
violent death in the commission of a crime. Pan
taleon rode alongside as I approached one of
these unconsecrated burying places that contained
two crosses. With emotionless precision he told
the grizzly tale of two compadres who had fallen
out and here had fought to the death with their
knives.
Compadres are bosom companions, bound by a
bond closer than that of brotherhood. Only a
woman can break that tie, and when compadre
turns against compadre hell knows no greater
bitterness. These two hacked each other until
they fell, gasping and bleeding, and foaming at
the mouth, still jabbing with waning strength.
They were found dead, locked in each other’s
arms. Perhaps at the very last the spirit of com
padreship returned to soothe their passing.
I put this reflection to Pantaleon, but he de
clared it more likely that they died cursing each
other and thinking of the girl. My own conclu
sion pleased me better, but I felt bound to defer
to my moso’s superior knowledge of the charac
teristics of his countrymen.
Presently the road entered the monte, and we
rode between wooden walls reinforced by heavy
undergrowth. At long intervals we passed small
clearings where the settler had cut over the
ground, burned the debris where it fell, and scat
tered his seed with a careless, confident hand.
The machete is the universal agricultural imple
ment. A plow has never been seen in the coun
try. Cultivation is neglected as an unnecessary
trouble. Withal, harvests are bounteous and re
cur with the infallible regularity of the solar sys
tem. I saw fields of sugar cane that had yielded
rich crops for fifteen unbroken seasons, and a
piece of land which has stood in corn contin
uously for half a century.
All over the Pacific slope of Chiriqul is a top
soil, from 6 to 20 feet thick, formed by the vol
ages from the mountain sides. It is rich as any
in the world, but not one-hundred-thousandth part
of it has been turned to the account of man.
Outside of David, the population is less than four
to the square mile. Apart from a score of cattle
raisers and coffee growers, no man produces more
than enough to meet his needs, whilst markets at
their very doors are crying aloud for the poten
tial products of the province. Panama is paying
high prices for Jamaican fruit and Cuban sugar
and American tobacco, whilst these and many oth
er imported commodities can be grown within
her borders.
The pathetic mystery of it is that tens of thou
sands are slaving in city sweatshops and facto
ries, or painfully wringing a living from a reluc
tant soil, when land unlimited lies waiting to
richly reward any man who will cast a handful of
seed upon it.
Ten miles out from David we came to Alanje,
a pueblo of only a few hundred In
habitants, but a place of considera
tion in this sparsely settled country.
There are no hotels in the interior,
nor is there need for them where ev
ery door is open to the wayfarer. The
first glance around the plaza of
Alanje will decide the discriminating
stranger to head for the comfortable
looking frame house on the south
side, with its inviting veranda. Should
he not immediately take that direc
tion, the little cura, in his long black
robe, is likely to come to the door and
shout a welcome.
The mid-day breakfast at the cural
was an excellent meal, reinforced by
good wine and superb coffee. The
pleasures of the occasion were height
ened by the entertaining remarks of
my lively host. He was very young
and very optimistic, quite content
with his lot and properly impressed
with the importance of his work. It
appeared to me that his life must be
a lonely and monotonous one, but he
did not share my view of it. He was
the only man of any education in the village, but
two highways and several byways converge at
Alanjp, and every few days he might look for a
pass! it visit from some intelligent traveler. His
duties occupied three or four hours of the day
and the rest of the time he filled in with study,
for his ambition pointed to advancement in his
calling, whilst his environment had awakened an
inherent taste for natural history.
We left the table to walk over to the church,
with its curious detached tower. I asked for the
records. With righteous indignation blazing in his
eyes, the little cura laid before me a pile of leath
er-covered manuscripts, molded, worm-eaten, and
torn. Not a page was intact, hardly two consecu
tive lines legible.
“Such neglect is crime,” said my host, fer
" vently. “I need hardly say that the damage was
beyond arrest when these came into my hands.”
I fully appreciated his feelings. Indeed, I dare
say that my own regret was the keener. Alanje
is older than David. In fact, its history mergbs
with the times of the Conquistadores and there is
no knowing what wondrous tales may be hidden
in those sadly mutilated documents.
“Our church has a legend,” remarked the cura,
leading me to a large alcove on the left of the
chancel. Drawing aside a curtain, he revealed a
life sized painting of the Christ in his final agony.
It was evidently the work of an artist, but did
not betray extraordinary ability.
“I don’t know when this came here, but it was
certainly before the present generation,” the
cura explained, with a slight show of embarrass
ment. “The story goes that one evening a
stranger came to the village and, declining shel
ter elsewhere, begged to be locked alone in the
church over night. His request was granted.
When the curious villagers came early in the
morning to look for him he had gone, and the pic
ture, with the paint fresh and wet, hung where
you see it.”
I looked at the little cura questioningly.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said, with a shame
faced smile and a shrug of the shudders. “At
any rate, my people believe the story firmly, and
it does them no harm.”
On the road between Alanje and Divala we
crossed several streams. A better watered coun
try than this could not well be imagined.
Divala is a little settlement of 50 to 60 huts
and, perhaps, 300 inhabitants, who are entirely
dependent upon the ranch and insure it a con
stant supply of labor. The people cultivate little
patches, from which they derive almost all the
foodstuffs they need. A few weeks’ work in the
year at 60 cents a day will produce enough money
for clothing and a moderate indulgence in the
luxuries that are to be had at the village trading
store.
Divala is 15 miles from anywhere, but the most
unlikely place to look for an American family in
a bungalow’ that has the appearance of having
been transplanted from a New Jersey suburb.
Mrs. Wilson has lived in this out-of-the-way cor
ner of the earth for five years, and has had the
companionship of her infant during the past
eighteen months. There is not a woman of her
own race within 40 miles. This- is isolation, in
deed, and I suspected that she must find it irk
some, though she would not admit as much.
Twelve years ago Leslie Wilson came out from
California and settled in the neighborhood of Di
vala with half a dozen Americans and Britishers.
Thus the settlement of Divala wms formed and a
large proportion of the ranch turned into Potrero
without a penny of outlay. The disturbed condi
tion of the country reduced the prices of all prop
erty, and Wilson was able to buy the nucleus of
his stock at very low figures.
The owner of Divala has worked hard and in
telligently for ten years on the improvement of
his property. Today he has 5,000 acres of as fine
land as any in Chiriqui, well stocked and fur
nished with all the necessary buildings. The
ranch is easily worth $50,000. Not a bad result
of an enterprise started twelve yer 4 rs ago with
S2OO capital.
CHURCH BUILT OF FOSSILS
Building Constructed of Blocks Hewed
From the Petrified Depths of a
Nearby Swamp.
Mumford, N. Y. —In Mumford is a
church building constructed of fossils.
At first glance the walls appear to be
constructed of rough sandstone
smeared with an uneven coating of
gritty, coarse, plaster; but a closer
view shows delicate traceries of
leaves, lace-work of interwoven twigs,
bits of broken branches, fragments of
mossy bark, splinters of wood, all pre
served against the wasting of time
Mumford Church.
and decay by being turned into the
hardest of flinty limestone. Every
block of stone in the lour walls is a
closely cemented mass of dainty fos
sils, literally packed and interwoven.
There is no basic rock at all, but only
fossil fibers, which give the rock co
hesion and strength. Nevertheless,
the stones are light in weight com
pared with granite and sandstone.
The blocks were hewed from the
petrified depths of a nearby cedar
swamp. Mumford is situated in the
heart of the great area of rock, once
the bed of an ocean, known to geolo
gists as the Niagara limestone. It
crops out either in the form of the
soft, calcarerous stone, or the hard
and more serviceable blue limestone.
The clear, cold water which gushes
from innumerable springs or flows in
frequent brooks throughout the Mum
ford country is alkaline from the lime
held in solution.
GERMANY’S GREAT MONUMENT
Colossal Memorial Nearing Comple
tion Io Built to Commemorate the
Battle of Leipzig.
Leipzig, Germany.—Perhaps the
most colossal monument in all Ger
many is nearing completion here.
Leipzig was the scene of three note
worthy battles—two in the Thirty
Years’ War and one in the Napoleonic
wars. The monument is to commemo
rate the battles between the French
under Napoleon and an allied army of
Austrians, Russians, Prussians and
Swedes. The monument will be dedi
cated in October, 1913, on the battle’s
centenary.
In the accompanying illustration the
monument is shown as it will appear
when completed. Some of the gigan
tic carvings—one of them forty feet
high—are already in place. Even in-
J
Leipzig Monument.
complete, the monument thrills you
with its colossal dimensions. It is
three hundred feet in height, but it is
built on such a mountainous scale that
Its tremendous height is minimized.
It faces the city fronting a concreted
lake several acres in extent. A broad
boulevard will lead from it straight
Into Leipzig.
THE DIMENSIONS OF HEAVEN
Preacher Figures It to Be the Equal
of a 792,000 Story
Building.
Louisville, Ky.—Heaven’s exact di
mensions were figured out in the ser
mon of the Rev. M. E. Dodd, pastor
of a Louisville church, preached to his
congregation recently. In the course
of his sermon the preacher said:
“In Revelations, twenty-first chap
ter, sixteenth verse, nervous Chris
tians have read where the dimensions
of heaven are only 1,500 cubic miles.
Immediately they jump at the conclu
sion that even this space will not ac
commodate the vast multitude of
which the Bible speaks.
“However, calculation will show
that this space will accommodate a
building 79?,000 stories high, and it is
easy to demonstrate that such a
building would accommodate an in
numerable multitude."
ARE YOU FREE
-FROM—
Headaches, Colds, Indigestion,
Pains, Constipation, Sour Stomach,
Dizziness? If you are not, the most
effective, prompt and pleasant
method of getting rid of them is to
take, now and then, a desertspoon*
ful of the ever refreshing and truly
beneficial laxative remedy—Syrup
of Figs and Elixir of Senna. It »
well Known throughout the world
as the best of family laxative reme
dies, because it acts so gently and
strengthens naturally without irri
tating the system in any way.
To get its beneficial effects it i»
always necessary to buy the genu
ine, manufactured by the California
Fig Syrup Co., bearing the name
of the Company, plainly printed ob
the front of every package.
Tutt’s Pills
The dyspeptic, the debilitated, whether from
excess of work of mind or body, drink or ex*
posurein hi—
MALARIAL REGIONS,
will find Tutt’s Pills the most genial restora
tive ever offered the suffering invalid.
TONIC
B FOR
a is areg eyes
WAIL OF MODERN BENEDICT
Adaptation That Aims to Set Forth
the Trials and Tribulations
That Beset Life.
1. My wife is my boss, I shall not
deny.
2. She maketh me lie down behind
the bed when the swell company
comes, and she leadeth me behind her
up Main street.
3. She restoreth my pocketbook
alter she has spent all its contents on
hobble skirts and. theater tickets, and
she leadeth me up the main aisle of
church for her new hat’s sake.
4. Yea, though I walk more than
half the night through dark rooms
with a crying baby, I will get no rest,
for she is behind me; her broomstick
and her hatpin they do everything
else but comfort me.
5. She prepareth a cold snack for
me, then maketh a bee-line for an aid
society supper. She anointeth my
head with the rolling pin occasionally.
My arms runneth over with bundles
before she is half done her shopping.
6. Surely her dressmaker’s and
millinery bills shall follow me all the
days of my life and I will dw’ell in the
house of my wife forever. —Exchange.
Unfortunate.
Trye Dout —I am unfortunate, mum.
I had to quit my profession on ac
count of my health.
Lady—But you look rugged. What
was your profession?
Trye Dout —Dat’s just It, lady. I
was too rugged. I was a ventriloquist,
an’ a good one, lady, an’ my voice got
so strong I couldn’t throw it. —Har-
per’s Magazine.
Up to Date.
“I notice that young Doctor Curem
uses autohynosis in his practice?”
“Os course he does. Didn’t you know
he specializes in motor nerves?”
The one way to help a worthless
man along is to administer a swift
kick in the proper place.
THE TEA PENALTY.
'A Strong Man’s Experience.
Writing from a busy railroad town
the wife of an employe of one of the
great roads says:
“My husband is a railroad man who
has been so much benefited by the use
of Postum that he wishes me to ex
press his thanks to you for the good
it has done him. His waking hours
are taken up with his work, and he
has. no time to write himself.
"He has been a great tea drinker
all his life and has always’liked it
strong.
“Tea has, of late years, acted on
him like morphine does uppn most
people. At first it soothed him, but
only for an hour or so, then it began
to affect his nerves to such an extent
that he could not sleep at night, and
he would go to his work in the morn
ing wretched and miserable from the
loss of rest. This condition grew con
stantly worse, until his friends per
suaded him, some four months ago, to
quit tea and use Postum.
“At first he used Postum only sos
breakfast, but as he liked the taste of
it, and it somehow seemed to do him
good, he added it to his evening meal.
Then, as he grew better, he began to
drink it for his noon meal, and now
he will drink nothing else at table.
“His condition is so wonderfully im
proved that he could not be hired to
give up Postum and go back to tea.
His nerves have become steady and
reliable once more, and his sleep is
easy, natural and refreshing.
He owes all this to Postum, for he
has taken no medicine and made no
other change In his diet.
“His brother, who was very nervous
from coffee-drinking, was persuaded
by us to give up the coffee and use
Postum and he also has recovered his
health and strength.” Name given by
Postum Co., Battle Creek, Micb.
Read the little book, “The Road to
Wellville,” in pkgs. “There’s a reason.”
Ever read the above lettert A new
or.e appear* from time to time. They
tire genuine, true, and full of human
Interest.
