Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . & Underwood TII^ ilVE<SIDE MARKET AT MATACHIN liiV/ ietWt diffieilf to do more than catch the general import ofthese pkiyful interchanges. Curiously enough thepative iieasant has no desire to learn English, and 192 PANAMA AND THE CANAL frequently conceals that accomplishment, if he hasattained it, as though it were a thing of which to beashamed. This attitude is the more perplexing inview of the fact that the commission pays more toEnglish speaking natives. This boy Manuel, said my host to me in lowtones, understands English and can speak it af
Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . & Underwood TII^ ilVE<SIDE MARKET AT MATACHIN liiV/ ietWt diffieilf to do more than catch the general import ofthese pkiyful interchanges. Curiously enough thepative iieasant has no desire to learn English, and 192 PANAMA AND THE CANAL frequently conceals that accomplishment, if he hasattained it, as though it were a thing of which to beashamed. This attitude is the more perplexing inview of the fact that the commission pays more toEnglish speaking natives. This boy Manuel, said my host to me in lowtones, understands English and can speak it aftera fashion, but rarely does so. I entrapped him oncein a brief conversation and said to him, Manuel,why dont you speak English and get on the roll ofEnglish speaking employees? You are getting $ a month now; then youd get $75 at least. Manuel dropped his English at once. Noquiero aprender a hablar ingles, said he, Parami basta el espanol. (I dont care. Spanish goodenough for me.) Manuel indeed was the son of the alcalde of his. RAILROAD BRIDGE OVER THE CHAGRES AT GAMlRiver is at low water. For picture showing it at flood, see p¥iii^l village, and the alcalde is a person of much powerand of grandeur proportionate to the number ofthatched huts inhis domain. Theson bore himself asone of high lineageand his face indeed,Caucasian in allsave color, showedthat Spanish bloodpredominated overthe universal ad-mixture of saved hismoney, spendingless than $10 amonth and invest-ing the rest inhorses. From Matachinup to Cruces theriver is compara-tively common-place, spanned atone point by theGamboa bridge upat which the voy-ager looks reflec-tively from belowas he hears that when the spillway is closed arid the lake filled upthere will be but 15 feet headway above the riverscrest, where at the moment there is more than up are the towers, housing the machinery forrecording the rivers rise, one of them a relic of theFrench regime, while a slender wire spanning t
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Keywords: ., bookauthorabbotwil, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1913
