Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . f hisown. Let us consider how the benevolent arrange-ments made by the Isthmian Canal Commissionimpelled a typical American boy to the same step. 322 PANAMA AND THE CANAL Probably it was more a desire for experienceand adventure than any idea of increased financialreturns that led young Jack Maxon to seek a jobin engineering on the Canal. Graduated from theengineering department of a State university, withtwo years or so of active experience in the field,Jack was a fair type of young American—clean,wholesome, healthy, technically trained, ambitiou
Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . f hisown. Let us consider how the benevolent arrange-ments made by the Isthmian Canal Commissionimpelled a typical American boy to the same step. 322 PANAMA AND THE CANAL Probably it was more a desire for experienceand adventure than any idea of increased financialreturns that led young Jack Maxon to seek a jobin engineering on the Canal. Graduated from theengineering department of a State university, withtwo years or so of active experience in the field,Jack was a fair type of young American—clean,wholesome, healthy, technically trained, ambitiousfor his future but quite solicitious about the pleas-tires of the present, as becomes a youth of twenty-three. The job he obtained seemed at the outset quiteideal. In the States he could earn about $225 amonth. The day he took his number on the CanalZone he began to draw $250 a month. And that$250 was quite as good as $300 at home. To beginwith he had no room-rent to pay, but was assignedcomfortable if not elegant quarters, which he shared. MAIN STREET AT GORGONA with one other man, carefully screened and protectedfrom all insects by netting, lighted by electricity,with a shower-bath handy and all janitor or chamber-maid service free. Instead of a boarding-housetable or a cheap city restaurant, he took his mealsat a Commission hotel at a charge of thirty centsa meal. People say that the fare could not be dupli- cated in the States for seventy-five cents, but Iprefer to quote that statement rather than to makeit on my own authority. By taking two meals aday and making the third of fruit, or a sandwichat a Y. M. C. A. clubhouse, he would cut his restau-rant charges to $18 a month; the whole three mealswould come to $, so however voracious hisappetite Bachelor Jacks charges for food are lightand for shelter nothing. Clothing troubles himlittle; his working clothes of khaki, and severalsuits of white cotton duck will cost him less thanone woolen suit such as he must have up
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Keywords: ., bookauthorabbotwil, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1913
