Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . ad of to cure disease its managerscould nothave plannedbetter. It is a curi-ous fact that,in a situationin which thetoll of deathis heaviest,man is apt to• be most reck-less and riot-ous in hispie asure old drink-ing song ofthe Englishguardsmenbeleaguered during the Indian mutiny voices the almost univer-sal desire of strong men to flaunt a gay defiance inthe face of death: Stand! Stand to your glasses steady, Tis all we have left to prize,One cup to the dead already, Hurrah, for the next that dies. Wine, wassail and, I fear, women were much
Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . ad of to cure disease its managerscould nothave plannedbetter. It is a curi-ous fact that,in a situationin which thetoll of deathis heaviest,man is apt to• be most reck-less and riot-ous in hispie asure old drink-ing song ofthe Englishguardsmenbeleaguered during the Indian mutiny voices the almost univer-sal desire of strong men to flaunt a gay defiance inthe face of death: Stand! Stand to your glasses steady, Tis all we have left to prize,One cup to the dead already, Hurrah, for the next that dies. Wine, wassail and, I fear, women were much inevidence during the hectic period of the Frenchactivities. The people of the two Isthmian townsstill speak of it as the temps de luxe. Dismal thriftwas banished and extravagance was the were prodigious. Some high officials werepaid from $50,000 to $100,000 a year with houses,carriages, traveling expenses and uncounted inci-dentals. Expenditures for residences were lavish,and the nature of the structures still standing shows. NEGRO QUARTERS, FRENCH TOWN OF EMPIREPaving and sanitary arrangements due to American regime that graft was the chief,factor in the cost. Thedirector-general had a $40,000 bath-house, and aprivate railway car costing $42,000—which is cur-iously enough almost exactly $1000 for each mile ofthe railroad it traversed. The hospital buildings atColon cost $1,400,000 and one has but to look at;them today to wonder how even the $400,000 wasspent. The big graft that finally was one of the primefactors in wrecking the company was in Paris, butenough went on in Colon and Panama to make those two towns asfull of easymoney as amining campafter a bigstrike. Thepleasures ofsuch a societyare not re-fined. Gam-bling anddrinking werethe less seri-ous vices. AFrench com-mentator ofthe time re-marks, Mostof the com-mercial business of Panama is transacted standingand imbibing cocktails—always the eternal cocktail IAfterward, if the consumer had the time
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Keywords: ., bookauthorabbotwil, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1913
