. Panama : a personal record of forty-six years, 1861-1907 . r care. Even in case of illness, medical attendance andthe hospitals were free; for the company keptcompetent surgeons on its pay rolls, whose dutyit was to dose and to carve its servants in caseof need. A library of good books, and a reading room,with billiards attached, were also provided forthe employees; nor were the spiritual needs ofthe railroad flock forgotten, as the fine church,built in 1865 mainly at the expense of the com-pany, upon the margin of the sounding sea, stillattests. 27 l^Panama In short, nothing in reason was o
. Panama : a personal record of forty-six years, 1861-1907 . r care. Even in case of illness, medical attendance andthe hospitals were free; for the company keptcompetent surgeons on its pay rolls, whose dutyit was to dose and to carve its servants in caseof need. A library of good books, and a reading room,with billiards attached, were also provided forthe employees; nor were the spiritual needs ofthe railroad flock forgotten, as the fine church,built in 1865 mainly at the expense of the com-pany, upon the margin of the sounding sea, stillattests. 27 l^Panama In short, nothing in reason was omitted by thecompany that could make the chains of exileeasier to wear by those who had left their north-ern homes to join the Isthmian service. Railroadhfe, at best, is not altogether rose-colored; buthere was found a Colony of the Rail, so to speak,whose members, with few exceptions, were satis-fied with their lot. And thus Gray-Beard Time marshaled hisgreat army of the hours, days, weeks, months,and years in quick procession, while prosperityreigned. 28. Q < ;2; 9 o o o« Chapter /F] CHAPTER IV TJT AVING been appointed, during this happyperiod, to a position in the service of thePanama Railroad Company on the Isthmus, Iarrived at Colon (then Aspinwall), by the steam-ship Northern Light, Captain Tinklepaugh,nine days from New York. It was the earlymorning of December 20, 1861, almost sevenyears after the road had been opened. Ice inNorth River had delayed the departure of thesteamer, crowded with passengers for Californiaand other parts of the Pacific coast. There wasno sun in the steely sky, and the short day wasnearly done when the Narrows were passed, andthe steamer headed for the gray and gusty storm-tossed vessel went plunging onwardinto the inky darkness, and all on board werewretched in the extreme. But in a few days theGulf Stream had been crossed, dreaded CapeHatteras, and Watlings Island, where Colum-bus first landed, left behind; the tropic of Cancercut
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