Four daily trains in about 2 hours at 3.00, 6.00 and 10.40 a.m. and 4.00 p.m. Special train for sight-seers, round trip fare $4.00, from Colon at 8 a.m., with barge service on lake, $1.50 extra.

Guides for tourist parties to inspect Canal, $7.50 per day, on application to Railway Ticket Agents, Colon or Panama.

While the sail through the great canal will be an extraordinary delight, the railroad ride will also afford much pleasure. On leaving Colon the line passes various docks, the Government printing plant, the marine shop and dry dock at Mount Hope, and the main storehouse of supplies for canal and railroad. On the east side of the railroad, opposite the warehouse, is Mount Hope Cemetery, where many French and others are buried, on a knoll which for a time was called Monkey Hill on account of the many monkeys there. These creatures are found in the woods all over the Isthmus. Stone piers which may be seen on the east beyond Mindi were erected by the French for a viaduct with the design of relocating the railroad. This, obviously necessary for the Americans, has been accomplished at a cost of nearly $9,000,000. In the swamp lands along here much papyrus is growing.

New Gatun. From Colon to Gatun a distance of 7 miles the track rises 95 feet. New Gatun, on the hill, is a village but a few years old, the site of the ancient town now being covered by the dam. In 1904 Gatun was a busy place on the Chagres River, where sometimes 100 dugouts loaded with bananas would tie at the bank, and seven or eight car loads a week would be shipped. In former days the railroad followed up the Chagres Valley, but now it is obliged to turn east to make a detour around the lake. It is desirable to alight here to examine the locks and if possible the spillway. Along the edge of the lock walls may be seen the cog rail for the towing locomotives, and farther back the return track without center cog. Tall concrete columns along the top of the walls are the standards for electric lights to illuminate the locks. Tall towers, apparently light houses, are range lights on the center lines of the straight stretches of the canal, so that a vessel lining up with the tower would know it was on the center line of the canal. From the building on Gatun hill containing the office of the Division Engineer may be had the best view of the canal obtainable from any one point. Northward are the waters of Limon Bay; and the masts of shipping at Colon harbor are visible. Close at hand are the locks and dam and a broad stretch of the lake.

Leaving Gatun the new road turns east along Gatun ridge, then south with pretty glimpses of the jungle, crossing the Gatun Valley to Monte Lirio. From this point it skirts the east shore of the lake to Bas Obispo at the beginning of the Culebra Cut. Several immense embankments were necessary to cross the Gatun Valley section above the surface of the lake, and others were made for dumping the spoil from Culebra Cut near its north end. Half a mile beyond Monte Lirio the railroad crosses the Gatun River by a steel girder bridge 318 feet long, built in three spans, one of which may be lifted to permit access by boat to the upper arm of the lake. Another steel girder bridge, one-quarter of a mile long, crosses the Chagres River at Gamboa, with the channel span a 200-foot truss, the other fourteen, plate girder spans, each 80 feet long. From this bridge, at the north end of which a new town-site has been laid out, a glimpse of the northern end of Culebra Cut may be had. It was originally expected to carry the road through the Cut, 10 feet above the water level, but the slides making this impracticable, the relocation has been made by cutting through a ridge of solid rock and working around east of Gold Hill, passing Culebra at a distance of 2 miles. Then the track runs down the Pedro Miguel Valley to Pedro Miguel Station, where it is within 300 feet of the locks. The highest elevation of the track is 270 feet above the sea about opposite Las Cascadas. The Continental Divide is crossed 240 feet above the sea in about the same line as Culebra.

Journeying by the new road from Gatun, the old traveler or resident will miss some familiar names, the bearers of which, if not concealed under water, are now remote and vanishing. Lion and Tiger Hills were small hamlets, but Bohio was quite a place, where the French had a machine shop. It was once considered as a possible site for the locks and dam. Frijoles (beans) and Tabernilla have been places of some importance and Gorgona of more, because here were the American machine shops, now removed to Balboa. The place with the peculiar name Matachin, which everybody remembered, will not be covered over with water, but like others farther on will relapse into a small hamlet. The prevalent notion that this name was derived from matar, to kill, and Chino, and was applied on account of the wholesale deaths of Chinese is incorrect. It is the Spanish word meaning a dance by grotesque figures.

Bas Obispo beyond Gamboa is one of the old places still visible, at the north end of the Culebra Cut. Near by, December 12, 1908, occurred the greatest accident in the construction of the Canal when 44,000 pounds of 45 per cent dynamite which had been packed into fifty-three holes were set off by the explosion of one, as the last hole was being tamped. As the hour was 11.10 many men were passing home to lunch. The hillside, falling into the Cut, as had been planned for a later hour, buried several men, and others were struck by flying rock. In all twenty-six were killed and a dozen permanently maimed. Near Bas Obispo is Camp Elliott, where a battalion of marines has long been stationed.

Empire. Las Cascadas, where once a stream tumbled down a precipice 40 feet towards the Chagres, formerly came next, then Empire, one of the largest of the Canal villages. Here the French began excavations in the Cut, as previously mentioned, January 20, 1882, before a large assemblage of officials of the Canal Company and of Panama. The work was blessed by the Bishop and the too common champagne celebrated the occasion.

Culebra was the real capital of the Zone after John F. Stevens in 1906 moved his quarters there from Ancon. Here has been the home and office of Col. Goethals, the head of everything, and of other prominent officials. In 1908 Culebra had a population of 5516, but is now much smaller. The side of the hill towards the Cut has been gradually slipping away, taking a part of the village, but so slowly that the houses were first removed to the rear slopes.

The average depth of the Cut through its nine miles of length is 120 feet. The heaviest point is near Culebra village between Gold Hill on the east side and Contractors’ Hill on the west, where the depth averages 375 feet. The summit of Gold Hill is 660 feet above the sea, of Contractors’ Hill, 410 feet. Beyond Gold Hill is the troublesome Cucuracha slide, though the largest is the one at the Culebra village on the west. One slide here involved 1,550,000 cubic yards. At this point the Cut is about 2000 feet across. The dwellings of the employees here, as at Christobal and all along the line, look very pretty and comfortable with their screened verandas. Market facilities have been good with prices generally lower than at home for meat and other things brought in cold storage from the States. The climate is not objectionable to the majority, and many will be grieved, when, the Canal being finished and only a select few remaining for its service, they shall be obliged to return home again. Some, no doubt, being now weaned from excessive affection for one particular spot, will go on to other parts of Spanish America. There, intelligent men of the right spirit, who have saved a portion of their earnings, will find agreeable opportunities for work and for investments of various kinds.

Beyond Pedro Miguel is the Miraflores Lake and the two Miraflores locks by which the ships reach sea level again. After passing through a concrete lined tunnel 736 feet long, Ancon Hill, overlooking the Pacific entrance to the Canal, is straight ahead. One more station, Corozal, headquarters of the Pacific Division, and the city of Panama is reached.

Panama City

Hotels. The Tivoli, $5.50 and up a day, American plan; the Central, $3.00 a day, American plan; the International, Metropole, and several others, smaller and less expensive, but some of them neat and respectable.

Carriage Fare, 10 cents, U. S. currency, for one person, 20 cents for two, etc., in Panama City, or 20 cents and 40 cents silver, Panama money. Panama to Balboa docks, 50 cents U. S. currency.

Automobile Tariff, first hour, for cars seating five, six, or seven persons, $5.00, $6.00, or $7.00; second hour $1.00 less. Local fares about the city, 50 cents for each person. To Balboa Docks and return, $3.50, five-seat car; $5.00, seven-seat car. To Old Panama and return, $5.00, or $7.00, if within one hour; if more, on hourly basis.

Electric Cars, fare five cents, run every ten minutes from Hotel Tivoli past the railway station down Avenue Central to the National Palace near the sea wall; also beyond the Tivoli to the Catholic Chapel on the Ancon Hospital road. Of two other lines, one runs from Santa Ana Park by C, 16th, and B streets, and so on to Balboa; another branching from Central avenue at 13th street and following North avenue goes out the Sabanas road.

The Republic of Panama, proclaimed Nov. 3, 1903, by treaty of Feb. 26, 1904, came under the protection of the United States, receiving $10,000,000 cash for the sovereignty of the Canal Zone and after 1913 a yearly rental of $250,000. The form of government of the Republic is similar to that of the United States. The country is 340 miles long from east to west, from the Atrato River on the Colombia side to Costa Rica on the west. From north to south its widest point is 120 miles in the province of Veraguas, and the narrowest less than 40 in Darien. There are mountains 7000 feet high in Darien and 11,000 feet in Chiriqui; the lowest pass, 312 feet, is that used by the Canal and Railroad. The population, outside the Zone about 340,000, includes 36,000 Indians, and a very large proportion of negroes and mixed races. The country has excellent possibilities for agriculture and cattle raising, with smaller ones for minerals.

Panama. The new city of Panama, founded January 21, 1673, was soon protected by a sea wall, still standing, and on the single land side by a wall, and a deep moat crossed by a drawbridge. To make it proof against further raids two forts were erected on the land side and one by the sea. The residences built of wood suffered from various fires so that few old buildings remain, yet the masonry structures have the appearance of age. One hundred and twenty years ago the city had 7857 inhabitants, double that in 1870, and in 1911, 37,505.

Hotel Tivoli. Arriving at Panama, almost every one who can afford it will go to the Hotel Tivoli, near the station, delightfully situated at the foot of Ancon Hill, on the farther side of a small park called the Plaza de Lesseps. It is intended some day to erect in the center of the plaza a statue to the hero of the Suez Canal, initiator of the great work at Panama. On a knoll, overlooking the city and part of the bay, the hotel has many rooms opening on the broad verandas which afford charming prospects. The nights are comfortably cool, and the table affords good American fare. The hotel was erected by the Government especially to accommodate Canal employees on their arrival, and persons whose business with the administration caused them to come to the Isthmus. Also it was designed to afford recreation to employees on the line desirous of an occasional trip to the city. With this end in view a large dance hall was provided about 80x40 feet, where the Tivoli Club, organized among the employees, has given dances two Saturday evenings each month. The hotel, opened Jan. 1, 1907, has 220 guest rooms, and a dining-room seating 700. The building, 314 feet long with wings 156 feet deep, has a court in front 91 feet in depth with a carriage road and garden. Of late on account of increased travel the hotel has been enlarged and is much used by tourists. The prices, $5.50 a day and up, will seem reasonable enough to patrons of the large New York hotels.

The Hotel Central may be preferred by some on account of the lower prices, $3.00 and up, or because it is in the center of things on the principal plaza of Panama (now called the Independencia), opposite the cathedral; its location and its clientele afford an opportunity to see more of Spanish American life. The building is four stories high, in Spanish style around a central court or patio. Built in 1880 it has recently been renewed, and the rooms are large and airy. The table formerly left something to be desired, but has very likely improved with the competition. Once it was the only place where anybody could go.

The International Hotel is most convenient to the railway station on the Railway Plaza; a large fireproof building in Spanish Mission style, completed in 1912, and affording all modern conveniences. The smaller hotels on the Avenida Central may be patronized by those to whom the saving of a few dollars is important. The Hotel Metropole is pleasantly situated on the Santa Ana Plaza.

A new and modern hotel, accommodating 500 persons, built by British capital on Chiriqui Point overlooking the bay, is expected to be ready for guests in November, 1914.

Sight-seeing may begin from the Tivoli or International with a walk or ride down the Avenida Central, which goes first in a rather southerly direction, but in town when crossing the plaza about east and west. The northern part of the town is rather new, belonging to the Canal period, French and American. On the right at some little distance a three-story white concrete building, very ornate, with broad portico, is the club house of the Spanish Benevolent Society. Next door is the American Consulate. Two blocks farther is the Plaza Santa Ana, with trees, plants, and walks, where on Thursday nights there is a band concert and hundreds of people promenading. Besides the Church, there are saloons, a Variety Theater with roof garden, promenade balcony, and fine interior decorations, erected 1911-12, and on the west side the Metropole Hotel. On the road, one block south of the plaza, leading west to Balboa is the Santo Tomas Hospital, with 350 beds, under the direction of an American doctor with good nurses and physicians, maintained by the Panama Government. The three cemeteries are beyond, one each for Chinese, Hebrews, and Christians. Tragic tales are told of the yellow fever days, and space for burial is still leased.

Three blocks from the Plaza on the Central avenue is the Church of La Merced. Diagonally across from it is a piece of the old wall formerly extending from tidewater on one side to the other. One should climb the steps to get an idea of the walls, the cost of which caused wonder to the King of Spain. This was one of the bastions commanding the drawbridge and the sabanas or plains to the north. Here the youth now play tennis, and a circus encamps once a year. The area is at least 1500 square feet, and there is a drop of from 30 to 35 feet to the level outside. A parapet 3 feet high still shows the embrasures for the brass cannon. The old wall extending to the south had rock faces with earth between.

Beyond this wall is the real city, mostly of natives, with its own peculiar spirit and fascination. They always come back, it is said, when people go away. Here in the narrow streets, plazas, churches, even stores, and on the old sea wall, a spell is woven over those who linger, which has alluring power. The Plaza Independencia, three blocks from the wall, is the heart of the city, a charming place, with the Cathedral on the west, the Central Hotel east, the Bishop’s Palace north, and the Municipal Building and the French Administration Building on the south. The last, four stories high, was built in 1875 as a hotel, but leased to the French and used for offices. The Americans took possession of it May 4, 1904, but finding it to be infested with the stegomia mosquitoes during the yellow fever epidemic in 1905, it was abandoned by them in 1906 when the Chief Engineer moved to Culebra. It is now occupied by the health and municipal bureaus of Panama and by their printing office.

The new Municipal Building, on the site of the old cabildo, council chamber, in which independence was declared in 1821, was completed in 1910 and is called the handsomest building in the city. Here are various offices, the Columbus Library with valuable historical works, a marble bacchante in the corridor, and a front door of a dozen varieties of native hard woods.

The Bishop’s Palace erected 1880, besides his residence, offices, and a boys’ school, has in one corner the office of the Panama Lottery. Though gambling is prohibited by the Panama Constitution, the lease of the company is good till 1918. Every Sunday morning drawings are made for prizes ranging from $1.00 to $3500, taken from 10,000 tickets. It is said that most of the money comes from the Canal workers. The offices of several of the steamship companies are on the Plaza, but that of the Peruvian Line is on 11th street near Central avenue.

Continuing on the Central avenue, passing on the right the French consulate and the American Legation, one reaches the National Palace or Government Building on the left, occupying a whole square, with a central patio. The Assembly Halls and offices are on the south side, the National Theatre on the north and various Government offices on the sides. Begun in 1905 it was finished in 1908. It is of the modified Italian renaissance style and is said to be fireproof. The handsome theater seats 1000 people. There is a week or two of opera and of theater every year. Other entertainments are occasionally held, and public meetings of a non-political nature.

The Plaza BolÍvar, formerly San Francisco, is at the southeast corner of the building, with the San Francisco Church and Franciscan convent on the east side, the latter in ruins, destroyed by fire in 1756; the former, also burned, was restored 1785-1790. The church is a basilica with a nave and two aisles, the arches supported by square masonry pillars, and with transept and apse. The high altar is wood painted to imitate marble. A picture in a shrine at the left of the entrance has a very definite representation of purgatory, with a view of heavenly regions above.

The ruins of the old convent still show a fine row of arches. Within are wooden buildings now used as schools.

From the Central avenue going along the water front, one will pass a Methodist Episcopal Church, parsonage, and school, buildings of concrete erected in 1908. At the sea front is the south bastion called The Sea Wall. Under the arches are many dungeons once filthy, where thousands of criminals and political suspects suffered and died. These are used no longer, but the Chiriqui prison, suitably provided and clean, is here located, partly in the large barrack building formerly occupied by the garrison of soldiers. In the late afternoon or early evening one should visit this interesting spot. Close by is the new home of the University Club where some say the best meals in Panama are served and the best collection of English books and periodicals is found. The library and reading room with hardwood floor are sometimes cleared for dancing. The membership of two hundred includes one hundred twenty-five American employees and seventy-five residents of Panama. Organized in 1906 for college men, the restriction was soon abandoned.

Two blocks from the Plaza BolÍvar, keeping to the sea front, is the home of the Union Club, a large white building from the roof of which is a fine view of Panama Bay. A swimming tank refilled at every tide is among its luxuries.

On the water front near this Club, at the foot of 5th street which passes in front of the Hotel Central, is the Marine Building where passengers go aboard small boats to be rowed out to ships engaged in the coasting trade. Diagonally across the street is the Presidencia, a two-story building of Spanish Mission style where the President of the Republic lives and has his executive offices.

Two blocks along the front from the Presidencia there is a steep incline where the old wall passed to the sea. On the beach below, a market was established in 1877, now in a large open building, where not only vegetables, fruits, meat, and fish are sold, but lace and other commodities. Close by, boats at high tide run up on the beach, saving expense of lighterage. A visit to the market early in the morning is well worth while, as the assemblage of people and of commodities, many of strange appearance, make this the most picturesque place in Panama. On the way to the plaza one may pass various shops, several Chinese, where bargaining is possible, though most of the other stores have one price. Woolens, silk, lace, and some other things are cheaper than in the United States, and odd bits may be picked up by a connoisseur. Panama hats are found cheaper than in the United States, but may be purchased to better advantage in Ecuador and Peru. A hammock, a kodak, films, anything forgotten or newly thought of may here be supplied. But if films are purchased, be sure that they are dated nearly a year ahead and are in sealed tin boxes.

The churches of Panama are not especially fine, but a few should be visited. It would be needless to say that due respect to the House of God should be shown by the removal of the hat, and by courteous behavior, but for the astonishing ill manners and rudeness displayed by some American boors which have tended to make us unpopular with most Latin Americans. If we are really so superior as some of us fancy, it would be well to exhibit this by our good breeding. To avoid shocking the prejudices of others, and in some cases to do better than we would be done by will increase the pleasure of a trip and pave the way for business advantage.

The Cathedral, though first of the churches designed, was delayed in construction. A negro, Luna Victoria, becoming Bishop in 1751, urged its completion, himself making liberal contributions so that it was finished in 1760. The architecture is of Moorish type with Spanish and American modifications; the style of two towers is used in many Spanish American churches. The cathedral has a nave and four aisles, an apse containing the high altar of wood richly ornamented, with two side altars and the episcopal throne. An old painting representing the miracle of the Rosary is said to be a Murillo.

The Church of San Felipe Neri, with a tablet bearing the words Neri Ao 1688, on the corner of Avenue B and 4th street, is said to be the oldest and perhaps the prettiest of the Panama churches. It is less gaudy or tawdry than some of the others. An adjoining courtyard with a garden is surrounded by houses of Sisters of Charity. At the corner of Avenue A and 3rd street are the ruins of the old Dominican Church with a little statue still standing over the entrance. The woodwork was burned in the fire of 1756 and it was never rebuilt. One of the arches was shattered in the earthquake of 1882. A brick arch near the entrance, 50 feet wide with but 10 feet between the heights of spring and arch, is unusually flat. There are others, in the San Francisco and Jesuit churches, of almost the same style.

A church and convent school erected by the Jesuits 1749-1751 was of little service, as the Order was expelled in 1767. In 1781 the wood of the structure was burned, but the ruins are still of interest. The churches of La Merced and Santa Ana contain little to invite attention, unless it be the effigy of the gentleman who provided the funds for the reconstruction in 1760 of the latter church and who was thereafter called the Count of Santa Ana.

A visit to Ancon must certainly not be neglected. On its edge is the Panama National Institute opened in 1911, consisting of seven buildings around a patio, including a gymnasium. This is to be the head of the educational system, but at present is occupied with primary and secondary instruction.

Ancon Hill is especially noted for the hospital, the buildings of which were erected by the French soon after 1881. When Col. Gorgas and his assistants arrived in 1904 they were pleased to find them in so excellent a condition with French Sisters of St. Vincent still in charge. Many additions and improvements were made, but most of the twenty-three buildings are still in use. With crowding, 2000 patients may be accommodated, but for the last five years the percentage of health has been remarkably good. Thanks to the skill and efficiency of Col. W. C. Gorgas, of the Regular Army, as Health Officer, and to his corps of able assistants, yellow fever was practically stamped out in 1906 and malaria diminished, by the destruction of the mosquitoes, screening, etc. Swamps were filled in, and the cities of Panama and Colon were to some extent made over. Every street in Panama is now paved with brick or macadam, all are well drained and provided with sewers, and the dirtiest slum of the city is cleaner than many middle class streets in most American cities, not to mention New York. A good water supply is provided, and all these improvements are being paid for by Panama from the water rates. The Administration Building on one of the knolls at the foot of the hill should be noted. There are located the offices of the Sanitation Department, the Civil Administration, and the Commission Secretary. The Avenue of Royal Palms leading up from the entrance to the hospital grounds will be admired by every one, and those of botanical tastes will enjoy spending a considerable time in the garden which was begun by the Mother Superior, Sister Marie Rouleau, and which has recently been catalogued by Col. Mason. It contains a fine collection of the plant life of the Isthmus, trees, fruits, nuts, shrubs, and flowers. Persons not botanists will find pleasure in examining many plants with familiar names, some never seen before, others only in a hot house. The energetic individual will enjoy climbing to the top of the hill which, 664 feet above the sea, affords a view of bay, islands, city, and green hills, beautiful enough to reward even the slothful: but near sunrise or sunset are the only suitable hours for a climb in this temperature.

Old Panama. An excursion to Old Panama should be taken if possible. In 1911 a road was constructed by the Panama Government from the highway traversing Las Sabanas, to the old city. Electric cars may be available for the excursion, as well as carriage and automobile. Also one may go by launch or horseback. Paths lead to the chief points of interest,—the old bridges across the estuary that extended on two sides of the city, the tower seen from afar and the church of St. Anastasius, the wells, and the walls and foundations of public buildings. On the sea side is a hole in the wall where still may be seen the old paved road leading into the water. At high tide ships could come up to the city gate.