Photos, 1, 2, 3, Harris & Ewing, Wahington, D. C.; 4, International News Service.

1. MAJ.-GEN. GEORGE W. DAVIS. 2. CHARLES E. MAGOON. 3. Jo C. S. BLACKBURN. 4. M. H. THATCHER.

attendance for the former of 904, and of the latter, 688. The schools have a number of disadvantages to overcome, not the least of which has been the epidemic of matrimony that has raged unremittingly among the teachers. Sometimes the personnel changes 40 per cent from this factor alone. Another factor has been the diversity of standards and nationalities. In one year the teachers were from 16 different states, bringing as many systems of education into their work; 732 pupils had come to the Canal Zone from thirty-six states, and there were twenty-one nationalities other than American. To weld all these heterogeneous elements into a uniform system has been a difficult task. Transportation over the railroad to and from the schools is free to the pupils, as are the books and other materials used. High schools are maintained at Gatun and Ancon.

Social life in the Canal Zone expresses itself in weekly dances at the clubhouses and Tivoli Hotel, in woman's clubs, lodge auxiliaries, church societies, and the usual round of parties. The Commission has furnished houses for use by the lodges and religious denominations, many of which are represented in regular meetings and services. The clubhouses, under the supervision of the Y. M. C. A., are the social centers of each community, as the women are given limited privileges. Soft drinks, tobacco, and luncheons may be obtained at the clubhouses at all hours. The annual cost of operating them is about $150,000, the Commission paying the deficits where the membership fees do not cover the expenses.

The Panama Lottery has found in the canal employees generous patrons. It was started in 1883, with a provision in the concession that 64 per cent of the income should be paid out in prizes. When the President, in 1904, forbade the sale of the tickets in the Canal Zone, the Lottery Company thought they had been damaged several million dollars' worth, but the Americans have been able to get all the tickets they wanted, either by going into Panama and Colon for them or sending others. A full ticket costs $2.50 and may draw a prize of $7,500. A fifth of the ticket may be bought for fifty cents and, if of the winning number, draws $1,500. There are smaller prizes for approximations of the right number. Each Sunday at Panama a boy draws a number from a box, and there has never been complaint of unfairness in deciding the winning number. It is difficult to estimate the amount invested each week in the lottery by the Americans, but it runs well into the thousands of dollars. Many of them have won capital prizes. In view of the fact that the moral sense of the nation has condemned lotteries, this free participation in the one at Panama does not constitute a praiseworthy feature of the American occupation.

Each Sunday afternoon or evening in some Canal Zone town the Commission band gives a concert. This pleasing organization has a director who is paid $2,000 a year and the members receive slightly more than $3 each for a concert. The band members are canal employees.

The first census of the Canal Zone was taken in

1908, and a population of 50,003 was reported. In February, 1912, another census was taken, and the population had increased to 62,810. However, there were 8,871 employees living in Panama and Colon, which brings the population to 71,682, not including the native populations of the cities of Panama and Colon. The white persons numbered 19,413; the colored, 31,525; yellow, 521; mixed, 10,323; miscellaneous, 1,028. Great Britain had 30,859 subjects; the United States, 11,850, and the remainder was distributed among thirty-eight other nationalities. the American citizens, 9,770 were born in the United States, mainly from eight States, as follows: Pennsylvania, 1,375; New York, 1,372; Ohio, 692; Illinois, 453; Massachusetts, 386; Indiana, 382; Kentucky, 369; Virginia, 338. Gatun was the largest town, Empire second, Cristobal third, Gorgona fourth, Paraiso fifth.

Of

Dr. Belisario Porras, as President of the Republic of Panama, will play a decisive part in the next four years in guiding the relations of his country with the United States.

66

CHAPTER XIX

THE SOCIETY OF THE CHAGRES

|ARAMBA,” exclaims the native Panaman,

CAR

as the torrential rains soak him through and through, and he wonders what reason Providence has in the prodigal tropical showers. He watches the river Chagres rise under the stimulation of the rainy season from a puny creek, fordable almost anywhere, to a stream as masterful almost as the Mississippi on a rampage.

Balboa saw the same thing, and so did the pirate Morgan, and many Spanish seekers after El Dorado. It was not until the engineering mind began figuring on a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that the tremendous rainfall began to possess utility, and then the river Chagres assumed a significance, and the heavy precipitation a beneficence, which causes orators nowadays to see the hand of God in the forming of the natural conditions of the Isthmus. Thus does man change his conceptions of Deity to suit his needs!

In a lock-type canal, such as the Americans are completing, the river Chagres absolutely is indispensable. Without this river only a sea-level canal could have been built at Panama. For the engineers have harnessed this stream so as to form the great Gatun Lake, comprising all but fifteen miles of the