Lottery. the old death trap tenements in New York City owned by Trinity Church. Yet the lottery is a national institution, and although its effect is unquestionably bad on public morals, it has the overpowering prestige of custom. Gambling is prohibited in the constitution of Panama, but in the treaty of 1904 with the United States all vested rights under the Colombian Government were preserved under the new government. On this account the lottery will be allowed to run its legal life, which expires in 1918. Drawings are made every Sunday morning at 10 o'clock for prizes ranging in value from $3,500 to $1.00. Ten thousand tickets are issued each time. Most of the money that goes to make up the dividends of the lottery is paid by Canal workers. Leaving the Plaza Independencia and continuing down Avenida Central, one passes on his right the French consulate, then the American legation (formerly Government a residence of the French Director General Building and and part of the purchase of 1904), and two Theater blocks from the plaza, comes upon the Panama Government Building. This is a masonry edifice in four rectangular sections surrounding an inner court. It is 180 feet long and 150 feet wide. In the south section is the meeting place of the National Assembly together with offices, in the north the National Theatre, and in the east and west wings, Government offices. The construction was begun in 1905 and finished in 1908, the material being rubble masonry with cement plaster, and the style a modified Italian renaissance of the middle period. It is said to be fire-proof. The theater is a handsome one capable of seating a thousand people. It is built with a pit, a mezzanine floor, a tier of boxes, and a gallery. A metal curtain guards the opening between the stage and the amphitheater. Electric lights controlled by a stage switch are the means of illumination. The design, masonry, and the paintings in the foyer and on the ceiling are all by native Panamans. Here are held such public meetings of a nonpolitical nature as the Government sees fit to permit; and it is very generous in allowing all kinds of entertainments by Americans to be held here. Once a year a Spanish opera company and a Spanish comedy company make one or two week stands in Panama, and then there is a good crowd every night to hear and see. Popular operas, such as Lucia, Aida, Rigoletto, and more modern ones, such as the Merry Widow, are sung. The comedy company plays largely the works of Spanish dramatists. But the best part is between the acts when one leaves the warm amphitheater and goes out upon the balcony that overlooks the sea, gets the refreshing breeze. sees the stars, and smokes a cigarette. Plaza Bolivar. The theater wing of the building is on the northwest corner of Plaza Bolivar, formerly Plaza San Francisco, a little park with tile walks, stiff benches, and a number of trees, among them the royal poinciana. On the east side are the church of San Francisco and the walls of its ruined cloister; and diagonally across from this the oldest church in the city, San Felipe Neri (see pages 167 and 168). Returning to Avenida Central and walking along the waterfront, one passes a concrete block building erected in 1908, the Methodist Episcopal Church and Sea Wall, parsonage, and the home of a missionary Las Bóvedas. school called Panama College. A few hundred yards farther along the sea front, is the south bastion of the city, the fort that commands the approach by sea. This is commonly called The Sea Wall, or Las Bovedas (the arches or vaults) from the arch construction underneath in which are the dungeons formerly used as a prison. In these vaults, damp and filthy, thousands of criminals, political offenders, and mere suspects, spent days of slow death, poisoned by filth, and weakened by want of good food. The dungeons have been abandoned, and here is now the Chiriqui Prison, a clean and well provided jail. The large building looking out upon the courtyard is the cuartel or barracks, in which the garrison formerly lived, since 1903 a part of the prison. The triangular space on the north side of the courtyard is known as the Plaza d'Armes, here the garrison used to be mustered, and against the wall, near the steps leading down to the water's edge, prisoners stood to receive the bullets of the execution squad. Inside the courtyard in front of the dungeons, so that the prisoners could see, there were held some years ago the bull teasings of the fiesta times, such as were held at an earlier date in Santa Ana Plaza. All these things one can see from the Sea Wall where the children roll about on their skates, and the boys and girls of various ages stroll or sit from sunset until late at night. The bright light on the water and concrete MR 22928-11 walk, and the intense heat make this an unpleasant place during the afternoon, but about 5 o'clock, when the sun has dropped behind Ancon Hill, leaving the wall in shadow and the islands still in bright light; or a few minutes later when the sunset glow is in the sky and on the water; or at night when all the stars are bright, then go to the Sea Wall and be quiet a few minutes while the spirit of Panama comes up to woo you. University Right here in the heart of this place of romance, its front balcony looking out upon the entrance to the Canal and the side of Ancon Hill, is the new home of the University Club. Here are served the best meals in Panama, and here is the best collection of English books, and current periodicals. The building is of rubble and the style a modified Spanish mission. On the ground floor are the men's dining-room, game-rooms, kitchen, and office; on the second floor the library and reading-rocm, and the women's dining-room. The library and reading-room has a polished hardwood floor and when cleared of tables gives a dancing space of 2,800 square feet. The club was organized in 1906 and its membership of 200 consists of about 125 Americans employed on the Canal or railroad and 75 residents of Panama. It was started as a club to which only college or university graduates could be admitted, but inasmuch as this rule barred the most desirable men it was soon amended. Keeping to the seafront and walking back again past the Government Palace, and the Plaza Bolivar, at a distance of two blocks from the latter, one comes Union Club. upon a large white building of rubble masonry, the home of the Union Club. This is the best club building on the isthmus, and from its roof one may obtain the best view of Panama Bay that can be had, barring only that from the top of Ancon Hill. A large ballroom, a pleasant patio, and a swimming tank, filled anew each time the tide comes in, are among the attractive features of this club. The Marina building is on the waterfront, near the Union Club and at the foot of 5th Street. It was formerly a hotel, now used variously for offices and Sea Gate. family quarters. But its true interest lies Marina Hotel. in the fact that here is the water gate of the city, where passengers for ports along the coast take their ships after a long row in an open boat. experience of going aboard one of these ships is exciting and always more or less wetting. The Diagonally across the street from the Marina is the Presidencia, a rubble building, two stories high, built around a patio, a true example of Spanish mission Presidencia. architecture. Here lives the President, and here are the executive offices. On the walls of the public reception-room are pictures of the Presidents and Governors of Panama. Still following the waterfront, two blocks beyond the Presidencia, the street dips down a steep incline, at the foot of which the old wall used to abut upon the sea. Market. When the pretense of a walled city was dropped a breach was made at this point, and a road built, giving means of egress from the town to the beach. Here (1877) was established the market. It is now a large open building in which all sorts of merchandise are displayed-laces, vegetables, meats, fish, fruits a great array of familiar and strange looking things. On the beach the ships from along the coast and the boats from nearby places unload, running in at high tide and waiting until the tide runs out when they can unload upon the beach without the expense and trouble of lightering. About 7 o'clock in the morning is the best time to visit the market, because then one sees how the purchases are made, a little of this and less of that, just enough for the day's needs. This is the most picturesque place in Panama from the point of view of those who are interested in people, for here all the races, and half the nations meet. The Churches. All the churches of Panama, from the cathedral in the city to the village churches of the interior, are built on the common plan of a long plain building with an ornate front. The masonry is a rubble laid in cement, the class being called mamposteria. In this method of building the masons erect wooden forms as they would for concrete molds, and in these lay rock and brick of all kinds with cement joints. When the wall thus made is completed there is applied a plaster of cement and usually this is painted. The plaster gives a finished effect, and likewise keeps the soft rock from decomposing. In the churches the facade is sometimes made of dimension stone, smooth dressed. All of the more substantial buildings are erected in this manner, and they are good buildings, as 200 years of wear attest. The old walls are also of this class of masonry. Stone is procured from the fields or the beach at low tide, and the older churches in Panama were built of rock taken from the old city. The architecture is that type of Moorish modified in Spain by the Christians of the 15th and 16th centuries, and still further modified in the new world, according as local |