The P.R.R. is one of the few railroads whose passengers may drop
off for a stroll, let the train go on without them, and still take
it to their destination. They have only to descend, as I did, at
Gamboa cabin and wander down into the "cut," climb leisurely out
to Bas Obispo, and chat with their acquaintances among the Marines
lolling about the station until the trains puffs in from its
shuttle-back excursion to Gorgona. The Zone landscape had lost
much of its charm. For days past jungle fires had been sweeping
over it, doing the larger growths small harm but leaving little of
the greenness and rank clinging life of other seasons. Everywhere
were fires along the way, even in the towns. For quartermasters--
to the rage of Zone house-wives were sending up in clouds of smoke
the grass and bushes that quickly turn to breeding-places of
mosquitoes and disease with the first rains. Night closed down as
we emerged from Miraflores tunnel; soon we swung around toward the
houses, row upon row and all alight, climbed the lower slope of
Ancon hill, and at seven I descended in familiar, cab-crowded,
bawling Panama.
CHAPTER VII
It might be worth the ink to say a word about socialism on the
Canal Zone. To begin with, there isn't any of course. No man would
dream of looking for socialism in an undertaking set in motion by
the Republican party and kept on the move by the regular army.
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