cams_WROlden_b011_f010_001_012
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12.
church goers I have seen are old Negro Men & Women sometimes
boys the respectable (very scarce) portion of the people
rarely go. – The town is laid out in squares quite regularly.
The streets are narrow & roughly paved the houses are of brick
rough cast two stories with balconies & tile roofs the balconies
extend sufficiently to protect you sufficiently from a passing
shower – tile roofs being nonconducters of heat are an
excellent protection from the sun as well as rain. – The only
window glass I have seen are a few broken panes in the Cathedral
its use here seems to be entirely unknown – the floors are
either of large square brick or Mahogany (the only timber used here).
They are all well ventilated the only effort seems to be to keep cool.
The suburbs are large but much inferior to the town in the
quality of both houses & inhabitants & that is placing the latter
very low in the scale. – The inhabitants of the Isthmus are ⁹⁹⁄₁₀₀
of them a Mongrel race being a mixture of indian & negro
with here & there a little Spanish blood, excepting a very few
persons of Spanish descent there is hardly a pure blooded
native of any kind or description. – The better class among
them are inferior to our New Orleans quadroons. My old
chamber maid Emma or Barney would be aristocracy here.
Barney would go to the new Grenadian Senate & perhaps
become president – I have seen but 4 or five white men & no white
women who belong here the balance are all copper heads.
They have the queerest specimen of soldiers here that I have
seen that portion of the men who are too lazy to work enlist –
they are a miserable set of devils, but, I suppose on the principle
of set a thief to catch a thief, they set a Nigger to guard a
gentleman of color!!! They are very harmless for they only murder
music & they have killed that one time so often that I am
surprised it still survives as the (band) heaven save the mark
passes along the street the Americans occassionally dampen their
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