Show f I t FOR 1915 rj We rm invin I We acknowledge the re receipt of a warm warrn w i n to be present at th the international exposition t ft be e held in 1914 or 1915 in S San n Frau Francisco isco We Ve t i intend t nd to accept unless circumstances over which W we se have no tio control interpose a barrier between it and nd then It Itis is a long time to people after j t- t their ir shadows turn to the east There are a g great eat 9 jt l many any things that might transpire to make it impossible im- im 7 t p possible to o accept In the first place the canal canol J i will ill 1 have ve to be be fi finished is e In th the second place neither eIth r some private individuals individual or the United States government will be obliged to build at least one ship J ip in ord order that those who vho celebrate in San I j Francisco Fran raJ i isco co may as a part of their recreation make a i ht little tIe run down to Panama and see the canal them- them 1 I 1 I l s A I ves J I There was no canal there when we first saw the place there was only a little line of railroad constructed con- con J. J tr and that trip up Chagres river in an open d 1 boat bOtt t with a big colored colore man working the pole on ou the starboard side and ancl two smaller gentlemen of iI e aln color working the poles on the port side f r the watches of that night was e entertain entertain- te tain nig because it was new We Ve remember distinctly J that there was a bride on our boat she had been but two hyo She left a a luxuriant home homei i ill in Brooklyn to be the wife of a Californian and andt x t f being married but a week when th the ship sailed she y to 6 O along with her husband to the golden IT f state But that night on Chagres river was too toor r V t v much ch for her She intimated in no very caressing tone tone that ther thet husband of her love ought to be t h artily heartily ashamed of himself for or t taking her out out of such a home as she had left in Brooklyn to bring her to such a place as that Whereupon he quietly JH her to dry diy up and added the further iu- iu wf ti jn that l t she i was s not t of f va d r d-r d bit it better t l r stock than id that va l f. f r San Francisco Flancisco the brother df dr the wobbly Father f uI who g gave ve the Catholic church so n much ch c A. trouble r a felT fe years ears ag ago Then rhen came canie a mule ride fIde That mule ride in ia those 1 days ys was a terror There is a chalky mountain ou on the 1 the w way y from Cruces to Panama where the footsteps footsteps footsteps foot- foot steps f mules working ever since the days of I Pizarro Pizarro rio l had d sworn wor 1 a groove perhaps three and a af f half deep in the chalky mountain And Aud they had tl their loot foot oot lUa marks ks so arranged that if a mule got il his S left foot hi in the hole intended for the right foot l he l had lad to stop and readjust himself before he lie could i ij t proceed Then rhen there was las sleeping overnight in a fl bamboo i Q O house hous with a roof on ou it like a haystack VIt It took ok tende tenderfoot foot while v t a a good to go to sleep in L 4 t that t kind of J f a hou house e and we remember distinctly 1 b ing awakened about 4 li in ti th morning by the l lusty owing crowing of a rooster directly over our heads i r QU o the cross beams f k I. I Great Ga Place for chi chickens down there Then Thou 5 came 1 the the soft l lands hud and th there re the mules we went t jv e clown p The mule that the writer was on the hurri- hurri J. J a ck of sank until nothing remained in sight j.- j. r. r r. r but hh eal ears eais S and the end of his nose Then came carn came f r tf Panama that t mosquito whose sting means Panama cJ GI an and after that the fever itself V- V It will be a great joy iii in 1915 to find that there is s t r all the way war across that isthmus and 1 CI Once n e more mere on the banks the tropical green 1 t Q of the tie fu forests interspersed with n-ith s let arlet runners runnels U fc i aid l 1 d ma inde le o live by monkeys and the rarest plumaged i i-F i bi ds i iiI th Hie world And Ande we e hope the ladies along I kt e line hue of the canal have g grown own in the habit of jf ti ss their children at a an earlier age than they f used to o because in those tars rays they were gr great at adof ad- ad rr cates of open ope air ir living They had luid no porches f l they had the ground and aud that tle te t e children might be close to nature they did not put any F hing at all on them And their mothers were f 7 h- h not oV overdressed sed but badly s sunburned And the wonder onder of all the boys who crossed that isthmus was vas how it was that the birds could be so white V and scarlet that their wings would turn hUll to gold goldin in i th the sunlight a and d that nothing was dark colored L' L except the monkeys s 's and the people If H the v I canal is i finished o on time or a little later will be no ride in all this world more lovely than Yi to take a barge and nd traverse that canal with the ther r forest on either hand with its eV everlasting g green y illuminated by scarlet and gold spangles an and filled V with ith gorgeous gorgeous' plumaged birds J |