CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN 



PANAMA-ITALY— SWITZERLAND— ENGLAND 



^HE year 191 1 stands out in my memory principally because of my 

 visit to the Panama Canal and my trip through Italy and Switzer- 

 land with my two older daughters. It was, I think, in February of that 

 year that I was invited to make a speech at the dinner of the Geograph- 

 ical Society of Philadelphia, when Colonel Goethals gave an account of 

 his work on the Canal, illustrated with moving pictures. In the course 

 of my speech, I told the story of the man on Hat Creek, Neb., who was 

 "huntin' for some other dam' fool with a return ticket," making the 

 appUcation to myself, that I was hunting for some other highly intelli- 

 gent person, who would give me a return ticket to Panama. When the 

 company was breaking up, Colonel Goethals said to me: "Did you really 

 mean what you said about wanting to go to Panama?" "Of course I 

 did," I replied, "I meant it most thoroughly." "Well, if you'll let me 

 know, when you're ready to start, I'll see that you get transportation." 

 The Colonel was as good as his word and I got away from New York 

 by the S. S. Panama on April 13. 



The ship was a quite new experience; though comfortable and scrupu- 

 lously clean, she was severely plain and had none of the luxurious fit- 

 tings of a transatlantic liner. A letter begun on shipboard on April 15, 

 says: "The voyage has been entirely uneventful, so far; to my surprise, I 

 have been nearer to seasickness than for many years past, and, on 

 Wednesday evening, I was glad to go to bed, lest a worse thing befall 

 me. I have had my room to myself, a very great boon. It is quite a 

 novelty to have a cabin with a large window, which has been kept open 

 day and night; the room has a freshness and sweetness that I never 

 before experienced at sea." The passengers were mostly Canal employes, 

 of the lower grades, some of them quite rough, but of unobjectionable 

 behaviour. I made the acquaintance of two pleasant Virginians and of a 

 young naval officer and his wife. The officer, though a graduate of 

 Annapolis, had entered the construction division of the service and was 

 on a secret mission to various South American governments. That 



I ^7 1 



