GRAND HOTEL OF PANAMA. 27 



in the mind is one that has been frequently recalled 

 to memory. If at any time, when it has been long 

 dormant, the actual recollection has become somewhat 

 imperfect, the imagination fills up by an effort the 

 incomplete portion. When next summoned by some 

 train of association, the image present to the mind is 

 no longer the original picture, but the altered version 

 of it in the state in which it was left after being last 

 retouched. 



In about four hours from Colon we reached the 

 Panama terminus, and found a large waggonette, or 

 roofless omnibus, waiting to convey us to the Grand 

 Hotel. A pair of small ragged horses, rushing at a 

 canter down the steep slopes and scrambling up on 

 the other side over the rough blocks that form the 

 pavement, made our vehicle roll and jolt in a fashion 

 that would have disquieted nervous passengers. It 

 would be difficult to find elsewhere in the world a 

 stranger assemblage than that to be found at the 

 Grand Hotel of Panama. The ground floor, with 

 several large rooms, is occupied day and night for 

 eating, drinking, smoking, and loud discussion by the 

 floating foreign population of the town. At the 

 present time the engineers and other officials con- 

 nected with the Ship Canal formed the predominant 

 element ; but, along with a sprinkling of many other 

 nationalities, the most characteristic groups consisted 

 of refugees from all the republics of Central and South 

 America, who find substantial reasons for quitting their 

 homes, and who resort to Panama as a sanctuary whence 

 some new turn in the wheel of revolution may recall 

 them to some position of distinction and profit. 



