Zone:  the town of Panama swarms with them, and one sees few of any other class in the streets of Colon.  The American engineers have thus been working with a staff that can claim the protection of the British Minister; and it is pleasing to an Englishman to hear on every side the heartiest tributes to the energy, tact, and good sense of England’s representative, Sir Claude Mallet.  At the outset the negro laborers were exceedingly suspicious of the American authorities, and were ready to strike on the smallest provocation:  they have refused to take their rations until Sir Claude has tasted them.  He possesses the complete confidence of the British labor force, and indeed the Hindu immigrants, who deposit money at the Consulate, will hardly wait to obtain receipts for it.

Speaking of rations, it may be mentioned that the Canal authorities undertake to feed all their employees, and a large commissariat establishment, including extensive cold-storage depots at Colon, is one of the most prominent features of their administration.  Every morning a heavy trainload of provisions leaves Colon, dropping its freight as it passes the various labor settlements.  In numerous eating-houses meals are provided at very moderate charges, and at Panama and Colon large, up-to-date hotels are maintained by the American Government.  These are used very extensively by the Canal staff, and give periodic dances, which are crowded with young people.  The vagaries of the one-step are sternly barred by a puritan committee, and, to one who expects surprises, the style of dancing is disappointingly monotonous.  But these hotels are also of great use in conciliating the American taxpayers.  Tourists come by thousands, and elaborate arrangements are made for their education by special sight-seeing trains, by appreciative guides, and by courses of lectures.  The Canal staff is also housed by the State—­in wooden structures, built upon piles, and protected by mosquito-proof wire screening.  The accommodation for bachelors is somewhat meager; but married couples are treated very liberally, and their quarters are brightened by pretty little gardens.  The rates of pay are high, and there are numerous concessions which to one of Indian experience appear exceedingly generous.  But the expenditure throughout is on a lavish scale:  the Canal will not cost much less than eighty million pounds.  The money that is drawn from the American taxpayers is, however, for the most part returned to them.  Practically the whole of the machinery is of American manufacture; the food is American; the stores that are sold in the shops are mainly American; and the only money that is lost to the States is that which is saved by the foreign laborers.  Very few of these have any intention of remaining under the American flag, or will, indeed, be permitted to remain.