of the American. Two series of coins
are current, one being double the value of the other; and, since the
corresponding coins of the two series are of about the same size,
newcomers are harassed by constant suspicions of their small change.
The "silver employees" number about twenty-six thousand. Some of them
are immigrants from Europe--mostly from Italy and the north of
Spain--but the great majority are negroes, British subjects from
Jamaica and Trinidad. It was foreseen that if negroes from the Southern
States were employed, the high wages rates might unsettle the American
cotton labor market: so it was decided to recruit from British
colonies, and it is not too much to say that, so far as the Canal is
hand-made, it is mainly the work of British labor. Several hundreds of
Hindus have found their way here; they are chiefly employed upon the
fortifications, because, it is said, they are unlikely to talk about
them. These British colored laborers, with their families, constitute
the bulk of the population of the Canal 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