Willis Fletcher Johnson

“ The Cathedral Plaza was the chief park of the city. At one side was the great cathedral, with its spires shingled with big slabs of opalescent, iridescent mother-of-pearl. At one end was the Palace of the Archbishop, with the offices of the Panama Lottery on the ground floor. At the other end was the big building of the Canal Administration. But beside these its circumference gave ample room for numerous thirst-destroying establishments, chief among them being the Grand Central Hotel, whose gigantic barroom was sure to be the cynosure of Panama that night of nights. ”

“ Panama had got her independence; we had got the canal, Gorgas was "getting" the mosquitos; Roosevelt was re-elected; Huerta's incipient revolution was snuffed out; and Taft had come down there to make everybody happy. At the end of Taft's visit it was necessary to have a celebration, in which the ancient city should fairly out-do itself and quite distance all other places in the world. So the President of the republic, and the Mayor Alcade of the city, and various other distinguished functionaries, got together and prepared a programme.
Of course, there was a dinner. There always is. ”

“ Louis the other day, when for a space a Federal court writ lifted, or tilted, or perhaps merely tip-tilted, the prohibition lid, and let old Spiritus Frumenti ooze forth again, like the Fisherman's Genie. To long-restrained Missourians, thirsting to be shown, it may have seemed an opening of the golden gates of joy. We are told that in one nuit blanche eleven patients were received at the City Inebriate Ward, the police reported 210 violations of the fuel regulations, and a total of 510 infractions of laws and ordinances occurred because of the aforesaid lifting of the lid. ”