A COMIC OPERA ARMY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 62, 6 November 1912, Page 6

A COMIC OPERA ARMY.

The army of the Panama Republic is a sight to delight the heart of a Gilbert and Sullivan general. ' On parade it numbers about 100 men. The uniform consists of white duck trousers, button hoots, blue serge tunic

heavily frogged, square-top yachting cap of blue with a great tortoiseshell peak. An old Brown Bess rifle, without a bayonet, completes the equipment. The colours are on a jointed bamboo pole some loft, high, gorgeous in silk and tied with bows and streamers. The national hand are dressed in white, and have little ear for time or music. They, however, play in the plaza or market-place on Sunday, when the whole town turns out to hear the music and parade their smartest clothes. The native girl in a flowing flowered muslin dress, an enormous hat with feathers, and a big red silk bow at the hack of her head, is a feature of the scene. White shoes and stockings, yellow kid gloves, and a parasol about the' size of a soup plate completes her attire. Her beau is resplendent in patent leather hoots, white striped trousers, straw hat, and a bright blue eoat with gilt buttons. A red necktie with a diamond pin about the size of a pigeon’s egg, yellow kid gloves (with a ring outside the glove), cane and cigar give a finishing touch of magnificence to his appearance; the natives have to kdep themselves strictly apart from the white population, nor are whites allowed to live in the black quarters. Special carriages are set apart for them on the regular trains and likewise on the paddy mails, and woe betide any native who attempts to enter a white man’s carriage. The white police are chiefly drawn from the frontiersmen

of Canada, and are of very high standing.