Talbot County GaArchives News.....Letters from N.B. Raines living in Panama 1907 March 28 1907 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Carla Miles cmhistory@mchsi.com October 7, 2003, 3:01 pm The Talbotton New Era The Talbotton New Era Thursday, March 28, 1907 Page 2 Personal Items Mr. N.B. Raines, who has been in Talbotton for the past ten days on a visit to his parents, Captain and Mrs. W.J. Raines, left Saturday for New York, where he took a steamer Monday morning for Panama. Mr. Raines will arrive in Panama some time Sunday afternoon. He has been appointed a machinist for the government, and goes to the canal region to take up his duties. He is an expert in his line and his friends in Talbotton wish him all kinds of success. The Talbotton New Era Thursday, May 2, 1907 Page 2 Personal Items In another column we print a letter from Mr. N.B. Raines, who is now at work for the government in Panama, to his father, Captain W.J. Raines of Talbotton. This communication will no doubt be read with a great deal of interest. We hope to have an article from Mr. Raines, written especially for The New Era, in the course of a few weeks. The Talbotton New Era Thursday, May 2, 1907 Page 1 Letter from N.B. Raines Written From the Canal Zone to Captain W.J. Raines Gorgona, Panama, April 9, 1907 Dear Father, Sunday was a beautiful day, so several of us we sight seeing. We started about 8 o’clock a.m. and returned about 3 p.m. In the morning we visited a large plantation. It seems strange when the Georgia cane is just being planted when I say most of the crop here had been gathered. After leaving this plantation we went near the Chargres river, (pronounced Shaggers) where we found two old French dredge boats that are clear away from the river on the dry land. Last November the river was very high and carried three of these boats some distance from the channel. They are much larger than your home. Next we went a half mile further down the river, where about seventy- five Negro men were washing. They would carry a block of wood or stone both for a stool and a wash-board. Next we visited a banana plantation. The bananas were from just blooming to ready to gather, and allowed to ripen. We were about two miles and a half from home, so we ate dinner at Mamie (Mawme) at one of Roosevelt’s hotels. Our meal tickets are good at any hotel on the canal. We have a meal ticket book, and give a ticket to the door-keeper at each meal; if one has no ticket then they have to pay 50 cents for the meal, but tickets cost only thirty cents each. After dinner we took a stroll through the jungles, most the way in a trail, but a part of it was where the native sword knife had to be used. We saw wild bananas, coconuts, guavas, pineapples, sugar cane and oranges. At one place, I saw a tree six inches in diameter with goards growing on it, a regular goard tree, and one of the goards was ten inches in diameter. They are just like the round goards grown in the States, but none of them have necks. We passed near an Indian village, but did not visit it because some of the men had been to Colon the night before to a reception given to the retiring Engineer, (Stevens) and were very tired. The train did not get back to Gorgona until 3 a.m. Next Sunday a party of us will go to Panama to spend the day. There is said to be a bull-fight scheduled for then, and if so, I will see it. I want to go to the beach and gather shells for some beautiful ones are said to be there. The next visit I make I want to go to the Calebra cut. We saw most of the Colon the day we landed. I have not been sick a day or even felt bad since landing on the Isthums, the climate seems to agree with me. It is cooler in the shade than in Florida, but in the sun it is frightful hot. Every night I have to sleep under a blanket to keep warm, and that seems strange to me. Ask mother to send me a half-dozen goard seeds in a letter, as I want to see how they will do here. Your son, N.B. Raines Gorgona, Isthmus of Panama Canal Zone The Talbotton New Era Thursday, May 23, 1907 Page 6 Letter from N.B. Raines Written From Panama In the Canal Zone Gorgona, Canal Zone, May 5, 1907 Dear Father, Today quite a party of us went out on the mountain, or among the mountains, sight-seeing. The mountains are high and very steep, but have trails that lead out of town in several directions. These trails go through gaps when possible, but sometimes over the top, then it is quite an undertaking to follow it. We found quite a number of black Palm trees that we cut down to make walking canes of. Only one cut at the bottom can be used, for the beauty of the wood is in the dark color which is from the surface toward the center. The thickness of this dark color depends on the size and age of the tree. These trees are only about 6 inches in diameter and the dark color about one-eighth thick at the bottom of the tree, so there is not much that can be used from a tree, the center being soft and pethy. I will rough out the canes and take them back to the states in that way and finish them up there, or give them to my friends and let them do the work. It is a wood that is rare in the states and one will be glad to get it. In the same mail that carries this letter, I will mail a souvenir book of the canal. I know you will all enjoy it, and later I will send a package of views. Bananas are raised here. Only one bunch grows on a tree, and when they are gathered the tree is cut down and the sprouts left to grow up; three crops are gathered each year. The greatest curiosity to me is the Mango tree. Only one part of the tree will bloom at the time. When that fruit is about half grown another part blooms, and when the first is ripening another part blooms. The blooms are not scattered over the tree but they are all together. A beautifully shaped tree is just across the street from our quarters. (I moved last week). There is one part of the tree with ripening fruit, another with half grown, and another in bloom, then another to bloom yet. Before I had been here 4 weeks I had lived in 3 houses. The first two were family quarters, and we were moved to make room for men whose families had come and now we are in bachelor’s quarters, and I hope, settled. It costs nothing to move here. The superintendent of quarters just notifies us to pack up, that we are to move, and when we get back from work we find our things at a new place. Last Sunday I went to Panama City. May have told you in my last letter of the trip. We had a pleasant time and saw many new strange and new sights. There is a rise and fall of 16 feet in the tide, and when market boats anchor at high tide they are on dry land quite a distance from the water at low tide. I saw quite a number of boats on dry land. I found a number of very pretty shells, which are sunning, so they will be alright to take home. This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/ File size: 7.3 Kb