the ticket invested entail the making of illegible notes and memoranda which serve to give a business-like air to the transactions. More small boys, wearing a grin that makes up for the scantiness of their clothing, dart in and out through the open doors with paper bags containing pea-nuts, and soon dispose of their entire stock. Piles of these nuts lie on each of the little tables, and the cracking and munching sounds as they disappear make up for breaks in the conversation. The stone floor soon assumes the aspect of a newly gravelled pavement, and the parties begin to separate and make their ways to dinner. Thus early in the evening is the “Central” saloon deserted, and should the visitor be desirous of being in the crowd after this hour, he must seek some other resort. At the numerous gatherings and entertainments which take place in Panama a great variety and odd assortment of types from every quarter of the globe are encountered. Quite apart from the casual gatherings of transients at the hotels, there are many opportunities for those who appreciate gaiety to indulge their taste to the full. Scarce a week passes but there are two or three balls, receptions given by members of clubs or private residents, and visitors to the city generally receive invitations. [Illustration: THE PLAZA, PANAMA.] The weekly reception by the President is usually well attended by the Panamanians and visitors, while many of the Canal Commission officials put in an appearance, and with their white uniforms lighten the scene. The official residence of the President guarded by about twenty lounging, diminutive policemen, is alive with bustling movement, and carriages in all stages of decay line the street outside. After leaving your hat with a very unofficial-looking servant at the entrance, you pass into a large _salon_, and are introduced to the President, who stands near the door. Many of the leaders of fashion and society are assembled in the room, and you soon discover that a free and easy air entirely devoid of anything like formality pervades the apartment. Puzzle games that long ago were sold by the vendors of cheap novelties on the streets of big cities lie around on tables in heaps to amuse the guests, while at circular tables, placed at one end of the room, elderly, stout persons sit playing at the game of puff-ball. The room, about one hundred feet long by thirty feet wide, is furnished with gilded chairs and lounges and tables, and along the top of the walls, doing duty as a frieze, are a series of poorly painted portraits. These pictures are painted on the surface of the wall, and round each is an oval frame or wreath, also painted in yellow colours, to represent gilding.