“Spiggotty”, which has not yet found its way into the dictionaries, is derived from the salutation of hackmen seeking a fare--“speaka-da-English”. Our fellow countrymen with a lofty and it must be admitted a rather provincial scorn for foreign peoples--for your average citizen of the United States thinks himself as superior to the rest of the world as the citizen of New York holds himself above the rest of the United States--are not careful to limit its application to Panamanians of the hackdriving class. From his lofty pinnacle of superiority he brands them all, from the market woman with a stock of half a dozen bananas and a handful of mangoes to the banker or the merchant whose children are being educated in Europe like their father as “spiggotties”. Whereat they writhe and curse the Yankees. [Illustration: _Photo by Underwood & Underwood_ FROM A PANAMA BALCONY In the narrow streets the broad balconies bring neighbors close together] “Gringo” is in the dictionaries. It is applied to pure whites of whatever nation other than Spanish or Portuguese who happen to be sojourning in Spanish-American lands. The Century Dictionary rather inadequately defines it thus: “Among Spanish Americans an Englishman or an Anglo-American; a term of contempt. Probably from Greico, a Greek”. The dictionary derivation is not wholly satisfactory. Another one, based wholly on tradition, is to the effect that during the war with Mexico our soldiers were much given to singing a song, “Green Grow the Rashes, Oh”! whence the term “Gringoes” applied by the Mexicans. The etymology of international slang can never be an exact science, but perhaps this will serve. Whatever the derivation, whatever the dictionary definitions, the two words “spiggotty” and “gringo” stand for racial antagonism, contempt and aversion on the part of the more northern people; malice and suppressed wrath on that of the Spanish-Americans. You will find this feeling outcropping in every social plane in the Republic of Panama. It is, however, noticeably less prevalent among the more educated classes. Into the ten mile wide Canal Zone the Americans have poured millions upon millions of money and will continue to do so for a long time to come. Much of this money finds its way, of course, into the hands of the Panamanians. The housing and commissary system adopted by the Commission have deprived the merchants and landowners of Colon of their richest pickings, but nevertheless the amount of good American money that has fallen to their lot is a golden stream greater than that which flowed over the old Royal Road in its most crowded days. Few small towns will show so many automobiles as Panama and they have all been bought since the American invasion. [Illustration: THEIR FIRST COMMUNION Panama is a Roman Catholic City with picturesque church processions]