A COMIC OPERA ARMY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15122, 12 October 1912, Page 5 (Supplement)

A COMIC OPERA ARMY.

The army of the Panama Republic is a ;

sight to delight the heart of a Gilbert and Sullivan Major-General. On parade it numbers about one hundred men. The uniform consists of white duck trousers, button boots, blue serge tunic heavily frogged, square top yachting cap of blue with a great tortoise-shell peak. An old brown Bess rifle, without a bayonet, completes the equipment. The colours are on. a- jointed bamboo pole some fifteen feet high, gorgeous in silk and tied up with bows and streamers. Tlio national band are dressed in white, and have little car for time or music. They, however, play in the plaza or market-place ori Sunday, when tli'i whole town turns out to hear the* music and parade their smartest clothes. The native gill in a . flowing flowered muslin dress,'an enormous Lab with feathers, and a big red silk bow ab the back 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 attue..Her bean is resplendent in patent-leather boots, white striped trousers, straw hat. and a. bright blue coat 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 magniiicence to his appearance. Tlio natives have to keep themselves strictly apart from the white population, nor arc whites allowed to live in the bhick quarters. Special carriages are set apart for them on the regular trains and likewise 011 the paddy mails, and woe betide any native who attempts to enter a. white mail's carriage. The white police are chiefly drawn from the Frontiersmen of Canada, and are of very high standing. The native police are chiefly recruited from the West-Indian possessions of this; country. j