The Tropical Tramp .... Colon. From "Panama in Picture and Prose" by Willis J. Abbot ©1913. "One of the figures long pointed out on the streets of Colon was an old colored man - who had been there from the days of the alligators and the monkeys. He worked for the Panama Railroad surveyors, the road when complete, the French and the American Canal builders. A sense of long and veteran public service had invested him with an air of dignity rather out of harmony with his raiment. "John Aspinwall" they called him, because Aspinwall was for a time the name of the most regal significance on the island. The Poet of Panama immortalized him in verse as seen in the above picture.
