Of native U. S. civilians there were but two of us. Of whom
Barter, speaking only his nasal New Jersey, must perforce be
assigned to the "gold" quarters, leaving me the native town of
Empire. At which we were both satisfied, Barter because he did not
like to sully himself by contact with foreigners, I because one
need not travel clear to the Canal Zone to study the ways of
Americans. As for the other seven, each was assigned his strip of
land something over a mile wide and five long running back to the
western boundary of the Zone. That region of wilderness known as
"Beyond the Canal" was to be left for special treatment later. The
Zone had been divided for census purposes into four sections, with
headquarters and supervisor in Ancon, Empire, Gorgona, and
Cristobal respectively. Our district, stretching from the
trestleless bridge over the canal to a great tree near Bas Obispo,
was easily the fat of the land, the most populous, most
cosmopolitan, and embracing within its limits the greatest task on
the Zone.

Meanwhile we had fallen to studying the "Instructions to
Enumerators," the very first article of which was such as to give
pause and reflection;

"When you have once signed on as an enumerator you cannot cease to
exercise your functions as such without justifiable cause under
penalty of $500 fine." Which warning was quickly followed by the
hair-raising announcement:

"If you set down the name of a fictitious person"--what can have
given the good census department the notion of such a
possibility?--"you will be fined $2,000 or sentenced to five