The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1869-09-23
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. or TRIyEL.

"REMINISCENCES OF TRAVEL.
THE sketches under this head are prepared
tinuet IN these columns froin time 10 time,
rs the writer finds spare moments which he
may devote to the revision OF the notes JOtted
aown during the years covered BY his adyen
NUMBER i.
In the Spring Of 1865 tho writer
sailed for the 1sthmus Of Panama.
He was not enlisted as missioncry,
nor did he travel az 4 gentleman Of
leisure. Hp WAS one Of those much
abused Dohemians, = class of unfor-
Inmates whom iDexorable employees
never allow to rest or sleep, whom
the public expects to DO constantly
on the alert, and whose career by
constant tension and strain of nerve
usually incfges in ont ofchronic vag-
abondagc. A wandering Bedouin Is
subject to fewer vicissitudcs, to few
er and less rapid changes, than the
dttache of the modern daily ncwspa-
per, which spreads before its readers
each morning full compendium Of
news from each Of the four quarters
of the globe, froit, every civilized cap
ital in the world, from every center
Of diplomacy in Christcndom. For
three years the writer's head quar-
tiers were fixed at Panama, q quaint
old Spanish town from whose sea
walls you look out across the broad
Pacific towards the land of Com usius.
As occasion demanded he made rap.
id sorties in various directions, now
to Mexico and Central America, then
to Peru and Chill and far down tow
ard the stormy promontory of Cape
Horn, anon through West India TO-
lands, and then across the rugged
Andes to Bogota and Quito,--whor-
ever spock of war was discerned,
or a "bit of a row" was likely to lend
its items to o hungry and hard up
monger of news. Like any other
mortal situated likewise he has his
adventures and scrapes, and if the
unembellished recital of q few little
stories and moral anecdotes cleaned
abroad happen to interest and enter
tain d respectable proportion of the
readers of the CouRIE1, his present
object will be fulfilled.
Perhaps none of the institutions Of
Catholic Spanish America appeal
more forcibly to the respect and i'm
agination Of the Protestant than that
of the Nuns and Sisters of Charity.
The mysterious seclusion of the one
and the heroic benevolence of the
other had both much of a. certain
moral sublimity of selfabnegation in
pleasant contrast with the violence
of the inquisition. Tho buildings
themselves yet connect us by sort
of material link with the spirit Of the
middle ages. The spirit Of that per.
iod is nowhere more distinctly per.
ceived than in it's ecclesiastical edit.
ces. Those towers which lift their
heads to heaven--those splendid ca.
thedrals, with their thousands oil
pillars and pilasters, their s'lone
drawn aisles and. fretted vaults.
theirpainted windows, their gorgeous
ornaments, their massive buttresses
their magnificent spires, their count
less statutes and noble monuments
tell the tale Of greatness and of pow
or. In that state of society the
Church was the refuge Of the weak
against the strong, ofthe poor agains,
the rich.
Ofall the ancient buildings of Pan
anna none appeals SO strong to tn.
feeling as the nunnery. The build
ing with it's church stands near tn,
sea gate, through which the Spahist
hosts used to enter and depart BY
sea. In its outward features it seeml
to have kept pace with the fall ane
decay of the magnificentpublic build
ms which once saw Panama power
! tul and rich.
Within the past few years con
fict arose between the Church ant
State which eliminated in the ban
ishment of priests, sisters and nun
beyond the borders of Colombia
It was an act Of oppression on tn,
part of the State officials which tn,
people repudiatcd, which the pres
condemned. On the day the nun
were to leave their old home W,
were Induced to visit the nunnery
then for the first time thrown opcl
to the curious and vulgar public
The street portal was open and tn,
voices of the children at school cam,
forth from the interior of the clois
tiers. The entrance looked dam
and gloomy, and an air Of desolatiol
seemed to reign supreme. In tn,
garden many towering shrubs an,
trees were in bloom; the passion
flowers and aristolochim had cas-
their seed wild vines werc climbing
and creeping over everything
Winding our way among q mass o
entangled vegetation we stood ,
while with uncovered head and look
ed upon the burial vaults of the dead
nuns. Eleven, we were told, were
there. A small head piece OF wooc
told us that "He,c was inferred tn,
Sister Maria Hopolita." They, W.
thought, rest from their labors, while
the Sisters who survived to watcf
over their graves, and keep green the
flowers thereof, ore no longer here
Could they have foreseen that in {
few years the Abbess and all theil
surviving Sisters would be forced te
Misunderstanding fight over the
waters of the ocean they had 60 of
ton and SO long contemplated, only
from their latticed windows--look
ing on the ships tina. come and wen,
as things Of a world with which they
had no direct concern-thcy must
have closed their eyes IN grief to
have been lain in forsaken graves.
We saw the thirty nuns and sis.
ters with the venerable abbess, leave
the walls-within which the latter
had lived half century,
MED by sorrowing relatives and pi
GUS women, weeping as in the times
of St. Paul that they should behold
their faces no more. 1t was with
the saddest feeling that we, Prot
estant, witnessed their dcpartul e.
Everything within looked ruinous
and sad. The bell towers of the
church were decaying. The spider
and tho ,yhsto onf hod x,,odn 1hns-