The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1901-04-11

Shoals on the Watauga river, in Carter
county, Tennessee, to march to the re-
lief of their suffering brethren in the
Carolinas. These noble pioneer patriots
and brave Indian fighters came up with
Patrick Ferguson at Kings Mountain
in charge Of 200 British and /, 100 Tories,
and killed and captured the entireforc
This victory turned the tide Of war,
put Lord CORVALLIS on the retreat and
cleared the Csrolinas of "red coats, !"
and as consequence put full stop to
British schemes for an isthmian canal.
Since then, now a hundred and twenty
years, Great Britain has not wanted
any canal, and will not permit the Uni
ted States to have one il she can pre-
vent it. Has she not been obstructing
Russia for one hundred years by all
the arts Of adroit diplomacy to prevent
the Gear from reaching the open sea
with his commerce And is not our
John Flunky Hay at this very moment
acting in the role of cats paw for the
British monkey to roast his Manchurian
chetnuts ? What was the meaning Of
all that tommyrot about an "open door"
in China, if the United States was not
to be used as a stalking-horse to shield
Great Britain from the wrath OF her
enemies d? And what have we gained
by it? We have made the Chinese hate
us as a nation by uniting with the other
powers we have lost about 200 of our
soldiers to no purpose; we have lost
several millions OF trade that can not
be regained for many years to come,
and we have put the Prince Of Peace to
open shame and retarded the progress
OF true and vital Christianity. But we
have seen and smiled at William Nc.
Kinley and John Flunky Hay mounted
on "world hobby" charging around
among the crowned heads Of Europe,
reminding US Of Don Quixote de Ia
Mancha when he bestrode old Rosinant
and sailed forth, lance in hand, to
make war ON the wind mills. Pshaw /!
Now, let us look at few of the most
material facts connected with the sim
gular history of this wonderful ship
canal. In 1928 Galvas, who had sailed
around Cape Horn and ascertained that
the narrow strip Of land separating the
two oceans was only about thirty miles
wide, recommended to Charles V of
Spain "short cut" by canal to pass
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. That
was 1878 years ago, and the subject has
been before the public ever since. AS
eleven generations OF men have lived
and died since Galvas and King Charles
discussed the subject, most educated
men have come TO understand the mat
ter very well. But Charles V had no
money then to do the work, and it was
not until 1884 that he issued commits
sion to fernando Cortez to survey the
route and start work on the canal. This
daring Spaniard had more taste for
hunting gold and killing Indians than
for digging canals, and nothing of much
value resulted from his labors. The
advocates of the project gave it long
rest of more than 200 years until Great
Britain revived it in $780, We have
seen how signally that failed, and il
took another rest until 1926, when the
United States obtained concession
from the Central American government
to open canal. This scheme failed,
and we tried it again in 1881, but this
was also a failure. In the meantime
we had excited our dear old friend,
Johnny Bull, who had been crashing
his leonine teeth ct the Monroe doc
trine since it was announced in 1923.
So Mr.. Bull sent warship down there
in 1S4S and seized few negro huts
called Greytown. She had the same
right to seize Norfolk or New York, but
Greytown was one of the termini of the
canal. In this trick of Great Britain
she was practicing the artful diplomacy
of the "gay deceiver" who picks quar-.
rel with his sweetheart so he can return
and apologize, kiss and make up, and
all will be lovely after the storm is
over.
II Greytown was situated ON the Mos
quito coast and contained a popula-
| ton in 1s4s Of 700 or 800 runaway ne
groes and Indians. It was o Spanish
colony from its discovery by Colum'
bus in 1902 until 1860. Some British
traders had been dealing with the In.
dams in such things as logwood, ma
hogany and tortois shells, and in 1885,
found an Indian who claimed to be q
, descendant of a great Mosquito King
who had once reigned in royal STYLE
} over the country. British diplomacy
, was equal to the occasion, and her en-