The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-01
WHY THEY DISLIKE US
SOUTH AMERICANS HAVE DREAD
AND DIsTRUsT OF FOREIGNERS.
Think People OF This Country Mean Ill
to Them-COlombinns and
Panama Canal.
| F
CD

claimed the excited Colombian, as
~ he slipped his aguadiente in a po-
~#S*7 sada at Cali, a. town far away in
49, the interior of his country. You
Americans would construct the canal at
Panama, and you say it would bring much
m and great riches to our country.
! Bueno. But what then? You would make
slaves of our people. You would overrun the
country, introducing all manner of vice and
crime and disease. You would even" this
as a final, unanswerable argument-"build
railroads"
Well" asked the American, "and
wouldn't that be q good thing for you?"
"A good thing" The Colombian grew more
| excited than ever, and waved his arms
frantically. why. it would spoil my mule
business! What should VIC all do with our
mules when everybody sent goods by the
railroad? We should have to eat them,
eve do not want you strangers to come
here and worry us. You cannot make even 8
| cents in your own country, so you come to
| ours to make money out of the honest, trust
ing, truthful Colombians who know nothing
of your scheming ways. We wish to have
we'll by ourselves"
Ills Aldu tAQISSStQ III StilblhiNhNS - -
race and of most Spanish Americans. Even
wealthy and educated Colombians share his
views. They dislike and despise foreigners
and firmly believe that Colombia is the big
gest pebble on the beach," Outside of its
borders. they hold. there is little or nothing
worth counting. Spain is the one foreign
country they indorse.
The jewellers on the Isthmus OF Panama
are the only exceptions TO this general rule.
They believe in foreigners and foreign in
situations, and are naturally anxious to see
the canal finished. But then a Panamanian
is not reckoned as a Colombian by the 9TH
or Colombians. He is a despised "Sringo,"
just like an American or an Englishman.
The untraveled South American is abso-
! lutely incredulous when he is told about the
wonders of foreign lands.
QUEER VIEWS OF UNITED STATES.
When 1 lived in CALI said an English
man, who had just come to this country
after a residence of several years in Vene-
zuela, 'there was a man from Dayton, o.,
staying there. One evening we were with
some Colombians. and he started telling
them about the wonderful things in Dayton,
O.-the cars that ran without mules, the
four-story buildings, and the fire engines.
They were politely incredulous, so / thought
I would strain their faith a bit more by
telling them about New York.
at described the Brooklyn bridge and the
twenty-story skyscrapers-I dared not go
higher. When 1 told them there were seven
roads on the bridge and that hundreds OF
thousands OF people passed over 1T every
day, they looked at me sadly and reproach-
fully, and l overheard one Of them whisper
to another, fCaramba, That man lies much
better than the other one"
"Do you nave butter and milk in New
York; another m asked an Ameri-
can. "You can't have. You say that the
place is nothing but houses closely packed
together. Where, then, do you keep the
cows?'
"Are you married. the same man in
quired. "You can't be. You were not mar
ried here. and I know there are no churches
in your country. You are all heretics there,
although some of you pretend to be Catho-
lies when YOU come here"
And nothing would persuade him that the
United States were not entirely destitute of
the means of grace.
In Colombia and other South American
countries the people have curious ideas re-
garding social clubs. They think a club is
simply a superior kind OF saloon into which
any well-dressed man can walk and order a
drink. Their own clubs are conducted on
that principle.
When the foreigners resident in a certain
Colombian town started a club of their own,
they found it necessary to put a notice over
the door, 1.-The Strangers Club Is Not a
Public Place" That enraged the natives.
How dare they forbid Colombians to enter
their club?'' one of the local newspapers
asked Indignantly. IF they have the inso-
lence To do this now, what will they do
when the Yankees build the canal?'
COLOMBIA .DEFIES THE WORLD.
OF the power of foreign countries the aver
age South American has no conception. The
Colombians, for example, think that their
two or three leaky, rusty little gunboats
constitute the greatest navy in the world. A
few months ago. when rritated by foreign
criticisms, the newspapers in Bogota advo-
Gated an immediate declaration of war
against Ecuador. Venezuela. the United
States and Germany. They put the four
countries on a level for military purposes.
LET u.s. they said. 'show these people
that VIC will not endure the things they say
about US. Let us fight them all, and show
the whole world that Colombia is able TO
punish those who malign her"
During the last revolution, in the course
Of which over a hundred thousand Colon
bans persisted. General Bonilla, the Gov
ernor of the Cauca department, wanted TO
transport some troops from Buenaventura
to Panama. A British mail steamer hap
pened to be at the former port, so he wired
from Cali to the officials there to seize her
and use her as a TRANSPORT.
! nhn nnntain and CROW refused 10 work thu