The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-01-12
C]LOMBlA'S CAPITAL.
SOME INTERESTING THINGS TO
BE SEN
In Bogota-nov Protestants end
Foreign COionists Fare ia Our Lite
sister EtePubItc.

| santa Re de Bog ia, Dec. 8. 1872
Although Professionalism is tolerated
in Colombia, and even in a measure
protected by the Liberal government
in common with all other forms If re-
Ilgion-it is regarded with horror hy
the people at large, MhO C04sid II souls
that are given over to such herrtical
doctrine as lost beyond redemption \
missionary in Colombia tells n4e how a
poor woman came to him one day,
weeping heart brokenly but oleying
her husbands order. bringing a baby in
her arms which she offered to sell to
him, For the service of the devil" for
the sum of dos pesos Y media-iWo dol
lars and half! She firmly believed. as
do many others in Colombia, that the
missionaries are employed by the devil
to gather in souls to his lower king
dom. Probably the maternal instinct
is as strongly developed in these South
american women, as in mothers of
other races the world over; but the
habit of blind obedience to the hus-
band is stronger. He may be lazy,
drunken, cruel galOot, subsisting en-
tirely upon the meager earnings Of his
better half and beating her every
day; but he is the literal lord and mas
ter, by law as by custom, and his Or
ders may not be eains7id. Even among
the lowest classes, | have seen many
beautiful examples Of the mo;her-lOye
that will suffer all things for the help
less little ones; hut the more degraded
of the poor creatures have so many
children, labor so necessarily and are
so hungry and hopeless, that it is no
wonder human instincts die out of
them. I am told that in thousands Of
cases infants are left to shift for them
selves as soon as they are able to
walk, to live or die-assi Dius quere
Gas God Wills'D, as their parents
would piously remark if questioned on
the subject. And thus the noble army
of beggars that swarm the streets of
Bogota is perennially recruited.
A former American Consul tells a
story which admirably illustrates the
character of these people. He was rid
ing one day in the suburbs OF Colom-
bian city, when his horse accidentally
ran over and killed a child that was
lying asleep in the road, its naked and
brown body completely hidden in the
sand Of course he was stricken with
horror and remOrse, and hunting up
the mother. gave her all the money he
| happened to have about him. amount
| ing to about forty dollars, to assuage
her grief. A few days later, riding
along the same road. he saw another
J baby asleep in the sand, in the same
place where the previous one was xii
ed; and a little farther on another, and
another. Dismounting to investigate,
he found the road lined with babies
| half-hidden in the Sandstone asleep
some tied securely in fiat baskets so
that they could not scramble out of the
way of an approaching horse. 1t was
| clear that there were many mothers
who We're more than willing to part
with their offspring for al LIBERAL COM
pensation.
Throughout all spanish-Amarica the
death of a child seems to be matter
Of rejoicing rather than Of sorrow the
idea being that the little one, not hay
ing arrived at years of discretion, must
therefore be without sin, and in no dan
ger of purgatOry; whereas, had it been
permitted to live longer. Quien sabe
! what might have been its ctennal flu
ture. A small CORPSE Is always spoken
of as otra angelita t'an0ther little an
| gel'), and its funeral is a feast, with
cheerful music and sometimes dancing,
| The only Protestant place Of Wor
ship in BogOta is the Scotch Presby-
| terrain Mission house, which occupies
what used to be a printing office, Rick
ETY. galleries adOrn both sides and at
the farther end are two windows. set
very high up, away above the raised
platform which holds a reading desk
and a wheeZy harmonium. Tn ser
vices are mostly conducted in Spanish,
[ for the benefit of considerable num-
| Der of native converts. 0di enough it
sounds to hear the same old home
tunes, cndeared by so many assOcia
tons" Rock of Ages Jesus, Lover Of
Ny Soul" odd Hundred" etc,--rcn-
dered with words Of a foreign tongue;
and oddod yet the Lords Prayer, re-
peated in concert by the congregation;
Oar nos este da nuestrO pam and ali
the rest of it.
! Speaking of churches perhaps the
most curious in Bogata is that which
shelters our Lady of the Cliff" Like
other intensely Catholic communities,
! this was it's miraculous Virgin, which
| corresponds to the Mexican Guada-
| loupe, the French Lady of Lourdes, the
| Spanish Virgin de los Remedies, or
| others of the numerous forms in which
| the Mother of Christ is said to have re-
vealed herself to man. This Lady of
the Cliff was discovered by an Indian,
carved on the face of an almost mac
| cessible precipice, away up in the
Andes. With infinite labor and ex-
pense, the solid rock upon which the
miraculous carving appeared was cut
IaWay from the peak and carried to
| Bogota, where church was erected in
| its honor. OF course there are herities
who hint that the priesthood, desiring
money to build another church, took
this method Of getting it out of the
| poverty stricken people by imposing
upon their credulity; but the faithful
firmly believed in the divine origin of
the Stone Lady, and prove it by num-
berless miracles she had performed
The other day we visited the bar
| racks, whose lofty blank walls line the
outside of a pretty plaza. Among the
curiosities, we We're shown some ola
| bronze carronades, one of which is
| highly priced for it's histrry-an in
| scriptiOn on the breech showing that it
| was captured by the Spaniards from
| thp French nj the b9ttIn Of paira rNE.