Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-01-07


ings. And for the benefit Of the great
number of Spaniards on the Isthmus,
sermons are preached in Spanish as
we'll as in English.
The Roman Catholic church has been
established on the Isthmus since its
first discovery, and practically all OF
the native population are Of that faith.
There are numerous churches in the
city Of Panama, where mass is said
every Sunday, and the bishop Of the
diocese resides there. In the above
mentioned city. some Of these churches
are hundreds of years old and some
have fallen to decay, and the ruins are
now crumbling in silence away as day
by day the mosses cling to the broken
walls and cover with green the mass
and mixture of tumbled stones and
brick and mortar. Once where the
candles were ever burning and where
once those who have long ago passed
away knelt to pray, the squeaking
mouse has it's den and the great black
spiders spin their webs. But near the
ruins of the fallen church others have
been builded and still the deep toned
bells chime out and the echoes, beauti-
full with solemn sweetness, mingle
with the roar Of the surf.
To one used to the quiet Sundays
back in the States, Sunday in Panama,
the Sodom and Gomorrah Of the 18TH
mus, is appalling. Every store, with
the exception Of the few owned by
Americans, is open all day, and the
business done by them is greater than
on the other days Of the week. If one
cares to walk down main street, where
the sidewalks in places are so narrow
that two persons cannot walk abreast,
he will see every few yards and often
at every door a saloon. Here. night
and day, thousands come and spend
the money that should go to buy bread
and clothes for the liquid poison that
slowly and with a death-like sureness
wastes their lives away.
The saloon lights-they beckon all
along the way,
And the clinking glasses call to men
by day;
And though little children hunger in
squalid homes apart,
There's money spent for rum; and
whisky for breaking heart.
The pen of poet or the eloquence of
a Demosthenes could hardly picture the
awful squalor Of the homes one sees
along the main street Of Panama. Here
before the doors Of these squalid homes
where the dust Of the unswept streets
foul with the filth Of the streets, are
blown in on the worn floors one can but
pause a moment and wonder II such
poverty, such misery, such filth can be
used in connection with that sweetness
of words-home. Many Of these places
are barrooms and homes combined;
and one may look in at the door as he
passes and see on one side Of the room
a crude cradle in which baby sleeps
and beside which mother sits in rags
and sews on tiny garment. Nearby,
on an upturned box, can be seen emp
ty beer bottles around which swarms or
flies are buzzing and clinging, while on
the other side Of the room is the bar
before which half drunken men stand
and behind which the barkeeper, even
the father of the child in the cradle,
stands and deals out the drinks as the
cursing Of the men drown in noise the
rocking of the cradle upon the floor
Then as one passes on and comes to
other places Of the same kind the pic
ture, pathetic in its awful wretchedness
and filth, comes back, and he cannot
help believing that should Christ come
to earth again and look out over the
city Of Panama from some vicinal hill
as He looked out over the city OF Je-
rusalem that He would weep over Pan
anna even as He wept over the city
outside whose gates He died.
The Canal.
The one thing of greatest Importance
and interest here is, as all may readily
imagine, the Canal, which is so often
thought about, talked about, written
about and read about. The Canal is
what has brought thousands of people
here to work. But even with knowl-
edge of this, there still fingers in the
minds of some the question as to
whether the canal is really being dug
A very brief visit here would convince
them that the great work of digging
the Panama canal is being carried on
in very satisfactory way. And some
who are certainly in a position to know
have made the surprising and as many
believe, the exaggerated assertion that
in only five years the work Will De
brought to a triumphant finish and
that where in 1907 men are handling
pick and shovel in 1914 the mighty
steamers will pass through on the bo-
som of the waters.
When one looks out along the line Of
the canal and realizes the immensely or
the task he does not wonder that such
an assertion is doubted and often he
does not hesitate to say that so great
a work cannot be accomplished in so
short a time But none, once they have
seen what is being done, can truthful
ly assert that no progress is belng
made. One, skeptical in the extreme,
needs but to feel the very earth trem-
BILE beneath his feet as the blasting Is
done, and to see the huge masses OF
shattered rock and the great upheaVals
of earth to be unchangeably convinced
that in the big ditch" dirt as we'll as
rock and other things are flying.
There seems to be an earnestness IN
the very whir and pounding OF the
steam drills; a grim determination in
the grumbling and smothered growing
Of the steam shOvels-the machines so
efficient in excavating; a "go-a-head-
a-tive-ness" in the peppery sounds Oh
the hammers and picks; dogged per-
sistence in the dull thud that comes
from the powerful strokes of the grim
pile drivers; and above all the ain
there seems to be a note Of triumph IN
the screaming and shrieking of scores
of whistles all through the clamorous