The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1912-04-05

church., when up drove Victoria. When
we got back, Rev. Tho bourne informed US
that he had been to Pedro Miguel and had
made arrangements for us to speak there
Sunday morning, February 18th. This
pleased US very much. With a good, hearty
dinner, we agreed that all three Of us, Mrs.
Thorboume, Rev Thorboume and the Sec
rotary, would all pile up in The Victoria
dragged by the little Panama pony. The
man was engaged and told to bring a big
pony. 1t might have been larger, but we
could see no difference. However, Mrs.
Thorboune had on her best, and she made
us change up some, made us pull Rff the cap,
and Robert put on his buttoned-f D vest and
coat, and then we went out to see anama. We
drove up and down, across and through old
Panama, and then Brother Thorbourne car
ried us into Panama where the Negroes live,
and the Negroes were out on the streets
taking the air. We have seen the Negroes
of New Orleans, in the black district of
Memphis, in the black belt Of Washington
IN the black district of Baltimore, but we
confess we saw more Negroes in New Pana-
ma to the square mile than any place it has
ever been our pleasure or duty to visit. We
found in this part of the town, five blocks in
width and six blocks in length, houses built
III what is known as rows, two and three
stories high, one family to the room On an
average, was packed, rammed, damned and
crammed with Negroes The weather was
beautiful and it seemed that all of them
were in the streets. The cabman kept his
bell ringing all the time to keep from ran
ming over the Negroes. There were big
Neg1 ces, midde-sized Negroes, little Ne
grOes, young Negroes, old Negroes, ugly Ne
groes, pretty Negroes, brown Negroes,
black Negroes, in fact, Negroes of every
kind, shade and condition that the English
language can describe, and they were talk
Jig in every language that the worEmen on
the Tower of Babel used. We then began
t. inquire where these Negroes went to
ciI1Ich, for we knew that the First National
Baptist Church was the only Baptist church
in Panama City; that the Episcop&ls have
only one church, smaller than that; that the
Wesleyan Methodists have one, the Metho-
dist Episcopals one for white people, the
Catholics few, and the Christian Union, or
CAmpbellites, very small one. "Now," we
asked, where do these people gow We were
then informed that less than one per cent,
that is, less than one out of every one hun
dred of these people had never seen inside of
a church since they had been on the Isthmus.
We could not help eXclaiming, Shame on
tie Christian denominations of America"
that it was shame that the American peo-
pie would allow a territory so valuable as
the Canal Zone, with more than one hun
dred thousand people ON it, to go neglected,
al this territory is. God grant that the day
will come when Christian denominations
will be aroused. If the African Methodist
Episcopal Church, the Zion Methodist Epis-
copal Church and the c. NJ E. Church
would put forth their efforts and send
p eachers American N4gro breaches, to this
ZEe; if the Nationa Baptist Convention
would wake up and puF preacher the equal
OF Rev Thorbourne, at Pedro Miguel, anoth-
er one superior at Empire, and another still
b. tier at Colon, ard if these men would
preach as the Negro Baptist preachers have
preached in America, and aroused the people,
there would be baptizing by the hundreds
every Lords day, and the many thousands
of Children roaming upon the streets would
be carried into the Sunday schools; these peo-
pie would not only be awakened to Christi
anity, but awakened to heartfelt religion
and be brought to understand the gospel as
the Negroes of the United States now under
stand it. We returned to the pastors and
were soon in bed.
Sunday morning, February 10, we arose,
took another shower bath, had a cup of
cocoa and toast and rushed to the depot to
catch the train for Pedro Miguel Arriv-
ing at Pedro Miguel at 9 80 in the morning,
we went straight to the First National
Baptist Church, of Pedro Miguel Deacon
Solomon Mason, Of the First Baptist
Church of Panama City, and some other
brethren accompanied u.s. Deacon Mason,
by the way, is now a carpenter and farm
er, having a banana and sugar-cane farm
out in the country, where he is making his
mark. AS carpenter and contractor he
built both the chapel and the cottage in
Panama City, Having been informed that
the bell had arrived at Pedro Miguel he
went down to examine the building for the
purpose of making bid on hanging the
bell and putting up the belfry Though it
was Sunday, we unpacked the bell and set
it up temporarily and began to ring it.
This created some excitement in Pedro
Miguel, and the people ran out to see what
had happened. Mrs Pinnock, the wife of
Prof j. ]. Pinnock, who had been occupy
H.