PANAMA THE ISTHMUS THE CANAL THE CHURCH BY THE RT. REV. EDWARD W. OSBORNE, D.D., Bishop of Springfield THE BROAPWAY OF COLON PANAMA THE ISTHMUS: THE CANAL; THE CHURCH BY THE RIGHT REVEREND EDWARD W. OSBORNE, D.D., BISHOP OF SPRINGFIELD The photographs were supplied by A rchdeacon Bryan , largely through the courtesy of the Isthmian Canal Commission While on his way to the West Indies in February, Bishop Osborne spent a few days in Panama. His account of his observations and experiences, writ- ten for the people of his own diocese, has, with his kind permission, been slightly rearranged and shortened, and is now shared with the readers of The Spirit of Missions. — [The Editor.] 1. SOME SIGHTS ON THE ISTHMUS From Broadway to Old Spain T he varied population [in Colon] was very interesting. Many Americans and some English wallcing about, but by far the greater part of the people from pale Spanish yellow to deep West Indian blacks. Of course there were no shop windows, but open stores, the best being kept by Chinese merchants who have had the principal trade of the Isthmus for years. They seem to be thoroughly re- spected. The contrast between the two towns. Colon, the old Spanish one, with narrow streets and foreign houses, dirty half- dressed people of all sorts, and Christo- bal, the new American town, with broad roads, large bird-cage houses and rows of palms, is very great. The same con- trast strikes one at Panama between the old town of that name and the new An- con, just outside. It is curious that while the whole Canal Zone, forty-seven miles long and ten wide, belongs to the United States, these two small cities at either end have been reserved by the Republic of Panama. To step from Broadway or Fifth Avenue into the heart of Old Spain is a very new experience. Bird-Cage Houses The Isthmian Canal Commission Hos- pital, at Colon, of which the Rev. E. J. Cooper, a Church clergyman, is chap- lain; a collection of buildings, some of which are on piles over the sea, and all of which are carefully screened to keep out the mosquitoes, giving to them, as to the houses, the effects of great bird cages — • an impression one never loses. Everyone lives in a bird cage from end to end of the Isthmus. Hotels, private houses and quarters for workmen all are alike, so that there is a vague, dreamy, unsubstantial look about them, as if they might rise and float away. And yet the effect is very pretty as they lie on the hillsides, often half hidden by palms and tropical plants. The Zone from a Car Window The railroad journey [from Colon to Panama] gave me my first idea of the greatness of the work of the canal. The massive mounds of earth, the many rail- road lines at Gatun, the new town with its bright looking houses and other large buildings, made a quite new impression. I had not expected anything so well laid out, so clean, so civilized, and so full of life and streng’th. So modern too, for the people who got out at the station might have been at any American town. Ladles w'ell dressed with children, girls with parcels, pictures or rolls of music, small boys running about, a few men, all alert, talking, laughing; the fringe of dark people and the background of red < H K Q e D o c > < - H § « a Eh 1-4 £h o J P Z < P P H to 5 “ H P « ffi O O fe s o H H « K P fc C ” H to Oh hills with the light looking houses dotted over them, all gave the impression of something like the arrival of an after- noon train at an American summer re- sort not far from some large town, whither the people went for shopping. Certainly all this on the Isthmus of Panama was unexpected, but one felt the ATLANTIC OCEAN PACIFIC OCEAN T H E C A N A L Z o N E American is at home here under this glorious sky, and has come to stay. As we went along we saw many other new things. Here a village of native Panamanians, built of rushes and bamboos, a few women and children in light costumes looking carelessly at us; there a mass of trees flaming in color reminding one of the wonderful “Flame of the Forest” that lights up the woods in Burmah; there again acres of purple morning glories, here a square mile of bananas, and every- where many varieties of palms and giant bamboos. Plere, too, the troublesome Chagres river, so winding and so beautiful be- tween its green banks, and yet so tough a problem to those same engineers. It will be drowned, problem and all, in this wonderful lake. Only the official map can give an idea of what that will be. Before our journey was half finished the darkness came down and I had time to notice the people in the car. The car itself was light and cool. ISTo velvet furnishings, all wood and rattan, the seats wide enough for comfort. Some of the passengers, like ourselves, are white, but by far the larger number are of Spanish color, feature and language. There are cars of different classes and some are crowded with West Indian peo- ple of varying shades of blackness with a small sprinkling of Hindoos. But there is no dulness anywhere. Every face is bright and eyes are keen and animated. All is life and movement. All through my five days this has impressed me. No tropical slowness here, but a great body of energetic, forceful men working vigorously in carrying out their great purpose. Every train is full, every rail- road platform with waiting numbers; at some stations like Culebra on Sunday afternoon the crowd runs into hundreds. Another Hospital The Canal Commission Hospital at Ancon is one of the largest and certain- ly the most beautiful in the world. Spread out on the side of Ancon Hill, surrounded with cocoanut palms and other tropical trees, with a glorious view of the bay before it, it has 800 beds in thirty-four wards. Each ward is a separate building and there are many others for administration, nurses, etc. Of the multitude of nurses, 125 are American graduates. It was new to see BUSY STREET IN PANAMA CITY the brake going round to bring the nurses from the scattered wards to the dining- room for meals, or taking them to their wards when the time came for going on duty. A very high grade of nurses they appeared to be. This great hospital was built by the French — ^another surprise for me. A Strange Sight in Panama City A two hours’ drive showed me the principal sights of old Panama. Here all the streets are narrow, the people more varied than at Colon and the sound of Spanish is everywhere. Some of the Roman churches are large, and there is a certain prettiness inside, but no real beauty or dignity, for all is artificial, paper and silver gilt in flowers and decorations, with very few good pictures. The square is pretty, but it was quite new to see over the entrance to a large building the word “Lotteria” with many people offering lottery tickets for sale, and then to be told that this is the house of the bishop, that he lives over the lottery offices and the Roman Church profits $10,000 a year by the lot- tery. The prizes are drawn on Sunday after High Mass, the square being filled with ticket holders who have come out from the opposite cathedral. A Canal Zone Clnh The University Club [in Panama], formerly an old Spanish house, is now the home of graduates from al- most every American University. Con- trasts make things seem unreal, and certainly it was none of the least to step out of noisy Spanish streets into this large, cool room with a hundred American papers on the tables and the walls decorated with the familiar pen- nants of Illinois, Harvard, Yale, Cornell and nearly fifty others. II. THE CANAL AND THE MEN WHO ARE CUTTING TWO CONTINENTS APART A Day Along the Line Six o’clock breakfast, and by half past seven we were at Culebra at the house of Major Gaillard, where a second light breakfast awaited us. Colonel Gorgas, the chief of all the sanitary work and the foe of the mosquito, most kindly went with us. Major Gaillard had his auto-car ready for us. With him and Colonel Gorgas we were indeed in royal company, and no one had ever a better opportunity of see- ing and understanding the great canal and what it involves. We went from one end of the great cut to the other, having everything worthy of note pointed out to us with wonderful clearness and infinite pains. The respect our engineers show for the Frenchmen is very marked. They say that their work was thorough, their plans and drawings and measurements perfect- ly accurate and capable of use to-day. They express the greatest sympathy for those men who through no fault of their own were compelled to stop a work begun so well. Their attitude toward the French gave me an increased respect for themselves. Big Men and a Big Tash Their own attitude toward the work struck me as the quiet confidence of men who have tested and know their strength. “We can finish this work if the money is only given.” In how long a time? “Over six years and less than eight.” And at what expense? “At less than the present estimate of $300,000,000. It will not cost that unless something now unforeseen occurs.” The calm, quiet way in which Major Gaillard described two great works was really amusing. When he showed us the great landslide which overwhelmed the whole width of the cut at one point, he spoke so simply of how it happened and how it was removed and the measures ta- ken to prevent a recurrence, that the tremendous work seemed just like a small, every-day occurrence. So, too, when I asked what a certain work was for. “Oh, that is the new bed we are making for the Eiver Obispo. It interferes with the canal, so we are cutting it a new channel.” “And how large is the river?” “Well there’s not much water now, but when full it is about the size of the Po- tomac at Washington. Anywhere else it would be a big work, but not here. It will cost about a million of dollars though.” Such a simple thing to do it seemed, and not a word of boasting. The steam shovels are a marvel. Two tons at a mouthful picked up and placed on a car, and a fresh mouthful every six- teen seconds! Over a million cubic yards of earth moved last month ! The Sanitary Engineers Colonel Gorgas pointed out the sani- tary work and where the real dangers lie. Someone told me that of the 35,000 men on the work, 2,000 are employed in keep- ing all clean for health’s sake. . . . There is no fever at Culebra, no, nor in all the Zone! Xor a mosquito either! Deadly war has been waged against mos- quitos, their homes, favorite resorts and breeding places, and now truly the Canal Zone might almost be a health resort. It is doubted if the French could have fin- ished the canal for want of knowledge of sanitation — the dead they buried are in thousands beyond counting; but if we fin- ish it — and we shall — the honor to the medical members of the Canal Commis- sion will be as great as that of the en- gineers. America"’ s Best Men What men one sees here at work ! Tall, well set-up, open-faced, bronzed by the sun, and yet so clean and healthy looking, keen in look and vigorous in every movement, an exhibition of the best type of young American manhood, such as you might see at Yale, Cornell or Harvard. Not all young, but older strong-faced men also. Such a repre- sentation of the American nation must make a wonderful impression on the people of this Isthmus. . . . The United States has sent of its best to build the Panama Canal. I cannot be too grateful to Colonel Gorgas and Major Gaillard for their courtesy and kindness, and for showing me what manner of men our army en- gineers and officers are. Rarely have I spent so good a morning and learned so much in so short a time. The sight of that great Culebra cut will remain with me, and when I think that it is yet to go 125 feet deeper, I wish I may be there to see it when finished. Finished it surely will be. It is im- possible for one who has seen and heard, as I have, to believe that the nation could refuse to finish, and could stop such a work for want of money. The same thought came to me when I saw the towns built up throughout the Zone; no tents for a night, but buildings meant to stay. Christobal, Gatun, Gor- gona, Empire, will all be as familiar names in the future as Panama and Culebra are now. THE CHAPEL IN THE ANCON HOSPITAL WHERE CHURCH SERVICES ARE BEING HELD UNTIL A BETTER BUILDING CAN BE SECURED III. THE CHETRCH AT WORK IN THE ZONE mun and the every-colored Spaniard with a quiet Sikh from far-off Punjab watching them. The chapel here is erected by the canal commissioners for the use of the Church. There are a number of these in the Canal Zone, some used by the Church only, others used in turn by various religious bodies who have representatives here. In all these places the work is under An American Town and a Spanish Village Gorgona is one of the new American towns almost surrounding the old Span- ish village, and given up to machine shops and works for the canal. Bird- cage houses and mud huts jostle one an- other and the alert American strides by the black West Indian, the yellow China- ‘THE STEAM SHOVELS ARE A MARVEL. TWO TONS AT A MOUTHFUL, AND A FRESH MOUTHFUL EVERY SIXTEEN SECONDS !” the care of catechists who came from the English Church in Jamaica or Barbados and are now working under Archdeacon Bryan. There has been some little feel- ing among the people from the British West India Islands about their transfer to the care of the Ameiucan Church, the want of knowledge of our Church with its unlucky name being the cause. The coming of myself has been in one way better as the first visitor of the American bishops than that of almost any other bishop could have been. To see me, an Englishman by birth, a deacon and priest of the English Church, and a bishop of the American Church, one who has ministered in Eng- land, America, India and Africa, from which countries many derive their an- cestry, was a great object lesson of the j actual unity of the Catholic Church, however cosmopolitan its units might be. ® The archdeacon and the people alike wel- corned my words on this. § We had a good congregation with p sweet singing, many Spanish and Indian people looking in at the wide-open win- o dow places. Nineteen were confirmed, § six being young girls and the rest men <5 and women, about an equal number of « each. a a “ From Illinois to Panama for Confirmation In the Ancon Hospital a large room is fitted up as a chapel, and here I cele- brated the Holy Communion at 7 a.m. Sunday. At 10 A.M. I confirmed six, four being American ladies, with one boy and one girl. A gentleman was prevented from coming by an emergency call on canal work. Among those confirmed was a lady from near Joliet, 111., who was obliged to come away with her husband just before the bishop’s visit at her home. The congregation filled the room, doctors, nurses, judges, lawyers, army en- gineers, clerks and ladies, representatives of all the official and American society being present. After the confirmation and sermon there was a celebration, with about twenty-five communicants. At Culebra many met us at the station. At the service the crowd could not be counted. The chapel on the hillside stood on a platform, this and the chapel being packed so tight that entrance was difficult. Surely the hymns could be heard miles away. Hot as it was, all listened eagerly to the sermon and watched intently the confirmation. Six- teen men and fourteen women knelt for the gift. By some mistake some candi- dates from Bas Obispo (Low Bishop) did not come. A Cmwded Service The evening service at St. Paul’s, Panama, cannot well be described, nor could it be photographed. Probably there Avere less than a thousand at it, but they looked more. The big church was solid, the choir squeezing in one by one, the mass opening to let each one in and clos- ing at once behind him. The utmost re- spect for the “Lord Bishop” — ^and their ro- spect is very great — tcould only secure him ten inches of gangway to reach his chair. WindoAvs, doors, churchyard, street, the shining earnest faces above the Avhite gar- ments and black coats made a billowy sea, and a sea that at boiling heat was hushed to perfect stillness to hear the message brought by the bishop from America. I shall not forget the sight. TAventy-tAvo Avere confirmed. It Avas im- possible to take the throngs by the hand. but I Avas glad to find in the congrega- tion a brother of David Jonathan Lee, a candidate for Holy Orders in my dio- cese. The wife and daughter were there also. A short train ride on Monday brought us to Bas Obispo, where on a hillside we found a neat little church surrounded by tropical trees, with a congregation of thirty aAvaiting us with the four who had missed their confirmation on Sunday. A Pressing Need I hope Archdeacon Bryan may find someone to help him, some of the altar societies in great city churches perhaps. All these chapels are very poorly provided with everything for use at the altar. Vessels, furniture, linen, hangings, even altars, all are wanting. Evening found us at Colon for my last service in the beautiful Christ Church, far finer than any in the Diocese of Springfield. Here was perhaps the most beautiful service of all. A full church, a reverent service, some thirty-five to be confirmed, of whom one was a Chinaman, an air of earnestness and devotion over all making a spirit that could be felt. I thank God for all I have heard and seen in the last five days. The American Church has now an op- portunity in this Zone to take up the work the English Church has well begun and establish herself as the Church of the Panama Canal Zone. leaflet may be obtained from the Corresponding Secretary, Fourth Avenue, New York, by calling for LEAFLET No. 1700 ^ All offerings for Missions should be sent to Mr. George C. Thomas, Treasurer, Church Missions House, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York. ^ o ^ The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York. 0000000 First Edition. May, 1908. 2M. SP.