Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1889 — A SMASH AT PANAMA. [ARTICLE]

A SMASH AT PANAMA.

The unfortunate consequences of the Panama canal smash are becoming more marked every day, says a dispatch, and the deplorable condition of affairs has but one outlet, and that by emigration. The commissioner sent by the Jamaican government has already sent away 4,000 people, and he has issued 3,000 tickets more, and these will leave by earliest steamers. The people are congregated at the different depots with their tickets in their hands, but without food, and almost without shelter, and a tropical wet season is in its full energy. After all the distressed foreigners shall have been removed, there will still be much suffering and want here—suffering and want of a character which cannot be even ameliorated until the resumption of work in January next shall have put money in circulation and inspired confidence. In Colon prices havs fallen lower than anywhere else on the Isthmus. Many houses are without tenants. A store for which S2OO per month could readily have been obtained h few months ago is offered at S3O and "no takers.” To illustrate the awful poverty reigning here, a clergyman of Colon says that on Sunday last the collection of a congregation of 300 persons was less than $3. The canal company sold in this city on May 13 a cable transfer on Paris for $20,000 at the rate of 53i per cent, premium. This fact furnishes at least a quotation for exchange. When the City of Para leaves Colon there will be no steamer in that port, a circumstance almost unparalleled in the history of the port since it was first visited by steamers and became known by the name of Aspinwall. Samuel W. Pearce, a member of the Board of Trade, died in Providence, R. ! 1., recently. At the time President Lincoln was assassinated Mr. Pearce and his sister were en route from Providence to Newbern, N. C. The news of the tragedy was fl islited along the wires.and a full description of J. Wilkes Booth and Mrs. Surratt sent out. All of the trains running south were carefully inspected, and the officers boarded Mr. Pekrce’s train. As chance would have it, the two travelers boro a striking reserfiblance to Booth and Mrs. Surratt, and despite their protests they weie placed under arrest. That night an attempt was was made to shoot the supposed assassins, and the plan of taking them out and shooting them was disenssed by the officers. Good counsel prevailed, and the protests of the alleged Booth were listened to, and fce two travelers were released.