THE EBONY SHRINE. (Vagabond Adventure Series, no. 11)

[Music] l [Music] Vagabond Adventure pictures present Mr Tom terce who on account of his wanderings in foreign lands producing Motion Pictures has gained for himself the name of the Vagabond director and today our Vagabond will take you to Central [Music] America well here we are in Guatemala with its ancient Cathedrals palaces and all world memories and here the great slumbering volcano Del fuo always threatening always menacing at its feet reminders of a day when the soldiers of ctis swept the land when the natives were amazed to see For the First Time The Horses of the Spaniards and when Royal palaces raised their proud heads everywhere along these now empty highways swept men in armor with sword and Lance and visor Spaniards in cloth of gold Indians in feathers and jewels the loveliest churches were here with numerous columns and exquisite carvings and beautifully molded figures of saints and martyrs presco walles designed by many of Spain's greatest artists but even now ruined as they are by volcanoes their former Splendor can never be effaced and amidst lovely fields of flowers other Noble Cathedrals have since been born here once lived dumb people Alvarado a leftenant of ctis who conquered Guatemala and started building these beautiful palaces but the WTH of the volcano destroyed everything including his lovely wife who was known as beatric the hapless when the mighty earthquake occurred this beautiful Church suffered with the rest gone are the precious altars perfumed incense hor resonant cords of the organ melodious voices the only sound now the horse croak of the vultures the flapping of their ugly Wings passing these old Cloister I reached a church that was once the greatest in all America the Most Holy Cathedral of San Francisco a church so wonderful that to this day it is woried in Reverend adoration a church as beautiful as any that the world has ever seen interested I followed this native and into the church and there i gaze saddened at its vast emptiness its vacant windows its great vaulted Dome and its exquisitely carved ceilings here the native told me of yet another Noble church that of esip pulus place to where he was bound and in which he said was to be found the black Christ the black Christ it was a story that interested me intensely and I resolved to follow him and see it so it didn't take me long to reach the town and its interesting marketplace where unlike the great chain stares of today here each vendor has only one kind of goods such as limes mangoes or sapodillas this is the gate to the market where all V entering must pay dues many of them carry tremendous packs weighing over £100 here's one now carrying a load of tortilla plates and all born you will notice not by the the chest but by a leather band bearing down hard across the forehead one of the few people in the world who carry a load in this manner most of the girls around here are extremely attractive the prettiest of smiles many of them carrying on the heads a heavy Square shaped piece of cloth a most peculiar Fair a sort of combination a sun shade for the eyes a pad on which to carry their baskets and last but not least I discovered a hat here has a typical Guatemalan family a mixture of Mayan and spaniel quite proud of their Spanish ancestry watch the bright expression on This Woman's face a very intelligent people in fact even in the eyes of the young you can note the heritage of a high order of past civilization on my way I ran into these interesting women with the most exceptional headgear of all and discovered that they were made of some kind of stocking yarn there are hundreds of yards of yarn in just one of these turbin I couldn't help thinking what a good time a kitten would have if one of them began to unravel these women are all social leaders of importance and well to do that is uh well according to their ideas later I bumped into what you might call a community Fountain it's made in sections one is a laundry one a local soda fountain and the other well your dog or mule can drink from and as I walked along I heard the sound of bells which were summoning the pilgrims who had traveled to worship at the feet of the black Christ these bells originally came from Spain 200 years ago probably called hundreds of thousands of other buildings in the distance I saw the great Cathedral of esus which housed the holy image a place of Miracles where the sikah and the lame becomes strong again the streets are full of little boobs around here setting all manner of cooked foods and all sorts of curios relics rosaries some heavy but mostly fragile and curious reads of Spanish moss and yellow Goods which every Pilgrim buys placing them around their heads then afterwards buying themselves candles of brilliant colors for votive purposes most of them bring along everything they own so that they too and all their possessions may be blessed for instance this devout old lady of over 80 years had actually walked a 100 miles on her pilgrimage and had done it for 40 years among her things she she never forgets her old mantilla of lace which she only wears on occasions such as this the old and the young strong and the weak well to do on his fat mule po a man walking with his pack here's one of them now a real May cheer his soul isn't he with the others yet of the church a continuous crowd surging up the worn Stone steps and I caught some of the fervent Spirit they vibrated even this though did not prepare me for the amazing wave of Faith which greeted me as I stepped from the hot Sunshine into the cool somber reverence of the Cathedral first things I noticed were the discarded crutches of those who were healed the crude drawings made by others as their humble offering of thanks the Ragged pieces of garment torn from their clothes given with prayers of gratitude and devotion I gazed upon the humble devotees their eyes Ablaze and full of adoration the whole of the vast Nave was filled with thousands of leaning natives like these each with lighted candle in hand a sea of brown faces a field of stars and from somewhere came the tones of an old organ rolling out devotional chants with the tears streaming down their faces the pilgrims prayed to edolas as they called him to him who brought life color and joy into their drab lives loving with all the faith of their primitive Souls the most holy the black Christ hanging upon a golden cross silver altars the gorgeous vestments of the priests clouds of incense rising from Golden chales and through the perfume smoke had Sea of Faces those twinkling stars as I watched this little pathetic figure in Black caught my eye was she praying for some lost Lov one or the consolation she knew would come one little cat offered in memory and upon the floor another for what perhaps to call a blessing upon the little wooden crutch that that too might become a memory that she might once more become the perfect image that God had intended her to be so I left leaving the town my thoughts wandered to that little figure in Black again I couldn't help but think of those words God heard the he hath not forgot faith shall at length Prevail yay know it not one smallest jut of all his word can fail but if ye truly have believed not vain hath been th prayer as God is true thy hope shall come sometime some way somewhere go