CALCUTTA, CITY OF PALACES AND HOVELS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10540, 23 August 1910, Page 6

CALCUTTA, CITY OF PALACES AND HOVELS.

(By Frank G. Carpenter.)

Calcutta.—l am in Calcutta the eastern gateway of the Empire of India, and the front doorstep of the home of one-fifth of mankind. It is a turbulent fifth and is likely to stir up the, world, The' British have kept tins country dead quiet for the last fifty, years. * They have enclosed it in a network of railroads, watered its deserts with irrigating canals, lowered its taxes and made two - blades of grass grow where one grew before. They have brought order out of chaos and peace out of discord. They have begun to make men of those who, when they : took hold of the country a few generations 1 , ago, were but little better than beasts. They have given them schools and stirred them up.to think and plan for themselves, and now the Indians are ready to bite the hands that have helped them. This is one phase of the great-unrest which I have come to describe. Do you know w-hat India is ? The country appals : me, it is so big, so varied, " and withal so strange. If you could lift Hindustan up and lay it upon North America, with one end on it would reach as far east as Montreal and its lower apex would be wedged into the Panama canal. From, north to south India is as long as from the middle of Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, and from east to west it measures 2500 miles.

The land is'one of extremes. The Himalayas on the north are covered' with perpetual snows, and the icy w.ast.es about Mount Everest are colder than the frozen chambers of the Buddhist hell. The plains below lie in" the tropics, and-they are sometimes as hot. as the burning deserts of Australia, where Mark Twain says they feed the hens ice to keep them , from laying boiled eggs. ' India is the wettest land upon earth and the driest. It has provinces, such as Bikaacr, where it pours all the time. There are localities in the Himalaya j "where six feet of water have been known to fall in. the space of twelve months. The country is one of great deserts and mighty rivers, of soils which have been cultivated since the dawn of-his-tory and of wastes which the plough of man has never turned. Physically speaking, it is a world. " It is also a world from the standpoint of humanity. It is one of the most crowded parts of the globe. It

has three, times-as many people'as the United States and farming localities where there arc more than one man to the acre. ; Altogether, India has more towns and villages than-there-are-'people in Boston, Baltimore or St. Louis, and it has cities of large size, the names of which we hardly know. The greater Calcutta, .including the suburbs and nearby towns is as large as greater Chicago. Bombay is bigger than Boston, and Madras equals Cleveland in size. The population is rapidly growing. It has increased 50,000,000 within the past thirty years, and is now 300,000.000 all told. • India is not like China, in that it is l made up of one race of the same color and features, with the same language, religion and customs. It is composed of a score of nationalities and of so many religious and castes that they can hardly be numbered. There are tribes here which look like our American Indians, others which' resemble Chinese, scattering places where the people have blue eyes and brown hair, and manv localities where their skins are as black as a negro's. There are more races in Hindustan' than on Jie continent of Europe, and as to tongues there are something like 700 : different dialects and languages spoken by millions which are not understood by the others. As to religions, India has -more strange gods than any continent upon earth. There is no place where the faith of the people so varies and none where man's belief means more to himself and his family. The religions are so strange that a book as big as a fourdollar Bible might be written about them and not tell it all. India has 200,000,000 Hindoos divided up into castes, manv of which number millions. It has more Mohammedans than the Sultan of Turkey has subjects, and about 9,000,000 Buddhists. In'addition to this there are several million Sikhs, more than a million Jains, and in the neighborhood of 100.000 Parsees, who believe in the faith of Zoroaster worshipping fire. There are among the aborigines of the backwoods nature worshippers known , as Animists. to the number of 8,000,000 and more; thev believe in spirits and witchcraft and' other bloody sacrifices to-their devil-like gods. There are also IS.OOO Jews and "3,000,000 Christians of various sects. It surprises me lO find so manv Christians in India. They are mostly 'Koman Catholics and Nestorians, although' there are Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and other branches of the "Protestant i'aich. I see: that Bishop Thoburn says -that there are now about a million of native Protestant Christians and that the Christian population has increased 640,000 in the space of ten years. Our missionaries are alive and they are doing great good. • •■ - • Calcutta is one of the chief seats ot the unrest. I do not wonder at it. There is no place where the difference of conditions is more pronounced. These Hindoos are among the poorest, people on earth. Among them are millions who always go to bed hungry, and in the slums are people who count their bites to see whether they will have enough for the morning. At the same time Calcutta has its fashionable residence quarters, the homes of the British, where money flows like the Ganges and fortunes are spent in one season. I wish I could show- you the better parts of Calcutta. It is a city of palaces, with .immense parks and wide open spaces. It' covers about as. much ground as Chicago in proportion to its size, running alorfg the Hooghly with the great suburb on the opposite bani:. The citv has lakes and lawns, botanical and zoological gardens; and a public park known as the Maidan, which runs through the fashionable quarter. At the beginning of this is the palace of the Viceroy, a mansion as snowy as newly slacked lime, and several miles beyond it, at the opposite end, is the big house of the lieutenant-general of Bengal. Both are surrounded by beautiful grounds and the latter has a banyan tree surpassed only by that : n the zoological park of which, perhaps, you have heard. : V The Maidan is bordered with club r houses ■ and mansions.' The mosD" fashionable homes of Calcutta look out upon it and it forms the social heart of the, city. -'-T.t has a.race track w-itha two-mile course in which now and then polo matches are played, and also tennis courts and grounds for cricket and golf. The band always plays there, of an .evening and the people .cpirie l forth and drive about in handsome turnouts. The Viceroy and Lady Minto-' ; may sometimes be seen in their carriages with their retinue and with native soldiers as outriders. There are other officials and also rajahs with coachmen and footmen in livery. There are Europeans, Parsees and many Eurasians. Everyone rides in his carriage and every, carriage, has its liveried- coachmenl and footmen. The coachman is usually a bearded anan with turban and gow-n; he is always barefooted.;. The footman either stands on the.step behind the carriage or squats down there and holds en. The latter ' position - is precarious, and I of ten wonder-. why the man is not jolted put iir going over a gutter or rut in the road; ■ In addition to such turnouts 1 , there ,are many automobiles. There are eight hundred in the city and the 1 most I have seen are touring cars which at home would cost several thousand dollars apiece and which go like the w:ind. Do you wonder that the hungry Hindoo whose lean shanks have to fly to get put of the way is mad' when he contrasts his condition with-that of the man-in. the car? ,' ' ■ , He feels the same when he compares his hovel to mansions on the Maidan and the big government buildings of the British officials. The maiir sion where Lord Minto holds forth 's of about the same age as the. White House at Washington., It is far .more magnificent and its' surroundings have ten times the style. West of it. is the Town Hall, a Doric building which wasfinished under the-instructions of'this: Viceroy's- grandfather in 1813, and near that the 'magnificent buildings of the i hin-h' courts which compare in size with | those of our government departments

at Washington. Another fine structure is the Post Office, which faces the lake in Dalhonsie' Square. I went through it to-day, and as I came out I stopped at the corner and read on a tablet the following: The marble pavement below this spot was placed here by

Lord Curzon, ; Viceroy and GovernorGeneral of, India, m.1901, To mark the site of the'prison in Old Fort "William', known-as the .*-.:. Black Hole, •'■•. In which 146 British ,'.-inhabitants of ■- Calcutta -were confined on the. night of the 26ili .of' June, 1776, • ':'' aricl from which'only 23 '■:..-•■■', .came out alive. •'■■■..

The pavement marks the exacs dimensions of the prison and near is an obelisk erected by the survivors. The Black Hole is a monument of one of the most terrible tragedies of* the unrest of India 150 years ago. The nabob, or native ruler, ordered the incarceration of these victims and then drank .himself off to sleep. The ■ 146 British who were thrown in . were largely officials. They were driven at the point of the sword into a dungeon twenty feet square. It was in the heat of the tropical summer, and the airholes were small. In a short time they gasped for breath. Thoy cried for mercy and tried to break down the i door. Then they offered bribes to thejailors, but the'only answer was that the nabob was asleep and he would be angry if awakened. The dying then fought for places at, the windows and. raved and 'prayer! and ' swore, while, their jailors held lights at the bars J and laughed. When the-day broke the' nabob having slept off lus spell, ordered the door to be opened. Of the "146 all but 23 were dead, and the living wore so far gone that they were barely able to stagger from the cliarnel house. To-day that tragedy is remembered with horror. And still how closely the sublime tramples upon the heels of the ridiculous ! Onlv last week a traveller was talking with the Viceroy about the sights of Calcutta, when his Excellency asked him if he had seen the famous Black Hole. "Indeed I have," replied the visitor. "I am living in it. It was room 105 at the Grand Hotel. I can sympathise with that visitor, for I live in the same hotel. It is said to be the best in town, but it has numerous black holes. Just now it is crowded, and it is almost impossible to get rooms. An American admiral who came here last week failed to do so, and had to go to a cheap boardinghouse, where, he is now living. I got in onlv by cabling in advance, from Burma]]. ' There several big hotels in Calcutta. They are rambling threestorev buildings, which cover acres, and have'all sorts of inconveniences. My room, for instance, is locked with a padlock which snaps with a spring. There is only one key to the padlock, and when I left this afternoon the key remained' inside the room.■: I could not get it until I reported to the manager, and the servants then had to climb up the walls and through the window to open the door. I have an electric bell, supposedly to call the hotel servants. I have rung it again and again, and one day 1 propped my umbrella against the button and left it there for an hour. I could hear the bell ringing, but there was no response. So in selfdefence I have had to hire a personal servant of my own to lie on the floor outside the door at night, and to wait upon me during the daytime. I an; paying him just 33 cents a day, and lie foods himself.

I hired-this servant two days after 1 landed in Calcutta. Indeed, I wa? forced to do so, not only on account of my need of him, but rather of his need' for me. The. moment our ship came to anchor in the harbor a of would-be servants rushed aboard and attached themselves to the passengers. Of these two settled upon me as their prey, and each determined to outdo the other. 1 supposed them servants of the Grand Hotel, and handed over my bag. As soon as 1 was settled each claimed that he had brought my baggage, and that this was an implied agreement to take him as nn boy. Both had sheaves of letters of introduction and each seemed equally good. One was a straight, dark-faced Hindoo of thirty and the other a turbaned Mohammedan of forty or so. The Hindoo's name was Nund Lai, and the follower of the prophet called himself Wall Mohammed. I took a day to decide, during which time each dogged my footsteps. 1 could not ask for anything, but both jumped to get it, and when I attempted to slip out to inquire about them I found both on guard ready to follow me. If 1 asked the hours of meals the two answered in concert, and if I wanted hot water the.y started on the dead run to get it. Indeed, I have been much in the same position as the man who was adopted by a dog, except that I was adopted b'v two dogs, and both stuck to me. I have settled the matter by paying Nund Lai a dollar, and by appointing Wall Mohammed my valet.

I came here from IJangoon on a British India steamer. The ship was one of 3000 tons, with English officers and Hindoo sailors and waiters. The cabin stewards were dark-faced, heavybearded men of forty, who wore black velvet caps, white gowns which reached to their knees and tight white cotton drawers below which their black bare feet showed. The dinner waiters wore white Bengalese hats with bands of blue ribbon, and their gowns were belted in at the waist with blue ropes as thick as my waist. It was hot all the way up the Bay of Bengal, and the air of the salon was kept cool by a punkah, a. long screen so hung from the ceiling that it could be drawn back and forth. A black Malay did the work, jerking the rope twelve pulls with one hand and then changing and making twelve pulls with the othev. The dishes were washed in a bucket on deck, the plates, being swabbed, off with a brush on the end of a stick, and wiped by a Malay as dirty as the Indian, who did the cooking. We were several days on the Bay of Bengal. The water was indigo until we reached the mouths of the Ganges. These extend for a hundred miles up and -down the coast and they vomit forth so much silt that it turns the ocean to gruel. I took a bath when we reached the pilot brig, about a hundred miles from Calcutta, and upon draining the tub my footprints were ss plain in the mud as those whicn frightened Robinson Crusoe on his desert island.

■ The silt of the Ganges is as great as that of the Nile. It is said to be five times as much as that of the Missis-sippi-Missouri, amounting to hundreds "of millions of tons every year. Tt builds, up great bars along the shore and makes the work of piloting the ships dangerous to an extreme. The pilots of Calcutta are a closo corporation. There are only fifty-two of thenir and they monopolise the Ganges, or; .'ratherj ■. the Hooghly, for it: is .oh--the Hooghly branch of the delta that the ships go up to the city. The trade of the river amounts to more than a hundred million dollars a year, and there is a procession of boats always going up and coming down. The men receive various wages, the bes,t getting as much as £l5O per month. To belong, to the association one must have a first mate's certificate and must have passed through his apprenticeship. He spends five years at low wages learning the river, and then graduates in the full rank of pilot. The Hooghly cannot be navigated at ihight and the ships go in with the ■tides. As the latter rise there'is often a bore which reaches as much as seven ■feet, so that the risks are great.

As we coasted the shores of the ;Hooghly we passed jungles infested with tigers. The land is low and malarious and wild beast roam in it at will. A little farther up the houses begin, and palm trees are frequent. The population grows more and more dense, and then comes a region of mighty jute mills. On each side of the stream tall smokestacks vomit black volumes into the skv and near them are enormous brick'structures where the rough bagging for all mankind is made. Calcutta ships vast quantities of jute to the United States, ; and much of our cotton crou is baled in cloth made here on the banks of the Hooghly. A few years ago we were taking more than 60 per cent, of the product and- to-day the thousands of Hindoos working this fibre are dependent upon us for their There arc now-two score jute mills in India and the jute annualsproduced is worth about £16,000,000 There are cotton factories here and there betwee.i the jute weaving estab-

lishments and mills of this kind lino the Hooghly all tlie way to Calcutta. -The. stream is filled with shipped-. Ocean steamers heavily loaded are going in and out with the tide. llio trade of Calcutta is worth hundreds ol millions, and a large part of the commerce of the empire passes this way. Its total foreign trade is the greatest of any country of Asia, the imports and .exßorts now amounting to moie than ' : £240,00D,000 and growing "more every year.