A XIXth CENTURY PARADISE.

Observer, Volume 1, Issue 23, 19 February 1881, Page 232

A XlXth CENTURY PARADISE.

ADAM AND EVE REDIVIVUS — THEY GROW UP ALONE— THE DOCTOR'S EXPERIMENTS—WITHDRAWAL OF THE NURSE — THE SORROW OF THE CHILDREN.

I left off last issue at the point where the two unfortunate infants jocularly named Adam and Eve were, together with a mute woman as nurse, let down into the Indian Rajah's Garden of Eden or XlXth Century Paradise. The first years of their life seem to have been uneventful enough. They were not however altogether happy. Dr. Oehl sublayer had a theory of his own "about the formation of language and it proved a most unpleasant one for the children "Pain, alarm and terror," he wrote, "are the main sources from which words are formed. There never was a greater fallacy than to say a man was 'struck speechless through fear. Pleasurable emotions cause us to inhale breath. The sight or smell of anything pleasing to the eye or palate, or the gratification of our senses in any way, whether by touch, as with a kiss, by taste of delicious food, by rest after violent exercise, or by change from excessive heat to a temperate coolness, does not naturally lead to words. With pain, however, it is different. No one can naturally suffer in silence. Just as we inhale the breath when we are pleased, so we exhale it when pained. And according to the intensity of the pain we suffer is the force with which we send forth our breath. This is a fact that must have been noticed by all. Pinch a man, and lie gives a gasp ; prick him deeply with a pin and he howls; but pull a tooth from him, or drag out a finger nail by the roots, and he gives vent to the intensity of his anguish by screams of agony. Dr. Oehlschlager was so honestly and heartily convinced of the virtue to be derived from bodily pain that he did not hesitate to subject his young victims from their earliest infancy to tortures — both bodily and mental— which one shudders to read of, but which he details with pride. One favorite "amusement" of his, when visitors came to Ajmeer was to turn on an electric battery, the wires of which ran tli rough the sleeping chamber of the children. The nurse had received instructions that at a given signal she was to complete the electric circuit, so as to include both children, and the doctor himself regulated the force of the shock according to the pain he wished his victims to endure. "The first unmistakably articulate sound they uttered was produced by this means. While writhing under the effects of a strong dose of the electric fluid, I noticed that the boy pressed his upper teeth on his under lip while continuing to exhale* breath with much violence, so as to form a sound much resembling a prolonged F. Upon this I turned on as much force as 1 thought could be be used consistently with safety, and then suddenly interrupted the circuit. The effect was remarkable. The half-formed sound was completed, and the word "Fud" came distinctly from his lips. The girl instantly took the word up, and they repeated it many times over, clinging the while to their foster mother, to whom they now appeared to address it^ From that hour Fud Avas a word they never forgot, and as they applied it to their foster mother it was the one they most frequently used. In May, 1557, the foster mother was removed. The details of this terrible bereavement to the poor little children are very pathetic, even as given in the matter-of-fact diary of their gaoler. Unobserved by the little ones the husband of the mute had managed to telegraph on his hands to her during the day from the top of the wall that she was to be ready to leave her confinement as soon as the children Avero asleep. There was little difficulty experienced in effecting the removal. The woman's luggage was nil. No sooner was the ladder of ropes let down into the garden than she seized hold of it, and quickly climbed to the top of the wall, where she was received by her husband with extravagant demonstrations of delight. From this moment the lame potter's mute wife vanishes from the pages of the doctor's narrative. She had served her purpose, and was allowed to return without compensation or reward back to the humble home from which she had been so cruelly torn. It was a red letter day no doubt in this poor creature's existence when she was restored to liberty, but one to be for ever marked in black by the unfortunate infants left behind in the enclosure. Dr. Oehlschlager was particularly active in his watch on the following morning and noted more fully than our space will .allow us to follow, the demeanor of the children on discovering their bereavement. " They searched without a moment's cessation all day long. At intervals they stopped and cried violently, throwing themselves into each others' arms and kissing in the most affectionate manner. I am satisfied that they learned the kissing fiom the nurse, as I have frequently seen her engaged with them in the act of osculation, and therefore the question as to whether this singular habit — to which the whole human race is more or less addicted — comes naturally, or is only the result of custom and imitation, cannot be said to be set at rest by this experiment, successful though it may have been in other respects. They did not give themselves time to finish the food which had been placed in the usual place, but ran wildly about, uttering unceasing cries of ' Fud ! fud ! fud !' one of the few articulate sounds which at this time they were able to utter. They searched all day long behind every bush and tree in the garden, and as evening Avas falling — the time at which they always went to sleep — they seemed just as certain they would be successful as when they commenced to look for her in the morning. When they at last went to rest they sobbed themselves to sleep in each other's arms ; and even after they went to sleep they avoulcl occasionally murmur in their dreams the word they were both so full of— 'Fud ! fud !' " On the folloAA-ing morning, and for many days afterAvards, the Avretched little orphans kept up this unavailing search ; but in the end they gradually reconciled themselves to the inevitable, and fell into their old Avays of play and childish amusement. But they never

■forgot their old nurse. Dr. Oehlschlager in his diary gives us a hundred instances, all going to show the affectionate remembrance, in which this "Fuel" was held, and the mere fact of their limited vocabulary having at the time of their release no less than 32 words, all of which could be directly traced back to this root, is sufficient to mark the undying love with which they remembered their vanished mother. With the departure of the mute woman the doctor gave up on the score of inconvenience the electric battery as one of his regular methods of torture, but whenever the children, after retiring to rest, accidentally completed a circuit, he did not fail to take advantage of the opportunity, and some of what he calls his "linest ■effects" were thus produced. But he had a most fertile imagination with regard to producing pain. One of his favorite amusements was to practice firing barbed 7ieedles at them through a blow-pipe, a sport in which he speedily became very proficient. "With those needles alone," he writes, "I consider I enriched their vocabulaiy by over a dozen words." Meanwhile the children grew and apparently prospered. Years passed on and the "XlXth Century Paradise " became notorious. Whenever a distinguished foreigner, such as the late Lord Macaulay, or Lord Maudeville, now the Duke of Manchester, visited the Rajah his Highness took him round, and for lions showed him the poor little lambs. It is to the credit of H.R.H the Prince of Wales that he resolutely set liis face against going to the Paradise Gardens when he visited Ajmeer, and thereby much offended his host, the Rajah. But in this happy land there are no theatres or places

of public amusement, and therefore the number of travellers who flocked to take a peep at the sight that all India was talking of, is hardly to be wondered at. But in reality there was very little to be seen. The children were in the garden and out of reach of hearing, and sometimes out of sight for the greater part of the day, and when seen and heard there was to a stranger absolutely no difference between them and the native children without the Avails. Adam — the Rajah, in a scoffing spirit, had directed that the prisoners should be called Adam and Eve — grew to be a fine intelligent boy, and Eve was declared by all who saw her to be a remarkably beautiful girl, having in a pre-eminent degree the fair . complexion and graceful carriage for which her race is famed. The parents of the captives were allowed to see them whenever they asked permission, but when their confinement had lasted about ten years this privilege was withdrawn, as Eve's mother was unable to observe the strict injunction regarding silence that was imposed on every one who was given access to the points of observation. She twice fainted when looking at her daxxghter, and the last time she Avas alloAved into the palace gardens she Avas only prevented from screaming aloud by the address of an attendant, who clapped his hand across her mouth just in time to smother her utterance. [To be continued."]

— A little girl (a daughter of a most respected citizen) had a penny given her to put in the collection box at St. Matthew's last Sunday. When she dropped in the coin she broke out in a (semi-audible tone with ■• That's the way the money goes, pop goes the weasel."