The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-03

VI ehS WOAANi WuOAC nun nAN hOop O1oiAI AVhhN
Why then do we hear so much Of these Indian
scandale2 The question almost answers ITSELF
| De non dpp0rentjbus et non eTistenttbtss eG1en1
est ratio In England a vast deal exists that
does not appear. In India everything that exists
| in the lives of English residents does appear,
| and with an ostentatious appearance. We hear
| of more scandals" in India in proportion TO
| the extent of European society, but It does not
| follow, therefore, that more scan1alous things
| are done. The magnitude of the evil consists
mainly in our hearing Of It, That which, ex-
cites much interest in India would excite little
or none in England. Petty personal matters
loom large in q country where, in times vi
| peace, there are no great questions 10 dwarf
them. An Indian newspaper, day ai1er roa usy, on
week alter week, devotes whole pages 10 a
Mhow scandal or Simlah scanuaIi anu us
| readers find the record of these personal con-
fictsi very entertaining matter. Ia oull Tunes
| such incidents as these are god-senus TO hungry
| journalists. II is very much the same all over
the journalistic world. During the past month
our own papers have been dealing largely IN
''scandals, which at buster season Of the year
wouId necessarily have been overlaid by more
important intelligence. To the question, "Why
do we hear so much OF these election scandalsN ~
we might answer, Because we hear of them"
Whether il be matter OF buying votes or selling
mutton, it is all the same. We should have
heard little or nothing of all these minute
details OF bribery and corruption If the
committees OF investigation and the two
Houses of Parliament had been sitting at the
same time; But iR the long vacation we are
glad of such little excitements. They are to us
very much what the scandals of which we are
writing are to the Anglo-Indan community in
times of peace. Election Scandals are large
matters in proportion to those which obtain
such painful prominence in India; but so is the
community that takes account of them large
community in proportion to that which gloats
over the personal contentious of Simlah or
Mhow. Except in times OF war or revolution.
nA "~eat questions rise up In India q interest
the great mass of the Ang community.
Of course there are great neutrality-suspicious.,
the greatest in the world-cOntinually pressing
forward for solution but though they are deeply
interesting 10 few thinking minds, to the ma
jority of our countrymen in India they are essen
TALLY dull. Who doubts that nine out of ten
readers of an Indian newspaper, seeing in con-
tieuous columns ''The Simlah Scandap and the
Famine in Orissa," incontinently address
themselves first TO all the details of the former2
It comes to this, that the conditions of Anglo
Indian society render it necessary that the petty
personal conflicts, from whatever source they
may arise, which for convenience we designate
by the generic name of scandals" should OBJ
tain extraordinary prominence in India. 1t may
be an affair OF love or an affair of mouey; but
when 1t may be fairly surmised that a very large
majority of the readers of newspaper know
something about the parties concerned in the
case, IL is, of course, published with minuteness
of detail. In England not thousandth-per-
haps not ten thousandth-part OF the readers of
newspaper know or care anything about any
particular 'casen reported in its columns. Half
a-dozen divorce suits are disposed OF by the
Judge ordinary in the course of q day, and the
whole are reported, except on very special
occasions, In halfacolumn of our daily
papers; and, perhaps, among them is an I'm
dian case" which would have afforded column
after column OF sensation matter to an Indian
journal, if it had been investigated in one OF
times too, our miiitarHp ni rHpnSsssa Ssanu We have at
ments stationed at home; but, except in rare
instances, as, Tor example, that of the famous
''black bottlen affair, the interest which they
excite is very limited, and, therefore, the space
devoted to them in our journals is the same.
Now all this is very intelllgible; but when due
allowance is made tor it, is 1t sufficient to ac-
count wholly for the apparent frequency of
these Indian scandals" or are there other con-
ditlons OF Anglo-Indian society affecting not
merely the apparent, out also the existent? We
cannot answer this question altogether in the
negative. We believe that the comparative tre-
uuency of these Indian scandals has been very
much exaggerated, because they have been OBJ
truded more prominently upon public notice;
but we do not deny that the comparison is, to
some extent, to the disadvantage OF India.
There are circumstances, doubtless, which favor
the growth of the evil in that country 1t re-
mains then for us to consider what they are.
The scandals" of whi ch we write are mostly
military scandals, 4" and they are developed in
time of peace. When India is convulsed with
war, foreign or domestic, we seldom near any
thing of these things, and 1t may be presumed
that they do not exist. When men have COM
mon enemy to face, they are little minded to
70 do and too much to think OF, 10 vex them
selves or others about trifies. Moreover, feel
ing OF comradeship Is engendered by the sense
OF common danger, and the quest of q CON-
mon object: petty animOslties and irritations
subside under the excitement OF strenuous
action; and are knit to each other in bonds of
brotherhood at such time, and know none but
honorable rivalries. But in the dIeary stagna-
tion of caLtonment life in India, our officers
have too much time upon their hands, If idle
ness be not the mother of all the vices, she is
assuredly the mother of strife. But 1t may be
said that there Is plenty OF idleness in our Eng
lish garrison towns. Doubtless, and our English
garrison towns are sometimes hotbeds of scan
DIAL. But there are many circumstances which
mitigate the evils OF the tar-niente in England.
The climate of India during great part of the
year compels inaction. Military life, in time of
peace, at home may not be bur dened with very
heavy duties; but there is much more social
occupation than iu the East Existence may not
be very profitable, but 1t Is not dreary blank.
The curse of ennui does not sit upon our officers
in such places as Maidstone and Canterbury
Dublin and Brighton. One station may be more
or less lively than another; but ON the whole
there is no lack OF amusement. Idle men of good
address are always in requisitton in our pr0vin-
cal towns. There are picnics, and croquet par
ties, and cricket matches in the summer; shoot
ing and hunting and steeple chasing in the
at all seasons. In such circumstances officers
diffuse themselves more than they can at an
Indian station, where the society is go
much more limited. What is the effect of a
handful of people being, as it were, shut up
together, with no possibility OF escape, Is
especially observable in life on board ship.
In the old ttimes-not so very long ago
after all-when the voyage to and from India
compiished without scandal" People
became very intimate and familiar with each
other; and II often happened that the closest
friends at the beginning OF voyage were the