Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-06-21


hams outside, chewing sugar-cane,
eating sweetmeats, and chattering
away to each other like 80 many
overgrown children. The noise,
the confusion and the stencil of
the assembled multitude can hardly
be imagined by those who have not
seen a similar asSemblage. The pa
tience and good natnre exhibited
toward them by the English rail-
way officials is not the least sur
prising part of the whole affair.
But the orders from high quarters
in this respect are very peremptory.
1t is the third-clasS passenger traf-
fic that pays the railway companies
in India best, and therefore it is the
third-class to which almost every
other traffic has to give way.
Not the least ludlcrous Of native
travellers peculiarities is the enor-
nous quantity of luggage, or rather
Of belongings, that they bring with
them. 1t is no uncommon thing to
see a family, consisting of one man,
his wife, and child, take to the
railway a large charpoy, or native
bed, a bundle Of sugar-cane about
a half donkey-lOad in size, a dozen
or more copper pots for cooking, a
huge bagful of rice, an equal guam
tity of flour, and perhaps twenty
or thirty pounds of ghee or clari-
fed butter in which to cook their
food. How all this is packed away,
or how, at the journeys end, each
traveller gets his own property-for
it must be remembered none of it
is marked-are problems difficult,
if not impossible, to solve. AS the
time for the departure of the train
draws near, the confusion becomes
greater and greater, and achieves
its climax when the ticket Office is
opened.
In England, as we all know, the
delivery Of passenger ticket barely
takes up thirty seconds. The trav-
eler states his destination and the
class he wishes to travel by; he
pays his money; the clerk clips the
ticket in machine, delivers it over,
and the. transaction is at an end
But it is very different in India,
The native fights his way to the
window. The clerk tells him, lei
us say, that one rupee six annas il
the fare. But the native has all hi
| life been accustomed to have beer
asked one price and pay another fol
what he wants. He cannot see
why he should not, at any rate, tr,
to cheaper his railway ticket al
well as anything else. He first
perhaps, asks whether he would no
take one rupee two annas. Tht
clerk, as a matter of course says no
and not unfrequently usesa certain
amount of bad language. He ther
proposes one rupee four annas; anC
it is only when the policeman out
side the ticket-window threatens tx
put him away altogether that HI
takes out his money-bag and pay
out the coin as slowly and with al
much apparent pain as if some ont
were drawing his teeth. Nor doe
the transaction come to an end then
To recoup himself in some slight
manner he tries hard to pass of
upon the ticket-clerk one or more
worthless coins, and, as they are re-
fused, he gesticulates, screams
swears and laments in a most heart
broken manner. But let us not bC
too hard upon him. His love o.
money is his second nature. HI
may be a Moslem, a Parsee, a Hin
doc or a Jew; a Brahmin, a Rajpott
or a Paria; the rupee is his god
and the only god which worships
Let us imagine four or five hun
dred natives about to take thei
departure by the train; and w
shall have some faint idea of wha
a ticket-clerk in India has to g,
through in the performance Of hi
duty.
f But even when our dusky frient
has got his passenger ticket deliv
cred to him, the infiction he en-
: tails upon the railway establish
ment is only half over. He has t.
90 to a Baboo, or native writer, t.
have his luggage weighed, regis
tered, and to pay for the excess il
weight. If parting with coin 70
! his railway ticket brought hin
, pains of purgatory, the agonies h
. has now to go through may b
: called Internal. He is, perhaps
, bound for Bombay, and has hear
}, at the bazar that rice and flour ar
}, so much a maund dearer in tina
< town than in his native place. II
S therefore determines to take wit
him a supply of food for the eigh
e or ten days he purposes staying a
4 the presidency. But, like many
n wiser man, he reckons without hi
e host-or rather without the freigh
e he will have to pay by railway. Il
: sees in a moment that even th
b small tax be has to pay on the'
+ articles will entirely defeat his ecC
e nomical prospects. But what is
y be done? He has brought the flou
g the rice and the ghee all the wa