The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-03-28
Benares.

Benares is not only the hottest but the
oldest CITY in india. Before Christ was
born Benares was great. when
Babylon was struggling with Nine
veh for supremacy" says Mr.. Sher-
ring, when Tyre was planting her
colonies, when Athens was growing
in strength. before Rome had te-
come known, or Greece had con-
tended with Persia, or Nebuchad-
nezzar had captured Jerusalem, and
the inhabitants of Judea had been
carried into captivity Benares had
risen to greatness, if not to glory.
Nay, she may have heard OF the
fame of Solomon and have sent her
ivory, her apes. and her peacocks to
adorn his palaces, while partly with
her gold he may have overlaid the
temple of the lord" In spite of
British domination steam launches on
the river, and railway trains crossing
the Gauges by iron bridges, Benares
preserves its old-time aspect, and is,
with the exception of an English
church, q mission-house, college, a
police station, and the environments
of British soldiery, much as it was
when Akbar reigned. One railway
does not presume to enter the town,
but has its terminus on the further side
of the Ganges. The others, the Dude
and Rohilcund enters from the town
side, but stops on the outskirts. and
the bazars and temples have it all their
own way in the town. The river is
crossed by wretched bridge Of
boats, whose poverty of accOmmoda-
ton is made up for by excessive toll.
The upper portion of the town, near
the English settlement, is literally
laid out in squares, green lawns
after the rains, but just now so bare
and brown that it is difficult to believe
blades of grass could ever burst through
its barrenness. Still. the trees are
green. and are peopled with lively
race of squirrels, who dodge passers-by,
peepiDg round the trunk to see if he is
really coming, and disappearing
among the boughs with q nimbleness
that makes nothing of their bushy
tails. There is a great deal of
animal and bird life about the
streets, safe in the freedom from harm
secured by the gentle creed of the Hin
uOOS. L NC spdEEOWS ClilEp aUOul tue
roadways and almost stand to be passed
over on the footpaths. Two grey kites
benignantly eyed them from a ruined
wall as if they would not touch them,
even if some one else would kill them.
On the trees in the temples and prone
nading the roofs of the bazars, occasion
ally entering by open windows aud
taking pot-luck, are thousands of mon
keys, sacred from stick or stone. These
are not monkeys such as occasionally
lend added terror to the London organ
grinder, but creatures running to the
length of three feet from head to
haunch, and of aspect preternaturally
sagaeious. Flocks of goats meander
through the streets, big, well-formed.
handsome beasts.
Bullocks are used as beasts of burden,
but the cows, Ike the pope, '.lead 4 mer-
~ life" | suppose they belong TO some
body, but they walk about the streets
like ground landlords. They are small
cattle, plump and well-fayored, forming
a strong contrast with the thin and
care-worn human population among
whom they indolently pick their way.
They stroll down the center of the mar
row thoroughfares, through the bazars,
frequently stopping the traffic, types of
the idolatry which bars the growth of civ
lizasion. Imet one one morning stroll