The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-08-30
The MAGNITUDE OF INDIA.
Ancient Nations, Great Cities, and a.
Enormous Population.


For eighty years, at least. writers
have endeavored to bring home TO
Englishmen the vastnesS of India. but,
so far as can be perceived. have failed.
The Briton reads what they say, learns
up their figures, tries to understand
their descriptions, but fails, for all his
labor, t. realize what India is-a con-
tinent large as Europe west of the
Nisttla. and with 30.000,000, more
people, fuller of ancient nations. of
great cities, of varieties of civilization,
OF armies, nobilities, Priesthoods, or
CARNATIONS for every conceivable pur-
pose from the spreading of great relig-
ion down to systematic murder. There
are twice rs many Bengalese as there
are Erenchmen; the Hindostanees, pro-
perly so called. outnumber the whites
in the United States; the Mahrattas
would fill Spain, the people of the
Puniab with Scinde are double the po-
pulation of Turkey, and | have named
but four of the more salient divisions,
says writer in The Fortnightiy Re-
l'ielC.
Everything is on the same bewilder-
ing scale. The fighting peoples of
India, whose males are as bic as our
selves. as brave as ourselves, and more
regardless of death than ourselves,
number at least l20,000,0 900, equal to
Gibbons calculation of the population
of the Roman empire. There are 400,-
600 trained brown soldiers in native
service, of whom we hear perhaps once
in ten years, and at least 100000 men
who think their proper profession is
arms, who would live by arms If they
could, and of whom we in England
never hear a word. If the Prussian
conscription We're applied in India, we
should without counting reserves, or
landwehr, or any force not summoned
in time of peace, have 100000 sold
iers actually in barracks, with 100000
recruits coming up every year--a force
with which not only Asia, but the
world, might be subdued. There are
tents of millions of prosperous peas
ants whose hoardings make of India
the grand absorbent of the precious
metals, tens of millions of peasants be-
side whose poverty fellahs,o Sicilians.
or COnnaught men are rich; millions
Of artisans, ranging from the men who
build palaces to the men who, nearly
naked and almost without tools. do the
humblest work of the potter.
Every occupation which exists in
Europe exists also in India. The in
dustry of the vast continent never
ceases, for India, with all her teeming
muititudes, with a population in places
packed beyond European precedent
imports nothing either to eat or drink,
and, but for the Europeans, would i'm
port nothing whatever. She is sufli-
cient TO herself for everything save sill
yer. Amid these varied masses, these
$50, 100000 whose mere descriptions
would fill volumes, the tide of life flows
as vigorously as in Europe. There is
as much labor, as much contention, as
much ambition, rs much crime. as
much variety OF careers, hopes, fears,
and hatreds. 1t is still possible to a
moneyless Indian to become vizier of
a dynasty older than history, or finance
minister of a new prince whose person.
al fortune in hard cash is double that
of ,he late Emperor William, or abbot
of monastery richer than Glaston-
bury ever was. owner of an estate that
covers a county. head of firm whose
transactions may vie with those of the
Barings or Blcichroders. One man,
Jute Pershad by name. fed and trans
ported the army which conquered the
ioh