Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-10-06
THE MAGNITUDE OF INDIA.
Ancient Nations, Great Cities, and IN
Enormous Population.

For eighty years, at least. writer's
have ~cndcavored to bring home to
Englishmcn the vastness of India. but,
SO far rs 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. To realize what India is-a con.
tinent large as Europe west Of the
Eistula, and with 80. 200. 900. more
people. fuller Of ancient nations, Of
great cities, of varieties of civilization,
of armies, nobiliticS, p~ricsthoods, or
CARNATIONS for every conceivable pur-
pose from the spreading of great rclig-
ion down to systematic murder. There
are twice rs many BengaleSe As there
are Frenchmen; the Hind0stanees, pro-
perly so called, outnumber the whites
in the United States; the Mahrattas
would fill Spain, the people of the
Punjab with Scinde are double the po-
pulation Of Turkey, and ! have named
but four of the more salient divisions,
says a writer in The Fo~rtnight}y Re-
CtC,C.
Everything is on the same bcwilder-
ing scale. The fighting peoples of
India, whose males are rs big rs our
selves, rs brave rs ourselves, and more
regardless Of death than ourselves,
number at least 100, 900, 600, equal to
Gibbons calculation of the population
of the Roman empire. There are 400
900 trained brown soldiers in native
service OF whom we hear perhaps once
i'm ten years, and ut 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 n word. If the PrusSian
CONSUMPTION were applied in India, we
should without counting reserves, or
landwehr, or any force not summoned
in time Of peace, have 100000 sold
icrs actually in barracks, with 100000
recruits coming up every year-a force
with which lot 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 or 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
humblcst work OF the potter.
Every occupation which exists in
Europe exists also in India. The in
duotry 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 inn
port nothing whatever. She is suili-
cicnt to herself for everything save sill
yer. Amid these varied masses, these
2j0. 900, 900 whose mere descriptions
would fill volumcs,the tide Of life flows
as vigorously as in Europe. There is
a. much labor, as much contention, as
much ambition, as much crime, "a
much variety of careers, hopes, fears,
and hatrcds. 1t is still possible to "A
m|oncylcss Indian to become vizier OF
a dynasty older than history,oriuance
minister OF a new prince whose person
al fortune in hard cash is double that
Of the late Emperor William. or abbot
of a monastery richer than Glast0n-
bury ever was. owner Of an estate that
covers II county. head of a firm whose
transactions may vie with those of the
Earrings on Bleichrodcrs. Ore man,
Jute Prrshad by name, fed and trans
ported the army which conquered the
Puujab.