Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-12-11
SOCIAL OUTCASTS.
HUMAN BEINGS SUFFERING FOR THE
SINS OF OTHERS.

The Eurasians, or Indian half Castles, Who
Are Tabooed by Their Anglo Indian Eel
low Citizens - Marriage with One OF
Them Means Social Annihilation.
There is a body in India speaking the Eng
lish language, holding various British creeds,
wearing the dress, guided by the customs and
inspired by the example of the sahib and the
memsahib, hanging desperately on by the
fringe of the Angio-Indan social garment, OF
whom Anglo India knows very little and the
world nothing at all The ignorance OF the
sahib is the reason of the worlds ignorance,
for the world has nobody to tell it but the sa-
hib, and he, so far, has been blind and deaf
as well as contemptuous. l mean the Euras-
| ians, or Indian half castles.
I cannot tell you how many there are in
the viceroy's dominions but as one travels
through one sees them everywhere-as hotel
clerks, as shop girls, In any OF the lower Offices
| of life, occasionally in commercial clerkshlp
of Importance, though this is rare; and once
we met a volunteer company Of them. Their
| Asatic blood shows in different degrees and
| different ways, in all shades of color and ell
| types of feature-perhap chiefly In the dis
| turbed hquidity of the Aryan eye or the blue
| darkness of the lip.
| 1t is impossible for the stranger to guess,
but the sahib will tell you at a glance the
| proportions of the Euras;an mixture He
| has a phrase for it, and if another sahib
should inquire about it, saying, with signifi-
cant smile, ''How many annas in the rupeef'
be would answer eight, or six, or four, or
two, as the case might suggest. 1t is a con-
venient form for an awkward question, the
rupee having sixteen annas and being easily
Invisible; it is answered with shrug, and its
unfortunate object is classified, labeled and
dropped into some social deep, whittier no
body follows Linn.
CURING AN INFATUATED OFFICER
Sometimes the Eurasian tinge is SO slight
that even the sahib will not trust his divining
powers wholly unless he has the opportunity
Of applying one infallible test. Let him sec
the finger nails in question If the usual
white crescent at their base is blush purple
there is no further question-it comes of ma
tive blood, however little Sometimes this
knowledge Is important, for with the disguise
Of money, fair hair, a pure complexion and
foreign education the native faint might
easily pass unsupported in young lady met
under any of the accidental circumstances
that crop up all the world over, with disas-
trous consequences to the uninitiated, if he
happens to be young man and falls in love
with her.
For to marry such an one would mean
social humiliation soon as the fact were
found out, and most unpleasant possibilities
for the complexion of the next generation.
In one of kiplng's ''Plain Tales from the
Hills" he tells of such an one, hopelessly en-
amored of a lovely Portuguese half caste and
determined, in spite of all his friends could
say, to marry her. He is an officer in a crack
regiment, popular fellow, and they are in
despair.
Finally clever woman who likes him hits
upon a plan-her influence secures a fort
nights leave for him unknown to himself,
and the night before, three OF his fellow off,
GERS drop in to see him. lettering three cam
els in his compound the camel being noise
less and a rapid traveller In the midst of a
social evening they fall upon and pinion him,
carry him off and lock him up in a madhouse
for the fortnight, at the end of which time
he comes forta a sane and grateful though
very abusive man.
Mr.. Kipling does not place his heros pas
sion on very high plane and one finds ones
self sympathizing with nobody in the story
but the devoted friends who have had to take
so much trouble to cure a temporary aberra-
tion-but this may be somewhat due to the
authors Anglo-indian prejudice.
DOWNRIGHT FACTS LITTLE KNOWN
The common soldiers marry half castles
quite frequently up to color sergeants, and
so do whites of all the lower middle classes,
but it is thing utterly, absolutely and strin-
gently forbidden to the elect.
As l have limited, one hears little Of down
right fact about the Eurasians in India,
simply because they are next thing to pariah
creatures, about whose manners and customs
nobody cares. Their general appearance,
however, tells story that all who run may
read, a story of physical deterioration that
makes one prone to believe more or less Of
what people say of the moral deterioration
that so often goes hand in hand with it. 1t
is a hard saying, and doubtless must be taken
with many exceptions and qualifications, but
the word goes that as a class they are cow
ardly and prone to the vices, that they seem
to inherit unhappily from both races, to bear
about in themselves not the best, but the
worst, Of their mixed ancestry.
To look at, they are limp and weak, mar
row shouldered and furtive as a rule, though
] remember one pleasant exception to that in
a coffee planter, who was taking his little
wife down to Ceylon for a trip-a tall, hand
some fellow, with q magnificent baritone,
whose singing won applause and politeness
even from the Anglo-Indian element on the
ship.
1t is said that Eurasians, as such, never
survive the second generation: that nature
lets the sickly graft have its way for while
and then cuts it OF Cntimely Their speech
has a peculiar lisplng prettlless and an mimi
table slovenlness, nipping OF some words and
a drawing of others; and their whole lives
are devoted to the imitation of their cousins
on the white side, OF which kinship they are
very proud, if fate has given them such dark
skins that they must establish a claim TO if.
If, on the other hand their brown relations
might 60 unSuspected, they utterly disown
all such, and have more violent luminosity
against anything ''nstve' than the purest
blooded Anglo-Indiaa Of them all
The pure natives return the feeling with
interest, and between his objectionableness TO
one and the other Of his racial relatives the
unfortunate Eurasian is an Ishmaelite indeed,
his hand against every mans and every man
hand against hiIn.-Calcutta Cor. Montreal
Star.
The Oldest Bank Notes.
The oldest bank notes are the Flying