Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-08-08
EXTRAVAGANT FELLOWS.
An American Newspaper Man Tells How
an Indian Rajah Lives.

An American Newspaper Man Tells How
an Indian Rajah Lives.
There is in HindOstan territory
nearly one-fifth the size of the United
States, and containing a population of
more than 100000, which is gov
erned by rajahs. These rajahs have
power of life and death. They have
revenues of their own, levy taxation
as they please, and organize their
people and armies on different basis
from the English portions of India
They are subject, in a certain sense,
to the English, and most of them have
English officers connected with their
establishments. They are feudatory
states to England, and England does
not allow them to make war upon
each other. nor can they have any re-
lations with foreign states. If rajah
misgoverns his people or Expresses
them, the Viceroy of India reproves
him, and if he does not come to time,
secures his removal. These states,
however. have none of the new GUS
toms of English India. Few for
eigners visit them, and the peo-
pie are substantially the same Us
they were years agc-before tile
railroad and the English desire
for business came in to grind
them up in the mortar of modern civ
ilization. One-third of the whole ter
ritory of India is possessed by such
rajabs, and their subjects make up
ore-fifth of the inhabitants. Their
united armies amount to 100000 men,
and their gross yearly revenues are
about $50, 0O0,O0 These rajahs live
as erandly as did the Kings of Northern
India in the past, and the English mer-
chants of India cater largely to their
wants. Here, at Jeypore, the rajah's
palace covers great area, and the
palace garden. with it's flowing rivers
of water, formed by fountains squirting
out of a stone bed, would be large
enough for farm. l was shown
through court after court of marble
and taken through room after room
furnished with rich Persian carpets
and with satin-covered chairs and d.
vans of European make. In one palace
there was all immense billiard room,
and in this and the room adjoining the
skins of tigers and leopards were scat
tered about by the hundred. They lay
in great piles on the floors. They were
hung on the walls, and some of the
divans were upholstered with them. I
went through room after room filled
with such skins, and l was told that
the beasts were all killed by the rajah,
who is very fond of tiger-hurting. and 4
who is an excellent shot.
l was also shown the outside of the
palace containing the harem, and the
arrangements for keeping it cool struck
me as rather peculiar. Outside of the
main hall, and running along one
length of the palace, was a series of
great fanning-mills not unlike those
used by the American farmer. These
were turned by half-naked men. and
they thus kept pumping up draughts
into the rooms beyond.
l visited the rajah's stables. ard
took a look at his horses. There was
q court for exercise which covered, /
judged. something like ten acres, and
around this was built an arcade of
stalls rooted over with thick, heavy
roof to keep off the sun. There was
about haif-mile of these stalls.
and each of them was occupied by
fine blooded steed. There were horses
from Arabia, from Europe, America
and India, and the tying of each was
differentfrom any thing l had ever seen.
There was a strap from their halters,
which was fastened to rings just |
above their heads. and each of their |
fore feet had a separate rope which |
was stretched out toward the four |
corners in front and behind them and
tied, at distance of perhaps six feet
away, to a post. The ropes were
loose enough to permit them TO move
their legs up and down. but they
could not kick nor stand on their hind
lega-Frank G. Carpenter, in Louis
vile Courier-Journal
N,.1<:vo<o al uawlv.nlanted treas