Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-31
i NICE COUNTRY
TO KEEP AWAY FRoM-AN OBSERVERS
VIEWS OF INDIA.
DIR. Stirling Tells How British India I'm.
pressed Him-Heat, Superstition,
Snakes, Intolerance and Death.

DR.. Charles Stirling, late of the
| Medical Service in British India. lectured
last night upon India" before Industrial
Lodge, l. o. 0. F., and the guests 1t invited
| to be present.
| There was a good audience in the fine
| large lodge-room. c. NJ. Harrison, Noble
Grand of the lodge, presided, and intro
duced DR.. Stirling as having resided in
India many years and as having enjoyed
specially favorable opportunities to OBJ
serve, as he was of the official British Hos
pital Service.
DR.. Strings address, while not fiattering
to India, was one that was thoroughly IN
| teresting He is evidently keen observer,
| good judge of human nature and prac-
tical analyst of character and the motives
that underlie human activity. Unfortu-
| nately for the doctor, he speaks in such
low tone, with such repidlty of utterance
and such a running of his words together,
that his auditors can understand him only
with great difficulty, and the effort to fol-
low him is mentally wearying.
Nevertheless it was evident that he is
wit, and be handles his recital with skill.
Prior to and after the lecture the doctor
and his sister, and his wife also, who was
| likewise in the India Hospital service, ex-
| hibited rich collection of Indian handi
work. Among the articles shown were
| various parts of costumery, silks and
cloths, beautifully embroidered in gold
and silver thread; laces, head dresses, costly
| fabrics and beautiful examples of needle
work. wood carving, designs in alabaster,
plaques, frames, ETC., and some exceed
| ingly fine specimens of beaten brass or re-
pousse work, and plaques of beaten metal
chased, engraved and inlaid with enamel.
| According to DR.. Stirling, India Is any
| thing but lovely country, and by no
| means a desirable land for Europeans to
| take up their residence in. The heat is in
| tolerable, the natives lazy, and caste so
rules that service is an affection to the en-
ployer that makes life a misery. Wild
/ animals, venomous serpents, monkeys and
| insect pests are so plentiful, even in densely
populated cities, as TO be constant terrors,
and serve to keep one alert against their
assaults The heat is intense, something
| fearful to the wnite-skinned races, and it is
simply impossible for the Anglo-Saxon TO
| exist there tor three generations of un-
| broken residence.
Superstition is so absolute, the laws of
caste so memorable, and fatalism so tyran-
nous, that the ordinary sanitary and medi-
cal means for alleviating human suffering
and healing human ills can be introduced
among the people only with the utmost
| difficulty.
His comment upon the domination of
| Monaghan types led him to conclude that,
despite civilization, the arts and the sci
ences, if the Monaghan iDcursion into the
| United States is unrestrained it will
eyentuate in the Anglo-SaXons going to
| the wall, and all other races giving way
before the Chinese. England rules i'll,
| even at the best, in India, and the doctor
| believes that the era lis not far distant
when English rule in India will practically
| cease-at least, all the present tendencies
are in that direction.
| Caste in India is the great bane. Its
genesis is social, of the family, of the call
| ing, of the nativity, of anything and every
| thing that distinguishes one from another;
even complexion plays part in it.
| caste" said the speaker, ''isin India practi
| cally what it is in Europe, only there is i'm
mensely more of it." The English in
India cannot understand why English law
| and custom cannot be made to prevail in
| India, precisely as the good old aunts and
cousins and teachers of fugitive groups of
Chinese in New England cannot under
stand how it is that the Chinese in Cali
fornia maintain themselves apart from the
| Americans, and to great extent success
| fully defy sanitary and all other laws and
refuse to bend the knee to our customs.
social usages and religions.
He had very little to say of the numer
Gus religions in India, as the subject was
| too broad to be handled except in dis
tinct lecture, and possibly not in one or
half dozen. But the fad of Buddhism
| that seized upon the Europeans, and Amer
| leans to some extent, few years ago, he
| pronounced to be unworthy that attention,
as viewed practically in India by the i'm
partial student. For himselfhe found in it
| no improvement upon Christianity, even
| in theory The influence of heredity in
India was one branch of his subject that he
| handled with especial conciseness and
| directness.
| His description of the ancient walled
city of Delhi ana its people was perhaps
1.-the most interesting section OF the lecture
| to The maiority of his hearers He de-
cIarsd that neither he nor anyone else can
| satisfactorily explain why IN q city of
! 150 900 inhabitants, as is that, with hi its
| wealth aud tine architecture, aid The in
fiuencrs of English civilization that have
been brought to bear against II. the deadly
cobra may DE found within ten feet of
ones residence a half mile within its walls.
HIS nights rest is constantly broken by the
bowling of jackals; his life made burden
by the assaults of myriads of monkeys,
and his peace disturbed by all manner of
wild animals, venomous reptiles, scorpi
ons centipedes, white ants, and the like.
In our own country the wild beasts re-
tire before the advancing man in India
man retires before the beast. If the man
eating tiger were native of our forests or
iungles he would be hunted out and ex.
terminated in short, he would have to
go" In India it is the human being who
has to go when the man-eater wills it.
The people of India prematurely ripen
and prematurely age; the men at 40 are
on the Decline the woman at 20 begins to
be an old woman and her life thereafter, in
most cases, is brief indeed. The life of the
native woman in India, at the BEST is one
of repression, practical slavery and much
misery. II is not uncommon for girls to
be welded at years we deem infantile, and
12-year old wives with year-old babies in
their arms are not uncommon.
His description of native law Court
and of the practice of the native lawyers
was not less witty than it was graphic and
interesting. The influence of the climate
upon the mentality of the people was
| Or1eUy alluded 10. Inc DedStS VI purueu
in India were described-the camel, the
buffalo and the elephant. For docility and
intelligence he gave the trained elephant
first place, for practical serviceableness the
buffalo comes next; the camel he places
last, and as trained in India he found it to
be vicious beast 1t was not uncommon
to treat patients in the hospitals for camel
bites. and not infrequently they have
proved fatal.
! The effort of Queen Victoria to reach
the afflicted women of India and alleviate
their sufferings when sick have been only
partially successful. The scheme was to
educate as physicians large numbers of
robust women and send them out to equip
hospitals strictly for native women. But
to day, after all the effort and expense,
there are but four of these female physi-
clans left in India. The truth is. no
woman not native-born to India can do
/ such duty and stand it a twelve month.
More than this, such is the tyranny OF
! caste, superstition and the repression OF
! woman that the native female is brought
to the hospitals only when she is at DEATH
door, and then, such is her low condition,
that a score of women less by death dis
tnrbs the men little or not at all.
nlo lo.. tbat oap ho dopa ir NOW hai q