The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-05-06
THE LAST RELIEF

THE LAST RELIEF.
ssHe rode 70 death across the moor
Oh. false to me and minel
But the naked ghost came 70 my door
And hade me tend the kline.
.The naked ghost came to my door,
And fiickefed 10 and fro,
And syne It whispered through the crack,
WI 'Jeanie, let me CO.
Nothing is easier than the administra-
don Of an empire so long As there is sup
ply Of administrators. Nothing, on the
other hand. is more difficult than short
handed administration. In India, where
every man holding authority above GER
tain grade must be specially imported
from England, this difficulty crops up
at unexpected seasons. Then the
great empire staggers along like .
North sea fishing smack, with crew
Of two men and boy, until . fresh
supply of food for fever arrives from Eng
land, and the gaps are filed up. Some Of
the provinces are permanently short
handed, because their rulers know that If
they give man just little more work
than he can do, he contrives to do it.
From the mans point Of view this is
wasteful, but it helps the empire forward,
and flesh and blood are very cheap. The
young men-and young men are always
exacting expect too much at the outset.
They come to India desiring ca
reers and money and . little sue
cess and sometimes wife. There is no
limit to their desires, but in few years it
is explained TO them by the sky above, the
earth beneath, and the men around, that
they are Of far less importance than their.
work, and that it really does not concern
themselves whether they live or die so
long as that work continues. After they
have learned this lesson they become men
worth consideration.
Many seasons ago the gods attacked the
administration Of the government of India
in the heart of the hot season. They caused
pestilences and famines. and killed the men
who were deputed to deal with each pesti-
lence and every famine. They rolled the
Englishmen, one after the other, leaving
$1,000 square miles masterless for many
days. They even caused the cholera to at
tack the reserve depots-the sanitaria in
the Himalayas-where men were waiting
on leave till their turn should come to 60
down into tho heat. They killed men with
sunstroke who otherwise might have lived
for three months longer. snd-this was
mean-they caused strong man to tumble
from his horse and break his neck Just
when he was most needed. It will not be
long, that 10 to say, five or six years
will pass, before those who survived
forget that season of tribulation, when
they danced 1t 6imla with wives who
feared that they might be widows before
the morning, and when the daily papers
from the plains confined themselves en-
tirely to one kind of domestic occurrence.
Only the supreme government never
blanched. It sat upon the hiiltops Of
Simla, among the pines, and called for re-
turns and statements as usual. Some
times it called to dead man, but it always
received the returns as soon as his sue
cessor could take his place.
Ricketts,, of Myndonie, died and was
relieved by Carter. Carter was invalided
home, but he worked to the last minute,
and left no arrears. He was relieved by
Morten-Holt, who was too young for the
work. Holt died of sunstroke when the
famine was in Myndonie. He was relieved
by Damer, man borrowed from another
province, who did all he could, but broke
down from overwork. Cromer. in London
on years leave, was dragged out by tele-
gram from the cool darkness Of Brompton
Nat to the white heat Of Myndonie, and he
held fast. This is the record Of Myn-
DOME alone.
On the Monee canal three men went
down; in the Kahan district. when cholera
was at its worst, three more. In the di-
visionai court at Halimpur two good men
were accounted for; and so on the record
Na,a al rr,x. r<< y.
kren. IL was great game of general post,
with death in all the corners, and it drove
the government to their wits end to tide
over the trouble till autumn should bring
the new drafts.
The gods had no mercy, but the govern
ment and the men it employed had no
fear. This annoyed the gods, who are
immortal, for they perceived, that the
men whose portion was death were greater
than they. The gods are always troubled.
even in their paradises. by this sense of
inferiority. They know that il is so easy
for themselves to be strong and cruel,
and they are afraid of being laughed
At. So they smote more furiously than
ever, just as swordsman slashes at
chain TO prove the temper of his
blade. The chain of men parted for an in
slant at the stroke, but it closed up again,
and continued TO drag the empire forward.
and not one living link of il rang false or
was weak. All desired life and love and
the light, and liquor, and larks, but none
the less they died without whimpering.
Therefore the gods would have continued
TO slay them till this very day had not one
man failed.
His name was Hayden, and being young.
he looked for al that young men desire.
most of all, he looked for love. He had
been at work in the Girdhauri district for
eleven months, till fever and pressure had
shaken his nerve more than he knew At
last he had taken the holiday which was his
rtght-the holiday for which he had saved
up one month year for three wears past.
Keyte, a Junior relieved him one hot after
noon. Hayden shut his ink-stained office
box. packed himself some thick clothes
he had been living in cotton ducks for
four nonths--gave his files of sweat-dotted
papers, saw keyte side piece of biotting
paper between the naked arm and the
desk, and left that parched station of roar
ing dust storms for Simla and the cool
of the SHOWS. Then he found rest.
and the pink blotches of prickly heat
faded from his body. and being idle, he
went accounting without knowingit. After
. decent interval he found himself drifting
very gently along the road that leads TO the
church, and pretty girl helped him. He
enjoyed his meals, was free from the intol-
cradle strain of bodily discomfort, and as
he looked from Simla upon the torment of
the silver-wrapped plains below, laughed
10 think he had escaped honorably, and
could talk prettsiy 10 a pretty girl, who, he
felt sure, would in little time answer an
important question as il should be an
"a