The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-04-29
H LAST RELIEF.

In the presence of our king, dearie.
LOngman's Magazine. A. LANG.
THE LAST RELIEF.
"He rode to death across the moor :.
Oh. false to me and mine!
But the naked ghost came to my door
And babe me tend tins kline.
1.-The naked ghost came to my door,
And fickered to and fro,
And syne it whispered through the crack.
Wi Jeanne, let me go"
Old Ballad.
Nothing is easier than the administration
of an empire 80 long as there is n supply of
administrators. Nothing. on the other
hand. is more difficult than s~hort-handsd
administration. In India, where every man
holding authority above a certain grade
must be specially imported from England,
this difficulty crops up at unexpected sea-
sons. Then the great empire staggers
along, like a North sea fishing smack, with
a crew Of two men n a boy, until q fresh
supply of food for fever strives
from England, and the gaps are
filled up. Some of the prov
inces are permanently short-handed, be-
cause their rulers know that if they give
a man just a little more work than he can
do, he contrivss to dc 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
careers and money and a little sue
cess and sometimes a wife. There is
no limit to their desires, but in a few years
- Do N~-lain0l IN $hav, NV tho o1- nl-ro
the earth beneath, and the men around,
that they are of far less Importance than
their work, and that it really does not con-
Germ 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
smallpox ACROSS a desert, and it killed four
Englishmen, one after the other, leaving
$4,000 square miles masterless for many
days. They even caused the cholera to
attack the reserve depots-the sanitaria in
the Neutrality-suspicious. men were waitingon
leave till their turn should come to 90
down into the heat. They killed men with
sunstroke who otherwise might have lived
for three months longer. and-this was
mean-they caused a strong man to
tumble from his horse and break his
neck just when he waa most needed. 1t
will not be long, that is to say, five or six
years will pass, before those who survived
forget that season of tribulation, when they
danced at Simla with wives who feared that
they might be widows before the morning,
and when the daily papers from the plains
confined themselves entirely to one kind of
domestic occurrence.
Only the supreme government never
blarched. 1t sat Upon the h~ill-tops of Simla
among the pines. and called iof returns and
statements as usual. Sometimes 1T called
to a dead man, but it always received the
returns as soon as his successor could take
his place.
Ricketts, of Myndonie died, and was re-
lieved by Carter. Carter was invaliaed
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, a man borrowed from another
province, who did all he could, but broke
down from overwork. Cromer, in London
on a years leave, was dragged out by tele-
gram from the cool darkness of a Brompton
hat to the white heat of Myndonie, and he
held fast. This is the record of Myndonis
alone.
ysOn the Moonee canal three mon went
down; in the Kahan district, when cholera
was at its worst, three more. In the di-
vlsional court at Halimpur two good men
we're accounted for; and 80 the record ran,
exclusive OF the wives and little children.
1t was a great game of general post, with
death IN all the corners, and it drove the
government to their wits end to tide over
the tronble 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 por-
ton WAS death were greater than they. The
gods are always troubled, even in their par
adlses, by this sense Of inferiority. They
know that it is so easy for themselves to be
strong and cruel, and they are afraid of be-
ipg laughed at. So they smote more fur
lously than ever, just as a swordsman
slashes at a chain to prove the temper of his
blade. The chain of men parted TOR an in
stant at the stroke, but it closed up
again, and continued to drag the empire
forward, and not one living link of it rang
false or WAS weak. All desired life, and
love, and the light, and liquor. and larks,
but none the less they died without whim-
persng. Therefore the gods would have
~ Stey y pAA tlio SCIy nay
had not one man failed.
His name was Hayden, and being young,
he looked for all 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 mad taken the holiday that was his
right-the holiday for which he had saved
up one month a year for three years past.
heyte, a junior, relieved him one hot after
noon. Haydon shut his ink-atained Office
box, packed himself some thick clothes-he
had been living in cotton ducks for four
months-gave his files of sweat-dotted pa
pers. saw keyte slide a piece of blottinp pa
per 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. There he found rest, and
the pink blotohes of prickly heat
faded from his body, and being idle. he
went accounting without knowing it. After
a decent interval he found himself drifting
very gently along the road that leads to the
church. and a pretty girl helped him. He
enjoynai his meals, was free from the intol.
cradle strain of bodily discomfort, and as
he looked from Simla upon the torment OF
fha uIluar- rpaI -Ia,,, l1o. "