Passaic City record., 1893-09-09
BOMBAY.
Picturesque Scenes in an Indian
Capital.
Houses, Streets and Shops in the
Native Quarter.

A traveller draws the following bril-
liant picture of Bombay:
The native city of Bombay is really
an incredible sight. The intense light
the vivid colors, the extraordinarily
! picturesque life, the hustle and move
ment; the narrow, -tumble6
houses with projecting stories, painted
shutters, etc., and alleys simply
thronged with people; Hindoo tenn.
| pies, mosques, opium dens, theatres,
clubs; and at night light and open
easements and balconies above with
similar groups; handsome private
houses too scattered about, but some
of them now converted into warehouses
or lodging houses, and looking dirty
enough.
Imagine great house towering
above the rest, with projecting stories
and balconies and easements top
tiers nothing but painted wood and
glass, like the stern of huge three
decker. The basement story is open
and fronted with great carved wooden
columns. Here are a few plants stand
ing, and among them-his golden
brown body thrown up against the
gloom behind-stands young boy of
eight or nine, nearly naked, with sill
yer wringlets and string of blue beads
around his neck.
The next houses are low, only two
or three stories, and their easements
are let out in tiny shops only a few
feet square each. Here, squatted among
cushions, smoking his long pipe, sits
an old money lender with white cap
and frock, and gold-rimmed specta
cles. Near him are boys and assist
tants totting up accounts or writing
letters on their knees. The man is
worth thousands of pounds, but his
place of business is not bigger than
dining-room table - and there are
scores like him.
The next few shops are all silver
smiths = four or five in each shop,
couches and cushions as before, and
cabinets full of trinkets. Further on
they are hammering brass and copper
"a score of shops at least consecutive.
Now we come to an archway, through
which behold large reservoir, with
people bathing.
There is Hindoo temple here, and
they do not like us to enter; but under
the arch sits an old ascetic. He has
sat cross-legged for SO many years that
he can take no other position; some
times for extra penance he gets them
to lift him up and seat him on spiked
board; but I fancy he is such hard
ened old sinner that he does not feel
even that much.
He is Unknown character in the
city.
A little further on, in balcony, is
a group of girls, with henna-black
eyes somewhat dantily got up, and on
the outlook for visitors. Now coyey
Of Parsee women and children comes
by, brilliant in their large silk wraps
flor even the poorer Parsee females
make point of wearing these pale
green or salmon color or blue-drawn
over their heads and depending even
to their feet their large dark eyes
shining with fire and intelligence, not
the timid glance of the general run of
Indian women. Many of the Parsee
fair ones, indeed especially Of the
well-to-do classes - are exceedingly
handsome.
If you take this general description
of the native Bombay, and add to it
q handsome modern city, with fine
banks, post and government offices, es-
planades, parks, DOCKS, markets, rail-
way stations, ETC., and then again add
to that a manufacturing quarter, with
scores Of chimneys belching out smoke,
ugly stretches of waste land, and all
the dirt of Sheffield or Birmingham
(only with coco-palms instead of oak
trees shriveling in the blight; then
distribute through it all population,
mainly colored, but Of every nation in
the world, from sheerly naked water
carriers and coolies to discreet, long
raimented Parsees and English gentle
men and ladies, you will have an idea
of Bombay, the most remarkable city
that have visited in this part OF the
world.