The record-union., 1894-03-07

grand virtue that cannot be too highly
commented, for it raises up children to
respect old age and parentage, not for
wealth or learning or skill, but because ii
is siivery old age. and that must be ven-
Grated IN the parent.
Alas in America / am pained" said
the speaker, with the conduct of chill
dren." The tlippant remark about father
and mother, the tone and act of disre-
spect, the absence of tenderness for father
and mother, the readiness to desert them,
the absence OF veneration for their locks
and parenthood. 1t is all the direct re-
suit of children being brought up so far
away from their parents.
youth and old age are not in close
enough touch with you; here freedom
tends to become Wanton freedom in
youth, ana | fear liberty tends, with too
many, to libertinism."
Caste is a puzzle to nearly all people
outside Of India. What it is and what
its origin it is very difficult to explain.
The hold it has upon the Hindoos no one
can fully appreciate who is not a resident
OF India and familiar with her institu-
tions
Caste is a social classification based on
birth and breeding, having the sanction
of religion" No better definition of 1t
can be given than that, said the speaker.
Here in the West there are classes and
ludSS6Ss LII Hula l00rO Is caSL0. OTIS-
lnally there were four castles. At first
they were classes, and could be readjusted
according to merits and dement's and en-
vlronment. but later they became crys-
tallIzed. fossiliZed. These four were priest
(Brahmin]. warrior, merchant, servant.
Into these natural groups society by it's
necessities was known in India and were
readily adjustable one into another. But
after time they became subdivided into
h al
and these during ages became fossiliZed
and fixed and unchangeable and unad-
Unstable.
So now there are as many castles as there
are occupations, callings, professions.
The members OF one caste cannot dine
with the member of another, nor inter
marry with his family. So the son of
printer cannot marry with the daughter
OF a servant, nor the daughter Of a war
rlor marry the son Of a carpenter, nor a
Brahmin dine with merchant.
II one has dinner party he must have
as many dining places or groups as there
are castles present. One OF an upper caste
cannot accept food cooked by one OF
lower caste, etc. Il do not believe in all
as things are"
In America there are classes and
masses, and they are interchangeable.
One may belong to one to-day, to another
Tomorrow, as wit, fortune or merit war
rants, and each may dine with anyone of
the other classes. Here if one by labor,
skill, brain, grit and deserving wins
place in class. and then sinks into the
mass by his neglect, he can recovep his
place If he chooses, and is fortunate in
environment,
Not so in India-there birth determines
your place, and once in it you can never
rise out OF 1t, no matter what you merit.
If one is the son of a carbuilder, but
never follows the trade, never knows
tool, but studies and becomes learned and
great, still If he goes into court the first
question asked is, "What is your caste p"
and he replies, 81 am a carbuilder."
So 1t is that Brahmins enjoy the privi-
leges OF that caste who never were and
are not priests. So caibenter's son may
become banker, a merchant, a lawyer,
physician, yet for ever he is of the lower
caste, and can never have the privileges
of a Brahmin or the priest caste.
This illustration was used: In America
the classes are horizontal segments,
parallel to one another, superimposed one
upon the other, with the masses OF the
people at the foundation of all; and these
horizontal lines may sink into or rise into
each other. each retaining its character, yet
each interchanging with the others.
In India these segments or lines are
lars, each standing on it's own base, birth,
not one touching the other, though side
by side; aloof from each other, yet parts
OF whole, but not mingling or inter-
changing.
So what in America is a source of union
and strength, is in India a source of
weakness and;want Of harmony. Now it
can be understood why the people of n
small nation like England can hold in
sinh az Il
lions upon millions of India, because of
caste; that makes the lower envious of
the higher caste, and the latter contempt
uOus of the former, and to look down
upon it from the altitude of pride of birth.
What caused caste? AS to that there
are many views. Some say it is the re-
suit of priestcraft; that it came of the
rule of the Brahmins, the priests. But
this cannot be, because it is a fact that
never in any country has a particular
class created environment. Environ
ment may create class, but never vice
versa.
Certain things through ages come to be
in society and individuals avail Of these
things and apply them, but they do not
create them. One of the theories of the
use of caste is this: That once the priests
failed largely of occupation, not enough
people married or died or needed priests
to employ them all so they could make
living. There came to be large body of
supernumerary priests, who had no func-
tionS to perform.
So, it is said, the Brahmins came to-
gether and decided that these surplus
priests might be secularized and become
bankers or merchants or something else
Thus there came to be priests in fact and
priests in name only. by occupation
clerks, ScrlbeS, money changers. but by
birth Brahmins. Here, then, we have
one class in two divisions, and these d.
visions subdivided again and again and
still the caste was that of the priest.
A second theory is that long. long ago
communications in India was slow and in
frequent between sections of the great
continent. Some bodies of people to bet
ter their fortunes migrated from the
south to the north provinces and settled
near Bengal, for instance. They rarely
heard from their old home and finally
grew out Of touch with it. So here was q
class divided into two classes but with
one home, one caste BIRTH two divisions
with two distinct surroundings, but with
no communication between them. SO
these two sets from the same stock de-
Veloped under different conditions. mem
tai and intellectual, and came to look
upon each other as distinct almost as
alien.
Suppose that a large group had come
out long ago from Massachusetts to Cali
fornia, and that for ages there was ONLY
infrequent communication between the
two sections, and then but meager COM
municaton. In the course of time. il
can be seen, these two groups would
come to look upon each other as aliens.
Awarded Highest f