The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-17
ENIGMAS ALL ABOUT HIM.
THE EUROPEAN RESIDENT IN INDIA
ALWAYS A STRANGER.
Queer Traits of the Baboos-Utter
Lack of "A Sense of Humor-CRstc
Affected by street Railways.
sUarma of DusISy Servants
From the New York sun.

Swarms of DusISy Servants.
From the New York sun.
Nothing in Indian life." said the re-
turned East Indian, "impresses the Euro
pean resident more than the fact that he
never comes TO be anything but a stran-
ger to those about him. He never faith
oms the Indian mind and never knows
more Of his servants than appears on the
surface. His boy. for example. is an enig-
ma to the European. Perhaps the masters
learns incidentally that the boy has wife
and family and makes shift to maintain
some sort of family life while seemingly
giving all his time to his employer.
THE boy and many OF the other GER
wants visit the bazaar and the bazaar Of
the east is the great exchange of gossip
Cup. as the Hndustani word is. Every
piece of news native or foreign. is in the
Cup of the bazaar. Your boy brings home
all sorts of news, which is to be had merely
for the asking. He knows who among
your friends are i'll, in love. in debt. The
bazaar often has early news of European
disturbances. and these mysterious people
who surround you and of whom you are
curiously ignorant talk Familiarity in the
bazaar of your private affairs.
ut is in business life as in family life;
you know nothing of the natives with
whom you come in contact The native
studies English only to get a place where
he may earn a living, and once possessed
of a clerkship he is content to plod on,
working with peculiar care and precision,
but with the utmost slowness, malingering
whenever he dare upon any excuse, and
constantly, as 1t seems, concealing his
real self. The native employees favorite
excuse is a funeral, and he seems to be
bereft of some one near and dear every
three months. 1t is impossible to guess
whether the excuse is real or fictitious.
One is often amazed at the seeming ac-
quaintance of the native with all sorts
of things that belong to a European edu-
cation, but after time one finds that it is
only lip knowledge.
"Baboo is the name given in Bengal to
the graduate of an Indo- English school.
and such men constitute a small clerical
class some of whom rise to places of i'm
portance under the government. Baboo
English is a stock subject of jest among
Europeans. 1t is often curiously abb
surd. The memoir of Onocool Chunder
Moorkerjee, a judge of the highest In
dian tribunal, published at Calcutta ten or
twelve years ago, was received with
burst of laughter by the English press.
English by more or less distinguished ma
tiVes have been quite as ridiculous. Ma
the funniest things in life. They are made
worse by the tricks played upon them by
English residents. Newspapers in the ma
tive dialect are usually short lived, though
no steps are taken to suppress or ex-
ercise a censorship over them
THE native delights in strong English
words OF Latin derivations, and often uses
them with meaning just a shade off their
common acceptance. Along with these
ambitious words the native uses slang
and conventional phrases by way of CIV
ing his style an air Of unstudied ease.
The selection of Justice MoorkerJee,'
says his biographer, was most judicious
and tiptop.' A seeming utter absence of
humor marks the attempt of the native at
English composition. A native applying
to me for a place as clerk closed his let
ter thus: Hearing that you are fond of
figures, l append a few: l, 2, 3, 4, 5, g.. A
clerk, being absent, sent me letter of
excuse, in which ne explained that he
was kept away by boil, as per Margin
On the margin of the sheet he had drawn
a rude outline of the part affected by the
boil, with an exaggerated representation
of the latter. 1 amentirely clear that
neither had any humorous intent.
Some of the baboos adopt the pro-
fession of writers, which means that
they undertake the correspondence of
persons not so happy in their education.
These boboo letters are marked with an
exaggeration of the absurdtties that be-
long to native English. Every native on
applying Tor a piaCe III an iLuBiiSn mousse
brings letters of recommendation. These
are occasionally, perhaps frequently,
forged by the baboo writer employed
for the purpose. The writer does not
hesitate to append the name of any An
glo-Indlan, no matter how distinguished.
/ doubt not that Warren Hastings name
has appeared in a hundred such. These
forgeries are so clumsy to be ridiculous,
for the recommendations are fulsome and
nQrid 10 he last degree.
lone must consider caste in all dealings
with the natives, yet l own my ignor-
ance Of the subject. A prince is not
necessarily a man of high caste, and
his prime minister may in this matter
be his superior. An American corpora
ton has done a great deal to shake
the power of the CASTE at least In some
particulars at Bombay. When street rail-
WAYS were introduced In that city by
this American company 1t was prophe-
cied that the enterprise would be a
failure that men OF different castles
exactly the reverse Is true. You see
men Of ali castles sitting side by side in