The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1897-12-10
Star
SOME FACTS ABOUT INDIA.
Tacoma Ledger.

That is n picture OF Mrs. f. l.. Wood
for years a resident Of India, but al
present Il visitor in Tacoma and stop
pingat the Tacoma hotel. Mrs. WOOD
has been all owe the world and tn,
description Of her personal life and
the little details Of living that Ordi'
nary travellers, rs Il rule, overlook IN
India is interesting. Because of lel
cosmopolitc education, Mrs. Woods
conversation is plcDtifully besrrinklcd
with foreign phrases, for Mrs. Wood
speaks Italian. French and Il hall
dozen Indian dialects as she speaks
her native English.
1T is 50 funny, you know, but pco-
pie in this country seem TO know
nothing about India. Why, l had Il
man ask me the other day, why, if
you were born in India. why are you
not black Good gracious, but | am
not an Indian My father was white
and 50 was my mother. II either Of
them had been black, should proba-
bly, be ii saffron yellow. And don't YOU
know things like that are constantly
occurring? India, you know, is not
all one country. There are three pres
idencics-one at Madras, one at BON
bay and one at Calcutta. At the lat
ter place lives the viccrOy. Each
presidency also has a governor, com
mander-in-chief and supreme council
the latter composed of the four senior
members of the civil service. You
sec, suppose you are Il young man and
enter the civil service and work up to
the top. Then the last appointment
you receive before you retire is tn Il
chair Of the supreme council Of Il
presidency. My father was acting
governor Of Madras. But the yiceroy
in the heal of it all, because, as his
name indicates, he stands in the place
Of the king.
"And then in this country every one
is alike. Not So in India. There the
natives have their castles. There are
the Brahmins, the Ilindoos, the Par
secs and many other Sccts and castles.
Sir Reuben Sassonn, the English mil
lionairc, is il Parscc. He is the great
friend Of the Prince Of Wales, but he
had educated himself and gone to
England, where he has a residence and
is quite Il good sort. You know the
Parsccs worship fire and the others
the most uncarthly shaped stone gods.
"And all the English colonies are 81
small that everybody there knows
everybody else, and it is very difficult
to do things n shouldn't do without
being found out. Now, people with Il
particle Of black blood in them are
never admitted into society. That is
the reason that we say in England
that when a young girl goes to India
and marrics she has no society when
she comes back; that is, of course, If
she marrics an Indian. Lately the
queen has brought forward several
princcsses, and they are getting cdu-
Gated, so that the natives are rapidly
getting uppiSh. But they are made to
keep their place in India. There the
lines are drawn close enough.
"And this extends to the servants.
One servant will not do another'S
work, and there are many Of them
that will not accept food from anoth-
or. For instance, there is Il class of
servants who would not accept any
thing to eat from my hands. That is
the reason why n must keep so many
servants. One must entertain, and the
higher the position the more enter
tanning they must do. That is the rca-
son English government gives to GER
taino ticials sHch great salaries. Each
horse has two servants, Il h0rse-kCcper
and a grass.cuttcr. The man takes
care of the animal and his wife goes
out to cut grass for it. And in dry
countries, where the grass is all dried
up, that is not an easy job. Now, at
MY fathers house we had so many
servants that we had to speak five dit.
fercnt dialects to command them.
There was l~IindOStani, Malabar,
Canareese, Teligoo and Tamil. These
are all separate dialects, having only
a common base, Just as all Latin Ian
guagcs have Il common base, but as
distinct from n another as French
and Italian.
"The white society, aS almost every
one ought to know, is made up Of the
civilians and army OF England, and
those mcn are always well educated,
refined and elegant"