The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-06-05

that he must either get back his fortress
or divulge the secret TO the government
and run the risk of losing the treasure
forever. When the fortress was given
back to the maharajah and before the
British troops had left Gwalior territory
masons were brought from Benares,
sworn to secrecy in the temple OF the
Holy Cow. before leaving, and when
they reached the Gwalior railway sta
ton they were put into carriages, blind
folded and driven q the place where
they had to work. There they were kept
until they had opened the entrance into
the secret vault. and. when the con-
cealed hoard had been verified and the
hole quilt up again. they were once
more blindfolded. put into carriages and
taken back to the railway station and
booked for Benares under a proper es-
cOrt."
Ch~owringhee L.all went on to tell me
that for generations before the rise Of
the British powers his ancestors had
held the post of treasurer in the Gwa-
lior state. and that. after the British had
annexed territories around Delhi, one
of his great-grand-uncles had retired
from the post of treasurer of Gwalior
with "A fortune of 20 crores of rupees
Geo. DOC. O00). BY great good fortune
all this money was quietly got into Brit
ish territory. he declared, and 10 crores
of IL at this day are bricked up I'm a
secret vault under a Hindoo temple
dedicated to the goddess Of wealth I'm
the holy city of Brindebun. Now.
said the lalla. IF the treasurer could
so much, what were the ac-
cumulations of the state likely to be?
The treasures Of Gwalior form but "a
very small amount compared with the
total of the known concealed wealth Of
India. All the silver would be brought
out and replaced by gold directly the
British government decreed a gold cur
enc for India.
Five hundred millions'of gold could
be absorbed and concealed before "A
gold currency had been IL months in
circulation. Europeans. even those who
have been In the country for years. have
no idea of the boarding ~propensities of
even well-to-do natives, without count
ing the more wealthy bankers and
traders. For example. my wife," said
the lalla, has more than three lakhs of
rupees hidden for fear of my dying be-
fore her. because I am much older than
she Is, and we ave no son alive to in
herit my property. And | know nothing
about the place where this money is con-
cealed."
ON this | asked how natives managed
to accumulate 80 much wealth. n the
lalla replied: Natives don't spend like
Europeans. Take the house of any
welI-to-do native merchant with an in
come OF. say 1000 rupees per month at
the very outside, so to 100 rupees would
purchase the whole of the furniture I'm
1t. Beyond a few purdahs (curtains)
and beds. furniture in the European
sense does not exist. Even the very
wealthy. although they may have "A
carriage and horses, possess neither
books nor pictures, nor any expensive
works of art, answ when a feast is given
to their friends a piece of plantain leaf
serves each guest for a dish, where
Europeans spend hundreds of rupees i'm
Inner and breakfast services of fragile.
but most expensive china and glass
ware. All this the native saves and
boards. The wealthy conceal their ac-
cumulations OF gold and silver i'm secret
vaults, except the ornaments, which are
reserved foT and worn by their women."
| had to admit the force of all this
reasoning.-Springfield CMass.) Iiepubli-
can.