Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-09-16
You have no idea what q queer, crazy
.ffa <la Grc& 800 A..

But all the same White men don know
what possibilities in the way of orns-
mentation they lose in depriving them
selves of their back hair.
Mr. 6. W. Stevens observes of tht
Arabs of the upper Nile that the more
hair they wear the less clothing they
consider necessary. 1t is true of Che
Cingalese of the lower classes. If fel
lows hair is long enough to cover hi!
neck and shoulders. his clothing con
sists frequently of string. that's ALL
In Colombo are aged men who i'm
agine must look like the old Hebrew
prophets Dignifed and silent, with
white boards and finely cut features
they stride through the streets in thei1
longish petticoats and bare or saudale6
feet, with rapt eyes, looking as though
they might at any moment break fortf
into vaticination or denunciation. but
hardly bearing the appearance of goo6
providers and family men, in which re
spect am sure again they resemble the
ancient prophets. If an artist want:
to paint a Habakkuk or Ezekiel, Oh
even a Jonah and the whale, let hin
come to Colombo for his model
As climbers and jumpers the little
brown fellows of Asia and the south
sea islands excel the white man. Per,
haps they are not so far removed from
a common monkey ancestor as the white
man Is. \ cocoanut tree trunk is al
most as smooth as a flagstaff and as
slim, and the fruit is so feet above the
ground, yet the Malay and the Ceylon
natives shin up it with wonderful dex-
terity and rapidity.
Every shade of brown man and vel
low man on the planet is represented in
these south Asiatic cities; likewise ev-
cry shade of theology -Mohammedan,
Parsee Brahman, Buddhist, joss and
Christian The Tamils are race of In
dia who frequently wear gold buttons
in their noses. If these buttoned the
nostrils together to prevent the entrance
of some of the thousand and one bad
smells that haunt the brown mans
cities, there would be some reason and
sense to them. But they don't They
are only stuck into one side.
The blackest of the brown men /
have as yet seen are the Cingalese, or
natives of Ceylon David said all men
We're liars, and | don't wonder at it,
for he lived i'll Asia and knew his peo-
pie. Putting it mildly, | should say
that all the native races in this part OF
the world are born thieves and liars,
except the Japs and Chinese and high
caste Indians. And Of these congenital
thieves and liars the Cingalese of the
lower class are the worst, regular don
BILE dyed, internal rascals, with no more
idea of right and wrong than monkey
has-that. too although in the city Of
Colombo alone there are II Christian
churches Some of them We're estab-
lished here before the writing Of the
hymn about spicy breezes blowing
soft o 'er Ceylon $ isle. y OF all the isles
of the east, however. the Philippines
are the richest and the most productive.
likewise spicy. "
One institution in Colombo impressed
me greatly. Ii was the newly esta blish-
ed Lady HaveloclS hospital for women
and children Here in the heart Of
Asiatic filth and degradation it raises
its modest head, clean, pure and airy,
blessed charity to those who have no
charity for themselves, the gift of white
women to brown women in country
where brown women are held as no
more than dogs. 1t is superintended
altogether by women; the surgeon in
charge and all the staff doctors are
women 1t is always full to overflowing
and is not nearly large enough to ac-
commodate the wretched ones who creep
to its doors
But l saw no mahatmas in CeylOn,
not a mahat. Neither could find any
body else who had seen one, though /
made special inquiry and though Co
lombo is heart and head center of their
movements l begin to think there is
more knowledge of the movements Of
Indian mahatmas in Brooklyn and Gin
cinnati than there is in India itself.
One illustration herewith given shows
natives picking tea leaves on Ceylon
their heads covered with
white draping to protect them from the
sun. Tea planting is fourishing in the
island and Ceylon tea in Ceylon is the
best ever tasted But the coffee raising
industry in the orient has gone to abso-
lutte smash, it is believed everlastingly.
The reason is that coffee planters in the
east cannot compete with the South and
Central American countries. These
pour out the berry in such abundance