The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-18

A trifiing incident started the flame that
consumed thousands of lives In the most
terrible uprising of history.
FATAL RETORT.
A low caste Indian, furnishing by the
roadside, beseeched a drink of water
from a passing native officer. The lat
ter replied that he could not grant the
request, because the lips of the low
caste would contaminate his canteen.
The low caste retorted that the time
was near when the lips of the officer
would be contaminated by the touch of
the tallow of cows and of pigs.
The officer reported this prophecy to
the men of his regiment and 1t quickly
spread throughout the land. The Eng
lish commanders realized that something
of unusual import was agitating the ma
tives, and an English colonel one day
asked his native troopers II they had
any grievance, and if so to step out and
state it. A score Of petty officers re-
sponded and said that their religion did
not permit them to taste of the grease
of the COW or the pig and that the car
triges they were obliged to bite open
were covered with the fat OF these ami
mails.
The charge was true. At that time
there was school of military instruction
at Dumdum, eight miles from Calcutta,
Wnere the new ndu DeSIl lillO-
duced. To make them effective in the
musket of that time it was necessary to
give them a coat of tallow. The car
triges were of paper, and before insert
ing them into the breech of the musket
the ends were torn off by the teeth so
as to expose the powder. In this way
the lips of the soldier came in contact
with the tallow and the soldier lost
caste" The cow is an object of Ven
Grafton among the East Indians and the
pig an object of adherence. So the
tate of either was forbidden by the faith
full of the MohammedanS or the Bram1nS.
The government Immediately agreed to
substitute vegetable grease for animal,
but the spirit of mutiny was abroad end
it was then too late to check 1t. In fact,
the concessions on the part of the gov
ernment were construed as evidences of
fear, Just as the humanity of the Ameri-
cans in the Philippines is interpreted
by the Tagalos.
Mysterious messages, in the form Of
small cakes of native flour, were sent by
couriers throughout the upper provinces
of India. The English could not under
stand the significance of them, but they
soon learned they were the signal for the
uprising. This was in the latter part
Of May, 1857. The first regiment to mutiny
was one stationed at Agra. Then follow
ed the outbreaks, in swift succession, at
Delhi, Cawnpore and Lucknow, and in
a short time the entire upper part of
India was af1ame.
The mutineers first killed their English
officers and then attacked the civilians
and British garrisons. They seemed fir
ed by fanaticism, and in a flash Of time
the apparently civilized Sepoys twere con-
verified into bloodthirsty savages.
Their leader was a high caste, whom
they called Mana Sahib, and the horrible
atrocities committed by the Sepoys were
at his direction. The Sepoys were all we'll
armed and drilled, and many Of them had
become military experts by British tut
ton. They captured nearly all of the
senals and were better supplied with am
munition than the British. At the time
of the outbreak there werezbut 16, 600 Brit
ish troops holding the entire territory be-
tween Rangoon and Peshawur and these
We're opposed by 100000 disciplined Sepoys.
CRISIS APPROACHES.
Sir Henry Lawrence was in command
at Lucknow, and towards the end of May
he realized that events were approaching
a crisis. The residency composed of the
chief commissioner official residence and
collection Of buildings surrounding it,
was located a short distance from the
city of Lucknow. News of uprisings in
various parts of the empire had reached
Lucknow, and Sir Henry felt it expedient
to fortify the residency against the antic-
ipated mutiny in the kingdom of Dude,
of which Lucknow was the capital AS
yet no murnur of an outbreak had been
hoard among the native troops under Gen
Lawrence, and these were employed with
the $50 members of her majesty's Thirty
second regiment in building the defenses
around the residency.
The latter was a lozenge-shaped inc1o-