Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-03-29


/ most ceaselessly pulling the punkah.
while seated, all but naked in a
! draughty hall upon the tiled floor or
upon mat or cotton cloth on the
| ground. 1t is a common sight to see
the punkah wallahs upon the roofs OF
| houses and back buildings. Juggling
| away at long rope that passes over
pulleys to the punkahs in the rooms
! through some hole bored in the brick
wall Or frame OF door or window.
During the day a different wallah
pulls the punkah, and each guest at
hotels must employ two punkah wal
lahs. one for day, and one for night
| service.
a Sort Of Bondage.
The majority seem to think they
/ have bought the poor coolie, and this
idea of property right il human flesh
seems TO increase the longer. the in
diyidual remains in India These poor
native servants receive, besides fire.
quent brutal kicks and cuffs, the
equivalent Of IS cents, something less,
| for days work of u hours, and with
these wages they must feed and
clothe themselves and those depend
ing upon them. 1t is needless to
state that they do not wear much
clothing, only a yard or SO of cheap
cotton cloth wrapped about them.
Your boy, "Mahamed," makes
your bed, and after your spin on the
cycle or a game Of tennis, he rubs you
down, dresses and grooms you. He
polishes or whitens your boots and
sun helmet, and does similar work,
but he will give up his situation in
stantly, though he be ever so needy,
rather than empty a basin of water,
carry a small handbag or parcel down
stairs to the carriage, pull a punkah,
sweep a room, or bring hot water, etc.
It's not his work, he says, and he
would lose caste by doing it.
A coolie who carries heavy cases of
goods all days will point-blank refuse
to post a letter for his master in a
street letter box few yards from the
door. or to do the most trivial thing
if it is not his work" Each duty calls
for a different servant
Native Home and Street Life.
Nine--tenths of the natives live in
One-story huts, made OF mud, contain
ing one room without window or
chimney. For cooking, a fire is built
in hole dug in the floor, the smoke
escaping as best it can.
The villages are like a series of
caves, the streets forming a five-foot
sloping ditch. The majority of native
schools present some twenty children
grouped in a cavelike room, whose
door is a two-by-four-foot hole. There
are neither windows nor seats. Here
bright-eyed children study Sanskrit
and old states filled with exercises in
mathematics.
Native shops are usually a mere
hole, three by five feet and four feet
high, into which the clerk crawls
and cannot stand erect. All shops are
open on the street and operations are
conducted in full view of the passers-
by.
The natives sleep anywhere, every
where and at all hours. Calcutta's
look like a huge hospital, especially
after p. m. Scores of sleeping natives
lie at full length in rows for blocks,
some on cots, most on a dirty cotton
cloth spread on the ground.
If the night is cool, which is a rare
thing, they cover head and body with
the dirty cloth and look like a bundle
Of Nm irb
to avoid stumbling over sleeping ma
tives in daytime as we'll as in these
dimly lighted streets at night In
small towns they even lay in the roads
and teams have to avoid them. A
group OF a dozen will squat in the
streets of natives towns and chatter,
oblivious of the stream of bullock
carts and traffic.
Roadside Scenes.
Roadside merchants unpack and
spread their stock of goods upon
three 10y four foot cloth or a sack, and
cOmplacently sit waiting for buyers.
The BARRIERS on the pike scrape their
customers without lather, while the
victiE watches operations in dimnu-
tive scrap of mirror. A portion Of
the men wear the hair short, but
thousands wear it long, in flowing
ringlets. They call one another by
opening and closing the hand while
outstretched, palm downward, On
level with face.
The Hindus seem neither energetic
nor ambitious. They work leisurely,
as rule, many only for few hours
daily to get their penny for buying
their rice and curry. All apparently
have abundant leisure for worship,
lettering about, lounging, strolling or
sleeping a third or more OF each day.
In groups of a score or more they
sit about upon the grass of public
squares. 4 rag does for costume and
the majority of both sexes go barefoot.
Fuel is cheap and not much needed.
Food consists largely of rice, often
carried in their clothes
As a rule they accumulate but lit
tie money or goods, and live from
hand to mouth. Their houses are
without chairs or any furniture or
substitute.
At work the feet are used as an
extra pair Of hands. Loads are car
ried upon their heads, and you may
see four persons trotting with piano
through the street, one head at each
corner of the instrument, with hands
hanging at their side.
Even the highest caste Branmins
eat with their fingers. A group sur
rounds a big basin Of boiled rice and
each makes a ball or cake of rice TO