Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-10
LANDING Il BOMBAY
Picturesque Inhabitants Seen
at First Glance.
COMFORTS OFONE'SH0ME
A CHEAPLY MADE AND MOST
ORIGINAL FLOOR.
Inequalities Of the Royal Yacht Club
and Of the Resi-
dents.
COMFORTS OFONE'SHOME
Written for The Evening Star.

10 lano IN Bombay after ones first VOy-
age Of twenty-One days from London is, no
matter how much one cares for the sea,
like lifting gray veil and gazing into a
many-hued fiower-garden, and must be, I
think, one Of the easily-to-be-counted red
letter days" of life. The white yacht-like
boat manned by a brown crew in snowy
clothes, with green turbans, comes putting
out to the ship over the bluest of blue
waters, and before one has finished ad-
m1rlng the green, white and blue, the boat
draws up at covered dock, and one finds
there is no noise nor confusion and we are
delayed only long enough for our customs
papers to be examined, in which papers we
have declared that we have brought moth
Ing to sell, and have given a rough, very
rough, fear, estimate Of the value Of our
belongings; then, having walked down the
long dock full Of silent coolies clad in very
little else except dirty turban, caste
mark on their foreheads and their own
brown skins, we choose from among the
many waiting teccagari - carriages : one
which seems less dirty and dilapidated
than the others, and drive through the
broad streets OF Bombay to our hotel. AL
though we knew that the town was Eng
nsn-tnat Is to say, that all the buildings
were OF two or three stories and the streets
very wide and wonderfully clean, we were
a bit disappointed in its non-native appear
ance IN that regard, but we were filled with
enthusiasm at the evidence everywhere of
the wonderful English rule. When one
thinks that the population is something like
$4,000, 1880 being European, the rest ma
tive, and then when one realizes the per-
feet cleanliness of the European quarter,
the absence of smells, the freedom from
beggars and the delightful quiet of the
streets, one cannot fail to be deeply i'm
pressed. The second impression is of the
nn1n ~
In the streets between the dock and hotel;
Mohammedans in snowy garments and high
turbans Paris women in every color of the
rainbow, the long veil-like garments with
one end thrown gracefully oyer the head,
generally Of cotton, but among the richer
classes Of thin silk or yards and yards of
silk gauze; the Hindus usually in scanty'
garments and often with nothing except
a loin cloth and rag twisted about the
head, their heads dyed red and teeth red
dened by beetel nut, the little brown, club
by babies without a scrap of anything on
them, the gaily-colored bullock carts,
drawn by small white lIulocks with painted
horns, and the bright colored umbrellas,
the very blue sky and very green trees,
nothing can exceed the color.
the Great Western Hotel, at which we
stopped, we found fairly comfortable, but
the fare what it invariably is in India bad
1t is built around small open court filled
with palms and with very green lawn.
There are balconies around the three or
four stories, and the rooms all open off
long, narrow passages and are nearly
square with enormously high ceilings; two
beds, with sheets only, in each room, and a
bath room with a connecting door, in which
is common zinc bathtub, a washstand
with running water and q -commode. Each
bed has netting. hanging over it, the
walls are perfectly white, and the floor, the
only thing of beauty about the place, inlaid
in good colors and very artistic patterns in
bits of broken china. nothing more nor less!
We deliberately traced the remains of a
pink tea set all through the pattern on one
of our floors, and a green one on the floor
of one Of the other rooms
Familiar Fragments.
Then we came upon fragments Of cups
with For a Good Child on them In bits,
which we with infinite pains and great
amusement spelled out in the central and
very elaborate figure Of our main apart
ment. 1t certainly is an original and cheap
method of making a floor.
The weather in Bombay is, they saw
never cool, and at this time, the winter
season, it was hotter than anything we had
ever before felt, even on the Arabian sea.
There are punkas of brown, heavy linen
over every bed, the rope carried out over
the door and In reach OF the servant who
always sleeps or squats outside his masters
room, and the door Of the room Is only
three or four feet high, and begins about a
foot from the floor. There are outer doors
also, but seldom used and always out of
repair There are French windows opening
from floor to ceiling, with a balcony out
side. and, in fact, every provision possible
is made for possible GOODNESS. We did not
find the heat, great as it was, unbearable,
although, besides being so very hot, it was
also very damp. One could not move with
out being thrown into a violent perspira-
ton. but one did not need to move very
much, and never thought of moving at all
betw zen II and 4, except to go to lunch, an
experience to be dreaded for several rea-
sons.
The scene outside our window was as
picturesque as we could wish, for just over
the wall of the hotel lived some well-to-do
natives, with their retainers, and the backs
Of their houses, irregularly punched to-
gether, made a picture.
Upstair Rooms.
On the second story of one was balcony
covered with a beautifully fine mating,