Arizona republican., 1903-04-05
KING EDWARDS BALD HEAD
New Coin in India and Trouble It of
 Causing.

King Edwards bald head is serious ly threatening the stability of British rule in India. It seems that on the new rupee, just issued by the Indian mint, the profile bust of the king ap- pears bald and uncrowned. Therefore nat tive feeling is stirred to it's profound est depths, and the effigy of royalty has been brought into ridicule and con- tempt Also it is taken by the mill ions of the Indian empire as a direct insult to them that the kaiser-i-hind should be put on Indian coins in a con- dition which appears to them improper and even immodest.
 In India every respectable person would no more think of uncovering his head in public than he would of well. there is nothing that he might do which would be more immodest. A poor Indian may have wardrobe made up only of a breechclout and a turban and still be good form, but let him remove his head covering in pub lie and he commits a serious breach of decency. Only in the seclusion of his own home. when no strangers are by, does custom permit him to be uncov- cred.
 On the rupees of the reign of Vic | toria the queen appered crowned, and all was well; but the Indian mint, with singular disregard of native feeling on the subject, has placed on the new ru |. pees the head of her son, not only un- crowned but bald. It is as if some Indian rajah had built a statue of the king in Hyde park and represented the monarch in a suit of pajamas. England governs many millions of people in India, and has about 200, GOO white people there to do it. That she is able to accomplish this remark a ble feat in the governmental way is owing; to the fact that she has been studious- ly careful, since the Indian mutiny, to study the racial prejudices and GUS toms of the inhabitants. It is by a close attention to little things that she perpetuates her rule.
 It was little thing that precipitat ted the great Sepoy rebellion. The Sepoys w-re Mahometans. and, therefore, for bidden to taste the flesh of the swine but the cartridges served out to these soldiers were greased with the greasc of the unclean animal. In those days the soldier had to tear the cartridge with his teeth before he rammed it into his gun, and thus was obliged tc violate the law of him who sleeps ir Medina" by polluting his lips with the fat of the hog.
 The rebellion which followed the in sistence upon the use of the greased cartridges was terrible lesson |; England, and taught her so we'll the danger of running counter to native prejudice that until the new rupee came out the other day it was thought the lesson was not forgotten. Ina the imperial crown is on the rupee doe not alter the case in the minds O. India's millions. It is stamped on tn, reverse side of the coin, and that doe: not count. The crown should be or King Edwards head, to save him iron indecency.
 Again, millions of Hindus shay. their heads, and the badness of tn, king will be taken in the bazars-i. fact is taken-as an evidence that tn, king is a shaved head who goes abou without his turban. This complicate matters and makes him appear nor indecent. It is not, of course, proba ble that the new coin will cause pop ular outbreak, but in that Strang land of India no one knows what sucl a little thing may lead to.
 In land where fakirs throw rop into the circumambient air and thel climb up the rope and disappear where the mahatmas roam about un bridled. where even Madam Blavatsk, was able to materialize a teacup a an afternoon picnic, and where one O the bloodiest wars in history was caus ed by the use of creased cartridges whc can tell what will happen? From Cal cutta to Peshawar. and from Madra to Bombay all India is disturbed b. the bald and uncrowned king on tn rupee. The native is simple child o nature who will stand many thing: but a bald and bare-headed emperor is a little tco much.
 The punka walla will stand floggin2 but he rebels at the new rupee. Yor can tan the hide of Dunga Din wit immunity, but don't ask him to obey ; king who appears uncovered in publi or he is apt to draw his knife.