Evening star., 1904-04-27
OF CALCUTTA
Wide, Well Paved, Watered
and Swept.
THE POSTAL SERVICE
IT'S EXCELLENCE MoRTIFYING TO
AMERICANS.
The Imperial Museum-Study Of the
Industrial Arts-Restriction
Of Emigration.
BY WILLIAM CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald


Chicago Record Herald
CALCUTTA, March 26, 1904.
The streets of Calcutta, except in limit
ed portion of the native section of the city,
are wide, well paved, watered and swept.
There Is an electric tramway system with
about twenty miles of track, reaching the
principal suburbs, railway stations and
business sections, and whether Moline, ILL.,,
got 1t from Calcutta or Calcutta borrowed
the idea from Moline, both cities use the
same method of laying the dust. The tram
way company runs a big electric tank up
and down its tracks several times day,
throwing water far enough to cover nearly
the entire street. Other streets, where there
are no tracks, are sprinkled by coolies. who
carry upon their backs pig skins and goat
skins filled with water and squirt it upon
the ground through one Of the legs with
twist of the wrist as ingenious and effective
as the method used by Chinese laundrymen
to sprinkle clothes. No white man can do
either. The Hindu sprinkler is an artist
In his line, and therefore to be admired, be-
cause everybody who excels is worthy Of
admiration, no matter what he is doing.
The street sprinklers belong to the very
lowest caste; the same caste as the gar
bage collectors and the coolies that mend
the roads and sweep the sidewalks, but they
are stalwart fellows, much superior to the
higher class physically and as they wear
very little clothing everybody can see their
perfect anatomy and shapely outlines.
Much of the road mending in India is
done by women. They seem to be assigned
to all the heavy and laborious jobs. They
carry mortar and bricks and stone where
new buildings are being erected; they lay
stone blocks in the pavements, hammer
the concrete with heavy iron pestles, and
you can frequently see them walking along
the waysde with load Of lumber tim
ho hot, LN. Io hot
would be heavy for mule or an OK. Ere
quently they carry babies at the same time;
never In their arms but swung over their
backs or astride their hips The infant
population of India spend the first two or
three years of their lives astride some
bodys hip. 1t may be their mothers, or
their sisters, their brothers, but they
are always carried that way. and abound
so plentifully that there Is no DANGER of
race suicide in this empire.
The Postal Service.
Next to the Sikh soldier. the nattiest ma
tive In India is the postman, who is dressed
! in blue uniform with a blue turban of
cotton or silk cloth to match. and wears a
silver number over his forehead with the
insignia of the postal service and a girdle
with a highly ornamental buckle. ~re de-
liveries and collections are much M fre-
quent than with US 1t is a modification
to every American who travels abroad to
see the superiority of the postal service in
other countries That IS about the only
feature of civil administration in which the
federal government of the United States is
inferior. but, compared with India as well
as the European countries our Post Office
Department is not up to date, and l would
| like to call the attention of Postmaster Gen
| eral Payne and Congress to this fact.
You can mail a letter to any part of Cal
cutta in the morning and If your corre
| spondent takes the trouble, he can reach
| you with a reply before dinner. The rates
| of postage on local matter and on parcels
| are very much lower than with us. I can
| send a package of books or merchandise or
anything else weighing less than four
| pounds from Calcutta to Chicago for less
| than half the charge that would be required
on a similar package from Evanston or
| Oak Park
The Fine Shops.
| There are many fine shops in Calcutta for
people throughout all eastern India come
here to buy goods just as those in the north
| western part of the United States go to Chi
cago and in the eastern states to Boston
| Philadelphia or New York. OF course the
| Calcutta shops are not so large and do not
| carry such extensive stocks a retail dealers
| in our large cities. because they are almost
! entirely dependent upon the foreign popu-
| lation for patronage, and that is compara-
| lively small. The natives patronize mer-
| chants of their own race, and do their buy
| ing in the baZaars, where the same articles
| are sold at prices much lower than those
| asked by the merchants in the foreign sec
| ton of tie city. This is perfectly natural,
| for the native dealer has comparatively lit
! tie rent to pay, the wages of his employees
| are rdiculously small and it does not cost
! him very much to live. If a foreigner tries
| to trade in the native shops he has to pay
| big prices. Foreigners who live in Calcutta
| u: ually send their servants to make pur-
| chases. and, although 1t is customary for
the servant to take a little commission or
squeeze" from the seller for himself, the
| price is much lower than would be paid for
| the same articles at one of the European
| shops.
Occasionally you see American goods, but
| not often. We sell to India comparatively
| little merchandise except iron and steel
| machinery, agricultural implements, sewing
| machines, typewriters, monographs and
| other patented articles A few days ago
| four naked Hindus went staggering along
| the main street of Calcutta carrying or
gan made by company of Detroit which
| has considerable trade here, and pianos are
| advertised by one of the music dealers The
| beef packing houses of Chicago send con-
| siderable timed meat over here, which is
| very popular and useful. Indeed, 1t would be
| difficult for the English to get along with
! out them, because there is SO little native
| beef. l believe l told you the other day
| that beef is very scarce all over India. 1t
| is served at the hotels only once or twice a
| week. This is due to the fact that cows are
draught purposes. Fresh beef comes all
| the way from Australia in refrigerator
| ships and is sold at the fancy markets.
| While on this subject l ought to warn
! Chicago firms that there Is great deal
| of complaint about the carelessness with
| which they make up their packages. In a
| grocery store the other day l was shown
| a package of canned meat which had ar
| rived from Chicago that morning. and saw
| punctured cans of corned beef and tongue.
| The man who nailed on the lid had care
lessly driven his nails into the cans of beef
| instead of the box. Several of the cans
| were blown also; that is, they were in
| securely soldered, and the air had got into
| the tin and spoiled the contents.
| The native bazaars are like those in other
| Indian cities, although not 30 interesting.
| Calcutta has comparatively small native
| trade, although 1t has million Of popula-
| ton. The shops of Delhi, Lahore, Jeypore.
| Lucknow, Benares and other cities are
| much more attractive. In the European
| quarter are some curio dealers, who come
| here for the winter and go to Delhi and
| Smla for the summer, selling brocades,
| embroideries, shawls. wood and ivory cary
| ings and other native art work which are
| very tempting to tourists. Several dealers
| in jewels come here for a season from Delhi
| and other cities in order to catch the native
| princes who are the greatest purchasers Of
precious stones in the world. Several OF
haxya al.,ob b1a nd