The Topeka state journal., 1906-02-22

! Z
standard of caste, unclean. A Rajah
of low caste once bribed a beggar girl
/ of high caste and married her. A son
/ was born to them. and the Rajah's
/ courtiers claimed that the son was of
/ the same caste as the mother, but the
I Hindus would not have it so, and the
RaJah and his wife and children are
/ Outeasts.
This sort of thing might be contin-
/ ued indefinitely; dozens Of books have
4 been written about the absurd combin-
/ ations that caste brings about. The
indian takes himself and his caste ser
4 iously, and affords the world much
I amusement There is no greater fool
than the native of India. for he permits
4 his folly to degrade him. make him un-
comfortable. and the willing slave of
I a race of men who progress because
4 they know nonsense when they see it.
Wednesday. January 10.
Last night at o'clock, we said
goodbye to our friends of the Isl
! IBERIA, the .'Simla." and "Somali' and
/ left Calcutta for Benares. the sacred
! city of India. In leaving the hotel,
our man drove ahead with the bag
gage, and we followed In carriage.
The railroad station is located on the
other side of the Ganges river. from
the city. and. arriving there, we found
swarm of yelling natives. The train
for Benares was ready, and on the
door of one Of the comDartments
8
to all the baggage, and soon appeared
to make up our beds, with the bedding
we had provided The first class rail-
way carriages of India are divided into
compartments At night shelves may
be let down over the two lower seats,
and four passengers may thus be ac
cOmmOdated with beds, but they must
provide their own bedding There
is lavatOry in each compartment.
but passengers must provide their
own towels and soap. There were
three main compartments in our car,
with a small one al each end for ser
wants. The cars were lighted with
gas, and the track is double Our
train made good speed, and from the
time we started until we arrived at the
end of our journey, we saw neither
conductor. porter or brakeman,
We had purchased blankets. quilts.
pillows and sheets; these the servant
carried in a bundle with the aid Of
a shawl strap. Dividing these on the
station platform, he made up my
daughters bed In the ladies' compart-
ment, adjoining mine. and then gave
his attention to fixing me up for the
night. He rode in a servants COM
partment in one end of our car, with
three other servants. Before starting,
I was also compelled to buy blanket
for the servant, and, as we are going
into a colder country, I gave him &
suit of clothes I never did like very
well. We call the man Mahomet, as
he is a MOhammedan, ana Monanet
appearance in a combination Of
clothes from Kansas and India, Is very
amusing
found the bed fully as good as that
provided on the ordinary Pullman.
Besides the berth above me was up;
something I have always longed for.
A Captain Scott, Of the English army,
was the other occupant of my com
partment. The weather became quite
chilly during the night, and was com
T.-r 81 he,d
At the station met man had
known on the SIBERIA" I VIII prob
ably see Siberia people in Bombay,
Egypt, Paris, London and New York
This morning, when [ awoke, the
train was passing rapidly through the
plains of India; a nat country and
every inch of it cultivated. At
o clock, we stopped at Junction
point, for breakfast. Two very goUd
breakfasts, 81, or three rupees.
Arrived at Benares, the servant first
took us to a carriage, and sent US to
the Hotel de Paris later he followed
with the baggage A servant is
great luxury IN strange country; be
sides, he saves a traveller many an
noyances from other servants and 9TH
er beggars. At the Hotel de Paris,
he waits on US; makes our beds, brings
me hot water when 1 want to shave, /
etc. That is one of the luxuries. we
dozen or more hotels we viii stop a
in India. The clerk of the Hotel de
Paris met US at the junction where we
ate breakfast, and accompanied US to
the hotel Arrived there, he took US
direct to our rooms, later bringing the
register, in which I wrote our names. |
I have not been in the hotel Office; in
deed, I do not know where it is. The
Hotel de Paris is a modern building
composed of one story structures ar
ranged in a court. The room fronts
on a veranda and in the rear look out
in a court Every room has a bath
and the queerest bath you can imagine. !
Also the usual earth closet, which is
attended to by a miserable scaveneger. |
attended to by a miserable scaVenger. I
gers, and they bend double in express |
ing thanks. My room is built of sun
dried bricks, and then plastered and |
white washed It seems like a monks
cell, or a hreproof vault. The bath
is the same sort of room, adjoining
the bed room in the rear.
Americans over here often wonder
why the Indian railway trains are not
like our own. For the reason, prob I
ably that the Indian railway trains
are satisfactory to the people who
use them. Here a servant travels with
nearly every first-class passenger, and
in every hrst-cIass coach there are two
compartments marked Servants" In
America. customs are different, and
railway trains are different. There are
no second or third-class people in
America. the people here are mainly
second and third-class The com part
ment i'm which I rode this morning was
marked: For Europeans only" That
means for whites only.