Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-30
ny BABA BHARATI

| TN presenting his "Tales Of Old Japan,
Mr.. Milford said: "The books whicl
have been written of late year
about Japan have either been compiled
from official records or have contained
the sketchy impressions of passing
travellers. OF the inner life of the Jap
anese the world at large knows yer!
little; their religion, their superstitions
their ways of thought, the hiddei
springs by which they move--all thest
are as yet mysteries"
What Mr.. Milford writes about th
superficial knowledge OF the west abou
real Japan is much more true abou
real India Real life in India is a. in
visible to the skipping globe trotter a;
even to the average long residen
Anglo-Indian. The reason is simple
Even the longest resident westerner /:
too busy making rupees, in having Z
grand time after the days rupees ar,
made, to have any opportunity or in.
clination to acquire knowledge as t
! how the natives of the soil, out of whom
he makes the rupees, live and think
On the other hand. it is the business OF
the Christian missionaries to misrepre.
sent the heather who are the causes
4 of their support. As to Mr.. and Mrs
Fixit's craze to reform other peoples
homes before they reform their own
the reason of their condemning men anC
manners in India is transparent to in
telligent people.
! Missionaries and Money Grabbers
And all of them-the trotters, the
money grabbers, the missionaries and
the "Fixits"-have the complacent habit
of judging eastern life and manners, the
| little that they know of them, by their
own standards. They are all bent on
! 1..s.. Ill -
! life, conceived along quick lunch
principles, down the throats of the peo-
pie who are perhaps more civilized than
they. They would thrust their civil
ization upon the highly civilized east,
and yet they feel themselves in the
! tightest corner if they are asked to
define what civilization means. They
| cannot define it to save their soul-so
| flimsy, shallow and ever shifting that
civilization is.
| Whatever its form, if a custom pro-
duces healthy, harmonious and happy
results it ought to be considered good,
no matter what country it belong to.
Mrs. Merritt quotes Tit-Bits, an English
newspaper, because it is reproduced in
/ the Calcutta Indian Mirror, evidently
/ as a piece of curiosity in literature.
There are says Tit-Bits, "in that
country 6,O1675O girls between and 9
! years of age who are wives" And the
| editor calculates, What a narrowing
! tale!'
Explains Hndoo Marriage
The accuracy of these statistics ought
to be taken with a good many grains of
salt. But even if it were accurate the
blood d-curdling" horror of the ejacula-
ton proceeds from profound ignorance
of what Hindoo marriage is. Hindoo
marriage is religion and not a domestic
contract. The western mind jumps at
it because it thinks that these child
brides live as wives to their husbands,
| because a western wife lives with her
husband the moment she is married.
But EIindoo wives do not. They go to
! live with their husbands when they are
of mature age, which is IA. That this
is the truth the reader can learn from
Miss Margaret Mobiles book, THE Web
| of Indian Life the only reliable book
about Findoo women, because the
author writes from experience Of Hin
doc home life acquired during many
years sojourn among Hindoo women.
| Married at 10 or II, the Hindoo girl
/ wife and boy-husband live in their
! fathers homes until they reach mature
ages to be fit to know each other
/ closely. During this three or four
years they meet each other occasion
ally on festive occasions, and their shy
| conversations form romance, the
purity and holiness of which the
western wife or husband has no concep-
ton Of This is the love-fostering, love-
building period, when Cupid to them is
really a playful child, Cupid without
shafts. 1t is no courtship, it is an un-
conscious heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul
communion whose fruit, soul-love, is
! tasted when maturity of age makes
them real husband and wife. Here
begins courtship which is sustained
throughout life.
Says Interpretation Is False
This early building, this early
painting of the unconscious love tree,
with its ripe fruitage, is the reason of
| the 80 per cent happy Hindoo homes, is
the reason of strong. healthy-nerved
men and women. What right has any
nation to thrust upon the Hindoo its
ignorant and questionable rules of mar
riage. to destroy their martial system
founded upon the inner laws of life,
sanctioned by the happy experiences of
ages the modern mushroom nations
know not Of.
| Mrs. Merritt quotes the willfully dis
torted, interpolated and false transla-
tions of Manu- published in missionary
books to serve their purpose. Here is
a real quotation from Manu-, accurately
translated, from Miss Margaret Noble S
book, THE Web of Indian Life:
"Where women are honored, there the
gods are pleased; where they are dis
honored, religious acts become of nc
avail.
In whatever family the husband is
contented with his wife, and the wife
with her husband, in that house will
good fortune assuredly abide"
Miss Noble remarks: Few books
offer such delights to their readers as