The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-03-03


shall say little about it; it is much
the largest and finest city in India.
1t has a hotel the Tai Mahal, built in
imitation of the famous marble tom b
at Agra. My room at the hotel has a
mosaic floor, and the entire structure
easily puts the Waldorf, in New York,
to shame. The return TO modern life
is not so interesting, but it is very com
Portable, and we shall spend today and
/ tomorrow in resting up for the ocean
voyage Of eight days to Port Said, at
the eastern end of the Suez canal.
Soon after our arrival at the hotel
we met a Mr.. Watson and wife, of
| Greeley, Colorado, whom we met on
/ the Siberia" but who left the ship at
Honolulu We also met another Isl
IBERIA passenger, and three army and
navy doctors we met on the Team
! between Manila and Hong Kong.
AS soon as possible, we raced off to
the P. & o. office. where We expected
a lot of mail Not the scratch Of a
pen there for US. We have not re-
/ ceived a word from home since our
! departure from San Francisco No
vember 4, except brief cablegrams at
Honolulu, Yokohama, Manila, and
] Colombo.
However, we secured excellent rooms
on the Persia which sails on the
goth. I have a stateroom on the upper
deck, and the clerk said I would prob
ably have no one in with me. He also
gave the missy a room to herself, and
| it is located on the lower deck.
You can't imagine how lonesome I
felt when L found there was no mail
for me at the P. & o. office; but we
now look forward to a lot at London.
Has the trip done me any good2 I
don't know; but when I met Mr..
Watson this morning, he said in good
old American: my. but you are
looking a whole lot better than when
you came aboard the ship at San
Fran
don't know about that: I looked
in the glass the other day, and, after
careful inspection, said to myself;
You better get out on the farm at Pc
tato Hill as soon as possible.
would like to know how it hap
pened that [ secured a really destr-
able room at the Tai Mahal. ] came
in tired, dusty and cross, yet the clerk
assigned me to one of the best rooms
in the house. It looks out upon the
court of the hotel; if this were the
Tai Mahal, the tomb, instead of the
hotel, from the gallery in front of my
room [ could look down upon the
tOmbs of the king and his beautiful
wife. I shall celebrate by putting on
my dinner clothes this evening and
dining in state. to the strains of an
orchestra. The entrance to my room
is through an immense archway which
reminds me OF an entrance TO some
of the castles I have been seeing. It
is my first experience as { PlutOcrat;
usually hotel clerks impose on me.
My windows look out upon street;
then a pier, and then the bay, fun of
shipping. In the distance, 1 can see
the Persia where [ am to have
room on the upper deck, all to my
self I am having entirely too much
luck; a storm is evidently brewing.
At Bombay are located the Towers
of Silence, where the Porsees expose
their dead, and vultures eat them. 1
cannot imagine anything more dis
gusting, and I shall not devote much
space to a description of the place,
though I could not avoid seeing it;
everyone is taken there. But beyond
the Towers of Silence, and certain
caves where certain priests worked
and worshipped many years ago, Bonn
bay is largely devoted to sOrdid bust
ness. and the plague. Some time ago,
hundreds of natives died here daily,
Of the plague, but lately the death rate
from this source is only two or three
a day. Bombay is rarely free from it,
but the disease attacks very few
whites Because of the plague at
Bombay. we shall be compelled to
undergo an examination on leaving,
and Quarantine, OF two days at Port
said; eight days of our sentence of
ten days will be spent at sea- if we ar
rive at Port Said in good health, the
authorities will conclude after two days
that we were not contaminated at
Bombay, as the disease develops ten
days after exposure
Bombay is built on an island. and
the residences on its Knob Hill are as
fine as can be found anywhere. It's
Hanging Gardens overlook the bay
and the city, and are beautiful. The
people here are wealthy, natives as
well as whites, and in the smart turn
outs on the principal drives, nearly all
the occupants are natives In front
of the hotel today, certainly fifty auto
mobiles cOngregated; nearly all owned
by private parties, going on some sort
OF an excursion. This sort Of thing is
in great contrast with the rural India
saw yesterday; the India, of elephants,
bullock carts and camels. The natives
of Bombay do not look like the natives
/ have been seeing: they have prog
ressed, and made money. and many of
them live on Knob Hill. where their
unpronouncab Bile names adOrn the gate
posts out Of ten One building on
Knob Hill IS marked: Gain temple,
built by Rupat Khad, Jeweler." Jew
elers seem to build Jain temples in
India, instead Of advertising in the
newspaper
II Calcutta is not jealous of Bombay.
/ it has every reason to be. because Bonn
bay is much the finer city. 1t is noted
for excellent hotels, whereas Calcutta
/ is noted for inferior ones. Calcutta is
the capital Of India. not because It is
the metropolis, but because it is nearer
the centre of the country.
visited the Elephanta caves. eight
miles from the city; caves built in
to mountain by priests, centuries
ago, and adorned with figures cut cut
of the hard rock All the tina was
i'm the Elephanta caves. I kept think
ing: What fools these priests we're.
to devote so much work to these cave
temples! How much better it would
have been had the priests devoted
the same amount of work to building
roads" Possibly the men who did the
work were beaten out of their pay; it
is said that the king who built the Tai
Mahal. did not pay for it At another
place. we saw sixty eIephants in The