Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1907-11-07
Far east is east and west is west,
And never the twain shall meet

Far east is east and west is west,
And never the twain shall meet,
1t is not improbable that Rudyard
Kipling saw the gulf dividing the two
civilizations in his early acquaintance
ship with Baba Bharati when both
were journalists in India. 1t is GER
tain that Bharati saw it, for he came
to the Occident avowedly to study the
possibilities of bridging it. Now, after
five years among us he has gone back
to his own people, never, he says, to
return. And with his perspective of
time, old ideals of civilization and dis
interestedness Baba Bharati, Citizen
of the universe" ascetic, philosopher
and apostle Of the purely spiritual
life, sees war impending between east
and west; a war, not of the west
against the yellow peril" but of the
east against what he calls the white
peril of aggressiveness and material
ism.
THE Orient will rise and drive the
white man forth. This will happen in
a very few years. BY 1915, ! believe,
this conflict will be we'll under way.
This is my own prophecy, but l find
that Lafcadio Hearn made virtually
the same forecast some years ago. 1t
is the White Peril from which we suf-
fer in the Orient-Caucasian aggres-
siveness and soul-killing civilization"
Such was Bharati'a parting message
to the western world.
Baba (Father) Bharati is not to be
COMPOUNDED with the type of pic
turesque Hindu charlatans who, with
appropriate scenery and costumes, have
come to America from time to time
to wheedle dollars from silly women
and men who wear thumb rings. His
sponsors were men of like standing
with Rev. DR.. R. Heber Newton, Prof.
Charles r. Lanman, of Harvard, and
DR.. Felix Adler, of the Ethical Culture
society. He is a Brahmin of the first
order. His father was a magistrate
and his uncle judge of the high
court of Calcutta. Twenty years ago
he was editor of the Lahore Tribune
when Kipling was a newspaper writer
there. Later he became the editor
and proprietor of a society paper in
Calcutta. Then his religious instincts
asserted themselves, and for II years
he became an ascetic, hermit living
a life of austere simplicity in Brinda-
ban, most holy Of India's holy lands.
While here he met the great joyce of
Barada, a giant in stature, and be-
lieved to be the most spiritual man in
India. Under his teachings Baba
Bharati came to believe that he had
message to carry to the Caucasian
world. He did not wish to go, and for
time he struggled against what he
deemed command from on high.
| Then he went forth, and now he re-
CARDS his work well done He is hap
Ply in the thought of return yet has
| learned to love the American people
and feels pangs of regret at leaving
| them forever
The Orient for OrientaIs.
Large of frame, with the prayer
cloth of his 'Krishna," yellow and in.
| scribed with wondrous words to the
Hindu faith, wound around his turban,
long raven black curls dropping down
| about his shoulders, with an eye as
clear as Rhenish wine and a face of
peculiarly benign mien, yet strongly
chiseled, combining as it does a Ger.
tain acquired western vigor with the
| placidity and calmness of the Orient
Bahia Bharati is striking figure. He
has studied the Occident and its ways
and declares that the aggression, the
tremendous conceit and the blindness
of the white race are going to bring
about the uprising of all Asia-that
Asia will be free at last from domino.