The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1908-04-23
ABOUT INDIA.
Mrs. W. L. King, the Wife Of Mission
airy Writes Interesting Letter.
HYDERABAD, DECAN, INDIA,

article on Hyderabad and its people,
but have prepared only little ramb-
ling description of things as they are
here. 1t is hard for one who has
lived so long in India to realize that
there is anything to write about that
will interest people at home; every
thing seems so commonplace and
natural. Another thing that makes it
hard to write missionary letters is the
fact that, at the present day, so many
missionaries are returning and speak
ing all over the country. One is al
most sure to write about some things
that are familiar 10 many. However,
when at home, found some who had
never seen nor heard from 'real
live missionary" so [ may be able to
tell you something that may not be en-
tirely familiar.
Hyderabad, the great city in which
we live, has a population of about
425, 900. The city proper, includes the
part within the walls, and has pop
ulatlon of about l23, 900 Mahomedans
and Hindus No Europeans live with
in the walled city. The streets are
narrow, crooked and dirty, judged
from our standpoint, but the people
are proud of their city. A student,
giving description of HyGerabad
City in an examination, said that the
streets were so wide that two car
riages could pass and so clean that II
ghee were dropped in the streets, it
could be picked up and eaten, | am
sure that you would not want to eat it
before it was dropped, much less
after.
great change has come over the
place in the last twenty-five or thirty
years. Formerly it was considered
unsafe TO go through the walled city
without government escort; now we
all go through whenever we wish to
and our w. b. M. S. missionary and
her assistants go through the city al
most daily. When / first saw Hydera-
dad, twelve years ago, the men went
armed with all sorts of weapons;
Now, while very many daggers,
swords, etc., are seen they are very
noticably less than formerly. The
Nizan ruler processes to be very
loyal to the English Government, and
indeed he has shown the sincerity of
his professions in many ways.
Hyderabad is pretty place. It is
surrounded by low hills of almost
bare rocks. There are immense boul-
ders piled one upon another in such
way that it seems as if the least mo-
tion would hurl them down. Beauti-
ful houses are built right under these
overhanging rocks. There is one
place especially that we used never to
go by without our little girl saying,
Mamma, wouldn't you hate to live
in that house? | would". There are
a great many wealthy Mohammedan
gentlemen here and so the city and the
hills abound in magnificent palaces.
have never lived in place where
there were more horses and carriages,
and such expensive automobiles. The
Nizam has, it is said, between two and
three hundred horses and the last
heard he had twenty automobiles and
had ordered lot more.
Now, fancy hear some one say,
10 hn nnn6 Af ice
ionary money to such a place as
that!" Do not imagine for a moment
that there are no poor people here.
While, as have said, there are many
wealthy people here, yet comparative
ly they are very few and as they are
not Christians, their wealth is not
consecrated to the good oftheir fellow
men. The mass of the people of Hy-
derabad, and throughout the Nizam's S
dominions are as poor and degraded
as in any part of India. An idea of
the extreme poverty of the people may
be gained from their money. The
smallest piece of money that Euro
peans use is the dub, but the natives
use small shell, called cowrie. 1t
takes about 100 dubs to make a Halli
Sicca Rupee, which is worth about
twenty eight cents. Forty cowries
equals one dub so it takes about 1000
cowries to equal twenty7eight cents.
Another evidence of their extreme
poverty might be seen from our milk
man, We caunot trust him to bring
us pure milk, so il is the custom TO
bring the COW to our door and milk
what is rsquired before us My man
brings two COWS for what we use. One
gives scarcely teacupful each morn
ing and yet he thinks it worth while to
oring her a long distance for that
teacupful, or about one CENTS worth.
An ordinary Cody, or day laborer,
earns from dollar fifty to three dol
lars per month. The wife may add a
llt1le. A man earning from four to
nVe dollars per month is considered to
oe In fairly comfortable circumstan
ces' that Is, he is able to provide his
FAMILY with the barest necessities of
NE, but the people live SO near TO ac
'uai hunger that In times of famine or
extremely high prices there Is great
SUFFERING, even among the peOple who