Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1910-08-11
INDIAN PRINCE
PASSES THROUGH
Less Than Two Days in New York
because He Hears It's Not
Worth While.

New York, Aug. o.--New York is getting
so used to entertaining royalties that the
second Indian prince TO visit here this
summer slipped in yesterday unheralded
Tie is tho Maharaja o. Mourbhanj. which
is small State in central India and he IS
making n trip around the world to get
rid of malaria, which he caught while
! hunting in the iungles of his princi-
patty. The Maharaja is young man of
IS He wears business suit of gray,
with a soft gray hat, and he Is unacconl-
panied by n single servant.
The Maharaja. who is at the Waldorf
Astoria. saio that he is leaving tomorrow
on the Mauretania after having been IN
New York less than IS hours. The rca-
son was that he had put his tour I'm the
hands of the Canadian Pacific railroad
agents In India and said they had told
him 1t was not worth while wasting any
time upon New York In explaining his
mastery of English he said he had studied
under English tutors and is "A graduate
Of the University of Calcutta.
"Mourbhanj is about 90 miles from
Calcutta" said the Maharaja. "You may
not find II on your maps. but you will
probably find the capital. which is Bari
pada The population of the country,
which * in the province of BENGAL, is
over 6"D00n, and of this number fully 50
per cent. are of the aboriginal tribes who
were conquered some 5000 years ago
The authentic records of my country
date back to about the middle of tho
tenth century. In fact l have an old
copper plate of that time which belonged
to an ancestor who was chief of the
country.
JAPAN BECOMING EAsTERNIzED.
II came over by way of China and ia
PAN" said the Maharaja in answer to a
, question, land l found Japan beautiful
, You know that Rudynrd kipling says
. that the East will always be East and the
West West. In my opinion Japan Is dem
, onstrating the unsoundness of Mr. Kip
! ling's statement. Japan is proving that
it Is possible for the East and the West
, to harmonze."
+ 1T is said that IN India the people do
q not set much store by Kipling." was
suggested.
r 'Well," said the prince. "kipling is not
"A proper guide to India. He does not give
a fair idea of the country and its people
: Vt is difficult To specify any particular
! description, for 1t IS the spirit in which
g Kiplng writes rather t'an anything h.
= says. His spirit Is not very friendly to
n the people of India. But at the same
t time he has distorted facts. and the re-
suit is that people who read him do not
get a properly light on India. Perhaps
>, he strives for literary effect.
- II do not approve of people trying &c
. decry British rule in India" said the
. Maharaja in answer to a question. IN
:, da IS what she is to-day because of 15t
% years Of British rule. Yes. l know til,
% Gaekwar Of Baroda. No. ! do not keep
standing army" said the Maharaja witt
y n smile" The truth is l am too poor I,
:, afford such luxury. The best 1 can dc
, is to maintain n little force of 300 police
=, Agriculture is the principal industry o
r, my country, hut while we are doing al
g we can ! fear we are not using as i'm
proved methods as 1 have seen on m,
=, way here. We are seriously handicappe,
by the fact that ours is a jungle state
~ great portion OF the country being ahso
lutely uncultivabe Such as is unde,
- cultivation IS mostly in little farms of tw
~ or three acres. Perhaps If there wcr
thousands Of acres cultivable in place
-. we might BE trying irrigation and steam
plOughs.
m owns A LITTLE RAILROAD.
at "The country abounds in Wild Gle
~ plants tigers and all sorts Of biz
TT game. The greatest menace to tn
as people are the Indian bears, which ar
be huge black creatures. and very fierce
They maui something like 200 Of m,
people every year OF course thi
number Is not killed, The black bea
- make excellent hunting. Yes, hav
v had some encounters with them:
have spent the last twenty years II
st the forests. That IS how got malar
ed ia. You see we have jungle feve
TO there too, which is very seriou
thing
nm II have n little railway thrtv-thre
IL miles long with a foot 6 inch guagt
cd called the Mourhh-nt state Light rail
at way. which connects with the Benga
us railway.
Is "As for tho religion Of my people
re that of the aborlnginals really has n
p9 name An official some time ag
H. called II animistic religion. more.
w should say, for census purposes tina
u anything else The religions had I
"t be classified, and as this religion ha
no name he gave II one. The peopl
." worship the forces Of nature. The
again they take q prominent hill or
big stream or a Jungle and worship
- MS representing the deity presidn
- over the place. The rest Of the popu
49, lation are simply Hindus, that Is I
say they believe In Brahaminfsm, {
49,, ms some call It. Nedantism. I am
Vedantst, believe that what we sc
in tho world about us are illusion
and that the only realities are whf
we cannot see. Vedantsm has notf
ne ing TO do with theosophy. 1t Is aki
e. to the romantic philosophy Of Co
many. or course in my opinion 1t
Die the real religion"
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