The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-07-28


around the world, says the New York
Sun. His tour occupied just ten
months. Having covered the western
part of Europe, the General went to
&ienna and Budapest and thence went
through Bulgaria, Roumania and Ser
via.
Il found Hungary beautiful" said
Gen. lie Fevre, but the Balkan coun-
tries are the most desolate ever Wis
tied. The soil is poor, and the people
seem poverty stricken. My next stop
was in Turkey. l spent two weeks
in Constantinople and was impressed
by the devoutness of the people. When
was there it was the month of re-
ligious services, and everybody was
praying. Next / went to Smyrna and
into Palestine, where | spent several
weeks visiting most of the places of
interest. In Jerusalem | stopped three
weeks, getting peep into the wonder
full cave from which Solomon took
out the stone for the temple. Next
went to Port Said.
Bombay was my next objective
point and l must say that l found In
dia very interesting indeed. There
is no question to my mind that the
architecture Of that country is the fin
est in the world. The Tai Mahal hotel
at Bombay is certainly one of the most
beautiful structures of the kind any
where. 1t is owned by a Parsee.
got to know some Parsees, and l was
admitted to some of the libraries in
private houses, where | found the
works of Mark Twain and some other
American authors. The Parsees truly
lead the simple life. Of course / Wis
tied the Tower of Silence. where the
Parsees dispose of their dead. There
was flock of 400 or 500 vultures wait
ing for bodies to be put on the tow
er. There had been funeral two
hours before | reached the place. and
l was told that within from two to ten
minutes after body is exposed not
shred of flesh is left. The Parsees, l
was informed, are now investigating
cremation, and there is a possibility
that they will adopt it instead of the
ancient method of disposing of their
dead.
"Of course l journeyed to Delhi, and
at Agra saw the wonderful Tai Mahal.
l learned that Lord 'Curzon. when he
was Viceroy of India, wished to re-
place lamp that was either missing
from the structure or destroyed, and
he could only find two men who could
make such lamp, one Of whom had
to be brought from Persia. 1t took
the two men year and half to make
the lamp.
Lucknow and Cawnpore I visited
on my way to Benares, the Sacred
City, where l stayed several days.
saw them taking corpses and dip
ping them into the Gauges and then
burning them on piles of wood near
the river bank. 1t costs about 1910
for the wood, which is tremendous
sum for the ordinary Hindoo, and
when the flames have consumed the
major portion of the corpse its father
or son or other near relative takes
long pole and reverently pushes the
head and feet upon the Goals.
"In Calcutta, which is wonderfully
beautiful city, l took great deal of
interest in looking into conditions in
the great jute mills, which employ ST.
900 people. These mills are said to
furnish the most permanent work that
is to be had in India. OF the mum.
Der employed the experts receive
wages of IL cents day. The others
draw and 10 cents.
I'm spite of these wages l found
that family of five or six persons
can live on cents day. Their food,
of course is rice. Their houses are of
mud and bamboo, and those | looked
into were clean and comfortable. The
workman puts aside half of his wages,
his ambition being to own his own
house.
Nov, what / saw in my trip, and
especially in India, impressed me with
the extravaganza in living in our coun-
try over any other. We are extrava-
CANT in every respect-in every phase
of our life we have gone to the very
extreme. / think it is not too much
TO Say IudL OuG-ud1l VI L1O PCOpAC VI
the world are living upon rice. A
man can live upon from one to two
cents worth of rice day. When on
my trip through Louisiana and Texas
/ saw warehouses all piled full of rice
and no sale for it and asked why 1t
was: was told there was no demand
for it. If we would use one-half or
even one-third as much rice for food
as do the people of the East the whole
question of the higher cost OF living
would be solved. The Japanese, who
live upon rice, demonstrated III their
late war their great powers of endur-
| ance.
"As for extravaganza, why, take the
| farmer. A few years ago one buggy
was considered sufficient for him to
keep on his place. Then it came to
pass that every son must have buggy
| of his own, and the farmhouse got to
be like a big livery stable. Now the
farmers have all got orders in for
automobiles. The village butchers