El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-06-04
Copyright. 1910. by Frank c. Carpenter.)

that have helped them. This is one
phase OF the great unrest which l have
come to describe
The World of India
Do you know what india is? The
country appals me, it is so big, SO
varied, and, withal, so strange. If YOU
could lift HinduStan up and Law it upon
North America, with one end at Seattle
1t would reach as far east as Montreal
and its lower apex would be wedged
lsto the Panama canal. From north to
south India is as long as from the mid
die of Hudson bay TO the gulf of Mexico,
and from east TO west 1t measures $500
miles
The land is one of extremes. The
HTmalayas on the north are covered
with perpetual SHOWS, and the lev
wastes about Mount Everest are closer
than the frozen chambers Of the Budi-
hist hell The plains below lie in the
tropics, and they are sometimes as net
as the burning deserts Df Australia,
where Mark Twain says they feed the
hens ice to keep them from aving boiled
eggs.
India is the wettest land upon earth
and the driest. 1t has provinces, suqh
as BIkaneT, where 1t does not rain for
Is months in succession and other
places where it pours ell the time.
There are localities IN the Himalayas
where SIX feet of water have been
known to fall In the space of II months
the country is enc of great deserts
and mighty rivers, of soils which have
been cultivated since the dawn of his
tory and of wastes which the piOW Of
man has never turra4 Physically
speaking, it Is a world.
The People Swarm
Ii is also world from the STANDPOINT
of humanity 1t is one Of the most
crowded parts of the globe 1t has
three times as many people as the
United States and farming localities
where there are more than one man to
the acre.
Altogether India has more towns and
villages than there are people in Boston,
Baltimore or st. Louis, and II has cities
of large size the names of which we
hardly know The greater Calcutta in
Guiding the suburbs and nearby towns
is as large as greater Chicago. Bonn
bay Is bigger than Boston, and Madras
equals Cleveland in size. The pcpula-
ton is rapidly growing. 1t has increased
50.OO0.0O0 within the past 80 years,
and is now 100000, 900 all told.
India is not like China, in that it is
made UP of one race of the same color
and features. with the same language,
religion and customs. 1t Is composed OF
a score of nationalities and of 50 many
religions and castles that they can hardly
he numbered There are tribes here
which Io&k ike our American indians.
Others which resemble Chinese. scatter
ing places where the people have blue
ewes and brown haiT. and many localities
where their skins are as black as a
negro's There are more races in Hind
ustan than on the continent Of Europe,
and as to tongues there are something
like 700 different dialects, and Ian
guages are spoken by millions which
are not understood bY-the others.
Land of Many Gods.
As to religions, India has more
strange gods than any continent upon
earth There is no place where the
faith Of the people so varies and none
wheEe mans belief means more 10 him
self and his family. The religions are
50 strange that book as big as a four
dollar Bible might be written about
them and not tell it all India has
200, 100000 Hindoos divided I'D into
castles, many of which number millions
Il has more MOhammedans than the
sultan of Turkey has subjects, and
about 100000 Buddhists.
In addition to this there are several
million Sikhs; more than a million jams,
and in the neighbOrhood of 100000 Par
sees, who believe IN the faith of Zorro