The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-03
MANA SAHIB, MAN OF MYSTERY

| Albert Payson Perfume in the Pittsburg Sun.
 lTyHE name Mana Sahib' half cen- tury ago. was one of terror and 1 loathing all over the civilized world.
 Today Americans have half forgotten 1t. Several million dusky Orientals secretly or openly hailed Mana Sahib as de- liverer and a true patiot. A still larger number of white people declared him a
 hend He was the foremost figure in
 the Sepoy mutiny. His terrible work
 ended, he apparently vanished from the face of the earth.
 Three British officers-Sepoy mutiny veterans all-have confided to me at va rious times the true inside story or Mama sahib's fate-the "story that the
 British government knew but withheld | from the public.' All thCee of the oni- cers' narratives were highly interesting | But as all three gave entirely different accounts of what happened to Mana, there seems no good reason for believing that any white man knows what really became of the old scoundrel.
 His name was not Mama Sahib. That was merely his title. (I1is name was tDhundo PunD He was the son or high caste Hindoo and was born about 1925. When he was a baby he was adopt ed by Bhajee Rou, prince of the Mahrat- tas; and in 1851 he succeeded his adopted father as prince. BhaJee had been lord of wide estates and had received yearly nension of S450.000 from the British gov | ernment. At his death the pension was
 stopped and the government seized much | of his land.
 | This angered Mana sahib. who had hoped to inherit all the Bhajee's wealth. | He sent an agent to England to urge his rights. But all he could secure from the British was permission to hold the
 barren title of prince and to rule the | fortress town of Bithoor, near Cawn- pore.
 | If Mana felt resentment at this looping off of his power, he showed no outward
 sign of it. He came Of a race that knew
 how to hide its feelings and to await the
 right moment for revenge.
 So, instead of sulking in his fortress | or joining in the thousand foolish hope I less native plots that were forever stirred
 up against the white men, he became as l English as he could. He spoke the
 language and tried to follow the cus- toms of the British. He mingled as much
 as he was allowed to in English society
 at the India garrison towns. When call
 low English youths turned up their noses | at his pretensions or sneered at him as
 mere native, he bore all such sights | lod fo nu
 the ways of his white masters He sue
 ceeded. Everyone believed him devoted
 to England.
 Then, in 1857, came the Sepoy mutiny. | (That uprising has been fully described | in an earlier series). Most of England s
 white regiments had been summoned | away from India to the Crimean war, | leaving the country chiefly garrsoned by | Sepoy or native troops. The religious | fanaticism of these native soldiers was so
 cleverly worked upon by Mana and other
 secret agents that they rose in body | against the English.
 Mana, when the mutiny broke out, de- clared himself ready to die in the de- fense of his British friends. They trust
 ed him absolutely. But as soon as the uprising showed signs of successs he cast
 aside the mask of loyalty, placed him. self at the head of Sepoy army and
 proceeded to wreak horrible vengeance l for his real or fancied wrongs. T He slew every white man. woman or child that fell into his hands. Then he marched against the plucky little British
 garrison at Cawnpore. The garrison held out as long as it could. then on Mama s
 promise to spare them all and to send them to a place of safety, the starving
 white men at length surrendered. This l was on June 27, 1857. Mana ordered the r garrison to march out of the city and
 10 board line of boats awaiting them it the rivers edge. No sooner were the
 boats afioat than by Nana's orders the
 helpless occupants were fired upon. Near | ly every one of them was shot or drowned Those who reached land alive
 suffered the worst fate of all The wom- I en and children had been herded sep
 arately in an enclosed space They were
 now killed and their bodies thrown into
 great well.
 Battle after battle Mana fought with