Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1910-01-28
NOTES OF A TRAVELLER
What Saw in ASiaiic India. and
Darker Africa.
LAND OF FIRE-WORSHIPERS
BOMBAY-CoNTINUED

had special folders made up. telling
the best clothing to wear and the
cab fares. also information regarding
the money. One OF these had on the
front page To Cleveland paSSen-
gers. 50 You can see the English
shopkecpcrS are not slow out here
BY the way the cab fares are very
reasonable. Within the city a car
riagc is Ii cents an hour and three
passengers may occupy the rig.
This is only within the shopping dis
trict, but outside of that the charge
for the first hour is ~ cents and "A
cents an hour thereafter. Or you
can have a carriage, holding three,
for ten hours for 81 90 or half day
q hours for 90 cents.
Bombay has excellent Fairgrounds;
they are not for the children alone,
but also for the grownups. | drove
past them and they must have been
over half a mile in length and both
sides of a street. Some portions
were for the native soldiers, others
for the British troops. The English
gentlemen had their section and even
the natives were not overlooked. In
progress at the same time was seen
golf, lawn tennis, lacrosse, foot ball,
cricket and kitct1ying Here was
introduced to the kite-hying by men
1t was comical to see grown-up men
pulling on the string so as to keep
the kite properly flying. To me it
looked ridiculous, but they seemed to
get sport out of it, and as the Irish
man said THAT'S the intenshun.
They do not kill themselves with
overwork, for in the Office of the
printing establishment visited, the
proprietors and clerks do not com
mence until IL o'clock. This does
not apply to the natives. They can
start early and work late.
The public buildings are high class
The Municipal building would be
credit to any city of half a million
population. The English Sailors
Home is beautiful structure cover
ing nearly a block and surrounded
by well kept grounds. A postoffice
is alsoin course OF erection that will
cover about two squares. 1t has
been in course of erection for the
past two years and will take one
more before it is completed. EXca
walton is being made for the founda-
ton of public library, and Judging
from the ground allotted and the pre-
liminary work this will be spacious
building.
Throughout the town, places have
been provided wherein the people
may obtain water for bathing pur-
poses and to wash their clothes. If
an American would once look at the
water he would no more think of US
ing it than he would of taking poison.
for it is stagnant, covered with a
green slime and had a very bad
OdOr. This also is the condition of
the water seen at several of the Hin
du temples, yet the people will
bathe in this water and wash their
clothes with it. Right in front of
the Victoria Station and Municipal
Building was one of these pools, and
1T was a common sight to see ma
tive washing himself and his clothes
with this Shiny water and then lay
ing his garments on the stones to
dry. Clothing here is nearly unnec-
essary. The Hindu religion requires
its adherents to pray and wash
themselves before eating, SO if ma
tive has towel with which to wipe
after his morning ablution, it and a
safety pin is all that is necessary in
the way of a wardrobe.
While driving through the town
women were seen picking up, with
one hand, manure from the streets
and adding it to d bali of like ma.
terial which they carried in the
other. l presumed this to be for
garden fertilizer, but on inquiry
found it was made into cakes. dried
and used by the poorer classes for
fuel. Truly there is no waste here.
Or rather there is great poverty.
While | did not, to my knowledge,
see any lepers, still there are many
throughout India; and Bombay has
her share. In fact they have hos
pital here for them. | understand
the building was the gift of a veal
thy native merchant of Bombay. 1t
is under government control. and the
lepers are given food and shelter free
but they have to provide for their
In order to solicit aims
for this purpose, every Thursday they
are permitted to go around the
town. With the money so obtained